To prevent members of the National Assembly from fleeing as much as possible, Franz provided funding to the German Workers' Brotherhood.
These workers' brothers spared no effort in hunting down the fleeing members of the National Assembly. The Brotherhood's leadership had little regard for the Assembly either, since it was those so-called Assembly members who had refused to let workers' organizations join.
As for the Legitimists' strength in the countryside, it could practically be called invincible. The authority the Church and nobility had accumulated over a thousand years was not easily dispelled.
Of the 759 people involved, 682 were captured. Among them, 130 had surrendered voluntarily, while another 21 were killed while resisting or trying to escape.
Of the 2,000 members of the Frankfurt City Guard, 1,328 were killed in action, 592 were taken prisoner, and another 80 were missing.
The citizens of Frankfurt did not put up barricades. A few people tried to block the Austrian army's advance, but the German Workers' Brotherhood crushed them.
The Austrian Empire lost only 32 men killed and 218 wounded before occupying the entire city.
The mayor of the Free City of Frankfurt and its senior officials were taken into custody. Some officials who had long since distanced themselves from the Constitutionalists in the National Assembly were reinstated to maintain order.
Franz's aim was simple: to hold a public trial for these so-called representatives of the National Assembly and smoke out the mastermind behind them.
Though they constantly claimed to act in the name of the German Nation and all carried themselves like paragons of virtue, they were also lawyers and capitalists. The dirt on them was practically endless.
Withheld wages, calling black white, backroom deals, collusion between officials and businessmen—there was nothing they wouldn't do, only things people hadn't thought of.
Moreover,