The Russians had stirred things up so thunderously that the neighboring countries could not rest easy either.
It could not be helped. Franz had handed out guns everywhere for the sake of security, leaving the Russians with a real mess on their hands—but in the end, the flames spread to the Austrian Empire as well.
Belgrade and West Bosnia were all right. The former was heavily garrisoned and fortified as a city; small bands of vagrants and mountain bandits could not raise much of a storm.
The latter was cut off by high mountains, and its people were fierce by nature, so no one was particularly eager to go looking for trouble.
But the two principalities were in far less optimistic circumstances. Though they too had a natural barrier—the Danube River—crossing Europe's largest river by force was still easier than crossing towering mountain ranges.
More crucially, compared with Belgrade and West Bosnia, Wallachia and Moldavia were somewhat inadequately defended.
Moreover, these two regions were newly acquired territories of the Austrian Empire. The Imperial government's control over them was far weaker than over other regions. When those outsiders crossed the river and appeared in Wallachia and Moldavia, local officials had even assumed it was merely ordinary villagers causing trouble.
Only after getting beaten black and blue did they discover that these were desperadoes from across the river. Fortunately, the Austrian Empire had abundant experience in putting down unrest.
Wallachia was mostly plains, so the disturbances were swiftly suppressed. Moldavia was also largely plains, but its terrain was far more varied: hills, mountains, and river valleys all made excellent hiding places.
Furthermore, Moldavia had no Scarlet Crusaders to help sweep the field clean, while Grigore Alexandru Ghica had indeed cultivated a group of Greater Romania nationalists. Once the two forces joined together,