A Thunderclap from the Sky

Galicia, Imperial Territory.

The agitators along the Dniester River were not especially clever. Most had entered from Prussia later on, while a few had mysteriously appeared among the refugee camps.

The latter were easy to spot. Franz had, after all, meticulously registered every refugee entering the camps, so these people were isolated as soon as they arrived and then placed under close surveillance.

But the scoundrels were brazen to the extreme. They completely ignored the Austrian officials and spoke directly with the refugees in Polish and Ruthenian.

In fact, most officials in Galicia could understand both languages. Some of them were Poles or Ukrainians themselves.

The agitators entering Austria from the Prussian border were just as easy to recognize, because they didn't look like refugees to begin with. They were especially resistant to the matching clothes Franz had issued.

After all, it wasn't easy for ordinary people to get a new set of clothes back then. Many went their whole lives without getting to wear new clothes more than a few times.

The Single-Garment Nobles of Hungary weren't called that because they liked wearing a single garment. They were so poor they had only one outfit. If even the nobility were like that, then the commoners and serfs were worse still.

For refugees to refuse such a generous offer was exceedingly unusual.

There was no helping it. The members of the Polish Restoration Army were either nobles or intellectuals, and even those who had been exiled lived well in other countries.

None of them had ever suffered hardship. They couldn't even imagine it.

London and Paris both had government subsidies and support from charitable organizations, not to mention the Polish Restoration Army, a profitable organization in its own right.

The Swiss regions were also very welcoming to Polish exiles, even