As winter gave way to spring, the melting snow turned the roads into a muddy mess. A unit struggled forward through the muck. That was right: the Vienna City Defense Force was out on field maneuvers.
The old soldiers couldn't take the hardship, so Albrecht had very considerately approved their staying behind. Before anyone knew it, command of the force had changed hands.
"Stop! Set up camp!"
Albrecht's order rang out. As the Vienna City Defense Force, they couldn't possibly go very far; their field maneuvers only covered a hundred or so kilometers.
"Franz, we can't go any farther. If something happens in Vienna, we won't be able to respond in time!"
Franz nodded. He was willing to let a revolution break out in Vienna, but that didn't mean he intended to let it succeed!
The main force of the City Defense Force had already been brought out. On the surface, more than five thousand men remained behind, but their actual fighting strength was pitifully low.
If anyone wanted to rebel, they wouldn't pass up this opportunity. After all, chances like this didn't come often.
"Right. The news should have made it back by now. How are the troops doing?"
Albrecht shook his head. "Not well! We dragged them out here to train at a time like this. I bet every one of them is cursing us."
That was only natural. Anyone faced with this kind of situation would react the same way. Franz thought of a solution that was hardly a solution at all. "Then give them a day off and let them go hunting to improve their rations."
It was a lousy idea. If the unit numbered nine hundred instead of nine thousand, then perhaps they really could improve their rations with whatever game they caught.
As things stood, no matter how plentiful the game in the mountains was, there wouldn't be enough to go around. Still, letting everyone relax a little would be nice, and Albrecht didn't object.
Time flew by. The Vienna Government's Labor Protection Act, originally scheduled to take effect on March 1, 1848, had been shelved indefinitely. Worse still, the government had given no clear explanation.
The Vienna Government's inaction deeply disappointed the working class, giving the bourgeoisie an opening.
Rumors were cheap to spread. Under the revolutionaries' direction, the workers came to believe that the capitalists had bribed the government and sold out their interests.
The situation in Vienna was turning against the government. By March 4, 1848, word of the February Revolution's success in France had spread through the city.
At the capitalists' instigation, on March 5, Vienna's citizens, workers, and students took to the streets to demonstrate.
They raised the banners of fighting hunger, opposing the economic crisis, resisting autocracy, and opposing corruption. Their representatives submitted a petition to Ferdinand I, demanding that Metternich's cabinet be dismissed, that constitutional government be established, and that serfdom be abolished...
Curiously, they made no mention of the Labor Protection Act. Clearly, the representatives responsible for drafting the petition had already sold out the working class.
Not one of these demands was something Prime Minister Metternich could accept, so the petition was naturally rejected.
As for His Majesty the Emperor's wishes, the Regency Council claimed to represent them. Many of its members did want Prime Minister Metternich gone, but the other demands were beyond what they could accept.
For their own interests, they temporarily stood together.
At this point, aside from the radicals, most people weren't thinking of revolution yet.
Even the bourgeoisie only wanted to carve a chunk out of the aristocracy to see them through the crisis. They weren't ready to make a revolution.
The carriage rolled along a narrow street, lined on both sides with low mud huts. A pungent stench hit them head-on.
The carriage stopped in front of a small house. A richly dressed young man climbed down, then stepped into something soft. He looked down and saw animal entrails.
"Damn it!"
He swore in annoyance and knocked on the courtyard gate. The carriage had already left.
There was no helping it. Vienna's secret police weren't idle, and this was work that could cost them their lives.
At that moment, the slums were the safest place to hide. With their chaotic surroundings and maze of twisting alleys, they were where police presence was weakest.
The gate opened, and a scantily clad man came out. He looked around, and after confirming that nobody had followed him, let the young man in.
"Jack, you're finally here. Everyone's been waiting for you!"
The young man named Jack frowned. Disgust flashed in his eyes and was gone in an instant. Smiling, he said, "Sorry, Cole. The enemy's nose is too sharp. I had to be careful to shake them off!"
Cole was busy shutting the gate and didn't notice Jack's expression. He continued, "That's all right. We do have to be careful right now. Now that you're here, let's get started!"
"Gentlemen, the time is ripe for revolution. The reactionary government will never agree to our demands.
"The Metternich Government has deceived us again. There's no need to keep holding back.
"The Paris Revolution has already triumphed. Now it's our turn. This is the best opportunity we'll get.
"The City Defense Force is out on field maneuvers. It will take them at least two days to return..."
A man in gray said hesitantly, "Mr. Powell, I'm afraid the time isn't right to launch an uprising. The City Defense Force may be out on maneuvers, but five thousand men have stayed behind. We can't just..."
Jack frowned. He didn't like being contradicted, especially by someone he looked down on.
If the capitalists behind the scenes hadn't needed them to launch an uprising right now and put pressure on the government, he wouldn't have come to meet the workers' representatives at all.
In his view, revolution should be led by respectable people like them. Those rabble just had to follow orders.
But right now, they needed the workers to risk their lives. They had no standing among the working class, so they could only rely on the leaders of the workers' movement to direct them.
Jack explained impatiently, "Mr. Powell, there's no need to worry. We've secretly bought a batch of weapons. Once you have guns in your hands, are you still afraid of those old soldiers?
"Besides, the army isn't our enemy. Except for the aristocratic officers, most of the soldiers are toilers just like you. We can easily..."
Clearly, though they were all revolutionaries in name, they weren't really on the same side. The proletariat and the bourgeoisie were natural enemies.
It was just that, in this era, no proletarian revolutionary organizations had yet been established, so they mainly depended on the bourgeois revolutionary parties.
In the end, the workers were persuaded—or perhaps reality forced them to give in. After all, countless unemployed people were waiting for their next meal.
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