Out of Control

Two stone pillars stood at either side of the entrance, one tall and one short, like two mighty sentries. The iron gate was shut tight.

The guards inside seemed to be slacking off. They paid no heed to the people calling at the gate.

"Chief, what should we do? The people inside the school aren't cooperating. Should we take some men and charge in?"

One officer hurried to prove his loyalty, never noticing that he was overdoing it and had landed his flattery on the wrong leg.

"Charge in, my ass!"

"Do you think the people inside are ordinary folks?"

"It's pitch-black in there. What if something goes wrong when we charge in and someone dies? Are you going to take responsibility, or am I?"

Winston gave his underling a thorough tongue-lashing, venting all the frustration bottled up inside him.

He was an old hand in the workplace and knew that those hotheaded young men at the school were trouble. Every last one of them was an expert at courting death. If they charged in now, they might get clubbed from behind.

Without guns, they might not even be able to take on the students inside. But he didn't dare use guns. If they killed someone with connections, the family might come after him later, and he wouldn't even know how he'd died.

He'd learned all this through years of experience on the job. Otherwise, Winston could never have risen from an ordinary man to the rank of chief.

He was content with where he was. To climb any higher, he'd have to get involved in politics. Winston knew his limits. With his grade-school education, if he went around playing politics, he'd be doomed sooner or later.

"Everyone, hold the line! Don't let the suspects inside get away!"

Winston came up with a clumsy solution: block the entrance and wait. As long as they kept the suspects contained and stopped them from going out and causing trouble, things would be easier to handle.

Compared to the school, other places weren't so lucky. They had nothing that made the police hesitate, and plenty of people ended up behind bars.

The Vienna Government's actions didn't scare the people. Instead, they stirred up a common hatred. Under the revolutionaries' planning, an even larger demonstration erupted in Vienna the next day.

Inside the government building, Prime Minister Metternich was already panicking. By convention, as soon as the leaders were arrested, the anti-government movement should have crumbled.

But this time was different. Everyone had been driven into a corner. The government couldn't solve their real problems, so how could they possibly just give up?

The huge demonstration broke through the police blockade and headed straight for the palace. The Vienna Government panicked, and in his haste, Prime Minister Metternich ordered the City Defense Force to enter the city and restore order.

A horse galloped along the mountain road. Every Austrian knew it was a messenger. At the entrance to the military camp, the messenger dismounted and was led inside.

"Commander, urgent military news!"

Albrecht, who had been expecting this, took the report and opened it on the spot. Just as he'd expected, Vienna was in chaos. Worried that the situation would spiral out of control, the government had ordered the troops training in the field to return to the city at once.

"Pass down the order. Stop training immediately and pack up for the return!"

Albrecht spoke calmly. The messenger had needed only half a day to get there, but the army would need at least two or three days to return. A great deal could happen in that time.

Franz didn't stop the army from returning to the city. That would have been far too deliberate. He needed the Austrian Empire to be broken and rebuilt, but he absolutely didn't want Austria to truly fall apart.

The rebellion in Vienna could break out, but it had to be crushed at once. He wanted to use the rebellion as a chance to clear out the vermin in the government, not to let the rebels overthrow it.

"Franz, the situation in Vienna has become extremely bad. One hundred thousand people took part in yesterday's demonstration. If the government mishandles things, the consequences could be disastrous!"

Albrecht spoke gravely. He was beginning to worry about Franz's plans, afraid the situation might turn into a Paris February Revolution.

Franz smiled faintly, then gestured toward the military camp and said unhurriedly, "Don't worry. Austria is different from France. We still have an army loyal to the royal family!"

That was where his confidence came from. There was still a Palace Guard in Vienna to defend the palace. As for the remaining five thousand City Defense Force troops, even if they were all useless, they were useless troops loyal to the emperor.

Unlike in France, not just anyone could join the Austrian army. The officers were mostly nobles, and they wouldn't easily betray their own class.

An uprising without the army's support was, at most, a riot on a grand scale. In the end, it would still be crushed.

Franz was ready. Once he returned, he would first dismiss Metternich's cabinet to give the people an explanation.

Then he would announce the abolition of serfdom and the implementation of the Labor Protection Act to calm the people. After that, he would let the coerced go and punish only the ringleaders.

At worst, he could arrest a few corrupt officials and sentence them, diverting everyone's attention.

Even after World War I, the Habsburg Family still held great esteem among ordinary people. If their descendants hadn't been so hopelessly incompetent, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would never have collapsed.

Historically, after the Vienna Revolution broke out, some people proposed abolishing the emperor, but the people of Vienna opposed them.

Vienna

The demonstrators had surrounded the government buildings, the palace, and the parliament, demanding that the government agree to their conditions.

Dismiss the cabinet, release political prisoners, carry out constitutional reforms, lift restrictions on voting, abolish serfdom, confiscate the nobles' fiefs and distribute the land among the serfs, abolish press censorship...

The situation was already on the brink of spiraling out of control. The Vienna Government could not possibly agree to these demands; doing so would mean the empire's destruction.

History had changed. By this point, the bourgeoisie could no longer be satisfied with ordinary reforms. They wanted to seize power in the country so they could weather the crisis.

To achieve that goal, they no longer cared about Austria's future. The schemers had made use of the patriots, who hadn't considered the consequences of doing this at all.

Ordinary people had even less discernment. Most were just following the crowd and making a fuss. Many workers had even joined the demonstration simply because they were being paid.

That's right, the demonstrators were paid wages. Otherwise, the revolutionaries wouldn't have been able to organize so many people in such a short time.

Without the capitalists' cooperation, in an age when news spread by shouting, a hundred or so revolutionaries couldn't have persuaded more than a hundred thousand people in a month, let alone organized them.

Someone shouted, "Metternich, come out!" The cry spread quickly, and thousands of people shouted in unison:

"Metternich, come out!"

"Metternich, come out!"

By now, the situation had spiraled out of control. The elderly Prime Minister Metternich had gone pale, robbed of all his former bearing.