A Low-Tier "Beat the Rich and Distribute Land"

In 1848, revolution seemed to have become the trend in the Austrian Empire, and peace was nowhere to be found.

On March 28, a rebellion broke out in the Dalmatia region. Fortunately, before the Austrian government could even dispatch troops to suppress it, the locals had already crushed the revolution themselves.

Looking at the intelligence in his hands, Franz felt as though a herd of alpacas had just stampeded through his mind. The ones who had initiated the rebellion were the local government's own National Guard, while the ones who helped the government suppress the revolution were, surprisingly, the local capitalists and serfs.

In other words, the nobles and nationalists had launched a rebellion, and the capitalists and serfs had suppressed them.

This rebellion was primarily caused by local nobles who were dissatisfied with the government's reforms infringing upon their interests. Incited by nationalists, they had foolishly declared a revolution.

Such idiots were common throughout history and across the world; Franz was already accustomed to them.

Every year, a few nobles in the Austrian Empire would drink too much, declare independence, and then, once sober, immediately cancel their independence and rush to beg the Emperor for forgiveness.

Living on the European Continent, these fools were lucky; as long as they didn't cause serious consequences, the Emperor usually wouldn't do anything to them.

It was normal for serfs to help suppress a noble rebellion. The Vienna government had announced the abolition of serfdom and granted them personal freedom, yet these nobles actually wanted to continue enslaving them.

That went without saying—they had to be suppressed; this was a fight for freedom.

The fact that this group of nobles had even armed their own serfs to stir up a revolution was exactly why Franz considered them idiots.

The only thing that surprised Franz was that the local capitalists had actually stood with the Vienna government, contributing both money and manpower to help suppress the rebellion. Moreover, it had been so swift that it looked like a premeditated move.

Franz even suspected that the nobles and capitalists might have agreed to revolt together, but when the capitalists saw that the situation was hopeless, they turned around and sold the nobles out.

Dalmatia had a very low profile in the Austrian Empire; it was the kind of frontier province that was dispensable, economically backward, and lacked strategic value, making it easy to overlook.

Seeing the bewildered look on Franz's face, Prime Minister Felix provided the answer.

"Your Highness, this Dalmatian rebellion was orchestrated by local government noble officials. They flew the banner of loyalty to the Imperial House, hoping to gain greater power.

After their interests were damaged, these bastards actually wanted to unite with Trieste to rebel, preparing to build a nation alongside the rebels in the Italy region.

But they forgot that the National Guard in their hands was loyal to the Empire; this rebellion was doomed to failure from the start.

Furthermore, their geographical location dictates that they are economically dependent on the Empire; once independent, the region would immediately decline.

For the sake of their own interests, it was inevitable that the capitalists would part ways with them."

Franz nodded thoughtfully. He figured it was more likely that the capitalists simply felt the success rate of the rebellion was too low and that they couldn't gain any greater benefits, so they sold out their comrades.

As for why the Dalmatian nobles were so stupid, Franz could only attribute it to them being uneducated, incompetent gluttons, blinded by greed and having lost their senses.

"Then send people over to confiscate their property. At the same time, reward the heroes who participated in suppressing this rebellion, and immediately implement the abolition of serfdom.

Exempt the meritorious capitalists from this year's taxes, take a portion of the land to grant to the serfs who participated in the suppression, and provide a pension to the families of those who were killed or injured."

(The act to abolish serfdom also required time to implement and could not be completed immediately, so the serfs had not yet been fully liberated.)

Franz was setting an example. Regardless of their purpose or motivation, the act of helping the Empire suppress a rebellion had to be encouraged.

In particular, the rewards for the serfs had to be publicized; it would be best if everyone in the Austrian Empire knew about it.

At this moment, Franz had already decided to distribute land. By mobilizing workers and peasants to fight against reactionary nobles and capitalists, he would see who would still dare to follow them in rebellion.

"Your Highness, this is not a good idea. Giving rewards to the capitalists is sufficient. As for those serfs, we have already granted them freedom; there is no need to give them land as well!"

At this point, Prime Minister Felix stood firmly on the side of his own class; he did not want such a thing to happen.

This meant that if the Emperor gained a weapon to bring down the noble class, monarchical power would further expand, and the political voice of the nobility would be restricted.

"Prime Minister, this is a matter of expediency. The rebellion in the Italy region has not yet been extinguished, and those few fleas are trying to fish in troubled waters.

A rebellion could break out in Prague at any moment, the Poles in the Galicia region are restless, and the ambitious Hungarians are preparing to further divide this country.

Now we need to unite all forces that can be united to wipe out these rebels. Naturally, we must reward those who have rendered meritorious service; what does a little bit of land matter for that?"

Undoubtedly, Franz was playing dumb. As long as he used the current situation as an excuse, the nobles had no reason to object.

If no nobles had participated in the rebellion, Franz truly would have had no way to deal with them. Now that a portion of the nobles had rebelled, as the regent and Crown Prince, he had every reason to question the loyalty of the nobility.

Against this backdrop, his support for the serfs—who were about to gain the status of free citizens—was perfectly justifiable.

These people were illiterate, and their judgment of right and wrong was very simple: black and white.

As long as he distributed land to them and let them have enough to eat, for the next few decades, these people would be Franz's most loyal subjects, and even their descendants would be supporters of the Habsburg Family.

Every ruler needs a foundation to support their rule. Currently, the foundation of the Austrian Empire was the nobility, and that would not change for a long time; Franz was simply adding the peasantry behind the nobility.

These were issues that only politicians needed to consider; the vast majority of nobles would never think that far ahead, and even if it were said out loud, no one would believe it.

After hesitating for a moment, Prime Minister Felix chose to concede.

Unlike in history, he was a Prime Minister appointed by Franz, and his influence within the government was not that high. He shouldn't dream of using the power of the premiership to balance the monarchical power as they had in the past.

Seeing the Prime Minister acquiesce, Franz naturally would not continue to be aggressive. Achieving his goal was enough; it wasn't easy for the man to help take the blame every day, so it was better to show him some respect.

And so, the Austrian version of "smashing the local tyrants and dividing the land" began—or rather, "suppressing the rebellion and dividing the land." Those who did not participate in the rebellion naturally had no need to worry about having their land divided.