The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1361: The old man who refuses to die is a thief (Part )

However, Franz would not make the same choice as the person in history, stabbing Russia in the back and making the whole world his enemy.

In fact, there has always been a voice in the Austrian Empire, which is to eliminate Russia, dominate the Balkans, and completely eliminate the threat from the Near East.

This idea is good, but it is just a pipe dream in the eyes of later generations. The Balkans are a place that no country can control, and if Austria does this, it will have no allies.

Franz had his own plans, and rather than get involved in the chaos in the Near East, he would rather focus his energies overseas or at home.

At this time in Europe, apart from the issue of succession to the Spanish throne and the tenth Russo-Turkish War, the most concerning issues were the Suez Canal issue and the European Monetary Union.

It has to be said that Muhammad Ali really had some of the style of a deadbeat. Since the establishment of the Suez Canal Company on December 1848, 12, Egypt only sent a few thousand slaves as laborers for nearly a year, and used a contract and a design sketch to fool the British.

Franz was really enlightened. The design drawings that had been finalized had been revised more than fifty times. As for the fact that the Egyptians were qualified to change the contract, it was simply a fantasy.

Is the Canal Supervisory Committee established by the great powers just a decoration?
After some investigation, Franz found out that it was just a decoration, or in other words, without the support of the Canal Supervisory Committee, Muhammad Ali would have no chance to become the deadbeat.

The entire canal inspection committee was bribed, and if Franz had not sent someone to investigate personally, the Austrian Imperial Government would have continued to receive reports that everything was going well.

The officials in charge of the canal project agreed to the fraud for a reward of only £40,000 and fled to the United States before the truth was revealed.

At that time, 80 pounds could buy detached villas in the suburbs of London, England, which was equivalent to the total salary accumulated by a British worker for years without eating, drinking or wearing clothes.

What made Franz most disheartened was that the technical officer in charge of the canal project was promoted by him personally, from a canal engineer to a seventh-level civil servant.

The civil service of the Austrian Empire was divided into nine levels. The higher the level, the greater the power. Level seven civil servants were almost the highest level that a commoner could reach.

Gaston Behrens was originally a canal engineer and participated in the construction of many projects in Austria. Most importantly, he and Franz had the same idea about the Suez Canal and both believed that the bigger and wider it was, the more beneficial it would be to the Austrian Empire.

So Franz promoted him out of turn, but Gaston Behrens could not resist the temptation of money.

Another official in charge of monitoring the situation was on vacation on a beach in Sharm el-Sheikh.
After investigation, it was found that the supervisory official did not accept bribes, but simply neglected his duties.
In Egypt, right under his nose, the Austrian Empire's expatriate officials were all behaving like this. Franz really couldn't imagine what the situation would be like in those more distant colonies.

He had never been so obsessed with overseas communications, but he knew that if the current situation could not be changed, such things would happen again and again.

We will increase our efforts in research and development of telecommunication means and begin to consider laying a trans-Mediterranean cable.

Increase the salaries of all overseas officials by 50%, and at the same time increase scrutiny and supervision.

Franz dismissed all the officials who had committed dereliction of duty this time, but kept them in office and asked them to return to the country for trial after completing their work handover. If they continued to commit dereliction of duty or concealed the facts during this period, they would all be charged with espionage.

A note was sent to the US government, requesting the extradition of Gaston Berens. At the same time, spies were sent to prepare for special means to solve the problem if negotiations failed.

Of course, Franz would not forget Muhammad Ali, the culprit, and he would inform all countries of the situation.

If possible, Franz didn't want to make a big fuss. After all, once such a bomb was exposed, it would inevitably affect the confidence of investors. However, if the problem was not big enough, I'm afraid it would be impossible to kill the old bastard Muhammad Ali. Both the British and the French have always attached great importance to their relationship with this old man.

The British royal family and government continued to give personal gifts to Muhammad Ali, and France continued to win him over even after the change of regime.

Their purpose was simple: to do the most with the least amount of money, and they wanted to control Egypt by winning over Muhammad Ali.

But Franz could only say that they underestimated the old guy's ambition, so they were always being manipulated and even played around by him.

During this year, Muhammad Ali recruited soldiers, built coastal defenses, and constructed warships. If he was given a few more years, Egypt's military strength would return to its pre-war level.

However, once this bomb explodes, it will be difficult for Britain and France to protect Muhammad Ali, and maybe Britain and France have already wanted this old guy dead.

Soon the news that the Suez Canal project had made no progress spread throughout Europe. The biggest impact of this news was that a large number of shareholders demanded to withdraw their investment.

When shareholders withdraw their capital and stock prices plummet, the state can invest and even increase its acquisition efforts, but this is unacceptable to the bankers who are already deeply involved.

Especially the Baring family, the Rothschild family, and the Perere family, they will not allow others to fleece them.

Under the heavy pressure from various forces, the new Canal Supervisory Committee was established, and it played its due functions for the first time.

Muhammad Ali wanted to stop all this, but he overestimated his own strength. The fleets of Austria, France and Spain alone were enough to force the Egyptian navy to surrender.
In fact, Muhammad Ali issued an order to impose martial law in Alexandria, but Khalid Pasha of the Egyptian Navy did not dare to execute the order in the face of the aggressive multinational joint fleet.

The new canal supervisory committee immediately convened a meeting and, in order to win back investors, planned the new Suez Canal to be twice as wide and deep as the original plan.

According to the latest investment analysis, it will only take fifteen years for investors to recoup their investment.

In order to support this huge project and punish Egypt, the Suez Canal Company needs the Egyptian government to provide no less than 20,000 workers for the canal project every day.

“Twenty thousand people is nothing to Egypt, but the problem is that Egypt used food and water as a threat and refused to solve the logistical problems for the construction team.

The result was labor unrest, which caused great losses to the Suez Canal Company. If this problem cannot be solved, no matter how many workers Egypt provides, it will be useless.”

French representative Verlie expressed his concerns.

"Yes, we also need to prevent the Egyptians from raising prices. They have done this more than once or twice!"

The British representative, Sir Hatton, had obviously been tricked. Other representatives also expressed their dissatisfaction and experiences. Muhammad Ali was indeed good at tricking Europeans.

Soon the meeting turned into a denunciation meeting. After much discussion, the proposal of Count Cavour, the representative of the Kingdom of Sardinia, received the most support.

The committee members further improved it, and finally presented it to Muhammad Ali:

"The Egyptian government must provide an average of no less than 50 workers per day. The machinery, tools, food and medical care required by the canal workers are provided by the canal company, and % of the resulting expenses are borne by the Egyptian government."