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

Chapter 1424: Hessen Crisis
In the political field, the high officials of the Austrian Empire had many more unrealistic fantasies. For example, what if the Romanov family died out?
Will they still need to consider the issue of uniting Russia at that time? At least now they have a claim to the Russian throne.

People must have dreams. What if Russia also has a madman like former Spanish Prime Minister Ferrante Duval who kills all the members of the Romanov family?
Hesse in the 19th century had a tragic fate. At the turn of the century, they chose to bet on Napoleon. The Hessian mercenaries made great contributions to the First French Empire's wars all over the country.

However, with the failure of Napoleon's expedition to Russia, tens of thousands of Hessians were buried in the ice and snow of Russia.

In subsequent wars, more Hessians became cannon fodder. In a region where the combined population of several countries was only over one million, such losses were unacceptable.

With the death of a large number of young and middle-aged people, Hesse inevitably experienced economic recession and large-scale social unrest, during which time the population of Hesse decreased significantly.

After the anti-French war ended, the king and nobles of Hesse began to counterattack, making people's lives even worse.

A natural disaster happened to occur, and as a result, a peasant uprising broke out in the Hesse region, which was extremely rare in the whole of Europe in the 19th century.

However, the peasant uprisings in the 19th century posed little threat to European regimes and were quickly and bloodily suppressed, resulting in the Hessians suffering even more.

In the days that followed, they also suffered from droughts and floods. In 1848, they stood on the side of the Frankfurt National Assembly, and were then easily defeated by Franz.

Later, Franz proposed a merger of the same clans, and the Hesse region returned to one country. Franz thought that some things might not happen again, but history may really have its inertia.

On a quiet afternoon, a group of restless people stormed the town hall of Hesse-Kassel. King Friedrich William I of Hesse fled the capital and ordered the uprising to be suppressed.

Although the Grand Duchy of Hesse was not strong at that time, it still had tens of thousands of troops. Theoretically, suppressing the insurgents with less than a thousand people should not be a problem, but as luck would have it, the army received the task of suppressing the insurgents first, and then received the news that the king had fled.

The commander of the Hessian army, based on the principle of "I would rather let the world betray me than let the world betray me", chose to run away the day before attacking the city.

The king and army commanders fled one after another, and the army of the Hesse Kingdom fell into confusion under these successive heavy blows.

After a brief resistance and ideological struggle, the Hessian First Army, with a strength of more than 5,000, chose to surrender to the insurgents, with a total strength of less than 1,000.

In fact, after 1848, especially after Franz destroyed the Frankfurt National Assembly and promoted the merger of the same clans within the German Confederation, the monarchs in the German region, except William IV, felt that they had ushered in a second spring and wanted to make a big move.

But the ice is three feet thick and it didn’t freeze overnight. The Hesse Kingdom is rotten to the core, and even if Franz helps, there will be no fundamental changes in the short term.

In fact, the whole thing should be blamed on Prussia. After all, if William IV had not compromised with the constitutionalists in the country, the Hessians would not have thought of asking for constitutional government from the King of Hesse, Frederick William I.

Due to the development of the telegraph industry in Germany, the predicament of the Kingdom of Hesse was soon known to other countries in the Confederation.

The monarchs of the German states would naturally condemn this behavior, but most of them were in a wait-and-see state, after all, no one wanted to get into trouble.

This time was different from the past. No one from Prussia suggested that William IV intervene in the situation in Hesse. Even the liberals pretended that nothing had happened. Instead, the rebels from the Kingdom of Hesse took the initiative to contact Prussia. They were all constitutional countries and should join forces to fight against the evil autocratic country.

This time, William IV once again became the focus of attention of the German Confederation. After all, the Austrian Empire was involved in many wars in succession at this time, and its main force seemed to be trapped in the Balkans.

If Prussia wanted to challenge the Austrian Empire, this was the best opportunity. Some of Prussia's partners also secretly sent telegrams to William IV to encourage him.
What they didn't know was that those so-called secrets were no longer secrets the moment they were sent via telegram.

The Austrian Empire was probably the only country that mastered telegraph monitoring technology at that time, and it was also the largest telegraph industry leader in the German region. It was a complete dimensionality reduction attack on other German states.

To be honest, all the senior officials of the Austrian Empire hoped that Prussia would declare its support for the Hessian rebels, and then the Austrian Empire could send troops directly to Berlin to drive the Prussians back to their Polish homeland.

William IV was indeed excited at first, but he was soon overwhelmed by his own pessimism. However, while he was watching Prussia from the Austrian Empire, Prussia was also watching Austria.

At this time, no country was more aware of the power of the Austrian Empire than Prussia. Even though half of the Austrian Empire's 600,000 standing troops were tied up in the east, Prussia still had no chance of winning.

Even the mobilization mechanism that Prussia was proud of was still insignificant in the face of the absolute population advantage of the Austrian Empire.

(The population of the Austrian Empire was nearly three times that of Prussia at this time.)
William IV could never raise his head in front of Franz. It seemed that the person in front of him was not a person, but a mountain, a canyon, and an insurmountable chasm.

Seeing that William IV had no voice, Franz could only convene the Confederation Congress according to the old rules.

Although King Friedrich William I of Hesse had failed in his country before, he still had some basic manners, otherwise Franz would not have helped him to ascend to the throne.

"I stand here today with a heart filled with unspeakable pain and despair as my country and my people are consumed by the fire of rebellion.

Those traitors have forgotten their loyalty to their monarch and their love for their motherland, and they are threatening the sacred order of this world.

They burned, killed, looted, and committed all kinds of evil, ravaging my country in the name of freedom. I tried to resolve the hatred with benevolent policies, but they were ungrateful.

I attempted to crush the rebellion with the might of my nation, but my brave army was betrayed shamelessly, and my soldiers, though brave and fearless, were outnumbered.

Now I come here alone, asking for your help. If we allow this evil force to wreak havoc, it will destroy our home sooner or later.

For justice, for our homeland, and for our children and grandchildren to continue to enjoy a peaceful and quiet life, I need your help! ”

After some passionate speeches, it was time to vote, and representatives from all the states were looking at the Austrian Empire.

In fact, Franz could skip the voting process if he wanted to. It was just a test of obedience.