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

Chapter 1545: Mexican Calculation

Loud scolding, direct threats of force, naked exchange of interests and plunder made Metternich feel a little impetuous. What he did, what he saw and felt now was a complete denial of his life.

Metternich missed the elegant game in that magnificent palace, where a hint, a pun, or a well-worded letter could become a fulcrum to move the entire world.

Although strength is still the guarantee of status, it is by no means everything. Thousands of years of interests, rules, bloodlines, and forces have been interwoven into a big network, and you need to unravel it to win in the end.

However, at this moment and here, that gorgeous cloak was completely torn apart. Metternich was shocked by the actions of Archduke Karl Ferdinand. He had never heard of an army prohibiting the enemy from surrendering.

But Metternich learned from the soldiers that this was not the first time such a rebellion had been quelled. In fact, Archduke Karl Ferdinand was a soldier who valued honor. He initially followed the practices of old Europe, but the result was only more rebellion.

Afterwards, the mercenaries demonstrated their methods of suppressing the rebellion, which was to use force directly to suppress the rebellion and only accept the unconditional surrender of the rebels, completely ignoring the hostages and mines in the hands of the rebels.

To Archduke Karl Ferdinand, this was just a common tactic used by mercenaries, but in fact it was an order given by Franz.

Franz was different from those brainwashed and confused 19th century aristocrats. He knew very well the underlying logic of society. As the saying goes, political power comes from the barrel of a gun.

As long as the gun was held firmly enough, even the Qing Dynasty could have lasted for 268 years. Even in the eyes of the Qing Dynasty's old and young, if there was no foreign invasion, it was not a dream to last for thousands of years.

After all, just 41 years before the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty was still in the Kangxi and Qianlong eras of prosperity praised by literati.

In old Europe, Franz also had to consider the image of the Habsburg family, but establishing colonies was not about treating people to a meal, let alone doing charity.

The main force of this rebellion was a group of Irish people instigated by gold diggers and several relatively powerful Mexican families.

The causes are quite complicated, but to be simply summarized there are only two main ones. The first is that the taxes of the Austrian Empire were too high, and the second is that the Austrian Empire was not the real owner of this land.

After the development of the colonies of the Austrian Empire was completed, it had to subsidize the homeland. After all, Franz was under tremendous pressure during the development period and even had to borrow money everywhere.

In other words, Franz's original purpose in developing colonies was not to benefit the colonial people, but to supplement his own economy. Continuous blood transfusions to the colonies were impossible.

Franz will not stop treating the colonies differently until the time comes when they become his homeland.

As for the second point, the debt owed by the Mexican government to the Austrian Empire has reached 1.6 billion pesos. Given the Mexican government's current repayment ability, it may take a hundred years to pay it off.

In fact, Mexico's economic situation in this life should have been much better than the same period in history. After all, it did not lose the Mexican-American War, and the Austrian Empire helped with a wave of construction.

The Mexican government's annual revenue once approached the 5000 million pesos mark, but unfortunately after the Mexican-American War, Mexico experienced several civil wars, and by this time the Mexican government's annual revenue was less than 2700 million pesos.

However, it is still far stronger than Mexico (1200 million pesos), which lost the Mexican-American War in history. At this time, the taxes paid by the Mexico-Australia Joint Development Company have exceeded half of the Mexican government's annual revenue.

The California government and the Austrian-Mexican Joint Development Corporation even sent troops several times to help Tasan Anna suppress the rebellion, but he had his own ideas.

The most direct manifestation was the renewal of the California Lease Treaty, which was always delayed with excuses.

According to Tasan Anna, "this is the public opinion."

Every time Metternich sent people to Tasan Anna to renew the treaty, Mexico would run into trouble, and then Tasan Anna would start asking for money, food, people and support.

Metternich tried his best to maintain this ally, giving money and food, and even giving Tasan Anna a lot of personal political donations.

But there was still no result, and now Austria is in a very awkward situation in California. Although the Mexican government cannot do anything to Austria, even Tasan Anna himself and most of the Mexican senior officials have acquiesced to this fact.

However, legally speaking, the Austrian Empire became an illegal invader.

However, what was somewhat unexpected to Tasan Anna was that European public opinion paid limited attention to America, and most people did not regard Mexico as a civilized country. In the eyes of the world, the Austrian-Mexican Joint Development Company in Mexico was no different from the British East India Company in India.

Not many people will sympathize with the Indians, and similarly, not many people will sympathize with what is happening to Mexico.

However, the Mexican nationalists and local Mexican family forces did not care about that, which led to this rebellion.

Another point is that due to the repeated civil wars in Mexico, the Austrian Empire took in a large number of Mexicans who fled to California, increasing the number of Mexican population in California.

Metternich was really not good at dealing with hooligans and ruffians like Tasan Anna, and he felt that he had let down Franz's trust.

Metternich thought he could control lightning in North America, and he thought Guizot was his biggest enemy, but now he realizes that Guizot is actually his best friend.

After France withdrew from North America, Metternich was at a loss.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Master Metternich, I am Willie Roberts, Mayor of San Francisco."

"come in."

"Yes, my lord."

"Mr. Willie Roberts, are you one of the first immigrants here?"

"Yes, sir. I was in the Royal Dragoons, but I broke my leg during training and thought I would never have the chance to serve my country again.

It was your Majesty who gave me this opportunity."

Willy Roberts talked on and on, but Metternich was not there to listen to his stories.

"From what I've heard, you're very good at managing the complex relationships in the city."

"Thank you for your compliment. San Francisco has the best public order in all of California."

Willy Roberts made no secret of the fact that he was proud of his achievements.

“What do you think of Mexican President Tasaoui Anna?”

"That's a complete jerk, my lord. He is not to be trusted."

Willy Roberts had been dealing with Tasan Anna for a long time and had long been disgusted with his style.

Metternich looked at Willy Roberts's face full of disgust. His first reaction was that the mayor was not experienced enough. How could he have such good and bad things written on his face?
However, this emotion was only fleeting, after all, his purpose was not this.

"So Mr. Roberts, who do you think are trustworthy people in Mexico?"

Willy Roberts replied firmly.

"No, my lord."

(End of this chapter)