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

Chapter 1601 Re-education

In fact, the two main reasons for the above problems were that Franz's plans were too ambitious, with too many large-scale projects launched at the same time; and the Austrian Empire's inherent weakness as a major power.

The Austrian Empire was home to many ethnic groups with diverse languages ​​and cultures, and its mountainous environment created a series of isolated geographical units.

This resulted in extremely high initial investment costs, especially in terms of teachers alone. If it weren't for the Austrian Empire, no other country in the world could possibly find so many language specialists to teach.

It was not uncommon for adults in the Austrian Empire to speak an average of three languages, but the vast majority of children could not, as they mostly only spoke their native language.

At the same time, mixed and intermingled populations were common in the Austrian Empire, so a teacher usually had to be proficient in at least three languages, which greatly increased the difficulty and cost of teaching.

Besides the teaching itself, the number of schools is far from sufficient, which is why education funding is so extravagant. After all, building a skyscraper from scratch is not an easy task.

This directly led to another problem: extremely low investment efficiency. Although the Austrian Empire invested more than ten times that of Prussia, the results were completely incomparable.

Prussia was able to keep its illiteracy rate at around 10%, while the Austrian Empire was still striving to reduce its illiteracy rate to below 60%.

However, Franz's efforts were not in vain. The above calculation only refers to the illiteracy rate in a narrow sense, that is, the inability to read and write in German is considered illiterate.

Without this limitation, the illiteracy rate in the Austrian Empire would have fallen below 50% at this time.

Moreover, this number is expected to decline rapidly in the future as literacy education is implemented.

Furthermore, if we only consider the population that can understand German, then 65% of Austrians can already communicate in simple German.

This was a very significant achievement; at least the German-speaking population of the Austrian Empire no longer needed to worry about being unable to communicate in German or about government officials' orders not being carried out.

In the five years following Franz's accession to the throne, German had broken down barriers between ethnicities and regions and become the true Austrian language.

This is all thanks to Franz's relentless investment; the strong government eliminated barriers between ethnic groups; and trains, waterways, and highways overcame geographical limitations, finally allowing German to become widespread.

This was a goal that the Austro-Hungarian Empire failed to achieve until World War I. Before the start of World War I, only 40% of the population in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire could speak German, which was even lower than before the Austro-Hungarian unification.

Franz felt the money was well spent on this point alone. However, although the number of German speakers in the Austrian Empire had increased by more than 50% at this time, there were some hidden dangers.

The German speakers in the Austrian Empire were too concentrated, mainly in German-populated areas, major cities connected by transportation lines, as well as royal estates and the army.

In vast rural and remote areas, the only two places where German is spoken are churches and schools. However, with the expansion of compulsory education for the next generation, German will become more widespread.

Franz did not want German to dominate the Austrian Empire; he simply hoped for a common language for the entire Austrian Empire.

Without a unified language, this fragmented empire remained a disorganized mess. Even with a strong monarch to suppress it, it was difficult to unite. And if this bond were to be broken one day, it would vanish like the Austro-Hungarian Empire in history.

Many things had to be done simultaneously, otherwise the desired effect would not be achieved. Therefore, Franz consistently avoided war, at least to prevent direct conflict with powerful nations from hindering the development of the Austrian Empire.

In addition, Franz drew lessons from history and placed great emphasis on re-educating the Austrian Imperial Army, criticizing its foolish political correctness, foolish national strategies, foolish strategic plans, and foolish military command.

Together, these four factors created an incredibly foolish 20th-century army that was even less organized than the Romans before Christ.

Contradictory orders flew around, but fortunately, the soldiers couldn't understand them or read them. They could only judge what the messenger meant from his emotions, expressions, and actions.

Using a hammer to open the ammunition box resulted in the entire artillery position flying into the air.

All sorts of mistakes, prejudices, and folly have created one of the most clumsy armies in history, and Franz does not want history to repeat itself.

In fact, starting in 1848, the Austrian Empire's numerous victories were washing away the stereotype of the army as clumsy, slow-witted, full of deserters, and shameless.

A general, leading two brigades, pursued eight hundred fleeing rioters armed with meager weapons, and with the assistance of the Sardinian army, chased them all the way from Genoa to Rome.

As a result, hundreds escaped, including the famous Garibaldi, and the Austrian Imperial army ultimately captured only 26 prisoners. They suffered nearly a thousand casualties, with hundreds more missing (escaped) or lost.

At that time, the Austrian Imperial Army did not have a division-level organization. An infantry brigade consisted of two infantry regiments, with a total of about 5000 men.

Two brigades, totaling ten thousand men, achieved such a feat despite having prior intelligence, completely defying the stereotype of clumsiness and sluggishness.

But after Franz took over, there were no more dramatic defeats or pyrrhic victories. Franz was only a military enthusiast, and even after studying for several years in this era, he could not become an excellent officer. So how did he solve the chronic problems within the Austrian Imperial Army?
The answer lies in the promotion of "The Battlefield Twenty Essential Words Handbook," which solved the basic communication problems of the Austrian Imperial Army with just a very simple operation.

Even if you put together all the military experts in the world throughout history, if you can't solve the most basic communication problem, you still won't be able to command this army.

Today, the original "Twenty Essential Battlefield Words" has long been replaced by "Fifty Essential Battlefield Words" and "One Hundred Essential German Words".

After all, with the development of the times, both tactics and weapons are more complex than in the past.

During the relatively stable four years following the end of the 1848 rebellion, Franz continuously weeded out soldiers who were unable to communicate in German and were unwilling to learn.

The pass rate for the "50 Essential Battlefield Words" exam in the Austrian Empire is now 100%. As long as an officer knows standard Austrian (excluding North German dialects and mountain dialects), he can take over an army anytime, anywhere.

Franz himself was well aware of the large scale of the project, but some things simply had to be done. There wasn't a better way; he could only grit his teeth and persevere until the infrastructure was completed and the economy began to circulate, at which point things would improve.

Franz still had some reserves to hold off for a while, but what could truly break the deadlock was monetary reform, evolving from the gold standard to the gold bullion standard.

In fact, the gold standard has taken three forms in history: the gold coin standard, the gold bullion standard, and the gold exchange standard.