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

Chapter 1607 Hunting
East of Prague, the Royal Hunting Grounds.

Franz wasn't really interested in hunting small animals, but he still participated in family activities. A mournful horn sounded, announcing the official start of the hunt.

Franz and all the princes, large and small, from the German region made an appearance. Even the somewhat depressed Wilhelm IV was dressed in full regalia and picked up a hunting rifle. The scale of the event was unprecedented in nearly a century.

Hundreds of warhorses were ready to go, and the knights in full regalia all came from the oldest and noblest families in the German region.

Franz was also dressed in hunting attire, with a green hat reluctantly placed on his head, topped with a long feather from a great auk.

In Germany, green represents a series of positive connotations such as luck and happiness, so he couldn't refuse the green hat.

May Saint Hubert bless us all to return home with a full load!

Saint Hubert is the patron saint of hunters and forest rangers.

"Greetings to you, Your Majesty the Emperor."

After a series of routine procedures, Lord Karl, the Chief Forestry Officer of the Austrian Empire, stepped forward and spoke.

"Northwest wind, your prey is in the southeast direction. Have a pleasant hunt!"

Then hundreds of beast drivers and countless hunting dogs set off together, raising a cloud of dust and creating an extremely frightening scene.

Photographers seized the opportunity to capture a wealth of precious footage, and even court painters from various countries began to create paintings.

However, for most royal families, the hunt was over at this point, since not everyone is good at hunting.

However, Franz could not escape this fate; as the Emperor of the Austrian Empire, he had to participate in the hunt.

The younger generation from various countries and families also harbored some ambition to compete with Franz, making the scene unprecedentedly grand.

Maximilian, the King of the Two Sicilies, rode ahead and shot a rabbit with a single shot. His attendants, without dismounting or even pausing, scooped the rabbit up with a net. His superb horsemanship amazed the audience, drawing cheers from all sides.

"Your Majesty, if you don't take action soon, your younger brother will steal all the limelight from you."

King Frederick William IV of Prussia laughed.

Franz wasn't sure if the other party was implying something, but Frederick William IV himself wasn't exactly clean either.

“Maximilian is also a member of the Habsburg family. I’m happy for him to be in the limelight, not jealous.”

Frederick William IV's face immediately darkened. His suppression of his brother, the Prince of the Grapplers, had already spread throughout the royal families of Europe, and he was bound to be branded as jealous and envious.

Because Franz won two major civil wars in 1848, one within the Austrian Empire and the other within Germany, the reputation of the Prince of Gravel improved.

He was at least a positive figure, a hero who dared to stand up against riots, not a coward who would only compromise.

Frederick William IV was very unhappy, but he could only endure it. Normally, Franz wouldn't target anyone, but Prussia and Austria were negotiating over reforms to the gold standard.

Prussia resolutely resisted the Austrian Empire's gold standard reforms, and Frederick William IV even wanted to rally other countries to resist, and even considered creating a North German Customs Union. It would be strange if Franz gave him a friendly reception.

But now Frederick William IV is also in a difficult position; the only country they can truly persuade is Mecklenburg. However, it is a pipe dream for the two countries to confront the entire German Confederation, and Prussia would be even more vulnerable if excluded from the customs union.

In fact, King George V of Hanover, who was blind, also opposed the Austrian Empire's gold standard reform, but he did not dare to show it too obviously, or rather, he only wanted to observe.

According to George V's judgment, the European Monetary Union could not possibly agree to the Austrian Empire's gold bullion standard reform, no matter how much the Austrian economists touted it.

Especially those powerful nations, which one wouldn't want to collect seigniorage? The British were particularly sensitive to economic matters, and they strongly suspected that this was a preliminary preparation by the Austrians to annex the German territories.

Of course, the British have been spreading this conspiracy theory for many years. The mastermind could be Austrian, French, or even Russian.

Because Franz had long controlled mainstream public opinion in Germany and frequently engaged in debates with the British, most of the German nobles and intellectuals had long since demystified Britain and their so-called liberalism.

Besides the opposition from the British, the French also opposed it. With these two major powers opposing it, George V believed that Franz Joseph I's reforms were doomed to fail.

However, Hanover is, after all, within the German Customs Union, so it can only try to delay the reform process and cannot jump out directly unless a country of sufficient weight steps forward first.

In fact, George V had great ambitions. He believed that the Kingdom of Hanover should be the hegemon of North Germany, so in his eyes Prussia was both a partner to be won over and an enemy to be suppressed.

Of course, Franz didn't care whether George V genuinely accepted the gold standard reform; what mattered most was that his outward attitude was enough to influence the judgments of other states.

Maximilian had been preparing for this day for a long time. Three months before he learned about the hunt, he began to practice his marksmanship and horsemanship diligently, and even found several hunting masters as his attendants.

"Frantz, just you wait! I will prove that I am no worse than you!"

The reason Maximilian was so excited was largely because he knew very well that although Franz's physical abilities were not weak, he was better at hand-to-hand combat and melee weapons, and his use of firearms was probably not as good as that of Archduke Franz Karl.

As for equestrian skills, Maximilian had never seen Franz ride a horse for more than 20 minutes. Even on the battlefield, Franz rode in a carriage, not on a warhorse.

It would be strange if someone like that could achieve good results in a hunt.

Maximilian's hard training paid off; he had already hunted more than twenty animals of various sizes along the way, including a wild boar and two stags.

This was already quite a haul, but Maximilian wasn't satisfied. He wanted to widen the gap between himself and Franz until the latter could no longer see his back.

Suddenly, a muffled clap of thunder sounded, but the sky was cloudless. Maximilian glanced at the sky again, confirming it was a clear, sunny day.

However, the ground began to tremble, the warhorses reared up, snorted restlessly, and the hunting dogs tucked their tails between their legs, growling in fear.

"earthquake?"

One of the attendants blurted out that this was the only possibility he could think of.

Then the sound of branches breaking and trees falling grew closer and closer, and they realized that it was not an earthquake, but some huge object moving in their direction.

Then they saw a huge steam monster traveling through the hunting grounds, and standing on the mountain-like monster was Franz, with a pale-faced Frederick William IV sitting beside him.