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

Chapter 1882 Even in the Depths of Rotten Soil, Light Arises
The next day, a list was placed on Franz's desk. He could already guess the names on it, but there were some minor names he couldn't remember.

However, one thing surprised Franz was that many of the names had nothing to do with Bohemia. These people had neither interests in Bohemia nor deep ties with the local aristocratic families.

With them involved, Franz could only say that the aristocratic families had long since united and were all preparing for the future.

This left Franz somewhat helpless. He had been dedicated to helping the nobles make money and improve their lives. But these men were using their new knowledge and the money they had earned to turn against him.
But it doesn't matter, since Franz never expected them to obey. Now that the international environment is stable, it's a good time to take them down one by one.

The promising young man kept clamoring to see Franz while in prison, but Franz had no intention of giving him that chance.

Franz had no interest in hearing such tragic stories; if he wanted to, he could probably hear them all in his lifetime, since there were far too many people in the world with their own troubles.

There were a total of fourteen assassins, including two airship operators. Which of them didn't have some kind of hardship?
Franz's strike will likely sever countless family lineages and leave countless people displaced. He simply doesn't have the time or energy to care about all that.

On the other hand, the whole of Bohemia is undergoing an unprecedented transformation, with various closed shops reopening and workers returning to their jobs.

Franz was willing to prioritize selling those shops to the people who worked there, and even offer them loans.

Many mansions were converted into schools and orphanages. In particular, students at Prague University finally had new dormitories and teaching buildings, which were naturally the residences of the offending school leaders.

In fact, the residences of those school leaders were built with misappropriated state funds, so now they have been returned to their rightful owners.

The Archbishop of Prague's private estate in the city center was transformed into a city library, and his private collection of books was used to enrich the library's collection.

Some smaller villas are funded through public auctions, with all proceeds going towards local public works projects and subsidies for local residents.

The gang's illicit activities were also shut down, and the proceeds were returned to the victims according to the gang's internal ledgers, including even prostitutes controlled by the gang.

More than 90% of prostitutes associated with gangs are not acting voluntarily; they are either trafficked, tricked into marriage, or burdened with debt, or their families are being blackmailed.

In the 19th century, usury and predatory lending schemes were rampant, and ordinary people could easily fall victim to them. Even though the Austrian Empire enacted laws explicitly prohibiting them, they were still commonplace under the protection of local and traditional powers.

The intersection of usurers, gangsters, and corrupt officials within the Austrian Empire gave these already illegal businesses a coercive force and credibility.

The idea of ​​saving themselves is a joke. Gangs are not charities. They usually take more than 90% of the profits and force prostitutes to continue signing loan agreements. Giving them scraps is already considered a great act of kindness. Being beaten and verbally abused is commonplace.

When unpleasant guests arrive, they may resort to violence because they have no one to back them up.

When they seek justice, corrupt police officers and those colluding aristocratic judges will only trample on them again. It would be lucky if they could get no help at all; they would most likely be arrested and locked in a dark room to reflect on why they were beaten and why they didn't make money.

Being plagued by illness, covered in bruises, and suffering from mental breakdowns are almost standard features. In the eyes of gangsters and those big shots, they are nothing more than tools for making money, even less valuable than cattle and horses.

After all, you can still eat the meat of cattle and horses when they die, but they only deserve to be thrown on the street as garbage, because no one will take the corpses infected with syphilis.

In fact, when the dark clouds over Bohemia were dispelled, these gang-controlled prostitutes showed surprising numbness and were not as fierce as one might have imagined.

They felt no joy, no sorrow, no disbelief, no fear of escape, and not even the courage to look up.

They simply submitted to being manipulated as if they had been taken over by a new gang, and some of those who were not found in time even went back to the streets to continue doing business.

These people can only be temporarily managed by the nuns, and their stories will be compiled into a book to warn future generations.

The story often begins with a serious illness, a natural disaster, or a man-made price increase (usually a rent hike), which makes an already impoverished family even worse off.

At this point, a gang member or shady broker disguised as a good person will appear. He will tell them that he has connections to help the girl find a good job, and that she can earn enough money to get through the crisis in a few months. He is even willing to pay her a week's wages upfront.

Specifically, it meant working as a maid in the homes of nobles, merchants, and scholars, with room and board provided, and bonuses for being diligent.

Most importantly, such an important person is either unmarried or his wife has passed away early. Your daughter is good-looking and smart. She can not only support herself over there, but also send money back.

Some things don't need to be said explicitly; poor parents and girls will start daydreaming. After all, many fairy tales say that poor girls can use their beauty to rise to a high social status overnight, without considering the reality of marrying someone of equal social standing.

Some parents who feel sorry for their daughters may hesitate, but they will soon encounter even worse things. Hunger and pain are more effective than any sweet words.

Parents would hand over their daughters, whom they had raised with great care, to so-called kind-hearted people, thinking that she could work as a maid, live a good life, and send more money back home.

However, they often only received their first week's wages, after which the kind people would vanish without a trace. This is how the five-franc girl came about; at that time, a pretty maid in Paris typically earned five francs a week.

But in reality, when the girls entered the city, they found that what awaited them was not a grand mansion, but a cold, dirty, windowless little room.

At this point, the "kind person" would often instantly change her attitude and bring her first client, the local gang leader.

"Listen, your parents have already sold you to us (or your parents owe us money), and from now on you will have to use your body to pay off the debt."

The cries, resistance, and pleas of an underage girl are all in vain; professional gangs have plenty of ways to tame them.

However, in order to be protected by law and prevent the girl from escaping, the gang would hire professional lawyers to draw up a contract recognized by the local government for both parties.

From that moment on, those girls officially became legal slaves, and they could hardly escape this fate for the rest of their lives.

Stories about talented men and beautiful women in brothels have been told since ancient times, both in the East and the West.

Unfortunately, brothels also have different levels, and those girls may never even qualify to enter a high-class brothel in their entire lives, let alone have an encounter with a talented man.

As for big shots, it's not impossible to encounter them, but encountering them might not be a good thing, since many big shots are also freaks.

It's almost impossible to completely control someone with just a contract, since those gangsters themselves don't even believe in the spirit of contracts.

By the 19th century, gangs had developed a sophisticated system for controlling their victims; violent control was merely the most rudimentary form of control employed by peripheral operators.

In reality, gangsters would first isolate the person, or rather, lock them in a small, dark room, similar to punishment in prison. As a social animal, the person would suffer extremely severe trauma during this process. They would be left speechless all day, provided only with the bare minimum of food and water to sustain life, and would have to relieve themselves in the cramped, dark space.

Let alone some naive young girls, even those ruthless bandits who kill without blinking an eye might not be able to withstand it.

Then there's identity destruction, also known as adopting a stage name. This is actually a very clever psychological technique, the purpose of which is to deprive someone of their self-identity and deny their personality itself.

Some even more ruthless gangs use drugs to control addiction, which makes it easier to control once addicted, and also opens up a market for those drugs.

This is naturally very welcome to the gangsters.

The gang also has an ultimate tactic: offering rewards to informants while simultaneously instigating conflict among prostitutes. Even the slightest difference in treatment can cause them to turn the world upside down.

If there is no conflict, then create one. As long as hostility and unease are stirred up, the prostitutes will start spying on each other and even begin to compete with one another.

The offspring of prostitutes would suffer an even more tragic fate, as there were virtually no effective contraceptive methods available at the time, making pregnancy and childbirth almost inevitable for prostitutes.

The girls are usually kept by the gang and then waited for to grow up until they are old enough to work.

The boys either became thugs or thieves, or were sold off or given to powerful figures in need as their playthings.

Because the Austrian Empire has been expanding overseas in recent years and needs a large labor force, they have found another place to go: colonies.

Some of these children made it in the colonies and returned to Austria to seek revenge, but few succeeded, as they faced not just a gang but an entire system.

Prague, brothels on the Vltava River pier.

When the Austrian Empire's soldiers kicked open the doors of the brothel, the stench that assaulted their senses, along with the nauseating smells of various incense and herbs, was overwhelming.

The entire building consists of countless cubicles, each containing only a broken bed and a toilet. There are no windows, only a ventilation duct the size of a fist, and the only light comes from kerosene lamps.

There's a high probability there's also a woman huddled in a corner of the room.
The soldiers in this operation mainly came from large cities like Vienna and Lombardy; the vagrants and outlaws of the past had long since lost the opportunity to join the army.

Due to the improved reputation of the Austrian Empire's army in recent years, coupled with tangible benefits, the main force of soldiers has been replaced by respectable men without anyone noticing.

Most of these young people hadn't suffered much hardship; at most, their pencils had been broken by school bullies, or they'd been splashed with mud by speeding horse-drawn carriages while crossing the road.

To be honest, they were quite excited about raiding brothels, since most of them had never been to one and had only heard of it as a place of extravagance and debauchery.

The reason why this group of young people who grew up in the new era are like this is mainly because the power of the church is too strong, which makes them ignorant of the world.

However, the first impression was not good. Hank, who had just turned twenty (the conscription age in the Austrian Empire), and his companions excitedly rushed into the brothel with guns in hand, eager to see what the prostitutes looked like.

But when the curtain was lifted, he saw a little girl with sunken eyes curled up in the corner of the iron bed, holding a baby. The little girl was probably not much older than his younger sister who was in middle school.

No, I don't want to.

The girl said in a terrified, hoarse voice that in her world, there was no difference between a man in military uniform and a man who was shirtless, or even whether he was wearing clothes or not.

Hank seemed to have something stuck in his throat, and after a long while he spoke.

"I am a good person."

Another silence followed.

“We’re here to rescue you. You can leave with the nuns; we need to conduct a thorough search of the entire building.”

Hank clenched his fist and said.

"I failed to protect you, but I swear to you I will never let a bad guy go."

This was also the sentiment of all the soldiers at that moment. As children from respectable families, they had been educated by their parents, teachers, priests, and various stories and society since childhood, which taught them what was right and wrong, who was a good person and who was a bad person.

But none of that is as profound as this moment; they now truly believe they are right and represent the justice in their hearts.

They are willing to do anything for this, and no amount of profit can easily buy them back. They will no longer have any sympathy for gangsters.

In fact, if they encounter stubborn gangsters after this, officers don't need to do any ideological work or repeatedly tell them that sympathizing with the enemy is equivalent to harming themselves; they will immediately start killing without hesitation.

Prague, the second largest city in the Austrian Empire after Vienna, had a population approaching one million. The entire operation alone rescued more than 40,000 women from the gangs.

Most of the remaining prostitutes were also controlled by the gang, and even some high-class courtesans had ties to the gang.

With a gunshot, the bullet pierced the head of the last remaining gangster and made a hole in the sealed window.

The light finally shone through.
The rescued women were placed in centralized care, with the government providing them with food and lodging, and hiring doctors to treat them. After recovering, they could choose to return home, while the homeless could learn some skills at the monastery.

Of course, there are other paths to take. After the gang's assets are auctioned off, they can use the compensation to start a small business or go to the colony to start a new life.

For those who had no relatives or ties in their hometowns, starting a new life in a colony was the best option.

The imperial government could grant them new identities, new household registrations, and new lives, if they so desired. In fact, most of the prostitutes who had been enslaved by the mafia were willing to leave Austria and seek opportunities in the colonies.

In fact, anyone with a modicum of intelligence can see the benefits, and coupled with some well-known anecdotes, it's easy to arouse their desire for a new life.

For example, a reformed prostitute finds love while working in a flower shop in a colony.