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

Chapter 1948 Flames of War
The joint propaganda previously used by the Prussian government and capitalists now sounded so jarring.

The people of Prussia have always been told to be patient and not to be as weak and lazy as the heretics in neighboring Austria, and that capitalists would uphold the backbone of the nation.

However, when war broke out, this so-called national backbone collapsed at the slightest touch. Hundreds of thousands of people were wiped out in an instant, which was unacceptable not only to the Prussian government but also to the Prussian people.

These hundreds of thousands of people are all men in their prime, and behind them are hundreds of thousands of families.

However, they found it difficult to hate the Austrian Empire, because from the perspective of ordinary people, the Austrians were simply defending their homeland and rescuing their allies, while Prussia was the invader.

To the average person who doesn't understand military matters, what is active defense or offensive defense? Breaking into someone else's home is an invasion.

As if things weren't going to go wrong, the defeated nobles accused the capitalists of producing substandard military supplies and harming the soldiers, and even produced the incomplete horseshoe as evidence.

Furthermore, according to the defeated nobles, most of the talents that the factory owners sent to the army were physically deformed and sickly, making them unable to cope with the high intensity of the battlefield.

In reality, the Junker nobles believed that the failure was due to insufficient sacrifice from the people, but the people saw it as the officials above wasting their sacrifices.

If Prussia had not lost, the people would have remained in the stage of protests and riots.

But Prussia lost, and their right to final interpretation was also taken away.

The excuses that worked in the past are no longer effective. What people want is not preaching about what to do, but a tangible result.

An unemployed worker named Karl Muller walked into the factory and rang the factory alarm bells, then tore the giant propaganda poster to shreds in front of the workers.

Supervisor Bent was also alarmed. He glared angrily at the two belated security guards, and could tell from their unsteady gait that they had done something wrong.

But these guys were Bent's relatives after all, so he couldn't afford to make a scene at this time. After all, he was the one who brought them here, and if something went wrong, he wouldn't be able to escape responsibility.

Bent gestured to the foremen who had just run out of the workshop; the foremen were all experienced and naturally knew what to do.

No matter what the other person has to say, just shut them up. What's the quickest way to shut someone up?

Should we yell at them or argue with them?

No, of course they'd just accuse someone of something and then use a whip to shut them up.

"Throw out anyone who trespasses on the factory!"

Without a word, another burly foreman stepped forward and prepared to give Karl Muller a good beating.

He had done this countless times. When he drank and boasted with people, he always said that his muscles were all from beating people.

However, this time was different from the past. Karl Muller picked up the hammer in his hand and first struck the burly overseer.

"You dare hit me! Even my dad has never hit me!"

The burly overseer stared at the unemployed worker in disbelief, but Karl Muller ignored him. When one hammer blow failed to knock him down, he swung it again, knocking out all of the overseer's teeth.

Then he hammered away, one blow after another, until the other man was completely still. Only then did Karl toss the hammer aside, his face showing an expression as if he had just emptied his bowels after several days of constipation.

The burly overseer had just whipped more than a dozen people to death in the same way, so the workers were used to seeing such scenes and were not particularly alarmed.

"The Kingdom of Prussia has lost!"

Karl shouted.

"We lost?"

The workers' voices were weary and tinged with fear.

No! The Prussian government lost!
Why did Prussia lose? Because they used all their resources to protect the factory owners! The army was finished! Our children died on the battlefield!

Our home is ruined! But the factory is still there, and they're still making money off our hard-earned wages!

But they still refused to accept the laws the Confederation and the Emperor had enacted for millions of Germans! We protested in the streets, but they said those were benefits only for the victors, and we were the losers! We didn't deserve them!

For this ridiculous war, my brothers and my sons went to the battlefield.

Because they said they would improve our lives, but my family is all dead! Now even their bodies can't be found! Tell me I don't deserve the rights guaranteed by Confederate law!
For so many years, I have never taken a day off, or even been late once, but just because I have to attend my brother's funeral, they want to fire me!

We should also have a ten-hour workday! We should also have a minimum wage! We should also have the right to rest and vacation! Our livelihoods should be guaranteed!
Since this is the law of the German Confederation, why can't we, as Germans, enjoy it?

Supervisor Bent rushed down from upstairs yelling.

"Rebellion! Rebellion! You're inciting a rebellion! It's your business if you can't survive! Don't interfere with other people's lives!"

Instead, Supervisor Bent walked among the workers and deliberately raised his voice.

"We are all law-abiding citizens! Aren't we?"

Most of the workers dared not speak out against this blatant threat, after all, there were several strong and burly overseers nearby.

Supervisor Bent actually enjoyed this feeling, but this time no one came out to flatter him. He loved watching those peasant dogs fight each other.

Supervisor Bent glanced at his trusted henchman, who immediately understood.

"The supervisor is right! This black sheep who was fired from the factory is just trying to drag everyone down with him. We must not fall for his tricks!"

The group of men watched Karl Muller with amusement and laughter. They were experts at how to legally and legitimately force someone to their death, especially since he had struck first. But because he was actually willing to attack, they were somewhat wary, as they didn't want to risk their lives.

However, this time Karl Müller did not go hysterically as they had imagined; instead, he spoke with unusual calm.

"You cut our wages and increased our working hours before, saying we had to make sacrifices for the country. But now that we're desperate, you say it's our own problem."

You are deceiving us!

Karl Muller's words were sharp and harsh; he hit the nail on the head regarding the core issue: nobody cared about them, and nobody wanted to change. "You're talking nonsense! Throw him out!"

Bent roared angrily, shoving the surrounding workers and overseers forward.

But no one was willing to step forward, especially his burly overseers, who now cowered like a flock of quails. In truth, these overseers considered themselves lions, and what are lions most afraid of?
Of course I got hurt! As for saving face, that's not that important.

Now it was Karl Müller's turn to walk forward. With each step he took, everyone else took a step back, just like a stage play.

"You parasites are the ones who should get out!"

Bent finally couldn't take it anymore and used his trump card.

"Whoever catches this guy, I'll give him a week's leave plus fifty thalers!"

The people around remained unmoved.

"one hundred!"

"five hundred!"

Finally, someone was tempted, but with a gunshot, Supervisor Bent fell into a pool of blood.

"Fellow countrymen! Stand up and drive out those parasites!"

The one who fired the shot was not Karl Müller; he was just a worker who had no way of buying a gun even if he wanted to. The person who fired the shot was a retired veteran, or more precisely, a Great Germanist, or a remnant of the former National Assembly.

After 1848, the German Confederation launched a large-scale purge within the confederation, but the majority of those purged were Jews. Germans, unless they went too far, were mostly imprisoned for a few days and fined; some veterans within the system only received verbal warnings.

Each state government has its own reasons for its outward compliance but inward resistance; after all, it can't afford to jeopardize its core support base.

Furthermore, in the eyes of the various state governments, the so-called German Confederation of Colonies was just a facade used by the Austrians, and they would not be fooled.

This line of thinking led to a high degree of Austrianization of the Confederate colonies, which made them more convinced of their own conjectures.

In fact, Franz designed a whole system to Austrianize the Confederate colonies, but found it was completely useless, as most people preferred to follow the crowd.

The advantage of population size was fully demonstrated in the joint colonies, even more so than the effect of institutional design.

This group of Greater Germanists, hiding in various states, never gave up the idea of ​​establishing a German Empire.

Now they felt their opportunity had come, and the Austrian Empire had once again disrupted the balance of power among the German states.

However, this group was much smarter than before. They no longer thought of imposing rules on Franz like the British did. The Greater German faction decided to resolutely carry out the emperor's orders and implement his will.

That's why this group of people would go to the factory to incite the workers. You don't know what's going on until you try it, and once you do, it's easy to get addicted.

Europeans all have a bit of a messianic complex, and the worship of the working class at the bottom of society is very appealing to these German nationalists who are desperately seeking a sense of belonging.

The most crucial point is that this redemption is mutual; the elites of Greater Germanism like it, and the common people like it too. They are both so eager to fight for the same goal.
Moreover, it must be said that the organizational skills and knowledge of these elites are indeed much stronger than those of the lower-level workers. With these people taking the lead, those at the bottom who would have only dared to commit suicide by swallowing carbon even when forced to the edge of a cliff have the courage to resist.

The factory owners were the first to suffer; they were tied to signs in front of their factories, and their warehouses and homes were completely looted.

Those great Germanists and German nationalists joined forces to try the factory owners, imitating the public trials of criminals in the Austrian Empire depicted in stage plays.

If the trial hadn't been held, the anger of the lower classes could have been contained. But the trial completely ignited the public's fury.

In fact, these elites have a very superficial understanding of the lower classes. They thought that the factory owners might have some moral flaws, but they soon realized that they were wrong. Those factory owners were even worse than the most vicious villains in the novels they had read.

This undoubtedly reinforces their belief that they are on the side of justice. When people are convinced that they are right and just, they can unleash unimaginable power of action and execution.

Furthermore, with the backing of their nation and empire, they would dare to challenge even a dragon with swords, let alone deal with capitalists who only kept a few thugs.

As for the collusion between Prussian officials and businessmen? Then we'll take down the Prussian government along with them!

In fact, the Prussian government intervened not entirely because of the bribe money, but also because of the national interests and the fact that those German nationalists had challenged the state apparatus by setting up their own court.

However, Prussia at this time was no longer the Prussia before the war, and its weak gendarmerie was simply unable to effectively suppress the unrest that was taking place all over the world.

Moreover, the Prussian gendarmes and police had an exceptionally bad reputation, and their involvement in the suppression would only backfire. At the same time, these men were also considering their own future; now that the Prussian government had them suppressing an uprising, would they later be sent to the battlefield?

To put it bluntly, these military police and regular police were all after money; they had no intention of actually risking their lives for the Kingdom of Prussia. Especially after hundreds of thousands of troops had been annihilated in a single day, it was impossible for them not to have some ulterior motives.

In fact, it wasn't just them; the telegraph machines of the Austrian Imperial government were exhausted from receiving telegrams, and many operators had collapsed from exhaustion.

It can only be said that the intelligence receiving capacity was limited at that time; otherwise, it would have been possible for the Austrian Imperial government to receive tens of thousands of telegrams in a single day.

However, given the technology of the Austrian Empire at that time, Vienna could only receive a few hundred telegrams per day at most.

Even so, the Austrian Empire had by this time obtained the military deployment maps of all the states in northern Germany, as well as the allegiance of most of the top nobles.

In this situation, how effective can so-called repression be?
The troops sent to suppress the rebellion either collapsed at the first sign of trouble or defected on the spot.

The influx of workers was just the beginning, and the city's residents were no longer as indifferent as usual. In fact, the Prussian government's strategy of division had failed at this point, because something truly could unite the people.

We are all Germans living within the German Confederation, and we also want to embrace that new way of life. If we can abandon morality in pursuit of profit, why can't we abandon so-called loyalty in pursuit of a better life?
Or perhaps everyone should have been loyal to His Majesty the Emperor, not to the Poles of the Hohenzollern family.

Nationalism is still very influential; people instinctively want to join a stronger, more powerful group to seek refuge in.

In fact, the so-called "Labour Protection Act" has never protected just workers; it shelters the majority of people, which makes people's reasons more valid.

The model of the Austrian Empire has long been spread throughout the German region through texts, pictures, music, and drama.

People know what they should do and how to do it. They act decisively and efficiently.