War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Pius IX's deworming ritual was still going on, but he felt that the sky seemed to be getting darker. Others present also felt this, and they all looked up to see the dark swarm of insects blocking the way of the sun in the sky.

At this time, Pius IX couldn't help but shrink his pupils. In fact, in order to ensure that no accidents occurred, he clearly ordered the surrounding farmland to be burned and used a scorched earth policy to stop the insect swarm.

However, Pius IX ignored one point. Locusts were not humans, and their marching speed was far faster than humans.

Locusts can fly at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour and can fly continuously for 3 days, that is, they can fly about 720 kilometers in one flight.

Therefore, Pius IX set up a ruthless isolation zone, which can be easily crossed by the locusts.

As a result, the holy city of Rome fell, and both those precious flowers and carefully pruned trees became the food of locusts.

Pius IX even fled into Castel Sant'Angelo before completing the ceremony. This was not because locusts can eat people, but because the audience was scared away, who else could he show to.

"Oh! God! There are too many locusts!"

Even after they had escaped into the church, the sound of locusts hitting the door panels and glass could be heard from outside.

Seeing the Pope's embarrassment, the congregants couldn't help but start praying, while the senior officials went to the underground secret room under the escort of Swiss mercenaries.

In the secret room, there are not only fine wines and delicious food, but also beauties who have been waiting for a long time. There is even a band and a children's choir.

Facing the overwhelming locusts, Franz didn't have much to do, because without a strong enough insecticide, pyrethrum was actually not enough.

So all Franz can think of is chicken soldiers and duck generals. There are not many ducks in Europe, but chickens are easy to find.

Franz himself owned many chicken farms and was the largest chicken farmer in the Austrian Empire.

At this time, Franz didn't care whether it was laying hens or broiler chickens, and directly shipped one million chickens to northern Italy to fight the locusts.

After all, the story of chicken soldiers and duck generals has not only been passed down for thousands of years, but is even still used in modern times. And not only can it eliminate locusts, but it can also fatten chickens and ducks and sell them for money. Those high-protein chickens and ducks cannot usually eat them.

However, the "quacking and killing" that Franz expected did not actually happen. The ducks were extremely powerless in the face of this large desert locust, and were even frightened and ran around.

The locusts living in the eastern grasslands are not the same species as the African migratory locusts they are facing at this time. Ducks do like to eat those small locusts, but they only like to eat the wingless locusts. They are not very interested in the adult insects.

The desert migratory locust is three to five times larger than the grassland locust, and is more flexible and tougher.

Moreover, Tsarina migratory locusts secrete pheromones to change their own hormone levels, and even secrete phenylacetonitrile, a substance that can cause discomfort to ducks.

In addition to phenylacetonitrile, if the number of locusts is large enough, they will also secrete hydrocyanic acid, which will directly cause poisoning symptoms in most birds.

Therefore, the 20,000 ducks that Franz finally managed to scrape together were useless. Relatively speaking, the attack power of chickens was really strong, but even a million chickens were helpless against hundreds of billions of locusts.

What's even more embarrassing is that the locals have been constantly making plans for these chickens and ducks. Especially after the action of guarding the fields failed, they began to openly rob them in the hope of recovering some of their losses.

Other countries are also very concerned about the locust plague, because French agriculture has had poor harvests for two consecutive years. If there is another locust plague this time, they will have to import food from the United States.

Spain is also facing a similar situation, even worse than that of France. After all, the French have colonies and money.

But the Spanish government is really poor. If locusts come, they can only catch as many locusts as possible and reserve them for the winter.

Northern Italy has always been an important grain-producing area of ​​the Austrian Empire. After the locust plague, the production reduction reached an exaggerated degree.

Vienna, Regency Council.

"Damn it! Not only do we have to deal with tons of locusts, we also have to deal with tons of Italians!"

Too many things happened this year, and Count Kolarov obviously felt the pressure as finance minister.

The Poles and refugee problems in the north, the ubiquitous cholera and crime, the border friction and the Swiss in the west, the Slavs in the east, the tsunami and locusts in the south, and the most difficult one, the Pope.

Prince Metternich was also helpless. The Austrian Empire could not leave Northern Italy alone, but how could it be so easy to provide relief food for more than 10 million people?

The Hungarians were very happy. Kossuth published an article in the newspaper calling for not selling a grain of grain to Austria and starving these German villains to death.

Franz couldn't help but complain while holding the newspaper.

"This Mr. Kossuth is still so naive, and the Italians should be the ones affected."

"Thank you for laughing. If the Hungarians really don't sell food, then there will probably be riots in northern Italy, right? And have you forgotten that the Polish Restoration Army is preparing to revolt in September?"

Adjani reminded, but she was not too worried about what would happen to Austria. After all, Franz looked confident, so he thought there should be a solution.

But the former was really disappointed with the intelligence confidentiality work of the Polish Nationalist Army, and all plans were completely exposed to the enemy's sight.

Just find a few people who claim to be Polish restorers and you can sneak in. You can even buy a complete version of the uprising plan for a few florins in Vienna.

If they didn't fail, it must be that the other party didn't want them to fail.

"Don't worry, there is no need to worry about the source of food, and it is impossible for Hungarians not to sell their own food, and those revolutionaries also need to eat.

As for the insurrectionists in Poland, I think you know better than me what their virtues are.

But this locust plague did disrupt a lot of things, and the devastation was far beyond my imagination. Why is it difficult to use chicken soldiers and ducks? "

"Aren't you going to continue to recruit chickens and ducks to fight against the insect swarm?"

Franz scratched his head.

"I have no other choice. I can't just ask "God" like the Pope, right?"

"How will you know if you don't try?"

Adjani looked very serious.

"Okay then. Locusts! Get out of my country!"

Franz raised his hands in the sky and looked very serious. Adjani was also amused. After all, the former rarely did such outrageous things.

However, the two people who were amused in Schönbrunn Palace at this time did not know that the locusts actually suddenly turned around and flew to the Ottoman Empire after eating Northern Italy.

(However, this is not because Franz’s words really worked, but because the locusts could not fly to the Alps, so they turned to the Balkans.

Several major locust plagues in history turned out like this. The Austrians in the north made countless preparations, and then the former stopped coming. )