War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

In fact, there are still several ready-made intelligence organizations in the Austrian Empire. The first is the notorious secret police, and the second is the church.

The secret police was naturally in the hands of Prince Metternich. This was a very strange organization, with a large number and bloated organization, inefficiency and no loyalty at all. This reminded Franz of the 800,000 forbidden troops of the Song Dynasty.

Although the secret police is divided into many factions, which gives Franz room to operate, it also makes the problem more complicated. At the same time, the possibility of adulteration and leakage of intelligence also greatly increases. Before being able to eliminate the factions in the secret police, Franz had no intention of using this organization.

As for the church, it is still a common problem. Over-reliance on the church is like drinking poison to quench thirst.

Cultivate yourself? This is even more nonsense, not to mention that Franz himself does not know how to obtain intelligence, where do the personnel come from, how do the intelligence come in, how long does it take, one or two years or ten or eight years?

Recently, Franz had a new friend, Edward Taffy, the eldest son of the Taffy family, who came to study with him.

It's just that what Franz has learned has completely exceeded Taffy's knowledge, and he has been in a state of confusion recently.

Taffy prefers to get close to herself than to study. She likes to give Franz some snacks, toys and other things when she has nothing to do.

Until one day Taffy saw Franz's toy and drooled with envy.

No boy can resist the temptation of toy guns and toy cars, so Franz generously gave them to Taffy, after all, these toys cost little.

Wind-up toy cars and pneumatic toy guns are definitely the top toys in this era. Although Taffy has seen real rifles and carriages, seeing them and playing with them are completely different concepts.

According to Taffy himself, there was an organization similar to the Vienna Business League in his family.

However, the scale was not comparable to that of Solomon Rothschild's Vienna Commercial Alliance, and its headquarters was in Moravia. Due to the distance and distance, it was of little help to Franz.

However, there was one thing that concerned Franz very much, and that was that the Taffy family ran the largest steamship company in Austria and also had its own steamship factory.

Franz was thinking that maybe Friedrich could get in touch with the Tafe family, and maybe he could speed up the production of steam battleships.

At the same time, it can also draw the Tafe family to the empire. Local powerful people like the Tafe family can easily have the idea of ​​​​confronting the central government.

In fact, Franz was overly worried. Historically, this family had sharpened its head and moved closer to the royal family.

In 1848, the Taffy family raised their own military expenses to help suppress the rebellion in Moravia. Taffy's father had a leg broken in Bohemia.

In 1866, two of Taffy's uncles died in Sadowa.

Later, Tafi became the Prime Minister of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his brother became the Archbishop of Vienna. Both of them were staunch royalists. During World War I, Tafi's grandson died defending Lviv (a border city in Galicia). , his son committed suicide after the defeat of Austria-Hungary.

From the perspective of the Habsburg family, it can be said that they are full of loyalists.

Perhaps it is the best choice to seize this opportunity when Solomon's control is weakest and turn his Vienna business alliance into his own intelligence organization.

After all, Vienna does not need two emperors, and now is a good time to take advantage of his illness and kill him.

Once Solomon loses the Vienna Business Alliance as an informant, Solomon will be like a blind man in Austria from now on. He can only rely on his brothers (Rothschild family) and family resources, which greatly reduces his threat.

It's just that controlling the Vienna Business Alliance is not a simple matter, but who should be let go? He didn't have anyone available at all. Franz's father did have such a person, but it was difficult to convince him to work for him.

As the sun set, Franz felt a little sleepy, so he lay on Thalia's lap and fell asleep.

Thalia actually still had a lot of things to report, but Franz was already asleep, and she didn't want to disturb him for fear of annoying others.

Thalia patted her cheek. She couldn't figure out what she was thinking. At this time, she would usually choose to do it first.

Thalia lifted her hair and lightly pressed Franz's forehead...

Schönbrunn Palace, Royal Greenhouse.

The steward in charge of managing the greenhouse was a little troubled because only 96 of the 10,000 rubber tree seeds given to him by Grandmaster Franz finally became seedlings, which was less than 1%.

The greenhouse steward even considered adding some similar saplings to get through it, but he gave up in the end because Archduke Franz was a very shrewd "little man" and it was not easy to fool him. Easily punished by Lady Sophie.

The rubber saplings will soon be shipped to Trieste, where they will be boarded and sent to Chenla, where they will thrive.

In Madam Sophie's bedroom, Madam Sophie was helping Adjani fasten her bra.

Women's clothing during this period was very cumbersome, especially corsets, which women could not put on themselves without help.

The original intention of the corset design is to move the flesh to where it should go to highlight the charm of women. That is to say, the fat on the waist and abdomen is pushed up and down to achieve the effect of breast enlargement, hip lift and waist reduction.

But in fact, this thing is similar to a torture device for women. For example, in Pirates of the Caribbean, the heroine was strangled by a bra until she fainted. This situation abounds.

It is customary to choose a solid pillar or porch to support her center of gravity. However, at this time, Adjani seemed to have no object strong enough to support herself, not even a pillar, so she could only rely on clenching her fists. Borrow strength.

Mrs. Sophie was gradually increasing the strength on her hands. Adjani bit her lips tightly, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.

"I'll leave my hard work to you. You won't let me down, right?" Mrs. Sophie said.

"No, Madam Sophie. I will serve Archduke Franz wholeheartedly." Adjani said with difficulty.

"That would be great, let's have a drink to celebrate you becoming my son's esquire," said Lady Sophie.

The maid then brought two wine glasses. The filled wine was illuminated by the white and transparent glass and candlelight, and its blood-red luster was highlighted even more vividly.

Adjani tremblingly picked up the wine glass and drank it all in one gulp. However, she almost vomited it out because she tightened her abdomen too tightly, so she had to swallow it.

Mrs. Sophie smiled, let go of the rope in her hand, and elegantly picked up the wine glass and took a sip.

"It's too embarrassing. Practice ten more times."

Mrs. Sophie even stretched out her slender fingers, lifted Adjani's chin, and looked at Adjani's face carefully.

"What a beauty, but don't you guys have any men in Poland? Don't have any other thoughts. I will watch you. If you do well, I can let you meet your husband and let you fly away. , go to a place where no one knows you, and live your good life."