War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

October 20, 1842, Venice.

A low-caste businessman from India visited here. He brought a large amount of spices and jewelry to sell at the port, which soon attracted the covetousness of gangsters and local gentry.

Then the hapless businessman was framed by a combination of local gangs and tycoons, and imprisoned for disrupting the market and disrespecting local traditions.

Although the businessman brought hundreds of followers, it was still useless to Venice where the navy and army were stationed.

Everything would have been settled, but Baron Brooke just came back from California, and after casually looking through the files, he discovered something fishy.

Of course, his experience in the United States in the past few years has also taught this upright official a lot. This time he did not angrily go to the local court to argue, but went to the Navy Commander-in-Chief Archduke Friedrich and the Governor of Venetia. Prince Eltres.

Archduke Friedrich and the Governor of Venice, Prince Eltres, were also willing to give the central bank governor a face, and two super heavyweights intervened in the same case.

This case will naturally be brought out for retrial. Even Franz, who is far away in Vienna, has heard about it. He is very dissatisfied with the local officials. After all, Austria intends to open its doors for business, not to engage in this kind of killing of chickens to lay eggs. activity.

Franz was very interested in a person who came to Austria from India to do business. After all, in business, many friends lead to many paths, especially in a product-rich region like India, where Austria can always find what he wants.

However, as the case progressed, something else soon became involved.

The Indian businessman's name was Veerawais Adani and he was a Shudra. This is very rare because Shudras are a lower caste in India.

At this time, whether it was his sea-going ship, the cargo of spices and jewelry, or the five hundred capable sailors under his command, none of them looked like the property of a low-caste businessman.

But in fact, the Adani family made its fortune during the Age of Discovery and was once an agent of the Dutch in India. Verawise Adani was the kind of rich man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but what Franz saw was a strong Indian man who was not inferior to the Guards.

Although his speech frequently aroused laughter in the court, it was not because his language was not standard enough, but because he naturally made a lot of jokes when he spoke Dutch as German.

Verawise Adani's firm eyes and calm tone, coupled with her powerful figure, are just like Drogo Khal in A Song of Ice and Fire.

When local tycoons accused Villawise Adani of being an Indian Ocean pirate, he produced letters of recommendation from Tanzania's Governor Benny Erbin and King Said of Oman.

This made Franz very interested. After all, these two letters of recommendation were much more difficult to deal with than the big ship and hundreds of Indian sailors.

In fact, this Verawise Adani was one of the wealthy Indian businessmen who originally funded Benny Erbin. This person also had many years of trade relations with the Kingdom of Oman, so he was able to get the recommendation letter.

The purpose of Verawise's visit was actually to seek advice from Franz, who once entertained heroes from various Indian states in Calcutta during the Indian Ocean Straits.

These "heroes" valued Franz higher than any white man who had been to India, because Franz knew what they wanted, pointed out several roads, and was willing to help.

One of the ways is to study in Austria. As for whether they want to study organizational structure or science and technology, Franz will not interfere too much. He will only help those people enter Austrian universities to study.

However, Verawise’s trip was not to seek education, but to seek advice on how the subjects of Kerala can be equal.

After the trial, Verawise met Franz as she wished.

"Dear Archduke Franz, you are younger than I thought, although my friend Benny Erbin has reminded me more than once."

"You're paler than I thought, too," Franz quipped.

Villawise Adani did something that he had not done even when facing the Maharaja of Trivandrum. He knelt down and prostrated himself before Franz with clasped hands and knees.

Franz was somewhat accustomed to it, because there were many people outside Europe who worshiped him as a god. Even in Vienna, there were people like the old stick who worshiped him as a god.

"Mr. Verawise, your courage is admirable. But regarding your question, it is impossible to achieve absolute equality. However, a country with relative equality and mutual respect between people is still possible. "

"What do I do?" Vera Wise asked.

"It's not what you should do, but what your country should do. The people should be prosperous, the country should be strong, and the country should be clean. This is the solution." Franz replied.

"The people are prosperous and the country is strong? The king is pure?"

"Yes, an ancient oriental philosopher once said that etiquette is known in practice. If a person cannot even meet the most basic needs of food and clothing, then what he wants to know must be how to make money and how to have enough to eat. Instead of following the so-called social rules.

Weak countries have no diplomacy and no dignity. Everything you own in a weak country can be taken away by a strong country, including your life.

Rulers need to know their position and who are their friends and who are their enemies. "

In fact, this statement was only told by Franz to Verawise, because he could see that the other party actually wanted to be the king. If Verawise just wanted relative equality, Franz would have told him the shortcut to rule by law.

But an ambitious person would obviously prefer Franz's current statement. After all, India or Kerala at this time is in a situation of internal and external troubles. Internally stupid princes and nobles are rampant in the countryside, and the common people are colluding with the British.

The outside British stepped up their plunder and controlled customs. If you want to make money, you must feed British officials, otherwise you will not be able to sell your goods no matter how good they are.

Especially for ocean-going merchants like Vera Wise, once the ship and cargo are impounded, bankruptcy is almost an inevitable outcome.

Fortunately, the Adani family's centuries of management allowed him to connect with the Omanis and the Dutch. Otherwise, no matter how capable and courageous Verawise was, he would inevitably end up with a tragic ending of ruined family and death.

So Verawise came not only for herself this time, but also for the future of the Adani family.

"Archduke Franz, what should I do?"

This time Verawise asked more directly, and Franz naturally did not shy away.

"You have many followers, and you are also very smart and know how to hedge your bets. You can choose to sell half of the cargo on the ship for weapons, and exchange the other half for Austrian Empire goods and sell them to the Indian princes and nobles, or to local people. Pay a bribe to do what you want.”

Verawise felt a little incredible that the other party could see through her mind so easily. In fact, this is not difficult to analyze, because he had previously placed bets on both Benny Erbin and King Said of Oman.

This time should be no exception. Although for the Austrian Empire, trade with Villawise was dispensable, Franz was still happy to see the destruction of the British backyard by this careerist.