Count Abelard's Visit

Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Austrian Empire

The sky is clear on the first morning of the year. The city of Vienna is somber after the celebration of greeting the new year. The celebration to welcome the new year has ended and the people are returning to their normal daily lives. It is also the same in the Hofburg Palace of the Habsburgs in Vienna, the servants and maids are starting to clean up and organize the things and the places after the new year’s party. They are removing the decorations and a lot of tables and chairs that are in the palace and cleaning the floor for any dirt and dust.

There are also a lot of noblemen and ladies who are still around as some of them stayed in the extra rooms offered by the Habsburgs while others return back to the palace early in the morning to continue socializing with their fellow nobles. Nobles need to socialize with their fellow nobles to make and maintain amicable relationships with others and to show off their prestige and power, others also want to build influence and connections to build their careers. There are also some who are not nobles around but they are notable and distinguished persons like powerful government officials and businessmen and capitalists. For anyone, this is the best time to meet and socialize as almost everyone is packed in one place.

The ladies are gossiping about the latest fashions and beauty trends in the higher classes circle, and also controversial topics and scandals that are the current issues happening. While men are either talking about politics, land, military, or international affairs and news that are in the present. Especially about the Anti-west rebellion in the Qing Empire, that is happening in the backward and undeveloped far corner of the world. The rebellion alarmed a lot of nobles as they are a lot of investments that they are pouring into the Qing Empire even if the Austrian Empire has no colonies and territories in the far east.

They didn’t expect that the underdeveloped and inferior Qing would dare to stage a rebellion that wants to expel the western power and foreigners from the country. They see the rebellion in the Qing Empire as disgusting and disrespectful to the world order and the civilized world. It only strengthen their beliefs that these people were uncivilized and inferior compared to them Europeans. Even the Qing Empire is weak as it can’t manage and suppress its own people and the rebellion. Many of the nobles present in the palace expressed their desire to join the relief force to be sent to the Qing Empire by a coalition of western powers.

For there are rumors that Germany and the countries allied with it have decided to send a larger relief force aside from the German Manchurian Army that has been reorganized for the offensive deep in Qing Empire’s territory. In the rumors, the German Empire and its allies are planning to force the Qing Empire to give up more territories and concessions rather than the plan that they have decided together with the French, British, and Russians.

There are even plans in dividing the Qing Empire like the partition of Africa between the major powers that have a stake in the continent. Many Austrian nobles and important persons want that the Austrian Empire would actively participate in squashing the rebellion in order to gain benefits and concessions in the Qing Empire.

Even if the Austrian Empire and the Qing Empire had just signed a treaty between the two nations, the nobles just see this treaty as useless and trash compare to the benefits it would gain if it would participate in the attack. For them, the treaty is already null and void by the time the Qing let the rebellion grow to this size and launch an attack on the foreigners in their territories. It is justified that the treaty is already useless when the rebels attacked the Austrian Legation in Peking and cause casualties and damage to properties.

The entire hall is packed and noisy as the nobles and the people are talking, making it look more like a flea market than a palace due to the noise. But it slowly died out as a young man is walking across the hall together with a detail of guards and other nobles. The young man is wearing a full military uniform that is reserved for high-ranking officers in the military of the Austrian Empire. He looked cold and indifferent as he walks past the nobles that are all around the palace in which some of the nobles sneered at the disrespect of not giving respect to them while most started whispering about why the young man is not in his post but in the palace. But the young man didn’t mind and continued to walk to his destination in the palace. His guards also follow him and it seems that there are also military officers of the Austrian Empire.

He then reached a closed door which is guarded by two imperial guards. The two guards salute him and he salutes back to the men and asks them to tell the man inside that he is outside with his report. One of the two guards then knocks on the door and announced the arrival of the young man and then a voice is heard from the inside to let him in.

The guard then opens the door and the young man immediately enters the room without his guards following him. The room inside is simple and spacious with all the essential things to call it an office. The young man saluted to a much younger man in front of him who is his superior.

“Your Imperial Highness”

“Count Abelard”

The two men, Crown Prince Justinian and Count Abelard, exchanged greetings with each other as a sign of respect. Crown Prince Justinian then asks the Count to sit as the conversation they would be having would be long.

“How’s your day Count?”

“It is fine Your Imperial Highness. The travel from the border to here is smooth. The new trains really made life much easier now,” Count Abelard said. He genuinely likes traveling in a train because it is faster and much better than riding a horse-drawn carriage or mounted on a horse.

“Yes, yes, the trains would soon be the top mode of transportation not only in Europe but all throughout the world. Logistics and trade would increase exponentially with the arrival of more trains and train lines in the empire.” The Crown Prince is proud as he is one of the people who really pushed to increase the number of trains and its line throughout the Austrian Empire. With the advent of train transportation, trade and commerce would make the economy more robust and lively. The Crown Prince added. “How about the train lines at the border, it is fine or not?”

“Everything is good sir, the construction of new lines at the border is faster than we had expected. It seems that the people are rejuvenated in the new boom of the Austrian Empire Your Imperial Highness. Single lines are already in the border and they are now adding new lines beside it to make the flow and transportation better…” Count Abelard added. “Also the Ottomans had decreased their excursions in our borders sir, it might be because they are moving more of their men to the borders of the Principality.”

“The Principality huh…” Crown Prince Justinian thinks what would entail if the Ottomans would instead focus and invade the Principality instead of preparing for a showdown with the Austrian Empire. He thinks that would be better but everything that he is preparing and the plans for the future would become useless. Improving the economy and financial state of the Austrian Empire would not be enough to establish the security of the Austrian Empire as it is encircled by a lot of powerful powers. Germans in the north, Russians in the east, Ottomans in the south, and the French and Italian Kingdoms in the West. Austria also needs to secure access to the sea to boost its trade and influence

Austria’s access to the sea is only limited in its southern parts. Even if Austria has a lengthy coastline in the Adriatic sea, it is isolated from Vienna due to the large Austrian Alps. Also, the Adriatic sea can be blocked by any naval power in the Mediterranean region, rendering the Austrian navy useless and stopping any trade and commerce through shipping.

The only way the Austrians can stop this weakness is to expand somewhere and gain more power and influence. It is impossible to defeat the Germans and the Russians as they possess more military and economic might than the Austrian Empire while the Italian region may be weaker but each kingdom is supported by a major power that would readily aid if they were attacked.

It is only against the Ottomans that is the easiest option to attack. Even if it has a more powerful military compared to the Austrians, the internal situation of the Ottoman Empire is in a dire state. The only thing that keep the Ottoman Empire from collapsing is that it has the most powerful army in the region and it is allied with the Germans. But Crown Prince Justinian had already made a plan to entice the Germans to remain neutral when it would wage war against them. Defeating the Ottomans in a decisive battle is essential to destroy the image of invincibility of the Ottomans and destroy the fragile state of the Ottoman Empire.

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