Chapter 1578 Puppet Government
While preparations were being made for war in East Africa, the war situation in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also changing. In September, most of western and northern Bohemia fell into German hands.
Faced with the powerful German army, the various Labor Party armed forces were defeated. In the German-occupied areas, the Germans were warmly welcomed, but those who welcomed the Germans were mainly Bohemian gentry and capitalists, as well as Germans.
Prague.
At this moment, Prague was severely damaged. Everywhere you could see the ruins, shell casings, corpses, smoke and dust left after the war... There were also sandbags, furniture, barbed wire, etc. piled up in the streets during the previous street fighting. The German 3rd Bavarian Division was organizing people to clean up the battlefield.
The commander of the 3rd Division, Bitzke, and other senior military officers met with some former Prague officials, businessmen and celebrities at the city government.
"Everyone, our army has officially eliminated the main force of the Prague bandit army, but the current situation in Prague is still very grim. The Labor Party occupies many places in Bohemia, and there are still many Labor Party remnants in the city. Therefore, we hope that you can cooperate with our work in the coming days."
Bitzke set the tone first: "So, Prague will maintain martial law from now on. At the same time, given the damage done to local government agencies, we will organize personnel to re-establish local order. Before that, Prague will be under our custody."
It is obvious that now that Germany has entered this time, it has no intention of leaving. Germany is very envious of the Bohemian region, the industrial heartland of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Under normal circumstances, the others present would certainly be dissatisfied with Germany's intervention. However, after the Labour Party's rule, the local forces in Bohemia were obviously frightened.
The upper classes in areas like Prague, which were once occupied by the Labour Party, are even more unwilling to go through the same thing again.
"General Bitzke, we welcome Germany's takeover of Prague. The Labor Party has caused us so much trouble. Germany is Prague's savior. The people of Prague will never forget your kindness in liberating Prague."
Former Prague Deputy Mayor O'Connor said this with an exaggerated look on his face, and then he began to accuse the Labour Party of its "crimes."
"During these three months, the Labor Party not only violated our private property and confiscated factories in Prague, but also committed murder and arson, committing all sorts of atrocities. Many righteous people who refused to submit to the Labor Party were persecuted. At the very least, their homes were searched and they were imprisoned, and at the worst, they were executed."
"At the same time, many innocent people were paraded through the streets and tortured into confessing. If you had come a few months later, I might have died suddenly on the street one day."
O'Connorny was previously judged by the Labour Party as a "reactionary bureaucrat", so he got a job sweeping the streets. This was also due to the fact that O'Connorny was only a deputy mayor and had not done much before, while the former mayor of Prague had been shot long ago.
Of course, even so, O'Connor hated the Labour Party. After all, the rough work of sweeping the streets really made him lose face.
Now that the Germans have arrived, O'Connor wants nothing more than to quickly surrender to them and take back power, and preferably then retaliate against and settle accounts with those who have brought shame upon him.
Bitzker had absolutely no sympathy for O'Connor's remarks, and of course, he had no good feelings towards the Labour Party.
"Mr. O'Connorney, I deeply sympathize with your experience. I believe that the Prague murderers will receive a fair sentence next."
"As for now, since you previously served as Prague's deputy mayor, I hope you can first gather the former government personnel and restore order in some departments of Prague. If you do a good job, you may have the opportunity to advance further in the future."
Bitzke does not have the power to appoint and dismiss personnel in Prague now, but he can decide who will temporarily manage the city. The German side is obviously willing to accept those who are willing to cooperate with the German government and voluntarily surrender.
He went on to say: "Because of the Labour Party rebellion and other reasons, a new Bohemian government has now been established in Teplice, northwestern Bohemia."
"In a few days, the new government personnel should be able to take up their posts. Prague is the center of Bohemia, and the new government will be relocated there."
The so-called New Bohemian government was actually a puppet government supported by Germany. Its personnel were mainly composed of pro-German forces such as the former Austrian National Party and the Germans in the Sudetenland.
Now, Germany cannot openly annex Bohemia, after all, Emperor Rudolf is still resisting in Hungary! Therefore, the central government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire still exists in name.
Germany could only find a solution from the local government. After all, the previous order in Bohemia had been completely destroyed by the Labor Party, and the government of the former Kingdom of Bohemia of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been dissolved.
Therefore, Germany will not have too many concerns about setting up a new Bohemian government. In the Austrian region, Germany also established a new Austrian government in the German-occupied area.
As the German army advanced towards the Austro-Hungarian Empire, these puppet governments took over the land and restored governance. There were many positions in the puppet governments, so Bitzke told them this news so that the local forces in Prague would hurry up and join them.
Of course, the core members of the puppet government are still the former Austrian National Party, so Germany, or Adolf, does not have to worry about the local forces in these newly occupied areas having any ulterior motives.
In fact, the original local forces in the German-occupied area of Bohemia now have no bargaining power at all, and it is very generous of Germany to be willing to share some of the cake.
After all, the Labor Party treated them much more harshly than Germany. Under the attack of the Labor Party, the original local power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had actually been severely weakened.
Even if they wanted to send Germany away, they had no way to do it. In the past, they controlled the grassroots of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but now, they were just a group of stray dogs. If it were not for the need to stabilize the people's hearts, Germany would not want to cooperate with them.
O'Connorny was very clear about his position. He assured Bitzke, "Please rest assured, General. We will actively cooperate with your army to restore order in Prague as soon as possible and get the city running again."
Bitzer was very satisfied with O'Connor's attitude. He assured the others, "We will also return a portion of the property confiscated by the Labour Party. After all, the Labour Party's previous sabotage caused Prague to suffer great losses. Therefore, the specific amount of compensation you can get back cannot be determined entirely based on the pre-war situation."
Germany occupied Prague. Thanks to the previous actions of the Labor Party, Prague's major assets were basically confiscated. Now that the Labor Party has been defeated, the right to distribute these wealth has fallen into the hands of Germany.
Germany will definitely get the biggest share, followed by the various forces originally in Prague. However, there is no need to worry about the distribution of interests, as the Labor Party has directly purged a group of people before.
Therefore, the survivors of the former upper class in Prague did not have too many complaints. Germany's willingness to return part of the money to them was already a sign of sincerity.
As for those who are unwilling to accept Germany's distribution, that is easy to deal with. As long as they make some random adjustments, they may really lose everything. For example, if their assets can prove this, Germany can find various ways to block and control them.
…
With the fall of Prague, the situation of the Bohemian Labor Party became passive, and the reactionary forces now completely gained the upper hand in Bohemia.
Although the Labour Party still occupies many areas, one thing to note is that the European Labour Party, like the Soviet Union, pays more attention to cities rather than rural areas. This means that in eastern and southern Bohemia, where the Labour Party currently holds an advantage, in addition to towns, there are actually many rural areas controlled by the former Austro-Hungarian nobles and gentry.
Not to mention, as the industrial concentration area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bohemia's urban power can suppress the countryside.
Prague is the largest industrial city in Bohemia. Its size is actually on the same level as Vienna and Budapest, but its political status is slightly lower.
In 1934, Prague had a population of almost one million, several hundred thousand more than the same period in the previous life. The reason was very simple. Under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, large cities such as Prague could more conveniently concentrate population and resources.
During this period in the previous life, Bohemia had already become independent and became the Czech Republic, which also meant that it had lost the original large domestic market of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Now that Germany occupied Prague, it controlled a large population and industry. Combined with other German-occupied areas, the balance of victory began to tilt towards Germany.
In the Austrian direction, Germany's progress is also advancing steadily. Now the German army has basically occupied most of the eastern mountainous areas of Austria and is rapidly approaching Vienna.
If Vienna were to fall, the Austro-Hungarian Labor Party would be completely at a disadvantage, because except for Bohemia and Austria, the Labor Party did not have an advantage in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Hungarian Labor Party can now only cause trouble for the Hungarian government, but has no ability to mobilize the local masses. After all, the Hungarian Labor Party has failed once before, and Hungary's support for the Habsburgs is higher than last time.
Now Hungary can be said to be the last base of the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy. They have strong control from the central government to the local levels.
Of course, Hungary still supports the Habsburg royal family, which will be a trouble for Germany in the future. After all, if the Habsburg royal family does not fall, it will become more difficult for Germany to fully control the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In addition, Germany faced another problem in its attempt to annex the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was the opposition from countries such as Britain and France.
As the German army entered the Austro-Hungarian Empire and supported the puppet government, Britain and France naturally saw Adolf's ambition.
In fact, Britain and France were very conflicted about Germany's annexation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, because they hoped that Germany could resist and suppress the Soviet Union and European labor parties, but they were also afraid that Germany would become too powerful.
Therefore, the current thinking of Britain and France is that Germany can annex the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but not all of it. For example, it would be best if Germany only annexed part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while the other part was divided up by Italy, Serbia, Poland and other countries.
In this way, Germany can be strengthened to a certain extent without exceeding the psychological expectations of Britain and France too much. As for preventing the merger of Germany and Austria, Britain and France are completely powerless.
Now, both Britain and France are actually in a half-dead state. They face fierce competition from the United States, East Africa, Germany, the Soviet Union and other countries. Internally, they have to suppress the wave of national independence in the colonies and be wary of the rise of local Labour Party forces.
Therefore, Britain and France are now completely unable to interfere in the changes in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They now have only one diplomatic strategy towards Germany, which is to provoke relations between Germany and the Soviet Union and let Germany and the Soviet Union fight.
However, the time has not yet come for Germany and the Soviet Union to completely tear each other apart. Germany needs to prepare for war, and at the same time, if it swallows up the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it also needs to digest it.
The Soviet Union was carrying out economic construction and did not want to go to war with Germany for the time being. The Austro-Hungarian Labor Party did not receive as much support from the Soviet Union, including for this reason.
Moreover, the Austro-Hungarian Labor Party and the Soviet Union did not share a border, but were separated by Romania, Poland, Western Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Hungary.
This prevented the Soviet Union from providing large-scale aid to the Austro-Hungarian Labor Party. If it were not for the traffic restrictions, the Soviet Union would certainly not mind changing the Austro-Hungarian Empire, even if it meant delaying its own industrialization progress. After all, if Germany successfully swallowed up the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it would be the Soviet Union that would suffer in the future.
In short, the current situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is very complicated, with many countries involved, including Germany, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union.
But one thing is certain, that is, Germany has an absolute advantage.
Now, what Germany is most worried about is Italy. If Italy makes too much progress militarily, it may get a big piece of the pie.
Therefore, Germany has never interfered with the Austro-Hungarian army in Venice and the Austro-Hungarian Alps south of the Alps. Adolf hoped that the local Austro-Hungarian army would cause some trouble to Italy, but did not want to completely offend Italy.
Today, Italy can actually be regarded as one of the great powers. At least compared with the great power goalkeeper Spain, Italy has far surpassed it in overall strength.
Italy has a population of 40 million and a relatively high level of industrialization. Its strategic location is very important and it can play a role in southern Europe and the Mediterranean. This maximizes Italy's value in attracting others.
Adolf still hopes that Italy will stand on Germany's side in the future, and it would be best if it could cooperate with Germany to put pressure on France from the south.
Although Adolf is quite conceited and France is now very weak, no one can guarantee that they can gain a decisive advantage until the real war starts. After all, during World War I, Germany thought it was much stronger than France, but in the end it still failed to defeat this old rival and paid a huge price.
Therefore, with the experience of World War I, Germany will only try its best when facing France, and the role of Italy will be reflected. To put it bluntly, if a war breaks out between Italy and France now, it is hard to say whether France can defeat Italy.
Therefore, in the view of Adolf and other German high-level officials, as long as Germany and Italy join forces, Germany's chances of winning against France will reach 100%.
If Germany wants to win over Italy, it cannot confront Italy directly, so it is a good idea to let the Austro-Hungarian army in the south continue to consume Italy. After Germany takes over other areas of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany can come to coordinate, so as not to offend Italy and prevent Italy from becoming bigger.
On the other hand, if Germany fails to win over Italy and instead lets it run to the side of Britain and France, Germany will be in a passive position.
(End of this chapter)
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