Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 821 - 84: Everyone Has Eaten Their Fill

Hearing the word "professional," Albert frowned. In all fairness, silencing people through murder was not his specialty; his actual job was to capture criminals.

He wanted to argue, but considering the critical moment they were in, he couldn’t afford to be concerned with these minor details.

Albert shook his head, "Count, the situation is tense right now, with too many people involved, it’s difficult to silence everyone without attracting outside attention."

This was inevitable. An accident happening to one or two prisoners could be explained away, but accidents involving dozens at once would be suspicious to anyone.

Killing people was not difficult; the key was how to deal with the government’s subsequent investigations. Any tiny clue left behind could bring them crashing down from their lofty heights.

The atmosphere in the room grew even more oppressive upon hearing this response. It was unclear who started it, but someone lit a cigar, soon filling the enclosed space with smoke.

Seeing that the mood was off, Sir Ledyard suggested, "I have been to the Alps Tarot Prison, and the conditions there are horrendous. It’s not uncommon for prisoners to have ’accidents’ there every year.

If we could deal with the prison guards and stage an accident, as long as we’re careful, there should be no major problem."

Albert shook his head, "You haven’t worked in the police system; you don’t know the ins and outs.

Many things can be uncovered if we want to investigate. Even if the job is done cleanly, traces will be left behind.

Staging an accident is easy, but how can we ensure that we eliminate all the targets we intend to in one go? What if there are any who slip through the net?

If even one survivor remains, all problems will be exposed, and we can’t expect the prison guards to personally finish them off, can we?

Even if the silencing is successful, it doesn’t mean the matter is concluded. These Jewish capitalists are not to be underestimated; I don’t believe they have no contingency plans.

If we silence them and then someone comes forward with evidence, the situation will only worsen."

Understanding the stakes, Albert was aware of how unreliable such a large-scale silencing could be.

Dealing with prison guards wasn’t impossible, but such high-risk tasks at most could only elicit them turning a blind eye; expecting them to risk their lives for this cause was utterly unrealistic.

The most troublesome part was that silencing was only the beginning and not the end of the matter. Despite using their families as a threat, it was all for show to deceive others.

The families of such high-level criminals had long been controlled and interrogated. Even if they wanted to do anything, it would only be after the dust settled.

Generally speaking, even in the case of revenge or retaliation, direct action is not taken. More often, it’s about using the power at hand to arrange a ’better place’ for them.

For example: exiling them to Alaska to mine or to the desert to build railroads, and so forth.

Count Witters sighed after his suggestion to silence the targets was rejected, and he slowly said, "If we can’t silence them, we have no choice but to cut our losses to survive.

We haven’t taken any money from the Jews, so they shouldn’t have direct evidence against us. The only risk is a few businesses that had transactions with them.

If everyone is willing, I suggest we liquidate these enterprises and cut off all ties with them."

Everyone’s faces changed dramatically. These businesses were no small matter; apart from benefiting them in terms of interest, they also included their own investments.

If they really gave up these enterprises, every person here, along with their backing families, would be severely weakened.

Albert hastily opposed, "No! Not only would we suffer huge losses from abandoning these enterprises, but would we really be able to get away?

Over the years, everyone has taken advantage of these enterprises to reap benefits. The investigative team could trace their way to our doorsteps if they follow the leads.

Perhaps these things alone aren’t enough to convict us, but to end our careers is already sufficient.

Don’t overthink it. The most urgent task is to stabilize these capitalists and buy us time.

Next, everyone should use their influence to quickly dispose of these businesses, including the disposal of related surrounding enterprises.

We have never shown our faces; by cutting off the profit chain and sending the implicated staff out of the country, we solve half of the problem.

Leverage our power to try to get the court to sentence these Jewish capitalists to death, preferably with immediate execution.

If we’re quick enough, once the sentence is handed down, we immediately take action, and there will be no chance for them to speak up."

The latter method was clearly more sophisticated than the raw act of self-mutilation, especially the subsequent silencing action, which was filled with professionalism.

No one cares about the life or death of a condemned prisoner. Dying a day early or a day late is essentially the same.

In a populous nation like Austria, people are executed every day. Generally, those sentenced to immediate execution are executed within three to seven days.

The intervening time is left for the families to say their farewells. However, this is just unwritten practice, not a formal regulation.

In theory, as long as the sentence is issued, the prisoner can be executed.

Even if the execution is carried out unusually quickly and draws the attention of certain observant individuals, the issue can be blamed on "anti-Semitism."

Count Witters’s eyes lit up with excitement upon hearing the proposal, "What a great idea, Albert, you’re a genius.

Sir Ledyard, the task of handling these scum falls to you. Whatever method you use, you need to fool them first.

If necessary, extreme measures can be taken, but they must be used with caution. If things get too big and attract the attention of the informed, we cannot cover it up.

From now on, we are the vanguard against the Jews, we must see to it that these evil Jewish capitalists are punished by justice!"

...

The anti-Semitic wave continued to surge, but it could no longer capture Franz’s attention; he was busy tallying his gains and determining how to distribute this unexpected windfall.

Economy Minister Reinhardt Halden handed over a document, "Your Majesty, this is the redevelopment plan for the traditional industrial cities."

There are mainly two views within the Ministry of Economy: the first is to build a new city at another location; the second is to remodel on-site, learning from the British in constructing subways to improve urban traffic.

Both proposals have their respective advantages and disadvantages.

The advantage of building a new city is that after redesigning and planning, the city’s population and traffic capacity will increase significantly, and there will be no need for concern for a long time in the future;

The disadvantage is: it requires a considerable investment of funds and a lengthy construction period.

By comparison, remodeling the old city directly on its current foundation brings about quicker results in the short term and requires much less investment.

However, many of the old city’s street plans do not meet current needs, and the remodeling is just an emergency solution, with rebuilding still needed in the future."

The problem of urban land occupation is not within consideration; if Austria has one abundance, it is land, which also serves as an advantage in urban planning.

After giving it some thought, Franz made his decision, "We have too much to do, and it’s impossible to invest everything into urban construction; we will first rebuild the old city district, and we’ll consider building a new city in the future."

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The issue of funding is just one aspect, the crux is that in this day and age, mechanical equipment is scarce, and construction relies mainly on manual labor, carried out mostly by physical burden, naturally slowing progress.

Unlike the development plans for the Near East, where the population is limited, and a single urban plan suffices, with the details to be considered as the population grows.

The cities that need to be rebuilt now are large industrial metropolises with populations in the millions; the construction volume for building new cities is immense, and without a decade or two, it’s simply unachievable.

In such a long time, circumstances would have greatly changed. The international situation is ever-changing; Austria cannot afford to dive head-first into infrastructure construction, lest sudden situations cause trouble.

As for the issue of future rebuilding, it is an inevitable outcome. Economic development changes with each passing day, and even if a new city were built, similar problems would still occur decades later.

Societal productive forces dictate that urban construction cannot be achieved in one go; rejuvenation and replacement are the natural laws of social development.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Reinhardt Halden did not continue to insist. Building a new city is important, but Austria has many other projects of greater significance.

For example, transportation.

As the number of automobiles continues to increase, the existing roads can no longer satisfy the real demand, and upgrading and transforming these roads has become a necessary trend for future development.

The backcountry, with virtually no vehicle traffic, can temporarily be disregarded. However, the reconstruction of roads surrounding large cities is now an urgent matter.

Take Vienna as an example, the number of family cars in the city has exceeded eight thousand, and the number of trucks and tractors has even surpassed ten thousand.

The inner city is still bearable; when the city was last reconstructed, the roads were kept fairly wide, so traffic congestion isn’t an immediate concern, but the main arteries surrounding the city are inadequate.

The roads used by horse-drawn carriages and those by automobiles are an entirely different concept.

A road that can accommodate four horse-drawn carriages side by side can at most fit two trucks parallel to each other. If any incident occurs, traffic jams ensue immediately.

Right now, the number of vehicles is not too large, and road congestion is bearable, at worst causing delays of only about fifteen minutes.

The key issue is that roads suitable for horse-drawn carriages are not conducive to automobiles. Especially on rainy days, muddy roads are the greatest adversaries of cars.

To change this situation, two years ago, the Vienna City Government began constructing cement roads.

Many cities wish to follow suit, but sadly, not every city has the funds, leaving them to seek help from the Central Government.

With too many entities asking for money, the Central Government could not fulfill the requests, so the plan was temporarily shelved.

There’s no way around it; improving transportation is definitely beneficial for economic development, but investing in road construction is a loss, even when including tolls.

The Ministry of Economy has already assessed that, based on the current scale of vehicles in Austria, even with an annual growth of twenty percent, it would still be difficult to achieve a balance of income and expenses from tolls within twenty years.

Bear in mind this is only the balance of operational and maintenance expenses, not the recovery of capital and profit.

This is theoretically speaking; in reality, it is rare for a road to last twenty years.

Aside from a few roads managing to recoup construction costs before being decommissioned, the majority of road projects still face losses even after the roads have worn out.

If it were profitable, capitalists would not be indifferent and would have already invested heavily.

To put it plainly, the time is just too early. If the timeline were shifted forward by two or three decades, there would be no shortage of capitalists willing to invest.

Now, even if we construct a well-traveled road between Vienna and Prague, the end result would still be a complete loss.

The reason is very simple: Austria’s railway industry is too well developed, and the cost of railway transportation is lower than that of road transportation. Many areas also face competition from even cheaper water transport, so long-haul freight does not rely on roadways.

Without long-haul freight, relying on family cars to generate toll revenues and break even before cars become ubiquitous in every household is hopeless.

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