Decisive Blow (1)

The establishment of the Austrian Agricultural Cooperative had to be executed as a surprise attack. The primary objective was to set up the cooperative swiftly and drive a wedge between the aristocratic factions before the military nobility could catch wind of the plan and rally their forces.

"Representative Stahl, are there any legal issues? When we established the Hungarian and Bosnian Agricultural Cooperatives, didn't we base them on specific decrees?"

"Your Highness, realistically, going through the formal legislative process is impossible. We have no choice but to apply the Hungarian Agricultural Cooperative Act mutatis mutandis. We can draft the actual decree later."

"What about funding? To establish a cooperative, we must raise capital. If a sum of money that massive starts moving, won't they notice immediately?"

"Even when the Hungarian Agricultural Cooperative was established, the initial capital itself was negligible. Once it is founded, we can immediately issue a massive amount of bonds and have our parent company buy them all up."

"It's not as if you and I haven't set up a shell company or two."

Establishing the Austrian Agricultural Cooperative was on an entirely different level compared to setting up cooperatives in Hungary and Bosnia. The aristocrats—especially the high-ranking ones in the military—still possessed the economic mindset of the fourteenth century. All of their wealth and property stemmed from land leasing and agriculture. This was a direct strike at the core interests of the nobility. One wrong move, and both the economy and the war effort would be utterly ruined.

"I wonder if Hötzendorf and those other aristocratic bastards might actually launch a coup."

"Do not overthink it, Your Highness. After all, how long has it been since the constitutional monarchy was implemented and the Hungarian Agricultural Cooperative was established? We are simply sounding an alarm for the aristocrats who are still stuck six hundred years in the past."

Great Britain was a highly peculiar case where democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy coexisted. Seeing how traces of that still remained even in the twenty-first century, one could appreciate just how rigid their class system was. Even the human butcher of the Nazis, Adolf Hitler (not the Hungarian Agricultural Cooperative leader, Hitler), had ultimately been forced to employ the military aristocracy. No matter how outdated and reactionary those old-timers were, the military traditions built over centuries could not be ignored. And as for the military tradition of the Imperial Army...

They were an army that excelled at everything except fighting wars!

One might think, What kind of ridiculous army is that? but they were still better than the German army, which only excelled at war. Armies spend the vast majority of their existence in a state of peace. And during peacetime, an army is nothing but a nuisance. There is a reason nations aggressively disarm the moment a war ends.

Furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Army not only caused less trouble during peacetime, but they were also a force that greatly contributed to maintaining the empire. They possessed an overwhelming loyalty to Kaiser Joseph. They had supreme administrative capabilities and a bureaucracy designed to run a multi-ethnic military. They were a symbol of imperial integration. They even bridged the gap between the rich and the poor, teaching soldiers from relatively underdeveloped regions and ethnic minorities how to brush their teeth and count numbers.

While it is true that the Austro-Hungarian Empire made an absolute mockery of itself in World War I due to structural issues, one could also look at it from the opposite perspective. Despite those structural issues, they somehow managed to keep the war machine running. So, aside from their inability to fight, weren't they the perfect army?

I explained this reasoning to Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who looked at me as if he were listening to the ramblings of a madman.

"What kind of nonsense is this? What kind of army can't fight a war? From what you're saying, it sounds like we should just scrap the whole thing."

"...It may seem strange, but it cannot be helped."

Yes, I know it sounds crazy... But ever since the war broke out, I had pondered this endlessly. In a nation like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was fundamentally a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual empire from its very inception, how could one raise a proper military?

"...After agonizing over it again and again, I realized there is no answer."

"What? The Roman Empire ran their military like that too!"

"Even the Roman Empire used methods to assimilate surrounding peoples into 'Roman citizens' or even 'Latins.'"

I, too, had tried to find an answer by comparing the cases of various empires... but there were almost no successful precedents like the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The United States, Russia, Great Britain, and Rome all used methods of assimilating minority groups into the dominant, mainstream ethnicity. But no matter ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠how one looked at it, while the Kaiser and the nobility were German, there was no such thing as a "mainstream ethnicity" in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So what on earth were they supposed to assimilate into? They had to be left as they were. But if they were left as they were, the military would fall apart. There was simply no solution.

"In any case, isn't the Revolutionary Guard the one doing the actual fighting? I doubt much will change even after this war ends."

"...That is true."

"The Imperial Army is the shield of the empire, an authoritarian bureaucratic organization with over three million men, including reserves. The more people we have to lead them, the better."

It was similar to how, in the process of improving labor rights within the empire, we had exhausted every effort until the very end to bring the capitalists over to our side. To some, the establishment of the Austrian Agricultural Cooperative would be an extreme provocation and an outright declaration of war. However, to others, it could serve as a signal of reconciliation—a final opportunity for compromise.

In December 1915, as the two East Asian regional powers, Japan and China, intervened in the stalemated war, and endless battles raged in Europe without the frontlines shifting, Stahl attended an event held by the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (SDAP), dressed in a sharp suit. It was no surprise. As always, he would encourage the war effort, boost morale, announce new products, and recruit investors. With Christmas, Europe's grandest holiday, just around the corner, it was not unusual for Stahl to deliver a speech.

Conrad von Hötzendorf had also stopped paying attention to Stahl's movements, assuming that whatever he had been busily preparing lately was nothing of great consequence. Besides, with the Kaiser's cough growing worse by the day, Hötzendorf and Stahl's political enemies were already occupied with preparing for the aftermath of the Kaiser's passing.

It was in this very setting that Stahl launched his surprise attack.

Even as Stahl spoke these words, the members of the SDAP had no idea what he was up to. Normally, before Stahl did anything, he would have already finished promoting it to the high heavens. Though his actions often resembled walking on a razor's edge, as a corporate representative, Stahl was surprisingly cautious and highly focused on risk management. He only made his moves after setting up a board where success was guaranteed. Looking back at his track record, other than the stunt of taking an airplane to receive his Nobel Prize, he had rarely engaged in anything resembling a gamble.

The party members listening to Stahl's speech began to murmur.

"It looks like Representative Stahl is planning to pull something off."

"Probably nothing major. Maybe selling new bonds... or repaving the roads?"

There was no particular expectation. They just felt a bit of lingering regret.

"To be honest, wasn't it our Austrian SDAP that raised Representative Stahl?"

"Representative Adler did a tremendous job. I heard he aged ten years while preparing for the last triumphal ceremony."

"Well, it's also true that we escaped our status as an opposition party thanks to Representative Stahl."

"That's true."

"So, are you not going to vote for Stahl in the next election?"

"Still, I wish he'd start spreading some of that wealth here in Austria soon."

Ever since the days when he was known as the "Mold Monster" who had sent Vienna into a frenzy, Stahl had been the city's mascot. If you were lucky, you could spot him chatting away with Freud in a Viennese café. Even if you weren't lucky, Stahl made sure to show his face at every single event in Vienna. Seeing him in person had never been difficult.

But now, Stahl had become a global figure expanding across the world. His fame was renowned not only in other regions of the empire like Hungary, Bohemia, and Bosnia, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but even in Germany, France, and Poland. He was no longer someone the citizens of Vienna could just run into on any given day. While they felt proud, a corner of their hearts felt a bit lonely. Well, it wasn't too disappointing, considering that the 16th District and all the other city slums had been transformed into some of the most prominent streets in the world.

And then, Stahl's next words nearly shocked the citizens of Vienna out of their wits.

It was something absolutely no one had anticipated. No, they had expected it to happen eventually... but they never imagined it would be now. They say that when people are too shocked, they cannot even make a sound. Indeed, if the Kaiser himself had been shot dead, the shock would likely have been less than this.

Amidst the dead silence, Stahl continued his speech.

At this point, it wasn't even a mere agricultural cooperative anymore. Honestly, what use was a simple farming cooperative in Austria? It was entirely different from the Hungarian Agricultural Cooperative, which served as a legislative body for farmers; the Bosnian Agricultural Cooperative, which suppressed local nationalism; or the Warsaw Agricultural Cooperative in Poland, which spearheaded land reform. This meant that all urban development projects previously carried out under the banner of Stahlism, as well as land development projects, would now be managed by the cooperative. Perhaps the name "Rural Development Cooperative" would be more fitting than "Agricultural Cooperative." After all, Stahl intended to restructure Austria's agricultural lands into industrial zones and new cities.

"D-did I hear that right?"

"I-I naturally assumed they would test the Austrian Agricultural Cooperative in Bohemia first..."

"Then what about the aristocrats?"

"Ah, to hell with it!"

Only then did the party members begin to voice their opinions. Stahl smiled faintly and delivered the climax of his speech.

"..."

Stahl had deliberately chosen a venue near the Imperial Military Academy to deliver his speech. Looking directly toward the academy, he spoke as if addressing the aristocrats themselves.

In terms of sheer money, this was likely the best opportunity for the aristocrats to sell their land to the cooperative at the highest possible price. Of course, to some of the hardline nobles, it would sound like a declaration of war: If you do not cooperate, we will make your agricultural land worth less than dirt.

This was a fact already proven through the Hungarian Agricultural Cooperative. Although they had been demoted from feudal lords to mere "cooperative managers," the Hungarian lords who still had their heads attached were still acting as pseudo-lords on their lands.

Stahl grit his teeth, delivering each word with deliberate weight, directed squarely at the nobility.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand let out a deep sigh as he watched Stahl's speech.

That bastard Stahl. He almost said 'submission' instead of 'subscription' by mistake and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠barely corrected himself. Thank goodness.