Chapter 33: Chapter 32: Time Flows Like This

Franz II's condition suddenly deteriorated, and in his final moments, he summoned his three younger brothers and Prince Metternich to his bedside.

Archduke Louis announced the will of Franz II.

The personal property of Franz II was divided into three parts: one part was left to his eldest son, and the remainder was given to his second son and his eldest grandson, respectively.

Franz Joseph received lands and estates valued at 2.6 million florins, along with all the palaces and estates of the Esterházy family in Austria, as well as a well-equipped regiment of dragoons.

Franz II left one hundred thousand florins to Archduke John and instructed him

"My brother, you are no longer a member of the imperial family. You can no longer spend money recklessly as you did in the past; after all, this is the last sum your brother can provide."

Archduke John was a celebrity within the imperial family.

Not because he had studied music with Beethoven, not because he had done business with the Rothschild family, and certainly not because he had fought against Napoleon—and because of personal reasons, had caused Archduke Karl's strategy to fail, allowing Napoleon to escape.

Rather, it was because this Archduke John preferred beauty over the throne, having renounced his right of succession and his imperial status to marry the daughter of a commoner.

Furthermore, he had long been in arrears on bank loans, borrowing from all directions to the point of being blacklisted by many banks.

However, Archduke John could be called the "King of Traffic" in Austria; he could always attract widespread public attention, so his reputation among the common people was not bad.

Franz II handed a coin to Archduke Karl; this was money Franz II had won from Archduke Karl when he was a child.

Archduke Karl had always harbored a grudge over this. It wasn't that the wealthy Archduke Karl lacked the value of a single coin, but rather that he did not want to have lost to Franz II.

And Franz II was unwilling to return the coin to Archduke Karl because it was the trophy he had won in their competition.

Archduke Karl was an exceptional man, and this coin was Franz II's only trophy.

But precisely because of this, the two brothers had been at odds for decades.

Today, Franz II returned the coin to Archduke Karl, and Archduke Karl accepted it.

This meant that the two brothers had turned their hostility into peace; both had let go.

As for Franz II's youngest brother, Archduke Louis, he received no gift; Franz II simply told him

"You are a good man, my brother. Thank you for your diligence through these years. You must live well; I entrust my descendants to you."

By the time he finished speaking, Archduke Louis was weeping uncontrollably. He did not possess the military talent of Archduke Karl, nor the social skills of Archduke John; all his life, he had done only one thing: to stand by his brother.

"You are a good man"—for Archduke Louis, there was no greater praise than those words.

Finally, Franz II opened a box containing four identical wills.

"This is my final entrustment, everyone. You are all my brothers, my friends, and the guardians of the House of Habsburg. I hope you can keep a secret for me."

"My eldest son, Ferdinand, is not suited to rule this country. But the family has its rules, and as the head of the family, I cannot break this sacred tradition. But times are changing, and some rules should change as well."

"Therefore, I want you to do one thing: after Franz completes his coming-of-age ceremony at eighteen, make this will public. He is a good boy and will surely become a good emperor in the future."

"You must help him and respect him, just as you respected me. The future of the family and this country is left to you."

March 2, 1835.

Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, the founder of the Austrian Empire, and the head of the House of Habsburg, passed away.

The torrent of the times does not pause for a single person's death.

Franz Joseph accepted this reality calmly, but he still felt grief for the grandfather he had lived with day and night for five years.

Upon hearing the news, Talia fainted from sorrow.

As someone with a modern soul, it was difficult to understand the kind of sentiment ordinary people of the old era held toward their Emperor.

With the Emperor's passing, all of Austria was immersed in sorrow.

Even the most prosperous streets of Austria grew quiet.

People spontaneously took candles into the streets to pray for the old Emperor.

One must realize that light sources were not cheap at this time; many people could not afford to light lamps at night.

These candles and kerosene lamps were likely their only source of light.

At that moment, standing at the highest point of the Imperial Palace and looking down upon Vienna, the candlelight formed a continuous expanse; the quiet candlelight moved slowly, magnificent and desolate.

The death of the old Emperor represented the end of an era, and the greatest problem facing Austria was the loss of political momentum following the death of its leader.

As Ferdinand I was crowned Emperor of the Austrian Empire in Vienna, the royal advisors, led by Karl von Schlut, immediately became arrogant and overbearing.

The first thing they sought to do was to halt all railway construction within the Austrian Empire.

They produced countless pieces of "evidence" to prove that railways would threaten human survival.

Their reasons were utterly absurd, such as

The black smoke emitted by trains would cause pneumonia to spread throughout all of Austria.

Furthermore, the human respiratory system could not withstand speeds exceeding fifteen kilometers per hour. Once such a speed was exceeded, a person's lungs would collapse, their circulatory system would become disordered, and blood might even be ejected from the body.

The sides of the tracks would become barren of all vegetation; cows seeing a train pass would be unable to produce milk, and hens would be unable to lay eggs.

Of course, the various Austrian factions that had invested heavily in railways would not agree with their views.

Thus, Karl von Schlut's opinions were magnificently ignored, and he held no real power in his hands.

However, to establish his personal prestige, he demanded that the Austrian government immediately recall the loans given to the various Italian states to repay the debts of the Austrian Empire.

This was also a poor move, but fortunately, the Austrian officials refused to execute the orders of the royal advisor Schlut.

Enraged, Karl von Schlut ordered the dismissal of all advisors appointed by the late Emperor, which naturally included Friedrich Liszt.

Friedrich Liszt was furious at Karl von Schlut's arrogant attitude, and having earned enough money, he was actually worried about how to leave Austria and escape the shadow of Metternich.

Receiving the decree of dismissal from Ferdinand I just in time, he packed his finances overnight and fled with his entire family.

Just as Friedrich Liszt left Vienna, he received invitations from Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria.

Friedrich Liszt chose Prussia without hesitation, because having worked in the center of the Austrian Empire, he knew very well that within the entire German Confederation, only Prussia could contend with Austria.