Chapter 66 In Silesia (1)
After Desai reshapes his majesty and establishes order in the Silesia region, his usual next step is to be kind.
First of all, it is his own army. The Grand Duke generously took out the artworks and villa estates confiscated from the fugitives and betrayers, and rewarded them to the generals and school officers; as for the subordinate officers and ordinary soldiers, they will also receive wealth such as fertile fields, gold and silver corresponding to their ranks and achievements.
This greatly increased the morale of the Polish officers and soldiers who followed Desai for the first time, and cheers in the barracks were heard one after another. The harsh military laws that the soldiers had secretly complained about before also disappeared from this moment.
Like Napoleon, Desai was not disgusted with plunder in the war, and would often encourage it actively. But the premise was that strong military discipline was needed to ensure that it was organized, continuous, purposeful and continuous soliciting social wealth, rather than just venting it simply. In Desai's military rules, no one in the army or any group was allowed to jump out of the cage they set. Once violated, the 18 criminal soldiers who were collectively executed in the center of the city square were the lessons learned.
In addition, before going to Silesia, Desai reached a friendly agreement with the Warsaw Parliament that the Grand Duke of Warsaw would bear all military expenses and losses to recover all operations of general occupation of Silesia. After winning, Desai would also have 10 years of independent taxation rights in the region and 5 years of official appointment and removal rights, but instead of continuing to follow the Danze Corridor and being classified as a private territory of the monarch.
For those municipal officials, urban nobles and industrial and commercial masters who took the initiative to surrender and swear allegiance to themselves, the Grand Duke of Desai publicly assured that they would retain their previous administrative officials and continue to implement certain written laws in Silesia, such as continuing to abolish the inappropriate serfdom; Desai also promised to reduce taxes and rectify inspection checkpoints near borders, roads, bridges, and rivers; and the Mediterranean Bank provides loans and other conveniences for industrial and commercial masters and merchants...
Continue to implement Humboldt's practice in the General Administration of Education of Prussia, using the collected national taxes to build various primary and secondary schools and Wroclaw universities. The only change is that Polish and French are designated as official languages. As for the many German schools in Silesia, they were forced to change to Polish within one week. In addition, the flag of the Duke of Warsaw (Poland) must be hung in the school square, and all teachers and students must bow to the portrait of the Duke of Warsaw every day...
This is a law, an iron law that is different from disobedience.
Those who violate the crime will be punished as a crime of treason for tyranny. Those who are in slightest are exiled, and those who are in severe cases will be subject to hard labor and even sentenced to death.
Because since 1807, a fierce national movement was launched in Germany, and the Prussian reform education promoted by Humboldt and others made hundreds of thousands of German-language educators the first to become the pioneer warriors of the cause of national liberation.
In 1808, Ficht delivered a "Speech to the German Nation" in Berlin, which influenced a whole generation of German youth and inspired them to fight bravely for the success and rejuvenation of the German Nation.
A few years later, Anim was in Heidelberg and the Thano Sea was in Wroclaw, and used lyric poetry and documentary literature to promote the national rights of the Germans, igniting a raging fire that devoured the French.
These brave patriots of Prussian or German use various protections from local schools to escape the search by the French army and secret police, publicly incite speeches or secret meetings, and strive to promote and launch national resistance and national uprisings.
By the time of the German anti-French war in 1813, students from all over the country enthusiastically joined the army and became the most qualitative and dedicated force in the Prussian army. Therefore, the foresighted time travelers would never want another German version of the patriotic plot of "The Last Lesson" to be staged in Silesia.
Compared with the strict control of the education system, Desai showed extreme rationality and kindness in religious affairs in Silesia.
Since the Upper Silesia region was occupied by Prussia for nearly 80 years, most of the Catholics, who originally accounted for the absolute majority, went south to Austria or entered Polish territory in the east. The remaining residents believed in Lutheran Protestantism together with the new immigrants migrating from the German vassal states. When the Desai army successfully recovered Silesia, more than 80% of the local residents were not traditional Catholics. Among them, Protestants accounted for nearly 70% of the total number.
Whether it was a Catholic or a Protestant, the Grand Duke of Desai treated him equally and reaffirmed the basic national policy of religious freedom. Therefore, on the first day he entered Wroclaw, the capital of Silesia, he summoned religious leaders from all denominations, including Judaism, with the intention of appeasement of the believers.
In addition, he entered the traditional church representing Roman Catholicism as a monarch, as well as three other Christian churches, Lutheran, United and Reform Denominations, to attend the Mass ceremonies held by different priests.
This is the successful experience summarizing by Desai from the Iberian Peninsula. As long as the church and believers do not actively plan, participate, organize and incite riots, the public security situation in the occupied areas will become easy to control, and at least the scene of large-scale civil unrest will never happen. Unless Desai's army is completely defeated by Prussia, it will no longer be able to exert influence and control on each diocese.
From the bottom of my heart, time travelers are more willing to accept Protestantism than conservative Catholicism. The reason is simple and snobbish. It is because several major developed countries in later generations all belong to the territory of the New Christian Church or Revolutionary Denominations, such as the United States, Britain, Germany and France. In addition, the new church does not create too many artificial obstacles to secular science and technology, modern civilization, and education.
Unfortunately, the two countries controlled by Desai, Catalonia and Poland, are both traditional Catholic spheres of influence. Although he is dissatisfied, he has no choice but to do anything. At least the Catholic Church is still a solid ally of his own to date.
So for a long time, Desai would not be so stupid that he openly touched the authority of Roman Catholicism, but would be careful to slander it and wait for the best opportunity.
From September 2, 1811, Desai set out in the military camp in the southern suburbs of Warsaw, to late September, it peacefully took over the capital of Prussian Silesia, as well as Legnica, Vaubuzek, Shividnica, Zigzelets, Green Mountain City and other places, and successfully recovered the entire Silesia region, which took only less than 4 weeks in total.
At this point, the southwest territory of the Duchy of Warsaw expanded to Mount Sudet, bordering the Austrian Empire; and to the west, crossing the Oder River, you can reach the border of the Saxony Kingdom, which is only less than 100 kilometers away from the capital Dresden.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the first time in nearly two hundred years that a truly solid ally existed on the Polish border, the Kingdom of Sarasen, which has extraordinary and significant political significance for changing the current bad situation of Poland that is being attacked on three sides.
As for the agreement to transfer the Oder River reached by Desay and Metternich, the Warsaw monarch was not prepared to comply with it for a long time, and he would tear it publicly after a certain period of time. For Poland, after 1813, nothing was more important than keeping water traffic smooth with the Kingdom of Saxony.
Desai didn't care about the anger and revenge from Vienna.
After already possessing the Carpathian Mountains in the south and the Sudet Mountains in the southwest to defend themselves, the Military Intelligence Agency and the Jacobins had enough time to incite a major riot among the Hungarians, Bohemias, Gypsies and other ethnic minorities in Austria. If Desay remembers correctly, the Germans, as the main national nation, were less than one-third of the total population of the Austrian Empire.
Putting aside the mortal enemy Russia, Prussia, a country that has long pursued militarism, was the target of Desai's continuous attack and weakening before 1812.
Getting Danzer Corridor, that was only the beginning of the first step;
Recovering Silesia and opening up the channel with Saxony is the second step;
As for the third step, it is to capture the sacred land that truly belongs to the Kingdom of Prussia, East Prussia.
During the march into Silesia, the Prussian army never had a head-on exchange of fire with the soldiers of the Duchy of Warsaw, and the expected headache-inducing guerrilla warfare and citizen riots failed to rise on a large scale in Desai's Huairou policy. Any protesters who emerged were brutal suppression by the army. The biggest casualties of more than 2,000 Polish troops were actually the execution of 18 criminal sergeants by the gendarmerie.
However, the number of non-combat layoffs during the march was as many as 1,000. Most of the diseases were caused by bad sanitation, pollution and insufficient food, dirty camps and surrounding smoky moors.
Due to Desai's negligence and the hasty preparations before going to war, Dr. Kava, many military medical officers, as well as experienced nurses, mostly stayed at the Warsaw Medical College or were scattered in the Neva River barracks.
Many times, soldiers did not have mattresses or covers, especially the basic nursing conditions for the Second Army Company that traveled a long distance. Especially the highly contagious typhus, which swept through the battlefield hospitals and many barracks for three weeks, hundreds of soldiers fell ill.
It was not until mid-September that Earl Kava personally led a huge medical team and was ordered to come from Warsaw to urgently support. Two weeks later, the rapid spread of the infectious disease was curbed.
However, this disease is not a bad thing.
The Polish officers who were indifferent to the implementation of strict health regulations in the barracks suddenly discovered that 90% of the patients were from the newly formed Polish soldiers of the First Army and the Second Army, and the Guard Division around the Grand Duke had a pitifully reduced non-combats in this terrible plague, with less than a hundred people. As for the original Guard Brigade, the sick were only a few people and recovered quickly.
Soon, under the reprimand of Grand Duke Desai and the close monitoring of Dr. Kava, the entire Silesian Legion carried out a vigorous military camp health campaign, and all the previous corrupt city rules were abolished.
Chapter completed!