Garrison Issues

As Laszlo grandly passed through Vienna's city gates with a large retinue, light snow had already begun to fall, marking the arrival of the year's final season.

This year was a rare bountiful one. Since records began, such a great harvest was uncommon in Austria, and people regarded it as a sign of divine favor.

Two years of peace and stability had provided the Austrian people with a secure living environment.

The high taxes previously levied due to years of continuous warfare were slightly reduced during peacetime, which could be considered a form of compensation from Laszlo to the Austrian people.

Light taxation after years of war was a necessary and effective measure to accelerate the recovery of national strength.

Even so, Laszlo still attempted to make some adjustments to the army.

The current standing army in Austria was still too large.

The army he had frantically expanded during the war placed a heavy burden on all of Austria during peacetime.

During peacetime, the salaries of these standing mercenaries were only about two-thirds of what they were during wartime.

Even so, the massive army was still enough to drain Austria's treasury.

To alleviate Austria's pressure, he could only adopt a very rogue method: distributing the entire Austrian army to different provinces for garrison.

When an army arrived in a certain province, it would disperse by legion into important towns within that province, usually the provincial capital and developed cities.

Afterward, the legion would further disperse, with companies garrisoned in the provinces under each state, typically stationed near various cities.

The military expenses for this army would then be shared equally by the Vienna government and the provincial assemblies.

Of course, they did not receive money from the provincial assemblies for free; these troops also performed tasks such as maintaining public order, repairing city defenses, and eliminating bandits.

Even so, most provinces were still very resistant to the army's presence because armies were truly expensive. If someone was unlucky enough to be stuck with one, they would just have to grit their teeth and pay up.

What if someone refused to pay?

Without even an order from the Emperor, these local soldiers, who still retained some mercenary habits, would immediately set up cannons and bombard the city walls.

As a result, many cities with garrisons frequently submitted petitions to the Emperor to complain.

In their petitions, city representatives tearfully explained how long they had been supporting a certain army and how difficult it was to continue.

Other petitions were preemptive, first lamenting their plight to the Emperor, then requesting that the Emperor not assign army garrisons to a particular city.

For example, the petition Laszlo held in his hand was from a town near Bohemia, requesting the Emperor to relocate the garrison.

Such matters were usually most common in the Austria region, but now that the Independent Army stationed in Austria had gone out to fight, Bohemia was causing trouble instead.

The newly occupied Venetia province, however, was very quiet, because after the war, a large number of leftover mercenaries had turned into bandits there, and some of these bandits were secretly funded by Venetians.

It was these hidden dangers that kept the residents of Venetia in a state of unease for a period after the war ended.

However, the Austro-Hungarian Army stationed there quickly took action, carrying out operations to eliminate, incorporate, and expel bandits in the Northern Italy territory.

Due to their good discipline and excellent combat capabilities, some wealthy cities were happy to pay to support these regular troops to protect their borders, ensure the safety of their people, and maintain secure trade routes.

This saved Laszlo a lot of expenses and made Austria's financial distribution more balanced.

Laszlo looked at the petition in his hand and found it was the same old content, hoping to move a company stationed in one place to another.

The petition came from a town near Prague. After a moment of consideration, he agreed to their request.

As for where the army should be moved, the recommendation attached by the Imperial Military Committee to the petition was very clear, and Laszlo adopted their advice.

Currently, Bohemia bears the heaviest burden within the entire Habsburg Dynasty territory, with one region's financial resources needing to support an army of nearly ten thousand men.

Although the Saxon Army's headquarters had moved to Olomouc in Moravia, Kuttenberg still had a legion garrisoned.

And around Prague, the only standing Imperial Army not personally formed by the Emperor—the Bohemia—was stationed.

As a result, various parts of Bohemia had no choice but to bear half of the military expenses and material costs for nearly ten thousand soldiers.

One reason was that Bohemia's wealth surpassed that of Austria, and another was to completely eliminate any possibility of the Hussite remnants rising again.

Laszlo set the petition aside and let out a sigh.

For now, he could only make the people of Bohemia suffer. He would bear the blame; after all, everything was for maintaining absolute stability in Bohemia.

Regarding the issue of maintaining the army, he suddenly recalled an idea he had long ago.

When Laszlo was considering the formation of Imperial Administrative Regions, he had thought about a model.

That was for him to provide the army, and the Imperial Administrative Regions to provide the money to support an army that belonged to both the Administrative Region and the Emperor.

However, this idea ultimately remained in the realm of fantasy, because it was essentially using the money of the princes to support his own army.

The princes were not fools; they would not engage in such a losing business.

But in the Swabian Administrative Region, this model seemed not entirely unfeasible, only requiring some slight adjustments.

According to Laszlo, in the early modern period, among the ten Imperial Administrative Regions designated by Emperor Maximilian, strictly speaking, only the Swabian Administrative Region truly realized the concept of forming a standing Imperial Army.

Swabia had an astonishing seventy-plus Imperial Estates. The power of a single prince was truly insufficient for major undertakings, so they had to unite to form a common army and a trade league.

During the Swabian War in 1499, Maximilian had conscripted a thousand cavalry and a thousand infantry from the Swabian Administrative Region to assist him in attacking Switzerland.

Although this unit was almost entirely ineffective throughout the war and ultimately led to Maximilian's defeat and Switzerland's de facto independence, it also showed that the Swabia region was fully capable of supporting an army of over ten thousand men for combat.

Although this period would not be long, the temptation of this funding was enough for Laszlo to put some thought into it. He began to consider how to transform a portion of Austria's army into Swabia's Imperial Army, and then persuade the Swabian Estates to willingly pay for this army.

Even if it only covered a portion of the Imperial Army's expenses during wartime, it would be enough to alleviate Austria's economic difficulties.

Finding ways to foist his army onto others was a measure of last resort, and Laszlo knew very well that, from every perspective, Austria was poor.

Poverty was not terrifying, but what was terrifying was being poor while also having to maintain a large army to deal with military threats from all directions. For this, he had to find other ways to lighten the burden.

After thinking for a while, Laszlo had a preliminary plan, but whether it could be implemented still needed to be discussed at the Privy Council meeting.

He noted this matter in his memo and then began to look at the next document, which was about the trial of Bishop Dieter, who had disrupted the Empire and incited rebellion.

He had only recently been escorted to Vienna, and Laszlo had also returned during this time.

After a moment of thought, Laszlo agreed to the Imperial Court's suggestion to publicly try Dieter two days later, and he would personally attend this important trial.