After traversing the foothills of the Alps in Styria, Laszlo's contingent entered the heart of the Alps, arriving at Innsbruck along mountain roads that had been constructed over many years.
Here, Laszlo met Joanna, who had been in Tyrol for nearly two months.
She had recently heard that Laszlo would be stopping by Tyrol during his tour of the empire, so she rushed back to Innsbruck from Schwyz.
Laszlo could clearly sense Joanna's fatigue, but also her relief.
During her time in Tyrol, she had sought out the circumstances of families affected by the war through various means, while actively communicating with the local church in Tyrol.
With her fervent enthusiasm and the Emperor's support, Joanna quickly received help from the local Benedictine Nuns and other religious groups and churches.
"So, you've promoted the establishment of Almshouses near Innsbruck and Schwyz to aid people who suffered misfortunes due to the war?" Laszlo asked, his expression a little strange.
It wasn't that he was dissatisfied with Joanna's actions; it was just that the forced labor "Almshouses" pioneered by the infamous British Empire, which revived serfdom in colonial England, always tended to leave a bad impression.
However, that was more than a hundred years in the future, and Laszlo felt that Joanna would not do such a thing.
"Yes, just like the Beaune Almshouse established by the Burgundians decades ago, not only people who suffered misfortune because of the war, but all impoverished people will be cared for there."
Joanna rarely showed such excitement, or rather, fanaticism. Her piety and gentle character, cultivated since childhood, now dominated her life.
Although people are not born equal, there seems to be no difference before God. Even the poor should have the right to enjoy life, and this was her original intention in promoting the establishment of Almshouses.
In this process, local churches and monastic orders provided existing frameworks, the Emperor and various local classes and groups provided financial and land support, and Joanna was the one who organically combined all these resources.
Laszlo had a deep impression of the Beaune Almshouse she mentioned.
Just a few decades ago, his old ally Philip III's trusted Chancellor, Nicolas Rolin, chose to retire due to old age.
After that, this wealthy Burgundian elder and his wife chose to use all their assets to fund the construction of the famous Beaune Almshouse, with the initial goal of aiding the Burgundian people suffering from the Hundred Years' War and the repeatedly rampant Black Death.
Upon the completion of the Almshouse, Duke Philip immediately donated a vineyard and a large sum of money to it.
With such an example, the nobles and clerics of Burgundy also generously contributed, allowing the Almshouse, which was facing financial difficulties, to maintain good operation.
Over the years, many elderly, disabled, orphans, widows, and wanderers have received treatment and care from the Almshouse — the essence of this Almshouse is a hospital that provides free treatment for the poor.
During his expedition to France, when he passed through Burgundy, Laszlo had personally visited that hospital, which was supported and operated by many nuns and doctors.
The nuns there, perhaps out of devout faith or charity, provided all kinds of care and services to the patients free of charge. They served as caregivers, cooks, and cleaners, and prayed with the patients to God every day.
Inspired by the Burgundians, Joanna immediately sought out the Benedictine Nunnery in the Val Müstair upon arriving in Tyrol and persuaded the nuns there to provide help.
This nunnery was personally ordered to be built by Charlemagne of the Frankish Empire and had great influence throughout the Tyrol region. Getting help from the Benedictine Nuns would undoubtedly reduce many obstacles.
Since the Three Leagues were forced to cede the Val Müstair and the surrounding mountain passes leading to Milan to Austria during the Swabian War, this nunnery was now indeed within the Emperor's domain. At one point, an Austrian army was even stationed there to block trade routes.
During the Swabian War, Laszlo specifically ordered soldiers not to loot this area, which left the Benedictine Nuns with a very good impression of the Emperor. Coupled with the piety shown by the Empress, the nuns finally agreed to help with the Almshouse that was about to be built.
In addition to the local church forces, other classes of the Estates also generously contributed at the Empress's call.
There was no other way; after all, the Emperor had invested a large sum of money, and the Empress even sold her luxurious clothes and jewelry to help the poor. If they didn't show some support, they might be suspected of lacking piety towards God and loyalty to the Emperor.
"This is indeed a great charitable plan, but we still have to take it one step at a time. First, tell me about those who suffered misfortunes due to the war."
Laszlo marveled at Joanna's piety and kindness, but his eyelids twitched slightly.
If nothing unexpected happened, the ten thousand florins invested previously would probably not be enough, and it might even be necessary to allocate a piece of land in Tyrol for the Almshouse to maintain its normal operation.
However, although the task of operating the Almshouse was handed over to the church, everyone knew that this was a relief agency promoted by the Empress on behalf of the imperial family, which was equivalent to having the church work for him. Moreover, the Austrian church was already under his control, so there was no problem in making reasonable use of the resources at hand.
Having thought this through, Laszlo's attention returned to the beginning, which was the current situation of the families of the fallen Tyrolean soldiers.
"The women who lost their husbands and sons, and the children who lost their families, I dare not say all, but most of them have received government pensions and preferential treatment.
In more remote areas, the priests of the local parishes have promised to assist and care for those families.
According to the report provided by Baron Grafenegg, most Tyrolean soldiers were recruited from Innsbruck or Schwyz and the surrounding areas, which is why I decided to establish Almshouses in these two places to assist those struggling families."
Joanna's analysis was well-reasoned, and Laszlo nodded in approval.
The entire Tyrol only had so much habitable space. The Inn River basin around Innsbruck gathered tens of thousands of people, and the prosperity of the Schwyz silver mine led to a large influx of immigrants, with the population now reaching an astonishing fifty thousand or more.
In other regions, fifty thousand people might only be the level of a prosperous city, but Schwyz was a barren, desolate mountainous area with nothing but mines. Such a population size could be said to be quite astonishing.
In mountainous areas, such rare densely populated regions were naturally the best for recruiting and conscripting soldiers, so most of those who died were from these two places.
This, in turn, provided convenience for Joanna's pension and relief work, allowing her to find the focus of her efforts.
"How is the Almshouse doing now?"
"It's still stable for now. The local church has provided me with the venue and manpower to establish the Almshouse, and the various Estates of Tyrol have raised a large sum of money through meetings to support its operation.
I plan to set up an old people's home, a school, and a hospital within the Almshouse, and I hope that some of the properties donated by the various Estates will be managed by commissioners dispatched by the court.
Some elderly people without support have been admitted to the Almshouse and received proper care; the children of warriors who died for their country can receive instruction from priests in the Almshouse, learning some basic Latin writing and rhetoric.
Most of the women who lost their husbands hope to find another husband... Women who inherited their husbands' land prefer to work in the fields themselves, or do some weaving and herding to support themselves and their children. The Almshouse will regularly provide them with some material assistance.
In fact, they are much stronger than I imagined," Joanna said with emotion.
Laszlo nodded slightly. According to commonly used canon law and customary law, widowed women indeed had the right to inherit property and work, and a few years of tax exemption could also lighten their burden.
From Joanna's description, the situation in Tyrol seemed not as severe as he had imagined, which made him ponder.
Did the war really cause too much adverse impact in Tyrol? This is difficult to judge.
However, the Emperor's unrestricted conscription and organization of armies in Tyrol undoubtedly aroused great dissatisfaction among the Tyroleans.
They lived on the Emperor's land, and while they didn't yearn for freedom like the mountain dwellers in neighboring Switzerland, they also didn't like being arbitrarily controlled by the Emperor as they had been in the past few years.
In Austria and indeed throughout the empire, there was a consensus that the basis of rule was reciprocity.
This was an era before absolutism rose, and people still retained this awareness, regulating the monarch's actions through the Estates.
However, the Emperor had gradually broken free from the shackles that the people had placed on him in the past, which led to a tense relationship between the two sides.
From the perspective of many Tyroleans, the Emperor constantly waged wars abroad and conscripted a large number of men from Tyrol.
The war against Switzerland was fine, after all, it was to relieve the military threat faced by Tyrol and Outer Austria, and the losses were not severe.
But in the recent expedition to France, less than half of the several hundred men drafted returned to Tyrol, and the imperial recruiting officers then entered the mountains again to find suitable recruits for several legions to fill vacancies, just as after every war in the past.
This undoubtedly made it difficult for the Tyrolean Estates to endure any longer. They might have secretly used some subtle propaganda methods to create a feeling that Tyrol had sacrificed much for his hegemony, thereby demanding preferential treatment.
After all, weren't there still many eligible recruits in the mines of Schwyz and the Inn River valley of Innsbruck? How could there be talk of heavy manpower losses?
Laszlo quickly shook off this terrible thought, and his mood returned to calm.
In fact, he didn't need to do much to appease his subjects in Tyrol. He only needed to make a promise according to the petition that the Tyrolean Estates had once presented to him, declaring that Tyroleans would no longer be conscripted to die in wars unrelated to the public interest of the state of Tyrol. This would be enough.
However, if such local protectionism spread throughout Austria, it would likely soon spark a trend of local resistance against the central government.
It was precisely for this reason that Laszlo had been reluctant to make such a concession.
The internal customs barriers between the various states of Austria were already giving him a headache; now, even wars were to be restricted by local limits. If this continued, his decrees might only be enforceable in Lower Austria around Vienna in the future.
Fortunately, he was not alone in dealing with these troubles now. Joanna's efforts would undoubtedly relieve much of his political pressure.
She not only fulfilled her promise but even exceeded Laszlo's original expectations.
Those who suffered hardship due to the war were receiving or were about to receive proper care, and even more people who were impoverished for various reasons might benefit from the Empress's good deeds.
In this process, the local nobles and church also made contributions, which was undoubtedly a "good deed" that could wash away their own sins and ultimately allow them to ascend to heaven and enjoy happiness.
Anyway, that's what the charlatans said. Except for Laszlo, most people more or less believed these statements, so they did not resist the establishment and operation of the Almshouse.
And a portion of this credit would be attributed to him, the Emperor. If the Tyrolean Estates wanted to criticize him later, their position would probably not be as firm.
However, to completely suppress the voices of dissatisfaction, he estimated that he would still have to make some concessions.
For example, promising "to try" not to arbitrarily conscript troops in Tyrol. This vague statement was the maximum concession he could make.
As for those conscripted into the standing army, this recruitment model essentially recruited volunteers. They joined the army with the intention of getting rich, and even if they died in battle, it was their own choice, and forced conscription did not occur frequently.
From this perspective, although the Tyrolean Estates occasionally criticized it, this mutually agreeable business had little to do with them.
After making up his mind to reconcile with the various Estates of Tyrol, Laszlo breathed a sigh of relief, only to turn and find Joanna staring at him expectantly.
Laszlo smiled knowingly and said, "My dear Empress, you have done very well, far exceeding my expectations.
Later, take me to see the Almshouse in Innsbruck. I want to pray with those poor people for the fallen heroes.
Don't worry, I will arrange for land donations and communicate with the Estates of Tyrol. I will ensure that your efforts continue on this land."
Joanna's face then bloomed into a gentle smile.
Even though the starting point of all this was her inner kindness, her husband's praise still made her overjoyed.
Moreover, Laszlo's promised further support was very important for the development of the Almshouse, and she did not want to see all her hard work go to waste.
After the discussion, Joanna immediately linked arms with her husband and went to find the room where their son Rudolf was.
She was not only the Empress responsible for caring for and appeasing the people of Austria, but also a loving mother.
She performed her duties as Empress very well, and now she was eager to hold her adorable son.
Laszlo smiled, allowing his wife to pull him towards the nursery from which faint cries of a child could be heard.