Chapter 161: The Great Reserve Strategy

  Chapter 158 The Great Reserve Strategy

On October 23, 1850, the German Federal Assembly convened in Frankfurt. After Austria proposed a common cabinet for all states, it quickly gained the support of everyone in the assembly.

The only effect of the support of the smaller states was probably to give Austria a boost, and in reality it was the final decision that remained in the hands of the larger states.

Naturally, Prussia and Bavaria were firmly opposed to the idea of forming a cabinet together, with one representative from each state, and it would be strange for them to agree to such a bad idea.

Austria is the leader of the German states, once this cabinet is formed, the prime minister will naturally be the Austrian representative, there is no need to doubt.

Just think about it, the cabinet of more than thirty people encountered things naturally inevitable quarrel, the final decision is naturally the prime minister.

Under such a system, the voice of Bavaria and Prussia would naturally be suppressed to a minimum, and there would be little difference between them and other small states.

In the short term, they still have influence on other states, but in the long term, the smaller states will not buy it. Anyway, under the federal system, we all have the same rights, so if you have the ability to bite me, right?

After pulling together the small states, Austria can naturally pull the pace of unification, such as the unification of the federal currency, the unification of the federal army, the unification of the federal treasury …….

Don’t be in a hurry, take your time and boil the frog in warm water. After a hundred and eighty years, the German Confederation will be truly unified.

This is all ideal, the reality is that after Prussia and Bavaria objected, Britain, France and Russia also ran out against it.

To sum up, the German region could not be unified, not even in name.

The British even proposed to dissolve the German federal parliament, so that Bavaria and the small German states could merge to form a new state, and Austria and Prussia naturally got out.

This proposal was supported by the Kingdom of Bavaria, and France and Russia had no problem with it. However, it was fiercely opposed by the representatives of Prussia and Austria.

Just now still enemies, in John Bull a proposal, Prussia and Austria instantly united. Once again, it proves that between countries, there are only eternal interests, there is no eternal enemy.

Seeing that the field was swept away by the British and that the purpose had been achieved, the Austrian representative naturally would not propose the election of an emperor again to stimulate the Prussians.

The aim of the British was also achieved, and the seeds of division were successfully planted. All three countries, Austria, Prussia and Barcelona, were in conflict, and the support of the Great Powers undoubtedly stimulated the ambitions of Bavaria, which were only waiting to take root.

If the strength of the Bavarian Kingdom increased two or three times more, it might not be impossible to really divide Germany into three parts with the support of the Great Powers.

After all, the law of triangle is the most stable, as long as the alliance of the weak against the strong, under the intervention of other European countries, both Prussia and Austria will lose the opportunity to unify Germany.

Unfortunately, Maximilian I, in addition to possessing ambition, both the Bavarian strength, or the ruler’s political skill, the difference is not half a star.

In the case of the Bavarian kingdom’s strength is not good, want to fight against Prussia and Austria will have to pull together other small states.

Theoretically speaking, all the small states in Germany had a population of nearly 17 million, and their overall strength was comparable to that of Prussia.

This time, Bavaria joined hands with Prussia and proposed the establishment of a “triple cabinet”, which undoubtedly jeopardized the interests of these small states.

Under such circumstances, Bavaria’s position as the leader of the small states was shaken. Losing his own foundation for the sake of illusory interests, Franz involuntarily downgraded the threat of Bavaria by two notches.

Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace

The War Ministry made a proposal to the Austrian government to expand the reserves, and the Austrian Empire now had more than half a million reserves in addition to more than 300,000 active land forces.

Theoretically, the Austrian government could mobilize another half a million troops out within a month of the outbreak of war.

In practice, the Austrian government’s mobilization mechanism had already proved to be substandard in 1848, and it took the same amount of time to mobilize more than 200,000 troops.

Of course, this had something to do with the inefficiency of the Austrian government at the time as well, and this speed should be much higher now.

Mobilizing the reserves was not just a matter of getting people together, but also had to go through a lot of training before they could regain their fighting strength. Weapons and equipment, ammunition and material reserves are also an essential part.

Prince Wendischgraetz analyzed: “In order to ensure the Austrian Empire’s national defense security, the mobilization mechanism is now no longer able to meet the real needs.

Since the February Revolution in Paris, the French have been free of the Vienna system, and in the past two years, their military strength has been recovering rapidly.

Once the internal struggle of the French government is divided into winners and losers, will it provoke a new round of foreign expansion? And in what direction will the expansion take place?

This question no one knows, we must realize to be ready to meet the upcoming challenges.

The Kingdom of Prussia next door has not been resting on its laurels these years, has their military spending ever been less than forty percent?

Such high military spending cannot be without purpose. In recent decades, the Kingdom of Prussia has expanded its territory several times over, and now they want to unify the German region.

Delusional or not, we must neutralize their attempts.

Then there’s our ally, the Russian Empire, I know it’s unethical to doubt an ally here, but the Russians are indeed too powerful.

If at some point we have a conflict of interest, the Austrian Empire can’t even be in a position to fight, can it?

To safeguard the Austrian Empire’s defense in future international changes, our military power must be increased.

Considering the financial capacity, it would be too difficult to continue expanding the number of active forces, we believe that raising the number of reserves to two million is a reasonable figure while restructuring the mobilization mechanism.”

“French Threat Theory”, “Prussian Threat Theory”, “Russian Threat Theory”, throwing out three major threats in a row, it was obvious that Prince Windischgraetz had done his homework.

Minister of Finance Karl said smilingly: “The Ministry of War wants to increase two million reserves, I am fully supportive, as long as it does not increase military expenditure on the line.”

How is this possible without increasing military spending? Even if the reserves are much cheaper than the active forces, but simple military training must be conducted every year?

Austria’s reserve, like most countries, was made up of retired officers and soldiers. It would be easy to increase this number, either by expanding the number of years of reserve service or by shortening the service time of active soldiers.

Trying to raise the number of reserves to two million is theoretically not difficult at all, except for the money it takes.

Now that the God of Wealth isn’t giving money, then isn’t this plan bullshit? This funding gap isn’t a few million that the War Department can make up by moving around, it’s tens of millions.

Prince Wendischgreiz said helplessly, “Mr. Karl, you mustn’t joke. Two million reservists, so many people have to undergo regular training every year, if your Ministry of Finance doesn’t pay for it, do you want me to go out and beg for food?”

There was no doubt that the main purpose of the military throwing out the proposal to expand the number of reservists at this time was to compete for the next year’s budget.

With a large influx of foreign investment, Austria in 1850 had already seen a few moments of prosperity, with a factory rising up, even if many of the businesses were tax exempt, again bringing in a large amount of tax revenue to the government.

This was not a contradiction in terms, as the fact that some companies were tax exempt did not mean that their upstream supply of raw materials and their downstream sales channels were also tax exempt.

Although the idea of the industrial chain has not yet taken hold, it has certainly emerged. The benefits created by a factory are definitely not limited to the factory itself.

In addition to driving the upstream and downstream direct industrial chain, it also drives the development of the neighboring supporting industries such as catering, clothing, and non-staple food.

Regardless of whether the capitalists’ investment was rational or not, it was an indisputable fact that it drove the Austrian economy to grow at a high rate.

High economic growth means high growth in revenue, the government has the money to come out to grab the budget, the Ministry of War is just a little too big appetite.

Finance Minister Karl was not moved, said: “Expand the reserve to two million, it is not possible to put in place in one step, right?

According to the current situation, even if we add 200,000 reservists every year and subtract the overage personnel, the final completion will be ten years later.

In your ‘Great Reserve Strategy’ budget, you can actually cut off the last zero, a few million rupiahs will come out if you squeeze it out.”

No matter how much Prince Wendy Schlegelz tried to hide it, this weakness was still exposed.

Prince Wendischgraetz explained: “words can not be said, the international situation is complicated, once the Russians out to break the situation, we must take action, as far as possible to improve our military strength, is the most effective means to protect the security of the Austrian Empire.

There are many ways to expand the number of reserves, not necessarily waiting for the soldiers to be converted after retirement, we can completely organize the young and strong to carry out some simple military training.

After the war breaks out, it will only take a month or two for them to become qualified soldiers, much faster than simply recruiting new soldiers and training them from scratch.”

Karl thought for a moment and said, “This is a good idea, but it costs too much. Even if the Russians do it, the war won’t be over anytime soon, and the Ottoman Empire isn’t paper thin.

According to past experience, the shortest time to fight is two or three years, if the delay is longer, a ten or eight years is not impossible.

When the time comes then use it well, rest assured that once the international situation changes, the government’s center of gravity will all shift to the military, you want to expand as much as you want there is no problem.”

This kind of thing Franz encountered a lot, basically every year before the budget will appear, almost every time Karl is tongue-tied.

“Well, there’s still time for the fiscal issues annual budget, so you guys go down and take your time discussing it. First discuss the Department of War has proposed a reserve program, is there any feasibility.”

Prime Minister Felix replied, “Your Majesty, establishing a reserve force with a large base is indeed very important for our national defense and security.

Especially in our next strategy, being able to mobilize a huge army out in the shortest possible time can minimize the risk.”

Franz knew that everyone was ready to learn from the Russians’ man-on-man tactics; it was the age of the platoon gun, and more men did have an advantage on the battlefield.

In terms of population, Austria and Franz were not far apart, except for that pervert, the Woolly Bear, the Austrian Empire was no wimp when it came to fighting for more men on the European continent.

“Support!”

“Support!”

……

Everyone quickly agreed on this issue, and the truth that there is strength in numbers was once again proven to work.

Franz asked seriously, “Then my Minister of War, how can such a large army be guaranteed to fight?”

Can’t be used as cannon fodder just because there are more soldiers, Austria is not a woolly bear, and soldiers who die in battle are also given pensions.

Franz does not think and soldiers talk about patriotic fervor useful, rather than pull so many high theory.

Instead of pulling so many lofty theories, it is better to directly tell them that if they win the battle, they can get land, money, trophies, knighthoods …… and these visible things are more reliable.

Prince Wendischgraetz replied, ”Your Majesty, the most important part of securing the fighting strength of the army is the officers. Our War Ministry is prepared to expand the number of officers and give two deputies to the officers of the frontline troops.

In times of war, it will be possible to expand the troops to one million in the shortest possible time in order to gain an advantage at the beginning of the war.”

Franz nodded, judging from the current international situation, as long as the initial mang wave of the war was successful, the war would be over.

The Kingdom of Prussia has limited national strength and can only engage in one wave, and if it fails it simply can’t afford to do it again in a short period of time; as long as the French have a major defeat on the battlefield, the French population will help take out the government.

As long as they aren’t brainwashed enough to attack France itself, the new French government will be in a constant state of infighting again, and by the time they’re done infighting, the yellow flowers will be cold.

(End of chapter)