Chapter 236: Saving for a Rainy Day
Chapter 231: Saving for a rainy day
The Holy Roman Empire was re-established, a whole lot of messy things, the reorganization of the government administration, the division of the rights and obligations of the state government and the central government, all need Franz to personally participate.
The reorganization of government administration is actually turning the Austrian central government into the central government of the new Holy Roman Empire, with the central government directly governing the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Bavaria.
Considering the stability of the country, in the distribution of rights, Franz was still very restrained, except for getting the right to command the army and the right to diplomacy, he did not move any other rights.
Of course, this is not to say that the central government is unable to interfere with the local, but under normal circumstances, the central government will not interfere with the internal affairs of the state.
If there was a problem in the state, for example: a local rebellion, or a coup d’état and other major changes, the central government could naturally intervene.
Apart from these problems, the most troublesome thing is the distribution of financial revenue. The local government must pay a portion of its revenue to the central government, and the exact percentage becomes a point of contention.
The state governments naturally wanted to contribute a few points for the central government’s expenses, and the rest of the funds would be distributed freely; while the central government wanted to get a larger percentage, and then allocate it to the local governments according to their actual needs.
Behind the financial struggle is more of a power struggle, making the issue more complicated and difficult to sort out in a short period of time.
The specifics will still have to wait for the constitution to be formulated before it can be finally clarified. Franz is in favor of the rule of law, before there is no legal basis, he will not move.
Even if it was the central government and the state government seizing power, it had to be legal. Breaking the rules was something Franz would never allow to happen.
Meizumi Palace
Prime Minister Felix reported, ”Your Majesty, the reserve forces have all been demobilized, the wartime economic system has been lifted, and the domestic economy is resuming normalized operations.
Overall, this westward strategy has come to a successful conclusion. However, there are a few problems that have been exposed, and it is good that a major war did not break out, or we would have been in big trouble.
This is mainly reflected in the lack of organizational experience and the weak coordination of various departments.
By the end of the Paris Conference, we had mobilized a total of 1,247,000 reserve troops, plus 542,000 active troops, for a total of 1,789,000 men.
With a mobilization of this magnitude, the difficulty of logistical replenishment far exceeded the estimates of the various departments. It is fortunate that the war was not eventually fought, or else with so many troops in combat, our preparations would have lasted at most three or four months.
This is the final statistical statement, please go through it.”
After saying that, Prime Minister Felix still had a few heart palpitations. Obviously this time, the Austrian Empire’s sudden outburst to show its strength to the countries was not as glorious as it appeared to be.
With so many troops, calculating at fifteen thousand rounds of ammunition per ton, with each person shooting one bullet, that’s 119 tons of ammunition gone.
Not to mention the war, just these months of daily training, on average, every month also need to consume thousands of tons of ammunition, this has not counted the artillery.
In fact, when Austria mobilized so many troops, artillery is seriously lacking, infantry reserves are easy to set up, artillery this kind of technical soldiers, not so easy to reserve.
It is not the case that if you can fire a gun, then you can be considered an artilleryman, but if you can’t hit the target, it’s all for naught. Qualified artillerymen, in addition to possessing a certain degree of knowledge, also rely on ammunition to feed out.
Franz nodded, thinking: the current consumption is still considered small, if a few years later, after the weapons are replaced, the consumption of weapons and ammunition several times that is a big problem.
Received the statement, the first skimmed over, Franz understood the reason why Prime Minister Felix lamented, the consumption is really too big.
An armed parade + demonstration down, military expenditure is as high as 137 million guilders, if counted in the domestic mobilization of reserves, the consumption of materials, the total expenditure is as high as 211 million guilders.
Seeing this data, Franz suddenly understood why after the Crimean War, European countries were trying to avoid war.
This is still not fought, if really fought, the final military expenditure expenses still do not know to soar to what place to go.
Of course the 211 million guilders on the explosive table, not all of them are shown as cash expenditure, most of them are still in material expenditure, only in order to calculate the convenience of being directly discounted cash.
Franz asked with concern: “The cabinet is ready to divide a group of meritorious ministers to the Balkans, have you considered the actual situation?”
The fact that there was no fight did not mean that there were no meritorious ministers. This scale of military mobilization, how there will also be people to take credit, only not as much as the direct outbreak of war produced by the meritocracy.
If there is merit, it must be rewarded, the big noble Franz will not be sealed, but he will not begrudge the knights at the level of small farmers, these are the goals of most people who enlisted in the army.
Prime Minister Felix replied: ”Your Majesty, in this westward strategy, the war was not able to be fought, so everyone’s military merits are very limited.
It’s basically impossible to get knighthoods and land in the country. The cabinet suggested that the fiefdom be placed in the Balkan Peninsula, which would relax the conditions.
At the same time, we are also going to encourage the domestic nobles to replace their fiefdoms and travel to the Balkan Peninsula in order to strengthen their control over the area.”
Would any nobles be willing to swap? The answer was no!
Everyone was not a fool, who would be willing to give up a well-developed fiefdom and run out to start a new business?
However, there was one kind of person who was willing to go, and that was the emerging quasi-military nobles who were stuck below the threshold of nobility with their military achievements, and were slow to cross this hurdle.
In this era, it is very difficult to become a noble, for example, in this war, the number of officers and soldiers who can cross the threshold of nobility will not be more than two digits, and there may not even be one in a division distributed to so many armies.
Since Franz military system reform, this kind of stuck in the minority, even if there are people rely on war merit have crossed the threshold of the general, still did not get a noble title.
Knighthood means social status, and the Balkans are right next to Austria. Both the two duchies of the Danube Valley, and Serbia, are known for their fertile plains of land that just lack effective development.
People with vision and ambition would naturally not give up this opportunity. Once these people went over, the roots of Austrian rule in the region were established.
For their own benefit, these people would spontaneously defend Austrian rule and suppress the remaining Ottoman elements.
As to whether Austria could get the sovereignty of these lands, this question could be ignored. Even if they couldn’t get the sovereignty, it wouldn’t affect everyone’s actual status, and it’s not like the Ottoman Empire had the ability to recover the lost lands.
If you want to make the local area independent and support a puppet regime, you need someone who can support it, right? The Austrian army didn’t do nothing in the region, the first thing they did was to overthrow the original ruling class.
Ottoman nobles were arrested, Ottoman officials were arrested, Ottoman merchants were arrested, and those who supported the Ottoman Empire were still arrested…….
In short, anyone who had anything to do with the Ottoman Empire that threatened or could threaten Austrian rule was all in jail.
In other words, the local upper class was swept away, and the rest were either serfs or commoners who could write their own names as intellectuals.
To encourage them to become independent, they had to know what the word “independence” meant, and this could not be done in a short time.
Franz was certain that if Austria ended its military rule in the region now, the social order would immediately collapse.
As a liberator, the old institutions were pushed down, and new ones had to be established, and it was always better to establish them with one’s own people than with outsiders, who were more loyal.
Franz thought about it and said, “Then let’s do it, and establish the basis of rule in the area as soon as possible.
If Britain and France lose the Near East War, it’s just a matter of time, if they win, or maybe it’s a draw, then we’re in trouble.
They are not going to watch us swallow such a large chunk of profit, and if the Russians can’t get Constantinople, they will likewise be eyeing our gains.
Alliances aren’t always reliable in the face of profit, and it’s possible that the Czarist government did something stupid when the British instigated it.”
This is not Franz small-minded, the bad reputation of the hairy bear is not empty talk, but countless with countless facts piled up, do not let a person vigilant can not.
The British pit teammates, the French pit teammates, everyone is still a little bit of food, will not engage in so over the top, at least face is barely passable, the Mao Bear pit teammates when that is shocking.
“Yes, Your Majesty!” Prime Minister Felix replied
……
Balkans.
Since the fall of the Paris Conference, the British have had the energy to teach Greece a lesson for being a disobedient little brother.
Think you can get away with not flying the government’s flag and flying the flag of a civil army? Dream on! Don’t look at who you’re fooling. If you want to play tricks, do you know who is the ancestor in this regard?
Since the Greeks were playing tricks, the British decided to reason with them, this time with their fists, of course.
By October, the British reinforcements were already in place, three infantry divisions plus one division of the Balkan remnants, totaling 51,000 British troops.
Together with 16,000 Sardinian troops and 12,000 Ottoman troops, they formed a triple alliance, and went off to seek the misfortune of the Greeks.
The result was self-evident: the Greek “civil army”, which could not even defeat the Ottoman army, naturally collapsed at the first touch.
The Greek kingdom was too poor, and went to play with the navy, the army’s weapons and equipment naturally have no money to replace, after blindly expanding the ranks, manpower can not even do a gun.
At first the Ottomans had no defense, the troops were fighting on the front line, the Greeks were naturally overwhelmed, and when the Ottoman Empire reacted and drew some of its troops from the front line, their offensive was blocked.
Now the British to take them, in addition to the lesson of the second five, more importantly, this is a soft persimmon.
John Bull also wants to save face, after fighting for so long, they also know that the hairy bear is not to be messed with, want to fight a beautiful war is too difficult. The hard bone is still given to the French to gnaw on it, the British Army is limited in size, can not put all of the family base is hitched.
In order to save the reputation loss brought by the Battle of Sofia, the British War Office ordered Major General Oliver to wait for the crime and get back the face on the Greeks.
The Greeks were naturally unable to cope with the British ruthlessness, and were first driven out of Thrace, and now have retreated to Veria, and will have to return to the country in a short time.
Otto I was anxious, no matter what, these troops could not be returned to the country, it is not only the defeat of the war, but also their “neutrality” is not guaranteed, the fire will be burned to the Greek Peninsula.
On the chessboard of this great power game, the Kingdom of Greece was just an ordinary chess piece, and now it was about to become a discard.
Otto I asked with concern: “How is it, is General Mareshkov willing to send troops?”
The hairy bear is very vindictive, at the critical moment of the Second Bulgarian War, the Greeks only cared about their own land grabbing, did not follow their request to attack the empty Constantinople, otherwise the Near East War would have been over.
No matter how many reasons the Greeks had, in the eyes of the Russians this was betrayal, and it was impossible not to hold a grudge.
Besides, the Russians were busy now, attacking Constantinople on the one hand, and fighting with Britain and France on the Crimean Peninsula on the other, so whether they had the energy to rescue Greece was a question.
The foreign minister replied, “Your Majesty, the Russians have put forth a condition that they will not send troops to rescue Greece unless we join the alliance with a declared flag and declare war on England and France.”
Asking for help from an ally, that has to be an ally first, right? The Kingdom of Greece was only Austria who had an agreement with the Russians, a gentleman’s agreement that they themselves hadn’t fully implemented, and expected the Russians to take it seriously?
Otto I’s face sank as he said angrily, “Did you not tell the Russians about our difficulties? The geographical position of Greece is such that we have no means of making an enemy of England and France, or we shall soon face extinction.”
When he said this, Otto I’s bottom was still a little short. Wind and water turn, at first it was the Greeks who were afraid of offending Britain and France, and wanted to grab the territory, and didn’t take care of the big picture, now they need someone else to take care of the big picture.
“Your Majesty, the attitude of the Russians is very clear, they think that since we have entered the war, we have already stood against Britain and France.
General Maeshkov has stated that if we still consider them an ally, we will simply join in the alliance.” The Foreign Minister explained
It’s true, Greece sent troops to attack the Ottoman Empire, which not only held the Ottomans’ army in check, but also interrupted their ability to raise supplies locally.
These gaps had to be filled by Britain and France, and although Greece had not declared war on Britain and France, it had already taken a toll on them in its actions.
Otherwise the British wouldn’t have come over to beat them up in person, and the fact that they didn’t attack Greece itself directly now wasn’t that the British didn’t dare, but that it was a political necessity.
Risking attacking a sovereign state is prone to public opinion flak. The British also want face, anyway, Greece is so weak that the British Army needs to use them to brush up their performance, it’s not worth them tearing off their disguise.
Otto I was in a difficult position, by joining the alliance, Greece itself would soon be patronized by the British and French navies, and there was no telling how many port cities, would be destroyed in the fighting.
But if he refused to join the alliance, the Russians would not send troops to save them.
According to the current situation, it would not take long for the Greek army to retreat all the way back to the mainland, and the enemy could follow them all the way in.
Greece would still be dragged into the war by then, and he couldn’t possibly abandon all the troops on the front line and not let them return home, could he?
If that really happened, the nation would probably revolt against him immediately.
Otto I whimsically asked, “If we disarm the troops returning home as a neutral country, is it possible for the British to stop?”
……
(End of chapter)