Chapter 339: A Whimsical Plan
Chapter 329 A Whimsical Plan
Washington.
Secretary of State Safar said calmly, “Mr. President, this is the offer from the arms dealers of various countries, as well as the domestic capitalists.
Of course, it doesn’t mean much to us. The federal government has been too hastily prepared in this war, and both the government forces and the militias of the states are now short of arms.
At the moment, many of our troops are still soldiers with their own shotguns. There is no way to compete with the Confederate army in terms of weaponry.
Buying all the stock of these arms dealers right now wouldn’t even meet our needs. So the choice is just a fallacy.”
President Lincoln rubbed his forehead, he highly suspected that the Secretary of State had come over specifically to pick a fight. Since there was no choice, there was nothing to be gained by just buying and holding.
“Send someone to talk to them, press the price as hard as you can, and kick out the highest bidder.”
Safar shook his head and said, “I’m afraid I can’t, the Austrians who quoted the highest price, their product is a breechloading rifle, which is superior in performance.
The most crucial thing is that they have the most stock on hand, they can provide us with 100,000 breechloading rifles, 150,000 front-bore rifles, and 800 various types of artillery at once.
Not long ago they just sold the southern government two hundred thousand breech rifles, and one thousand artillery pieces, and a number of ammunitions, if not for the fact that the southern gang was too stupid, these weapons would not have been our turn at all.”
It seemed to Mr. Secretary of State that the Southern Government was just too stupid.
In time of war, what is it that is not stupid to allow these weapons and equipment to flow into the hands of the enemy by not taking advantage of the good relations with various countries to sweep up the goods at the first opportunity?
As for the price to be paid, no amount of money spent on purchasing weapons and equipment can compare to the losses incurred on the battlefield.
If the southern government sweeps up the goods at the first opportunity, then the northern government will not be able to obtain enough weaponry for at least the next six months.
This was the advantage brought about by unchanging communications, which allowed for a time gap. Don’t look at the international arms dealers gathering in North America, in reality, the spot in everyone’s hands is still limited.
A few tens of thousands of rifles, a few hundred guns, a few thousand tons of ammunition, that’s a lot. Any more than that unless it was Franz’s kind of traveler who opened up, ordinary people who knew how big the Civil War was?
If the stockpile is too much, the North and South suddenly stopped the war and compromised, then all smashed in the hands, the cost can not be recovered.
In addition to the Americans, the world can not find such a wrongdoer as a receiver.
Empty the warehouses of arms dealers active in the United States, but also spend less than 10 million pounds. With ten million pounds in exchange for the enemy half a year of insufficient weapons and equipment, such a deal is completely profitable.
Hearing Safar’s explanation, President Lincoln almost broke out in a cold sweat.
Half a year was already enough to decide whether a war would be won or lost. Luckily, the Southern government didn’t do it, or the Northern government would have been in deep shit.
Adjusting his mind, Lincoln asked rhetorically, “Your Excellency, Secretary of State, you didn’t look for me just to say this, did you?”
Secretary of State Safar explained unhurriedly, “Of course not. Now that the four major powers of Britain, France, Austria, and Spain are supporting the Southern government, under their influence, most of the European countries have stood on the Southern position.
These arms merchants basically have political backgrounds, and with similar conditions, they are definitely more willing to do business with the southern government.
If we offer a higher price, the situation is different again. In the face of profit, the arms merchants don’t care what the government thinks.
Therefore, I’m prepared to raise the price of weaponry, especially some advanced weapons. The industrial strength of the southern states is weak and their own production capacity is limited, they can only follow us in raising prices.
Unlike the gang of traitors in the south, our own industrial capacity is not bad, and the lack of weaponry is only temporary.
If there are no surprises, from next year onwards our self-sufficiency rate in weapons can reach more than eighty-five percent, and the Southern government is afraid that it will not even reach thirty percent.
Since we can’t win militarily, we’ll drag them down economically.”
This is the advantage of the northern government, but President Lincoln is not happy at all, see the Secretary of State’s plan is ready to fight a protracted war.
Lincoln frowned and asked, “Do you have so little confidence in our army?”
Safar replied in a serious manner, “Mr. President, it has been more than three months since the outbreak of the war, and the federal government has lost more than eighty thousand total troops.
I admit that the military has worked very hard, and they have achieved considerable results, but we are still the ones who are at a disadvantage.
If anything goes wrong on the battlefield in Maryland, the federal government will immediately have to fight a battle in defense of Washington. I don’t think the federal government has a chance of winning the war in the short term.”
The attitude of the Secretary of State, to some extent, also represented the attitude of the officials within the federal government. Since they were prepared to fight a protracted war, it also meant that everyone had lost confidence in quelling the rebellion in the short term.
This was not the worst, if the war dragged on, the voices of the main peace faction in the country would still rise.
As a qualified politician, Lincoln knew that the enemies within were the most terrifying, and these people lurked in the shadows, and he didn’t even know who they were yet.
Hesitating for a moment, Lincoln spoke up and said, “Well, go ahead and do it according to your plan! But we first need to solve the financial problem, the southern government used cotton as collateral to issue bonds overseas, we don’t have collateral.”
It wasn’t that the federal government didn’t have collateral, the problem was that this collateral, they simply didn’t dare to mortgage it out. Otherwise the people at home, were going to explode first.
……
The island of New Guinea, now renamed New Bavaria. Random names seemed to be a European habit, and Franz had gotten used to it.
The second largest island in the world would now belong to the Habsburgs, but Franz was not surprised.
In terms of resources, New Bavaria was also rich, with many different kinds of mineral resources, and the delta plain in the south was still the most fertile land in the world.
There are also no strong indigenous kingdoms on the island, a rough estimate of the native inhabitants of this island will not exceed one million, and may even be less than 300,000 people.
But this land was not favored by the European colonizers. Obviously, this is very abnormal.
Previously, Austria’s colonization activities also began with the seizure of the islands surrounding New Bavaria, such as: Melanesian Islands, Sagaing Islands, Aru Islands ……
It was a way of demarcating a sphere of influence and asserting sovereignty. All around is my territory, the central area you naturally can not come to rob, otherwise it is a bad rule.
Now after accelerating the pace of colonization, the colonization team entered the island of New Bavaria in a big way, and the problem arose.
1, the island has a tropical rainforest climate with high annual precipitation;
2, The downstream terrain is low and flat, with poor drainage;
3, the river has a long flood season and is prone to flooding the surrounding areas;
4, the coast is affected by tides, seawater intrusion, more shoals;
5. The whole island is mountainous, swampy and sparsely populated.
To summarize it all, it would have to cost a fortune to develop the island.
At the very least, the drainage problem has to be solved, the marshland has to be turned into farmland, and preferably, sea walls have to be built to safeguard the coast from tidal influences.
Franz asked, “What is the Colonial Department going to do?”
Colonial Minister Josip Jelacic replied, “Your Majesty, we are going to put the development of the island of New Bavaria on hold for the time being, and only develop parts of it, and establish a few cities in suitable areas to swear sovereignty.
The focus is still on developing the neighboring islands, the Southern Ocean region is really very rich. The aborigines here don’t engage in agriculture at all, and rely on nature’s gifts for their livelihood.
These islands are rich in tropical fruits and are suitable for growing cash crops such as coffee, cocoa, dried coconut, palm oil, tea and rubber.”
This is the wisest choice; colonization is about making money and it is very unwise to make investments blindly.
Anyway, the islands were sparsely populated and not engaged in agriculture, and without external influences, they would be the same after a hundred years.
The island is where it is and can’t get away, when the world’s colonies have been divided up, the Vienna government will then develop this place is not too late.
Franz nodded and said, “So much for New Bavaria, what about the Republic of Lanfang?”
If it wasn’t for the mention of the Lanfang Republic in the document, Franz had nearly forgotten that there was a Chinese Republic in the South Seas region.
Josip Jelacic explained, “Your Majesty, the island of Kalimantan is rich in gold, so a group of Chinese gathered and established the Lanfang Republic.
Not long ago the Ocean Fleet also visited this country and signed a friendship agreement with Count Hummel, so it’s not good for us to turn our backs directly.
This small country is very weak, the colonial government is looking for a pretext for war, it shouldn’t take long for us to exterminate them.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Franz went soft.
“Don’t rush into action yet, send an articulate man to lure them into joining the New Holy Roman Empire.
We can give them autonomy, we can refer to the standards of the domestic kingdoms, and it won’t hurt to be a bit more lenient.
The Southern Ocean region is too far away, the immigrants we can provide are limited, and it’s very difficult to develop so many places.
If we destroy the Lanfang Republic by force, not only will we have to increase our military expenses, it will also be difficult to gain much revenue in the short term.
It would be better to just incorporate the Lanfang Company and profit directly, we don’t even need to pay the cost of ruling.”
In Franz’s view the Republic of Lanfang, was the Lanfang Company, and the rulers themselves didn’t even think of it as a country.
Historically, it was because the rulers of the Lanfang Company defected to the Dutch for their own benefit that the country fell.
The force of the Dutch, not that Franz looked down on them, it was really not very good.
The Republic of Lanfang was situated in the South Seas, where it could get enough immigrants and had plenty of land to exploit. If the ruling class did not degenerate and worked hard to develop their own strength, unifying the Southern Ocean region was not even a dream.
If you can turn to the Dutch, you can naturally turn to the Austrians as well. A few titles of nobility smashed down, it is expected that this group of people will not be able to resist the temptation.
This is also regarded as each get what they want, Lanfang Republic can obtain Austrian protection, the Vienna government increased a revenue.
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
Despite feeling that Franz’s demeanor today was different than usual, Josip Jelacic did not object, it was in Austria’s interest.
The essence of overseas colonization was to profit, and it didn’t matter by what means.
It was not the same with the African continent. The Viennese government was preparing to establish a second German homeland in Africa, and naturally it could not rule at will.
Franz’s plan was a bit whimsical, but the costs involved were so low that there was no harm in trying it.
If it succeeded, nothing would have to be done, the Vienna government would have an additional income, and Austrian commerce and industry would have an additional market.
Failure, big deal, a little time wasted.
(End of chapter)