Chapter 1018: Mercenaries
Chapter 998 – Mercenaries
It doesn’t matter that Spain lost the war, the key is that the Philippine Islands, a strategic location, cannot fall into the hands of the ambitious Japanese, or there will never be peace in the South Seas region.
Don’t look at the Japanese government is now very peaceful, even if the Vienna government openly support Spain, they are still in ambush, as if there is no temper.
But this is only based on the fear of the strong. Now the Holy Roman Empire is strong, light in the South Pacific region of the military force are able to let them eat, even if you want to be restless can not.
But times are changing, the Philippine Islands in the hands of the Spanish, and fell into the hands of the Japanese Philippine Islands are two very different concepts.
The former has been declining, even if the Philippines is more fertile, that can only contribute to Spain a revenue, the national strength of the help is not great.
If it fell into the hands of Japan, it would be completely different. With the resources of the Philippines, coupled with the hard work of the Japanese people, the creation of a medium power is proper, and is still the kind of fighting strength.
If this was all, it was not enough to scare Franz. After all, the Holy Roman Empire was so perverse that even he himself had never thought that he would be able to create such a huge empire one day.
The problem was that Japan wasn’t a normal country, and now with the senators holding them down, they weren’t going crazy for a while. In the future, not so much, just refer to what they did in the original time and space, that is completely a fancy death series of movies.
No one can guarantee that one day the Japanese will go crazy and hit the Austrian South Seas region. Franz didn’t want to go to the Far East to fight the Japanese.
Lose the blood loss, win the blood loss war, I guess normal people do not like. Unless there is a certainty of a one-strike kill, or else Franz will not start this kind of meaningless war of attrition.
Standing in the position of the Holy Roman Empire, the Philippine Islands are best left in the hands of the Spaniards, at least the Spanish government will not fantasize about competing with them for the hegemony of the South Seas, much less dare to have crooked thoughts about the Austrian South Seas region.
“Is the Spanish army that useless?”
Prime Minister Carr preemptively asked. As a normal European, he just couldn’t imagine the European army fucking the Japanese natives and actually putting up such a crap war record.
Without the record set by the Italian army to pad it out, the current performance of the Spanish army was arguably the worst of all the colonial empires in Europe.
Let alone a 1:1.4 exchange ratio, even a 1:10 exchange ratio, that’s an inferior performance. Normally it’s a company chasing thousands of men, and a regiment can play war of extermination.
Spain is even the originator of colonial wars and the creator of conquest records. Think back to when Spain conquered the Aztec empire with 600 men, and the Inca empire with 177 men and 62 horses.
Comparing the results of the Spanish army now, even if the gap between heaven and hell can not be so big. As a normal person, Prime Minister Karl was naturally incredulous at such a conceptual shock.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg explained, “It’s much more of a waste than we expected. But this is not without signs, as early as the European war period the Spanish exposed the problem of the low combat power of the army.
They concentrated the nation’s elite troops in carefully planned battles, but in the end, they actually failed to do anything even to France’s improvised cannon fodder troops.
In the entire Antifa alliance, only the army of the Italian states was comparable to them in terms of fighting strength. The fighting power they are showing now should be the lower limit of the land forces in the European world.”
All of them were spouting off about the Spanish being trash, and no one was mentioning the Japanese army’s fighting prowess. Well, Franz admitted that Japanese fighting strength these days really had nothing to do with toughness.
It’s not that the Japanese don’t work hard, the problem is that military spending determines the upper limit of an army’s fighting strength. Without a few hundred rounds of ammunition, you have the nerve to call yourself a veteran; without thousands of rounds of ammunition, able to feed the elite?
This was true for infantry, and even more so for artillery. Every qualified artilleryman was fed with artillery shells, and a few hundred artillery shells were usually rare. Even if it was mostly training rounds, that was a lot of expense.
Not to mention the artillery wear and tear, training a few gunners to scrap a gun, that was routine.
More technically demanding armored soldiers, pilots, that’s not to mention, are smashed out with money. Of course, these types of soldiers are not available to the Japanese, but do not need to consider.
In addition to the consumption of ammunition, soldiers’ pay, daily life, maintenance of weapons and equipment is also a considerable expense.
According to the standard of the Shinra army, the Japanese army’s military expenditure is not enough to support one infantry division, but two divisions, not to mention the rest of the army.
And this dilemma will continue until the localization of weapons and equipment can be achieved, the cost of weapons and ammunition down, and then there will be a slight improvement.
Referring to the original time and space, we know that for a long time, the Japanese Army maintained only a single-digit number of standing divisions and regiments, and they were often understaffed.
Even with this reduction in strength, the military expenditure was still insufficient. As a last resort, the Japanese army practiced white-knuckle tactics and then became the king of white-knuckle warfare.
However, with the strength of blood and courage, the Japanese army was able to bully the trash cannon fodder, but if they met the real elites, it was just like sending food to the kitchen.
As a matter of fact, the elite troops were not necessarily all death-defying soldiers, and their real strength was still in their professionalism.
Simply put, even if you are a few hundred meters away, the probability of him hitting you is 20% to 30%, but you can only rely on luck to return fire.
The average down a few thousand bullets to take out an enemy in modern warfare, and tens of thousands of bullets to take out an enemy in future wars, is mostly the work of ordinary troops. And it takes far less ammunition on average for elite troops to take out an enemy.
The Viennese government hierarchy did not take the Japanese fighting strength seriously, and it was based on this. A country that even needed to import artillery had no qualifications to make everyone afraid.
……
Seeing that the topic was getting sidetracked in the tirade, Franz interrupted, “It doesn’t matter whether the Spanish army is a waste or not, the point is that the British are involved. The London government is supporting the Japanese, so we can’t let Spain lose the war, at least not too badly.”
In international politics, face is sometimes very important, especially for the newly born hegemon.
Although both Britain and Austria were only remotely controlled behind the scenes in this Japan-Spain war, in the eyes of many, the Japan-Spain war was a continuation of the British-Australian hegemonic struggle.
If Spain suffered a crushing defeat, it would send a signal to the outside world that the Holy Roman Empire was no match for the British in overseas competition.
Even though this was true, the government in Vienna had to be dead set against recognizing it. In a sense, admitting that it was no match for Britain in overseas competition meant admitting defeat.
As a challenger, defeat could be tolerated, but not admitted. Politics is such that sometimes one must deceive oneself and others.
Besides, how can we reassure our juniors if we don’t show them some strength?
Franz does not want Spain to be able to turn the tide against the world, as long as he can play a lose-lose record, he will be satisfied.
If you can’t do it, then let the Spaniards lose a little bit of decency, is not unacceptable. After all, the military victory is not a victory, the diplomatic game can still rewrite the final ending.
As long as the Spaniards showed enough strength, Franz had the certainty to force the Japanese to withdraw from the Philippine Islands through diplomatic means.
“It is too late to help the Spaniards train their land forces, and if you want to change the situation on the battlefield in a short period of time, then you can only go on mercenaries.
The problem now is that the Spaniards are too poor, maintaining an expeditionary force to fight is already very strenuous, simply do not have enough financial resources to hire an army.
What’s more, the Japanese military strength is not too weak, there is simply no international mercenary army that can accomplish this task.”
Prime Minister Karl suggested. The Vienna government has done similar things before, when they fought with the British over South Africa, they used the “mercenary” armor. Only later found redundant, simply played the Boer Republic government forces.
The only problem is that the Philippine Islands are different from South Africa. The South African region was eaten by itself, and it was only right to pay for it; whereas the Philippine Islands belonged to the Spaniards, and for the sake of international reputation, the government in Vienna could not swallow it.
To bring one’s own dry food to help the Spaniards to fight, where in the world is such a good thing? Even if the Spanish government has paid the price, but that is only in exchange for the support of the Vienna government, can not be enough to make the Holy Roman Empire personally on the battlefield.
If there is no Vienna government involved, with the ability of the Spanish, even if they really give up money to hire an army to help fight the war, they do not have such a strong mercenary army.
Under normal circumstances, a mercenary army is only a hundred or eighty people, the number of more than a thousand is a giant team, and then more can not afford to raise.
Combat strength is also very different, which is strong enough to press the government forces of various countries to fight, can be said to be the elite in the elite; more mercenary teams, but also to bully a little bit of the indigenous people okay, meet the regular army can only send food.
Small-scale battles are okay, if put in tens of thousands, or even more than a hundred thousand in the battle, the number of only a thousand or so mercenaries will not be enough to see.
Franz nodded: ”If you don’t have the money, lend it to them and let the Spaniards use the colonial proceeds as collateral. There are no such strong mercenary corps internationally, so just form your own.
The continental war has only just ended not long ago, there is still a large group of retired officers and soldiers on the European continent, and there are always outlaws who like to lick blood from the tip of a knife.
If the number of people is not enough, then go to France to recruit, have been hungry for so long, I believe there will be people willing to sell their lives to fill the family’s stomach.
By the way, no mercenaries from the Italian region. This time it’s a battle to the Philippine Islands, there’s no spaghetti there.”
If there are no conditions, you must go on even if you create the conditions. Whether the mercenaries could beat the Japanese army or not was anyone’s guess, but doing it was better than not doing it anyway.
Instead of sitting back and watching the Spaniards lose the war, it was better to try to put up a fight. Anyway, it was the Spanish who paid for it, and the Vienna government only needed to push in the dark.
Can play a role in the best, not able to play a role in no harm, the situation has deteriorated to this point, and then bad will not be bad to where.
Even if the plan fails, to cry is also the Spanish government to cry, the Vienna government is only a bit of loss of face, at most in the overseas competition for the time being do not compete with the British.
(End of chapter)