Chapter 1179: The Christmas Scene

  Chapter 1156 – Christmas

The white snowflakes, colorful Christmas trees, and colorful scenery, illuminated by various celebratory banners, made this Christmas extraordinarily wonderful.

As the bells rang out for the New Year, Franz was caught up in his memories. Looking around at the decades that had passed in his steps along the way, there were too many stories to tell in between.

This Christmas, there were no guests, and even the servants were given a vacation by Franz, except for the obligatory guards.

Organize the celebration, all are a bunch of juniors. A rare reunion day, must be personally meaningful.

The meaning was there, but the scene was a bit out of control. The pampered youngsters were obviously not used to this kind of rough work.

Looking at the dark dishes served on the table, Franz was very skeptical that they would be edible.

But looking at everyone eating happily, Franz was relieved that he wouldn’t eat it anyway. When people are old, they are no longer suitable for late night snacks.

To be able to stay up until now, that was all due to Franz’s good maintenance. Looking at the Empress near the front, she had long been yawning. If it wasn’t a tradition, it would probably have gone to bed already.

Well, tradition was just an excuse, mainly because these reunions were few and far between. With the victory in the Great War, the last wave of divisions was about to open.

After paving the way for so many years, it was now time to reap the rewards. As the big winners in the war, the Habsburgs also had their share of the fruits of victory.

The Holy Roman Empire was vast, and now it had cut more than 20 million square kilometers of land from the British, occupying almost two-fifths of the earth, excluding Antarctica, which was unsuitable for human habitation.

Unless the model of colonial rule was followed, the central government simply could not manage it.

With the development of the times, the cost of colonial rule is also rising, and it is only a matter of time before it is eliminated.

Especially since most of the occupied areas of Shen Luo were vast and sparsely populated. Playing with colonial rule was even more economically uneconomical.

Anyway, it’s all about the state system and the feudal system that Shen Luo plays with, so it’s good to continue to use it. Especially in remote areas, after the feudalization of meritorious ministers, then send a royal son or grandson over, it would be a state.

In addition to the eldest son and grandson who were destined to inherit the throne, the rest of the children and grandchildren present were arranged by Franz.

Limited by transportation, the time needed for a round trip is too long, which is destined to be the future of everyone is less together and more apart.

But there is no way, the Habsburg family has come to the present, want to continue to develop and grow, it is inevitable to branch.

Opportunities are sent to the hands, if not to grasp, what to talk about the future?
“If parents love their children, they plan far and wide for them.” On this issue, Franz couple’s opinion is very consistent.

The years are getting old, and with the per capita life expectancy these days, Mr. and Mrs. Franz are both living a high life expectancy. There are obviously not many more of these family reunions for Christmas.

Once the partition was completed, perhaps the next reunion would have to wait for several years, for example: Franz’s eightieth birthday, or the twentieth anniversary of the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire, this kind of universal celebration of the big day.

This is also a happy trouble, there are many people who fight for a piece of fiefdom. Many families even put in three generations of hard work and were not able to get what they wished for.

Noble families were fine, having received relevant military education since childhood, as long as the qualifications weren’t too bad and they themselves worked hard enough, it wasn’t difficult to enter a military school.

Graduating from a military school, the starting point is an officer. And there are father and generation left behind the relationship, to the battlefield, the probability of military success is far greater than the average person.

As long as you are lucky enough to catch a big war like this, you will be able to earn a fortune if you get some war credit and manage to survive.

The bottom of the civilian population is miserable, purely from scratch, and those who can get ahead are God’s favorites.

Although the number of knighthoods shows that the majority of officers and soldiers are of commoner origin, there are still a large number of descendants of nobles, middle class, capitalists, and bureaucrats hidden in the ranks.

It may seem like these people don’t seem to have roots in the army, but the economic foundation is solid!
Parents in the German region were notorious for their willingness to invest in their children’s education. These days the world is not at peace, and under the universal military service system, knowledge of the military naturally cannot be left behind.

In terms of theoretical knowledge and behavior, the children of these families are no worse than the children of ordinary aristocrats.

Even many of those who aspired to follow the path of military honors and knighthoods, or to develop in the army for a long period of time, completed their recruit training ahead of time before enlisting in the army.

With these advantages, the probability of being promoted in the army was significantly higher than the average commoner’s children.

As a matter of fact, most of the underlying civilian sons and daughters who were able to stand out also had rich military careers in their fathers’ generation and were able to pass on relevant knowledge.

Unfair, that’s for sure. But this world was inherently cruel, and it simply did not change by individual will.

As Emperor, Franz only needed to ensure the fighting strength and loyalty of the army, as for the origin of the officers below did not matter.

If you want to blame can only blame the world war lasted too short, less than a year time is over, did not leave time for ordinary people to grow.

Of course, this lid must not be lifted. The probability was no longer small, it was still a probability. There weren’t many who jumped up and became nobles, but there were many who were given a piece of land.

British Africa, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the British Central and Southern Peninsula, and a number of islands, there was so much land that could be taken out and distributed.

This is only the legacy left by the British, the other countries involved in the war, although not so fertile, more or less have a few pairs of meat, there will always be a harvest.

The newly occupied territories needed population, and the military awarding of land was the perfect opportunity to recruit immigrants. Not only did the immigrants have it, but also the army to guard these lands.

Sometimes, Franz even wondered if it was a bit too much to play around like this. But seeing how the folk tended to behave, he decisively put away such dangerous thoughts.

It had only just been a few years since the abolition of serfdom, and it was the time when everyone was most obsessed with the land, especially since the income and standard of living of farm owners were higher than that of workers these days.

The little man also has the wisdom of the little man, the facts are in front of us, higher income, better life, plus a foundation that can be passed on to the family.

If you want to say that this is a calculation, then let this calculation come a little more often, people do not mind a few more pieces of land.

As for utilizing everyone to guard the territory, that’s even less of a problem. If you don’t guard your own land, who will?

……

There are those who are happy and those who are unhappy. While Franz is sad about the lack of separation, Buckingham Palace is even more sad.

Although prepared, but Britain really surrendered, Edward VII’s heart can not help but grief.

With a sad mood, this Christmas is naturally not good. Even this year’s Santa Claus, are not as beautiful as in previous years.

Summarize the lessons learned, looking for ways to cope with, ready to rise again, these are not any meaning.

There is no room for failure in an island nation. The margin for error in Britain, where the land is narrow and the people are few, is so low that defeat means losing everything.

Especially since Britannia has brought the hatred of the world to full capacity over the past few hundred years, adding to the difficulty of rising again.

Even through insider trading, by buying the Vienna government to save the British Isles, the same can not change the reality of the decline of Britain.

Think about Edward VII feel depressed, obviously he did not do bad, can even be called excellent, but became the end of the Victorian era.

Fortunately, the implementation of Britain is a constitutional monarchy, there is a cabinet in front of the top of the mine, attracted the firepower of the people.

It was well known that the King was getting older, and that his ill health in the last year had prevented him from taking care of political affairs, and had nothing to do with this war.

Of course, the most important reason why Edward VII was able to retreat in one piece was still the will of the Continental League, or the deliberate watering down of the government in Vienna.

The deal between Vienna and the British government had just been concluded and was now in progress, and a stable Britain was now needed.

Compared to the change of prime minister, it was obvious that the change of king would have a greater impact, and it was not likely that Britain would fall into a direct collapse.

As the victor of the war, the Holy Roman Empire had too many benefits to receive to waste energy on the Britons in the short term.

On top of that, there was another important reason to retain Britain’s corrupt bureaucracy.

Any old empire has all sorts of problems, and reform is often more difficult than pushing back and rebuilding. Especially with the end of the colonial era and the inability to shift conflicts externally, reform is even more difficult.

It was a phallic plot, except that neither Edward VII nor the British government could refuse it, and as a member of a vested interest group, one could not take it upon oneself to revolutionize one’s own life!
The current Prime Minister Campbell, is the leader of the reformist faction, the term of office for the British Empire patched a lot, can be said to be outstanding political achievements.

If he hadn’t caught up with this war, his historical rating would never have been lower, and he might even have become Britain’s greatest prime minister.

However, the problem was that Campbell was too competent. If he had been replaced by a bumbling prime minister, perhaps the world war would not have broken out so quickly.

History is always full of comedy, and I’m afraid that people would find it hard to believe when it’s made into a movie, and it’s completely different from everyone’s everyday perception.

A capable king + a capable prime minister brought the slowly declining British Empire back from the halfway point, and then plunged into the abyss from the other way.

It’s unbelievable to think that it happened in reality. If Campbell hadn’t initiated the reforms, Britain would still be groping for fish in the free trade system and wouldn’t have noticed for a moment that its own market was being eaten away.

Being able to replace the British Empire in the style of a warm water frog, the government of Vienna naturally would not resort to force. After all, war also costs money.

Doomed to be a sleepless Christmas Eve, Edward VII is not good, the British government is even more tragic, the pressure is no one prepared for the holidays, the Prime Minister’s residence is not even a Christmas tree.

As a tragedy of the times, the Campbell government was now left with one last mission, to sign the instruments of surrender and take the blame for the defeat.

And then, there would be no more. When the dust settles, it will be the turn of the new government to come to power and fulfill the treaty in concrete terms.

Listening to the bells of the New Year, Campbell said helplessly, “The Vienna Peace Conference will soon open after Christmas, so the Foreign Office should send someone there as soon as possible!”

Instead of taking a vacation at Christmas, they have to discuss political affairs, it’s intoxicating to think about it.

However as a defeated country, the Campbell government had no choice. The war had just ended, and all sorts of trouble had come to the door. With a thousand things to do, there was no time to take a vacation.

Even this kind of international event that everyone had been rushing to get on, now there were not even those who took the initiative to sign up, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to pick an unlucky person.

In this regard, the Vienna government is still very good to talk, no matter who is sent, no matter how high or low the level of the representative, as long as it is an individual who can sign on behalf of the British Empire on the line.

For the Campbell government, this was also crucial. Despite the fact that it was already infamous, one less is better than one more.

The public is forgetful, and time can fade everything. Especially for the rest of the Cabinet, there’s a good chance that they will be forgotten by the public after three to five years, as long as their presence is reduced.

Only the prime minister and the signatories, especially those who signed the surrender document, will be remembered as “traitors”.

This was a reward for the British government’s understanding of the times. As in the First World War, the Allied Powers also gave up pursuing war criminals because the Germans surrendered of their own accord.

If the British government had chosen to fight to the death, it would have been the treatment of World War II. As heads of government of the defeated countries, one by one, they would have had to go through the military tribunals.

“Okay, Prime Minister. I’ll make the arrangements when I come down, there will be no delay.”

Foreign Minister Adam said calmly. The terms of the armistice were, secretly, agreed upon long ago anyway, and the Vienna Peace Conference would just make some detailed adjustments.

As a defeated country, Britain no longer has the right to speak at the Vienna Peace Conference, and it’s the same for whoever is sent.

The top government is not good, the bottom of the people also did not have a good Christmas. The war is over, but the trade blockade has not been lifted.

The British Isles reserves have long been consumed, such as candy, coffee, tea, cigarettes, alcohol and other daily supplies, are now turned into luxury goods.

Even for the celebration of Christmas, the British government increased the supply of goods, and each person was only given one liter of milk, a piece of 300 grams of bread, a small dried fish, and other food was still potatoes, corn, soybeans and other miscellaneous food.

Not only was the quantity of supplies insufficient, but the quality was even more sensational, and eating it felt like fodder.

Combined with the government’s bill that forced the slaughter of livestock and banned the brewing of alcohol half a year ago, the relief food now being distributed is most likely the rations for those livestock.

It was good enough to have something to eat; there was no capital to be picky in the war years. As long as the enemy does not open the blockade, the supply of goods in the British Isles will not return to normal for a day.

……

Deep in the alley, in a small, ordinary home, the James family was spending this special Christmas.

Looking at the food on the table, James, who was forcing a smile, was crumbling inside at the moment.

In order to satisfactorily spend this Christmas, he ran to three black markets in a row, but how could he not afford it, and finally stopped because of the high price.

There was no candy, no cake, not to mention no turkey, all there was was a few pieces of bread and a carton of milk, plus a baked potato for each person.

Such was the standard of living for the lowest class of people before the war. The slightly better off ones like James had a much higher standard of daily life, at least less of the necessary sauces for every meal.

Looking at his son, who had always been a picky eater, eating happily at the moment, James only felt heartbroken.

(End of chapter)