Chapter 1023: A World of Strife

  Chapter 1003 – A World of Strife

Another day without any success, Ives’ mood was getting heavier and heavier. With no income for over five months, his poor wallet was about to bottom out.

Reaching out to his parents, not to mention whether or not he could put aside his poor pride, the problem was that Ives’ parents were just ordinary people, with grandparents above him needing help, and younger siblings below him needing to be fed.

Now catching up with the wave of layoffs, pay cuts, everyone hates a piece of money into two halves to spend, the savings of the past is the last guarantee to survive the crisis. People will not use their savings until they are at the end of their tether.

Ives can not gnaw the old man, back to the rental house, staring stupidly at the wall of the world map daze.

The map was left behind by the landlord, and was said to be a gift from a merchant’s campaign to celebrate the victory of the Continental War. Frankly speaking, from the map, the Holy Roman Empire is indeed domineering.

Taking out the areas that were uninhabitable to humans, the Holy Roman Empire had occupied nearly a quarter of the land and one-twentieth of the ocean, making it one of the only two world empires in the world today.

Ives had also been hot-blooded, fantasizing about fighting on the sands with gold and steel, and finally returning to his homeland to become an honored nobleman.

Unfortunately, he was not born at the right time. By the time Ives enlisted in the army, he was at the end of the Continental War, and the French surrendered without waiting for the new recruits to finish their training.

Not to mention war service, not even the opportunity to go to war. He completed his last few months of military service without incident, and then he was discharged and returned home to look for work.

The dream of nobility is shattered, no matter. The probability of an ordinary person becoming a nobleman is not high, and those who can stand out are the “Emperor’s body”, and the vast majority of people, even if they come across an opportunity, will end up fishing for a farm.

Ives is not envious at all, really really not envious. As long as he works hard, he will have the opportunity to buy a farm in his lifetime.

Under the poisonous beatings of society, Ives thought it would be good to become a great engineer, after all, in school he scored full marks in all his mechanical operation classes. With his dream in mind, he took his discharge money and came to this strange city.

Originally, he thought that a talent like him could easily enter a large enterprise with favorable treatment, and then quickly get the appreciation of “Bole”, and then get the focus of the enterprise’s training, and finally become a great engineer.

Facts have proved that this is completely his own overthinking. The job search had just begun when the economic crisis hit.

Enterprises have been layoffs in the background, not to mention into a generous treatment of large enterprises, even the street restaurant washing dishes Ives did not get the job.

Overseas, how far away that was. Although airplanes had appeared, they were only used in the military, and there were at most a few flying clubs in the civilian world.

Wanting to make an airplane to go back and forth between Africa and the mainland was not a problem in theory, but in practice it was not realistic at all. Safety aside, the high operating costs alone make airlines shy away.

Currently all the airlines in the Holy Roman Empire are mainly airships, mainly undertaking short and medium distance fast cargo transportation. Passenger transportation is also available, but the price is not affordable to ordinary people.

According to the normal rhythm, the fastest round trip from the mainland to the African continent by boat will take a month, and certain remote areas may take half a year for a single trip.

Farther south, the Americas, then needless to say. Fast is a few months, slow is a year and a half.

The road is so far, the cost is naturally not expensive. Many people left their hometowns and did not return for more than ten years in a row. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to go home to visit, the problem was that the cost of a round trip was a year’s income.

Ordinary people couldn’t afford to go through all this trouble, especially those who had families and children, and in order to give their families a better life, people had to let go of their homesickness.

Many immigrants, after leaving their homeland, would only return to their hometowns with their entire families in their old age. There is no way, only at that time can the free family leave be enough.

The five-year family leave promised by the colonial government or the employer is only for the person employed and is limited to one visit. If you want to bring your family with you, you either have to accumulate family leave or pay for it yourself.

It’s not that you can’t get a better deal, but the problem is that if you leave with your whole family, they’re worried that you won’t come back!

Except for those who have made a name for themselves and are able to return a few more times, when ordinary people return to their hometowns, it’s already a time when “children don’t know each other, and they laugh and ask where the guests came from”. The childhood hometown, the good memories are no longer exist.

Looking at his own nearly dried up wallet, Ives knew that if he couldn’t find a job again, he would have to give in to life.

There may be a better life overseas, but the taste of home is something that can never be found again. Once he stepped out, his family and friends would all become passers-by in life.

This night, Ives lost sleep. With him, there are thousands of unemployed army, whether to go out to make a living, become their life on the road to another choice.

……

The economic crisis is raging, not only the people have a hard time, the governments also have a hard time.

The bankruptcy of the Prussian government was just the beginning, and by May, the governments of Modena, Parma, and the Two Sicilies followed suit, and in June, the governments of Sardinia, Lucca, and Tuscany couldn’t hold on any longer, and joined the wave of bankruptcy.

In the whole of Italy, the Papal States were left struggling to hold on. After all, it was a religious country, and with the donations of its believers, the Papal States was still in a better position than its neighbors.

But that is only a little better, if the economic crisis continues, the believers have no money to donate, I am afraid that the papal state will also join the wave of bankruptcy.

The collapse of the Italian regions was just the beginning. As far as Franz knew, the governments of Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland, which were still holding out, were likewise reaching a point of difficulty.

Belgium because of heavy losses in the war, the reconstruction work is only halfway, suffered an economic crisis, can hold out until now even good.

Switzerland, on the other hand, is eating to hold on, in order to build a good newly acquired territory, the poor Swiss government in the financial market to raise a large amount of debt.

Now that it’s raining, the banks have suddenly taken away their umbrellas, and the financial problems have been exposed, and the Swiss government is caught in a dilemma. If the project goes to shit, the initial investment will be wasted; if the project continues, the government will not be able to hold on to its finances.

As for Portugal, it is a misplaced husky. The republicans and monarchists in the country are so happy that no one cares about economic construction.

Unlike other colonial countries, Portugal’s colonies lost money, and still a series of losses for many years.

Don’t ask why they lost money, they lost money. The funny thing is that the more the colonies lost, the more the Portuguese could not give up.

Even if someone offers to buy this “bad” asset, they still insist on holding it. There is no need to say why.

In short, in the face of rising colonial expenses, Portugal showed more and more powerless. In order to maintain the colonial empire, the Portuguese owed a huge amount of foreign debt, high debt has pressed this small European countries can not breathe.

Spain was originally the most solid of these countries, but unfortunately a war in the Philippines not only emptied the coffers of the Spanish, but also tore their “Great Powers” disguise.

Although the Philippine War is still going on and Spain has not lost the war, the strength they have shown is really hard to be linked to the Great Powers.

If it wasn’t for Vienna pulling the strings so many times, Spain would have collapsed a long time ago. Now instead of Spain being at war with the Japanese, it was Shinra who was giving the Japanese a hard time.

Look at the situation on the battlefield to know, heavy losses of the Spanish fleet, not only completed the replenishment, and even added a main ship.

The army needless to say, now the main force on the battlefield have become mercenaries, are and the Japanese pk is once the elite of the French army.

Just look at the battle results, originally the exchange ratio of the two countries was 1:1.4, now directly rose to 1:2.7, completely qualitative breakthrough.

The Spanish expeditionary force, which was originally beaten by the Japanese army, has now gradually taken the initiative. Although victory was still far away, at least it was moving in a favorable direction.

In contrast, the Japanese, also a poor empire, are now much more miserable. With the support of the British, the navy is naturally not a problem, but the army can not help ah!

The gap in weapons and equipment, the British can find a way to deal with, but that requires a long time to wait; the problem of soldier training, then only the Japanese to deal with.

Originally they were learning from the French, and now the Philippines is just staging a battle of master and apprentice. Originally the Japanese army would not have suffered such a big loss, the key is the expansion of the army caused trouble.

Not every country has the ability to raise hundreds of thousands of standing army in the peace era, Japan’s army standing division is just a few, adding up to more than 100,000 people.

After the outbreak of the Philippine War, it quickly swelled to over eight hundred thousand, a full five-fold increase. Whether it was officers or veterans, they were sorely lacking.

Even though they made up for it with the Bushido ideology, they still weren’t able to improve their professionalism. Look at the soldiers’ hit rate to know that the battlefield to carry out counterfire, even the Spanish Army hanged them, for the French elite, not to mention.

Their only advantage lies in the courage to fight to the death. Unfortunately, this year’s Japan is too poor, the soldiers grew up living in an environment that restricts their growth, many soldiers are yellow and thin, a look at the nutrition can not keep up.

Nutrition did not keep up, physical fitness naturally do not want to keep up. Originally in physical fitness, Asians are inherently slightly worse than Europeans, and now the gap is even more pronounced.

If not the jungle can be utilized, the Japanese army, even if it is more brave, but also can not hold out now. However, the jungle is not omnipotent, the enemy does not come in they did not fold.

Unlike the Spanish army, the mercenaries ran to fight for money. One by one, they are demoralized when they see the city, and push back when they encounter the jungle.

Then came the interesting scene. With the help of more than 100,000 mercenaries, the Spanish expeditionary force managed to take several cities in the Philippine Islands, but the jungles became off-limits to them.

The mercenaries were reluctant to fight where there was no oil, and the Spanish army, having been taught a lesson, was equally reluctant to go into the jungle and suffer.

The Japanese, who had prepared an ambush in advance, fed mosquitoes in the jungle for nothing. The Japanese army had no choice but to play guerrilla warfare, emerging from the jungle from time to time to carry out attacks, from the hands of the enemy to obtain sustenance.

If the situation does not change, it is estimated that another year and a half, the Expeditionary Force will be able to take all the major towns in the Philippine Islands, occupying the vast jungle of the Japanese troops will really become guerrillas.

Obviously, this was not something the Japanese government could tolerate. In order to win the war, they had already brought in the locals and formed a solid “anti-white alliance”.

Only during the Spanish rule, they deliberately provoked conflicts between the indigenous tribes, and now this big alliance is full of hidden dangers. Many of them suffer from a deep white-phobia, so it is not possible to expect them to contribute to the war effort, even if they help to raise the flag.

For the Japanese government, the military trouble is only a small problem, as long as the deaths of all is not a problem, and now suffers just do not understand the rules of the game in Europe.

Not knowing that the Spaniards would let the mercenaries act as the main force, they were taken by surprise. As long as the reprieve, the situation behind will be better.

In contrast, the financial troubles were the real trouble. The Japanese government, which had never been wealthy, had long exceeded its financial limits by maintaining a large navy while keeping a continental army.

Despite the fact that the Japanese army had reaped a considerable harvest in the Philippine Islands, most of that wealth had gone into individual pockets, and the government had gotten only a small portion of it. This portion of the booty alone was obviously not enough to finance the war.

In normal times, one can still borrow foreign debt, but now there is no need to think about it. In times of economic crisis, cash is king, and banks and consortiums are tightening their monetary roots, and will not easily lend to the outside world.

Issuing bonds is even more unthinkable, the wave of unemployment is rolling in, the general public is counting on the funds on hand to tide over the crisis, who has the money to buy bonds ah?

“British support”, just listen to it. Not everyone is Louis XVI, the iron Bean, selling blood to support the United States, history has only happened once. If you want the British to support you at any cost, it’s impossible.

What’s more, the London government is now left to fend for itself. Economic crises are erupting all over the world, and Britain, as the world’s second largest economy, is naturally no exception.

Perhaps it was because the financial industry was too developed, along with the economic crisis ravaging the country, Britain also experienced a financial crisis at the same time.

Of course, the war was not all bad. At least the war allowed the Japanese government to get through the economic crisis, compared to the Great Depression in Europe, Japan’s domestic except for the smell of gunpowder a little heavier, the economy is still a “thriving”.

……

(End of chapter)