Chapter 1033: A New Gambling Game

  Chapter 1013: A New Gambling Game

The topic of going south and going north once again appeared in the Imperial Council. However, unlike in the past, the southward strategy was now bankrupt.

Since the plan to capture the Philippine Islands had failed, the subsequent South Pacific Raid was even more unthinkable. If the European Union could interfere the first time, it could interfere the second time. If they continued to go south without knowing what to do, they were tired of living.

Looking at the overall picture, although Japan suffered heavy losses in the Philippine War, they were not entirely without gains.

One of the biggest gains was the acquisition of a modern fleet. The main ships that they could not buy with money in the past, they got them all in the war.

Judging from the total tonnage of warships alone, the Japanese Navy had become the world’s fifth naval power after Britain, Austria, Russia, and the West.

If nothing happens, after the Philippine War is over and the warships purchased by the Japanese government at the auction return home, they will be able to rank even further ahead of Spain and Russia, leaping to become the world’s third naval power.

If nothing else is taken into account, then this was the high point of the Japanese Empire. Unfortunately, behind the glitter and glamor, there was an empty treasury.

In Japan’s current situation, it was impossible to support such a fleet without foreign expansion, even if the government’s entire revenue was invested in it, it would not be enough.

“Looking at the current situation, it is true that going north is easier than going south, the problem is that the Empire’s finances can no longer support a major war.

North Korea is not enough to worry about, but XXX’s reaction is something we can’t ignore. Even though they have fallen, they are still a behemoth to us.

Once a war breaks out, when it ends is not something we can end unilaterally. In case the war continues, the empire is likely to be dragged alive.”

It wasn’t that Kuroda Seiryu was timid, it was that the Japanese government’s finances were too bad. Although the Philippine Islands were rich, they hadn’t been able to run them in time, and the plundered wealth alone was simply not enough to support the war.

Without money in their pockets, they were not hardened to do anything. Although the neighbor has fallen, but they have a strong family, with the current strength of the Japanese Empire does not have the certainty of victory.

Yamagata Arimoto: “Kuroda-kun, right now is the best opportunity to go north. Because of the Philippine campaign, our neighbors have let down their guard against us, and they are fantasizing that we and the Spaniards will lose both.

But they have forgotten that although we have suffered heavy losses in the war, the Empire’s military power is growing, and the contrast in power between the two sides has changed.

The empire’s limited finances constrain the development of military power, and in times of peace we are unable to support such a large army. Our national strength dictates that the Empire’s military power is now at its peak, at least for the next twenty years.

If we don’t take advantage of the present to bring down our neighbors and open up enough space for the Empire to survive, we will have even less of a chance in the future.

We have no choice. For the sake of the future of the Great Japanese Empire, we must do it even if it is risky. Not to mention that the risk is not too great now, even if it fails the big deal is to repeat the old events of 1874.”

Ambition comes not only from strength, but also from the “face” of a corrupt empire. Failure to invade can be compensated, what is there to be afraid of?

Even if we lose the war, the big deal is that if we perform a few more times, the matter will be over, and we may even be able to take advantage of it.

Even if such a country is powerful, it cannot be feared. Instead of being friends, it would be better to be enemies.

In a sense, the ambition of the Japanese government was indulged by the XXX Empire. If there had been a different lord, Japan would have been crippled in 1874, and there would have been no back ……

In addition to the soft persimmon is good to pinch, more importantly, the north does not need to encounter the power of the Great Powers forces, unlike the South Seas kind of Great Powers are piled up, accidentally have to step on the mine.

The main thing is that the last three or four decades of the tsarist government is very busy, first the capture of Constantinople, and then taught a lesson to the restless Prussia, and now is busy going south to India.

The government’s strategic center of gravity did not move eastward, and the Russians’ pace of expansion in the Far East naturally slowed down, and their tentacles have not yet had time to penetrate deep into Korea.

With the lesson of the failure of the southward journey, this was the moment when the Japanese government was most afraid of the Great Powers. Although they were not defeated against Spain, they could not be arrogant without winning.

Seeing that no one answered, Emperor Meiji frowned and asked, “Does the Navy Ministry have a different opinion?”

“No!”

Navy Minister Saigo Fudo slowly replied.

According to the Japanese military’s usual practice, the navy would object to any army proposal, and vice versa. What’s more, now that the battle over expansion routes was involved, the fight should have been even more intense.

However, Saigo was in a difficult position. No matter how good the reasons were, the southward strategy had failed. As the home base of the southward faction, and the leader of the invasion of the Philippines, the Admiralty was naturally to blame.

Even the Admiralty could not afford to shoulder such a big responsibility. In order to avoid being politically liquidated in the future, they had to make a compromise now.

As a matter of fact, not only the Ministry of the Navy, but also the top echelons of the Japanese government were all on the same rope. It was impossible to resist the European Union, and it was impossible to explain to the Japanese government if they compromised.

If they wanted to land safely, they had to find an excuse that would be acceptable to the nation. Although the “South and North” was a bit far-fetched, it was still better than nothing.

The Japanese people have not yet reached the craziest moment, as long as the final victory, there is a decent booty, will be able to account for the past.

After a few moments of silence, Emperor Meiji indifferently said: “If everyone has no opinion, then prepare to negotiate with the European Union.

Prime Minister, if you are from Europe, you have the best understanding of the European Union, so you will preside over the negotiations. I don’t expect to keep the Philippine Islands, but I will try to get compensation for the empire as much as possible!

On the issue of going north, the military will come up with a plan as soon as possible. We can’t afford to lose already, what will happen if there is another accident, you should have a number in your mind.”

It was obvious that Emperor Meiji was very unhappy with the current situation. However, apart from warning and hammering, it happened that he couldn’t do anything else, and the depression could be imagined.

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

……

Having ended one gambling game, he immediately went to another gambling table. Faced with a gambling government, Ito Hirobumi was speechless.

He knew it was wrong, but the Japanese government had no choice. It was easy to leave the table, but the problem was what to do with the debts left behind after closing the bet.

Don’t look at the European countries “government bankruptcy – debt restructuring” play happy, if the Japanese government dares to follow suit, will immediately become that used to make an example of the “chicken”.

Don’t talk about the Anglo-Japanese alliance, when it comes to personal interests, no matter what alliance is useless. In this regard, the British Government is the most realistic.

To use the most popular phrase in the international media to describe it, “Those who dare to rely on Britain’s account must be a land power country”. If one wants to be a bit more specific, one can also add a Russian empire after it.

Up to now, only the Tsar’s government has been able to successfully renege on Britain’s debt and not be visited by the Royal Navy for a “friendly condolence”.

Including the countries of the Continental Union, now bankrupt and playing high, still no one said they are ready to renege on the debt. One by one, all the requests are: part of the loan interest relief, or a grace period to pay time.

People have backstage, and really no money, the British government is not good, the debtors can only accept debt restructuring in tears. At least to be able to recover costs, better than blood money.

Change the Japanese government do not want this treatment, the failure of the south strategy, the Russians did not move east, Japan’s value to Britain has fallen to a low point, not worth the British government to sell them face.

……

Naturally, Franz was unaware of the suffering faced by the Japanese government. Although the memories of his previous life had faded over time, it still didn’t stop him from looking at the Meiji government with displeasure.

The cost of the laborious expedition was too great, and a secret knock was still possible. What is more comforting is the Japanese government that suffered a social beating, and to this day thinks that it was the public relations of the Spanish government that played a role.

Since the Japanese misunderstanding, then let them misunderstand the good, do the hero behind the scenes on the good, out of the limelight to pull the hatred of things, Franz has always been to stay away from.

The next international mediation, Franz is no longer concerned. As long as the British government does not have water in the brain, Japan’s withdrawal from the South Seas is a foregone conclusion.

If the British government is not in its right mind and jumps out to support Japan, Franz will be even happier. As long as the incident expanded, it would be Britain versus the European Union.

Really become “eighteen vassals to discuss the Dong”, then there is no need to do anything, in less than five years, God Luo is the only hegemony of the world.

However, this kind of hegemony is not stable, as the Russian Empire, which is a good ally of Shenluo, may seize India; and the United States of America, which is far away from America, may also take the opportunity to annex Canada.

This is not a matter of 1+1=2; quantitative changes will also cause qualitative changes. Both Russia, which annexed India, and the United States of America, which annexed Canada, possessed the potential to become the hegemon of the world.

One-on-one Shen Luo is not even a wimp. The current Russian Empire, although there is a drop less internal conflict, but the price to pay is a significant reduction in population, and the numerical advantage of gray livestock no longer exists.

Even if you get India, with the efficiency of the Tsarist government bureaucrats, it will not be converted into national power in the short term.

The United States of America, known as the Chosen Nation, is now also a shrunken version, not only without the southern region and Alaska, but more importantly, the quality of the population has been drastically reduced, and racial tensions within the country have risen dramatically.

Unfortunately, the Virgin Mary is not popular now, the United States government rely on force to suppress the conflict, or send them a saint, what problems do not exist.

A single family of God Luo can be suppressed, if these two guys from the north and south of the sky join hands, things will not be so good to do.

It was clearly unrealistic to directly resort to violent beatings. A great war of this level, every time it erupted, it was a heavy blow to the Divine Luo Empire.

Especially since these guys were all big guys, they simply couldn’t be beaten to death with a single strike. France next door was an example of this, and before it had even come out of the trauma of the war, the voices clamoring for vengeance in the country began to rise.

Even though King Carlos has tried his best to suppress it, in a country like this where freedom is prized, it’s impossible to keep people from talking.

Hatred was something that would carry on, and really, if they fought all the way to world domination, it was expected that hatred would topple Shinra’s hegemony without waiting for Shinra itself to fall.

As long as one thought of Britain, France, Russia, and the United States or more countries coming together to take revenge, Franz felt his scalp tingle. Fighting all the way down, which was the road to hegemony, was clearly the road to hell of suicide.

Not only destroying themselves, but also dragging the entire human civilization to hell with them. It seems that the original time and space moustache is so dry, bullish and coaxing third empire soon became history in the flames of war.

Since we can’t go all the way to the A past, then Britannia, the hegemon, is better left alone for the time being. As long as the British people do not die on their own, it is not a big problem to support another ten or eight years.

God Luo just use this period of time to continue to practice hard internal strength, and then go over to take over after having an absolute strength advantage. Lest the strength is not good, be taken advantage of.

Right now, it’s better not to mess around and honestly deal with the economic crisis! If the European continent collapsed, no matter what the hegemony is “flowers in the mirror, the moon in the water” a touch collapse.

……

Prime Minister Karl: “Your Majesty, the list of the first batch of specially dispatched laborers has been finalized, coming from thirteen countries such as Sahara, Belgium, and Switzerland, with a total of 468,000 people, and are expected to board the ships and leave for overseas next week.

The recruitment of the second and third batch of laborers is also almost underway. The number of applicants is unexpectedly high, as of last week the number of applicants had exceeded 18 million, it seems that the governments of various countries have concealed the crisis.”

There is no way, originally only to solve the unemployment rate of the small brother domestic “labor dispatch program”, with the participation of other European countries, the scope of recruitment has been expanded to the entire European continent.

Don’t look at the number of recruiting applicants ratio is only 1:6, it seems not very much, any job fair in the latter half of the world can be added to the back of a zero.

The problem is that the base is large, the recruitment of three million laborers has 18 million people enrolled, even though some of them are working, but there are more unemployed people, because they do not want to go to the colony to work and did not sign up.

Analyzing the data, it can be ascertained that the unemployment rate in the European countries has far exceeded the information provided by the governments.

Now Franz somewhat understood why the economic summit progressed so quickly, such a high unemployment rate, the governments are sitting on a powder keg every day, the efficiency is not high.

Not to say that the Vienna government’s conditions are not excessive, even if the conditions are harsh, in order to maintain their own rule, they can only accept.

“Well!”

After a pause, Franz asked with concern, “Are the language teachers in place?”

The scope had expanded, and the original labor dispatch program had undergone a qualitative change. If it wasn’t for the fear of arousing the vigilance of the governments, Franz would have opened up recruitment a long time ago.

Attracting immigrants was secondary, the main purpose was to promote language and culture and expand the soft power of the empire.

Whether one wants to admit it or not, the most widely spoken language these days is English, followed by Spanish, as for Austrian it is not as widely spread as French.

Because of the historical legacy, the French language has the reputation of “aristocratic language”, so that the European aristocrats have run to learn French. Even with the decline of France, the language of European diplomacy is still French.

Language and culture is a thing, if people are not willing to learn, you can not force into their brains.

Overseas is a little bit better, because the defeat of France, God Luo eager to learn to save the survival of the learned people attraction soared, and even melon up to learn the wind of the Austrian language.

Continental Europe will not be able to, are old neighbors, who does not understand who ah?

Said God Luo’s fist is the biggest, we believe; to say that God Luo culture is more excellent, fool the ghost to go!

We can’t beat you in a martial arts fight, but we still won’t wimp out in a cultural fight. It doesn’t matter if it’s the divided Italy or the declining Greece, they all beat Shinra in terms of history and culture.

If not for the banner of the Roman heir, Franz himself is embarrassed to publicize his long history and culture. But this thing to take overseas to fool people is okay, in the European continent or do not make a fool of themselves.

Vienna government is not no efforts, but play art, the French and Italians obviously more professional.

As the saying goes, “the country is unfortunate poets fortunate”, now the country’s development is good, those who worry about the people’s art works naturally out of the country.

In contrast, the divided Italy and the defeated France provided the best stage for the literati to create. All kinds of works of art are now pouring out.

If you can’t compete with art, you can only play with technology. The economic crisis is the best opportunity to do so. Others may not learn, but anyone who goes to work in the overseas territories of Shinra must learn the Austrian language.

Whoever is in charge of the territory is in charge. Not only do you have to learn the language when you arrive, but you also have to change your living habits.

……

(End of chapter)