Chapter 1042: Bitter Spain
Chapter 1022: Bitter Spain
Madrid, Antonio, who had just ascended to the throne of Prime Minister, was currently surveying the report in his hands with a grave expression.
In recent years, Spain’s days are just like “Wang Xiaoyi New Year”, that is a year worse than a year.
Even in the recently concluded war against France won, recovered the Roussillon area, but also not able to reverse the decline of Spain’s downward slide.
There was no way around it, a war in the Philippines had exposed their weak nature. How dare they call themselves a great power when they couldn’t even defeat a backward indigenous country?
Sorry, Britain, Russia and Austria said that they could not afford to be called “Great Powers” together with such a weakling.
Even if the Philippine Islands were taken back by diplomatic means, it was based on a series of compromises and had nothing to do with “victory”.
Just take it out to fool the general public. The Navy won a draw, the Army was defeated, and in the end, mercenaries were used to save the day.
Failure is failure. Behind closed doors, Prime Minister Antonio still dares to admit it.
As a loser, it is natural to bear the aftermath of failure. After the war, Spain gained the title of “shame of the powers”.
In order not to follow along with the shame, the British, Russian and Austrian media, Spain has been kicked out of the ranks of the Great Powers.
If it’s just a loss of face, it’s not intolerable. Anyway, in recent years, Spain has been on the downhill, disgraceful place to go, everyone’s mental capacity has been greatly improved.
The trouble is that the Japanese are not willing to lose, even if they withdrew, but also did not forget to bury a nail in their hands.
According to the intelligence sent by the Expeditionary Force, the number of indigenous rebels currently active in the Philippine Islands has exceeded 200,000 people.
In terms of strength alone, the rebels outnumbered the Expeditionary Force. Obviously, the Philippine chaos will not end for a while.
“Before the Philippine chaos is over, the Cuban insurgency is following, and it is also a premeditated insurgency backed by international forces.
With the main force trapped in the Philippine Islands, the Spanish government was powerless in the face of the Cuban rebellion.
Fortunately, the governor of Cuba, who had a lot of experience in suppressing rebellions, acted decisively to enlist Hispanics on the island as soon as the rebellion broke out.
Together with the original colonial army, the total strength of Spanish troops in Cuba had now reached a staggering 200,000 men.
The number seems to be quite large, but this “200,000” is obviously the number of the old and weak, the real combat effectiveness of not more than a division.
Specific performance can be referred to the original time and space of the U.S.-West War. The Americans improvised an expeditionary force, coupled with the cooperation of the Cuban rebels, and after paying the price of triple-digit soldiers killed in action, won the victory.
Now, although there was no longer that American expeditionary force, the Cuban rebels had appeared.
Then, the Spanish government forces and the rebels in Cuba to play a “bird fight”, the scene is extremely touching.
It was a very touching scene.
In short, the face of a group of temporary convergence of the rabble, the Spanish government forces hard did not take advantage of. Instead, they were beaten by others to retreat, need to ask for help from the country.
If the timing is not right, Antonio truth in person to the front line to see, this “200,000” people of the counterinsurgency army in the end is the goods, and how many “empty pay”.
In any case, if the colonial government failed to perform, the Spanish government would have to take up the slack, and in any case would not be able to let Cuba become independent.
Prime Minister Antonio: “Count Junior, how far have we gotten in our diplomacy?”
The performance of the Spanish Foreign Ministry was not outstanding, only moderate, but everything depends on comparison.
Against the backdrop of bureaucrats from other government departments, the Foreign Ministry, which performed moderately well, was a breath of fresh air in the official world.
The previous Philippine war is proof of that. If the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not reacted quickly enough and acted in time to enlist the support of the European countries, it would not have been able to recover the Philippine Islands so smoothly.
Unfortunately, diplomacy is not omnipotent. Even if diplomats try their best, they can’t withstand the aftermath of the decline of national power.
Foreign Minister Junior: “Apart from the government of Vienna, which said it would help hold the British at bay, only the Russians were willing to support us diplomatically.
The other countries are unwilling to make a clear statement because they are unwilling to offend the British, and we have only managed to garner public opinion support.
Because there are so few European countries willing to support us, and the Vienna government is unwilling to go all out, the chances of our being able to gain direct support from the League are infinitely close to zero.”
It is human nature to bully.
If it is not their own bad luck, happened to meet can not be avoided; In exchange for other countries in the Union and the British against, they will not be easy to take a position.
Being able to get countries to provide support in public opinion is proof enough of the Foreign Office’s efforts.
It is a pity that European public opinion has limited influence on the British. It wouldn’t be John Bull if he didn’t get yelled at.
As for Russian and Austrian support, it was so-so. The Czarist government helped roar at best, and offered no substantive support at all.
Although the Vienna government promised to restrain the British, but this “restrain” is also full of artistry, the specific can be achieved to what extent, is still an unknown.
The biggest possibility is: as long as the British do not personally come to the scene, do not leave a clear handle, the Vienna government will pretend not to see anything.
Arms aid, that’s what arms dealers do. Who doesn’t have a few heartless arms dealers in their family, and that little bit of sewage is of no use at all in the international arena.
Prime Minister Antonio nodded and said with deep emotion, “It’s true that we can’t rely on anyone, in the end, we still need ourselves!”
“Relying on mountains will fall, relying on people will run, only ourselves are the most reliable.”
The Spaniards naturally knew this simple truth. Only that people always possess a fluke mentality.
The previous Philippine War was supported by allies to win, and now that Cuba is in trouble, the Spanish government naturally wants to replicate it all over again.
After all, this is the simplest, easiest, least costly and 100% victorious way.
Unfortunately, the world is cruel, the European countries are not charity. The Spanish government has not yet repaid the favors owed to it, and now it is no longer possible to do so.
Prime Minister Antonio asked, “How far has the situation on the front line developed, and is the program to suppress the rebellion ready?”
Since the allies couldn’t be relied on, they had to go on their own. As long as the British don’t come down, just dealing with the rebels, the Spanish government still has a few certainties.
Minister of War Nicoll: “The situation at the front is a mixed bag. The situation in the Philippines has improved, the expeditionary force has taken control of all the cities, and the rebels can only cower in the jungle and languish.
We have a perfect blockade plan in place, and without an influx of supplies, the rebels won’t be able to hold out for long.
The situation in Cuba is very bad, the rebels are gaining momentum faster than we expected, Governor Valeriano has sent five telegrams for help.
Although the War Department has made perfect plans for reinforcements, the main body of our army is still in the Philippine Islands suppressing the rebellion, and it is impossible to spare enough troops in a short time.
In order to suppress the Cuban rebellion as soon as possible and not to leave the British an opportunity to take advantage of it, the War Ministry proposes to recruit 50,000 mercenaries for the Cuban battlefield.”
There is no doubt that “insufficient troops” was obviously only an excuse. The Spanish forces committed to the Philippine Islands were also mainly mercenaries, with only 80,000 or so of their own troops, and still more than 100,000 troops at home.
Now that France was in decline, the Spanish had no enemies on the European continent, and the pressure on national defense was at its lowest.
Theoretically, drawing 50,000 troops from the country to suppress the rebellion should not present any problems.
Unfortunately, reality is not a “theory”, and the family knows its own business. Nominally, Spain does have a standing army of more than 200,000 troops, but this is only “nominally”.
Like most corrupt empires, the Spanish army was plagued by the problem of empty pay and indiscriminate recruitment.
The only troops with fighting ability were put into the Philippine battlefield, the remaining veterans, Nicole naturally did not dare to send to the front.
It just so happens that the front has already used mercenaries once, feeling better than his own army, Nicole naturally does not mind doing it again.
Anyway, the European continent also has the tradition of using mercenaries, only in recent times the scale of the war has expanded, Switzerland, the mercenary kingdom’s population is insufficient, unable to participate in the continental wars, mercenaries gradually faded out of people’s sight.
This is all a minor issue, without Swiss mercenaries, there are still French mercenaries.
Despite the fact that France’s youthful population was greatly reduced after the war, its poor domestic economy forced French youths to come out and make a living as mercenaries.
According to incomplete statistics, the Allied forces stationed in France in the last year have helped the Paris government to suppress 87 workers’ riots and 14 armed uprisings.
It can be said that France is now a large powder keg, just a little spark will explode. If the Allies had not put out the fire in time, there would have been an explosion.
It can be said that as long as there is money, there are now as many mercenaries as one wants. The French government can’t wait to send these destabilizing factors packing so that they can sleep soundly.
Prime Minister Antonio nodded, he was no perfectionist. In his opinion as long as he could solve the problem, whether it was sending his own regular army or recruiting mercenaries, there was no difference.
“Then let’s act as soon as possible, suppress the rebellion earlier so that we can focus on institutional …… development of the economy.”
The word “reform” has not yet been exported, Antonio swallowed back. Although Spain is in great need of institutional reform, this is clearly not the time to talk about reform.
It is imperative to suppress the colonial rebellion as soon as possible to dispel the enemy’s prying heart. At this time, to talk about such a sensitive topic as reform, obviously out of place.
Most importantly, the Spanish monarch was young, and the regent, the Queen Mother, was “neither opposed nor supportive” of reform.
Without the support of the royal family, it would be too much pressure for the government alone to push for top-down reforms.
Sigfried, the Minister of Finance, said seriously: “Mr. Prime Minister, the government has run out of money. We’ve been at war since 1891, and Spain is exhausted.”
For the Kingdom of Spain, which was declining like an old man, three consecutive years of war had drained the old-school empire of its reserves.
Fortunately, the war did not take place on home soil and with the help of allies, otherwise the “old” Spanish kingdom would have collapsed.
The country did not collapse, but the government’s finances did. Without the blood transfusion from the colonies, the old empire, which was heavily indebted, could not hold out any longer.
Antonio froze, then his face became ugly. Money wasn’t everything, but running out of money was everything.
After a little thought, Antonio slowly said: “Continue to borrow foreign debt! I’m sure the Austrians are ready, just waiting for us to come to the door.”
International loans these days are usually accompanied by a series of political strings attached. Many times the extra price that needs to be paid is far more than the interest on the explicit funds.
From this aspect, borrowing foreign debt is obviously not a good choice, but it is the only viable option for the Spanish government at the moment.
Antonio is a smart person, very clear now Spain’s economy is how fragile, any tax increase behavior may push the country into the abyss.
In contrast, the aftermath of borrowing foreign debt is much smaller. The Shen Luo Empire, as the dominant European landlord, has long since washed its hands of the shore.
Even if they want to take advantage of the fire, the government of Vienna will pay attention to the eating, and it is impossible to go too far, at least not to push Spain to the brink of extinction.
Colonial Minister Taboada added: “The problems we are facing now can be not only limited to financial, and military.
According to the intelligence gathered by the Colonial Ministry, there are other international forces involved behind the Cuban rebellion besides the British.
There are four international forces that have the power to provide support to the rebels, in addition to the British, there are the United States of America, the Allied Powers, and the Holy Roman Empire.
It remains to be seen whether one of the three is supporting the rebels, or two, or whether all three are secretly supporting them.
Of course, it’s also possible that the British are playing a suspicious game, trying to bring us off course and find someone to take the fall for them. Only now that they have been exposed, there seems to be no such need to do so.
The Colonial Ministry has already sent people to investigate, but the people we’ve bribed don’t have enough status among the rebels, so I’m afraid we won’t be able to figure out who else is behind this in a short period of time.
Not only Cuba, but also the Moroccan region has not been very stable lately. I’m worried that the enemy will turn to the Moroccans if they don’t get results in Cuba.”
With strength comes suspicion, and there are plenty of things in international politics that stab each other in the back. Even for allies, digging holes in each other is nothing new.
The bottom line is this: both the United States of America, the Confederate States, and the Holy Roman Empire have motives to put a finger on Spain.
The declining Kingdom of Spain, still holding a few rich colonies, is now a “child in the city to hold the golden brick”, want not to cause people to spy on it is difficult.
Foreign Minister Junior warned seriously: “Marquis, please stop your meaningless pursuit. It is the British, and only the British, who are planning the Cuban rebellion!”
There was no way around it, Spain was now incapable, of adding another enemy to its ranks.
Even if they found out who was behind it, they could only pretend to be deaf and dumb, and they even had to help their enemy cover it up in order not to cause trouble.
(End of chapter)