Chapter 244: A Terrible Disease

  Chapter 238 – Terrible Disease

Versailles Palace

Foreign Minister Auvergne said: “Your Majesty, the Minister of the New Holy Roman Empire in Paris sent us a diplomatic note, they proposed that in the Greek issue, our two countries to act jointly.

It looks like the government in Vienna is worried that the British will take the opportunity to annex the Kingdom of Greece and threaten their interests.”

The population of Greece in this era was just over a million, and after going through this war, Greece had suffered a severe loss of young men within the country.

If the British were interested in turning the Kingdom of Greece into their colony, this would not be very difficult.

The annexation of Greece could bring the British a great deal of strategic benefits, not only blocking the Russians’ access to the Mediterranean Sea, but also increasing their power in the Near East.

This situation was likewise of great concern to the government in Paris. The cake of the Near East is so big, if the British take more, it is bound to squeeze their interests in the region.

Napoleon III thought about it and said, “The annexation of the Kingdom of Greece by the British is very unfavorable to our Near Eastern strategy, send someone to talk to the Austrians, and as long as everyone’s conflict of interest is not serious, they will act jointly with them.”

Alone against the British, Napoleon III was still a wimp, but with Austria he was fearless. In this era, the gap between the strength of the four countries of Britain, France, Russia and Austria has not been pulled apart, and even if the British have the advantage, it is not possible to do one against two.

Common interests will always be the basis for cooperation, France and the new Holy Roman Empire there is a struggle for continental hegemony, it is reasonable to say that the two sides should be contradictory.

But now the continental hegemony is still the Russians, before the fall of the woolly bear, both countries are only substitute players, not yet to the time to turn the other cheek.

Affected by the war against France, France’s every move on the European continent will be closely watched by everyone.

This background, France in the European continent, any foreign expansion action, may be wrongly interpreted by the outside world, by everyone’s joint boycott, the Paris government at this time had to do a low-profile.

The New Holy Roman Empire was likewise biding its time. Even though Austria had been developing for more than four years in the hands of Franz, this development only allowed Austria to keep pace with the times and did not create an advantage over the countries.

After the annexation of the South German region, the newly established New Holy Roman Empire entered a period of internal consolidation and did not have the energy to get things going in the short term, Franz did not have a plan to compete for continental hegemony at this time.

Both families were peaceful, and the Franco-Austrian conflict naturally did not reach the point of ignition, which undoubtedly created favorable conditions for the next cooperation.

Interior Minister Pessini analyzed: ”Your Majesty, I am afraid that the Austrians’ purpose is not so simple.

According to what we know, ever since the failure of the unification of the German region, the call for the opening of overseas colonies has been rising within the Vienna government.

Now that the situation on the European continent has stabilized, the Austrians’ path to unify the German region has been broken, and Russia and Austria on the Balkan Peninsula should have already reached an agreement.

Regardless of the end of the Near East War, the Austrians reached the limit of their expansion on the European continent. Even the benefits they gained in the Balkans, whether they can eat it in the end is a question mark.

Against this background, the Austrians were likely to abandon the state policy of the Metternich era and restart their overseas colonization strategy.

It is necessary for us to prepare in advance for the entrance of a new rival in the future.”

It was only a short time ago that the Parisian government had determined its next state policy – to temporarily abandon expansion on the European continent and concentrate on developing overseas colonies.

Now that Austria was joining in the overseas colonization activities, it was natural for the French to be wary.

Now is still the age of sails, the countries naval technology has not yet pulled apart epoch-making distance, there is the bottom of the European powers want to explode the navy, the difficulty is not yet to the point of despair.

Of course, this is not to say that Austria joined the overseas colonization, the French are afraid. Quite the contrary, in overseas colonization on the French to Austria occupies an absolute advantage.

But the overseas colonization competitors, not only only a Austria, everyone has a lot of rivals, usually everyone fighting for colonies or mutual restraint.

As long as it is not the core interests of the competition, basically only in a certain region of the power to play, rarely will be all out to fight.

If they were to start a fight at the drop of a hat, then it would be winner takes all. Obviously this is impossible, there are so many competitors, suppress one, there are still new countries popping up.

If you are busy suppressing your rivals, you won’t have the energy to open up colonies. Colonial expansion also has a limit, blind expansion is likely to lose the bottom of the sky.

Not all lands have the value of colonization; even in the same area, the final benefits generated by the rule of different countries are not the same.

Colonies with no strategic value and average economic value usually go to whoever occupies them first; if the strategic value is high and the benefits are abundant, then a lot of fights will naturally be inevitable.

After the middle of the 19th century, there were disputes between countries over overseas colonies, but there were very few wars between colonial empires over colonies.

The reason was that the most fertile land had already been divided up and the remaining land was not worth waging war over. In the final analysis, we are all in it for the benefit, no one will do a business that will lose money.

After a few moments of contemplation, Napoleon III confidently said: “For us, this should be a good thing, the Austrians opened overseas colonization, is bound to increase the development of naval forces.

In this way, the military pressure on our mainland will be much smaller. Compared to the Austrians, our advantage at sea can be much greater than on land.

Because of its geographical location, the Austrians were at a natural strategic disadvantage in the fight for overseas colonies.

Unless just in the Mediterranean Sea to the African continent, to go to other areas of development, they have to pass under our eyes, but also from the eyes of the British.

The more power they invest overseas, the more they will not dare to roll over with us diplomatically in the future, or we can always snap their necks.”

After saying that, Napoleon III looked dark. Austria’s situation was indeed as he said, opening up overseas colonies was at a disadvantage, exposing its weaknesses to them.

However, the British who held the Straits of Gibraltar, how could they not be stuck in their necks? In the event of a war between the two countries, the British can always split the French navy in two, so that they can not take care of the head and tail.

Why did the Austrian government give up on opening up colonies overseas, was it really because they were not interested in the benefits that colonies brought?

Obviously not, we all know that overseas colonization can bring rich benefits. But for overseas colonization, Austria’s geographical location was too pitiful, and they suffered in the process of overseas colonization.

Did not develop and grow okay, with the strength of Austria, the strategic value of the general, and the economic value of the general colonization can be maintained, once encountered the fat meat, it is certainly not to grab the British and French.

Just for a few pieces of strategic value is not high, the economic value is not high colonies, on the investment of a large number of financial resources to develop the navy, in the view of the previous Austrian government, such payment and return is not proportional.

However, times are changing, with the development of industrialization, the overseas colonies, which used to look like chicken ribs, once again showed their value.

Don’t look at Austria’s geographic location seems to lose out, but Franz knows clearly, with the development of naval technology, this weakness in the future will become smaller and smaller.

In the age of sail warships, Austria’s overseas colonization was thousands of nautical miles farther than Britain and France, which was very fatal and meant a double increase in cost and risk.

However, with the advent of the ironclad era and the use of steam engines on warships, the distance problem was being gradually solved.

Especially after the opening of the Suez Canal, Austria’s voyage out of the Mediterranean into the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans would be drastically reduced, and safety would be greatly increased.

This was one of the reasons why the Vienna government eased relations with France, and the digging of a canal to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea had already been mentioned by Franz.

This needs to cooperate with the French to be able to complete, Austria’s voice in Egypt is still too low, even after Franz succeeded to the throne to strengthen the penetration of this region, but also not possible to catch up in a short period of time.

……

The Crimean Peninsula, Britain, France and Russia fought a terrible war. The casualties on the battlefield were still within the reach of all parties.

But the humid climate, the great variety of small insects, and the ferocious infestation of schistosomes, which brought about the spread of disease and caused a large number of non-combatant attrition to occur, were intolerable.

By the spring of 1854, the number of non-combat attrition in the Allied armies, for the first time, exceeded the number of casualties on the battlefield. The Russians, of course, were not immune, but they were better adapted to the local climate than the Allied forces and suffered relatively fewer casualties.

The Russian commander-in-chief, Fitzroy Somerset, never dreamed that it was not the arrival of new equipment that leveled the casualty ratio between the enemy and the enemy, but rather the disease that helped.

Of course, he hadn’t had the effort to focus on that. Now Fitzroy Somerset was also suffering from a large number of sick soldiers in the Russian army, and the cruel reality of the lack of medical care and medication made it impossible to do anything about it.

If only he had known the miserable state of the allied forces, it was expected that Fitzroy Somerset would have been in a much better mood, and he wouldn’t have minded letting the Russians on the island die with the enemy if possible.

This war has been a matter of the national destiny of the Russian Empire. The war had gone so far that more than three hundred thousand Russian soldiers had fallen. On the Crimean Peninsula alone, the number of Russian casualties exceeded seventy thousand.

A middle-aged officer reported back, “Your Excellency the Commander, the enemy has recently slowed down the intensity of their attacks. According to the accounts of the prisoners we’ve captured, a large number of soldiers on the enemy side have fallen ill, said to have contracted wind chill, dysentery, and syphilis.”

“Syphilis?” Fitzroy Somerset queried

“Yes, Your Excellency the Commander, it is syphilis!” The middle-aged officer replied affirmatively

Receiving this answer, Fitzroy Somerset didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. Recreational activities on the Crimean Peninsula were very few except for war.

Gambling, tobacco, alcohol and women were the soldiers’ favorites.

In addition to tobacco and alcohol, the remaining activities of the Russian soldiers are rarely participated in, there is no way, who let the Russian soldiers are poor? No money naturally can’t afford to play, play less the chances of contracting a disease are naturally smaller.

Opposite the British and French allied forces are much better, people are paid, there is a market demand will naturally produce a market, service industry in the allied forces in the business is booming.

They are all in the battlefield, after today, do not know if there is no tomorrow’s Lord, naturally want to have fun in time!

Due to the lack of attention to personal hygiene, I do not know which unlucky person was infected with syphilis, and then through the service industry quickly spread throughout the army.

(Note: the Crimean War killed more than 10,000 people due to syphilis.)

There was no effective treatment for syphilis in this era. The most reliable was to take antibiotics when newly infected, but unfortunately penicillin was still lying around in Franz’s lab, and it was a long way from being commercially available.

Since there was no drug, it was a case of just letting nature take its course and simmer! Anyway, the normal mortality rate of syphilis is only about twenty percent, and those who are lucky will most likely be able to fight it off.

Considering the terrible environment in the barracks and the soldiers’ lack of attention to personal hygiene, this mortality rate may probably go up further.

This is a small problem, wind chill and dysentery can also kill people, the mortality rate is not low. It’s all death anyway, what disease isn’t the same?

The Russians weren’t the only ones who lacked medicine, the Allied forces were in a similar situation. The situation of the British army was even worse, with a confusing logistical system, and most of the soldiers didn’t know where the field hospitals were.

When they arrived at the hospitals, they were not necessarily useful, and the number of doctors was too small to cater to everyone. Unless they were officers, ordinary soldiers did not want to get good treatment without stuffing red envelopes.

Many of the medicines for treatment required soldiers to bribe the quartermaster to get them, or you didn’t even know where to put them.

In case you find out that the medicine and the hospital are miles apart, don’t be surprised and don’t panic, this is just normal operation, even if they are more than ten kilometers apart it is not an accident.

The bureaucrats of the machinery, followed the rules exactly, and in many cases the field hospitals moved with the army, and the drug stores were stranded in the rear. All the procedures had to be gone through before the move could take place.

As a joke, a transport ship, the Herald, brought more than 150 tons of vegetables to Balaklava, but the Quartermaster’s Department suddenly found out that the ship had incomplete paperwork and forbade it from disembarking with the supplies it was carrying.

According to the regulations, the ship had to go back to London to complete the formalities before the supplies could be registered in the warehouse. Eventually the formalities were completed and the 150 tons of vegetables rotted and spoiled.

In theory, they should be scrapped, right? As a result, the bureaucrats of the machinery directly put these materials into the warehouse, and then issued to the troops.

The consequences were predictable, and historically, in post-war statistics, the British Logistics Department caused far more damage to the Expeditionary Force than the Russians.

Don’t get hung up on the issue of calling Austria and the New Holy Roman Empire, just like the Kingdom of Netherland was made the Netherlands, there is nothing wrong with continuing to call Austria.

(End of chapter)