Chapter 547: Ambition in Existence

  Chapter 535 – Ambition in Existence

Vienna government bulletin board, posted a surprising recruitment information. It’s not surprising that the colonial government recruits public employees, it’s done every year, the strangeness lies in the content of the above.

It is human nature to look at things, and every time the bulletin board is updated, it attracts a lot of people. There wasn’t much entertainment in this era, and discussing gossip was part of everyone’s fun.

Gathering of people although more, but the scene is not at all chaotic, everyone consciously abide by the rules, there is no flurry of disturbances, bumps and bruises.

So many people, obviously it is impossible to see the content on the bulletin board at the same time, the people inside have read out the content on the bulletin.

“The Colonial Government of South Africa has entrusted the Austrian Department of Organization with the announcement of the recruitment of public officials, a total of 4,800 persons, including 1,000 government employees and 3,800 police officers.

Conditions of application: 1. It is necessary to be an Austrian citizen, who is in good health, of sound limbs, and without any criminal record; 2. He has received a full compulsory education and has passed all his schoolwork above the passing line; 3. He is capable of hard work and enduring hardship, and has a minimum service of eight years.

Note: apply for police positions, it is necessary to have a certain military quality, at least received reserve training, retired officers and soldiers are preferred. Age below 30 years old, officers can be relaxed to 40 years old.

Treatment: salary doubled on the basis of the average level of the same position in the country, welfare benefits with reference to the Vienna standards.”

Salary treatment aside for now, the conditions in the colony were harsh, and there was always the possibility of danger, so the salary was naturally higher than in the country.

The problem is in the application conditions, not too high, but too low. According to the above standards, more than ninety percent of Austrian youth of age are eligible.

If in the mainland, with the treatment given above, the final restriction must be to start university, with war service, or noble status, usually one of the three can be.

Colonies naturally can’t be so demanding, but usually also start with a secondary school degree, or a good retired officer or soldier as a threshold.

This time there was almost no restriction, but of course it wasn’t worth the surprise, the less restriction there was the more applicants there were, and in the end the competition increased instead.

Poor conditions no one to go? That’s because the price you give is not high enough, as long as you are willing to drop money, how can no one?

According to this standard recruitment, not to mention 4800 people, even if it is 4.8 million people, Austria can easily make enough.

Of course, not so many were willing to go to the African continent. The colonial government of South Africa lowered the standard of recruitment, mainly due to the influence of the gold rush.

In order to ensure the stability of the administrative system, restrictions were set, and once a contract was signed, it was mandatory to serve in the army, and could not be separated from service before the expiration of the term.

This will certainly dissuade many people. Africa is different from the mainland, in case the conditions in the assigned area are harsh, and it is not possible to leave early, most people can’t stand it.

After hearing the restrictions, murmurs continued to ring out. Most of the people were just watching and had little interest in this recruitment test.

Similarly, there were also people whose eyes lit up and wanted to try their luck. In this era, the worse the conditions, the better the chances.

The colonial government was not stupid, and would not set up an administration where there was no value. In recent years, Austrian Africa has been developing very fast, and many poor villages have jumped into new cities.

With every major development, a group of lucky people rose with it. Ordinary people don’t have many opportunities to enter the ruling class, and graduating from secondary school is only the minimum standard for public service recruitment in the country.

For most people who have just completed compulsory education, this is still out of reach. Geniuses will always be in the minority, and ordinary people who want to go further will have to rely on a certain amount of luck in addition to hard work.

Stevie was one of them, one of those who couldn’t be found if thrown on the street. Born from an ordinary working family, he did well in school but was not able to enter secondary school, and entered the factory to work at the end of his compulsory education.

Day in and day out work, let the fledgling Stevie very uncomfortable. However, reality does not allow him to be capricious, every day honestly to and from work.

When he heard the recruitment conditions, Stevie’s eyes lit up. However, he did not venture to squeeze in, long-term cultivated discipline, the Austrian people have been accustomed to queuing.

In front of the people who read the announcement, consciously backed out, behind and in order to fill in, the scene is well organized.

This is one of the results of compulsory education, from the first day of enrollment, we must learn to observe order, so many years have passed, everyone has developed the good habit of observing order.

Time rushed by, and soon it was Stevie’s turn. After carefully reading through the announcement and making sure nothing was missing, Stevie’s heart was unsettled.

Disliking the harsh conditions of the African continent? Sorry, Stevie wasn’t qualified for that. As a member of the general public, it was not easy to have an opportunity, so what qualification was there to pick and choose?

The conditions in the homeland are indeed good, but there is no advantage for the common man Stevie. The best way out of staying in the country was to hone his skills and advance from ordinary worker to skilled worker, it was too difficult to get into management.

Want to get ahead, the best opportunity he has missed. From the moment he failed to get promoted, Stevie was doomed to struggle for three meals a day.

It was complete bullshit to talk about development when you had to struggle for survival every day. Even though he was now on the cusp of the second industrial revolution, it had nothing to do with Stevie.

No capital, no connections, and no ability, even if he saw the opportunity, there was no way to join and utilize it.

There are a few lucky people who rise to prominence by invention every year, but if you look at Austria as a whole, the chance is only one in ten million.

Many young people who were not willing to be left alone chose to take the biggest gamble of their lives and ventured to the colonies.

Stevie was prepared to do the same, only to be prevented from doing so by his parents. The family was not well off, but they were able to get by, and naturally they didn’t want him to go out and risk his life.

These days the danger of simply immigrating to a colony to make a living is no longer high, but if you want to get rich, you still need to fight with your life.

The mortality rate of adventurers has never been low, every year in Austria there are countless adventurers fell in the halfway to get rich, but there are not many who really get rich in one day, most people just earn more than ordinary people.

There was no way around it, the golden age of colonization was over. Nowadays, if you want to expand a colony, the difficulty has increased too much compared to the past.

Unless it was a poor countryside, the vast majority of the rich lands were owned. The kind of land that couldn’t even recover the cost of ruling, even if it was turned into a colony, there was no need to think about getting a return, the reality was so cruel.

Stevie took this recruitment as an opportunity to turn the tables, even if the conditions were harsh and there was little room for advancement, it was still better than continuing to work at the factory, at least in terms of salary.

There are a lot of people who harbor dreams, but not many of them succeed. For ordinary people, it was very difficult to get a chance in any era.

……

At the Vienna Palace, the Habsburg family, immersed in joy, was holding a banquet. Perhaps it was the fact that he was going to be a father, and Massimiliano was in much better spirits.

Franz was absent, the Russians were pressing for a move with Austria, and he had a lot to deal with.

War is never child’s play, and any lord who takes it lightly ends up with no good results.

The Russians had many enemies, all the way from the West to the East all over the place. Wanting to join forces with Austria, then the target was self-evident, Prussia, Poland, or the Ottoman Empire.

This multiple choice question is not so easy to do, one has to weigh the pros and cons, and synthesize the impact it would have on the international situation.

Franz ruled out the Kingdom of Prussia in the first place, but he wanted to look good. In any case, the Kingdom of Prussia also belonged to the German nation, collusion with outsiders against fellow countrymen, the public opinion of that would not be easy to pass.

If he did, Franz’s reputation in Germany would be ruined. The nationalists would not approve of such a government, and the Prussians would not admit defeat.

This was sort of the aftermath of nationalism, which Franz had utilized when establishing the new Shinra Empire, and now naturally had to suffer the consequences.

Moreover, the strategic location of the Kingdom of Prussia was too bad, with enemies on all sides and no danger to defend. In order to occupy the Kingdom of Prussia, one must first be prepared to have enemies all over the world.

Unfortunately, Franz was not prepared to be the enemy of the whole world. As a member of the vested interests of the world order, Austria had no need to challenge the world order.

Poland and the Ottoman Empire were left to weigh the pros and cons, and he had to be wary of being dragged down by the Russians into a continental conflagration.

Restricted by national strength and transportation, the great powers might not be able to fight a war of extermination between them in this era, but sinking down because of the war could still happen.

Inside the conference room, Franz stared at the world map on the wall, turned his back to the crowd and asked, “The Russians want to join forces with us, what do you think?”

There was no mistaking that Russia and Austria were allies, but this alliance did not include joining forces for expansion. The strategic deal in front of them was completed by both sides.

If you want to continue the cooperation, you definitely need to communicate. Otherwise it would be like during the Russo-Prussian War, when the Russians started the war and Austria was happily paddling on the side.

Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “Your Majesty, now that the situation in Europe has hardly stabilized, once we start a war, it will be difficult for us to control the scale of the war.

From the point of view of interest, whether we go after the Ottoman Empire or Poland now, the returns we can get are very limited.

If we attack the Kingdom of Poland, the Prussians are bound to get involved. If Britain and France persist in supporting Poland, the final enemy is likely to evolve into Britain, France and Prussia.

Even if the French need to digest the Italian regions and won’t take military action, then in the end it will just be a repeat of the pattern of us and Prussia and Russia dividing up Poland together.

Frankly, I don’t think there’s anything about the Kingdom of Poland that we should value, and even if there is something to be gained, it’s just icing on the cake. The only thing it would probably do is further the Prussian-Russian conflict.

There’s not much to be gained by taking on the Ottoman Empire. Unless we team up with the Russians to kill them all at once, the benefits that can be divided up are destined to be very limited.

It’s almost impossible to make it that far; the Ottoman Empire is still a great power, and the nations of Europe won’t sit idly by while we carve it up.

The Russian Empire now no longer has the hegemony it once had, and I’m afraid that in the face of intervention from the European countries, the final pressure will fall on our heads.”

There is no doubt that Weissenberg was against provoking a war now. Not only him, but many in the Vienna government did not want to start a war at this time, including Franz.

It was just that in many cases it was not possible to solve the problem by not wanting to. If Austria had not moved, many people would not have been able to sleep.

It is not possible to say: the Vienna government is peace-loving and has no ambitions for Europe, so everyone can sleep in peace.

Franz himself did not believe this. The definition of “ambition” is very vague, and often strength is ambition. As long as you have strength, you have ambition in the eyes of the outside world, which is beyond your control.

(End of chapter)