Chapter 589: The First Hundred and Forty-Sixth Chapter – Coercion and Enticement
Chapter 576: The First Hundred and Forty-Six Chapters Coercion and Enticement
Andrea’s speech was so touching that even he himself was moved. However there was no use, most of the people present were ordinary people with less great thoughts, instead they valued the immediate interests more.
The number of people over ten thousand had their IQ halved, and there were more than ten thousand people in the crowd outside. The people in front of them could hear Andrea’s speech, and when it reached the ears of the people behind them, it was naturally taken out of context and artfully processed.
Looking at the chaotic crowd, Andrea helplessly admitted: reasoning is impossible.
Unless he had the energy to do the thinking one by one, with his three-inch tongue, there was still a possibility of convincing the crowd. Obviously this was impossible, there were so many people outside that he simply couldn’t keep himself busy.
After hesitating for a while, Andrea finally made a decision, “Colonel order the soldiers to disperse the crowd!”
……
The facts proved that it was still the army that was more intimidating. Andrea’s laborious words failed to achieve his goal, and the army quickly dispersed the crowd as soon as they intervened.
The fact that the demonstration had dispersed did not mean that it was over. The army was able to maintain stability, that is, the Berlin government bought the soldiers in the first place.
For the vast majority of ordinary people, it is better to talk to them about ideas, the big picture, and reasoning than to talk about interests.
The Berlin government promised the soldiers to pay a large sum of money for settling down, and to arrange jobs for their families, which were not less favorable than their current jobs, and under the pacification of the officers, the heart of the army was stabilized at the first opportunity.
In fact, even if you want to chaos can not be chaotic, the Prussian army is the implementation of the change of location of the garrison, stationed in the Rhineland region of the majority of the soldiers are not local people.
In the case of not involving their own interests, reasoning is still effective. These soldiers might sympathize with the local people, but they would never violate orders because of it.
The same method Andrea can not use, Berlin government willing to pay money to buy the heart of the army, that is the limited number of troops, home in the Rhineland region soldiers are only tens of thousands of people, together with their families is only a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand people.
However, the number of ordinary civilians is not so little, the top of the limited allocation of relocation costs, it is impossible to do all the proper relocation.
Relocation on such a large scale cannot be accomplished by one or two people. Now, not only do we have to convince the general public, but we also have to convince the grassroots bureaucrats first.
Thinking of the fact that most of the grassroots public officials were locals, Andrea sighed helplessly, he himself was not willing to give up the Rheinland region, let alone these people.
Dragging his tired body into the conference room, he picked up a cup and took a sip of water to moisten his hoarse throat.
“Everyone sit down, you all know the matter. The Berlin government has made its decision, the sale of the Rhineland region is final.
Everyone is well aware that the French have always been eyeing us, and the Rhineland region has long had to endure strong military pressure.
The current international situation makes it very clear that our greatest enemy is the Russians. While fighting against the Russian Empire, we simply can’t keep the Rhineland.
Instead of letting the Rhineland fall into the hands of the French, it would be better to sell it to Belgium or the German Confederation, where it would at least still be in the hands of the German nation.”
Speaking of this, Andrea even squeezed out a few tears.
“I know this result is hard for everyone to accept. Frankly, I can’t accept it either. But for the sake of this country, we have no choice.
The Russo-Prussian War may break out at any time, and once the war starts we simply won’t be able to afford to divide our forces to defend the Rhineland, and the fall is a foregone conclusion.
Britain, France and Austria are already allied, Britain and Austria do not want to see the French annexation of the Rhineland, but they will not turn their backs on the French just because of the Rhineland.
Now the British and Austrians let us sell the Rhineland region, certainly have the meaning of suppressing us, but more still to stop the French to continue to expand into Central Europe.
The Berlin government has no choice; by rejecting Britain and Austria, we will have to face the French pressure alone.”
The crowd bowed their heads and protested with silence. Andrea’s heart sank, everyone understands the axioms, but when it comes to self-interest, the need to make sacrifices is not so easy.
The Berlin government made a promise that they would be properly resettled. In fact, it is a blank check, a carrot, where the Kingdom of Prussia so many positions to accommodate them?
Even if they can be resettled, it will be assigned to the poor countryside where there is a lack of officials, how can they compare to the prosperity of the Ruhr area.
In addition to the interests, it is difficult to leave the homeland is also an important factor. Not everyone was willing to toss and turn, and many of those who were unhappy with the Berlin government would have pulled back at this time.
Both Belgium and the German Federal Empire were once part of the Holy Roman Empire. Ethnically and culturally traditional, everyone belonged to their own people. It is not unacceptable to turn around and change hosts.
Had he not already been in a high position, Andrea would have thought the same way. Don’t look at the Kingdom of Prussia is more powerful, in fact, the living standard of the Prussian people is still the lowest among several German countries.
The high military expenses crowded out the funds that should have been used for people’s livelihood. Because of the debt, the Prussian people had to bear high taxes.
For many, as long as the ruler was still one of their own, could protect everyone’s interests, and would not be discriminated against politically, then why bother to follow the Kingdom of Prussia into the black?
The rise of nationalism has affected many people. The Kingdom of Prussia has been playing with de-Germanization over the years, but the Rhineland, which is surrounded by German states, is the least affected.
The “Greater Prussian Ideology” is actually a variation of the idea of German unification, only the places to be unified are different, but the cultural traditions are still the same.
Austria dared to shout the slogan of unification of the German region, that is based on the strength, even if the Vienna government does not shout, the vigilance of the countries will not be weakened.
Changed the Kingdom of Prussia is not the same, Berlin government if you do not shift the goalposts, choose and Austria’s German unification strategy is the same, who knows in the end will not be annexed by Austria with political means?
As many people know, the Habsburg dynasty’s military capability was not very good, and the talent of the successive imperial temples were all ordered on political diplomacy.
Turning to the history books to know, the Habsburg dynasty almost every expansion, are political diplomacy success, on the contrary, the use of force to open up the territory of the war is very little.
For other European countries, Austria’s threat was no greater than that of France, which was known for its force; but for the countries of the German region, after the rise of nationalism, the greatest threat became Austria, which excelled in political diplomacy.
The top level of the government knew what was going on, but the people at the bottom couldn’t think that much, including most of the grassroots officials who didn’t have such a far-reaching vision.
No matter how good Andrea’s words sounded, the fact that the abandonment of the Rhineland region had harmed their interests could not be changed.
Patriotic thinking everyone has, it is difficult to say which country is loved.
Including now there were idealists within the Kingdom of Prussia who believed that the German Confederation should unite and build a powerful empire to dominate the world.
The Committee for German Unity, which Franz trumped up, laid the theoretical foundations for this idea. Under its umbrella, there was also the German Unity Journal, which spread the idea of great unity to the German region.
This kind of newspaper was naturally forbidden to be spread by the Berlin government. The newspaper’s main office was in Frankfurt, which was not under the control of the Berlin government, and it was still not uncommon for a few newspapers to be secretly chucked over.
In any case, the world is never short of idealists. The more the government banned it, the more interested middle-aged teenagers there were.
Sometimes data can be deceiving, according to the propaganda of the German Unification Organization, as soon as the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Federal Empire and the New Holy Roman Empire merged, the great united German Empire would immediately become the world’s first empire.
On paper it looked like that, but in reality the politicians knew that it was impossible. If they did merge, the new empire would not become stronger, but would first be caught in a situation of internal and external conflict.
With internal power struggles and external hostility from European countries, there is a 99% or more chance that the empire will be beaten up by everyone and then fall apart.
In any case, the idealists believed in it, and these people expressed similar views from time to time, which in turn influenced a lot of people, and a lot of the population thought that the German states were their own people.
This was very detrimental to the relocation effort, as it was when Silesia was relocated and a number of people chose to stay.
The situation in the Ruhr area was still more serious, many local capitalists could not leave even if they wanted to, plant and machinery could be moved, but industrial raw materials could not be moved.
Among them, the steel enterprise industry is the most obvious, not every region has such a unique conditions. For their own interests, they can only stay.
These people refuse to go, naturally, will also retain workers, technicians to stay, otherwise who give them work?
As the region with the strongest bourgeoisie in the Kingdom of Prussia, wanting to relocate is not as simple as saying. Andrea had already felt the pressure, and looking at the reaction of this group of people under him, he knew that things were in trouble.
Immediately, he slammed the table and questioned, ”Why don’t you say anything? Normally you are not all very capable, to the critical moment one by one are mute?”
An old man placed the cup of water in his hand on the table and replied in a bad mood, “Your Excellency the Mayor, what do you want us to say? As a group of abandoned people, are we not even qualified to be silent?”
The Ruhr district was the largest industrial area in the Kingdom of Prussia, and as the administrator of the Ruhr district, Andrea was also the mayor of Bottrop.
“Mr. Andrea, I know that the government has harmed your interests with this decision, but for the sake of this country, we have no choice.
Time is now running out, and I don’t care if you want to get through, you have to give me the spirit to fulfill the tasks deployed in the country perfectly.
The Berlin government has ordered that the entire Rhineland will enter a state of military control. Your task is to do the ideological work of everyone and organize the orderly evacuation of the relevant people.
Anyone who is not working properly will be punished for treason. Am I kidding? You can try.
The first to complete the relocation will be promoted to two ranks and rewarded with 500,000 marks in cash.
I’ve made it clear to you. What you choose is up to you.
By the way, the families of government officials are the first to be evacuated. If you want to run away, then do it as soon as possible, it will be too late.”
Doing ideological work didn’t exist, Andrea didn’t think that he could convince this group of official veterans, the most effective way was still coercion.
Sending the bureaucrats’ families away first and cutting off their retreat was the brilliant plan that Andrea came up with.
Facts proved to be effective, after hearing this result, the silent crowd could no longer sit still.
“Escape”, don’t kid yourself. Immediately military martial law, dragging the family can run to where? Believe it or not just go out, will be used as a typical to make an example of.
A middle-aged man who reacted quickly immediately took a stand and said: “Mr. Mayor, it’s understandable that the people don’t understand the government’s painstaking efforts to give up the Rhineland region.
As government public officials, we should take the lead. I propose that we all go back and mobilize our relatives to leave first; with someone taking the lead, the work behind us should be better.”
Changing faces quickly is a basic skill for bureaucrats. If you don’t have this ability, how can you climb up the ladder?
It was everyone’s instinct to weigh the pros and cons, and since they were already destined to be tied to the chariot of the Kingdom of Prussia, it was better to find a way to gain political capital for themselves.
……
(End of chapter)