Chapter 603: Toughness.
Chapter 590 – Tough
London, after the news of the Ankara coup came through, Prime Minister Gerston knew things were going to be bad.
The problems of the Ottoman Empire simply can’t be solved by a change of government, no matter who comes to power, the first problem to face is to solve the refugee crisis and suppress the rebellion.
The Sultan’s government has failed to accomplish these two tasks, not just because they are corrupt and incompetent, but because they really can’t do it. A clever woman cannot cook without rice. It would have been the same for anyone else.
Prime Minister Gerston asked, “What is the minimum amount of money that the Ottoman Empire needs to invest in order to initially restore agricultural production?”
Marquis MacLean, the Foreign Minister, shook his head, “Your Excellency the Prime Minister, I’m afraid no one can answer you on this question. The Russians went too far, destroying every infrastructure they could before withdrawing their troops.
According to the information coming from the embassy, there is hardly a single intact building to be found in any of the areas that have been occupied by the Russians, who blew up all the buildings except for the churches.
Even the countryside was not spared; houses, farmland, bridges, and dams were bombed, and they even artificially blocked the rivers, reducing the farmland downstream to a swamp.
It is said that the Russians consumed tens of thousands of tons of explosives alone in order to wreak havoc, and almost all of the Russian-occupied areas were reduced to white land.
The Ottoman government’s plan to resume spring plowing failed completely under the Russian sabotage. According to the current situation, even by 1876, the Ottomans could at most restore half of the local agricultural production.
The Sudanese government did not have the financial resources to last that long, and had diverted most of its funds, including education funds, in order to provide relief for the refugees.
The coup d’état was triggered by the misappropriation of education funds by the Sudanese government. Now the problem is with the Ottoman Al-Shabaab.”
Prime Minister Gerston nodded, the Russo-Turkish hatred had a long history, and he was not surprised that the Russians had taken excessive means to retaliate.
Previous Russo-Turkish wars had been bloodier than this, and massacres of tens of thousands at a time were not surprising.
The previous did not appear to blow up farmland and rivers, not because the Russians are soft-hearted, mainly because industrial technology has not developed to this point now.
This time the logistical supplies were provided by Austria, the Russians did not need to save. Now to evacuate, the ship is still provided by Austria, the front of the big synthesized supplies hidden, this moment can not be hidden.
Food and other living materials can still be said to be captured booty, Austrian arsenal produced ammunition, in any case, can not be explained.
The Russians are also ruthless enough to vent all of this ammunition on the Asia Minor Peninsula. They blew up everything they could, except for giving God face not to blow up churches.
After the brainstorming, Prime Minister Gholston had a headache. The Russians had had their fun this time, and now where did the Ottoman Empire go from here.
To save, the price to be paid is too great; not to save, the Ottoman Empire will certainly be dragged down by the refugees, and then inevitably be annexed by Austria.
“What is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs going to do?”
Margrave McLean’s brows tightened as he answered with a difficult face, “This problem is not difficult to solve, at least for the Ottoman Empire. As long as they are ruthless enough, it is completely …… possible.”
The faces of the people changed greatly, the number of refugees in the Ottoman Empire was quite a lot, even if hundreds of thousands died this winter, that would still be at least two million people.
According to Marquis McLean’s plan, it was certainly a solution to the refugee crisis once and for all, and the losses brought to the Ottoman Empire were also disastrous.
However, the crowd did not object, being able to climb to this position, everyone was a strong-willed person, not so easily swayed by personal feelings.
What did the death or life of the Ottomans have to do with them? In an age where millions of people died of starvation every year all over the world, everyone’s sympathy had long since run out.
After wandering for two steps, Prime Minister Gerston: “This matter has nothing to do with us, everything is the choice of the Ottomans themselves.
What we need to do now is to provide them with a counter-insurgency fund to stabilize the situation in the Ottoman Empire as soon as possible, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will supervise their use.
At the same time, the Foreign Ministry should be prepared for the fact that once the Ottoman government takes action, it will surely be criticized by a thousand people. It doesn’t matter if international public opinion scolds them, only the Austrians can’t seize the opportunity to interfere in Ottoman internal affairs.”
This aspect of Prime Minister Gerston is still very assured, intelligence shows that Austria is encroaching on the Arabian Peninsula, without a few years of work simply can not be managed.
With the cautious style of the Vienna government, there is no digestion of the Arabian Peninsula before the short period of time will not engage in things.
……
Ankara, the Ottoman Youth Party, which has just gained power, has not yet had time to enjoy the thrill of power, but first fell into a daze.
The script opened the wrong way ah, normal circumstances after the overthrow of the corrupt government, under their leadership, the Ottoman Empire should not immediately realize the revival?
In reality, however, the opposite was true: after the overthrow of Abdul Aziz I, they were at a loss.
It was a coup d’état, not a revolution, so Al-Shabaab quickly took over the reins of power. Of course, it was inevitable that the government would include a group of conservative, religious people.
Politics always requires compromise, and if you refuse to share power, how can you gain the support of everyone?
Having taken power, the Al-Shabaab were lost. This is not a prosperous and strong empire, but a rotten empire that is full of holes and may disintegrate at any time.
As the leader of Al-Shabaab, Midhart, who had just taken over the reins of power, was soon dumbfounded. The struggle for power was put aside for now, and the problem of financial bankruptcy was imminent.
The overthrown rotten government was not rich either, perhaps many of its officials were fat, but it was still too insignificant for a country.
This was not the case after the release of the government’s administrative arrears, the purse strings had dried up again. The most money-consuming relief for refugees and the suppression of rebellions were still unfunded.
Now, Midhat finally realized the suffering of the Sudanese government. The government’s money is not enough to do anything.
“Britain and France how to say, willing to provide us with loans?”
Borrowing when there was no money was the most common practice in the Ottoman Empire. This era is the most like to issue loans is Britain and France, more than eighty percent of the world’s international loans, are issued by their two.
“Chancellor, the French refused our loan, and although the British didn’t refuse, they also made a condition that this loan could only be used to suppress the rebellion.
And they also proposed that we should solve the refugee crisis as soon as possible to prove the government’s ability to govern.” Foreign Minister Hadfao said bitterly
The refugee crisis is easy to solve, as long as there’s money, it’s enough. If there is a shortage of food, it can be procured from the two neighbors’ side, as much as they want.
Unfortunately, all the Ottoman Empire lacked the most was money, and now even if they wanted to take out a loan, the collateral was hard to find.
This was the pot of the previous government, in order to carry on the war, the Sultan’s government was trying its best to raise money, if not for the international loans, the previous government would not have had the money to relieve the refugees.
Unluckily for Midhat, it just so happened that the previous government spent all its money before it came to power and took over a mess.
Of course, if the previous government hadn’t run out of money, the coup wouldn’t have succeeded and he wouldn’t have been able to take over.
Midhart slammed the table, “How can we fix it? Millions of people are reaching out to us for food, and the food in the hands of the government will last for two months at most.
In such a short period of time, even if we make up for the spring plowing, we won’t be able to wait for the harvest. Besides, our farmland has been severely damaged, and most of it will not be able to return to cultivation within the year.
This year, we have a food deficit of upwards of 3.16 million tons, and we need at least 5 million tons of food to completely solve the refugee crisis before we can get out of the woods.”
The British data is not accurate, the Ottoman refugees are not only the original more than three million, there are also the later expelled back by Austria.
This number is increasing every day, in the repatriation of Ottomans to the country, the Vienna government is very well executed.
In addition to this, the civil war was also the main reason for the increase in refugees. In the course of suppressing the rebellion, the warring parties created another batch of refugees out of it.
Against this background, the total number of refugees increased, even though a lot of people died during the winter.
If someone counted, they would be surprised to find that the number of refugees in the Ottoman Empire had approached 30% of the total population, far exceeding the capacity of a normal country.
Hadfao hung his head and said, “The British suggested that we deport the people who had lost their livelihoods to Persia to alleviate the food crisis at home.
Alternatively, they could establish quarantine zones to divide the refugees and leave them to fend for themselves.”
Midhat was outright stunned, he had no idea that it could still be done. Whether it was deportation, or establishing a quarantine zone for refugees and leaving them to fend for themselves, it meant that millions of people would die as a result.
There was no essential difference between the two approaches than outright slaughter; the only difference was probably that one didn’t need to take the blame for butchery.
This was more than Midhart’s heart could accept, and having just ascended to the chancellor’s throne, he retained a shred of conscience.
Consistently boasting of being the savior of the Ottoman Empire, it was still very challenging to make him resolve to sacrifice millions of people now.
……
(End of chapter)