Chapter 787: Troublesome Matters
Chapter 770 – Trouble
The Ottoman Empire’s base was mainly concentrated in the Asia Minor Peninsula, and the Sultan’s government’s control over other areas was obviously much lower.
Especially by the anti-Turkish alliance cut off the Sudanese government and local links, control is even more faded.
Loyalists were only a minority, and in front of the cruel reality, the weakness of human nature was exposed.
Seeing that the Ottoman government had lost its power, those who were not willing to stay and be buried with the empire began to look for a way out.
Baghdad was just the beginning, after Austria marched into the Two Rivers Valley, there were numerous cases of people abandoning their cities and fleeing.
People are blindly obedient, see the powerful lords have run away, the ordinary people naturally scramble to follow suit, a time the Persian borders are overcrowded.
……
Baghdad, Middle East Theater Temporary Command
Admiral Morquez asked with concern, “Dennis, how many people left in total?”
Dennis’s middle-aged officer replied, “In the Baghdad area, about 120,000 people left, and about half a million or so in the entire Two Rivers Valley.”
Admiral Morquez frowned, “Not enough, the number of people leaving is still too few. The fighting in the Two Rivers Basin is basically over, what’s left is only sporadic resistance.
The local population is more than three million, even if it’s because of the war, there are at least two to three million, minus the five hundred thousand or so that left, there are still one million, seven hundred and eighty thousand left.
To relocate so many people in the future would inevitably cost a huge amount of money, and it was best to let them leave of their own accord.
Put out the word that we are going to implement the Land Fallow Law, and that the cultivation of grain and livestock will be prohibited in the two river basins for the next twenty years.”
True news is often the most believable.
Those who were a little better informed knew that Austria had implemented the Land Fallow Law after occupying the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Arabian Peninsula.
Now all but a few cities there are overgrown with weeds and bushes, and the interior is basically deserted for thousands of miles.
“Yes, Your Excellency the Commander!” Major General Dennis replied
After hesitating for a moment, Dennis still voiced the doubt in his heart, “Your Excellency the Commander, leaving them behind to create wealth, we can immediately collect taxes, so why must the population be relocated away?”
In the eyes of many, the Vienna government’s Land Fallow Law was all a fool’s errand, and had no substantial value other than laboring the people and hurting their finances.
It was not yet fashionable to protect the environment, and no one raised any objections in front of it, and that concerned Jerusalem. The Holy Land is getting buried in the sand, and it really doesn’t seem right not to protect it.
The Arabian Peninsula can only be considered incidental, anyway, there is nothing in the region, and Austria is not short of camels, so fallow is fallow.
The two river basins are different, the Mesopotamian plain is very fertile, the development of agriculture and animal husbandry can be.
The age of population explosion has not yet come, take Iraq as an example, before the war there were only 1.2-3 million people, water resources are relatively rich.
Admiral Morquez smiled slightly, “Naturally, it’s for stability, you don’t think these people will just settle down and accept our rule, do you?”
Hearing this answer, Dennis was even more confused. The Ottoman Empire was able to suppress these people, and for Austria to worry about local stability was a joke to say the least.
Colonial empires all had their own methods of rule, and generally speaking, when they encountered problems that couldn’t be solved, they could all be taken care of with one method – “kill”!
Admiral Molex continued to explain: ”If it’s an ordinary colony, naturally it’s not worth the bloodshed, but the Two Rivers Basin is special.
Our people discovered oil here, and geologists estimate that the oil reserves in the Two Rivers Basin are likely to exceed the total amount of oil that has been discovered in the world so far.
Scientists believe that oil is the next most important source of energy, and is likely to take the place of coal in the future.”
Dennis shook his head incredulously and blurted out, “That’s impossible! Oil has limited uses, how can it possibly replace coal?”
Admiral Molex waved his hand, “That’s not a question that I can answer. Anyway, the scientists convinced the government to trust the judgment at home.”
Looking at Dennis, who was caught in a state of self-doubt, Admiral Moorcakes continued, “Well, the question of whether or not oil can take the place of coal is something that time will tell.
For the moment, we just need to know that oil has an important role to play, that we have very few domestic reserves, and that the two river basins have a lot of reserves.
Energy security is involved, and in order to guarantee the safety of oil extraction, we must just take full control of this region.”
Moorcocks also do not believe that oil replaces coal as a source of energy, but as long as there is a “possibility”, it is worth paying attention to.
In order to make the French realize “the importance of energy”, the Vienna government has not less propaganda, now a European people know that energy is very important.
After a moment’s hesitation, Dennis slowly spoke: “Mr. Commander, if that’s the case, then it’s not enough to just release the information.
It is better to have practical actions, for example: to increase the war tax and set a tax amount that is more than most people can afford; or to directly send people and persuade them to leave.
The Persians have learned the lesson of the last refugee crisis and have drawn up a cordon along the border, and a large number of refugees have now gathered there.
Without opening the passages, even if these people wanted to leave, they wouldn’t be able to get out.”
The passageway to leave is certainly not the only one. The problem is that Russia they don’t dare to go, and Austria won’t let them in.
Admiral Morquez nodded, “This is indeed a problem, I will report back to Vienna and try to gain domestic support.
But the chances of success are very low, even if the foreign ministry intervenes, the Persians don’t have the guts to take in these one to two million people.
First encourage the refugees to break through the customs, if that is not possible, let the troops create a misunderstanding together and tear open an opening.”
The Anti-Turkish League does not give backing, forced by the British government’s military and diplomatic double pressure, the Persians only let the British supplies into the Ottoman.
For this reason the Persian government has repeatedly explained to Vienna and St. Petersburg, but unfortunately this is of no significance, the Powers most of the time do not like to be reasonable.
In Admiral Morse’s opinion, whatever the reason, Persia stood against the anti-Turkish alliance and had to pay the price.
……
The Vienna Palace, where the Austrian army was making good progress in the Two Rivers Valley, did not comfort Franz, and the news reported by Admiral Morse caused him even more headaches.
The Middle East theater is considering the problem of those one or two million people, while Franz, the emperor, needs to consider the problem of more than three million people, or even more than four million people.
There is no way, the Ottoman government is crazy, does not mean that the following generals are crazy, all the people of the army is not false, can not win the fight or surrender.
Asia Minor Peninsula there are still one or two million let’s say prisoners of war, after all, the sultan’s government crazy wave, bring so much loss, so that the locals do not when the prisoners of war will not eat.
Forced to do so, the Vienna government had to keep this large group of “prisoners of war”. Both sides are stained with each other’s blood, Franz does not think that he has the ability to reform them.
Sent away is necessary, spend money Franz also do not care, as a pre-investment, the problem is where to send people.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg, “Your Majesty, most of the countries in the Americas have expressed their refusal to accept refugee immigrants, the United States of America has agreed to accept some of the immigrants, but only for the young and strong labor force.”
There is no way, the Ottomans would have been unpopular, the countries of the Americas never come to the Ottoman Empire to recruit immigrants, let alone the old and weak women and children.
The United States of America is willing to accept, that is affected by the Franz butterfly effect, immigration to the United States of Europe has been greatly reduced, the capitalists lack of manpower shortage is very serious.
Unfortunately, no matter how short of people, the capitalists only need to be able to create wealth of young and strong laborers, and have no love for the old and weak.
“What are the government’s plans?” Franz asked
Prime Minister Felix: “The government has three options, first, divide a piece of land from the colony and move these people there;
Second, throw the trouble to the soon-to-be-formed Kingdom of Armenia;
Third, to use Persia’s support of the Ottomans as a pretext to provoke a war in advance and expel these people into Persia.
Each of these three options had advantages and disadvantages. Dividing the land from the colonies for resettlement can only be figured out from the Americas or the South Seas, which is more expensive.
Throwing it to the Kingdom of Armenia seems to be the easiest, but there are a lot of subsequent troubles.
The Russians certainly could not afford to give the Armenians a rich land to build a state, and it was very likely that the new kingdom would not be able to support so many people.
Deportation into Persia is the least costly, though the means are too violent and tend to affect our international reputation.”
(End of chapter)