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Home > Action > Holy Roman Empire > Chapter 148

Chapter 148

Words:3090Update:22/06/29 09:23:17

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The Puder deal was completed, and the war between Russia and Poland came to an end. Under the coordination of the three countries, an armistice treaty was signed.

It was just an armistice, but it didn't require Russia to withdraw its troops. The international community didn't give a clear statement on the border issue between Russia and Poland.

The nail was buried, and the hatred between Russia and Poland deepened. Under the power of hatred, the Puder and Polish confluence went one step further.

The Government of Berlin's goal was achieved. Despite losing the Rhineland region, the Kingdom of Prussia had reversed the unfavorable situation strategically after annexing the Kingdom of Poland.

Only when he tightened his fist would he be able to exert more force. For the Government of Berlin, the biggest problem now wasn't the Polish debt crisis, but the resettlement of immigrants.

Poland had just been restored and hadn't had time to establish credibility. Due to its geographical location, the new Polish Kingdom was threatened by Russia's military. It could collapse at any time, and investors weren't optimistic at all.

Under this background, it wasn't easy for the Polish government to borrow money. Even Britain and France, which supported them, couldn't throw money into the water.

Therefore, most of the Polish government's debt was internal. The external debt was mainly due to the political loans that European countries lent to them to fight against Russia at the beginning of the restoration of the country. It was about 20 million pounds, and one-third of it was owed to Prussia.

The internal debt was difficult to sort out. Affected by the financial crisis, the Polish government repeatedly devalued the currency and issued more money to overcome the financial crisis.

The aftermath was that Poland's domestic economy was a mess, worse than during the Tsarist government. The Polish business community became the biggest victim.

This bad situation was a good thing for the Kingdom of Prussia. It created an opportunity for them to annex Poland.

If it wasn't for the Polish economy, the capitalists wouldn't have approached the Kingdom of Prussia. Without the support of the business community, William I couldn't be elected with a high vote.

Since they were going to annex the Kingdom of Poland, the Government of Berlin was ready to clean up the mess.

In contrast, the "resettlement of immigrants" was the real problem. Not everyone was willing to leave their hometown. For many ordinary people, being ruled by the German Confederation wasn't unacceptable.

The immigration work was resisted by the local people from the beginning, or rather, by the local capitalists. If everyone left, who would work for them?

Not only did the capitalists cause trouble, but the middle class also did not buy it. Many people resented the Government of Berlin for selling out the Rhineland. They felt that the Government was abandoning them, so they subconsciously rejected the immigrants.

Behind these problems, the main reason was still the arrangements. The capitalists could move the factories, but there was no way to move the mines. The Government of Berlin simply could not find an industrial base to replace the Rhineland.

It was the same for the middle class. If they moved to another place, their social network would be completely destroyed, and they would have to start all over again. The income and social status of most people would be affected, and they might not even be able to maintain their current standard of living.

On the contrary, it was the workers and farmers who were the most aggressive on the surface who were the easiest to deal with. Their demands were the lowest, and as long as the government had the money, they could be settled.



In the Palace of Vienna, Franz was looking at the war reports of the Near East and worrying. It was not that the frontlines had failed. On the contrary, the frontlines had fought too well.

According to the plan, the Russians would not be able to break through the Black Sea, and the war would end with the mediation of the European countries.

However, the plan was not as fast as the changes. The Osman Empire was more useless than Franz had imagined. They could not even hold on for half a year, and they lost the land along the Black Sea Strait.

How to stop the war had become the biggest problem for the Government of Vienna at the moment. If they wanted to put on a show, they had to go all the way. Deliberately letting the war go would not be able to hide from the eyes of the politicians.

According to the current situation, the Osman Empire was in a precarious situation. With the hatred between the House of Habsburg and the Osman Empire, what Franz should do at this time was to beat the dog when it was down and take the opportunity to get rid of this old enemy.

In fact, the Government of Vienna was doing the same. In order to buy time, Franz pushed out the Imperial Parliament, which did not have much of a presence.

In fact, this did not have much effect. Not only Austria and the Osman Empire had a grudge, but the other countries of the Shinra Empire also had a grudge with the Osman Empire.

Now, the whole Empire was clamoring to get rid of the Osman Empire, and the voices of the anti-war faction could hardly be heard. This made Franz very distressed.

Based on the current situation, the Imperial Parliament would almost certainly pass the proposal to increase the number of troops. Franz could not force his men to stand on the opposite side of the people and bear the infamy of being anti-war.

Under the situation where Austria did not send troops to Asia Minor, the Osman Empire was beaten by the Russian Army. If Austria also sent troops, Franz did not think that the heavily injured Osman Empire would be able to hold on for long.

Without this unlucky guy, who would they look for the next time? How should they proceed with the next strategy?

Although the Osman Empire was declining, it was not small at all. Based on the current situation, if Austria and the Russian Empire divided the Osman Empire, the Osman Empire would definitely be choked.

The European countries would not agree to it, and it was inevitable that a few more countries would come to share the spoils. This was very disadvantageous for Austria, which wanted to dominate the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Franz asked, "How long will the Russian Army need to rest before they can launch another attack?"

War required people to die. Although the Russian Army was unstoppable on the battlefield, they had actually suffered many losses.

In just half a year, the Tsarist government had replenished their troops four times, and now it was time to replenish them for the fifth time. The total number of casualties had reached 240,000, and nearly a quarter of them had died.

From the perspective of the Tsarist government, these casualties were worth it. While replenishing their troops, the Russians also constantly changed the frontline troops in the name of rest and reorganization.

According to the statistics of the Allied Forces General Command, 650,000 Russian Army soldiers had walked through the battlefield at least once. Just the training of the new recruits alone had used more than 1,500 tons of bullets.

The reason given by the Russians was reasonable. The frontline troops had suffered too many casualties and needed to be transferred back to rest and reorganize.

With the number of casualties there, even if the Austrians knew that the Tsarist government was using the opportunity to train their troops, they could not refuse.

In just half a year, the Russian Army had consumed a total of more than 65 million DND in supplies. If it were the Tsarist government themselves, they would definitely not be willing to do this.

This was just the expenditure of the Russian Army. If the expenditure of the Austrian Army was included, the figure would increase by half.

The airship bombardment and naval bombardment also consumed a lot of ammunition. Fortunately, the Austrian Army in the Middle East was only besieging Jerusalem. If they had to fight all the way, the military expenditure would be even higher.

The consumption of weapons, ammunition, and strategic supplies was not much. The biggest single expenditure of the war was actually the compensation for the casualties of the soldiers.

Taking Austria as an example, the lowest compensation for a soldier killed in battle was 600 DND. The various preferential policies and welfare expenses for the families of the martyrs were at least 10 DND each year, which would be 300 DND over a 30-year period.

This was only the most basic data in theory. The compensation for the Austrian Army also took into account the position, military rank, length of service, and whether they had made any contributions. These were all factors that added to the compensation.

Under normal circumstances, the government would not send the soldiers with no knowledge to the battlefield. This meant that in the actual war, the compensation needed to be paid would be even more.

On average, for every Austrian soldier killed in battle, the Government of Vienna would have to pay 1200 DND as compensation. If ten thousand soldiers died in battle, it would be 12 million DND.

The expenditure for the dead was high, and the expenditure for the seriously injured who survived would actually be even higher.

Not to mention, the government had to bear the follow-up medical expenses, and the government had to be responsible for the livelihood of those who lost their labor force.

To ensure the combat effectiveness of the army, these expenses could not be saved. Franz was willing to pay a lot of money in this regard, and Austria did the best in the follow-up compensation work.

Fortunately, the Tsarist government did not need to pay so much compensation. Otherwise, Alexander Ii Of Russia would definitely cry to death. The compensation for casualties was greater than the expenditure on the battlefield.

With the development of industrial technology, the cost of industrial materials was getting lower and lower, and the cost of human life was getting higher and higher. Later countries paid attention to the casualties of soldiers, but in fact, it was forced by the high compensation.

Army Minister Albrecht: "According to the previous practice, the Russian Army will replace the troops with more than 10% casualties.

The Tsarist government still has more than 200,000 new soldiers in the Ukraine region, and they will arrive at the front line in a week at the earliest, and at the latest, it will not take more than half a month.

The time we promised to provide combat supplies is coming soon, and the Russians will definitely race against time. I think the Russian Army will attack again in less than twenty days. "

The Government of Vienna initially promised to provide 150,000 Russian Army combat supplies for half a year. Later, the two sides made a deal, and the limit was raised to 200,000 Russian Army, and the time was extended to the end of 1874.

The Tsarist government just beat up the Poles, and although they achieved a brilliant result, their wallet was hurt. In this context, the Russians naturally wanted to save money as much as possible.

Only by launching a war before the deadline could they get more supplies from the Government of Vienna to prepare for the war later.

The Russian Army had always done this kind of thing, such as: false reporting of war losses, hiding strategic supplies.

The Austrian officers at the front line had already reported, but they still needed the Russians to fight, so Franz didn't investigate further.

Hiding strategic supplies wasn't as easy as it sounded, at least they couldn't be caught by the Austrian officers at the front line. It was easy to hide a small amount of supplies, but it wasn't easy to hide a large amount, and the accounts couldn't be done properly.

Austria also sent officers to follow, and reporting more war losses also needed to pass inspection. If there was a problem, they would be held accountable.

Austria distributed strategic supplies according to the number of Russian Army members, but there were people dying on the battlefield every day, and the consumption naturally decreased.

But the quartermaster who distributed the supplies couldn't immediately get the data back. The supplies received by the Russian Army at the front line didn't decrease, so there was an extra part of the supplies.

False reporting of war losses and hiding supplies were mainly this part of the supplies. If the water was too clear, there would be no fish. As long as the accounts were clean, Austria wouldn't investigate further.

How many of these supplies would fall into the hands of the Tsarist government in the end, and how many would be privately divided by the Russian officers, wasn't a problem that Franz cared about.

After thinking for a moment, Franz made a decision. "Release the news that we're going to send 500,000 troops to destroy the Osman Empire."

Many European countries wanted to see the Osman Empire fall, but no one wanted to see the Osman Empire destroyed.

Without this big guy holding them back, Austria could put all its energy into Central Europe, and the pressure on the national defense of many countries would increase.

At the London Conference, Britain and France were already mediating the war in the Near East. But this wasn't enough, and the diplomatic pressure from the European countries wasn't enough to make the Government of Vienna give up.

Franz's move to destroy the Osman Empire was to add fuel to the fire, to attract the attention of Britain and France, and to make them invest more energy into the war.

Finding trouble for oneself, such a ridiculous thing actually happened. Franz found it funny just thinking about it.

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