Political struggles were cruel. The Ethiopian war was single-handedly promoted by Benjamin's cabinet. They had to be responsible for digging their own pit.
The British people were arrogant. They could tolerate losing to any European power, but they could not accept losing to the African natives.
In order not to be caught by the opposition and cause public criticism, Benjamin's cabinet could only pinch their noses and accept the military's false war report.
"Kick the losses of the Indian colonial army out of the casualties. In addition, don't fully announce the number of casualties. Distribute the losses to the subsequent war.
Mobilize all our forces to guide public opinion as much as possible and suppress the impact to a minimum. If we can't control the situation, create a big news to divert public attention. "
There was no other way. Benjamin didn't want to be kicked out of office as soon as he took office.
Hearing Benjamin's words, Minister of War Fox said, "I'm sorry, Prime Minister. I took the wrong war report just now. It was from the last Anglo-Burmese war.
This is the war report from the frontline. After a month of hard fighting, our army wiped out 9,568 enemies at the cost of 351 dead and 1,126 injured.
But Ethiopia is too big, and the Fao and the other two countries are eyeing Ethiopia. In order to occupy Ethiopia before the Fao and the other two countries, the frontline troops have requested 80,000 reinforcements. "
Seeing the Minister of War take out a new battle report, everyone was already used to it. There were plenty of strange things happening in politics, so how could they not be prepared for it?
This was Fox's third time as Minister of War. Even when Anglo-Burmese lost so badly, he could retreat unscathed, let alone this small defeat.
If the cabinet wanted to pursue responsibility, Fox would probably sell out the frontline officers. Now that the cabinet government was not going to pursue responsibility, as a good leader, Fox naturally had to help cover it up.
Benjamin asked Fox to be the Minister of War because of his adaptability.
It was the same battle report, but with a different story, the situation had suddenly changed.
The request for help was at such a level. Originally, the frontline had suffered a defeat and could not hold on, but now it had become a defense against the Fao snatching the spoils.
There was no doubt that this statement was more acceptable to the British people. In case the British army suffered heavy losses on the battlefield in the future, they had found an excuse to deal with the blame from all sides.
No matter what kind of defeat, once the blame was thrown on the Fao and the other two countries, the responsibility of the Government of London would be reduced by half.
Even the opposition had nothing to say. The British Army was so small, and the main force of the colonial forces were cannon fodder. It was normal that they could not win against a powerful army.
Prime Minister Benjamin said, "Just announce it to the public! Order Ismail to teach those Muslims a lesson. We can't let the blood of our boys be shed in vain. "
We can't let them die. "
Foreign Secretary Edward: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs just received a piece of news that might be helpful to us.
The French are restless again. They got the rights to develop the Panama Canal from the Colombian government and are preparing a canal company. It seems that they are ready to do something. "
Looking at each other and smiling, Prime Minister Benjamin made a decision, "Yes, the French forcibly seized the rights to develop the canal from the Colombian government and openly trampled on the sovereignty of a country.
For the sake of world peace and stability, the government should inform the media as soon as possible and expose the shameless behavior of the French. "
It was a pillow delivered to one's drowsiness. The London government was worrying about how to divert the public's attention when the French made big news.
It did not matter whether the French had the rights to develop the canal legally. The point was that the London government needed the French to be illegal.
It didn't matter if the reason was a little far-fetched. Only when there was a controversy would there be a topic. As long as it lasted for a few months, the people would forget this small defeat.
Anyway, Britain and France had been hostile for hundreds of years. The civil war had never stopped. Everyone was used to it. This small issue wouldn't affect the relationship between the two countries.
Even if there was a little impact, Prime Minister Benjamin didn't care. As long as he could divert the public's attention, offending the French was not worth mentioning.
The Panama Canal issue, in Prime Minister Benjamin's view, was a complete farce made up by the French.
The Austrians were next door and had long regarded the Panama area as their own sphere of influence. How could they let the French gain control of the canal?
They couldn't develop it together, right?
The Panama Canal was different from the Suez Canal. It wasn't of great strategic importance to the Fao and the other two countries.
The Americas had not yet developed. Even if the Panama Canal was opened, it wouldn't be profitable in the short term.
How could there be cooperation without enough benefits?
Neither Britain nor Austria would benefit from the opening of the Panama Canal. Based on the principle of harming others to benefit oneself, the Government of London didn't want to see the Panama Canal open. The Government of Vienna must be the same.
Now everyone could watch the show. When the French were almost done digging the canal, everyone would jump out and make trouble.
…
In the Palace of Vienna, Franz seemed to have been talked about. He sneezed a few times today.
Other than sneezing, there were no other symptoms. Franz didn't see a doctor. He didn't trust the medical standards of this era. It was best not to take medicine.
Unlike later generations, almost all drugs had side effects. Many drugs were rushed to the market before the production technology was mature.
Many people didn't actually die from illness, but from treatment. It wasn't that the doctor didn't take responsibility. The main reason was that everyone's physique was different. Most people could resist the side effects of drugs, but some people couldn't.
If the family was rich, there would be a professional doctor at any time. Most people could find the problem and stop the side effects in time.
Ordinary people couldn't. Even if there was a problem, many people would continue to take the drugs. They wouldn't think that the side effects of the drugs caused the death. This was also the reason for the endless medical accidents.
These problems were difficult to solve and couldn't be managed. There were too few types of drugs in this era. If drugs with large side effects were banned from the market, many diseases would become untreatable.
It wasn't just the problem of the drugs themselves. There was also the undeveloped industrial technology. In the industrial production process, whether it was temperature, raw material quality, or dosage errors, they could all lead to increased side effects.
Problems that couldn't be solved could only be put aside. For patients, it was better to take a gamble than to wait for death. No hope was the most terrible thing.
In order to establish a perfect medical and health system, Franz had worked hard for many years. Unfortunately, it still only covered 70% of the population.
And this was only an ideal number. The patients who could really receive effective treatment were those from the middle class and above.
Ordinary people could only see minor illnesses at most. Slightly more serious illnesses required God's blessing. It wasn't a lack of medical resources. It was mainly because they had no money.
Most importantly, doctors might not be reliable even if they saw them. For example, Franz often went to the doctor, but he rarely took medicine, especially the western medicine produced by the chemical industry.
Most of the time, he would rather drink a bowl of Chinese medicine. No matter what, Chinese medicine was still competitive in this era. Although it was a little slow, the side effects were small!
For the sake of his life, Franz raised a professional medical team with both Chinese and Western medicine.
The western medicine used by the royal family was specially produced. Some of the drugs had high technical requirements and were directly produced in the laboratory to ensure the quality of the drugs.
…
Colonial Secretary Stephen reported, "Your Majesty, the British have decided to send 80,000 more soldiers to Africa. Now it can be confirmed that the rumors of the British army's defeat are true.
The size of the British army is limited. If they want to send more troops, they will definitely transfer some from the mainland and some from India.
It will take at least a month for these troops to reach Africa. We can tear a piece of meat from Ethiopia before the British arrive. What do you think? "
Franz shook his head. "There's no need. We've already taken over a lot of Ethiopia. If we continue to fight for territory, the British will be anxious.
Besides, the Ethiopian natives aren't easy to deal with. In order to cause trouble for the British a few years ago, we helped them improve their combat power.
Now it's time to test the results and see if our investment was in vain. We can learn from the experience. "
Compared to other parts of Africa, Ethiopia was indeed improved. Even though the instructors who helped train their troops gave low evaluations, that was only relative to the Austrian army.
If the British didn't send more troops, Franz still had high hopes for the "warrior emperor." They would have no problem dealing with the Indian colonial army.
Now that the situation had changed, the Government of London seemed to be getting serious. The key factor that determined the outcome of the match was not how strong Ethiopia was, but how much the British valued them.
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Stephen replied.
Foreign Secretary Wesenberg said, "Your Majesty, the Panama Canal Company established by the French has proposed a business partnership with us. They hope to bring in 200,000 laborers from Austria within three years to dig the canal.
The price they offered is good. Each laborer will pay a transfer fee of 30 Divine Shields, and they will be responsible for the transportation. "
This was agreed upon. The French capitalists wanted to make money from the stock market and needed the cooperation of the Government of Austria. Naturally, they needed to pay a fee. Otherwise, the canal plan wouldn't even have a chance to start.
Bringing in labor was just a pretense. Nominally, this money was the wages of the laborers, but in reality, it fell into the pockets of the Government of Vienna.
Franz said, "Promise the French that the laborers will be recruited from the natives of the Somali Peninsula. The shortage will be made up from other areas. If there are similar situations in the future, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can directly agree. "
The peak period of labor export had ended. Now there weren't many natives in Austria's Africa, and some of them were hired by the colonial government.
If it wasn't for the newly occupied Somalia Peninsula, Franz suspected that the Austrian African continent might not have been able to gather 200,000 laborers.
