1623 Nothing to Do with Glory
Before coming, His Excellency the Prime Minister also discussed this matter with the special envoy.
What if the time comes when you need to come up with something substantial.
The Confederates were not fools, and Mr. Trueman's reputation as the most aggressive president in the history of the Confederacy was not a mere boast.
Not only is he smart, he also has a group of people who can help him.
When talking about these things, the Prime Minister thought of a person who made his teeth itch, Lynch!
If it weren't for Lynch, maybe Gaevra would look different now, but because of Lynch, everything has changed.
The Prime Minister is not even sure whether this change is good or bad. It should be generally good, he thinks so.
In addition, there are so many terrifying scientists. The Federation’s explosion in national power does not come simply from productivity, but also from scientific progress!
In this era, during this period, an advancement in scientific research had a huge impact on the war.
For example, Blackstone Aviation's research on fighter jets has always led the world, which has always given the Federation and Pengeo the upper hand in the air force confrontation!
Even though neither side seems to be able to gain an absolute advantage now and is very anxious, in fact Pengeo's battle loss rate is much higher than that of the Federation.
This is the military lead brought about by scientific and technological progress. If the current situation continues, once Pengeo's air force can no longer use numbers to fight against the federal air force, the change in battlefield air supremacy will also directly change the battlefield pattern.
There are so many terrible and great people in the Federation, which makes the Prime Minister envious and jealous, both for the Federation society and for Mr. Trueman.
After consideration, His Excellency the Prime Minister gave the special envoy a very simple answer. Anyone who has anything to do with Amelia can agree to it.
The reason is also very simple. Only if the Amelia region is stably in the hands of Gaevra, the part of the agreement between them and the Federation that Gaevra needs to fulfill will be meaningful.
No matter what your federation wants from the Amelia region, whether it is customs duties, taxation rights, or other privileges like extraterritoriality, it can be negotiated!
Because only when Amelia is in the hands of Gaevra, these things are what they need to consider.
If Amelia is eventually taken away, the people of these Eastern and Western Federations will not get it, and for Gaevra, they will not suffer further losses!
Therefore, if the Federation wants to enable Gefra to fulfill the second half of the agreement, they must contribute to defend Amelia for Gefra.
This is an incentive, a spur, and a constraint. Everything revolves around Gefra's core interest, the Amelia region.
However, this kind of thing cannot be brought up by the special envoy himself, at least not at the beginning. He must let the federal people bring it up by themselves and let them have a feeling.
I've touched their sore spot, and I'm going to seize this request!
Only in this way will some obvious issues that can be taken advantage of will be ignored or deliberately let go.
Sitting across the negotiating table, facing the top executive of the Department of International Affairs, who is hailed as the "Eagle of the Federation" by the international diplomatic community, the special envoy was still a little nervous.
"There are no reporters, no more people, just the two of us, and I want to tell you in this way that what we are talking about has nothing to do with honor."
These words deeply touched the special envoy.
If the identities of the two parties were reversed, he would definitely exaggerate the matter and let the entire federation and even the whole society know that Gefra, the former overlord, had bowed to the rising new leader of the federation!
This is a very cohesive thing, and from the late period to the end of the First World War, Gaevra did not take the Federation less seriously.
Either doing it here or doing it there, the diplomats and foreign ministers at that time were almost constantly running back and forth between the Federation and Gaevra, just trying to solve the problem.
The diplomats in Gefra had their nostrils in the air, flipping tables and leaving at every turn, while the Federation people chased after them to apologize...
Maybe this is why the Federation can become stronger and stronger?
The envoy thought so.
He nodded with a heavy heart, "This is a good arrangement."
As he said this, he felt a little... meaningless, and he chuckled. He didn't know whether he was laughing at himself, Gaevra, or something else.
"I have made our position clear to His Excellency the President before and mentioned our needs..."
The middle-aged man who was the top minister of the Ministry of International Affairs nodded, "Yes, Mr. President and I have discussed this issue. We believe that the conditions you mentioned are not impossible to achieve, but there are some things that need to be followed up."
The special envoy was a little surprised, but he thought it was reasonable.
The battle situation in Nagaril is still unclear. If Gevra can attract some of the main forces from Amelia, it will naturally reduce the pressure on Nagaril.
Both sides have their own demands. It’s not about who has a dirty heart. This is just based on reality.
"Please say!"
The top minister of the Ministry of International Affairs glanced down at the document in his hand, and then said, "We can support the 200,000 troops you requested, but all expenses for these troops must be provided by you."
"This includes but is not limited to everyone's basic salary, subsidies, welfare benefits, medical security, death pension and all other expenses."
At this point, he paused. This was only the first request. Only by agreeing first could anything follow.
He looked at the envoy, who frowned and thought, this amount of money... to be honest, it's really not that small.
Many people always subconsciously ignore the cost of "people". An army of 200,000 people. Assuming that each person's basic salary and subsidies allow them to get a monthly salary of 600, it will actually be higher than this.
So just 10,000 people will need 6 million in terms of wages, 100,000 people will be 60 million, and 200,000 people will be 120 million federal soles, which is equivalent to 80 million forla.
If you consider other expenses, such as food, medical care, and pensions.
Maybe they will need to spend 1.5 billion or more on these people in a year!
This amount of money is actually not a heavy burden for the current federation, because the federation has a population of 60 million. According to the current wartime tax rate implemented by the federation, at least 60% of each person's income will be be taxed, up to a maximum of 80%.
Calculating based on the current federal minimum wage law multiplied by 60%, the federal government can collect about 10 billion in taxes and fees from the entire federal government every month on average!
Of course, this is the most ideal situation. Remove about 40% of the non-working income population, such as children and the elderly who have lost the ability to work.
And deducting the social unemployment rate (at this time, due to the loss of part of Nagaril's cheap labor supply, the federal society's employment rate began to increase), based on the fact that the income group only accounts for 35% of the entire society, the federal society's monthly Just from taxation, there are about 3.5 billion to 4 billion in tax revenue!
This is a relatively underestimated value, and the actual tax revenue may be higher than this, and much higher.
This is also the reason why the federal military doesn't care about the budget. It throws away billions of budgets without blinking an eye. It's not because they have no concept of money, but the federal government is really too damn rich!
This situation actually also happened in the Pengeo Empire. They were also a vast country, but Gefra was not among them!
Even if their wartime tax rates were higher than those of the federal government, it would be difficult for them to support such a dire military budget.
If you include the previous ones, and if they spend their own money, they will have to spend no less than 6 billion sol, that is, 8.5 billion to 9.5 billion federal soles!
This is too heavy for them.
The special envoy was silent. He calculated some data. From his point of view, the federal people's request was not excessive, but he could not agree immediately.
"Our current financial situation is relatively tight and we cannot afford so much at once. However, if you strongly request, we can solve this part of the problem by paying in installments."
The special envoy put forward an idea of his own, "You are responsible for these expenses first, and we will pay the expenses to you in installments, or through other methods, and we are not directly connected with these individuals."
Without direct contact, the final conflict is between these individual soldiers and the federal government. As for the issue between the Gaevra government and the federal government, that is another issue.
Diplomacy is never a simple matter, and it becomes even more troublesome when debt and diplomacy are linked together.
The room fell into silence, everyone was analyzing the situation individually. Then the top minister of the Ministry of International Affairs shook his head slightly and said, "We will discuss this matter last."
"Secondly, considering the complexity of the battlefield and the difficulty of supplying during wartime, we propose that your military standards adopt the ones we are currently using."
"All the previous ones were eliminated or replaced to non-frontal main battlefields. This is for our better on-site supply."
Soldiers who had previously fought in Nagaril reported a situation to the Ministry of Defense. Due to the different standards of military equipment between Gafra and the Federation, consumables such as bullets cannot be shared between the two sides!
This is very uncomfortable. When a soldier goes to the battlefield, all kinds of equipment are already heavy enough. You can't ask each of them to carry an ammunition box to the front line.
On the front line, the main way for soldiers to obtain ammunition after they have exhausted it is to collect it from the fallen soldiers around them, or to share some with others.
But they use different standards than the Gaevra soldiers, which means that when their ammunition is exhausted, they must retreat.
This is obviously a very stupid behavior!
In addition, the military-industrial complex actually has to express its opinions in this "loan" plan, so they hope to use this opportunity to update the weapons and equipment standards within the World Development Council to federal standards...