Chapter 334: No Choice
Watching the major powers stir up the situation, King William I of Prussia, who had just succeeded to the throne, couldn't stand it anymore, perhaps the Junkers aristocrats couldn't stand it anymore.
The butterfly effect is powerful. With the re-emergence of Austria, the Prussian government found that their dream of becoming a powerful country was really about to become a dream.
A sense of crisis is the driving force behind Prussia's drive to become strong. In the first Schleswig war, the performance of the Prussian army was not very good, and it could even be said to be garbage.
The voice of military reform is high in the Prussian army, and the main leader is one of the three Prussian heroes - Albrecht-von-Rohn.
Ron's reputation is low, but what he does is earth-shattering. Not only presided over the reform of the Prussian army, but also single-handedly promoted Mao Qi, and pushed Bismarck to the throne of prime minister.
Without him, Bole, Mao Qi might still have a chance to climb up, and Bismarck, the public enemy of the royal family, would not have to think about ascending the throne.
Now General Ron is very annoyed. Not long ago, he also served as the Minister of the Navy as the Minister of the Army. He is facing a big problem: the domestic voice for the establishment of colonies is getting louder and louder.
Ron didn't know what other people thought. Anyway, he was against the establishment of overseas colonies, and there was only one reason - no money.
In order to dispel this unrealistic idea, he must have the support of William I. But now William I also wants to grab wealth from overseas colonies and change the financial predicament of the Kingdom of Prussia, which gives him a headache.
...
At the government meeting at the Berlin Palace, Prime Minister Frank reiterated the benefits of opening up colonies and proposed to establish a colonial empire belonging to Prussia.
Portugal and the Netherlands, these two small countries, have large colonies overseas. With the strength of the Kingdom of Prussia, it seems that it is not a big deal to open up overseas colonies.
Ron objected: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, I know that the establishment of colonies is very important, which can provide domestic industry and commerce with cheap raw materials and markets, and change the government's financial predicament.
However, you seem to have overlooked one of the most important issues, any colonial empire is a naval power.
With the few ships in our navy, I am afraid that even a large number of pirates may not be able to handle it. Why open colonies overseas? "
This is a fact, just because the Minister of War can also be the Minister of the Navy, you know how poor the Prussian Navy is. But this is impossible for any country with a strong navy.
Prime Minister Frank explained: "The government is ready to expand the navy, and the Kingdom of Prussia needs an ironclad fleet of its own."
Ron asked with a livid face: "Where does the military budget come from?"
Frank replied calmly: "Now that the Vienna system has been rebuilt, the contradictions between countries tend to ease, and the European continent tends to be stable, and the possibility of war is unlikely to break out.
In this case, there is no need for urgent military reform. The army sacrificed for the country once this time, and the next few years of hard life.
Some soldiers can be transferred to the navy to save military expenses. The government will find a way to gather a little bit and build an iron-clad fleet first.
After the colonies are opened up, the problems of domestic industrial and commercial raw materials and the market have been solved, and the domestic economy has improved, then military reforms should be carried out. "
In order to deal with the impact of the rise of Austria and the new generation of France, Ron proposed a specific plan for armament reform not long ago:
Requests to extend the service life of the army from 2 years to 4 years; to cancel the National Reserve; to replace the equipment of the standing army;
These measures meant that the number of conscription increased from 40,000 to 85,000, the army increased from 102 regiments to 163 regiments, and the usual strength of troops increased from 208,000 to 327,000.
This more radical military reform measure than in history was mainly based on the fact that the Kingdom of Prussia was under greater military pressure.
The current standing army of the Russians is 990,000, the standing army of the New Holy Roman Empire is 580,000, and the standing army of the French is 500,000.
The three neighbors are so perverted, if the army does not expand, the quasi-power status of the Kingdom of Prussia will be lost.
Moreover, Franz's desire to unify Germany is well known to the passers-by, and Napoleon III coveted the Rhineland region with no disguise.
The Junkers nobles represented by Ron naturally had a heart of crisis.
Without an expansion, the Kingdom of Prussia would have less than one-third the strength of any of its rivals. If war broke out suddenly, they would not even have the strength to fight.
The bourgeoisie thinks otherwise. They have faith in the Vienna system. Concerned about military expansion:
On the one hand, the cancellation of the reserve army and the extension of the active duty period will undoubtedly weaken their influence in the army;
On the other hand, 23 of the officers and 910 instructors of this large army are Juncker, and there is a danger that the army may become a tool for Juncker to oppose the parliament.
"Who assures it that its sharpened weapons will be used for its own purposes?"
As a result, the bourgeois liberals represented by the Progressive Party used the powers granted to the Parliament by the 1850 Constitution to bargain with the government, delaying the passage of the military expansion plan.
In order to avoid the worst from happening, the capitalists began to preach the benefits of opening up colonies, making a big pie for the high-level government, and trying to use the development of the navy to weaken the strength of the Junker aristocracy.
Now many people have been tricked into it, and real examples are in front of them. If there is no benefit in opening up colonies, why are Britain, France, Austria and France all opening up colonies?
Even the loss of Austrian overseas colonies was turned into data by the capitalists.
profit. Use a bunch of economic terms to fool the prime minister and the king into it.
Convince them that the Austrian colonies were simply administratively losing money. The Vienna government has made profits through currency taxes, mined gold, cheap industrial raw materials, and other taxes brought on by the market.
The specific performance is the rapid development of the domestic economy and the rapid growth of government revenue. It also comes with the benefits of resisting the economic crisis and reducing the outflow of gold and silver.
After a mess of data, it was finally concluded that the Austrian colonies brought the Vienna government 12 million Aegis revenue every year.
This is not a small sum, almost half of the revenue of the Kingdom of Prussia. Coupled with a lot of benefits, many people have been tricked into it.
In fact, this account is not clear at all, and the rapid economic development of Austria's colonies has indeed contributed. But there are too many industries involved, and the number of economic cycles is too complicated. As long as you add a little bit, the final gap is an astronomical figure.
The reason for everyone's belief is that the Vienna government made a big move to open up colonies. Save others by yourself, if you can't make a profit, you will definitely not be so active.
The five countries, including the British, French, and Spanish countries, have been taken out by the capitalists as examples for analysis, and they have come to the conclusion that the larger the colonial empire, the stronger the country; the more the colony is lost, the country will decline.
It doesn't matter if you listen to it once, if there are various experts whispering in your ears every day, it will become deeply rooted in people's hearts and become a recognized truth over time.
Ron insisted: "No, the military reform of the Army must not stop. Open the map to know how much national defense pressure we are facing.
If one day we have a conflict with any major power, with the current military strength of Prussia, there is no power to fight at all. "
Chancellor of the Exchequer Fiebel Adolph sneered: "Your Excellency, if it is based on fighting against the three major powers, even if your military expansion plan is doubled, it may not be enough.
However, the financial resources of the Kingdom of Prussia are limited. Even if all the financial revenue is invested in the military, we cannot compete with any major country.
Modern warfare is not the same as it used to be. During the Near Eastern War, the total force of the Russians once exceeded two million; when Austria launched the Unification War, the total force mobilized was also close to this figure.
The Kingdom of Prussia has a population of more than 14 million, and human resources have determined the upper limit of our military expansion. Taking advantage of the contradictions of various countries to maintain the balance of Europe is the most suitable policy theory for us.
You may not know, but I will tell you a set of economic data and you will understand.
In 1850, the revenue of the Kingdom of Prussia was 40.3% of Austria's, 28.2% of French, and 30.3% of Russian;
After Austria established the New Holy Roman Empire in 1854, the fiscal revenue of the Kingdom of Prussia was 31.1% of Austria's, 27.2% of the French, and 27.6% of the Russians;
In 1860, the revenue of the Kingdom of Prussia was 20.2% of Austria's, 21.3% of the French, and 31.1% of the Russians.
Our economy is nearly stagnant because a lot of money is being spent on the military. We spend 43.2% of Austria's military expenditure with 20.2% of Austria's fiscal revenue. "
Military expenditure is not only for the army, but also for the supporting military industry system. Under the compulsory military service system, this industrial chain is the most expensive.
At present, there are only seven countries in the world with a complete military-industrial system, including Britain, France, Russia, Oppo, America, and the West. Among them, the three countries, Faop, are at the forefront of army technology.
This is also the reason why the Prussian military industry is the dominant family. Their size really cannot afford a second family. In order to reduce costs, all countries are working hard to sell arms.
Franz even exported the military-industrial system directly to the Russians. For financial reasons, in order to save costs, Russian military enterprises introduced production lines from Austria during the Nicholas I period.
After so many years, the equipment produced has flooded the entire army, and it is difficult to change it back.
The kingdom of Prussia is a tragedy, because it is too low-known in the world, it is difficult to sell arms, and the military-industrial system has lost its ability to make blood. After all, what they are selling is only arms and cannot have political effect.
The era of industrialization was cruel. Because of the lack of markets and cheap industrial raw materials, Prussian capital was naturally unable to compete with its rivals in the process of industrialization, and could only cling to the domestic market.
The customs union that supported the development of the Kingdom of Prussia in history has long since ceased to exist because of interests.
Even the Russian market was robbed by the Austrians because of the deterioration of Prussian relations.
With so many unfavorable factors fed back to the economy, the outcome is naturally not optimistic. Not surprisingly, the Prussian economy was stagnant.
Faced with this situation, it became inevitable for the capitalists to open up overseas colonies and solve the problems of raw materials and markets.
Now the Prussian government is desperately ill, and they really have no better choice. If this continues, the Kingdom of Prussia will be directly dragged down.
Looking at the faces of everyone, Ron hesitated. Although the Kingdom of Prussia is used to military use, it is really unsustainable now.
In this era, the military expenditures of various countries are very large, and it is very normal to have a dozen, 20, or 30 percent.
The military spending of several major countries can exceed their fiscal revenue, so how can they fight?
If it is only for a short period of time, the government will find a way to endure it. But now the Kingdom of Prussia is expanding its army, and there is no value at all.
Ron knew that he should continue to fight.
Before long, the Kingdom of Prussia will be left behind because of financial problems.
In this case, the only solution is to start a war, annex more territories, and resolve domestic conflicts through expansion.
This is what the Kingdom of Prussia did in history, gambling all the way to unify the Little German region, and finally lost the empire.
Undoubtedly, now that there is no Jagged Chancellor Bismarck, the ruling Prime Minister Frank is not so radical. He advocates temporarily abandoning the struggle for hegemony on land.
After hesitating for a long time, Ron said: "Everyone, these questions are indeed very troublesome, but don't forget to look at the map.
The Kingdom of Prussia is now divided into two, and without a strong enough army, we could be eaten at any time.
It is very unreliable to pin your own security on a treaty. The system of the three northern palaces that originally guaranteed our safety no longer exists.
Despite our efforts to repair Russia-Austria relations, there has been little success.
Our desire to join the Russian-Austrian alliance was rejected by the two countries. There are not so many reasons. It is purely because of the distance between them in terms of strength, and we are not qualified to form an alliance with them.
To change this, we must expand on the European continent. Otherwise, the Kingdom of Prussia will soon sink into a small country that survives in the gaps of the great power. "
William I frowned, and he wanted to expand, but his strength allowed it. Don't think that the Kingdom of Prussia can hang and beat any neighbor except Russia and Austria, in fact, they dare not move any neighbor.
Denmark is the younger brother of the Russians. The current Russian Empire is still powerful, and the Russian-Austrian alliance is on the side. Maybe he didn't eat meat but instead took himself in.
The German Federal Empire is not easy to mess with, not only has the support of Britain and France, but its own economic strength is still higher than that of Prussia.
If the operation is not good, these states will directly switch to Austria, and they can only cry.
Don't think it's impossible. From the point of view of interests, the rights of everyone in the German Federal Empire can be retained to the maximum extent, and the economic benefits of joining Shinra are the greatest, and there is nothing with the Kingdom of Prussia.
Whether it is Junkers nobles or capitalists in Prussia, life has not been easy in recent years. Everyone is so hungry, how can they even care about eating?
There is no doubt that the Netherlands and Belgium also have bosses, and they will affect the whole body.
William I said: "Ron, your idea is too ideal. We have not yet the strength to ignore the rules. If we do something unwise, I am afraid that it will be suppressed by all countries immediately.
It is said that the French have fiddled with a plan to divide the three countries of Russia, Austria and France. It's just that because of the uneven distribution of spoils and the conflict between the interests of the three countries, there is no following.
Now the Vienna system is the best option for keeping Prussia safe. If it is not conducive to the development and growth of this peacetime, it is really dangerous for us to break the balance of Europe in the future.
The most important thing now is to open up overseas colonies and solve the problems of raw materials and markets needed by domestic industry and commerce, so as to complete industrialization as soon as possible.
Only when our strength is strong can the Kingdom of Prussia be able to go further in the next European change. "
Not only the French, but also the Austrian General Staff, and perhaps the Russians, have such a plan.
Ron nodded with a wry smile. The reality was too cruel. He didn't have the eloquence of Bismarck to convince everyone to unite.
The international situation has changed. Even if Bismarck is resurrected, there is no way to replicate the success in history, and there is no chance to even take the first step.