Australian Storm 1876 - Chapter 1111

Chapter 1111 Post-War Disarmament

The taste of power makes people intoxicated and lost, and it also makes people from wise to dull, from sober to arrogant.

Li Fushou witnessed the collapse of the four major European empires with his own eyes. He knew that the democratic process was an irreversible and powerful trend in the world. Although he was reluctant to give up the absolute power that could not be checked, he still made the right choice.

If he does not implement democratic constitutionalism, he is afraid that he will regret it.

Decades

Li Fushou led the imperial ship through storms, thunderstorms, and rapids. Now he is sailing on the vast and boundless sea. The future is bright, and he does not want to have troubles.

The end of the World War

The Ocean Empire has the opportunity to make up for the shortcomings in Europe and North Africa, and to improve the empire map and global layout before the tide of the awakening of global nationalism.

up to now

The Ocean Empire has no desire for territory. Libya is not a colony that is bound to be acquired quickly, but a piece of oil-producing land in the Persian Gulf, which is in line with future interest plans and must be included in the bag.

All of this requires bargaining with Britain, France and other countries at the Paris Peace Conference to finally determine their respective spheres of influence and interests.

Before the dust settles, the Libyan region is the most powerful bargaining chip, which can be exchanged for many things, including Britain and France and other mainstream European countries recognizing the sovereignty of the Republic of Crimea and tacitly merging it with the Ocean Empire.

Make concessions in the West Asia region, by default Kuwait and the Kingdom of Najd belong to the colony of the Ocean Empire.

On the North American issue, he promised not to support the US by force, not to ally with the US, and not to violate the traditional interests of the Ocean Empire in South America.

On the African issue, make substantial concessions on the division of German East African territories to meet the needs of the Ocean Empire.

On the issue of trade and tariffs with Europe…

On the Far East issue…

The power of the Ocean Empire has expanded to the whole world, and there are many transactions that can be negotiated with Britain, France and other countries.

With Libya, a North African colony in his hands, the Ocean Empire is in an extremely powerful negotiating position, which will force Britain, France, Italy and other countries to exchange interests that are not inferior to the region.

Otherwise, the Ocean Empire will definitely not give up the fat meat.

An unprecedentedly tragic world war changed the national character of the combative countries such as Britain and France, which had a profound impact and became fearful of war from the heart.

Before the Great War

France is full of expectations for the fateful European war, hoping to relive the humiliation of the Franco-Prussian War and reproduce the glory of the Napoleonic era. In the war, he fought very hard and was not at all cowardly.

However, the unprecedentedly tragic world war cost France a large number of people, and almost a generation of young men died on the battlefield. The price was too heavy.

This caused the French to have a deep fear of war, lost their original blood, and turned the overall tone to compromise and appeasement.

In the French military, any officer who advocates war will be eliminated from the army without hesitation. The overall thinking of the French army turns to defense, and tries to avoid war with Germany.

This situation also appeared in Britain, Britain and France after the First World War, and appeasementism was the mainstream thought, which was not groundless without reason.

In this case, no one wants to break out another war with the Ocean Empire.

Interest exchange!

Anyway, as an old colonialist country, Britain, France and other countries have chips in their hands, enough to make the Ocean Empire tempted.

For countries such as Britain and France, the surrounding area of ​​the Mediterranean Sea is the core interest.

For the Ocean Empire, Libya, which is located in North Africa, is a marginal interest, and there is no need to fight.

After the summoned ministers retired, Li Fushou returned to the imperial study. There were more than a dozen secret letters on the red sandalwood table. These were all private letters from leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, the United States, and other countries. Do communicate.

The letters from the heads of Britain, France and other countries mainly focus on the Libyan issue and the Tsarist Russia issue. The Libyan issue will not be discussed for the time being, while the Tsarist Russia is the issue of the unified action of foreign intervening forces.

Because of the private transactions between the Ocean Empire and Russia, the Second Army of the Ocean Empire stationed in the Republic of Crimea will not participate in the intervention against Russia, which makes Britain, France, Italy and other countries very dissatisfied.

The new Russian government was also dissatisfied with the actions of the Ocean Empire. Although the 2nd Army withdrew from the Ukraine area, the power gap left after the withdrawal of the area was quickly occupied by foreign intervention forces and white bandits, forcing the new Russian government to send troops from eastern Ukraine. , the two sides fought a pot of porridge in the surrounding areas of Kyiv.

The Ocean Empire invested only one mobile brigade in the European region of Tsarist Russia, and would never send more soldiers or soldiers.

while in the Russian Far East

The military presence of the   Ocean Empire was reduced from the original two divisions to one division, which was tightly guarded in Vladivostok and several surrounding Far Eastern cities, and did not step into the Central Siberia region.

In contrast, Fuso Kingdom, in order to regain the trust of the British Empire, increased its troops in the Russian Far East from more than 10,000 to more than 60,000, and attacked westward along the Trans-Siberian Railway. The forces reached the surrounding areas of Yekaterinburg. The country with the most troops in the intervening army.

Why is    Fuso capable of investing in the Far East?

This is because under pressure from Europe, the current North American war has ceased, which means that the 2nd US-Japan War has come to an end.

The two sides of the war did not sign a formal armistice contract, but the war has been completely stopped.

The country of Fusang occupies the vast Central Plains of North America, which is known as the black land area in the world. It has the most favorable humus soil for the growth of crops, and has countless factories and towns, which makes its comprehensive strength suddenly increase a big step.

How big is the benefit? Let’s talk about data specifically;

Occupies part of the industrial areas in the Great Lakes region of North America, which increases the total national economy of Fusang by 133% and tax revenue by 276%, making up for the shortcomings of more than 37 industrial production, and increasing the output of steel by 1122%. From the original annual output of more than 200,000 tons of steel, the annual output of steel has increased to 2.244 million tons, which is close to the level of France (after the war). The area of ​​arable land increased by 421%, and the output of agriculture and animal husbandry doubled.

This is a bite of fat and oily. Compared with a one-time war indemnity, the benefits of the fall of the Fusang Kingdom are greater.

The current population of the United States is only 32 million at best (about 4 million people in the occupied Great Lakes, and nearly 3 million people lost in more than two years of war), which is almost half the level of Fusang.

One trade off and the other grows, giving Fusang more confidence to colonize North America.

But the U.S. did not do nothing either. President William Taft was visiting Europe, bringing in a large number of retired and unemployed officers and soldiers from Germany, signing dozens of authorized manufacturing contracts for advanced weapons, and receiving military training and technical support from Britain, France and other countries. Strengthened inter-governmental cooperation and exchanges with Britain, France, Italy and other countries, and reopened immigration channels…

The British have clearly told the Fuso Kingdom that any further military action in North America will greatly damage the foundation of the “Britain-Japanese Alliance” and exert strong pressure on the Japanese side.

European countries such as France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands expressed similar demands and jointly put pressure on the Fusang government to prevent it from starting the war lightly in North America.

The pressure from Europe balanced the power of the Ocean Empire. Although the Japanese side expressed strong dissatisfaction with this, it went downhill and completely stopped military operations in North America.

Li Fushou had no choice but to take a step by step.

The Ocean Empire’s pressure on the United States has two main aspects: on the one hand, it urges the repayment of the arrears, and on the other hand, it requires the United States to fulfill its promise to suppress the number of the standing army to less than 100,000.

During the   war period, the US Nationalists’ expansion of the number of militiamen played a tricky role. The total army personnel once reached more than 1.7 million, and the Ocean Empire turned a blind eye.

Now that the war is over, after the “Wool War” must be resumed, the arms limitation treaty stipulated in the “Guangzhou Contract” cannot be exceeded.

In the face of the strong oppression of the Ocean Empire, the United States knew that its strength was poor, and had to endure humiliation and hatred to start a large-scale reduction of active duty troops and convert them into militias of the standing National Guard in each state.

And the Japanese side was grateful for the move of the Ocean Empire, which greatly relieved the pressure on the North American Expeditionary Force.

The Japanese side has also taken practical actions to reduce its armaments at the same time. It plans to reduce the number of North American Expeditionary Forces, which are as high as 770,000, to less than 300,000.

The high cost of maintaining a large-scale army has long overwhelmed the finances of the Fusang government, and it was on the verge of bankruptcy several times.

at the same time

The Japanese side launched a large-scale “Civil North American Pioneering Group” movement, strengthened the construction of immigrant fleets, and began to emigrate to North America on a large scale, further consolidating the occupied area.

There were many new changes in the world pattern after the war. Under the guidance of Li Fushou’s cautious policy, the empire began to realize a strategic contraction. The first was large-scale army layoffs.

The number of staff in the Imperial Royal Army has reached more than 2.3 million. The first thing to cut is the local garrison. The total number will be reduced by half from 1.11 million, and it is planned to maintain no more than 560,000 staff.

The overseas expeditionary force and garrison total about 1.2 million, which will be reduced from the second quarter of 2019. The restoration of the restoration, the retirement of the retired, the reward of the reward, the imperial officers and soldiers who are willing to settle in Europe or the Atlantic Islands will be given priority. arrange.

The 2nd Army of the Republic of Crimea has a total staff of about 380,000 people, and a total of 78,651 people were killed or injured in the war, of which 22,776 people were killed and more than 55,000 people were injured.

There are more than 88,000 officers and soldiers who received awards for their neutrality in the war. More than 70% of them were placed in the coastal areas with Crimea as the core, and about 45% of the total number of retired officers and soldiers, or about 200,000 people, were resettled on the spot.

In addition, the Belarusian Affiliated Army also implemented the resettlement of farmland, with agricultural squads and platoons as units, concentrated in the coastal areas of southern Ukraine.

According to the arrangement of the superior;

In addition to some German and Austro-Hungarian occupying forces, the 1st, 3rd and 4th armies on the Western Front have withdrawn from Europe one after another, and some officers and soldiers who are willing to stay in Europe are mainly placed in the Republic of Crimea. About 260,000 people (excluding family members).

Thus

The Republic of Crimea resettled retired imperial soldiers and some Chinese immigrants (mainly for business and property), with a total of about 560,000 people (excluding family members), and more than 500,000 people (excluding family members) of the Belarusian Affiliated Army. The 2nd Group has about 200,000 officers and soldiers and a total population of about 2.7 million.

Among them, most of them are young men and women, and the ratio of soldiers to people is surprisingly high. It is an uncompromisingly powerful country in Eastern Europe.

The Black Sea Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet is stationed in the Port of Yalta on the Crimea Island, which is also the most powerful fleet in the entire Black Sea region, including two 40,000-ton “Princess Elizabeth” class battleships, none of them.

on the French battlefield on the Western Front

Many imperial soldiers and local girls set up families together, roughly 300,000 soldiers. After retiring, these soldiers were strongly attracted by the French, so they chose to stay in France for development and never return to China.

Some of the experienced officers entered the French army, bringing the advanced military concepts of the Ocean Empire and further strengthening the professionalism of the French army.

Another tens of thousands of soldiers combined with British girls and Italian girls, because various factors also stayed in the local development.

Lin Lin finally came down

A total of about 1.2 million Imperial Expeditionary Forces, but less than 400,000 have been withdrawn to the country one after another. Some of them entered the Republic of Virginia for long-term rest, some stayed in Panama State, and some retired and settled in 4 states under the administration of the Governor’s Office in North America.

Less than 200,000 returned to the mainland, all of them are veterans of hundreds of battles and the backbone of the army, especially the officers and professional sergeants. landscape.

(end of this chapter)