Holy Roman Empire

Spain's defeat did not matter, the key point was that the Philippine Islands, a strategic area, could not fall into the hands of the ambitious Japanese, or else the South China Sea region would never have peace.

Don't look at the Japanese government is now very peaceful, even if the Vienna government is openly supporting Spain, they are still in ambush, as if there is no temper.

But this is only based on the fear of the strong. Now that the Holy Roman Empire was strong, the military power alone in the South Pacific region could make them suffer, even if they wanted to be restless.

But times are changing, the Philippine Islands that fell into the hands of the Spanish and the Philippine Islands that fell into the hands of the Japanese are two very different concepts.

The former had fallen, and even if the Philippines was fertile, that could only contribute a revenue to Spain, and the national power wasn't much help.

If it had fallen into the hands of Japan, it would have been a completely different story. With the resources of the Philippines and the hardships of the Japanese, creating a medium-sized power would be a good idea, and it would be the kind of power that is good at fighting.

If that was all, it wouldn't be enough to make Franz scrupulous. After all, the current Holy Roman Empire was so perverted that even he himself had never thought that one day he would be able to create such a huge empire.

The problem was that Japan just wasn't a normal country, and with the senators holding it down, it wasn't going crazy for now. Not so much in the future, as you can see by referencing what they did in the original time period, which was a complete series of movies about death by tricks.

There's no guarantee that one day the Japanese will go crazy and hit the Austrian South Pacific region. Franz does not want to labor to go to the Far East to fight the Japanese.

The war of blood loss, win or blood loss, I guess normal people do not like. Unless there was the certainty of a death blow, Franz would not start such a meaningless war of attrition.

From the standpoint of the Holy Roman Empire, it was better for the Philippine Islands to remain in the hands of the Spanish, at least the Spanish government would not fantasize about competing with them for Southern Ocean hegemony, much less dare to think ill of the Austrian Southern Ocean region.

"Is the Spanish army so useless?"

Prime Minister Karl snapped. As a normal European, he just couldn't imagine the European army fucking the Japanese natives and putting up such a rubbish performance.

Without the bottom of the record set by the Italian army, the current performance of the Spanish army could be said to be the worst among all the colonial empires in Europe.

Not to mention the 1:1.4 exchange ratio, even if the exchange ratio was 1:10, that was an inferior performance. Normally it's all one company chasing thousands of men, and one regiment can play war of extermination.

Spain was even more the originator of colonial warfare and the record setter of conquests. As far back as those years, Spain conquered the Aztec Empire with 600 men, and overthrew the Inca Empire with 177 men and 62 horses.

Compare that to the achievements of the Spanish army today, even though the difference between heaven and hell could not be that great. Such a conceptual shock was naturally unbelievable to Prime Minister Carr as a normal human being.

Foreign Minister Wiesenberg explained, "It's even more useless than we expected," he said. It was not without warning, however, that the Spaniards had exposed the low combat effectiveness of their army as early as the European War.

They concentrated the country's elite troops and planned elaborate campaigns, but in the end, they didn't even work the cannon fodder units that France had improvised.

In the entire anti-French alliance, only the army of the Italian state had a fighting strength comparable to theirs. The combat power they are showing now should be the lower limit of the Army of the European world."

All spouting Spanish rubbish, and no one mentions the Japanese army's fighting prowess. Well, Franz admits that Japanese combat effectiveness these days really has nothing to do with toughness.

It's not that the Japanese don't work hard, the problem is that military spending determines the upper limit of the army's fighting strength. How can you call yourself a veteran without having fired hundreds of rounds of ammunition; can you feed the elite without thousands of rounds of ammunition?

This is true of infantry, and even more so of artillery. Every qualified artilleryman was fed with shells, and usually a few hundred shells was a lot. Even if most of them were training shells, that was still a big expense.

Not to mention the wear and tear on the artillery, and training a few gunners to scrap a gun, that was all routine operation.

The more technically demanding armored soldiers and pilots, not to mention the money that was spent on them. Of course, the Japanese didn't have any of these types of soldiers, but it was a no-brainer.

In addition to ammunition consumption, soldiers' salaries, daily life, and maintenance of weapons and equipment were likewise a considerable expense.

According to the Shinra Army's standards, the Japanese Army would still be able to get by with one infantry division and two would be a bit difficult to maintain, not to mention the others.

And this dilemma would continue until it was possible to make the weaponry domestic and reduce the cost of weapons and ammunition before it would improve slightly.

Reference to the original space and time will know that for a long time, the Japanese Army has only maintained a single-digit number of standing divisions, and often undermanned.

Even with this compression of forces, military spending was still not enough. Under duress, the Japanese Army practiced white-knuckle tactics and then became the king of white-knuckle warfare.

It was fine to bully trash cannon fodder with only the combat power brought by the Blood Brave Qi, but if they encountered a true elite it would be a gift.

In fact, the elite troops were not necessarily all daredevils, their true power was in their professionalism.

To put it simply, even from a few hundred meters away, the probability of him hitting you is twenty to thirty percent, but you can only rely on your luck to return fire.

The average of a few thousand rounds of ammunition to take out an enemy in modern warfare and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition to take out an enemy in future wars are mostly the work of ordinary troops. An elite unit, on the other hand, requires much less ammunition on average to take out an enemy.

The Viennese government top brass didn't give a damn about Japanese combat power for this reason as well. A country that needed to import even artillery had no business being scrupulous.

......

Seeing that the subject was getting off on a spiteful tangent, Franz interrupted, "It doesn't matter if the Spanish army is useless or not, it's the British who are involved. The London government is backing the Japanese, so we can't let Spain lose the war, at least not too badly."

In international politics, face-saving can sometimes be very important, especially for the newly born hegemon.

Although both Britain and Austria were only behind the remote control of this Japanese-Spanish War, many saw it as a continuation of the Anglo-Austrian hegemony struggle.

If Spain suffered a crushing defeat, it would send a signal to the outside world that the Holy Roman Empire was no match for the British in overseas competition.

Despite the fact that this was true, the Vienna government had to die to admit it. In a sense, admitting that it was no match for Britain in overseas competition would mean admitting defeat.

As a challenger, defeat can be tolerated, but not admitted. Politics being what it is, sometimes one must delude oneself.

Besides, how can you reassure your little brothers without showing some strength to them?

Franz is not looking for Spain to turn the tide against the odds, he'll be content with a two-goal defeat.

If he couldn't do that, then it wasn't unacceptable to have Spain lose in a more dignified manner. After all, a military victory wasn't a victory yet, and a diplomatic game could still rewrite the final outcome.

As long as the Spaniards showed enough strength, Franz was sure that he could force the Japanese to withdraw from the Philippine Islands through diplomatic means.

"It's too late to help the Spaniards train the army, and if you want to change the situation on the battlefield in a short time, you'll have to go on mercenaries.

The problem now is that the Spaniards are too poor, and maintaining an expeditionary force to fight is already very difficult, and they simply don't have the financial resources to hire an army.

Besides, the Japanese military power isn't too weak, and there's simply no mercenary army in the international community that can accomplish this task."

Prime Minister Karl suggested. Similarly, the government of Vienna has done similar things before, when it fought with the British for South Africa, it had the vest of "mercenaries". But it was found to be redundant, and simply fought the Boer Republican government forces.

The only problem is that the Philippine Islands are different from South Africa. The only problem was that the Philippine Islands were different from South Africa. South Africa ate the area by itself, and it was only right to pay for it; but the Philippine Islands belonged to the Spanish, and for the sake of international reputation, it was impossible for the Vienna government to swallow it.

Where in the world would it be possible to bring your own dry food to help the Spaniards fight their war? Even though the Spanish government had already paid the price, it was only in exchange for the support of the Vienna government, but it wouldn't be enough to make the Holy Roman Empire go to war in person.

Without the Vienna government's involvement, with the Spanish ability, even if they were really willing to pay to hire an army to help fight the war, they wouldn't have such a powerful mercenary army.

Under normal circumstances, a mercenary army was only a hundred or eighty people, and those that numbered over a thousand were giant teams that couldn't afford to raise any more.

The combat power is also very different, including the combat power of the strong can be pressed against the government forces of various countries to fight, can be said to be the elite of the elite; more mercenary teams, but also to bully the natives can still be okay, encounter the regular army can only send food.

In a small-scale battle, it was fine, but if it were to be placed in a battle of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, mercenaries numbering only a thousand or eight hundred would not be enough.

Franz nodded: "If you don't have the money, lend it to them, and let the Spaniards mortgage the colonial revenue. There are no such strong mercenary regiments in the international arena, so form your own.

The European War has only just ended, and there is still a large group of retired officers and soldiers on the continent, and there are always outlaws who like to lick blood from the tip of a knife.

If you don't have enough people, go to France and recruit them, they've been starving for so long, I'm sure there will be people willing to work to fill a family's stomach.

By the way, we don't want any mercenaries from Italy. This time, we're going to the Philippine Islands to fight, and there's no pasta there."

Without the conditions, creating the conditions had to be on. Whether the mercenaries could have defeated the Japanese is anyone's guess, and it was better to do it than not do it anyway.

Rather than sit back and watch the Spaniards lose the war, it was better to try and put up a fight. The Spaniards were paying for it anyway, and the Vienna government would just have to give it a push in the dark.

It would be best if it worked, and it wouldn't hurt if it didn't, the situation had deteriorated to this point, and no matter how bad it was, it couldn't get any worse.

Even if the plan fails, it's the Spanish government that will cry, and the Vienna government will only lose some face, but at most it won't compete with the British in the overseas competition for the time being.