Franz was not disappointed that he failed to throw the British off their rhythm. He had expected this outcome from the start. If a little provocation was enough to make the British follow along, then they would not be the British. The Royal Navy might have been tempted, but when it came to the Army, no amount of pressure would make Britain act impulsively. It was like taking an exam. If you were always at the bottom of the class, it would not matter to you whether the top student scored ninety or one hundred. You would not feel much difference either way. But if you were the top student, always leading the rankings, and someone suddenly overtook you, even by half a point, you would feel the urge to take back your place. That was exactly the case here. In terms of the Army, Britain was a bottom-tier student. In terms of the Navy, it was the top of the class. No matter how grand or awe-inspiring Franz’s military parade was, it was still a showcase of land power. It might shock and amaze, but it would never make the British government lose its composure and start an Army arms race with the Holy Roman Empire. And it was not just Britain. At this point, no country in the world had the courage to challenge the Holy Roman Empire in land warfare. Ever since France’s decline, global land armament had fallen into a steep divide. The Holy Roman Empire stood alone, far ahead of everyone else, while the so-called competitors could not even see its shadow. Competitors? There were none worth mentioning. Unless the British completely changed their national policy and threw everything into building up their Army, only then might Franz feel a bit of pressure. As for the rest, one by one, they were all small fry. You only had to look at the second-place holder, Russia, to understand. Their entire military was outfitted with Austrian-made equipment. Whatever weapons the Imperial Army used, the Russians would follow a few years later with the same models. The Russian bureaucracy had plenty of experience in this field. Every time the Russian Army underwent a major rearmament, it conveniently coincided with the Holy Roman Empire’s mass retirement of old weapons. The timing was perfect. They used new equipment budgets to buy second-hand Austrian weapons at a discount. The difference in cost went straight into their own pockets. Both sides understood this game perfectly. The Imperial Army always retired its weapons a few years before they reached the end of their service life, ensuring that the second-hand goods were still usable for several more years. The bureaucrats made a fortune, and the Russian soldiers benefited as well. At last, they were free from their unreliable, shoddy domestically made weapons. Even though their new gear was technically second-hand, it was still far more reliable than the so-called new weapons made at home. On one hand, they had crude, clunky equipment prone to constant malfunctions and even the occasional barrel explosion. On the other, they had used but well-built, stable, and safe Austrian arms that were still 50-60% new. It was not a hard choice. Within the Russian government, this was practically an open secret. Everyone who needed to know knew about it, and even many who should not have known did as well. The only one still in the dark was the great Tsar himself. Some had considered exposing this farce, but after weighing the consequences, they all decided to stay silent. It was not out of fear for their lives. The real reason was concern for the safety of Russian soldiers. If the capitalists and bureaucrats were barred from making money through reselling weapons, they would simply turn to making money during production itself, and that would mean even worse quality control. After all the bureaucratic trickery and creative “operations,” the already unreliable Russian arms industry could only pray to God that its final products would actually work. Before this great reselling movement began, many of the Russian army’s shells had to be re-polished and adjusted on-site just to fit into the guns properly. Now things are much better. Since the Russian military had completely copied the Austrian model, even down to the weapon specifications, you could not tell the difference unless you were an expert. And even if someone did notice that the weapons looked a bit old, it could easily be explained away. They could say it was due to intensive training that caused excessive wear and tear. Whether others believed it or not did not matter, what mattered was that the great Tsar himself believed it. During his many inspections of the army, he never noticed anything wrong with the weapons or equipment. Because of that, the army’s logistics department and the defense industries had been showered with the Tsar’s praise in recent years. The “complete domestication” of the weapon industry was considered a huge achievement. Even though the production lines had been imported from the Holy Roman Empire, it was still celebrated as a proud accomplishment. In the original timeline, the Russian government had chased that same goal right up until its own collapse, without ever managing to achieve it. It took the rise of the “cheat-enabled” Soviet Union to finally make that dream a reality. If the world’s supposed second-ranked land power was already in such a state, then there was no point even mentioning the third. The truth was, there was no legitimate contender for that spot. Neither the declining Spanish army nor the miniature British land forces were anywhere close to qualifying as major land powers. If one were to look purely at combat effectiveness without taking national power or population into account, then Switzerland might actually deserve the title. But calling Switzerland the world’s third strongest army sounded like a bad joke. Eliminating Switzerland from the list left Belgium, whose army was also quite capable. Unfortunately, its size was far too small to support the title of a great power. Further north, the Nordic Federation had some strength on paper, but it had not shown any notable military achievements in decades. Its last real appearance on the battlefield had been Denmark, and that ended disastrously. They had the bad luck of running into Prussia at its peak, and the defeat had been utterly one-sided. If that was the best the Nordic Federation could offer, then it clearly did not qualify as a land power either. As for the rest of the world, things looked even worse. Across the ocean, both the Union and the Confederation had decent national strength, but their militaries were limited by constant rivalry with each other. They were a little stronger than the United States from the original timeline, but only slightly. Whether it was weaponry or the quality of their soldiers, they were still far behind the European standard. The rising Japanese Army had decent fighting spirit, but its weapons, equipment, and training lagged far behind, and the quality of its officers was also substandard. “Unqualified.” That was Franz’s evaluation. There was no other reason for it than the deep-rooted influence of Bushido. The samurai spirit gave these officers an excessive sense of personal will and far too little capacity for rational thought. The kind of officers you have determines the kind of soldiers you lead. An army like that could easily bully the weak, but the moment it faced a strong opponent, those flaws would become fatal. Take the European War as an example. Because of one mistaken judgment by a French commander, tens of thousands of French soldiers were sent charging straight into the barrels of enemy machine guns. If someone like General Nogi Maresuke had been in command instead, the casualties might not have been in the tens of thousands. The real question would have been whether there would be any French soldiers left at all. Of course, if the French army had really been that willing to die, the Allied Rhine defense line would never have lasted until reinforcements arrived. They could have easily pushed the war deep into the heart of the German territories. But trying to carve out a path forward by piling up a million corpses was another matter entirely. Before the strategy could even be completed, the French army would likely have mutinied. Even if no mutiny occurred, the massive losses at the start would have made it impossible to continue fighting later on. After all, not every nation had an endless population to throw away. If one battle alone cost over a million lives, there would be no way to sustain the next campaign. Officers like that were actually best suited to join the British army and command Indian colonial troops. As long as they could drive the colonial soldiers to fight to the death, they could wipe out most of the enemy through sheer numbers. Becoming a so-called “military god” would not be a dream then. When you take a step back and look at the world, you realize something: the ones who can fight lack numbers, the ones with numbers lack fighting power, and those that have both are broke and riddled with flaws in their command systems. Beyond Russia and Austria, there were no true great land powers left. With rivals like these, whether anyone felt threatened or not no longer mattered. Even if some country did feel provoked and decided to reform itself, it would still have to complete industrialization first. Ever since the advent of airplanes and tanks, military production has entered the 3.0 era. Without a strong industrial foundation to support it, even the best weapon designs would remain nothing more than dreams on paper. … While the rulers of various countries were still reeling from the provocation, a world-shaking scam began spreading out from Vienna. Mr. Rivera, having pocketed his first pot of gold, did not run off with the money. Instead he doubled down, determined to grow his so-called great strategic plan into something huge. Judged by current results, Rivera was in many ways an excellent entrepreneur. He was erudite, a masterful speaker, brimming with confidence, armed with lofty ideals, and also down-to-earth in his approach. No exaggeration, the intoxicated Rivera truly believed in those lofty ideals. He was not only out to make himself rich. He wanted his investors to get rich with him. He promised to break the economic monopolies of the cartels and to build a utopian economic system. To realize that dream, Rivera scouted for like-minded partners, formed a professional investment team, and drew up strict commercial plans. After securing funding, he did not go on a wild spending spree. Besides issuing loans to the Spanish government and paying regular salaries, Rivera mostly bought assets. He scooped up a 2.1% stake in the Austrian Electric Company, then 3.3% of the Austrian Automotive Group, and later 1.9% of the Suez Canal shares… From an investment perspective, these were quality assets likely to yield handsome returns. The label “practical and down-to-earth” fit him perfectly. As Rivera made these large purchases, the share prices of those companies rose sharply, and on paper his investment group was already profitable. The business logic was mature, the financial statements were professional, and most importantly, the group turned a profit right from the start. The media crowned him a business genius, calling him the most brilliant investor of the nineteenth century. Wherever he went, Rivera became the brightest star. Keep winning like this and he would indeed be a financial prodigy. Reality is strange. Con artists and geniuses often differ by the thinnest of lines, and the only real distinction is whether they succeed. Illegal fundraising and hiding risks from investors were minor offenses in the eyes of the times. In this era of shadowy finance, compared to swindlers handing out peanuts and selling worthless planes, Rivera, who merely misrepresented things, looked almost saintly. But even saints have problems. As the investment group grew, internal troubles multiplied. Money has always moved men’s hearts. Rivera himself did not flee, but some of his subordinates did. In a world without online payments, most investments came in cash or checks. Faced with huge sums, many people lost restraint. A few men could not resist temptation. They first withheld portions of the funds and did not record them on the books. With investors lacking real-time access to accounts and with Rivera unable to personally contact every backer, the first round of embezzlement went off without a hitch. Such schemes can be hidden for a while but not forever. When interest payments came due, the fraud could no longer be concealed. Fearing prison, those embezzlers chose an extreme path. They used their positions to seize the money and fled the country. Investors who suffered heavy losses refused to let the matter drop. They demanded that Rivera’s investment group honor the contracts. The signed agreements were black and white, leaving no room for denial. Although the thefts were the personal actions of employees, the contracts had been signed with the investment group itself. Those losses had to be borne by Rivera whether he liked it or not. If these incidents were isolated, they might have been tolerable, but the defaults and flight incidents kept happening again and again. Boosting salaries or tightening controls had not stopped them. If this problem could not be solved, Rivera’s whole group would be dragged down. Reporting the crimes to the police was necessary, but in that era pursuing fugitives was extremely difficult. The moment an embezzler left the country, law enforcement was powerless. Even if the European Alliance had an extradition treaty, the first task was still to locate the culprit. Rivera stood before his team and delivered a blunt warning, “Everyone, we have reached a moment of life or death. If we cannot stop these embezzlements, this group will be destroyed by scum. Today we will resolve this problem. For the future of the group and for our own futures, I want no reservations. Speak your minds boldly...”
*** https://postimg.cc/gallery/PwXsBkC (Maps of the current territories of the countries in this novel made by ScH)
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