Holy Roman Empire

Political struggle is ruthless, and the Ethiopian War was entirely instigated by the Benjamin Cabinet. They dug the hole, so they must bear the responsibility to fill it in.

The British public is proud; they can tolerate defeat to any European power but cannot accept losing to African natives.

To avoid being caught by the Opposition Party and subjected to public criticism, the military’s false battle reports had to be grudgingly accepted by the Benjamin Cabinet.

"Exclude the losses of the Indian Colonial Army from the casualty numbers, and don’t release the death toll yet. Spread the losses over subsequent battles.

Mobilize all our resources to guide public opinion as much as possible, keeping the impact to a minimum. If we can’t control the situation, create a sensational news story to divert public attention."

Having no alternative, Benjamin did not want to be shamefacedly driven from office just after taking up the post.

After hearing Benjamin’s words, Army Minister Fox said, "I apologize, Prime Minister. The battle report I just read was from the previous Anglo-Ebura war.

This one is the report sent from the front lines. After a month of bitter fighting, our forces eliminated 9,568 enemy troops at the cost of 351 dead and 1,126 wounded.

However, Ethiopia is truly vast, and France and Austria are covetously watching. In order to occupy Ethiopia before France and Austria, the frontline troops are requesting 80,000 reinforcements."

Seeing the Army Minister producing another battle report, everyone was already unsurprised. In politics, it was common to be prepared for all kinds of strange events.

It was Fox’s third term as Army Minister, and even when the Anglo-Ebura war was disastrously lost, he managed to come out unscathed. How much less would this minor defeat affect him?

If the Cabinet decided to pursue accountability, Fox would likely sacrifice those frontline officers; now if the Cabinet was preparing to assign blame, naturally, Fox would help cover for them.

Benjamin’s reason for choosing Fox as Army Minister was because of his adaptability.

The same battle report, when spun differently, suddenly changed the whole situation.

Even the requests for reinforcements had seemed competent. What was originally a defeated frontline now instantaneously turned into preparations to prevent France and Austria from seizing the spoils of war.

Undoubtedly, this narrative was more acceptable to the British public. Should the British Army suffer heavy losses in future battles, all excuses for facing criticism were already prepared.

No matter the defeat, just shift the blame to France and Austria, and the London Government’s responsibility would be greatly reduced.

Even the Opposition Party would have nothing to say. The British Army was only so strong; the main force of the colonies was the cannon fodder army, and it was normal not to win against militarized nations.

Prime Minister Benjamin said, "That’s how we’ll announce it externally! Order Ismail to give me a harsh lesson to those ***, our boys’ blood must not have been shed in vain."

...

Foreign Minister Edward said, "The Foreign Office has just received a piece of information that might be of help to us.

The French are getting restless again; they’ve taken the Panama Canal development rights from the Colombian Government and are preparing the Canal Company, which looks like they’re getting ready to make trouble."

Smiling at each other, Prime Minister Benjamin made a decision: "That’s right, the French forcibly took the development rights of the canal from the Colombian Government, openly trampling on the sovereignty of a nation.

For the sake of world peace and stability, the government should promptly relay the news to the media and expose the shameless actions of the French."

This was like being delivered a pillow while dozing. The London Government was worried about diverting public attention, and there the French were, making a big news story.

Whether the French legitimately acquired the rights to develop the canal was not important; what mattered was that the London Government needed them to be seen as illegitimate now.

Even if it was a stretch, it didn’t matter; controversy creates discussion. Just stir it up for a few months, and the public would forget about this minor defeat.

After all, England and France have been rivals for hundreds of years, and the slandering between the public has never ceased. Everyone is used to berating each other, and popular animosity won’t affect the relations between the two countries.

Even if it did have an impact, Prime Minister Benjamin didn’t care. As long as it could divert public attention, minor problems weren’t worth mentioning.

In Prime Minister Benjamin’s view, the Panama Canal issue was completely a farce concocted by the French.

The Austrians were right next door, long considering the Panama area as within their sphere of influence; how could they possibly allow the French to gain control over the canal?

Joint development was out of the question, wasn’t it?

The Panama Canal, unlike the Suez Canal, was not of great strategic significance to France and Austria and wasn’t considered indispensable.

Without ample profits, how can there be cooperation?

Neither Anglo-Austria benefited from the opening of the Panama Canal, and following the principle of harming others for self-benefit, the London Government didn’t want to see the canal open, and the Vienna Government presumably felt the same.

Now everyone can enjoy the show: let the French dig the canal until it’s nearly complete, then jump out and cause trouble, just at the right moment to trap them.

...

In the Vienna Palace, Franz seemed to be on someone’s mind today, sneezing several times.

Aside from sneezing, there were no other symptoms. Franz didn’t seek medical attention, as he had full distrust in the medical standards of the era, preferring not to take any medicine if he could avoid it.

Unlike in later times, nearly all medicines now have side effects. A lot of pharmaceuticals are rushed to the market with immature production techniques.

In fact, many people are not dying from diseases but from the treatments. It’s not that doctors are irresponsible; rather, that each individual’s constitution is unique. Most can withstand the side effects of the drugs, but a portion of people cannot.

If one is wealthy enough to have a personal doctor available at all times, most issues could be identified early, preventing the continued use of harmful medication.

For the average household, that’s not the case. Even if a problem occurred, many would continue taking the medicine, never suspecting that the side effects could worsen the disease, which is why medical accidents are so frequent.

These problems are hard to solve, and there’s no way to manage them effectively. In this era, there are too few types of medicine. Banning those with severe side effects would leave many diseases without any treatment options.

It’s not just the ingredients in the medications that are the issue but also the undeveloped industrial technology. During industrial production, anything from temperature variations, to the quality of raw materials, to measurement errors in dosage could increase the chances of side effects.

Unsolvable problems must naturally be put aside. For patients, it’s better to take a gamble than to wait for death; the most frightening thing is to be without hope.

Franz has been working for many years to establish a comprehensive healthcare system, but unfortunately, it still only covers seventy percent of the population.

That’s still just an idealistic number. In reality, only those in the middle class and higher can expect effective treatment.

Commoners at best could treat minor illness; anything serious, and they would have to rely on divine intervention. It’s not a lack of medical resources, but a lack of money.

The most crucial issue is that seeing a doctor doesn’t guarantee reliability. Take Franz, for example; he often consults with doctors but rarely takes medication, especially chemically-produced Western drugs.

Often, he’d rather drink a bowl of traditional Chinese medicine. Regardless, in this era, Chinese medicine still holds its competitive edge. Though slower, it has fewer side effects!

For the sake of his life, Franz maintained a professional medical team that included both traditional Chinese and Western medicine practitioners.

The Western medicines used by the royal family were specially produced, and some medicines with high technical demands were directly manufactured in laboratories to guarantee maximum safety.

...

Colonial Minister Stephen reported, "Your Majesty, the British have decided to reinforce Africa with 80,000 troops. We can now confirm that the previous rumors of the British army’s defeat are true.

The British Army is limited in size; they will have to pull some troops from home and some colonial troops from India to reinforce Africa.

It will take at least a month for these troops to reach the African continent. We could seize the opportunity to take a chunk out of Ethiopia before the British arrive. What do you think?"

Franz shook his head, "There’s no need. We’ve already nibbled away quite a bit of Ethiopia, and continuing to grab more land will only make the British desperate.

Moreover, the Ethiopian natives are not so easy to deal with. To cause trouble for the British, we didn’t hold back in enhancing their combat abilities over the past few years.

Now it’s time to test the results and see if our investment was worthwhile; to learn from our experiences and lessons."

Compared to other regions of Africa, Ethiopia indeed has made progress. Despite the low assessments given by the military training instructors, that’s only relative to the Austrian army.

If the British didn’t reinforce, Franz would have had faith in the "Warrior Emperor" to manage the Indian Colonial Army well enough.

But now the situation has changed, and the London Government seems to be getting serious. The decisive factor is not the strength of Ethiopia, but rather how much attention the British are willing to give it.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Stephen responded.

Foreign Minister Weisenberg reported, "Your Majesty, the Panama Canal Company, established by the French, has proposed a business collaboration with us. They hope to import two hundred thousand laborers from Austria within three years to help with the canal’s excavation.

They’re offering a good price: a transfer fee of 30 Divine Shields per laborer, with transportation being their responsibility."

This was what everybody had agreed upon: If French capitalists want to profit from the stock market, they need to cooperate with the Austrian Government, which naturally comes with a fee. Otherwise, the canal project wouldn’t even get off the ground.

Importing labor is just a pretext. Officially, this money is counted as the workers’ salaries, but in reality, it ends up in the Vienna Government’s pocket.

Franz said, "Agree to the French request. The labor will be drafted from the natives of the Somalia Peninsula, supplemented by other areas if necessary. In the future, the Foreign Ministry can agree directly to similar situations."

The peak period of labor exportation has ended, and now the native population in Austro-Africa isn’t large; some are even trained enforcers for the colonial government.

If it weren’t for the recent acquisition of the Somalia Peninsula, Franz doubted if the African Continent of Austria would be able to muster two hundred thousand laborers.