Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 485 Aid to France (Seeking monthly votes!)
When the Spanish military observer mission reported back to Spain on the results of a month-long battle between Germany and France, the detailed results immediately sparked heated discussions within the Spanish government.

The Spanish cabinet government had already undergone tremendous changes. Back in March of this year, the Spanish cabinet government had already held a new round of elections. Angelo Orcajo, who had served three consecutive terms as prime minister, had to withdraw from the election for the new prime minister due to the restrictions of the Spanish constitution.

Because Carlo knew that war was imminent, he also engaged in some behind-the-scenes manipulation in the election of the new cabinet prime minister.

The person who ultimately won the new cabinet was former Defense Secretary Andrew Rosso, and the military took control of the cabinet government. Carlo's purpose was also quite clear.

Although Count Angelo Orcajo withdrew from the prime ministerial election, he is still quite young and has a chance to run for the next cabinet prime minister.

Carlo also had considerable trust in Count Olcajo. Although he needed to temporarily leave the Spanish Cabinet government, the highest authority, Carlo appointed him through the Senate as the head of the Performance Evaluation Agency for Officials of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal.

Spain's original performance evaluation system has been successfully implemented in Portugal and Morocco, and the original Spanish performance evaluation agency has been upgraded to the United Kingdom's performance evaluation agency.

Despite the seemingly vast difference in power between the Prime Minister of the Cabinet and the head of a small political examination bureau, the political examination bureau's role is in no way inferior to that of the Cabinet. In fact, governments at all levels in Spain and Portugal are even more afraid of the political examination bureau.

For the Political Examination Bureau, it has almost reached the point where its word can decide life and death. Of course, it doesn't decide the official's life or death, but rather the life or death of the official's political career.

Once the political assessment bureau evaluates an official's annual performance as poor, that official basically has little potential for the future and has no hope of promotion for at least several years.

If a state governor or city mayor receives a series of poor evaluations, they will face the risk of being impeached by the legislature.

This is precisely why government officials at all levels in Spain and Portugal are quite afraid of the performance review authorities. Even the Prime Minister cannot decide the fate of their political careers with a single word, but for the performance review authorities, it truly is just a matter of a single sentence.

Because the Performance Evaluation and Review Bureau can determine the fate of officials at all levels, this agency is accountable not only to the Upper House but also to Carlos.

Every Director of the Examination Bureau was an absolute confidant of Carlo. In addition to being directly elected as the Minister of Justice by the House of Lords, they could also be appointed as governors of colonies, governors of various states, and other positions.

After Andrew Rosso became Prime Minister, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Orl Acosta, became Deputy Prime Minister, and the former Deputy Prime Minister, Count Menotti, became Minister of Defence.

William, who had served three terms as Foreign Secretary, retired honorably, and his position was taken over by Grant Jerives, the former Secretary of State for Royal Affairs.

The biggest difference we can see in the new cabinet government is that the Conservative Party no longer holds an advantage; instead, the Progressive Party and the Socialist Workers' Party are now the two parties with the most cabinet seats.

It's obvious to anyone with eyes to see that after the Progressive Party's Orr Acosta became Deputy Prime Minister, his next step was to succeed Andrew Rosso as Prime Minister.

Although Defense Secretary Andrew Rosso was promoted to Prime Minister by Carlos, most people know that the military's control of the Prime Minister is only to deal with this war.

Once this war, which has affected most of Europe, ends, the position of prime minister will return to the control of the three major parties.

Returning to the cabinet discussions, both Prime Minister Andrew Rosseau and other cabinet members were quite shocked by the casualties suffered by Germany and France in this war.

According to reports from the Spanish military observer mission at the front, within just one month of the outbreak of war, German and French casualties reached 16.7 and 22.5 respectively.

This was only because Germany had focused its efforts on attacking Belgium and Luxembourg for the first half of the month; otherwise, the casualties on both sides would have been even greater.

The number of soldiers who died was 3.7 in Germany and 5.6 in France, making it the most devastating war in human history.

Every day, at least several thousand people die on the Franco-German front. Especially during periods of intense attack, the number of soldiers killed in a single day could reach tens of thousands.

This is why only the two superpowers, Germany and France, could barely withstand such enormous casualties. Such casualty figures would have been devastating for any other non-superpower nation in Europe, causing crippling damage.

"Your Majesty, the French government has requested the purchase of 1500 readily available cars and 20 airships. Their domestic fleet of cars is insufficient for frequent transport missions, especially for transporting wounded soldiers from the front lines. More cars and airships are needed," Prime Minister André Rosseau asked, looking at Carlo.

Carlo did not answer Prime Minister Andreu's question, but instead looked at his heir to the throne, Prince Juan Fernando, and asked with a smile, "Juan, do you think we should agree to the French government's request?"

Prince Juan Fernando has gradually come into contact with politics since coming of age, and naturally has his own ideas about handling such national affairs.

He thought for a moment, then replied, "Father, I think we can agree to the French government's request."

Judging from the current situation on the front lines, Germany, fighting on two fronts, holds the advantage. Without some assistance from us, it will be very difficult for France to defeat Germany on the Western Front.

On the Eastern Front, Russia had already suffered a crushing defeat and would not be able to recover in a short time. The heavily damaged Russian Second Army was the elite of the Russian army, and even if Russia could mobilize millions of troops, the combat effectiveness of these hastily mobilized recruits would certainly not be as good as Russia's original elite forces.

The tide of war has turned in Germany's favor. If we do not intend to align ourselves with Germany, providing aid to France is our best option.

Carlo nodded, seemingly agreeing with Prince Juan Fernando's answer.

Spain essentially had only two choices: either side with Germany and directly partition France's colonies, or help France fight against Germany and remain a bystander.

The former seems like a safer approach, but if it helps Germany defeat France, Germany will become the unrivaled strongest power in Europe, with a power in no way inferior to France during Napoleon's era.

Could Spain then compete with a Germany like that? The answer is absolutely not.

Like Spain, Germany has the potential to develop into a nation with both a strong navy and a powerful land-based navy. If Germany were to defeat France and relocate its entire shipbuilding system to Germany, it would possess a naval construction speed and capability comparable to that of Britain.

With its massive domestic industry, Germany's naval construction speed will be several times that of Spain, making it impossible for the Spanish navy to compete with Germany.

On the contrary, the second option, which seems slightly risky, is the one that Spain can choose without any worries.

Even if France could be helped to defeat Germany, France itself would suffer heavy losses after the victory and would not pose a significant threat to Spain.

Although France is a country with both land and sea power, both its army and navy are capable of defeating Spain.

Defeating Germany didn't bring Spain many obvious gains, but preventing the rise of a superpower on the European continent was a victory in itself.

If Britain had chosen neutrality or sided with France as it had historically done, Spain could still have challenged Britain after the war. After all, Spain's losses in the war would not have been too great, and it could have done what Britain did historically: go through the motions but not put in the effort, using colonial troops to make up the numbers, and only sending a small number of elite troops to ensure that the French defenses would not collapse.

If Britain had sided with France, Spain could have joined forces with France to defeat Britain.

If Britain were defeated, Spain could gain vast colonies and benefits, thus compensating for the low value of spoils due to Germany's insufficient colonies.

"That's right. Regardless of who wins this war, we don't want to see a Napoleonic superpower emerge. Prime Minister Andrew, agree to the French government's request to sell them cars and airships. If the French government needs them, we can also sell them weapons, food, and medical supplies."

"Of course, now that war has broken out, all supplies must be priced according to the latest prices. However, considering the good relations between Spain and France, we can give them a discount on our trade orders with France." Carlo first affirmed Prince Juan Fernando's idea, then turned his gaze to Prime Minister Andrew and gave the instructions.

“I understand, Your Majesty.” Prime Minister Andrew nodded, offering no objection.

"What's the situation on the Eastern Front? I don't want things to go wrong on the Russian side before the German and French sides have even settled down." Carlo then turned his gaze to Count Menotti, the current Minister of Defense, and asked.

"According to our military observation group on the Eastern Front, since the defeat at the Battle of Tannenberg, the Russian army has shifted from strategic offense to strategic defense."

The German army has launched several offensives. Although the Russian army has defended its territory with great effort, it has suffered heavy losses and morale is low.

"The Russian government appears to be mobilizing more troops, but it's certain that even with reinforcements, the situation on the Russian front is unlikely to be good; it will only be a matter of barely holding on," Defense Minister Menotti explained.

Upon hearing Menotti's report, Carlo shook his head slightly, having already anticipated the performance of the Russian army.

Before the war broke out, Carlo had never placed much hope in the Russian army. And indeed, it turned out that the only thing the Russian army had to offer was its sheer numbers.

The good news is that the Russian army did indeed use its numbers to delay at least a million German troops for France.

If we also consider the Austro-Hungarian troops deployed on the Austro-Russian border, Russia has already delayed at least 150 million of the Central Powers' troops, which can be considered as playing its role.

Although he didn't have high hopes for Russia, he couldn't allow the Russian government to collapse prematurely. Carlo especially didn't want the Russian government to crumble during the war; after all, there was no longer an Anglo-French alliance in this world. If Russia collapsed, Spain would either have to accept Germany's dominance or directly intervene to help France.

"Have the domestic military factories work overtime to produce weapons and equipment, and don't stop the clothing factories and other military supply factories either. Mobilize them all." Carlo thought for a moment, then instructed, "These supplies should be sold to France and Russia first. If Austria-Hungary also needs them, we can also sign an order with Austria-Hungary."

Any country can be our partner, but Germany is an exception. Germany is already very powerful, and if we don't impose certain restrictions on it, it might grow into a superpower even stronger than Britain, which is not good news for us.

Upon hearing Carlo's order, the cabinet members nodded quickly, indicating that they understood.

Now, whether doing business with France and Russia or with Austria-Hungary, it's a sure-fire way to make a profit.

Spain stockpiled a large amount of supplies before the war broke out, and these supplies were relatively inexpensive before the war.

After the outbreak of war, the prices of weapons, food, and medical supplies all increased significantly.

Even with discounts on existing prices, Spain can still make a fortune. As the war progresses, the prices of strategic materials will only increase, meaning Spain has a long way to go in making money.

For France and Russia, Spain's generous assistance was one of the few pieces of good news since the outbreak of the war.

The Allied forces suffered far more casualties on the battlefield than the Central Powers, partly due to the poor performance of the Russian army and partly due to the poor performance of the French army in the war.

Based on the pre-war assessments of the combat capabilities of the French and German armies by various European countries, under normal circumstances, the casualties of the French and German armies should not differ significantly.

However, the actual result is that there is a significant difference in the casualty ratio between Germany and France. In some battles, the casualty ratio between Germany and France has even reached 1:2, meaning it takes two French soldiers to exchange for one German soldier.

The disparity in casualties between the German and French armies was due not only to the slightly inferior combat effectiveness of the French army, but also to the French military uniforms.

Generally speaking, the military uniforms of various European countries have their own characteristics, among which the uniforms of Germany and Spain are particularly attractive.

German military uniforms were blue-gray or gray-green, which were not conspicuous on the muddy battlefield and could even serve as camouflage for the German army.

But the French military uniform was completely different. The French military uniform jacket was blue, but the trousers were all red.

Before the war, the French military uniform, with its blue shirt and red trousers, was highly distinctive. However, after the outbreak of war, on the bloody and brutal battlefield, the brightly colored French uniforms seemed to serve as markers, reminding German soldiers of the French soldiers' positions.

The blue and red French uniforms were impossible to disguise on the battlefield, which meant that when the two armies clashed, German soldiers were often the ones who could spot French soldiers more easily, while French soldiers took longer to find German soldiers.

According to estimates from the Spanish military observer group on the western front, the brightly colored uniforms of the French army increased the death rate by at least 30% and the injury rate by 40%.

If French military uniforms had been as inconspicuous as German ones, the French army would not have suffered such heavy casualties.

Especially in mountainous or forested areas, German uniforms provided excellent cover for German soldiers. Even if French soldiers concealed themselves, they were more easily spotted by German soldiers.

A month after the outbreak of war, the French army finally realized the inadequacy of its uniforms. Reports from the front lines went up the chain of command, eventually reaching Joffre, the French Chief of the General Staff.

Although Joffre agreed to change the uniforms of French soldiers at the front, the process of changing uniforms was not easy, and it was simply impossible to complete in a short period of time.

First, a clothing factory needs to design new military uniforms for France. After the new uniform design meets the requirements of the French military, it is necessary to contact clothing manufacturers and arrange production.

France has nearly 200 million troops on the front lines, and the need to produce more than 200 million uniforms has delayed the uniform replacement time due to both the cost and the time required.

According to the conservative estimate of the French General Staff, it would take at least a year to replace the uniforms of all 200 million French troops on the front lines.

Knowing that the frontline troops could not be delayed, after consulting with the president and prime minister, French Chief of the General Staff Joffre decided to first change the uniforms of the first and second armies fighting on the front lines, and then arrange the specific uniform change time for each unit according to their specific tasks.

French soldiers on the front lines breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that the government had agreed to replace their uniforms.

They certainly didn't want to lose their lives because of their brightly colored military uniforms, since bullets hurt a lot and were likely fatal.

Of course, regardless of whether the uniforms are changed or not, the offensive at the front must continue. Even just changing the uniforms of the 60 soldiers in the First and Second Armies would take several months to complete.

During this period, the First and Second Army Groups continued with their operations as usual; the frontline combat missions could not be halted because of a minor issue with uniforms.

If the first month of the war was merely a brutal beginning, then the second month marked the official arrival of a peak period of casualties.

The Spanish military observer mission reports back home daily on the latest battle results of Germany and France. The daily casualty figures for Germany and France are also increasing, with the death toll rapidly rising from several thousand to tens of thousands.

(End of this chapter)