It didn't matter if Spain was defeated, the key was that the strategic location of the Philippine Islands would not fall into the hands of the ambitious Japanese, otherwise there would be no peace in the South Seas.

Don't look at the fact that the Japanese government is very peaceful now, even if the Vienna government is openly supporting Spain, they are still bowing low and small, as if they have no temper.

But this is only based on the reverence for the strong. Now that the Holy Roman Empire is strong, the military power in the South Seas alone can make them unable to eat and walk around, even if they want to be restless.

However, times have changed, and the Philippine Islands, which fell into the hands of the Spaniards, and the Philippine Islands, which fell into the hands of the Japanese, are two very different concepts.

The former has declined, and even if the Philippines is fertile, it can only contribute a sum of income to Spain, and the national strength will not help much.

If it had fallen into the hands of Japan, it would have been completely different. With the resources of the Philippines and the hardships and hard work of the Japanese, it is proper to create a medium-sized power, and it is still the kind that is good at fighting power.

If that's all there is, it's not enough to make Franz jealous. After all, the Holy Roman Empire is so perverted that even he himself never imagined that one day he would be able to create such a huge empire.

The problem is that Japan is not a normal country, and now there are patriarchs who are pressing, and they are not going crazy for the time being. The future is not necessarily, referring to their original time and space practices, it is completely a series of movies that are tricked to die.

No one can guarantee that one day the Japanese will go crazy and fight the idea of the Austrian South Seas. Franz didn't want to go on an expedition to the Far East to fight the Japanese.

It is estimated that normal people do not like the war of losing blood, winning or losing blood. Unless there was a certainty of a one-hit kill, Franz would not have waged such a pointless war of attrition.

From the standpoint of the Holy Roman Empire, it is better for the Philippine Islands to remain in the hands of the Spaniards, at least the Spanish government will not fantasize about competing with them for hegemony in the South Seas, let alone dare to think crookedly about the Austrian South Seas.

"Is the Spanish army such a waste of wood?"

Prime Minister Karl asked first. As a normal European, he really couldn't imagine that the European army would do such a garbage record against the Japanese natives.

Without the record set by the Italian army at the bottom, the current performance of the Spanish army is arguably the worst of all the colonial empires in Europe.

Don't say that it is an exchange ratio of 1:1.4, even if it is an exchange ratio of 1:10, it is the performance of inferior students. Under normal circumstances, a company chases thousands of people to fight, and a regiment can play a war of annihilation.

Spain was the originator of colonial wars and the creator of records of conquest. Back then, Spain conquered the Aztec Empire with 600 men, and overthrew the Inca Empire with a single horse.

Compared with the current record of the Spanish army, even the gap between heaven and hell cannot be so big. With such a conceptual impact, Prime Minister Karl, as a normal person, is naturally unbelievable.

Foreign Secretary Wesenberg explained: "It's much more wasteful than we expected. However, this was not without warning, as early as the European War, the Spaniards exposed the problem of low combat effectiveness of the army.

They concentrated the elite troops of the whole country, carefully planned the campaign, and in the end, they did not even do the cannon fodder troops temporarily formed by France.

In the entire anti-French alliance, only the army of the Italian states had a fighting power comparable to them. Now the combat effectiveness they show should be the lower limit of the army in the European world. ”

They are all complaining about the garbage of the Spaniards, and no one mentions the strong combat effectiveness of the Japanese army. Well, Franz admits that the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army in these years 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 combat effectiveness. You haven't fired hundreds of bullets, and you're embarrassed to say you're a veteran; Without thousands of bullets, to be able to feed the elite?

If this is true for the infantry, the artillery is even more powerful. Every qualified artilleryman is fed with shells, and generally a few hundred shells are indispensable. Even if most of them are training bombs, it is a lot of money.

Not to mention the wear and tear of the artillery, training several gunners to scrap a gun, that is all routine operation.

Armored troops and pilots with higher technical requirements, not to mention, are all smashed with money. Of course, the Japanese don't have any of these arms, so there is no need to think about it.

In addition to ammunition consumption, soldiers' salaries, daily life, and maintenance of weapons and equipment are also a large expense.

If it is really according to the standards of the Shinra Army, the little military expenditure of the Japanese Army is okay to raise an infantry division, and it is a little difficult for both, let alone others.

Moreover, this embarrassing situation will continue until we can achieve the localization of weapons and equipment and reduce the cost of weapons and ammunition, and then it will improve slightly.

Referring to the original time and space, we know that for a long time, the Japanese Army only maintained a single-digit standing division, and it was often not in charge.

Even with such a reduction in troops, military spending is still insufficient. As a last resort, the Japanese practiced white-knuckle tactics and then became the king of white-knuckle warfare.

It's just that with the combat effectiveness brought by blood and bravery, it's okay to bully garbage cannon fodder, and if you meet a real elite, it's to deliver food.

In fact, the elite troops are not necessarily all brave men, and their real strength lies in their professionalism.

To put it simply, even if you are a few hundred meters away, the probability of him hitting you is twenty or thirty percent, and you can only rely on luck to fight back.

In modern warfare, an average of a few thousand rounds of ammunition will kill an enemy, and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition in future wars will kill an enemy, and most of them are the credit of ordinary troops. Elite troops, on the other hand, need much less ammo on average to take out an enemy.

The fact that the top echelons of the Vienna government did not take the Japanese army's combat effectiveness to heart was also based on this. A country that even needs to import artillery does not have the qualifications to make everyone fearful.

……

Seeing that the topic was miserated in the complaint, Franz interrupted: "It doesn't matter whether the Spanish army is a waste or not, the key is that the British are involved." The London government was supporting the Japanese, and we could not let Spain lose the war, at least not too badly. ”

In international politics, face is also sometimes very important, especially for the newly born hegemon.

Although the war between Japan and Spain was only controlled by Britain and Austria behind their backs, in the eyes of many people, the War between Japan and Austria was a continuation of the Anglo-Austrian struggle for hegemony.

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 this fact, the Viennese government must also deny it. In a sense, admitting that Britain is inferior to Britain in overseas competition means admitting defeat.

As a challenger, you can tolerate failure, but you can't admit it. Politics is like that, sometimes you have to make a fool of yourself.

Besides, if you don't show some strength to the younger brothers, how can you make them feel at ease?

Franz doesn't want Spain to turn the tables on the world, as long as he can play a lose-lose record, he is satisfied.

If it can't be done, then it is not unacceptable for the Spaniards to lose a little decently. After all, a military victory is not yet a victory, and a diplomatic game can still rewrite the final outcome.

As long as the Spaniards showed sufficient strength, Franz was sure that he would use diplomatic means to force the Japanese to withdraw from the Philippine Islands.

"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 can only go to mercenaries.

The problem now was that the Spaniards were so poor that it was already very difficult to sustain the expeditionary force to fight, and they simply did not have the financial resources to hire an army.

What's more, the military strength of the Japanese is not too weak, and there is no mercenary army in the world that can accomplish this task. ”

Prime Minister Karl proposed. The Viennese government has not done similar things, and when it competed with the British for South Africa, it withstood the vest of "mercenaries". It's just that it was found out later that there was more of a move, and it simply hit the government army of the Boer Republic.

The only problem is that the Philippine archipelago is different from South Africa. South Africa eats by itself, and it is appropriate to pay for others; The Philippine Islands, on the other hand, were Spanish, and for the sake of international reputation, it was impossible for the Vienna government to swallow them.

Bringing your own dry rations to help the Spaniards in the war, how can there be such a good thing in the world? Even if the Spanish government had paid the price, it was only in exchange for the support of the Viennese government, not enough for the Holy Roman Empire to take the war personally.

Without the involvement of the Viennese government, the Spaniards, even if they were willing to pay to hire troops to help fight the war, would not have such a powerful mercenary.

Under normal circumstances, a mercenary is only one hundred and eighty people, and the number of more than a thousand is a huge team, and no more can be raised.

The combat effectiveness is also very different, among which the strong combat effectiveness can suppress the national government army, which can be said to be the elite of the elite; More mercenary teams, it's okay to bully the natives, and they can only deliver food when they meet the regular army.

It's okay in a skirmish, but if you put it in a general battle of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, the number of mercenaries is not enough.

Franz nodded: "If you don't have any money, lend them and let the Spaniards use the colonial proceeds as collateral." There is no such strong mercenary group in the world, so let's form it yourself.

Not long after the end of the European War, there were still a large number of retired officers and soldiers on the European continent, and there were always outlaws who liked to lick blood on the tip of a knife.

If the number of people is not enough, they will go to France to recruit, and they have been hungry for so long, I believe that there will be people who are willing to die to fill the stomachs of their families.

By the way, all mercenaries in Italy are not needed. This time I went to fight in the Philippine Islands, where there was no pasta. ”

There are no conditions, and it is necessary to create conditions. No one knows if the mercenaries can defeat the Japanese army, anyway, it is better to do it than not to do it.

Rather than sit back and watch the Spaniards lose, it is better to fight hard. Anyway, the Spaniards paid for it, and the Vienna government only needed to push it secretly.

It is best to be able to play a role, and it does not matter if it is not able to play a role, the situation has deteriorated to this point, and no matter how bad it is, it will not be much worse.

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