Chapter 204: Turmoil in the Ottoman Empire, Volatile Balkans

In mid-February 1876, the primary school compulsory education development plan, passed by the Spanish cabinet government, was officially made public and began implementation.

This news immediately caused a sensation and sparked widespread attention among the Spanish public.

According to government documents and announcements, this compulsory education, centered on primary schools, would be completely free of tuition and miscellaneous fees, and would provide free meals three times a day to students enrolled in primary school.

The government specifically mentioned in the announcement that the three daily meals were funded by the Royal Family, which triggered a wave of gratitude toward the Royal Family and praise for Gao Da among the public.

What the public cared about most was their practical interests. If the Royal Family funded the three daily meals for students, it meant that Spanish citizens would no longer have to bear the burden of school meal expenses for their children.

The cost of a day's meals might be a small expense, but looking at the entire year or even the six-year primary school stage, it was definitely not a small sum.

For ordinary Spanish families, one less person to feed three times a day meant a significant reduction in expenses. If this money were used elsewhere, it could effectively improve the quality of life for all family members.

Gao Da was, of course, constantly monitoring the public opinion in Spain. Upon learning that the public was expressing gratitude toward the Royal Family and himself, Gao Da understood that this move of his was the right one.

The more grateful the public was to the Royal Family, the more stable the Royal Family's position would naturally be. This concerned not only Gao Da but also all future monarchs.

The more stable the position of the Spanish Royal Family, the less the future successor to the throne would have to worry about their position. Otherwise, any small accident could lead to the overthrow of the throne, which would also cause Gao Da's painstaking layout to go to waste.

After announcing the primary school compulsory education development plan, the Education Department began the plan to renovate primary schools in the Madrid region and the Catalonia region.

The Madrid region and the Catalonia region possessed Spain's two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, which was why these two regions became the pilot areas for compulsory education.

But precisely because of this, the populations of Madrid and Catalonia were not small, totaling over 2 million people.

How to smoothly promote the operation of compulsory education and solve all problems during the implementation process was something the Education Department needed to monitor at all times.

If some unsolvable problems occurred during the pilot implementation of compulsory education, it would affect the promotion of compulsory education nationwide.

Not only was the Education Department very concerned about the compulsory education pilots in Madrid and Catalonia, but the public was also quite concerned about it.

Although Madrid and Barcelona both had a large number of workers, the income of ordinary workers in this era was not that high. Compulsory education that completely exempted tuition and miscellaneous fees had extremely high appeal to the working and peasant classes in Spain.

The promotion of compulsory education in the two pilot regions was carried out through cooperation between the Education Department and the regional governments of Madrid and Catalonia.

Gao Da also specifically instructed the Minister of Education, Zhang Bolun, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Ma Teao, requiring the government to strictly control the construction quality during the primary school renovation work and to put an end to any phenomenon of reusing dangerous buildings.

Once any phenomenon of reusing dangerous buildings or shoddy construction was discovered, as well as any corruption during the promotion of compulsory education, the cabinet government and the Upper Academy would deal with it seriously at the fastest speed and hold all officials involved in the above events accountable.

Zhang Bolun and Count Ma Teao naturally would not treat Gao Da's instructions this time as a casual conversation. From Gao Da's facial expression, it could be seen that when he said that once it happened, it would be dealt with severely immediately, Gao Da's attitude was absolutely serious.

The two of them dared not be the slightest bit careless; not only did they repeatedly instruct the officials under them to strictly control the quality of renovated and newly built primary schools, but they also personally went to the renovation sites to supervise, ensuring that no quality problems would occur.

If any of the above events occurred, even if the cause had nothing to do with them, they would certainly have to bear some responsibility.

More importantly, if an accident occurred after Gao Da had already given advance instructions, it would cause them to lose Gao Da's trust.

What losing Gao Da's trust meant under the current Spanish cabinet government system actually did not need to be said.

Even though Ma Teao, as Deputy Prime Minister, was already the definite candidate for the next Prime Minister, if he lost Gao Da's trust due to the issue of primary school construction quality, I am afraid that everything he possessed would vanish into thin air.

Under the premise that Prime Minister Ma Deli did not appear and Duke Luo Suo did not stand up to oppose Gao Da, the current Spanish government was decided by Gao Da alone.

Gao Da already possessed extremely high prestige among the people, which was also the basis for Gao Da to control the government through the Upper and Lower Academies. Let alone the unfledged Count Ma Teao, even if Prime Minister Ma Deli returned to the political arena, he might not necessarily be able to contend with Gao Da.

Of course, this was only in the case of political struggle. If the struggle intensified and triggered the mobilization of the army, it would evolve into a new Spanish Civil War, and the outcome would naturally be hard to say.

The Education Department moved quickly, and in just over three months, the number of renovated primary schools had reached more than a dozen.

Of course, the so-called renovation process was actually very simple.

The first step was to select buildings suitable as primary school campuses, and the second step was to complete the cleaning and separate them into individual classrooms and dormitories.

The biggest action during this period was to repair the damaged windows and doors, which was also the reason why the speed of renovating primary schools was so fast.

Even half of these three months were spent on finding buildings, and the actual renovation work took less than a month and a half.

According to the current progress, before September this year, the two regions had the hope of renovating more than 60 primary schools, and compulsory education could also be officially launched in the two regions.

60 primary schools were definitely not enough, but it would not be impossible for students to squeeze in during the early stages. In the case of insufficient schools, priority could be given to enrolling school-age children aged 6 to 12.

After the number of schools was sufficient, the enrollment scope could then be opened to all age groups.

Yes, Spain's primary school compulsory education would be opened to all age groups, and even adults could participate in primary school compulsory education.

But for the sake of fairness, and also for the healthy development of real primary school students aged 6 to 12, these older "primary school students" would not be in the same school as primary school students under 12.

After all, compared with youths in their teens or twenties, real primary school students aged 6 to 12 had not yet fully matured mentally, and the competition for scholarships would definitely be at a disadvantage.

While education was developing, in May 1876, the situation in Europe also had slight changes.

It was not the European powers, but the changes within the Ottoman Empire, a vast empire that once spanned three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Because the Ottoman Empire spanned three continents and controlled the extremely important strait in Europe, the Suyishiyunhe, the changes in the Ottoman Empire attracted close attention from various European countries, with the United Kingdom, the Aodilizheng Prefecture, and the Eguozheng Prefecture being the most prominent.

Actually, it was easy to understand. The Aodilizheng Prefecture and the Eguozheng Prefecture had ambitions for the Baerganbandao that were known to all countries, and the master of the Baerganbandao was the Ottoman Empire.

The British were also quite concerned about the situation around the Suyishiyunhe; after all, the name of the European troublemaker was not called for nothing.

The changes in the situation of the Ottoman Empire stemmed from the decline of the empire. This vast empire, which once spanned three continents and was invincible, had long since become a rotten and weak old man.

Although the empire was still maintaining its last breath, it was just hanging by a thread. Compared with the traditional European powers, the Ottoman Empire was like a piece of fat meat waiting to be divided, and it was fat meat that had even been shaved clean of hair, which did not prick the mouth at all.

As early as the end of last year, because of the great famine in the central and northern regions of the Balkans, it caused chaos throughout the Ottoman Empire.

But the European countries only closely monitored the situation of the Ottoman Empire, and they were in a state of mutual restraint, and no power had the confidence to interfere in the situation of the Ottoman Empire under the attention of other powers.

But since May of this year, the situation in the Ottoman Empire had once again undergone changes.

The then Ottoman Sultan, Abdulaziz, was deposed by the insightful people of the Ottoman Empire led by Midhat, and Murad V was installed as the Ottoman Sultan.

This was originally just a power change within the Ottoman Empire, and logically it should not have triggered a change in the situation.

What the Ottoman public hoped for was a Sultan who could bring a new constitution, let the Ottoman Empire move toward a constitutional monarchy, become more democratic, and promote reform to make the country move toward revival and strength.

Logically speaking, Murad V was deeply influenced by Falanxi and had the hope of completing the above steps.

But it just so happened that Murad V did not care for the Eguozheng Prefecture, the neighbor to the north of the Ottoman Empire, and was even very hostile.

An Ottoman Sultan who was hostile to the Eguozheng Prefecture naturally aroused the attention and dissatisfaction of the Russians. The Eguozheng Prefecture had long wanted to control the Suyishiyunhe to control the exit of the Black Sea Fleet to the Mediterranean, so they naturally gloated over the chaos of the Ottoman Empire and even wished that the Ottoman Empire would become more and more chaotic.

An Ottoman Sultan who was hostile to the Eguozheng Prefecture was obviously a good excuse, which also made the Eguozheng Prefecture more actively intervene in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire in terms of diplomacy, such as supporting the independence of Serbia, which was also a Slavic brother.

The chaos of the Ottoman Empire was not only being watched by the Eguozheng Prefecture; the United Kingdom and the Aodilizheng Prefecture were also watching.

The Eguozheng Prefecture did not hide its intervention in the affairs of the Baerganbandao, which made the Aodilizheng Prefecture, which was also quite eager for the Baerganbandao, very dissatisfied, and expressed an attitude completely opposite to the Eguozheng Prefecture, which was to support the Baerganbandao in maintaining the status quo; after all, a rotten Ottoman Empire was more conducive to the Aodilizheng Prefecture's infiltration of the Baerganbandao.

In fact, as early as the second half of last year, the Eguozheng Prefecture's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gorchakov, had launched secret negotiations with the Aodilizheng Prefecture to discuss the Eguozheng Prefecture and the Aodilizheng Prefecture jointly pressuring the Ottoman Empire to force it to allow the two provinces of Herzegovina and Bosnia, where uprisings were frequent, to achieve autonomy.

The Aodilizheng Prefecture naturally understood the Eguozheng Prefecture's plan, so it did not agree to the proposal of the Eguozheng Prefecture's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

At present, the Russians were vigorously supporting the uprisings of various ethnic groups on the Baerganbandao, which naturally aroused the fear and precaution of the Aodilizheng Prefecture.

The most powerful ally of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was Germany, but the three countries of Germany, the Russian Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were in a state of the Three Emperors Alliance. Germany's diplomatic attitude in this regard was very vague; it neither supported the Russian Empire's intervention in the Ottoman Empire nor supported the Austro-Hungarian Empire's maintenance of the status quo, and was in a relatively neutral attitude.

The Aodilizheng Prefecture could only turn its eyes to another ally, which was Spain, which had already initially achieved reform.

Although Spain was also an extremely weak empire, the current reform had already allowed Spain to recover, and it was not an exaggeration to call it a European power.

In the case that Germany did not directly support the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the most reliable ally of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was only Spain.

Of course, the Aodilizheng Prefecture's hope of maintaining the status quo of the Baerganbandao would certainly not be placed only on Spain. The most important point was that the British did not want to see the Eguozheng Prefecture expand its sphere of influence on the Baerganbandao, and even less did they want to see the Russians control Constantinople and the strait.

After the Aodilizheng Prefecture's diplomatic ambassador contacted the Spanish government, the cabinet urgently convened a meeting and invited Gao Da to participate.

Regarding this period of history, Gao Da had also heard of it. In the end, the Eguozheng Prefecture and the Ottoman Empire still broke out in a war, which was historically called the Tenth Russo-Turkish War.

The Tenth Russo-Turkish War in history ended with the victory of the Eguozheng Prefecture, but the results were divided by the three countries of the United Kingdom, the Aodilizheng Prefecture, and the Eguozheng Prefecture.

It is worth mentioning that this war allowed the Aodilizheng Prefecture to obtain Bosnia and Herzegovina, which also disguisedly triggered the First World War.

After all, the fuse of the First World War was very famous, which was the assassination of Crown Prince Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Sarajevo was a city in Bosnia, and the reason for the assassination of Crown Prince Ferdinand stemmed from the conflict between the Aodilizheng Prefecture and Serbia over the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Aodilizheng Prefecture hoped that Spain would fulfill the alliance treaty and provide support in terms of diplomacy to ensure that the Aodilizheng Prefecture had enough confidence to oppose the Eguozheng Prefecture's forced intervention in the situation of the Baerganbandao.

Gao Da was familiar with the development of this period of history and naturally understood that the Aodilizheng Prefecture did not participate in this war. Just supporting the Aodilizheng Prefecture at the diplomatic level was no loss to Spain.

Although this would offend the Eguozheng Prefecture, the Eguozheng Prefecture was at the easternmost end of Europe, and Spain was at the westernmost end of Europe, and there was no conflict of interest between the two countries, so offending them was just offending them.

What's more, the life of the Eguozheng Prefecture was not long. The Ottoman Empire was a rotten ancient empire, and wasn't the Eguozheng Prefecture the same?

The incomplete reform gave the Eguozheng Prefecture a breath, but how long this breath could be maintained, Gao Da was very clear in his heart.

Don't look at the superficial data of the five traditional European powers being very exaggerated; in fact, there were only three truly powerful countries, which were the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

The United Kingdom, France, and Germany crushed the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in terms of industry and economy, and were also the top three powerful powers in the world at present.

The Eguozheng Prefecture won the war between it and the Ottoman Empire, but in the end, it had to make concessions to the Aodilizheng Prefecture and the United Kingdom. The root cause was precisely because of the weakness of the Eguozheng Prefecture and the strength of the United Kingdom.

If the dispute on the Baerganbandao only involved the Ottoman Empire, the Aodilizheng Prefecture, and the Eguozheng Prefecture, the Eguozheng Prefecture would even have the confidence to go to war with the Aodilizheng Prefecture after winning the war against the Ottoman Empire and completely control the situation on the Baerganbandao.

But unfortunately, Germany stood behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the United Kingdom stood behind the Ottoman Empire. It was extremely difficult for the Russian Empire to completely control the Balkan Peninsula, just like Spain wanted to control Gibraltar now.

After the discussion of the cabinet meeting, the Spanish government officially gave its attitude, which was to agree to support the Aodilizheng Prefecture at the diplomatic level and support the powers not to interfere in the situation of the Baerganbandao.

After obtaining the support of the Spanish government, the Aodilizheng Prefecture government finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although Spain could not compare with the five traditional European powers, it was definitely a powerful country in Europe.

Spain's diplomatic support was still very important to the Aodilizheng Prefecture, and it was believed that it could also make the Eguozheng Prefecture consider some issues more cautiously when planning for the Baerganbandao.

While the Aodilizheng Prefecture breathed a sigh of relief, Gao Da was already letting the military factory prepare to produce a batch of new weapons and equipment and artillery shells.

The scale of the Tenth Russo-Turkish War was quite large, with the number of troops used by both sides exceeding one million, and the number of artillery pieces exceeding 4,000.

In this war, both sides had large-scale corps battles, were equipped with rifled guns and artillery, and used railways and field telegraphs for communication.

This also made the scale of the battlefield larger, and the way of war also changed compared to the previous battlefield. The battle of this war and the wide frontal confrontation and large depth were characteristics, which were worth learning by the Spanish army.

And the warring parties would definitely need a large amount of weapons and equipment, which was a potential opportunity for Spain's arms factories to export arms.

(End of this chapter) ===== CHAPTER 205 =====