Chapter 484: Aid to France (Seeking Monthly Tickets!)

When the Spanish military observation group reported the results of the German-French war after one month back to the country, the detailed results immediately triggered a fierce discussion in the Spanish government.

The Spanish cabinet government at this time had already undergone earth-shaking changes. As early as March of this year, the Spanish cabinet government had already carried out a new round of elections, and Angelo Orcajo, who had served as cabinet prime minister for three consecutive terms, also had to withdraw from the election for the new cabinet prime minister because of the restrictions of the Spanish Constitution.

Because Gao Da knew that the war was not far away, Gao Da had also carried out slight backroom operations for the election of the prime minister of the new cabinet government.

The one who ultimately took the prime minister position of the new cabinet government was the former Minister of National Defense, Andrew Luo Suo; with the military controlling the cabinet government, Gao Da's purpose was also very obvious.

Although Count Angelo Orcajo withdrew from the prime minister election, his age was still quite young, and he still had hope of running for the next cabinet prime minister.

Gao Da was also quite trusting of Count Orcajo. Although he needed to temporarily leave the Spanish cabinet government, the highest power institution, Gao Da also appointed him as the Director of the Performance Assessment and Audit Bureau for Officials of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal through the Upper House.

Spain's original performance assessment system had already been successfully implemented in the regions of Portugal and Morocco, and had been upgraded from the original Spanish Performance Assessment Bureau to the United Kingdom's Performance Assessment Bureau.

Do not be fooled by the fact that the power gap between the cabinet prime minister and a small director of the performance assessment bureau seemed very large, but in reality, the effect of the performance assessment bureau was no less than that of the cabinet government; even the governments at all levels in Spain and Portugal were more afraid of the performance assessment bureau.

For the performance assessment bureau, it could almost reach the point of deciding life and death with one word. Of course, what was decided was not the life and death of officials, but the life and death of officials' political careers.

Once the performance assessment bureau evaluated an official's annual performance as poor, basically this official would have no potential in the future; at least for several years, there would be no hope of any promotion.

Once they received a poor evaluation consecutively, whether it was the governor of each state or the mayor of each city, they would face the risk of being impeached by the parliament.

Precisely because of this, government officials at all levels in Spain and Portugal were quite afraid of the Performance Assessment and Audit Bureau. The cabinet prime minister could not decide the life and death of their political careers with one word, but for the Performance Assessment and Audit Bureau, this was really just a matter of one sentence.

Precisely because the Performance Assessment and Audit Bureau could decide the fate of officials at all levels, besides being responsible to the Upper House, this institution also needed to be responsible to Gao Da.

Every director of the performance assessment bureau was Gao Da's absolute confidant; besides the Minister of Justice who could be directly elected by the Upper House, the promotion channel could also be appointed to positions such as colonial governor, governor of each state, etc.

After Andrew Luo Suo served as prime minister, the former Minister of Finance, Oul Acosta, served as Deputy Prime Minister, and the former Deputy Prime Minister, Count Menotti, served as Minister of National Defense.

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

The biggest difference that could be seen in the new cabinet government was that the Conservative Party no longer occupied an advantage; on the contrary, the Progressive Party and the Workers' Socialist Party were currently the two political parties occupying the most cabinet seats.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that after Oul Acosta of the Progressive Party served as Deputy Prime Minister, the next step would be to take over Andrew Luo Suo's prime minister position.

Although Minister of National Defense Andrew Luo Suo was promoted to prime minister by Gao Da, most people knew that the military controlling the prime minister was just to deal with this war.

After this war that involved most of Europe ended, the prime minister position would return to the control of the three major political parties.

Returning to the discussion of the cabinet government, whether it was Prime Minister Andrew Luo Suo or other cabinet members, they were quite shocked by the casualties of Germany and France in this war.

According to the report of the Spanish military observation group on the front line, the war had only broken out for one month, and the casualties of Germany and France had reached 167,000 and 225,000 respectively.

This was still because Germany had concentrated its energy on attacking Belgium and Luxembourg for the first half of the month; otherwise, the casualties of both German and French sides would have been even greater.

Among them, the soldiers who died alone reached 37,000 and 56,000 for Germany and France respectively; this was already the most tragic war in human history.

Every day on the German-French front line, at least thousands of people died because of this. Especially during some times when the offensive was relatively dense, the number of soldiers who died in one day could reach tens of thousands.

This was only because Germany and France were two super powers that they could barely withstand such huge casualties. Putting such casualty figures on other non-power European countries, any country would suffer heavy losses, which could be said to be at the level of hurting muscles and bones.

"Your Majesty, the French government requested to purchase 1,500 ready-made automobiles and 20 airships. The automobiles in their country cannot bear the frequent transportation tasks, especially regarding the transportation of wounded soldiers on the front line, which requires more automobiles and airships to participate," Prime Minister Andrew Luo Suo looked at Gao Da and asked.

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

Crown Prince Juan Fernando had gradually begun to come into contact with government affairs after reaching adulthood, and naturally had his own ideas for handling such national affairs.

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

Judging by the current situation on the front line, the one occupying the advantage is Germany, which is fighting on two fronts. If we do not give France some aid, it will be difficult for France to defeat Germany on the western front.

On the eastern front, Russia has already experienced a disastrous defeat and cannot recover its vitality in a short time. The Russian Second Army, which suffered heavy losses, was the elite of the Russian army. Even if Russia could mobilize millions of troops, the combat effectiveness of these temporarily mobilized new recruits would certainly not be as good as Russia's original elite troops.

Currently, the balance of victory in the war has tilted toward Germany. If we do not intend to lean toward Germany, providing aid to France is our best choice."

Gao Da nodded; he was quite approving of Crown Prince Juan Fernando's answer.

Spain actually only had two choices. Either lean toward Germany and directly partition France's colonies. Or help France resist Germany, while Spain itself sits on the sidelines.

The former seemed to be a safer way, but if they helped Germany defeat France, Germany would become an unrivaled number one power in Europe, and its power would be no less than that of France during the Napoleonic period.

Could Spain contend with such a Germany then? The answer was completely no.

Germany and Spain were both countries with the potential to develop into countries that were strong on both land and sea. Once Germany defeated France and moved all of France's shipbuilding systems to Germany, Germany would possess a speed and ability to build navies no less than Britain's.

By then, relying on the huge domestic industry, Germany's navy construction speed would be several times that of Spain's, and Spain's navy would not be able to contend with Germany at all.

On the contrary, the second choice, which seemed to have slightly more risk, was the one without worries for Spain.

Even if they could support France to defeat Germany, France itself would suffer heavy losses after the victory and would not pose such a great threat to Spain.

Although France could also be considered a country strong on both land and sea, whether it was the French army or navy, they were all defeatable for Spain.

Defeating Germany did not have many overt gains for Spain, but preventing the birth of a super hegemon on the European continent could also be considered a gain for Spain.

If Britain chose neutrality or stood on France's side as in history, Spain could still compete with Britain after the war; after all, Spain's losses in the war would not be too great, and it could completely act like Britain in history, doing the bare minimum, using colonial troops to make up the numbers, and only sending a small number of elite troops to ensure that France's defense line would not collapse.

If Britain stood on the opposite side of France, Spain could also unite with France to defeat Britain.

As long as Britain was defeated, Spain could obtain large areas of colonies and benefits, which could compensate for the defect of low value of war spoils caused by Germany's lack of colonies.

"That's right, no matter who wins this war, we do not wish to see the birth of a Napoleonic-style super empire." ===== CHAPTER 485 =====