[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-rise-of-the-empire-spain":3,"chapter-rise-of-the-empire-spain-rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-484":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Rise of the Empire: Spain",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2365412,4632,"Chapter 484: Aid to France (Seeking Monthly Votes!)","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-484",484,"\u003Cp>When the Spanish military observer mission reported the results of the first month of fighting between Germany and France back home, the detailed findings immediately sparked intense discussion within the Spanish government.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Spanish cabinet government had already undergone earth-shaking changes by this time; as early as March of this year, the cabinet had held a new round of elections, and Angelo Orcajo, who had served three consecutive terms as Prime Minister, had been forced to step down from the election for the new cabinet due to the limitations of the Spanish Constitution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because Carlo knew that war was not far off, he had also engaged in some behind-the-scenes maneuvering regarding the election of the new cabinet Prime Minister.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The person who ultimately secured the position of the new cabinet Prime Minister was the former Minister of Defense, Andrew Rosso; with the military in control of the cabinet, Carlo's objective was quite obvious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Count Angelo Orcajo had withdrawn from the Prime Ministerial election, he was still quite young and remained hopeful of running for the cabinet Prime Minister in the next term.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Carlo also trusted Count Orcajo quite a bit; although he needed to temporarily leave the highest power structure of the Spanish cabinet government, Carlo had also appointed him, through the Upper House, as the Director of the Performance Appraisal Bureau for Officials of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spain's original performance appraisal system had already been successfully implemented in the regions of Portugal and Morocco, and the original Spanish Performance Appraisal Bureau had been upgraded to the Performance Appraisal Bureau of the United Kingdom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Do not be fooled by the seemingly large gap in power between the cabinet Prime Minister and the director of a small performance appraisal bureau; in reality, the role of the Performance Appraisal Bureau was in no way inferior to that of the cabinet government, and the various levels of government in Spain and Portugal were perhaps even more afraid of the Performance Appraisal Bureau.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the Performance Appraisal Bureau, it was almost capable of deciding life and death with a single word. Of course, it did not decide the physical life and death of officials, but rather the life and death of their political careers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once the Performance Appraisal Bureau gave an official a poor annual performance rating, that official basically had no future potential, and there was no hope for any promotion for at least several years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once they received consecutive poor ratings, whether they were provincial governors or mayors of cities, they would face the risk of being impeached by the parliament.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was precisely because of this that government officials at all levels in Spain and Portugal were quite fearful of the Performance Appraisal Bureau. Even the cabinet Prime Minister could not decide the life and death of their political careers with a single word, but for the Performance Appraisal Bureau, it was truly just a matter of a single sentence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was also because the Performance Appraisal Bureau could determine the fate of officials at all levels that this agency, in addition to being responsible to the Upper House, also needed to be responsible to Carlo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every director of the Performance Appraisal Bureau was an absolute confidant of Carlo, and their career advancement paths, besides the Minister of Justice who could be directly elected by the Upper House, could also include appointments as colonial viceroys, provincial governors, and other positions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Andrew Rosso took office as Prime Minister, the former Minister of Finance, Ole Acosta, assumed the position of Deputy Prime Minister, and the former Deputy Prime Minister, Count Menotti, served as the Minister of Defense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>William, who had served three consecutive terms as Minister of Foreign Affairs, retired honorably, and his position was taken over by the former Minister of Royal Affairs, Grant Jeliffe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The biggest difference one could see in the new cabinet government was that the Conservative Party no longer held the advantage; instead, the Progressive Party and the Socialist Workers' Party were currently the two parties occupying the most cabinet seats.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyone with a discerning eye could see that after Ole Acosta of the Progressive Party became Deputy Prime Minister, the next step would be to succeed Andrew Rosso as Prime Minister.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the Minister of Defense, Andrew Rosso, had been promoted to Prime Minister by Carlo, most people knew that the military's control of the Prime Minister was only to cope with this war.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once this war, which had engulfed most of Europe, ended, the Prime Minister position would return to the control of the three major parties.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Returning to the cabinet's discussion, whether it was Prime Minister Andrew Rosso or other cabinet members, they were all quite shocked by the casualties of Germany and France in this war.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to reports from the Spanish military observer mission at the front, only one month after the outbreak of the war, the casualties of Germany and France had reached 167,000 and 225,000 respectively.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was still because Germany had spent the first half of the month concentrating its efforts on attacking Belgium and Luxembourg; otherwise, the casualties on both the German and French sides would have been even greater.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among them, the number of soldiers who died alone reached 37,000 for Germany and 56,000 for France; this was already the most tragic war in human history.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the German-French front, at least several thousand people died every single day. Especially during periods of more intensive offensives, the number of soldiers dying in a single day could reach as high as tens of thousands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was only because Germany and France were these two super powers that they could barely withstand such huge casualties. If these casualty figures were placed on other non-power countries in Europe, any country would suffer heavy losses, which could be described as a level of damage that would shake their very foundations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Your Majesty, the French government has requested to purchase 1,500 ready-made automobiles and 20 airships. The automobiles in their country cannot handle the frequent transport tasks, especially regarding the transport of wounded soldiers from the front, which requires more automobiles and airships to participate,\" Prime Minister Andrew Rosso said, looking at Carlo and asking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Carlo did not answer Prime Minister Andrew's question, but instead turned his gaze toward 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?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Prince Juan Fernando had gradually begun to come into contact with government affairs after coming of age, and naturally had his own ideas about handling such national affairs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He thought for a moment, then replied: \"Father, I believe we can agree to the French government's request.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Judging from the current situation on the front, the one occupying the advantage is Germany, which is fighting on two fronts. If we do not provide some aid to France, it will be very difficult for France to defeat Germany on the Western Front.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the Eastern Front, Russia has already experienced a crushing defeat and will be unable to recover its vitality in a short time. The heavily damaged Russian Second Army was the elite of the Russian military; even if Russia can still mobilize millions of troops, the combat effectiveness of these temporarily mobilized new recruits will certainly not be as good as Russia's original elite troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Currently, the scales of victory in the war have already tilted toward Germany. If we do not intend to lean toward Germany, providing aid to France is our best choice.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Carlo nodded, feeling quite satisfied with Prince Juan Fernando's answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spain actually only had two choices at the moment. Either lean toward Germany and directly partition France's colonies, or help France resist Germany while remaining a bystander.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The former seemed like a safer way, but if they helped Germany defeat France, Germany would become an unrivaled number one power in Europe, and its influence would be in no way inferior to France during the Napoleonic era.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Could Spain contend with such a Germany at that time? The answer was absolutely not.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Germany, like Spain, had the potential to develop into a country with both strong land and naval forces. Once Germany defeated France and moved France's entire shipbuilding system to Germany, Germany would possess shipbuilding speed and capabilities not inferior to those of the United Kingdom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that time, relying on its massive domestic industry, Germany's naval construction speed would be several times that of Spain, and the Spanish Navy would simply be unable to contend with Germany.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the contrary, the second option, which seemed slightly risky, was the one without future worries for Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if they could support France to defeat Germany, France itself would be heavily damaged after the victory and would not pose such a great threat to Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although France could also be considered a country with both strong land and naval forces, both the French Army and Navy were beatable for Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Defeating Germany did not bring many obvious gains for Spain, but preventing the birth of a super hegemon on the European continent could also be considered a gain for Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the United Kingdom chose neutrality or stood on France's side as it did in history, Spain could still contend with the United Kingdom after the war; after all, Spain's losses in the war would not be too great, and it could completely act like the United Kingdom in history—doing the bare minimum, using colonial troops to make up the numbers, and only dispatching a small number of elite troops to ensure that the French front line would not collapse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the United Kingdom stood on the opposite side of France, Spain could also unite with France to defeat the United Kingdom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as the United Kingdom was defeated, Spain could obtain large areas of colonies and benefits, which would compensate for the defect of low-value spoils of war caused by Germany's lack of colonies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You are right. No matter who wins this war, we do not want to see the birth of a Napoleonic-style super empire.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1689,"2026-06-25T09:27:15.200Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","7921ba31c836e11aae9b1af281dbfef711c4afba14bd6fdd29d0c4212f1422d0","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-485","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-483",493,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frise-of-the-empire-spain-cover.jpg"]