Holy Roman Empire-Chapter 1000 - 14, A Chaotic World

Chapter 1000: Chapter 14, A Chaotic World

Another fruitless day passed, and Eves’s spirits sank even further. For more than five months, there had been no income, and his pitiful wallet was nearly empty.

To ask his parents for help, setting aside his pathetic pride, the issue was that Eves’s parents were just ordinary people. His grandparents above required assistance, and there were younger brothers and sisters below who needed support.

With the current wave of layoffs and pay cuts, everyone wished a dollar could be stretched into two. The savings of better days became the last safeguard to get through the crisis. Until absolutely necessary, people were reluctant to dip into them.

Unable to lean on his family, Eves returned to his rental room and stared blankly at the world map on the wall.

The map was left behind by the landlord, supposedly given out by businesses to celebrate the victory of the European war. Frankly, judging by the map, the Holy Roman Empire truly seemed imposing.

Excluding areas uninhabitable for humans, the Holy Roman Empire had already occupied nearly a quarter of the land and one-twentieth of the sea, becoming one of the only two global empires in the world today.

Eves too had once been filled with fervor, dreaming of glory on the battlefield and returning home as a distinguished member of the nobility.

Unfortunately, he was born at the wrong time. By the time Eves enlisted for military service, he caught the tail end of the European war. Before basic training was finished, the French had surrendered.

Not to mention earning battle honors, he didn’t even get the chance to set foot on the battlefield. He completed the last few months of his service without incident, then was discharged and went home to look for work.

The dream of nobility shattered, it was of no consequence. The chances for an ordinary person to become a noble were always slim; those who stood out were “blessed by Fortune,” and the majority, even given an opportunity, would only end up with a farm at most.

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Eves felt no envy, truly no envy. With hard work, there was a chance within his lifetime to buy a farm of his own.

Under society’s harsh blows, Eves thought becoming a great engineer was quite alright; after all, he had excelled in mechanics courses at school. Clutching his dreams and his discharge pay, he came to this unfamiliar city.

He had believed that with his talents, he could easily join a large company with generous benefits, quickly earning the recognition of a benefactor, thus receiving targeted corporate training, and eventually becoming a great engineer.

Reality proved he was overly optimistic. The economic crisis arrived just as he started his career search.

Amidst widespread layoffs by companies, it wasn’t about joining a large company with good treatment anymore—Eves couldn’t even land a job washing dishes at a roadside restaurant.

Overseas was such a distant concept. Although airplanes had appeared, they were only used in the military, with occasional use by some aviation clubs.

Theoretically, there were no issues with using planes to travel between Europe and Africa, but in practice, it was simply unrealistic. Setting aside safety concerns, the high operational costs alone made airlines balk.

All of the Holy Roman Empire’s airlines mainly operated airships, primarily for short or medium-range rapid cargo transport. There were passenger services, but the prices were beyond the reach of regular folks.

Under normal circumstances, the fastest round trip by ship from Europe to the African Continent would take at least a month, with some remote areas requiring half a year for a single journey.

As for further locations like Southeast Asia and America, it goes without saying. If quick, it would take several months—otherwise, a year and a half.

With such long travel distances, the costs were naturally steep. Many people, having left their hometowns, wouldn’t return for decades. It wasn’t that they did not wish to return home; it’s just that the expenses of a round trip amounted to a year’s income.

Ordinary families couldn’t withstand such an ordeal, especially those with dependent families. To ensure a better life for their loved ones, many had no choice but to set aside their homesickness.

Many immigrants, after leaving Europe, only returned to their hometowns with their entire families in their later years. There was no other way, only then could they possibly accumulate enough leave for a free trip home.

The once-in-five-year home leave promised by the colonial government or employers was only for the employee and limited to a single individual. To bring family along, one had to accumulate enough leave or pay out of pocket.

It wasn’t that better terms couldn’t be offered; the problem was, if you took your whole family and left, the employers also worried you might not come back!

Apart from those who made a name for themselves and could return more often, ordinary people—by the time they went back—it was “children meeting as strangers, laughing and asking where the guest comes from.” The childhood hometown, the fond memories, had all vanished.

Looking at his nearly empty wallet, Eves knew that if he couldn’t find work soon, he would have to compromise with life.

Perhaps there was a better life overseas, but the taste of home could never be found again. Once stepping out, family and friends would turn into passersby in life.

That night, Eves was sleepless. Along with him, thousands of unemployed were awake, pondering whether to venture out to make a living, another dilemma on the road of life.

…

The economic crisis was rampant, making life not only difficult for the people but also for governments worldwide.

The bankruptcy of the Prussian government was just the beginning. By May, the governments of Modena, Parma, and the Two Sicilies followed in insolvency, and by June, Sardinia, Lucca, and Tuscany could no longer hold on, joining the wave of bankruptcy.

In the Italian Area, only the Papal State was left, struggling to persist. Being a religious state, with donations from the faithful, it fared somewhat better than its neighbors.

But that was only marginally better; if the economic crisis continued, and the faithful could no longer donate, the Papal State would likely join the bankruptcy wave.

The collapse in the Italian Area was only a beginning. As Franz knew, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland, the four remaining governments, were also in dire straits.

Belgium was struggling due to the severe losses in the war; the reconstruction was only halfway done when they were hit by the economic crisis, and to have endured to this point was impressive enough.

Switzerland was overextended, borrowing heavily on financial markets to develop newly acquired territories.

When the rain came, the banks suddenly took away their umbrella. The finance issues were exposed all at once, and the Swiss government found itself in a predicament. If the projects were abandoned, the initial investment would be wasted; if they continued, the government’s finances couldn’t bear it.

As for Portugal, it was like a misplaced Husky. With the Republicans and Monarchist faction embroiled in their own affairs, the economic development was neglected.

Unlike other colonial nations, Portugal’s colonies were losing money, and had been doing so for many years.

Don’t ask why they were losing money; they just were. And the losses only grew larger. Interestingly, the more their colonies lost, the more the Portuguese clung to them.

Even when high offers were made to purchase these “inferior” assets, they still insisted on holding onto them. The reasons they knew were good enough; there was no need to declare them publicly.

In any case, faced with increasingly high colonial expenses, Portugal became ever more powerless. To maintain their Colonial Empire, the Portuguese racked up huge foreign debts, so high that this small European nation could barely catch its breath.

Spain originally had the most substantial foundation among these nations, but unfortunately, the Philippine War not only drained the Spaniards’ treasury but also tore through their “great power” facade.

Though the Philippine War continued, and Spain had not been defeated, the strength they displayed was hardly comparable to that of the great powers.

If Vienna hadn’t repeatedly taken their side, Spain would have collapsed long ago. Now, it was less about Spain waging war against Japan, and more about Shinra being a thorn in Japan’s side.

One look at the battlefield situation could tell you everything. The Spanish Fleet, which had suffered heavy losses, had not only been replenished but had even added a battleship to its main force.

The army need not be mentioned; the main forces on the battlefield had now become mercenaries, and it was the former elite of the French Army that was engaging with the Japanese.

Their combat record spoke for itself. The exchange ratio had gone from 1:1.4 to 1:2.7, a complete qualitative breakthrough.

The Spanish Expeditionary Army, which had originally been knocked about by the Japanese, was gradually gaining the upper hand. And though victory remained distant, the development was at least heading in a favorable direction.

In contrast, Japan, another impoverished empire, was now far more miserable. With British naval support, the navy was no issue, but the army was a different story!

The gap in weapons and equipment could be managed by the British, but that would take time; as for soldier training, that was something the Japanese had to handle themselves.

Originally imitating the French, the Philippines now presented the perfect stage for a battle between teacher and pupil. The Japanese Army wouldn’t have suffered such heavy losses if not for the bane of their expansion.

Not every nation had the capacity to maintain hundreds of thousands of soldiers in a standing army during peacetime; Japan’s standing army divisions were only a few in number, totaling barely a hundred thousand men.

After the outbreak of the Philippine War, their numbers had ballooned to over eight hundred thousand—an increase by a factor of five. They were severely short of officers and veterans.

Even compensating with the spirit of bushido couldn’t raise professional standards. Soldiers’ accuracy told the story: in shooting matches on the battlefield, even the Spanish Army outgunned them, not to mention the French elite.

Their only advantage lay in their courage; when it came to risking their lives, they didn’t hesitate. Unfortunately, Japan was so impoverished that soldiers grew up in limiting environments, many thin and pallid, clearly lacking nutrition.

With poor nutrition came poor physical stamina. Asians were already at a slight natural disadvantage in bodily fitness compared to Europeans, and now that gap was even more pronounced.

If not for the jungle to exploit, the Japanese Army, no matter how brave, wouldn’t have held out this long. Yet, the jungle wasn’t omnipotent; if the enemy didn’t enter, they had no advantage.

Unlike the Spanish Army, the mercenaries came to war for money. Each one’s morale soared at the sight of a city, but they balked at the prospect of the jungle.

And then, an interesting scene unfolded. With the help of hundreds of thousands of mercenaries, the Spanish Expeditionary Army captured several cities in the Philippine Islands, but the jungle became off-limits to them.

Mercenaries were reluctant to fight in places without loot, and the Spanish Army, learning their lesson, were equally unwilling to suffer in the jungle.

Thus, the Japanese Army, which had prepared ambushes in advance, ended up pointlessly feeding mosquitoes in the jungle. Out of necessity, the Japanese resorted to guerrilla warfare, occasionally emerging from the jungle to stage attacks and seize supplies from the enemy.

If the situation didn’t change, it was estimated that within a year or so, the Expeditionary Army could capture all the key towns in the Philippine Islands, and the Japanese forces holding the vast jungle would effectively become guerrilla squads.

Clearly, this was something the Japanese Government could not tolerate. To win the war, they had already rallied the locals, forming a solid Anti-White Alliance.

However, during the Spanish rule, internal conflicts between Native Tribes were deliberately incited, leaving this grand alliance fraught with internal dangers. Many people suffered from a deep-seated fear of whites—cheering from the sidelines was possible, but actual contributions to the war were a distant prospect.

For the Japanese Government, the military troubles were minor; sacrificing lives was no problem as long as they were willing to die. Their current disadvantage was simply not understanding the rules of the European game.

They hadn’t anticipated that the Spaniards would let mercenaries take the lead and had been caught off guard. Once they caught their breath, things would improve.

Financial troubles, by contrast, were the real problem. The Japanese Government had never had much wealth, and maintaining a large navy while also supporting a large army had long exceeded the limits of their finances.

Even though the Japanese Army reaped considerable rewards in the Philippine Islands, most of the wealth went into individual pockets, leaving only a small part for the government. Clearly, this small portion of spoils was not enough to fund the war.

During peacetime, they could have borrowed foreign debt, but now it wasn’t possible. In times of economic crisis, cash was king—the banking consortiums were tightening their belts and certainly wouldn’t lend lightly.

Issuing bonds was even less thinkable. The tidal wave of unemployment swept in, and ordinary people relied on their savings to weather the crisis. Who would have spare cash to buy bonds?

“Support from the British,” just take it as you hear. Not everyone is the iron-headed Louis XVI, bleeding for America’s cause—an event that only happened once in history. It was impossible to expect the British to support at any cost.

Moreover, the London Government was now hardly managing its own troubles. With the world in the throes of an economic crisis, Britannia, as the world’s second largest economy, was naturally not exempt.

Perhaps due to an overdeveloped financial sector, as the economic crisis raged, Britannia also faced a financial crisis.

Of course, war wasn’t entirely detrimental. At the very least, this war helped the Japanese Government weather the economic crisis. In contrast to the European world’s Great Depression, Japan’s domestic scene, aside from being thick with gunpowder, was still economically “thriving.”

…