Chapter 284 Chain Plan

"Should the other members of this group of trainees be sent to East Africa? Now that the war in East Africa is over, the army can be reorganized." After sending Heinrich and Leopold away, Enns Special thought.

Just enough to retire some of the older German mercenary officers.

…

The war in East Africa was over, but the war in Europe was not. Prussia was advancing by leaps and bounds in France. The most elite French army surrendered without a fight on October 27, 1870, after being besieged Metz for 72 days.

On the Austro-Hungarian side, Lieutenant General Karl led the army to move around in northern Italy, and even caused trouble in the Lombardy region, forcing the Lombardy frontline defenders to divide their troops to prevent them from sneak attacks from behind.

As a result, Archduke Albrecht seized the opportunity to cut off the connection between the Lombard army and the Venetian army. Venice was surrounded by the Austro-Hungarian army. The imperial army commanded by Archduke Albrecht gradually consumed the Venetian defenders. Due to the blockade, the entire Venice was slowly brought to the brink of collapse, especially the people in the city, who were in dire straits.

"Fulton, our family is going to be completely out of food. This may be our last dinner!" Lisa said to her husband with a frown on her face.

Fulton looked at the pot of porridge cooked with batter on the table and didn't know what to say.

Lisa continued: "From the war to now, the price of food has increased thirteen times, and the supply is still in short supply. Now everyone has no food at home. The Eli family sold their house a week ago. There are five members of their family. If we can’t raise the money, I’m afraid we’ll all starve to death.”

"Oh, damn war!" Fulton sighed, "I will think of a way to see if I can get Mr. Martin to advance his salary in advance."

Martin is the boss of Fulton and runs a textile factory. He is the same Martin who sold his shipyard to the Hechingen consortium.

Martin invested in the textile industry with the cash paid by the Hechingen Consortium. He caught up with the great opportunity of Venice's annexation to Italy and made a fortune by importing textiles to southern Italy through the unified market.

As a result, at the end of 1869, the Suez Canal was opened, and the Venetian shipbuilding industry began to revive. Martin felt a little regretful and sold his shipyard. As a result, the war broke out a few months later, and the shipbuilding industry came to a standstill. Instead, the textile factories were shut down because of the military. The order made another big profit, and Martin had to sigh that he was so lucky.

"Dong dong dong..."

There was a knock on the Fulton door.

"It's so late! Who is it?" Fulton asked.

"Mr. Fulton, this is Murray."

"So it's Murray? Are you okay?" Fulton asked.

"Mr. Fulton, I'm here to say goodbye." Murray said with a wry smile.

"Farewell? You are leaving Venice!"

"Yes, our family is going to East Africa."

"This is impossible!" Fulton said in surprise, "Isn't this the period of martial law? How could you leave Venice?"

Merle smiled bitterly and said: "Haha! You are too high-minded about the integrity of the Venetian bureaucrats. As long as you spend more money, they can meet all your needs."

"Of course I know this, but even if you can spend money to move freely, how can you get out of Venice? There are Austro-Hungarian troops outside, and the sea is also blocked by the Austro-Hungarian navy."

"I also learned the news from Mr. Winston. Mr. Winston, as you know, was my former boss. His company went bankrupt. He was planning to leave Venice for Paraguay and then move to the United States for development. He told I actually still have ships on the sea that can travel, but only the ships of the Hechingen Ocean Trading Company can enter and leave Venice at will. It is said that they have the backing of Prussian capital, so the Austro-Hungarian Navy gave them permission."

"Is it the Hechingen Ocean Trading Company that recruited people in Venice before the war?"

"Yes."

"I thought they had shut down!"

"Haha, I thought so too, but due to the previous martial law, the news was actually blocked. If it weren't for Mr. Winston, I would still be kept in the dark."

"Which dock are they at?"

Merle said: "It was in the Hechingen Shipyard. That is their factory area, so it is relatively closed. If I had known that things would turn out like this, I should have taken my family and left with those country people."

"Then if your family goes to East Africa, how can you be sure that you can find a job, and the shipping fee will be quite high?"

"There's no need to worry about this. I already asked yesterday. You don't have to pay to go to East Africa and Paraguay, but it's not up to us to decide where to go."

"What's the difference between East Africa and Paraguay?"

"There shouldn't be any difference! But Mr. Winston said that there may be more choices in Paraguay, but for us poor people, it's the same wherever we go."

As for why the Hechingen Consortium helped Paraguay transport its population, we have to start with the Paraguay War that ended at the beginning of the year.

Lopez was surrounded on February 27, 1870, but he refused to surrender and ordered his mother and sisters to be executed. He was captured by Brazilian troops on March 1. After Lopez shouted: "I will live and die with my motherland!", Brazilian soldiers hacked him to death with a machete, and then Brazilian soldiers buried him in the jungle. At this point, the Paraguayan war was over.

After taking over the power, the new Paraguayan government faced a devastated Paraguay. The first and biggest problem was the lack of population. In addition to the large loss of adult males caused by the war, there was also the East African country that sucked up a large number of Paraguay's population during the war.

At the last count, Paraguay's population was only 130,000, which was a disaster for Paraguay.

This was not the end yet. East Africa did not stop at that time, but the new Paraguayan government came to its door. Faced with the Paraguayan government’s complaints, the international impact of this incident was not good after all, so Ernst agreed to help Paraguay. Restore the population.

As for where the new population will come from, it is naturally impossible for East Africa to return people, so it can only continue to extract them from Venice.

Originally, it was impossible for East Africa to fully digest the immigrants from Venice. It was simply possible to send immigrants screened out by East Africa who did not meet East African standards to Paraguay.

Of course, the Austro-Hungarian Empire must be involved in this good deed. Aren't we afraid that the Italian population in Venice will be overpopulated? Now let’s work together to send Italians to South America.

This is also the reason why Archduke Albrecht is making slow progress. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is organizing a large agricultural population in the occupied areas and sending them to South America, not only Paraguay but also Argentina and Brazil.

According to Paraguay's current population structure, Paraguay alone can absorb 100,000 Italian singles. Of course, the number cannot be just this small. The Austro-Hungarian Empire can't wait to send a large number of people from the Venetian region to South America. Paraguay may be able to recover. pre-war levels.

It is very difficult for the current Austro-Hungarian Empire to transport hundreds of thousands of people. However, East Africa can help. The premise is that all East African immigration ships are stopped and only serve the Venice area. Therefore, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has to pay for East Africa. At this time, imperial financial allocations are needed.

Of course, Paraguay was not without costs, and East Africa was not philanthropic. Together with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Paraguay's economic interests were divided, including a large amount of land and mineral resource development rights.

However, these cannot be cashed out, so they still trade at a loss, and the majority is still the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After all, Venice still has the largest population in rural areas, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire is willing to be the scapegoat. In order to gain Hungary's support, through this huge financial allocation, Austria-Hungary The Hungarian Empire promised to allocate part of the land in Lombardy west of Venice to Hungary, but there was a precondition that no Italians could exist on the land.

This is another poisonous plan. If Hungary wants to take over the land of Lombardy, it will have to send Hungarians there. However, compared to the developed economy of Lombardy, the Hungarian nobles are still willing to do this. As for the life and death of the Italians, they don't care, so they will expel them. There is no psychological burden, just rush to the Kingdom of Sardinia.

As for the Kingdom of Sardinia, some people have actually started to go to France and America to avoid the war. The French Republican government, at the suggestion of Count Medina, organized these Italians who fled from Italy and transported them to The front line acted as cannon fodder, hindering the speed of the Prussian offensive.