18th century total war

Chapter 251 Find a wealthy robber

Of course, if we do not consider humanitarian ideas, there is also a quick way to resolve the security war, which is the measure taken when the Qing Dynasty entered the customs - massacre!

Kill until no one resists, and the guerrillas naturally have no room to survive.

It is easy for foreign powers to support weapons and ammunition, but food is a bulky material, and the demand is very high. It is impossible to rely on smuggling to meet the needs of the guerrillas. Without the support of the local people, it is impossible to produce. die.

However, although the massacre can solve the problem of security warfare, it will also bring new problems.

After killing almost all the population, what's the use of occupying such a large territory?

As the head of the General Administration of Taxation said, after the massacre, the food production in the Spanish occupied area could not even meet the rations of the occupying army!
After conquering such a large territory, in the end we had to transport food all the way from France!
If everyone in France had enough to eat, this would not be a problem. The problem is that most people in France are now below the food and clothing line.

In order to occupy the Kingdom of Spain, a large number of civilians in France should not be starved to death. Although Li Wei didn't care about the life and death of the French people, if there were more people who starved to death, the Revolutionary Party would have a fertile soil for survival.

At that time, Li Wei will play with the rebels in France every day!
Even if the suppression of the rebels is successful, the long-term internal suppression war will further weaken France's national power, and then the food production will decline again, causing more French people who cannot survive to take the road of revolution and rebellion, forcing Li Wei once again dispatched the army to suppress...

If such a vicious cycle continues, it is estimated that the population of 500 million in France will be killed to 1000 million in the end, and it may not be able to stop...!
At that time, even if Li Wei gets more glory points and turns all the French into infantry guards, what will the soldiers eat if no one is farming?
Going abroad to rob?
Well, there must be enough weapons and ammunition.

There aren't even many people left to farm. How many human resources are there for factory production and raw material extraction?
It doesn't mean that there are enough workers in the factory to continuously produce weapons and ammunition. The most labor-intensive part of producing weapons is the mining and transportation of raw materials!

Without enough food, we cannot feed too many workers to mine raw materials and transport them to factories. By then, many factories are expected to reduce production or even stop production!
Without weapons and ammunition, you can't let the infantry guards use their fists to rob.

Weapons and ammunition are not food, and they are not necessities for the people. As long as hostile countries destroy weapons and ammunition, the Levi's army will have less and less ammunition, until finally they can only fight with cold weapons...

As a result, this is another vicious circle!
Therefore, in order to ensure the potential for war, it is not enough to have a powerful system to brainwash soldiers. A stable rear base is a crucial factor!

And a stable rear base still needs a large population to support it. Population is the primary productive force of this era!

This is why Livy rarely carried out massacres against the French.

Even after Li Wei came to power, he asked the cabinet to start formulating a land reform policy to ensure that most French people had land to cultivate.

Li Wei will not allow capitalists and nobles to exploit the common people, even if they want to exploit, it must be the Li Wei government to exploit!
Levi refuses middlemen to make the difference!

Most French civilians had land for farming, so Livy could naturally collect more food taxes.

And in this land reform, there is a very important one. All the land in France is no longer privately owned, but the state. The people only have the right to lease and use, but not ownership.

Livy granted the use rights to the French and nationalized the ownership. With this set of methods, Livy's government could become a direct exploiter of the land, instead of letting the landowners and nobles earn the middleman's price difference!

Li Wei's administrative quota was enough to support a large bureaucratic class to carry out the land reform policy of centrally-administered land.

As a result, Livy's government's land income increased, but the French civilians had nothing to lose, and they even gained.

After all, land belonging to the state and land belonging to the landlords are completely different things to French commoners.

French peasants who farm on the land of the landed aristocrats are serfs!
But a French farmer who works on the land of the country is a French citizen!

The exploitation by the national government is implicit and can be hidden in various taxes, but the exploitation by the landlords and nobles is explicit, and in many cases is more severe.

Landlords and nobles had limited land, so they naturally wanted to find ways to exploit the serfs in this small piece of land.

But the land of the French government is the whole of France, and the cost of exploitation is shared across the whole country. Naturally, a single French peasant family will not feel much burden.

The extra taxes paid by the French government are, to put it bluntly, the price difference earned by the middlemen!

Otherwise, how could France be unable to support a population of 500 million people in such a large area?

Of course, land reform takes time, and the crisis facing France has not yet been resolved.

The anti-French alliance has not been disbanded yet!

The tax chief let Li Wei know a cruel reality. The French Defense Forces, which seem to have a strong military force, have actually appeared to be strong on the outside and dry on the inside.

If it weren't for the French Defense Forces not needing military pay and death benefits, the Li Wei government would have gone bankrupt countless times!

France, which has frequently experienced civil wars and foreign invasions, what it needs most now is to recuperate and recuperate, rather than resorting to military force...

"The current financial situation does not allow us to occupy the Kingdom of Spain for a long time, but if we enter the territory of the Kingdom of Spain, it should not be a problem to capture Madrid."

"My lord Chief Executive is right.

Regardless of the issue of long-term occupation, the army can use war to support war when it invades a foreign country, and plunder locally. If the country robbed is rich enough, it can not only make up for the consumption of the war, but even feed back to ourselves, so that the French government can survive the current difficulties. At the moment, the land reform policy was successfully completed.

Today, the internal wealth of France has been exhausted in the civil war. Whether it is the property left by the wealthy nobles or the church, it has almost been used up, and only large tracts of land are still valuable.

However, many of these lands have been abandoned due to war problems. The government needs time to organize manpower to resume production and implement land reform policies to attract French farmers to work. "

At this time, the Minister of Logistics, Atiman, stood up and said: "Chief Consul, we no longer have the ability to expand our territory. The best we can do is go out and plunder. Continuous wars have exhausted our reserve arms.

Today, many units of the French Defense Forces use muskets captured from the Prussian army. "

As soon as Yatiman finished speaking, Manid from the General Administration of Military Intelligence (now he has resigned from the post of Foreign Minister and is focusing on intelligence work for Li Wei) suddenly stood up and said:
"My lord, if our strategic goal is to go out to rob and subsidize the country's finances, I propose to attack the wealthy northern Italy and the Kingdom of Sardinia, or attack the Rhine and the Netherlands.

The northern part of the Kingdom of Spain has been plundered by us, and the Catalonia region has become a piece of white land. Unless we go deep into the west and south of the Kingdom of Spain, it will be difficult to rob much valuable things.

Most of the western and southern parts of the Kingdom of Spain are underdeveloped areas, and even if they were attacked, they would only plunder bulk goods such as grain.

And going deep into the mainland of the Kingdom of Spain, our logistics line will inevitably be harassed by a large number of Spanish guerrillas. Now the Spaniards hate us French very much. "

After Manid finished speaking, he immediately attracted the echoes of the surrounding cabinet ministers.

Since they don't plan to occupy it for a long time, everyone naturally tends to find a rich area to fight and rob. If they can subsidize the country's finances through war, the broken ship of France can continue to be militaristic!
And it will not delay the land reform plan in France, and even has enough wealth, Li Wei will suppress the revolutionary party in the French Republic by the way, and it may not be impossible to wear a crown for himself.

Now the strength and combat power of the French Defense Forces are sufficient. Which country can withstand the First Army's attack on the surrounding countries?
The only thing that worried the Livy government was the resistance of the local people.

After all, this war of invading foreign countries is different from the French civil war. Foreign people will instinctively resist the conquest of the French, and will pin all the disasters brought about by the war on the French invaders.

If the Italians can no longer fight, they will rise up against thieves at home!

"Since the Kingdom of Spain has nothing to offer, let's let them go for now.

Tell the envoys of the Kingdom of Spain that on the basis of their conditions, I need to make the Kingdom of Catalonia independent.

Carlos IV must recognize the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Catalonia.

Of course, we can form a military alliance after the Kingdom of Spain withdraws from the anti-French alliance, so that the Kingdom of Spain can relax its vigilance against us.

The army of the Kingdom of Spain is not very powerful, but the navy is still good. If the Kingdom of Spain really forms a military alliance with us, the London government may have a headache. "

Livy's words immediately determined the strategic direction of the French Republic.

As for the fate of the Kingdom of France, no one mentioned it. This kind of regime that attempts to divide the country must be completely eliminated.

It didn't take long for the Spanish envoys to bring the conditions of Livy's government back to the Madrid government.

In the Royal Palace of Madrid, Carlos IV and his wife Queen Luisa are at the top of the list, while the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Godoy is at the bottom.

"What do you think of the conditions proposed by Li Wei?"

As soon as Carlos IV raised the topic, Queen Louisa beside him impatiently asked the Minister of War: "Is our army really unable to match the French Defense Forces?"

The Minister of War glanced at Prime Minister Godoy, then bowed and replied: "Your Majesty, the French Defense Forces alone have 10 troops in the First Army. They have too many troops, and we have no chance of winning."

"What if [-] Spanish troops attack a division of the French Defense Forces?

I remember that in the establishment of the French Defense Forces, a full division is only about 1 people. "

Queen Luisa immediately raised a very sharp topic. She wanted to know where the gap between the Spanish army and the French army was.

Why did the 8 troops on the front line flee back home in fright without even fighting the main force of the French army?
Fortunately, after experiencing the Madrid escape incident, Queen Louisa has put away her past arrogance, otherwise the 'incompetent' Minister of War should have been dismissed by this time!

The [-] main force who had experienced the bloody test of suppressing the Kingdom of Catalonia ran away without even seeing the enemy. What is the Minister of the Army, the highest officer in charge of the army, if he is not a canon?
Generally speaking, the Spanish royal family, who are military laymen, would not directly command the army to fight. Neither Carlos IV nor Queen Luisa knew how to fight.

Therefore, it is the Madrid cabinet government, the Minister of War, who actually commands the Spanish Army.

Queen Louisa stumped the Secretary of War with this question.

He really wanted to say that an army of [-] could easily defeat a division of the French army, but he was afraid that after he said it, Queen Louisa really ordered the [-] Spanish army to attack a division of the French army!

Because on the strategic map, the main force of the French Defense Forces is busy cleaning up the revolutionary areas in southern France. There are only two divisions standing in front of the Spanish [-] Army, and one of the divisions is scattered in major cities behind...

However, the Minister of the Spanish Army knew the details of the disastrous defeat of the French Kingdom Army. The [-] Spanish Army attacked the defense area where a division of the French Army was stationed, and the outcome was really unknown.

Even if you win, you will suffer heavy losses and lose the ability to continue attacking!

However, to say that the [-] army cannot beat a division of the French army is not to say that he is incompetent, and the Spanish army is useless?

Fortunately, Prime Minister Godoy took over this problem, and he took the initiative to stand up and explain:
"Your Majesty, this question makes little sense from a strategic point of view.

Even if we annihilate one or two divisions of the French army, the French army still has more than a dozen divisions in the country, which will anger the Li Wei government. I am afraid that Li Wei will desperately send the main force of the French army to invade Spain.

Just like last time. "

After Queen Louisa remembered the last encounter, her face paled a little, she closed her mouth, and gave up the idea of ​​continuing to confront Li Wei.

My own national strength is not good enough, so I can only swallow this bad breath!
Seeing that Queen Luisa shut up, Prime Minister Godoy continued: "The armistice treaty of the Li Wei government is still sincere, and the alliance with the Li Wei government is also a guarantee for the peace of the Kingdom of Spain.

The Kingdom of Spain has experienced too many wars, and its fiscal deficit is serious. What it needs most now is to recuperate and recuperate, and can no longer continue to wage wars that cost people and money. "

"However, Li Wei asked me to recognize the independence of Catalonia!"

Carlos IV reminded dissatisfiedly.

(End of this chapter)