Rebirth of the Spanish Empire

The White House of the United States.

"Things are getting more and more confusing now. Tell me, what kind of medicine is Alfonso XIII selling in the gourd now, and what exactly is he planning to do? Aren't they afraid of causing public outrage among us Americans?" Theodore Roosevelt patted the table, blew his beard and said with a red face. During this time, he was simply dizzy. Either the former President of the United States was assassinated and his death was a masterpiece directed by him, or there are scandals such as his affair with a beautiful secretary.

Or maybe he is using his position to gain more benefits for his family, including using his friendship with the president of Harvard University to ask him to allow his nephew Franklin Roosevelt to enter Harvard University, etc., true or false False, false, true, etc., even trivial things such as the fact that their maid had a crush on her and dreamed of having sex with him at night were reported by the media.

In a word, it means no peace of mind and a chain reaction. From the perspective of the United States, Spain's actions are provocative. So his good impression of the Spanish Empire naturally disappeared.

As the President of the United States, he just complained. After thinking about it, he looked at Secretary of War William Howard on the right and said, "How does our military strength compare with Spain's now?"

Howard already knew what he was talking about. Hearing Roosevelt's question, Howard smiled with a soldier's unique smile and responded:

"We now have 20 pre-dreadnoughts and Spain has 18; we have 11 and 6 battleships, but it is said that Spain recently reported that the country's shipyard held a celebration ceremony and said that new battleships appeared in two shipyards at the same time. So. Now it may be about 8. Armored cruisers are 20 in our empire, and 18 is Spain’s current number. This is the strength of the navy.”

"The gap is so small? What about the army?" Roosevelt felt a little dissatisfied with the small gap between the two countries, but he also felt helpless, because when he changed his mind, he thought of the mood of the people. What the American people want most now is The United States continues to adhere to the policy of escaping from the outside world. Over the years, the United States has gradually begun to increase the public's enthusiasm for foreign expansion, and the overseas expansion of major consortiums has also brought enthusiasm to the people, especially as the local land is becoming more and more popular. Yamato, Hawaii, Wake Island and other central Pacific islands fell into the hands of the United States one by one, which raised hopes. However, Spain's repeated interruptions caused the people's impotence to shrink back again.

This situation makes him, the president, very helpless. Who doesn’t want to be a strong president, but that also requires strength, especially the support of the people. Otherwise, as it is now, the defense budget will not be able to keep up. If it meets the needs of the country, then even the president can only sigh with excitement.

"160,000"

"160,000?"

"Yes, you should also know that in 1880, our number was only 35,000. And the reason for this is because of the citizens of our empire..."

"Okay, what about other countries, especially Spain, how many are they?"

Howard smiled bitterly. This Minister of War was really a bit useless. Every time he prepared for war, he found that his joy was all in vain. Now it can be said that he, the Minister, has almost become a decoration in the army.

"Based on the latest information we have learned, Germany's army has expanded from 420,000 in 1880 to 830,000 now, France has expanded from 500,000 to 800,000, and Russia is preparing to increase its army from 800,000 to 1.4 million, the highest in Europe. , the Austro-Hungarian Empire expanded from 270,000 to 500,000, Italy's 200,000 became 350,000, and as for Spain, which has a tense relationship with us, their current army is 400,000."

"In other words, their army is twice as large as ours now?" Roosevelt frowned. This number is really not that big. It is even more than twice the size of the United States. ….

"Actually, the president doesn't need to be too distressed. Don't forget, Spain is very different from us?" Elihu Root spoke at this time. Unlike Roosevelt and others, there was not much distress on his face. expression.

"Oh, what does Secretary of State mean?" Perhaps influenced by him, Roosevelt suddenly became more confident. Not only him, but the remaining three of the five most powerful people in the current U.S. government, Treasury Secretary George Bruce Cortelyou, War Secretary Howard, and Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte also cheered up. It was as if people in the night suddenly saw the sun.

Elihu Root did not answer directly, but came to the wall, where there was a huge map with huge circles around the world, one of which is now Elihu Root. Where the index finger points.

"Look, guys, here is our enviable United States, and here is the Atlantic Ocean. Across the Atlantic are Spain, the United Kingdom, and Africa in the south. This is our east side. Needless to say, the south side is the British. Our country is Canada, and to the south is our lovely and generous Mexico.”

Everyone laughed when they heard this adjective. It can be said that Mexico is now the best neighbor of the United States. The land allows the United States to expand rapidly, and its existence can also be said to be a wall in the south of the United States, helping the United States resist any attack. Invasion from the South.

"However, although Mexico has brought us good luck, Spain does not have so much luck for us. On the contrary, Spain now is our bad god Eris in Greek mythology. They have destroyed our country time and time again. Actions and plans. Look here”

Elihu Root pointed to the location of the Philippines and said: "This originally belonged to Spain, but my heart is on the territory that belongs to the British. Everyone knows what I want to say, but the King of Spain stayed alone. Palawan Island, we can see how deep his thoughts are, as well as the Northern Mariana Islands and Micronesia Islands next to our Wake Island, and here in the south, not to mention, here is the United Kingdom and They exchanged land between Western Australia and New Zealand (including the Cook Islands). What does this mean? It means that we are on this side of the Pacific. They also have a huge chance of meeting us. Of course, this is not a good thing. After all, we are not going there to visit the streets of New York, but to go there to occupy more interests for the empire. And the interests encircled by Spain have almost blocked the advancement of our expansion. Therefore, many people, including me, Intelligent Americans knew that Spain became a potential enemy of the empire.”

In a different tone, he added: "Our current army only has a small amount, but don't forget that the Spanish navy is the same as our navy, and although the Spanish army is large, it is widely distributed. For example, here, In several places in Africa, it is said that there are about 40,000 people, while Western Australia and the Western Pacific combined have 80,000 people, and New Zealand has 40,000. These data may not be accurate, but they should be about the same. Where to go. In this case, the Spanish mainland army will only be about 244,000 people, and they are different from us. The threats we pose everywhere are so small that they can be ignored. And just now the Minister of War said that Spain’s neighboring France Now it is 800,000, and Italy is also 350,000. Although they are also deployed overseas, it also shows that Spain faces more threats than us. Therefore, my opinion is that we are not facing a military threat now. On the contrary, , we now face a serious diplomatic threat."

"Is the Secretary of State talking about the attitude of European powers towards us?" Attorney General Charles, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly asked. Many people know that in fact, the U.S. government should actually be said to be retired by three giants. The first is the president, needless to say, the second is the secretary of state, and the third is the attorney general. Regardless of his position. Obviously, but don’t forget that the United States has an independent judiciary. Even the President of the United States cannot prevent any court decision when facing a legal case. At most, he can only understand the internal right to know and supervise the process. So the first thing every president does when he takes office is to meet with the secretary of state, then the attorney general, and finally other cabinet members. ….

"Exactly, we in the United States are facing more and more doubts from Europe. We"

"Puff, puff, puff." The sound of knocking on the door interrupted Elihu Root's high-pitched voice, causing him to frown immediately, but he did not show any dissatisfaction. However, he did not express it, but President Theodore Roosevelt did. I am very angry. After all, this is the highest-level meeting, and the things discussed here are very important to the United States. It is not a good time to disturb everyone at this time!

"Come in" an unhappy voice came to the door.

The door opened, and a think tank who usually followed him walked in anxiously. Without any polite greetings to other people, he walked directly to Roosevelt, stepped forward and said a few words in Roosevelt's ear, Then he took out a document and put it on his desk and stood in the back. Roosevelt picked up the document and quickly opened it and read it.

No one spoke, and the atmosphere in the conference room suddenly became very quiet. Because they saw the result of the matter from Roosevelt's face, it must be very bad.

Elihu Root hesitated to speak, feeling very uncomfortable.

Roosevelt's eyes turned in a wide circle on the people around him, and then he said a ground-breaking sentence with a trembling voice and helplessness: "Spain and the four South American countries have officially formed an alliance in Wellington, New Zealand."

This is the first update today. Originally, there were two updates yesterday. When I finished writing this update, it was already past 23:00. The editor said that updates in the middle of the night often get dropped. I have tried it before, and the click-through rate is indeed very low, so Save it for today. The previous chapters were 2,500 and 6 chapters, but now I have decided to restore a chapter with more than 3,000 words. One chapter will be updated around 15:00 in the afternoon, and the list will be changed tomorrow, March 3 at 14:00 pm This book will be listed on the "New Book Selection Recommendation List" for the first time in the category of novels. Please remember to vote for it, especially for collections. This is the most scarce book now. There are still more than 20 places left for collections out of 2,700. Can anyone help me push it up to the 3000th collection?

..