After learning the specifics, Victor Kisis's good mood abruptly sank. The Three Peoples United Kingdom's situation was not merely bad—it was catastrophically bad!
Other than a mass of refugees and a government in exile, they had nothing. No—that was not quite right. They still had an army of over thirty thousand men, with passable morale, though its combat strength was worrying.
Weapons, ammunition, food, medicine—there was nothing they did not lack. Under such circumstances, even if Victor Kisis wanted to intensify training, he could not!
Victor Kisis asked in disbelief, "Ralph, is there really no money left in the treasury?"
Ralph replied with a bitter smile, "What do you think? Don't be fooled by the sum we looted from the Ottoman Empire before. It was practically all consumed by the war!
"Besides, do you not understand what sort of entity this Three Peoples United Kingdom is? Nominally, we do have quite a bit of territory, but when have we ever truly occupied those places? When have we ever collected a single coin in taxes? All we did was declare sovereignty and obtain the Entente's recognition, nothing more!"
Victor Kisis asked again, "Can we take out a loan from the Russians? We can use anything as collateral!"
"Forget it! Russia's finances are not much better than ours. If not for loans from Britain and France, their treasury would have gone bankrupt long ago!" Before Ralph could answer, Victor Kisis had already rejected the idea himself.
Since he knew it was impossible, there was naturally no need to try. The citizens of the Three Peoples United Kingdom now basically survived on relief grain distributed by the Russians. The Tsarist government had already shown enough goodwill by producing so much food; making further unreasonable demands would be terribly ill-timed.
After a brief silence,