Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was February 1928.
Portugal had once again returned to a constitutional monarchy. Manuel II had already returned to Lisbon; clearly, the two sides had reached an agreement.
What deal they had specifically struck was none of Ferdinand's concern. In any case, it was the Portuguese people's own affair.
Manuel II's new coronation ceremony was scheduled for March. It seemed he had long been unable to wait; if he had not needed to attend Little Ferdinand's wedding, he might well have reclaimed the throne in February.
Ferdinand might not have thought highly of this cheap nephew's abilities, but he had to admit that Manuel had an excellent temperament, was free of scheming, and made quite a good friend.
Such a person was ill-suited to be born into a royal family, much less become a king. Still, getting along with someone like him was pleasant enough—at least there were not so many plots and intrigues.
The Indonesian rebellion had also more or less reached its end. Aside from Borneo, the rebel forces on major islands such as Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi Island had all been crushed.
Sure enough, the military had to serve politics. To hand in a satisfactory answer sheet before the two crown princes' weddings, the front-line generals did not hesitate to accelerate the pace of the war.
Though no torrent of steel appeared, that was only because there were no tank corps. Many modern weapons were put to use, and bombs were flung out as though they cost nothing.
For this war, the soldiers at the front expended nearly 200,000 tons of munitions—enough to match the Nationalist Army's total ammunition consumption during the eight-year War of Resistance.
Of that, bullets accounted for a mere eighty-odd million rounds, while