"Could the Empire increase its investment?"
These were Benedek's true feelings, and also the most effective way to solve the problem. After all, in his impression, the Empire's Logistics Department was extremely capable, as if increasing investment could solve every problem.
Back then, in the Italian region, faced with hundreds of thousands of prisoners, even the ever-steady Marshal Radetzky had been unable to sit still.
If they released those people, they would immediately become an enemy army of several hundred thousand; but if they did not release them, the shit they pulled out every week could drown a farmstead.
In the end, those hundreds of thousands of prisoners had not stirred up much of a storm. They had even, to a certain extent, promoted the development of Northern Italy.
"Before the canals blocked by the Spanish are dredged, increasing investment cannot solve the problem. Because Spain lacks railways, all supplies can only be transported by human and animal labor.
And people and livestock need to eat. The farther the route and the more complex the terrain, the greater the losses. The inland borders of the four coastal provinces are almost the limit of our transport capacity.
If we go farther inland, the returns from increased investment will approach zero without limit, and may even turn negative.
Here, I would like to remind everyone of one thing: the Empire has already paid a great deal, a very great deal, for this war."
Fanny Kaus had someone hang a transport-return chart compiled by the Logistics Department on the conference room's whiteboard. The curve did indeed look very unpromising.
"Then how long will the river-channel clearing take to complete?"
Someone else raised a question.
"It is unclear. Perhaps several months, perhaps several years."
Fanny Kaus made the generals feel both disappointed and angry.