In reality, agriculture in the Ottoman Empire was still extremely backward at this time. Eastern Rumelia was almost entirely mountainous and unsuitable for cultivation, while East Thrace had long since been fully developed. Moreover, as times changed, the commodity value of grain was plummeting, and landowners preferred tobacco and fruit, which brought higher profits.
Under the Ottoman Empire's plan, these refugees were meant to be used to populate Anatolia's developing frontier. But things rarely unfolded as one wished, and the refugees had no desire to accept the Ottoman government's arrangements.
Of course, in the Ottoman government's eyes, the wishes of those common rabble did not matter. After all, this was how things had always been, and no one had ever stepped forward to object.
Unfortunately, the times had changed, and people had changed with them.
National sentiment among the Ottomans was not particularly strong, but the various peoples of the Balkans had already been set ablaze by wave after wave of fervor.
What the Russians had done had not extinguished those flames. On the contrary, it furthered the awakening of the Balkans' peoples.
This was not good news for the Austrian Empire, because among all the great powers, it was the one most deeply affected. After all, the other great powers more or less had a dominant ethnic group; even the Ottoman Empire's dominant ethnicity made up more than 40 percent.
Now, thanks to Franz's series of maneuvers, its dominant ethnic group had leapt past 60 percent. It would not be an exaggeration to call Franz the father of the Turkish nation in this lifetime.
Yet in East Thrace at this moment, the awakening of Ottoman nationalism was no good thing, because it meant unprecedented chaos.
At this very moment, the Ottoman Empire's various ethnic groups had successfully descended into