Chapter 548: Airship Bombardment Brigade
Time flew by, and before they knew it, March had passed. Declaring war and then not fighting for a month—at any other time, Franz could have taken it as a joke.
There was no helping it. War served politics. Such absurd nonsense really did happen in reality.
To buy time for the Ottoman Empire, the European countries evacuated their nationals at a snail's pace. Ostensibly, they were handling property matters; in reality, they were buying time for the Ottoman Empire to ship out supplies.
Once war broke out, no one could count on free trade anymore. The Vienna Government had issued a note long ago: any vessel entering the war zone would bear the consequences itself.
This was also an unspoken understanding among everyone. If the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the debts owed to Britain, France, and the others would all go down the drain. How could they not soothe the wounded hearts of those nations?
The Ottomans were, after all, an old-established empire. Even in decline, they still had some family wealth left. Back when they had roamed across Europe and Asia, they had seized no small amount of good stuff. Their ability to pay was still quite strong.
With survival itself at stake, the Sultan Government had gone all out to raise funds and purchase supplies. The treasures in the imperial palace had been cleared out, while the nobles symbolically contributed a portion of their wealth to support the war.
Besides that, another reason was to train the Russian troops on their behalf. Amphibious warfare was no joke. If they were merely circling around the Aegean Sea, the Russian Bear's sturdy constitution should be enough to endure it.
But if they were attacking more distant areas, soldiers without training in sea travel would collapse