Vienna Palace had just received the good news that Ava had fallen. Before Franz could even rejoice, bad news came crashing in one after another.
Franz did not care about the Russians' reasoning. The "massacre of the city" had become an established fact. With so many participants, keeping it secret was far too difficult. What was needed now was damage control.
At another time, it would not have mattered. The Russian Bear's reputation was bad enough already; adding the title of "butcher" would not cost them a piece of flesh.
Massacres of entire cities were rare in Europe, but similar things happened often enough. On the surface, looting appeared more civilized than slaughtering a city, yet in many cases its consequences were much the same. Once all the food had been taken, how were the people supposed to survive?
Before the nineteenth century, the main reason the population of the European Continent failed to grow was the looting that accompanied war, which caused vast numbers of civilians to starve to death.
The colonies needed no mention. No one was much cleaner than anyone else. It was simply that the colonial empires controlled the world's voice, so everyone pretended not to see.
Foreign Minister Wessenberg said, "Your Majesty, news of Ava's massacre certainly cannot be concealed. We must immediately deal with the aftermath.
"We need not worry about public opinion among ordinary people. The public will not care whether the Ottomans live or die; at most, they will sigh over it a few times. The trouble lies with the British. If the London Government takes this chance to stir up trouble, it will be extremely unfavorable to us politically."
Well, they had directly concluded that the Russian army had massacred the city. They did not believe the Russians' explanation in the