IBTCPOTME Novel - Chapter 150
**Chapter 150**
**South and North (4)**
“We need to retaliate immediately! More and more states are joining that southern rogue group!”
Retaliation against the South, which had finally split the country in two. The northerners felt a dualistic emotion, wanting it but not wanting to execute it.
Whig figures like Henry Clay, who had slipped up in the previous presidential election, advocated for immediate retaliation, but George M. Dallas, who succeeded to the presidency and became the 12th president of the United States, and the Democratic Party thought differently.
“Does it make sense to conscript people again and go to war with the South right now, when the war just ended?”
Unlike the ‘Southern Army’, which was now the regular army of the South, the Northern militia disbanded immediately after the war ended and returned to their homes.
The army on the western front also had to disband the conscripts. This was because over 100,000 soldiers were injured or had mental problems. The officers who commanded them were also complaining of extreme fatigue, and the government didn’t have the money to maintain that kind of army. They had even lost their entire navy, so they were in a situation where they had no military power.
“So, you’re going to just sit back and watch the Southern Confederacy grow?”
Henry Clay fiercely pressured the few remaining Democratic Party members. The Democratic Party, which was based in the South, had lost many members of parliament to the South. However, as a nationwide party, they still had prominent figures remaining in the North, such as James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, and Stephen Douglas of Illinois.
Their political careers were in jeopardy, but the Democratic Party still held power. Former President James Polk had resigned and been assassinated, but the people he had appointed were still in their positions.
“It’s not about sitting back and watching. We’re going to retaliate against the southern traitors after we’ve dealt with the aftermath of the war. After all, we have the weapons factories and industrial areas in the North. We can recover, prepare thoroughly, and win with minimal casualties. There’s no reason to rush, is there?”
James Buchanan’s argument was valid, and Henry Clay didn’t intend to push any further. The reason he had advocated for retaliation was because the opinion to retaliate was ‘superficially’ a popular opinion among the public.
‘It’s not really, though.’
The southerners were mocking the northerners with derogatory terms like ‘cowards’ and ‘losers’, so it wasn’t easy to say out loud that they shouldn’t retaliate. But many northerners were already exhausted from the war.
“That’s right! We need to rebuild Washington, which was destroyed, and Baltimore, Philadelphia, and St. Louis, which were damaged. And the war reparations we have to pay starting this year are also a problem we can’t ignore. If we’re late, we’ll have to pay a huge amount of interest. You all know that, don’t you?”
Taking advantage of the moment when Henry Clay, who had been arguing aggressively, hesitated for a moment, the Democratic Party members supported James Buchanan’s argument.
“Damn it. Those Mexicans, war reparations with compound interest. They’re not loan sharks. What kind of tyranny is this…”
Henry Clay muttered, pretending to be angry. The members of the Democratic Party and the Whig Party all nodded and cursed Mexico.
In reality, the interest was the same as the interest that the United States had demanded during the Mexican War of Independence, but it was undeniable that it was a heavy compound interest.
The amount and interest demanded by the Mexican Empire were harsh. Even though the US economy was larger than Mexico’s, the war had resulted in huge casualties, a massive expenditure on war, and a fatal blow to the economy. Moreover, the United States Federal Government was very poor, unlike the Mexican Empire’s central government.
And with the South’s independence, the North was left to bear the huge amount of 70 million pesos alone, and if they didn’t pay this year’s reparations, it would become even more unbearable in the future.
It was a very bleak situation for the North.
“So, how long will it take to recover from the damage?”
It wasn’t a question for James Buchanan or the Democratic Party. It was a question for the economist who was present as a witness.
Intellectuals, such as economists and military experts, were supporting the Democratic Party’s opinion that retaliation was impossible right now.
He had been watching quietly, and he was startled when the members of parliament suddenly focused their attention on him, but he spoke with conviction.
“According to my calculations… considering the reparations issue, I think it will take five years to fully recover from the damage caused by this war. And that’s the minimum, assuming a favorable situation.”
“Five years! Did you just say the minimum is five years?”
The room became noisy with Henry Clay’s exclamation, filled with shock.
“Five years. In that amount of time, the South could build its own weapons factories.”
“Right. We can’t wait five years.”
Most of the members of the Democratic Party, as well as the Whig Party, agreed that five years was too long. If they waited that long, they would be judged by the angry northerners in the election.
“We can’t maintain this divided state for five years! If we do, it will be irreversible.”
Five years was enough time for Southerners’ perception of the nation to change. It was a more important issue than economic and military problems.
“I agree with that.”
After some further discussion, the two parties reached an agreement.
They would retaliate against those southern bastards in a year and a half.
No one knew yet whether it would be a hasty act or a belated one.
***
The Middle Class.
The middle class has finally emerged in our Mexican Empire in recent years.
They were self-sufficient farmers or ordinary workers who had diligently saved and invested well in various government bonds and stock investments, or they were highly skilled technicians or scientists with university degrees.
On the other hand, there were many businessmen who joined the upper class, but their number had decreased significantly recently, as the war had caused a liquidity crunch in the market.
“Your Majesty, as you instructed, we have prioritized the admission of veterans or their families to the Chihuahua National University, but there is a lot of dissatisfaction from the landowners in the surrounding area.”
It was Diego’s report.
“Dissatisfaction? Those who didn’t even participate in the war are complaining?”
We had implemented conscription based on the large-scale conscription law we had enacted earlier, but there was no need for the conscription officers to go around to each city or village to conscript people. This was because patriots who wanted to volunteer were flocking to conscription offices across the country.
The army composed of those volunteers included a small number of whites, who were considered the top class in the Mexican Empire. There were more indigenous people, mestizos, and blacks. Even the northern indigenous people, including the Comanche tribe, who had been driven out of the United States, surprised everyone by volunteering at almost 30,000, despite their small population.
“There are still idiots who think they’re some kind of aristocratic class. Tell them that those who complained will never be accepted.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
In the past, during the War of Independence, most whites had enlisted as officers, or at least as cavalrymen, but that was impossible in our Mexican Empire now.
Officers are only recruited through military academies or by selecting some outstanding non-commissioned officers and training them. Cavalrymen are no longer required to bring their own horses from home, and they are assigned based on tests of their riding skills, so there’s no way to enlist only as cavalrymen. The children of the landed gentry were more accustomed to riding than ordinary people, but they were not as good as the northern indigenous people, who were practically nomads.
As a result, white people from the landed gentry in the empire had no choice but to enlist as ordinary soldiers, and most of them refused.
“For whatever reason, those who didn’t participate in the war are lower priority than those who did. The same goes for the Imperial University and the military academies.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I think that’s only natural.”
I believe that patriotism should be rewarded.
Of those, those who risked their lives and went to the battlefield deserve the best treatment, so I’ve always prioritized providing benefits to veterans as a top priority after any war.
“Pensions are one thing, but the supply of educational benefits is hopelessly insufficient.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Unlike previous wars, the scale of conscription was so large that it seems impossible to handle with just the universities and military academies.”
There were only two comprehensive universities and one military academy each for the army and navy, a total of four schools. Considering that over 400,000 people were conscripted, there was no way those schools could handle it.
The benefits I provide to veterans are inspired by what the United States did. Pensions, education, low-interest loans, and land grants.
One of the things the United States did very well was to provide veterans with various benefits after World War II, such as education and training, low-interest home mortgages, and unemployment benefits.
Through legislation, they greatly expanded opportunities for higher education, supporting veterans in receiving university education and professional careers, which created a foundation for veterans to enter the middle class on a large scale.
This bill, which is still considered a very successful policy today, came about after learning from the worst mistake they made after World War I, the ‘Bonus Army’ incident, so I’m going to just take the lesson.
‘The treatment of veterans has a huge impact not only on the perception of soldiers but also on the patriotism and national identity of the people.’
It’s easy to understand if you compare the United States and South Korea in my previous life, which can be considered extreme cases.
‘US veterans are directly saluted by the president himself and receive a warm welcome and respect from the people, but Korean veterans…’
That kind of sad thing shouldn’t happen in Mexico.
“It’s a good thing, actually. It’s time for us to implement public education.”
“You’re finally implementing that plan. It’s a good thing in terms of welfare for veterans.”
“Yes. It’s not realistic to send everyone to university. But if we give that benefit to their children too, there won’t be any parents who would dislike it.”
It was a possible option, because unlike modern times, most people in this era considered getting married and having children to be the norm.
The attempt at public education could be considered a progressive measure in the mid-19th century, but England, France, Prussia, and some states in the United States were already implementing public education.
Of course, those countries weren’t implementing universal education like modern times, but we weren’t trying to create enough schools to educate everyone at once either. We’re going to increase it gradually.
“The public education bill is one that the Republican Party would welcome, and we have war reparations, so we’ll have enough budget to build schools across the country.”
“Right. But we’ll need to adjust the pension side a bit. We have a lot of expenses, and even considering the war reparations, it’ll be tight if we’re going to build schools.”
There are no landowners who will support the construction of railways in the new territories, so we’ll have to build railways with government funds, and we’re going to start building several key cities in earnest, and we need to build over 100 schools. With so many places to spend it, even the 70 million pesos in war reparations is tight.
It was a problem if there were any issues with government funds, considering the nature of pensions, which had to be paid in cash.
“Instead of adjusting the amount of pensions, we can expand the housing construction loan and land compensation.”
“That’s a good idea. You could say that land is what’s left.”
The imperial government, which already owned a lot of land, acquired a huge amount of additional land through this war.
The population of the Americans living there was so small that I was quite disappointed when I received the report, and we only recognized 647,000 square meters (160 acres) per household for them, so the rest of the empty land was owned by the Mexican Empire government.
Except for China in my previous life, where all the land was nominally owned by the government, there was probably no government or group that owned this much land.
I proposed a compensation plan for the veterans of the Mexican-American War to parliament.
The Landowner Party members complained about giving this much compensation, but they had no public support or justification, considering that their participation rate was lower than that of the Imperial Party and the Republican Party members.
“What kind of nobles are they? If they’re nobles, they should at least practice noblesse oblige.”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
The veterans, as well as the citizens who didn’t participate in the war, criticized the Landowner Party, and after some fine-tuning, the veteran compensation bill was passed.
Even as I was being handed over the reins by my father, I began to command the veteran issue.