Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 603 Storming the Embassy

"Shocking! The flu that infected tens of millions and killed hundreds of thousands was not an accident, but a deliberate act by certain countries!"

"Another biological warfare? The mastermind behind it all wants to destroy Europe!"

"Which behavior bears greater responsibility: allowing the spread to continue or doing nothing?"

"We are experiencing a second Black Death!"

Following the conclusion of the Spanish press conference, within days, newspapers and media outlets across Europe published news reports related to the aforementioned headline, which quickly became major news headlines in various countries.

By this time, the influenza pandemic had infected tens of millions of people and killed at least hundreds of thousands. The whole of Europe was gripped by extreme fear of the flu, and under these circumstances, the news reports from these newspapers quickly attracted the attention of people across Europe.

It must be admitted that these journalists, who are professionally engaged in news work, write very well, both in terms of the content of their news reports and their headlines.

A single glance at the headline can pique one's interest in the entire news report. After reading the whole article, one can not only believe the news report without question, but also follow the writer's thoughts to think deeper and consider whether there are any behind-the-scenes forces driving the rampant spread of this influenza pandemic around the world.

Putting everything else aside, newspapers and media outlets in various countries have certainly benefited. Because they seized upon this major breaking news story, renowned newspapers and media outlets around the world have made a fortune, with newspaper sales increasing several times over, and related news reports being in high demand.

However, for European governments, such news reports are not a good thing. Especially for Britain and France, with newspapers and media exaggerating their responsibility, many Europeans have come to regard Britain and France as one of the main culprits in the spread of the flu.

Another culprit is naturally the United States. It was the inaction and laissez-faire attitude of these three countries that led to the spread of the flu from the United States to Britain and France, and from Britain and France to Europe and even the whole world.

At this point, the idea of ​​Britain, France, and the United States blaming Spain for the spread of the flu was completely impossible to implement.

They can certainly smear Spain, but they can't produce evidence as favorable as Spain's. In any case, the flu did indeed originate in the United States.

Similarly, the earliest flu outbreaks in Europe occurred in Britain and France, so we can't blame it all on Spain, can we?

Spain did indeed remind the World Health Organization member states and the United States multiple times during the flu outbreak, but apart from a few countries with good relations with Spain, most countries did not respond actively to Spain's reminders.

Britain, France, and the United States were even eager to see Spain make a fool of itself, since Spain had already posed a significant threat and they were happy for Spain to make a fool of itself to lower its prestige.

Surprisingly, what initially seemed like an absurd reminder from Spain has now become one of the bases for expanding their responsibilities.

Just as they wanted to shift the blame to Spain to lessen their own responsibility, other European governments also wanted to deflect blame and avoid directing public anger onto themselves.

Since journalists from Spanish and other countries have provided such an opportunity, governments will naturally not let it pass and will only intensify their attacks on Britain and France.

There was no way around it; all these news reports were based on solid evidence. After the press conference held in Spain, Spain did not retract the flu-related data distributed to the journalists. Instead, it unconditionally provided them with more data to help them write more truthful and effective articles.

With these more authentic data and information, the articles written by these journalists are also more truthful and reliable, which is why the public is willing to believe them.

For other European countries, this opportunity to shift blame is certainly very welcome. Regardless of whether they took any preventative measures during the pandemic, the only countries bearing responsibility now are Britain and France.

Of course, there's also the United States. However, compared to Britain and France, the United States is separated by an ocean, so we can only verbally criticize it, and we can't put pressure on the United States through public opinion.

Even the slowest-to-react governments in Britain and France have, to varying degrees, sensed something amiss in the subtle shift in European public opinion.

Even now, though Britain and France are still putting on a brave face, they are actually well aware of the enormous destructive power of this flu.

Faced with calls for accountability from newspapers and media outlets across Europe, initiated by Spain, Britain and France have adopted a stance of non-acknowledgment while simultaneously attempting to refute these claims.

But after the British and French conducted their own investigations, they were surprised to find that the data presented by Spain seemed to be accurate, and that the flu in Europe did indeed begin to spread from the British and French.

Doesn't this mean that Britain and France really became the culprits behind the widespread spread of influenza in Europe?

Are Britain and France really to blame for the rampant spread of the flu? The answer is, of course, no.

It's important to know that this flu has so far infected tens of millions of people and killed hundreds of thousands.

The reason there are so few deaths is that the second wave of the flu, which has a very high mortality rate, has only just begun to spread.

Because European governments did not pay enough attention to the second wave of influenza in its early stages, it has spread widely throughout Europe.

If this is the case, the number of people infected with the flu across Europe would at least multiply several times, and the death toll would be even more. If Britain and France are indeed held responsible for the rampant spread of this flu, then it goes without saying that their international influence in Europe will be greatly reduced, and Spain will seize the opportunity to become the leading power in Europe, riding on the immense prestige brought by the flu to completely nail Britain and France to the pillar of shame.

Neither Britain nor France could accept such a death. But to shirk their responsibility, they needed to find a more plausible scapegoat.

Based on the available data, Britain and France, after much deliberation, could only pin the blame on the Americans.

The reason is simple: data from Spain, as well as investigations from the UK and France, all show that the initial flu outbreak did indeed occur in the United States.

The flu outbreak in the United States occurred more than a month earlier than in Europe, which means that the flu that spread widely in Europe most likely originated from the United States.

Since the flu originated in the United States and spread to Europe, it's perfectly reasonable to blame the Americans. After all, if the United States had taken precautions against the flu beforehand, even if it had spread to Europe, it wouldn't have caused such a devastating loss of life.

With this in mind, Britain and France no longer hesitated and immediately began their efforts to shift the blame.

Compared to blaming Spain before, blaming the United States now is far more effective because there is plenty of evidence to support it.

Immediately, British and French newspapers published numerous news reports claiming that the flu originated in the United States, and used related public opinion to guide the public to speculate on the theory of American biochemical research.

In less than a few days, speculation arose in Britain, France, and even other European countries that the United States was researching biological weapons, which ultimately led to the spread of a biological virus and facilitated the global spread of influenza.

Although it is just speculation, this claim, with some evidence, has attracted a large number of people to spread and believe it.

Suddenly, the reputation of the US government in Europe was like that of a rat crossing the street, and it was a target of universal condemnation.

Although American ambassadors stationed in various European countries were keenly aware of the decline in America's reputation, they were powerless to do anything about it.

Forget refuting the emerging American conspiracy theories in Europe, even American ambassadors in various countries are finding themselves in dire straits.

It's not that they are suffering from the devastation of the flu, but rather that people in various countries, already quite angry with the United States, have spontaneously organized to surround the U.S. embassies in their respective countries.

People gathered around U.S. embassies in various countries, holding banners that read, "The United States is using biological weapons to wipe out all of humanity!", "The United States should apologize for the hundreds of thousands of people who died in this pandemic!", and "The United States is a sinner!"

Some angry citizens tried to storm the U.S. embassy, ​​but were stopped by U.S. soldiers with live ammunition outside the embassy.

Although the soldiers' actions saved the embassy, ​​they fueled even greater anger and discontent among the crowd. Shouting for the Americans to leave, they stormed into the embassy building.

Although the embassy had several armed soldiers, they were powerless against the clearly enraged crowd.

They can't exactly open fire on an angry crowd, can they? There are hundreds, even thousands, of people in front of them; if they open fire, it means the situation will be completely out of control.

Even if the United States bears no responsibility whatsoever for the flu, it will become the public enemy of all of Europe, and its predicament will be self-evident.

The US ambassador was well aware of this, and even when the US embassy was about to be overrun by the angry mob outside, he dared not order the guards to fire.

The good news is that the arrival of the police saved the US ambassador and also saved the US embassy from being breached.

But all of this did not quell the public's anger; on the contrary, it made the people present even more dissatisfied with the US ambassador and the US behind him.

Similar crises have unfolded at every U.S. embassy across Europe, with some fortunate enough to be saved by police, while others have had their embassies sturdy enough to hold off angry mobs.

Of course, there were also unlucky ones. The embassy was stormed by angry crowds, and the US ambassador was almost grabbed by the crowd and hung on a street lamp.

It can only be said that Britain and France acted decisively. In order to clear their names, they spared no effort to smear the United States, even adding fuel to the fire when the public besieged the embassy.

The US embassy that was stormed by the crowd was the one in Paris, France. Don't underestimate the fighting spirit of the angry Parisians; the French police certainly didn't dare to stop them.

If the French people are truly angered, not only the French police, but even the French government could be overthrown.

Furthermore, France did indeed intend to shift the blame to the United States, which led to the fact that when citizens of Paris besieged the US embassy, ​​the French government not only failed to send police, but also instigated conflicts between Parisian citizens and US embassy staff, thus prompting the citizens to storm the embassy.

Although the US ambassador was protected, the embassy suffered severe damage, which was tantamount to slapping the Americans in the face.

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(End of this chapter)