Chapter 681: The Russians Strike Back
Chapter 666 – The Russian Counterattack
The intention of the Prussian army to open up the situation in the southwest did not affect the strategic layout of the tsarist government, Marshal Ivanov continued the previous strategy.
For a war with millions of participants, the gains and losses on the local battlefield are no longer so important.
As long as the southwestern front did not collapse completely, it was within the tolerance of the tsarist government, and now they had a more important goal – Smolensk.
No matter how well prepared the Prussian army was, war always kills.
Smolensk had been turned into a meat grinder, with less than a thousand men falling every day, and the brutal casualties were a difficult test for both the Russians and the Prussians.
A month into the war, in order to fight for Smolensk, the Russian army casualties have exceeded 100,000; as the defending army of the Prussian army did not take much advantage of the number of casualties up to 70,000 people.
Half of these were killed in action, or disabled, and left the battlefield permanently, so it can be said that both Prussia and Russia suffered heavy losses.
The cold figures on the battle report did not shake Marshal Ivanov’s will, but rather strengthened his previous judgment.
The war of attrition is the most brutal, but also the most prudent. According to the current situation, the first one who can not hold out will definitely not be Russia.
The fact that Marshal Ivanov can accept it does not mean that others can also accept it, the heavy casualties still triggered questions within the Tsar’s government.
The Winter Palace, at a high-level government meeting
Interior Minister Mikhail took the lead, “Your Excellency Marshal, it’s only been a little over a month since the war started, and we’ve paid more than 100,000 casualties, and the battle line is barely advancing, shouldn’t you explain?”
Ivanov was unmoved, “Your Excellency, to be precise, from the start of the war until now we have 65,863 killed and 97,684 wounded.
Oh, that was the statistics from two days ago, and that number should have increased quite a bit more by now. There is no problem with the total casualties breaking the 200,000 mark within this month.
However, you can’t just see our losses, the enemy’s losses aren’t small either. Judging from the statistics, the Prussian army’s casualties are also approaching sixty thousand.”
The watery “Great Victory of Kamen” contributed a quarter of this figure, directly bringing the exchange ratio between the Prussians and Russians closer.
Finance Minister Kristan Val: “No one denies your achievements, Field Marshal. The problem is that our losses are simply too great right now, and the war has only been going on for a little over a month!”
Ivanov sneered, “Where are the wars where people don’t die, as long as we can win, any sacrifice is worth it.
Of course, it’s not impossible to end this war as soon as possible, except that the damage to our international reputation will be very great.”
It was at this time, still thinking of competing for power, Ivanov was deeply disgusted with these politicians, and did not give them the slightest bit of face.
Whether they were really displeased, or whether they were trying to make a show of the Tsar, the question would have to be decided benevolently.
Finance Minister Kristanvar excitedly asked, “What way, as long as we can this war, international reputation we can slowly restore.”
Not Cristan Val does not attach importance to the international reputation, is really their international reputation was the bottom of Europe, broken cans, and then bad can be bad to where.
Everyone turned their eyes to Ivanov, expecting him to give an answer.
After a pause, Ivanov pretended to be relaxed and said, “It’s very simple, you can follow the example of the Tartars. Just send troops to the enemy’s territory to wreak havoc and minimize their war potential.”
The crowd sucked in a breath of cold air, this is not sabotage, it is clearly a massacre.
Foreign Minister Chris Basham hurriedly objected, “No, this will give Britain and France an excuse to intervene in the war, and I’m afraid that even Austria won’t support us at that time.”
It is now the nineteenth century, playing massacre on the European continent, already anachronistic.
Through the eyes of the crowd, Ivanov knew that no one supported this plan. It wasn’t that people didn’t want to, but mainly because they didn’t dare; Russia couldn’t afford the consequences of a massacre.
Ivanov: “If that’s the case, then we’ll just have to de-escalate and just do damage and no killing.”
When he said this, Ivanov himself didn’t believe it. Just sabotage and no killing is pure idealism.
In practice, the enemy would certainly resist, so how was it possible not to kill after a conflict? Killing on the battlefield, with the military discipline of the Russian army simply can not be collected.
Moreover, Ivanov was prepared to send Cossack cavalry to carry out this plan, and the situation became even more uncontrollable.
Alexander II shook his head: ”It is impossible not to kill, only to be selective. It’s just a matter of settling the enemy’s young and strong leaving behind the old and weak to give an account to the international community.
Tell us about your plan. The enemy is not a fool, going deep into the enemy territory alone is not that simple, if the enemy bites you, you will be in big trouble.”
Fame and whatnot Alexander II had long since stopped caring, since he was already an enemy, he naturally wanted to weaken it as much as possible. If he didn’t take into account the reaction of the European countries, he wouldn’t mind carrying out a massacre.
Ivanov: “Your Majesty, this plan is to move by sea and land. On land, the Cossack cavalry will disguise themselves as bandits and cross the border to wreak havoc.
The sea attack is the same as the last war, except this time we have a special mission, so to avoid unnecessary trouble, part of the army may need to dress up as pirates.
We could issue licenses for privateering to encourage civilian armies to participate in pillaging the enemy’s coasts, and if we can attract real pirates to participate, so much the better.
Considering the position of the Vienna government, the hostages taken by the pirates can be sold to Austrian colonial merchants.”
Mercy is not an option, and in order to win the war, Ivanov had given up modesty.
After weighing the pros and cons, the room went quiet. No one was either for or against it. Apparently everyone was an elite among bureaucrats, and refused to step forward in matters of responsibility.
Alexander II glared fiercely at the crowd: ”Why are they all mute? Regardless of whether they are for or against, there must be a clear attitude today.”
After a pause, he added, “If you are against it, then come up with a better plan. The situation on the battlefield is a crisis, there isn’t that much time for you to waste.”
Forced to do so, Finance Minister Kristanvar stepped forward, “Your Majesty, Marshal Ivanov’s proposal is very good, there are just some details that need to be perfected.
It’s not easy to go deep into the enemy’s territory, if we’re not careful we’ll lose all our troops, how can we guarantee the safety of the troops we send out?”
Agreed. It couldn’t be helped, fighting a war was not something Kristanvar was good at, asking him to come up with a battle plan was completely difficult.
Ivanov said with confidence, “It’s simple, on the front battlefield, we’ve already held the main force of the Prussian army, the enemy in the rear won’t be too strong.
Moreover, there are airship reconnaissance, which can grasp the enemy’s large troop movements and make timely adjustments.
The troops attacking by land and sea, as long as they don’t go too deep into the inland areas, can completely withdraw before the enemy arrives. We’re just wreaking havoc, we don’t need to occupy places.
On land it’s mainly Cossack cavalry that comes and goes like the wind, the only ones that can pose a threat to them are the Polish cavalry, but their numbers are too small.
Because of logistics, we’ll control the range of activity and won’t move far from the main force.”
This was all theoretical; in actual combat, it was certainly not as simple as Ivanov made it sound. Other than that, as long as the Prussian army moved at night, the airships wouldn’t be able to detect it.
Even if they detected Prussian mobilization, there was no way for high-altitude reconnaissance to separate the main force from the cannon fodder. If the Prussians wanted to, they could have put uniforms on civilians and passed them off as troops.
Naturally, Marshal Ivanov would not talk about these problems, or there would be another problem. He did not expect anything at all from the military level of his colleagues.
……
The resolution passed, and Ivanov breathed a sigh of relief. This program, once opened, would have been a bloodbath and the reputation of the Russian Empire would have hit rock bottom again.
No matter how it was embellished, it would be a piece of black history.
(End of chapter)