Chapter 877: Political Art
Chapter 860 Political Art
Without any surprise, after Austria took the black pot, the relationship between France and Austria deteriorated dramatically, and the two foreign ministries were in a daily war of words.
A time of European suspicion, Britain and Russia in Central Asia on the issue of the right, France and Austria and the two countries in order to Central Europe entangled together.
Rounded up, this is approximately the same: the Anglo-French alliance and the Russo-Austrian alliance are on the same page.
This is the prelude to the outbreak of a continental war.
The most apprehensive were the two countries, Belgium and Germany, who were already being sided with because of the aggressiveness of the French.
It appeared that Austria had stepped in to relieve them, but in fact it also pushed them to the opposite side of France.
Originally, the three countries of France, Belgium and Germany were still expected to reach an agreement on the issue of coal exports to avoid the escalation of conflicts. Unfortunately, by Austria a mix, there is no longer the possibility of detente.
Because of the relationship of interests, the French capitalists will not tolerate the government to give in; nationalism has risen than the German two countries, now the same can not give in.
The problem had been caught in a dead circle, and no matter how it was handled, it could not satisfy all parties. Conflicts were temporarily suppressed, only building up strength for an outbreak.
……
In Afghanistan, the British army, which swept all the way over, finally ran into trouble.
I don’t know from when, the guerrillas in the Afghan region have sprung up, constantly attacking the British army logistics.
Especially in the recent month, not only the logistics transportation team suffered attacks, even the main force has been attacked dozens of times.
The loss caused by a single attack is not large, but it is not possible to resist the number of attacks launched by the Afghans!
Now the British army does not dare to act alone, but where the number is less than a company, go out to be ambushed.
Do not know, a count of shock. Last month alone, under the attack of the Afghan guerrillas, there were 112 British soldiers killed in action, 313 British soldiers wounded.
And that’s just the British soldiers, the loss of Indian soldiers, not even counted.
If all of them are added together, last month alone, the British army lost a regiment.
This casualty figure is no less than the casualties suffered in the duel with the Afghan government forces, and the number of daily losses is calculated to be slightly exceeded.
Looking at the growing number of casualties, Lt. Gen. Patrick was on the verge of breaking down, and he had no idea how to write a report to London.
Kabul, British General Headquarters
A middle-aged officer with a bandaged arm suggested with righteous indignation, “Sir Commander, the guerrillas are too rampant, we must take the initiative.”
Undoubtedly, this officer was the unlucky and lucky one who had been wounded in the guerrilla attack.
Generally speaking, high-ranking officers like him were under layers of protection, and the guerrillas could not get close.
Unfortunately for Makau, he was unlucky enough to be hit by an Afghan artillery piece that hit his temporary headquarters, and a piece of shrapnel hit him right in the arm.
He, the only remaining lone officer, was undoubtedly lucky compared to the many officers who were killed en masse at the scene.
Lieutenant General Patrick nodded and said slowly, “Colonel Makau, calm down. The importance of eliminating the guerrillas is known to everyone.
But we have taken the initiative to attack dozens of times without achieving the expected results.
The enemy simply won’t fight us, and every time the siege battle has just begun, these guys have gone into the mountains.
When we withdrew our troops, these guys stuck up again like psoriasis. As soon as we turned around, these guys were on the run again.
If we don’t find the guerrillas’ weaknesses, even if we strike again, we’ll end up with nothing.
Judging from the news coming from Central Asia, our allies, the three Central Asian khanates, more than likely won’t be able to hold out, and by the end of the year at the most we’ll be neighbors with the Russians.
Before that, we have to clear out, these rats hiding underground, or let them hook up, that’s a big trouble.”
In fact, Patrick’s words were not finished; the hidden dangers in the Afghan region were not just the guerrillas.
The bigger problem, in essence, is still the religious fanatics. These are the ones who are the mainstay of the attacks, relying on local religions, and are the ones who most like to attack the British soldiers who are left alone.
The British, who are new to the country, have not yet figured out that there are twists and turns here, and most of the blame has been put on the guerrillas.
Of course, this is not wrong, in itself they were all originally one family – the Afghan resistance.
The nominal leader of all was the Amir King, although the unlucky king was hiding in the mountains and forests, not daring to come out and venture out.
Another officer suggested, “I think it’s better to capture the Afghan king first; without the Amir as a leader, these resistance groups are a scattered bunch.”
Colonel Makau didn’t buy it, “Come on, Hedges. The Afghans hate us in the extreme and we have no roots there.
Who knows where this rat Emir’s burrow is, we can’t go over the mountains and conduct operations one by one, can we?
Besides, the Afghan resistance is a fragmented organization, with or without the Emir as its leader, it doesn’t matter much.
This can be seen from their attacks on us. There have been many attacks, but the number of people they send out each time is limited.
Since the defeat of the Afghan Government forces, who has ever encountered a resistance force of more than 3,000 people?
All of them are just a bunch of stragglers who are too weak to fight on the battlefield and can only hide behind their backs and shoot in the dark.”
This is the difficulty of the problem, although the resistance organization is a rabble, but this bunch of rabble slippery ah!
Hedges sneered, “So what, these rats also need to eat, the big deal is that we pull a net and blockade them, trapping them to death in the mountains.
If we are pushed, we can even set fire to the mountain and burn all the way through.
If we really can’t, we’ll pump heavy taxes on the local populace so that they don’t have food to support the guerrillas.
We can also implement the law of guilt by association, but anyone who colludes with the guerrillas will be executed by all residents within a five-mile radius.
I don’t believe, Afghanistan has been destroyed by us, there are still guerrillas that can’t be eliminated.”
It sounds good, but it’s not so simple to implement.
A dragnet blockade, as soon as I heard it, I knew it would require a huge investment of troops.
Afghanistan is not a small area, and the mountains and forests are densely covered, it is not at all possible for these few infantry divisions to blockade the area.
Setting fire to the mountains seems to be very simple, in essence, it is not what mountains can be a little bit on fire, but also need to put a lot of fuel to start the fire.
Collecting heavy taxes, not to mention, that must first establish the local government, counting on British soldiers to collect taxes, it is estimated that the local people have to defect to the guerrillas to go.
The real deterrent is probably the law of guilt-by-association, but the operation is not simple, and may make more people participate in the guerrillas.
Seeing that no one objected, after weighing the pros and cons, Lt. Gen. Patrick slowly said: “If you don’t have a better solution, then let’s give it a try!
I will seek reinforcements from the country, but we need to unify our voices. Just Afghan guerrillas can’t get the attention of those lords in London.”
Shirking responsibility is a traditional skill that bureaucrats are untutored in. The Afghan guerrillas didn’t carry enough weight, so they had to draw it toward the Russians.
After some artistic processing, originally the Afghan guerrillas attacked the British army’s war results, fell on the Russian army.
……
The black pot falling from the sky, do not know how the Russians feel, anyway, the London government is furious.
If the Russians are secretly messing things up, it is just, this kind of open attack on the British army, it violates the rules of the game.
After receiving the news, Prime Minister Gladstone immediately roared, “The Russians are provoking Britain, and we must retaliate.”
Not the slightest doubt about the authenticity of the frontline reports, is Prime Minister Gladstone a fool?
The answer is: no!
It is the basic skill of politicians to pretend to understand. Knowing that the Russians could not have flown to Afghanistan, but Prime Minister Gladstone still had to hold his nose and admit it.
Otherwise the loss of British troops on the front line, there is no way to account for it with the country. Although the main responsibility is the military, but as the cabinet they can not escape.
The arrogant British people can tolerate hundreds of thousands of losses when war breaks out with the great powers, but cannot tolerate being killed by thousands of indigenous guerrillas.
This pot, can only let the Russians to take the blame, in order to minimize the political impact, and by the way, also be able to let the Congress quickly appropriated funds, sent reinforcements to reinforce the Afghan region.
As for wrongly accusing the Russians, that’s not a problem at all. Anyway, in Central Asia, Britain and Russia are destined to be enemies, the relationship deteriorated some more, and how bad can it be?
……
(End of chapter)