Chapter 886: Final Preparations
Chapter 869: Final Preparations
On the battlefield of Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Patrick finally waited for the long overdue reinforcements, however, not waiting for him to breathe a sigh of relief, he received a shocking piece of bad news – the Russians were going to fight over.
On September 11, 1889, the Russian army captured the Mare region, which was less than a hundred kilometers away from the nearest area of Afghanistan.
The three Central Asian khanates, which were originally pinned by Britannia, had been completely routed under the attack of the Russian army, and at the moment the governments of the three countries were all in exile in the Afghan region.
After nearly a year of bitter fighting, Lieutenant General Patrick had to admit that the Indian colonial army was not war material.
In the case of equal strength, the regular army actually dry can not do guerrillas, say out all let people laugh at things, now has really happened.
Patrick was able to become the commander of the Expeditionary Force, political acumen is naturally not bad. The Anglo-Russian relationship is tense to what point, he is a clear understanding of the situation.
Thinking of the upcoming Anglo-Russian war, and then looking at the reinforcements sent to him from home, Patrick had the urge to cry.
As of now, the British army in Afghanistan has assembled 30 infantry divisions, 2 cavalry divisions, 8 artillery regiments, which can be said to be strong.
However, these troops were prefixed, and the situation was instantly different.
Only two of the 30 infantry divisions were home-sent; the rest were Indian colonial troops. The cavalry divisions and artillery regiments were native elites, which were skilled soldiers and belonged to jobs that Indians could not do.
Yet sending so many cavalry into Afghanistan was intoxicating to think about. If it wasn’t for his self-control, Lieutenant General Patrick really wanted to send a telegraphic greeting to ask if those lords in the country were out of their minds.
A little understanding of the Afghan terrain will know that the most suitable troops here is the mountain infantry division, this thing in the British army does not have a specialized establishment.
As for the cavalry unit, in addition to acting as a messenger, it can only increase the logistical pressure on the troops.
The guerrillas are all in the mountains, and only occasionally come out to do things, and large units of cavalry have no use here at all.
Can’t say it’s completely useless, as long as the British army opens up and defeats the Russians, the cavalry will be the main force when counterattacking Central Asia.
Unfortunately Lt. Gen. Patrick didn’t need it, and the governments of the three Central Asian khanates that came over in exile didn’t come empty-handed, with 50,000 to 60,000 troops to follow.
These steppe peoples, on horseback, were natural cavalrymen.
Frankly speaking, the three Central Asian khanates were defeated so quickly, in addition to the decay of their own regimes, the British government’s lack of support is also one of the core factors.
It is all bureaucracy to the harm, the support of the weapons and equipment to take out are a joke, part of the guns can also be traced back to the last century, the collection value is greater than the practical value.
Know to know, but this is hidden in a large number of benefits exchange, Lieutenant General Patrick wisely chose to pretend not to see.
Not to mention pitting the Central Asian Khanate, the fact is that the Indian colonial army’s weaponry is as crap as ever, on average more than 30 years behind Europe.
Even the indigenous main force, weaponry from the world’s first-class level there is still a gap.
It’s not that Britain’s military technology is poor, the key is that the Army is not popular in the country, has always been a stepchild, the annual investment in weapons research and development on the limited funds.
Can barely keep up with the world’s first-class level, that is the result of Britain’s solid industrial base, want to go to the forefront of the times, the government’s funding is simply not enough.
“Send electricity to the country, tell London we need reinforcements, a lot of reinforcements!
To hold the Afghan region, the country must reinforce us with at least another 20 infantry divisions, it has to be the main indigenous force, the Indian colonial army is simply not up to the task.”
The young officer in front of him said, “Your Excellency, 20 infantry divisions are not too many, I’m afraid that the country will not agree.”
For Russia, Austria and France, these army powers, 20 infantry divisions are not worth mentioning at all, in the case of sufficient supplies, at most ten days and half a month can be put together.
But for Britain, the situation was very fatal. Let’s put it this way, add up all the pre-expansion British Army and multiply it by two and you won’t be able to get it all together.
Even because of the tension in Central Asia, the London government carried out a round of expansion, the British Army is still less than 300,000 people, infantry division establishment of a total of 17.
The opening of the 20 main infantry divisions is clearly to pack the British army rhythm, forcing the British government to continue to expand the army.
Lieutenant General Patrick shook his head: ”Marr put away your small mind, don’t forget who our enemy is this time! Facing the Russians, 20 infantry divisions is a lot?
If we really fight, you’ll realize that human lives are worthless on the battlefield. The Russo-Prussian War is the best example of this, with millions of casualties on both sides of the battle.
This Central Asian war, although it may not be as crazy as the Prussian-Russian war, it won’t end that easily without filling in hundreds of thousands of lives.”
Looking at the dumbfounded young officer, Lieutenant General Patrick just secretly sighed: Britain’s young generation is really too fragile, unable to withstand a little storm.
Not to mention the entire Central Asian battlefield, the total number of casualties in the war in Afghanistan alone exceeded one million, only most of the dead Afghans, people do not feel deeply.
The next enemy is the Russians, relying on Indian cannon fodder is obviously not the top of the matter, there must be the main force of the British army to press the front, otherwise it is easy to appear the whole line of defeat.
Judging from the experience of the first Near East War, even if the cannon fodder is enough, the British army must be prepared for heavy losses.
……
The British army panicked, in fact the Russian army on the front line was no better.
It seems to have gained a total victory in the Battle of Central Asia, but the failure to wipe out the three governments in one fell swoop has doomed Central Asia to be anything but peaceful.
If the Afghan guerrillas are drilling ravines, the guerrillas in Central Asia are mostly horse thieves, many of whom are fighting against the Russian army on a tribal basis.
Admiral Oginets knows very well that the fierce resistance of the population in Central Asia is to a large extent forced by the Russian army.
If the Russian army had not gone out to plunder from time to time, the local people would not have resisted so fiercely. But there was no way around it. Knowing what he knew, his ass dictated Admiral Oginets’ position.
Russian soldiers almost no pay, the main income depends on the battlefield capture, do not let them go out to loot, who wants to continue to sell their lives ah?
On top of that, the Russian army’s logistics were terrible. Even with sufficient supplies, they could barely manage to feed themselves, without any quality to speak of.
Years and years of eating military food, the mouth has long faded out of hair, this time to hinder the soldiers to improve their lives, that is going to be a big deal.
Against this background, Admiral Oginets could only turn a blind eye to the looting taking place below and used the most brutal means to suppress the resistance movement.
From the beginning of the occupation of Central Asia, the Russian army executed three or four figures of resistance elements almost every day, relying on the harshest strain laws to maintain social order.
There was no “order”, so to speak, because these orders were binding only on the local population and not on the Russian soldiers.
In order to ensure the smooth flow of logistics, Admiral Oginets even cleared a no-man’s-land thoroughfare, clearing out all the inhabitants of the surrounding 30 kilometers.
As a price, General Oktynets also gained the reputation of “General Butcher”, who made children stop crying in Central Asia.
Putting down the document in his hand, Auchinets slowly said: “After the cleanup, let’s send electricity to the country! As soon as the supplies are in place, we can launch an attack on the Afghan region.”
From the tone of voice, one could tell that Admiral Oginets was now very helpless. If he had a choice, he would never have grabbed the commander’s position this time.
It seemed to be a mighty battle, but in reality, it was also a crisis. In order to win this war, Admiral Oginets had offended too many people.
If he kept winning, then naturally there would be no problem, and even more people he offended could be suppressed by military service and become second to Marshal Ivanov.
But once the front line changed, the situation was very different. The reasoning that walls fall down and people push back applies here as well, and Oginets is only able to win but not to lose.
According to the original plan, seize Central Asia and call it a day. Now that he has been successful, he returns to St. Petersburg to receive his reward.
Unfortunately, the reality is cruel, the international situation of the storm clouds change, inspired the tsarist government to seize India’s ambition.
Now what Admiral Oginets was going to do was to complete the first step of the plan – to capture the Afghan region and lay the foundation for the future strategy of capturing India.
The middle-aged officer didn’t seem to realize that Auchinets was in a bad mood, and replied joyfully, “Yes, Your Excellency the Commander!”
Everyone was in a different position and saw a different view.
For Admiral Oginets, a marshal title was unavoidable with the war going on as it was, and seeing the good in the bad was the best choice.
But for most of the Russian officers, it is better to continue this war, pinching soft tomatoes here is far stronger than going back to the European continent for supremacy.
The Indian colonial army is not worth money, but they have the top of the British brand, if the eyes are not good can be treated as the main British army.
To face the enemy is a colonial army fighting force, but can produce the regular army of the war, but where a little bit of relationship, this time are trying to find ways to the front line troops to mix.
As the commander of the front line, in recent times Admiral Auchinets can sell a lot of human relations.
……
Push the book “reborn Sunset as a pirate
(End of chapter)