Chapter 242: Constantinople Demolition Squad
Chapter 236 – Constantinople Demolition Squad
St. Petersburg
Received an urgent telegram from Maeshkov, Nicholas I headache, especially after seeing the estimated ammunition consumption in the back note, his heart is dripping blood, this is all money!
For this war, the Tsar’s government has spent 300-400 million rubles, and if we add the economic losses caused by the war, this figure can be doubled.
Where is the victory? No one can answer this question, judging from the situation on the battlefield, it is still a long way to go before the two sides can distinguish victory and defeat.
If he had known in advance that the war would end up as it did, Nicholas I would never have started it.
The casualties are not a problem, the Russian family can afford, but the cost of the war is completely beyond his expectations.
Before Britain and France entered the war, the Tsar’s government was prepared to attack Constantinople, Constantinople was conquered within three months, and the Ottoman Empire was finished within a year.
After Britain and France entered the war, the tsarist government thought that after the end of the Bulgarian War, it would be easy to attack Constantinople, and after taking Constantinople, we would negotiate to solve the problem.
However, when they reached the entrance of Constantinople, they encountered the French who blocked their way.
Two hundred thousand French troops guarding a fortress city, this result is enough to make anyone despair, but there is no way, forced by domestic pressure can only be hard on.
Even if the Russians head iron, the same was touched by the dizzy, all kinds of means used up, and finally came to the conclusion that it is still necessary to use artillery bombardment to work.
Nicholas I asked: “What do you think of General Maeshkov’s proposal?”
Minister of War Ivanovich replied, “Your Majesty, militarily speaking, there is no problem with General Mareshkov’s proposal.
Constantinople is one of the top fortresses in the world, and the enemy has deployed heavy guards, so there is no shortcut to take this place, it can only be pulled out one fortress at a time.
It’s a good thing that the Ottoman Empire has rotted and neglected the construction of the city’s fortifications, so we can push all the way in with our cannons.”
This answer left people speechless, if it wasn’t for the Ottomans neglecting the upgrading of the city fortifications, it wouldn’t have been possible even with cannons now.
It was a fact that the Russians could get heavy artillery, would the enemy across the street lack it? If the war needs, even if a thousand guns, Britain and France can easily take out.
According to General Mareshkov’s proposal, construct artillery positions a few kilometers away and just bombard Constantinople, anyway, the target is so big that people can hide, and there is no place for buildings to hide.
Two hundred thousand French troops scattered in this city, there is absolutely no enough holes for artillery, as long as the indiscriminate bombardment can make the French lose a lot of money, the prerequisite is that there are enough artillery and enough ammunition.
Civilian casualties, this was never a consideration of the Tsarist government. Knowing that the war is coming, and still do not know to run away, that is suicidal, the guns do not grow eyes.
Minister of Finance Aristotle Rode frowned and said: “Your Majesty, the number of artillery pieces and the consumption of ammunition demanded by General Menshkov is too horrible, can’t they save some money?
You know that these heavy artillery and ammunition are not cheap, even if the Austrians don’t take advantage of the fire, this is still an astronomical amount!”
He wasn’t against the plan, he was simply heartbroken for the money. Constantinople had to be taken down, otherwise it would be impossible to explain to the country, this was the consensus reached by everyone.
This point of the concept of the big picture, Aristotelian Rhodes still have. The problem is that the tsarist government really has financial problems, a one-time out of hundreds of millions of rubles, is really too difficult for him.
Austria did not take advantage of the fire, which is one of the reasons why the tsarist government supported Austria in the Paris Conference and was not snubbed by Britain and France.
Nicholas I was a man of credibility and basically honored his promises as long as they did not exceed his bottom line.
Exceeding it of course goes without saying, he was also a Tsar, ah, just refer to what his ancestors did, it’s a gift inherited from the family.
“Mr. Aristotelian Rhodes, it’s the capture of Constantinople that’s important right now, and with that accomplished, I can call a truce with Britain and France.
If the war continues, there’s no chance that at a later stage our military expenses will be even higher than they are now.” Carl Worcel, the Foreign Minister, advised
They were all in the same boat, and if the boat capsized, everyone would be out of luck.
Now that the river had begun to rise, and the big waves were rolling in with the possibility of overturning the ship at any time, the only way was to dock at the harbor as soon as possible to escape the wind and waves.
If you want to dock, you have to capture Constantinople. If we take Constantinople, we can pacify the people internally and have the capital to bargain with the enemy externally.
Minister of Finance Aristotelian Rhodes said with dissatisfaction: ”Marquis Karl, am I the kind of person who doesn’t care about the big picture?
The problem now is that the Ministry of Finance simply doesn’t have that much money and is unable to pay for this war.
According to General Mareshkov’s plan, it is simply impossible to complete it without two or three hundred million rubles, and this is still based on the fact that everything is going well.
On the actual battlefield, there were bound to be further changes, and there was no doubt that, in time, it would continue to increase.
The Caucasus battlefield, the Crimean Peninsula battlefield, these two places are also fighting, the commanders on the front line are asking for a change of clothes, which is also urgent, or money.
The Russian Empire’s revenue for a year is just this much, because of the war, our tax revenue is going to continue to decline this year, where am I going to get this much money?”
No money this is a big trouble, the peace era is okay, once the war broke out the weakness of feudal rule of the tsarist government is exposed, in raising funds is far from being able to compare with the capitalist countries.
To put it bluntly, Britain, France and Austria, these countries, really no money can also print money, the big deal is inflation, used to solve the urgent need or can.
Can the Russian Empire do that? They use the ruble, never is the real money, paper money this thing other European countries issued even if, the tsarist government issued by the international capital market all do not recognize.
Even in the country, there are not many like paper rubles. Mainly because there are too many previous convictions, the Russians are equally skeptical of the credibility of the tsarist government.
“How big is the funding gap?” Nicholas I asked with concern
The lack of money is expected, the key is how much is missing, if the amount is not too large, they still have a way to solve it.
Finance Minister Aristotelian Rhodes analyzed, “Your Majesty, if General Mareshkov’s plan is implemented, preliminary estimates of our military expenses in 1854 may exceed 400 million rubles, more than the previous year and a half’s total.
By issuing bonds we have raised 65 million rubles, government taxes will provide 80 million rubles, and 58 million rubles have been raised from domestic banks.
Constantinople is now close at hand, and at this time we can also collect a war tax, estimated at 120 million rubles.
The final shortfall is 77 million rubles, and that’s only ideally; the figure could continue to increase if circumstances change.”
Nicholas I fell silent, the shortfall figure was too large, the domestic taxes could not continue to increase, adding more would be a major problem.
Minister of War Ivanovich asked, “Is it possible to get a loan from overseas, say from the Austrians?”
Minister of Finance Aristotelian Rhodes shook his head and said, “It is impossible, we have exhausted all the channels overseas that can raise funds.
If the Austrians hadn’t started the Unification War last year, perhaps they would have been able to provide us with this loan, now it’s impossible.
Don’t look at the fact that they swallowed Bavaria almost bloodlessly, but in order to deter Britain and France, they mobilized nearly 1.8 million troops in one go, still consuming a lot of the government’s financial resources.”
There was no way around it; Austria’s financial situation was slightly better than Russia’s. But the government in Vienna was accelerating the process of industrialization, and a great deal of financial resources were invested in domestic construction.
Together with the expenses of last year’s war, from a professional point of view, Aristotelian Rhodes judged that the Vienna government couldn’t get the money.
After hesitating for a while, Nicholas I slowly opened his mouth and asked, “How much military expenses can be saved by suspending the war in the Caucasus first?”
Now fighting on three fronts, the most important thing for the Tsarist government was to take Constantinople, followed by the Crimean Peninsula, neither of which could be given up.
As for the Caucasus battlefield the Russians had an absolute advantage, and the initiative of the war was always in their hands. If they stopped attacking, the half-formed Ottoman Empire would only feel grateful, and active provocation was impossible.
Taking stock of the situation, Minister of Finance Aristotle Rohde replied, “About forty to fifty million rubles can be saved, and if we first stop the war with the Ottoman Empire and withdraw most of our troops to be committed to the Crimean battlefield, then another ten million rubles can be saved.”
This was equivalent to cutting the number of troops, and since the troops in the Caucasus had been withdrawn, the gap in their strength no longer existed, and the domestically mobilized army wouldn’t need to be as large.
When the cannons go off, there are ten thousand taels of gold.
This is not an exaggeration at all, and it is even said to be much smaller. This period of war, ten thousand taels of gold is really not enough, at least a million taels of gold to start.
Nicholas I did not hesitate to say: “Good, let’s do it. Let the Ottomans go first, and in the Caucasus we will turn offense into defense, draw troops to reinforce the other two battlefields, and wait until after the capture of Constantinople!
The rest of the funding gap, the Ministry of Finance will think of another way, in short, now is the critical moment, we can not because of the lack of money lead to war failure.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” Aristotelian Rhodes replied helplessly.
This was a difficult problem, don’t look at the funding gap that seems to have been solved for the most part, in reality the remaining gap is still an astronomical figure.
Especially with all the various channels of raising funds exhausted, it was definitely not that simple to solve this problem.
However, sitting in this position, Aristotle Rode can only be hard-headed, must find a way to solve this problem.
Funding problem is considered barely solved, in the unanimous decision of everyone, with General Maeshkov as the captain of the Constantinople demolition team was formally established, everyone’s slogan is to raze Constantinople to the ground.
The problem of protecting ancient buildings, now the tsarist government can not consider so much, first attacked Constantinople before, the big deal is to rebuild after the war.
Can also put the blame on the French, as long as the recovery of the Holy Land, no one will be so little flaws. It can be said that in order to conquer Constantinople, the Russians have been reckless.
(End of chapter)