Chapter 431: Woe is not a one-way street

  Chapter 421: Woe Is Not Enough

With the success of the Double Twelve Uprising, the real crisis of the Tsarist government came. The internal enemy is far more terrible than the external, because the revolutionaries played the banner of “clear the side of the king”, many people chose to be neutral.

It was not that they betrayed the Tsar, but mainly because they were dissatisfied with the present situation. The radical reformers were dissatisfied with the Tsar’s suspension of the reforms, and the conservatives wanted to remove the provisions of the reforms that were unfavorable to them.

Most of these people had families and businesses, and it was natural that they could not take part in such high-risk activities as revolts.

St. Petersburg, this sudden bad news threw the Tsar’s government into a panic, and the Russian Empire was drifting in a storm of internal and external troubles.

Interior Minister Mikhail proposed, “Your Majesty, it can’t go on like this, we must put down the domestic rebellion first!”

There was nothing wrong with this proposal, the external enemy would at most tear a piece of meat from the Russian Empire, it was not enough to threaten their survival, it was the internal enemy that could really kill them.

“Clean the side of the ruler” look at this flag know, destined to be a bloody storm. Once the rebel party gained power, all of them who have vested interests will be the target to be cleansed.

Not to kill a few dirty ministers, how the national account? Now the tsarist government top, are the so-called “dirty ministers”, belong to be killed.

Alexander II’s face was expressionless, as if he did not care at all. In fact, he was already furious and spitting blood, he never dreamed that the revolutionaries would actually make trouble at this time.

Alexander II was very much in favor of the Interior Minister’s proposal to suppress the internal rebellion first, except that the matter of peace talks could not be raised by him.

A truce now would inevitably cost the Russian Empire dearly, a pot the Tsar could not take the blame for.

Minister of War Heramed concurred, “The threat to us from the rebels occupying Moscow is simply too great. Whether it’s the Polish battlefield or the Central Asian battlefield, it can’t be separated from the Moscow region’s material support.

According to the current situation, these two battlefields can be supported for half a year at most. If we can’t suppress the rebellion within half a year and restore supplies, the situation is going to get completely out of control.”

Half a year to suppress the rebellion and have to restore supplies, this looked like a joke. Destruction was always faster than construction, after being victimized by the rebels, could local production be restored immediately?

Moreover, it was still winter, and fighting in this season was even more logistically demanding.

The Tsarist government doesn’t have that many counter-insurgency troops and supplies in its hands, and there is no other choice in the short term except to draw from the front.

In this way, it will definitely affect the situation on the front line. In case too many troops are deployed, leaving an opportunity for the enemy, leading to a major defeat on the front, the consequences will be even more serious.

Finance Minister Kristanvar said, “The recent price increase is very serious, the cost of the war is in the process of increasing, if we don’t end the war as soon as possible, we will go bankrupt in a year at most.”

Alexander II asked incredulously, “How is this possible, did we just reap a fortune?”

In the anti-Semitic campaign, the Tsar’s government had reaped a lot of harvests, and Alexander II didn’t believe it when the money was spent so quickly.

Minister of Finance Kristanvar hurriedly explained, “Your Majesty, we do still have a lot of assets in our hands, but these things can’t be realized at all in a moment.

Now that civil unrest has broken out, many of these real estate properties have hit rock bottom, and even if we sell them, we will lose a lot of money.

What the government can use is the confiscated cash, and some valuable bonds. This money will also be used to pay off previous debts and support the expenses of the war.

Now that the price of strategic materials has almost doubled, and with the Moscow region in turmoil, we’ve had to increase our overseas purchases, which has added to the expenses.”

The real estate confiscated by the Tsarist government was actually realizable. It’s just that there are too many powerful people in the country who have their eyes on it, and when these people get their hands on it, it becomes a cabbage.

Selling so many assets cheaply, the Ministry of Finance could not afford to pocket it, even if it was an embezzlement of state assets, at least the accounts must be leveled! To be on the safe side, naturally, you can only take your time.

Otherwise, even if these assets are used to mortgage loans, you can also mortgage a few hundred million rubles out, not to keep the gold mountain famine.

Alexander II frowned and said with some hesitation, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs negotiated with the Austrians to find a way to bring down prices.”

Domestic prices that there is no way, supply and demand changes lead to price increases, can only pin their hopes on overseas.

Foreign Minister Clarence Ivanov smiled bitterly and said, “Your Majesty, I’m afraid this is difficult to do. The trade tariffs between Russia and Austria have now increased by eighty percent, and the excuse for the Austrians to raise prices is the tariff increase.

I’m afraid it’s too strong for us to raise tariffs on the one hand and ask people not to raise prices on the other.”

Clarence Ivanov, this is on the eyeballs, blindly raising tariff prices, which has led to the deterioration of relations between the two countries and has caused the Foreign Ministry a very big problem.

Don’t look at the coldness of Russian-Austrian relations now, but in fact Russian-Austrian relations still come first in the diplomacy of the Tsarist government. You can’t let the Foreign Ministry take the heat when other departments are causing trouble!

The tsarist government also has factional power struggle, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also only after the Ministry of Finance of the real power department, the two sides have never been less than the fight.

Alexander II’s face is very difficult to see, he is not a fool, a split second to make up the story.

The Minister of Finance, Kristanvall, hurriedly explained: ”The increase in tariffs is mainly for the purpose of increasing revenues and protecting national industries. You should know that the tariff between us and Austria is very low, and even if we increase it by eighty percent it will only be on par with other countries.”

Kristanwal was not a fool, this point of separation was still there. He had done his homework before raising the tariffs between the two countries.

The Russo-Austrian alliance hadn’t broken down yet, and if he raised the tariffs above the countries, he wouldn’t be able to escape the charge of destroying the alliance.

Choosing to equalize with the countries showed that this was normal tax regulation and not specifically targeting Austria.

Alexander II glared at him fiercely, the heart of the very angry, cursing the Ministry of Finance is a rice bucket, even if you want to adjust the tariffs, but also need to be divided into time ah!

Now Russia and Austria trade, almost monopolize the foreign trade of the Russian Empire, the tsarist government is one of the main buying customers, raise tariffs is not asking for trouble?

Now people retaliate, the wool comes out on the sheep, tariffs rise prices also followed, and also rose more excessive.

Monopoly business, love to buy or not buy. Now they have to spend more money, and the increased expenses are far more than the increased tariffs can match.

Protecting national industry. How dare you give such a bullshit excuse. Who doesn’t know that Russian industry is just starting out now, and whoever uses a bunch of inferior goods is out of luck.

Civilian goods are just fine, but military supplies are just murder.

Alexander II has made a decision to divest the Ministry of Finance of the right to set tax rates, and to find an opportunity to replace this idiot in front of him.

Dissatisfaction with Austria, Alexander II decisively pressed in the bottom of the heart. There is a request for others, even the biggest dissatisfaction, but also have to endure.

“Communicate with Austria, the issue of tariffs can be discussed. Take the commercial trade treaty previously signed by the two countries as a blueprint, no one shall privately change the tariff rate.”

As he said this, Alexander II was bleeding inside. This meant that the Tsar’s government would give in substantially on the issue of tariffs in exchange for Austria’s support.

This support was not just limited to economic, but more political. Once the choice was made to end the war, then Austrian support was essential.

Without the support of one of the Great Powers, even at the negotiating table, they would be at a great disadvantage.

The current Russian Empire is no longer as glorious as it used to be, and a bad operation could usher in its demise.

……

Just when Alexander II hesitated to end the war, the change in the front line helped them make a decision.

On January 2, 1867, the Prussian army suddenly launched the Winter Offensive. The battle, which was supposed to be a tentative attack, had amazing results.

The Russian army, which had been good at winter fighting, now suddenly became a soft touch. When the Prussian army won the victory, it realized the root of the matter.

The aftereffects of poor quality cotton clothes and quilts broke out, and the Russian soldiers were frozen to the ground and had to rely on fires to keep warm.

Post-war statistics, on average, only not only one-third of the Russian soldiers on the Eastern Front received qualified cotton clothing, and many companies had to let the soldiers on duty wear qualified cotton clothing, while the rest of them warmed themselves around the fire.

In addition to clothing, poor-quality food was also a major factor in the non-combat attrition of the Russian army, and food poisoning became a common occurrence.

These problems are not unknown to the Russian commanders, but the involvement is too wide, everyone has chosen to keep their heads above water. After taking a share of the benefits, each one chose to play deaf and dumb.

Originally, the Russian commanders thought that winter is here, the Prussian army is not good at winter combat, both sides of the respective armistice, these problems will not be exposed, boil a little will pass.

However, plans always fail to catch up with changes quickly. A tentative attack tore through the Russian defense line, more than 100,000 Russian soldiers into prisoners, the situation on the battlefield is completely out of control.

The lid was lifted, and now the Prussian army was expanding the battle. However the Russian soldiers in poor quality cotton clothes were not able to exert their fighting power at all.

Many of the soldiers surrendered directly to the Prussian army simply to get a bite to eat. In terms of food, the standards of the two sides were vastly different.

The standard of food of the Prussian army fully reflects their status in the country, and it can be said that in the same period of the European continent, it is ranked at the top.

Bread, potatoes, soybeans needless to say, there is also a certain amount of butter, cheese, meat or canned food every day, and occasionally some vegetables.

On the contrary, the Russian soldiers, it is good to be able to potatoes to feed. If the canned goods were domestic, they would not have dared to eat them. Cheese and cookies existed in recipes, and the occasional handout of a little was no guarantee that they would be eaten.

Bread can be used as bricks, used to build fortifications, block enemy bullets are no problem.

It was hard to eat meat once in a while, but it was jerky from an unknown era. It’s almost impossible to chew it with your teeth, so it’s best to cook it.

Against this background, the Russian army usually had to find a way to get some of the food on the battlefield to improve their meals, after all, their food standards were really unbearable.

The sudden winter campaign was lost by the Russians not so much to the Prussian army as to the logistics, or rather to the bureaucrats at home.

(End of chapter)