Chapter 724: Refugee Crisis

  Chapter 707 Refugee Crisis

At the Russian command headquarters, Ivanov was basking in the joy of capturing Poznan. This can be said to be the biggest result achieved by the Russian army since the beginning of the war, and the strategic significance is no less than the recapture of Smolensk.

Open the map to know, Poznan is located in the center of the Polish plain, is the most important transportation hub, industrial center between Prussia and Poland.

The Russian army occupied here, also means that they cut off the Warsaw and the back of the artery, Mauch led by the main force of the army will soon become a lonely army.

A young officer hurriedly came to report: “Marshal, the news from the front line, according to the airships, yesterday there are large enemy troops withdrew from the Warsaw area, the number of hundreds of thousands of people.

The enemy’s marching speed is very fast, suspected to be the main force, but they are not carrying heavy weapons and cannot be identified for the time being.”

Ivanov was startled and secretly thought, “No good, the enemy is running away.” Then he hesitated, Mauch was tricky and often surprising with his troops, so no one knew if this would be a false alarm.

The airships could only reconnoiter, and it was difficult to tell if the main force was below. There were also a large number of local troops in the Warsaw area, which were perfectly capable of pretending to be the main force.

The same ploy had been used by Mauch in last year’s Winter Campaign. The enemy repeated the same trick to fool the Russian Fourth Army in the Warsaw Battle not long ago.

However, Ivanov was reluctant to give up, if he let the main force of the Prussian army go now, it would be difficult to encircle them again in the future.

After a little thought, Ivanov made a decision: “Order the Seventh Army to immediately send cavalry to scout deep into the enemy territory to determine whether it is the enemy’s main force.

Inform the Eighth Army of the news, and order them to destroy the roads and bridges on the way back of the Prussian army, and make preparations to intercept the enemy’s return westward.

Ordered the Ninth Army to proceed at once to Poznań to join the Eighth Army for a joint mission of interception.

Order the Eleventh and Seventeenth Armies to leave a small number of troops for defense, and the main body to proceed to Poznan as soon as possible for reinforcement.

Order the Third, Sixth, and Seventh Armies to close in immediately and attack Warsaw as soon as it is certain that the enemy’s main force has left.

Order the Fourth and Fifth Armies, which are undergoing repairs, to get ready for battle and reinforce the Warsaw battlefield at any time.

Order the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Armies to abandon their original combat missions and cut off the Warsaw enemy forces from the East Prussia area.”

Ivanov, still the same Ivanov, did not blindly order a pursuit just because the enemy might retreat.

The Prussian army was not carrying heavy weapons and equipment in order to make a run for it, and if all the several cavalry divisions in the Warsaw area were sent out, the success rate of intercepting them would still be very high.

The question was what could be done if they were intercepted?

The Russian Fourth and Fifth Armies in the Warsaw area were scrapped, the Seventh Army was also badly wounded in the previous battles and its combat power was greatly reduced, and the Third and Sixth Armies, which maintained their combat power, ended their recuperation in advance, and their combat power was likewise not at its peak.

These armies did not have the strength to encircle the main force of the Prussian army even if they chased after them. Moreover, in order to pursue, the Prussian army remaining in the Warsaw area must also be resolved.

Considering the risks involved, Ivanov preferred the more conservative tactic of intercepting further away in the Poznan region.

Steady as it was, the success rate was pitifully low. The Polish plains were flat and simply undefended, and the enemy had too many options open to him.

Unless it was a stroke of luck, the Eighth Army simply couldn’t be stopped. Ivanov’s order for reinforcements wasn’t really meant to stop the main body of the Prussian army in the Polish area, blocking them out of Poland was also a good option.

Ivanov, who liked to play it safe, didn’t mind clearing out the enemy in the Warsaw area before concentrating his forces on a duel with the Prussian army.

……

Vienna Palace, received the news that the Russian army occupied Poznan, Franz a mouthful of tea directly sprayed out.

Intuition told him that there was a big problem here.

Poznan’s strategic value, Mauch could not possibly not know. No matter how short of troops, it is impossible to ignore such a strategic place.

Even if the main force is insufficient, the second line of troops must make up for it. However, there were three second-line infantry divisions of less than full strength deployed in Poznan alone, of which only seven thousand were stationed in the city of Poznan.

This small number of troops was close to telling the enemy that we were weak here and to come over and attack.

Franz asked, “Albrecht, what do you think Moltke wants to do? Lure the enemy in and prepare to eat the Russians’ Eighth Army?”

Chief of Staff Albrecht laughed, “There may be an element of that, but it should be more about preserving strength and jumping out of that big hole in Warsaw sooner.

The Russians have too much of an advantage to have the slightest chance of winning against the Puppo Federation head on. If you want to turn the tide, Mauch can only make a surprise move.

I’m not sure what exactly, but militarily, giving up Poland to lengthen the Russians’ front would really increase the Prussian army’s chances of winning.

The loss of the Poznan region also involved a historical legacy. The region had been assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, though the locals had never been very convincing.

The local capitalists, aristocrats, and intellectuals, to be precise, were very unhappy with the Berlin government.

Ostensibly, it was the Berlin government’s policy of national integration and Germanization in the region, but in reality it was the Junker nobility that took up most of the benefits in the government, and they, the latecomers, didn’t get any of the leftovers.

In normal times, these people could not make trouble, but the war years were different, especially when the Russians were about to win, these disillusioned people naturally became active.

Perhaps Mauch wanted to pull out these hidden dangers once and for all, and deliberately let them be exposed.”

“Draw out the snakes and remove the dissidents.”

This kind of thing, Franz was also familiar with it. Political struggles were inherently brutal, and there was no way to become one’s own people, so one could only purge them.

With the war having progressed to this point, the internal contradictions of the Pupo Federation had essentially accumulated to a peak, and were just short of a fuse to explode. Since Poznan has become a hidden danger, it is natural to cleanse it.

Looking at the map, Franz heartily exclaimed, “Mauch is really ruthless, those hundreds of thousands of troops in the Warsaw region, said to give up!”

There is nothing wrong with this approach. As the saying goes, “Mercy does not govern the army”, in order to win the war, there is nothing that cannot be given up.

Seems to give up hundreds of thousands of troops, in fact, the Berlin government is not a loss, the war has been carried out to the present two sides have been as deep as the sea, as long as there is hope that the Poles will not surrender.

Most of these troops are locals, and it is almost impossible to annihilate them in one battle. Even if they were victorious, it would be very difficult to clean up the area after the war.

The Berlin government only needs to send someone to intervene, and the local partisans will be born. Just think of the atrocities committed by the Cossack cavalry in Poland in the early days, and you will know how much the local people hated the Russians, and the guerrilla war in the future will have to be fought.

Finance Minister Karl laughed: “Your Majesty, I’m afraid Mauch had no choice. The Warsaw region isn’t just hundreds of thousands of troops, there are also a large number of refugees.

The war is delayed, these people can’t return to their homes to resume production, the Polish-Polish Commonwealth can’t provide so many jobs, and the Polish region can be said to be littered with refugees.

The preliminary estimate is that there are about nearly three million people receiving relief food from the Berlin government, and about half of them have completely lost their source of livelihood.

To feed millions of refugees while supporting millions of troops is too much for the Berlin government’s finances, even with a British blood transfusion.

Lose the Polish region and likewise this heavy burden. In this matter, the Berlin government should have played a dishonorable role.”

Refugees are always the biggest headache, and it’s not true that Austria is accepting refugees on a large scale, but unfortunately the colonial government is past the point of starvation and has set the bar, with the language and language barrier stopping the vast majority.

The British and French colonies and the American countries do welcome immigrants, but unfortunately they have to buy their own tickets, and when they arrive at the place they need to find their own way to make a living.

Franz nodded: “This is a difficult problem for the Berlin government, but it shouldn’t be hard for the Russians, they have plenty of experience in dealing with it, I just don’t know what Alexander II will do this time.”

Relief was impossible, most of these refugees were created by the Russian army, the Tsarist government would not be able to recover the hearts and minds of the people even if they paid for relief.

Besides, the Tsarist government was not rich, and this kind of meaningless investment, Alexander II would definitely not do it.

Massacre was the last option, involving millions of people, and it was expected that the Russians would not always be able to do it.

Deportation may not have been the best option, but it was the most likely choice of the Tsarist government, as in the Second Near Eastern War, when the Russians deported a large number of Ottoman populations into the interior, creating an artificial famine that devastated the Ottoman Empire.

(End of chapter)