Chapter 800: The Last Counterattack
Chapter 783 – The Final Counterattack
France and Russia had to recover, Austria was busy with the Near East development, and the three continental powers were busy and didn’t have the energy to make things happen.
The general environment is so, the British did not blindly. The international situation at once eased down, the pervasive smell of smoke with the passage of time, but also gradually faded from the European continent.
Franz’s mood is very good, if not unexpected, in a few months he will rise another generation.
When people get older, the concept will change, Franz is not able to be an exception, holding grandchildren’s expectations, although not as high as Queen Helen, but it is not low.
The royal family needs an heir, although Crown Prince Frederick is not too old, but this kind of thing should be sooner rather than later.
The outside world countless pairs of eyes are staring, early birth of the third generation, but also can let everyone early peace of mind.
Happiness is always short-lived, see Felix hurriedly came to the Prime Minister, Franz knew that the trouble has come to the door again.
“Your Majesty, something has happened in Asia Minor.”
Hearing “Asia Minor Peninsula”, Franz’s expression tightened.
The Great Near East Development was the most important strategy of the Vienna government for the next ten years, and with the completion of this strategy, Austria’s strategic security would be radically improved.
Located at the junction of Asia, Europe and Africa, the Asia Minor Peninsula has always been a place of war. The Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire controlled this place before they dominated the Mediterranean Sea and looked down on Asia, Europe and Africa.
To Austria here is the same, as long as the control of Asia Minor Peninsula, the Middle East oil, Africa’s resources are all in the bag. This place has naturally become the centerpiece of the Near East development strategy.
In addition to its high value, another important factor was its security, which made it ideal for a large rear area.
The Caucasus was unsuitable for large regiments, and the Russians were unlikely to fight their way over the mountains; Armenia and Persia were small peasants and unlikely to be a threat.
The maritime threat exists for the time being, but with the development of technology, it will soon cease to be a threat.
Airplanes are just getting started, but they’ll have no problem reaching WWI levels in ten years.
Not to mention how powerful the bombing was, even installing a machine gun to fire down from the sky would be able to work in a naval battle.
After all, the Austrian Navy is not weak, with the cooperation of the guys in the sky, defending the home front can still be done.
Franz asked with concern, “What happened?”
After taking a breath, Prime Minister Felix replied, “A large-scale plague has broken out in the Ankara region and is still spreading in all directions, and a number of Russian troops in charge of emigration have been infected as well.
In order to contain the spread of the epidemic, the Tsarist government has decided to suspend immigration, which will directly affect our Near East development program.”
It also takes time to migrate the people, all together there are four to five million people, the Russians no longer care about the death of the migrants, but it is impossible to send all of them away in a short period of time.
Franz asked with concern, “Have you identified the source of the plague? Has it just been discovered, or has it existed for a long time and the Russians have not paid attention to it?”
It was a law of nature that great wars were followed by great epidemics. In the Near East War, Austria had also discovered multiple epidemics, but they were contained.
Most epidemics come and go quickly, and as long as the source of the disease is blocked and the spread of the virus contained, things will soon pass.
Felix shook his head, “The source of the spread is still uncertain. However, the epidemic did appear a long time ago, only the Russians did not pay attention.
Initially, the Russian military high command took it for granted that the soldiers falling ill was a result of water and soil disorders, and it wasn’t until later when the number of officers falling ill was also increasing that attention was drawn to it.
According to the news communicated by the Russians, as of now, the number of officers and soldiers who have fallen ill has exceeded five thousand, and it is not yet possible to ascertain exactly how many people have been infected with the plague.”
Hearing this explanation, Franz was speechless. He really had no words for the carelessness of the Russians.
Of course, the Russian military hierarchy was probably also wronged. It wasn’t just that they had returned home to attend the celebration banquet, delayed for ten days, and rushed over without even having time for Christmas, who knew how the plague could suddenly break out?
“Order the troops in the Near East to do a good job of preventing epidemics, the emigration program has been postponed for the time being, and tell the Russians to let them investigate the cause as soon as possible.”
As a large empire, the Russians also wanted to save face. Unless the epidemic was completely out of control, they would definitely not ask for help from the outside world for such a small matter.
If it really got out of control, it would be useless to ask for help. With today’s medical technology, no one has the ability to cure the plague.
No, antibiotics, which are more expensive than gold, are still effective against some plague viruses, as the Austrian army has personally experienced.
……
Ankara, Lieutenant General Auchinets, who was in charge of this area, looked at the investigation report with a grimace on his face.
If anyone was paying attention, they would have noticed that his forehead had begun to sweat.
In the middle of a cold winter, to suddenly start sweating on the forehead was obviously not a small matter.
“Are you sure it’s the plague?”
Although he had already accepted the fact, Lieutenant General Oginets still had one last illusion. There was no way around it. The “bubonic plague” was horrible enough to turn anyone’s head in this day and age.
Kozhemiaka, the military doctor in charge of the accident investigation, frowned and replied, “Your Excellency, please don’t doubt our professionalism.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just that this matter is so big that it was a bit hard for me to accept for a while.”
After saying that, Lieutenant General Oginets wiped dry the sweat on his forehead, unable to care about his own image.
Kozhemiaka slowly said, “Given the current situation, I believe that the Ankara region is no longer suitable for the continued presence of troops.
Even the entire Asia Minor Peninsula is in grave danger, and it would be best to blockade the peninsula in order to contain the plague from spreading.”
Treatment?
Non-existent. To be able to take care of the officers was overkill. An ordinary soldier gets a dose of medicine and is left to fend for himself.
As for the general population, it’s completely out of the question. It would cost money to move them to Siberia, but the Tsar’s government could save money if they were taken away by the virus.
Lieutenant General Oginets nodded, “I’ll report it as you suggested, the final result will still have to wait for St. Petersburg to decide.”
From the tone of his voice, it could be heard that Lieutenant General Oginets was not the least bit worried about being rejected. The word “bubonic plague” was enough to scare the European world.
The Black Death was also a form of plague, and despite the passage of hundreds of years, the Black Death’s reputation remained intact.
The Vienna government had used it as an excuse to relocate the Ottoman population, but it had never realized that the “plague” had really broken out.
……
The news of the “bubonic plague” remained at the top of the Russian army, but the ordinary soldiers were still doing what they were supposed to do, and were not under as much mental stress.
Sometimes ignorance is also a kind of blessing, is patrolling the Russian soldiers Valentin is idle some egg pain, a few rats from the eyes ran past, successfully caused his attention.
Said to his companion, “Vitalier, have you noticed that the rats we’ve been seeing a lot lately are particularly large?”
Vitalier replied disdainfully, “This isn’t big, it’s clearly fat, okay? Look at their speed, they’re not even as fast as the rats in our old home.”
Valentin nodded approvingly, “That’s really true. The Ottomans are so extravagant, even the rats are so fat.”
Vitalier teased, “You really know how to joke, now that they can barely eat, who has food to feed the rats?”
Valentin said defiantly, “Who knows? Anyway, these rats are really fat, why don’t we follow them up and take a look, maybe we can even make a fortune, it’s just idle anyway.”
Looting was an important income for Russian soldiers, Ankara was naturally ransacked by the Russian army, but in a city of this size, there would always be corners left out.
From time to time, there were lucky people who found these missed riches and became rich.
Although Valentin had never personally encountered such a good thing, he had heard about it quite a lot.
Vitalier nodded approvingly, “Then let’s follow, I saw the rats go in from the left.”
There was no need to say, as qualified Russian soldiers, they naturally kicked in the door.
Respecting private property, that was completely overthinking it. Any Ottoman populace that migrated away, all of their wealth would be raided by the Russian soldiers.
The deeper they went, the more Vitalier felt that something was wrong, although they didn’t see any corpses, the pungent smell of rotting corpses had already hit them.
Vitalier complained, “Damn, not which rollers, in order to be lazy did not deal with the corpses!”
Valentin nodded approvingly, “Mostly, I’ll definitely report it when I get back and make sure this scumbag gets the punishment he deserves.”
Disposing of corpses was also a mandatory lesson for the military, to be lazy on this would be to joke with everyone’s lives.
Even the Russians, who have never paid much attention to military discipline, are also very strict in this regard – “reporting is rewarded, hiding is the same offense.”
In addition to catching the remnants of the enemy and maintaining order in the city, the patrols also had the important task of disposing of bodies that had slipped through the net.
Even though this stuff was disgusting, but for the sake of rubles, it was not unacceptable.
After searching in vain, Vitalier covered his nose with his hand and said, ”The odor is coming from here, there are no corpses outside.
The dust on the debris is already thick, this place should have been unoccupied for a long time, there might be a basement.
Look carefully, there might be an unexpected reward.”
Valenkyo frowned, “Why don’t we forget about it! It’s really too smelly, and I guess the body has rotted, making it very troublesome to deal with.
Anyway, this place is so remote, very few people will come here, it won’t be discovered.”
Vitalier didn’t have the heart to say, “Nonsense, it’s all come to this point, how can we stop halfway.
In case there’s some treasure that gets missed, wouldn’t it be a lifelong regret.”
The temptation to get rich was too great, and Valentin was convinced. The two started knocking around, looking for the basement entrance.
After working for most of the day, they finally found a clue, however, opening the secret room stunned the two.
There were rows and rows of naked corpses, and a few rats were gnawing on the corpses, but they quickly ran away when they realized who was coming.
Valentin directly nausea spit out, Vitalier not much better, what dreams of wealth are dissipated, directly back out.
After leaving at least a mile, the two people gradually came to their senses. Vitalier said helplessly, “Report it, apply for fuel oil incineration in situ, this stuff can’t be handled at all.”
Valentin nodded soulfully, his entire being bad.
This was just the beginning, there was far more than one such chamber found in the city, and the sheer number of them still drew the attention of the Russian officers.
Although in the propaganda, the Ottoman nobility was such a perversion, it was all the result of choosing individual cases and magnifying them with artistic processing.
Even if an individual is sick in the head and puts a bunch of corpses into the basement to feed the rats, it is unlikely that a group of people are sick in the head.
……
Reported to Lt. Gen. Oginetz, relying on approximate plus probable analysis, things had pretty much been smoothed out.
It was nothing more than the Ottoman government being unwilling to fail, artificially creating a plague and opening up an indiscriminate biochemical attack on the enemy.
Figured out the ins and outs, Lieutenant General Auchinets still can’t be happy, there is no way to find out too late, the plague has already happened.
As the highest person in charge of Ankara, he was not able to discover the Ottoman conspiracy in advance, Lieutenant General Auchinets is unable to absolve himself of the blame.
(End of chapter)