Chapter 811: Tossing For Nothing

  Chapter 794: Tossing for Nothing

St. Petersburg, Alexander III’s hair fell out a lot more since the news of the Anglo-Polish secret pact had passed.

Casually threw away the telegram in his hand, Alexander III complained: “Damn the British, can not be a little peaceful?

This is only after a few days of peace of mind, began to toss again. Really think we are good to bully it ……”

In all conscience, he really didn’t want to make things happen right now. Isn’t it good to quietly plant a field, why do you want to make things happen?

Finance Minister Alisher Gurov persuaded, “Your Majesty, this is a trick of the British.

They are provoking the Persian conflict at this time in order to interrupt the Russian Empire’s recovery, and we absolutely cannot let their plot succeed.”

He was genuinely afraid that in a fit of anger, the youthful Tsar would just run off and start a war with the British regardless, something that had happened quite a few times among the successive Tsars.

To be exact, there were quite a lot of such things all over the world. It lasted until recent times, when everyone became sensible after learning the lessons of countless predecessors.

The Russian Empire is not in a position to wage war against foreign countries now, with the Russo-Prussian War and then the economic crisis, the Russian Empire is at its weakest point.

Without waiting for Alexander III to reply, the Minister of War, Paradru Wald, jumped ahead and said, “Everyone knows that this is a British plot, but so what?

The interests of the Russian Empire are inviolable, and the Persian issue is just a test run by the British. If we don’t cut off their delusions, more trouble awaits us next.

Once the outside world is made to believe that the Russian Empire has fallen, the enemies we’ll have to face then won’t just be the British.”

There was too much hatred being drawn, and when the Russian Empire was strong, these were scabies and not enough to worry about.

Not anymore, the Russian Empire is at its weakest. It is able to live in peace and quiet, relying on the tiger of yesteryear.

The tiger’s might is no longer strong, but it can’t change the fact that it is a sick tiger. If you can’t deter the jackals, wolves, tigers and leopards in the mountains and forests, it’s a situation where the wolves eat the tiger.

In order to avoid the worst situation, the tsarist government has done a lot of efforts, including: the restoration of the Russian-Austrian alliance, active participation in the Near East war ……

On the one hand, it used the power of the alliance to deter the herd, and on the other hand, it flashed its muscles on the battlefield to make everyone believe that the Russian Empire was still strong.

In order to speed up the recovery, the Tsarist government even sold the spoils of war from the Near Eastern War in exchange for large sums of money to improve its finances.

Nevertheless, the trial came. The Persian problem was only a shadow, and once the Russian Empire showed its fatigue, there was going to be no peace behind it.

The more they thought about it, the more nervous the crowd looked, and after constant brainstorming, a conspiracy theory against the Russian Empire took shape.

Seeing that the atmosphere became tense, Foreign Minister Oscar Jimenez hurriedly explained, “Your Excellency, things are not that serious.

The British may be testing us, but the Persian issue also involves Austrian interests, and as long as we and the Vienna government are on the same page, the situation is within control.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already communicated with the Vienna government, and they have suggested a direct showdown with the Persian government, ignoring the British.”

The Russo-Austrian alliance was an invincible presence on the World Island, especially after the end of the Pupo Federation, and the other countries put together couldn’t shake the big boss.

The British had no problem messing things up, they weren’t in Eurasia anyway, and the Royal Navy was enough to keep itself safe. Trying to screw over Russia and Austria directly would be impossible.

Minister of War Paradru Wald asked suspiciously, “Austria is going to make a move against Persia?”

Oscar Jimenez rubbed his forehead, there was no way this group of teammates could not be brought along. Fighting people love to solve problems with violence, and the top of the Tsarist government is no exception.

Helplessly explained, “What Britain and Poland signed was a secret treaty, neither government recognized it, and we can pretend we don’t know anything about it.

Now that we have a showdown with the Persian government, we can intentionally propose conditions that are contrary to the contents of the secret treaty, so that the British plans will fall through.

If the Austrians want to make a move on the Persian region, they don’t need to go through so much trouble at all, they can just fight their way through.”

“Fighting straight through” is the style of the Great Powers. War excuses can wait up and then find, anyway, have launched a war of aggression, there is nothing to wash.

This is not the same as the Near East War, the Ottoman Empire is the former public enemy of Europe, just flip through the history books, you can make the war of aggression into a war of revenge.

International public opinion itself has a strong tendency, on behalf of the will of the European people to launch a war of revenge, it must be just.

Under the influence of the general environment, even the British, as a shit-stirrer, did not dwell on this issue.

Attacking Persia would have been a no-brainer, after all, the Persian Empire and the Habsburgs had no animosity, and the European world is still 18,000 miles away.

The answer was a mixed blessing for Alexander III. He was happy that the problem could be solved without fear of worsening the situation; but the Russian Empire became even more dependent on Austria.

In order to get rid of its dependence on Austria, the Tsarist government, starting with Alexander II, deliberately alienated the government of Vienna.

However, tossing and turning ended up back to square one and even made the problem worse.

The promised escape from the dependence on Austria, but in the end, the dependence was even stronger, and if it continues like this, we can only be at ease as a little brother.

Learning his father’s lesson, Alexander III did not blindly alienate the diplomatic relations between the two countries to get rid of the dependence on Austria.

And then there was no more. Alexander III did not know what to do. It wasn’t impossible to get rid of the dependence on Austria, but the price to pay was too high.

The political dependence was the best solution, the economic impact was the problem. Once again, international loans proved not to be easy to come by.

The conditions attached to the purchase of Austrian goods caused Russian industry to lose its own style and to copy Austria completely.

No, they still had their own style, bought machinery and equipment, produced the same goods improved in shape, volume, use of functions.

Unfortunately this improvement is not benign, but in the opposite direction. Copying homework are copied failed, independent research and development of upgrades and modernization is even more unthinkable.

If you buy the first generation, you have to buy the second, and you get used to it. The aftermath is that the Russian industry was forced to adopt the Austrian standard.

To this day, in addition to Austria, other countries produced machinery and equipment in the Russian Empire will not sell.

Not the price problem, not the quality problem, the key is the standard system does not match.

Industrial development is to talk about the industry chain, to change the standard must be changed upstream and downstream together, if only change one of the links, the industry chain will immediately go wrong.

Even if the industry chain is not highly dependent on the industry, capitalists have to consider the problem of late equipment maintenance.

There is no supporting standard system, change a screw, must be imported from the equipment purchasing country.

If these small accessories are not valuable, the manufacturer can attach a batch of them, then when the mechanical equipment breaks down, the maintenance workers have to be hired from overseas.

Everyone has to consider costs, and no one will ask for trouble. There are not many large factories in the Russian Empire that can allow equipment suppliers to directly send skilled workers on a permanent basis.

Alexander III knew a little bit about economics, and didn’t try to get out of the way of the restrictions.

If you can’t make it yourself, you’ll have to import it anyway, so it’s better to buy from England and France than from Austria, at least we’re allies.

In the free trade system, relying on the promotion of standards, realized the monopoly on industrial equipment, which gave many European economists a lesson.

Even in some universities, the Russian Empire was used as a classic case of business, and appeared in the textbooks of students in a dignified manner.

To the end, the Tsarist government did not expect the British to do this, but only gave a response to the conflict in Central Asia.

In this respect, the “warning” of the British government was in vain, the Russians did not even think about it.

It was not the stupidity of the Tsarist government, but the difference in perception. Perhaps in the eyes of the outside world, the Russian army in Central Asia is a big deal, but in the eyes of the tsarist government is a trivial matter.

Not just robbed a few sheep, a few cows, a few horses, plus occupied a pasture, similar things the Russians have been doing for hundreds of years.

Habit becomes nature, the tsarist government from top to bottom did not think there is a problem, who can think that the British will make a big deal?

It is estimated that the British government directly into the causes and consequences of the information, sent to the tsarist government, the Russians will not necessarily believe.

……

On April 13, 1885, the Mahdi insurgents ambushed the advance guard of the French counter-insurgency hordes in the Idfu area, and the battle scene was that touching.

With their superiority in strength and the fact that the French were taken by surprise by the ambush beforehand, the battle actually ended in a draw.

After receiving the news, Huttil and other people’s first reaction is impossible. Even if the French are paper mache, it is impossible to be so fragile.

At the military meeting, Mahdi’s face grimaced as he reprimanded: “You guys are really good, aren’t you usually very capable?

More than thirty thousand people ambushed less than five thousand enemies, occupying all the advantages, and in the end actually fought a draw.

If we hadn’t occupied the geographical advantage and instead had an encounter in the field, wouldn’t we have been wiped out by the French?

Rubbish ……”

Hearing Mahdi’s rebuke, Hutil probably understood what the “tie” was all about.

Six times the strength advantage, coupled with a good ambush in advance, hit the enemy ambush, and finally not only did not wipe out the enemy army, but let the enemy break out and leave.

This kind of performance is a joke, but it really happened.

The “tie” is just self-congratulation, look at the ratio of battle losses on both sides to know 3.4:1. almost killed a French army corps, the cost of their own is a division.

According to the crowd’s expression, Hutier felt that the annihilation of the “French army” is also afraid of water, really killed a regular regiment of the French army, it is estimated that this place can be set up to celebrate the feast.

An ominous feeling of foreboding arose from Hutier’s heart. Secretly guessed: it is not independent of the French colonial army, right?

Good thing, there are pure French soldiers captured in, proving that there are main forces to participate in this battle.

If it is the colonial army are fighting such a battle, then do not say anything, quickly pack up and go home, the mission do not even think about it.

The main force of the insurgent army suffered heavy losses, Mahdi had to once again look to the representatives of Britain and Austria, hoping to obtain more assistance.

In the end, he was used to seeing big storms, Lieutenant General Jarrett did not express his dissatisfaction with the result of this ambush: “Gentlemen, things have already happened, let him pass!

According to the usual practice, the advance troops of the French army are usually elite, and it’s normal for them to be a bit stronger in battle. The troops at the back, not so much.

It is imperative that we take the time to reorganize and train the insurgent army, and improve its fighting strength as much as possible.

I hope that the problems exposed in this ambush will not reappear in the later battles ……”

(End of chapter)