Chapter 866: The Russians’ Strategic Choice

  Chapter 849 The Russians’ Strategic Choice

St. Petersburg, since receiving the news that Britain and France are ready to ally, Alexander III can not sit still.

Originally he was counting on pulling the French together, set France, Russia and Austria to combat the British, did not expect the situation to be reversed so soon.

Alexander III asked with anticipation, “Is the news confirmed?”

Deep down, he very much hoped that it was just a rumor.

Once Britain and France were allied, the Austrian navy was incapable of resisting a British-French alliance, and it was impossible for the Vienna government to go hard against the two countries in the navy.

The ongoing Anglo-French-Austrian arms race was coming to an end.

The Vienna government’s previous commitment to use the arms race to hold back the British plan, naturally, will also become a failure.

Although at the outset, Austria was not prepared to perform and had prepared excuses, the Russians did not know it.

After all, the Vienna government was reputable enough and had not defaulted in so many years that Alexander III did not even suspect it.

The arms race was over, and the Russian Empire was to face a wealthy and powerful Britain.

Because of the Anglo-French alliance, Austria would also be held back by France, and the Russian Empire would have to fight the British alone.

Foreign Minister Oscar Jimenez replied, “The information has been verified, British Foreign Secretary George arrived in Paris half a month ago, and the two countries are in the process of negotiating an alliance.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ordered the embassy in Paris to keep a close eye on the negotiation process, and any news will be sent back immediately.”

Stopping, interfering, sabotaging?

None of that exists; both Britain and France are among the most powerful nations in the world and couldn’t care less about the attitude of the Russians.

Knowing that it was impossible, the Russians would naturally not go out of their way to humiliate themselves. There is not much the Czarist government can do now except keep a close watch.

“Alas!”

After sighing, Alexander III slowly asked, “Unable to stop the Anglo-French alliance, we have lost the best opportunity to fight, do you think the Central Asia Raid will continue?”

Essentially, provoking a Central Asian war at this time, in addition to rescuing the ally Afghanistan, is more about picking up the slack.

According to the plan, the Tsarist government was prepared to take back Central Asia during the Anglo-French-Austrian arms race, pushing the borderline into the area of Afghanistan.

The plan did not go south to India, it is not that the tsarist government has no ambition for India, the key is that the current Russian Empire does not have the strength to capture India.

Minister of War Paradru Wald: “Of course it should go on! Even if Britain and France were allied, it is unlikely that the French would send troops to help the British in their war.

As long as we are fast enough to capture the Brakha Khanate before the British destroy Afghanistan, the initiative of the war will be in our hands.

If we miss this opportunity and let the British exterminate Afghanistan, the price we need to pay if we want to seize Central Asia in the future will be even greater.

Moreover, we have to consider the international implications. Having just concluded an alliance with Afghanistan, and immediately selling them out, what will our allies think?”

Against the British Army, the Russian military was still confident.

Times were different nowadays, although the Russian Empire had suffered heavy losses in the two Russo-Prussian wars, the Russians had also fought an elite force.

The most crucial thing is that the British government is hard to make up its mind – to commit millions of main forces to fight with the Russian Empire for Central Asia.

Just the Indian Colonial Army alone, that would have been a complete hangover for the Russians. This kind of no-pressure smooth battle has always been the Russian military’s favorite.

Alexander III nodded, the Russian Empire’s international reputation was already bad, and he didn’t want to take the blame for betraying his allies unless it was absolutely necessary.

Don’t look at the later generations, the Russians often sell out their allies, but these days the tsarist government really rarely sells out its allies, at least the last few decades have not appeared.

Of course, the main factor is still selling allies of the benefits are too small, to pay the price is too high, overall uneconomical.

This time is no exception, selling Afghanistan is easy, but the idea of Austria, they have to be concerned.

Think back to the year, Alexander II was for the Danish allies, and the Prussians went to war.

Although the losses were heavy, it also earned the Tsar’s government a reputation. For the continuation of the Russian-Austrian alliance laid a solid foundation, at least the tsarist government thinks so.

After all, the Russo-Austrian alliance by the early nineties could no longer bring much benefit to Austria, but rather the tsarist government benefited greatly from it.

Seeing the Tsar’s intention, the anti-war finance minister Alisher Gurov hastily objected: “Margrave, you are looking at the problem too one-sidedly.

Central Asia is a vast area, and the three major khanates all have enmity with us, so it is simply impossible to surrender.

Even if our army progresses well on the battlefield, it is impossible to pacify Central Asia in just a few months.

But the Kingdom of Afghanistan is different. The British only need two regiments of troops to be able to make the Afghan government compromise.

We all know the terrain of the Afghan region. If the British take control of the Afghan region before we do, the war that follows will not be easy to fight.

As long as the war cannot be ended in a short time, it will eventually turn into a long war of attrition. The British have India at their back and have the manpower and financial resources to spend with us.

In recent years, although the Empire’s finances have improved, it is only temporary.

An agricultural crisis is looming, and based on analysis of the information gathered, the Ministry of Finance estimates that food export earnings will be reduced by 11% this year, and by even more next year.

The British have no arms race to drag them down, and the Empire can’t fight them financially. Persisting in this war with no head in sight will only result in a high level of debt.

In light of the current complex international situation, the Ministry of Finance recommends that the Central Asian conflict be resolved by diplomatic means and that the status quo be maintained as much as possible.”

There was no way around it; the three Central Asian khanates had once been dependent on the Tsarist government. Only the Russians had too great an appetite to eat them. In the first Russo-Prussian War, they were turned by the British.

There is no going back on some things, and since they were traitors, they had to fight the Russians to the end.

This meant that Central Asia could not be taken down in a single battle, and with the British behind it, the chances of the war continuing were very high.

In contrast, the Afghan government was not unappreciated. What was a half-slave, half-feudal agrarian country to fight the British with?

With John Bull’s usual tactics, are diplomatic and military two-pronged, forcing the Afghan government to compromise the possibility is very high.

There have been too many similar success stories.

In fact, the original time and space Afghan government also chose to compromise, only the British appetite is too big, ready to swallow them in one bite.

Without any surprise, the British army defeated the Afghan government very easily. Only then did they accidentally realize that Afghanistan without a government was even more terrifying.

This was also personally verified by the United States and the Soviet Union in later times. Defeating Afghanistan is very simple, the trouble is ruling the Afghan region.

Now has not been verified, everyone sees only the power of the Afghan government, two regular regiments of British troops is already more than enough.

The problem of the military is still minor. As long as there is money, the Tsarist government has nothing to fear.

If you open the history books, you will find that financial power was the biggest shortcoming of the Russian Empire, except for a particular period, there was no time when the Russian government was not short of money.

Because of the agricultural tax allowed to pay in kind relationship, grain exports became the tsarist government’s most important piece of income, occupying more than half of the total export trade.

This agricultural crisis is the oldest, the second and the third in the game, as Europe’s first largest exporter of raw grain of the fourth, the Russians are completely suffer from an undeserved disaster.

Grain export earnings decreased, not that the total amount of food exported has decreased, but the international food prices have fallen.

In any case, the food self-sufficiency program of the British, and the large farm program of the French, still had some results.

Although the total amount of food imported by the two countries each year has fallen by only a minuscule percentage point or two, the reaction is still horrifying on the international food trading market.

The market as a whole was in a situation where supply exceeded demand, and it was only natural that the trading price of raw grain should plummet. When grain prices fell, the Tsarist government’s wallet, naturally, could only be hurt along with it.

You can’t afford to fight a war without money. Against this background, the finance minister, who was in charge of the government’s purse strings, passively became the leader of the anti-war faction in the Russian government.

The Minister of War, Paradru Wald, was unmoved and said, “The deterioration of the government’s finances makes it all the more necessary to carry on this war.

As long as our plan goes well, capturing Central Asia first and then India in the future, all problems will be solved.

The problem of the government’s lack of financial resources to wage this war is only temporary, and the Ministry of Finance can find a way to raise it.

If we don’t conduct this war, we will never get out of our financial difficulties.”

There was nothing wrong with that, the British plundered more wealth from India every year than the Czarist government had in its coffers.

If they really captured India, the financial difficulties faced by the Tsarist government could indeed be solved.

Perhaps having suffered in the westward march, who did not want to come back a second time, the Russian military basically went south to the supporters of India.

There was no lack of supporters of this view in the Tsarist government.

After all, the implementation of the strategy of going south to capture India, to face the enemy is only the British one; while the strategy of moving westward into Europe, to face the enemy is all the European countries.

Against the British, even if they failed, the price they had to pay, was very limited.

The British again how to open up, not all the way along Central Asia into Siberia, they have to have the opportunity to make a comeback.

Going west into continental Europe is different, in case of operational error and a swarm of European countries, the consequences would be much more serious.

If you lose a lot of money, you will be injured and paralyzed, and if you lose a lot of money, you will lose your country.

In this respect, the Russo-Prussian War made sense for the European world. It woke up the greedy polar bears and made an outstanding contribution to the peace and stability of the European world.

……

(End of chapter)