Chapter 872: More and More Rampant
Chapter 855 – More and More Rampant
Afghanistan battlefield, after a series of bitter battles, the British army successfully defeated the main force of the Afghan government forces.
On July 16, 1888, the British army, after paying more than three thousand casualties, succeeded in capturing Kabul, and the remaining Afghan government was forced to withdraw to the Hindu Kush mountains.
Having won this great victory with great difficulty, the British did not hide it any longer, and the government in London made an announcement to the outside world at the first opportunity.
Watching the British show off their war achievements, Franz also fretted a bit, this ending is really too unexpected, the Afghan government actually did not even hold out for six months.
The British have occupied Kabul, the Russians are still fighting with the Central Asian Khanate, once the British army penetrated Afghanistan, directly linked to the Central Asian Khanate, the Russians behind the war will be difficult to fight.
This is completely different from the plan in advance, originally Franz also thought that Afghanistan to delay a little more time, so that the Russians all the way to British India, to stimulate the British.
Without the stimulus, the government in London would not have been able to fight the Russians to the death, and would probably have taken over the Afghan region and then stopped.
As for the three Central Asian khanates, most likely to be able to save it, if not, sell them and the Russians compromise, is not impossible.
Perhaps in the years to come, the Afghan region will become a heavy burden for the British, but the Russians have not been weakened much.
It’s better not to be too strong of an aggressive ally like the Russian Empire, or it will put people to sleep.
After rubbing his forehead, Franz said helplessly, “The Russians’ war loan is approved, now the Tsarist government needs our support.”
There was no way to influence the British government, so they could only agitate the Tsarist government. Now we can only hope that the hairy bear is a bit greedier and can fight to the death with the British for India.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “Your Majesty, this is not the right time to release goodwill, it seems too deliberate.
If the Russians want a war loan, it would be best to go through the formal procedures and have them put up collateral.
Lest it be discovered that we want to provoke a war between Britain and Russia and cause unnecessary trouble.”
Politics needs to be framed. It is not true that Austria wants to provoke an Anglo-Russian war, but thinking about it, but saying it out loud that is never possible.
From the beginning of the Vienna government’s position is: not interested in the Central Asian war, forced by the Russian-Austrian alliance, only to go out to support the Russians.
To cheer the Russians, that is out of the same enemy, absolutely no intention to do something.
Whether others believe it or not, the Vienna government did.
“Well!”
Franz nodded in recognition, the current situation was really not suitable for Austria to do too much.
However, doing nothing was not an option, letting the situation develop on its own, Austria’s strategic goals could not be realized.
Prime Minister Karl: “The British and Russian governments are not fools, the situation has developed to the point where it is now impossible to realize our strategic objectives from the top.
Perhaps now we should switch our ideas, to intensify the conflict between the two countries, it is not necessary for the two governments to agree.
With the development of the war situation, Britain and Russia border is sooner or later, once the two sides have no buffer, to create conflict is much easier.
The war has been going on until now, the British have only put in five Indian colonial divisions and a small number of native troops, which are very limited.
It’s okay to deal with the Afghan government, but it’s impossible to deter the Russians. All we have to do is to give a covert push to get the Russian radicals to do it.”
Listening to the prime minister’s explanation, Franz suddenly realized that he had fallen into a misunderstanding, in this era of the weak and the strong, everything is to use “strength” to speak.
The British seemed to have the upper hand, but the Indian colonial division really can not suppress the scene. Not only will it not deter the Russians, but it will also stimulate their ambitions.
If you want to change this point is not impossible, immediately expand the army, from the mainland hundreds of thousands of regular army to confront the Russians.
It doesn’t seem to be difficult to operate, but the problem is that expanding the army also costs money.
This is not a one-time expense, but long-term expenses, as long as the Russian Empire is not down, Britain must be deployed in the Afghan region of heavy troops.
As a result, Britain is no longer a purely maritime country, but also must develop land power, although this “land” is not the mainland, but the importance of India is just a little worse than the mainland.
Land forces take up a lot of military expenditure, in the long run, will inevitably affect the development of the Royal Navy.
Not only these problems, Franz thought of more. It appeared that the British had occupied Kabul, but the Afghan resistance, as yet, had not stopped.
Can not be seen in the short term, that is the British occupation of the territory is not yet large, when the occupation of the whole of Afghanistan, these few Indian divisions can maintain local order is a problem.
Seeing a chaotic Afghanistan, the Russians have no reason not to be moved, ah?
As long as the Russians move, there is no reason why the British government should not respond to the war. The big deal is to be a gold master and drop money to make Britain and Russia PK.
It’s better to spend a fortune now and weaken both rivals at the same time; than to spend even more money in the future and take the game into your own hands.
“The Prime Minister is right, we do need to switch our mindset and take the lower route now. The matter of provoking a conflict between Britain and Russia will be left to the intelligence department.
The Ministry of Finance is going to prepare first, in addition to this current war loan of fifty million God’s Guilders, prepare 300 million God’s Guilders for the Russians over the next three years, and this time we’re going to support the Russians to fight to the end.”
When the gold master is not all the money, all by Austria out of pocket, the vast majority of the war costs are still to be solved by the tsarist government itself.
For example: the most common food, the tsarist government has a lot of warehouses, just ship it over.
Relatively speaking, gray livestock is still very save money, as long as the solution to the problem of food, each person a rifle can go to war.
The self-financing of the Tsarist government, together with this huge sum of money from Austria, was already enough for the hundreds of thousands of Russian troops to fight for some years.
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
……
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “Not only does the Central Asian battlefield require attention, but the European continent is now at a critical moment of change.
Ever since the Anglo-French alliance, the French have become more and more rampant. Just last week, the French government bought out the British Coal Association.
The British Coal Association has deviated from the International Coal Exporting Union and has taken the lead in reducing the price of coal exported to France by 20%, which is comparable to the average price of coal exported on the international market.
Now the French are pressuring Belgium and the North German Confederation to increase the total amount of coal exported to France by 30 percent and to reduce the price by 69 percent.
This price is not only far below the international price of coal, but even below the local price of coal in several European coal-producing countries.
Together with the costs in all aspects, some of the coal mines that are difficult to mine will, I’m afraid, fall directly into a loss.”
As a matter of fact, the average international coal export price has been pulled up because of the sanctions imposed on the French by the International Coal Export Union.
Without counting freight costs, it is about 20% higher than the average price of coal in mainland Austria, while the price of coal purchased by France is about 50% higher.
With an export price that high, and all sorts of miscellaneous fees, it’s possible to end up with a price in excess of half that in the hands of the purchaser.
Coal was a product in immediate demand, and because it was a joint Anglo-Austrian bandwagon operation, the French were previously powerless to resist it.
After the Anglo-French alliance, the encirclement net was broken, the international situation improved, the French government could not help but make a move.
After bribing the British, it bullied Belgium and the North German Confederation on the strength of its own hard fist.
As for Austria, another coal-exporting union, its share in the international coal export market was negligible and was directly ignored by the French.
Although there is no calculator, Franz also knows that the French aim is to break the embarrassment of high domestic energy prices, as for the European countries to test can only be counted as secondary.
Despite not having a calculator, Franz quickly came to the conclusion that the average retail price of finished coal in Austria was 1, and France’s previous purchase price was 1.5.
1.5 * (1 – 0.69) = 0.465
The French just wanted to buy it at 46.5% of the retail price, which, after accounting for miscellaneous taxes, shipping costs, wholesale and retailer margins, was a price that, in the hands of French business use, would essentially equal the Austrian realization of energy prices.
This is just to equalize Austria, in fact the coal-producing country of Britain, the average domestic coal price is even lower, about three or five percentage points lower.
From these figures it can be seen that the French industrial and commercial products are not competitive, not without reason.
Coal industry profiteering is not false, but also not profiteering to this point, domestic suppliers can not get such a low price.
According to the pricing now offered by the French, unless Belgium and the North German Confederation exempted coal producers from all taxes, the vast majority of them would fall into the red.
There is no problem with the French wanting to reduce energy costs, but the problem is that the French government wants Belgium and the German Federation to foot the bill for them.
Prime Minister Karl was surprised: “The French are crazy, how can Belgium and North Germany accept such a price?
Even if the two governments choose to accept it due to the French military threat, I’m afraid the capitalists won’t agree.”
Not “I’m afraid” is certainly will not agree, these days capital has begun to internationalize, to the Rhineland coal mines, for example, a large part of the mines have fallen into the hands of the British and Austrian capital.
How can these capitalists accept such a price that jeopardizes their own interests?
The big deal is not to do business with the French, with foreign capital background is not afraid at all. In the end the real affected, I am afraid that those who have no background ……
Franz nodded: ”To make them die, we must first make them mad. If the French are really this rampant, it will be a good thing for us.
These conditions have already exceeded the bottom line of Belgium and North Germany, and it is impossible for the two countries to agree.
If the French dare to use force, both Belgium and the North German Confederation will fall to us, and I don’t mind sending troops to fight them for the sake of our allies.
But the French aren’t that stupid, they aren’t ready for war yet, flipping now won’t do them any favors, this is mostly just a test run on their part.
Now the lion’s share is just to test the bottom line of the two countries than Germany, lowered the expectations of the two countries heart.
If there is no accident, in the next negotiations, the French will also slightly release a little goodwill, the two countries will choose to compromise.”
There is no way, this is the helplessness of small countries, the sadness of the weak ……
(End of chapter)