Chapter 882: Building Momentum
Chapter 865 Building Momentum
Afghanistan battlefield British troops are still struggling, the Central Asian battlefield has been divided, the Russians used the strength to prove that they are still the same bullish European road roller.
Of course, this victory was proclaimed by the tsarist government, the specifics of how, the outside world still knows nothing.
The only certainty is that the Russian army did defeat the main force of the three Central Asian countries, mastered the initiative on the battlefield, as to whether it will fall into the people’s war of the sea, this is only the Russians themselves know.
Franz, although concerned about the war situation in Central Asia, but did not send people on the ground to collect information, most of the information in the hands of the government in Vienna are the British and Russians themselves put out.
This point in time is too sensitive, if Austria is involved more, it is easy to be mistaken by Britain and Russia as having ambitions for Central Asia.
“The Russians’ preparations for war, to what extent, when can they launch an attack on the Afghan region?”
As a matter of fact, the Tsarist government began to prepare for war as early as a year ago. Only at that time, the goal of the war was only to seize parts of Central Asia.
Afghanistan was simply not within the scope of the tsarist government’s plans, and the highest goal was to support the puppet regime and act as a buffer between Britain and Russia.
With the smooth progress on the battlefield, and the British army’s poor performance, the Russians’ expectations have been increasing, and now want to swallow the Afghan region.
Against this background, the original preparations for war were naturally inadequate. Starting about three months ago, Alexander III ordered the nation to prepare for war.
It was only “national preparation”, not “national mobilization”. The terrain in Afghanistan limits the strength of both sides, as long as the material is sufficient, only a few hundred thousand troops do not need the Russians to mobilize the whole country.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “This is only a local war, theoretically, after such a long time, the Russians should be ready for war.
However, we are afraid that it will take some time for coordination, as we analyze the Russian Empire’s army mobilization, material flow, and railroad transportation.”
War tests a government’s organizational skills the most, and without any confidence in the Russian bureaucrat Franz, chaos was inevitable.
Preparing for war is not just about getting supplies produced, it is more critical to get them to the soldiers on the front lines before they can really make a difference.
The First World War in the original time and space was the pinnacle of Russian bureaucracy, with soldiers on the front line starving and food piled up in warehouses in the rear to mold.
Similar things happened in the two Russo-Prussian Wars. In fact, in the first Russo-Prussian War, the Russian army was also victimized by domestic bureaucrats.
“By the way, yesterday the British media also published news of the Russian army’s massacre in Central Asia, supposedly with photos.
If the news is true, then the situation in Central Asia is not as peaceful as the Tsarist government claims.”
At the news of the “massacre,” Franz’s brow froze. In the late 19th century, there were few reports of massacres around the world.
However, given the style of the Russian army, a few massacres would not be surprising. After all, the three Central Asian khanates still bear the name of traitors, treating traitors the Russians certainly want to retaliate.
If this news was not released by the British, then the credibility would be even higher.
It couldn’t be helped that the British were just not very temperate. Even if there are pictures and truth, the same can be faked.
It was nothing more than a change of uniform, and as long as it was politically necessary, Franz believed that John Bull could do it.
Although the massacre of the natives was not a big deal in these days, the damage to the country’s image was still great.
At the critical moment when the Anglo-Russian War was on the verge of breaking out, whoever had a better international image would be able to gain the support of international public opinion more easily in the war.
After a few moments of contemplation, Franz said seriously, “Send someone to verify the authenticity of the news as soon as possible, and the Propaganda Department to prepare for the work of public opinion diversion, so as not to let the massacre spread to us.”
Russia and Austria are allies, if the Russian massacre is actualized, Austria will also follow the public opinion scolding.
Internationally scolded is just a matter of time, Franz even if he wants to control, his hand can not reach so long.
But the domestic public opinion, must be given to control, must not happen public opinion kidnapping government decision-making strange things.
Throughout, Franz’s focus was on Austria itself. As for the trouble of the Russians, can that be considered trouble?
If it is not really not enough, he will act as a zealot, support the Central Asian people’s anti-aggression war.
……
St. Petersburg.
“What do you think should be done about the international smear campaign by the British against our international image?”
It was clear from the tone that Alexander III didn’t take this seriously.
Take the abuse as it comes, the Russian Empire has a tradition of taking abuse internationally anyway, the European world has been scolding them for centuries and life goes on as usual.
In Alexander III’s opinion whether the Russians had massacred in Central Asia or not was essentially unimportant.
The image of the Russian Empire in the European world was that of barbarians, which could not be reversed by a few words.
Barbarians massacred cities, completely normal operation. If the Russian army did not commit any crime in Central Asia in the fall, there would be a problem instead.
Foreign Minister Oscar Jimenez replied, ”Your Majesty, the massacre in the mouth of Britain happened in Central Asia, and the deaths were all indigenous pagans, the attention of the European world will not be too high.
If we explain it outright we will fall for the British’s evil trick, and no matter how much evidence we produce, there will be people who will be preoccupied with believing that the massacre was real.
How about doing the opposite, the British accuse us of massacres in Central Asia, we can also expose their atrocities in the Afghan region, atrocities in India ……
If we still can’t top that, then we’ll rehash old scores and drag all the colonial empires into the water to distract the pressure of international public opinion.”
Maybe other countries can accuse the Russians of massacres, only the British are not qualified, and what they did in the Afghan region is not much better than massacres.
In fact, in this age of worse than rotten, no one is much cleaner than anyone else. Every colonial empire was built on a mountain of corpses and blood, no exceptions.
Just because one rarely hears of massacres in these recent years doesn’t mean they don’t happen.
It was just that everyone had learned their lesson and knew to keep a low profile. The impact of massacres was so bad that it might have happened less often, but colonial massacres still happened repeatedly.
Alexander III nodded, explanations didn’t exist, his own family knew his own business, and everyone knew exactly how the Russian army’s military discipline was.
Maybe not as exaggerated as moving to massacre, but the occurrence of massacres is no longer normal, which is also tacitly authorized by the tsarist government.
From the moment the three Central Asian khanates stabbed Russia in the back, the tsarist government decided to retaliate, and the Russian army on the front line is nothing more than carrying out this will.
“The question of public opinion is a trifling matter that will not affect the ensuing war; the key is the situation in Central Asia.
Marshal Ivanov, how long will it take for the military to clean up the place and initiate the next step in the battle plan?”
Although not paying much attention to details, Alexander III still realized the instability of the situation in Central Asia.
It wasn’t like the Russian troops on the front line were insane and would only resort to extreme measures when the social order was out of control.
Under normal circumstances, at most, they would rob money and sex. There is not enough profit, eat enough to play the massacre.
Marshal Ivanov, who had been keeping his head down and trying to lower his presence, realized that he couldn’t hide and replied stiffly, ”Your Majesty, I can’t give an exact time with the current situation.
The main reason is that Central Asia is too big, and after defeating the enemy’s main force, there are a large number of stragglers roaming around and starting to wreak havoc in all directions. It will be difficult for us to find their hiding places for a while.
The Ministry of War plans to clear some of the area first, open up a safe passage to the Afghan region, and then turn back to deal with them after capturing the Afghan region.”
This is the truth, Central Asia is indeed too big, there are several million square kilometers, is not hundreds of thousands of Russian troops can care over.
Really want to clean up the place, without a few years time simply can not do, and the Russian Empire is now the most lack of time.
The British have taken control of the Afghan region, although there are still resistance organizations, but these people can hold out for how long, no one can guarantee.
Once the British cleaned up the guerrillas, and stabilized in the area, then want to seize Afghanistan from them will be difficult.
After a little thought, Alexander III slowly said: “Let’s do it! But the military should speed up and not miss the opportunity to fight.”
……
(End of chapter)