Chapter 887: Outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War
Chapter 870 – Outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War
London
The British Government, which had with difficulty summoned up courage and made up its mind to do battle with the Russians, was directly confused by Lieutenant-General Patrick’s telegram for help.
Putting down the telegram in his hand, Prime Minister Gladstone asked suspiciously, “Aren’t there already 400,000 troops at the front? Why do you need reinforcements?”
It wasn’t that Prime Minister Gladstone was fussing, it was really that Britannia had never played a strategic game on such a large scale in its history.
Before the war even broke out, the front line had gathered more than 400,000 troops, and if another twenty infantry divisions were reinforced, the total force would be approaching the 700,000 mark.
A localized war to play so big, completely beyond the scope of Prime Minister Gladstone’s cognition.
Minister of War Rosario: “Your Excellency Prime Minister, the Ministry of War has carefully studied Lieutenant General Patrick’s telegram requesting for reinforcements, and can basically determine that his request is reasonable.
The Russians are coming on strong, and according to intelligence they have already invested half a million troops in Central Asia, and the possibility of continuing to add more troops behind them cannot be ruled out.
Because of the distance, the enemy’s rate of reinforcement will be much faster than ours, and it is necessary to guarantee sufficient troops on the front line.
Otherwise, in the event of an unexpected situation, we can only count on the support of the Viceroyalty of India. With all due respect, the Viceroyalty of India does not have the capacity to cope with emergencies.
Once we go to war with the Russians, the Indian region will also become unstable. Maintaining the stability of the Indian region is the most important job of the Viceroy of India.
If there is no preparation in advance, when the war breaks out, it is irresponsible to suddenly draw too many troops from the Indian region into the front line.
Secondly, the Afghan region has not been peaceful, and the locals have colluded with the Russians to rebel against our rule.
As the Afghan region is mountainous, the base camps of the resistance organizations are located in the deep mountains and forests, and our troops in the Afghan region have carried out a number of round-ups, but we have not been able to eliminate them all together.
Once the war with the Russians breaks out, these people will jump out again to wreak havoc, and we must leave enough troops behind to deal with contingencies and keep them from colluding with the Russians.
……”
There were a whole lot of reasons, summarized in one, that is, let’s expand the army quickly, the front line can’t wait any longer.
Even though it has always been raised by a stepmother, the Army has its own pursuits. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand the army, no matter what, people will not give up.
Rosario, who was born as a civil official, naturally knows the twists and turns here, but as the Minister of War, his ass has already decided his position.
If this time to tear down the military’s stage, then the back of the work also do not need to do, the following people have to have a way to pit him to death.
The Minister of Finance Xiaoji Childers sneered, “Your Excellency, you should know the situation in Afghanistan. The front line has to maintain 700,000 troops to fight, how many people is your Ministry of War prepared to use to guarantee the logistics?
One million or two million, or maybe three million, or even four million?”
This is the most realistic question, Afghanistan is a landlocked country, food cloth and other supplies may be able to let the Indian Viceroy District out, but weapons and ammunition must be transported from the mainland.
If you add up all the personnel for production and transportation, without a few million people to serve the troops at the front, you simply can’t afford to support a laborious expedition of this scale.
Minister of War Rosario shook his head, ”These problems do exist, but we have no choice do we?
The Russians don’t care if we have difficulties, as long as they are ready, the Russians will fight.
For the sake of India’s security, we have to take the initiative to fight the war. If we don’t fight a war in defense of Afghanistan now, we will have to fight a war in defense of the Ganges in the future.
As for the difficulties we face now, they are not without a way of overcoming them; the last thing we need is labor.
Directly from the Indian region to recruit laborers is it, the highest part of the human cost is nothing more than the domestic production, transportation process, bite the bullet and insist on a little bit will be over.
With the financial situation of the Russian Empire, it is impossible for them to compete with us for the Afghan region for a long time.
As long as we defeat the Russians once or twice, so that they realize the gap between the strength of the two sides, the latter problem will be easy to handle.”
Smashing money, this had to be done.
The Russian Empire was not weak, the biggest problem was in the finances, and it didn’t make sense for the wealthy Britannia to let go of this obvious loophole, not to fight with them in terms of finances, and run off to play Armageddon.
Stud’s all of a sudden to play Armageddon, seemingly majestic, in fact, is to carry the head in the waist dance, once the failure of the country’s fortunes to take in.
There is no India’s Sunset Empire, is still considered a Sunset Empire? I’m afraid it won’t take three to five years, will have to abdicate.
This is also the most tangled place, send troops to reinforce too much money, the big British will also feel meat pain; do not send troops to reinforce, but also worried about the front line out of control, the Russians will threaten the security of India.
After hesitating for a few moments, Prime Minister Gladstone slowly said, “Let’s vote collectively, and report the results of the final resolution to Parliament.”
In the case of the situation is not clear, but also not willing to bear the responsibility alone, collective resolution is undoubtedly the best choice.
Even if there were certain problems with the resolution, it would still be a democratic result that would minimize everyone’s responsibility.
As for the price, naturally, the efficiency drops that much. The cabinet can make a resolution immediately, but when it comes to the parliamentary discussion, no one knows how much time it will take.
But one thing is certain, as soon as the Anglo-Russian war broke out, the efficiency of the British Parliament will also be passively increased.
……
St. Petersburg, the recent period of time the front line of the good news frequently, Alexander III’s mood is also better.
The tsar of the fighting nation is also not good to be, must always pay attention to the front line of the war situation changes.
In case the front line suffered a defeat, the tsar must be the first time to make amends, so as not to let the matter become a big deal, affecting their own reputation.
Alexander III asked, “The passage south to Afghanistan has been opened, now it depends on the logistics department, how much longer will you be able to transport the supplies to the front line?”
Logistics Minister Argent hurriedly replied, “In at most two more months, we will be able to deliver all the planned strategic supplies, to the combat troops at the front line.”
I don’t know since when, going south to India has become the most important state policy of the Tsarist government, and all the strategic plans, are centered around this core.
At such a critical time, Argent did not dare to compromise. Even if he is dissatisfied with the Russian army on the front line, he does not dare to make things happen here.
Otherwise, once a mistake is made on the battlefield, the tsar will also kill people, and even without the tsar’s hand, the domestic interest groups will first shut him up forever.
Alexander III frowned, then shook his head, ”No, the speed is still too slow.
We are making preparations, and the British are not idle. The British Parliament is discussing whether or not to reinforce the Afghan region, and once the enemy’s main reinforcements arrive, it will be difficult for this war to end in a short period of time.”
There are no secrets in the British Parliament, and any news of value that enters here will appear in the London papers in the shortest possible time.
It is published in the newspapers, and the Czarist government, no matter how weak its intelligence capacity, will receive the news.
In order to be able to make quick work of the war and not get into the kind of stalemate that characterized the Russo-Prussian War, Alexander III was certainly in a hurry.
After wandering from side to side in his mind, Argent gritted his teeth and said, “Your Majesty, the attack can actually be advanced.
It’s not like the troops fighting on the front line can consume all the supplies in a single day. Based on the current material reserves of the troops in Central Asia, they are fully capable of supporting more than forty days of continuous combat.
During this period, we will also have supplies arriving one after another. The actual duration of combat that the frontline troops can support will be a little longer.
As long as the frontline troops don’t get greedy, our logistics will be able to keep up and there won’t be any problems.”
Theoretically, there was no problem at all with Argent’s statement.
The front line had a part of the supplies in reserve, and the logistics department would then deliver the supplies in batches, so as long as they were well connected there would be no problems, and there was absolutely no need to wait for the supplies to be all in place.
However, these are theoretical. If the actual operation was carried out, the organizational ability of the tsarist government would be tested.
The military asked for half a year’s worth of combat supplies in advance before launching a full-scale attack, in addition to the need to rest and reorganize the troops after the Central Asian War, more or less trust the domestic bureaucrats.
In case there is a problem in any part of the transportation process, the supplies are a step slow, or the wrong place of shipment, are enough to take the life of a troop.
At that time, even if all the responsible persons were pulled out and clicked off, it would not be of any value to the general situation.
After contemplating for a while, Alexander III, who was somewhat moved, confirmed again, “Can the Logistics Department really guarantee that the supplies will arrive on time?”
Guarantee does not exist, all engaged in logistics know, there are too many accidents, especially the force majeure of nature.
Argent replied: “The Ministry of Logistics will try to ensure that most of the supplies will arrive on time, but there is no way to guarantee the specifics of each unit.
Apart from the military informing us of the battle plan in advance, the Logistics Department makes preparations in advance to make it possible to keep up with the pace of the frontline troops.”
Hearing this explanation, Alexander III was not worried but pleased. As long as the total supply was sufficient, any delay in supplies for individual units was a minor problem.
The battlefield was ever-changing; today the troops were stationed in the east, tomorrow they might go to the west, and the day after that they might change places again.
In the absence of radios, once the logistical transportation convoys departed, the only way to contact them was to chase them on horseback, and it was normal that they could not be coordinated.
After a pause, Alexander III said cautiously, “I will give you another half a month to transport as many supplies as possible to the front line, we cannot miss this war opportunity.”
Seeing the Tsar’s resolute attitude, Marshal Ivanov wanted to speak. He always felt that there was something wrong here, but he couldn’t find out what the problem was.
……
(End of chapter)