Chapter 889: Retardation
Chapter 871 Retardation
On September 21, 1889, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered the war letter to the British Minister in St. Petersburg, following the end of the First Near Eastern War, Britain and Russia once again went to war.
This time there was plenty of time, and the Russians launched their attack on the third day after the declaration of war, in full compliance with international law.
Of course, it wasn’t that the Tsarist government was following the rules. The main reason is that the Afghan region is deep inland, the British have not had time to lay wire telegraph, the fastest transmission of news will take more than a week.
London.
Inside the British government building, Prime Minister Gladstone frowned and asked, “Isn’t it said that the Russians are not ready for war, why did the war break out early?”
Britannia is not some iron naive, while making war preparations, it also did not forget to collect intelligence on the Russians’ war preparations.
Just yesterday, there were people who swore to Prime Minister Gladstone that the Russians would not be ready for war for at least three more months.
It is now late September, and it will not be three months before the Russian Empire is covered with ice and snow, and generally speaking the Tsarist government will not launch a war at this point in time.
Eventually the British government came to the conclusion that war would break out in March or April of the following year, and preparations for war proceeded at that pace.
Foreign Secretary George replied in a very depressed manner, “It is true that the Russians are not ready for war, and our intelligence officers lurking in the Russian Empire have carried out many confirmations.
The war broke out early, perhaps the Tsarist government sensed our plans and jumped the gun.”
There was no problem with the intelligence, and the British government’s judgment was logical, how could the Russians not follow the rules.
After this kind of thing happened, to be held responsible for the presence of all the people can not escape, Prime Minister Gladstone naturally will not go deeper.
After a few moments of contemplation, Prime Minister Gladstone asked uncertainly: “The Russians launched the war in advance, our troops in the Afghan region can hold?”
In recent decades, the wars between Britain and the European powers all ended in failure, even against the Afghan natives suffered heavy losses.
Now to go to war with the Russians, it is really difficult for Prime Minister Gladstone to raise his confidence in the Army that has this series of glorious war records.
Defeating the Russians is of course the optimal choice, but Prime Minister Gladstone does not think that the troops on the front line are that powerful, otherwise he would not have asked for more troops at home.
At this time, Prime Minister Gladstone had to be glad that he had thrown the question of whether or not to reinforce the army to the Parliament.
If it was because of the untimely reinforcement, resulting in heavy losses on the front line, the parliament also shared most of the responsibility.
Minister of War Rosario shook his head: ”The Russians are coming on strong, and they won’t rest until they capture the Afghan region.
The Russo-Prussian War is a lesson from the past, at its peak the Russians mobilized four to five million troops at one point, and the frontline combat troops were kept at two million.
Although Central Asia is not like Eastern Europe, the Russians can not put millions of troops, but put 300,000 to 500,000 troops are still able to do.
If the troops in Afghanistan are all elite land forces, I can guarantee that they will be able to hold Afghanistan and even have the strength to launch a counter-offensive.
But the problem is that most of our troops in Afghanistan are Indian colonial divisions with less than one-tenth of the combat power of the main force.
Unless the Russians commit no more than 200,000 troops to the attack, it will be difficult for us to take advantage.”
Is it possible for the Russians to commit less than 200,000 troops?
This is obviously impossible. In attacking the three khanates of Central Asia, the Tsarist government alone had successively invested more than 600,000 troops.
To fight with Britain over Afghanistan next, only a few tens of thousands, or a hundred thousand troops, unless the tsarist government was out of its mind.
After a pause, Rosario continued to add: “The war has already broken out, in view of the complex situation in the Afghan region, the Ministry of War proposes to expand sixty infantry divisions, twenty artillery regiments, two cavalry divisions ……”
Without waiting for Rosario to finish his sentence, Navy Minister Sir Astley Cooper Key forcefully interrupted, “Your Excellency is not joking, right? The army was just expanded by three infantry divisions not long ago, and the total army strength has reached a staggering three hundred thousand.
According to your War Ministry’s current expansion plan, the total strength is all set to exceed the one million mark.
As far as I know the Afghan region is mountainous and not at all conducive to the movement of a large army. The Russians will only put in three to five hundred thousand troops at most, and any more than that will be able to drag them to their deaths on logistics alone.
We have taken advantage of the first hand, the front line troops can rely on the terrain on the ground to build fortifications for defense, simply do not need much strength.
One million troops, is Your Excellency prepared to fight all the way from Central Asia to Moscow?”
No objections can’t be made, Britain’s military spending is not unlimited, if the army takes more, the navy will take less.
Because of the war in Afghanistan, the British government called off the arms race, the navy has long been dissatisfied.
Now the army is jumping out to grab resources under the banner of war, Sir Astley Cooper Key really can’t stand it!
As for the need for war, this is a fallacy in itself. Different styles of fighting require very different inputs of troops.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Xiaoji Childers: “Sir Astley is right, the Afghan battlefield simply does not require that many troops, nor do we have the capacity to support millions of troops fighting in Afghanistan.
Land forces are not our strong point in the first place, and a showdown with the Russians in the Afghan region is simply not realistic.
All we need is to hold the Afghan region and cut off the Russians from moving south, not have a showdown with the Russians in Central Asia.
For pure defense, the Indian Colonial Army could also be useful. We can have as many such troops as we want, even if they take more casualties, without any trouble, and at a much lower cost.”
It had been a lion’s share of money, and Rosario hadn’t expected the government to agree, and it was to be expected that there would be opposition.
“The two of you are afraid that you haven’t understood the seriousness of the problem, war is not a game, the enemy won’t follow our plans, the Russians proving it by starting the war early.
Troops at the front cannot fight forever, troops need to be rotated and replenished, we must have enough reserves.
The War Department is calculated according to 3:3:4, both into the front line of the combat troops of 300,000, in the Indian region of another 300,000 can be stationed at any time to reinforce, rotation, the domestic preparation of 400,000 troops to deal with emergencies.
In view of the casualties of the Russo-Prussian War, such a troop complement was actually very small and needed to be supplemented by the Indian colonial army.
The expansion of the army could not be accomplished in a day or two, while the situation on the battlefield was constantly changing, and we had to consider the worst-case scenario.
……”
Secretary of State for the Navy, Sir Astley Cooper-Key: “Absurd muse, the Army has to prepare for failure from the start, doesn’t it ……”
Seeing the argument escalate, Prime Minister Gladstone stopped it, “Enough! The Russians are hitting us, if we keep arguing everyone will be prepared to collect the bodies of the troops on the front line!
Order the Governor General of India to raise another half a million troops, and authorize Governor General Litton to send troops to reinforce the Afghan battlefield at any time according to changes in the battle situation at the front.
In addition, seven infantry divisions were drawn from the mainland, and one infantry division each from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to immediately reinforce the Afghan area.
The Army will immediately begin to expand, first by 400,000 troops, and later, if necessary, according to the actual situation.”
Originally, Prime Minister Gladstone wanted to reinforce twenty infantry divisions on the front line in one breath, but how could he not have that many troops at home?
Want to continue to increase troops in the mainland, then wait for the expansion of the army is completed, now can only let the Indian colonial army first top.
Expansion plan was cut at the waist, Rosario was prepared to continue to fight, but after scanning the expression of the crowd, he decisively chose to give up.
It was not easy to get everyone to agree to expand the army. If they overplayed their hand, it was possible that these guys would think that the army was too expensive and would have to fight the Russians with a cheap colonial army.
Don’t look at Rosario’s efforts to downplay the fighting power of the colonial army, but there are actually a few capable units in the British colonial system.
The fighting strength is not as good as the main force of the British army, that is, the colonial army weapons and equipment is too poor, really if you replace the same equipment, who is stronger or weaker is still an unknown.
The British government did not use these cheap troops with high combat power, not that we do not want to, mainly because of the fear of loyalty.
Pride of arms is not a joke, these strong fighting guys temperament is not as good as the Indian colonial army, a bad will be out of order.
The reasoning of raising a tiger, everyone still understands. Britain so many colonies, there is no place to do big situation, rely on this kind of caution.
……
(End of chapter)