I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 601 See How High You Can Jump
There was no snow in Constantinople. The average daily maximum temperature was 20 degrees and the minimum temperature was only around 5 degrees. George had not used the winter clothes he prepared.

The lowest night temperature in the Kingdom of Serbia has dropped below zero degrees Celsius. Winter clothes are in short supply, and many soldiers are still wearing summer clothes, suffering terribly.

After repelling the German attack, Nikolai was able to take care of Serbia.

So Witte came to Constantinople as Nicholas' special envoy to learn about the situation.

Witte was very sad. He was kicked out of Petrograd after only four months as Minister of Finance.

"This is the situation. Even without the help of the alliance, the Kingdom of Serbia can defeat the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so Serbia will leave. This is a peaceful breakup."

George knew what Peter was thinking.

It is no secret that the Kingdom of Serbia has always coveted Bosnia and Herzegovina.

If Peter accepted George's command and allowed the armies of the Balkan countries to join the war against Austria, the result would be the same as the First Balkan War. Even if Bosnia and Herzegovina were captured, they would be divided up by all the Balkan countries.

So Peter wanted to eat alone.

"Without the help of the alliance, the Kingdom of Serbia could not have defeated the Austro-Hungarian Empire."

Witte couldn't even understand what it meant to be the finance minister; the situation in the Balkan League was too complicated for him.

Werther does have the ability, but he needs a relatively simple environment, such as East India, to fully display his ability.

"You need to make His Majesty Peter understand this as well."

George waited to see Peter's joke.

Now that the Austro-Hungarian Empire knew that the Kingdom of Serbia had withdrawn from the Balkan League, it was almost obvious what Conrad would do next.

Although the Austrian army could not defeat the Russian army, it had no problem defeating Serbia.

After the German army intervened, the defense in the Galicia direction was no longer a problem. Conrad would definitely concentrate his forces to attack Serbia to avenge his previous defeat.

Now all parties have their cards basically clear. As long as the German army does not attack, George's corps on the Tisza River front will not advance.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was undergoing a second mobilization, and this mobilization was an improvement over the previous one in that the number of officers speaking German increased sharply.

The proportion of German spoken within the Austrian army was already very high, but the proportion of Magyar and Czech spoken was also high.

During the second mobilization of the Austrian army, almost all officers spoke German.

Opportunities are truly fleeting.

A month ago, if the Serbian army had launched an attack on the Austrian Sixth Army as George requested, then the Serbian army would have had a real chance of winning.

Now that reinforcements had arrived, the Sixth Army's strength was rapidly recovering, and with an increase in the number of officers speaking German, the Sixth Army was stronger than ever.

Combining this information, George had reason to suspect that the officers who spoke German were actually Germans.

"George, have you ever thought that every decision you make will lead to the deaths of thousands of people?"

Weakness is Werther's greatest flaw.

If Witte had been as tough as Stolypin, his achievements would not have been much less than Stolypin's.

"No, you are wrong. Peter and Conrad were responsible for the deaths of these people."

George was indifferent. The Russian Empire had lost more than 70 troops since the war began.

Serbs are people.

Russians are not human?

Peter's fault was entirely his own. He did not get Nicholas' support in St. Petersburg, so he went to London in the hope of getting support from London.

I wonder how many rifles Peter can bring back this time.

After Peter left St. Petersburg, some rumors about George began to spread in St. Petersburg.

George did not have many troops directly under his command, with the four armies totaling less than 70.

If the Balkan Alliance is included, George will have a lot of troops at his disposal, with Romania alone mobilizing 50.

There are also tricks to Romania's mobilization.

The Romanian Kingdom certainly cannot support an army of 50. 15 is the limit.

So Romania mobilized 50 people, and as the big brother, the Russian Empire had to show its support in some way.

The Romanian army in Transylvania was indeed 15 men.

The situation in the Kingdom of Greece was similar to that in Romania. Before the war broke out, George claimed that he could mobilize 60 troops to participate in the war, but the actual number of troops mobilized was only 20.

The number of troops George could mobilize was only 10.

On the contrary, Bulgaria, which suffered a severe defeat in the Second Balkan War, had 20 people join the army in just one mobilization phase.

And George can mobilize these 20 people.

70, 15, 10, 20——

Excluding Serbia, the number of troops George could mobilize roughly reached 115 million.

The result of the Transylvanian Campaign showed that George had the power to inflict greater damage to the German-Austrian alliance if he wanted to.

So there were rumors in St. Petersburg that George had his own army.

This rumor was not necessarily spread by Peter.

More likely the French and the British.

Although the Schlieffen Plan failed, the process was full of ups and downs. If Moltke the Younger had enough troops, the result would be hard to predict. This was the first time that the Russian Empire saved France.

The results of the Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of the Masurian Lakes showed that there was still a gap between the Russian and German armies.

Due to the heavy losses suffered by the Northern and Western Fronts, the only unit still capable of launching an attack on the German-Austrian coalition was George's Corps.

After Falkenhayn became the Chief of the German General Staff, the German army would definitely launch a new offensive.

Now the people who most wanted George to attack were not Peter, but the British and the French.

George would certainly not submit to the interests of Britain and France.

Therefore, Britain and France could only launch a public opinion offensive to force George to attack.

George doesn't attack.

Anyway, there is the Kingdom of Serbia in the front.

Witte reminded George not to force the Kingdom of Serbia into the opposing camp.

George laughed.

Let’s not talk about whether the Austro-Hungarian Empire would accept the Kingdom of Serbia.

Brusinov was hoping that the Kingdom of Serbia would join the opposing camp.

The 11th Army, led by Brusinov, had been on the Serbia-Bulgaria border since the outbreak of the war.

If Serbia turns against them, Brusinov will lead his troops to invade Serbia, and then George can make a legitimate substitution.

Witte stayed in Constantinople for three days.

As expected, George was criticized by London.

Against the backdrop of the World War, George, as the commander of the theater, not only failed to give his allies due support, but instead expelled the Kingdom of Serbia, which had previously repelled the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from the alliance. This was simply a loss for his allies and a joy for his enemies.

George was very curious and wondered where London got the confidence from.

If the British were smart, they should say something George would like to hear, or give George enough benefits in exchange for George dealing a greater blow to the German-Austrian coalition on the battlefield, thereby reducing the pressure on the Western Front.

What does it gain by blaming George?
Can Nicholas remove George from his position?
Since George cannot be touched, there is no point in blaming him.

George was blunt and warned the British not to interfere in the decision of the Balkan League.

Subsequently, the Balkan League released news that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in contact with the Balkan League.

Conrad was indeed wrong. The Austro-Hungarian Empire's best way of expansion was not war, but marriage.

So if the old emperor was smart, he could invite Archduke Yuriev to serve as the crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Balkan problem would be solved.

After losing Transylvania, Conrad realized his mistake and corrected it, and indeed hoped to make contact with the Balkan League.

George certainly won't negotiate peace.

The purpose of releasing this news is to warn Britain not to talk nonsense, otherwise George will have plenty of ways to make the British uncomfortable.

After leaving London, Peter went to Paris.

In comparison, the French were much smarter. They only expressed sympathy and support for the Kingdom of Serbia, without mentioning the Balkan League and George at all.

The British were so happy because if the war went badly, they could always flee France.

Paris cannot be moved away, so where can the French escape to?
North Africa?

So when Joffre learned that Constantinople was short of rifles, he took the initiative to send 2 rifles to George despite his own extremely tight military supplies.

Look at their attitude.

Because Chong Xiafei was so loyal, the next time the German army attacked, George had to let Vasily and Andrei move.

While Peter was traveling around the world, Conrad was also busy.

After the second mobilization, the Austro-Hungarian Empire formed the Seventh and Eighth Army. The assembly areas of these two armies were both in Bosnia, obviously preparing for the attack on Serbia.

What frightened Alexander and Putnik was that this time Conrad not only concentrated nearly 30 troops, but also dispatched 305mm cannons produced by Skoda.

It's speechless to say that Skoda had the world's leading artillery, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire only ordered 12 guns because the price was too expensive.

The artillery equipped by the Austro-Hungarian Army were bronze cannons designed and produced in the 70s. They were all light field artillery, with no heavy howitzers.

In the Battle of Galicia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire suffered heavy losses. The artillery was far behind the Russian artillery in both power and range.

Now Conrad finally realized that if the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not pay attention to weapons and equipment, it would be doomed, so all the artillery ordered by the Austro-Hungarian Empire from Skoda were new artillery.

Before changing their uniforms, the Austrian army had already beaten the Serbian army badly.

After the Austrian army changed its equipment, the Serbian army could no longer withstand it.

On October 10, Conrad dismissed Potiorek from his post and personally came to Bosnia to command the war against Serbia.

With the previous experience of Potiorek, Conrad was finally able to cross the Rhine and launch an attack directly on Belgrade according to his plan.

Before Conrad could, the Germans launched the Battle of Ypres at the end of October.

Ypres was the last city in Belgium that had not yet fallen and was also the most important supply point for the British Expeditionary Force.

The German army launched the Battle of Ypres with the aim of mobilizing the French army and preparing for the next offensive.

(End of this chapter)