I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 638: I was ready to fight to the death, why did Your Majesty surrender first?
This winter, Germany began to implement food rationing.

Unlike the planned supply of the Kingdom of Bulgaria, Germany was forced to implement a food rationing system due to insufficient grain production.

Germany suffered a poor harvest this summer, with grain production down nearly 20% from previous years.

In peacetime, Germany imported grain from the Russian Empire every year to ensure domestic demand. When the two countries had trade disputes, the Russian Empire used the ban on the sale of grain as a means of retaliating against Germany's restrictions on the export of industrial products to the Russian Empire.

Now trade between the Russian Empire and Germany had been completely cut off, and it was impossible to import grain from the Russian Empire.

William II had hoped to harvest grain from Poland after occupying it to meet the domestic food shortage.

When the Russian army was defeated, young Nicholas finally did one thing right. The Russian army fortified their defenses and cleared the fields, preferring to burn the spring wheat that was about to be harvested rather than leave it for the Germans to harvest.

William II had no choice but to increase imports from the United States.

Americans also took the opportunity to raise prices, citing reduced food production this summer.

Europe's grain production decreased this summer, while the United States had a bumper harvest.

Due to multiple factors, Germany was forced to implement a food rationing system, giving priority to the army and factories, and civilians received only 400 grams of coarse grains per day.

Germany's food shortage has actually already begun to show up this spring.

To ensure the needs of the army, the German government issued an order this spring banning the feeding of grain to livestock.

The ban was strongly opposed by farmers.

The German government then ordered the slaughter of all boars.

About 900 million livestock were slaughtered en masse, and meat prices first dropped to an incredible level, then soared sharply and have remained high.

By this winter, there was no meat for sale in Berlin markets.

The situation in Austria-Hungary was not good either.

Last winter, about 1 horses were killed in Vienna to meet the demand for meat.

This spring, riots broke out in Vienna over food shortages.

The food riots in Berlin occurred five months later than in Vienna.

Last winter, food prices in Berlin rose by 130%. This winter, food prices have risen by 350% compared to last summer.

Compared with the rise in prices, residents' wages increased only slightly. The wages of German arsenal workers only increased by 78% compared to before the war, far behind the rate of price increases.

Compared with the poverty of the people, the number of millionaires increased significantly, and a considerable number of them were Hebrews who made a fortune from the national crisis.

This also laid the seeds for the future tragedy of the Hebrews.

Compared to Germany and Austria-Hungary, the Entente was in good shape.

The UK also began to implement food rationing this winter, but the variety of food supplies in the UK is still quite rich, including not only bread, but also butter and milk.

Butter has disappeared from Berlin and Vienna and cannot be bought at any price.

Cow's milk is only available in small quantities to pregnant women and infants.

Britain's material shortages were caused by German submarines, while France could obtain a steady supply of materials from its North African colonies through the Mediterranean.

The only thing France lacked was coal, because its coal-producing areas were occupied by Germany.

France can import coal from Russia to meet domestic demand.

The fertilizers needed by Germany were completely cut off, which seriously affected Germany's agricultural production.

Before the war, Germany imported 200 million tons of fertilizer each year, and 600 million tons of grain as livestock feed.

All these factors prompted William II to make up his mind that the war must be ended within the next year, otherwise Germany would collapse.

William II was very curious and didn't know where Hindenburg got the information.

"Two months ago, Grand Duke Yuriev's second son, together with Duke Yusupov's son and Grand Duke Pavlovich, killed Rasputin, the favorite of the Russian Queen. The Tsar sent Grand Duke Yuriev's second son into exile, which will definitely affect the relationship between the Tsar and Grand Duke Yuriev."

Hindenburg's judgment made William II frown.

When George married Anne, he was received by William II.

When Nicholas later married Alex, George accompanied Nicholas to Germany and was again received by William II.

William II was impressed by the deep affection between George and Nicholas.

So, will the Tsar and George become more and more distant because of the Queen, or even break up completely?

"Increase the intensity of the attack and tear St. Petersburg apart completely."

William II had many tricks up his sleeve, making it hard to guard against him.

After the war broke out, rumors spread throughout St. Petersburg that the Queen, the Grand Duchess from Germany, and even the Russian Chief of General Staff were all German spies.

To date, the only person who has been publicly executed for providing intelligence to Germany is Colonel Maia Saidov.

This colonel was a friend of the Chief of General Staff Sukhomlinov, who was implicated and resigned in disgrace.

George was unaware of William II's plans and was happy about the victory of the Allied fleet.

The German Air Force did not have the determination to fight to the death for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. After realizing that the Russian Air Force was powerful and invincible, the German Air Force withdrew overnight and abandoned the Austrian Navy.

The Austro-Hungarian Navy, without the protection of the air force, was determined to resist to the end, but did not get a chance to fight to the death. A naval port without air protection is like a tiger with its teeth pulled out, without any ability to resist.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire's anti-aircraft firepower had a limited range.

Russian Air Force bombers carried out high-altitude bombing on Pula beyond the range of Austrian air defense firepower.

At this time, the Allied fleet was approaching Pula and was about to launch a ground attack on Pula.

Austrian Navy submarines set out to attack the Allied fleet, but encountered Russian submarines and light cruisers equipped with sonar.

On November 11, the outer artillery positions of Pula were basically destroyed by the Russian Air Force.

On the 2nd, the Allied fleet bombarded the port of Pula.

In the early morning of the 3rd, the Austrian Navy installed bombs on all warships and evacuated.

At 3 a.m. on the 11rd, the Austrian army surrendered to the Allied fleet after blowing up all its warships.

The old emperor will probably regret it when he learns the news.

If the Austrian army had known not to invest huge sums of money in building dreadnoughts and instead allocated more resources to the army, it would have performed better.

George also regretted that if he had known this would happen, the construction of the Queen Maria-class battleship should not have started at all.

The planned cost of the "Queen Maria" class battleship is 2200 million rubles. A total of five ships will be built, with a total cost of at least 1.6 million rubles.

Don’t ask why it is 1.6 million, it’s the characteristic of the empire.

There are now two Queen Maria-class ships in service, and another three are under construction. However, due to intermittent funding and slow progress, their service is nowhere in sight.

Before Alexei had time to digest the news of victory, he caught a cold while accompanying Nicholas to inspect the army. He sneezed too hard and his nose started bleeding.

The accompanying doctors tried every possible means to stop Alexei's bleeding, but failed.

Nikolai had to take Alexei by train to a field hospital, where he was treated by doctors sent by Amur.

On the way to the field hospital, Alexei fainted twice on the train due to excessive blood loss. Nikolai prayed to God to save Alexei all the way.

The doctor used hemostatic forceps to burn the broken blood vessels and finally stopped the bleeding.

When the news reached St. Petersburg, Alex was heartbroken and attributed the accident to God's punishment on the empire.

"The Queen has not forgotten Rasputin. She said that if Rasputin is not killed, the Crown Prince will not be harmed."

Christie spoke up for Alexander, saying it was clearly an accident.

"Don't tell Sasha yet—"

George took the cold approach; he was concerned about Nicholas' attitude.

George has given up on treating the Queen. No matter what he does, unless Rasputin is resurrected, the relationship between George and the Queen can be repaired.

Nicholas is the key.

After Nikolai became commander-in-chief, he moved his headquarters from Minsk to the small town of Moilefo and spent most of his time on the front line.

Nicholas kept inspecting the troops, hoping to boost morale and repel the German army.

This was Alexei's first close encounter with Russian troops.

In early November, Nikolai and Alexei were in Riga, inspecting the Siberian Sniper Regiment, which had performed well in the Battle of Warsaw.

When Nicholas asked how many men had served in the unit since the outbreak of the war, only six of the 1200 officers and soldiers present raised their hands.

Alexei was impressed by the brutality of the war and began to realize how many people were bleeding and sacrificing for the empire.

It was also the first time that Nicholas felt the cruelty of war.

When the cold numbers on the battle reports turned into living people, the weak side of Nicholas' character once again dominated, and he began to doubt the correctness and necessity of this war.

If George was with Nicholas, he would tell Nicholas that this war was related to the fate of the empire, and even if it cost the most painful price, as long as he could lead the empire to win the final victory, Nicholas would become the greatest tsar in history.

But now, Nicholas is only surrounded by Mikhail and Kirill, who is the Deputy Minister of the Navy.

Kirill is the eldest son of Grand Prince Vladimir. Before Alexei was born, Kirill was the third in line to the throne.

Now if Mikhail does not find a way to regain the inheritance rights, Kirill will still be the third in line.

The second one was Kirill's father Vladimir.

It is not impossible for Mikhail to restore his inheritance rights, it just depends on whether he can be ruthless enough.

Mikhail suggested negotiating with Germany and withdrawing from the war.

Kirill suggested ordering the Balkan theater to launch a full-scale attack on Austria-Hungary, forcing Austria-Hungary to withdraw from the war, and then negotiate with Germany.

Nicholas was hesitant. In his subconscious, he knew that negotiation was not a good solution, but he could not come up with a better plan.

Nicholas had never been a decisive person, so he convened a royal meeting to seek the opinions of important imperial officials on whether to negotiate with the Germans.

There are no secrets in St. Petersburg.

So when the news that Nicholas wanted to negotiate with the Germans came out, the whole world was shocked.

(End of this chapter)