I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 645: The Smart Academy

Unlike the reforms of Mikhail and Rodzianko, Kerensky's way of saving the empire was to overthrow the Tsarist rule and establish a democratic government similar to that of France in Russia.

It cannot be said that Kerensky was wrong. His ideals were good, but he did not think about whether the French system was suitable for Russia.

George did not pay too much attention to Kerensky. There were too many people like Kerensky in St. Petersburg at that time. They did not actually want to overthrow the rule of the Tsar, but wanted to be the "Tsar" themselves and transform Russia in their own way.

With the arrival of spring, reinforcements from Amur began to arrive in Constantinople.

This time the reinforcements were mainly Amurs, with a total force of more than 30.

George planned to add an army group to Brusinov so that Brusinov would be able to take over the whole of Croatia.

Vasily and Yankov also needed reinforcements. Shortly after the Russian army besieged the city, the defenders of Budapest contacted the Russian army, hoping to withdraw from the war peacefully.

It's actually surrender.

The prerequisite for surrender was that the Russian army withdrew from the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary.

The indulgence of the old emperor in Vienna gave the Hungarians an illusion. Charles IV (King of Hungary) probably thought that George would, like the old emperor, satisfy any demands of the Kingdom of Hungary in order to fight for the Kingdom of Hungary.

Vasily decisively rejected the Hungarians' wish and refused to accept their surrender.

You can surrender if you want.

George would accept the Hungarian surrender after first paying compensation to the Russian Empire for all losses incurred as a result of the war, then ceding Transylvania to the Kingdom of Romania and Croatia to the Kingdom of Bulgaria.

Transylvania and Croatia accounted for nearly half of the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary.

This condition was unacceptable to the Hungarians.

Vasily was not in a hurry. He and Andrei spent a leisurely winter in Budapest. They had nothing to do all day and would fire a few cannons at Budapest to torment the nerves of the Hungarians.

After the Russian offensive stopped, the German army gradually resumed its offensive in the direction of Verdun.

The German army used 1200 artillery pieces and bombers to drop poison gas bombs on the French positions.

The French resistance was fierce, and Joffre also mobilized 1500 artillery pieces to fight the Germans.

The French suffered from the caliber and range of their artillery.

The performance of French artillery in the early years was comparable to that of German artillery.

In 1897, the 75mm towed field gun known as "Miss Seven-Five" produced by the French Schneider Company changed the balance of power between the two sides.

Miss Qiwu is a rapid-fire cannon with a firing rate of up to 30 rounds per minute.

The rapid-fire gun produced by the Germans five years after the appearance of "Miss Seven-Five" had a firing rate of only six to seven rounds per minute.

The French army regarded "Miss Seven-Five" as a national treasure. While equipping it with large quantities of equipment, they also blocked Germany from using its technology.

The Germans were then forced to develop large-caliber, long-range, and high-powered artillery.

In close combat, "Miss Seven-Five" does have the advantage.

However, in large-scale battles, the firepower that the "Miss Seven-Five" could provide was far less than that of the large-caliber artillery equipped by the German army.

Due to insufficient artillery strength, the French army suffered heavy casualties. A division sent to the front line would be crippled within a week and had to retreat to the rear to rest.

Joffre endured the huge casualties of the French army, fought to the death, and constantly rotated troops. By May, the French casualties had reached 5.

Louis Bardot came to Constantinople again and begged George to launch an attack on Austria-Hungary to disperse the German forces.

The last time Louis Bard came to Constantinople, the way he communicated with George was not begging, but an order similar to that of a creditor to a debtor.

Now Louis Bardu finally understood that the one who owes the debt is the boss.

"In one month, at most, my troops will be ready to attack."

George really did not lie to Louis Bardu, the Balkan theater of operations would launch an offensive in June.

The goal of this offensive was to capture Budapest, Ankara, and Zagreb.

The above three regions were the capitals of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, as well as the capital of Croatia.

Let’s just say whether it’s of great significance or not!

Generally speaking, the occupation of the capital means the end of the war, and what follows is negotiation, compensation, cession of territory, and peace talks.

Louis Bar's eyes went dark and he almost fainted.

The French army was in a precarious situation and might not be able to hold out for even a week.

If the German army maintains its current attack intensity, the French capital may fall even earlier than George can capture the capitals of the Hungarians and Ottomans.

"Grand Duke, if you can launch an attack on the enemy within a week, our country will consider forgiving part of the loan to the Russian Empire."

Louis Barr has revealed his cards. Knowing George, he knows that this man is the kind of person who won't show his cards until he sees the rabbit.

The British were right, barbarians are barbarians, not civilized at all!
George smiled and said nothing.

What does the empire’s loan have to do with George? It wasn’t George who borrowed it. If you want to collect the debt, please go to St. Petersburg.

"We are going to order a batch of new rocket launchers from Amur to fight against the German army."

Louis Barr continued to give benefits.

George burst out laughing. Wake up! Why are you still making wishes at this time?

The French have been coveting the Amur rocket launcher for a long time. Rocket launchers are powerful, low-cost, easy to move, and can fire and run, with many advantages.

But it doesn't require much technical knowledge and can be imitated in minutes by the French.

At this time, you are still playing these little tricks and pissing George off. We will cut off your food and coal.

Although Britain and France could import resources from their colonies, the colonies' capacity to bear resources was limited.

In order to ensure their control over the colonies, Britain and France have always implemented a single economy in the colonies and controlled the economic development of the colonies.

Therefore, the resources that the colonies can provide to the mother country are very limited, and more strategic resources still have to be imported.

Last winter, as Britain increased its plundering of India, a large-scale famine broke out in India, and it is reported that more than 2000 million people starved to death.

Look carefully, it’s not 20, nor is it 200 million, it’s 2000 million!
Even so, the Indians did not rebel, so don't blame the British for looking down on the Indians.

After the outbreak of the war, France also increased its plunder of its North African colonies. Not only did it conscript a large number of colonial soldiers to fight in France, but it also increased colonial taxes by 2.5 times compared to before the war.

The major taxpayers in French colonies were actually the French who immigrated to the colonies.

It would be fine if they just exploited the indigenous people in the colonies.

If taxes are increased on the French, does that mean the French in the colonies are no longer human beings?
Since the beginning of this year, France has encountered increasing resistance in recruiting soldiers from its colonies. In addition, the Foreign Legion fighting in France has suffered heavy losses, low morale, and a lack of fighting spirit, making the situation increasingly unstable.

In this situation, France can only increase imports from the Russian Empire and the United States.

The United States and France are separated by the Atlantic Ocean. The journey is long and expensive, and French merchant ships also face the threat of German submarines.

The Austrian navy entrenched in the Adriatic Sea has been eliminated, French merchant ships can move freely in the Mediterranean, and the proportion of imports from Russia is increasing.

It should be noted that France had to pay in gold, not francs, to import supplies from the Russian Empire.

There is no need to even think about paying off debts.

Russians are not as easy to be deceived as they seem.

As long as there is an opportunity to take advantage of someone's misfortune, Russia will be more ruthless than anyone else.

Amur also benefited a lot from trade with France.

Amur has strong industrial strength and can provide all the strategic materials needed by France.

After the outbreak of the war, France imported materials from the Amur region worth more than 130 billion francs.

This was 1916 billion in 130.

And the payment was not made in francs, but in gold of equal value.

George still has to give face to the big customer.

George also has to fulfill his obligations as an ally.

Based on this premise, George and Louis Barr both reached a military procurement agreement, under which France would purchase a series of materials from the Amur, including aircraft, armored vehicles, artillery, shells, canned food, medicines, etc., with a total value of more than 100 billion francs.

100 billion francs may sound like a lot, but it is actually only about 4 million pounds.

But it is not a small amount, because France's military expenditure last year was only 27 billion pounds.

Louis Barr wanted to buy more, but George refused to sell.

The reason for not selling is that France can no longer produce more gold and its treasury has been emptied.

From this point, it is not difficult to see that this war can basically not be fought.

France's treasury was empty, and Germany's situation was not much better.

Germany mainly imports from the United States and some South American countries such as Argentina, which sympathizes with Germany.

The United States and Argentina were not good people either, and they also demanded that Germany pay in gold.

The French Revolution happened over a hundred years ago.

The Germans have only been unified for a few decades, and their primitive accumulation is far less than that of France.

Although the situation in France and Germany was not good, George had no right to laugh at the French and Germans because the situation in the Russian Empire was even worse.

In the early stages of the war, the Russian Empire did make some jokes due to its lack of preparation, which led to a shortage of supplies on the front lines.

With the promotion of the wartime economy to industry, the Russian army's dilemma of material shortage has been greatly improved. The situation where three people on the front line share one gun has never occurred in Russia.

At least not in today's Russia.

Russia's problem was that the newly mobilized troops had far less fighting spirit than the Cossacks at the beginning of the war.

At the beginning of this year, St. Petersburg continued its mobilization, with about 20 new recruits being trained in St. Petersburg.

Among these 20 people, it is unknown how many are Hebrews who have received training in the United States.

In March, after the Russian army stopped the offensive, Nicholas dispatched reinforcements from St. Petersburg to the front line. Some soldiers made demands, hoping to improve the soldiers' food and treatment, increase their salaries, and abolish punishments including the death penalty and corporal punishment.

General Yanushkevich, former president of the General Staff Academy, agreed to the soldiers' demands without hesitation.

In Januszkiewicz's view, these demands are reasonable and should have been abolished long ago.

(End of this chapter)