I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 651 Abyss
A new official has three things to do when he takes office. If he fails to get the first one started, it will be difficult to carry out future work.

This is why Januszkiewicz has realized that abolishing the death penalty is wrong, but cannot change it.

Ruzysky and Alexeev, one is a man of former Chief of General Staff Sukhomlinov, and the other is a man of former Commander-in-Chief Nikolai the Younger.

Both of them have lost their power now, so Ruzysky and Alexeev only dared to write letters and did not dare to openly disobey Yanushkevich's orders.

It would have been fine if Vasily had executed the deserters, but he even dared to arrest the people sent by Yanuschkevich. This was rubbing Yanuschkevich's face on the ground, and Yanuschkevich would never let it go.

Constantine sent a telegram to George that night, asking for his help.

George telegraphed Yanushkevich directly, asking him what he meant and why he sent people to arrest Prince Suvorov.

Yanushkevich quickly replied that he did not want to arrest Duke Suvorov, but asked Duke Suvorov to go to the Russian military headquarters on the northern front to discuss related matters of subsequent coordinated operations.

After taking Budapest, the Balkan theater and the Russian troops on the northern front successfully joined forces, and it was only natural that they would carry out coordinated operations.

George reminded Januszkiewicz to focus on his own work and not to get involved in the Balkan war zone.

The Russian Empire was different from Germany. The General Staff was the brain of the German army's combat command, and the front-line commanders were the executors. The Chief of the General Staff had the final say on how to fight.

The Russian Chief of General Staff has very little power. The theater commander has the final say on how to fight, and the Chief of General Staff is only responsible for logistics coordination.

During the Sukhomlinov era, there was Ivanov on the northern front, who had some influence on the front and could compete with little Nicholas.

When it came to Yanushkevich, the power of the Chief of the General Staff was further reduced.

Yanushkevich couldn't afford to offend George, let alone Nicholas, so he resigned from the post of Chief of the General Staff in anger and refused to serve him anymore.

Nicholas failed to retain him, so he appointed Alexeev to replace Yanushkevich as Chief of the General Staff.

Like Verdun, the Somme River battle gradually turned into a positional war after losing its suddenness. Both sides continued to increase their troops. By early August, the British and French forces had 8 divisions participating in the battle, and the German army had increased to 51 divisions. Both sides mobilized nearly a thousand aircraft and engaged in fierce fighting in the Somme River area.

William II's patience with Falkenhayn finally ran out, and in early August, Hindenburg replaced Falkenhayn as Chief of the German General Staff.

The first thing Hindenburg did after taking office was to transfer Ludendorff, who had performed well on the Eastern Front, to Verdun as commander-in-chief, giving him full responsibility for the Battle of Verdun.

This is interesting.

When Falkenhayn was the Chief of the General Staff, Hindenburg and Falkenhayn sang a different tune and insisted on adjusting the direction of attack from the Western Front to the Eastern Front, first defeating the Russian Empire and then turning back to attack Britain and France.

After becoming Chief of the General Staff, Hindenburg did not overturn Falkenhayn's decision, but transferred Ludendorff to Verdun.

After Hindenburg's comeback, Ludendorff began to serve as Hindenburg's chief of staff. The two of them complemented each other perfectly and defeated young Nicholas on the northern front.

If the direction of attack was to be changed from the Western Front to the Eastern Front, Hindenburg would not have transferred Ludendorff to the Western Front.

As soon as Hindenburg succeeded Falkenhayn, he demanded an immediate halt to the offensive in Verdun, adjustments to the front line, accumulation of strength, and waiting for a more appropriate time to launch another offensive.

William II disagreed.

The Battle of Verdun broke out in February and lasted until August. The German army consumed countless supplies and suffered more than 2 casualties. If they had given up without any gain, it would have affected the prestige of William II.

Hindenburg was smarter than Falkenhayn.

Since William II was determined to fight, Hindenburg did not object. The shelling continued, but the intensity of the ground forces' attacks suddenly dropped.

After Ludendorff arrived in Verdun, he was unable to adjust the combat troops according to his own will.

The main combat force in the Battle of Verdun was the German Fifth Army, also known as the "Crown Prince's Army", with German Crown Prince Wilhelm as honorary commander-in-chief.

Born in 1882, Crown Prince Wilhelm is 34 years old this year. At the beginning of the World War, Crown Prince Wilhelm led the Fifth Army stationed on the German-French border, withstood the first wave of French attacks, and bought time for Moltke the Younger to implement the "Schlieffen Plan."

As time went by, Crown Prince Wilhelm's desire for power grew stronger and stronger, and he gradually gained actual control of the Fifth Army.

This is kind of funny.

Crown Prince William's military rank was only Colonel -

Well, Russia has no right to laugh at Germany, because Nikolai's rank is also colonel.

Ludendorff wanted Crown Prince Wilhelm to leave the front and return to Berlin to play a greater role.

Crown Prince Wilhelm did not want to return to Berlin.

William II was in his prime, in good health and enjoyed every meal. If the Crown Prince returned to Berlin and lived under the shadow of William II, it would be better for him to stay at the front line and be free.

Although William II was in good health, the old Emperor of Austro-Hungary could no longer hold on.

The old emperor was born in 1830 and ascended the throne in 1848. This December will mark the 12th anniversary of his accession to the throne.

In an era when the average life expectancy was only 35 years, Joseph I was emperor for 69 years. People are really different.

As the longest-reigning monarch in Europe, his life was as sad as his empire.

The old emperor's wife was Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria. They had four children. After six years of happy marriage, problems arose in the marriage between Joseph I and Elizabeth in the seventh year.

That year the old emperor contracted syphilis and passed the disease on to his children.

After that, the marriage between Joseph and Elizabeth existed in name only. After losing the warmth of family, Joseph focused his main energy on state affairs.

Unfortunate blows came one after another.

First, Joseph's only son, Archduke Rudolf, the Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, committed suicide with his lover.

The reason why Rudolf found a lover was that he infected his wife with syphilis, causing her to lose her fertility.

Nine years later, Queen Elizabeth was assassinated. The murderer originally wanted to kill the King of Italy, but because he had no money to buy a train ticket to Italy, he killed Elizabeth.

After Archduke Rudolf committed suicide, Joseph chose Archduke Ferdinand as heir to the empire.

In 1914, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife became the fuse of the world war.

The successive blows made this old man in great pain. He once said to Conrad: All are dead, only I am not dead.

Conrad would speak, saying that Austria-Hungary needed an emperor, so God did not take him away.

Joseph replied: Yes, yes, life is so lonely!

In mid-August, news from Vienna indicated that the old Emperor Joseph had fallen into a coma frequently due to health reasons and would soon die.

After the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Archduke Otto Franz's son Karl was made Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary.

This is another typical example of a person with great ambitions but little talent. We will talk about his glorious deeds later.

If Archduke Ferdinand were still alive, Karl would have no chance of becoming the Emperor of Austro-Hungary, so after Karl married Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma in 1911, he had four children within five years.

For Karl, becoming the crown prince was a dream come true.

However, Karl was not ready to become the crown prince, so after the old emperor was unable to handle government affairs, Karl began to govern the country as regent.

This is why the Austro-Hungarian Empire has done almost nothing in the past year.

After Alexeev became the Chief of the General Staff, he sent a telegram to George, hoping that the Balkan theater would take advantage of the chaos in Austro-Hungary to increase its attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

George refused to attack, citing the approaching winter.

George didn't know what was going on with these generals of the empire.

It is obviously in the best interests of the empire for the fisherman to benefit from the quarrel between the crane and the clam, but whether it was Nicholas the Younger, Nicholas, or even Alexeev, the first thing they did after taking office was to attack.

Now that Germany and the Anglo-French coalition were fighting each other on the Western Front, the Empire took this opportunity to make adjustments, restore its strength, appease the army, build defenses, and so on.

With so many pressing tasks, which one is not more important than offense?

Alexeev called George back and said that the position of the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Karl was not clear. If they could take this opportunity to force Austria-Hungary to withdraw from the war, the Russian army could concentrate all its forces on the northern front.

If the two could be merged, Alexeev was willing to transfer all power to George and cooperate with George to become the commander-in-chief of the Russian army.

George finally moved.

At the same time, I feel heavy-hearted.

Military generals have always been Nicholas' most staunch supporters. No matter what the Grand Duke of St. Petersburg and officials did, the military generals' support for Nicholas was Nicholas' greatest confidence.

Alexeev once served as Nikolai the Younger's chief of staff.

Little Nikolai is now in the Caucasus Military District.

It would have been fine if Alexeev had no contact with little Nikolai.

If there is -

How could there not be?

Before George called Alexeev back, news came from Crimea.

That spring, the court ruled that the marriage between Nicholas' sister, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, and Prince Peter Alexandrovich of Einstein was invalid.

Olga then became engaged to Nikolai Kulikovsky, an officer of non-royal origin.

As it was also a marriage between a noble and a commoner, the Queen Mother and Nicholas agreed to it very readily without setting up any obstacles.

Olga was so miserable that everyone wanted her to have a happy second marriage.

So a month ago, all members of the imperial family, except Nicholas and Alex, gathered in Crimea to prepare for Olga's wedding.

Nikolai was at the front and couldn't get away.

As the queen, Alex actually ignored her sister-in-law's wedding. This not only fully proved that Alex's royal conflicts were irreconcilable, but also caused a more serious consequence.

George received a secret report that the royal family members headed by Mikhail decided to force Nicholas to abdicate and pass the throne to Crown Prince Alexei, with Mikhail serving as regent.

At the same time, George also received news that the nobles and officials of St. Petersburg had another plan, which was similar to the royal plan. The difference was that the nobles and officials of St. Petersburg wanted Nicholas the Younger to be regent.

(End of this chapter)