I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 834 Chicken Ribs and Meat Buns
After the civil war ended, Russia never participated in any war again, and enjoyed a long period of peace.

How to maintain the combat effectiveness of the army in peacetime has always been a major problem for all countries. Russia has tested it through exercises and the results can only be described as neither good nor bad.

After all, exercises are exercises and cannot fully test the army's emergency response capabilities when dealing with emergencies. Nicholas' tragedy sounded the alarm for George that he must strengthen the management of the army, especially senior officers.

Russians have a very bad habit, which is to just be good enough.

The performance of the car doesn't have to be good enough, as long as it can run.

Yuri smokes, drinks, and beats his wife, but he is loyal to his friends, so Yuri is a good person.

According to this logic, it does not seem to be an unforgivable sin for the troops to be a few days late, after all, it is just an exercise.

George pursues perfection and strives to do everything to perfection. If you want to get by, you should not stay at your job. In the words of Guchkov: The opportunities you have are what countless people dream of.

In other words, even if you don't want to do it, there are plenty of people who will do it.

Vasily also noticed this problem. Just two days into the exercise, he dealt with three generals in succession.

"Don't think that you can rest on your laurels just because you shed blood for the country. If you want to rest on your laurels, you can do so. Just file for retirement right away. Your pension will still be generous."

Vasily was furious at the meeting of all officers and threatened to deal with any incidents of corruption without any leniency.

The three newly promoted generals are all under 40 years old. They are highly educated and have participated in world wars. Most importantly, they are enterprising, unlike some old guys who are greedy for power and just want to eat and wait for death.

Runev is still grieving for Nicholas.

The Fu Division is the ace unit of the Warsaw Military Region. The fact that Nicholas can serve as the commander of the Fu Division fully demonstrates his ability.

It is a loss to the Warsaw Military District that such a battle-hardened warrior committed suicide because he was late.

However, Runev did not blame Vasily. Soldiers are the most important tools of a country and no mistakes are allowed. He can only be strict with himself.

The influence of Nicholas' suicide is still fermenting. All participating officers and soldiers are in high spirits and have a clearer understanding of the army.

In the old army of the Imperial Russia era, the nobles who came to the army to gild themselves could drink all night and dance all night without feeling tired. Military law only applied to soldiers, and doctors were not subject to punishment.

Although the army now seems ruthless, it provides fairer opportunities for everyone, and the mental outlook from top to bottom has suddenly been renewed.

As reflected in the exercise, the participating troops were full of murderous intent, which made the Polish troops on the other side of the wall tremble with fear.

Unlike the Russian army, which has begun to form armored forces, the Polish army is still mainly composed of cavalry. Both the level of weapons and equipment and the level of training are one level lower than those of the Russian army.

It was not that Piłsudski did not want to form an armored force, but that he could not afford it.

Poland is still an agricultural country and has no ability to start industrialization. It has only relied on the help of Britain to barely form a cavalry of more than 20 people. The armored forces are purely imaginary.

Even Britain has not yet formed an armored force.

The Warsaw Military District exercises have made the whole of Poland feel like they are facing a formidable enemy. After all, Russia has a previous record of this, and if they take the opportunity to provoke a war, it could end up being a war that will destroy the country.

Well, it’s not that it’s not possible, it’s definitely possible.

A body of flesh and blood may be able to block a river, but it can never withstand a torrent of steel.

At least the Polish people's flesh and blood can't withstand it.

The new type of armored vehicle equipped by Russia has a combat weight of more than 40 tons and a maximum road speed of 40 kilometers per hour. Its weapon system is a 75mm cannon, a coaxial machine gun, and a dual-purpose machine gun.

The Warsaw Military District has 180 such armored vehicles.

Poland had only 50 armored vehicles in the whole of Poland, 15 of which were Renaults provided by France and the other 35 were Mark IVs provided by Britain.

"So, what's the point of us staying here?"

Kaminski, deputy commander of the Polish 4th Cavalry Division, looked at the torrent of steel through the telescope and felt completely despair.

During the world war, the role of armored vehicles was only to assist in combat, whether in offense or defense, they were in a supporting position.

The Russian armored forces that were performing the scene did not send out accompanying infantry. Only armored vehicles and fighter-bombers whizzing past appeared in the camera.

A Russian fighter-bomber appears to have inadvertently crossed the border and entered Polish airspace.

The pilot did not take it seriously at all and circled in Polish airspace before flying away, completely disregarding Poland's dignity.

Commander Camille said nothing, his face gloomy.

If Russia deliberately provoked a war, the 8,000 cavalry of the 4th Division would be unable to stop the Russian armored vehicles.

"God bless Poland——"

Chief of Staff Nikola made the sign of the cross on his chest. It was the only thing he could do.

When the Warsaw Military District began its maneuvers, Polish President Ignacy Mościcki was visiting London. Ignacy Mościcki, a chemist who graduated from the Riga Technical University and held a patent for the cheap industrial production of nitric acid, was recommended by Piłsudski to become President of Poland in 1926.

As Piłsudski's puppet, Ignacy's only task was to raise military funds for Piłsudski. The aid from Britain was an important reason why the Polish government could survive until now.

Against the backdrop of the economic crisis, the British government was unable to take care of itself and reduced its aid to Poland, which caused Ignacy's panic.

"Mr. President, I believe that the Polish government and the great Polish people can overcome the crisis through their own efforts. You have the ability to do so."

McDonald only gave a boost, but did not provide any assistance at all.

Britain hopes that Poland can become a thorn between Russia and Germany, so it continues to provide aid to Poland.

Since the end of World War II, Britain's aid to Poland has lasted for ten years, with less than satisfactory results.

The Poles were also disappointing. Not only did they fail to achieve what Britain wanted, but they also placed a heavy financial burden on the British government, which led to a continuous decline in Britain's expectations of Poland.

Ignacy had no choice. Poland had too many problems and they could not be solved in a short period of time.

Poland did not gain independence through its own capabilities, but through the Paris Peace Conference. And it was not completely independent, as Warsaw was still occupied by Russia.

Poland is a country that was forcibly put together at the Paris Peace Conference. The reason why Russia agreed to the establishment of Poland was only to weaken Germany and Austria. A strong Poland was not in Russia's interests, so Russia supported Germany and ignored Poland, which was so close to it.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, if the financial crisis is not alleviated, Poland can only seek help from other countries."

The only thing Ignazi can rely on now is Britain's sunk costs.

Ignacy meant that if Britain didn't give money, Poland would have to cling to Russia.

Regardless of whether it can be achieved or not, if Poland really does this, Britain’s investment in Poland over the past decade will be wasted.

Now it was MacDonald's turn to have a headache, as Poland was an important tool for Britain to implement its continental balance policy.

After France and the United States completely cut off trade, their relations with the United Kingdom also began to become distant. Currently, the United Kingdom’s only ally on the European continent is Poland.

If Poland also sides with Russia, Britain will be isolated in Europe.

What made MacDonald uncomfortable was that whether to increase aid to Poland was not decided by him but by Parliament.

The current speaker in Parliament is former Prime Minister and Privy Councillor Stanley Baldwin.

What made it even more difficult for MacDonald to accept was that even within the Labour Party, no consensus could be reached on whether to provide aid to Poland due to strong opposition from Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden.

When the economic crisis broke out, MacDonald tried to stimulate economic growth through infrastructure, but was opposed by Philip Snowden because the British government had to issue bonds to invest in infrastructure.

If the British government wants to aid Poland, it will also have to borrow money.

"It has been proven that our aid to Poland has not achieved the desired goal. Even if we increase our aid to Poland, it is impossible for Poland to meet our requirements. In this case, we should stop the loss in time."

Philip Snowden is not optimistic about Poland. No matter how much money is given to Poland, it will be wasted. Poland can no longer fulfill the purpose of containing Russia. Its only function is to disgust Russia.

"Poland is our only ally around Russia, and we cannot abandon Poland."

Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson supported aid to Poland, even if it meant incurring debt.

"It is better to support Japan than Poland. At least Japan has proven itself before."

James Thomas, the Lord Chancellor of the Privy Seal, was ingenious and Japan had always been an ally of Britain.

Japan began to industrialize with the support of Britain. The reason why Britain supported Japan was to contain Russia.

Although it seems that Japan is also useless now, but compared with Poland, Japan is at least useless, while Poland is completely a waste of effort.

"Let's solve our own problems first—"

Labour Secretary Margaret Bondfield, the first British woman to serve in the Cabinet, was in a state of turmoil.

It’s not that Britain has no money, but the gap between the rich and the poor is too big. The wealth is controlled by the powerful and the wealthy, and the lower-class British people are suffering.

The British miners' strike in 1926 ended in failure and the workers' movement entered a low ebb.

After the Labour Party came to power for the second time, British workers placed high hopes on the party and hoped that the Labour cabinet would formulate more welfare protection systems for the working class.

When McDonald first came to power, he did introduce some welfare policies, such as increasing unemployment benefits.

Earlier this year, Snowden appointed Sir George May to chair a committee to review the state of the public finances.

After working for several months, George May came to the conclusion that if he wanted to improve the fiscal situation, he would have to drastically cut spending on public servants' salaries and at the same time cut public spending, mainly including cutting unemployment benefits.

When the report came out, the whole country was in an uproar.

(End of this chapter)