Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 118 Tirpitz's Fury

Ryan's proposal obviously confused everyone, including Constantine and Hindenburg.

But this is not their fault. After all, in the eyes of Constantine and others, since the Empire wants to force the Russian Empire to sign a non-aggression treaty with itself through war, it must first hurt the Empire to the extent that they dare not have any improper thoughts about the Empire.

Only in this way could the Empire ensure the validity of the treaty for the next few years.

But Ryan now says that the attack needs to be postponed for a while?

Even though everyone present understood that early spring was the best time to launch an attack on the Russian Empire, they were still worried that such an operation would put the empire in a difficult situation where it had to fight on two fronts.

The main reason is that the Russian Empire is now negotiating with the United Kingdom. Although the Empire does not know the specific content of their negotiations, any fool can tell that they are definitely talking about how to go to war with the Empire.

This is normal.

After all, the current situation is that the United Kingdom cannot make a decision on whether to declare war on the Empire because it has to take into account the United Kingdom soldiers captured by the Empire.

But it was different for the Russian Empire.

The Russian Empire was eager for the Empire to take action against those soldiers, so that it would give the Triple Entente an opportunity to declare war on the Empire at the same time.

Therefore, everyone knew that the Russian Empire would definitely drag the United Kingdom into the war at all costs.

This will inevitably lead to the Empire being outnumbered three to one before the end of the year.

The plan that Ryan just proposed obviously did not take the Russian Empire seriously.

The main reason is that Ryan's proposal seeks to reach an armistice with the Russian Empire after the spring of next year, rather than an armistice this year.

This means that the empire's war will continue until next summer - based on the experience of peace negotiations in various countries, it will not end until at least the summer.

Before that, the empire will always be in a state of simultaneous war on both the eastern and western fronts, which is obviously not a good thing for the current empire.

Of course, there is another point that is also very important.

Tirpitz, who had been sitting next to Hindenburg, spoke after a moment of silence: "Lieutenant Colonel Flig, if we do this, the domestic public opinion will be very serious."

Tirpitz was a man who had seen many wars, but he was also someone who understood very well the impact that national policies and wars would have on civilians.

A year-long war would greatly affect the empire's labor force. All the men went to fight, and farming work could only be left to women, children and the elderly.

This situation is not a problem in the short term, but over time it will inevitably lead to various thoughts in the country.

Ryan was well aware of this and nodded: "As you said, General, this is indeed a problem."

"But for us, the enemy obviously cares more about this kind of thing than we do."

Ryan said: "The current agricultural population in the Empire accounts for about 35%, but this is mainly due to the large proportion of agricultural populations retained in East Prussia and Bavaria."

"Compared to a country like the United Kingdom, which can rely on colonies to meet its agricultural needs and has only 8% of its population engaged in farming, we are indeed far behind."

"But the Russian Empire is different."

He coughed and moistened his throat. "In the Russian Empire, agricultural workers accounted for 20 percent of the total population. That means only out of every people didn't need to work in the fields."

"Considering that they are still trapped by the effects of serfdom and their slow industrialization, the Imperial Army will inevitably fall into chaos in the spring of next year."

"The Empire can then loudly announce its intention to sign a peace agreement with the Imperial Kingdom, and through repeated onslaughts, force the frontier areas into a state of spontaneous chaos."

"And the muddy terrain after the spring clearly wasn't enough for them to get enough supplies from the rear to support the Imperial Army's daily consumption on the front lines."

"It can be said that as long as the empire can hold out until the beginning of next spring, the imperial army will inevitably collapse from within."

After saying that, Ryan let out a long sigh and just sat down.

As for the above words, he actually didn't believe them at all.

Of course, it is true that the Russian Empire had a low fighting spirit and its soldiers were busy farming.

After all, Tsarist Russia really relied purely on manpower to maintain the operation of such a huge political system. Their industrial base was almost zero. If they continued to send the population forward, the final result could only be a massive bankruptcy as a country.

Although there were additional reasons for the disintegration of Tsarist Russia in history, the fundamental reason was the endless defeats on the front lines and the increasingly serious anti-war sentiment caused by successive defeats and economic problems.

To use a phrase Ryan once heard, that is - [If there is no land to farm, who the hell wants to go to war? You are crazy! ]

But here, in this world, things are a little different.

About ten years ago, the emperor of the Russian Empire tried to abolish serfdom in order to liberate the labor force and prepare for subsequent industrialization.

But his efforts have not made any real progress so far, mainly due to the strong opposition of the imperial landlord class and the resistance of traditional aristocrats.

This is also the reason why Rennes chose to postpone the negotiations to the early spring of next year.

The emperor of the empire was still very qualified as an emperor, but his understanding of military affairs was complete rubbish.

Fortunately, he had only accidentally interfered with the Imperial Army's actions in this one battle so far. Although the result was unsatisfactory, it was fortunate that no mistake was made - there was still room for remedy.

However, this also made Ryan realize that there was actually nothing wrong with the emperor's brain.

Because the emperor decided to sign a non-aggression treaty with the Russian Empire, which included the entire Black Sea coastal countries.

This is equivalent to giving the empire a huge face.

Simply put, in the past, countries along the Black Sea coast had to obtain Ottoman approval when entering the Atlantic Ocean, and the Ottomans had been on good terms with the empire over the years.

The result is that if the Empire declares war on the Empire, they will completely lose their Black Sea ports and can only rely on their own damn frozen ports in the North Sea to import and export goods.

But if they agreed to the alliance, then in the future, if the empire's goods wanted to be shipped out to sea, they could rely on the tax preferential treatment brought by the peace agreement and enter the Atlantic Ocean smoothly and safely through the Turkish Straits.

Moreover, through this agreement, the Empire can also obtain foreign trade support from the Empire and a large number of allies.

This is a hundred benefits and no harm to the empire.

Ryan couldn't think of any absolute reason why the Empire would support him in continuing the war.

Perhaps entering the central region of Europe and increasing one's voice is one option?
But even with this, the Empire is still capable of dealing with the Imperial State.

Obviously, both Tirpitz and Constantine were confused by what Ryan said.

Tirpitz, in particular, almost immediately asked, "Are you so sure?"

"I can't say for sure."

Ryan had some objections to Tirpitz's statement, but he still said in a friendly manner: "It's just that the Tsar of the Empire seems to have been busy abolishing serfdom in recent years, but has achieved little success."

There was no need for him to say anything more about the rest.

Tirpitz and Constantine, both of whom came from traditional aristocratic families, understood Ryan's meaning almost immediately.

The two exchanged glances, then looked at Ryan with the same expression as if he were a monster: "You want to help the Empire..."

"That's not what I meant." Ryan waved his hand quickly: "Don't talk nonsense, I didn't, it wasn't me."

He quickly interrupted the two and immediately turned to look at Hindenburg: "Regarding the Eastern Front, I think I need to discuss it with the old marshal later."

"Didn't Moltke the Younger say anything?" Hindenburg had no objection to what Ryan said, but he was still a little worried that the old marshal's excessive appearances would provoke Moltke the Younger.

Then Tirpitz laughed: "That guy was dismissed for not taking Palu. The report hasn't come in yet. You just came back from the Eastern Front. I guess you don't know about it."

"what?"

Hindenburg's cerebellum twitched: "Removal? But not before..."

He clearly remembered that the General Staff had previously confirmed the attack on Verdun...

and many more?

Suddenly, Hindenburg figured it out and turned to look at Ryan, who was drinking water over there: "Are you plotting against him?"

"Damn it! Don't slander someone's innocence with empty words!"

Ryan spat a mouthful of water in Ludendorff's face: "I just wanted to attack Verdun from the beginning. If the First and Second Armies really want to attack Palu, I have no objection!"

"Besides, didn't the Second and Fourth Armies already enter the outskirts of Palu in the first episode? I think this can also be considered as entering Palu!"

But his words clearly failed to convince the army commanders and generals present. Tirpitz, Hindenburg, and Constantine looked at Ryan coldly, their hearts full of words, but unable to utter a single word.

Ludendorff was wiping his face and head with a towel handed to him by the guard. Although he was a major general, he knew very well that he had no say here.

Ryan is a rising star in the army who can directly contact the old marshal, while the others are all army group commanders.

Although he had command of the Eighth Army, his actual status was still not as good as that of Ryan, who had a force directly under the General Staff and was only responsible to the Emperor and the General Staff.

Ryan obviously understood all this, which is why he started cursing at himself when he walked in.

aside.

Seeing that the others stopped talking, Ryan finally calmed down, took a deep breath, and turned to look at Tirpitz.

The main reason why he came here today was to confirm with Tirpitz the negotiations with the United Kingdom.

Matters concerning the Russian Empire are merely incidental.

"Has the date for the negotiations been set yet?" Ryan said to Tirpitz, "I heard from the General Staff..."

"The end of the month is not a good time."

Tirpitz realized that the incident had come to him, and his expression darkened. "The Emperor's idea is that we return the two ships, but not the people, unless the United Kingdom guarantees that it will never go to war with the Empire."

"He's a bit whimsical."

Ryan sighed, thinking in his head, and said, "Who in the United Kingdom is responsible for contacting the Empire? The Secretary of the Navy? Or their King?"

"neither."

Tirpitz shook his head. "It's their former chancellor."

"Asquith?"

Ryan frowned, and when the others saw his expression, they also became a little unhappy.

the reason is simple.

Asquith was a very staunch and thorough anti-imperialist. If it were not for his poor health, which led to the handing over of the Prime Minister position of the United Kingdom to Winston Churchill, the United Kingdom would probably have officially declared war on the Empire the moment the Empire sent troops to the Kingdom of Perijie.

Even in recent times, Ryan often saw press releases written by Asquith or his comments on the international situation on the international news page of the newspaper.

Although a large part of the content is basically Asquith's own self-praise of the United Kingdom as a United Kingdom citizen, as well as some self-whitewashing behavior that Ryan is accustomed to, it also clearly puts forward the intention to attack the Empire.

These contents became even more arrogant on the day Churchill sent troops to Perijie.

Then he shut up the next day.

Don't ask, the only thing is that Churchill's intelligence warfare was scolded back by Ryan with more than 30 honorary letters.

Ryan could probably guess how Asquith would curse Churchill afterwards, and what kind of political whirlpool George V of the United Kingdom would be caught in.

But that's all for people in the United Kingdom.

In Ryan's view, these are all good things.

After all, Asquith, Winston Churchill, and George V were proud of their navy. As a thoroughgoing maritime power, the United Kingdom had absolute confidence in its navy.

Especially the Lion-class battlecruisers they recently launched.

Maybe some people don’t understand what the Lion class is, but if it is called by a different name, most people will probably know it.

Diamond level.

Also known as - stupid level.

Then their two Lion-class warships were defeated by two airships.

Ryan was very proud and satisfied with this, but since this matter was related to Asquith, it became a bit bad.

It is well known that many old Dengs cannot accept new things, and Asquith is such an obvious old Deng.

Ryan had seen a report written by Asquith in August about how the United Kingdom would act if the Imperial and United Kingdom fleets came into conflict.

Asquith said in it:
If the Empire can defeat them, then obviously they can't defeat us, but I mean, if they defeat our fleet, or even our ships...

[Then they must have possessed the ability to threaten the United Kingdom's position in maritime power and its voice in international oceans.]

[And the United Kingdom would never allow such a thing to happen.]

Very origin, very Anglo-Saxon.

It was this report that made Ryan feel that Asquith was a bit difficult to deal with.

Because Ryan did not believe that the Empire really had the ability to completely suppress the United Kingdom in terms of sea power. Even if it had an airship fleet, it could only be on par with the United Kingdom.

But the Empire must now seize this great opportunity and force the United Kingdom to sign a peace agreement with it.

Asquith's presence obviously made Ryan's plan come to nothing.

After a long period of thinking, Ryan covered his mouth and made an unclear sound.

"Then we can only force the United Kingdom to take action."

"What do you mean?" Tirpitz straightened his back and said, "Didn't you say before..."

"Before, that was before." Ryan looked at the table in front of him, his pupils shrinking as much as needles. "That was based on the fact that the guy we were negotiating with was Winston Churchill."

"But the United Kingdom pushed Asquith out, which means there is absolutely no possibility of a complete ceasefire in this peace talk."

Hindenburg interjected: "Because Asquith is anti-Imperial?"

Ryan immediately shook his head.

He looked at Hindenburg and knew that the other party did not understand sea power very well, so he did not ask the right questions.

"Because the Empire has revealed its ability to destroy the United Kingdom's naval fleet."

"This is my fault. To ensure the safety of our troops and our intelligence, I had no choice but to choose the battle plan of capturing those two Lion-class battlecruisers. This is how things turned out."

"For Asquith now, it was as if the previously harmless Empire had suddenly become a child with a rifle."

"This kid may not be able to defeat the United Kingdom, which is a fully armed soldier, but he has a gun and is dangerous."

After briefly explaining things to Hindenburg, Ryan looked at Tirpitz and said, "We should strive for a short-term peace. The transfer of personnel can be postponed until the spring of next year to coordinate with negotiations with the Empire. However, the battleships must be returned to the United Kingdom as soon as possible."

"To shut the United Kingdom up?" Tirpitz didn't quite understand what Ryan meant.

After all, the Navy is still analyzing the specific data of the Lion-class battleship and is unwilling to hand over this precious trophy.

"Do not."

Ryan denied Tirpitz's judgment: "It was to make Asquith understand that the Empire was not the United Kingdom fleet that was defeated in naval battle."

"Ok?"

This immediately perked up Tirpitz.

Indeed, both Lion-class ships were forced to surrender by Z33X series airships using grenade attacks on their bridges, which is correct.

But the empire used the victory of the naval battle in its external propaganda.

Therefore, the United Kingdom currently believes that the Empire has quietly prepared a big treasure and overturned two Lion-class ships in one go.

But this is what Tirpitz hated to hear the most.

He had long hoped to defeat the United Kingdom, so he shouted out: "That won't work. If that happens, the whole world will..."

Ryan had anticipated what Tirpitz would say, so he immediately shut him up with one sentence: "Either the complete destruction of the Imperial Navy or a truce with the United Kingdom. Choose one."

(End of this chapter)