Chapter 405: Helpless Choice
"Your Majesty, this is a telegram from Russia asking for help. Please read it." Foreign Minister Daze handed Arthur a list of supplies that Russia requested for support and said with a slight frown.
In fact, Minister Daze can agree to general material requests unilaterally. After all, these materials are not given for free. Russia will purchase them at a price slightly lower than the market price, which will definitely not cause a loss for Australasia.
But the problem is that the huge amount of this supply list prevents Minister Daize from making a decision easily. He can only send this list to Arthur and wait for Arthur's order.
Arthur received the telegram and was a little surprised for a moment when he saw the Russians' huge appetite.
1 million rifles, 2,000 artillery pieces of various calibers, 150,000 marching tents, 300 million rounds of ammunition, 5 million rounds of various artillery shells, medicines worth 45 million rubles, 55 million rubles of food, and 300,000 military helmets
. Lassia has transported supplies to Russia many times before. Although it started hoarding supplies a few years ago, after such high frequency of consumption, there is actually not much left.
The list of supplies currently requested by the Russians is almost more than half of Australasia's current total domestic reserves, and some supplies are even more than half of Australasia's reserves.
Under such circumstances, it was naturally impossible for Arthur to agree to all the Russian demands.
After all, if supplies are transported to Russia in the quantity required by the list, Australasia's material reserves will plummet, and some supplies will even run out.
You must know that in the list of supplies required by Russia, clothing, food and medicine are not only needed by the army, but can also be used by civilians.
As the king of Australasia, Arthur would naturally prioritize the needs of the Australasian people, followed by fulfilling his obligations as an ally and transporting supplies to Russia.
Not to mention anything else, just 1 million rifles, 2,000 artillery pieces and corresponding ammunition and shells can arm at least two army groups and a combat force of about 1 million people.
Naturally, the needs of the Russians cannot be so great. In addition, Russia has sent telegrams to Britain, France and Italy for material assistance. Therefore, the actual needs of the Russians may not even be one-third.
After thinking for a while, Arthur decided to reduce the quantity of some supplies. If the Russians agreed, the supplies could be loaded and transported immediately.
If the Russians don't agree, that's not up to them. After all, as long as Arthur insists that Australasia is short of supplies, can Russia still send people to verify it?
In fact, the Russian government really did not expect Australasia to be able to transport the supplies required by the supply list.
After a pleasant exchange between the two governments, the amount of supplies purchased from Australasia was finally determined: 300,000 rifles, 500 artillery pieces, 100 million rounds of ammunition, 3 million rounds of artillery shells, 200,000 military uniforms, and 1 million tons of food. , 500 tons of medicine.
The total value of these supplies has exceeded 20 million pounds. At Arthur's repeated request, the Russians adopted a payment method of 2 million people plus 15 million pounds.
Using a population of 2 million to offset the burden of 5 million pounds will not be a loss for the Russian government, and it will be even more profitable for the Australasian government.
You know, the number of immigrants from other European countries has decreased significantly, and the only reliable source of immigrants is Russia.
Russia's population of 2 million can accelerate Australasia's population towards the 20 million mark.
Maybe before the end of World War I, the population of Australasia will cross the 20 million mark, which will make up for the disadvantage in terms of population.
Of course, a population of 20 million can only be regarded as having the foundation for a strong country. If you want to truly become a world power, or even become a top power and world hegemon, your population must be at least hundreds of millions.
In order to transport these materials to the Russian front line faster as the war on the Russian front was anxious, Arthur and the Russian side agreed that three methods would be used to transport materials to Russia.
The first method directly uses airships. Although an airship can only transport up to 40 tons of materials, there are currently dozens of transport airships in Australasia, which can transport up to about 2,000 tons of cargo at a time.
Moreover, airship transportation is almost the fastest way. If you go directly from Sydney to the Russian front line, it will only take more than half a month at the fastest.
In addition to airship transportation, the other two methods are to transport by sea to Vladivostok and take the Trans-Siberian Railway, or to transport directly by sea to the Russian Black Sea coast, and from there take the land route directly to the Russian front line.
Ideally, all these supplies can be delivered to Russia within one and a half to two months.
Even the Russian army only needs to persist for about half a month before the first batch of supplies arrives.
Taking into account the Russian army's current shortage of weapons and ammunition, the first batch of supplies arriving quickly by airship will be some rifles, a large number of bullets and artillery shells.
With the support of these weapons and ammunition, the Russian army can last longer and wait for more supplies to arrive.
After Nicholas II received Arthur's call back, his frown finally relaxed a little.
Britain and France have also promised to support some supplies, and coupled with the material support promised by Australasia, the material crisis currently facing Russia has finally been resolved.
However, the attitude of European allies, especially Italy, in directly rejecting Russia's request for help made Nicholas II very dissatisfied. He even complained directly in a telegram to Britain and France, saying that Italy was a weak and incompetent wallflower who only cared about its own interests.
In order to save Italy's face, Britain and France did not respond, but judging from Italy's performance in the war, Italy would not enter the core circle of the Allied Powers after the war.
Although Britain and France promptly provided supplies, Nicholas II also understood that the previous statement by Foreign Minister Alexey that Britain and France would provide all the costs of the campaign was a fiction.
Although this battle achieved great success, it shared huge pressure on the Western Front and even directly led to the eastward shift of German strategy.
But the problem is that this is good news for the Western Front countries represented by Britain, France, Australia and Italy, but not good news for Russia, which is struggling to support itself on the Eastern Front.
This battle consumed most of Russia's ammunition reserves, which directly led to the current shortage of weapons and ammunition for the Russian frontline troops.
At this time, Germany launched a large-scale attack, which directly caused heavy casualties to the Russian Tenth Army.
With such a huge responsibility, the tsarist government needed someone to take the blame. Regardless of whether Minister Alexei has made mistakes before, in short, the people's anger needs a holder, and the government's mistakes need a scapegoat.
At the new imperial meeting, in front of all cabinet ministers and military leaders, Nicholas II officially announced that Alexei would be removed from the position of Foreign Minister and that Alexei would be investigated. Minister Alexei's forehead was covered with cold sweat, but no one dared to stop Nicholas II's order at this time.
After ordering the Prime Minister to concurrently serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs for a short period of time, Nicholas II turned his attention to Grand Duke Nicholas and asked: "Can the army delay the German attack before assistance from the allies arrives?"
"No problem, Your Majesty." Grand Duke Nicholas replied decisively: "The new army group has arrived at the front line. As long as there is any soldier on the front line, it is impossible for the Germans to cross the front line and enter our territory." Well
. , this sentence is indeed quite normal. Before the Germans entered the country, the troops would retreat to ensure that there was no living person on the front lines.
While the Russians were waiting for material support from their allies, the Allies, the Germans and Austria-Hungary, were already planning their next attack.
Of course, it was the Germans who made the plans. For the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they no longer planned to attack if it was not necessary.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire's current casualties are very serious. Their casualties have even approached the Russians, and their losses have exceeded the Russians.
Among all the great powers, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the only country that not only lost a large number of its main army, but also lost a large area of its territory.
If Germany had not made a timely strategic shift and now disabled a Russian army group and attracted some Russian troops to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, I am afraid that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was already discussing how to surrender.
This dualist country is destined to be unable to unite when danger strikes.
In fact, after Galicia was occupied by Russia, the Hungarian government repeatedly requested help from the Vienna government, asking the Vienna government to deploy more troops on the Hungarian border, and even directly drive the Russians out of Galicia to protect Hungary's stability.
But the Vienna government was also powerless at this time. The failure of the Battle of Galicia caused the Austro-Hungarian Empire to lose hundreds of thousands of troops. At this time, there were very few main forces left, and it faced joint attacks from Italy, the Balkan countries and Russia.
If it weren't for the fact that the Italian army was so incompetent, I'm afraid the Austro-Hungarian Empire would have been discussing how to pay war reparations.
May 21, 1915, Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire Conference.
"Your Majesty, this is a counterattack plan planned by the Germans. The Germans have transferred their main force to the Eastern Front. They intend to quickly defeat the Russians, withdraw Russia from the war, and relieve the pressure on our Eastern Front. However, this counterattack plan requires Let's cooperate. A conservative estimate is that we need to dispatch 500,000 troops." Conrad, the Austro-Hungarian Chief of General Staff, handed an action plan to the old emperor Franz and whispered.
If it were at the beginning of the war, 500,000 troops would be nothing to the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire.
But it is already the middle of the war. The Austro-Hungarian Empire has suffered a large number of casualties, and the current total number of troops is only a little over one million.
In addition to the 100,000 troops stationed on the Austrian-Italian border and the 300,000 troops on the Bosnia-Serbia border, there are currently only more than 600,000 combat troops left in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia. Germany’s action plan requires the dispatch of 500,000 troops, which is the current number of Austro-Hungarian Empire’s combat troops. Most of the troops that can be mobilized.
The old emperor Franz took the document and did not look at it in a hurry. Instead, he rubbed his brow and asked: "How many troops have Germany prepared? What is their battle plan? How do we need to cooperate?" At present, for the Austro-Hungarian Empire
, To put it simply, dispatching 500,000 troops would be equivalent to a desperate move. If this German-planned battle fails, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will once again suffer a large number of casualties, which is very likely to lead the country directly to destruction.
Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire can continue to recruit troops, it is impossible for those recruits to develop a certain combat effectiveness without half a year of training.
What's more, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire was retreating in various wars, the Austrians were okay, but the Hungarians no longer supported the war.
The Hungarians are already quite dissatisfied with the large amount of war funds paid. If the Hungarians are allowed to contribute money and efforts, I am afraid that the Austro-Hungarian Empire will directly disintegrate.
"Your Majesty, Germany has currently gathered more than 1 million troops on the eastern border. In the next two months, at least 200,000 troops will arrive at the front line. If we can dispatch 500,000 troops, our coalition's The total number will exceed 2 million, suppressing the number of Russian troops. Germany will break through from East Prussia and Silesia. They hope that we will go north along the Carpathian Mountains and directly encircle Poland and Galicia. Russian troops and annihilate them all. The Russian troops in some areas are the absolute main force of Russia. If they are eliminated, the war on the Eastern Front will be won." Chief of Staff Conrad said confidently.
Judging from the data alone, this battle plan is feasible. The Germans claimed that they had received information that Russia was short of supplies. If this was true, there was great hope of breaking through and surrounding the Russian army in Poland and Galicia.
The German-Austrian Allied Forces of 2 million fought against the Russian army of less than 2 million, and even when the Russian army lacked logistical supplies, they could win by planning on their toes.
Franz I did not agree in a hurry. He frowned and looked at the military's frontline army distribution map and fell into deep thought for a long time.
But this does seem to be a good opportunity to defeat the Russians, but the problem is that if the Russians are not defeated and the main Russian army escapes, it will be a completely unbearable blow for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
It's like a big gamble. If you win, everyone will be happy, but if you lose, the country may be ruined.
After a while, Franz I nodded with a wry smile, and finally agreed to the German plan.
This is the last resort for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to make a comeback, and it is also the most promising opportunity to win the war so far.
In fact, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no choice. If it did not work with the Germans to severely damage or even defeat Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would not be able to last long under the joint attack of Italy, Russia and the Balkan countries, and failure would be only a matter of time.
Unless the Austro-Hungarian Empire can organize at least 1 million more troops, the current situation on the battlefield can be stabilized.
But the problem is that it will take at least half a year to train and organize 1 million troops. Judging from the current situation, it is impossible for the Balkan countries and Russia to give the Austro-Hungarian Empire more than half a year to develop.
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(End of chapter)