Chapter 797

After seizing the Ava region, the Russian Army didn't stop fighting. Instead, they went straight to the Bosporus Strait, which was the first gateway to the Black Sea.

If it was a few decades ago, they could cross the sea directly from Constantinople, but not now. With the development of artillery technology, it was too easy to block the strait with shore artillery.

The Allied Forces also considered attacking from the Sea of Marmara, but before the war broke out, the Osman concentrated all their navy there.

There weren't many Austrian warships left in the Sea of Marmara. They could suppress the Osman Navy, but they couldn't destroy them.

Facing the enemy hiding in the port, it was more convenient to fight on land. If the navy rushed in to fight, they would have to pay a high price.

In the Ava command center, Lieutenant General Harov reported in a low voice, "Your Excellency, the attack at the front is blocked. The enemy's resistance is too fierce.

They even disguise themselves as the old, weak, women, and children to make us relax our vigilance and then launch a sneak attack. The frontline troops are making slow progress, requesting support from the airship bombing team. "

Disguise as the old, weak, women, and children? They were clearly the old, weak, women, and children. The makeup skills these days weren't that good, and the difference in body size couldn't be hidden.

With the Government of Sudan's propaganda, the Russian Army had turned into a cannibal demon. The people had long been mobilized, whether voluntarily or forced, and these people caused a lot of trouble for the Russian Army.

General Ivanov glared at him with dissatisfaction, "Trash, do you think our soldiers won't fight after leaving the airship force?

Tell the frontline troops that the airship force isn't their babysitter. They have to find a way to fight their own battles.

Now the airship force is carrying out a strategic bombing mission, which is related to the entire war situation. We're not here to clean up after them. "

The size of the Austrian airship force was limited. Even if they sent out all of them, they wouldn't have enough troops to support the Russian Army while carrying out strategic bombing.

Ivanov didn't become the commander of the Russian Army because he was afraid of others. He didn't lack strategic vision.

In terms of the overall war situation, bombing the Osman cities would weaken the enemy's war potential, blow up the roads and bridges along the way, and increase the pressure on the enemy's logistics. This was much more important than taking down one or two lines of defense.

If they just stared at the battlefield in front of them, they would stupidly fight head-on. Not to mention a hundred and fifty thousand Russians, even if there were one and a half million Russians, only a few would survive the battle.

Ivanov thought highly of Lieutenant General Harrov's subordinate. Otherwise, he would have been sent home to retire for the rest of his life just because of Ava. Why would he stay to serve his crimes?

Ivanov knew very well that the war in the Near East was seen by many as a golden opportunity. The 150,000 strong Russian army had a large number of people who had connections with them.

Asking for help at the drop of a hat, it was most likely the work of that officer who had connections. If the Austrian airship fleet was under his command, Ivanov would be happy to do him a favor.

Ivanov would be happy to Russia. Ever since the Russians insisted on launching the attack on the Black Sea Strait, the Allied Forces General Command had been reduced to a logistics department and a relationship coordination committee.

Right now, both sides were fighting on their own, so there was no possibility of a joint operation. Austria was fighting in the Middle East, and the Russian Army was fighting in Asia Minor.

Austria was fighting in the Middle East, and the Russian Army was fighting in Asia Minor. They were far away from each other, and it was impossible for them to work together.

'Let's forget about the airship troop. Due to the asymmetry of information, they had accidentally injured their allies in the past few times. Therefore, they quarreled fiercely. '

Then, Arest completely let the Russians go. No matter how the Russian Army fought, he pretended not to see it. The airship force was sent out for strategic bombing, far away from the front line.

Distance made the heart grow fonder. Without the cooperation of the airship force, the Russian Army missed the benefits of having someone to cooperate with. The airship force might not be able to kill many enemies or destroy many fortifications, but it was very important to break the morale of the enemy.

According to past experience, no matter how fierce the Osman Army resisted, as long as a few bombs fell from the sky, their morale would drop.

Ivanov couldn't admit that the Russian Army couldn't fight without Austria's help, so he could only continue. Moreover, the airship force's strategic bombing was beneficial to the entire battlefield.

Lieutenant General Harov explained, "Commander, our army has suffered a lot of casualties recently. The number of casualties in the last two days has exceeded a thousand.

Even after paying such a huge price, we can only advance a dozen kilometers a day. Including the casualties from the battle of Ava, our casualties have exceeded eight thousand.

According to the current progress, it will take at least a month to conquer the Bosporus. The number of casualties could be in the tens of thousands.

This is already beyond what we can bear. The Bosporus is just the beginning, and it's only a small step towards the first phase of the strategic mission.

If this situation doesn't change, we won't be able to win this war with our current strength. Even if we can increase the number of troops in the country, there are still many problems that need to be dealt with. "

If the enemy didn't want to live, the war would naturally be difficult. In just a week, the Russian Army had achieved a record of defeating 58,000 enemies, annihilating 12,000, and capturing 836 of them.

The low number of prisoners was the result of the Government of Sudan's propaganda. The Osman soldiers believed that the Russian Army wanted to exterminate them, so they naturally wouldn't surrender.

The captives they captured were basically the results of the previous landing campaign. Ever since the news of the massacre of Ava spread, the Osman soldiers rarely surrendered.

The enemy chose to fight to the death, and the Russian Army's casualties inevitably increased. Now that the Russian Army had suffered more than eight thousand casualties, including more than two thousand who had died in battle. Even if they received effective treatment, only half of them would be able to return to the battlefield.

Ivanov shook his head, "I'm also aware of the situation, but it still won't do. The airship force isn't our army, and the command is in the hands of the Austrians.

The Allied Forces Command is still in Constantinople, and they have no intention of moving. Even if we want to coordinate, we have to send people back to Constantinople first.

How long will it take to go back and forth? If this happens every time, how will we fight the later battles?

We have a clear agreement with the Austrians. It's fine if we ask them for help once or twice, but if we need their help for the entire war to win, things won't be so simple.

Countries look at benefits, and no one will blindly pay. Every time we ask for help, we need to pay a price. These are the benefits that should belong to the Russian Empire. "

Anything that was involved in politics would not be as simple as it seemed. Both sides have done a lot of backstabbing between allies.

But the embarrassing thing was that the Austrians did it more covertly, and there was no evidence to be found on the surface. On the contrary, the Tsarist government was caught red-handed doing many things.

These open and secret struggles were not clear to the people below, but Ivanov had already come into contact with them. For the sake of benefits, these conflicts were jointly suppressed by both sides.

But the estrangement had already been buried. Today you plot against me, tomorrow I plot against you. Almost every time a conflict appeared, the relationship between the two countries became further apart.

The Government of Vienna refused to renew the contract, and the Tsarist government did not jump out to criticize them. That was because the Austrians had a lot of evidence to use against them, and they had no reason to argue.

If these things were not exposed, it would be good for everyone. Once the cover was revealed, things would not be easy to clean up. At least, the two countries would be hostile to each other.

The intrigues of the higher-ups directly caused trouble for the officers and soldiers below. Otherwise, even if the airship troop was insufficient, couldn't the Government of Vienna replenish it?

It couldn't be said that Austria didn't even have one airship reserve and only had 120 airships at the front line.

The Austrian airship troop had existed for more than ten years. After such a long time, there were naturally many airships that were decommissioned. These airships were not dismantled and sold as scrap metal. They were still sealed up.

As long as the Government of Vienna was willing, they could be used at any time. Anyway, the Osman people didn't have anti-air firepower. Even if the airships' performance was a little worse, it was not a big problem to use them to bomb the enemy.

It was not impossible to change this situation. As long as the Tsarist government was willing to bow down or was willing to pay a certain price, they could achieve their goal.

Unfortunately, this could only be wishful thinking. In this Near Eastern War, the two countries joined forces completely because of interests. Since interests were involved, there were many issues that couldn't be compromised.

The Tsarist government didn't care about the casualties of some soldiers at all. How could they give in?

The battle at the front line was still burning. The Russian Army soldiers rushed forward one after another and fought hard with the Osman people. Both parties fought fiercely.

St. Peter's Castle was not peaceful either. Since Poland's parliament reopened for the king election, the Tsarist government couldn't sit still anymore.

The fact was that William I didn't even have a strong competitor in this election. There was no doubt that he would win.

Once Poland and Prussia became co-monarchs, the two countries would definitely unite more closely. They might even merge into one country.

It was the Tsarist government that caused the two countries to unite more closely. The existence of the Russian Empire brought heavy pressure to the ruling class of the two countries. The insightful people of the two countries knew that only by uniting could they fight with the Russians.

This wasn't something that an individual could resist. Before this, it was the intervention of the great powers that prevented all this from happening. After all, after the Prussian War, the Russian Empire was somewhat miserable. The Tsarist government looked like it could collapse at any time.

The UK, FAO, and EU didn't want to add another cake to the table, so they forcefully interfered with the Polish throne election and kicked William I out. The people of Prussia didn't want to be outdone. They simply pushed the revolutionary party to power and secretly supported the revolutionary party to stop the throne election.

The Polish throne couldn't be resolved because of the joint intervention of all parties. Now the situation had changed. No one thought that after Alexander II Of Russia's reform, the Russian Empire would recover so quickly.

Perhaps it wasn't as strong as it was at its peak, but it was much stronger than the current Prussia and Poland. If the overall national strength was calculated, the people of Russia were almost twice the number of people of Prussia and Poland combined.

The Government of Berlin's action was also forced. If they didn't annex the Polish Kingdom, then the subsequent war was almost doomed to be lost.

After Alexander II Of Russia's reform, the Russian Empire was much more stable. With food in hand, one would not panic. Even if it was painful during the agricultural crisis, it was an advantage in times of war.

If the Tsarist government could feed itself, the gray livestock would have combat power. If they wanted to exhaust the Russians, don't be ridiculous. The Tsarist government hadn't retreated to Moscow yet.

No matter how many battles were lost on the front line, the Tsarist government with food in their hands wouldn't collapse. After the agricultural crisis broke out, Alexander II Of Russia gritted his teeth and directly collected food as taxes, turning the food into strategic reserves. This was the root cause of the Tsarist government's financial near bankruptcy.

Otherwise, after the tax reform, so many parasites were cleaned up. Even if they lost a large piece of territory, the Tsarist government's financial revenue should have exceeded before. How could it be bankrupt?

Glancing at the crowd, Alexander II Of Russia asked, "What do you think of William I jumping out to fight for the throne of Poland at this time?"

Tsar didn't have a good time either. Since his ascension to the throne, Alexander II Of Russia hadn't had a good time.

Because of his misjudgment, he wanted to limit Austria at the beginning of the succession and ignored the threat of the Kingdom of Prussia. As a result, it led to the current unfavorable situation, and the internal criticism had never stopped.

If it weren't for Alexander II Of Russia's strong political skills, he would have been ousted long ago. It wasn't like the Russian Empire didn't have to replace Tsar.

The last example was Peter III, who happened to be close to Prussia. Alexander II Of Russia obviously learned his lesson and decisively chose to beat Prussia. Although they lost the war, they still kept the throne.

In this regard, the people of Russia were still very magnanimous. Victory and defeat were common in war. As long as Tsar could control the government, as long as the people at the bottom could fill their stomachs, they wouldn't rebel because of the war's defeat.

Foreign Minister Chris Basham: "Your Majesty, Prussia's action at this time is related to the current international situation.

Napoleon Iii died of illness and the Government of France was caught in the vortex of power struggle. They didn't have the energy to participate in international affairs for a short period of time. As long as Prussia was willing to pay a certain price, it wasn't difficult to make the French look on coldly.

As the relationship between Russia and Austria turned cold, the Government of Vienna had the idea of supporting Prussia to contain us. Even if it wasn't now, it would be in the future.

Now. A large part of our and Austria's energy was tied up in the Near East war. If Prussia was willing to pay a high price, the Government of Vienna might acquiesce to their actions.

After settling the Fao and Austria, it wouldn't be difficult to convince the British. Even if the Government of London objected, they wouldn't send troops to intervene.

If the British, Fao, and Austria didn't intervene, even if we sent troops to intervene, Prussia wouldn't let go. This was bound to lead to a new war.

We aren't ready yet. The Near East war also tied up a part of our strength. The outbreak of a war now is very disadvantageous for us. The Prussia should have seen this opportunity and took the opportunity to attack. "

After hearing Cris Basham's explanation, the situation became clear. Although there was a solution, unfortunately, the decision-making power wasn't in the hands of the Tsarist government.

If the Fao and Austria didn't intervene, they alone wouldn't be able to scare Prussia. They were enemies anyway. The Government of Berlin wouldn't care what they thought.

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