Chapter 858

Modern warfare was no longer limited to the battlefield; most of the time, the game outside the battlefield was often more intense.

From the beginning of the war for hegemony, Britannia fell into a passive position, but that was only limited by the mindset of war and was caught off guard by the Holy Roman Empire.

For the entire war, it could only be regarded as an advantage, but it could not directly determine the final outcome. It was just like Germany in World War II when they first swept through Europe and eventually left with their tails between their legs.

The only difference was that the Soviet meat shield had not yet been born and the American nanny was still a little girl.

Since their allies were not good enough, Britannia could only bear the test alone. Fortunately, Britannia was at its peak, not like the sun in the west during World War II.

But no matter how rich they were, they would still be affected by the war. The rise in prices was not a big deal, the key was that the sea trade routes were affected, resulting in a shortage of domestic supplies.

In the short term, they might be able to rely on stocks to support, but the war would not end in a day or two. Sooner or later, stocks would be exhausted.

There was no other way, everyone had high expectations for the Royal Navy and did not consider the safety of the trade routes.

If the capitalists had not sensed the war in advance and hoarded some supplies, it would not be as simple as a price increase.

Lord of the Admiralty Swindin: "The Navy will escort merchant ships, but our number of warships is limited, and we have to suppress the mainland alliance, so the number of warships we can take out is limited.

In order to ensure the safety of merchant ships, it is best to let the merchant ships move together, and we will send warships to protect the safety. "

The performance of the Royal Navy in the Battle of Malacca had caused an uproar in the country. Although they repeatedly claimed to have fallen into the enemy's trap, a loss was a loss.

Compared to the Japanese Navy, the Royal Navy was lucky. The British people at most scolded them as trash, but they did not label them as "national traitors."

Whether it was to win the war or to take off the "trash" hat on their heads, the Royal Navy must perform well in the next operation.

But performance was performance, the practical problems they faced still needed to be solved.

There were thousands of ships entering and leaving the British Isles every day, and the number of ocean-going ships alone was no less than three digits. Even if the Royal Navy were to move together, they would not be able to protect all of them.

In particular, the enemy was now using the tactic of breaking off contact and did not fight them at all.

The ships involved in the attack were high-speed warships, regardless of their combat power. at least their speed was first-class.

In order to deal with these enemies, ordinary warships were basically useless. Only a few warships could participate in the battle.

Submarines were even more troublesome. In this era without sonar detection equipment, unless it was close contact, it would be impossible to detect it.

Under such circumstances, even if the merchant ships could move together, the pressure of escorting them was still heavy.

Commerce Minister Burns: "Sir, gathering the merchant ships together only exists in theory. It's barely possible to do it once in a while, but it's impossible to do it every time.

Not all goods could be shipped at the same time. Moving together would seriously slow down the speed of transportation.

This was especially so for unpopular routes. There were only a few ships in a month. They couldn't possibly let them make a trip once a year, right?

We don't have unlimited transportation resources. We can't afford to waste them like this. "

War is cruel. The British in the original Space-Time also played the trick of centralized transportation, but the result was somewhat touching.

Other than the especially important resources that needed to be transported together and escorted by warships, everything else came as quickly as possible.

Concentrating transport warships did solve the problem of safety, but concentrating the fleet would slow down the efficiency of transportation. Some goods that could not be stored for a long time would rot in the warehouse.

Other problems could be solved, but it would affect everyone's ability to make money. During war, human life was the least valuable. It just so happened that the sea trade was the most profitable.

As long as the profit was big enough, the risk was not a problem. They did not need to personally escort the goods, so the capitalists did not care about the risk.

A trip on the ocean route could earn a third of the ship. No matter how powerful the enemy's attack was, it was impossible to intercept all the ships, not even one-tenth of them.

The probability of encountering an enemy attack at sea was at most a few percent. It was completely up to luck.

As long as the ship was not sunk after four trips, it was a profit. Even if an accident happened, the insurance company would take care of it.

Of course, the insurance company did not give it for free. After the outbreak of the war, the insurance premium rose rapidly. In any case, wool comes from the sheep's back.

After listening to the Minister of Commerce, Swindin waved his hand helplessly, "If the fleet can't be concentrated, then we can only express our regret.

The enemy's colonies are very wide. As soon as the Royal Navy moved out, they shrank back. Unless these colonies are uprooted first, there is no way to get rid of these rats. "

Give up?

No, this was politics. Unlike in the past, political slogans could be shouted casually. Now it was a time of war. Once a promise could not be fulfilled, it was equivalent to taking the initiative to hand over to the hands of the political enemy.

Don't look at how everyone was sitting together like grasshoppers on a rope, but there was also competition between grasshoppers.

If there was a problem, everyone would be faster than anyone else to shift the blame. It was unrealistic to share the joys and sorrows. It was the normal practice in politics.

Uprooting the enemy's colonial ports was easy to say, but it was not something that could be done overnight.

Britannia's energy was limited. It was barely able to defend the existing colonies, so it was obviously difficult to open up a new battlefield.

Minister of War Marcus: "The Cape of Good Hope is in danger. The battlefield in East Africa is even more eroded. The Empire's achievements in Africa are being nibbled away by the enemy.

In Asia, the enemy has launched attacks on Persia and Indochina at the same time. The enemy's ambition towards India has not been concealed.

According to the intelligence gathered at the front line, the Russians have also increased their troops in the Regions of Afghanistan and may launch an attack at any time.

The Persian government has asked us for help for the seventh time. If we don't send reinforcements, it is only a matter of time before Persia is defeated.

Of course, it's not like we haven't fought back. With the unremitting efforts of the Canadian Corps, we have taken over most of Alaska.

Because of national policy, the Army has always maintained a low number of troops. Now that we have to fight on multiple fronts at the same time, it has exceeded our limits. "

The reason was too good. Because the Royal Navy had not been able to play its role, the lobster soldiers had taken on the main combat tasks.

Opening up five fronts at the same time, and even achieving a complete victory on one of the fronts, such a result was completely worthy of the British Empire's investment in the Army.

As for the water content, there was no need to delve into it. The Government of the United Kingdom needed good news to calm the people's hearts, and the British people also needed good news.

In this context, any victory was worth a lot of publicity.

Conquering Alaska was a good subject. More than 1.7 million square kilometers was more than the land of Britannia combined. After offsetting each other, the British Empire still made a profit.

As for the difference between the land, it was directly ignored. As long as the newspapers didn't mention it, how would the ordinary people know?

Moreover, Alaska's reputation in Britannia was not low at all. It was also known as the 'Golden State' among the people.

Therefore, the armed parade of the Canadian Corps could not be called a parade, but a great victory.

Shamelessly, it could be called the 'Turning Battle'. In any case, it was used to appease the people, so there was no harm in bragging.

"Hasn't the Army expanded to two million, and there are many colonial legions, why are they still …"

Without waiting for the Navy Minister to finish, Marcus interrupted, "Your Excellency, it also takes time to expand the army. Two million is just a figure on paper.

The war has only broken out for a little more than a month. There are only two or three countries in the world that can mobilize two million troops in such a short time, and Britannia is not one of them.

The Army is different from the Navy. You have sufficient military funding and maintain a large establishment in normal times.

Just over a month ago, the Imperial Army was only 137,000. Now it has directly expanded to two million, which is equivalent to a fourteenfold increase.

We don't have enough reserves for such an expansion, whether it is officers or weapons and equipment.

Optimistically, it is a great achievement for each recruit to be able to get a gun in the next two months.

It is a blessing from God to be able to form initial combat power within this year. In the short term, there are not many mobile forces that we can use. "

Everyone knew how to shift the blame. The Navy did not want to take responsibility, and the Army was also unwilling to take the blame. Everyone's reasons were very good, and on the surface, there was no problem.

The Navy could not guarantee smooth sea trade lines, mainly because the enemy's colonies were there, and there was no way to get rid of the enemy's fleet.

The Army was more straightforward and directly showed their misery. The expansion of the army was expanded, but most of the recruits had not yet entered the barracks. How could they have combat power if they could not guarantee a rifle?

The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was interested.

Prime Minister Campbell was agitated. What was once the world's factory could not even ensure that everyone had a rifle. How could this be tolerated?

There was no other way. The size of the British Army had always been only a hundred thousand. Even if there was a weapon reserve, at most, a hundred thousand more guns would be enough.

Even if they thought of expanding the army, no one expected that they would need to expand so much. Especially in the last hundred years, there were too many international conflicts, and most of the time they ended in a commotion.

According to past experience, it had always been Britannia attacking other countries, and it had never been attacked by other countries, at least not in the last few decades.

When the situation became tense, everyone reacted. But it was already too late. Not to mention the members of parliament who were holding them back, just the production capacity was a big problem.

In normal years, Britannia only needed to produce a hundred or two hundred thousand guns a year to meet the needs of the native army and the colonial army.

Now that the native army was expanding, the colonies were also expanding, and there was a gap of five or six million rifles all of a sudden. How could they make up for it in a short time?

During World War I in the original timeline, Britannia was forced to place orders with the Americans because of the rapid expansion of the army, and the speed of weapons production could not keep up.

Not to mention now, the only difference was that the industrial capacity of the United States had not developed, and their military production capacity was even less than that of the British.

The military industry of the United States was not good, and the industries of the other member states of the Oceanic Alliance were even worse. Most of the countries imported their weapons and equipment.

These days, those with military production capacity were almost all holed up in the European continent, and now they were all enemies of the British Empire.

In this context, where would the British Army get so many guns? Even if it was smuggling, there was no smuggler who had such great power.

Moreover, it was not only weapons and equipment that needed to be bought, but there was also a lot of demand for subsequent ammunition.

With Britannia's military production capacity, they might not even be able to produce the daily training ammunition for millions of troops.

If these problems could not be solved, it would be a joke for the army to launch a counterattack. It would be a miracle if they could stabilize the situation.

Looking at the world map on the wall, Prime Minister Campbell sighed deeply and swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

…

In the Near East, as the Shinra Army's battle against Persia began, the Tsarist government also quietly increased its troops to the border area.

Whether these troops were used to guard against the Persian invasion or to jump out at a critical moment could not be concluded for the time being.

At least, Colonel Seacrest did not know what the country was trying to do. Recently, he had requested to fight many times in the country, but all of them were rejected.

It was not easy for the small nobles these days. Without a prominent background, and without military achievements, it was not easy to get ahead.

Forget about the Far East battlefield. That was a tough job. Not to mention the bad weather, the key was that there might be problems with logistics.

The most tragic thing was that the military achievements against the Japanese would be discounted. Winning was a given, but losing was a heinous crime.

Even if the government could understand the hardships of the frontline soldiers and not pursue the relevant responsibilities, the people involved would be embarrassed to mingle in the aristocratic circle.

This could be seen from the battle reports sent back from the Far East. The Russian Army was really fighting with their lives on the line.

No one liked hard work, and Colonel Seacrest was no exception. There was a time to build a career, and not every battlefield could be involved. It was best to find a soft persimmon to pinch.

It was not easy to wait until the war for hegemony broke out. The Russian Empire joined the Continental Alliance and started a war with the Oceanic Alliance led by the British. Unfortunately, the war was declared but not declared.

In order to advance further, the Russian Army was also competing with each other, and the Afghan front was naturally the most popular.

Although there were many enemies, it was easier to achieve results with more enemies. The Indian colonial army flew the British flag, and the officers were all British.

Rounding it up, it was almost equivalent to the British army. It was too good to step on the shoulders of the British to rise.

Unfortunately, Colonel Seacrest made a wrong move. Restricted by his identity and background, he unfortunately lost to his competitor and came to the Persian front.