Chapter 583 Prologue
Like Romania, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also had to harvest crops. This was the real reason why the Austro-Hungarian Empire had not started to mobilize.
George doesn’t care about harvesting crops, he wants to seize this last moment to hoard more supplies.
In the past three years, the Russian Empire has had a bumper harvest of grain, and its grain reserves are the largest among all countries.
Although Stolypin did not have time to reform the industrial field, Amur's industrial production model still had a certain impact on the St. Petersburg military industry. All weapons and equipment used by the Russian Empire are now produced by the empire itself. No external procurement is required.
The Imperial Army has all replaced magazine-type rifles, with an average of 80 heavy machine guns per division.
The new rapid-fire cannon has replaced the old artillery, and the combat effectiveness has been qualitatively improved.
Each division of the Guards is equipped with an artillery regiment. The artillery divisions are equipped with artillery with a maximum caliber of 150 mm. The Obukhov Steel Plant also produced a super mortar with a caliber of 350 mm. , the power is amazing.
The Amur Arsenal does not engage in gimmicks and strives to improve production efficiency. The production capacity of artillery shells is 500,000 rounds per month. George thinks it is far from enough and sends a telegram to Mario, requesting that the production of artillery shells be doubled to reach 1 million pieces per month.
In addition to artillery shells, Amur can also produce 50 aircraft, 1,500 vehicles, 120 armored battle suits, 200 artillery pieces of various types, and 15,000 rifles and heavy machine guns every month.
It should be noted that Amur Military Industrial Enterprise is not currently producing at full capacity, and if necessary, production can be further increased.
As of the end of June, Constantinople had stockpiled 5 million artillery shells, 110 million bullets, and more than 1.5 million tons of food, fuel and other military supplies.
Brushinov believed that these supplies were enough to sweep across Europe.
George is not optimistic. Except for Constantinople, the other Balkan countries are not ready for war. The average number of shells prepared for each artillery is less than 1,000 rounds, which is simply unable to meet the war consumption.
Russia is actually not much better. The Guards also only prepares 1,000 shells for each artillery piece.
Nicholas Jr. believes that 1,000 rounds of artillery shells can be used for at least 3 months.
George directly sent a copy of the artillery consumption of the Balkan Alliance in the Balkan War to Nicholas Jr.
During the entire Balkan War, the Balkan Alliance's daily artillery shell consumption reached 150,000 rounds.
Based on this consumption calculation, the Guards' artillery shells are only enough for one month at most.
The intensity of the Russo-German war was definitely stronger than the Balkan war.
In order to meet the consumption of weapons and ammunition, George established an arsenal in Constantinople to mainly produce bullets and cannonballs.
The Ottoman Sultan was a big help, because the largest arsenal in the Ottoman Empire was originally in Constantinople, and when the Austrian army retreated, they did not destroy the equipment in the arsenal.
George ordered Alexey to take charge of the production of the arsenal.
Alexei led technicians to inspect the factory's machinery and equipment and confirmed that the factory could resume work at any time.
Then the problem arises. Although the factory can resume work at any time, there are no workers available.
George wired August to hire workers from Bulgaria to work in the arsenal.
Alexey had a headache. Most of the workers hired from Bulgaria were farmers. They had never had experience in operating machines and needed to be trained from the most basic parts.
Don't worry, George, the world war will take several years.
After a series of combination punches, referring to the mobilization procedures of European countries, Amul has entered a state of mobilization except that it has not started large-scale recruitment.
This has attracted the attention of the ministers of European countries in Amur.
Karl returned to Berlin to report on his work and came to Constantinople specifically to meet with George.
"George, you bastard! Do you have to blow up the whole world?"
Carl blamed George's mobilization for the war.
"It was you who detonated the whole world. I was just forced to defend myself."
George firmly refused to admit it.
Karl glared at George for a long time, then slumped down on the chair and muttered to himself.
“Why must we fight——”
In the past few years since Karl served as minister to Vladivostok, he has a comprehensive understanding of Amur’s strength.
As his understanding of the Amur deepened, Karl's fear also grew day by day. Let's not talk about the strength of the European and Russian regions. Taking out the Amur alone would be enough for the German-Austrian Alliance to drink. The Far East is rich in resources. Whether it is natural resources or human resources, they can be described as endless.
Along the way, Karl saw the Koryo Corps being actively trained at Arthur Fortress. Although the Russian Empire had not mobilized, more than 200,000 newly recruited Korean and Japanese soldiers had been recruited. The two battleships Japan had compensated the Russian Empire had also arrived in Asia. Se Fortress and rendezvous with the Pacific Fleet.
Across the sea from Arthur's Fortress is a German colony.
East India is also recalling retired soldiers. Coconut City is practicing landing operations. The number of light cruisers in the Pacific Fleet has reached 30. The shipyards in Vladivostok and Coconut City are still building. Why do they need so many cruisers?
Look at the map, Germany’s colony in the Pacific is right next to East India.
Constantinople has now become a huge warehouse. The cargo yard next to the port has a total area of nearly 20 square kilometers. The huge warehouses are endless. The railway is directly built into the cargo yard. There are airships in the sky. In the circle, the warships of the Mediterranean Fleet were cruising outside the port. When Karl discovered the brown bear flag of the Harbin Division in Constantinople, Karl was already numb.
The mascot of the four Amur legions is the polar bear, the mascot of the Yushi is the Siberian tiger, and the most bizarre mascot of the Nishi is the Siberian sled dog.
Karl can almost foresee that once the war breaks out, Germany's colonies in East Asia will be captured by the High Japanese Army who are training at Arthur's Fortress, and the colonies in the Pacific will be captured by East India.
George, sitting in Constantinople, is the biggest threat to the German-Austrian alliance. Once the Austro-Hungarian Empire fails, Germany will be isolated and helpless.
This is the Russian Empire's version of a top dog versus a bottom dog.
"George, honestly, did you plan all of this?"
Based on Karl's understanding of George, it is not difficult to make this judgment.
“What?”
George was confused and this question had no idea.
"The arms race, the Balkan war, the assassination of the crown prince, etc.-"
Karl was shocked by his conclusion. If all this was planned by George, then George could It's terrible.
"Yes! I planned all of this. I made the Iron-Blooded Prime Minister angry to death, and I killed the Tsar's envoy. I also used a gun to force your Majesty the Emperor to engage in an arms race with the British. Are you satisfied with this? ”
George was not angry.
Although George is the strongest conservative in the Russian Empire, George has been trying his best to avoid a world war. As long as a world war does not break out, and the Russian Empire is given another 20 years, the Russian Empire will become the most powerful country in Europe. .
"How could this happen - how did we get here?"
Karl also did not want to go to war with the Russian Empire.
We are all relatives, so why fight? Can't we just sit down and solve the problem through negotiation?
George didn't speak. Karl had a deep understanding of Amul, so he didn't want to fight.
In the original time and space, the Russian Empire lost the Russo-Japanese War, and the Balkan brothers were in trouble again. The Kingdom of Bulgaria, which lost the second Balkan War, still fell to the Allies, and the Kingdom of Greece’s position was not firm, so Germany Only then took the initiative to provoke.
Now the Russian Empire not only defeated Japan, but also won the Black Sea outlet. The Balkans were also managed by George. George really didn’t know where William II had the confidence.
What George didn’t know was that William II actually didn’t have much confidence.
William II was also hesitant about the war. He was not sure how determined Nicholas was to protect the Balkans.
When the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, although the Russian Empire expressed strong opposition, it still did not mobilize and silently swallowed this bitter pill.
The strength displayed by the Russian Empire in the Balkan War also made William II worried. Therefore, while forcing Austria-Hungary to take action against the Kingdom of Serbia, William II himself did not take any action.
On July 11, William II left for Norway for vacation. Before leaving, he said to Tirpitz: I don’t think there will be a war. The Tsar’s attention is not on the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. France and Russia was not prepared.
At this time, German Prime Minister Bertmann Hollweg was also on vacation.
Moltke was taking a bath in a hot spring. He suffered from bronchitis and the doctor told him that bathing in mineral water would be good for his health.
Acting Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann met with the Vienna envoy and promised the envoy: Germany will provide whatever Austria needs.
This gave the Austrians a wrong signal. After the envoy returned to Vienna, he told Joseph I and Marshal Kondela: Germany has been preparing for this for many years. The war between Austria-Hungary and Russia should be avoided. Russia Before resorting to force, Germany's attitude must be considered.
Based on all the information obtained, George determined that the war would not break out in July.
So on July 29, Polis and Elizabeth held an engagement ceremony in Adrianople. The kings of all the Balkan countries came to congratulate in person. Nicholas also came to Adrianople from St. Petersburg. A pair of white swans were presented to Polis and Elizabeth.
On the night of the engagement ceremony, Polis held a banquet in Adrianople for the kings from all over the world. In the middle of the banquet, George received a report that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had begun to mobilize.
(End of this chapter)