Chapter 590 The Three Giants of Imperial Russia
While Nicholas was comforting Alex, Sasonov came to the German Legation in Russia to bid farewell to Putales.
Germany has severed diplomatic relations with Imperial Russia, and Putales is leaving Imperial Russia and returning to Germany.
Nicholas did not detain Putales, that made no sense.
When leaving, Sasonov said to Putales: "Although it is too late to say these words now, Russia has still not given up negotiations. There is hope to avoid war, and the decision is in your hands. .”
Putales said angrily: "If you want to avoid war, then stop mobilizing."
Sasonov was helpless: "That is impossible——"
Putales Tales said sadly: "What else is there to say——"
Then the eyes of both people became wet.
In Putales's memoirs, he said that Sasonov cried first.
Sasonov believed that Putales shed tears first.
This is meaningless. The fact is that at the moment when the German Ambassador to Russia and the Russian Foreign Minister parted, the two men held each other's hands and cried.
Sasonov and Putales hugged for a while, then they both pushed each other away and blamed each other.
“It’s all your fault! You will be cursed!”
“We fight for honor!”
"You have no honor at all!"
When Putales got on the train, he staggered and almost fell.
After the train left, Sasonov stood alone on the platform for a long time. No one knew what he was thinking.
Battle is the business of diplomats, and George is responsible for winning victory for the empire.
King Nicholas I of the Kingdom of Montenegro sent all the troops of the Kingdom of Montenegro to Serbia as soon as the war began to help the Serbian army resist the invasion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
This rare friendship did not get the rewards it deserved. After the original time and space war, the Kingdom of Montenegro was annexed by Serbia. Nicholas went into exile in France and never forgave Serbia throughout his life.
George placed Nicholas in a manor on the outskirts of Constantinople, surrounded by dense forests and beautiful lakes.
Nicholas was very happy and lived happily in Constantinople. People visited him every day, not only because of his status, but also because of his two daughters, who were married to Nicholas Jr. Gula and his brother.
Nicholas had 5 daughters, all of whom were married to European dignitaries.
So Nicholas, like Christian IX of Denmark, was also a European father-in-law.
After Venizelos committed suicide, the mobilization of the Kingdom of Greece also entered the fast lane.
Unlike Bulgaria, Greece's mobilization did not go smoothly. Especially in the areas annexed after the Balkan War, resistance to mobilization was very serious.
Georgi still hid his selfish motives, mobilizing mainly the areas annexed after the Balkan War, and using the war to achieve the goal of completely annexing Western Thrace.
This is normal. After the Kingdom of Greece annexed Western Thrace, it did not implement a recuperation policy in the newly acquired areas like the Kingdom of Bulgaria. Instead, it increased its exploitation of the Western Thrace region. This led to the former Ottomans living in Western Thrace to be very dissatisfied with the rule of the Greek Kingdom.
Take Thessaloniki and Kavala as examples. Both cities previously belonged to the Ottoman Empire. After the Balkan War, Thessaloniki was assigned to Greece and Kavala became the Kingdom of Bulgaria. The most important port on the Aegean coast.
King George I of Greece was assassinated in Thessaloniki, so the newly succeeded King Constantine I was full of hatred for the city of Thessaloniki.
The Kingdom of Greece is full of ports, so Thessaloniki is far less important to the Kingdom of Greece than Kavala is to Bulgaria.
After Polis became the king of Bulgaria, he increased investment in Kavala, not only expanding the port and railway, but also exempting Kavala from taxes.
Not only did the Kingdom of Greece not exempt Thessaloniki from taxes, it also doubled the tax standard, making the Thessaloniki people miserable.
Thessaloniki and Kavala are only 120 kilometers apart.
They are both former Ottoman cities, one is undergoing massive construction projects, everyone has a job, income is increasing, taxes are completely exempted, and a better life is beckoning.
One is that income has been reduced, the tax burden has doubled, and all those who are suitable for military service must be sent to the army. One can imagine the mood of the people of Thessaloniki.
After the Kingdom of Greece announced the mobilization plan, Western Thrace people fled on a large scale. They would rather go out to sea on fishing boats than flee Western Thrace.
Georgi not only did not block it, but also opened the border to ensure that it was as smooth as possible.
At this moment, George could not take care of the Thracians who were rushing into Bulgaria. After the war broke out, the performance of the Russian army was hard to describe. When George was the person in charge of military reform, almost every decision he made was in preparation for a world war.
Before the war broke out, St. Petersburg had stockpiled a large amount of military supplies. At least it could handle the first batch of mobilizations.
But since Nikola sold its inventory of rifles to the United Kingdom and France, the situation began to change, and problems gradually emerged.
After determining that the overall strategy was to focus on defense, General George mainly stored military supplies in the rear areas and did not store too many supplies in the border areas.
After the mobilization began, the railway was occupied by endless military trains. The trains were not loaded with supplies, but soldiers.
Nicholas Jr. also had problems with appointments. He divided the Russian army under his command into two parts. One part was led by Zhilinsky and was responsible for the Russian-German border; the other part was led by Nikolai Yudovich, commander of the Chiva Military District. ·Led by Ivanov, responsible for the Russian-Austrian border.
Ivanov was born in 1851. He was a veteran general who participated in the Tenth Russo-Turkish War. He served as the commander of the Third Siberian Army during the Russo-Japanese War. Unfortunately, before the Third Army went to the front line, Russia and Japan began negotiations, and Ivanov failed to get a chance to prove himself.
After the Russo-Japanese War, Ivanov was promoted to general of artillery and served as governor of Kronshtadt and commander-in-chief of the fortress. In 1908, he was transferred to the Kiva Military District.
There are problems with the appointment of these two people, let’s talk about Ivanov first.
Before the outbreak of the war, Ivanov deployed his four armies in a semi-arc shape from east to west on the Russian-Austrian border.
However, due to the slow movement of the 8th Army and its failure to deploy within the stipulated time, Ivanov's defense line was incomplete.
Thanks here to Conrad's mistake, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's Group B was also on its way to Galicia in a hurry, and the Austrian army's preparations were also inadequate.
After the Russian Empire declared war, Ivanov immediately sent planes into the Austro-Hungarian Empire to conduct reconnaissance and determine the deployment of the Austrian troops.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire also has aircraft, but there are only 5 in the entire Galicia region, and only 2 of them are operational, so the Austro-Hungarian Empire can only send cavalry into the Russian Empire for reconnaissance.
It was only then that Ivanov discovered that the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s deployment was completely different from the intelligence the empire had obtained before.
In order to avoid putting the Russian army in a disadvantageous situation after the war broke out, Ivanov decided to take the initiative to attack.
When George knew this situation, the Battle of Galicia had already broken out.
Ivanov's reckless action completely disrupted George's previous plan.
Before Operation Ivanov, the Russian army's strength was more than twice that of the Austrian army. Even if the Russian army's intelligence had problems, it could still make adjustments and wait for the Austrian army to launch an attack.
Zhilinsky made more serious mistakes than Ivanov.
Under Zhilinsky's command were the Russian 1st and 2nd armies.
These two armies are each equipped with two elite divisions from the Guards, which are the main forces of the Russian army.
Zhilinsky appointed Cavalry General Paul von Renningkamp as Commander-in-Chief of the First Army and Cavalry General Alexander Samsonov as Commander-in-Chief of the Second Army.
At first glance, there seems to be no problem with this appointment.
The problem is that Zhilinsky ignored the contradiction between Renningkamp and Samsonov.
Both Renningkamp and Samsonov participated in the Russo-Japanese War. During the Russo-Japanese War, Renningkamp and Samsonov had a bad relationship. Max Hoffmann, a military observer from Germany, was involved in the Russo-Japanese War. It was later revealed that Renningkamp had fought with Samsonov on the train platform.
The conflict between two senior military officers was so serious that they were about to fight each other. As Alexeyev's chief of staff, Zhilinsky could not have been unaware of this situation.
In this case, Zhilinsky still hoped that the two could work closely together to deal with the most powerful opponent of the Russian Empire. George didn't know what to say.
George sent a telegram directly to Nicholas Jr. to remind him that there was a problem with Zhilinsky's appointment.
It took a day for Nicholas Jr. to call George back, saying that he should respect Zhilinsky’s arrangement and not interfere with Zhilinsky’s work.
This explanation seems to be similar to George's. George also uses people without suspicion and doesn't trust people with suspicion.
When George sent the second telegram to Nicholas Jr., the First Army and the Second Army had already invaded Germany.
George then sent a third harshly worded telegram to Nicholas Jr., asking Nicholas Jr. to immediately remove Zhilinsky from his post and withdraw the troops that had invaded Germany.
Little Nicholas did not call George back, but explained to George in person in Bucharest.
The Kingdom of Romania is the most important ally of the Russian Empire, and Ferdinand and Nicholas Jr. also have a good relationship. Naturally, Nicholas Jr. cannot miss Ferdinand's enthronement ceremony.
Nicholas also came, and the three giants of the Empire and Russia gathered together for the first time after the war broke out.
(End of this chapter)