Chapter 651 Abyss
The new official took office with three fires. If the first one is not ignited, it will be difficult to carry out the subsequent work.
This is why Yanushkevich has realized that abolition of the death penalty is wrong, but cannot change it.
Ruzsky and Alexeev, one is a person of the former Chief of General Staff Sukhomlinov, and the other is a person of the former Commander-in-Chief Nikolay the Younger.
Both of them have lost power now, so Ruzsky and Alexeyev only dared to write letters and did not dare to openly disobey Yanushkevich's orders.
Vasily just executed deserters, but he actually dared to arrest people sent by Yanushkevich. This was to rub Yanushkevich's face on the ground, and Yanushkevich would never let it go. .
Constantin sent a telegram to George that night, asking George for help.
George sent a telegram directly to Yanushkevich and asked him what he meant and why he sent people to arrest Duke Suvorov.
Yanushkevich quickly called back. He was not going to arrest Duke Suvorov, but asked Duke Suvorov to go to the Russian army base camp on the northern front to discuss matters related to subsequent cooperation in operations.
After the capture of Budapest, the Balkan theater and the Russian army on the northern front successfully joined forces, and coordinated operations will definitely be carried out next, which is what it should be.
George reminded Yanushkevich to do his own thing and not to reach out to the Balkan war zone.
The Russian Empire is different from Germany. The brain of German combat command is the General Staff, and the frontline commander is the executor. The Chief of General Staff has the final say on how to fight.
The Russian Chief of General Staff has very little power. The theater commander has the final say on how to fight. The Chief of General Staff is only responsible for logistics coordination.
In the Sukhomlinov era, there was Ivanov on the northern front, who had some influence on the front line and could compete with Nikolay Jr.
When it comes to Yanushkevich, the power of the Chief of General Staff is further reduced.
Yanushkevich couldn't afford to offend George, let alone Nikolai. He resigned from the post of chief of the general staff in anger and stopped serving the family.
Nicholas failed to retain him, so he appointed Alexeev to replace Yanushkevich as Chief of General Staff.
Like Verdun, after losing the suddenness of the battle, the Somme gradually became a positional battle. Both sides continued to increase their troops. By the beginning of August, the number of participating troops of the British and French forces reached 51 divisions, and the German army increased to With 40 divisions and nearly a thousand aircraft, both sides fought fiercely in the Somme area.
William II's patience with Falkenhayn finally ran out, and in early August, Hindenburg replaced Falkenhayn as the German Chief of Staff.
The first thing Hindenburg did after taking office was to transfer Ludendorff, who had performed well on the Eastern Front, to Verdun as commander-in-chief, taking full responsibility for the Battle of Verdun.
This is interesting.
When Falkenhayn served as Chief of General Staff, Hindenburg and Falkenhayn sang the opposite tune and advocated adjusting the direction of attack from the Western Front to the Eastern Front, first defeating the Russian Empire, and then turning back. Beat Britain and France.
After becoming Chief of General Staff, Hindenburg did not overturn Falkenhayn's decision, but transferred Ludendorff to Verdun.
After Hindenburg's comeback, Ludendorff began to serve as Hindenburg's chief of staff. The two of them complemented each other perfectly, beating little Nicholas to pieces on the northern front.
If the direction of the attack was to be changed from the Western Front to the Eastern Front, Hindenburg would not transfer Ludendorff to the Western Front.
Immediately after taking over from Falkhein, Hindenburg demanded an immediate halt to the offensive at Verdun, adjusted the front line, accumulated strength, and waited for a more suitable time to launch an attack again.
William II disagreed.
The Battle of Verdun broke out in February and lasted until August. The German army consumed countless supplies and suffered more than 400,000 casualties. If it stopped without any gains, it would also have an impact on William II's prestige.
Hindenburg was still smarter than Falkenhayn.
Since William II was determined to fight, Hindenburg did not sing the opposite. The bombardment continued, but the intensity of the ground troops' attack dropped suddenly.
After Ludendorff came to Verdun, he was unable to adjust the combat troops according to his own will.
The German Fifth Army, the main battle force in the Battle of Verdun, is also known as the "Crown Prince's Army", with the German Crown Prince William serving as the honorary commander-in-chief.
Crown Prince William, who was born in 1882, is already 34 years old this year. At the beginning of the World War, Crown Prince William led the Fifth Army stationed at the German-French border and withstood the first wave of French attacks, creating a foundation for Little Moltke. Implementing the "Schlieffen Plan" bought time.
As time went by, Crown Prince William's desire for power became stronger and stronger, and he gradually gained actual control of the Fifth Army.
This is a bit funny.
Crown Prince William’s military rank is only colonel——
Okay, Russia has no right to laugh at Germany, because Nikolai’s military rank is also colonel.
Ludendorff hoped that Crown Prince Wilhelm would leave the front line and return to Berlin to play a greater role.
Crown Prince Wilhelm does not want to return to Berlin.
Wilhelm II was in his prime, and he was in great health and eating well. The Crown Prince had to live in the shadow of Wilhelm II when he returned to Berlin, so he might as well stay at the front and be free.
Although William II was in good health, the old emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire could no longer hold on.
The old emperor was born in 1830 and succeeded to the throne in 1848. This December will mark the 69th anniversary of his accession to the throne.
In an era when the average life expectancy was only 35 years old, Joseph I was emperor for 69 years. People are really different.
As Europe's longest reigning monarch, his life was as sad as his empire.
The wife of the old emperor was Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria. They had four children in total. After six years of happy marriage, the marriage of Joseph I and Elizabeth had problems in the seventh year.
This year, the old emperor suffered from Hualiu Disease and passed the disease on to his children.
After this, the marriage between Joseph and Elizabeth existed in name only. After losing the warmth of his family, Joseph focused his main energy on state affairs.
Unfortunate blows followed one after another.
First, Joseph's only son, Archduke Rudolf, Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, committed suicide together with his lover.
The reason why Rudolf found a lover was that he transmitted the disease to his wife, causing her to lose fertility.
Nine years later, Queen Elizabeth was assassinated. The murderer originally wanted to kill the King of Italy, but because he had no money to buy a train ticket to Italy, he killed Elizabeth.
After Archduke Rudolf committed suicide, Joseph chose Archduke Ferdinand as the heir to the empire.
In 1914, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife became the trigger for the World War.
The ensuing blows made this dying old man extremely painful. He once said to Conrad: They are all dead, but I am the only one who will not die——
Conrad could talk, saying that Austria-Hungary needed an emperor, so God didn't take him away.
Joseph replied: Yes, yes, life is so lonely!
In mid-August, news from Vienna showed that the old emperor Joseph frequently fell into coma due to health reasons and died soon.
After Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, Archduke Otto Franz’s son Karl was established as Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
This is another example of a man with great ambition and talent. We will talk about his glorious deeds later.
If Archduke Ferdinand was still alive, Karl had no chance of becoming Emperor of Austria-Hungary, so after Karl married Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma in 1911, he gave birth to four children within five years.
For Karl, becoming the crown prince was completely pie-in-the-sky.
But Karl was not ready to become the crown prince, so after the old emperor was physically unable to handle government affairs, Karl began to supervise the country as regent.
This is the reason why the Austro-Hungarian Empire has done almost nothing this year.
After Alexeyev became the Chief of General Staff, he sent a telegram to George, hoping that the Balkan Theater would take advantage of the fact that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in chaos to increase its attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
George refused to attack on the grounds that winter was approaching.
George didn’t know what was going on with the generals of the empire.
Obviously it is the best thing for the empire to fight for the benefit of the crane and the clam, but whether it is Nicholas Jr., Nicholas, or even Alexeyev, the first thing he does after taking office is to attack .
Now that Germany and the British and French forces are beating their brains out on the Western Front, the empire is taking this opportunity to make adjustments, restore its strength, appease the army, build defense lines, and so on.
With so many urgent tasks, which one is not more important than offense?
Alexeyev called back to George. The position of the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Karl was not clear. If this opportunity could be used to force the Austro-Hungarian Empire to withdraw from the war, the Russian army could concentrate all its forces on the northern front.
If they can merge together, Alexeyev is willing to transfer all power to George and cooperate with George to become the commander-in-chief of the Russian army.
George was finally moved.
At the same time, I feel heavy.
The military generals have always been Nikolai's staunchest supporters. No matter how much the Grand Duke of St. Petersburg and officials tried, the military generals' support for Nikolai was Nikolai's greatest confidence.
Alexeyev served as Nikolay the Younger's chief of staff.
Little Nicholas is now in the Caucasus Military District.
It would be fine if Alexeyev had no contact with little Nikolay.
If there is -
How could it not be?
George had not yet called Alexeyev back, and news came from Crimea.
This spring, the court ruled that the marriage between Nikolai's sister, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, and Prince Peter Alexandrovich, Prince of Attenborough, was invalid.
Subsequently, Olga became engaged to Nikolai Kulikovsky, an officer who was not of royal origin.
It was also an intermarriage between nobles and common people. The Empress Dowager and Nicholas agreed happily without setting any obstacles.
Olga is so miserable, everyone wants her to live happily in her second marriage.
So a month ago, members of the imperial royal family, except Nikolai and Alex, gathered in Crimea to prepare for Olga's wedding.
Nicholas is on the front line and cannot get out.
As a queen, Alex actually turned a blind eye to her sister-in-law's wedding. This fully proved that Alex's royal conflicts were irreconcilable, and at the same time caused a more serious consequence.
George received a secret report and the royal family members headed by Mikhail decided to force Nicholas to abdicate and pass the throne to Crown Prince Alexei, with Mikhail serving as regent and overseeing the country.
At the same time, George also received news that the St. Petersburg nobles and officials had another plan, which was similar to the royal family's plan. The difference was that the St. Petersburg nobles and officials hoped that Nicholas Jr. would supervise the country.
(End of this chapter)