Chapter 210: Tsar Alexander II, the Warlord

Unlike the British government, which was full of laughter and joy at the coronation ceremony, the atmosphere of the Tsarist government in Eastern Europe was quite serious at this time.

As the only Orthodox country among the great powers, the relationship between Orthodoxy and Tsarist Russia is much closer than the relationship between other powers and Catholicism and Protestantism.

The Russian government has always advocated Pan-Slavism, defended the Orthodox faith group, and protected fellow Slavs.

Serbia, which resisted the rule of the Ottoman Empire on the Balkan Peninsula, just met two conditions: it was a Slavic nation and also an Orthodox church.

For Tsarist Russia, it was impossible to give up its support for Serbia. This was not only to open up the channel from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, but also to conform to its own Pan-Slavism and maintain the reason for the expansion of Tsarist Russia.

For this point, Britain and Austria-Hungary obviously underestimated Russia's determination. For Tsarist Russia, this was something that could not be compromised at all, and it was worth a try.

At the government meeting of Tsarist Russia, officials were discussing with serious faces.

Despite the support of Russia, Serbia and other countries were still at a disadvantage in their resistance to the Ottoman Empire, and there was even a possibility that they would be completely pacified by the Ottoman Empire.

This was completely unacceptable to Russia. If the resistance forces such as Serbia were allowed to be eliminated by the Ottoman Empire, it would not only undermine Russia's expansion in the Balkan Peninsula, but also make Tsarist Russia lose face.

Regardless of the considerations, for Russia at present, perhaps a war is the most appropriate choice.

"Tell me, what should we do to help Serbia repel the Ottoman Empire?" Tsar Alexander II looked grim and turned his eyes to the ministers he trusted.

Alexander II, born in 1818, was already 59 years old and looked very old. But aging age did not reduce Alexander II's ambition. During his reign, the territory of Tsarist Russia expanded by millions of square kilometers, which was a commendable achievement for Alexander II.

Of course, Alexander II's most famous move was his reform that abolished serfdom, and he was affectionately called the liberator by the people.

Unfortunately, Alexander II's reforms were not so firm, but instead led the Russian government to a new chaos.

The reformers thought that Alexander II, who was more supportive of liberalism, was the dawn of reform, but Alexander II's limited reforms obviously disappointed them.

While carrying out limited reforms in Russia that were not firm, Alexander II brutally suppressed the revolutionary movement in Russia, putting himself in a rather embarrassing situation, standing on the opposite side of the conservatives and reformers.

The conservatives' dissatisfaction with the tsar would only be hidden, waiting for the opportunity to release it. The dissatisfaction of the reformers would lead some more extreme people to take more extreme measures, such as assassinating Alexander II.

As early as a few years ago, the revolutionaries planned to assassinate the tsar. Although it did not succeed, the repeated assassination did make Alexander II miserable.

For Alexander II himself, the war between Serbia and the Ottoman Empire was also an opportunity for him, an opportunity for Tsarist Russia to expand.

As long as the expansion of the territory is completed, Alexander II will have the opportunity to restore his position in the hearts of the people. In this way, he will still be the Tsar trusted and loved by the people, and the assassination of the revolutionaries will be solved.

Facing Alexander II's inquiry, the ministers certainly knew Alexander II's attitude.

After the reform, Tsarist Russia is still an autocratic monarchy. As the Tsar, Alexander II has an unparalleled supreme status and authority.

Now that Alexander II's attitude is clear, the next thing is easy to do, that is, to follow Alexander II's attitude and promote the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

"Your Majesty, I think we should start preparing for the war with the Ottoman Empire. There is no other way, unless we are willing to see Serbia annexed by the Ottoman Empire again." The minister who was recently promoted by Alexander II spoke first and expressed his attitude of supporting the war.

Alexander II nodded with satisfaction. What he wanted was the voice of support for the war in the government: "Has the military considered this war?

If we launch a war against the Ottoman Empire at this time, what are our chances of winning?"

Of course, Alexander II was not only asking about the war with the Ottoman Empire, but also about the situation in which the British strongly supported the Ottoman Empire and might even join the war for this.

What's more, it was not only the British Empire that was concerned about the situation in the Balkans. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was also concerned about the situation in the Balkans, which was also a problem for Tsarist Russia.

"Your Majesty, as long as the Germans do not support the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they will never join this war because they oppose us.

In this way, we only need to deal with the Ottoman Empire supported by Britain. If Britain does not join the war, we should have a 100% chance of winning. The Ottoman Empire is definitely not Russia's opponent, even with the support of the British Empire." The Minister of War answered Alexander II confidently.

Although Russia has problems of one kind or another, Russia is still one of the five most powerful countries in Europe at this time.

The Ottoman Empire is no match for Russia, just as Serbia is no match for the Ottoman Empire.

There is a relatively obvious gap between countries, and even with the support of other powerful countries, this gap in strength cannot be eliminated.

Unless the British Empire is willing to join this war for the Ottoman Empire, will the British really join the war? I am afraid there is a high probability that they will not.

According to the British character of being a troublemaker, Britain will only strongly support the Ottoman Empire to counter Russia, and at most provoke the Austro-Hungarian Empire to use force to support the Ottoman Empire, and it is highly unlikely that they will put themselves in danger.

The British have kept Europe in chaos and competition for a long time with their troublemaker character, but this is also an opportunity for Tsarist Russia.

As long as the British do not personally join this war, the Russians will not take the Ottoman Empire seriously.

In addition, with the support of the Balkan peoples, this war may only take a short time to win, and Russia will also get the Black Sea outlet that it has been thinking about, and the opportunity to control the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula.

This is also a good omen for the Great Slavism that Russia has been promoting. If the support of the Yugoslavs in the Balkan Peninsula can be obtained through this war, the Great Slavic plan of Tsarist Russia will be initially completed.

Tsarist Russia, which controls the Balkan Peninsula, is absolutely qualified to stand on the top of the world again. At that time, even the British Empire, which is the world's number one navy, dare not guarantee that it can 100% directly defeat Tsarist Russia, which controls the Balkan Peninsula.

After hearing the report of the Minister of War, Tsar Alexander II nodded with satisfaction, and then made his own decision: "

From now on, Russia will enter a state of war preparation. The army is ready to go at any time. When Serbia cannot resist the attack of the Ottoman Empire, it is time for us to send troops to the Ottoman Empire.

Orthodox believers will never allow the bullying of pagans, and the Slavs will never allow the abuse of foreigners. The Balkan Peninsula is the land of the Slavs, and the Slavs should decide for themselves."

"Yes, Your Majesty the Tsar!" The ministers nodded seriously, not daring to be dissatisfied with the Tsar's order.

With the order of Alexander II, the whole of Russia entered into intense war preparations.

For Russia, a giant with a territory of tens of millions of square kilometers, war preparations take a long time to complete.

Even if only a part of the army is mobilized, it often takes several months.

In addition to the reason that the territory is too large, another major reason is that the political system of Tsarist Russia is too corrupt and the information transmission between departments is too slow.

There are indeed reasons for the backward technology, but other countries do not need as much time as Russia when mobilizing for war.

Powerful countries such as Germany and France can mobilize more than 200,000 troops to the border within a month, and it only takes three months to mobilize all the troops in the country.

But for Russia, it is not enough to mobilize 100,000 troops in a month. It takes at least three months to mobilize more than 200,000 troops.

This is also because the Balkan Peninsula is located in Europe. If the battlefield is in the Far East, Russia may not be able to transport hundreds of thousands of troops to the Far East battlefield in one year.

This work is organized and uploaded by Liujiu Book Bar~~

The reason why Russia lost to Japan in the Russo-Japanese War in history was largely because Russia had poor logistics and it was difficult to transport troops and other supplies to the Far East battlefield.

The Russo-Japanese War was indeed a war for Japan to prove its great power, but Japan's enemy was only half of Russia, or even less than half.

This is also the reason why Japan, although recognized as a great power after the war, can only be ranked among the lowest powers.

It took only a few decades to reform into a powerful country, which is a miracle for Japan, a relatively backward East Asian country.

But it is undeniable that Japan, which is recognized as a great power, still has many defects, especially in industry and economy.

Whether it was World War I or World War II, Japan's industry was only below average among the great powers. In addition, the lack of mineral resources in Japan made it difficult for this country to develop as fast as emerging great powers such as Germany and the United States.

Under the order of Tsar Alexander II, Russia's war machine began to start like an old man in his twilight years.

At the same time, the war between the Ottoman Empire and other nations in the Balkan Peninsula was also in full swing.

In the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire mobilized more than 280,000 troops, commanded by General Abdul Kerim Nadir Pasha.

In the Asian part of the Ottoman Empire, there were more than 126,000 troops, commanded by General Mehmet Mukhtar Pasha.

The combined forces of Europe and Asia exceeded 400,000, with more than 850 artillery pieces. Such a large army force is considered quite powerful.

Although it cannot be compared with the great powers, these army forces can be said to be completely crushed against the Balkan peoples such as Serbia who have set off rebellions.

That is, the anger of Serbia and other peoples towards the Ottoman Empire was too intense, which led to the war lasting for a long time.

In addition, the Ottoman Empire's army was not so strong in terms of discipline and overall combat effectiveness, which turned this war, which should have been one-sided, into a protracted tug-of-war between the two sides.

Although Britain provided the Ottoman Empire with a batch of rifles and some relatively scarce strategic resources, this still could not effectively improve the actual combat effectiveness of the Ottoman Empire's army.

As for the Serbian and other ethnic armies, Russia provided less equipment and worse quality, but they burst out with extremely strong combat effectiveness with these equipment.

It was precisely because of the poor performance of the Ottoman Empire's army in this war that Russia made up its mind to intervene in this war and quickly resolved the Ottoman Empire's army, forcing the British government to agree that Russia had defeated the Ottoman Empire.

Although the Ottoman Empire's army performed poorly on the battlefield, both the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire behind it were still optimistic about this war.

Under the attack of the Ottoman Empire's army regardless of casualties, the rebel forces such as Serbia that opposed the Ottoman Empire had been forced into a corner.

Perhaps in less than a year, the Ottoman Empire can completely end this war and re-establish its dominant position over Serbia and other ethnic groups and regions.

This is also the reason why the British boldly held the coronation ceremony of Queen Victoria and reduced their attention to the Balkan Peninsula.

The situation was very good, and the British government even reduced its aid to the Ottoman Empire.

After all, the economic crisis was affecting the British Empire, and it was better to reduce spending where possible.

What Britain and the Ottoman Empire did not know was that Russia was already preparing for war. Russia also informed Serbia and other nations that resisted the Ottoman Empire of the news of the war, which made these Yugoslavs happy.

With the blessing of good news, the Balkan people's resistance to the Ottoman Empire's attack became more intense, and even forced the Ottoman Empire's army back several kilometers.

Unfortunately, Tsarist Russia's equipment support for the Balkan people was gradually decreasing. After all, these equipment were to be invested in their own army to fight this war.

With the support of weapons and equipment and Russia's personal participation, the Balkan people naturally knew which choice was more beneficial to them.

The Serbs, Bulgarians, and Montenegrins were looking forward to it, completely ignoring the situation that their side had been retreating on the front battlefield.

After much anticipation, as the situation in the Balkan Peninsula became increasingly worse, Russia finally decided to go to war!