In the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia finally showed a smile on his face when he heard the current Minister of War Gorrosky report to him about the deployment of troops from several other European countries of the Eight-Nation Alliance to the battlefield on the Northern Front.

Then Chancellor of the Exchequer Witte continued: "Your Majesty, the aid and loans promised to us by England and France have been allocated, and now the Reich has the funds to expand the army. ”

Britain, France and Russia were originally the camp of the Entente, this time the three countries all joined the Eight-Nation Alliance to wage war against the Qing Dynasty and Lin Daxin, Russia as a country bordering Lin Daxin's territory in a large area, is bound to become the front line of the war, and the Russian Army will also become the main force fighting with Lin Daxin's Dingbei Army, so Britain and France not only sent their land forces into Russia to fight, but also gave Russia a lot of loans in order to help the Allied comrades, the amount of up to 20 million pounds, There was even a large amount of free aid to solve the problem of lack of funds in Russia, and this pie-in-the-sky aid fund added up to 5 million pounds.

When Tsar Nicholas II heard this, the smile on his face suddenly became much brighter, and then he turned to War Minister Gorrosky and said: "Since our allies of the Entente have allocated all the funds to support our Russian Empire, your army will immediately start the expansion plan, and in the shortest possible time, expand as many troops as possible, devote themselves to this war, and obtain more benefits for our Russian Empire." ”

After the establishment of the Eight-Nation Alliance, only the interests that could be divided between the Qing Dynasty and Lin Daxin's territory were preliminarily demarcated, such as Russia would take back the Far Eastern Province, Baikal Province, Saisi Province, and Saidong Province occupied by Lin Daxin in the last war. This aspect was supported by the other countries of the Eight-Nation Alliance, even because the Russian Army would be the main force in the war on the Northern Front. The other seven countries of the G-8 agreed to give Outer Mongolia to Russia, but Russia wanted more. Only by relying on how much effort you contribute on the battlefield and how much you have in battle can you decide how much you will gain in the post-war distribution.

When Gorrosky heard Nicholas II mention the expansion plan, he immediately said: "Your Majesty the Tsar, as long as there are no problems with weapons and funds, our army can expand the army by 1 million in 20 days to 1 month to replenish the losses of the front-line troops." ”

Russia is also one of the countries with relatively complete reserves, and after the Qing Dynasty declared war with the Eight-Nation Alliance. The Russian War Department has begun to convene reserve soldiers, 20 days to 1 month are Gorrosky's conservative words, with the Russian Army's original reserve of a batch of weapons, the Army has completed the formation of 400,000 new troops, and the other 600,000 reserve soldiers have also been called up to start training, but the War Department's reserves of weapons are gone, even the single-shot rifles that Russia used to reserve have been consumed in the last war with Lin Daxin.

But Gorrosky knew that Britain and France had not only provided financial support. It also promised to provide Russia with a large number of weapons free of charge for the expansion of the Russian army.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Witte immediately said: "A batch of weapons that Britain and France have provided us with free of charge have also been shipped, which can be used for the expansion plan of the Imperial Army." There were 500,000 rifles alone, as well as quite a few heavy machine guns and artillery, although most of the rifles were old. But it's better than the soldiers of the Empire with their bare hands. With this money from Britain and France, the expansion of the army by 1 million is definitely not a problem. ”

Nicholas II said nonchalantly: "As long as the gun can be used, it will be fine." Gorrosky, with this batch of weapons. Can we expand the army to 1 million? ”

Gorrosky nodded and said: "Your Majesty the Tsar, our War Department originally had 400,000 army weapons in reserve, with this batch of weapons sent by Britain and France, and then let the arsenal work overtime to urgently produce some rifles, it is completely possible to form an army of 1 million in 20 days to 1 month, and the minister can guarantee to His Majesty the Tsar." ”

Tsar Nicholas II nodded, and then said: "The War Department has completed the formation of these 1 million armies, don't stop, continue to form new troops, Witte, you contact Britain and France, and let them support us with a batch of weapons as much as possible." ”

Chancellor of the Exchequer Witte said with some embarrassment: "Your Majesty the Tsar, it is not easy to let Britain and France support our weapons free of charge, unless we come up with money to buy them." ”

After all, weapons are not blown by the wind, and Britain and France, as Russia's allies, cannot support Russia's expansion of the army without limit, and Witte knows this very well.

Tsar Nicholas II himself knew that Britain and France would not supply unlimited support weapons to Russia to expand the army, so he said: "Witte, you contact Britain and France to discuss the purchase of a batch of weapons with money, and in addition, the single-shot rifles in our Russian War Department have been lost in the last war, but Britain and France still have a large number of single-shot rifles in stockpiles, and we can ask Britain and France to support us with those single-shot rifles in reserve, and Tsar Ben believes that the heroic Russian soldiers are holding single-shot rifles, The combat power is just as strong. ”

Gorrosky heard that Nicholas II was ready to use the single-shot rifles from the British and French reserves to continue to expand the army, opened his mouth, and finally did not raise any objections, although the single-shot rifle has been very backward, but after all, it is a rifle, a weapon that can kill, and sometimes in the face of the extremely powerful Dingbei Army, there is really no big difference between the troops equipped with single-shot rifles and the troops equipped with new repeating rifles, no matter what, let's raise the number of their own army first!

After talking about the army, Nicholas II turned his head to the Admiralty and asked: "This time, the navy has added most of its main forces to the joint expeditionary fleet of European countries and sent them to Asia, which is an opportunity for our Russian navy to take revenge, which is very good!" But our Russian navy must continue to grow in order to be in line with our Russian imperial identity, and not now firmly ranked eighth among the world's navies. ”

Nicholas II has always wanted to build Russia into the most powerful country, even surpassing the current world hegemon Britain, becoming the new world hegemon, but the ambitious Nicholas II in the war against Lin Daxin 3 years ago, but was ruthlessly cleaned up, the army lost 2 million, and the number of dead exceeded one million, but compared to the army, the Russian navy is more miserable, almost all the main warships are either sunk or captured, and now the Northeast Navy still has some warships that captured Russia!

However, Nicholas II's ambitions did not stop there, and after losing 5.12 million square kilometers of land and paying 15 million pounds in compensation, he rebuilt the world's largest army and a navy in three years.

This time, the Russian Navy has joined the joint expeditionary fleet of European countries, including 15 Peresvet-class all-steel battleships with a standard displacement of 12,600 tons, four Borodino-class all-steel battleships with a standard displacement of 13,500 tons, 10 large fast armored cruisers, 16 fast protection cruisers, 16 destroyers, and 32 torpedo boats.

The Russian Navy, with the exception of 2 Borodino-class all-steel battleships and 2 large fast armored cruisers, sent everything that could be done.

Hearing that Nicholas II was preparing to strengthen the navy, Archduke Vicky, as the Minister of the Navy, thought of the news he got a few days ago, so he said: "Your Majesty the Tsar, originally our Admiralty had made a new shipbuilding plan, but a few days ago, the intelligence obtained from Britain showed that the British had built a brand new battleship, which used 10 unified models of 45 times caliber 305 mm guns, used 4 steam turbine units, and the maximum speed could reach 21 knots. The armor is also quite thick, with a full load displacement of more than 20,000 tons, and the minister believes that this kind of battleship is the trend of future development, and our Russian Navy should build this kind of battleship. ”

Nicholas II has been busy formulating an offensive plan for the territory under Lin Daxin's command after the formation of the Eight-Nation Alliance recently, and he really doesn't know about the battleship Intrepid built by the British.

After introducing the battleship Dreadnought, the Grand Duke of Vicky said: "Your Majesty the Tsar, although this brand-new battleship has not yet been tested in actual combat, its powerful performance is beyond doubt, and such a powerful battleship is what the Russian Navy needs, so our Admiralty's original plan to build an all-steel battleship has been canceled." ”

Nicholas II nodded a little excitedly and said: "Completely correct, our Russian Empire must have this new battleship, compared with this new battleship, the previous all-steel battleships are a little backward, Vicky, the Navy will immediately start to design and build this new type of battleship, it is best to build 10 or 8 at a time, Tsar Ben is a little impatient." ”

Archduke Vechi hesitated for a moment and said: "Your Majesty, although this new type of battleship is powerful, its cost is also expensive, our Admiralty has made a preliminary estimate, so that the cost of one battleship will reach 2.6 million pounds to 2.8 million pounds. (To be continued......)

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