Schlieffen shrugged his shoulders slightly and said, "It is regrettable that the situation in Japan has also been out of control not long after the outbreak of turmoil in Russia. As a large number of young men were drafted into the army, their already self-sufficient food supplies were even more strained; Coupled with the widespread frost that occurred in Japan last year, which led to a large number of failed agricultural harvests, there is already a severe food shortage in Japan. This is undoubtedly an extremely dangerous signal for Japan. The situation of the Japanese army was even worse, their national strength was simply not able to sustain the huge attrition in the war, and their human and material resources were exhausted. Under such circumstances, Japan will naturally not continue to entangle itself with Russia too much. ”

Knowing this, Qingying's eyes flashed with surprise, and then a little understanding appeared on her face.

As a matter of fact, Japan never thought of fighting Russia in the first place, and the reason why they provoked this war in the first place was entirely because the Yellow Russia strategy pursued by St. Petersburg had seriously threatened Japan's national security, so much so that it had to gamble its national fortune and seek Russia's recognition of its rights and interests in the Far East through a preemptive victory on the battlefield.

On the other hand, the Russo-Japanese War was supposed to be declared an armistice as early as September 1905 under the mediation of the United States, but in this time and space, the war, which had lasted only one and a half years, was greatly delayed by the delay in the conclusion of the Anglo-French Entente and the change of the Tsar's belief in victory. The continuous war has caused Japan's consumption of men and materials far more than it has historically been, which is an even more unbearable situation for the Japanese government, which has been struggling to squeeze its own people to sustain the war. Once the casualties and losses reach a critical point that they cannot afford. Then the situation on the Manchurian front will collapse in an instant under the attack of the Russians! Therefore. End the war while the current tide of the war is still in Japan's favor. It became the only choice for the base camp in Japan. After all, their fundamental goal was to get Russia to abandon its invasion of South Manchuria, and after Japan's nearly victorious war against Russia for more than two years, Russia should also give up its claim to this region.

William's expression gradually became solemn, and he said: "At present, both Japan and Russia are unable to fight again, as long as Little Nicky and the Japanese monkeys still retain the most basic reason in their minds, then they will not start the war again, but will try their best to promote this armistice and peace talks." It can be as short as 10 days and as long as a month. This jubilant war will come to an end regrettably, and this will not be in our favour for Germany. ”

"According to my father's wishes, what should I do next in Germany?" Qingying asked.

William said slowly: "There is no other way. In order to avoid a head-on conflict with us from Russia, the empire had no choice but to continue to pursue the strategy of diverting trouble from the east, and to encourage Russia to continue to focus its strategic attention on the Far East by various means. In this war, which lasted for more than 2 years, little Nicky did not reap any benefits, but was slapped several times by the Japanese on the battlefield, and with his character, he must not be able to swallow this breath. When the situation in Russia recovers, and we Germany will come forward to lure and provoke it, I believe that he should happily decide to reorganize and fight. Went to the Far East to take revenge on Japan. ”

Hearing this, Qingying's brows couldn't help but gradually wrinkle. From the personal wishes of Tsar Nikolai. Naturally, he was desperate to kill Japan, which had caused him humiliation, but William's failure to "deceive" the Tsar during his trip to Björk Island undoubtedly revealed that the will of the Russian Emperor no longer meant absolute authority. Historically, after Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, it did not go to the Far East to seek revenge on Japan, not because Nicholas II had mercy to spare the Japanese, but for a wide range of far-reaching reasons.

In September 1905, the Portsmouth Treaty of the Russo-Japanese armistice was signed in the United States, but the effects of the war did not dissipate and still hung over Japan and Russia like a haze. This protracted war left both sides with a terrible mess, especially in Russia, where the country's finances were on the verge of collapse and had to turn to the French bank capitalists for help, and thus the Russian state policy was once again deeply French. And from any point of view, Russia's eastward expansion strategy is simply unacceptable to France! At the same time, Britain was worried about the weakness of the Anglo-French Entente on land, and urgently needed the power of Russia, a behemoth, to contain Germany on the Eastern Front, so it also threatened and persuaded the Tsar to turn his attention back to Europe by various means. Under the intervention of external pressure, the tsarist government, which was extremely weakened by the huge consumption of the Russo-Japanese War and the turbulent and chaotic domestic situation, could not stand up for any resistance.

Militarily, Russia must also temporarily abandon the struggle for the Far East. The defeat in the Russo-Japanese War clearly underscored the fact that the likelihood of Russian victory in the Far East was inversely proportional to the distance that the Russian army's strategic forces could throw from Europe to the Far East. Russia's economic strength in the Far East is too weak, and the long journey will greatly dilute the amount of military power they could have invested in the Far East; The Trans-Siberian Railway, which had not yet been fully opened, could not support their strategy of encroachment on the sparsely populated and wasteland of the East. Compared to the Russian Army's standing strength of 1.2 million men and the terrifying figure of more than 6 million after mobilization, the strength they maintained in the Far East was at its most less than 700,000 men. As for the Navy...... The best example of this is their clean defeat in the Battle of Tsushima, which has proven to be purely a meat delivery!

In addition, the most important point is that Russia's fundamental core interests are not in the Far East.

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It is undeniable that although the Trans-Siberian Railway, built by former Chancellor of the Exchequer Witte, gave Russia a green passage to the Far East, the lure of large tracts of land and ice-free ports of "Yellow Russia" has always haunted St. Petersburg. However, since Peter the Great, Russia, which straddles the Eurasian continent, has become a veritable "double-headed eagle", with one wolf looking to the Far East and the other looking at Western Europe. The greedy coveting of the Far East did not affect their territorial needs in Europe and the Near East at all, and the annexation of the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire was far more important in Russia's strategic order than the occupation of the Far East!

The economic and strategic significance of the religious, ethnic, historical, and political intricacies of relations between the Balkans and St. Petersburg was also the most crucial reason why Russia devoted its efforts to the region after the Russo-Japanese War, rather than to seek revenge on Japan in the Far East.

Economically, the Balkans are bordered by Russia's industrially developed core and the warm-climate southern agricultural center, and its economic and trade ties with the European part of Russia are far greater than the ties between Vladivostok and its homeland, which is thousands of miles away. More importantly, since Russia's ports in the North, Baltic, and Pacific seas freeze during the winter, the permanent ice-free ports adjacent to the Black Sea coast are extremely important for the proper functioning of the Russian economy. Through the Mediterranean and Black Sea shipping routes, Russia will not only strengthen its economic and trade ties with France and Italy and the North African region, but will also be able to break its strength out of the Black Sea, which is of great benefit to Russia.

Strategically, opening up the Dardanelles and then obtaining a strategic pass to the "warm sea" has been the established national policy of all Russian tsars since Peter the Great, for which Russia and the Ottoman Empire have engaged in as many as 10 large-scale confrontations in more than two centuries. Russia's long-cherished desire to break through this pass is evident in the construction of the Black Sea Fleet, which they have always been clinging to: in this almost closed water, the Russians possess a huge maritime force that is completely disproportionate to the Ottoman navy opposite, and even built and planned a large number of dreadnoughts in it! This force, which is almost on par with the Italian-Austrian navy, clearly intends to force its way into the Dardanelles in the war, break through the encirclement and restriction of Russia by the great powers around the "Baltic Sea bath" in one fell swoop, and enable Russia to gain a broader strategic space for action.

Prior to this, the reason why Russia had shifted its strategic focus to the Far East was entirely due to the fact that they had misjudged Japan's strength, believing that this small state that "could crush them by throwing a hat" was simply vulnerable. Driven by the small investment of defeating Japan's "military travel" and the lucrative return of the annexation of Yellow Russian lands and ice-free ports in the Far East, Russia's choice of troops to the Far East became a natural thing. However, after this protracted war, the Russians were stunned to find that the Far East was a hard bone to gnaw; Not only did they fail to conquer it, but they shattered most of their own sharp teeth!

The combination of these factors made it difficult for Russia to continue to project military power into the Far East after the Russo-Japanese War, and its strategy in the East could only change from a strategic offensive to a strategic defense, and to refocus on the Balkans and the Black Sea region, which maintained their core interests. Russia, which was advancing westward in the Balkans, would inevitably have irreconcilable contradictions with Austria-Hungary, and Germany, which had signed an offensive and defensive alliance with Austria-Hungary, would also be involved.

When Qingying said this thought, she saw that William and Shi Life's faces gradually became solemn. For a moment, the room was silent, and only the ticking of the pendulum could be heard. (To be continued......)