I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 583 Prologue
Like Romania, Austria-Hungary also had to harvest crops, which was the real reason why Austria-Hungary was slow to start mobilization.

George didn't care about harvesting the crops. He wanted to seize this last time to stockpile more supplies.

In the past three years, the Russian Empire has had bumper harvests of grain, and its grain reserves are the largest among all countries.

Although Stolypin did not have time to reform the industrial sector, Amur's industrial production model still had a certain impact on St. Petersburg's military industry. Now all weapons and equipment used by the Russian Empire are produced by the empire itself, without the need to purchase from abroad.

The Imperial Army has completely replaced its weapons with magazine-fed rifles, with each division equipped with an average of 80 heavy machine guns.

The new rapid-fire gun replaced the old artillery, and the combat effectiveness was qualitatively improved.

Each division of the Guards was equipped with an artillery regiment. The artillery divisions were equipped with artillery with a maximum caliber of 150 mm. The Obukhov Steel Plant also produced a super mortar with a caliber of 350 mm, which was extremely powerful.

The Amur Arsenal did not engage in gimmicks and worked hard to improve production efficiency. The production capacity of artillery shells was 50 rounds per month. George thought this was far from enough and sent a telegram to Mario, requesting that the output of artillery shells be doubled to 100 million rounds per month.

In addition to artillery shells, Amur can also produce 50 aircraft, 1500 vehicles, 120 armored vehicles, 200 artillery pieces of various types, and 1.5 rifles and heavy machine guns every month.

It should be noted that the Amur military-industrial enterprises are not currently operating at full capacity, and if necessary, production can be further increased.

By the end of June, Constantinople had stockpiled 500 million artillery shells, 1.1 million bullets, and more than 150 million tons of other military supplies such as food and fuel.

Brusinov believed that these supplies were enough to sweep across Europe.

George was not optimistic. Except for Constantinople, other Balkan countries were not prepared for war. On average, each artillery piece had less than 1000 rounds of shells, which was far from enough to meet the war consumption.

Russia was not much better off. The Guards also had only 1000 rounds of shells for each artillery piece.

Little Nicholas believed that 1000 shells could last at least three months.

George directly sent a report on the artillery shell consumption of the Balkan Alliance in the Balkan War to little Nicholas.

During the entire Balkan War, the Balkan Alliance consumed 15 artillery shells every day.

Based on this consumption, the Guards’ artillery shells would only be enough to last for one month at most.

The intensity of the war between Russia and Germany was definitely stronger than the Balkan War.

In order to meet the consumption of weapons and ammunition, George established an arsenal in Constantinople, mainly producing bullets and artillery shells.

The Ottoman Sultan helped a lot because the largest arsenal of the Ottoman Empire was in Constantinople, and when the Austrian army retreated, they did not destroy the equipment in the arsenal.

George ordered Alexei to take charge of production work at the arsenal.

Alexey led the technical staff to inspect the factory's machinery and equipment to ensure that the factory could resume work at any time.

Then the problem arises. Although the factory can resume work at any time, there are no workers available.

George telegraphed August to hire workers from Bulgaria to work in the arsenal.

Alexei had a headache because most of the workers hired from Bulgaria were farmers who had no experience in operating machines and needed to be trained from the most basic level.

George is not in a hurry, because the world war will last for several years.

After a series of combined punches, referring to the mobilization procedures of European countries, Amur has entered a mobilization state except that it has not started large-scale conscription.

This attracted the attention of European ambassadors to Amur.

Karl returned to Berlin to report on his work and came to Constantinople specifically to meet George.

"George, you bastard! Do you really want to blow up the whole world?"

Karl placed the blame for the war on George's mobilization.

"You are the ones who set the whole world off. I was just forced to defend myself."

George firmly refused to admit it.

Karl glared at George for a while, then slumped down in his chair, muttering to himself.

"Why do we have to fight——"

During the years that Karl served as the minister to Vladivostok, he gained a comprehensive understanding of Amur's strength.

As Karl's understanding of Amur deepened, his fear grew day by day. Regardless of the strength of the European and Russian regions, Amur alone was enough to give the German-Austrian alliance a hard time. The Far East was rich in resources, both natural resources and human resources, which could be described as endless.

Along the way, Carl saw the Korean and Japanese Corps that were actively training at Fort Arthur. Although the Russian Empire did not mobilize, it had recruited more than 20 new Korean and Japanese soldiers. The two battleships that Japan paid as compensation to the Russian Empire had also arrived at Fort Arthur and joined the Pacific Fleet.

Across the sea from Fort Arthur is the German colony.

East India is also recalling retired soldiers, Coconut City is rehearsing landing operations, the Pacific Fleet has as many as 30 light cruisers, and the shipyards in Vladivostok and Coconut City are still building them. What are so many cruisers for?
If you look at the map, Germany's colonies in the Pacific are right next to the East Indies.

Constantinople has now become a huge warehouse. The cargo yard next to the port has a total area of ​​nearly 20 square kilometers. Huge warehouses are endless, and railways are built directly to the cargo yard. There are airships hovering in the sky and warships of the Mediterranean Fleet are cruising outside the port. When Carl discovered the brown bear flag of the Kazakhstan Division in Constantinople, Carl was already numb.

Among the four major Amur legions, the mascot of the Fu Division is the polar bear, the mascot of the You Division is the Siberian tiger, and the mascot of the Ni Division is the most bizarre, which is the Siberian Husky.

Karl could almost foresee that once the war broke out, Germany's colonies in East Asia would be seized by the Gao Ri Corps that was training at Fort Arthur, and the colonies in the Pacific would be in the hands of East India.

George, sitting in Constantinople, is the biggest threat to the German-Austrian alliance. Once the Austro-Hungarian Empire fails, Germany will be isolated and helpless.

This is the Russian Imperial version of the upper four horses versus the lower four horses.

"George, tell me the truth, did you plan all this?"

Given Karl's understanding of George, it is not difficult to make this judgment.

"what?"

George was confused; the question made no sense.

"The arms race, the Balkan War, the assassination of the crown prince, etc., etc. -"

Carl was shocked by his own conclusion. If all this was planned by George, then George was terrible.

"Yes! I planned all of this. I angered the Iron Chancellor to death. I also killed the Tsar's envoy. I also used a gun to force your Emperor to engage in an arms race with the British. Are you satisfied with this?"

George was irritated.

Although George was the most hardline conservative in the Russian Empire, he had been trying his best to avoid a world war. As long as the world war did not break out, and the Russian Empire was given another 20 years, it would become the most powerful country in Europe.

“How could this happen—how did we get to this point?”

Karl also did not want to go to war with the Russian Empire.

We are all relatives, why are we fighting? Can't we just sit down and solve the problem through negotiation?
George didn't say anything. Carl had a deep understanding of Amur, so he didn't want to fight.

In the original time and space, the Russian Empire lost the Russo-Japanese War, and its Balkan brothers were in chaos. The Bulgarian Kingdom, which lost the Second Balkan War, also sided with the Allies, and the Greek Kingdom's position was not firm, so Germany took the initiative to provoke.

Now the Russian Empire not only defeated Japan, but also seized access to the Black Sea, and the Balkans were also controlled by George. George really didn't know where William II got the confidence from.

What George didn't know was that William II didn't actually have much confidence.

William II was also hesitant about the war, as he was not sure how determined Nicholas was to protect the Balkans.

When the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, although the Russian Empire expressed strong opposition, it ultimately did not mobilize and silently swallowed the bitter fruit.

The strength demonstrated by the Russian Empire in the Balkan Wars also made William II worried, so while William II forced the Austro-Hungarian Empire to take action against the Kingdom of Serbia, he did not take any action himself.

On July 7, William II set off for Norway for vacation. Before leaving, he said to Tirpitz: I don’t think there will be a big war. The Tsar’s attention is not on the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Neither France nor Russia is prepared.

German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg was also on vacation at this time.

Moltke was taking a hot spring bath. He suffered from bronchitis and his doctor told him that bathing in mineral water would be good for his health.

Acting Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann met with the Vienna envoy and promised him that Germany would provide whatever Austria needed.

This gave the Austrians a wrong signal. After returning to Vienna, the envoy told Joseph I and Marshal Kondra: Germany had been preparing for this for many years, and the war between Austria-Hungary and Russia should be avoided. Russia will definitely consider Germany's attitude before resorting to force.

George combined all the information he received and determined that the war would not break out in July.

So on July 7, Boris and Elizabeth held an engagement ceremony in Adrianople. The kings of all the Balkan countries came in person to congratulate them. Nicholas also came to Adrianople from St. Petersburg and presented Boris and Elizabeth with a pair of white swans.

On the night of the engagement ceremony, Boris held a banquet in Adrianople for kings from various countries who came from afar. Halfway through the banquet, George received a report that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had begun mobilizing.

(End of this chapter)