I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 614 Careerist

George actually had no right to laugh at the Italians. The Russian army's performance in the Masurian Lakes was not much better than that of the Italians.

But if you look at it this way, the performance of the British and French forces was not much better than that of the Russian army.

Even the German army, which had the best overall performance after the outbreak of the war, suffered a complete failure of the "Schlieffen Plan" due to Moltke the Younger's mistakes.

If Moltke the Younger had not divided his troops among the Crown Prince and Hindenburg, the German army might have really occupied Paris in one go.

In the Battle of the Marne last September, the German army was only 9 kilometers away from Paris, which scared the British so much that they almost staged the Dunkirk evacuation ahead of schedule.

The soap opera between the Italians and Austrians has just begun, and George reminds Demeter not to expect too much from the Italians.

When the Kingdom of Italy first joined the war, the Allied Powers collectively celebrated, believing that Italy's joining would become the X factor of this war.

On the surface, this is indeed the case.

Under the double-sided attack of the Russian army, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had begun to show signs of defeat.

After Italy joins the war, the Allies will form a three-sided siege on the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If Austria is defeated, the fall of Germany is only a matter of time.

Even Conrad probably didn't expect that the Italians' long-planned offensive would end in such an anticlimactic way.

"The Italians came to pick peaches, but were bitten on the buttocks by the peach keeper's dog."

The king's brother Nicholas's assessment of the Italians was correct, but inappropriate.

The day after the Battle of the Isonzo, the editor of the Constantinople Times quoted Nicholas's assessment of the Italians in his report.

George asked Demeter to remind Nicholas not to say anything that would be detrimental to unity.

No matter how bad the Kingdom of Italy is, it is still an ally of the Empire. In order to guard against Italian surprise attacks, Conrad must strengthen the defense in the Italian direction, which is more or less a good thing for Russia and the Balkan Alliance.

As they were also part of the Allied Powers, how could Nicholas complain? He should have encouraged the Italians to keep up the good work, launch a new offensive against the Austro-Hungarian Empire and retake the occupied territories.

Nicholas took the initiative to come to George to explain the situation. Those words were not what Nicholas said when he was interviewed by reporters.

The liaison officers of the Balkan countries stationed at the theater headquarters held many private gatherings.

After the Battle of the Isonzo River, Nicholas met the Greek Prince Nicholas at the theater headquarters. The two chatted casually for a few minutes, and somehow the news was discovered by reporters.

George ordered Demeter to investigate in detail.

Military liaison officers have access to military secrets.

Demeter was very efficient and quickly investigated what happened.

George attached great importance to the role of public opinion and propaganda. The Constantinople Times was founded by George, as were the Daily News and the Evening News. George regarded these newspapers as important bases for public opinion and propaganda.

Newspapers at that time were not like those in later generations which came out in huge stacks, but only one sheet.

There are so many countries in the Balkans, and there are three battlefields alone. With so many things happening every day, one newspaper is not enough.

The purpose of establishing three newspapers at the same time is to nurture the insects, let them compete fully, and give full play to the role of public opinion propaganda.

In order to obtain first-hand information, the three newspapers all stationed resident reporters at the theater headquarters.

While Nicholas and Nicholas were chatting, there happened to be a Times reporter next to them.

The editor probably thought that Nicola's comments on the Italians were very interesting, so he quoted them in the report.

George instructed Demeter to set up a press office to review the content of news reports.

Demeter finally realized how arduous the work of the chief of staff was.

For many things, George just makes a decision and then throws it to Demeter, who is responsible for the follow-up work.

While Demeter was preparing the press office, he was also planning a counterattack against the Ottoman Empire.

After the Ottoman Empire entered the war, the 14th Army was always on the defensive due to insufficient manpower.

A week ago, the reinforcements George mobilized from the Far East arrived in Constantinople, and the reinforcements drawn from the Kingdom of Greece and the Kingdom of Romania had also been assembled and were ready to go to the battlefield at any time.

Demeter planned to land reinforcements on the Black Sea coast, advance from north to south, and eventually join forces with the British and French forces landing in the Mediterranean to defeat the Ottoman Empire.

George modified Demeter's plan and requested that a force be sent to land on the Persian Peninsula to open up a second front against the Ottoman Empire.

Most of the Persian Peninsula is desert and uninhabited, and even the Ottoman Empire did not pay attention to it.

George knew the value of that land.

"Landing on the Persian Peninsula will be a huge test for our logistics."

Demeter did not recommend this as the Russian army had no supply points in the entire Indian Ocean.

Nowadays, wars have increasingly higher requirements for logistics. The reason why the Balkan war zone was able to easily deal with the pincer attack from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire was mainly because it had Constantinople, a stable rear base.

If a second front is opened, the Russian army's supply points will be stretched to more than 2000 kilometers, which will be a huge disaster for the Russian army that is isolated and deep in the enemy's territory.

"Do you know how much supplies a container ship can carry?"

George reminded Demeter that the Russian army's logistical capabilities were no longer the same as during the Tenth Russo-Turkish War.

With access to the Black Sea, George no longer had to rely on the problematic Siberian Railway. Goods produced in Amur could be transported to Constantinople through the Suez Canal. Although sea transportation was a bit slower, it was low-cost and could transport large volumes.

After the use of containers, efficiency is also higher than that of railways.

George's plan was not complicated. He only needed to transfer one army from the Far East to seize as much territory as possible before the British and French forces.

It would be best if we could take over the entire Persian Peninsula.

If the Russian Empire, which is already rich in resources, also owns the Persian Peninsula——

George just wanted to ask who else!

"Okay, I'm ignorant--"

Demeter had to admit that his knowledge system needed to be updated in a timely manner.

From a traditional perspective, sending a detachment to open up a second battlefield in a region far away from home would be a disaster for any country.

The key reason why the British army suffered a disastrous defeat in the Second Boer War and became a laughing stock of the world was that it was far away from its homeland.

George had more resources than Demeter could have imagined.

If the troops set out from East India, then they were actually not far from the Persian Peninsula.

The deserted area is indeed not a good thing for the attacking troops, because they cannot follow the Cossack tradition of fighting to support the war.

But George's goal was not to seize spoils, but to occupy territory.

The Persian Peninsula is surrounded by the sea, so the landing point can be chosen at will. With Amur's construction capabilities, it will only take a few months to build a supply base.

Port construction is complicated because there are so many factors to consider.

If it is just about supplies, it is actually not complicated. After all, it takes time for the Ottoman Empire to mobilize its troops.

The more likely scenario is that the Ottoman Empire simply cannot take care of this small force, so George only needs to consider whether the locals will cooperate.

If this issue is not taken into consideration, the Russian troops landing on the Persian Peninsula may be caught in an endless security war like the Italian troops in Tripoli.

Sometimes George would wonder why Italians made something so complicated, even though it was a simple matter.

If it were George, he would never fight a guerrilla war with the nomads.

The weaknesses of nomadic peoples are obvious: they are small in number, weak in strength, have no fixed place to live, and have no stable rear base. Like the Cossacks, they rely on fighting to support the war.

If it were George, he would foster a suitable agent from among the nomadic peoples and let the agent deal with the rebellious nomadic peoples.

This is the essence of using barbarians to control barbarians.

If we use this kind of thinking to go to the Persian Peninsula, the problem can be easily solved.

The nomadic people of the Persian Peninsula were certainly not willing to be ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Although the maps published by the Ottoman Empire show that the entire Persian Peninsula was Ottoman territory, in fact, the Ottoman Empire's ruling area on the Persian Peninsula was limited to the coastal areas, and large tracts of inland areas were blank areas. The Ottoman Empire's influence did not penetrate deeply at all.

To put it bluntly, it means letting the Persians in the inland areas of the Persian Peninsula fend for themselves.

George only needed to find a suitable tribal chief from the inland area of ​​the Persian Peninsula, give him some benefits, and promise to give him a piece of land to establish his country after defeating the Ottoman Empire. There were many people willing to work for George.

As for where to draw the line, George has the final say.

The Persian Peninsula is covered with deserts. There is nothing but sand. It is a place where no one lives. You wouldn't want it even if it's given to you for free.

How about the beautiful and rich Anatolian Peninsula?
So go ahead, take your people with you, and establish a nation on the Anatolian Peninsula, leaving the uninhabited Persian Peninsula to the not-so-picky Russian Empire.

As for whether they could gain a foothold after arriving in the Anatolian Peninsula, that was not a problem for George to consider.

After hearing George's plan, Demeter's eyes became a little straight.

"From what you said, it seems that establishing a country is an easy thing, but why don't they do it?"

George just laughed.

If you want to do something, you need capital.

There are only a few countries in the world now. Not to mention the distant future, the level of chaos in the Persian Peninsula alone is no less than that in the Balkan Peninsula.

George said something unpleasant, there are only a few people in the Persian Peninsula now, a thousand people are considered a large tribe, and the wars between tribes still use bows and arrows and spears, so how much courage can you expect from them?

With the strength of the Russian Empire, as long as it lands on the Persian Peninsula, it will surely be a devastating defeat.

“This is the worst of times, and the best of times.”

George admitted that the fundamental reason why so many ambitious people emerged in this era was that there were countless opportunities in this era.

Demeter nodded repeatedly, and the look in his eyes when he looked at George was the same as the look George gave to those ambitious people when he mocked them in Europe.

You keep saying that others are ambitious, but you never look at yourself.

I'm afraid you are the biggest ambitious person of this era.

(End of this chapter)