I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 666: Three of the Four Empires Collapsed

Since the autumn of 1915, there has been almost no peace in St. Petersburg.

First, the conflicts between the Queen and the aristocratic group and the bureaucratic group broke out.

Then there was the open and covert fighting between the Provisional Government and the Provisional Executive Committee.

Then the Provisional Executive Committee carried out a unified liquidation of the old forces.

The two and a half years of chaos caused great damage to the city of St. Petersburg. When Peter and Mannerheim sailed into the Neva River on a warship, both sides of the Neva River had been completely changed.

The banks of the Neva River have always been the core area of ​​St. Petersburg, and almost all dignitaries live in this area.

When the Provisional Executive Committee seized power, fierce fighting broke out in the Winter Palace between the Workers' Guards loyal to the Provisional Executive Committee and the army loyal to the Provisional Government. There are still clear bullet holes and traces of burning on the outer walls of the Winter Palace.

The Catherine Palace and the Yusupov Palace, which were protected by the Provisional Government because of the killing of Rasputin by Alexander and Felix the Younger, did not escape this disaster. Not only were all the property looted, but the two palaces were used as strongholds because of their solid structures. Fighting took place during the capture of the city, and both palaces were severely damaged.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, which was built to commemorate the assassination of Ahmed II, took 14 years to build. Not only was it also looted, but its interior was also severely damaged and all the decorative reliefs were destroyed.

The Gatchina Palace where Nicholas lived in his childhood was also severely damaged. The rebels threw the piano that Nicholas used in his childhood from the attic and piled it together with the furniture, exquisite curtains, and expensive handmade carpets that could not be taken away and set it on fire. The property loss is incalculable.

Most importantly, the Peter and Paul Fortress, which George once used as the naval headquarters, had previously imprisoned many royal family members including the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess. They suddenly disappeared before the provisional government moved the capital, and no one knew their whereabouts.

There are many different opinions about the whereabouts of these grand dukes.

Some say they escaped from prison before the fall of St. Petersburg, while others say they were shot.

The most outrageous thing is the Queen's sister, Elizabeth, the wife of Grand Duke Sergei. Some people said that she was buried alive.

Peter and Mannerheim searched St. Petersburg almost thoroughly, but could not find the whereabouts of these grand dukes. The only one who could be confirmed dead was Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich, who died of typhoid fever in prison in January this year.

After receiving the report, George and little Nicholas looked at each other in silence.

"When I was in the Caucasus, I sent someone to St. Petersburg to persuade Nikki to leave Russia—"

Little Nicholas was very sad, and the grand dukes were probably in danger.

George didn't say what he did to rescue Nicholas, but not finding him was the best news.

"Let me go to St. Petersburg. I want to do a thorough cleaning."

Little Nicholas volunteered.

"The point is that those Hebrews—"

George highlighted the key points.

As the Grand Duke, George certainly could not admit that the current situation of the empire was caused by the aristocratic group and bureaucracy headed by Nicholas.

So blame the Hebrews!
The Hebrews were not wronged either.

After moving the capital to Moscow, the provisional government finally held a constitutional convention. Among the nine elected members, eight were Hebrews.

The only pure Russian is the bearded one.

The bearded man is not a Slav either, but a Georgian.

"Don't worry! I will let them enjoy the warmth of the empire—"

Seeing little Nicholas' smile, George couldn't help but pray for the Hebrews, hoping that their God would bless them.

Anyway, they don't believe in the Orthodox God.

When Peter recaptured St. Petersburg, the High Ri Corps led by Vasily was still struggling through the mud.

Destruction is indeed easier than construction. It took the empire decades to build a transportation network that basically covered the empire. Just one bomb could completely paralyze the Siberian Railway.

After learning that the Baltic Fleet had recaptured St. Petersburg, Vasily turned around and headed towards Moscow.

On May 5, the Second Army captured Bryansk, only 25 kilometers away from Moscow.

At this time, the Second Army's logistics transportation line had been extended to 700 kilometers. As the resistance of the Provisional Government became stronger and stronger, the Second Army's attack speed became slower and slower.

Based on the Workers' Guards, the Provisional Government formed a force with a total size of 60 people.

The technical and tactical capabilities of this unit may not be as proficient as those of the soldiers of the Gao Ri Legion, but their fighting will is as tenacious as that of the Gao Ri Legion.

From Bryansk to the north, you can see landlords and peasants hanged on the roadside for resisting grain collection.

A large number of disaster victims flocked to the Second Army's camp, almost blocking the road.

Although the surplus grain collection system stipulated that food rations and seeds should be left for farmers, in practice all grain was often taken away. Once a farmer resisted, his entire family would be killed without mercy.

To appease the local people, George had to mobilize more food from the Amur and East India.

Witte was so busy that he had no time to take care of the government affairs in Constantinople. All the officials who could be sent had been sent out by Witte, and Witte had no one available.

George now understood why the Empire promoted local autonomy. It was necessary to have local autonomy, because the Empire simply did not have enough officials.

George sent a telegram to Mario, asking him to send all the graduating students from the Amur University to Constantinople to serve as archons in various places.

Although this will result in a waste of talent, it is better to let college students serve as consuls than to have local forces nominate them themselves.

George really didn't expect that the imperial power of the Russian Empire did not extend to the countryside.

But this is also a good thing, because the rule of the provisional government also did not penetrate into remote areas.

The basic base of the provisional government is workers. There are factories only in cities. There are no factories in remote areas at all, so where would the workers come from?

While Vasily was advancing northward, Andrei and Denikin were fighting fiercely with the German army.

In order to relieve the pressure on the Russian army on the northern front, after the spring, Brusinov and Ruzynski launched another attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In the winter of the year before last, the old emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire died in Vienna, and Crown Prince Karl succeeded him and became the emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, known as Karl I.

When Charles I ascended the throne, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was no longer viable, so last spring, Charles I sent his brother-in-law, Prince Sixtus of Parma, to France to negotiate with France.

Charles I no longer had any hope of taking back the occupied territories from the Balkan Legion. Most of those lands belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary anyway and had nothing to do with Austria.

Charles I was unwilling to cede any of the Habsburg territories to the Kingdom of Italy, which ultimately led to the failure of the negotiations.

Italy's purpose in joining the war was to regain the land occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

If it cannot be recaptured on the battlefield, then the Kingdom of Italy can accept it by taking it back at the negotiating table.

What Charles I meant was that it would be fine to cede territory to the Balkan League, after all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not defeat George.

The Kingdom of Italy did not win any of the Battles of the Isonzo, so on what basis could it claim territory from the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

The most crucial point is that if the territory requested by the Kingdom of Italy is ceded to Italy, then the Austro-Hungarian Empire will lose its access to the sea and become completely landlocked.

So George was just a drizzle, and it was the Italians who really wanted to kill the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

During the negotiations, Charles I also supported France's demands for Alsace and Lorraine, so when the content of the negotiations was announced by the French, Charles I's recklessness caused serious damage to him and the relationship between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany.

William II was very angry about Charles I's backstabbing, and Charles I was in a very embarrassing position.

After losing Germany's support, Charles I's throne was also affected, and calls for political reforms and withdrawal from the war in the Austro-Hungarian Empire grew louder and louder.

Charles I had no choice but to discuss with King Charles IV of Hungary and prepare to establish a federal state with autonomous governments for the various ethnic groups in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Charles IV was simply better off. Since all ethnic groups were autonomous, there was no need to change anything. The empire could just be dissolved.

Charles IV had long been resentful of Charles I for disregarding the interests of the Kingdom of Hungary. If he could not recover the areas occupied by the Balkan League, Charles IV would retaliate against Charles I in the most violent way.

Charles I's patience with the Kingdom of Hungary had reached its limit.

The Kingdom of Hungary was originally a parasite that sucked blood from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The conflict between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire was mainly caused by the Kingdom of Hungary's ambitions in the Balkans.

After the outbreak of World War II, the Kingdom of Hungary refused to mobilize, resulting in the Austro-Hungarian Empire not having sufficient troops to deal with Russia, which laid the seeds for a series of failures after the outbreak of the war.

The Empire is now in an unprecedented difficult period. The Kingdom of Hungary is not only not in line with the Empire, but is also trying to disband.

Let them disperse, since this throne was picked up anyway.

George added fuel to the fire of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was already on the brink of collapse.

The Ottoman Empire was equally miserable. The Allied forces had already entered Damascus, and the new Sultan Muhammad VI once again requested negotiations with the Allied Powers.

In April this year, the old Ottoman Emperor Mehmed V passed away and was succeeded by his younger brother Mehmed VI.

At this point, of the four empires that were in power when the world war broke out, only Germany was still holding on, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire were both on the brink of collapse.

The Russian Empire was the worst.

George is now fighting on four fronts. All the troops that can be dispatched have been dispatched. The Balkan countries have also carried out four rounds of mobilization. Everyone is gritting their teeth and holding on, waiting for the other side to collapse.

Now the only country that still has the ability to continue mobilizing is the United States, which has just joined the war.

Based on the situation of all the participating countries, Pershing judged that the world war had entered its final stage.

The US military began to frantically send troops to Europe. In the entire year before that, only 20 US troops arrived in Europe.

After the crazy mode was activated, 1918 American troops arrived in May 5 alone.

These American troops were still unarmed.

Now Britain and France have finally realized that the United States is exploiting them in new ways.

(End of this chapter)