High-standard, low-temperature-resistant materials are considered advanced technology these days, and only a few countries are capable of producing them. Russia often claims to be an industrial nation, but its own people know the truth. Boasting is fine during ordinary times, but when it comes to critical moments, it cannot be relied on. One only has to look at the railways built in previous years. They needed more than a dozen repairs each year, and every repair lasted more than ten days. The repair time was longer than the time they were actually in service. After a thorough inspection, they discovered rusted rails, deformed rails, and rotting sleepers. The most excessive part was that some sleepers had even started sprouting. They wanted to investigate responsibility, but too many people were involved and too many came forward to plead on behalf of others. There was no way to continue the investigation. In the end, the government had no choice but to pay for everything and rebuild the entire railway. The lesson could not be forgotten. To ensure the quality of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Russian government decided early on to adopt a strict rule that all domestically produced low-temperature-resistant materials were forbidden. Even though the public called for supporting domestic products, nothing could be done. The government had already suffered too many setbacks from using locally made materials. An ordinary railway would be fine since at most it would cause some financial losses. But the Trans-Siberian Railway was a strategic lifeline, and its quality had to be guaranteed. Importing materials not only increased costs but also put heavy pressure on transportation. Work stoppages caused by delays in receiving supplies happened all the time. Consider this: even frontline military supplies were often mixed up. Delivering railway materials to the wrong place was not difficult to imagine. Problems in the management system, or more accurately, problems rooted in the Russian bureaucracy, were not something that could be solved with a single administrative order. The technical requirements were already high, the administrative structure was chaotic, and the weather was harsh. If the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway progressed quickly under these conditions, that would have been the real anomaly. Since the railway could not be completed ahead of schedule and strategic supplies for the front lines still had to be met, it became an almost impossible dilemma. Nicholas II’s face darkened to a frightening degree, and the tension in the room rose with it. Sensing that the atmosphere was turning bad, Foreign Minister Mikhailovich spoke first, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already taken action. The Austrian government has agreed to help as well. We are now working hard on the Qing Dynasty. If we can purchase supplies from them, the situation will improve greatly. We have already made some progress. Thanks to the efforts of our diplomats, we have gained the support of several officials in the Qing Dynasty. They can turn a blind eye and allow us to transport supplies through their territory.” Failing to win them over was normal. The constitutional faction and the conservative faction within the Qing Dynasty were fighting fiercely among themselves, leaving them no time to get involved in the Russo-Japanese War. No matter how many benefits were offered, it was useless. A government that feared one side and hesitated before the other would not dare provoke either Japan or Russia. “Transporting supplies through their territory” was essentially smuggling. This kind of thing was hard to stamp out even during peacetime, let alone in the chaos of war. Rather than calling it a diplomatic effort, it was better to call it profit-driven. All it took was pretending not to see anything, and a large amount of silver would flow in. Why would anyone refuse that? After all, it was not only business with Russia. They did business with Japan as well. As long as money was offered, merchants did not care who they sold to. Even if the Qing Dynasty’s merchants did not dare get involved, international arms dealers would rush in. As long as there was enough money, getting supplies was never a real problem. The only issue was that these arms dealers did not have enough stock, and their shipments were often attacked by bandits hired by the Japanese so they could not meet the demands of the war. However, Mikhailovich had confidence in the international arms dealers. Their supply shortage was mainly because no one had expected the Russo-Japanese War to break out. The most powerful arms dealers had not had time to join in. If those arms dealers with strong political backing entered the game, they would be able to obtain any amount of supplies. This was the real reason they sought help from the Austrian government. To smuggle large quantities of strategic materials, cooperation from the Qing Dynasty was necessary, but a show of force from powerful countries was even more important to scare off the predators lurking around. Ordinary strategic materials were manageable. They could be produced by small workshops in the Qing Dynasty, so as long as one had money, they were always available. The troublesome part was weapons and ammunition. And that was even before dealing with the Japanese Navy. After the war began, the Japanese Navy acted as the police of East Asia to prevent arms from falling into Russian hands. When faced with violations of its sovereignty, the weak Qing Dynasty’s imperial government chose to turn a deaf ear, allowing the Japanese Navy to inspect foreign merchant ships. Of course, the ships that agreed to inspections were those without backing, or those whose connections were too weak. The Japanese still did not dare to act rashly toward ships belonging to major international trading houses with powerful backgrounds. Relations between Britain and the Holy Roman Empire were tense, but the two countries had not actually gone to war. No one knew when fighting might break out, and it was entirely possible that after all the noise they could still sit down and reconcile. Although the Japanese government chose to gamble its national destiny, they were not fools. They understood perfectly well whom they could not afford to provoke. Faced with these two giants, they naturally had to behave humbly. In the original timeline, smuggling did not save the Russian Empire, and the most important reason was the lack of support from great powers. Britain, Germany, the United States, Austria-Hungary, and Italy all wanted Russia to lose. Their only ally, France, offered only verbal support, and in truth still hoped Russia would return to Europe to deal with the Germans. TN: Probably referring to the Franco-Russian alliance signed in 1892 in the original timeline. Without the help of major powers, smuggling could not develop on a large scale. Aside from food and daily necessities, weapons and ammunition still had to be transported domestically. Even these small-scale smuggling operations were a key source of support for the Russian forces in the Far East. Otherwise, the logistics for hundreds of thousands of troops would have been impossible to support through domestic transport alone. The Trans-Siberian Railway had not yet been completed, and even if it had, it would still not have been able to handle the strain. There was no other reason than the fact that it was a single-track railway. A train could leave, but it had to return along the same track. After hearing this explanation, Nicholas II’s expression eased slightly, although the worry in his eyes did not fade. In theory, with help from the Holy Roman Empire and cooperation from the Qing Dynasty, smuggling could see them through the crisis. But that was only in theory. Leaving aside how much support the Holy Roman Empire was willing to give, the cooperation of the Qing Dynasty itself was a major problem. Over the past few years, Russia has caused plenty of trouble for them. With so much resentment built up beforehand, expecting them to fully cooperate now was nothing short of a joke. There was no need for any high-ranking figure to intervene. The local powers along the routes alone could cause enough trouble to make things unbearable. Whether it was bridges being cut every few days, roads being destroyed, or mountain bandits and local brigands blocking the route, all of these were hidden dangers. Under normal circumstances, there would be nothing more to say. Russia could simply apply diplomatic pressure on the Qing Dynasty and someone would take care of the problem. But right now it is different. At the critical moment when the Russo-Japanese War had fallen into a stalemate, the Qing Dynasty effectively held the power to decide the outcome for both sides. If they were pushed too hard and ended up siding with Japan, then the Russian Empire would have no choice but to bow its head, admit defeat, and obediently withdraw from the Far East. “Push this forward as soon as possible! It would be best if the Holy Roman government could step in. They have a fairly good relationship with the Qing Dynasty, so coordinating would be easier.” Nicholas II did not know exactly how good the relationship between the Holy Roman Empire and the Qing Dynasty was. But he knew one thing: the two sides had never gone to war. And that was enough. As long as a great power had not invaded you, that alone was a sign of friendship. The speaker might not have meant anything by it, but the listener understood perfectly. In Mikhailovich’s ears, this sounded like a lack of trust in the Foreign Ministry’s abilities. To be fair, the Russian Foreign Ministry hardly deserved anyone’s trust. Throughout the years, the number of things they had ruined far exceeded the things they had accomplished. To change this situation, the Russian government had even sent students abroad to Austria and Britain to study professional diplomatic skills. Progress had indeed been made. At the very least, they no longer committed embarrassing blunders in matters of diplomatic etiquette, unwritten diplomatic rules, and knowledge of international customs. As for the more important aspect, actual diplomatic capability, that would take time. Only after these students matured and held high positions within the Russian Empire would the true results become evident.
[Previous | Table of Contents | Next]
Comments
Post a Comment