Just as the British government resolved to push all its chips to the table and gamble everything, the outcome of the Battle of the English Channel was deliberately spread by the Holy Roman government. The morale of the Continental Alliance surged. Those fence-sitters who had been wavering now hurriedly leaned toward the Holy Roman Empire. If not for the sheer number of countries involved and the enormous interests at stake, which made rapid coordination impossible, the Continental Alliance would already have expanded significantly. On the other side, the Oceanic Alliance was shrouded in gloom. The greater their expectations of the Royal Navy had once been, the deeper their disappointment now felt. When the leader failed to deliver, the followers were left in an impossible position. If the current situation had allowed any room for retreat, many of them would already have voted with their feet. Misfortune never came alone. On May 27, 1905, the Continental Allied Army led by the Holy Roman Empire linked up with the southward advancing Russian forces in the Khorasan region. On the same day, the Tehran garrison, which had been heavily besieged by Continental forces, laid down their arms and surrendered. The Persian Empire officially ceased to exist. In truth, Persia’s defeat had been inevitable. Facing the combined assault of European powers, the fact that it had held out for five months was already an extraordinary performance. Even with support from allies, this was an achievement worthy of respect. If the British Isles had been connected to the European continent, whether Britain itself could have held out for five months would have been questionable. But happening at this particular moment, it was impossible not to read deeper implications into it. A sense of shared doom spread throughout the Oceanic Alliance, like rabbits mourning the death of the fox. The British government, already overwhelmed by countless urgent matters, had no time left to comfort its allies. They could barely manage their own emotions, let alone anyone else’s. One look at the map made the situation clear. India was in danger. Fortunately, the Suez Canal had been blocked. Otherwise, if the enemy navy had sailed east to escort a large-scale amphibious offensive, the situation would have deteriorated even further. Even so, the outlook was grim. India was already trapped in a two-front war, and there was a real possibility that it would soon become a three-front battlefield. The only advantage Britain could rely on was geography. The joint forces advancing from the west would have to cross the Persian Plateau, and logistics alone posed a massive challenge. In fact, the main reason the Persian Empire had managed to hold out for five months was precisely because logistical constraints had severely limited the joint forces’ ability to operate at full strength. There was no alternative. Outside of the major cities, most of Persia had no railways at all. Transport relied entirely on human labor and draft animals. The few existing rail lines had also been sabotaged by the Persians. To keep the army supplied, the Holy Roman government even mobilized more than a hundred transport airships. As the front lines continued to advance, the joint command headquarters relocated to Zahedan. Yet despite being the victor of this great campaign, Archduke Frederick showed no sign of a smile. “March all the way to India” was an easy slogan to shout. Once it came time to turn it into reality, trouble followed immediately. Logistics were the greatest weakness. At this stage, the Allied Army’s most urgent task was not combat, but repairing the railways destroyed by the enemy. The irony was hard to ignore. Most of the railways within Persia had been built by the British. Now, those same railways had become the greatest support for the Allied Army’s advance toward India. Perhaps by coincidence, or perhaps out of caution toward the Persian Empire, the troublemaker had built railways of wildly varying standards across the region. To repair them, even the railcars had to be specially ordered from home. Reading the reports in his hand, Frederick could not help but wonder whether he was truly the supreme commander of the Allied Army, or merely the chief engineer of a massive construction project. There was no helping it. The war with Persia was over, but the local situation remained unstable. Railway repairs could only be handled directly by the military. No wonder Alexander the Great had failed to reach India during his eastern campaign. One look at this disastrous transportation network made everything clear. No matter how poor the infrastructure or how harsh the conditions, pushing the front line all the way to India was, in itself, a strategic victory. At this point, as long as the Continental Alliance was willing to invest the necessary resources, taking India was only a matter of time. But every gain came with its own complications. Even as the Continental Alliance secured strategic success, internal undercurrents began to stir. There was no doubt that wealthy India was the most tempting prize of all. The Holy Roman government had made its position clear early on, promising not to claim any share of India and leaving it to be divided among the others. Most members of the Continental Alliance were small states. Aside from the Holy Roman Empire and Russia, none of them had the strength to swallow India whole. With the Holy Roman Empire having already announced its withdrawal, the remaining competitors were reduced to just Britain and Russia. Driving the British out would not be difficult. Faced with the combined pressure of the entire European continent, Britain’s chances of holding on to India were vanishingly small. The real trouble would come after the British were expelled. Once the common enemy disappeared, allies would turn into rivals. Interests stirred the human heart. No matter how powerful the Russian Empire remained, it did nothing to dampen everyone’s desire to cast covetous eyes on India. In a one-on-one confrontation, no one could match the Russians. But once they banded together, the situation became entirely different. With the Holy Roman Empire looming above them, everyone remained allies in name. Even if conflicts arose, the Russians could not simply move against others openly. There was no need for a direct war with Russia. It was enough to compete in the shadows. Whoever backed down would be the laughingstock. Thus, a war without gunpowder quietly unfolded within the Continental Alliance. Tripping each other up, stabbing in the dark, and every underhanded trick imaginable appeared one after another. Before long, reports piled up on Franz’s desk, and what followed was, inevitably, more vicious infighting. When interests were on the line, how could mediation possibly be settled with a few words? Moreover, stirring up conflict between the European powers and the Russians had been part of the Holy Roman government’s plan from the very beginning. India itself had been thrown out as bait for this very purpose. If not for the fact that the war for hegemony was still ongoing and it was not yet the right time to openly ignite internal strife, Franz might have personally stepped onto the stage to fan the flames himself. With the Holy Roman government choosing not to intervene and both sides locked in fierce struggle, the British struck with their hidden hand. Strikes erupted once more. From Lisbon to Saint Petersburg, labor movements swept across the entire European continent. Unlike previous occasions, when support for revolutionary factions had been restrained, this time the British held nothing back. They played with whatever caused the most damage, showing no concern for the consequences that would follow. They not only sent revolutionary groups back to their home countries, but also dispatched professionals to help draft revolutionary platforms. Whether these plans could succeed was another matter, but the promises were dazzling enough. Deceived and inspired, the revolutionaries surged with fanatic energy, throwing themselves headlong into the rising tide of upheaval. The Russian Empire, where contradictions had accumulated the deepest and the bureaucratic system the most decayed, naturally became the hardest hit area of this storm. In other countries, strikes were just strikes. The social environment simply did not allow them to escalate further. No matter how loudly the revolutionary parties shouted their slogans, it was difficult to ignite a true revolution. The Russian Empire was different. As one of the earliest countries to enter the war, Russia was also among those most deeply affected by it. Over the course of the conflict, nearly three million troops had been mobilized, while the empire struggled to sustain two fronts at once. There was no way the economy could remain untouched. Even with support from the Holy Roman government, that assistance was limited. Most of the war funding and supplies still had to be raised by the Russian government itself. If that were all, the Russian Empire, given its sheer size, might still have endured. The real problem lay with the bureaucratic class. Nicholas II had never been a particularly strong monarch, and he lacked the authority to suppress the corrupt forces within the country. With opportunities for profit everywhere, officials could not resist the temptation to squeeze out “a few extra measures” at every turn. Each individual exaction seemed insignificant, but layer upon layer, the burden eventually fell squarely on the shoulders of the common people, becoming unbearably heavy. Life was already hard, and the capitalists soon joined in, kicking people while they were down. On one hand, they hoarded goods and drove up prices. On the other, they docked wages and extended working hours. With no money left in their pockets, the people found it impossible to survive. That was not a problem, at least according to those in power. There were tailor-made loan schemes waiting for them, all with ruinous interest rates. The experts and scholars who should have sounded the alarm instead sang praises under the influence of capital, endlessly promoting the system. As wealth continued to concentrate in fewer hands, social contradictions intensified by the day, creating fertile ground for revolution. On June 1, 1905, striking Polish demonstrators clashed with troops and police on Wites Avenue. Armed conflict broke out, and Polish independence organizations seized the opportunity to launch an uprising. After the “June First” Revolution erupted, it was like pouring a ladle of water into a boiling pot of oil. The explosion was immediate and uncontrollable. On June 4, a national independence movement broke out in the Bulgarian region. On June 6, Finland erupted in an independence movement. On June 11, anti-Russian riots swept through Lithuania. On June 15, unrest flared in Ukraine, and beyond. Even earlier, back in May, the Afghan National Revolutionary Party had already launched an armed uprising, firing the first shot against Russian rule. However, uprisings in the Afghan region had been a frequent occurrence for years. Guerrilla forces there had never been completely wiped out, so the situation failed to attract much attention. On June 22, French laborers stationed in Siberia rose up in revolt, briefly cutting off the Trans-Siberian Railway. On June 26, Ottoman migrants exiled to Siberia also joined the rebellion. That was not the end of it. In early July, an uprising broke out in Grozny, in the Caucasus region. On July 11, the Kazakh population of Central Asia joined the anti Russian movement, forcing the Central Asian Railway to shut down. … So many independence movements and rebellions clearly could not have been orchestrated by the British alone. Setting everything else aside, simply tracing how revolutionary factions returned to Russia, and where their weapons and equipment came from, was enough to reveal the truth. The European powers were working together to undermine Russia. Under such circumstances, it would have been a miracle if the Russian government had not fallen into disaster. What made matters worse was that the Russian Empire itself was full of cracks, creating opportunities for everyone else to exploit. Yet Russia was not the only victim. No European country managed to stay untouched. Revolution was contagious, especially with the British pouring fuel onto the fire. On June 18, Portuguese republicans launched a coup, forcing King Carlos I to flee in panic. On June 24, religious clashes erupted in Madrid, the capital of Spain, leaving seven dead and sixteen injured as tensions between reformists and conservatives escalated. On June 27, a republican movement broke out in Italy. The Duke of Lucca fled in haste, and even the Papal States were pushed to the brink of collapse. On the same day, an anti-war movement erupted in Hanover, demanding that the Holy Roman government end the war and restore peace. On June 29, anti-Russian demonstrations broke out in Prussia. On July 1, anti-war protests swept across the Netherlands. … Chaos reigned. From east to west, the entire European continent had become a tangled mess. The British had merely lit the fuse. What followed was every country acting on its own impulses. You sabotaged me, I sabotaged you, and after a full round of mutual backstabbing, no one escaped unscathed. The Continental Alliance descended into turmoil, and Britain itself was no exception. As one of the main actors in the war, how could internal contradictions be avoided? After the Battle of the English Channel, the peaceful days of the British Isles came to an abrupt end. Public frustration over the prolonged war reached a boiling point, and anti-war sentiment among the population surged relentlessly. On June 16, 1905, an anti-war strike broke out in Bradford. Soon after, Sheffield, Liverpool, London, Dublin, and other major cities followed suit. The situation in Dublin was especially tense. The independence movement there grew rapidly alongside the anti-war protests. Had the garrison not been sufficiently strong, the local population might not have stopped at opposing the war. They would have openly pushed for independence.
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