The double-edged sword was brutal to wield, cutting both the enemy and the one who swung it, but there was no denying its terrifying power. Under normal circumstances, it was already dangerous enough. With European powers everywhere adding fuel to the flames, the destructive force it unleashed became even more overwhelming. Once the Trans-Siberian Railway was cut, Russia’s hard-won advantage in the Far East flowed away like water. When the Central Asian Railway was severed, the Alliance’s offensive toward India was brought to a sudden halt. Internal chaos also erupted within the Russian Empire. The Russian government was overwhelmed, barely able to keep itself afloat, let alone spare any attention for the Russian troops on the front lines. The Russian forces in the Far East were simply too distant to be helped. The troops stationed in Central Asia, however, were different. As allies, they could not be left to starve, especially after the Allied Army had already successfully linked up. Fortunately, India was wealthy enough to provide part of the supplies locally. Otherwise, Franz would have had no choice but to order a retreat. Even so, while a withdrawal was avoided, launching a new offensive was out of the question for the time being. An additional eight hundred thousand mouths had suddenly appeared, consuming an enormous amount of the Alliance’s transport capacity. The impact was not limited to the Indian front. Even the progress of “Operation Sea Lion” was dragged down. With the European continent in turmoil, how could France remain unaffected? The only reason a major catastrophe had not erupted was that the allied forces were preparing to land on the British Isles and were temporarily stationed on French soil. With over a million troops gathered there, even the worst disturbances could be crushed. After several failed uprisings, the revolutionary factions abandoned armed rebellion and shifted their focus to strike movements instead. As a result of the general strikes, railways across France were temporarily shut down. In order to stabilize the rear, the Joint Command had no choice but to first extinguish the fire in its own backyard. Europe might not be large, but the connections between its nations were tightly interwoven. Any change in one place sent shockwaves through the entire continent. Stabilizing the rear required more than helping the French government restore order. Other allied states also needed assistance. For example, the restoration of the Portuguese king. Although the republican faction claimed it was willing to remain in the Alliance and continue fighting Britain, stirring up trouble at such a critical moment made them enemies of the Alliance, with no room for negotiation. After all, allies were supposed to support one another. Aside from France and Portugal, where allied forces intervened directly, the remaining situations were handled voluntarily by the respective governments themselves. Whether this so-called assistance produced positive results or negative ones was something that would require further study. At least in Franz’s view, without the selfless contributions of their allies, the upheaval sweeping across Europe would have been no more than a third of its current scale. There was nothing to criticize. This was simply how politics worked. The contradictions between European nations had existed for a long time. Being dragged into the same alliance did not mean those conflicts had vanished. When an opportunity presented itself, failing to stab in the dark would have been abnormal. Besides, Britain was there to take the blame. There was no reason to hold back. Who had the most enemies was revealed most clearly at moments like this. With no surprises at all, the Russian Empire, engulfed in chaos from east to west and from south to north, claimed the top spot on the list of those being undermined. While turmoil raged within the Alliance, the Holy Roman government turned a blind eye. It was not that Franz lacked the will to act. The problem was that his own side had also taken part, leaving him without the moral high ground to speak from. In any case, the damage had already been done. It was too late to stop now. Smoothing things over, shifting the blame onto Britain, and preserving the Alliance’s internal unity served everyone’s interests. Let them make trouble if they wish. After the Battle of the English Channel, the British Empire was already an empty shell. Cleaning it up a little later made no real difference. As long as no unrest broke out within the Holy Roman Empire itself, Franz could sit back and watch the storms of the world unfold. Interests were the eternal driving force. With Britain on the verge of being dragged down so that they could take its place, the Holy Roman Empire was more united internally than ever before. The final outcome of all this scheming made that clear. The anti-war movement in Hanover had barely begun before it was crushed by the local state government. Britain’s influence there ultimately could not outweigh hard interests. For the sake of their own benefit, Hanoverian nobles, the military, and the bourgeoisie all stood firmly in favor of continuing the war. Even those once sympathetic to Britain now wanted to bring it down, if only to inherit the British Empire’s vast legacy. Opposing the war did not just cut off their current sources of profit. It threatened their future as well. Blocking the road to wealth was an unforgivable offense. Against this backdrop, it was inevitable that the anti-war movement would meet a grim end. The reality proved exactly that. The experts and scholars who called for a nationwide anti-war movement had barely shouted a few slogans before being branded as “British spies.” After that, there was no after. In times of chaos, harsh measures were the norm. Having offended every major interest group, even if they managed to keep their lives, they could forget about having any future. By comparison, the anti-Russian elements in Prussia were far better off. They received nothing more than a warning. The anti-Russian movement in Prussia had lasted for decades and had long become a routine part of everyday life. On certain dates each year, public demonstrations were practically a tradition. This time, they had merely started a few days early, which hardly counted as a serious incident. On the surface, nothing seemed to change. Politically, however, the implications were enormous. The failure to punish the anti-Russian demonstrators was interpreted by the outside world as a clear political signal that the Holy Roman government was opposed to Russia. In a sense, this was precisely why so many parties dared to strike at the Russian Empire without restraint. If it was a misunderstanding, so be it. Franz had no intention of stepping forward to clarify that this was the Prussian government’s action and had nothing to do with the Holy Roman Empire as a whole. Even though this was the truth, the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire clearly stipulated that unless a matter involved major national security concerns, the central government could not intervene in the internal affairs of a constituent state without an invitation from that state’s government. Anti-Russian demonstrations obviously did not rise to the level of a national security issue. The Prussian government was even less likely to surrender its high degree of autonomy over such a minor matter. Facts were facts, but politics had always been about turning simple things into complicated ones. If an explanation were issued now, it would only look like an admission of guilt in the eyes of outsiders. Rather than waste effort on that, it was better to support the Irish independence movement. At the very least, it would further weaken Britain and shorten the duration of the war. … In Saint Petersburg, as the revolutionary tide surged, the Russian Empire’s drafty, crumbling house swayed ever more precariously in the storm. Now in middle age, Nicholas II had matured significantly in both temperament and political skill. Even so, when faced with the current mess, he still found himself powerless. War, waves of strikes, revolutionary movements, and independence uprisings all collided at once. In fact, signs of a strike movement had already appeared in the Russian Empire two months earlier. At the time, however, the number of participants was far smaller, and the unrest had not yet spread across the entire country. Under the joint efforts of the Russian government and the capitalists, the unrest was quickly suppressed, but the underlying problems were never fundamentally resolved. Prices continued to rise, overtime hours kept getting longer, and the only thing that remained unchanged was wages. Social contradictions had already accumulated to a severe degree, so the revolutionary movements supported by the British naturally became the fuse. To make matters worse, at the very moment when the Russian Empire most needed help, its allies stepped forward one after another to kick it while it was down. Take the Finnish independence movement, for example. In addition to limited British support, the Nordic Federation played an even greater role. Or consider the Polish independence movement, whose backer was none other than the Kingdom of Prussia. … These support activities were not limited to moral encouragement. Real money was put on the table. A closer investigation would reveal that the main rebel commanders had still been serving in the armies of various countries just a few months earlier. When people are determined to stir up trouble, they stop caring about appearances and naturally have no fear of protests from the Russian government. It can only be said that the era belonging to the Russian Empire had come to an end. Even repeated declarations by the Russian government that it would seek revenge in the future did nothing to shake everyone’s determination to keep causing trouble. There was no alternative. The hegemon of the European continent was now the Holy Roman Empire. Stirring up trouble in secret was one thing, but launching a military attack against a sovereign state first required asking whether the boss would allow it. In fact, even if the Holy Roman government chose not to intervene, the Russian Empire would still be unable to do much. Too many countries were involved. If it truly came to a one against many confrontation, it was still unclear who would end up beating whom. Revenge could wait. The urgent priority was to survive the crisis at hand. The nationwide strike movement continued to intensify. Almost every city with a population of over one hundred thousand experienced waves of strikes. What worried Nicholas II even more was the endless stream of domestic rebellions. As of now, the population involved was close to thirty percent of the total population of the Russian Empire. Opening the map, one could see rebel flags planted across nearly half of the Russian Empire. If mishandled, the Russian Empire would be finished. “Bang!” The cup slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor, scalding coffee splashing everywhere. “What? The Austrians have cut off our supply of strategic materials?” Nicholas II could hardly avoid panic. By this point in the war, strategic materials supplied by the Holy Roman Empire accounted for half of all Russian supplies. If those materials were suddenly gone, how was such a gap to be filled? Without sufficient strategic supplies, what would the Russian army use to suppress the rebellions, and what would it rely on to continue the war? Foreign Minister Mikhailovich explained, “It is not a complete cutoff. The supply has only been temporarily reduced. Roughly ten percent of the previous volume will still be maintained. The reason given by the Holy Roman government is that, in order to ensure logistical support for our southward expeditionary forces, they can only reduce the strategic material quotas supplied to our homeland.” Hearing this explanation, Nicholas II was left momentarily speechless. He wanted to condemn it, yet no words would come. Although this was a joint operation, due to geographical factors the logistics of the Russian army had so far been largely independent of those of its allies. Now that rebellion had broken out in Central Asia, the Russian forces in India had their rear cut off and could only rely on allied support. An additional eight hundred thousand troops had suddenly appeared on the books, and the strategic materials required were naturally no small sum. Such a massive shortfall could not be filled overnight. From the allied perspective, reducing strategic material shipments to Russia proper in order to plug this hole was clearly the optimal choice at the moment. In any case, the materials would ultimately be used by Russian troops. Since the Holy Roman government promised that the total volume of strategic materials supplied would not be reduced, this could not be considered a breach of agreement. With the issue laid bare, Nicholas II had no grounds to object. Otherwise, the eight hundred thousand Russian soldiers on the front line would quite literally go hungry. Yet suppressing domestic rebellions also consumed enormous quantities of strategic materials. Worse still, the rebels had seized control of the Central Asian Railway and the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the strategic materials that the Russian government had stockpiled in advance along these lines had fallen into rebel hands. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Nicholas II hurriedly issued an order: “Immediately dispatch envoys to negotiate with the Holy Roman government. Request an increase in our strategic material quota.” Even if the hope was slim, it had to be tried. Otherwise, the coming campaigns to suppress the internal rebellions would be exceedingly difficult to fight.
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