Chapter 415: Outbreak of War

The relations between European countries are indeed quite chaotic.

Russia's ally, Falanxi, does not support Russia's actions in the Far East, nor do they wish to see a war break out between Russia and the island nation.

Regardless of who wins or loses this war, it is not considered good news for the Falanxi government.

If the Russians win, they will inevitably invest more energy in the Far East region. Consequently, the number of troops Russia deploys in the Eastern Europe region will decrease, and the number of troops they can attract from Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire will naturally be fewer.

If the Russians are defeated, although a defeated Russia might obediently turn its gaze back to Europe, the value of a Russia that can even lose to an island nation as an ally would be greatly diminished.

Russia's finances are not in good shape to begin with; if this war causes the Russian government's financial pressure to increase further, in the event of a great war in Europe in the future, Russia is very likely to be the first country to withdraw from the war due to financial collapse.

To put it bluntly, the Falanxi people are not unsupportive of Russia. They simply do not want to see a war break out between Russia and the island nation, and they hope Russia can return its focus to Europe and resolve the conflict between the two major military blocs in Europe first.

In the eyes of the Falanxi people, the disputes in the European region are the most important. If the Falanxi-Russian Alliance can defeat the German-Austrian Alliance, let alone the minor situation in the Far East, the situation of the entire world could be dictated by the Falanxi-Russian Alliance.

But if the Falanxi-Russian Alliance cannot win the competition against the German-Austrian Alliance, the future of the European situation, and even the world situation, will be dictated by Germany and the European Empire.

Under these circumstances, there is naturally no need to fret over the Far East situation; after all, if one cannot even protect the homeland after a defeat, how could the Far East region possibly be protected?

The Falanxi people believe that the Russian government has completely fallen into a trap set by the British government. The British used only a small island nation to attract Russia's attention, causing Russia to mistakenly place its focus on the struggle in the Far East region.

The Russians are completely forgetting their roots by doing this. The reason Russia is powerful does not rely on its Asian territories, but on the essence of its Eastern European parts.

To scheme for the Far East and not for Europe is, in the eyes of the Falanxi people, sheer ignorance. It is a pity that at this time, the only reliable ally Falanxi has is Russia; wanting to change allies is impossible, so they can only continue down the wrong path.

What the Falanxi people did not expect was that their arch-rival, Germany, would instead express support for their ally, Russia.

As the conflict between Russia and the island nation intensified, the German government suddenly expressed support for Russia and indicated a willingness to provide Russia with a batch of low-interest loans to help Russia better cope with this conflict.

This timely assistance from the Germans was something Russia never expected, but this capital was something the Russian government desperately needed, and they did not refuse the "goodwill" of the Germans.

Although the Russian government could also see clearly that Germany's willingness to support Russia in its competition with the island nation was entirely to ensure that Russia would keep its focus thoroughly on the Far East region, preferably competing with the island nation for a long time.

Although they saw this point clearly, for the Russian government, it was absolutely impossible for them to abandon the Far East situation, and absolutely impossible to make concessions to the island nation.

It is precisely because of this that the Russian government quickly accepted the low-interest loans provided by Germany and invested all of these funds into military expansion in the Far East region.

Although the Russian government is very confident in its own military strength, it is an indisputable fact that in the Far East region, the island nation's army and navy are both superior in scale.

If the army can make up for the lack of numbers with combat effectiveness, then regarding the navy, it is the actual number of warships that determines combat power.

Of course, this is under the condition that the actual performance of the two countries' warships is similar. Although the island nation is a country that has only just developed through reform, their navy was not built by themselves.

The vast majority of warships in the island nation's navy came from Europe and America, especially after concluding an alliance treaty with Britain; the island nation ordered a large number of warships from Britain, greatly strengthening its naval power.

As for Russia, although Russia's overall naval strength ranks fourth in the world, and its total naval tonnage even leads that of Germany.

But if one only considers the naval power in the Far East region, Russia lags behind the island nation's fleet in total naval tonnage, number of battleships, and total number of warships.

Most of the battleships in the Russian Far East Fleet are even old, obsolete products, while most of the island nation's battleships were ordered from Britain and other European countries in recent years; from this aspect, one can also see the gap in naval strength between the two sides.

If there is only a certain gap with the island nation in terms of the navy, then in terms of the army, the military force Russia has deployed in the Far East is far inferior to that of the island nation.

Do not be misled by the fact that Russia's standing army exceeds one million; in reality, the vast majority of these troops are deployed in Eastern Europe, with less than one-tenth of the force in the Far East.

Counting the guard units and police armed forces, the number of armed forces Russia possesses in the Far East region is approximately 98, 00.

If these troops did not report false numbers, then it is roughly within this range. This force of less than 100, 00 is equipped with 148 artillery pieces and 8 machine guns, which is fine for maintaining order in the Far East region during peacetime.

But to have these troops rush to the battlefield to fight, or even hold the territory under the attack of the island nation's army, would be somewhat too difficult.

The Russian government plans to expand its troops in the Far East from 98, 00 to 150, 00 over the two years from 1903 to 1904 to cope with the pressure from the island nation.

The expansion plan is expected to be completed between early and mid-1904. Once the expansion is complete, Russia will also possess more powerful military strength in the Far East, and it is believed that the island nation will not have the guts to launch an attack on a Russia that has completed its expansion.

Will things really go as Russia thinks?

Before the Russian government could even formally begin its expansion, the island nation had already taken action.

On May 12, 1903, the island nation's government, using the excuse that Russia's actions in the Far East had seriously damaged its own interests, demanded that the Russian government immediately abandon its actions on the Korean Peninsula, otherwise it would expel the Russian ambassador to the island nation.

The Russian government clearly did not expect the island nation's government to make such a demand, and they could absolutely not agree to it.

It can only be said that the Russian government clearly underestimated the ambition of the islanders, and they were also unaware of what price the islanders were willing to pay for their ambition.

On May 13, the island nation's government formally announced to the outside world that they would sever diplomatic relations with Russia that day, expel the Russian ambassador to the island nation, recall the island nation's ambassador to Russia, and completely cut off diplomatic and economic exchanges between the two countries.

The news of the island nation taking the initiative to announce the severance of diplomatic relations was like a bolt from the blue for Russia. Even Tsar Nicholas II, who looked down upon the islanders, did not expect that the islanders would show such courage in the conflict with Russia.

There is no need to say much about what the severance of diplomatic relations represents. It also means that perhaps in the near future, the island nation will declare war on Russia.

Tsar Nicholas II never expected that the islanders would be so bold. Russia is a world-recognized super power, and even Germany is unwilling to offend Russia to the point of no return.