Chapter 415: War Outbreak

The relationship between European countries was indeed quite chaotic.

Russia's ally France did not support Russia's actions in the Far East, and they also did not want to see a war break out between Russia and the island country.

No matter who won or lost this war, it could not be counted as good news for the French government.

If the Russians won, they would inevitably invest more energy in the Far East region. In this way, the troops Russia deployed in the Eastern Europe region would also become fewer, and the number of German and Austro-Hungarian troops that could be attracted would naturally be fewer.

If the Russians were defeated, although the defeated Russia might obediently return its focus to Europe, the value of a Russia that could even lose to the island country as an ally would also be greatly reduced.

Russia's finance was not very good to begin with; if this war caused the Russian government's financial pressure to become greater, if a super great war in the European region broke out in the future, Russia was likely to become the first country to withdraw from the war because of financial collapse.

To put it bluntly, the French were not supporting Russia. They just didn't want to see the war between Russia and the island country break out, hoping that Russia could return its focus to Europe and solve the conflict between the two major military groups in Europe first.

In the eyes of the French, the dispute in the European region was the most important. If the Franco-Russian Alliance could defeat the German-Austrian Alliance, let alone the small Far East situation, the situation of the whole world could also be decided by the Franco-Russian Alliance.

But if the Franco-Russian Alliance could not win the competition with the German-Austrian Alliance, the future European situation and even the world situation would be decided by Germany and the European Empire.

Under these circumstances, there was naturally no need to worry about the Far East situation; after all, perhaps even the homeland could not be preserved after defeat, so how could the Far East region be preserved?

The French believed that the Russian government was completely caught in a trap set by the British government. The British used only a small island country to attract Russia's attention, letting Russia wrongly put its focus on the struggle for the Far East region.

Russia doing this was completely forgetting its roots. The reason why Russia was powerful was not because of the territory in Asia, but because of the essence of the Eastern Europe part.

Planning for the Far East without planning for Europe, in the eyes of the French, was completely ignorant. Unfortunately, the only ally France could rely on was Russia, and wanting to change allies was impossible, so it could only go wrong.

What surprised the French was that their deadly rival, Germany, instead expressed support for its ally Russia.

When the conflict between Russia and the island country became more and more intense, the German government suddenly expressed support for Russia and indicated its willingness to provide Russia with a batch of low-interest loans to help Russia better deal with this conflict incident.

Germany's timely help was something Russia never expected, but this fund was very much needed by the Russian government, and they did not refuse Germany's "good intentions".

Although the Russian government could also see clearly that Germany's willingness to support Russia in competing with the island country was entirely to let Russia focus its attention on the Far East region and best compete with the island country for a long time.

Although it saw this point clearly, for the Russian government, it was absolutely impossible to give up the Far East situation and absolutely impossible to make concessions to the island country.

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

Although the Russian government was very confident in its military strength,

If it can be said that the Army can still rely on combat effectiveness to compensate for deficiencies in quantity, then when it comes to the Navy, it is the actual number of warships that determines combat effectiveness.

Of course, this is also under the condition that the actual performance of the two countries' warships is not much different. Although the Island Nation is only a country that has 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, strengthening its own naval power to a great extent.

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 discusses 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.

Even most of the battleships of the Russian Far East Fleet are outdated products from years ago, 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 it can be said that there is only a certain gap with the Island Nation in terms of the Navy, then in terms of the Army, the military power deployed by Russia in the Far East is far inferior to the military power of the Island Nation.

Do not look at the fact that Russia's standing army has already exceeded one million people; in reality, the vast majority of these troops are deployed in Eastern Europe, with less than one-tenth of the forces 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 98,000.

If these troops did not report false numbers, then it is roughly within this range. This force of less than 100,000 is equipped with 148 artillery pieces and 8 machine guns, which is still fine for maintaining order in the Far East region during peacetime.

But to let these troops rush to the battlefield to fight, or even to hold the national territory under the attack of the Island Nation's troops, that is inevitably a bit too difficult.

The Russian government planned to expand the troops in the Far East region from 98,000 to 150,000 during the two years from 1903 to 1904, in order to cope with the pressure from the Island Nation.

The expansion plan is expected to be completed in the early to middle part of 1904. After completing the expansion, Russia will also possess more powerful military strength in the Far East; it is believed that the Island Nation does not have the guts to launch an attack on the Russia that has completed its expansion.

Will things really go as Russia thinks?

Before the Russian government had officially started the expansion, the Island Nation side already had actions.

On May 12, 1903, the Island Nation government, using the excuse that Russia's actions in the Far East region 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 stationed in the Island Nation.

The Russian government obviously did not expect the Island Nation government to be able to put forward such a demand; they could absolutely not agree to it.

It can only be said that the Russian government clearly underestimated the ambition of the Island Nation people, and they also did not know what kind of price the Island Nation people were willing to pay for their own ambition.

On May 13, the Island Nation government officially announced to the outside world that they would sever diplomatic relations with Russia on that day, expel the Russian ambassador stationed in the Island Nation, recall the Island Nation ambassador stationed in Russia, and completely sever the diplomatic and economic exchanges between the two countries.

The news that the Island Nation took 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 Island Nation people very much, did not expect that the Island Nation people would actually behave so bravely in terms of the conflict with Russia.

What severing diplomatic relations represents naturally does not need to be said much. This also represents that, perhaps in the near future, the Island Nation will declare war on Russia.

Tsar Nicholas II never expected that the Island Nation people's guts would be so big. Russia is a world-recognized super great power, and even Germany is unwilling to offend Russia to death.