Chapter 184: Chapter 178: Outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War
The time entered February 1904, and the situation in the Far East became increasinglyplicated, with the whole region shrouded in a crisis of war.
The protagonists of the crisis were naturally the dominant Russian Empire in the Far East and the emerging Ind Nation.
As a recently risen country, Ind Nation has gained considerablend from a series of wars and incidents and has greatly expanded its own military.
However, mineral resources within Ind Nation are scarce, and the small Korean Penins they acquired is insufficient to alleviate their resource problems.
Although Ind Nation signed a mineral resource import agreement with Australia, the cost was at least double the market price to acquire valuable mineral resources.
For the cash-strapped Ind Nation, this was a considerable burden. Coupled with existing loans from the British Empire and the United States, high interest rates and fiscal deficits were gradually bing unbearable for Ind Nation’s finances.
They naturally turned their gaze to the north of the Korean Penins, where the East Three Provinces, rich in mineral resources,y.
Thisnd had a sufficient poption,rge areas of arablend, and abundant mineral resources.
More importantly, due to its connection with the Korean Penins, its mineral resources could be quickly transported to the maind of Ind Nation through the ports of the penins, much more convenient and economical than importing mineral resources from Australia.
However, there was a problem: thisnd that Ind Nation valued had been upied by the Russian Empire several years ago.<div>
As the master of the Far East, the Russian Empire would naturally not give up thisnd, after all, their Yellow Russia n wasmon knowledge.
Would a starving hunter give up hunting in his abundant hunting ground at his doorstep just because there are strong guards?
Obviously, he would not, because if he does not act, he will starve to death. Faced with the threat of death, even the most formidable enemies must fight with all they have.
That’s the situation Ind Nation is facing now. If they don’t do something, their current finances could drag the whole country down, shattering their dreams of revival and negating the efforts of everyone from emperor tomoner over decades.
Would Inders ept such an oue? Impossible. Moreover, before acquiring the Korean Penins, Ind Nation had waged a gamble of national destiny.
It was this war that led Ind Nation to acquire the Korean Penins, arablend with decent resources, and take their first step towards rising to power.
Starting from August of the previous year, Ind Nation had officiallyunched negotiations with the Russian Empire, attempting to divide their respective interests in the Far East.
The Ind Nation proposed that the Russian Empire recognize Ind Nation’s superior interests in Korea, while Ind Nation would only recognize the special interests of the Russian Empire in the Manchurian Railway.
This was tantamount to asking the Russian Empire to give up Korea without gaining anything in return, which the Russian Empire naturally would not agree to.
The negotiations hadsted for six months. The Ind Nation sought to use peaceful means to divide interests with the Russian Empire in the Far East, but ultimately found it unfeasible, and decisively abandoned this n.
On February 6, 1904, Ind Nation unterally notified the Russian Empire, dering an end to the negotiations between the two countries and severing diplomatic rtions with the Russian Empire.
At this point, war between the two countries was inevitable, and the end of negotiations actually signaled theunch of negotiations through a more assertive method.
Indeed, two dayster, without a deration of war, Ind Nation’s navy attacked the Russian fleet stationed at Port Arthur Harbor, triggering the war for dominance in the Far East.
At the time, the referendum in New Zend was still ongoing, and Arthur naturally did notment on the situation in the Far East. However, he had the Australian and New Zend governments issue a deration of neutrality, dering that Australia and New Zend would remain neutral in this war.
Nevertheless, Arthur had the military factories contact the Russian Empire and Ind Nation immediately to ask if they needed to buy more weapons and equipment, and Australia could increase production to get it to them as fast as possible.
After all, dering neutrality didn’t mean that they couldn’t engage in the arms trade. The United States did just that, initially dering neutrality to profit from the arms trade, and joining the conflict directly once prospects became clear, securing a high position among the victors at the lowest cost.
Compared to the strongly resolute Ind Nation, the Russian Empire was divided on this crisis of dominance.
The Russian Empire’s attitude could be divided into two factions: the peace advocates, led by the Minister of Finance and Minister of Foreign Affairs, who saw the crisis in the Russian Empire’s domestic and international situation and advised Tsar Nichs II not to lightly initiate war.
The peace advocates suggested making some concessions to secure peace for a short time. Meanwhile, they would increase economic exploitation and preparations for war in the Far East. Once the Siberian Railway was fully operational and the peripheral fort stopped near Port Arthur port waspleted, then they could seize the opportunity to have a major showdown with Ind Nation.<div>
The peace advocates were not purely peace-loving: their advocacy for temporary peace was simply to better prepare for war, which is in line with the tradition of Russians who have never feared war.
The other faction was the warmongers, represented by the Imperial Minister, the Minister of Internal Affairs, and the Governor of the Far East.
These people were extremely fanatical chauvinists, imperial adventurers. They were very confident in the military power of the Russian Empire and had little regard for the newly emerging country of the Ind Nation.
They believed that a small mobilization of the Russian Empire’s army could easily annihte the enemy from the Ind Nation.<div>
Such a hearty victory could also ease the revolutionary crisis within the Russian Empire, and, based on external expansions, ensure domestic stability, killing two birds with one stone.
This belief wasrgely due to the growing intensity of the revolutionary wave within the Russian Empire, and its upper echelons were already seeking ways to resolve the crisis from other angles.
But the Russian Empire is an authoritarian country, where the Tsar has absolute power. All decisions had to be made by Tsar Nichs II.
However, during the time when Nichs II was still the Crown Prince, he had travelled abroad by the order of Tsar Alexander III to visit several countries.
Nichs II passed through Greece, Egypt, India, the Ind Nation and the Qing Empire, then returned from Siberia in the Far East.
This made Nichs II the first person in the Russian Empire to have visited Asia.
However, this Asian trip was not pleasant and left Nichs II with a strong hatred and animosity towards the Ind Nation.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om
In 1891, Nichs, then Crown Prince of the Russian Empire led his close friend George, the Greek Prince, and more than 30 others to the Ind Nation.
At that time, the Ind Nation was still a weak country, and the visit of Crown Prince Nichs was fully weed by the Ind Nation Government.
To ensure the safety of Crown Prince Nichs, the Ind Nation Government made great efforts. They increased police force, ensuring stringent precautions in order to ensure everything went smoothly.
On the other hand, the then Foreign Minister of the Ind Nation, Aoki Chikugo, and the Russian Ambassador to the Ind Nation agreed that in the event of an assassination, the culprit would be sentenced to death for the crime of undermining the royal family as per the Penal Law, with no room for leniency.
Yet the unexpected happened so suddenly. On May 11, 1891, Crown Prince Nichs was assaulted during his tour of the Mega Metropolis by Police officer Mitsuzou Tsuda, who was responsible for his security.
The assassination attempt ultimately failed. Although Nichs was stabbed twice, his life was not in danger.<div>
However, the rtionship between the Russian Empire and the Ind Nation cooled significantly, and Nichs II, due to this incident, had no affection for the Ind Nation and even harboured extreme hatred and contempt.
What would be the reaction of such a man, who held such hatred and contempt for the Ind Nation, upon hearing that the Ind Nation wanted topete with the Russian Empire for dominance in the Far East?
Would he angrily exim that these yellow monkeys deserved to die, or would he calmly consider the opinions of the peace party?
As a matter of fact, Nics II had both views. He was clear that the Russian Empire’s current preparations were not sufficient and hoped to postpone the war.
At the same time, Nichs II was convinced that hard-line measures were the best way to maintain dominance. He believed that the best way to postpone the war was to adopt hard-line measures, as any concession would always lead to new concessions.
Such seemingly inconsistent thoughts, in fact, were in support of the hardliners’ point of view.
The Russian Empire indeed was not fully prepared; the Russian Army in the Far East had less than a hundred thousand men, and even fewer were equipped with modern weapons.
Although a batch of weapons and equipment was purchased from Australia, more than half of these were allocated to European armies. The forces stationed in the Far East only received about one-third of this.
The entire Russian Army in the Far East had barely two hundred cannon, twenty heavy machine guns, and just over ny-thousandbat troops.
In terms of the navy, although the Russian Navy had more than 200 warships, the Pacific Squadron, which could be employed in the Far East region, had just over 60 warships.
Meanwhile, the Ind Nation Navy already had over 80 warships, with a total tonnage exceeding 270,000 tons.
Most of the main battleships were new warships built in Britain, with uniform specifications and good performance.
A battleship ordered from Australia had not beenpleted and was therefore not included in the statistics.<div>
For its army, the Ind Nation could deploy over 210,000 troops outside its nativend, with thousands of cannon, and more than fifty heavy machine guns.
Looking at the raw data alone, the Russian Empire was already at a considerable disadvantage in the Far East. Although the navy could barely maintain bnce, the number of troops, quantity, and advanced level of equipment, were entirely outmatched by the Ind Nation.
However, the arrogant Russian Imperial Government naively believed that the Ind Nation would never dare to provoke the great Russian Empire. They believed that as long as the Russian Empire showed a tough side, the Inders wouldpromise.