Chapter 422 Factional Struggles and Arms Procurement

"I want to return to St. Petersburg to report my work. Prepare a special plane for me. Remember to have the pilot check it carefully before taking off." Alexeyev, commander-in-chief of the Russian Southwest Front, ordered.

The situation currently faced by the Southwest Front Army is already quite serious. Alexeyev feels that he cannot sit still and wait for death. At least the top Russian officials should know that even if the Southwest Front Army fails in the future, it will definitely not be his fault.

Judging from the current logistics and equipment situation faced by the Southwest Front, even if Napoleon is reincarnated, he will be unable to face the German attack.

Although Alexeev knew that after he explained the situation on the front line to Nicholas II, he might become a thorn in the side of the capitalists and even be hated by the entire Russian logistics department.

But there is no way. If the current predicament faced by the Southwest Front is not made public, I am afraid that after the defeat in the future, Alexeyev will become the biggest scapegoat, taking the blame for Russia's logistics, top management and decadent system.

One day later, St. Petersburg, Russia.

"Your Majesty, this is about the current logistics situation of our Southwest Front Army and a plan to improve its combat effectiveness." Alexeyev anxiously handed a document to Nicholas II with a very decisive look in his eyes.

Regardless of whether this plan will be adopted by Nicholas II, it will be an enemy of the entire Russian decadent system.

Logistics officers, capitalists, and all those who profited from the war would regard Alexeyev as a thorn in their flesh.

Nicholas II took the document, but the first page of the document made Nicholas II's face uncertain, and finally turned into a gloomy cloud.

As mentioned in the information, since Grand Duke Nicholas left office, the logistics situation of the Russian Southwest Front has fallen into a terrible state.

This made Nicholas II feel that Alexeyev had some insinuations about him. After all, he was the new commander of the Russian army after Grand Duke Nicholas.

"Is all this information true?" Nicholas II asked with a gloomy face.

"Yes, Your Majesty. There are hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the entire Southwest Army. Not to mention weapons and equipment, whether they can eat enough is a problem. Especially in recent times, the soldiers have been tired of dry and hard black bread, as well as those without nutrition. Grains. They urgently need a rich meal to restore their strength and fight the Germans better," Alexeyev replied quickly.

"According to the logistics supply of the Southwest Front approved by the General Staff, there should be meat meals twice a week, right? Not even once?" Nicholas II asked with some confusion.

Although Nicholas II was not proficient in military matters, he still understood the simple truth of occasionally giving soldiers a good meal.

There is too much to guarantee, but Nicholas II is confident that he can guarantee it by eating meat twice a week, and he even personally signed the logistics purchase order.

But now, the frontline reported that they had not eaten meat for a long time, and even ordinary food was gone, only black bread and cereals. This made Nicholas II puzzled, and at the same time, he was also worried and angry.

"There is nothing, Your Majesty. We are short of weapons and ammunition, as well as food and medical supplies. If this continues, the Southwest Front will only collapse faster. The hungry soldiers cannot resist those damn Germans." Lexeyev shook his head and replied.

"Damn it, I'll take care of it, Ayekseev. Within three days, the logistics supplies you need will be delivered to the armies." Nicholas II nodded seemingly plainly, but his clenched fists proved it Nicholas II was not in a good mood.

"Yes." Nicholas II was already furious at this time. Alexeyev did not dare to raise any more questions and let Nicholas II vent his anger on him.

After receiving Alexeyev's reply, Nicholas II returned his gaze to the document and started reading.

"The Southwest Front's plan to increase its combat effectiveness is to purchase more weapons, equipment and aircraft from Australasia?" After a while, Nicholas II continued to ask.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Judging from all factors, Australasia's weapons and equipment are not inferior to Germany's, and their own combat effectiveness is far ahead of German aircraft. If we can have more aircraft on the front line, we can It's not a small disadvantage. This is not my idea, but the final conclusion reached by the Southwest Army Staff after a comprehensive demonstration and analysis," Alexeyev replied calmly.

This is really not Alexeyev's aimless intention. This is indeed the current situation on the Russian front.

The army equipped with Australasian weapons and equipment was not inferior to the German army, at least in terms of weaponry and firepower.

However, the army, which is only equipped with weapons and equipment manufactured by Russia, is far behind the German army in terms of weapons, equipment and firepower.

As for aircraft, Russia does have its own domestically produced aircraft. However, most of these aircraft are produced by small workshops, and their safety performance is not guaranteed.

In fact, as early as two years ago, a Russian private workshop contacted the military and wanted to sell its own aircraft to the military.

At that time, there was not much research on aircraft in any country. Russia originally thought that it could be ahead of other countries in aircraft research, but it did not expect that Russian aircraft could not withstand actual experiments at all. A total of three experiments were carried out, and they crashed twice, and the other one was extremely dangerous.

This caused the Russian military to urgently halt aircraft experiments, and Russia's aircraft development did not receive strong support from the country.

This also means that although Russia does have some domestically produced aircraft at present, as long as it is a domestically produced aircraft in Russia, no one dares to ride such an aircraft except the test pilots of the workshop that produces the aircraft.

In addition to the advanced performance of the aircraft exported by Australasia, there is no problem with the strategy of purchasing a large number of Australasia aircraft, and it is also the only thing the Russian Air Force can do at present.

In the end, Nicholas II nodded and agreed to Alexeyev's demand for purchasing equipment.

It is not a bad thing for Russia to buy more weapons and equipment from Australasia. Anyway, military expenses have to be spent, so it is better to spend them directly on the cutting edge.

In addition, the logistics issues raised by Alexeyev have made Nicholas II dissatisfied with the capitalists and the logistics department. It is also necessary for Nicholas II to suppress the arrogance of the capitalists.

Although the current situation in Russia is indeed very chaotic, it does not mean that Nicholas II will think that he will lose his ultimate power.

In the eyes of Nicholas II, it is nothing more than a matter of convenience to knock on the capitalists and logistics officials.

Even if the situation on the front line improves, the chaos in Russia will be resolved again, and he can rest assured.

But is this really the case? I'm afraid not.

Even the seemingly twisted Tsarist government actually has a lot of struggles within it. In Russian political thought, there are two opposing ideological factions, namely the Unified Slavs and the Westerners.

These two factions cover almost the vast majority of Russian officials and are also influencing the decisions of the highest level, that is, Nicholas II.

First is the Western faction, which is the easiest to understand. Russia is still a powerful empire, but it must be admitted that Western Europe, which has experienced the industrial revolution and the electrification revolution, that is, the second industrial revolution, has become stronger and stronger in Central Europe, and Russia, located in Eastern Europe and the Far North, has gradually shown signs of fatigue.

Some knowledgeable people in Russia believe that Russia has fallen behind developed Western European society in all aspects.

Russia needs to unite and learn from the West more comprehensively, so as to narrow the gap with Western European countries and quickly integrate into the developed Western European society.

The so-called more comprehensive learning includes not only learning Western European science, technology and ideas, but also learning Western European systems.

The Western faction regards Peter the Great of Russia as a hero. It is precisely because Peter the Great learned Western reforms that Russia's strength was greatly enhanced, and it defeated Sweden in the competition with Sweden, becoming the northern hegemon of the Baltic Sea and one of the most powerful countries in Europe.

From the reign of Peter the Great to Alexander I, the Western faction was the mainstream thought of the Russian ruling group, and Russia's national strength during this period did improve significantly.

But the Unified Slav faction also has a lot of say in Russia. This faction believes that Russia inherited the title of the Eastern Roman Empire, that is, the Byzantine Empire and its leadership in the Orthodox Church, which also means that Russia has the right and obligation to rule and save the world.

You must know that Russia inherited from the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Eastern Roman Empire claimed to be the orthodoxy of the Roman Empire.

This also gave some Russians the ambition and belief to restore the former territory of the Roman Empire, and unifying the entire Slavic nation has also become the mainstream thought of this faction.

The reason why Russia intervened in the Balkan affairs was to unify the Yugoslav people in this area and bring the entire Yugoslav region and ethnic groups under Russian rule.

The Unified Slav faction believes that the homogeneity of Russian society brings transcendent morality and social stability to the Russian people, which is incomparable to the Western capitalist society based on materialism and money.

Therefore, the Unified Slav faction believes that Peter the Great is a sinner of the Russian nation. It is precisely because he learned Western reforms that the homogeneity of Russian society was lost.

During the Anti-French War, the victory of Tsarist Russia over Napoleon led to an unprecedented rise in national self-confidence throughout Russia, and the Unified Slav faction also replaced the Western faction and became the mainstream thought.

But the good times did not last long. Later, Russia faced the defeat of the Crimean War. Alexander II gradually realized the gap between Russia and Western European countries and gradually began to reuse the Western faction.

But Alexander II chose the more moderate ideas among the Western faction, which led to the political and economic reforms led by Alexander II not being thorough and did not change the real situation in Russia.

Even the Slav faction gradually occupied a dominant position, and the Western faction was excluded from the ruling class and could only merge with the capitalists, which promoted the rise of some revolutionary parties.

The superiority of the Unified Slav faction and the Western faction can actually be seen from the history of Russia.

During the period of reusing the Western faction, Russia's strength did gain a lot of improvement. But Russia cannot give up its ambition to expand, and the Unified Slav faction always occupies a certain position, even a dominant position.

In addition, the exclusion of reform is too great, resulting in incomplete reforms in Russian history, and the Russian system still has a large gap with the West.

Although Nicholas II also had the idea of ​​​​using the Western faction for reform, the current chaotic situation in Russia no longer allows Russia to reform.

If the vested interest groups that originally supported the government are pushed to the opposite side of the government, the speed of the government's collapse can be imagined.

Fortunately, Nicholas II was very generous in purchasing armaments for the troops, including several dreadnoughts for the previous naval expansion, Nicholas II nodded in agreement without any thought.

"I agree to the proposal to buy aircraft. I will contact the finance and foreign affairs departments and ask them to cooperate with your aircraft purchase plan." Nicholas II nodded and said generously.

Although this batch of new aircraft purchase plan will cost tens of millions of rubles, compared with improving the combat effectiveness of the front-line combat troops, it is undoubtedly a good deal to exchange victory in the war for domestic stability.

"As for the pilots of fighter jets, domestic training is part of it. I will also let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs discuss with Australasia and send a group of trainees to Australasia for emergency training. General Alexeev, I hope you can stabilize the situation of the Southwestern Front. The logistics and new weapons and equipment you requested will arrive soon." As he said, Nicholas II looked at Admiral Alexeev and said half-requestingly and half-demandingly.

"Yes, Your Majesty, please rest assured. The Southwestern Front will never let you down. We will do our best to resist the German attack." Alexeev nodded excitedly and replied in a high-pitched tone.

Alexeyev thought that it would be perfect if he could solve one of the two major issues of logistics and equipment purchase.

But Nicholas II directly approved both of them, which was beyond Alexeyev's expectations.

Of course, this is a good thing for the Russian Southwest Front. The soldiers have sufficient food and weapons and equipment to better resist the German attack.

Perhaps it is also a good thing for the Northwest Front. After all, after Nicholas II held the logistics department accountable, the withholding of food and supplies should not be so rampant.

If both the Northwest and Southwest Fronts can get a batch of aircraft support and match them with enough pilots, as long as they gain an advantage in the sky, it is not impossible to recover the lost land previously occupied by Germany.

After all, bombing from the sky is far more dangerous than bombing on land. Aircraft can accurately select targets and drop bombs, but artillery shells can only aim and bomb at a long distance, which is extremely challenging for the accuracy of artillery.

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