Australian Storm 1876

   Chapter 1098 The Battle of Xiwu

   "Perhaps, this is God's punishment for America. It is a tribulation in our destiny. We cannot avoid it. We can only choose to fight to the end with our European friends." President William Taft's answer was more theological.

  The battle of geography or the battle of national fortune?

   In this world, apart from the dictatorial emperor who led the rise of the Ocean Empire, I am afraid no one can answer this question, it is more speculation.

   Now the priority

   is to mobilize all the forces that can be mobilized to stop the sharp offensive frenzy of the Japanese army, and try our best to persist until the end of the year, until the day when the world powers such as Britain and France free up their hands to intervene in the situation in North America.

The answer of    silenced all the high-ranking American officials present. Although it was not satisfactory, it may be the only solution.

The changes are changing. Today, the United States no longer has the ability to compete with the Ocean Empire head-on, and has lost its traditional influence in South America. Its power has shrunk to the corner of North America, and it can only use the power of Europe to counter the Ocean Empire’s attempt to intervene in the situation in North America. .

   Early June

  The Japanese army sent troops to continue northward after a short rest, and successively captured Milwaukee, Green Bay and other Lake Michigan cities, occupied a large area in the northern part of the Five Great Lakes, and gained a port facing the Atlantic Ocean.

  The United Kingdom was furious at this, publicly announcing that the Royal Fleet and the Canadian Navy had blocked the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, strictly prohibited any passenger and cargo ships from entering and leaving the Japanese-occupied area, and imposed many sanctions.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masaaki Matsumoto set off urgently to go to Europe to mediate. After arriving in London at the end of June, he launched a series of whirlwind diplomatic operations. In early July, he went to Paris and Rome to visit docks in European powers, expounding Japan's policy, emphasizing the current situation. Japan has completely stopped military operations...

   Early July

A shocking news came from Russia, Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, the eldest princess Olga, the fourth princess Anastasia, and the young crown prince Alexei, who suffered from hemophilia, and Several personal servants were secretly executed.

The news of    was subsequently confirmed by a senior official of the Russian workers’ government, who expressed angrily;

  The abdicated tsar still secretly colluded with the imperialists, united 14 countries and rebelled against the white bandits to interfere in the internal affairs of Tsarist Russia, betrayed the nation and the country, brought serious disaster to Russia, and should be severely punished. This is the people's trial.

   This incident caused an uproar all over the world. The most difficult to accept was King George V, the cousin of Nicholas II. Originally, the new Russian bourgeois government intended to cause the tsar’s family to go into exile in Britain, and the British government and parliament also agreed.

   However, considering that the British Labour Party was more sympathetic to the Russian labor movement, and was afraid of causing a chain reaction, King George V refused the suggestion of exile, but he did not expect to harm his cousin's family.

   In a public speech at Buckingham Palace, King George V emotionally accused the Russian workers’ government of being the “enemy of the world” and that Britain would unite “all forces of justice” to fight “the usurper who despised the kingship and restore law and order…”.

Subsequently, high-level officials from foreign, French, Italian, German, Austrian, Dutch, Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian and other kingdoms delivered policy speeches hostile to the current Russian government. 21 countries, showing the strong international response.

   This slightly brutal action of the Russian workers' government touched the sanctity of the kingship and caused public anger.

  Among them, Britain, France and the foreign countries were the most angry. Britain was slapped in the face mercilessly. France was furious and heartbroken because the new workers' government did not recognize the huge loan of tens of billions of francs.

   Speaking of which, France is also unlucky. The main battlefield of the Western Front of the World War was in France. While suffering huge personnel losses, the wealthy France became a heavily indebted France.

Before the war, France was a famous usury kingdom, and it could live a good life just by eating interest, so it ignored the development in the industrial field and failed to catch up with the second industrial revolution characterized by electrification. Advanced industrial countries such as the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom are left behind, and their comprehensive strength has fallen far behind.

  Before the pustules were opened, France was still living in a powerful dream, singing every night, and still having the energy to point fingers around the world, and the life was beautiful.

  After the outbreak of the World War, the massive invasion of the German army shattered the illusion...

  Before the war, France invested about 60 billion francs in all countries in the world, and more than 60% of the investment was concentrated in European countries.

   Among them, France lent the most to Russia at 11.3 billion francs, followed by the Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Spain and Belgium, which together amounted to more than 60 billion francs.

  Although France’s foreign capital export is second only to the Ocean Empire and the United Kingdom, but the Ocean Empire’s investment abroad is to develop industry, support the export of commodities, expand the financial industry, mainly banks, or set up factories and invest in industries.

   And France all lends usury to others, earning interest dryly. This kind of unproductive usury capital export makes France reap huge interest every year and becomes a usurer in Europe, so it is called "usury imperialism".

  In the entire population of more than 40 million in France, there are about 5 million rentiers, relying on the interest generated by huge loans all over the world to maintain a luxurious life.

  After the outbreak of the war, the old world continued to be broken and these loan sharks fell into the abyss.

Originally, before the war, France had 8.6 billion francs of creditor's rights to the Ocean Empire, but by the end of June 2018, it had owed the Ocean Empire a loan of 5.5 billion Jinyang, which was equivalent to 55 billion francs (14 years before the war). currency value).

   During the war, France’s indiscriminate issuance of currency caused the value of the franc to plummet, and it was particularly painful to repay the Jinyang loan with a strong currency.

What made the French collapse in particular was that the 11.3 billion francs lent to Russia were designated for nothing, and the money lent to the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had more than 80% probability of not being returned, but the money owed to the Ocean Empire had to be return.

   The huge psychological gap is more than just the word "miserable"?

The   Ocean Empire was not good either. The new Russian workers' government blatantly killed the czar's family. After the incident was exposed, it attracted the anger and condemnation of the imperial royalists' public opinion.

   After all, the two sides are the in-laws of the marriage, how can they be indifferent?

   From the standpoint of a feudal emperor, it is impossible to show sympathy for the Russian workers' regime. That would be deviant, but it would be safer to follow the trend.

   This secret was revealed earlier than in the original history, due to the influence of the butterfly effect, many major historical events have become unrecognizable.

   Fortunately, the European war is imminent, leaving enough time for the Russian workers' regime to react to form the Russian workers' and peasants' army, fight against the Belarusian rebel forces and resist foreign interference.

   Early July

  Eastern front battlefield, war clouds are densely covered.

  After the signing of the "Brest Contract", Germany and Austria-Hungary sent troops to invade and occupied Poland, Lithuania, Courland, Livland and Estland. And take over the regions of Ardahan, Kars and Batumi.

   in accordance with the contract;

   Russia recognizes the independence of Ukraine and Finland, immediately withdraws its troops from Finland, Ukraine and the Åland Islands, promises to immediately sign a peace treaty with Ukraine and recognizes the peace treaty between Ukraine and Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey.

   The problem now is that the 2nd Army is stationed in Kyiv and controls Western Ukraine to Crimea, a total of about 290,000 square kilometers of land, almost the size of three Zhejiang provinces.

  As a member of the Allied Powers Group, the Ocean Empire did not recognize the separate peace between Russia and Germany, nor did it recognize the relevant treaties, which became a hard nail on the Eastern Front battlefield.

  The German 5th and 9th armies entered the Caucasus in a big way, and the Austro-Hungarian army approached Western Ukraine with millions of troops, forming a trend of two breads from the north and the west.

  The German-Austrian Allied Forces totaled about 1.7 million, including 630,000 German troops and more than 1.1 million Austro-Hungarian troops.

   7/7/18

After the ultimatum failed, the German-Austrian coalition concentrated 3,140 artillery pieces and launched heavy artillery fire at the same time on two battlefields, the northern and western fronts, which were 171 kilometers wide.

   For a time, the artillery fire continued, shaking the sky and shaking the earth...

  The Battle of Western Ukraine Begins

  The Second Army of the Ocean Empire Expedition did not show weakness, and immediately dispatched an air force fighter group to attack, and staged a fierce aerial battle over Western Ukraine.

The fighter jets of the two sides were chasing in the air, and the roar of the engines shook the sky. The Royal Air Force once again showed its dominance over the sky, shooting down one German fighter plane after another, crashing into the black land of Western Ukraine in a long black smoke. superior.

   On the second day of the fierce battle, the advantages of the Royal Air Force of the Ocean Empire were already obvious. Only the few remaining German aircraft dared to risk a battle, and the air competition entered the final stage.

   At this time, the German-Austrian coalition couldn't wait to launch a general attack. The German-Austrian troops all over the mountains and plains followed the passage opened by the artillery fire, and the floods rushed up.

sky

  The entire fleet of the Royal Air Force of the Ocean Empire was dispatched, and the H-2 bomber, nicknamed "Farmer", whizzed by secretly, bombarding the artillery positions behind the German army indiscriminately.

  The Russian soldiers on the front line, supported by artillery fire, fired together with the heavy machine guns of the remaining Ming bunker and dark fortresses, and cooperated with the heavy machine guns in the trenches to carry out "transcendence shooting", severely hitting the German and Austrian coalition forces.

  Dense rain of bullets fell from the sky, killing and injuring a large number of German-Austrian soldiers. The battle on the front line was fierce, and the corpses were all over the place, revealing the **** and cruelty of the war.

  The strength of the Russian army, which has strengthened its weapons and equipment, has jumped up, and it has survived under the fierce attack of the German-Austrian allied forces. A few areas that have been broken through have been recaptured after throwing into the reserve to counterattack.

  Fight for a day, and rest until sunset.

  The German-Austrian allied forces met with blood on the defensive line, leaving more than 17,000 corpses and retreating in embarrassment. Under the tough counterattack of the defenders, the total attack did not make any progress.

   (end of this chapter)