Holy Roman Empire

With the sound of a gunshot, the scene, already in chaos, became more and more uncontrollable.

"The Russians are killing people!"

I don't know who shouted, but it blew up the whole arena. The protesters, who were already furious, were completely ignited.

Radicalism is called "radical" because it is characterized by a tendency to make decisions out of hotheadedness, without weighing the pros and cons.

No matter where they were, all they could think about was "Kill all the Russians, pay with blood!

Not only did they think about it, but they acted on it. The protesting crowd knocked down the gates and walls and charged inside the embassy.

The Russian guards fought bravely against the swarming crowds, but they could not fight with two hands, not even with guns.

After all, this was the embassy district. Security was primarily the responsibility of the Japanese government, and the guards' weapons were limited to defending against small children, with no heavy firepower at all.

With people rushing in, it was obvious what would happen next. Anyway, the nearby embassies, watching the fun, had already grabbed their cameras and were snapping away at the chaos.

The only pity is that the distance is too far, there is no picture quality to speak of, through the photos can only see the crowd in the impact of the Russian Embassy.

The police, who were in charge of maintaining law and order not far away, were terrified at the moment. To make a scene outside the embassy and to make a scene inside are two completely different concepts.

From the chaos of the scene, it was clear that the people who had broken in were not rational, and if they did something irrational, the consequences would be unthinkable.

"Sheriff, what should we do now?"

Staring at his men who were about to pee their pants, the middle-aged sheriff said indifferently, "What do we do?

Remember that, Muraki. A mob just tried to storm the British Embassy, and we've been intercepting it. We didn't see anything of the situation over at the Russian Embassy."

After saying that, the middle-aged man had swung his fist, punching and kicking his men, as if to simulate the scene after the mob impact.

They were not the only ones to make similar decisions, and not many of the police officers on duty nearby were intact in order not to take the blame.

There is no way, the scene has gotten out of control, and it is simply not something they, the pawns, can stop. The company's main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public.

The company's main business is to provide a wide range of products and services. As for the other issues, it was a matter for the higher-ups, who allowed the procession to approach the Russian embassy area.

It was the first time that a marching group was allowed near the Russian embassy.

As a small pawn, it's time to move on. As long as they don't get directly involved, the bigwigs don't care about them.

......

In the government office building, Prime Minister Shigenobu Okuma, who had just had his afternoon tea, was staring at a pile of documents when he suddenly received the terrible news that "a mob had stormed the Russian embassy area".

"Is the situation under control?"

"Were there any casualties in the Russian Embassy?"

......

Protesting is protesting, but hitting an embassy district is passing. The general public did not know the seriousness of the situation, but Shigenobu Okuma did.

If you want to get out of Asia and into Europe, you naturally need to understand the rules of the European political game, such as the universally recognized "international law.

The attack on the Russian embassy compound may seem on the surface to be a conflict between Japan and Russia, but it is not.

If it is not handled properly, the Japanese government will face the censure of the entire international community. The condemnation alone, not to mention the international sanctions, would be enough for the Japanese government.

In this context, it was extremely important that there were no casualties in the Russian Embassy.

If there were only property casualties, the worst that could be done was to pay a fortune; if there were casualties, the Russians would never let go of such a good opportunity.

The Russian empire is not alone, not only in the Russian-Austrian alliance, but also as a major member of the European Union.

The reason are sent to the door, the Tsarist government has no reason not to pull allies to intervene. International politics does not promote individual valorism, the use of the many over the few is the way to go.

The staff replied in a panic: "The situation is completely out of control, the police department has called the military for help, and it is not known whether there are any casualties in the Russian Embassy."

Upon hearing this result, Okuma Shigenobu did his butt in the seat. The situation was so out of control that the military had to intervene, so who would dare to believe what they had to say about casualties?

The question now is not how many people died, but how many survived in the Russian Embassy. In short, a diplomatic disaster is coming.

......

The advent of the telegraph brought mankind closer together. It was only during the day that Japan was in trouble, and at night Vienna received the news.

As for the blockade of the news, just think about it. You know that the telegraph companies these days, but control in the hands of the powers, there is no need to buy the Japanese government's account.

Besides, it was useless to cut off the telegraph connection. It happened in the embassy district, the distance between the embassies was not far, and there were so many witnesses, it was impossible to keep it secret.

We can't just kill people to silence them, can we?

If all the embassy staff had been killed, the Japanese government would have received no less favorable treatment than its next-door neighbor, the Year of the Tiger.

Except for the fact that it was unclear about the specific casualties in the Russian embassy, the rest of the story was accompanied by a telegram that was sent around the world.

Looking at the telegrams in his hands, Franz fell into deep meditation. He had heard of the Russo-Japanese War, but he had never heard of the Japanese people storming the embassy.

Was it because history had changed, or because someone had deliberately covered up the truth, or because the incident was too small to cause a ripple.

Franz is too old and curious to read about the Russo-Japanese conflict in depth.

"Have the Japanese main warring factions been suppressed lately?"

It is good to be able to see the scene from a distance of a few hundred meters, but the shooting incident hidden in the shadows is naturally unknown.

It is not known that someone messed up the incident, and the impact on the Russian embassy area was directly defined as "mob impact on the Russian embassy area".

In a purely Russo-Japanese conflict, such a stupid thing could have been done by none other than the war-mad Japanese military.

From Franz's personal experience, he deduces that when such extreme events occur, they are usually the result of the Japanese main war faction being suppressed and using extreme methods to turn the tide.

There were many similar events in the original space-time. For example, one year the government wanted to cut military spending, and the reluctant Japanese military staged a direct coup d'état ......

Frederick: "Yes, the Japanese government has been cutting its military budget in recent years. The military budget has been reduced from a peak of 84.7 percent of revenue to the current 46.2 percent.

The Japanese government is said to be preparing to continue to reduce its military spending to 35 percent of its revenue.

But what does this have to do with mobs storming Russian embassy compounds? You can't just ......" just because you're not happy with the lower military budget percentage.

It is a characteristic of the times that military expenditures continue to account for a high percentage of fiscal revenues. The more economically backward a country is, the higher the proportion of military spending in its fiscal expenditures.

Countries that can limit their military budget to 40% are basically countries that have started their industrialization process; countries that can limit their military budget to 25% are considered developed countries.

It can also be seen from the military budget ratio that Japan's economic development has been good in recent years, otherwise the military budget ratio would not have come down.

After all, it is very expensive to raise a military. Along with the development of military technology, the military's daily maintenance costs have been rising.

With an unchanged military, annual military expenditures will only increase, not decrease. The only way to reduce the proportion of the budget is to increase revenue at a rate faster than the military's maintenance costs.

During the gold standard era, minting tax revenues were far less perverted than in later generations, and it was impossible for them to become the backbone of fiscal revenues. The increase in government revenues was primarily the result of tax growth from economic development dividends.

"In other countries, this is impossible, but in Japan, it is impossible to say. We can't make common sense about this country.

The traditional ideas of Bushido, combined with the military ***ist ideology, led the Japanese military to a radical and unproductive path from the beginning.

Of course, this may have been one of the many factors that led to the attack on the Russian embassy. The direct trigger, again, was mostly the recent conflict in the Far East.

Faced with the Russian Empire, the Japanese government did not have enough strength. The fact that the Japanese government can make concessions for the sake of domestic development does not mean that private radical groups will also look at the big picture.

In this world, there are too many people who see and do things without thinking. If you add nationalism and extremism into the mix, it gets even crazier.

As long as someone provokes them, there is nothing they dare not do. Not to mention storming the Russian embassy, even if we slaughter all the Russian embassy staff, it is not impossible."

With the original space-time as a reference, what Franz felt was normal was a kind of triple whammy for Frederick.

"Hitting the embassy area" was already appalling enough, if the embassy staff was slaughtered again, then let's not talk about anything and just go to war.

No great power can accept such a provocation, let alone the hot-tempered Russians.

Frederick, who was accustomed to great storms, quickly recovered, except for his initial incredulity, and said slowly.

"If we really killed all the Russian embassy staff, then the Russo-Japanese war would have been inevitable. However, the Trans-Siberian Railway has not yet been opened to traffic, and the Russians are unlikely to do anything right away.

Judging from the progress of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the main line is expected to open next year, and the branch lines will take three to five years.

If nothing else, the Russo-Japanese war should break out in the next five to ten years. So could we not ......"

Without waiting for Frederick to finish his sentence, Franz interrupted: "This is only the best time to start a war from the Russian side, but the outbreak of war is never decided unilaterally.

If you were the Meiji Emperor, would you have waited until the Russians were ready to fight and then responded passively?"

There is no way around it, it's a misconception. The disparity in strength between Japan and Russia was so great that three or five Japanese combined would not have been enough to defeat the Russians, had they not been limited by transportation.

If you consider the discrimination against people of color, the assessment of the strength of both sides is even greater.

The Philippine War is a benchmark, Spain's expeditionary force were able to and Japan to fight half a catty, if not the distance limits the force put, Japan had been defeated.

As for Spain's use of French mercenaries, the issue was directly ignored by everyone. Europe, however, has a tradition of using mercenaries, to be able to recruit mercenaries to fight that is also a manifestation of strength.

In many people's view, the gap in strength is too great, and the weaker ones are looking for death if they take the initiative to start a war.

On the other hand, a passive response to war can also win international sympathy and invite major powers to intervene and mediate. They also lose the war, but enjoy very different treatment.

The former loses the war and is probably dead; the latter loses the war, but still has a chance of survival.

After all, the international community was not going to watch the Russians expand, so intervention was inevitable.

......

While Franz and his sons were considering how to profit from the Russo-Japanese War, the Tsarist government also received bad news from the Far East.

Only the information they received was not from their own embassy, but from the Vienna government.

As an ally, this was a small favor.

If not for repeated confirmation that the embassy in Tokyo had lost contact, Nicholas II would have thought that today was an April Fool's Day.

A small Japan dared to provoke the great Russian Empire again and again, which is obviously bullying their swords again.

After receiving the news, Nicholas II convened a high-level government meeting overnight. If we don't take revenge, how will the Russian Empire survive in the international arena?

Prime Minister Sergei Vetter: "Your Majesty, the Japanese are provoking us and we must respond strongly to them to show them that the Russian Empire is not something they can mess with.

However, the Trans-Siberian Railway has not yet been opened, and our limited forces in the Far East make it difficult for us to deal a serious blow to Japan.

Rather than retaliate painlessly, we should wait a little longer. When we are ready, we will directly destroy Japan to relieve our hatred."

Count Sergei Vetter was a sensible prime minister, and while he was filled with righteous indignation, he could not afford to raise an army in anger.

The past is not forgotten. In recent years, the Russian empire has suffered a lot from "rising in anger," and now it must learn from its mistakes.

In his heart, Sergei Vetter had already made up his mind that no matter how much the Japanese provoked him, he would have to hold back until the Trans-Siberian Railway was fully operational.

Sergei Vetter was not the only one who was rational, but the current top brass of the Tsar's government was basically the legacy of Alexander III, and it was all rationalists.

The head of the Orthodox Administration, Petropedonos Chaev, said: "The prime minister is right, it's really not the right time for military action.

He said, "We must either refrain from taking action against a clown like Japan, or we must kill him with a single blow, which will truly shock the people.

Considering that Japan is an island nation, to destroy them, the Imperial Navy's current strength is obviously not enough.

On this issue, we can follow the example of the Austrians and formulate a comprehensive twenty-year development plan first, and then exterminate the Japanese monkeys when we are fully prepared."

I could see that Pepe Donostaev had also mastered the essence of the "Gou" way, and immediately came up with a twenty-year plan to destroy Japan.

With the Russian Empire's strong family background, if we really dive down to cultivate the land for 20 years, then there is no doubt that Japan will be completely cooled down.

Even the present British Empire may not be able to suppress the Russian Empire after its industrialization, not to mention Japan.