Holy Roman Empire

St petersburg

After receiving the urgent telegram from Mainshkov, Nikolai had a headache. Especially after seeing the estimated ammunition consumption in the back, his heart was bleeding. This is all money!

For this war, the Tsarist government has spent three or four hundred million rubles. If the economic losses caused by the war are added, this figure can be doubled.

Where is the victory?No one can answer this question. Judging from the situation on the battlefield, it is still a long way from the victory of both sides.

If it is known in advance that the war will be the result of the present, Nikolai I can guarantee that he will never provoke the war.

Even if the casualties were lost, the great cause of the Russian family could bear it, but the cost of the war was completely beyond his expectations.

Before the war between Britain and France, the tsarist government prepared to attack Constantinople in multiple ways, conquer Constantinople within three months, and kill the Ottoman Empire within one year.

After the war between Britain and France, the tsarist government believed that after the Bulgarian battle ended, it would be easy to attack Constantinople. After winning Constantinople, everyone negotiated to solve the problem.

Unexpectedly, when he reached the door of Constantinople, he ran into the French again.

Two hundred thousand French troops guarded a fortress city. This result is enough to make anyone desperate, but there is no way to do so because of domestic pressure.

Even if the Russians were iron-headed, they were touched and dizzy. After all the means were used up, the final conclusion was that they had to be bombarded.

Nikolai I asked, "What do you think of General Myshkov's proposal?"

Army Minister Ivanovich replied: "Your Majesty, from a military perspective, General Myshkov's proposal is ok.

Constantinople is one of the best fortresses in the world, and the enemy has deployed heavy guards. There are no shortcuts to overcome here, only one fortress can be pulled out.

Fortunately, the Ottoman Empire has decayed, and the construction of urban defenses has been neglected, and we can only advance with the cannon."

This answer is very speechless. If the Ottomans ignored the upgrade of the city's fortifications, it would not necessarily work even with a cannon.

This is a fact. The Russians can get heavy artillery. Will the enemy on the opposite side be missing?If a war requires it, even if there are thousands of artillery pieces, the British and French can easily take them out.

According to General Menshkov ’s proposal, build an artillery position a few kilometers away and bombard Constantinople. Anyway, the target is so large that people can hide and the buildings have no place to hide.

Two hundred thousand French troops were scattered in this city, and there was absolutely not enough blast holes. As long as the riots could cause heavy losses for the French, the prerequisite was sufficient artillery and ammunition.

Civilian casualties have never been considered by the tsarist government.Knowing that the war is coming and not knowing the way to run, it is to find a way to die, and the guns do not have long eyes.

Finance Minister Arestanley Rod frowned and said, "Your Majesty, the number of artillery requested by General Menshkov and the amount of ammunition consumed are too horrible. Could they not save a little?

You know that these heavy artillery and ammunition are not cheap, even if the Austrian does not take advantage of the fire, this is an astronomical figure!"

He is not opposed to this plan, but simply distressed money.Constantinople must be attacked, otherwise it is impossible to explain to the country. This is the consensus reached by everyone.

At this point, the big picture concept still exists.The problem is that the tsarist government really has financial problems. It is too embarrassing to take out hundreds of millions of rubles at once.

Austria did not take advantage of fire to rob, which is one of the reasons why the Tsarist government supported Austria in the Paris conference and was not fooled by Britain and France.

Nicholas I is a credible person, as long as he does not exceed his bottom line, he will basically fulfill his promise.

Of course, it goes without saying that he is also a tsar. Just refer to the practices of his ancestors. This is a family inherited talent.

"Mr. Stanley Rhodes, it is now important to conquer Constantinople. After completing this goal, I can stop the war with Britain and France.

If the war continues, we may have more military expenses in the later period than it is now."Foreign Minister Carl Worsell persuaded

They were all people on a boat, and if the boat turned over, everyone would be out of luck.

Now that the river has started to rise, there is a possibility that the big waves will roll over at any time. The only way is to get to the port as soon as possible to avoid the wind and waves.

If you want to dock, you have to conquer Constantinople.After winning Constantinople, you can appease the hearts of the people internally and have the capital to bargain with the enemy.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stanley Rod, said dissatisfiedly: "Marquis Karl, am I the kind of person who ignores the big picture?

The problem now is that the Ministry of Finance simply does not have so much money to pay for this war.

According to the plan of General Menshkov, it is impossible to complete without two or three hundred million rubles. This is still based on everything going smoothly.

In the actual battlefield, there will definitely be some misfortunes, and maybe it will continue to increase at that time.

The Caucasus battlefield and the Crimean battlefield are also fighting in these two places. The frontline commanders are all asking for dress up. This is also an urgent matter and still requires money.

The Russian empire has so much fiscal revenue a year. Because of the war, our tax revenue will continue to decline this year. Where can I get so much money?"

There is no money. This is a big trouble. Fortunately, the weakness of the feudal rule of the tsarist government was exposed once the war broke out. It is far from the capitalist countries in raising funds.

To put it bluntly, in countries such as Anglo-French, it is really possible to print money if you have no money. The big deal is inflation.

Can the Russian Empire do this?The rubles they used were always real gold and silver, and even the issue of paper money was issued by other European countries. The international capital market issued by the tsarist government did not recognize it.

Even in China, few people like paper rubles.Mainly because there are too many controversies, the Russians are also skeptical of the credibility of the tsarist government.

"How big is the funding gap?" Nicholas I asked with concern

The lack of money is expected, the key is how much is lacking, if the amount is not large, they still have a way to solve it.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stanley Rhode, analyzed: "Your Majesty, if General Myshkov's plan is implemented, it is initially estimated that our military expenditure in 1854 may exceed 400 million rubles, exceeding the total of the previous year and a half.

Through the issuance of bonds, we raised 65 million rubles of funds, government taxation can provide 80 million rubles, and 58 million rubles from domestic banks.

Constantinople is now in sight. At this time we can also collect a war tax, which is estimated to be 120 million rubles.

The final funding gap is 77 million rubles, which is only ideal. If the situation changes, this number may continue to increase."

Nicholas I was silent. This gap figure was too large, and domestic taxation could no longer continue to increase, and it would be a big deal.

Army Secretary Ivanovic asked: "Is it possible to obtain loans from overseas, such as the Austrians?"

Chancellor of the Treasury Ari Stanley Rod shook his head and said, "This is impossible. We have run out of channels for raising funds overseas.

If the Austrians did not initiate a war of reunification last year, perhaps they could provide us with this loan, which is now impossible.

Do not look at the fact that they swallowed Bavaria almost invulnerably, but in order to deter the British and French, they mobilized nearly 1.8 million troops and consumed a lot of the government's financial resources."

There is no way, Austria's financial situation is slightly better than Russia.However, the Vienna government is accelerating the industrialization process, and a lot of financial resources are invested in domestic construction.

Coupled with last year's war expenses, from a professional point of view, Arestan Rhodes judged that the Vienna government could not afford the money.

After hesitating for a while, Nicholas I slowly asked, "How much military money can be saved by suspending the war in the Caucasus?"

Now the three-tier battle, the most important thing for the tsarist government is to win Constantinople, followed by the Crimean peninsula, both of which cannot be given up.

As for the Russian army in the Caucasus battlefield, it has an absolute advantage. The initiative of the war has always been in their hands.If they stop attacking, the Ottoman Empire, who is half-failed, will only feel glad that provocation is impossible.

After thinking about it again, Finance Minister Arestanley Rod replied: "It can save about 40-50 million rubles. If we first truce with the Ottoman Empire and withdraw most of the troops to the Crimean battlefield, then there can be more Save ten million rubles. "

This is equivalent to reducing the number of troops. Since the troops in the Caucasus region have been withdrawn, there is no gap in their strength, and the domestic mobilized troops do not need that much.

When the cannon rang, there were two thousand gold.

This is not an exaggeration at all, and even says that it is much smaller.During the war of this period, 10,000 yuan of gold was really not enough, at least it started with 1 million yuan of gold.

Nicholas I said without hesitation: "Okay, let's do this. Let the Ottomans pass, let's switch to the defensive in the Caucasus, deploy troops to reinforce the other two battlefields, and wait to conquer Constantinople!

The Ministry of Finance is trying to figure out the remaining funding gap. In short, it is a critical moment now. We must not lose war because of lack of money."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Arestanley Rod replied helplessly

This is a difficult problem. Do n’t look at the funding gap. It seems that most of the gap has been solved. In fact, the remaining gap is still an astronomical figure.

Especially when all channels for raising funds are used up, it is definitely not so simple to solve this problem.

But sitting in this position, Ari Stanley Rod can only cling to the scalp, must find a way to solve this problem.

The funding problem was barely solved. With the unanimous decision of everyone, the Constantinople Demolition Team with General Myshkov as the captain was formally established. Everyone's slogan was to level Constantinople to the ground.

The problem of protecting ancient buildings is still not considered by the tsarist government. It first conquered Constantinople, and then it was a big deal to rebuild after the war.

You can also blame the French, as long as the Holy Land is regained, no one will care about such a small flaw.It can be said that in order to conquer Constantinople, the Russians are desperate.