Chapter 685: Saving the Country in a Roundabout Way
The news of Italy's entry into the war was a pleasant surprise to Sheffield, but he was far from showing how happy he was.
"Boss!" Jesla spoke softly. Doesn't his boss want the war to be as big as possible? The Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy joining the war one after another should be a happy thing.
"What I'm afraid of now is that the Allies can't hold on." Sheffield said with a frown, "If nothing unexpected happens, Britain will declare war on the Kingdom of Italy soon. Currently, the Allies are Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Italy. They seem to be weaker than the Allies, Britain, France, and Russia, but the territories of these countries are connected to each other. On the contrary, the Allies can no longer support each other. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. The most important thing is the comparison of naval power. The Austro-Hungarian navy is not strong, and even the naval power of the entire Allied Powers cannot compare with that of the Allies."
"Right now, the Russian navy is blocked by the Dardanelles and can't get out. It was annihilated right at the beginning of the war. The Austro-Hungarian navy has been liberated, and together with the Italian navy, the naval power in the Mediterranean is one to one. If the Allies want to gain an advantage, Britain must send troops from its home fleet to help. Otherwise, France's connection with its North African colonies may be cut off, and it will no longer be able to get support from overseas. This is not good news for France, whose national strength is not as good as that of the Germans."
With Italy and the Ottoman Empire joining the war within two days, the overall strength of the Central Powers had been infinitely close to that of the Allies. In theory, the British Empire could mobilize manpower from all over the world to support the war. But a large part of these troops were Indians. Could Indians also fight?
Not to mention now, even if India fights Pakistan a hundred years later, it is not the slave owner bragging. With five times the population and four times the territory of the other side, India will not be worse than the Indians in fighting Pakistan. It is just a standard national power crushing. In the 21st century, India is fighting like this. In fact, it is just like the small agricultural and pastoral countries around the Qing Dynasty in the agricultural era. The level is about the same. Our land and population far exceed yours. There is no need for any genius generals and extraordinary strategies. If we exchange one to one, I will definitely win.
There is one advantage of fighting a war this way, that is, if you don't think too highly of yourself, the chance of failure is much smaller. The Qing Dynasty was more terrifying than the Han and Tang Dynasties when facing weaker agricultural countries. It's just that this tactic can no longer be used in the industrial age.
Sheffield is now afraid that the Allied camp will be cut off in the middle. If one of the Franco-Russian alliance, the real core of the Allied Powers, is severely damaged, or if the Germans really cut their throats in an instant, this total war will not be able to continue.
The slave owner got up in the morning and went to church, which was rare. Of course, he did not go to the church to atone his sins, but to pray for France and Imperial Russia so that they would not be defeated by the fierce offensive of the Germans at the beginning.
"My dear, the Allied Powers will not collapse like this." Louisa Morgan comforted softly. She understood what the slave owner was thinking. The series of pro-German voices were not from the heart, but were just to encourage the weaker Allied Powers.
"What Entente? It's the Franco-Russian alliance. I never pray for the British to be good." Sheffield denied flatly, "It would be best if the British were unlucky. Maybe we can take the opportunity to liberate Canada. But if France and Russia are defeated by the Germans, who in this world will dare to say no to Germany in the future?"
"You really have a fierce hatred for Britain." Louisa Morgan finally confirmed one thing: the slave owners' hatred for Britain was not pretended.
"Heretics are more hateful than pagans. I am a heretic. To the country of Britain, the United States is a heretic." Sheffield laughed and said, "Is it so difficult to understand? We are in agreement with the Germans on the issue of getting Britain out of the world, but Germany is far more powerful than the United States. Britain does not have the ground power to prevent Germany from achieving its goals through war. The Franco-Russian alliance has such power."
"I have to find a way to help the Franco-Russian alliance!" Sheffield thought about it and realized that it was not without a solution. He had two archduchesses and could use this channel to send some analysis to Nicholas II.
At this time, the slave owner was no longer an old friend of the German people, the Pasha of the Ottoman Empire. He finally remembered that his wife was French and his most beautiful mistress was of Russian descent.
"In the current situation, we can only hope that Britain can mobilize colonial troops from all over the world as soon as possible." Sheffield reminded Anne on the phone, "France must put some pressure on the British, because only Britain has the naval power to escort colonial troops from all over the world and inject fresh blood into the Allied Powers. We can use the telegram from the daughter of the Russian Emperor to tell the Russian top leaders about some of the analysis of the United States War Department."
"I knew you wouldn't watch the Allies suffer." Anne said sweetly, "Dear."
"Don't say that, dear. You know I have always hated Britain." Sheffield sighed. "All I can do is scold the British in the newspaper. The British are counting on the bloodshed of France and Russia. It is absolutely impossible for them to muddle through the war like they did before. They must deal with the war with all their strength. Then the League of Nations will criticize Britain for not paying attention to France and Russia."
The slave owner was not good at anything, but he was very good at scolding the British. He could not allow Britain to get by as it had done in history. Although Britain suffered heavy losses in World War I, compared with the Franco-Russian alliance which had already fought to the utmost, Britain was just getting by.
In the first few days after the Battle of the Marne, the League of Nations seemed to stand on the Allied side, pointing out that there was disunity within the Entente, and that the British were still pursuing the idea of a continental balance of power, hoping that the Franco-Russian alliance would shed blood and sacrifice in order to weaken all the powers in Europe.
When the two camps were fully engaged in this unprecedented war, Sheffield directed the League of Nations to give instructions on the sidelines, bringing a touch of comedy to the world war. However, in the eyes of the participating countries, this behavior of hiding aside as a war correspondent was extremely hateful.
Soon the British government ordered the closure of the League of Nations newspaper in the UK, making an example of this newspaper that had shaken the military's morale.
Sheffield certainly expressed a strong protest, although he did not feel bad at all and thought it was very normal. The participating countries could block the news during the Spanish flu, so what else could these countries not do?
France followed Britain's move and closed down the League of Nations newspaper in Paris. But the impact had already been made, and the French president and prime minister put pressure on London to immediately mobilize the British colonial army to join the war. At this time of life and death, it was the right thing to put aside selfishness and jointly deal with the threat of the Allies.
"Why does that spiritual German hate the British Empire so much?" Churchill was furious. With the ability of the British government, it certainly knew who the owners of these newspapers were.
From the beginning of the war, Sheffield's newspapers had never said a good word about Britain, from guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium. Sheffield said Britain deliberately deceived Germany and caused the outbreak of the world war, hypocritical! When the Ottoman Empire joined the war, Sheffield said it was because it seized two Ottoman battleships, pointing the finger at Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty himself.
Now that Italy has joined the war, the entire Allied lands have become one, and France and Russia are both at war. Sheffield also said that Britain is playing the continental balance of power and is not putting in any effort.
It was a matter of justice. In the first few days of the war, many people, including Churchill, thought so. But now that the situation has become so critical, there is no such thing as working without doing one's best.
The participating countries were all concentrating on the war, but the slave owners on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean had been nagging Britain non-stop. Now that the government had finally closed down these newspapers, it was really gratifying. But the impact had already been caused. On the same day, the French Prime Minister and President sent telegrams to London in succession, asking Britain to show more sincere support.
At the cabinet meeting that day, Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith and many ministers, including Churchill, formally began to discuss the issue of conscription in overseas territories.
"The Germans were too well prepared for war, and the entry of the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy was unexpected." Herbert Henry Asquith glanced at Churchill when he spoke of the Ottoman Empire.
Churchill's seizure of the Ottoman battleship is now a well-known fact throughout the country, although he himself did not admit it. But who among the cabinet ministers did not know that this was true? It was only to maintain cabinet unity during the war that they announced to the outside world that it was the stubbornness of the pro-German faction in the Ottoman Empire that led to this result.
"There is fierce fighting on both sides of the Marne River. It is conservatively estimated that over the past few days, both sides have suffered more than 100,000 casualties. This is unprecedentedly tragic. To be honest, now that only the ministers are here, I regret getting involved in this war. We have paid such a huge price for Serbia, but the war seems to have just begun. If the war cannot be won in the short term, I can't imagine it."
Edward Grey, as foreign secretary, lamented, "I regret even my assurance of Belgian neutrality."
"It's meaningless to say this now. The French are in a very dangerous situation. Now both France and Russia are suspicious of our actions." Herbert Henry Asquith said firmly, "We have already entered the war. We can only get out of it by winning. What I mean is to immediately expand conscription in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, form the Canadian Corps and the Anzac Corps. The Canadian Corps will be deployed to the Western Front, and the Anzac Corps will be deployed to the Mediterranean Front. We will use Egypt as a base to fight the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy."
"The key thing now is to maintain control of the sea. If France has no problem, it should cooperate with our Mediterranean Fleet to launch an attack on the Italian Navy," Churchill suggested.
"That's it, our allies now urgently need our sincerity." Herbert Henry Asquith said with the final word.
"This is a roundabout way to save the country," Sheffield boasted when he learned that some British colonies had begun to expand conscription.
(End of this chapter)
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