On September 21, 1889, the Russian Foreign Ministry presented a letter of war to the British minister in St. Petersburg, and after the end of the First Near Eastern War, Britain and Russia returned to the battlefield.

This time there was plenty of time, and the Russian army launched an offensive only three days after the declaration of war, which was fully in line with international law.

Of course, this is not the tsarist government to follow the rules. Mainly deep inland in Afghanistan, the British have not yet had time to lay a cable telegraph, and it will take more than a week to deliver news at the earliest.

London

In the British government building, Prime Minister Gladstone frowned and asked: "Didn't you say that the Russians were not ready for war, why did the war break out earlier?" ”

Britain is not an ironclad man, and while preparing for war, it has not forgotten to collect information on the Russians' preparations for war.

Just yesterday, there was a pledge to Prime Minister Gladstone that it would take at least three months for the Russians to be ready for war.

It was already late September, or in less than three months the Russian Empire would be covered with snow and ice, and generally the tsarist government would not start a war at this point in time.

Eventually, the British government came to the conclusion that war would break out in March or April of the following year, and preparations for war proceeded at this pace.

Foreign Secretary George replied very depressedly: "It is true that the Russians are not ready for war, and our intelligence officers lurking in the Russian Empire have confirmed it many times.

The war broke out early, perhaps because the tsarist government was aware of our plans and acted first. ”

There is no problem with the intelligence, and the judgment of the British government is also logical, so why don't the Russians play their cards according to the routine.

If this kind of thing happens, everyone present will not be able to escape, and Prime Minister Gladstone will naturally not investigate further.

After pondering for a moment, Prime Minister Gladstone asked uncertainly: "The Russians have started the war in advance, can our troops in Afghanistan hold it?" ”

In recent decades, wars between the British and European powers have all ended in failure, even against the indigenous Afghans.

Now that there is a war with the Russians, Prime Minister Gladstone is really hard to have confidence in the army, which has such a series of glorious achievements.

Defeating the Russians is of course the best option, but Prime Minister Gladstone does not think that the troops on the front line are so powerful, otherwise he would not have asked for more troops in the country.

At this time, Prime Minister Gladstone had to rejoice that he had thrown the question of whether or not to send reinforcements to Parliament.

If the reinforcements were not timely, resulting in heavy losses at the front, the parliament also shared most of the responsibility.

War Minister Rosario shook his head: "The Russians are menacing, and they will not stop until they take the Afghan region."

The Russo-Prussian War was a lesson in point, with the Russians mobilizing four or five million troops at one point at one point, and keeping the number of front-line combat troops at two million.

Although Central Asia is not as good as Eastern Europe, the Russians cannot commit millions of troops, but they can still do it with three or five hundred thousand troops.

If the troops in Afghanistan are all elite in the army, I can guarantee that they will be able to hold the Afghan region and even have the spare strength to launch a counteroffensive.

But the problem is that most of our troops in Afghanistan are Indian colonial divisions, and their combat effectiveness is less than one-tenth of that of the main force.

Unless the Russians commit no more than 200,000 troops to the attack, it will be difficult for us to take advantage. ”

Could the Russians have committed less than 200,000 troops?

This is obviously impossible. In attacking the three khanates of Central Asia, the tsarist government successively invested more than 600,000 troops.

The next step is to compete with Britain for Afghanistan, and only invest tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, unless the tsarist government has a brain in the water.

After a pause, Rosario continued: "War has broken out, and in view of the complex situation in the Afghan region, the War Department proposes to expand the ...... with sixty infantry divisions, twenty artillery regiments, two cavalry divisions."

Before Rosario could finish speaking, the Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Astley Cooper Key, interrupted forcefully: "Your Excellency is not joking, is he? Not long ago, the army was expanded by three infantry divisions, and the total strength of the army has reached an astonishing 300,000.

According to the current expansion plan of your War Department, the total number of troops must exceed the 1 million mark.

As far as I know, Afghanistan is mountainous and not conducive to the movement of large armies at all. The Russians will only invest three or five hundred thousand troops at most, and no amount of logistics alone can drag them to death.

We already have the advantage of being the first mover, and the troops on the front line can rely on the terrain to build fortifications on the spot to defend, and they simply don't need many troops.

One million Army, are you preparing to fight all the way from Central Asia to Moscow? ”

If you don't oppose it, you can't do it, Britain's military spending is not unlimited, and if the army takes more, the navy will get less.

Because of the war in Afghanistan, the British government stopped the arms race, and the navy was already dissatisfied.

Now that the Army is jumping out to grab resources in the name of war, Sir Astley Cooper Key can't bear it!

As for the need for war, this in itself is a fallacy. Depending on the style of play, the amount of troops that need to be invested is completely different.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Childers: "Sir is right when he says that there is simply no need for so many troops on the battlefield in Afghanistan, and we don't have the capacity to support millions of troops fighting in Afghanistan.

The Army is not our strong point in the first place, and a decisive battle with the Russians in the Afghan region is simply unrealistic.

All we need is to hold on to Afghanistan and cut off the Russians' desire to go south, not to fight a decisive battle with the Russians in Central Asia.

Purely defensive, the Indian colonial army can also be used. With such troops, we need as many as we want, even if the casualties are large, there will be no trouble, and the cost is much lower. ”

It was a big mouth, and Rosario didn't expect the government to agree, and it was to be expected that he would be opposed.

"I'm afraid that the two of you have not figured out the seriousness of the problem, war is not a game, the enemy will not go according to our plan, and the Russians provoked a war in advance as proof.

The troops on the front line cannot fight forever, the troops need to be rotated and replenished, and we must have sufficient reserves.

The War Department calculates on a 3:3:4 basis, with 300,000 combat troops on the front line, another 300,000 stationed in India that can be reinforced and rotated at any time, and 400,000 troops are prepared in the country to deal with emergencies.

Judging from the casualties of the Prussian War, such a troop allocation is actually very small, and it needs to be supplemented by the Indian colonial army.

The expansion of the army is not something that can be completed in a day or two, the situation on the battlefield is constantly changing, and we have to consider the worst-case scenario.

……”

Lord of the Admirals, Sir Astley Cooper Key: "Ridiculous, the Army must be prepared for defeat from the beginning, is it ......"

Seeing the quarrel escalating, Prime Minister Gladstone stopped: "Enough! The Russians are all coming, and if the quarrel continues, everyone will be ready to collect the corpses of the troops on the front line!

The Governor General of India was ordered to raise an additional 500,000 troops, and the Governor of Lytton was authorized to send troops to reinforce the Afghan battlefield at any time according to the changes in the war situation on the front line.

In addition, seven infantry divisions were drawn from the mainland, and one infantry division was drawn from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to immediately reinforce Afghanistan.

The army immediately began to expand its strength, first by 400,000 troops, and if necessary, it will be discussed later in the light of the actual situation. ”

Originally, Prime Minister Gladstone wanted to reinforce the twenty infantry divisions on the front line in one go, but there were not so many troops in the country.

If you want to continue to increase troops on the mainland, then wait for the expansion to be completed, and now you can only let the Indian colonial army take the lead.

The expansion plan was slashed by a lazy waist, and Rosario was originally going to continue to increase, but after glancing at everyone's expressions, he decisively chose to give up.

It is already very difficult for everyone to expand the army in the same way. If they go too far, maybe these guys think the army is too expensive, and they will fight the Russians with cheap colonial troops.

Don't look at Rosario's efforts to belittle the combat effectiveness of the colonial army, in fact, there are still several units in the British colonial system that can fight.

The combat effectiveness is not as good as the main force of the British army, that is, the weapons and equipment of the colonial army are too poor, and if they are really replaced with the same equipment, it is still unknown which one will be stronger or weaker.

The British government did not make extensive use of these cheap and combat-ready troops, not because everyone did not want to, but mainly because they were worried about loyalty.

The arrogant generals are not joking, these guys with strong combat effectiveness are not as good as the Indian colonial army, and if one is not good, there will be chaos.

Everyone still understands the truth of raising tigers. There are so many colonies in Britain, and there is no place to become bigger, relying on this kind of prudence.

……