Chapter 236： Constantinople Demolition Team

St. Petersburg

After receiving the emergency call from Menshkov, Nicholas I had a headache, especially after seeing the ammunition consumption estimate mentioned in the note below, his heart was bleeding. This is 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, there is still no way to go before the two sides can win or lose.

If we knew in advance that the war would be the current result, Nicholas I promised that he would never provoke this war.

Even if the casualties are not too much, Russia's great cause can bear, but the cost of war is completely beyond his expectations.

Before the British and French entered the war, 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 British and French participation in the war, the Tsarist government believed that after the Bulgarian war, it was easy to attack Constantinople. After winning Constantinople, everyone negotiated to solve the problem.

Unexpectedly, when I reached the gate of Constantinople, I met the French again.

The 200,000 French army guarded a fortress city. This result was enough to make anyone desperate, but there was no way, forced by domestic pressure, to stick to their heads.

Even the Russians were stunned when they were touched. They used up all kinds of means and finally came to the conclusion that they had to be bombarded with cannons.

Nicholas I asked, "What do you think of General Menshkov's proposal?"

Secretary of the Army Ivanovic replied, "His Majesty, General Menshekov's proposal is fine.

Constantinople is one of the best fortresses in the world. The enemy has deployed heavy guards. There is no shortcut to overcome it. Only one fortress and one fortress can be pulled out.

Fortunately, the Ottoman Empire has decayed, neglecting the construction of the fortifications, and we can use cannons to advance all the way. "

This answer is very speechless. If the Ottomans ignored the upgrade of the fortifications, it would not be possible to use even a cannon now.

This is a fact. The Russians can get heavy artillery. Will the enemy on the other side be short? If the war requires it, Britain and France can easily take out thousands of artillery pieces.

According to General Menshkov's proposal, build artillery positions a few kilometers away and bombard Constantinople. Anyway, the target is so large that people can hide, and the building has no place to hide.

The 200,000 French troops are scattered in this city, and there are absolutely not enough artillery holes. As long as the random bombardment can cause the French to suffer heavy losses, the prerequisite is that there are enough cannons and enough ammunition.

Civilian casualties have never been considered by the Tsarist government. Knowing that the war is coming, and not knowing the way to run, that is to find the way to death, guns and guns do not have eyes.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Aristanli Rod frowned: "Your Majesty, the number of artillery and ammunition consumption required by General Menshekov is too horrible, can't they save a bit of use?

You know that these heavy artillery and ammunition are not cheap, even if the Austrians do n’t rob them in the fire, this is an astronomical figure! "

He is not opposed to the plan, but simply distressed with money. Constantinople must attack, otherwise it cannot be explained to the country, which is the consensus reached by everyone.

For this big picture, Astanley Rhodes still has. The problem is that the Tsarist government really has financial problems. It is too difficult for him to give out hundreds of millions of rubles at one time.

Austria was not robbed by fire, which is one of the reasons why the Tsarist government supported Austria in the Paris meeting and was not flickered by Britain and France.

Nicholas I was a credible person, as long as he did not exceed his bottom line, he would basically honor his promise.

Of course, it goes without saying that he is also a czar. Refer to the practices of his ancestors to see that this is a gift of family inheritance.

"Mr. Astanley Rhodes, it is now important to conquer Constantinople. After this goal is achieved, I can cease war with Britain and France.

If the war continues, we may have more military expenditure in the later stages than we do now. Persuaded by Foreign Minister Karl Worsell

They are all people on a boat. If the boat overturns, everyone will be unlucky.

Now the river has started to rise, and the big waves are rolling at any time, and the only way to overturn the ship is to dock at the port as soon as possible to avoid the waves.

If you want to land, you must capture Constantinople. Having won Constantinople, it can soothe people's hearts from the inside, and own capital to bargain with the enemy to the outside.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Astanley Rhodes said dissatisfied: "Marquis Carl, am I the kind who ignores the big picture?

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

According to General Menshkov's plan, it would not be possible to complete without two or three hundred million rubles, and this was based on everything going well.

In the actual battlefield, there will definitely be changes, and maybe it will continue to increase.

Caucasus battlefield, Crimean battlefield, these two places are also fighting, commanders on the front line are asking for a change of clothes, this is a matter of urgency, or money.

The Russian Empire's fiscal revenue is so much in one year. Because of the war, our tax revenue will continue to decline this year. Where can I get so much money? "

It is a big trouble to have no money. It is okay in the peaceful era. Once the war broke out, the weakness of the feudal rule of the tsarist government was exposed, and it was far from comparable with capitalist countries in raising funds.

To put it bluntly, countries such as Britain, France and Austria are really out of money and can print money. The big deal is inflation, which can be used to relieve urgent needs.

What can the Russian Empire do? The rubles they use have always been real gold and silver. Even the banknotes are issued by other European countries, even the international capital markets issued by the Tsar government are not recognized.

Even in China, few people like paper rubles. The main reason is that there are too many convictions, and 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 missing. If the amount is not large, they can still solve it.

The Minister of the Treasury, Astanley Rhodes, said: "Your Majesty, if General Menshekov's plan is implemented, our preliminary military expenditure in 1854 may exceed 400 million rubles, exceeding the total of the previous year and a half.

By issuing bonds, we raised 65 million roubles, the government tax can provide 80 million roubles, and we raised 58 million roubles from domestic banks.

Now that Constantinople is close at hand, we can still levy a war tax at this time, which is estimated to collect 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. The gap was too large. The domestic tax revenue could not be increased any more.

"Is it possible to obtain loans from overseas, such as the Austrians?" Asked Secretary of the Army Ivanovic.

Treasurer Aristanli Rhodes shook his head and said, "This is impossible. We have run out of channels to raise funds overseas.

If the Austrians had not waged a united war last year, perhaps they could have provided us with this loan, which is now impossible.

Don't look at them almost swallowing up Bavaria, but in order to deter British and French soldiers, they mobilized nearly 1.8 million troops in one go, or consumed a lot of government financial resources. "

No way, Austria's finances are slightly better than Russia's. However, the Vienna government is accelerating the process of industrialization, and a large amount of financial resources have been invested in domestic construction.

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

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

Now for the three fronts, for the Tsarist government, the most important thing is to win Constantinople, followed by the Crimean Peninsula, both of which cannot be abandoned.

As for the Russian army's absolute superiority in the Caucasus battlefield, the initiative of the war has always been in their hands. If they stop attacking, the half-tipped Ottoman Empire will only be glad that provocation is impossible.

After reckoning, the Minister of Finance, Astanley Rhode, replied: "Approximately 40 to 50 million rubles can be saved. If we first cease war with the Ottoman Empire and withdraw most of our troops into the Crimean battlefield, then we can have more. Save ten million rubles. "

This is equivalent to reducing the number of troops. Now that the troops in the Caucasus region have been withdrawn, their strength gap will no longer exist, and the domestic mobilized army will not need that much.

When the cannon rang, the gold was in danger.

This is not exaggerated at all, and even said that it is much smaller. In this period of war, million gold was not enough, at least it started with two million gold.

Nicholas I said without hesitation: "Okay, let's do that. Let go of the Ottomans. In the Caucasus, we will switch to offense. We will send troops to reinforce the other two battlefields. We will talk about it after we conquer Constantinople!

With the remaining funding gap, the Ministry of Finance has to think about ways again. In short, it is a critical moment. We cannot fail the war because of lack of money. "

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Astanley Rhode replied helplessly.

This is a difficult problem. Don't look at the funding gap seems to have been solved most of the time, in fact, the remaining gap is still an astronomical figure.

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

But sitting in this position, Astanley Rhode can only bite his head and must find a way to solve this problem.

The funding problem was reluctantly resolved. With the unanimous decision of everyone, the Constantinople demolition team with General Menshkov as the captain was officially established. Everyone's slogan was to level Constantinople to the ground.

The issue of protecting ancient buildings still cannot be considered by the Tsarist government. It conquered Constantinople first and then said that it would not be possible to rebuild after the war.

The responsibility can also be passed on to the French. As long as the Holy Land is restored, no one will care about such a small flaw. It can be said that in order to conquer Constantinople, the Russians have desperately tried everything.

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