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Text Chapter 302 Steam Roller

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    (Thanks to book friends Yuanma Tianshan and Calm Heart for their monthly votes!)

    "Dear Prime Minister Witte, I am very glad that you can come to the UK. Please pay my highest respect to His Majesty the Tsar on my behalf!" The British Prime Minister, the Marquess of Salisbury, came to the bearded Russian Prime Minister Sher with a glass of wine in his hand.  build?  Werther said with a smile on his face.

    "I am very honored to be asked by Your Majesty the Prime Minister. After seeing Her Majesty the Queen tomorrow, I will also pay Her Majesty the Queen the respect of the Tsar!" Russian Prime Minister Sergei?  Witt said.  The queen of Tsar Nicholas II was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

    "Your Excellency Witte, your country has been treated the most barbarically in the Far East recently. This is China's provocation against Western civilization in the Far East. Britain is deeply angry about this!" said the Marquis of Salisbury.

    Sergey?  There was a flash of dissatisfaction in Werther's eyes. Isn't the Marquis of Salisbury adding salt to Russia's wounds?  Russia was forced to take back all its privileges by China. This was Russia's shame. And now, the Marquis of Salisbury brought it up again. This made Sergei?  Werther was very unhappy.  There are also many conflicts between Russia and Britain.  For example, Russia wants to find an outlet in the Indian Ocean, but Britain is doing everything possible to encircle Russia, so that Russia has never been able to open up a way out of the Indian Ocean.  Russia expanded to the Far East, and Britain continued to hold Russia back, which made Russia very dissatisfied with Britain.  And now, the Russian side is also very clear about the purpose of this gathering in the UK.  Sergey?  This time Werther came to England to seek benefits on the orders of the Tsar.

    "Your Excellency, Marquess of Salisbury, I have to admit that the rise of China has indeed posed a very serious threat to Russia's interests. However, our country's military strength in the Far East is not strong, with an army of less than 100,000  The Chinese army and navy only have a few old warships, which are no match for the Chinese. Therefore, we can only choose to compromise!" Sergey?  Witt said.

    "Your Excellency Witte, that's why we must unite to deal with China! Only in this way can we protect our interests!" said the Marquis of Salisbury.

    "Haha!" Sergey?  Witte smiled and shook his head, and then said: "Your Excellency, Marquis of Salisbury, do you think that even if we unite, we can defeat China? Perhaps, we can defeat China's navy in terms of navy. But after defeating China's navy,  , will China surrender? I don¡¯t think so! China still has millions of elite army troops. If they don¡¯t surrender, we will have no way to defeat them!¡± Although Russia is also a country with a large army, it only has a standing army.  Just millions of people.  Now, the Chinese army has a standing army of millions, which makes Russia very nervous.

    "Sir Witte, what if the Russian and Japanese armies jointly send troops? There may not be a chance to defeat China! As for the navy, if the Japanese navy cannot defeat the Chinese navy, the U.S. Navy will also take action. In addition, our country and the French navy will not  Just sit back and watch. As for the land war, you need to rely on Russia and Japan. The Russian army is invincible in Europe!" said the Marquis of Salisbury.  Although the Russian army often relies on numbers to win, its military advantage is so large that other countries cannot resist it, and it is enough to make other countries' scalps numb.  Although Russia currently only has a standing army of a few million, they can easily arm millions of troops if they want.  Those honest serfs were very willing to obey the orders of their czar "little daddy" and use that group of weapons to fight Russia's enemies desperately.  This is also a place that the UK is very envious of.  Britain has the world's largest navy. Although its army is not weak in combat power, it has too few troops to be able to stand alone.

    "Your Excellency, Marquess of Salisbury, the Japanese army only has 400,000 men. Even if they were doubled in size, they probably would not be able to defeat China. As for our country, due to its large land area, all of our troops are concentrated in Europe.  , there is no way to transfer to the Far East. Unless the Trans-Siberian Railway can be built. However, that damn railway has spent countless funds, but it is still far from being opened to traffic!" Sergey?  Werther said bitterly.

    The Trans-Siberian Railway is a main railway line that runs across Russia from east to west.  Starting from Moscow, passing through Ryazan, Samara, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Chita, Khabarovsk (khabarovsk), to Vladivostok  Gram (Vladivostok).  With a total length of 9,332 kilometers, it is currently the longest railway in the world.  However, this railway is still under intense construction.  It's not yet known when it will be open to traffic.

    Since the 16th century, Tsarist Russia has been frantically expanding its territory in Asia, seizing the entire Siberian region. This vast land covers an area of ??more than 12 million square kilometers, accounting for nearly 1/3 of Asia's land area.  There are endless forests and grasslands here, fertile soilWith rich soil and mineral resources, many people call it the "Golden Cellar".  However, because it was too far away from the European part of Russia, Siberia could not be developed for hundreds of years.  Due to its harsh natural conditions, successive tsars have used this place as a penal colony for hard labor since the end of the 16th century.

    At the end of the 19th century, Russia began to enter a period of industrialization.  In order to develop the domestic economy, the Tsar began to pay attention to Siberia.  More importantly, at that time, great powers such as Britain, the United States, and Japan were competing fiercely on the international stage in the Far East, which highlighted Siberia's strategic position.  In order to firmly occupy this land far away from Europe and to implement Tsarist Russia's "Far East Policy" of encroaching on Asia, the Tsar decided to build a large railway that would run through the entire Siberia.

    In fact, as early as the mid-19th century, relevant departments had already conducted a lot of demonstration work for the construction of railways.  In 1890, Tsar Alexander III officially issued an order and decided to start construction first in Vladivostok, the easternmost point.  In May 1891, Crown Prince Nicholas (later the last Tsar Nicholas II) came to Vladivostok to preside over the railway's foundation laying ceremony.  In July 1892, the railway project was built eastward from Chelyabinsk.  Due to the importance of the matter, the highest Russian authorities have always attached great importance to the project, and established the "Special Management Committee of the Trans-Siberian Railway" in 1892, with Crown Prince Nicholas personally serving as chairman.

    However, the construction of railways is extremely difficult. In addition to dense rivers, lakes, mountains, and vast areas of permafrost, the harsh climate has become the biggest test.  In Siberia, the temperature in winter can reach an astonishing minus 50 degrees Celsius, while in midsummer there are often high temperatures of nearly 40 degrees Celsius above zero.  Huge temperature differences often cause steel to crack and damage equipment.

    Under extremely harsh conditions, thousands of poor Russian peasants and hard laborers participated in the construction.  They braved the severe cold and heat to build bridges and lay sleepers in the mountains. Many people died from overwork.  In addition, Russia must pay a high price for the construction of railways.  As a relatively backward country in Europe, Tsarist Russia almost had to exhaust its national resources to afford the staggering costs.  From 1891 to the present, Russia has paid nearly one billion rubles for this railway, which is more than 100 million pounds when converted into pounds.  Now, this railway has only been built as far as Irkutsk. It will take at least five years to complete the entire line.  Now, the Russian government is out of money.

    The Marquis of Salisbury was silent. Did he recognize Sergey?  What Witte meant was that the Russian side wanted the British side to support Russia on this railway, such as providing loans to Russia so that Russia could continue to build this railway.  However, the British also have their concerns.  Once the entire Trans-Siberian Railway is opened to traffic, it will also have great disadvantages for the UK.  Once this railway is opened to traffic, Russia will certainly be able to increase its control over the Far East. Russian troops will be continuously transported to the Far East via the railway. In this case, Britain will no longer be able to prevent Russia's expansion in the Far East.

    "Damn, what we are facing now is the rise of China, let the Russians build the railway, and then go to fight with the Chinese!" the Marquis of Salisbury thought secretly.

    "Your Majesty Witte, in order to curb China's development, the British government is willing to support Russia. We will join forces with the French government to provide a loan to the Russian government so that Russia can build the railway as soon as possible. However, we also have a condition. Then  That is, once war breaks out in the Far East, Russia must cooperate with Japan and defeat China on land!" said the Marquis of Salisbury.

    Sergey?  Werther was very excited. He did not expect that the Marquis of Salisbury would agree to his request so simply, so he immediately replied: "Don't worry, Marquis, once the railway is completed, we will let those yellow-skinned monkeys  You know how powerful the Slavic warriors are!" Russia also has great hostility towards China.  If nothing else, let¡¯s just say that last year China forcibly took back Russia¡¯s privileges in China and refused to recognize the unequal treaties signed by the Manchus and Russia. This frightened Russia very much.  When Russia was in the Qing Dynasty, it seized more than 1.5 million square kilometers of land from China.  If China wants to take back more of these lands, Russia will have no choice but to go to war with China.  Now that the British are willing to support Russia in building the Trans-Siberian Railway, this is undoubtedly the best situation.

    "Then, I wish us success!" the Marquis of Salisbury said with a smile.  With Russia stepping forward on land, defeating China is no longer a luxury.  Russia is a powerful country known as a steam roller. Even Napoleon was unable to defeat Russia. Once Russia's military strength explodes, China, a newly rising power, will certainly not be able to resist it.

    PS: The third update is here!  Four updates tomorrow, there will be an update in the early morning!  (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to become a registered member of Piaotian Literature to recommend this work. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
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