Struggle in Russia

Britain, France, Austria, and the partitioned Poland were all involved in the Ukrainian rebellion. Among them, Britain and France are the most powerful. These two countries have just won the Crimean War and are at their highest morale. Why not use the remaining power of their new victory to give Russia a bad medicine?

So starting in December, Britain and France began to secretly contact the rebels to select agents. Among them, the British had the strongest will and were particularly well prepared with money, so they quickly contacted a small group of rebels active near Riverway.

The two sides were like-minded, one was willing to fight and the other was willing to suffer. Soon the British supported the rebels through secret channels with a large amount of money.

The French moved a little slower, but they still rushed in after discovering the British's small moves. The reason is very simple. Unlike the British's extreme anti-Russian, France's national focus at this time has shifted from targeting Russia to being wary of Britain.

They had given Russia a break in the Paris peace talks before, and even had the intention of wooing Russia against Britain.

If they were not worried about Britain's involvement in the Ukrainian rebellion and monopolizing all the benefits, they would not actually want to wade into troubled waters. But since the British had taken action, and Russia's performance was so bad, they were worried that they would not be able to drink soup if they arrived late, so they hurriedly took action and contacted a rebel army. However, they were not as wealthy as the British, and they were just symbolic. Just gave some money casually.

To be honest, whether it is Britain or France, their involvement in the Ukrainian rebellion is not deep. After all, Ukraine is located in the heart of Central and Eastern Europe and is too far away from their traditional sphere of influence.

Even if they are rich and powerful, they still feel that they are beyond their reach. But Poland and Austria are different.

Poland hates Russia so much and is suffering from the pain of national subjugation. Naturally, if there is an opportunity to severely damage Russia, it will certainly do its best to do so.

Even though the Poles themselves lived a miserable life, they still scrimped and used an astonishing amount of supplies and weapons to support the Ukrainian rebels.

Even this group of foot wipers still acted as if they were doing something for themselves. A considerable number of Poles secretly crossed the border and sneaked into Ukraine to help the rebels attack the Russian army.

The combat effectiveness of these Poles is much stronger than that of the Ukrainian rebels. Most of them have sufficient experience in armed struggle, and many of them have served in the Russian army or other countries. It can be said that their joining instantly increased the combat effectiveness of the rebels, making it very difficult for the rebels on the Polish side of Ukraine to contain a considerable number of Russian troops.

Apart from the Poles who hated Russia, Austria was the one that supported the rebels the most and was the most deeply involved.

Since the Crimean War, the relationship between Austria and Russia has completely broken down. From pretending friendship in 1848 to now, it has turned into outright hostility. In order to cause trouble for Russia, Austria even tore off the last bit of its dignity, barely sending troops to help the rebels.

Anyway, Austria continues to deliver food and arms to the rebels through the border between the two countries, hoping that the rebels will completely mess up Russia and end up with a wave of fattening.

The Austrians' actions made Alexander II furious, but there was nothing he could do about it. The Crimean War had dealt a huge blow to Russia, and it had lost too much blood and was weak.

Faced with Austria's crazy provocation, Alexander II could only endure. In addition to trying to send more troops to control the border, he could only hope that Dmitry Milyutin would quell the rebellion as soon as possible and prevent the Austrian conspiracy from succeeding!

Naturally, Dmitry was under greater pressure and could only start to relieve Kiev in advance. He also knew that this was actually a bit difficult. After all, the rebels were quite strong. Maganov had an army of 150,000 in his hands. , there are also 40,000 to 50,000 other small leaders, and there are nearly 200,000 rebels around Kiev.

In fact, Dmitry only has 80,000 troops that can be put into battle. Once he really invests so many troops, it means that the maximum number of troops must be drawn from other areas. This will inevitably lead to weak forces in those areas that have just been recovered.

Without exception, these areas are not stable. If there is no heavy force to suppress them, the rebels may resurgence. What's more, there are still a large number of rebels active in western Ukraine. Once they find that the Russian army's strength in the areas recovered is weak, you think they will just sit back and watch.

In Dmitry's view, there is no need to be so urgent to rescue Kiev. It is entirely possible to wait a little longer, wait until the situation is stabilized, and then accumulate a wave of strength before doing it.

But with the intervention of foreign forces, and with Alexander II impatient and unwilling to wait for a moment, Dmitri had no choice but to bite the bullet.

He also knew that this battle was not easy to fight, so he could only try his best to weaken the enemy and increase his chances of winning.

So the problem was handed over to Li Xiao. Who asked him to handle the matter of inducing surrender?

In fact, Li Xiao has been busy doing work in this area recently, but the results are not particularly significant.

On the one hand, because the restrictions are too great, UU Reading www.uukanshu.com cannot accept all kinds of rebel leaders. Those who have great influence and have done many bad things must not be accepted. Secondly, even those on Alexander II's must-kill list cannot be accepted.

Now there are fewer and fewer people who can meet these two conditions, especially among the rebels besieging Kiev, almost none of them can meet the conditions.

Take Maganov, for example. If this guy surrenders directly, Kiev won't have to fight at all and will just get out of the siege.

But he happened to be on the blacklist that Alexander II must severely punish. He was the first to lead the rebellion and killed too many Russian nobles. For the Russian aristocratic group headed by Alexander II, they could not let Maganov go, otherwise where would their faces be?

As a result, Li Xiao will be in big trouble. Maganov's strength is there, and the other small bosses don't have many people. Recruiting him will not change the overall situation.

It's like saying that Li Xiao doesn't have much room to perform at all. It's hard for a clever woman to make a meal without straw. What should he do?

"That's true!" Nakhimov also sighed, "Those who can affect the overall situation cannot be recruited, and others who can be recruited cannot affect the overall situation. You really can't do anything!"

Li Xiao didn't say anything. He was also a person who refused to admit defeat. If things were easy to do, he wouldn't be able to show his ability. Only by doing things that others can't do and turning decay into magic can you become a blockbuster.

And now he especially needs to make a splash!

It's not that he wants to be in the limelight, but that he is keenly aware of the critical morale that Russia is experiencing at the transition between the old and the new. If he could make world-renowned achievements during this period, even if Alexander II didn't like him, he wouldn't be able to erase his achievements, and he would naturally gain more power.

And only by grasping more power can we obtain more benefits from the upcoming reform curtain!