However, Russia's performance in recent years could only be called barely satisfactory. It had made no great strides in either diplomacy or the military. Though it possessed a million gray beasts, gray beasts were beasts in the end, incapable of standing shoulder to shoulder with other well-equipped European armies.
Looking over the history of Russian military development, there were scarcely any dazzling victories. It had always relied on piling up cannon fodder to wear down its enemies. When it came to the details of individual wars, the sight was even more unbearable. Only its thick skin and abundant blood had allowed it to sustain such a style of warfare.
Even when Russia had defeated France in history, its capital had first been breached and Moscow set ablaze by the enemy, before the weather forced Napoleon back into Western Europe.
Though this approach had secured ultimate victory in the war, Ernst did not consider it worthy of praise. On one hand, the British had pinned down France in the east; on the other, large numbers of feudal aristocratic forces within France, including its occupied territories, had caused trouble. Moreover, the fall of Moscow, Russia's capital at the time, already spoke volumes.
If the Russian army's combat capability and military professionalism had been even slightly higher, it would not have needed to fill victory with the lives of gray beasts. It could be called a victory that killed four hundred enemies at the cost of a thousand of its own. Only Russia's large and fertile population in this era could sustain such a war situation.
Therefore, in Ernst's eyes, Russia's military capabilities were nowhere near as formidable as the "fighting nation" some self-media accounts from his previous life had boasted about.
Of course, the Russians' resilience could not be denied and was