Saint Petersburg
Upon receiving Menshikov's urgent telegram, Nicholas I got a headache. Especially after seeing the estimated ammunition expenditure noted at the end, his heart bled. This was all money!
For this war, the Tsarist government had already spent three to four hundred million rubles. If the economic losses caused by the war were included, that figure could double.
Where was victory? No one could answer that question. Judging from the situation on the battlefield, the day either side emerged victorious was still far away.
If he had known beforehand that the war would end up like this, Nicholas I dared guarantee that he would never have started it.
Casualties were one thing; Russia was vast and wealthy enough to bear them. But the cost of the war had completely exceeded his expectations.
Before Britain and France entered the war, the Tsarist government had planned to strike from multiple directions and seize Constantinople directly—capture Constantinople within three months and destroy the Ottoman Empire within a year.
After Britain and France joined the war, the Tsarist government had believed that once the Battle of Bulgaria ended, attacking Constantinople would be effortless. Once Constantinople was taken, everyone could sit down and negotiate a solution.
They had never expected that, after reaching Constantinople's very gates, they would run into the French blocking their path.
Two hundred thousand French troops defending a fortress city—such a result was enough to drive anyone to despair. Yet there was no choice. Pressured by domestic opinion, they could only grit their teeth and press on.
Even with the Russians' hard heads, they were left dazed from the collision. After exhausting every possible method, the final conclusion remained the same: they had to blast it with cannons.
Nicholas I asked, "What do you think of General Menshikov's proposal?"
Minister