Once artillery shells were fired, they were meant to kill. With the exposure of the arms-smuggling case, the Russians suddenly found their confidence bolstered.
The already hard-line Tsarist Government became even tougher on the French question. Of course, ever since Carlos fled, whether the Tsarist Government's stance was hard-line or not had ceased to matter.
The French Government had shut its doors for good. Even if the Russians wanted someone to negotiate with, their delegation had no idea whom to approach.
Facing increasingly severe clashes between civilians and the military, the Russian Army stationed in France adopted the simplest method—and the one they were best at—armed suppression.
Once the butcher's blade was raised, the consequences were no longer something any individual could control.
On December 21, 1895, the long-prepared French resistance ambushed a Russian Army logistics battalion transporting supplies on the outskirts of Paris, opening the curtain on France's war against Russia.
The very slogan "anti-Russian" showed that, after taking a thorough beating from society, the French had become more rational.
They clung relentlessly to the Russian Army's previous atrocities, placing themselves in the role of victims and claiming that they were now fighting for survival.
This approach of keeping the scope of their attacks under control was undoubtedly correct.
Thanks to the Russians' deeply ingrained image as "barbarians," coupled with photographic evidence, European public opinion sympathized with the French people.
Unfortunately, this was the nineteenth century. Public support was important, certainly, but to the Tsarist Government—accustomed to being cursed at daily—it did not even amount to a scratch.
International intervention simply did not exist. Politicians were rational; they could forget anything except their own positions.
When it came to suppressing France, every member of the Anti-French Alliance shared the same stance. Even though everyone felt the Russians had gone