The Grand Duke's Rebellious Ambition
Nicholas II had to die. Otherwise, if everything followed the original course of history, Grand Duke Mikhail's fate was easy to imagine.
At the same time, the entire Tsarist Russian Empire would collapse, just as it had in the other timeline.
Thus, Grand Duke Mikhail had already sentenced Nicholas II to death in his heart. He had to kill him.
Besides, heaven and earth would destroy a man who did not look out for himself.
Since ancient times, how many men had killed their brothers for the throne, or even their own fathers?
Four days later, on April 25, Grand Duke Mikhail returned to the governor's residence in Volgograd.
The first thing Mikhail did upon returning was summon Lieutenant General Brusilov, chief of staff of the Caucasus Military District.
General Brusilov was also a renowned figure in the other timeline.
During the First World War, General Brusilov, serving as commander of the Southwestern Front, commanded the famous "Brusilov Offensive." He made innovative use of a new tactic, concentrating on one main point while breaking through at several points simultaneously. In battle against the combined forces of the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he achieved a major victory, killing or capturing as many as 1.4 million enemy troops.
It could be said that the victories the Gauls and the people of the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets won on the Western Front were inseparable from the powerful offensive the Tsarist Russian Empire launched on the Eastern Front.
But the Tsarist Russian Empire also suffered immensely heavy losses in the war.
The people of the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets and the Gauls had simply treated the Tsarist Russian Empire as cannon fodder.
Nicholas II had truly been sold off and still helped count the money. He had been stupid beyond belief.
In the end, after the Tsarist Russian Empire collapsed, Nicholas II begged to go into exile in the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets.
But its people refused him.
One had to remember that George V, the king of the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets at the time, and Nicholas II were first cousins!
In the end, Nicholas II and his entire family were killed. Grand Duke Mikhail was executed as well.
In this timeline, Grand Duke Mikhail naturally did not want such a tragedy to happen again.
General Brusilov, too, had long since become Grand Duke Mikhail's right-hand man.
"Your Imperial Highness, did your trip to Sevastopol go smoothly?" General Brusilov asked.
Grand Duke Mikhail nodded. "It went fairly smoothly. The cruiser Rostov has entered service, and the five that follow will soon enter service one after another. The Black Sea Shipyard has also begun work on the second batch of six."
"In that case, the strength of our Black Sea Fleet will increase enormously. We won't even have to fear the Ottomans at all. Unfortunately, the Treaty of Paris signed back then stipulated that our warships could not pass through the Bosporus Strait and the Dardanelles Strait, which the Ottomans control. Otherwise, the Black Sea Fleet could play a much greater role." General Brusilov's face was full of regret.
"Not necessarily! If we can defeat the Ottomans in a war, or even send troops to seize the Bosporus Strait and the Dardanelles Strait outright, then none of that will be a problem!" Grand Duke Mikhail said.
In Grand Duke Mikhail's memory, the Balkan Peninsula League and the Ottoman Empire had fought a major war before the World War began.
In the end, the Balkan Peninsula League, supported by the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets and Gaul, won a great victory. The Ottoman Empire suffered a crushing defeat and lost nearly all its European territory except the area around Istanbul.
If the Tsarist Russian Empire joined in, or even started a war ahead of time, it could definitely pin the Ottoman Empire to the ground and give it a thorough beating. Taking the opportunity to seize the straits would not be much of a problem either.
Of course, the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets would inevitably object strongly.
But by then, the World War would be about to break out, and the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets and the Tsarist Russian Empire might already be allies. Would the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets really go to war with the Tsarist Russian Empire over it?
As long as they had not been kicked in the head by a donkey, the people of the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets could only hold their noses and accept it.
Besides, given the Tsarist Russian Empire's powerful military by then, especially its powerful army, unless the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets personally entered the fray and went to war with it...
Otherwise, the people of the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets simply could not stop the Tsarist Russian Empire!
General Brusilov frowned. He knew it would be difficult to accomplish all this, but he said no more.
"Have our troops completed their reequipment and reorganization?" Mikhail asked.
At present, the Tsarist Russian Empire had a standing army of approximately 1.2 million men.
Of those, more than 300,000 were under Mikhail's command alone.
But the Tsarist Russian Empire's army was already notorious for its poor combat effectiveness.
Compared with the armies of the other top world powers, the Tsarist Russian Empire Army's greatest advantage was its superior numbers.
Besides maintaining an enormous force, it had an even larger reserve system.
The Tsarist Russian Empire had as many as three to four million reservists.
This meant that, once war broke out, the Tsarist Russian Empire could mobilize rapidly and expand its army to several million men.
Moreover, the Tsarist Russian Empire had a total population of around 130 million.
That made it the most populous country in the entire Western world.
Its vast population could provide the Tsarist Russian Empire with an immense pool of manpower.
That was also why other countries did not dare provoke the Tsarist Russian Empire lightly.
Its enormous army could easily overwhelm smaller countries in particular.
Of course, this was almost the Tsarist Russian Empire Army's only advantage.
In fact, owing to backward transportation, an underdeveloped military industry, lax troop training, outdated equipment, and the soldiers' fragile will to fight, among other reasons, its troops' combat effectiveness was extremely low, far below that of the world's first-rate armies.
Grand Duke Mikhail had naturally undertaken to reequip and reorganize his troops, while strengthening their training, in order to change this situation.
"Your Imperial Highness, the twenty infantry divisions, ten cavalry brigades, one heavy artillery brigade, and four mountain infantry brigades under our command have all completed their reequipment.
"Moreover, they have begun training according to the infantry manual Your Imperial Highness wrote.
"After several months of training, the soldiers' combat effectiveness has improved noticeably.
"Coupled with ideological education and improvements to their food and other conditions, the soldiers' will to fight has also strengthened considerably. Their loyalty to Your Imperial Highness has increased a great deal as well!"
General Brusilov answered.
Mikhail nodded repeatedly, very satisfied with this.
The soldiers of the Tsarist Russian Empire Army were often treated as cannon fodder.
Even many generals in the Tsarist Russian army saw them that way.
In their eyes, soldiers were merely tools for winning victories. Even if they died in battle, they were nothing but cold numbers in the statistics.
Besides, the Tsarist Russian Empire had a vast pool of manpower. There was simply no need to treat these soldiers too well.
After a long time of this, it was easy to imagine just how poor the Tsarist Russian army's combat effectiveness had become.
But in Mikhail's view, soldiers absolutely could not be treated as expendable, much less as cannon fodder.
Thus, he had consistently pushed for the reequipment and reorganization of the troops under his command to strengthen their combat effectiveness.
Now it seemed that those efforts had begun to bear fruit.