No Hope of Victory

As the saying went, "A man who isn't ruthless can't stand firm; a heart without venom can find no foothold!"

This was an even truer reflection of how nations acted in the international community.

More than a hundred years later, didn't the higher-ups of the beacon nation likewise clamor, "If you can't sit at the table, you can only be on the menu"?

The Tsarist Russian Empire was, after all, one of the world's leading great powers, yet the Ottomans had dared to launch an invasion while civil war raged within it. If the Tsarist Russian Empire didn't teach them a harsh lesson, wouldn't other countries look down on it? They might even think the Tsarist Russian Empire was easy to bully!

So this time, Mikhail intended to teach the Ottoman Empire a harsh lesson and make the Ottomans pay a sufficiently heavy price.

At the same time, the Tsarist Russian Empire could seize the opportunity to obtain what it wanted.

Territory, for example.

Although the Ottoman Empire had lost a great deal of territory over the years,

the Balkan Peninsula and Egypt were already fully autonomous, and the Ottoman Empire could no longer command them at all.

But much of the Middle East, the region Mikhail had his eye on, was still in Ottoman hands. Mesopotamia, for example, could almost be considered the finest part of the Middle East. It not only had abundant oil resources but also ample water, making it suitable for settlement.

If the Tsarist Russian Empire could take Mesopotamia, it would not only gain vast oil resources but also an outlet to the Indian Ocean.

Once the Tsarist Russian Empire built a railway from the Caucasus, through Mesopotamia and all the way to the coast of the Persian Gulf,

the region would become an important maritime outlet for the Tsarist Russian Empire.

The Tsarist Russian Empire Navy could even deploy a powerful fleet in the Indian Ocean.

However, achieving that goal would not be easy.

The people of the empire on which the sun never set were still encircling and blockading the Tsarist Russian Empire. They would never allow it to make a breakthrough toward the Indian Ocean.

It would therefore be no easy task to make the whole plan succeed. It required careful, long-term planning and gradual effort.

In any case, the people of the empire on which the sun never set were a hurdle that could not be bypassed.

Mikhail's other goal was to obtain passage rights through the Dardanelles Strait and the Bosporus Strait.

At present, the Tsarist Russian Empire's warships were not allowed to pass through the straits in peacetime.

Mikhail wanted to send the older warships to the Far East before war broke out with the Japanese. To do that, the Black Sea Fleet's warships had to pass through the Dardanelles Strait and the Bosporus Strait.

Otherwise, those warships had no way to enter the Mediterranean Sea.

Thus, once the Tsarist Russian Empire defeated the Ottoman Empire in this war, it could seize the opportunity to present these terms and force the Ottomans to accept them.

After Mikhail issued his orders, the Tsarist Russian Army began assembling its forces.

The Caucasus Military District, in particular, could be considered the main force in this campaign against the Ottoman Empire.

Although Mikhail had already issued orders to reform the army, the various military districts were still making preparations. The actual reforms would have to wait until after the war with the Ottoman Empire.

After all, the Tsarist Russian Army's main forces were currently concentrated in the Caucasus Military District.

Lieutenant General Belyayev, commander of the Caucasus Military District, was assembling his troops.

The forces the Caucasus Military District could currently mobilize included twenty-five infantry divisions and four mountain infantry brigades. Altogether, they numbered a full five hundred thousand men.

Before the war broke out, the Ottoman Empire had only three to four hundred thousand regular troops.

Even after the offensive stalled and Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II ordered a mobilization, the empire had only hastily assembled an army of five hundred thousand.

With the Caucasus Military District's current strength, defeating the Ottoman Empire would be no problem at all.

The Armenian Highlands were the front line of the war between the Tsarist Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

Because the Tsarist Russian Empire had deliberately allowed it, Ottoman troops had already invaded its territory.

However, these Ottoman troops had advanced only ten or twenty kilometers into Tsarist Russian territory before the Tsarist Russian Army stopped them, leaving them unable to push forward.

The Ottoman troops had been allowed in so that there would be ample justification for launching a large-scale counterattack against the Ottomans.

Since the Tsarist Russian Empire had been invaded by the Ottoman Empire and the Ottomans had penetrated its territory,

it would only follow naturally for the Tsarist Russian Empire to launch a major invasion of the Ottoman heartland.

The setbacks in the war had also greatly angered the Ottoman Empire's higher-ups.

Sultan Abdul Hamid II was especially furious.

In his view, the civil war that had erupted in the Tsarist Russian Empire was an excellent opportunity for the Ottoman Empire to settle old scores and wipe away its humiliation.

If he could retake the entire Caucasus region, it would not only greatly boost Ottoman morale but also secure the Baku Oil Field, a veritable treasure basin.

But he had never imagined the war would turn out like this.

On July 4, 1898, Abdul Hamid II summoned Chief of the General Staff Kör Ahmed Pasha, who had hurried back from the front, and asked how the deadlock there could be broken.

"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, our army has been stopped at the Russian border for a month now. Are we still unable to break through the Russian defenses?

"If this continues, can we still defeat the Russians and achieve our strategic objectives?"

Abdul Hamid II struggled to suppress the anger in his heart.

After succeeding to the throne as sultan, he had devoted himself to rebuilding the armed forces, hoping to make the Ottoman Empire a military power once again.

Not only were the fully autonomous grand duchies to be brought back under Ottoman rule, but its two old enemies, the Tsarist Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were also to be utterly defeated, restoring the glory of the Ottoman Empire's past.

But now, it seemed he had been indulging in wishful thinking all along!

"Your Majesty, the Russian defenses are strong, and their firepower is formidable. We have already assembled an army of four hundred thousand at the front, but several attacks have failed to break through their lines. At the same time, our own casualties have been very heavy."

Kör Ahmed Pasha gave his answer.

Originally, after advancing into Tsarist Russian territory, Kör Ahmed Pasha had thought the Russian army had been routed.

The Ottoman Empire could then win a glorious victory on the battlefield.

But the subsequent course of the war had slapped him hard across the face once again, forcing him to face reality anew.

"Can we still defeat the Russians in this war?" Abdul Hamid II asked directly.

Kör Ahmed Pasha hesitated for a moment, but in the end he told the truth.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid we may no longer have any chance of winning this war.

"The Russians are stronger than we imagined. Even though we purchased large quantities of German weapons and equipment and hired German instructors to train our army, there is still a considerable gap between us and the Russians."

Kör Ahmed Pasha steeled himself and gave his answer.