Chapter 136 The Situation in the Far East

The meaning of Australia's Deputy Foreign Minister is very simple. Australia has enough mineral resources, but if it wants to sell them to island countries, the price must be at least tripled.

Don’t underestimate the doubling gap. The mineral resources required for national industrial imports are tens of thousands of tons. Doubling the price gap may lead to cost increases of tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of pounds.

Yuzawa Koichiro also expected that Australia would increase the price of mineral resources. After all, the most fundamental thing between countries is interests. If you do not fight for the interests of your own country, it is actually tantamount to treason.

Yuzawa Koichiro had anticipated this situation before traveling to Australia.

Although the price of the mineral industry of the ally British Empire is not very high, it is somewhat lower than that of Australia, which has twice the price.

However, the areas where the British Empire can provide mineral resources are too far away from the island countries. If transportation costs are included, the price of raw materials in the British Empire will be much higher than that in Australia.

Especially when the island country is just an island country, the only means of transporting materials to it is by sea.

However, the speed of today's large transport ships is generally not high, and the time cost, labor cost and capital consumption are not small.

Although the island country has received financial assistance from the British Empire and the United States, it is currently considered a small asset.

But the ambitions of the islanders don’t stop there. The reason why they kneel down to the British Empire and please the United States is to gain the support of the two countries, and then launch a status challenge to the Tsarist Empire, the hegemon in northern East Asia, and establish their own hegemony in East Asia. status.

But is the Russian Empire so easy to challenge? If this country were not too large, and France, Tsarist Russia's ally, was unwilling to allow most of Tsarist Russia's power to be transferred to East Asia, and therefore did not support Tsarist Russia's actions in Asia, the island country would really not have the ambition to challenge the Tsarist Russian Empire.

Now is the best opportunity to challenge the Tsarist Russian Empire. The island country has received dual support from the British Empire and the United States, but what about Tsarist Russia? France, its ally that signed the Entente, was not willing to shift Tsarist Russia's attention to East Asia. This also resulted in Russia's strategy not receiving much support from countries in East Asia, except Germany.

Therefore, the current struggle in East Asia can be divided into two camps. The island countries and the British Empire and the United States that support the island countries are the challengers, while the Tsarist Empire and Germany trying to win over Russia are the defenders.

The Tsarist Empire wanted to maintain its hegemony in East Asia, but the current East Asian island countries have risen, and they also want to obtain their due rights and status.

This is similar to the current situation in Europe. The conflict of interests between the established powers and the emerging powers is destined to lead to a war between the two countries sooner or later.

However, unlike the relatively balanced situation in Europe, the current situation in East Asia is more biased towards the island countries. This is why the people of the island countries dare to confidently provoke a war two years later.

You must know that even two years later, in terms of national size and international relations, the Russian Empire will be among the top five powers in the world, while the island country is just an emerging country that is learning from the West and rising.

Perhaps the strength of the island country has surpassed that of already weakened countries like Italy and Spain, but if it wants to compete with the Tsarist Empire, which is among the top four in Europe, the chances of winning are not great.

But in fact, the Tsarist Empire did not have much power in East Asia due to its vast territory, inconvenient transportation, and the attitude of its ally France.

There are less than 100,000 regular Russian troops in the Far Eastern Military District, and they are scattered and guarded throughout the Far East.

These people say they are regular troops, but in fact the quality of the soldiers is poor, the equipment level is low, and there are serious conflicts between senior officers and lower-level soldiers within the army.

Of course, this problem does not only occur in the Far East Army. The Russian Empire, just like its huge age, has fallen into a stage of decay.

Although it has undergone a less successful reform, it cannot effectively increase the country's destiny. If it were not for the fact that the core territory is located in the west and has attracted some fruits of the industrial revolution, I am afraid that the fate of the Tsarist Empire will be compared to that of a certain East Asian power. It wouldn't be too good either.

Although the standing army of the Tsarist Empire reached a terrifying 1.05 million people, the number of reserve soldiers reached 3.75 million.

However, the number of troops deployed in the Far East is less than one-tenth, and the equipment and logistics are far behind those in the western region.

With poor soldier quality, poor logistical supplies, and backward equipment levels coupled with discord between soldiers and officers, what kind of combat effectiveness can such an army unleash?

It's hard to say whether it can win a war with a decadent country, let alone an island country that has just experienced the rise of reform and revival.

How difficult would it be for Tsarist Russia to transport supplies to the Far East? It is impossible for the fleet to take the Arctic Ocean. If you want to take the sea route, you must cross Europe, South Asia, and East Asia to reach Northeast Asia.

Such transportation costs are a huge burden for a country like Tsarist Russia, and it is also a huge expenditure that the country absolutely cannot afford.

Then the solution is land transportation, that is, rail transportation.

The Tsarist Empire spent huge sums of money to build the Trans-Siberian Railway, which ran through the most important western European region of Tsarist Russia and the strategically important Far East region with warm, ice-free ports.

But there is an important problem. So far, this railway has not been fully opened to traffic.

You know, this is a huge railway connecting Moscow and Vladivostok. Its length can be called the longest in the world today.

You know, Australia is expected to spend ten years building industrial railways, with a total length of just over 2,000 kilometers.

And what about the Trans-Siberian Railway? Because it connects the west and the far east, it is equivalent to running through the entire territory of the Russian Empire.

This has also resulted in the length of the Trans-Siberian Railway reaching a terrifying 9,288 kilometers, which is more than four times the length of the Australian Industrial Railway.

The first preliminary opening to traffic was in July 1904. After the opening to traffic, the Russo-Japanese War ended.

This resulted in this huge railway, which the Russian Empire spent a huge amount of materials and efforts on, ending hastily without making much contribution to the Russo-Japanese War.

The impact of this war on the Tsarist Empire was still huge. Profits in the Far East were greatly lost, and the domestic class became increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo.

Even the future revolutions that occurred in World War I may not be without the factors of the failure of this war. In short, after this war, the island country officially began to rise, and the Tsarist Empire officially came to an end.

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