Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 417 War breaks out
The relationships between European countries are indeed quite chaotic.

Russia's ally France does not support Russia's actions in the Far East, nor does it want to see a war break out between Russia and the island nation.

Regardless of who wins or loses this war, it is not good news for the French government.

If the Russians win, they will inevitably devote more resources to the Far East. As a result, Russia will have fewer troops deployed in Eastern Europe, and thus fewer troops from Germany and Austria-Hungary that it can attract.

If Russia were to lose the war, although a defeated Russia might obediently turn its attention back to Europe, the value of a Russia as an ally would be greatly diminished if it could even lose to an island nation.

Russia's finances were already in poor shape, and if this war further exacerbates the financial pressure on the Russian government, Russia could very well become the first country to withdraw from a war due to financial collapse should a super war break out in Europe in the future.

To put it bluntly, the French weren't against Russia. They simply didn't want to see a war break out between Russia and the island nation, and hoped that Russia would turn its attention back to Europe and resolve the conflict between the two major European military blocs first.

From the French perspective, the conflicts in Europe are the most important. If the Franco-Russian alliance could defeat the Austro-German alliance, not only would the situation in the Far East be within their control, but the entire world would also be dictated by the Franco-Russian alliance.

However, if the Franco-Russian alliance cannot win the competition with the German-Austrian alliance, the future situation in Europe and even the world will be determined by Germany and the European empire.

In this situation, there is naturally no need to worry about the situation in the Far East. After all, if we are defeated, we may not even be able to protect our homeland, so how could we possibly protect the Far East?
The French believed that the Russian government had fallen into a trap set by the British government. The British had used a small island nation to attract Russia's attention, causing Russia to mistakenly focus on the struggle for control of the Far East.

The Russians are completely forgetting their roots by doing this. Russia's strength does not come from its Asian territories, but from the most valuable parts of Eastern Europe.

To focus on the Far East while neglecting Europe was seen as utter ignorance by the French. Unfortunately, at that time, Russia was France's only reliable ally, and changing allies was out of the question, so they could only persevere with their mistake.

To the French's surprise, their arch-rival Germany expressed support for their ally Russia.

As the conflict between Russia and the island nation intensifies, the German government suddenly expressed its support for Russia and offered to provide a batch of low-interest loans to help Russia better cope with the conflict.

The timely assistance from Germany was something Russia had never expected, but the funds were exactly what the Russian government needed, and they did not refuse the Germans' "kindness."

Although the Russian government could also see that Germany's willingness to support the competition between Russia and the island nation was entirely to make Russia focus its attention entirely on the Far East and, ideally, to compete with the island nation for a long time.

Although they have realized this, the Russian government will absolutely not give up on the situation in the Far East, and will absolutely not back down on the island nation.

For this reason, the Russian government quickly accepted the low-interest loan offered by Germany and invested all of the funds in military expansion in the Far East.

Although the Russian government is very confident in its military strength, it is an undeniable fact that the island nation's land and sea forces are superior in size in the Far East.

If the army can compensate for its lack of numbers with its combat power, then for the navy, the sheer number of warships determines its combat power.

Of course, this is under the premise that the actual performance of the warships of the two countries is similar. Although the island nation is only a country that has just developed through reforms, its navy was not built by itself.

The vast majority of warships in the island nation's navy come from Europe and America. In particular, after signing an alliance treaty with Britain, the island nation ordered a large number of warships from Britain, which greatly strengthened its naval power.

As for Russia, although its overall naval strength ranks fourth in the world, its total naval tonnage even surpasses that of Germany.

However, if we only consider the naval power in the Far East, Russia lags behind the island nation's fleet in terms of total naval tonnage, number of battleships, and total number of warships.

Even the majority of the battleships in the Russian Far East Fleet are outdated products, while most of the island nation's battleships were ordered from European countries such as Britain in recent years. This also shows the gap in naval strength between the two sides.

While Russia may lag behind island nations in naval strength, its military forces deployed in the Far East are far inferior to those of island nations in terms of army strength.

Despite Russia's standing army exceeding one million men, the vast majority of these troops are actually deployed in Eastern Europe, with less than one-tenth of them in the Far East.

Including the guard forces and police forces, Russia has approximately 9.8 armed personnel in the Far East.

If these troops haven't misrepresented their numbers, then they're roughly within this range. This army of less than 10 men is equipped with 148 artillery pieces and 8 machine guns, which should be sufficient for maintaining order in the Far East during peacetime.

However, it would be far too difficult to send these troops to the battlefield to fight, or even to defend the country against attacks from island nations.

The Russian government planned to expand its forces in the Far East from 9.8 to 15 between 1903 and 1904 in order to counter pressure from the island nation.

The military expansion plan was expected to be completed in the early to mid-1904. After the expansion, Russia would have a much stronger military force in the Far East, and it was believed that the island nation would not dare to launch an attack on Russia after the expansion.

Will things really turn out the way Russia thinks?
Before the Russian government could officially begin expanding its military, the island nation had already taken action.

On May 12, 1903, the island nation's government, citing Russia's actions in the Far East as seriously damaging its own interests, demanded that the Russian government immediately abandon its actions on the Korean Peninsula, or it would expel the Russian ambassador to the island nation.

The Russian government clearly did not expect the island nation's government to make such a request, and they would absolutely not agree to it.

It can only be said that the Russian government clearly underestimated the ambitions of the island nation, and they were unaware of the price the island nation was willing to pay for its ambitions.

On May 13, the island nation's government officially announced that it would sever diplomatic relations with Russia, expel the Russian ambassador to the island nation, recall the island nation's ambassador to Russia, and completely cut off diplomatic and economic ties between the two countries.

The news that the island nation had taken the initiative to sever diplomatic ties was a bolt from the blue for Russia. Even Tsar Nicholas II, who looked down on the islanders, did not expect that the islanders would be so brave in their conflict with Russia.

The implications of severing diplomatic relations are self-evident. It also means that, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, the island nation will declare war on Russia.

Tsar Nicholas II never imagined that the island nation would be so audacious. Russia was a universally recognized superpower; even Germany was reluctant to completely offend it. How dare a tiny island nation like yours? A backward country proactively declaring war on Russia, a superpower—was this really not a joke?
Reality told the Russian government and Tsar Nicholas II that the island nation's government was not joking.

After announcing the severance of diplomatic relations with the Russian government, the island nation immediately began preparations for war.

In terms of military deployments in the Far East alone, the island nation's army is far larger than Russia's. Russia's army has only 9.8 personnel, while the island nation's standing army has reached 37.5.

Although some troops need to remain on the home front, there are still approximately 25 troops available for overseas operations.

It is true that Russia has a population of over 1 million, but the island nation's population had already reached 4500 million. The island nation's government was prepared to mobilize the entire nation's resources to win a war against Russia, and mobilizing one or two million troops for this war was entirely acceptable to them.

Although Russia can mobilize millions or even tens of millions of troops, most of their forces are located in Eastern Europe, making it extremely difficult to transport them to the Far East.

Moreover, even if Russia has the capability to transport millions of troops to the Far East, would its ally France allow Russia to do so?

The moment Russia transported millions of troops to the Far East was the same moment Germany declared war on France. Because Russia, having diverted millions of troops to Eastern Europe, was essentially powerless to resist a German offensive.

It was impossible for France alone to delay the offensive of the German-Austrian-Italian military alliance. This is why the island nation's government decided to mobilize the entire nation's resources to win the war, because the enemy could not respond with the full strength of their nation, which gave them an advantage.

In addition to having a numerical advantage in the number of troops deployed in the Far East, the island nation's army also has an advantage in the number of artillery pieces and machine guns.

The island nation's military is equipped with over a thousand artillery pieces, nearly a third of which are light artillery pieces suitable for mountain warfare.

The island nation's army was also equipped with hundreds of machine guns, all the latest weapons from Britain. With its army outnumbering Russia in both manpower and weaponry, the island government believed it had a strong chance of winning the war.

After months of war preparations, on October 15, 1903, the island nation sent a fleet to launch a surprise attack on Russian ports, and the Russo-Japanese War officially broke out.

Because the island nation and Russia had severed diplomatic relations, this war was not declared diplomatically; the island nation truly waged war without a declaration.

This also meant that by the time the Russian government received news of the war, its fleet stationed in the port had already been attacked.

Although this fleet was not the main force of the Russian Pacific Fleet, it was completely annihilated by the island nation's fleet's surprise attack, which was undoubtedly a slap in the face from the island nation at the very beginning of the war.

Upon learning of the attack on his fleet, Tsar Nicholas II was furious. He immediately convened a cabinet meeting and demanded an immediate response from the Russian army.

Tsar Nicholas II's order put the Russian military in a difficult position, because even if their order was issued in time, several hours would have passed by the time the army and navy in the Far East received it.

This is assuming the Russian government's internal administration is highly efficient and information is transmitted quickly. Under normal circumstances, given the work efficiency of various Russian government departments, by the time the Far Eastern Army and Navy receive orders from the Russian government, it might already be the second or third day.

Under such circumstances, it is clearly impossible to respond quickly to the island nation's acts of war.

However, since it was an order from Tsar Nicholas II, even if the Russian military believed that such an order was impossible to carry out, at least the appearance of execution had to be maintained.

Under the orders of Tsar Nicholas II, the Russian government announced a war mobilization and decided to transfer the Baltic Fleet to the Far East, drawing hundreds of thousands of troops from Central Asia and Eastern Europe to fight in the Far East.

Although the Russian government's war mobilization was quite large-scale, it was clear to everyone that by the time they completed the mobilization, the front lines had already been fighting for several months.

Whether Russia can hold out for several months with its army of less than 10 men depends on how well these island nations perform.

If the island nation's military is not very effective, Russia may be able to hold out in the Far East with its forces of less than 10 men until reinforcements from Europe and Central Asia arrive.

However, if the island nation's military is still capable of fighting, once the island nation begins to mass-produce troops, it is clearly wishful thinking for Russia to rely on these 10 people to defend its existing territory.

So the question is, how effective is the island nation's military?

To be honest, many European countries have expressed concern about this issue.

The combat effectiveness of the island nation's military is not only related to the victory in this war, but also to the future situation in the Far East.

If the island nation's military is considered to be of high quality, even if they lose to Russia in this war, they can still secure a place in the future situation in the Far East.

However, if the island nation's military is of poor fighting capacity, regardless of whether they can win the war, they will inevitably withdraw from the struggle for control of the Far East once the situation in Europe becomes clear.

Time quickly provided the answer for European countries.

After igniting the war through a surprise attack, the island nation did not hesitate at all and immediately mobilized its army to launch an attack on Russia.

Knowing that the Russian army numbered less than 10 at the time, the island nation's army launched an exceptionally fierce attack, aiming to defeat Russia before reinforcements arrived.

The Russian army, on the other hand, also gave the island nation's army a lot of face.

In the month leading up to the Russo-Japanese War, the situation was that wherever the island nation fought, the Russian army suffered defeats.

More than a dozen battles, large and small, were fought, with the island nation's army winning most of them. The Russian army, as if unprepared, rushed onto the battlefield, was quickly defeated by the island nation's army, and then hastily retreated to the rear.

(End of this chapter)