Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 511 Russia's Crushing Defeat
Actually, there's no need for Grand Duke Nicholas II to elaborate too much. As the Tsar of the Russian Empire, Nicholas II was quite familiar with the supply situation of the Russian front-line troops.

In fact, in theory, Russia's domestic production, plus aid from France and Spain, should be barely enough to keep up with the costs on the front lines.

The problem was that these supplies had to go through various Russian departments. As a result, less than half of the original plan could be successfully transported to the front lines.

The rest either remained stranded in ports and transit stations in the rear due to insufficient logistical transport capacity, or were embezzled by various government departments during the transport of supplies, turning into money that ended up in the pockets of Russian high-ranking officials and nobles.

Nicholas II was aware of the rampant corruption in Russia, but he was actually powerless to do anything about it.

For the Russian government at that time, domestic corruption was not the biggest enemy. The real enemy was the revolutionary party, which constantly sought to overthrow the Russian government.

On this point, Russia's current Prime Minister, Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, is all too aware. In the early days of his premiership, Stolypin also considered purging corruption within Russia and implementing certain reforms to the government to alleviate Russia's weakened state.

The result of doing so would be that the Tsarist government would completely lose the support of the nobility and capitalists, and would have to face the threat of the revolutionaries alone.

Left with no other option, Stolypin had to tolerate corruption in various government departments in exchange for superficial harmony within the Russian government, so that they could work together to deal with the revolutionary party, which was like a formidable enemy.

It is precisely because of Russia's tolerance of corruption within the government that half of Russia's resources are embezzled and corrupted by various departments.

Unfortunately, since the problem of corruption cannot be solved for the time being, we can only pin our hopes on France and Spain, expecting them to transport more supplies to Russia to meet the needs of the Russian front.

Under the orders of Tsar Nicholas II, the Russian government sent telegrams to its ambassadors in Madrid and Paris, requesting them to contact the Spanish and French governments to secure more aid, including weapons, food, and ammunition.

France and Spain do have embassies in Russia. However, given that such a large transaction cannot be negotiated solely through the embassies, the Russian government hopes to contact the governments of Spain and France to expedite the negotiation of the entire deal.

To the Russian government's utter surprise, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs chose to send telegrams in plain text to the ambassadors in Madrid and Paris.

It is unclear whether it was an oversight by the Russian diplomatic service or a deliberate act by some officials, but at the same time that the Russian ambassadors in Madrid and Paris learned of the news, Germany also intercepted the telegram.

When the German government learned that the Russian front was severely lacking in logistical supplies, both the Supreme Command and the generals on both the Eastern and Western fronts were full of confidence in Germany's strategic shift.

In particular, Hindenburg, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, and Ludendorff, the chief of the general staff, were quite excited about the information they had gathered and believed that now was the time to launch a large-scale campaign to defeat the Russian army.

Before supplies from Spain and France arrived in Russia, this period was when the Russian army was at its most exhausted. Without sufficient supplies, the Russian army could barely maintain a defensive posture, which gave the German army its opportunity.

After the German army launched a full-scale offensive, Nicholas II received a battle report from the front almost every few days.

Of course, all these battle reports conveyed the same bad news: how much more territory had been lost.

In just over half a month, the German army occupied the whole of Poland and continued to expand the front line, pushing it to the line from Riga to Minsk.

Minsk is quite important to Russia. It is a major transportation hub on the East European Plain, connecting the Baltic states to the north, Poland to the west, Ukraine to the south, and Moscow to the east.

If Minsk falls, not only will the Baltic states to the north be occupied by Germany, but Ukraine, an important grain-producing region to the south, will also be in danger.

To defend this region, Russia has stationed two army groups here, and two more army groups in Riga to the north.

Under normal circumstances, having four army groups to defend against a German attack would at least prevent a major defeat, even if the defenses couldn't be made impregnable.

However, the reality was that the Russian army was completely unprepared for the surprise attack by the German army.

This also meant that when the Russian army launched a hasty counterattack, it was already too late to reverse the disadvantage on the battlefield.

The Russian army's sluggish response was not only reflected in the command of large army groups, but also in the localized responses of individual corps and divisions.

Coupled with logistical problems, many Russian troops were unable to retaliate and fled along with the main force.

These armies, which retained most of their forces due to their premature retreat, were actually fortunate. Some unfortunate armies, because their flanks were deserted too quickly, found themselves inexplicably surrounded by the German army.

Although a small number of lucky troops managed to break out through weak points in the German defenses, most Russian troops, once surrounded by the German army, were forced to surrender under German pressure.

Among the units that performed exceptionally well on the Russian front was the Third Siberian Army. This army displayed remarkable fighting spirit against the German offensive, and even repelled the German attacks at one point.

However, even the most skilled cook cannot cook without rice. Lacking ammunition supplies, the Third Siberian Army resisted stubbornly for several days, but was eventually forced to retreat with its allies.

The good news is that, due to the fierce resistance of the Siberian Third Army, the German Tenth Army's strategy of encircling the Russian Tenth Army on its flank ultimately failed.

Thanks to the fierce resistance of the Third Siberian Army against the German forces, General Silvis, commander of the Russian Tenth Army, managed to escape from the encirclement that was closing in on the Russian forces.

Incidentally, most of the high-ranking officers of the Russian 10th Army also escaped.

However, due to the fact that the various corps of the entire army group were too scattered, except for one corps that was relatively close to the army group headquarters and successfully evacuated, the remaining three corps were all trapped in the German army's encirclement.

Of an army group with a strength of up to 35 men, less than 10 were successfully evacuated, while nearly 25 were directly surrounded by the German army. The fate of these soldiers is predictable.

Seeing that a large number of Russian troops had been surrounded, the German army decided to withdraw and concentrate its firepower to attack the surrounded Russian troops first.

At this point, the Russian army had no other choice. They tried to resist the German army, but faced with the ever-shrinking encirclement, they were powerless.

Already lacking logistical support, they were even less able to receive any logistical supplies after being surrounded.

Bullets were dwindling, and some units had run out of ammunition altogether, leaving them with no choice but to fight the German army with bayonets.

But the Germans weren't stupid. Even if these Russian soldiers wanted to fight with bayonets, the German army would absolutely not respond.

After all, you can kill the enemy with bullets, so why risk fighting them with bayonets?
In an era of extremely poor medical conditions, the risk of death was immense if one was wounded on the battlefield. Even if one was lucky enough to survive, the long-term consequences of wound infection could make life worse than death.

Therefore, on the battlefield, it is natural to avoid injury if possible.

Seeing that all means of resistance had failed, the surrounded Russian troops had no choice but to surrender. With the surrender of these Russian troops, Germany's first major campaign on the Eastern Front finally came to an end.

This large-scale battle lasted for nearly a month and a half, and ended in a complete victory for the German army.

Germany deployed a total of three army groups, two of which were on the main battlefront. Russia deployed four army groups, two in the north and two on the main battlefront.

The final result was that the two German armies suffered a total of 5.6 casualties, including 1.9 killed and 3.7 wounded.

The Russian four army groups suffered a total of 32.7 casualties, which is almost the loss of an entire army group.

Of these, approximately 3.2 Russian soldiers were killed, approximately 4.5 were wounded, and nearly 25 were surrounded by the Germans; the exact details of the battle are unknown.

For Russia, this was an absolutely shocking and devastating defeat.

The Russian 10th Army was almost completely destroyed, and the 8th Army and the 5th and 6th Armies in the north also suffered tens of thousands of casualties.

More importantly, with the 10th Army forced to hastily retreat toward Minsk, the Russian defenses on the Eastern Front were breached by the German army.

Then there were the 25 Russian troops who were surrounded. Until the end of the battle, the Russian government was unaware of the soldiers' current situation.

For the Russian government, which is currently in dire straits, the sudden encirclement of 25 soldiers by German troops is absolutely devastating bad news.

Left with no other option, Nicholas II ordered a news blackout to prevent the revolutionaries from exploiting the news of the defeat at the front and causing even greater chaos within Russia.

While Russia has blocked the news domestically, Germany certainly won't.

With reports from German media and news from military observer missions from various countries, European nations have also learned about the battle situation on the Eastern Front.

France and Spain had anticipated the Russian army's crushing defeat.

They were all allies, and both France and Spain were well aware of the poor combat effectiveness of the Russian army.

After clearing out the strategic shift of German troops and turning their attention to the Eastern Front, both France and Spain understood that Russia was bound to suffer a crushing defeat.

It should be noted that at this time, Germany was actually still in full force and had not shown any signs of fatigue due to the two-front war.

Germany's strategic shift was an internal attempt to adapt to the war, rather than a forced move due to the defeat on the Western Front.

This is a significant difference, and as a result, Germany did achieve very good results after its strategic shift to the East.

The fighting capacity of the Russian army can only be described as terrible, not even comparable to the elite army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, let alone the German army, which was known as the best in Europe.

After confirming that Russia would not collapse as a result of this crushing defeat, Carlo paid less attention to Russia's failure on the Eastern Front.

After all, Russia's casualties on the front lines were only over 300,000, which is nothing to Russia, a country with a population of over 100 million.

If France and Spain continue to provide Russia with sufficient weapons supplies, Russia will be able to arm a larger army to fill the manpower gaps on the front lines.

As for this crushing defeat, it actually had little impact on the overall world war.

After all, in terms of defeats, the Central Powers experienced far more defeats than the Entente Powers. Currently, the Entente Powers have already achieved considerable success in the Balkans, and even with British assistance, the Ottoman Empire cannot hold out for much longer.

If Russia could hold out for another year, Carlo was confident that within that timeframe, they could defeat the Ottoman Empire and then focus on dealing with Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Great Britain.

Whether Russia will collapse a year later is not a question Carlo should be concerned with.

Russia is such a large country that if it were to collapse and split into two or three, it would actually be good news for Spain and other European countries.

As long as Russia can play a certain role in this war, Carlo is not concerned about Russia's future after the war.

Although that's what they think in their hearts, on the surface, Spain and France will certainly still have to express their concern and support for their allies.

On the same day he learned of Russia's defeat on the front lines, Carlo met with the Russian ambassador to Madrid to express Spain's support for Russia.

Carlo also promised on the spot that Spain would transport more supplies to Russia within a month, including weapons, ammunition, food and medical supplies.

Carlo's promise also relieved the Russian ambassador. Russia urgently needs sufficient supplies from France and Spain to weather the current crisis.

After all, no matter how large Russia's population is, it still needs sufficient weaponry to arm an army.

What good is mobilizing millions of troops if there aren't enough weapons, equipment, and ammunition?
These ineffective troops, when deployed to the front lines, only suffered repeated defeats.

As the biggest beneficiary of Germany's strategic shift, the French government also contacted the Russian ambassador around the same time to express France's support for Russia.

Because Germany's main offensive was focused on the Eastern Front, the French were not only able to breathe a sigh of relief, but also had the opportunity to stockpile enough weapons, equipment and ammunition to prepare for the next offensive.

For France, it would certainly be acceptable to give some of these weapons and equipment to the Russians.

After all, the Russians absorbed most of the pressure from the German army for France, and for that alone, France should be grateful for Russia's contribution.

Although the strategic shift in Germany was not initiated by the French government, Russia was, after all, an ally of France. It was unacceptable for France to remain indifferent to Russia's plight while benefiting itself.

Whether it's to make Russia continue to shoulder the pressure or to maintain the facade of harmony among allies, transporting a batch of weapons and equipment to Russia is essential.

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(End of this chapter)