Chapter 512 Providing a stage for the Russians
There is a small village more than 60 kilometers north of Kabul.
There is a group of Afghan resistance groups gathered here. Before the outbreak of the second Anglo-Afghan War, the Russians were Afghanistan's allies. Afghanistan and Tsarist Russia formed an alliance in July last year. As a result, Britain invaded Afghanistan in November of the same year.
Obviously, Russia does not have the slightest deterrence against Britain, or in other words, Britain attaches great importance to Afghanistan. In order to prevent Russia from entering the Indian Ocean, even the slightest possibility must be nipped in the bud.
This is the same as the United States in its previous life. Everyone knows that Russia’s breakthrough points are the Black Sea in the Middle East and the Indian Ocean.
If Tsarist Russia can really open up an outlet in the Indian Ocean, then Tsarist Russia’s geopolitical influence will be invincible without exaggeration. Although Tsarist Russia is now invincible due to its large land area, there is no ocean. Tsarist Russia would never be able to achieve the coveted world hegemony.
Since the Age of Discovery, the ocean has almost equaled trade. Controlling the ocean will naturally lead to world hegemony. This status is something that Russia, the former European gendarme, and France, the former European hegemon, can only hope to achieve. Therefore, achieving European hegemony is not comparable to that of the British maritime hegemon. In terms of gold content, maritime hegemony is equivalent to world hegemony. Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands are fully aware of this. Of course, France has also been a maritime hegemon for a few years, but France has never had such an overwhelming advantage as those maritime hegemons.
Of course, the dispute between sea power and land power shows that land power is still relatively competitive, but Ernst does not think that land power can compete for sea power. Unless there is a centralized empire that controls the Eurasian continent, there may be a glimmer of hope.
Let’s not talk about whether this empire can appear. Even if this empire appears, its scope of influence will be Europe, Asia and Africa. After all, the land is cut by the ocean.
And a maritime hegemon like the United Kingdom can intervene in the affairs of the world through the sea. Wherever British warships go, there is the British sphere of influence.
Therefore, it is understandable that the British are so targeting Tsarist Russia. If Ernst were British, he would definitely want to block Tsarist Russia inland. Of course, as long as Ernst was not a Russian, he would definitely support blocking Tsarist Russia. Inland.
Russian territory is equivalent to monopolizing a continent. Only the United States, East Africa, and the Far Eastern Empire can compare with Russia in this regard. If most of the Russian territory had not been in a bad environment, then only the United Kingdom, with its huge colonies, could stabilize Russia.
This time Russia watched its allies being annexed by the British, and was quite unhappy. However, the Russo-Turkish War lasted longer than in history, so Russia could only stare at the British.
Even simple support to Afghanistan is not possible. It can only send a few military instructors and a small amount of weapons to Afghanistan as a token to support the Afghan opposition forces in fighting the British.
The main reason is that the Russian-Turkish war consumes a lot of money, so weapons supply is given priority to the Russian-Turkish battlefield. However, Russia’s industrial and logistical capabilities cannot cope with the Russian-Turkish war.
Hence, the weapons provided by East Africa have greatly alleviated the urgent needs of the Afghan resistance forces. Although these weapons are relatively backward, they are quite satisfactory for Afghanistan, a country with zero industrial base.
So the Russian military instructor Ilya who was stranded in Afghanistan today was surprised to find that the Afghans got a batch of weapons from nowhere.
He went to Mulati, the leader of the Afghan resistance group, and asked: "Where did you get this batch of weapons?"
Mulati was not disgusted with the Russian who supported Afghanistan against the British. He said to Ilya: "It is said that the weapons were sent from Persia by international friends, but they are not willing to reveal their identities."
Persia? However, Ilya does not think that the Persians have the courage to provide support to Afghanistan. After all, the British are not easy to mess with. If they get burned, it will be over.
"Mr. Ilya, it is indeed a wealthy Arab businessman who sponsored us. According to him, this batch of weapons is most likely provided by you Russians."
Um! This made Ilya unbelievable: "This is impossible. If it is the weapons provided by Russia, how could I not know about it? And if it is domestic support, their person in charge should always meet with me, and not go through a third party Right?" Mulati scratched his head and said: "I don't know the specific situation, but the wealthy Arab businessman said he was Russian, because the leader who sent him this batch of equipment was Russian, and it is said that he came from St. Petersburg."
Feeling that something was fishy, Ilya asked seriously: "Could someone be impersonating me?"
Mulati: "Probably not! That wealthy businessman has also been doing business with your people all year round, so he should be able to tell if he is pretending to be a Russian."
“So that’s it? Am I being paranoid?” Elijah was a little confused.
At this time Mulati said: "Mr. Ilya, you don't have to worry about this issue. The forces that provide us with weapons must be friends of the Afghans, or at least the enemies of the British. And we happen to lack weapons, so As long as this matter is beneficial to us.”
Hearing what Mulati said, Ilya also felt that he was in trouble. Anyway, his mission was to cause trouble for the British. This batch of weapons and equipment could just improve the combat effectiveness of the resistance organization. The British should also be the ones to have a headache.
“Mr. Mulati, you are right. It is impossible for the British to be kind enough to send us equipment anyway.”
Speaking of the United Kingdom, Ilya was suddenly surprised to find that there were actually many British weapons in this batch of weapons.
“This is an Enfield? There is also a French Martini, this is a German Dreiser, and there are various types of flintlocks.”
This discovery aroused great interest in Ilya. He rummaged through the weapons pile and found that the sources of these weapons were quite mixed. There were weapons and equipment from various countries, but they were mainly German, British and French weapons, that is, Russian weapons. Very few.
Therefore, there are two possibilities in Ilya's analysis. One is that this batch of weapons may really be provided by Arab countries. After all, the sources are too mixed, and it feels like they were temporarily pieced together from second-hand goods purchased from European countries. Second, this batch of weapons was provided by Russia, because Russian guns are the smallest among this batch of firearms. This is very suspicious. Is it really a domestic force that supplies Afghanistan, but does not want to reveal its identity.
The second guess is not impossible, but Ilya is more inclined to the first, because if the country supports Afghanistan, there is no need to be so secretive.
In fact, this batch of weapons was the equipment of the East African Black Legion that had just retired from the East-Portuguese War, plus some captured Portuguese equipment, which were weapons provided by Britain and France.
Of course, the East African intelligence agencies are extra thoughtful and have specially mixed it with weapons from other countries. Many countries have a share.
“This batch of weapons doesn’t look very new. Can it be used against the British? Will the failure rate be too high?”
Ilya no longer bothered with the source of the weapons, but began to be picky about the quality of the weapons.
But Mutila said with satisfaction: "It doesn't matter to us. With these weapons and our brave warriors, we will definitely be able to deal a heavy blow to the British."
“
(End of this chapter)