The Revenge of the Bear
Chapter 14 : “Congratulations, General-Fieldmarshal. Alexander” – Part 1
But Alexander Alexandrovitch had other plans.
And his plans were to once and for all remove the thorn in the side of the Russian Empire that was the Indian Empire of the British Crown. The two Empires had fought each other in shadows and in the open for already half a century, but the conflict to come would be of unprecedented proportions. First of all, by the amount of forces dedicated to the task. The Emperor was reluctant to send his finest troops to fight in the mountains and jungles of India, and so he ordered a massive recruitment of Chinese peasants into the Russian army.
Close to a million Chinese were forcefully enrolled into the Russian Army to serve as cannon fodder for British bullets and shells.
Next to a million Chinese peasants were taken from their lands, shoved into trains and filed off to basic training camps, where they were outfitted with surplus and outdated equipment and given the most basic of basic instructions. Then they were loaded into trains again and shipped off to Turkestan and East Turkestan, to be placed under the authority of General-en-Chef Mikhail Skobelev, General-Governor of both Turkestans and commander of the unified Turkestan Military District.
Skobelev placed them under his personal command, grouping them with his elite and seasoned 1st Turkestani Corps that was staioned on the British border in the area of Kashgar. In addition, ten fresh divisions with heavy artillery under General Imeretinsky were dispatched from Little Russia to be placed under the General’s orders. And, finally, the 2nd Turkestani Corps of eight divisions was sitting on the Afghan border under orders from General von Kaulbars. After a short reflection, Skobelev reinforced von Kaulbars with sixteen of his Chinese divisions.
But Russia would not be alone in fighting the British. Agreements were passed with the United States, recognizing the need of both countries to secure themselves from the British Empire. It was understood between the parties that Russia would not seek to expand her holdings in the Americas, whilst the United States reiterated their recognition of Asia as Russia’s sphere of exclusive interests. In short: in case of war, the US got Canada and the Russians got India. Along with all the other bits and pieces.
On June 21st of the year 1890 the die was cast and what would be called the First Indian War in Russia and the First Northern War in the United States began.
Initial advances were good. Skobelev annihilated the one hundred thousand men the government of India positioned on the border with East Turkestan. The massive Russian artillery barrage mutilated British defensive positions and the decisive charge of hundreds of thousands of Chinese conscripts left no survivors behind. Von Kaulbars crushed all opposition in Afghanistan and occupied the mountainous Kingdom. In Canada, the initial advaces were also successful, with the United States occupying bordering provinces and Russian soldiers moving into British Columbia.
Initial advances were good, despite some minor setbacks when the minimal Kashgar garrison was beaten back by a British counter-offensive
Russian and US forces seized large parts of British North America in the first weeks and months of the war[/img]
Enthusiased by the success, Skobelev led an offensive south-east to capture Calcutta, whilst Imeretinsky went south-west towards Baluchistan. Von Kaulbars in the meantime captured the North-Western Provice and the north of the Baluchi Agency. It seemed that the war would be over by Christmas (the Orthodox one, of course, according to the Julianic calendar). Little did Skobelev and all of the Empire know that the war would drag on for four years and turn into a huge meat grinder that would chop up tens of thousands of Chinese and Indian soldiers in the name of their Russian and British overlords.
Skobelev’s push towards Calcutta enabled him to occupy the United Provinces and other lands…
… until finally he and a horde of his good friends entered the seat of the government of the Indian Empire.
Skobelev sent a short telegram to Petersburg, with the following content: “Calcutta is ours.
General-en-Chef Skobelev” The Emperor sent the following reply: “Congratulations, General-Fieldmarshal.
Alexander”
All seemed to be going for the best for Skobelev personally and for the Empire in general. However, this was the moment when things went from bad to worse. First of all, the Russian fleets in the Baltic and the Adriatic Seas were sunk by the British. However, this did not allow the British to profit from the Russian weakness on the sea, as Russia had an estimated fifty divisions defending her coastlines from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. What Russia lacked in terms of naval power she over compensated with land power.
For three years the Russians would seek and fail to impose full control over British India
In India, the war entered a phase of hide and seek. For some reason, Indian peasants rallied British officers, who then led their newly formed regiments from the jungles to attack Russian positions. Russian soldiers would occupy a territory only to see the local population rise up in arms and fight for the Union Jack. This would go on for three whole years.
North America entered a period of trench warfare
In North America, things weren’t going great, either. The Americans made some minor advances, but came to be stalled as the British considerably reinforced their Canadian forces. And the nine divisions of the Alaskan corps were not sufficient to tip the balance. The US Congress and the American public began to grow impatient to end a war that was giving little to no profit, but generating great costs. President McKinley approached Alexander with an offer to initiate peace talks with London to find a solution amenable to all parties. Exasperated by the lack of progress on the ground, Alexander acceded.
The peace talks would be held in Washington D.C.