Chapter 624 Public Opinion

This sudden explosion of a mine became the straw that broke the camel's back. Less than five minutes after the French frigate sank, the British and French commanders unanimously decided to return immediately.

It’s just that I don’t know whether it was the British and the French who had bad luck, or whether Nassimov was a bit mysterious. On the way back, another British second-class battleship struck a mine and was paralyzed, and two French frigates were also affected by the shock wave. Suffered minor injuries.

In short, this trip lasted three hours before and after the trip to sea, and returned without success after paying the price of sinking three merchant ships, a frigate and severely damaging a second-class battleship.

After returning to the port, the crew members who survived the disaster were all frightened. Without strict orders from their superiors in a short period of time, they would never dare to go to sea.

Compared with these, the haze in the hearts of the British and French commanders could not be dispelled. Because there is no way to explain it to the superiors, what should I say?

Could it be that after paying heavy losses, we can only rebel against Hong Kong in despair?

They all suspected that if the superiors knew about the great achievements they had made today, what was waiting for them would be dismissal and investigation.

Do you think this is a hurry?

Of course, people came up with the solution. After a brief calculation, the British and French commanders decisively passed the blame on the Turks. In their report, the reason why the fleet suffered such heavy losses was entirely because the Turks were perfunctory and did not organize the death squads well to clear the mines on the waterway.

I have to say this is a great excuse. Because the reasons are all ready-made. As mentioned earlier, the suicide squads organized by Turkey are all shabby merchant ships. After all, mine tripping is almost equivalent to suicide. Who would send the best ship to commit suicide?

You must use junk ships. Originally, there is nothing wrong with this. But if Britain or France encountered this situation, they would definitely give priority to using junk ships.

It's just that the butt determines the head. In order to be able to explain themselves, the British and French fleet commanders don't mind letting the Turks be scapegoated. A dead Taoist friend is not a poor Taoist!

The report on this operation was soon submitted to the upper echelons of Britain and France. Naturally, the upper echelons of Britain and France were very unhappy about this fiasco. After all, so much manpower and material resources had been invested, but the result was like this. Naturally, they were disappointed. It is inevitable.

It's just that they are disappointed, but they are still sensible and know what consequences such a disastrous defeat will have at this time. Especially if the public knows this result, I am afraid that anti-war voices will rise.

In order to repair Russia, Britain and France had done a lot of work before, and finally got parliament to agree to take action. At this time, if news of a fiasco suddenly broke out in public opinion, the people would not be in an uproar!

In order to reduce trouble, even if they knew that the root cause of this failure was not the Turks' lack of force, the top leaders of Britain and France could only default to passing the blame to them. Anyway, it is not normal for the Turks to have problems.

After all, in the mainstream public opinion circles in Western Europe, although this war is characterized as an aggressive war launched by Russia, Turkey is the victim. However, public opinion circles in Western Europe generally have a bad impression of Turkey. Barbarism and backwardness are synonymous with it.

If the Russians were not so hateful, the people of Western Europe would not actually care about Turkey's life or death. Anyway, for them, it is normal for Turkey to have problems or problems. If there are no problems, it would be an accident.

Therefore, if the failure is due to problems in Turkey, it is too normal and in line with the mainstream perception of Western European people, and everyone can accept it.

In this way, everything can be explained to everyone, and the Turks won't particularly object to taking the blame anyway, because they still rely on the assistance of Britain and France. How can they dare to make irresponsible remarks at this time?

As a result, Western European newspapers quickly published the facts of the defeat of the British and French combined fleets. After some rational analysis, they unanimously believed that Turkey was too weak to cause the operation to fail. Almost all of them unanimously called on the Turks to use snacks to cooperate. Britain and France, on the other hand, condemned Russia for using evil weapons that "violated human moral norms."

I have to say that this tone was better than what the top leaders of Britain and France expected. They just asked the public not to focus on the failure. Who would have thought that these media people would go the extra mile to help condemn the Russians from a moral perspective. This is really What an unexpected surprise!

This trick works so well, because ordinary people have no idea what the so-called "evil weapons that violate human moral standards" are. They only see what the news reporters want them to pay attention to:

That is, the Russians used an unprecedented evil weapon to massacre merchant ships and carry out indiscriminate attacks, which caused heavy casualties to the British and French combined fleets.

For a time, the impression of Russia, which was already excessively demonized by public opinion circles, among Western European people became even worse, almost equivalent to that of a devil.

Many civilian groups have even launched a siege against Russia. With the acquiescence of the British and French governments and the rumors spread by Polish exiles, anti-Russia is the only political correctness in Europe at present.

"Public opinion is extremely unfavorable to our country's image. Recently, newspapers in Britain and France have written lengthy articles condemning us and accusing us of using inhumane and evil weapons."

Nicholas I's face was very ugly. He wanted to save face and naturally did not like to hear Russia being described as a devil. For this matter, he specifically found Duke Ordolph to learn about the situation.

It’s just that Duke Ordorff is a practical person. He doesn’t care what the British and French newspapers say. It’s a good thing that mines can hurt those Western European bastards. If only because of the opposition of a bunch of retarded voices in the newspapers, the use of this very dangerous weapon should be stopped. A weapon that works is called a fool!

So he immediately added: "Your Majesty, in my opinion, this is just a group of incompetent and cowardly flies buzzing. Mines are not an evil weapon, let alone against humanity! What's more, war is a business of killing people. , what is the use of weapons that cannot kill the enemy?"

"I think it's a good thing that the mines were condemned. It shows that Kornilov and Nassimov did a great job. If the boys in the army can follow their example and cause heavy damage to Britain and France, I believe peace will soon be It will come!"

Nicholas I glanced at Duke Ordorf and said nothing, as if he was thinking about something. After a while, he said: "What you said makes sense. What is the use of weapons that cannot kill people? I am just a little worried about our country." The image is too negative and is not conducive to unity..."

Duke Ordorf immediately interjected: "Your Majesty, we do not need to unite our enemies, we only need to kill them. As long as we win this war, public opinion will naturally turn 180 degrees. , who praise us!"