Reincarnated as Nikolai II

If someone asked me what's best about the Black Sea opening, I'm confident in picking just one thing.

"...To think I'd live to see such days. The great France importing so much food from our country."

While not surprising for Britain as a representative food-importing nation, I didn't expect France to import everything from wheat, barley, rye, beans, oats, to corn without hesitation.

Unlike fruits and vegetables, these were all easily stored long-term items, so food stockpiled since last year was sequentially leaving warehouses.

Well, when the economy crashes, food prices are the biggest headache, and among the Entente, we're the only country where food prices haven't soared, so it's understandable.

"Still, we had to strengthen the purchasing system for price defense."

"If we'd used national bank funds including the Peasant Land Bank for purchasing, we'd have faced state enterprise financial difficulties too."

As Kokovtsov said, while there were funding issues, beyond destroying the carefully built market, it wouldn't have been easy to take produce from the hands of hundreds of millions of imperial citizens.

In the end, last year they only purchased from some regions and let the rest go through market trading, resulting in overall food price drops.

Fortunately in 1915, this year brought nationwide famine for the first time in 24 years - otherwise, we might have really seen farmers going bankrupt in droves this year.

Suddenly, I couldn't help but laugh at this absurd situation.

'Not funny at all. In my crown prince days, famines killed hundreds of thousands from starvation, now we're thankful for famine.'

Though they say this is free market economics logic, it's amazing how the same famine can create completely opposite situations.

Though 20 years have passed since I became Tsar, this country's top export was still food.

No matter how industry develops, that Ukraine Chernozem region (black earth region) attached to the Black Sea is an area where just sowing seeds yields exportable crops by autumn.

Though not everywhere, generally the Chernozem extending from the Black Sea connects all the way to the Baltic Sea, so it's not a scale that can be blocked by building some factories.

'Even in modern times, just signs of abnormal weather in the Chernozem region shook world grain prices, says it all.'

Of course, we didn't export only food - our industrial capacity stretched far beyond agricultural products. The war's insatiable appetite for materiel created unprecedented demand across all sectors of manufacturing.

Britain found itself in a desperate situation by 1915, when their shell shortage crisis nearly toppled Herbert Asquith's cabinet. The "Shell Crisis" exposed serious deficiencies in British military industrial planning and forced a complete reorganization of their munitions production. Meanwhile, France was drastically increasing artillery ratios in their military organizations, having learned the brutal lesson that industrial-scale artillery was the only effective answer to the bloody stalemate of trench warfare. Their famous "75" field guns were consuming shells at a rate their factories initially struggled to match.

Though we're also at war, our geographical position proved advantageous - we could export surplus supplies straight through the Mediterranean to the Western Front, using well-established shipping lanes that were relatively protected from German U-boat activity. This maritime corridor became a vital lifeline for Allied forces.

But is this war profit like America's money storm? Not quite. While the United States, still neutral until 1917, reaped enormous financial benefits as the primary supplier to Allied powers, our situation was more complex. As an active belligerent, much of our industrial output had to first satisfy our own military needs, and our profits were tempered by the heavy costs of maintaining our own war effort.

I'd say it's just at the level of reducing deficits and helping allied forces' combat power.

However, from the empire's perspective, the good thing about sea connection was imports rather than exports.

Since Russia had spent money earned from wheat and grain exports since the mid-19th century straight on consumer goods imports, after the Black Sea was blocked, prices rose for everything from daily necessities to luxury goods.

Though it was an opportunity to switch to domestic production when lacking alternatives, this too had clear limits.

Such a vast empire can't produce everything domestically.

Anyway, the Black Sea opening brings relief.

If not for the Black Sea, I wouldn't have allowed offensives from Poland even with a knife to my throat.

Now that internal affairs can breathe, it's time to turn attention outward.

"Commander Roman Kondratenko's Bydgoszcz offensive has begun."

Though I heard he shouted opposition to the offensive, seems Kuropatkin managed not to replace the offensive commander.

And simultaneously with news of Roman's offensive:

"General Ivanov has conducted a major retreat at Tarnów!"

"German forces! German forces have appeared in Austro-Hungarian territory!"

Seems Germany had no intention of staying still either.

The enemy's Gorlice-Tarnów offensive.

==

Ostrava, the closest Czech city to Russia.

After Italy opened the Isonzo front, Ivanov intended to advance to Ostrava if possible.

There was sufficient reason.

The Serbian and Isonzo theaters were end to end with where Ivanov's forces were positioned.

He thought there wasn't much risk of taking severe damage even if pushing a bit since the enemy would have difficulty counterattacking with quick troop movements.

However, Hötzendorf, however he managed to persuade German Chief of Staff Falkenhayn, German forces showed up in this south.

And not in small numbers.

"Currently the enemy supreme commander is estimated to be August von Mackensen, but with Germany's arrival, command authority might have transferred."

"Forces?"

"Still increasing. Estimated to reach 1.6 million."

"Crazy bastards. To think they'd come all the way down here, what are they thinking."

Germany's troop situation couldn't be that flexible.

Corps-level or larger battles occur almost daily on the Western Front and Roman's offensive is clearly not small scale either.

'Though trench warfare is less here, this is excessive.'

Then breakthrough, or pushing back the front.

That's all there is.

If simply pushing back the front, the purpose would be pushing the bottom of the Polish theater to prevent deeper penetration above, and if breakthrough, they would pour tremendous offensive power.