"After knowing the news, do you want to go back to the Ottoman Empire to fight?" When Wei Ze saw Li Weiren bringing his wife and children to his house, he said to Li Weiren with a smile.

Li Weiren, of course, wanted to return to the Ottoman Empire, and he is now a teacher at the Army Academy in Nanjing, a soldier who was once thought to have little future and is now the country's premier expert on defensive warfare. Li Weiren did not deny it, but said bluntly: "Dudu, I really want to go back to the Ottoman to fight. However, I first obeyed the arrangements of the central government. ”

Unlike other soldiers, Li Weiren is in a sense Wei Ze's personal disciple, and this kind of treatment basically only belongs to the current group of high-ranking old generals. Li Weiren knew very well that if he hadn't met Wei Ze that time, and had been personally ordered by Wei Ze, he would not have been able to come up with a modern fortress defense system on his own. Because of this, Li Weiren, like other veteran generals, has great respect for his mentor.

Li Weiren's wife was from the Ottoman royal family, and although the Ottoman royal women of this era no longer had the energy to manipulate politics more than a hundred years ago, they still had basic training. The princess sat next to her husband, and apart from the initial salute to Weze, she held her son in her arms and kept him from making trouble.

Weezer didn't care that the princess was around, China, like England, wanted the Ottoman Empire to attract all the attention of Russia. If the Russian double-headed eagle does not go south, it will go east or west. If you go west, you will run into Britain, and if you go east, you will fight China. Although neither Britain nor China is afraid of Russia, it is best not to fight. At least for now, neither China nor Britain has any intention of destroying the northern power on the ice sheet.

"What do you think of this war?" Wei Ze asked Li Weiren.

There has been a lot of discussion about the war in the military academy, and Li Weiren is not only an expert on defensive warfare, but also an expert on the Ottoman Empire, and he has participated in almost every discussion. As soon as Weizer asked, Li Weiren immediately replied: "The purpose of this Russian campaign is very clear, that is, to drive the Ottoman Empire away from the Caucasus as much as possible. I'm not sure how far Russia wants to go south in the Caucasus, but I think it's Russia's intention to expel all the Ottoman forces in Azerbaijan and turn Azerbaijan into a bridgehead for Russia to attack the Ottoman Empire. ”

Talking about the results of everyone's discussion, Li Weiren also carefully observed Wei Ze's expression. Seeing that Wei Ze didn't react much to this, Li Weiren hurriedly said, "Dudu, what do you think?" ”

Wei Ze said slowly: "From the perspective of the battle, there is probably so much more, and there is nothing new in these aspects. In fact, I am thinking about another thing, whether the Russians are in such a hurry this time because they themselves have now managed to industrialize a little, so they are worried that the Ottoman Empire will catch up in this regard. ”

It is easy to explain the Russian-Turkish war from the point of view of a purely war, the two sides have a centuries-old feud. In the First Russo-Turkish War that began in 1676~1681, the two countries fought a major war every ten years for two hundred years. There were countless skirmishes in between. Russia wants to seize the right of navigation from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, and if it can't, then it will have to make the passage of the Black Sea into the Mediterranean Sea a demilitarized one. That is, the fleets of Great Britain and France were not allowed to enter the Black Sea to strike at the Russian Navy.

"Let's go, let's go to the study. There are maps, which is easier said than done. Weeser stood up.

Li Weiren asked his wife to take his son to talk and chat with Wei Ze's family, and he followed Wei Ze to the study. Some words can be heard by his wife, and some words are completely unnecessary for a foreign princess.

The two spread out the map, and Wei Ze roughly described the basic situation at the moment.

The reason why the British began to support the Ottoman Empire after the Crimean War was to blockade the Russian navy from the Mediterranean. Strategically, the Russians are quite miserable. Russia will be able to control the routes into the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, both of which are very economically developed regions in the world. Taking this step would give Russia a huge say in both regions, but this step would be the end of the world. Britain's strategy now is to never allow the Russians to cross this threshold.

The Chinese have been the hegemon of the Western Pacific for thousands of years, and when this hegemon begins to decline, European countries will come to make a profit. When China was regained and its historical status was restored, the European countries recognized it. This is not only a question of strength, but also a question of Europe's perception of the Western Pacific at this time. Deep down, they also believe that this area is China's traditional sphere of influence. The recapture of this area by China has certainly made Europeans very unhappy, but it has not made Europeans feel that it is an unreasonable problem.

In Russia, the Europeans have always considered the Ottous Empire to be the master of the region, and no matter how hot the Crusades were, the slogan was to retake the Holy Land. As can be seen from this slogan, Europe recognizes the de facto control of Arab powers in the region.

"That is, Russia is trying to sabotage the industrial development of the Ottoman Empire?" After listening to Wei Ze's views, Li Weiren made a small summary.

Weeser frowned slightly, "Russia is a country that doesn't have much industrial history, so I'm not sure if they can have such an understanding." If Russia only felt that they were now strong enough to defeat the Ottoman Empire and realize their dream of gradually moving south. That's okay for this reason. But in case, if the level of strategic understanding of the Russians increases, they will be able to see a problem of industrial development. The form of the war is different again. ”

Li Weiren really wanted to keep up with Wei Ze's train of thought, but it was really difficult. So Li Weiren gave up the direction he was not good at, and he asked: "Governor, what do you think Russia would do if they didn't simply want to make a difference in Azerbaijan?" ”

Weese scratched his finger in the upper left corner of the map of Persia, "Russia will find a way to cut off this railway." ”

Li Weiren looked at the railway on the map, which was built by the Chinese and led from Central Asia to the Ottoman Empire. Theoretically, the Chinese did not need to take the sea route at all to get on the train from Nanjing, and could directly take the car to a place across the strait from Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. This strait is the Bosphorus, the only passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

Now not only is Russia relying on foreign exports to engage in industry, but the Ottoman Empire also has some industries under the export of China. China built factories in the northwest, and the products of the factories were sold by the railroad to Persia and Ottomans in Central Asia. Li Weiren somewhat understood Wei Ze's attitude. If Russia had cut off the railway, it would not only have a deeper control over Persia, but would also cut off China's commercial access to the Ottoman Empire. This is a problem that China cares about. It can definitely be called a very important thing.