Major Qi Rui's first job in the General Staff Department was to manage documents, and a battalion-level major was indeed mixed into the middle level in the army, but it belonged to the mat level in the middle level. Not to mention that he has only been a major as a company commander, so he honestly started from miscellaneous work in the division headquarters.

"Staff Officer Qi, bring the documents of the spring combat training ......"

"Staff Officer Qi, bring the troops' logistics calculation report ......"

"Staff Officer Qi, file this training content ......"

"Staff Officer Qi, send this document of the Russian attack on the Ottomans to the printing room......"

Qi Rui didn't feel that this job had succumbed to his talents, his father Wei Ze rarely talked about the specific work in the army, and one of the things he talked about was the essentials of miscellaneous work. "If you have the ability to observe the chores, you will soon be able to detect the rhythm of the troops. If you can master this rhythm and keep up with this rhythm, you and the troops are together. If one day you can really get to this position, take a good look at it. ”

After these things, Qi Rui became more and more convinced of his father. Doing basic training in a large part of your free time is the only way to practice martial arts, and the same is true for work. Qi Rui initially began to review his homework comprehensively and systematically out of the purpose of wanting to use up his time, just like his father Wei Ze asked Qi Rui to do before every exam. It is also true that any leisure means tension in the future, and all the basic homework is to do it too much.

At this time, the troops in North America had already entered the rhythm of rebuilding the combat readiness of the field army, and the training, personnel, and seminars, all of which looked chaotic, and if you studied them carefully, they were actually all revolving around this purpose. Division Commander Wu and Political Commissar Tu may have personal shortcomings of one kind or another, and they may also have characteristics of one kind or another. But after they decided on one thing, they would start to push around this core, which really made Qi Rui feel deeply.

Of course, young people are always more interested in bigger strategies, and the news that Russia has once again declared war on the Ottoman Empire and the outbreak of the 11th Russo-Turkish War has intrigued Qi Rui. In the 10th Russo-Turkish War, Qi Rui's "uncle" Li Weiren Pasha helped the Ottoman army build the "Pleven Fortress". The 30,000 Ottoman troops relied on this fortress to resist the siege and onslaught of 300,000 Russian troops, and held out for two years. A staggering record.

The commander of the Pleven Fortress, Osman 61 Nuri Pasha, was awarded the title of "Hero of Jihad" by the Ottoman Empire after the war, promoted to marshal, and became the Minister of War of the Ottoman Empire. Because of the achievements of the defensive battle of the Pleven fortress, the Ottoman 61 Nuri Pasha received the title of "Iron Wall Nuri" in European military circles. The entire European military community is trying to visit the Pleven Fortress. Anyone who has ever visited the Pleven Fortress has been amazed by the fact that this modern fortress has adopted a very different system of defense from the traditional fortress.

For the actual builder of the Pleven Fortress, Leviren Pasha, the Ottomans tried their best to win over. In addition to giving him the official title of Ottoman Pasha, the Ottomans informed him that the Ottoman Empire would appoint him commander of the front or vice minister of the Ottoman army as soon as he publicly professed Islam. Marrying an Ottoman princess is a high-ranking official, not to mention three wives and four concubines.

The Ottoman Empire was quite open to the use of foreign soldiers, and they did not hide anything about recruiting Li Weiren. Imperial Prime Minister Ahmet 61 Midhat Pasha formally proposed to His Majesty the Great Emperor of China, Wei Ze, that he hope to marry China, and the object of marriage is naturally the Chinese "prince" Li Weiren Pasha, who will marry the eldest princess of the Ottoman Empire to Li Weiren Pasha.

It involved Africa, and Kuwait, so Weser finally agreed to the marriage. Li Weiren is a distant cousin who Wei Ze's wife Li Yifang can hit with four or five strokes, so Qi Rui has seen his "aunt", and she is really a big beauty that makes people scared. Even though the appearance is strongly exotic, and the eyes are dark blue, it is by no means the kind of appearance that is difficult for China to accept in Northern Europe. The Ottoman royal family had been mixed with the Mediterranean and Europe for hundreds of years, creating a style that was absolutely acceptable to China. When Qi Rui served in the South China Sea, he saw the color of the sea water several kilometers deep under the blue sky, and the first thing that came to his mind was the color of his "aunt's" eyes. It's so deep and quiet, and it's so clear and transparent.

Seeing the news of the outbreak of the 11th Russian-Turkish War, Qi Rui's first feeling was that the Russians were attacking their hearts. Others may not know, but Qi Rui knows very well. The defensive system of trenches, bunkers, machine guns, repeating rifles, extended positions, and barbed wire is the nemesis of infantry attacks today. This was the first defense system proposed by his father Wei Ze, and it was fully practiced by Li Weiren.

This kind of fortress has long gone beyond the concept of firepower and has become a combat system that can be attacked and defended. The fortress had a large amount of materials hoarded inside, and in the non-finished form of the Pleven fortress, it could hold out for two years under ten times the siege of the enemy, and with full preparation, 50,000 troops could easily hold out for two or three years in the face of the siege of 300,000 enemies.

With such a defensive system, the Ostic army could be more flexible in its operations. In the past, the Russians were able to penetrate a long way as long as they broke through a certain flaw in the defensive line. Now the Ottoman Empire only had to hold on to a series of fortresses, and could even open up the roads for the Russians to go all the way in. But would the Russians dare to do that? If the Russians dared to go straight to Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, it would not be a long drive, but a suicide.

But these can only be used as Qi Rui's personal interests, after the work is completed, during the duty time when everyone is resting, he can read every bit of information about the Russian-Turkish war.

The 11th Russo-Turkish War not only attracted Qi Rui's attention, but also the attention of the whole world. The world's major industrial countries once believed that China would not stop attacking the Far East after seizing the Far East, but would compete with Russia for ownership of all of Siberia. However, the countries did not expect that China would actually make peace with Russia and fully cooperate on the Central Asian issue, and the two countries quickly carved up Central Asia. Since then, I have never heard of any conflict between China and Russia.

However, people with a discerning eye can see that the peace between China and Russia is based on the fact that Russia's eastward expansion has been completely blocked and there is no longer the possibility of eastward expansion strategically. Even after the partition of Central Asia, Russia's southward road was quite overstocked. If it weren't for the fact that China gave the gold, and that China's great railways had been built to Central Asia, the Russians might not have really recognized peace.

Having lost the possibility of eastward expansion, the Treaty of the Three Emperors Alliance made it impossible for Russia to advance westward, and the only remaining way was to attack the Ottoman Empire and open up the Black Sea outlet. Or even gnaw down western Iran to gain access to the Indian Ocean.

Serious European strategists admired the strategic vision of the Chinese Emperor Weeser, who was very measured in both the starting and stopping points, and was not stingy in the price of peace. While shaking the world, it did not change the old balance of power much. If anything, it's that China is no longer the preferred target of war for other countries.

There is no way for Russia to rush to start a new round of war. Russia's industry has developed rapidly in the past decade, and after the abolition of serfdom, the country's human resources and natural resources have been greatly exploited. A hundred tons of gold from China gave Russia the financial resources to issue currency, buy equipment in large quantities, and set up factories in the midst of the European economic crisis. Especially since the end of the 70s, new types of mining equipment have changed the problem of a large number of manpower in mines. The work of breaking the ore layer and crushing the ore is done by the mining machinery, and the miner's job is to transport the ore onto the conveyor belt, and the conveyor belt to transport the ore to the surface.

Russia has just caught up with this wave of new technology application, and it is precisely because of the investment of Russia's own capital that a large amount of investment from France has entered Russia, which has led to a frenzy of Russian purchases of new equipment. Russia's weak industrial capacity and the shortage of industrial workers have been alleviated by new equipment. Russia's industrial capacity has skyrocketed like a blowout.

France lost its iron ore fields due to its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, and the second industrial revolution weakened. High profits can only be maintained through foreign investment. In 1885, although Russia relied entirely on imports in heavy industrial technology, its steel production surpassed that of France, ranking third in Europe and fifth in the world. Over the past decade, Russia has built more than 20,000 kilometers of railways, barely self-sufficient in army military equipment, including rifles, and several major Russian shipyards have been able to build their own cruisers. If you don't fight now, when will you stay?

The Ottoman Prime Minister Ahmet 61 Midhat Pasha was not particularly surprised by the outbreak of the war, but he was somewhat surprised that Russia did not first raise the banner of "saving the Orthodox Slavic" brothers, let alone conduct a long diplomatic campaign. Russia's declaration of war was simple, the Ottoman Empire interfered with Russia's legitimate interests in Azerbaijan, so Russia officially declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

Of course, the Ottoman Empire's reasons for declaring Russia to the whole of Europe through its own Ministry of Foreign Affairs were completely untenable, and in fact the Ottoman Empire was well aware that the Russians were not lying this time. In the Russo-Turkish war eight years ago, Russia had a lot to gain in the Azerbaijani region. However, Azerbaijanis may have opposed Ottoman rule, but they did not want to accept the rule of Orthodox pagans. After four or five years under Russian control, the locals felt that the Orthodox Church was inferior to Islam, so they tried to break free from the Russian control and hope to establish an independent state.

In the process, the Ottoman Empire was warm to its Muslim brothers. Regardless of what had happened before, when the Azerbaijanis pulled the trigger on the Russians, the Ottomans did not hesitate to give great help with weapons and ammunition. The Russians took advantage of religious contradictions to meddle in the old hands of other countries, and immediately responded to the Ottoman Empire's approach.

Thus began the 11th Russo-Turkish War.