"This is the high seas near Gabon!"

The refusal of the French governor annoyed Rogerstvinsky, but he could do nothing but leave with his fleet in disgrace.

This is not the first time that the French colonial ports have rejected themselves, and by the time their fleet arrived at the port of Dakar in French Senegal, the French had already shown their attitude.

When the Russians breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to enter the ports of the "friendly countries", the Governor-General of French West Africa refused the Russians' request: "Permission from our Ministry of Foreign Affairs is required for entry into the port and refueling. ”

Such an answer is simply a bolt from the blue, are we not a "friendly country"? Faced with the anger of his officers, Roger Stevensky saw it very clearly, explaining to his officers as follows: "Our military defeat has led to a diplomatic defeat, and now the attitude of the French towards us, that is, the attitude of ordinary people towards their poor relatives who have gone bankrupt." ”

Rozhest Stevensky understood well the root cause of the failure of the Russian Empire in diplomacy, and Count Witte once said: "Russia's prestige exists only by virtue of its military strength, without which there is no Russia itself." Russia's diplomacy is entirely due to its "good name" as a "European steamroller", and now this "good name" is losing its usefulness, and its own empire is losing this "military power".

However, the response of the French Foreign Ministry was: "You can't add coal in Hong Kong." "But after letting the Russian fleet into port, the French turned a blind eye to the Russians' secret coaling.

But this time in Gabon was even worse, and the betrayal of the French was blatant.

"The Russians applied for entry into Walvis Bay?" Looking at the telegram in his hand, Jochen asked with a frown.

"Yes, Your Highness. This is a telegram just sent back by the commander of the Walvis Bay garrison, and the Russian fleet is staying in the open sea, waiting for our reply. Tirpitz nodded in reply.

"The Russians have been shut down from the French, Adolf, and inform our ambassador in St. Petersburg of the news, and let him spread the news. I wonder if Nicch will show the French a face then. Jochen gloated.

"Yes, Your Highness." Martial responded, and then asked, "Shall we accede to the request of the Russian fleet to enter Walvis Bay?" ”

Before Jochen could answer, Tirpitz on the side spoke first: "Your Highness, it's okay to let the Russians into Walvis Bay, but our military port can't be open to the Russians, let the Russians go to the civilian port." ”

"I agree with Alfred that the opening of the Kiel Canal to the Russians would have been a great help, and that the Russians would be allowed to enter the military docks. I am afraid that such an act will be very detrimental to our current neutral position. Machar immediately chimed in.

"I understand, just do what you say." Jochen nodded, and then continued: "Convey our meaning to the Russian ambassador, 'The Russian fleet has come from afar, and out of the friendly relations between the two countries, we very much hope to provide better conditions to help the Russian fleet repair, but in consideration of international public opinion, we can only let them use the civilian port, and I hope that the Russians will understand our difficulties.'" ’”

Martial bent slightly: "Yes." Your Highness, I will convey our goodwill to the Russians. ”

"Hmm. But the attitude of the French is so bad now. They're not afraid of Nicky's backlash. Jochen tapped his fingers on the table and said mockingly, in fact, the reason for this is that Jochen also understands that the Russians need money, they need money to fight, and they need money to develop, as long as the French are still the big financiers of Russia. France is really not afraid of the Russians turning their faces.

"If the Russians weren't in the way they are, I don't think the French would have done it so explicitly." Tirpitz said: "Not to mention the loss of the naval battle, the land battle was also fought like this with the superiority of numbers and equipment, and it is no wonder that the French are no longer optimistic about them." ”

Although an admiral, Tirpitz did not understand land warfare. But Tirpitz still understands the equipment situation of both sides.

The Russian Army is much better than the Japanese in terms of equipment, and the number of machine guns is far higher than the level of the same period in history.

Historically, before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Army had only 75 Makqin machine guns in the Far East, including 63 in Arthur Fortress and 12 in Vladivostok, all of which belonged to the East Siberian Brigade. And at the beginning of the war it was difficult to increase the number of machine guns, and by the end of 1904 the total number of machine guns in the Far East did not exceed 100, and now the situation of the Russians is much better than at the same time in history.

Of course, Jochen would not instruct HK to sell machine guns to the Russians at a low price, so in 1901 the Russian government wanted to produce Makqin machine guns locally, and HK still unceremoniously proposed that Russia would have to pay 1,600 marks, or about 80 pounds, in royalties for each Makqin machine gun produced in the next 10 years.

As part of the deal, HK will teach Russia all the technology and craftsmanship of the Maxim machine gun, and as a value-added service, the Germans will also inform the Russians of any technical improvements to the Maxim machine gun.

However, the Russians, who always thought that they could take advantage, insisted on cutting most of the patent fees in half, so the negotiations ended in failure.

In 1903, General Kuhn, director of the Tula Plant in Russia, reported to the General Artillery Directorate that the factory was preparing for the production of Maxim machine guns, and hoped to apply for funds to renovate the production equipment, and in order to familiarize himself with the production process, he hoped to send the head of the technical department, Captain Tretchyakov, and the senior technician Pastukhov, to Germany to visit and study.

Although the arrival of the two was warmly welcomed by HK Company, HK took the two into the production workshop for a tour and gave a detailed introduction to the machine gun production and assembly process. However, due to the fact that the two sides have not yet reached an agreement on the transfer of technology, the Russian side is still unable to produce the Maxim machine gun.

However, thanks to the Japanese, the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War forced Russia to immediately raise arms, not only ordered a large number of mine strike ships from German shipyards, but also had a large shortage of machine guns. As a result, the Russians no longer dwelled on the price issue and agreed to the royalties previously proposed by HK.

In this way, the Russians were able to produce their own Maxim machine guns, which greatly increased the number of machine guns equipped by the Russians.

Historically, the Russians were not so lucky, and the Vickers Company, which signed a contract with the Russians, was a British company, and because of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, after signing the contract, the British shamelessly did not provide the Russians with machine gun samples, templates and technical drawings, in an attempt to slow down the Russians' own production.

In the end, the Russians had to copy the Makqin machine gun on the basis of the actual purchase before, but due to the lack of technical parameters and production specifications, the Russians did not produce the first domestic Makqin until December, and only 28 machine guns could be produced in five months, and finally the Russians threatened to break the contract, forcing the untrustworthy Vickers company to send technical drawings and production material specifications in August 1905, and the Russians lost the war in September.

Now, less than a week after the contract was signed, the technical drawings of the HK company, the specification table of production materials and the samples of the machine gun were handed over to the Russians, and in April the Russians took out the first self-produced Makqin, and in May the Russian military issued an urgent order for 175 units to the Tula plant.

Due to the rapid replenishment of the machine gun gap in China, the Russians made a rare decision and began to borrow machine guns from various military districts in the country to replenish them to the Far East, and opened machine gun training courses at the Oranienbaum Infantry Officer School. This led the Russians to replenish the number of machine guns from the rear not long after the war began, and the increased number of machine guns caused huge losses to the Japanese in the war.

In the Battle of Jiuliancheng that broke out in May, although due to the incompetence of the Russian commander Zasulich, it finally ended in the retreat of the Russian army, but the Japanese army, which was addicted to the "meat bullet tactic" and "pig spurt advance", paid a heavy price in front of the Russian Makqin machine gun.

On the 26th alone, more than 6,000 Japanese soldiers who shouted and charged fell in front of the muzzle of Makqin's gun, and the total number of Japanese First Army participating in the battle at this time was only 30,000, and one-fifth of the troops were lost in one afternoon.

In the ensuing Lushun encirclement, the Russians' equipment advantage was more obvious, and the Arthur fortress urgently called all the machine guns from Vladivostok, and the Lushun fortress at this time concentrated 142 machine guns and 646 artillery pieces, forming an overwhelming advantage over the Japanese army.

However, the Russian army, which had the advantage of equipment, was still on the verge of collapse, and quickly abandoned all the barriers on the periphery of Arthur and retreated into the fortress to hold on, although relying on the fortifications of the fortress brought huge casualties to the Japanese army, but the logistics were difficult to guarantee under the long-term siege, and the situation continued to deteriorate.

In the following battles of Liaoyang and Shahe, the Russian army had advantages in numbers and equipment, but the battle of Liaoyang ended with the retreat of the Russians, and the battle of Shahe has become a stalemate until now.

If the Navy can't do it, forget it, and the Army can't either? When the war is fought like this, there is still a little bit of "European steamroller", and the "Russian giant bear" has really become a Russian giant "bear".

You can't even beat the Japanese in the Far East, do you still have the strength to resist in the face of the elite German army? For the first time, the French began to waver in the idea of co-opting Russia against Germany. At this time, in the face of the British's thick thighs that stretched out a little bit, it is not surprising that the French had the urge to hug them. (To be continued......) R1292