Returning to the Forbidden City from the Old Summer Palace, Li Weiguo immediately called Shi Hao, director of the Bureau of Homeland Security. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"What's the movement of Li Hongzhang?"

"Back to Your Majesty's words, Li Hongzhang has recently been in contact with the royal family and the remnants of the previous dynasty several times, all in the name of antique collectors, gathered together to say something anti-court, and also called His Majesty by name, adding bad words."

This was expected, and Li Weiguo was not surprised.

"The people of the empire have the right to freedom of speech and are allowed to criticize current affairs and politics, and it is precisely because Li Hongzhang saw this that he dared to be so presumptuous!"

Shi Hao said unwillingly: "Your Majesty, Li Hongzhang and others have spoken ill of Your Majesty, and the minister thinks that they can be arrested!" ”

"No!" Li Weiguo waved his hand and stopped: "What's the use of arresting him?" At most, he will be punished with a great crime of disrespect, according to the laws of the Empire, but he will only be detained for a few days! To deal with people like Li Hongzhang, either don't arrest him, or don't let him have a chance to turn over again. ”

Shi Hao pleaded guiltily and said: "Your Majesty forgives you, the minister is incompetent, and so far I have not been able to find out the evidence that Li Hongzhang and their assassination attempt to rebel against His Majesty!" ”

Li Weiguo smiled: "You don't have to blame yourself! Li Hongzhang is scheming, if you easily find evidence, then it is not Li Hongzhang. But how is the inside line going? ”

Shi Hao suddenly became energetic and replied: "The inside line can finally get close to their circle, but they still can't hear the core secrets, so they can only listen to it, and they can't participate." ”

Li Weiguo nodded and said, "It's already good!" It is expected that the Assassin Alliance will inevitably be directly under Li Hongzhang and those old guys, and it is difficult for outsiders to be trusted by them, so it is difficult to obtain valuable information! ”

Shi Hao agreed: "The minister suspects that since Li Hongzhang has colluded with the Entente Group to betray the country, then the embassy or consulate of the Entente Group in China may harbor foreign assassins and killers. Recently, we have arrested a number of people who are conducting illegal surveying and mapping in the vicinity of the military administrative areas of various major theaters of the empire, and after investigation, most of them are employed by hostile forces outside the empire to collect information on the geographical water patterns of the empire, so it seems that the Entente group is probably stepping up the collection of various military materials of the empire, and the possibility of cooperation with Li Hongzhang cannot be ruled out. ”

Li Weiguo also agrees with this, but this situation is unavoidable, after all, it is normal for a hostile country to collect all kinds of military intelligence from a hostile country. As for whether he will cooperate with Li Hongzhang, it is difficult to determine, but the possibility is very high.

"What can you do?"

Shi Hao proposed: "I think it's better to release the bait again to lure Li Hongzhang or ******** to take the bait!" ”

Li Weiguo suddenly smiled bitterly and said, "Could it be that you still want to go out for a trip?" ”

Shi Hao was stunned for a moment, and then immediately pleaded guilty: "The minister doesn't dare!" Your Majesty's safety is related to the society, and the minister does not recommend letting His Majesty be the bait as bold as his predecessor! However, the minister thought that he could send a few capable princes to come forward! ”

Li Weiguo frowned suddenly, as a father, let his son be the bait, in case something happens, wouldn't it be too ruthless to be a father.

It is said that the royal family is ruthless, but Li Weiguo wants to change this convention.

"Let my children be in danger, this is not my style, let's do it myself!"

Li Weiguo is not arrogant, whether he is in his previous life or in this life, he has experienced too much of this kind of thing, and he is used to it, and compared with his own children, Li Weiguo himself is more vigilant and self-preservation, if it is coupled with careful planning, it can be guaranteed.

"Your Majesty! You went out in person, it's too risky! ”

Li Weiguo was not afraid, and asked rhetorically: "Then do you have a better way?" ”

Shi Hao hurriedly said: "The minister will try to find a way!" ”

At this time, the chamberlain reported that the secretary of the Ministry of War, the chief of operations of the General Staff, the Minister of the Navy, and the director of the S.H.I.E.L.D. bureau had something to do.

Li Weiguo waved his hand, sent Shi Hao away, and arranged for the ministers to go to the imperial study to discuss matters.

"Your Majesty, at your behest the Minister has drawn up a plan for the African war, codenamed - Draw Salary from the Bottom of the Cauldron, please Your Majesty Holy Judge!"

Liu Mingchuan said softly and handed a prepared battle plan to Li Weiguo.

This is a battle plan that began to be formulated a year ago, and now it finally has an eyebrow, Li Weiguo immediately reviewed it carefully, and Liu Mingchuan explained it on the side.

At that time, Li Weiguo received information that the Entente group planned to destroy the world railways in wartime, destroy the connection between the Chinese Empire and the German Empire, and cut off the land life lines of the entire Allied bloc.

Once the world railway is attacked, it will indeed bring huge losses to the Chinese Empire and the Allied Bloc, because the world railway starts from the Chinese Empire, just through the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German Empire, and the branch line connects the Kingdom of Italy, which happens to connect the entire Allied member countries with a railway, and when war breaks out, the Allied bloc can support each other through the railway, providing the allies with military strength, materials and other supplies.

In view of the Entente's battle plan, Li Weiguo knew that he could not guard against thieves every day, and he should take the initiative to attack.

Li Weiguo's goal is to target the Suez Canal controlled by the British, once the Suez Canal is blocked, the Royal Navy of the British Empire will have to make a detour to the Cape of Good Hope in Africa if it wants to enter the Indian Ocean or the Pacific Ocean during the war.

However, the British Empire also realized the importance of the Suez Canal, and stationed 200,000 troops near the Suez Canal, which was almost the largest scale of the British Empire's overseas garrison, and even the Indian colonies were only 180,000 British troops, which shows the importance of the Suez Canal to the British Empire, which is self-evident.

Although the Ottoman Turkish Empire is near the Suez Canal, but looking at the combat effectiveness of the Ottoman army during the Balkan War, Li Weiguo is really a sweat for them, this ally is simply weak, and it cannot be counted on at all.

Therefore, Li Weiguo decided to rely on the Chinese Empire's Shence Army itself to cut off the Suez Canal in wartime.

A direct attack on the Suez Canal, where 200,000 British troops were stationed and fortifications were built, would inevitably drag into a long war of attrition if it could not be attacked.

In fact, the plan for a direct attack on the Suez Canal was not advisable.

So Li Weiguo set his sights on the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts.

In the Mediterranean direction, Li Weiguo can use the island of Cyprus of the Chinese Empire as a base and use the Mediterranean Fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy to block the shipping route from the Mediterranean Sea to Suez. However, the Mediterranean Fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy was not strong enough, and Li Weiguo did not put the main fleet in the Mediterranean, which was easy to be attacked by the combined fleet of Britain, France, the United States and Russia, and it was not safe.

Therefore, in the Mediterranean direction, Li Weiguo communicated with Austria-Hungary, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Ottoman Empire, and once war broke out, the navies of the four countries would form a combined Mediterranean fleet to block the shipping route to the Suez Canal.

However, the Entente bloc could not sit idly by, and Britain, France, the United States, and Russia could also form a joint fleet to conduct a decisive fleet battle in the Mediterranean.

Li Weiguo did not think that the Italian navy, the Austro-Hungarian navy, and the Ottoman navy would be able to defeat the British, French, American, and Russian fleets, and the final result would probably be that even if they did not lose their maritime supremacy in the Mediterranean, they could only defend near the sea, and could not prevent the Allied fleets from passing through the Suez Canal.

Therefore, Li Weiguo did not put all his hopes on the Mediterranean Fleet, but carried out a secondary blockade in the Red Sea area at the southern exit of the Suez Canal.

The Red Sea, a long and narrow sea, is the dividing line between the two continents of Asia and Africa.

On the eastern shore of the Red Sea, the traditional area of the Ottoman Empire, and on the western shore of the Red Sea, there are two countries, Egypt and Ethiopia.

Among them, Egypt has become a protectorate of the British Empire, but Ethiopia below is still a newly independent country.

Li Weiguo did not look at Ethiopia, but on the Djibouti region on the Red Sea coast, where there was a natural harbor that could be used as a naval base, and at the same time it would guard the Red Sea outlets, and a second blockade there could prevent the Allied fleet from reaching the Indian and Pacific Oceans through the Suez Canal.

However, Djibouti currently has the French Empire Concession and the British Empire Concession, and Li Weiguo did not order to send troops to Ethiopia because he did not know whether the British and French coalition forces would fiercely oppose it, and even detonate a world war in advance. Li Weiguo didn't want to detonate a world war too early, and he also wanted to continue the arms race with the Entente bloc and drag down the entire Western world, so Li Weiguo was a little cautious before and did not rush to send troops.

However, Li Weiguo talked to the king of Italy on the phone, instigating the king of Italy to send troops to Ethiopia to test the reaction of Britain and France.

As a result, Italy sent troops to Ethiopia and declared Ethiopia an Italian protectorate, which was only protested by Britain and France, but did not ignite a war between Britain and France and Italy.

This made Li Weiguo see that Britain and France not only did not dare to start a full-scale war with the Allies at sea, but were also very cautious on land and did not dare to start a war with the Allies easily.

Therefore, Li Weiguo decided to send troops to Ethiopia, with the goal of controlling Djibouti and holding the mouth of the Red Sea.

But the Italian king was still very selfish, and he expressed his willingness to control Djibouti by the Italian army, and in the event of war, the Italian army and navy would blockade the Red Sea and prevent the Entente fleet from entering the Indian Ocean.

Li Weiguo even suspected that Italy had stepped on two boats and secretly reached some kind of agreement with the Entente. In fact, Italy's mind is the same as that of Germany and Austria, and they do not want the Chinese Empire to blockade the Suez Canal, they hope that the combined fleet of Britain, France and Russia can enter the Indian Ocean or the Pacific Ocean through the Suez Canal to go to war with the Chinese Empire, so that in the direction of the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean in Europe, the maritime military pressure of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and the Kingdom of Italy will be shared.

They are also members of the Allied Powers, but they have their own evil intentions.

In this regard, Li Weiguo was also drunk, but it is undeniable that every country will join the Allied Powers for the interests of its own country, and he does not blame the selfishness of the King of Italy.

As a result, the Chinese Empire's plan to send troops to Ethiopia was shelved for a time.

Recently, however, in Ethiopia, the Italian army suffered a crushing defeat and was completely defeated by the Ethiopian army.

It turned out that the Ethiopian army had strong support from Britain and France, weapons and guns, and the Ethiopian king Manelik II commanded 100,000 Egyptian troops and drove 30,000 Italian troops out of Ethiopia.

Just as Britain and France and other Entente blocs were happily cheering to see off the Italian army, the Italian king finally knew how many catties and taels he had, so he turned to the Chinese Empire for help.

Li Weiguo finally waited for the opportunity and quickly ordered the General Staff to draw up an operational plan, and now that the plan has come out, he has read it and thinks it is feasible, so he ordered the military to start action.

This was the first time that Zhang Xiaoliu commanded the navy and army to conduct joint combat operations since he assumed the post of secretary of the Ministry of War.

At the beginning, Li Weiguo and Wu Yong thought that the navy was too strong and that there was a tendency for the navy to overwhelm the army, so Zhang Xiaoliu appointed the minister of the army as the secretary of the military department, which balanced the proportion of the navy and the army to a certain extent.

In this military invasion of Ethiopia, Li Weiguo also intends to see how Zhang Xiaoliu controls the strength of the navy and the army.

Although Lin Jiyun was disappointed that he failed to become the secretary of the military department, he was relieved when he thought that Zhang Xiaoliu was Li Weiguo's closest minister.

Li Weiguo summoned Lin Jiyun alone and told him that the future tenure of the military department would be rotated every five years, and he asked him to make persistent efforts and not be discouraged.

So Lin Jiyun suddenly came to motivation, knowing that Li Weiguo paid special attention to this action at the bottom of the kettle, and also knew the importance of seizing Djibouti to the future war of the Chinese Empire, so he did not dare to slack off, although he was not happy that Zhang Xiaoliu gave orders to him, but he still obediently carried out the order.

On August 20, 3992, the National Defense Department of the Chinese Empire announced that it would officially send troops to Ethiopia at the request of the Kingdom of Italy.

On the same day, the king of Ethiopia declared war on the Chinese Empire, saying that he would fight to the end.

Since Ethiopia was not a member of the Entente, the Entente group only expressed serious concern and warned the Chinese Empire not to spread the flames of war to the British and French concessions and threaten British and French interests in Ethiopia.

At the same time, the Entente Group said it would send the Red Cross, which would carry out humanitarian relief for the Ethiopian people.

The Chinese Empire only ignored the warnings of Britain and France and their Entente bloc.

As for the so-called Red Cross and humanitarian relief of the Entente group, Li Weiguo knew very well that it was just a cloak of the Red Cross that secretly provided weapons and equipment and military supplies to Ethiopia.

However, this time it was not the Italian army, and the Chinese Imperial Shence Army was known as the strongest in the world. The Ethiopian army was able to defeat the Italian army, but it was not necessarily able to defeat the Chinese Empire's Shence army.

In fact, a week ago, the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy had sailed to the Gulf of Aden in the Red Sea and first explored the waters around Djibouti; because Ethiopia did not have naval strength and did not deploy water radium, when the Chinese Empire announced its military intervention in the Ethiopian war, the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy immediately broke into Djibouti and shelled the Egyptian army camp on the north coast of Djibouti.

Thus, the war between the Chinese Empire and Ethiopia officially broke out. (To be continued.) )