Before he made that shocking announcement, Captain Webb was eager to see a look of surprise and disbelief on everyone's face—an almost inevitable result. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Unfortunately, however, nothing is inevitable in this world, and there are exceptions to everything.

Webb saw one bewildered face after another.

None of the commanders figured out what he was trying to say, "The U.S. Marines will continue to be faithful, but the U.S. Army has already marched to Beijing alone", on the surface, the captain's meaning was very clear, and there was no need to waste time thinking about it, but the problem was that in China, there was only one American army, Qin Lang's troops...... Of course, it could be the Marine Corps, or it could be the Army, but it could never be both the Marine Corps and the Army.

Qin Lang had only a reinforced regimental combat team, 3,500 soldiers, and it was impossible for him to risk splitting it into two parts and leaving them to face each of the overwhelmingly numerically superior Chinese troops.

He is not stupid, on the contrary, he is smart and very sane.

Therefore, whether Qin Lang intended for his troops to continue to hold the Zizhulin Concession or march to Beijing alone, he could only do one of these things, not all of them at the same time.

The commanders didn't understand what the hell Webb was talking about.

"Can you say that again, Captain?" Seymour asked on behalf of everyone, "Marines and Army, what do you mean?" ”

"How?"

"I thought there was only one U.S. army in China, not two."

Webb finally realized what was the problem—the people in this room did not know that just last night, three regimental combat teams from Canton Bay had landed near Dagu—and it was clear that the coalition forces had become so lax that no one had reported such important news to the coalition command. If it was not the mercenaries who landed, but the Chinese army, the coalition forces would have suffered heavy losses.

Of course, what does this have to do with him? Webb shrugged his shoulders secretly and announced in the most formal tone: "Last night, the reinforcements sent by the US Army have arrived in Tianjin. ”

"What!" The captain's expectant expression finally appeared on the commanders' faces. Of course, what shocked them was not that reinforcements from the U.S. government had arrived - it wasn't worth the fuss at all; What is truly intolerable is that no one has reported the news.

"I'm curious to know who the officer on duty was last night." Linivich said, eyes fixed on Seymour, showing what he meant without reservation.

"I'll look into this thoroughly, General, I assure you." The vice admiral snorted, turned his head, and continued to look at Webb, "Captain, I want to know, how many reinforcements are sent by the US Army?" ”

"Three regimental combat teams, 10,000 and 500 people."

"It is clear that General Qin's actions are too risky, and ten thousand and five hundred men are not enough to guarantee the capture of Beijing, and there is even a possibility that they will be in a dangerous predicament and besieged by the Chinese army." Seymour said in a tone that was more than reproachful, "I personally think that he should discuss this matter with us first and then act on the outcome of the discussion." ”

"I'm sorry, General." Weber defended Qin Lang, "This is Washington's order. President McKinley demanded that the general immediately rescue Minister Conger and all besieged American citizens. In order to ensure that this overarching goal is achieved, the President further directed that the additional Army units do not need to join the coalition for the time being. ”

Qin Lang got what he hoped for, a telegram from Washington, which allowed him to get rid of the coalition forces and act alone. But the commanders were clearly reluctant to accept such an outcome - officers who wished to preserve the unity of the coalition forces, such as Seymour, were of course opposed to any activity to divide the coalition forces; And those commanders who did not care about the unity of the coalition forces, such as Lynivich, were even less likely to accept the fact that the Americans were already ahead of him.

"This is not in line with the rules of the coalition forces at all!" The Italians made a strong protest. Of course, only he can do this kind of thing unscrupulously: Qin Lang obviously can't put down his identity and worry about an army captain, let alone raise the problem to the level of national politics.

Or, even if he really wanted to get along with the Italians, it was very simple to deal with: what could he do with a poor little man?

Of course, this is also the reason why Qin Lang asked Weber, instead of personally going to the coalition headquarters to announce his decision. No matter how angry the commanders were, they couldn't possibly treat the captain like that.

They can only be annoyed, protest, and finally demand: "I hope to get a reasonable explanation!" ”

"I've already said it, it's a pity, General." Webb spread his hands and said helplessly, "We are American soldiers and must obey Washington's orders." ”

To hell with Washington's orders! Seymour screamed in his stomach - of course, he could only scream in his stomach, otherwise it would lead to serious diplomatic disputes. For the same reason, at this moment, the vice admiral could do nothing, nothing - except to keep a straight face, let Webb go, and then go back to the other commanders to discuss the solution to the problem.

Unfortunately, finding a solution is not an easy thing to do. Qin Lang's actions made a problem tricky: Nie Shicheng's army, and Tianjin. Initially, Li Nivich hoped that Qin Lang's army would solve them so that the coalition forces could attack Beijing directly, but now, Qin Lang's army was attacking Beijing, so the coalition forces would have to treat them as the first target to be addressed, rather than following him to Beijing.

It sucks, it's terrible.

"That cunning guy must have calculated this, so he unscrupulously commanded the army to march to Beijing, forcing us to clear the rear for him." The Italians shouted indignantly.

But no one cared about his clamour. The commanders were very clear that in fact they were the same kind of people as Qin Lang, and they were secretly calculating each other for their own interests. It's just that in this kind of game of mutual calculation, Qin Lang did better than others, and he made a move first, so that he won a beautiful start.

Just the beginning. The commanders refused to admit their defeat without reservation, and they found an old proverb.

"Whoever has the last laugh will have the best laugh." Linivich knocked on the table and muttered under his breath, "Sooner or later, I'll turn the situation back." ”

"Of course, we're going to turn the tide back," Seymour looked at him, "but, General Linivich, we must first remove the obstacles that stand in our way." ”

It's your task. Seymour didn't say his most crucial words, but everyone knew what he meant. The main forces of Britain and France, as well as Japanese reinforcements, had not yet arrived, and the Austrians and Italians did not intend to send more troops, and now that the most powerful force in the coalition was Linivich's troops, it was only natural that the task should be carried out by the Russian army.

But Lynivich did not intend to take on the task: his soldiers would not do better than the Japanese in the face of the American-style defense system of the Chinese army. Of course, he was confident of taking that position, but the price he would have to pay would far outweigh the amount he was willing to pay, and that was something Rinnivich was not willing to bear.

No one wants to make a wedding dress for someone else, especially since it is the real enemy of Russia who gets the benefits in the end.

"We have to discuss this issue in more depth, or we can ...... it another way," Linivich said slowly, searching for the right words, then paused, turned around, and had a brief exchange with his chief of staff in Russian that was so fast that it was impossible to read, and finally said: "We can divide a part of our forces into an advance team and send it to Peking, while the rest of the forces are responsible for attacking Nie Shicheng's troops and Tianjin." ”

It seems like a good idea. But Qin Lang always said that all bad ideas have a common characteristic, and they all look like good ideas until people find out that they are bad ideas. And Lynivic's idea has this characteristic as well. Fortunately, Seymour had seen its flaws before it was put into practice.

The vice admiral put him in embarrassment with just one sentence. "So, who should command the troops that remain here? I find it difficult to decide on this, and I need your advice, General. ”

Rinnivich was stuck with the problem.

In fact, it is easy to answer, out of all the generals, there are only two generals who are qualified to command the ground forces, Linivich and Nogi Noshinori, but Linivich's goal is Beijing, and he will not stay, and Nogi Noshinori has only revenge left in his mind now, and he will not go to Beijing - on the surface, there is no problem at all in the selection of commanders, and in a way, this can even be called a happy thing.

But this was not the case: after seeing General Nogi's stubborn, rigid and clumsy command style, and his disregard for the lives of his soldiers, no commander was willing to put his troops in his charge. It was almost to be expected that if an army were to be handed over to the granite-headed general, it would be left with little left in a few days.

It was more unacceptable to the commanders than to watch the Americans occupy Beijing and hand over the troops to Nogi Noshinori and thus cause it to be quickly depleted.

"Okay." The Russian general reluctantly gave up his idea, "Let's find a way to eliminate Nie Shicheng's troops first, and then consider Beijing." (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )