readx;

The winter of 1863 seemed to be exceptionally cold, the first heavy snow had just fallen, the heavens and the earth seemed to be frozen, and the sun was not seen for more than ten days, and the snowflakes fluttering from time to time did not know whether the wind was rolling up from the ground or falling from the sky, but enjoying the snow requires a good mood!

And Lin Haijiang seems to lack this kind of good mood, the Dingyuan battleship with eleven Glorious-class heavy cruisers, directly north to the Sea of Okhotsk made a strategic threat to Russia, but this threat does not seem to have much effect, the Russians are also mobilizing their brand-new armored protection cruisers, it seems that there is a great posture to compete with the Chinese Imperial Navy fleet? On land, more than 250,000 of the 300,000 Russian troops stationed in Heilongjiang under the command of Marshal Chekov quickly marched towards Shanhaiguan, along with the newly formed second, third, and sixth guards artillery divisions of the Russian army. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The new things of the Russian army and the new artillery units that came in made Lin Haijiang already vigilant, and five warships from the Indian Ocean were dispatched to the Sea of Okhotsk to join the first team commanded by Jia Wuji, so as to enhance the strength of the first team, and Lin Haijiang's order to Jia Wuji was to decide the timing of the war on his own, and he did not need to take the way of first warning the Russian army, but could take the initiative to find and create opportunities to inflict heavy damage or total annihilation on the new Far East Fleet of the Russian army.

Lin Haijiang knew that although the Russians had built more than 20 heavy cruisers, the Russians' navy was a newly built division, and it could not be compared with the warships of the Chinese Empire in terms of combat experience and the quality of the warships and the application of new technologies.

Okhotsk was founded by Russian immigrants in the spring of 1647, is the first permanent settlement established by Russians on the Pacific coast of the Far East, is the center of Russian fishing, fur trade, the Siberian small fleet has always used the port of Okhotsk as an anchor base, and Okhotsk has always been the location of Russia's largest shipyard in the Far East, due to the rich return of trade, the Okhotsk shipyard has the largest and largest large land dock in Russia except St. Petersburg, Although the battleships built here will eventually return to St. Petersburg for final assembly, this will not affect the profits of the Okhotsk shipyard in the slightest.

It can be said that this weakness of the Russians was discovered by Lin Haijiang from the beginning, and Lin Haijiang was also ready to stab the Russians in this weakness, so that the Russians could wake up from their fanaticism, or to give the Russians a profound and unforgettable lesson.

The main reason why Okhotsk can become the weakness of the Russians is that there is no proper supply point within its voyage, and if the fleet of the Chinese Empire rashly attacks Okhotsk, it is easy to fall into a supply crisis, and then the Russian Imperial Navy can easily defeat the Chinese Empire, a maritime power, as long as it has the control of fighters, at least this is how the Russians see this problem.

But what the Russians don't know is that the Chinese Empire has secretly assisted the shogunate to occupy and clean the entire Hokkaido, and established three supply points in Hokkaido, and began to choose a site to build a military port, supply is not a problem for the Chinese Empire at all, the Russians' intelligence is still stuck in the same way as five years ago, and they are always used to looking at some international affairs from the perspective of the Great Russian Empire, and lack the ability to adapt to it, so the Russians have greatly lagged behind the Chinese Empire in the overall strategic layout.

Since the Russians had marched to Shanhaiguan, the expected general attack was postponed for twenty days, and Lin Haijiang had to wait for the arrival of the 1st and 2nd Imperial Heavy Artillery Divisions, and after Lin Haijiang had consolidated the overall strength of the Russians in the Far East, he concluded that the three so-called artillery divisions reinforced by the Russian army must have been equipped with 75-mm light artillery, because the Russians did not have such a large transportation capacity to complete the strategic maneuver of such a number of troops before the Far Eastern Railway was completed.

Therefore, the impact of winter on the Russians is far greater than the impact on Lin Haijiang, and according to Lin Haijiang's calculations, the so-called 300,000 troops of the Russian army entering Heilongjiang this time are already the last desperate blood capital of the Russian Empire, and the real elite is the 200,000 Russian troops who were annihilated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and how many of the 300,000 Russian troops put together are elite divisions? It is difficult to say how many people are capable of fighting, and it is very ridiculous for the Russians' desperate gamble Lin Haijiang.

Because the strategic center of gravity of the Russians is in Europe, the mobilization and build-up of the 500,000-strong army in the Far East should have swept away the young and middle-aged Russians in the Far East! The Russians were far more intimidating and intimidating than they intended to fight a decisive battle, and historically, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Marshal Chekov, was himself a person who made Nicholas I feel very uneasy, and Nicholas I sent him to the Far East to organize this so-called glorious campaign, probably hoping to use the hands of the Chinese Empire to clean up his henchmen.

It can be said that the Russians themselves are a contradictory arrangement, strategically they hope to win the war by force of deterrence, but in fact the Russians have to find an excuse to clean up the commander-in-chief of their own side! The Russians did not seem to be prepared for a war that was absolutely unavoidable and deeply involved, and Marshal Chekov did not do much in history, having been left in Moscow by Tsar Nicholas I, mostly in the role of a senior strategic analyst staff officer.

Due to the changes in history, Marshal Chekov finally got the military power he dreamed of, although he also knew very well that this was a trap given to him by Nicholas I, but in the face of this trap in the Far East, Chekov finally moved!

On January 10, 1864, Lin Haijiang inspected the former enemy's general headquarters in the Funing area, it can be said that with the continuous victory of the Chinese Empire, the former enemy's headquarters also moved forward again and again, and Lin Haijiang, the commander-in-chief, also began to retreat to the second line. The strength of the six subordinate corps and the five brigades of the Marine Corps made Zhang Zheng full of confidence at the moment.

Although he learned that the Russians had arrived at the front line of Shanhaiguan and began to build fortifications, Zhang Zheng had absolute confidence to go down in a battle, and at this moment Zhang Zheng had seven artillery brigades in his hands except for the two newly arrived heavy artillery divisions, a total of more than 800 artillery pieces.

Lin Haijiang, accompanied by Zhang Zheng, inspected the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and regiments directly under the Command, which participated in the war, and it can be said that this inspection was a big spot check of Lin Haijiang's assault surname, because the veteran legions of the empire who participated in the war this time can be described as elite and strong generals, Lin Haijiang took out the best lineup of the empire, and in his opinion, it is worthy of the Manchus and the Russians, if the Manchus can automatically abdicate early and do not have to launch the Kwantung Campaign themselves, Lin Haijiang really considered giving the Manchu royal family preferential treatment under a certain degree of conditions, but it was a pity that the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty had no intention of abdicating at all, so in desperation, Lin Haijiang had no choice but to use the expenses prepared for preferential treatment as military expenses, which were all used by the Manchu Qing Dynasty anyway, but in different ways.

Lin Haijiang inspected in detail the supply of the front-line troops, the troops' supplies and ammunition reserves, and the troops' ability to adapt to the cold climate in the northeast, which are all key points related to the victory or defeat of this war; in the historical war against Russia, Napoleon, and later Hitler were defeated by the severe cold of Russia, and Lin Haijiang's troops had very few northern soldiers, and there was a kind of resistance and panic for the winter operation. The troops gradually adapted to the operation under the conditions of the cold region in the northeast.

For this attack, the imperial logistics department will all the inventory of five types of cotton skinned waterproof tents all sent to the squad platoon level, in practical application although the effect of this tent is not as ideal as the later department said, but compared to all kinds of yurts, Manchu leather tents, etc.

In order to match the adaptability of the troops, Lin Haijiang formulated an attack scale for each unit, that is, to advance ten kilometers a day! The large corps advanced slowly, although it was a great waste of supplies and supplies, but it could also give the attacking troops the feeling that they were always in the rear, after all, this was the first time that the imperial army was facing severe cold conditions, and Lin Haijiang couldn't help but be cautious.

The high morale of the troops made Lin Haijiang feel very satisfied, and the various foods distributed by the military material supply center of the imperial logistics department were also very popular with the grassroots officers and soldiers, because the imperial team did not encounter the stubborn resistance of the Qing army in the first and second phases of the previous campaign, a large number of shells were transported to the supply centers and material transfer stations in Yanjing, Tangshan and other places, as the commander-in-chief, Zhang Zheng planned to smash all these shells on the Russian positions on the first line of Shanhaiguan, Zhang Zheng believed that if the Russians were given a hard blow, Then the Qing army may collapse without a fight, and most of the courage of the Qing army to dare to stick to the battle comes from the Russians, so at the beginning of the third phase of the campaign, Zhang Zheng was ready to leave all the unused shells in the first two stages to the Russians, and give the Russians a grand fireworks welcome ceremony.

(To be continued)