ps: If you want to hear more of your voices and receive more of your suggestions, search for the WeChat public account "qdread" now and pay attention to give more support to "China Sky"! Nicholas II did not go mad, but his * drove him to send a fleet to the Far East.

Russia's borders in the Middle East have been demarcated, treaties on the Balkans have been signed, and Germany in the west has firmly blocked Russia's path to the west, and now only the east still has the possibility of development.

The Russians were greedy for land, starting with the tiny Muscovy, and with countless massacres, a country far west expanded its borders eastward to the seas of the east, and for a time extended its hand into the distant North American continent.

In the West, the presence of Germany halted Russia's expansion; In the Middle East, Russia was entangled with Britain in order to gain access to the Indian Ocean; In the southwest, in the Caucasus, the Balkans, the Crimea, the Black Sea, there were numerous wars between Russia and Ottoman Turkey over these places, the most important of which were 1o times. The belligerents in World War I and Turkey's intervention in the Russian Civil War are also often considered the 11th and 12th Russo-Turkish Wars. It was a war that lasted 241 years, with an average of less than 19 years and one major war, the longest series of wars in European history, with Russia expanding its territory and Turkey gradually declining.

In the East, Russia and the Qing Dynasty were in contention, but fortunately, China's power was still strong at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, if it had not been for the Qing court's victory in the Battle of Yaxa. China's territory is almost only at the level of the Southern Song Dynasty. However, even so, there was no limit to the Russians' ability to land. When the Qing Dynasty weakened, the Russians made a comeback. Political fraud after another. Again and again military plunder, a total of more than 150,000 square kilometers of Chinese land was ceded to the greedy Russians again and again. And every concession of the Qing court was accompanied by greater ambitions on the part of the Russians.

Russia is greedy, they will not spit out the meat they swallow. Britain and France all colonized the land they occupied, using the labor of the local people to bring wealth to themselves. But the Russians were not, they divided all the occupied lands as territories and ruled directly, killing the aliens in this new territory again and again. Hailan Pao, Jiangdong 64 Tun...... Numerous such massacres allowed the Russians to purge the newly occupied lands of aliens.

It's all retribution. In the past, the Mongol iron cavalry went all the way to the west, and at the same time occupied vast lands. Brought feudal ideas to the West as well. In Russia, the leaders of vast regions recognized the pleasure of the concentration of power, and the idea of feudalism was thickened. Although the ferocious Golden Horde made the Russian people so terrified of power that they did not dare to challenge it for a long time. But as soon as they have overcome the might, they will do their own thing. They brought the iron and blood of the Mongols to the fullest. The Cossack cavalry inherited the bravery of the Mongol Iron Chair, and their sorties made them a trembling presence on the European continent. Now Russia has set its sights on the East.

"Send fleets and troops to the Far East, and we must teach the yellow pigs of the East a good lesson." The roar of Nicholas II still echoed in the Kremlin, and this time there was no retort from the ministers.

As early as last year, after the battle of Qing Russia, Nicholas II, who had lost all the main forces of the Far East Fleet and the army, clamored to send 50,000 troops to the Far East to fight a decisive battle with the Qing State. Why didn't Russia occupy the Far East after the Qing and Japan had lost a defeat? Nicholas II accepted this statement from the ministers. However, he still sent an additional 10,000 vanguard troops to the Xinjiang border, and follow-up troops are being dispatched one after another. And Russia hastened the repair of the Far Eastern Railway, because Russia needed it to become a supply line and a troop transport line for the invasion of Northeast China.

The situation is different now. Since the end of the war between Qing and Russia. The Qing State set up dense guards on the northeastern border of Qing Russia, preventing not a single Chinese from crossing the border to Vladivostok, nor allowing a single grain or stone to pass through. Vladivostok is still a city in the Far East, and its development is inseparable from the business and trade exchanges of the Chinese. This directly led to the withering of all cities in the Russian Far East, including Vladivostok and the Twin Cities, and even the inability to provide food for themselves. Not only that, but they also took out a large area of wasteland in the northeast and took advantage of the development of heavy industry in the northeast. Various tax incentives and a lot of help were offered to encourage the Chinese in Russia to return to China. The actions of the Qing people were effective. In less than a year, the Russian Far East began to become desolate. Houses were vacant, cities were no longer noisy, and agriculture, industry, and commerce began to wither. Vladivostok, Russia's largest and only port in the Far East, was shelled into ruins by the Qing Dynasty, and it is impossible to find enough people to clean up and rebuild the port, let alone the materials for reconstruction. Killers, this ancient profession began to run rampant in the territories of the Russian Far East. Every Russian* has become the target of these killers, so much so that the Russians who remain in the cities of the Far East do not dare to wear military uniforms in the barracks, because the killers have already infiltrated the barracks. The despicable Qing State continued to encourage Russians to work in China, and the Russians who came to the Qing State would enjoy the same treatment, and sometimes even better, than the Qing people. They wanted to use high incomes to attract Chinese to stay in the Far East, but for a long time Russian killings in the Far East became the content of Qing propaganda. He wanted to use the high profits to attract smuggling merchants to trade, but the eyes of the Qing soldiers on the border were like Siberian winter and the rows of corpses stopped the merchants. So a year later, Vladivostok is still in ruins as it was a year ago. This situation must be changed, otherwise there will be no more people on the Russian territory in the Far East.

Not only that, but Russian infiltration of Mongolia was also made more difficult than ever, because despicable killers also came to Mongolia. And the most important thing is that the Qing State exterminated Dong Fuxiang, who led troops in the Yiwei Palace Rebellion. An army of up to 20,000 men chased Dong Fuxiang into Xinjiang, and with the Qing garrisons in Hohhot and the northeast, the Qing had become an encirclement of Mongolia. And the 6th Division in Xinjiang has been stationed in the Ili, Tacheng and Altai regions. And Dong Fuxiang, who was supposed to be exterminated, is still wandering in the interior of Xinjiang. There is no need to find any excuses, let alone that Nie Shicheng is a waste, as long as the troops stationed in various parts of Xinjiang are concentrated, Dong Fuxiang's rebels can be annihilated in one battle. But the Qing State did not do this, and Dong Fuxiang became an excuse for the Qing State to enter Xinjiang, and the Qing State has been slowly but uninterruptedly transporting troops to Xinjiang. The Uyghurs who supported Dong Fuxiang were wiped out, and where they supported Dong Fuxiang, the Qing soldiers drove Dong Fuxiang to wherever they could. Then raise the butcher knife...... The Qing Dynasty imposed a brutal policy of repression on the Xinjiang region.

The need to change the current situation has become the unanimous agreement of all the Russian emperors and ministers to ordinary soldiers. Thereupon. The ministers no longer prevented Nicholas II from sending a fleet to the Far East. In addition to showing force, he could also capture the interests of the Far East after the Qing-Japanese War for the first time, and hoped to use two battleships to threaten the Qing to open its borders in order to restore the prosperity of the Far East. As for the issue of the anchorage of the Russian Far Eastern Fleet. The Russians are already optimistic, as long as Russia does not say that it will be leased to Lushun after the decisive battle between Qing and Japan, at least Weihaiwei will have no problem.

Germany also shares this view. The relationship between China and Germany has been very close together in recent years, depending on the needs of both sides. The Qing needed Germany's industrial and military help, and Germany needed the Qing to help them prove that Germany was also a very important country in the world.

"If the Russian fleet sails through the English Channel, then the fleet of the German Reich will go out at once. My Admiral, is your fleet ready? Kaiser Wilhelm II asked, sitting on the stage.

Alfred off the stage? Feng? Tirpitz said confidently: "Your Majesty's fleet is ready, only Your Majesty's orders are needed. ”

"But I don't think the German fleet can go to the Far East. Because the British also understood that the war between the Qing and Japan was imminent. At this time, the sudden departure of the Russian fleet to the Far East was not in the interests of the British. "Is it Bernhard who speaks? Feng? Bilow, Bismarck's successor. Because Bismarck's continental policy and Wilhelm II's world policy were irreconcilable, Bismarck ended up being prime minister for several years longer than in history. He was invited out of German politics at the beginning of the year on the grounds of health. As the new prime minister, Bilow was, of course, a supporter of Wilhelm II, so he thought: "It is precisely because it is not in the interests of Britain that it is in the interests of Germany." The Russian fleet must go to the Far East. To be honest, I personally think Jiaozhou Bay is far better than Dapeng Bay. ”

"I think so too, my Prime Minister." If Wilhelm II smiled meaningfully, the audience also smiled in response.

"Retribution. It's all retribution. Compared with the smiling Germany, Guangxu, who is still in the State Department, is full of sadness. Guangxu was holding the report that the CIA had just submitted. Although they did not detect the sudden arrival of the Russian fleet, they had already mentioned in the report last month the growing desolation of the Russian Far East and the fears of the Russian monarchs and ministers about the Far East, and had not noticed that Russia would make such a move at such a sensitive time. This is all the consequence of Guangxu's border blockade policy, which was just to delay Russia's repair of Vladivostok, but I didn't expect the consequences to be beyond expectations.

"Wechen suggested that the army should be expanded by three divisions immediately." Ouyang Zhenhua stepped forward and pointed to the map and said, "No matter what the outcome of the Qing and Japanese naval battles will be in the future, even if the worst result is that the Qing Navy will die with Japan after the war, we will at least have an army to use to protect the land." However, at this time, the Russian Far East Railway was not repaired, and the 10,000 vanguard troops sent by Russia to the Far East were only close to the border of Xinjiang, and the long distance in the Far East made the Russian army not have enough land. The Russian Navy can flex its muscles in the North China Sea, but the supplies needed for warships, especially ammunition, need to be obtained from land. Russia, which does not have enough army, will certainly not be able to stop our army's ground attack on Russia, and as long as we capture Vladivostok, the Qing Dynasty and the Korean coast will strengthen our defenses and not give the Russians a chance to take advantage of it, and the Russian navy will not be able to find a place to supply on the Far Eastern continent. Then the Russian Far East Fleet, which had lost its supply grounds, would have to find a new supply area, which was only Ryukyu and Taiwan. Therefore, Wechen thought. The Ryukyu Regiment was expanded into a Type B Infantry Division, and another Type B Infantry Division was formed in Taiwan. Half a year of training was enough for the Russian Army, which was improvised by sailors. There are always a number of shells on a warship, and even if a place is temporarily lost, it is impossible for the sailors on the warship to fight a positional battle with the Qing Army, which has a constant supply of supplies. At the same time, Nie Shicheng's Sixth Division in the northwest now has two divisions, the third and fourth divisions in the northeast, and only Hohhot has only one second division. If the Qing navy really suffered huge losses in the Qing and Japanese navy, then our army would launch a counterinsurgency war against Mongolia, with one division in the northeast of Xinjiang and two divisions in Hohhot, and four divisions quickly advancing to the Qing-Russian border south of Lake Belga, and another division in the northeast pressing into the periphery of Vladivostok to threaten Russia, coupled with the sabotage of the Far Eastern Railway by special forces, then the Russian air navy would also do nothing. At least it can buy time for the rebuilding of the Qing Navy. ”

"Is it financially permissible?" It was Li Hongzhang who spoke, and his question showed that he supported the proposal of the Ministry of War.

Lin Qizhao flipped through the booklet in his hand and said: "There are three divisions at most, and the formation of two divisions in the south needs to be reduced, and there can't be more." From this year onwards, loans in various countries will need to be repaid. ”

Guangxu didn't speak, he was thinking about balance. After a long time, Guangxu raised his head and asked, "What is the situation of the German staff officer Michael and others who are supervising the expansion of the two mountain regiments into divisions in Liangguang and Yungui?" ”

"Everything went well. As originally envisaged, Michael is preparing for the formation of the Southwest Theater of Operations. It was Wang Shizhen who answered.

Guangxu nodded: "The two mountain regiments will be temporarily changed to the second regiment brigade, Taiwan will add a B division, the Ryukyu regiment will be expanded into a second regiment brigade, and the veterans and officers of the independent division will be transferred to Xinjiang, and the strength of Xinjiang will be increased to three divisions, and Nie Shicheng will be ordered to step down as the commander of the sixth division and be reappointed as the commander of the Northwest Army." As for the rest......" Guangxu's eyes lit up: "Don't rely on yourself, the Mongols are natural cavalry." Shi Duo, go and inform the Mongolian princes to enter Beijing. You go and talk to them, let the Mongols build two cavalry divisions for the imperial court, and we will provide the weapons, and they will take care of the rest. ”

In this way, not only will it not damage the wealth of the imperial court, but it will also increase its strength, just like the Ryukyus. The emperor is wise, but how to talk about it? Li Hongzhang asked rhetorically.

"In order to prevent the Central Plains from being threatened by the Mongols again, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty made many restrictions on the Mongols. We can consider canceling the part, and in addition, we can purchase cattle and sheep from Mongolia in rations for military needs. In this way, the life of the Mongols will gradually improve, and they will be more attentive to the imperial court. You first negotiate a charter. ”

Li Hongzhang nodded: "The emperor is relieved, but Weichen thinks that we not only have to strengthen our own strength to cope with changes, but it is best to use the power of the British to keep the Russians from coming." It is better for Tang Shaoyi to go to Ogener to talk about Russia, and casually tell him the intentions of the Germans. If you need it, you can also say that the French also have ideas. If it is still necessary, go to the Italians and ask them to sail the fleet to the Far East to buy it for us. In short, to get the British to come forward and deny the Russian fleet access to the Far East. ”

"Leverage your strength, good way, let's prepare. Regarding the military arrangement, the relevant person should consult with the General Staff Headquarters. Guangxu's words were even if the basic direction was determined, and the ministers left one after another. Not discussing a purely military strategy in the State Council, this is what Guangxu has always adhered to, and Guangxu has also turned to the General Staff Headquarters. ("China Sky" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will also be a 1oo% lottery gift for everyone!) Open WeChat now, click on the "+" sign in the upper right corner to "add friends", search for the official account "qdread" and follow, hurry up! (To be continued)