Nicholas II was going crazy, he was going to gather a fleet with a displacement of more than half a million tons and go to the Far East. But many more people think it's China that is really crazy.

Napoleon? Bonaparte, the emperor of the First French Empire, unified most of Europe at its peak. However, in the final war against Russia to unify the whole of Europe, he was burned by a fire after the capture of Moscow, but it was the bitter cold winter that was really deadly. Less than 30,000 of the more than 300,000 elite French troops who went to conquer Russia could return to France alive was also this severe cold that completely ended Napoleon's fate. The fate of Napoleon is fresh in the memory of all Europeans, and the harsh winter climate in Russia scares all European countries when they think about it. So Russia gave the other Europeans a deep impression that Russia could be defeated, but it could not be occupied, because winter was Russia's most powerful ally.

However, there is no shortage of madmen in this world, and China is one of the craziest. If China declared war on Russia in early summer, then it is understandable that Siberia still has four months between early summer and late autumn. However, China chose to declare war on Russia on a day when it had already snowed in early winter, and what was even more crazy was that the Chinese army actually crossed the northern border in the snow and attacked the Russian fortresses further north in the heavy snowfall!!

And then China's actions were even more incomprehensible to the European powers. The Chinese first occupied Vladivostok in the east with a furious bombardment, and then defeated the Russian offensive with a resolute counterattack on the western front. Not to mention why China did not take advantage of the victory on the Western Front to pursue the victory, the 150,000 troops of the Central Army Corps, which had gathered the main force of the Chinese Army, did not attack the Russian fortresses after entering Russia, but instead formed an encirclement situation on the periphery of the fortresses. Do the Chinese think they are more resistant to the cold than the Russians?

Kuropatkin, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Army in the Northern Theater, also thinks so. Since Makarov had received the approval of His Majesty the Tsar with the plan to abandon Boli to defend Vladivostok with all his might, Kuropatkin thought he could do the same. So when the Siberian winter came, he gathered all the scattered garrisons into the fortress. In this way, the fortress could provide a safe and warm place for soldiers to spend the winter. As for the vast Siberian wilderness, it was temporarily handed over to the Chinese, and he firmly believed that the Chinese with only tents in the field could not compare with his army with warm houses, and the arrogant Chinese would be wiped out by the Siberian cold in the wilderness. Even if the cold snap in Siberia cannot wipe out the Chinese army throughout the country, I believe that by next spring, the Chinese will have long been out of combat. He could use the fortress as a support to launch an attack on the Chinese army, after destroying the Chinese army that dared to invade. He can command a large army to rush into China and finally occupy the whole of northern China. At that time, he may become the first governor of Yellow Russia. All he needed to do was command his army to block the first one or two attacks of the Chinese. For this reason, he also strengthened the fortifications of the present day.

Things went as Kuropatkin had predicted, and the Chinese army rushed out of the company to advance towards the Russian fortresses in Siberia, and if he had expected to surround the entire fortress, Kuropatkin miscalculated. The Chinese did not attack the fortress, but began to settle down. The Chinese are not simply setting up a tent, they are watering and building ice. The Chinese built an ice wall out of ice. Kuropatkin had shelled an ice wall stretching towards the fortress, which proved to be as hard as steel in the Siberian weather of minus tens of degrees Celsius, and easier to repair, as long as water was constantly added, and the cold winter could turn this water into a hard ice wall again. However, this shelling was not completely ineffective, at least for the Chinese to stop extending the ice wall towards the fortress.

China did not intend to attack the Russian fortresses in the winter, and China's strategic intention was to wipe out all the Russian troops in all cities and gathering points in Siberia except for the Russian fortresses in the early winter through rapid advances and short exchanges of fire, or drive them to the Russian fortresses. Then form a tight siege of the fortresses. In this way, when the snow melts in the following spring, the heavy weapons used for the siege can be brought in. At that time, the communication lines will be cut again. Not a single Russian signal corpsman will be allowed to leave, so that the Russian troops surrounded in the various fortresses will fight separately without contact, because the enemy situation is unknown, they can only hold on and wait for reinforcements. On the contrary, the Chinese army can concentrate superior forces and firepower in a local area and uproot the enemy's fortresses one by one. To this end, the CIA has been able to mobilize almost all its agents to infiltrate Siberia to investigate the location of communication lines and the situation of troops stationed in various places, and the General Staff Headquarters has even prepared pensions for soldiers who may be sacrificed in military operations in early winter. But I didn't expect it. The first phase of the military operation, which had been planned by the General Staff Headquarters for several years, was completed by the enemy commander Kuropatkin. They directly ceded the vast Siberia to the outside world, which stunned the entire Chinese military command.

Makarov's abandonment of Boli is understandable. Russia has only one port in the entire Far East, Vladivostok, and if Vladivostok is lost, then even the Russian naval expedition will face the embarrassing situation of having nowhere to dock, nowhere to replenish and repair. For the Russian Far Eastern Fleet, Vladivostok is the lifeblood of the entire fleet. The Far Eastern Fleet, having lost Vladivostok, could only wander at sea until it lost power and sank, and there was no second way to go. Therefore, Makarov's abandonment of Boli was based on ensuring that the navy had sustained combat capability, which means that Makarov's strategy was always for the sake of the navy.

The Navy needs a reliable port in the same way that the Army needs a reliable logistics base. However, it can be said that Russia has no naval strength in the Far East, and holding Vladivostok is the only option for the Russian Far East Navy. But you, Kuropatkin, are in command of an army, have a large number of fortresses in Siberia as support, and have enough attack force, but you make the same choice as the navy. Maybe Kuropatkin thinks that the Siberian winter can wipe out the invading Chinese, but you don't think about it, and you will shrink your forces before the people come. Well, even if you didn't think in advance that the Chinese would dare to invade in winter, people will naturally consider the response to the cold winter when they come, and then you can at least have a certain amount of room for maneuver if you scatter your troops out. But now that you have given up all the maneuver space of the army, it is equivalent to giving up all the strategic initiative, and you will only be beaten by the beginning of the spring of next year. Such a simple truth is known even to the trainee staff officer of the General Staff Headquarters, but you, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Army, do not understand? Really anxious about Kuropatkin's IQ.

The Chinese staff officers are looking up to Kuropatkin. He was nothing more than a typical military bureaucrat with little practical experience. He has not yet grasped the true meaning of modern warfare from the increasingly rapid development of science and technology, nor does he understand the tactical significance implied in traditional warfare, and he only commands the army like a bureaucrat, which determines that his first strategic idea is to stick to it. He relied on the cold Siberian winter, which even the Russians feared, but he watched in amazement as the Chinese took out their weapon against the cold, the igloo.

The Chinese are tired of ice into houses, and the gate is open to the south. Adding a wooden door with a thick felt cloth can keep out the north wind well. Dozens of degrees below zero outside the house, and a few degrees below zero inside the house. Set up a tent in the house again, and set up a small stove in it, although it is not yet warm as spring, but with thick winter clothes, at least the house is no longer cold. In order to prevent excessive carbon dioxide in the room this time, the staff officers even connected the stove with a flue. Flues wrapped in thick insulating asbestos come out of the igloo, taking away carbon dioxide but leaving heat for the tents, and thick sleeping bags allow soldiers to get a good night's sleep.

And the Chinese do not build igloos one by one, but row after row. The Chinese just built the barracks with ice under the noses of the Russians. Kuropatkin watched as the Chinese outside Irkutsk built a series of military camps in the wilderness in just half a month. There are barracks and school grounds, and there is no shortage of various tactical obstacles, and there are even several lookouts more than ten meters high.

Kuropatkin did not think about sabotage, but all the soldiers sent out did not return, so that no soldier dared to leave the city again. When all the barracks were finished, Kuropatkin also saw that the cannons brought by the idle and bored Chinese soldiers also built igloos. These Chinese, who were outside the range of Russian artillery, surrounded the whole of Irkutsk with several thick ice walls, and he could no longer rush out.

"The efficiency of the Chinese is really fast." This is Kuropatkin's lament that the Chinese can build a complete barracks in half a month. He believed that even if it were done by the Russians, it would not be possible to do it in such a short time. How did he know that at this moment, the whole of China sent countless spies to measure the terrain. And these armies in the north have been training for this for five whole years.

After China declared war on Russia, there was no ground fighting except for one bombing of Vladivostok, only one counterattack war was fought in Xinjiang. It's not that Nie Shicheng doesn't want to fight, but that Nie Shicheng, who was originally planned to use the Western Front as a defensive counter-attack, is only a containment attack. Although a counterattack defeated the invading Russian army, Nie Shicheng, who lacked the ability to maneuver, could only let go of most of the Russian army, because his main force was only infantry. And the Russians mainly rode horses. After a counterattack, he suddenly found that the Russians were not as bad as he imagined, so Nie Shicheng began to carefully push the defense line out of the border, but with the arrival of winter, Nie Shicheng had to build a defense line on the spot and wait for the next spring. At the same time, he asked the General Staff Headquarters to equip him with sufficient mobile forces to facilitate his counterattack. However, the Central Corps of Northern China, which attracted the attention of the great powers, surprisingly did not fight a single battle. It was just that the Russian fortresses were surrounded.

In just one month, Russia lost Vladivostok, known as the first fortress in the Far East, an attack by 30,000 troops was routed and nearly half of it was lost, and then Russia's fortresses in Siberia were completely surrounded by the Chinese. The Chinese assault troops even reached the outskirts of Novosibirsk at one point, and the assault team had already committed "homicide" outside Omsk. The entire ground battle stopped with the arrival of the real cold in Siberia, leaving only the European powers stunned, and it turned out that it could still fight in winter, which was called the winter combat method invented by the Chinese - the ice and snow defense line. Then, with the unwilling roar of Nicholas II, everyone refocused their attention on the sea.

Tsarist Russia had 3 fleets, the Far Eastern Fleet, the Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet. Since the Far Eastern Fleet was completely annihilated by the Chinese in the Battle of Tsushima, in order to maintain the establishment of the Far Eastern Fleet, Russia still sent two old cruisers Diana and Venoch to maintain the face of Tsarist Russia. However, the Far Eastern Fleet did not sink in Vladivostok under Makarov's far-sighted arrangement, and is now trembling in Singapore waiting for reinforcements from Europe.

Excluding this Far Eastern Fleet, the sheer force figures of each fleet in the Baltic and Black Seas can be compared with the current Chinese Navy. In particular, the Baltic Fleet, driven by Nicholas II's crazy sea dreams, was already a huge fleet with fourteen first-class battleships and ten second-class battleships as the main force, while the main force of the Black Sea Fleet also had seven first-class battleships and five second-class battleships. Together with other auxiliary ships, the entire Russian Navy has a displacement of more than half a million tons.

Truly. To really assemble such a powerful fleet is hairy. But before China had time to be afraid, it scared the Minister of the Navy, Grand Duke Alexander Rovich, half to death. The five Borodino-class battleships had just been delivered, and some minor operations had not been completed on the shore, not to mention sea trials, so he learned of His Majesty's intentions. Immediately enter the palace and prepare to stop this plan.

But how could Nicholas II still listen to it at this time. In his opinion, the loss of Vladivostok was already unacceptable, Kuropatkin would only stay in the fortress and ask for help, and Zalubayev was a fool who could not even beat a group of infidels. Only Rozhest Stevensky, whom he loved so much, offered him a plan to gather the main forces of the Russian Navy and go to the Far East to completely destroy the Chinese. What's more, according to his ideas, the third navy in the world has twice as many naval guns of more than 200 mm in China. So Nicholas II did not even listen to a word of the Grand Duke Aleksandrovich. Drove him out of the palace directly, and stubbornly ordered that the fleet must depart within ten days.

As soon as this was mentioned, His Majesty Nicholas II was still angry: he fed so many generals in vain, and no one could come up with a useful idea, and no one felt sorry to see that Siberia was about to fall into the hands of the Chinese. Rogerstinsky was the only one to worry about me, so the commander of the fleet would let Rogerstvinsky be the leader.

The reason why Nicholas II favored Rozhest Winsky was very Russian, and Russians always had a strange inferiority complex, always feeling that they were too coarse and too rich. Therefore, in the court of the tsar, anyone with German blood and a slender figure was very easy to favor. Unfortunately, Roger Stevensky has both. Although Count Witte commented on him: "It is difficult to find a fool like Roger Stevensky", it could not stop the favor of the Tsar.

What the? His Majesty the Tsar asked me to be the commander of the fleet? When Roger Stevensky heard the news, he was not excited, but scared. In his opinion, he was just a military attaché to the tsar, and he came up with this idea simply because he thought that this idea would definitely be able to get further favor from the tsar, and whether he succeeded or not had nothing to do with him Rozhest Stevensky, anyway, losing the battle was the incompetence of the commander. But winning the battle is the credit of him, a man who is out of luck. It's just that he really didn't expect the tsar to appoint him, a rear admiral, to be the commander of this grand fleet.

But when he cautiously said to Nicholas II that he was only a rear admiral, and the commander of the Baltic Fleet was a vice admiral, so in terms of military rank, he could not command the expeditionary fleet with the Baltic Fleet as the main force.

What the? Rear Admiral can't be the commander of the fleet? But this question was too simple for His Majesty the Great and Wise Tsar. What am I? I am absolute, and I have promoted you to lieutenant general. The eyes were red to death, and then an order directly promoted this major general to lieutenant general.

This time no one objected to the intention of His Majesty the Tsar, in fact, the reason why no one came up with this idea was not because the generals were incompetent as Nicholas II imagined, but because except for the Tsar, who believed that the Russian fleet would be victorious when it went to the Far East, and the half-believing Rodger Stevensky, who was half a man, all added up to one and a half people, no one in all of Russia believed that it was a good idea. Can so many ships go around the Earth almost once to the Far East? Will it fall apart halfway? The Russian naval officers were worried about what happened before the war, and what kind of war would they fight when the fleet was scattered? But no one came out to oppose it, the tsar is always right, Russia is invincible, this can also be opposed? Shut up, everybody.

It has to be said that the Minister of the Navy, Grand Duke Alexander Rovich, was still dutiful. Unable to oppose the expedition of His Majesty the Great Tsar, he could only persuade the Tsar not to take all the fleets away at once, but at least to leave some guards. The wise Tsar finally agreed with him, and decided to leave behind three first-class battleships and three second-class battleships, and all the other ships went to the Far East to kick the ass of the yellow pigs.

Lieutenant General Roger Stevenster could not escape, so he had to bite the bullet and start preparing for the expedition. After he immediately asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to convey to Britain the news that the expeditionary fleet needed to pass through the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, the British First Admiralty Fisher threw the transit report directly into the trash. The fleet, which applied for transit, consisted of 18 old and new battleships, 12 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, and a number of destroyers and auxiliary vessels, totaling 50 ships, with a total displacement of 440,000 tons. More importantly, Russia brought 5,000 troops with it in order to occupy Pontianak. Are you kidding. Let such a fleet cross the Suez Canal, in case you drive to the Suez Canal and suddenly figure out that you will not go to the Far East, will it be possible that the British Empire will do the road for China?

"No way." In the face of the lobbying Russian minister, Fisher closed the door to negotiations with a word.

The second to disagree was the Ottoman Empire. Ishtampur is a sensitive place, and countries such as Britain and France have a great headache. As soon as he heard that the Russian expeditionary fleet was going to the Far East through the Suez Canal, Caliph II immediately blocked the Ishtampur waterway. The Black Sea Fleet was refused transit under the threat of war. Britain, you Russia don't dare to provoke, but if you go through the Suez Canal as a pretext, you will directly order the Baltic Fleet to turn around and the Black Sea Fleet to attack Eastanbull, and you won't be able to cry at that time.

Nicholas II was annoyed, but now was not the time to settle accounts with these two countries. Is it difficult to get His Majesty the Great Tsar without going through the Suez Canal? Of course not, and soon Roger St. Winster received a decree from His Majesty the Emperor to order the Baltic Fleet to go to the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.

From the Baltic Sea, it skirts all of Africa and finally crosses the Indian Ocean to Pontianak. It has a range of up to 16,000 nautical miles. 16,000 nautical miles, even if the steel warship can withstand it, the soldiers can't stand it!

"Winster, you're the commander of the fleet, and you can't take care of everything. I'm going to help you one last time in this matter. "Nicholas II, after patting Winster on the shoulder, immediately ordered the conscription of noble women, who needed not only to know how to care for medicine, but also to know how to sing and dance. was able to relieve the loneliness of the soldiers on the expedition, and when they were recruited, they were immediately stuffed into a hospital ship.

Roger Stevens is just a man with combat experience from the sailing era. I don't understand naval tactics in the era of steelclad battleships. He made numerous hidden suggestions to His Majesty the Tsar to change the commander of the fleet, but none of them succeeded. There is no way to do it this time, His Majesty the Emperor is like this, and he has no choice!

Roger St. Winster gritted his teeth and prepared seriously, facing a half-year voyage, the first thing was fuel. In order to ensure the operation of the fleet, a large amount of coal of about half a million tons is required. Vice Admiral Roger Stewinst had to rely on a pre-arranged rendezvous of 60 coal carriers between Hamburg, Germany, and the Americas, and the length of the voyage meant that his ships would need 30 coal replenishments, each of which took place on the high-seas in harsh weather.

If the battleship looks pretty good, then the sailors don't look so good in the first place. Only a few sailors were recruited from the Russian coast and the regions engaged in seafaring work, and the vast majority were just a group of rough peasants. They have received very little training at sea, as the Baltic Sea is frozen for half of the year.

So he ordered the ships to be stuffed with coal, to stuff the living quarters with a few bales under each bed, and to cut down a lot of timber and pile it directly on the deck, and finally even the turrets were full, but it was not enough. Roger Steinster began to contact his ally France, who replied that they could not provide a base in the Far East, but could help them replenish coal in Africa. At the same time, Nicholas II's cousins also came to the rescue, and Germany offered to lease several large ocean-going freighters for the use of the Russian fleet. The price in both countries was a bit expensive, but Roger Ste Winster agreed almost without hesitation. At this time, even Britain had good news, they would contact the Ottoman Empire and provide guarantees to release the Black Sea Fleet, so that the Black Sea Fleet could merge and supply coal at the British base in Madagascar through the Suez Canal. That's when Roger Winst breathed a sigh of relief.

Nicholas II was pleased with Rogerst Winster's performance, which proved that Roger Ste Winster was still very capable. Nicholas II kindly patted Mr. Lieutenant General on the shoulder and said: "Do a good job, even if you occupy Pontianak and shoot a few shots on the coast of China, I will make you a general and a marshal."

How did Nicholas II know that Britain, France and Germany did not want Russia to put such a large fleet in Europe, because this fleet would disrupt the balance of Europe. Because of the existence of this fleet, European countries have built too many warships in recent years, which has greatly increased the pressure on the national treasury. Therefore, only by leaving this fleet in Europe can Europe be brought back into a new equilibrium, so these three countries will fully support the expedition of the Russian fleet. As for their war with the Chinese in the Far East, to be honest, none of these three countries is optimistic. They agreed that Russia's defeat was inevitable, but it would also inflict heavy losses on China. In recent years, China's rising navy has run amok in the Pacific, causing all countries to lose their interests in the Far East to a greater or lesser extent. They believe that once China's navy suffers heavy losses, it will inevitably seek economic assistance from Europe again, and then European countries can justifiably meddle in China's internal affairs.

When the last 2,000 improvised boatmen and fishermen, who had only been trained for two months, were forcibly enlisted in the navy and boarded warships, Roger Stwinst's vast Baltic Fleet finally set off. They will formally form the new Pacific Fleet after the confluence of the Black Sea Fleet in Madagascar, and then attack China under the guidance of two cruisers that are stuck in Singapore.

The day was October 15, 1904, in the home port of Liepaja, the home port of the Baltic Fleet. The Baltic Fleet is ready.

Tsar Nicholas II personally went to Liepaja to inspect the majesty of the Baltic Fleet, which was about to go on an expedition. It was a huge fleet consisting of thirteen first-class battleships and eight second-class battleships. Among them, the Duke of Suvorov, Alexander III, Borodino and Eagle, four battleships with a displacement of 13,516 tons, are known as the strongest battleships in the world. The Baltic Fleet, with a total of 40 ships of various types, is the biggest reason why the Russian Navy is revered as the "third navy in the world".

Nicholas II looked proudly at his fleet and, waving his iron fist, said to the soldiers: "Go to the East and bury in the sea those Eastern heretics who have destroyed the peace of Russia." "His Majesty Tsar Nicholas II is confident of victory at this moment. (To be continued......)