In the golden autumn of September, the grass is full of horse fertilizer.

On 23 September of the first year of Guanghua, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire announced that it would conduct the first large-scale military exercise since the founding of the People's Republic of China in the area around Queshan Mountain in Runan Prefecture, Henan Province.

Queshan County is under the jurisdiction of Runan Prefecture, located in the south of Henan Province, on the north bank of the Huai River, west of Tongbai, Funiu two mountain veins, east overlooking the Huanghuai Plain, located between Zhengzhou and Wuchang, historically known as "the hinterland of the Central Plains, the throat of Henan and Hubei".

As early as 1895, during the Yongping military exercise, the Imperial Chinese Army, the then Zhili New Army, won the unanimous praise of various observers, including the German Army military observers, with their strong combat effectiveness.

The original Zhili New Army has become today's Imperial Chinese Army, with stronger combat effectiveness, and it has experienced the actual combat test of the Sino-Russian border war.

There are military exercises every year, but this year's international environment is more complicated, so the lineup of participating troops in the Queshan military exercise is the most luxurious.

The number of people conducting internal military exercises in ordinary military districts is generally less than 2,000, which is a regimental-level exercise and an internal exercise of the Imperial Army. The current military exercise is not only an open military exercise, but also has the highest military "gold content" and the strongest target, and the purpose is to stabilize the people's hearts and finance.

According to the Ministry of National Defense's arrangement, since the exercise is open, it is natural to invite the embassies of various countries in China to participate, and of course, the most important thing is the representatives of all social strata and the media in China, whose task is to stabilize the people's minds and finances.

With regard to this large-scale military exercise of the Chinese Empire, the embassies of Western European and American countries in China sent officials to visit the site. The command department of the exercise also specially invited reporters from many domestic and foreign media to observe the scene, which can be described as very open.

"The participating troops in this military exercise come from various ace units of the seven military regions of the Chinese Empire, and the vast majority of them are officers and soldiers who have experienced the baptism of war. From the point of view of the garrison area, covering all provinces of the Chinese Empire, with a total strength of more than 100,000 troops, 1,000 cannons and 10 airships will be used to participate in the exercise, and the overall scale is the largest exercise in China's previous dynasties, and it is unique in all countries in the world. To this end, the Imperial Political Axe has allocated six million Dragon Coins as the cost of the exercise, and the subjects of the Imperial Empire are asked to trust the Imperial Political Axe and the Imperial [***] team, and we have the ability to protect the personal and property safety of the Imperial citizens. ”

Colonel Li Yunfeng, spokesman for the Information Office of the Ministry of National Defense, said this in front of domestic and foreign media, but he avoided answering questions about military secrets, such as the number of specific troops.

When asked by a reporter about the purpose of the exercise, Colonel Li Yunfeng said: "To paraphrase the terminology of military operations, the Queshan Autumn Strike not only tested the running-in capability of different units of different military regions, but also tested the troops' long-range delivery and strike capabilities across defense zones. As the first country in the world to have an air force, the Imperial Air Force will prove its value to the whole world. The Emperor [***] team will prove to the people that they are capable of defending their homeland. ”

Among the seven military regions, the Fengtian Military Region, the Yanjing Military Region, the Jinan Military Region, and the Lanzhou Military Region played the role of the Red Army troops, representing the Chinese Empire. The Chengdu Military Region, the Guangzhou Military Region, and the Nanjing Military Region play the role of the Blue Army unit and represent the enemy country.

When asked by a reporter which country the Blue Army represents and whether it is Russia, Li Yunfeng replied unabashedly: "Although this military exercise is not aimed at any country, the Tsarist Russian Empire has invaded a large area of territory of the Chinese Empire, and if it is not returned, it will be an enemy of the empire." ”

On 27 September, the units participating in the exercise of the major military regions entered their predetermined positions one after another, and the commanders of the various units did not dare to be careless in the slightest; because the Imperial Chinese Army participating in the exercise was all drawn from various military regions and towns, the various units conducted a number of small-scale exercises after they converged to strengthen the coordination and cooperation capabilities of the various units. The multi-way army gathered around the mountain, gearing up and eager to try, just waiting for the curtain to open.

The policy of the military exercise is still to attack the enemy and defend us. The commander of the Red Army was Duan Qirui, and Feng Guozhang was the general staff officer. The total strength of the Red Army was 1 corps and 1 division, totaling 45,000 men. The commanders of the Blue Army are Cao Kun and Zhang Huaizhi as the General Staff Officers, and the Blue Army has a large number of troops, 1 army, 1 division and 1 reading brigade, with a total strength of 55,000 troops. The simulation is that the Russian Empire had more standing armies than the Chinese Empire. In terms of equipment, the equipment of the Red Army remained unchanged, and it was the armament of the active forces of the Imperial Army, while the Blue Army was organized according to the firepower of the Russian Army.

Most of the embassy officials who participated in the observation were military attachés, and they guessed that it was the Russian Army from the firepower configuration of the Blue Army alone, and when they saw the troop arrangement of "more enemies and fewer of us," they were even more sure that the Blue Army was the Russian Army.

On 28 September, the red and blue armies arrived at their designated places as planned, forming a confrontation situation.

On 29 September, Wang Chenhao, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, personally visited the Xuchang Palace and ordered the military exercise to begin in the name of the supreme commander of the Navy, Army and Air Force.

On 30 September, the first day of the Queshan military exercise, the theme of which was the external assault battle of the red and blue armies' reconnaissance cavalry.

At 8 a.m., the Blue Army cavalry regiment set off from outside Changle Pass and headed north, arriving near Maocheng three hours later. The Red Army Cavalry Regiment set out at seven o'clock in the morning, set off from Huanggang, and arrived near Shunshandian Village at half past ten. Both the red and blue armies sent sentinels to reconnoitre, and when the two armies were more than ten miles apart, they discovered each other, and then changed formations and engaged in battle.

The Beiyang Times reporter in the on-site referee team then wrote: "In a blink of an eye, the two armies intersected, charged each other, and the hooves were staggered, almost looking for each other. ”

According to the plan of the parade, this cavalry exercise was the defeat of the Red Army, because the Blue Army was a Cossack cavalry regiment, and the Mongol cavalry regiment of the Chinese Empire was defeated by the opposing side.

On the first day of the exercise, the Red Army cavalry was defeated by the Blue Army cavalry and took the initiative to retreat.

The military attachés of the observation regiments of various countries did not disagree with this, they all knew that the Cossack cavalry regiment of the Tsarist Empire was the last largest cavalry unit in the world, and it was very powerful.

On September 30, the second day of the Queshan military exercise, the theme of which was the outbreak of the main force encounter between the two sides.

Also at 8 o'clock in the morning, the Blue Army came fiercely, and the 1st Division of the Left Wing, the 1st Army of the Central Army, and the 1st Mixed Brigade of the Right Wing planned to force the Wuzhai River (Zhentou River) and send a force to attack the civilians in the Red Army area. The main force of the Red Army was stationed on the north bank of the Wuzhai River and built fortifications.

The Wuzhai River in the exercise represents Heilongjiang, and the Red Army defended Heilongjiang to prevent the Russian invasion. However, there were still a large number of Chinese civilians in the Jiangdong 64tun area on the north bank of the Heilongjiang River, and the Red Army left a small part of its troops to cover the evacuation of the civilians, so they encountered the Russian army.

At about 11 o'clock in the morning, the red and blue armies found each other in the area of Twenty Lipu in the southern suburbs of Lanyang, and immediately adjusted their posture and launched an attack on the other side. Although the Blue Army was the main force, the forward armament was light weapons, while the Red Army was small in number but had fierce firepower.

The two sides were evenly matched, and the battle was difficult to solve, and by the afternoon, the battle situation was still in a stalemate.

Eventually, the Red Army's blocking forces completed their mission, and all civilians safely withdrew across the river. The Red Army, on the other hand, blocked a large force of the Blue Army with a small force and successfully covered the retreat of the civilian population. This topic is to express the concern of the Chinese Emperor [***] for the lives of the people of the Empire, and at the same time to criticize the massacre of the people of the Empire by the Blue Army.

Observers from various countries understood the intention of the Chinese Empire's move, and condemned the attack on civilians by the Blue Army, believing that the war was a grudge between soldiers and should not affect civilians. Although the Russian government knew that the Chinese Empire was deliberately burying the Russian army, it also had to take into account international public opinion, so it ordered the military not to carry out military operations that harmed the civilians of the Chinese Empire in the future.

Of course, the biggest attraction of the military attaches of various countries is that the Red Army successfully blocked the large army of the Blue Army with a small group of elite troops, which is intended to show that the Chinese Empire surpasses the Russian army by a large margin in terms of weapons and equipment.

On 1 October, the third day of the military exercise in Queshan was held, with the theme of the big battle of the Blue Red Army's one attack and one defense.

The parade ordered that the main content of the day was an attack on the defensive positions of the Red Army by the Blues.

At about 9 a.m., the Blue Army made a full-scale assault on the Red Army positions.

The Red Army relied on the river fortifications to defend itself, and the two sides fought fiercely. The Red Army took advantage of its superiority in equipment to effectively deal a blow to the arrogance of the Blue Army, killing and wounding a large number of enemies. The offensive and defensive battles between the two sides were extremely fierce, and the troops on both sides were in the midst of a high-intensity confrontation between attacking and defending, attacking in defense, and attacking with defense.

The two sides engaged in a fierce artillery battle, but because of the battle across the river, it ended in a close match.

However, the Red Army soon chose to retreat on its own initiative, avoiding the Blue Army's artillery fire. The Blues captured the north bank of the river.

The director announced the victory of the Blue Army, but in terms of the loss of troops on both sides, there were fewer Red Army and more Blue Army, and the battle loss ratio was as high as 1:10, which means that the Blue Army won the battle with heavy casualties.

On the surface, the Blues won the battle, but in reality the Blues suffered heavy losses and the Reds suffered minor losses. In this way, the Red Army was a strategic retreat to preserve its strength.

After this battle, the number of troops of the red and blue sides reached an equal number.

Observer groups from all over the world knew that it was actually a disastrous victory for the Blues, and the bigger one was on the fourth day.

On 2 October, the fourth day of the military exercise, the theme was the decisive battle of the main forces of the Red and Blue Army.

The Blues successfully crossed the river and continued their assault north in two directions.

The Blue Army on the right flank, eager to take credit, advanced quickly, but was surrounded by the main forces of the Red Army, and a battle of annihilation began.

The Red Army used a large number of artillery to violently attack the blue army on the right, but the blue army on the right could not resist and asked for reinforcements.

The left side of the Blues was the main force, and immediately after receiving the report, they moved closer to the right Blues.

Relying on its geographical superiority and equipment superiority, a large number of heavy machine guns formed crossfire to attack the attacking Blue Army troops, causing heavy casualties among the troops on the left flank of the Blue Army, and one brigade was killed within an hour.

As a result, the left flank of the Blue Army was blocked by a small force of the Red Army and pinned down at the foot of the hill and could not advance.

The battle lasted until 3 p.m., when the Blues on the right were quickly annihilated in the face of the Red Army's powerful offensive. Then, the main force of the Red Army quickly returned to the reinforcement and carried out a counter-encirclement of the main force of the Blue Army at the foot of the mountain.

The Blues tried to break through on the right, but after the advance entered Twenty Mile Pu, the Red Army cavalry attacked from the left side, and for a time the Blues were in chaos and retreated.

After the Red Army had completed the encirclement of the Blue Army, the Red Army on the hill had completed its mission and retreated.

After the fourth day of the exercise, everyone knew that the Red Army was victorious. For this beautiful lure of the enemy to go deeper, lure the enemy and the main force to separate, seek an opportunity to concentrate the main force to encircle and annihilate the enemy's salient, and then encircle the point to send reinforcements, and after annihilating the enemy's salient in one fell swoop, in turn carry out counter-encirclement of the enemy's main force, and finally annihilate the enemy. This tactic immediately won unanimous praise from military attaches of various countries, and it was even more exciting than the Yongping military exercise a few years ago.

However, the military exercises were not over, and there was still a fifth day of exercises, and officials from various countries did not understand what medicine was bought in the gourd of the Chinese Empire, so they had to continue watching.

On 3 October, the fifth day of the military exercise, the theme of the exercise was a thunderous blow.

At dawn, when the Blue Army was trapped by the siege, the Red Army used 1,000 artillery pieces to carry out a carpet shelling of the mountain, and then there was a rumbling buzz in the air, and more than a dozen airships of the Chinese Imperial Air Force flew over the mountain and dropped bombs one after another.

In an instant, the position of the Blue Army on the mountain was full of flames, earth and rocks, and was instantly overwhelmed by the smoke of artillery fire.

The officials of the various countries in the observation group were immediately shocked, such a powerful artillery strike and airship bombardment, the position of the blue army can be said to be left without chickens and dogs, after the smoke of gunpowder, the position is gone, and the hillside where it is located has been flattened to a height of half a meter.

The Reds then gave the order for a general attack, rushed to the Blue positions, and killed the remnants.

Of course, there were only dummies on the Blues positions today, but the dummies were also blown up.

At the end of the military exercise, the parade announced the end of the exercise. On the last day, the Chinese Empire let the great powers of various countries see the powerful artillery strike force of the Imperial Chinese Army, and the airship unit carried out aerial bombardment for the first time, which deeply stimulated the officials of various countries.

Of course, it was the Russian military attachés who were most irritated. In the past, they were greedy and jealous of the advanced weapons and equipment of the Chinese Emperor [***] team, but now after the military exercise in Queshan, this mentality has become a deep worry. In particular, the bombing ability of the airship can be said to be invincible. Although the Russian [***] team is also developing airships, there are only a dozen of them, and they have a light load, and they do not have the ability to bomb the ground on a large scale.

On 4 October, the various armies participating in the Autumn Festival held a grand military parade outside Xuchang City. The red and blue troops all wore military uniforms, and gathered at the parade ground with great vigor. In accordance with the pre-decree, they were arranged in order, and they were constantly changing according to the columns, dense team movements, etc., and the ranks were purged, and the army was magnificent, and every move of the foot was full of fire, and the first move of the gun was the fire of ten thousand guns.

Wang Chenhao, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, wore the uniform of the generalissimo of the navy, land and air force, rode on a horse with a sword, and paraded around the field.

Subsequently, Wang Chenhao ascended to the head of the city to give a lecture, and his impassioned words suddenly aroused the blood surnames of the soldiers.

"Defend the country! Horse Leather Shroud! ”

Amid the shouts of all the officers and soldiers, the military exercise in Queshan came to an end.

After the military parade, Wang Chenhao held a banquet in the Xuchang Palace to entertain the Chinese and foreign officials and the officers of the two armies, and at the same time, rewarded the three armies.

(To be continued)