The ashtray, no, it should be Yan Guang.

This time, Yan Guang gave Cai Ye and Jiang Baili their choice of opponents, and the first word began with "Ao".

Of course, this "Austria" does not mean Austria-Hungary, although Austria-Hungary is not very strong, but people have the help of Germans. Besides, Austria-Hungary also has some foundations, although Austria-Hungary always loses, defeats, and defeats again when it comes to the Allied forces!

But this does not necessarily mean that Austria-Hungary is easy to deal with, it can only be said that he is easier to bully.

Yan Guang gave Cai Ye and Jiang Baili their choice of opponent this time, "Ao", but it was the Ottoman Empire... The Ottoman Empire, also known as the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, or the Ottoman Empire, was an empire founded by the Turkic people, founded by Osman I. The Ottomans first settled in Central Asia, established the Seljuk Empire, and adopted Islam as the state religion, and then moved to Asia Minor, where it gradually flourished. At its peak, it reached the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, and controlled most of the territories of southern Europe, the Balkan Peninsula, the Middle East and North Africa, the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf in the east, Austria and Slovenia in the north, and Sudan and Yemen in the south. After the destruction of the Eastern Roman Empire, the capital was settled in Constantinople, renamed Istanbul, and the heir to the Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) was proposed. Therefore, the sultan (emperor) of the Ottoman Empire regarded himself as the lord of the world, inherited the Roman Empire and Islamic culture, and the Eastern and Western civilizations were united in his hands.

The Ottoman Empire was located at the crossroads of Eastern and Western civilizations, and mastered the land lines of communication between Eastern and Western civilizations for six centuries. During its existence, Islamization and modernization reforms were carried out more than once, blurring the boundaries between Eastern and Western civilizations. The Ottoman Empire had a significant influence on Western civilization, and its architect, Mima? Memursinan's name remains to this day. In the 16th century, during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, it reached its peak, and in the 17th century, the territory reached its peak. Under Barbarossa's leadership, his navy was more in control of the Mediterranean.

The Ottoman Empire was the only one that could challenge the rising Islamic power of European countries from the 15th to the 19th centuries, but the Ottoman Empire could not resist the impact of modernizing European countries, and in the early 19th century, it became a decline, its territory was reduced, its power was lost, and finally it was defeated by the Allies in World War I, and the Ottoman Empire was divided. Kemal, the founding father of present-day Turkey, led a national uprising to repel Western forces, established a state in Asia Minor, abolished the traditional caliphate system, changed the name of the country to Turkey, and the Ottoman Empire came to an end.

In the nineteenth century, the rise of nationalism swept through many countries, and the Ottoman Empire was not immune. The growth of national consciousness and civic nationalism led to the introduction of Western nationalist ideas into the Ottoman Empire, which had to deal with nationalism at home and abroad, and many revolutionary parties were born in the country.

The rise of nationalism had a profound impact on the empire of the nineteenth century, as well as on the national policy of the empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. Many Ottoman Turks questioned the state policy of the time, and some argued that ethnic conflicts originated externally and had nothing to do with administration. The empire did not achieve much at that time, and her ability to cope with nationalism was questioned.

In 1829, with the intervention of Britain, France, and Russia, Greece declared the reading power after the Greek Reading War in the thirties of the 19th century. The reforms failed to curb the rise of nationalism in the Grand Duchy of the Danube and Serbia, which were already in a state of half-read. In 1875, Serbia, Montenegro, Wallachia and Moldova declared their independence from the Ottoman Empire.

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 formally established the reading power of Serbia, Romania, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Bosnia was occupied by the Austrian Empire, and the rest of the Balkans remained under Ottoman control.

In this wave of anti-colonization, the Serbian Jew Güda? Judahalkalai advocated the establishment of a Jewish kingdom in Palestine. The Turks lost the Russo-Turkish war, and the Ottomans traded Cyprus for British support at the Berlin Conference. Egypt, which was occupied by Napoleon I in 1798, was recaptured by the Ottoman and British forces in 1801, and in 1882 the British occupied Egypt under the pretext of reorganizing law and order.

Legally, Egypt and Sudan remained Ottoman provinces in North Africa until 1914. In World War I, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, and Britain annexed Egypt and Sudan. Between 1830 and 1912, the Ottoman Empire lost all its provinces in North Africa: Algeria (occupied by France in 1830), Tunisia (occupied by France in 1881), and Libya (occupied by Italy in 1912).

The empire's failure to repay its national debt to European banks led to the establishment of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration. At the end of the 19th century, the empire was not completely occupied by the Western powers because of the concept of a balance of power, both Austria and Russia wanted to increase their influence and expand their territory through the decline of the Ottoman Empire, but the British tried to restrain them, fearing that Russia would dominate the eastern Mediterranean.

After the outbreak of the European War, on October 29, 1914, the Ottoman Empire officially entered the war. By the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire had taken a terrible price, and the entire territory of the country had been carved up by the great powers, and now there were 40 new states established on Ottoman soil (including the controversial Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), which was a hundred times more tragic than the Manchus of the past... Of course, the Turks did not have a proud record. For example, the more famous Battle of the Dardanelles was the largest landing battle in modern history, which predates Normandy.

The Turks paid a heavier price than the attackers, but they held their ground and paid a high price to the Anglo-French forces.

It's just that there is a grapevine that the battle was actually commanded by the Germans, and even the machine gunners were Germans.

And the landing campaign will fail, due to the mistakes of the British and French high commands. Instead of carrying out coordinated actions with the Russian army and navy, as agreed, they attempted to seize the straits and the Turkish capital on their own (there was a sharp contradiction between the Entente). The initial attempt of the campaign, to seize the Dardanelles and Constantinople with fleet forces alone, was inherently inadequate.

The Anglo-French high command underestimated the enemy's defensive capabilities, ignoring the covert surnames of campaign preparations and the sudden landing of the first landing troops. The second group of landing troops landed too slowly, allowing the enemy to establish a strong defense before then. The skillful use of land, coastal artillery and anti-landing mine obstacles by the German-Turkish High Command, as well as the effective operation of the German fleet on the lines of communication at sea, were the main reasons for the defeat of the Anglo-French in the Battle of the Dardanelles.

If you simply evaluate the Ottoman Empire, then the Ottoman Empire still has a certain strength.

It's just that the national problem within the Ottoman Empire is very serious, and in terms of military strength alone, it cannot be underestimated, and it may even be stronger than Beiyang, which basically unified China after the Second Revolution. However, the Ottoman Empire itself had almost no industrial base, unlike Beiyang and the little family wealth left over from the Manchu Qing Dynasty... Of course, in addition to the Ottoman Empire, Italy was actually a good target for bullying.

After all, it is really rare in history to be as strange as Italy, and if you have to find one, I am afraid that only one Manchu can be compared.

However, the European branch of the Military Intelligence Agency has provided a little information recently, and the content of the information is uncertain, only vaguely mentioning that it seems that the Entente is digging into the corner of the Allies, trying to dig the strange country of Italy to their side.

Of course, this information provided by the Military Intelligence Agency is very vague, after all, this operation of the Entente is also extremely secret. However, it was just this vague information that made Yan Guang understand that the Entente had begun to win over Italy―――――― after all, is this the case in history?

At this time, even if Yan Guang wanted to choose an opponent like Italy, I am afraid that Britain and France might not agree, after all, they would definitely be afraid that such a thing would sabotage their operation.

Therefore, the best target is Ottoman Turkey.

What's more..."Yue Chang, are you going to call Minister Zhan for me?!" ”

"Yes!"

After Yue Chang left, Yan Guang kept wandering around the world map on the table.

In Yan Guang's mind, there is a plan in the making, and if this plan can be realized―――――― then China will not need to worry about resources for the next 100 years.

The office building of the Ministry of Railways is also in Guoshe Avenue, so after Yue Chang ran out to make a phone call, Zhan Tianyou soon walked in with his assistant Zhou Chengsheng.

"President, are you looking for me urgently?"

Zhan Tianyou walked in a lot, especially the size. If Zhan Tianyou was still a little fat and a little rich in the past, then the current Zhan Tianyou and him in the past have been too thin―――――― but it is no wonder, after all, in recent times, a lot of the country's financial expenditure has been invested in the railway.

Now Zhan Tianyou is even more busy, he just ran back from Mukden a few days ago, and he will go to Yurt Tou again after a while.

Looking at Zhan Tianyou's appearance, Yan Guang also sighed in his heart.

It's just that Yan Guang can't let Zhan Tianyou take a good rest, after all, Zhan Tianyou is the best railway engineer in China. At present, there are too many railways under construction in China, and many of the more important railways need to be designed and supervised by Zhan Tianyou.

And now Yan Guang wants to see Zhan Tianyou, that is, he asks about a railway project.

"Come on, come on, you sit down first..."

Zhan Tianyou is not polite, to be honest, he has been very tired recently, and when he saw a chair and a bed, he wanted to sit and lie down... After Zhan Tianyou sat down, Yan Guang said directly.

"How's the progress of the Dilan Railway?"

Dilan Railway, the so-called Dilan Railway is actually the old name of Dihua and Lanzhou. And Dihua, which is now Urumqi.

As early as when Yan Guang entered Sichuan, there were two railways started at the same time, one was the Sichuan-Han Railway, and the other was the Chenglan Railway. The Sichuan-Han Railway was completed and opened to traffic during the Second Revolution, and the Dilan Railway was opened to traffic around the same time.

After the opening of traffic, Zhan Tianyou went to Lanzhou in person, because the topographic investigation from Lanzhou to Dihua had begun a long time ago. Therefore, at the same time that Zhan Tianyou went to Lanzhou, the Ministry of Railways had begun to lay railways to Dihua.

The idea was simple: Tibet and Xinjiang, two vast and sparsely populated provinces, were being encroached upon by Britain and Russia. One of the more important reasons for erosion, but unable to effectively resist is the inconvenience of transportation.

Inaccessible... Tibet Province must have no choice, after all, the difficulty of laying railways in Tibet Province is too high, and I don't know how many years a Qinghai-Tibet railway has been laid. But the Dilan Railway to Xinjiang Province... Seriously, the Russians are much more aggressive than the British. Although it will not take a few years for Russia to become the Soviet Union, Lao Maozi is Lao Maozi, and he can't change his surname even if he changes his name.

As a result, the Dilan Railway became one of the most important projects..."The Dilan Railway? ”

Recently, Zhan Tianyou wants to build dozens of railways, large and small, and the Dilan Railway is only one of them. However, because of the length of the Dilan Railway and its special and important surname, Zhan Tianyou's memory is very deep.

It's just that Zhan Tianyou has too many railways to be busy with every day, and he can't always keep an eye on the progress of the Dilan Railway, so he can only give Yan Guang a relatively vague data.

"As for the Dilan Railway, it has been repaired for more than a year now, but now it seems that it has only been repaired by more than 20%..."

"More than 20%..."

Yan Guang nodded, a little slower than he thought, but at this pace

"By the end of the European competition, it should be open to traffic, right?"

Yan Guang chose the Ottoman Empire, not only because the Turks were easier to bully, but for many other reasons.

For example..."Iraq and Kuwait..."

What is now Iraq is a territory of the Ottoman Empire, and Kuwait became a county in Basra Province of the Ottoman Empire in 1871. In 1899, Britain forced Kuwait to sign a secret agreement, and Britain became the suzerainty of Kuwait.

In 1939, Kuwait officially became a British protectorate.

Of course, none of this matters... On top of that, so far, Iran has been the only country in the Middle East that has discovered a few oil fields that are not very large. Iraq and Kuwait, on the other hand, are still "wastelands" in the eyes of the world.

In the eyes of the world, Mexico is still the world's largest oil producing region. As for the Middle East? There are only a few small oil fields in Iran... If Yan Guang had asked for the division of Iraq and Kuwait after the war under the pretext of entering the war... As long as China does pay a lot of price, then Iraq and Kuwait, which are still only chicken ribs in this era, or even chicken ribs, are likely to be given to China as post-war benefits.

Iraq... Kuwait... Anyone in later generations knows what these two places represent.

It's a pity that if people in this era want to know the treasures buried under these two lands, I'm afraid it will take another few decades.

Of course, Kuwait may have some trouble, but Iraq is 90% sure.

And with the exception of Iraq and Kuwait ..."Central Asian Railway..."

Central Asian Railway, Tsarist Russia had two very important railways in Asia. One is the Trans-Siberian Railway, of course. As for the other, it is the Central Asian Railway... The Central Asian Railway, formerly known as the Trans-Caspian Railway, is the main transportation artery of Central Asia and was built in the era of Tsarist Russia.

At the same time, the Central Asian Railway is not just one, it should be two.

The first was opened to traffic in 1905, and the second in 1915... The entire railway covered the entire Central Asian region, which is now Kazakhstan and several other stans. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Xinjiang Province was not Russian territory, I am afraid that the Russians would still want to build the railway to Xinjiang Province.

However, now Yan Guang really wants to give the Russians such a chance, the opportunity to connect the Central Asian Railway with the Dilan Railway... Later generations knew that Tsarist Russia would collapse because of the First World War and be replaced by the Soviet Union.

But the people of the Hereafter know, but the people of this world do not.

Now in the eyes of the world, Russia is still the huge "steam steamroller", a formidable and terrifying opponent. Even if the Russians now lost not only to the Germans on the Eastern Front, but also to the Turks (although by 1915 the situation in the Caucasus had changed), as long as the Russians mobilized their millions of gray cattle, there would be no one on the entire European continent who would be an opponent of the Russians.

You know, the Russians are extremely arrogant in this era... At this time, Yan Guang proposed that as an Entente power, he would declare war on the Ottoman Empire in order to fulfill the obligation to send troops, and bear part of the pressure on Russia in the Caucasus theater. And then asked the Russians to connect the Central Asian Railway with the Dilan Railway to facilitate the transportation of logistics materials, I am afraid that the Russians will be happy not to even drink vodka, right?

After all, in the eyes of people in this era, Russia is a behemoth, and China? It's just an ancient country that has some improvement.

Even the British and French were only worried about whether the Russians would use the railway to swallow up Xinjiang Province or even more Chinese territory after the end of the European war. I will never worry about Chinese in turn, swallowing up the Central Asia of the Russians―――――― in this era, no one with brains will think so, if you tell people to be careful to beware of China, they will probably laugh off their big teeth.

And what about Yan Guang? They could take advantage of this opportunity to build the Dilan Railway as fast as possible while transporting troops to the Caucasus battlefield through the Trans-Siberian Railway. When the Dilan Railway and the Central Asian Railway are connected to traffic, this railway can be used to transport troops to the Caucasus theater... At the same time as transporting troops, the Wehrmacht will also seek the consent of the Russians to build some military bases in Central Asia and train the Wehrmacht troops to be transported to the Caucasus theater in order to adapt to the climate of the Caucasian theater. At the same time, the Wehrmacht, which was wounded in the Caucasus, will also withdraw to Central Asia for rest ... Rest or something, plus the follow-up increase in troops, even if it is less, there will be a hundred thousand Chinese [***] teams in the entire Central Asian region, right?

In addition to the troops stationed in Lanzhou and Xinjiang Province, as soon as there was a change in Russia, the troops in Xinjiang Province and Lanzhou would be transported to Central Asia through the Dilan Railway. At that time, the Russians in Central Asia were preoccupied with themselves..."Iraq, Kuwait. Add to that Outer Mongolia, the Trans-Khingan Mountains, the Sakhalin Peninsula and all of Central Asia, and by that time we will be the biggest winners..."

After everyone, including Zhan Tianyou, retreated, Yan Guang, who had been thinking carefully in the room, suddenly hammered the map on the table. And the place in the hammer is precisely the Central Asian region.

The Russian Civil War can also be called the War of Intervention against the Soviet Union.

The collapse of Tsarist Russia began on October 1, 1917, with the October Revolution.

The official start of the war of intervention of the Great Powers against the Soviet Union began in 1918, after the end of World War I.

From 1915 to 1918, there were three years.

In addition, after the establishment of the Soviet Union, the main target of the British and French powers was the Soviet Union, and by no means China, which was secretly occupying Central Asia―――――― perhaps Britain, France, and other countries were still happy to have prejudices about this matter.

And after the end of the war of intervention against the Soviet Union, the end time in history was 1922. Now that history has changed, I don't know how many years it will end, but I believe there won't be much of a gap. What's more, if Yan Guang makes some troubles inside, maybe he can delay for a few more years.

At the present rate of growth in China, by about 1922, it would at least be as powerful as France. It will not be inferior to Ben much in terms of sea power ... With such strength, it is absolutely no problem to ensure the interests of the post-war period.

As for Britain, France, etc.? Seeing that China occupied Central Asia, perhaps it was happy that China and the Soviet Union were "dog eat dog"... These are the reasons why Yan Guang decided to declare war on Turkey.

After all, such a miserable object, if Yan Guang didn't choose him to bully, I'm afraid even God wouldn't agree, right? Not to mention that there are so many post-war benefits. Not to mention anything else, just Iraq, Kuwait or Central Asia, any one of them can benefit China endlessly. What's more, is there a chance to get all three at once?

As for Siberia or something... It is not to mention the vast and sparsely populated land of Siberia, although there are also a lot of resources there, and the land is even larger. However, it is not easy to occupy it, after all, the land there is too big, and China is not so strong.

Let alone... Siberia does not need Central Asia, if it really occupies Siberia, many places can be seen by just looking at the map. At that time, not only Britain, France, and Ben will be wary of China, but I am afraid that even the United States will not be at ease

(To be continued)