Electricity.

is changing China.

50MW generator sets and 30kV power transmission and transformation and relay protection systems have begun to be popularized on a large scale in eastern China, and in 1902, the total investment in state-owned power plants reached 45 million yuan.

More power investment still comes from the capital market, especially the capital of the Hu family.

At the Phu Quoc Industrial Research Institute in Shanghai, researchers are attacking 75MW thermal power units in an attempt to overcome this hurdle, and a major obstacle is the arc breaking strength of the disconnector.

Regional power grids began to be united, and related theories and calculation formulas were constantly updated and developed in China.

Special electric power schools have been set up in Shanghai and Fuzhou to train electric power professionals, and the state has also set a set of electrician training and assessment standards.

In Shandong, with the emergence of sodium benzoate and the industrial ice storage system based on the principle of ammonia compressor, Shandong's food processing industry is becoming a new industry, especially the processing of meat products, which promotes the high development of animal husbandry in Shandong.

In Fuzhou, Shanghai, Qingdao and Tianjin, electric fans, heaters, and water heaters are gradually becoming new products for household appliances, and Wells Fargo Heavy Industries has purchased the invention patent rights of the condensing air conditioning system of the American inventor Willis Carlile, and on this basis, it is researching a larger-scale central water-cooled air conditioning system.

Electricity.

It will revolutionize China.

For the time being, no country has been able to realize this.

Hu Chuyuan's job is to make accurate estimates, continue to build more power plants and power grids, and ensure the stability of the country's electricity supply, which in fact doubles China's total power generation capacity almost every year.

…… The year 1902 began.

After spending the New Year in Yanjing, on February 10, 1902, Hu Chuyuan secretly took the prime minister's special train to the Northwest Front, and he was accompanied by almost the entire staff of the Confidential Secretariat.

In Shanshan, a temporary prime minister's residence has been built and is waiting for Hu Chuyuan.

There he was to command the first full-scale counterattack of the war in the Far East.

Before that, of course, he had to confirm a problem first...... The Chinese Army is indeed ready for a full-scale counterattack.

Two years.

It is not a long time, but in the magic of money, in the dominance of national policies, Shanshan at this time has initially presented the prototype of an industrial city.

On February 17, Hu Chuyuan's special train quietly arrived in Shanshan, and when he passed outside the city, he looked through the window of the train at the industrial plants, open mines, and towering chimneys in the distance...... Everything proves that this city with a lot of industrial raw materials is on the rise.

Shanshan is a good place.

Perhaps, it is just an oasis town 70 kilometers away from Turpan, and it is unremarkable.

In fact, it is the most intensive area of mining resources in Xinjiang Province, the total reserves of coal, iron ore and oil are very rich, and the local area also has world-class sodium saltpeter mines and bentonite mines, although the local reserves of manganese, chromium, zinc, lead and copper are not rich, they are all small deposits, which are enough for the time being.

Since March 1900, Hu Chuyuan has invested heavily in the construction of Shanshan City, led by Jiangnan Group and Fuguo Heavy Industries, where Zibo Chemical has opened the first oil well in Xinjiang Province and established a new chemical base.

Beginning in July 1901, the Shanshan Arsenal began to provide ammunition for the Northwest Front, and under the leadership of Hu Yuanyuan, the CITIC News Agency and some Hui businessmen contracted wasteland in Shanshan, improved the underground water canal system, invested in cotton planting, established textile factories, and produced military cotton clothes and quilts, effectively reducing the pressure on railway transportation from the supply of materials in the Northwest.

China Power Investment Corporation, a newly listed company spun off from Shanghai Yinghua Electric Company, has built the first thermal power plant in Xinjiang Province in Shanshan, with the expected goal of building six 50MW units, two of which have already been put into operation.

Money.

For Hu Chuyuan, this may not be a very important thing.

According to his investment plan, within ten years, he will invest a total of 380 million yuan in Shanshan, which is a long-term investment project, and after ten years, he may collect as much as 100 million yuan in profits from Shanshan every year.

After passing through Shanshan New Town, the train gradually entered a military camp on the outskirts, which was the logistics dispatch terminal of the State Military Commission in Shanshan area, specifically to ensure the supply and supply of materials for the northwest counterattack, and to coordinate the coordinated operations between the various corps.

In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, Hu Chuyuan decided to sit in Shanshan himself.

Passing by the supply depot outside Yingkou, the train stopped, and on either side of the tracks stood two rows of soldiers, lined up for kilometers, mobilizing at least nearly 10,000 soldiers.

They wore thick gray cotton coats, carried new-style rifles, and wore dark green steel helmets on their heads.

Several military off-road vehicles were parked at the entrance of the railway station, and Li Kaiye led several major commanders of the Northwest Front to wait in front of them.

After hundreds of agents of the Secret Service got off the train first, Hu Chuyuan walked out of the train with his wife, Wu Shuzhen, accompanied by more than a dozen staff members of the Confidential Secretariat.

Seeing Hu Chuyuan, Li Kaiye immediately led the other commanders to salute together.

Hu Chuyuan was glad that they also came to greet him, stepped forward and said a few words, and then asked Li Kaiye and the others to go with him to the Shanshan Logistics Station of the State Military Commission first.

During this time, he will be working at this logistics terminal, and the office building and station are ready.

When the group went to the office building by car, Hu Chuyuan specially asked Li Kaiye to take a car with himself, got into the car, and when the car drove onto Shizi Road, he asked Li Kaiye: "How are the preparations in the northwest?" ”

Li Kaiye replied very decisively: "It's all ready, just wait for the order of the Military Commission!" ”

Hu Chuyuan bowed slightly solemnly and did not continue to ask.

This order is something that only he can give, but before it can be given, he must personally confirm the matter, and the stakes are too high to be overlooked.

Arriving at the dispatch center of the logistics station, Hu Chuyuan first led people to the office building, while Wu Shuzhen went to the residence to settle down.

In Hu Chuyuan's office, a large map of the entire Central Asian region was hung on the wall, and the garrisons of each force were marked in red, blue, green, and yellow.

For the past two years, the Yarkand Khanate has firmly occupied the western part of the province, establishing its capital in Usu and maintaining a large army of nearly 200,000 men in Urumqi, in addition to the Russian Eastern Central Asian Army.

Of course, there is no need to be intimidated by the 200,000 troops of the Yarkand Khanate, which are just a rabble, and the only thing that really deserves attention is the Russian Eastern Army Group in Central Asia.

In the two large-scale military concentration areas of Aledka and Semipalatinsk, Russia also stationed two army groups, namely the Southern Army and the Northern Army Group in Central Asia, and in Semipalatinsk and Barnaul, France also stationed army group armies to ensure the supply security of the entire Far Eastern Railway.

At present, the size of the Russian and French garrisons in Central Asia is about 1.1 million, the French army has two group armies with a total strength of 370,000 troops, and the Russian army has three group armies and several local garrison units with a total strength of 750,000 troops.

These data alone are enough to see how big the war in the Far East as a whole really was.

It has actually surpassed the Napoleonic Wars in scale, but for China, such wars are not uncommon in history, except that now the large-scale use of firearms and artillery, previously spears and broadswords, has begun.

The difference is only that, the essence of war has not changed.

For so many years, Hu Chuyuan's tactical principle has always been the same as before: deceive the opponent and annihilate the opponent.

Entering the office, Hu Chuyuan stood in front of the big map, calmly and solemnly looking at the situation in the entire Central Asia, as if all the pictures appeared in front of his eyes, and he had seen those soldiers.

Li Kaiye and Ha Peiying, commander of the 24th Division of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Corps, stood behind Hu Chuyuan and also looked at this large map, they actually didn't need to look at it, because they had seen too much, and they had already memorized all the useful information in their minds.

Ha Peiying should be the army commander, and Li Kaiye has also become the commander-in-chief of the Northwest Front.

With the development of the war, the original corps-division-brigade-regiment establishment was not enough to support the use of tactics, and the domestic army was readjusted to 74 divisions, three to five divisions were organized into one army, and each army was placed under the control of the commander-in-chief of the front headquarters.

At this time, Li Yuanhong, who arrived at the logistics station first, also hurriedly walked in and sent over the northwest military intelligence report that Hu Chuyuan needed.

Hu Chuyuan put the thick stack of reports on his desk, and did not rush to look through them, but continued to check the map and directly inquired about various situations with Li Kaiye and Ha Peiying.

At present, the Northwest Front has gathered three corps in Huguang, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and Xinjiang Province, divided into four corps, with a total of 620,000 troops.

For the Russians and the French, it would be impossible to rely on this little force to fight back, but for China, for Hu Chuyuan and Li Kaiye, everything is possible.

It wasn't until the evening, when Li Kaiye and they were sent away, that Hu Chuyuan calmed down and carefully read the Northwest Military Intelligence Report.

Overall, the situation is good.

Whether it is military training, material reserves, or some other details, the Northwest Front already has the ability to counterattack in an all-round way.

In the desert area, 30 kilometers away from Shanshan New Town, the staff of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Central Museum are intensively excavating the ancient city of Loulan, and after two years of work, there is now good progress.

As a master of Chinese cultural relics, Hu Chuyuan did not have the heart and time to go there to take a look.

Once in Shanshan, he began to reorganize the new strategic rationing problem, and just in case, he transferred a new batch of 175-horsepower military trucks from Jiangnan to distribute gasoline.

In the past two years, China has been secretly stockpiling gasoline, and has been increasing production capacity in the oil-producing areas of Dongying, Beiping New Area, Sumatra, and Brunei, while gasoline reserves transported from the United States have been largely hoarded in North China and Shandong, ready to be deployed to various battlefields as needed.

In Shanshan, local oil wells have just started production, and the logistics terminal is stockpiling 600,000 tons of gasoline.

At that time, gasoline will be delivered not only by trucks and railways, but also by horse and camel teams, and gasoline and other war materials will be delivered wherever the mechanized troops attack.

Hu Chuyuan's job in Shanshan is to ensure the normal operation of the entire logistics supply, so that Li Kaiye and the entire Northwest Front Army can continue to open up without worries until the predetermined goal of occupying Omsk.

February 24th.

In the midst of Hu Chuyuan's attention, Li Kaiye organized a large-scale military exercise in the Kumish area, mobilized more than 400 armored vehicles, drove straight in, and more than 20,000 infantry fought in coordination...... After the whole exercise, Hu Chuyuan did not find anything that dissatisfied him.

This also means that the Northwest Counterattack can officially begin.

In March, the mechanized corps of the Huguang Corps began to assemble, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Corps followed by cavalry units, and the first and third divisions of the Huguang Corps under the jurisdiction of the Third Army in the northwest were assembled as the main infantry.

March 14th.

The final fight back is coming.

(To be continued)