It was naturally impossible to tear up the regulations of the clan that had just been signed, but Liang Wu and the others still received a message of reprimand from the emperor. Liang Wu and the two with black faces are even more unkind to Xiang Chengde and the two elders of Shannan and Shanbei, but for the three people who have all kinds of smiling faces and all kinds of good words, Liang Wu and the two are really black-hearted.

In the end, the Ryukyu government decided that the king of the Ryukyus would stay in Beijing and be raised by his mother until he reached adulthood, and that the Ryukyu Kingdom would be governed by the regent Xiang Chengde, supplemented by the Shannan and Shanbei clans. Anything that requires the approval of the King of the Ryukyus is also referred to the three for consultation, and as long as two of them approve of the matter, the seal of the King of the Ryukyus is affixed to take effect. In order to ensure that the Ryukyu royal seal was not abused, the imperial consul in the Ryukyus, Wang Chonghui, was in charge of the Ryukyu royal seal on his behalf, and also supervised the affairs of the capital to ensure the political stability of the Ryukyu state, and his actions were not allowed to interfere in the internal affairs of the Ryukyus, and only when it was involved in the external political relations of the Ryukyus, he had the right to intervene.

In the final analysis, China nominally has sovereignty over the Ryukyus, while the Ryukyus maintain political and formal independence, but in fact are dependent on China diplomatically, economically, and militarily. The most important thing for China was to elaborate the national constitution and the regulations of the suzerainty to determine China's rights and obligations towards the Ryukyus, which was also a trial test for the administration of other vassal states that were about to depend on China. The Ryukyus also needed to draw up a constitution for the Ryukyu Kingdom and determine the legitimacy of the royal succession and succession. At the moment, this is a mutually agreeable solution. This is the imperial envoy throwing out the constitutional plan, and the elders of the two clans are ecstatic when they hear it. During the Shangtai period, the old prince single-handedly held the power of the Ryukyus, and the two clans were completely isolated from the political arena. Now the constitutional plan proposed by the imperial envoy means that the two clans can enter the Ryukyu political arena openly, which naturally won the hearts of the elders of the two clans. Although the Ryukyu constitution did not adopt the British style of a hypothetical monarchy, it was better to have a real monarchy than a dictatorship. Once the general direction is set, there will be no major contradictions, and the details will be discussed slowly.

The Imperial Court agreed in principle to the Ryukyus' proposal to popularize education, but postponed the start to a year later. After all, the Imperial Court had been preparing for 10 years before implementing the nationwide education popularization, and it was necessary to verify all the work from school buildings to teaching materials, from the equipment of teachers to the procurement of food, before they dared to start to move forward. The Ryukyus don't even know how many students they need to go to school, so how can this work be carried out? Therefore, to give the Ryukyus a year of preparation, it is necessary to find out the population first.

The Ryukyus are very active in the census. The household officials sent by the imperial court to assist in the Ryukyus had just arrived, and the Ryukyus began to run at high speed. The census of the Ryukyus had just begun, and the northwestern regions were also asking the Imperial Court for assistance. The northwestern territories were all snatched by us Chinese from the Russians with our lives, and for various reasons we can give some preferential treatment to the local natives, but we must not give up sovereignty. Even if a tyrannical emperor can enslave his own people to satisfy his own selfish desires, he must not sacrifice the lives of his sons to marry others, otherwise even if he becomes famous for a while, he will be reviled by eternity. However, at this time, the court closed its mouth, and people did not give a word or say a word. In fact, the court officials were happy in their hearts, and they were helpless to annex the northwest lands openly, but they didn't expect Ryukyu to give a good opportunity to make such a fuss. The face of a benevolent and righteous power must be safeguarded, and sovereignty must be withdrawn, and the imperial court has held a fierce debate on these two contradictory issues. Before getting the best plan, we can only turn a blind eye to the pleas of the northwest countries, and when we are in a hurry, we can only say that the war in the northwest is not peaceful, and everything is slowed down. Indeed, at this time, the war in the northwest was making waves again.

First of all, Nicholas, who was unwilling to fail, tried his best to finally recruit 300,000 troops again, and on August 18, the troops from Samara, Saratov, and Volgograd rushed to Liu Shengti's corps in three ways, and Liu's corps had increased to 40,000 Chinese troops, 20,000 Japanese troops and 50,000 vassal ****, and its strength was slightly more than one of the Russian troops. In the face of the Russian army's offensive, the General Staff Headquarters formulated a tactic of taking defense as an offensive and blocking at all levels to achieve a general strategy of dragging the Russian army down and then counterattacking with emotion. After all, the Chinese army has not lost a single battle since the beginning of the war, and although it is certain that it can hold the existing positions if it fights hard, the gains outweigh the losses if the losses are too large, and a strategic retreat is a good choice. Even Duan Qirui, who had just arrived at the front line, thought so, but Liu Shengxiu didn't think so.

"Russia has been defeated for a long time without winning a single battle, and it has become a mourning army, and its morale has been completely lost. If our army takes the initiative to retreat at this time, the morale of the Russian army will definitely be restored. Although the total strength of the Russian army is large, it has been dispersed, which gives our army the opportunity to break through in various ways. Moreover, most of the Russian troops were temporarily recruited peasants, especially the Volgograd Direction Army, whose soldier training was inferior to that of the peasant army in Omsk. As long as our army concentrates its main forces to defeat the weakest army in the Volgograd direction, the other two armies will inevitably stop and dare not attack. ”

In fact, this idea has also been discussed by the General Staff Headquarters, and from a strategic point of view, if the Russian army can be defeated in the offensive, China will naturally be more justified in future political negotiations. But this plan is risky, first of all, in order to achieve the goal of completely defeating the Russian army all the way, then the attacking troops must concentrate as many main battle troops as possible and equip them with main battle weapons. Otherwise, the attacking forces will be in a stalemate with Russia, and the whole strategy will be a complete failure. There are more attacking troops, and the defending troops are naturally less. The enemy is the Russian dictatorship, who has lost his mind, and if he tries to lose one army in exchange for the other two to capture Uralsk, and then outflank the attacking troops from the rear, he may end up losing a large army. Or is this the strategy of the Russian army in the first place? This is more than 100,000 miles away from the mainland, Sun Wukong needs to turn a somersault distance, once the attacking troops are trapped, there is no chance of rescue. China's victory is basically certain, and if it suddenly loses a large army at this time, the Chinese government will be passive. It is precisely because of the consideration of risk that the General Staff Headquarters has chosen such a compromise plan.

Liu Shengxiu pulled Duan Qirui to talk at night, and at dawn Duan Qirui sent a report to the General Staff Headquarters suggesting the implementation of Liu Shengxiu's plan, and attached a plan of action. The General Staff Headquarters needs to be discussed, and it takes time for the messages to go back and forth. Considering the situation that the Russian army in the Samara direction, which is closest to Uralsk, even a rapid march will take five marching days to engage our troops. In order to shorten the time of the war in Uralsk as much as possible, Duan Qirui used the right of arbitrariness to let Liu Shengxiu personally lead 40,000 Chinese troops and the Japanese Third Division and cooperate with 20,000 vassal ****, all the way to the Russian army in the direction of Volgograd. He personally led the military police regiment, with the Japanese Fifth Division as the main force, and cooperated with more than 30,000 vassal **** to stick to the Uralsk line.

"Three days, you only have three days. If within three days the General Staff Headquarters still demands the implementation of the original strategy, you must return to the army. Otherwise, regardless of the outcome of the battle, you should be well aware of the consequences of disobeying military orders. Duan Qirui faced the older generation of generals in front of him, and he was still strictly military.

"Fifteen days, within fifteen days I will definitely defeat the Russian army. Please hold on until I defeat the Russian army. Liu Shengxiu said goodbye to Duan Qirui with a standard military salute.

But the Russian army is still overestimated, and the Russian army on the northern front is proceeding quite slowly. The distance of a rapid march day, the Russian army walked for three days. Since this is the case, let's fight hard, and the staff headquarters gave the order to attack.

On 25 August, a brief encounter took place between the forward reconnaissance unit of the Liu Corps and the forward army of the Russian Volgograd Front, after which the Russian army formed a formation on the spot and the Chinese army slowed down its march to save physical strength. On the night of August 26, the main force of Liu's corps suddenly appeared in the Russian forward position. Without any artillery preparations, the Russian army was suddenly attacked by the Chinese infantry while still asleep, and the Russian forward battalion was in chaos that night, and the Russian army was completely defeated before dawn. The Chinese army did not launch a pursuit, but only repaired for a day after receiving the Russian camp. Because the Liu Corps was marching in a hurry, it did not bring heavy artillery, but in the early morning of the 28th, it still relied on a large number of mortars to arrive close and launch a short artillery bombardment on the Russian army, and then 40,000 Chinese troops entered the Russian army. The Russian army is strong and numerous, but the morale is not high, the command is chaotic, and the Chinese army is small in number but resolute in its fighting spirit and flexible in command, so the Russian army is very passive. However, the Russian army, which had a numerical advantage, despite its declining strength, was defeated but not defeated, and a barely maintained front.

The attack from the early morning continued into the afternoon, with 40,000 Chinese troops and nearly 90,000 Russian troops fighting fiercely, while the Japanese Fifth Division and two Kazakh divisions remained on the outer line. Kenichi Oshima, chief of staff of the 5th Division of the Japanese Army, repeatedly asked for a sortie but was opposed by Liu Shengxiu, who had been closely following the form of the battlefield and was waiting for the Russian formation to show signs of collapse. Only at this time can the last troops be invested in determining the battle situation, otherwise they can only fight into a refueling tactic and lose their own troops in vain. It's just that no one thought before the war that the Russian army's will to resist this time would be so resolute.

By 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the left flank of the Russian position, which had been repeatedly attacked, was loosened, and the Russian army retreated in an organized manner. Seeing this situation, Liu Shengxiu immediately ordered Kenichi Oshima to lead the rest of the troops to attack: "No reserves will be left, and the whole army will press—"

"The Russian Volgograd Front has been routed by us, and our army is in pursuit." On the morning of the 29th, Liu Shengxiu ordered the signal corps to send a telegram.

When the news came, Duan Qirui ordered the defense line to be reinforced, and the scouts rushed forward to reconnoitre. Sure enough, in the lavish palace of St. Petersburg, the roaring Nicholas II ordered the other two armies to attack Uralsk at once. By the 31st, the Russamara Front, which had marched rapidly, approached Uralsk and exchanged fire with the Kazakh troops stationed on the periphery. The next day, the Russian Saratov Front also hurried in and entered the battle. By September 3, the Russian army was progressing smoothly, the Chinese army had lost almost all of its outer defensive lines, and its main force had retreated across the Chagan River across the river from the Russian army. In response to this, Tsar Nicholas II sent a telegram to the armies of the front to express his commendation and ordered the troops to make persistent efforts, preferably to Beijing.

However, the Russian offensive ended there. On September 4, after Russia forced a breakthrough of the Chagan River at a heavy cost, China's air force, which had not appeared for a long time, arrived. The air force dropped heavy bombs on the Russian army, and at the same time, a number of secret warehouses built along the upper banks of the Chagan River dropped a large amount of fuel on the Chagan River, and the ignited oil turned the entire Chagan River into a river of fire. At this time, the Chinese army launched a counteroffensive, and the more than 20,000 Russian troops who could not retreat across the river had no way to retreat, and those who dared to resist were slaughtered, and finally surrendered to more than 17,000 Russian troops.

At the same time, the Liang Huadian corps of the Northern Front surrounded Yekaterinburg, but did not attack. And any attempt to rescue or break through was defeated in front of the Panzer Division, without exception. The Chinese repeated their old tricks, and the Liang Corps attacked in all directions to drive large numbers of people from the surrounding villages and towns to Yekaterinburg, and the operation had been going on for two weeks. The temperature in Yekaterinburg in September was already very low, and the empty-handed civilians were deported into Yekaterinburg, and the despicable Chinese actually stripped off the last winter clothes of these civilians who had nothing. This is reminiscent of the defeat in Irkutsk.

Yekaterinburg was not a strategic logistics base like Irkutsk, and neither food nor clothing could meet the needs of the more and more civilians who poured into the city, so the civilians who wanted to survive began to loot and plunder, at first they only plundered the inhabitants of the original Yekaterinburg, and later they developed to the point that everyone wanted to rob them. Murder, arson and other crimes have emerged one after another, and the order of the city has disappeared, but the survival and development of people are inseparable from the order. Since the Yekaterinburg government could not control the order of the city, there would be another order to take over, and that was the triad. Even though a large number of people died under the gangs, the number of people driven into the city by the Chinese was still very small. Yekaterinburg and Ben did not have so many supplies, which were simply enough to support them until the next spring. The fall of Yekaterinburg was already a matter of time.

Yuan Shoushan did not besiege Chelyabinsk, and Yuan Shoushan, who held two heavy artillery divisions, only shelled Chelyabinsk over and over again with heavy artillery. Buildings collapsed, fires never went out, and the Chinese shelling was extremely accurate, food was ignited, clothes were burned, and the sound of huge explosions at ammunition depots still echoed in the ears of the defenders. The general of the Chelyabinsk garrison told the Russian War Ministry that if the Chinese army was willing to sacrifice soldiers, Chelyabinsk would fall in one day. The civilians had already fled in all directions, and they were heading westward in the hope of escaping the fighting, but they were wrong.

Nie Shicheng on the central line did not carry out large-scale military operations, he dispersed his troops in companies, and under the guidance of special forces, he frequently appeared on the periphery of Ufa, constantly attacking the military units of the Russian army, and even developed to the point that anyone wearing a Russian military uniform would be shot. The Ufa defenders also tried to turn the tide, and they also took the initiative to pursue the Chinese army, but the success was almost nil. Because during the day the Chinese army will retreat, but at night it will be the world of the Chinese. Not to mention the Russian soldiers who act alone, even the barracks may not be safe, because you will never know if a gun is aimed at you, maybe the Chinese will do it directly with a mortar. Dark, cold, death, in this terrifying atmosphere, Russian soldiers did not dare to leave the building as long as it was night. Civilians who had made the arduous trek from Chelyabinsk also found that Ufa was not safe, so they loaded up their luggage and continued west with their wives and daughters. The atmosphere of fleeing also affected the local civilians in Ufa, so it was inevitable that the local civilians in Ufa began to flee westward, and when the scale became more and more, even the nervous Russian army had begun to desert.

However, at this time, the Russian army outside Uralsk, under the strict orders of the tsar, finally broke through the Chagan River at the cost of nearly 20,000 people, but it was powerless in the face of the Urals. However, they also found that it may have been a mistake to enter Uralsk, because the narrow size of Uralsk, which is located at the confluence of the two rivers, makes it easier for the Chinese Air Force to bomb, and the non-stop bombing day and night makes it impossible for the Russian army to assemble effectively, and naturally it is impossible to break through the Chinese defense line of the Ural River. The battle in Uralsk was scorching.

However, Liu Shengxiu kept attacking westward, and by September 12 he had already arrived in Volgograd, and the Japanese army even occupied the west bank of the Volga River for a time, but unfortunately had to give up because of lack of ammunition.

"If there is enough ammunition, our army will be able to attack the city of Moscow." In Beijing, Ouyang Zhenhua, the secretary of the Ministry of War, took the case in front of reporters: "Strictly order all factories to make every effort to produce all kinds of ammunition; The Ministry of Communications was strictly ordered to use all its forces to deliver ammunition to the front line; The Imperial Court ordered them to tell the vassal states that they must obey our army's orders, otherwise the wrath of the Empire will not be something they can bear. ”

At this time, under the orders of the Chinese government, the troops of the vassal states had gathered in Uralsk for urgent reinforcements from all over the country, and the Chinese army in Uralsk had recovered to 70,000 troops. On September 15, the Chinese Air Force began to airdrop a large amount of fuel to the area of the Chagan River, and a raging fire ignited in the rear of the Russian army. The commander of the Russian army saw that the situation was not good, and this was the intention of the Chinese army to cut off their retreat and wipe them out. The commander of the Russian army immediately ordered the withdrawal of troops while scolding the Chinese for getting so much oil, but more than 100,000 troops could go wherever they said under the air raids of the Chinese Air Force.

In fact, the oil transported by China to the northwest front has been exhausted, and the Russians do not know that this is the last large-scale use of fuel by the Chinese. If China wants to return to its current fuel use in Uralsk, it will have to wait a month now. In fact, this is also the reason why Liang Huadian only besieged and did not attack, Yuan Shoushan only attacked with heavy artillery, and Nie Shicheng only sent a small team to attack and harass, because almost all the transportation capacity was supported to Uralsk, and the three of them did not dare to use ammunition on a large scale at all. Although the trio had not fought in a major battle, brief exchanges of fire still occurred from time to time. Now that their ammunition stocks have dropped to the point where they need to be replenished, after this battle, the transportation force will be tilted back towards Liang Yuan and Nie. It is a pity that the Russian commanders did not know all this.

When the fire on the Chagan River completely cut off the retreat of the remnants of the Russian army, Duan Qirui, who received reinforcements from the vassal ****, gave the order to cross the river and fight. However, in the face of the notorious Chinese army, which killed soldiers who were still resisting before surrendering, in order to avoid being killed by China, the Russian officers and soldiers who saw the Chinese army start to cross the river raised a white flag, and nearly 50,000 troops surrendered without firing a single shot. At this point, most of Russia's last mobile forces were annihilated, and the Russian army was no longer able to attack. At this time, the Chinese army also stopped military offensive operations due to lack of supplies, and the Chinese and Russian armies once again entered a period of relative peace. Only the encounters of the reconnaissance units were never interrupted.

At this time of the war, the trains transporting supplies to the northwest were still intensively departing, because the Chinese military headquarters had already given a new campaign mission: to assemble the troops of the vassal states on the west bank of Volgograd, prepare to capture Volgograd and advance west along the Don River, and finally occupy Rostov-on-Don on the Black Sea. This order was publicly announced, and in the words of Wang Shizhen, the chief of the Chinese General Staff, it was: At this point in the war, all that remains is the question of how China wants to fight. At the same time, the Chinese Admiralty ordered the Heavy Patrol Haiqi to go to the Mediterranean Sea in formation with two destroyers. The Admiralty said that the purpose of this formation was the Black Sea, and their mission was to find a suitable anchorage for China's Black Sea Fleet.

"They must not pass through the Suez Canal—" came Arthur from the British Prime Minister's office. Belfort roared, not because of anything else, but because the preferred anchorage of the Chinese Navy was actually Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.

Sevastopol is located on the northern shore of the Black Sea, at the southwestern tip of the Crimean Peninsula, and is the station of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, facing the Black Gorge of the Black Sea. Therefore, Sevastopol is known as the gateway to the Black Sea, and it is strategically significant. Once occupied by China, China can go north to Ukraine, east to Romania, and south to the Ottomans, which is equivalent to China reaching out to Europe with one foot, which is not recognized by the entire white race in Europe. Britain openly prevented the Chinese navy from entering the Mediterranean, and even threatened that the Chinese army must not cross the Volga, otherwise Britain would also close the Suez Canal to Chinese merchant ships. France, Italy, and Austria also expressed opposition, and the German minister also euphemistically said that he hoped that China would be cautious.

"Empires need face!! If Russia insists on carrying the war to the end, then an attack will be China's only option. "Li Ming clearly sent a signal that it must be a request for an armistice and peace from Russia, otherwise China will tell Russia by action that they will lose the entire area east of the Ural Mountains forever.

"Hell, when did China start using the word empire?" Arthur? Balfour was dizzy, and none of the staff could answer the question. However, China has qualified to be called an empire, its territory is the largest in the world, and the area of territorial waters under China's actual control exceeds that of Britain.

Therefore, after receiving China's affirmative answer, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria and other countries put pressure on Russia, but Nicholas II was not happy and had to agree. From 1905 onwards, a series of large-scale and wide-ranging social unrest aimed at anti-government or without a goal broke out in Russia.

It may not have been a problem if Russia had been the victorious side, but the day after news of the defeat of Uralsk came back, the fledgling St. Petersburg Red Party petitioned in front of the palace gates, and clashed when they were expelled by the guards. However, the unsuspecting guards were attacked suddenly, and a well-prepared Red armed force raided the palace, but fortunately, the Red armed forces were only improvised peasants, and in the end they were defeated by the well-trained Russian guards, but this incident frightened Nicholas II, and the rebels were already capable of attacking the palace.

Defeat after defeat at the front deprived Nicholas II of a large number of armed forces loyal to him, and now he had no strength to suppress the rebellion at home. If you lose the land, you can get it back, but if you lose the throne, you really lose everything. So on September 19, under the coordination of various countries, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia issued a decree to Sergei? Witte was plenipotentiary in negotiations with China on behalf of Russia, and Witte immediately sent a telegram to China that "in order to avoid more fearless casualties, the Russian Government requests the Chinese Government to hold an armistice." (To be continued.) )