Qiao Yu also admitted that what Jiang Baili and Wu Tong said was very reasonable, and even more troops should be expanded, even if the total number reached 300,000, after deducting the troops sent to Europe, it would be less than 200,000, and it was really not enough to defend the territory of the three provinces with these horses.

"Brother Baili, I agree to the expansion of the army, but for the time being, the scale of this expansion is huge, we must ensure the combat effectiveness of the army, and it must not be at the expense of combat effectiveness, the border guard troops are the top priority, and there must be no relaxation, and I am ready to start the abolition plan within a year, those toasts must be watched by me, anyone who dares to spoil my big thing, I must not let it go!"

Qiao Yu is very clear about the power of those Tusi, although many of them are oriented to China, but they all have strong armed forces, and they also operate opium mines, etc., the wealth and power in their hands are amazing, and they are like a small kingdom, and the large and small Tusi are the Tu Emperor, within the control of these Tusi, there are many ethnic groups that also practice slavery, extremely reactionary and backward, if you want to stabilize the frontier, you must completely eliminate them.

"Junza, isn't the question of abolition a little impatient? These toasts are not easy to deal with, they are strong in their own right, and they involve too much of a wide range! ”

Jiang Baili said: "The issue of abolition of slavery and Tusi, the national issue is entangled together, and Yunnan is still close to the frontier, and will attract the intervention of Britain and France, I think it is better to change the land first, respect the power of Tusi within the nation, and lest they take refuge in the powers, many ethnic groups in Junzuo Yunnan are divided into two parts, one part in the country, one part in Southeast Asia, if we abolish slavery on a large scale, deal with Tusi, I am afraid that these people will coerce the people to run to Southeast Asia, so that our frontier will be dangerous!" ”

Qiao Yu shook his head, "Brother Baili, I will never hold on to the defects, the southwest is our foundation, we must definitely govern this place well, no problem should be avoided, even if these abolitionists will offend the Tusi, and even cause a large number of people to flee, what if the European war is fought, even if Britain and France win, it will be a heavy loss, and there is no power to compete with us in the Far East, after the people run there, it is to make trouble for them, Brother Baili, don't forget that as long as our fists are hard, We said that even if Britain and France don't trouble me, I will still find trouble with them! ”

Jiang Baili and Wu Tong only understood Qiao Yu's plan at this time, feeling that this patrol envoy is not only to defend the frontier, but even to plot Southeast Asia, this ambition and courage are too big, the country has not yet been unified, so they want to expand the territory, isn't this a barbaric thing!

"Two, do you think I'm a fool's dream, but I want to tell you, Nanyang is determined to win, Nanyang has the vast majority of the resources we need, and as long as this anointed land is well developed, it can provide us with sufficient agricultural products, the most important thing is that there are a large number of Chinese in Nanyang, and these Chinese have also established a country, it can be said that Nanyang has been China's sphere of influence since ancient times, and getting Nanyang in our hands is just to take our own things back from the hands of robbers, Of course, this is still a long-term goal, our current task is to stabilize the border of Yunnan first, and then continue to infiltrate Burma, Siam, Vietnam and other places, instigating local people to rebel, shaking the foundation of British and French colonial rule little by little, and finally winning over the local Chinese, swallowing these lands in one bite, this is a long-term plan, we need to start now, sooner or later there will be a ripe melon! ”

Jiang Baili and Wu Tong were also a little surprised by the situation described by Qiao Yu, now that the country has not been reunified, they are thinking about expansion, this kind of person is either a genius or a madman, but on the contrary, he thinks that it is indeed something that needs a long-term layout.

"Junzuo means that this abolitionist action will not only eradicate the cancer in the southwest, but also use this opportunity to plant seeds in Southeast Asia and leave an excuse for us to attack!" Jiang Baili understood Qiao Yu's plan, whether it could be realized or not, there was nothing wrong with expanding his power in Nanyang.

"Junzuo, if you want to realize this plan, I am afraid that the strength of the border guards will have to be increased, according to the current army expansion plan, at most it is a defensive situation, and there is no ability to forge ahead." Wu Tong continued: "Junzuo, if you want to use troops in Southeast Asia, in addition to increasing the number of troops, logistics must also keep up, as well as Burma, Siam and other countries are humid and hot, if the soldiers can't adapt, there will be serious attrition, these can't be ignored!" ”

"The chief of staff is right, but since this is a long-term plan, we can operate slowly, but my most basic requirement is that our army has enough strength to hold the existing line of control before 1919!"

After the expansion of the army was decided, Wu Tong led his staff team to begin to formulate a more detailed infiltration plan for Nanyang, Qiao Yu only pointed out a direction in a few words, for hundreds of years, the Western colonists have been constantly expanding their power, and they have not suffered losses, so it is extremely difficult to take food from the tiger's mouth, and there must be a detailed plan to succeed.

If Qiao Yu's calculations will not work until a few years later, then now the British and French are about to cry out on the battlefield of the Somme, the originally planned assault war has become a war of attrition, and the British and French armies cannot break through the German defense line at all, and now the Germans are starting to increase their troops frantically, and the advantages of Britain and France are getting smaller and smaller, which makes Xia Fei have a headache.

Fortunately, he remembered the secret weapon, since Qiao Yu sold some design drawings and samples of armored vehicles and tanks to Britain and France, Britain and France began to conduct a lot of research on this weapon that is very powerful in mobile and protection, and all the energy of France was involved in the battlefield, and the British mainland was relatively safe, so Britain took the lead in developing the first tank on the basis of Qiao Yu's provision, named the Little Nomad.

The British produced a total of one hundred and fifty vehicles, after the battlefield of the Somme River was stalemate, this weapon was remembered by the British, and hurriedly transferred to the front line, a total of one hundred and fifty "water tanks", this scale is more than twice as large as in history, but unfortunately, after being transported to the battlefield, nearly seventy were completely lying down, and only eighty remained, but in the eyes of the British commander, these steel monsters were enough to change the tide of the war, so the next day, eighty tanks were launched together, The mighty rush rushed to the German position and killed.

These behemoths were fearless, successfully crushed the barbed wire, crossed the trenches, and approached the German positions little by little, the machine gunners in the tanks continued to shoot, seeing that the German forward positions were about to be broken through, but to the surprise of the British, the Germans did not have any fear of this new type of weapon, and the whole position was silent without any sound.

The British tanks were getting closer and closer to the German positions, and at this moment suddenly a dense burst of mortar shells shot out of the position, which landed right in the middle of these tanks, and suddenly a violent explosion sounded, and several unlucky tanks were too close to the center of the explosion, and they were immediately injured.

At this time, the British tanks had already rushed into the German positions, but the Germans were not in a hurry, but began to throw grenades at the British tanks, and soon more than a dozen tanks were injured.

Although a large number of soldiers were swept away by British tanks in the process, the British obviously did not achieve the goal of breaking through the battle line, and even damaged most of the valuable tanks, and the British army was immediately disgraced and their morale was seriously frustrated!

Germany was able to defeat the British tanks largely by relying on the drawings provided by Qiao Yu, and soon the Germans also designed their own tanks, but the Germans could not solve the mechanical problems, the accident rate of the designed tanks was too high, and Germany is now close to depleting its strategic resources, and is unwilling to use precious steel to mass-produce this unreliable weapon, but Germany still produced more than a dozen tanks to study how to deal with this new weapon.

Soon the Germans found that the tank looked scary, but it was not difficult to pay, the most important problem was mechanical failure, once the nest was laid, the huge tank became a live target, and the horsepower of the engine was limited, the tank could not be too heavy, and the corresponding defense capability was also limited, although the general bullets and shells could be defended, but grenades, mortars and the like could easily hurt the tank, so the German soldiers had long been trained in this area, and the British tanks could be described as stealing chickens and rice.

The offensive on the front line was stopped suddenly, the British and French forces were frustrated, and the Germans took the opportunity to counterattack, Lu Jianzhang led the [***] team at this time is still defending on the south bank of the Somme River, since the beginning of the war, the [***] team has withstood repeated attacks by Germany, but with a tenacious style, the high morale of the [***] team not only kept the original position, but also went deep about a kilometer, has approached the second line of defense of the Germans, and the progress is not slow.

"Chief of Staff, the British used tanks to fight today!"

"Oh?" When Zhang Xiaohuai heard this, he immediately smiled on his face: "Did the British break through the German position?" ”

Lu Jianzhang shook his head: "Not at all, on the contrary, we have lost most of the tanks, I am afraid that the Germans will start a counteroffensive again, and our pressure will increase!" ”

After Zhang Xiaohuai took the battle report, his face was full of doubts, and he said that the tank was obviously the nemesis of trench warfare, how could it be easily defeated by the Germans, after reading the battle report, Zhang Xiaohuai was also clear.

"What are the British thinking in their heads, they didn't send enough soldiers to fight with the tanks, the slow and clumsy tanks are not Germany's food, they can fight as much as they want, it's really stupid!" The British are still very unfamiliar with the new weapon of tanks, although they have done it, but they do not know how to carry out infantry and tank cooperative operations, without the cover of infantry, and they are relatively rough, there is no reason for these tanks not to be destroyed.

"Lao Lu, Lao Zhang, our tank was also delivered two days ago, I think it is better for us to teach the British how to use the tank!" Long Jiguang said with a smile, just three days ago, another 20,000 Chinese soldiers came to Europe across the sea, including Lu Jianzhang's 30,000 soldiers, a total of 50,000, which was the first batch of troops sent by Qiao Yu, but the Sichuan-Yunnan War broke out, and these people came one step late.

With them came fifteen tanks, as well as twenty armored vehicles, after the arrival of the problem is also a lot, after the emergency repair, there are twelve tanks can go to the battlefield, this is already a great luck in misfortune, at this time the German [***] team shelling began again, Lu Jianzhang They all know that after the shelling, the German soldiers are about to attack, the three of them looked at each other and smiled, this time we must give the Germans a blow to the head, let them know the power of the tank.

(To be continued)