After boarding the train to the Caucasus in Vladivostok, Jiang Baili leaned on the window alone, silently looking at the trees and scenery that were rapidly retreating outside the window... Although Jiang Baili was able to lead the command of the expeditionary force alone this time, although he was no different from peace on the surface, he was extremely excited in private. For this matter, Jiang Baili, who was very self-controlled, even drank several glasses of wine in front of his wife Jiang Zuomei... At present, the National Defense Forces are mainly divided into three factions, one is the Sichuan faction of Yan Guang brought out of Sichuan, the other is the Beiyang faction composed of the remnants of the former Beiyang, and the last is the new faction from the local origin.

Because one-third of the country's elites are from Sichuan, the strength of the Sichuan faction is the strongest among the three factions. The second is the Beiyang system composed of the remnants of the Beiyang, although the number of troops in the Beiyang series is small, but because of the excellent quality, the strength is also very strong.

Only the new faction, which was of local origin, was the weakest of the three factions because of its looser organization and the lower quality of its troops.

Among them, although Cai Ye was born in the Yunnan Army, and he was also the founder and direct leader of the Yunnan Army, because Cai Ye led the Dian Army to join the Northern Expeditionary Army during the Northern Expedition, coupled with the strong support of Yan Guang himself, Cai Ye was able to become the post of Chief of General Staff of the Ministry of National Defense.

Of course, because Cai Ye was not from Sichuan, there is still a lot of controversy in the National Defense Forces about Cai Ge's position as Chief of General Staff. After all, the post of Chief of the General Staff is by no means an ordinary position, and in the case that the Minister of Defense is only an honorary title, there is no difference between the General Staff under the management of the Chief of the General Staff and the General Headquarters of the Wehrmacht.

Such a position will be fought for by any faction.

It's just that during the Shandong Campaign, Cai Ye led the army to defeat the Yueben Expeditionary Force and gained considerable prestige in the country, so Cai Ye's position as chief of the General Staff was finally as stable as a rock, and others could not help it even if they coveted it, not to mention that Cai Ye still had Yan Guang's support.

(The Secretary of Defense is the head of the Department of Defense under the State Department, which is part of the political axe, so he does not have much power.) As for the General Staff Headquarters, it is the leading organ of the military work of the whole army, and is responsible for organizing and leading the military construction of the whole army and organizing and directing the military operations of the whole army. But there is no way to deal with Cai Yi, but it doesn't mean that there is no way to deal with Jiang Baili.

In the Wehrmacht, although Jiang Baili was not as powerful as Cai Yi, he also served as the chief of staff of the army, and in the entire Wehrmacht, he was only below Wang Yaowu and Cai Ye.

Moreover, in terms of real power, the chief of staff of the army can command more than one million national defense forces, and he is an absolute real power figure even within the political axe.

Such a character was actually excavated from an unknown corner after Yan Guang captured Yanjing, although it is said that he is on par with Cai Yi in terms of ability, but in addition to accompanying Wang Yaowu to rectify military affairs, he does not even have any real achievements... Therefore, although there is Yan Guang's protection within the Wehrmacht, Jiang Baili has always been under pressure, especially after Cai Ye won the Shandong Campaign.

It is precisely for this reason that the opportunity to lead an expeditionary force to the Caucasus alone is too important for Jiang Baili... Similarly, it is precisely because of the important surname of this battle that Jiang Baili is so cautious. After all, if this expedition fails, it will not only cause difficulties for the expeditionary force to increase its strength in the future, but even his own military career will also be ruined...――――――――――°C from Vladivostok to the Caucasus, across the vast Siberia.

Although the train they took hardly stopped along the way, by the time they arrived in the Caucasus, it was already July.

"Whew..."

After stepping off the train, Jiang Baili, who had been on the train for too long, exhaled softly.

There were also some accompanying officers and generals who acted with Jiang Baili, no matter what, it was indeed not a comfortable thing to be trapped in a small train for such a long time.

"But I didn't expect it to be really cool here..."

"yes..."

After getting off the train, several generals talked to each other.

In July, the average temperature in the Caucasus is around 25°C.

25°C is a cool temperature, but it also shows how cold the area will be in winter.

Fortunately, before sending out the troops, Yan Guang, Jiang Baili and others had already taken into account the temperature issue, so the three infantry divisions that formed the Chinese Expeditionary Force this time were all troops of the Shenyang Military Region, which were extremely adapted to the cold weather and were also fully prepared in terms of logistics.

For example, the clothes and bedding needed for winter have already arrived by train, even though it is still only summer. At the same time, the military boots originally worn by the expeditionary force were also replaced with reinforced boots to adapt to the humid environment in the trenches during the trench war, so as to avoid the situation of the soldiers of the expeditionary force from having trench feet.

Moreover, Yan Guang also prepared a batch of desiccant for the expeditionary force, although I don't know what the effect is in wartime, but I believe that it can improve the environment in the trenches.

It's just that now there is only one logistics line for the expeditionary force and domestic communication, and although Xinjiang Province has been building the Dilan Railway at the cost of human lives, it doesn't know how long it will take to open to traffic, let alone how long it will take to open to traffic with the Central Asian Railway, which is also expanding to Xinjiang Province..."You are General Chiang, right?!" ”

Not long after Jiang Baili and several generals who accompanied the army stepped off the train, a burly and bearded Russian general had already walked up.

There was no need for Jiang Baili to ask, an interpreter on the side had already hurriedly introduced.

"General Jiang Baili, this is the supreme commander of our army in the Caucasus theater, General Yudenrich..."

"Oh!" Hearing that the bearded Russian in front of him was Yudenrich, Jiang Baili hurriedly stepped forward and shook hands with Yudenrich. "It turned out to be General Yudenrich, it's been a long time..."

"Where, I've been looking forward to your [***] team for a long time..."

Yudenrich's attitude is very good, unlike those Russians along the way, who either look at them with curiosity, or contempt, or with shame―――――― for whom there is nothing more shameful than the dignified Russian Empire actually needs the help of China.

As for Yuden Rich, it was not a lie that he had just said that he had been looking forward to Jiang Baili for a long time.

Although the Caucasus battlefield is also very important, the main force of the Russian army is still deployed on the Eastern Front. As for the Balkan front, although important (open the Dardanelles, supplies from Britain and France can be brought in), but it is only a secondary front for the current Russians.

In the recent spring and summer offensive of the German army, the German army advanced all the way in the direction of Russia, especially the superior forces of the Austrian and German troops broke through the 45-kilometer defense line of the Russian Third Army not long ago. The southern aspect of the vast Polish-Galician salient of the Russian army began to crumble.

In particular, not so long ago, General M. von Garwitz, with the new German XII Corps, broke through into northern Poland and advanced towards Warsaw. Warsaw was abandoned by the Russian army. The entire front of the Russian army completely collapsed. By this time, the Russian army was already in danger on the Eastern Front, and it was no longer capable of managing the Russian army in the Caucasus.

Fortunately, there are not many Turkish troops and Russian [***] teams in the Caucasus, the former is only more than 200,000, and the latter is only a few hundred thousand―――――― and now almost all the Russian troops are assembled on the Eastern Front, and only more than 100,000 people can be placed on the Caucasus side.

If this were not the case, Russia would have brought down more than a million gray cattle, and Turkey would not have been able to blockade Dardanelles.

Because of this, although Jiang Baili brought only three infantry divisions this time, it was already a large force in the Caucasus.

(On the Eastern Front in 1915, the Russian losses were 2 million men, of whom 1 million were captured.) The German-Austrian army lost almost 1 million people. "Jiang, do you want to arrange for you to take a rest first?" ”

Although the situation of the Russian army is not very good now, looking at the tired appearance of Jiang Baili and his entourage, Yudenrich still asked.

However, hearing Yuden Rich say this, Jiang Baili waved his hand.

"General Yudenrich, please tell us about the situation here..."

Sitting all the way down the train like this, Jiang Baili's body was indeed very uncomfortable, but this expedition to the Caucasus was very important to Jiang Baili, so Jiang Baili couldn't take care of rest―――――― before he came, Jiang Baili had also obtained some news through the telegram on the train, but those were outdated, so Jiang Baili also needed to get some new news.

And looking at Jiang Baili's serious appearance, Yudenrich also nodded.

"That's good..."

Although many generals in the entire Caucasus Army Group look down on these troops from China, the current situation of the Russian army on the Eastern Front is critical, and it is impossible to send any reinforcements to the Caucasus, and it is even possible to transfer troops from the Caucasus to the Eastern Front, so Yudenrich also has to pay attention to Jiang Baili, these soldiers from the East.

Moreover, the Wehrmacht had also defeated the Japanese army in Shandong, and Yudenrich held the positions of regiment commander and brigade commander in 1902, and had participated in the Russian-Japanese War in the Far East, so he was well aware of the madness of the Japanese army.

Since the Wehrmacht was able to defeat the Yue Army, Yudenrich naturally had a little expectation for Jiang Baili and the others. This is also the reason why he has such a good attitude towards Jiang Baili, if it is a change to other Russians, then with the surname of the Russian, I am afraid that the attitude towards Jiang Baili will be different now... (N. Yudenrich, general of Russian infantry, one of the leaders of the White Guards during the period of the Civil War and foreign armed intervention in Soviet Russia.) Born in Moscow. Since 1902, he has been a regiment commander and brigade commander and has participated in the Russo-Japanese War. From 1907 he served successively as Director of Military Affairs, Chief of Staff of the Kazan Military District and the Caucasus Military District. After the outbreak of World War I, he was Chief of Staff of the Caucasus Army, and in January 1915 he was appointed Commander of the Caucasian Army. In the same year, he was promoted to general. Although Yudenrich once proposed to let Jiang Baili and them rest first, but because of Jiang Baili's insistence, in the end, Yudenrich brought Jiang Baili and his party to the headquarters of the group army, and then personally explained the current situation on the Caucasian front to Jiang Baili and his party.

At the beginning of 1915, in January, the Battle of Sal Kammesh took place in Turkey. At that time, Turkey had just joined the Allies and had planned to carry out an offensive campaign against the Russian army in the area of Sal Kammersh, after which the main force of the Russian Caucasian Army, the Sal Kammesh detachment (commanded by G.E. Berchman), crossed the border, repelled the Turkish advance party and crushed the offensive plan of the Turkish army.

At that time, the Turkish army was extremely poorly managed in the winter combat field, and before the start of the battle, due to frostbite and desertion, the 95,000 troops who set out lost at least 15,000 men. On January 3, the Turkish army attempted to encircle both flanks of the Russian army, but was stopped by the Russian counteroffensive and was routed. The Turkish army lost 30,000 casualties, and more than 10,000 Turkish troops froze to death during the withdrawal, and only about 18,000 effective combatants finally arrived in Erzurum.

In this battle, the Russian army annihilated about 90,000 Turkish people (30,000 of whom froze to death) at the cost of about 26,000 casualties (including frostbite), creating conditions for advancing deep into Turkish territory. As a result, the war was confined to Turkey until the end of the European War, when Russia collapsed due to the October Revolution and Turkey took the opportunity to take the Caucasus... It should be noted that it was after the end of this battle that Yudenrichiki replaced Vorontsov and became the commander of the Caucasian Army.

In April, the Turkish army suspected the Armenians of helping the Russians and went on a killing spree, which led to an Armenian revolt, and the rebels took control of Van on April 20 and held out until May 19, when the Russians arrived.

About a week ago, the new commander of the Turkish army, Abdullah Kerim, led his army to attack and defeat 1 Russian army near the city of Van in the Armenian region, and then the Turkish army cautiously advanced to the east. Yudenich sent 22,000 men, mainly Cossacks, to strike at the left flank of the Turkish army, causing the Klim to retreat after suffering heavy losses.

Although the Turkish army retreated due to the blow of Yudenrich, but now, according to the intelligence of the Russian army, the commander of the Turkish army, Kerim, is regrouping and preparing to retake the city of Van again.

This is also why Yudenrich would welcome Jiang Baili so much, because if Jiang Baili hadn't been there, Yudenrich would have to give up Fancheng after holding on to Fancheng for a while.

(Van is a city in Turkey that once belonged to Armenia and later became a Turkish territory.) And in history, although the Russian army once took the city of Fan, but gave up afterwards. ―――――――――― because of Yudenrich's detailed explanation, Jiang Baili also somewhat understood the current situation on the Caucasian front.

In general, it is neither good nor bad, although the Turkish side has more troops than the Russian army, but because the quality is too different, the Russian army is not afraid of the Turks.

Especially because of the victory in the Battle of Salkammers, the situation has remained in the Turkish army, so there is no need to worry about the war spreading to the territory of Russia.

It's just that because the environment of Russia on the Eastern Front is quite bad, and its support for the Caucasian front has declined a lot, Yudenrich is now quite welcoming to Jiang Baili and his party. After all, Jiang Baili brought nearly 40,000 people this time, and it was also a new force for Yudenrich.

Moreover, according to the agreement between China and the Entente, China will send at least 300,000 troops to the Caucasian front in the future, completely replacing Russia's role in the Caucasian front.

Therefore, the only thing that Yudenrich is curious about now is what is the quality of this Chinese expeditionary force, and whether it can afford the heavy responsibility of the Caucasian front..."Okay, now that it has been explained, then the generals, either go and rest first?" The follow-up series of work will be talked about when you are almost rested. ”

"It's fine." After Jiang Baili and several other generals glanced at each other, he nodded at Yudenrich. "Then we'll wait until tomorrow..."

The accommodation had already been arranged, and in fact, before the arrival of Jiang Baili and his entourage, Yudenrich had already built a relatively simple camp for the Chinese Expeditionary Force near the Caucasian Army station.

The Chinese Expeditionary Force, which has arrived in the Caucasus, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force that follows, will be stationed here.

"What are your observations?"

After Cai Yi and his entourage left and went to the accommodation prepared for them to rest and relieve the fatigue of the journey, Yudenrich asked the two Russian officers who had just walked in.

"Okay, good, so far, the quality of the Chinese expeditionary force that came this time is good, the soldiers are very well nourished, and the body is also very strong, especially the equipment is very sophisticated, I'm afraid it is much better than our most sophisticated infantry divisions, but..."

"But what?"

"However, although the weapons used by these [***] teams are very good, the weapons used are varied, for example, the rifle is German, the pistol is American, and the Maxim machine gun is actually 12.7mm caliber, which is completely different from the Maxim machine gun we use. And the artillery used by these Chinese is also all German artillery, and our plan to share ammunition with these Chinese is probably not going to work..."

"That's it...", although Yudenrich didn't have much expectation for this plan, he still sighed when he heard his subordinates say this.

At present, the losses of the Russian army on the Eastern Front are extremely large, although Russia's industrial strength is not weak, but because of the losses, coupled with the huge number of Russian troops, there are still big problems in terms of weapons and ammunition.

Therefore, Yuden Richie more or less hit the head of the Chinese expeditionary force.

It's a pity that among the weapons equipped by the expeditionary force, there are all styles, including German, American, British, but only Russian―――――― which is also one of the reasons why Yan Guang relieved Jiang Baili and them to come to Russia, because the weapons and ammunition used by the expeditionary force are different from those of the Russian army, so Yan Guang does not need to worry about the snatching of weapons and ammunition in the Caucasus at all..."Fortunately, according to what you said, the quality of these Chinese is not bad, It is hoped that these Chinese will be able to play a more role on the battlefield. ”

As he spoke, Yudenrich looked at the two men.

"I just got some information from the capital, and His Majesty the Tsar seems to want to draw some troops from us to the Eastern Front..."

“………”

The two officers looked at each other, and then said in unison.

"Your Excellency, Commander, is the war situation on the Polish side really so rotten?!"

That's right, if it weren't for the erosion, why bother with the tsar that the Chinese expeditionary force had just arrived in the Caucasus, and the tsar had to transfer their troops to the Eastern Front?

However, to the questions of his subordinates, Yudenrich only shook his head bitterly.

As the commander of the Caucasian Army, Yudenrichy also had a lot of connections at the top. Recently, some of Yudenrich's connections above have told him that Grand Duke Nicholas, who saved the fate of the Russian army on the Eastern Front, did not like the Tsar, so the Tsar had decided to send Grand Duke Nicholas to the Caucasian Battlefield to command the war on the Caucasus Battlefield after a period of backwardness.

As for the commander of the Russian army on the Eastern Front? After the dismissal of Grand Duke Nikolai, Tsar Nicholas II himself was to be the commander of the Eastern Front of the Russian Army, with M. Aleksayev as chief of staff.

And this time, according to Yudenrich's connections at the top, should be around August... And things have developed to such a point that even if the people in the upper echelons do not inform Yudenrich about the matter, Yudenrich knows very well how erosive the war on the Eastern Front has been... Yudenrich believed that if one day the Chinese expeditionary force really replaced the role of the Caucasian army in the Caucasus, Tsar Nicholas II would not hesitate to transfer the entire Caucasus army to the Eastern Front, leaving only the Chinese in charge of the war in the Caucasus..."

Jiang Baili, who ―――――――――― had a good rest for a day, did not know the sorrow of Yuden Rich and the others.

Therefore, on the second day, when Jiang Baili and the others, who had almost rested and were in a lot of energy, walked out of the room, although they found that the mood of Yudenrich and other generals seemed to be a little low, they didn't pay much attention to it.

After meeting with Yudenrich and others, although Yudenrich asked Jiang Baili and others to rest more, after all, it is not easy to take a train from the Far East through the entire Siberia and even the Ural Mountains, but at the request of Jiang Baili, Yudenrich still came to the front line of Van City with a group of officers and generals of the expeditionary force.

In Van City, the Russian army has built countless trenches and fortifications on the periphery of Van City, and the Russian army is still building, in the process, the Russian army has received help from the Armenians, it is clear that the recent massacre of the Armenians by the Turks caused the indignation and hostility of the Armenians.

However, these are a good thing for Jiang Baili.

After all, there is nothing better than on their own battlefield, where the natives of the battlefield have a good opinion of themselves, but are very hostile to their enemies...

(To be continued)