After arriving in the vicinity of Van Cheng, Jiang Baili did not rush into battle with the expeditionary force, but first let the expeditionary force temporarily rest to adapt to the climate and environment of Armenia.

After all, it spans thousands of miles, and in fact, in the current expeditionary force, there are already many officers and soldiers who vomit or feel unwell because of the relationship between water and soil. Yudenrich also understands this, after all, he is also a soldier.

Moreover, although the current situation of the Russian army in Armenia is not good, it is also not difficult, and the Chinese expeditionary force is not yet eager to the point of impatience. And according to the information coming out of Moscow, about a month Nicholas II's uncle, Grand Duke Nicholas, that is, Nicholas? Colonel-General Nikolayevich would then be demoted to commander-in-chief of the Caucasian Front. (Originally the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, now he has become the commander-in-chief of a front army, which is indeed a demotion, and legend has it that he is the demon monk Gregory?) Rasputin's contempt was the main reason for his demotion. ）

Therefore, it is better to wait for Nikolai to talk about the use of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.

And Jiang Baili himself took advantage of this time to settle the expeditionary force, and at the same time took Zhang Shaozeng and Meng Enyuan, who accompanied the army, to the front line of Fancheng to inspect the situation here. After all, in the past, the [***] officials had never participated in wars between European countries, and they were really unfamiliar with the wars here.

It's just that after watching the battle on the battlefield of Fancheng, Jiang Baili and the others suddenly discovered...

"It turns out that the war in Europe is nothing..."

Looking at the fight in front of him, Zhang Shaozeng licked his tongue and said.

Hearing Zhang Shaozeng's words, others such as Meng Enyuan and others also nodded.

Before coming, because of the fear of Europe in the past, although the Wehrmacht had also defeated his own expeditionary force, he still did not dare to underestimate the European army. Especially the intelligence transmitted from the battlefields of the Eastern and Western Fronts, the battles of millions of people, the bombardment of thousands of artillery pieces and the casualties of tens of thousands of people every day...

This information made Zhang Shaozeng and others, who had never been to the European battlefield, very fantasized, and at the same time made them doubt whether they could adapt to the European battlefield.

But now I look...

"That's true..."

Although now on the Armenian battlefield, the Russians and Turks are also fighting fiercely. However, the total strength of the Turks and Russians in the Caucasus was only about 300,000, and at the time of the Shandong battlefield, China and the two sides also had more than 200,000 troops.

Moreover, in the Shandong battlefield, because the Wehrmacht attaches great importance to the relationship between artillery, at least nearly 1,000 artillery pieces have been arranged in Shandong, although most of them are 75mm caliber mountain artillery and field artillery, but in terms of quantity, it is more than all the artillery of the Russian and Turkish armies in the entire Caucasus battlefield.

So naturally, everything on the battlefield in the Caucasus is nothing in the eyes of Zhang Shaozeng, Meng Enyuan and others. What's more, in terms of bravery alone, the Turks can't compare with Yue himself in any way, they even defeated Yu himself, let alone the Turks...

However, compared to Zhang Shaozeng and Meng Enyuan and others, Jiang Baili is much more cautious, after all, this opportunity is too important to him...

Although Jiang Baili was very cautious, Zhang Shaozeng, Meng Enyuan and others were a little unimpressed.

has been in the army for many years, and now Zhang Shaozeng and Meng Enyuan are already with the rank of lieutenant general, and they are both commanders of various armies when they are in China. This time, everyone brought only one division to Armenia, just to prepare for future troop increases.

Although it is not clear what the battlefields on the Eastern and Western Fronts were, since Armenia is not as terrible as imagined, it is natural that Zhang Shaozeng and others are much more relaxed.

Even Jiang Baili, although he was still cautious because of the matter, was still a little relaxed in his expression.

All this naturally fell into the eyes of Yudenrich and others, but the Russian generals beside Yudenrich didn't say anything, just thinking about waiting for the battlefield. But I didn't think that although it can't be compared with the two battlefields of the Eastern Front and the Western Front, but in terms of the scene alone, the Shandong battlefield is definitely bigger than that of Armenia...

――――――――――

Although everything here in Armenia disappointed Zhang Shaozeng and them, Zhang Shaozeng and others did not relax because of this when they were making pre-war preparations. After all, fighting a war is not a game, it is a death.

Therefore, having just washed away the fatigue on their bodies, Jiang Baili and others have already begun to arrange for the officers and soldiers of the expeditionary force to carry out some training to restore their surnames, so that they can adapt to the Armenian environment as quickly as possible. After all, because of the unaccustomed reasons for the situation, the battle situation is not there, and it is really easy to make people laugh out of their teeth when they say such a reason.

Fortunately, this time Jiang Baili went to Europe with some extremely strong young men, so although this place is thousands of miles away from the northeast of his hometown, it is only a month, and these young men have become lively again―――――― some of them rely on knowing some Russian, and they also mingled with the nearby Russian soldiers, and even ran to the kiln near Fancheng...

In this regard, Jiang Baili and others have no choice.

After all, the military regulations of the Wehrmacht only explicitly prohibit the destruction of silver and plunder, but did not prohibit this kind of thing altogether.

What's more, even the officers in the army are counted, almost all of them are some sturdy young men, who are at the age of "like a wolf and a tiger", and they can't help it before they meet a woman who is also "like a wolf and a tiger".

In addition, war will make people's spirits extremely depressed, and if there is no way to vent, I am afraid that it will cause some big chaos. And Jiang Baili and they can't learn from the Russian army or the Turkish army, and let their soldiers plague the local people, although these people are foreigners, and they don't feel distressed about the scourge, but when the army returns home after the war, if this habit is still retained, won't it be over? And there is also a lot of pressure in terms of domestic public opinion.

So in the end, Jiang Baili and they could only let go of their freedom and turn a blind eye...

(Armenia does not practice Islam, and during the Armenian massacre, Turkish soldiers searched Armenian villages and told Armenian women that if they married Muslim men and converted to Islam, they would be spared deportation―――――― but tens of thousands of Armenian women were forced to migrate, and thousands of Armenian women died of hunger, lack of water, and infectious diseases along the way.) ）

After more than a month of repair and restoration training, the officers and men of the expeditionary force have returned to their original strength, and at this time, Nikolai, who has been demoted to the post of "commander-in-chief of the Caucasian Front"? Nikolayevich also finally arrived in Armenia.

Nikolai? Nikolayevich is an outlier in Russia, which has completely decayed, and his own ability is extremely strong, and if he were not on the battlefield on the Eastern Front, I am afraid that the war would have lost even worse.

Therefore, after arriving in Armenia, Grand Duke Nicholas did not interfere indiscriminately, but let Yudenrich continue to be in charge of the command of the battlefield, and he himself actively participated in the development of the plan.

Of course, as the commander-in-chief of the Caucasian Front, Grand Duke Nicholas also visited the garrison of the Chinese Expeditionary Force. Although the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the Caucasian Front were at the same level and did not accept Nikolai's jurisdiction, Nikolai was planning an offensive, and this required the cooperation of the Expeditionary Force, so Nikolai had to understand whether the strength of the Expeditionary Force was as Yudenrich said.

Nikolai was very satisfied with the results of the inspection, and in Nikolai's opinion, the expeditionary force of these three infantry divisions was very well-equipped and qualitative, comparable to the most sophisticated infantry divisions of the Russian army. Especially in terms of heavy firepower, although the expeditionary force did not bring artillery brigades or artillery divisions this time, and the largest caliber in the artillery regiment was only a 120mm cannon, but the 216 guns of various calibers of the three artillery regiments were also very strong firepower on the battlefield of the Caucasus.

"It seems that we can expect a lot from the Chinese..."

As he left the expeditionary force station, Nikolai thought to himself.

Just while thinking so, Nikolai also had a lot of worries in his heart.

Nikolai came down from the Eastern Front and was therefore well aware of the situation on the Eastern Front. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was simply outmatched by the German-Austrian forces, and the poor command and lack of weapons, ammunition and supplies combined to cause the defeat of the Russian army. In particular, the German army acted in an orderly and brilliant manner, and the excellent staff created the conditions for the offensive through an astonishing concerted effort, carried out short and intensive artillery preparations, and was able to maneuver the troops to the predetermined positions in a very short time, usually at night, and often caused the German actions to achieve a sudden result, so that the Russian army often suffered defeats.

If it were not for the poor quality of the combat operations of the Austro-Hungarian [***] team, coupled with the low professional standard of the Austro-Hungarian [***] team and the friction between the top commands of the two armies, as well as the Austrian army's extreme dissatisfaction with the arrogance and arrogance of the German army, I am afraid that the losses of the Russian army on the Eastern Front battlefield would have been even greater.

Despite this, the Russian army lost two million men on the Eastern Front, of which one million were captured―――――― compared to less than a million in the German-Austrian army.

While Russia has long been known as the "European Steam Roller", millions of grey cattle are even more famous throughout the continent. However, for Russia, the loss of two million men was still unbearable, after all, it was not only a loss of personnel, but also a loss of equipment, and this was particularly important for Russia, especially in the Dardanelles, which was even more fatal when the Anglo-French blood transfusion line to Russia had been closed by the Allies.

By this time, Nikolai was well aware that in order to save the fate of the Eastern Front, it was not impossible for the Tsar, that is, his nephew Nicholas II, to transfer part of the forces of the Caucasian Army Group to the Eastern Front.

Of course, this is nothing, after all, the Caucasus theater is only a secondary area compared to the Eastern Front, but the problem is that according to the agreement between the Entente and China, the number of troops sent by the Chinese expeditionary force to the Caucasus will not be less than 300,000, and may even reach 500,000 at most.

At that time, who exactly should listen to whom on the battlefield in the Caucasus?

You must know that although the status of the Russians and the expeditionary force is theoretically equal, in fact, due to various reasons in terms of national strength, geography, and troops, it is Russia that occupies the dominant position, after all, the side with fewer troops will always suffer some losses in this regard. However, if the number of expeditionary forces exceeds that of Russia, or even much higher than that of the Caucasian front, then the positions of both sides may be reversed.

Moreover, Nikolai was well aware of the ambitions of the Russian upper echelons for Chinese territory, and for the Russians, Xinjiang, Mongolia and Northeast China were all desired by the Russians. The Russians even wanted more territory, and Nikolai was quite clear about this, because Nikolai was a part of it.

Nikolai even understood that when the European war was over, it would be time for Russia to turn its attention to the Far East again.

It's just that Nikolai and his party at the expeditionary force station just now found that the three infantry divisions sent by the expeditionary force this time are not inferior to the Russian [***] team in terms of equipment or quality. Especially in terms of organizational ability, it is even higher than the Russian [***] team, which has completely decayed.

Moreover, Russia has just experienced a crushing defeat on the battlefield on the Eastern Front, and now many armies on the Eastern Front have just been established and mobilized, and the level of average quality, which was originally not high, has dropped a lot again.

If the original people on the Eastern Front were the elite of the Russian army, and in terms of quality they were higher than the Caucasian Army in the inferior battlefield, then now the average level of the Caucasian Army is higher than that of the troops on the Eastern Front.

In this situation, the gap between the two is even more obvious.

Therefore, if the average level of the squadron is the same as that of the three infantry divisions of the expeditionary force, then Nikolai not only needs to worry about whether the problem of the Russian army's erosion of Chinese territory will interfere after the war, but also whether China will seize the territory of the Russian Siberian region.

"Let's see later what the level of the [***] team is in the actual situation. If the actual level of the squadron is really as I think, then I must send a telegram to His Majesty the Tsar..."

Thinking so, Nikolai returned with his entourage to the command of the Caucasian Front.

In fact, this is Nicholas worried, because it is the first time that China has sent troops to fight abroad, so in order to make the first shot of the expeditionary force fire, Yan Guang and the Ministry of Defense specially transferred the expeditionary force composed of three A infantry divisions.

For example, Zhang Shaozeng, Meng Enyuan and others were already the commanders of an army and went to the Caucasus with a division. Moreover, in China, there are only 33 Class A infantry divisions like the Expeditionary Force in the establishment of the National Defense Force, and after removing these three infantry divisions, there are only 30 Class A infantry divisions left.

As for the B type of infantry divisions, there are as many as 66 in total, and all of them add up to 99 infantry divisions, plus 11 cavalry divisions and 11 artillery divisions, and the entire Wehrmacht has a total of 121 cavalry, infantry, and artillery divisions―――――― of course, cavalry divisions and artillery divisions do not need to be divided into A and B.

――――――――――

Jiang Baili didn't know what Nikolai was thinking, or he didn't care what Nikolai was thinking, there was only one thing he cared about at the moment, and that was to prepare for the war.

Because when he first came to the garrison of the expeditionary force, Nikolai had already discussed with Jiang Baili to launch a general attack on the Turkish army in front of him in January next year.

However, before that, there are still several battles to be fought, because according to the intelligence of the Russian army, the Turkish army has once again assembled a large army and is preparing to retake the city of Van occupied by the Russian army. Originally, Nikolai was ready to abandon Van before he came, after all, Nikolai did not need to use his precious troops to fight the Turks to the death, but after seeing the strength of the expeditionary force, Nikolai felt that he might not be able to hold Van City. In this case, before launching a general attack, it is necessary to first defend the city of Fan. In this defensive battle, the expeditionary force will also play as a combat force of the coalition forces.

And as the first battle of the expeditionary force in the Caucasus, Jiang Baili also had to be cautious.

For this reason, after Nikolai left the expeditionary force station, Jiang Baili even summoned Zhang Shaozeng and others to discuss the details of the operation.

A few days later, when Jiang Baili took Zhang Shaozeng and others to the headquarters of the Caucasian Front to hold an operational meeting of the coalition forces, he directly put forward his ideas.

"It has been almost two months since our troops arrived in Armenia, and it is impossible for the Turkish troops on the other side not to know this..." And because of a certain contempt of the Europeans for the Asian army, it is very likely that the Turkish army will look for a breakthrough in the direction of our army when our army also goes to war. That is, the Turks are likely to take the line of defense for which our army is responsible as the main object of attack ...

After listening to the translated words, the Russian generals present felt more or less embarrassed.

However, Jiang Baili is right, they are contemptuous of the yellow race, although the training level and weapons and equipment of the Chinese Expeditionary Force are in their eyes, but in their hearts they still despise Jiang Baili and his party.

As for Jiang Baili, although what he said made the Russian generals a little embarrassed, Jiang Baili just continued after a slight pause.

"In that case, then I suggest that when the Turkish army is frustrated in front of our defensive line, your army should attack from both flanks or even outflank..."

Before Jiang Baili's words were finished, a Russian general had already stood up and said after listening to the translator's translation.

"General Chiang, with all due respect, how can you guarantee that your troops will be able to hold the line of defense for which you are responsible?"

You must know that the expeditionary force has been recuperating, recuperating, and recuperating for more than a month, and has not even participated in a single actual battle, which makes it difficult for the Russian generals on the battlefield to believe in the combat effectiveness of the expeditionary force―――――― although they have seen the training and equipment of the expeditionary officers and men.

And Cai's answer is also very simple.

"It depends on how much your army trusts our army..."

Jiang Baili's words silenced the Russian generals present, although they all despised the Chinese team, but now the two sides are allies after all, and it is not good to cause friction between the two sides for no reason.

You know, Russia is not in a good situation right now, and now there is only one country like China that can support Russia.

There was silence in the headquarters, and after half a ring, it was Nikolai and Yudenrich who made the decision.

"Just do what Jiang wants..."

Nikolai and Yudenrich would have made such a decision simply because they were willing to believe what their eyes saw. Although the expeditionary force had not participated in a single battle since arriving in the Caucasus, what they saw at the expeditionary force garrison made them want to believe that the expeditionary force was a trustworthy force.

And since Nikolai and Yudenrich have made a decision, the Russian generals present can only nod and admit. After all, in the entire Caucasus, the status of Nikolai and Yudenrichch is the highest, especially Nikolai, you must know that he is not only the uncle of Tsar Nicholas II, but also the commander-in-chief of the Caucasian Front ...

――――――――――

Now that the battle plan has been formulated, Jiang Baili and his entourage have left the headquarters of the Caucasian Front.

In fact, the battle plan this time was very simple, that is, to take advantage of the Turks' contempt for the [***] team, so that the Turks suffered a big loss in front of the defensive position in charge of the expeditionary force, and then took advantage of the surprise of the Turks to launch an attack from both flanks by the Russian army. With any luck, it might be another battle of Karakilise.

After receiving the combat mission, Jiang Baili also personally led two infantry divisions into the eastern front battlefield on the front line of Fancheng, and the remaining infantry division remained in the rear as a reserve.

At the same time, in the defense line on the left flank of the expeditionary force, the Russian army also placed an infantry division there, so that if the expeditionary force showed signs of defeat, then this infantry division would replace it and hold the defense line located in the east―――――― this was a decision made by Nikolai and Yudenrichy after the strong request of some Russian generals.

There are too many distrusts of the Russian generals, and Zhang Shaozeng and others are also quite dissatisfied, but there is no way to be dissatisfied. After all, the number of Russian troops in the Caucasus is now more than five times that of the expeditionary force, and it is difficult for the side with a small number to occupy an advantageous position, not to mention that the expeditionary force has not come up with a convincing record so far.

For this reason, the expeditionary force held its breath from top to bottom, ready to let the Russian army see clearly with wide eyes.

However, while the expeditionary force was preparing on the defensive line, the Turkish army on the opposite side also learned through various channels that the Chinese expeditionary force, which had arrived in Armenia for more than a month, was also engaged in the battle this time. Moreover, the expeditionary force was still separated from the Russian army and was alone in charge of a defensive line.

After receiving this information, the commander of the Turkish army, Abdullah Kerim, was naturally extremely excited.

Because in his opinion, he has found an excellent breakthrough.

Although Turkey is known in Europe as the "sick man of Europe", out of European pride, Abdullah Kerim regarded the expeditionary force as an extremely easy persimmon. At the same time, the Turkish army also changed the direction of the main attack to the side in charge of the Eastern Front Expeditionary Force.

By this time, the Great War was on the verge of breaking out...

(To be continued)