In this regard, the Chinese military on the one hand quickly reported to the Nanjing side by telegram, and on the other hand, it took decisive and swift military action.

Sent troops to the west to seize some important areas in the west of Tashkent!

On June 16, Lin Zhe personally instructed the troops stationed in Xinjiang to take decisive and swift measures to ensure that the western interests of the empire were not harmed, and if necessary, to launch a military operation aimed at deterring the Russian army.

After receiving the telegram from Nanjing, in late June, the local garrison sent two mixed brigade-sized troops to the western territory of the Kokand Khanate.

Naturally, there were also a lot of diplomatic quarrels in the middle, such as the diplomatic department was trying to win the Kokand Khanate to accept the conditions of the empire and become a vassal state of the empire, so that the empire's dispatch of troops was justified.

But for the Kokand Khanate, it was a very difficult choice, and there was no essential difference between becoming a vassal state of Russia and becoming a vassal state of the Chinese Empire, and it was annexed after a few years.

Now the opinion of the Kokand Khanate itself is no longer important at all, what matters is the confrontation between the Russian army and the Chinese army.

At the beginning of July, the Chinese army entered Kokand!

And at this time, the Russian army has already advanced to less than fifty kilometers away from Kokand!

The Chinese army, which seized Kokand by the Russian army, immediately launched a defensive work, and then the Russians did not give up their set tactical objectives in the slightest, and decisively launched an attack against Kokand.

As a result, nearly 4,000 Chinese soldiers and about 6,000 Russian troops fought an offensive and defensive battle in Kokand that lasted for half a month.

In the process, the Kokand Khanate was also completely ended, and the Chinese Empire and Russia unilaterally declared the Kokand Khanate as their protectorate.

And a few days later. Russia declared that the Kokand Khanate had been permanently annexed to Russia, but the Chinese Empire was quick to do so. The province of Kokand was formally established, and all the territories of the former Kokand Khanate were governed. He also said that Kokand Province has been Chinese territory since ancient times and is an inseparable part of the great Chinese nation.

The struggle for the Kokand Khanate in Central Asia once again directly led to a large-scale war between Russia and the Chinese Empire!

On 14 July, reinforcements from the northwest region led to Ili with an infantry division and a cavalry division.

At the same time, the Russian side also began to draw troops to reinforce the direction of Central Asia!

By the end of July, the empire had assembled more than three infantry divisions, one cavalry division, several independent cavalry regiments, artillery and garrison troops in Xinjiang Province and the newly established province of Kokand, with a total strength of more than 35,000 troops. More than 10,000 of them were cavalry.

Not to be outdone, the Russian army has successively reinforced and gathered more than 30,000 troops, a considerable part of which are also cavalry.

In fact, the combat readiness of the two sides was not limited to the northwest, but at the same time in the Far East in the Trans-Khingan Mountains and in the Wutai area on the steppe.

Among them, the Chinese army has gathered more than 20,000 troops in Heilongjiang Province and more than 180,000 troops in Wutai Province.

It is worth noting that among the forces in the above three directions, cavalry occupies a considerable proportion, and the 70,000 or 80,000 troops of the Russian army are guarded against. A third were cavalry.

The Russian army on the opposite side is not bad, and the Chinese Empire has been in military confrontation and armed conflict for so many years, and the Russian army has also hoarded a large number of troops in the above three directions, and the famous Cossack cavalry has at least 20,000 cavalry.

From the capture of Tashkent by the Russian army in May. Then the Chinese army seized Kokand, and after two or three months of preparation, the two sides were already on a posture. A full-scale large-scale war can break out at any time.

To this end, the Empire has held a number of strategic meetings in the past two months. Discuss the possibility of war against Russia and preparations for it.

Although it is not yet certain whether this war will be fought completely, it is not wrong to prepare early. In this way, whether it is a fight or a draw, we will be able to have sufficient means to deal with it.

In the face of the imminent war between the Chinese Empire and Russia, diplomats from various countries are also running.

One of the most interesting things is the British!

Although the British had great conflicts with the empire over Burma and Tibet, the empire and Britain shared many common interests in many other directions.

For example, to curb Russian expansion!

Looking at Britain's global strategy in the late nineteenth century, there are two points that are the core of the core, the first is to maintain the balance of power on the European continent, to prevent any continental European country from becoming strong and unified Europe, which has nothing to do with the empire for the time being, let's not talk about it.

The second point is to curb Russia's expansion on a global scale, which is specifically manifested in the recent Crimean War, why did the British go all the way to the Caucasus to fight the British, and they couldn't get the territory they had defeated.

The reason is very simple, that is, to curb Russia's expansion in the Caucasus and the Middle East, and to prevent Russia from gaining access to the sea in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

Then the British invasion of Iraq in history was also a specific product of this strategy, but it failed later.

Again, the Russo-Japanese War in the later world was also promoted by Britain behind the scenes, in order to let Japan act as a thug and beat back the momentum of Russian expansion in the Far East.

When you understand Britain's strategy toward Russia in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, then you can understand why the British, when they heard that a large-scale war between Russia and the Chinese Empire was about to break out, just ran up to the point that the British Empire firmly supported the Chinese Empire's territorial defense.

And said very directly, do you have enough military spending? Do I want to give you a loan?

Is there enough ordnance and weapons, do you want to sell them to you?

In short, the British were very willing, even wanting, to see a war break out between China and Russia.

One is the enemy of the British in Southeast Asia, and the other is the enemy of the British in the Middle East and the Caspian Sea.

casually sent away the British, who seemed to be well-intentioned, but in fact had bad intentions, and Lin Zhe once again convened the Imperial Council. The difference is that in previous years, military issues were discussed, and the participants were all military generals. And this time, there were all the civil and military dignitaries who participated in the meeting.

As usual, Lin Zhe was still sitting high on the dragon chair above. On both sides of the rectangular table below, there are civil and military officials sitting in columns, the generals sitting on the left, and the civil officials sitting on the right, which can be said to be distinct.

However, there is a more obvious difference that the generals basically have family badges representing the nobility on their chests, while only a few of the civil officials wear the noble badges, and the others still wear the peony badges worn by state employees.

The Imperial Council had been going on for nearly two hours, starting at 10 a.m. Some of them said that they would fight, not only to fight, but also to fight a large-scale war, to completely hurt the Russians and solve the problems on the northern border once and for all.

Some people also say that whether it is Kokand Province in Central Asia, Wutai Province in the grassland, or the Outer Khing'an Mountains region in Heilongjiang Province, they are all borderlands thousands of miles away from the hinterland of the empire, and once a war starts, it will be fought. Nine out of ten supplies destined for the front line had to be consumed on the road, which would undoubtedly put a heavy burden on the empire and have an indelible negative impact on the good situation of the empire in the past few years.

In this regard, Jiang Daoquan is firmly opposed to a large-scale war!

"The battlefield is thousands of miles away from Beijing. It is okay to support a war of 10,000 or 20,000 men with the foundation of the empire, but to support a war of more than 50,000 or even more than 100,000 people is an extremely heavy burden for the empire. It will have a great negative impact on the finances of the Empire, under the war. Will our industry and commerce continue to develop this year and next? Should we still invest in education? Is the railway still repaired? Should land reform still be carried out? ”

Jiang Daoquan saw that everyone's eyes were already on him, and even His Majesty's eyes were looking at him. He continued: "And it is very important that if we have a large-scale war with the Russians, what are the chances of victory or defeat without a round, even if our imperial soldiers are extremely brave and win the war, but what can the empire gain? Is it just a barren area? ”

"In order to obtain these barren lands, we will sacrifice the industrial development of the empire for the next few years, so that the price we pay will not be proportional to the gain!"

After Jiang Daoquan's words fell, it aroused the thinking of a group of civilian officials, yes, in the eyes of civilian officials, war is nothing more than the continuation of politics, and politics is the direct representation of interests, and the fundamental purpose of this war is to obtain benefits.

If there are no obvious interests, then what exactly is the purpose of a large-scale war between the Reich and the Russians?

But the military generals on the side were all angry, and immediately Shi Qingxuan said: "Interests? Once the war is won, we will be able to recover millions of square kilometers of land in the Trans-Khingan Mountains and Central Asia, and this is the benefit! ”

"Yes, what could be more important than expanding the territory?"

Several generals are connected to the opening, connecting the importance of expanding the territory, saying that once the war is won, the territory of the empire can be expanded by at least one million or even two or three million square kilometers.

But the civilian officials on the side couldn't help but sneer, expanding the territory, it sounds good, it's not that you generals want military merits to provoke a large-scale military confrontation with Russia.

Then the Central Asian side is better, but the barren land of Siberia is of little use even if it is thrown to the empire.

Due to the current level of technology and people's attention, people have little interest in those barren lands, otherwise the Russians would not have sold Garasga so simply in history.

Spending countless military spending, many dead and wounded soldiers, and more importantly, delaying the development of the empire's industrial economy in the next few years, just to get that barren land?

If you have this leisure, you can simply pay money to buy it from the Russians, and if it is estimated that it will be tens of millions of yuan, the Russians may not be able to let go.

"Even if it is, it must be controlled in size, it is enough to teach the Russians a lesson and let them settle down, there is no need to start a full-scale war for the sake of a few border conflicts!" This is Guo Longyun's attitude.

Hearing this, Lin Zhe set his sights on Prime Minister Xue Huan!

Although he didn't ask directly, Xue Huan understood very well that His Majesty was going to make his own statement, so he immediately opened his mouth after pondering a little. (To be continued.) )