September 1877 was definitely a very sad month for Russia.

In this month, because of the blockage of Pleven in northern Bulgaria, the main force of more than 100,000 Russian troops was blocked by a small Pleven fortress, and several attacks before and after were even more defeated.

Even in the second general offensive, the Russian army lost an astonishing quarter of its troops, you must know that the Russian army invested as many as 100,000 troops in the Pleven area, and tens of thousands of troops were lost in one attack, and this casualty rate was no better than the Battle of Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War or the Battle of Verdun during World War I.

The offensive at Pleven was a great failure, causing great panic among the Russians.

Russian General Milyutin even openly admitted that if we continue to fight like this, our huge army will be wiped out in an extreme time.

The large proportion of casualties of the Russian army also made the Russian Tsar Alexander II hesitate!

The most courageous and talented Russian Tsar of modern times, who pushed for reforms in Russia in the sixties and seventies, abolished serfdom and promoted a constitutional monarchy, also retreated at this juncture.

Alexander II is different from many contemporary European monarchs, he received a very good cultural education in his early years, and he received a complete and systematic military education, which can be seen from the fact that he can personally go to the front line and command hundreds of thousands of troops, no matter what the effect of his command is, but among contemporary European monarchs, there are not many monarchs who can personally command hundreds of thousands of armies to fight.

Judging from the previous Russo-Turkish war, Alexander II's ability to command large armies to fight was indeed lacking, but this did not make him military literacy, and it was this military literacy that made him more aware of the crisis facing Russia now.

In this extremely difficult situation, China stabbed Russia in Siberia and put Russia in a two-front predicament.

Although it is impossible for the Chinese army to cross a long distance to fight in Europe in a short time, in order to keep the territory of Central Asia and Siberia, the Russian army must invest more troops and resources to resist the westward advance of the Chinese army, and this kind of investment is difficult for Russia, which is already burdened and heavy.

Fighting a war requires a lot of resources, shells and bullets cost money, and soldiers need salaries and food, which will eventually have to be paid for from the treasury.

With the current financial situation of Russia, even if it can barely bear it, the final loss will be very large.

This would inevitably lead to increased taxation, which would eventually lead to widespread opposition at home, which would shake the foundations of the tsar's rule.

These circumstances had to make Alexander II make a more cautious choice, he first stopped the large-scale attack on Plevin, and then waited for more reinforcements to arrive, and at the same time began to use trench encirclement, encircling Plevin, and using the method of slowly grinding blood to gnaw on Plevin's tortoise shell.

On the other hand, he began to seek more possibilities, trying to block the offensive of the Chinese army in the Siberian direction and avoid the collapse of the whole situation.

And the change in the attitude of the Russian tsar will also be directly reflected in Viktora, a Russian diplomat in Nanjing.

After coming to the building of the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs and meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Song Guan, Victora made clear his statement to Song Guanqian for the first time, saying that Russia was willing to negotiate with the Chinese Empire on the territorial disputes in the Far East, Alaska and Central Asia, so as to completely resolve the border disputes between the two countries.

The submission of the Russians was unexpected by Song Guanqian, but it was expected by Song Guanqian.

Song Guanqian could have predicted that after the Empire launched a large-scale offensive against Siberia, the Russians would definitely come to the door and ask for negotiations, but in Song Guanqian's prediction, such negotiations were estimated to be just delaying time.

But what Song Guanqian did not expect was that the Russians' sincerity in negotiations was very sufficient, and they expressed their willingness to conduct actual negotiations.

Since Russia is willing to take the initiative to make concessions for negotiations, the empire will naturally not turn away this opportunity, after all, there is always an end to the war, and the final stage is to implement the benefits of the war in the form of a treaty.

After learning that the Russians were going to negotiate, Lin Zhe did not interfere too much with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but said that they should do their best, and he would ask the military to cooperate.

The military's cooperation is simple: launch a more aggressive offensive to create more pressure on the Russians, preferably by creating a fait accompli, so as not to make diplomats quarrel at that time.

The Foreign Ministry's expectations for this negotiation are very high, and generally speaking, there is only one clause, that is, Russia formally cedes the Russian territories already controlled by the empire, that is, the Siberian region, Central Asia, Alaska and other Russian territories.

But this seemingly simple request, the Russian side will naturally not easily agree, even if these territories have actually been controlled by the Empire, Russia has lost control of these territories, and in the current situation, unless Russia suddenly has aliens to help them, otherwise don't expect to be able to take it back.

But it is still very difficult to get Russia to agree to this.

In order to put pressure on Russia, the Chinese offensive in the direction of Siberia became more and more fierce, and the main force of the 35th Division of the 12th Army from the direction of Utai Province conquered Tuchak and attacked the city all the way, successively conquering many Russian cities and towns, and swept all the way to the southern part of Lake Berga.

The main forces of the Twelfth Army, including the 36th Division, the 5th Cavalry Brigade, the 8th Cavalry Brigade, the 7th Artillery Brigade and other units, met the Russian reinforcements in the western area of Lake Belga, firmly blocking them in the area west of Lake Belga.

In the direction of Nebuchu, the Fifth Army also cleared a large number of Russian strongholds on the periphery of Nebuchu, and launched an intensive large-scale attack on the city, and about 10,000 Russian troops in the area have fallen into the final bitter battle.

The Ninth Army, which set out from the eastern part of Utai Province, did not stop its pace, they did not engage a large number of Russian troops in the early stage, but when they approached the Chita area, they were also resisted by the main forces of the Russian army.

However, whether it is in the direction of Lake Belga, in the direction of Nebuchu, or in the direction of Chita, the Russian army is far inferior to the Chinese army in terms of strength, weapons and equipment, and ammunition reserves.

You know, in order to launch the Siberian War, the Chinese army has been preparing for half a year, since the outbreak of the Russian-Turkish War in April, the Chinese army began to plan to launch the Siberian Campaign, when in August saw the Russian army lose troops on the Bulgarian side, the imperial side finally made up its mind to take the opportunity to beat people, and launched a campaign in September.

By October, the Chinese Army had already invested three corps on the front line, including seven infantry divisions, three cavalry brigades, and nine independent artillery regiments, with more than 150,000 elite Royal Army troops, and a large number of garrison troops were also involved in auxiliary missions.

By the beginning of the war, the Imperial Army had almost drawn up the ammunition reserves of Wutai Province, Mongolian Province, Zhili Province, and Northeast Province, and these ammunition had either arrived at the front line or was on its way to the front line.

However, how many Russian troops are there in the area east of Lake Belga? The regular army is only more than 40,000 people, and even if you add irregular armed forces such as the improvised militia, 60,000 can be considered a lot.

Even if you count the approximately 20,000 Russian troops in the area west of Lake Belga, the total strength of the Russian army is only 80,000.

In terms of total strength, the strength of the Russian army is only half of that of the Chinese army, and the number of artillery is only one-third or even less, and there is no need to compare with rifles, there is a generation gap between the two.

In terms of ammunition consumption and replenishment, the gap between the two has even reached a huge gap of nearly ten times, that is to say, if the Russian army fires one shell, the Chinese army can fire more than a dozen shells, and the Russian army can fire more than a dozen bullets if the Russian army fires one bullet.

Under this kind of comparison of forces, if the Chinese army is not able to win the Battle of Siberia, then Shen Chiyun and other senior generals will all commit suicide.

On October 14, after holding on for nearly a month, many Russian military strongholds and fortresses around Nebuchu were lost, and the Fifth Army, after paying nearly 8,000 casualties, successfully conquered this urban defense fortress group that resisted the westward advance of the Chinese army.

In addition to the dead and wounded, the remaining 10,000 people, except for a small part after surrendering, most of the remaining 10,000 people fled in the direction of Chita.

At the same time, the 12th Army officially telegraphed to the theater command, saying that the army had completely controlled the area on the south bank of Lake Belga, and tens of thousands of Russian troops in the area east of it were either killed or wounded, surrendered, or fled to the direction of Chita.

At present, the main force of the army, according to the previous battle plan, is carrying out defensive operations in this area on the spot to resist the Russian reinforcements in the area west of Lake Belga, and the number of Russian troops in this direction has increased from 20,000 to 30,000 in the past month or so, and it is still increasing.

As for the 35th Division, on the one hand, it cleared the remnants of the Russian army, and on the other hand, it rested on the spot and accepted new recruits.

At present, more than 4,000 people have been killed or wounded, and the casualty rate is about 20 percent, and its strength has been reduced from 21,000 at its peak to 17,000, and it urgently needs to be replenished.

Due to the peculiarities of the direction of Lake Belga, another infantry division and cavalry brigade of the 12th Army were used to resist Russian reinforcements, and the 35th Division was responsible for attacking Tuchak and other cities.

The division also lived up to the expectations of many bigwigs in the army, and with the first division of Liankeduo City, a total of 10,000 enemies were annihilated and more than 3,000 prisoners were captured.

So much so that before the battle ended, the names of many of the main outstanding commanders of the 35th Division had already been passed on to Lin Zhe's side.

"This Hu Shaocheng's ability is relatively top-notch in the army, and he has not lived up to His Majesty's expectations with the 35th Division!" In front of Lin Zhe, Shi Qingxuan praised the junior generals in person.

Although in terms of age, Shi Qingxuan is four years younger than Hu Shaocheng, Hu Biancheng is 58 years old this year, and Shi Qingxuan is only 54 years old this year.

Shi Qingxuan was already a lieutenant general in the army when the empire was first established in 1857, and in the next few years of the unification war and the second Opium War in 1858, he was the most prestigious person.

This Hu Shaocheng was just a colonel during the War of Reunification, and in the next 20 years, he slowly rose through the ranks of the army lieutenant general, which is a veritable junior in terms of seniority in the army.

Hu Shaocheng this person Lin Zhe naturally knows, but also a veteran general in the army, in 1868, he was promoted to lieutenant general, after accumulating seniority in the previous few years, in 1874 transferred to the 35th Division as a division commander, originally Lin Zhe wanted him to sharpen in the war against Russia for two years, and then he was ready to be promoted to become an army general, and then transferred him back to the headquarters or to a certain army, but in that year, the 35th Division suffered a small loss in the war against Russia.

Under this kind of background, Hu Shaocheng was naturally implicated, not to mention promoted, it was not easy to sit firmly in the post of commander of the field division.

Three years have passed, and this Hu Shaocheng has not lived up to his original expectations, and he still has a hand in the battle.

Looking at the battle report on the front line, there are also several major generals of the 35th Division, such as the former commander of the garrison of Bulazhen and the commander of the provisional first cavalry detachment, Major General Su Jinyu, this person's combat exploits are also quite outstanding, as the vanguard of the whole army, he led the cavalry to the shore of Lake Belga in the early stage of the campaign, and fought with the Russian cavalry unit many times without defeat, and the commander of the 12th Army, General Li Mu, described him in the battle report: The officer has both courage and wisdom, and has the style of defending the youth.

As a cavalry general who led the army to fight on the front line, it was not easy to get such a high evaluation from General Li Mu.

The so-called provisional first cavalry detachment, the predecessor of the 35th cavalry regiment and two Wutai provincial garrison cavalry battalions, the follow-up 12th Army from other units transferred three cavalry battalions to Su Jinyu command, and gave a temporary first cavalry detachment number, this temporary formation of a certain troops, generally during the war temporary transfer of troops, the subordinate troops are not fixed, after the war is often dismantled, the troops are transferred back to the original troops, and this temporary formation of troops is not fixed size, It is possible that there are several battalions with a total strength of several thousand, but it is also possible that there are several divisions with a total strength of more than one army.

Su Jinyu led the provisional First Cavalry Detachment to make outstanding achievements, and even before the reward and promotion came, Li Mu transferred a cavalry brigade of the Twelfth Army, that is, the Fifth Cavalry Brigade, to the provisional First Cavalry Detachment.

The total number of cavalry under the command of Su Jinyu exceeded 6,000 cavalry, and the main cavalry combat mission in the direction of Lake Berga was recognized.

If his luck can be maintained, then he will become one of the brightest cavalry generals in this war! (To be continued.) )

PS: PS: Two chapters and eight thousand, it's an addition