Plane B, November 1909. Strategically located on the shores of Lake Baikal, Irkutsk.

A sudden heavy snowfall has lowered the temperature in the entire lake area to more than minus 20 degrees. Over the course of a day and night, a foot of snow formed around the lake, blocking all roads and severely affecting rail transport.

The current commander-in-chief of the Far Eastern Military District, Lynevich, accompanied by guards, marched to the railway station with difficulty, saw a train covered in steam, which was hurriedly unloading goods, frowned and asked the officer who came up: "Is this a supply train from St. Petersburg?" ”

"Yes, Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, it is the emergency supplies specially allocated to us by His Majesty the Great Tsar. They were all very good weapons, with British-made rifles and bullets. ”

The officer replied respectfully, but there was not much joy on his face, but there was a kind of indifference that did not concern him, and he was serious about business.

Linievich asked: "Just weapons and bullets?" Do you have cotton clothes and wine to protect you from the cold? And food like gloves and meat and eggs? ”

The officer spread his hands indifferently: "It's a pity, not at all." Before this, we had asked the high command many times to prepare and ship it in advance, but the result. ”

Without going on, Commander-in-Chief Litnevich already understood what was going on.

He held his breath for a while, and his gaze became fierce and cold because of this, but he did not get angry at the quartermaster, who was obviously numb. He also knew that even if he was furious, it would not solve anything.

Now the only thing he has to think about. How to make use of what little material you have. Let the hundreds of thousands of troops gathered here survive the cold winter.

Since the start of the war between China and Russia. The Russian army has always been in an extremely unfavorable situation. The forces of the Far East were numerous, but the level of equipment was extremely poor. Because the Russian industry is seriously underdeveloped, they cannot even guarantee that each soldier has a rifle.

In peacetime, more than a million standing troops can still get a usable Mosin Nagant rifle, but the mobilized local army and reservists have begun to fill up with all kinds of old things, and even smoothbore guns are indiscriminately filled.

And then to the temporarily mobilized reserves, well, when they train, they all tie daggers with wooden sticks. In this way, it is mixed.

In the First World War in the Far East, 300,000 troops were annihilated. The hastily mobilized 200,000 troops relied on the complicated terrain of the mountainous area in the southern part of Lake Baikal and the poor conditions for passage to barely withstand the attack of the Chinese troops in front of them.

It is a shame to say, they learned a few months ago that the Chinese soldiers attacking from the direction of Mongolia and Manchuria were only 50,000 men, and the number of three divisions had defeated four times the number of Russian troops, and even the important city of Chita was lost.

In those days when Kuropatkin and others lied and deceived St. Petersburg. The Russian army did not have a single successful counterattack, and the defensive line was always stuck on the edge of the lower Selenga River from Kyakhta-Ulan-Ude.

I don't know what the reason is. As a result, the Chinese side has not captured Ulan-Ude, a small city hanging on the right bank of the river, but only put heavy troops on Onohoi, which is not far away, and confronted the 30,000 Russian troops stationed in the city.

It makes it seem like there's a slight chance to launch a counteroffensive. The big men in St. Petersburg, who stayed in luxuriously decorated offices, drank wine, danced and entertained, measured the map with a ruler without a contour line, and then confidently demanded that the Russian army in the Far East launch a counterattack, which would definitely destroy the enemy in front of them in one fell swoop.

But for the fact that all the supplies of the entire Far Eastern Military District are running out, they seem to have completely failed to see it. Even if Kuropatkin's lies were exposed, Nicholas II vomited blood angrily, and when he came to his senses, in addition to angrily dismissing the liar from all his duties, he only replaced him with Linevich. Even the demon monk Rasputin, whom everyone was accusing, was not punished.

Commander-in-Chief Linevich took office empty-handed.

When he came to Irkutsk, he saw more than 200,000 demoralized soldiers, not to mention any combat effectiveness, not even the physical strength to trek in the mountains.

The bigwigs of St. Petersburg were so poor and extravagant that the soldiers of the Far Eastern front could not even eat the black leba, and in the autumn, when the fresh potatoes fell, they barely gathered some from the surroundings, and they cooked them and ate them, and the taste was so weak that it was painful.

But this is only a grassroots soldier, most of the middle and upper class officers because they have money in their hands, money in their families, and can live on private parcels to live on some good food and wine.

With restraint on both sides, they can even buy all kinds of good things from China at high prices from the daring battlefield merchants. It's just that people only need gold, silver, treasures, furs, medicinal herbs, etc., and banknotes are resolutely unwanted.

It's just that the middle and lower-level officers have limited wealth, and after half a year of confrontation, they have gradually consumed the sea and dry rivers, and their pockets are empty.

At this time, the battlefield merchant gave them an idea: "You can catch fish from Lake Baikal!" Those are the good things that rich Chinese people like. ”

The Russians' minds were suddenly opened. As a result, tens of thousands of soldiers, who had only run out of bullets and rifles in their hands, temporarily turned into fishermen, and with all kinds of fishing nets brought over from the Chinese side, they carried out a frenzied fishing campaign on the products of the huge lake area, and then transferred them to the Chinese side one by one.

It has been more than half a year since the outbreak of the war, and the railroad between the two sides has not been demolished, which shows the wonderful.

In addition to being fishermen, there are also many people who have turned into lumberjacks. In order to raise the necessary provisions, all the forest farms and pastures around the lake area were used, and a large number of soldiers went into the mountains to mine, cut down trees, hunt and dig medicinal herbs, and did everything.

Lynevich was also drunk in the face of such a strange situation, and he could only repeatedly ask St. Petersburg for supplies, but he received only a stern rebuke from the Tsar, who criticized him for always emphasizing objective difficulties but refusing to exert his subjective initiative to mobilize the enthusiasm of the soldiers and launch a brave and decisive attack.

For this. His Majesty the Tsar also transported an entire wagon of medals to boost morale.

Linievich was so angry that he almost vomited blood. But there is nothing to be done.

Fortunately, summer and autumn are not too difficult. The huge Baikal region has an inexhaustible abundance of fish, and the supplies exchanged from China have made it difficult for them to maintain the daily diet of more than 200,000 troops -- salmon, whitefish, and sea bass produced in the lake are all good things, but they are reluctant to eat them.

In this way, the two sides were engaged in business and military confrontation on the other, and in some less important places, several small-scale conflicts broke out from time to time, and often the injured side was Russian soldiers. This has to be said to be a tragedy.

But there was always a limit to what could be done on a temporary basis, and in November, when the cold Siberian air moved south, they couldn't do their job as fishermen, lumberjacks, and hunters.

A thick layer of snow covered the vast land, hiding all the prey. All roads are blocked and you can't get through, you probably won't be able to get out of the mountains, and you won't be able to transport trees even if you cut down them.

On Lake Baikal, the ice is so thick that even a train can pass through, and even if you blast a hole with explosives, you will be frozen in the blink of an eye. There is no clever way to fish on a large scale.

This is almost equivalent to cutting off the survival of the entire Russian army in the Far East.

Upon learning that another shipment of supplies had arrived in St. Petersburg, Commander-in-Chief Linevich personally inspected it with hope. As a result, it was still the same as the list of goods he got, there were really only guns and ammunition, and there were no necessary supplies.

Linievich roared inwardly: "Damn it! You can even send a batch of cotton clothes! At the very least, let my soldiers have warm clothes on the boat, so that they don't have to worry about freezing into ice when they march and fight outside. Just send these weapons, there's a fart! ”

The words of Tsar Nicholas II put it this way: "Don't look at the victory of the Chinese for a while, it is only temporary." They carefully chose the warm spring to attack, and that was because they could not withstand the cold and frost like the great Russian soldiers. It's winter, and the low temperatures of minus thirty or forty degrees in the north will become our natural allies, and perhaps we only need to go out and take the frozen Chinese soldiers prisoner from the trenches. Gentlemen, this is a gift from God to the great Russians, and you should make good use of it. ”

Linievich also wants to "make good use of it".

Yes, the Chinese really can't withstand the severe cold of minus thirty or forty degrees. Since November, their activities in the mountains have been drastically reduced, and the number of clashes between the two sides has dropped sharply. The Russian scouts, who were originally pressed to the line of fire, could even touch the edge of the town sentry they defended. Of course, it is impossible to get in.

Throughout the autumn, a large amount of timber cut by the Russian army has been turned into materials used by Chinese border guards to build wooden houses and forts, as well as firewood for burning and heating, which can ensure that they will not freeze during the long winter.

When they came out, each soldier was wrapped in a bulging bag, in addition to wearing three layers of fleece and warmth** that only officers could buy at a high price on the Russian side, as well as thick sweaters and down vests, suede jackets on the outside, and goggles.

With this equipment, even if you run farther to the northern sea, I am afraid that you will not be able to freeze to death.

The odious thing is that each of the Chinese soldiers has such a piece of equipment, which is light and warm, which is conducive to fighting.

But even with such good equipment, Chinese soldiers rarely come out to fight, and it seems that they are planning to spend the winter in a confrontation.

Maybe the cold can really weaken the fighting spirit and strength of the Chinese soldiers, but unfortunately Linievich can't launch an effective attack, because his soldiers don't even have the warm clothes to ensure going out!

In the buffer zone of the Sino-Russian battlefield, all the hills were cut down bare, and there were not even tall bushes. After the snowfall, the wind blows, and there are snow traps everywhere. The abundant water network freezes, and although it facilitates passage, it is also difficult to tell where the pit is.

What's worse is that the Chinese have planted landmines in many places, which are nasty and vicious, and they have also clearly marked them with signs, and pulled up barbed wire as a cordon to warn everyone who approaches that this side is dangerous. There are only a few narrow places that can be safely passed.

It's not that the Russians didn't try to clear the mines, but they got nothing but a bunch of sappers who were blown away.

Later, they learned that those so-called minefields were simply the targets of the demarcated shelling of Zhuyuan. Barbed wire, signs, and mines underneath also hide warning devices that can be easily triggered. As soon as someone breaks in or tries to clear mines, artillery hidden in the distance immediately bombards them with mortars or howitzers.

That end, not to mention how miserable it was.

It is not easy for Linievich to assemble a force that can be used in the field, where can he dare to use his precious troops to bet on the truth or falsehood of these minefields? To attack along the gap drawn by the Chinese? Then Lao Tzu doesn't do the brainless thing!

Previously, because of the lack of ammunition and supplies, Linievich could still drag it under various pretexts. Anyway, he knew that no fool in St. Petersburg would take the initiative to ask Ying to replace him in command of the offensive operation. The strength of the Chinese Army is obvious, and no one wants to step down with the infamy of defeat on their backs.

But not now, with the equipment arrived, there were also British field observers, as well as the envoys of His Majesty the Tsar. They brought with them the Tsar's edict: "Take advantage of the winter to launch a fierce attack on the Chinese on the opposite side and resolutely defeat their arrogance!" ”

Lynevich had no interest in sending a telegram to defend himself, silently accepting this cruel reality. After meticulously following the etiquette of the British observers and the Tsar's envoys, he took the list of materials and laughed at himself with a wry smile: "It's not bad, those guys in St. Petersburg finally didn't do anything about this." The guns and artillery equipment that are enough for 100,000 troops are complete. ”

At least with weapons, their soldiers didn't have to worry about the attack just starting, and the rifles at hand became burning sticks.

However, thinking about the number of perverted machine gun equipment of the Chinese army on the other side, Lynevich could only shake his head helplessly, just give it up, after all, he has to pay some price, and it depends on what results can be obtained in the end. Anyway, the dead are worthless serf soldiers, let's fight.

On November 28, 1909, the Russian army quietly mobilized a division of troops to cross the border from the north of Ulan-Ude, crossed the frozen river, turned south and outflanked the forward position of the Chinese Northern Frontier Corps in Onohoi, intending to uproot this outpost fortress protruding from Mount Yablonov in one fell swoop. If all goes well, they will attack Petrovsk in front, sweep away the enemy on this side of the mountain in one fell swoop, and push the front to Chita.

And in the barracks of the small town of Onokhoi, Lieutenant Colonel Xu Shuzheng, who had joined the army after returning from the Russian mission, had just finished straightening out a regiment belonging to him and was ambitiously planning a tentative attack. (To be continued.) )