At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nanjing, Victora, like many Western diplomats, wore a tuxedo and bowler hat, but with a beard that was distinctly Russian.

Viktora is the consul of the Russian Empire in the office of the Chamber of Commerce in Nanjing, because in the past twenty years, the empire has not established formal diplomatic relations with Russia, so it is naturally impossible for the two sides to set up an open legation or the like, but although the two countries are in a state of hostility, but this diplomatic exchange will not be less.

Therefore, Russia has set up an office in Nanjing, following the name of the office of the Chamber of Commerce, to deal with many foreign affairs in the name of civil society.

Viktora, the commercial consul, actually has the authority to be the minister of the Russian Empire to the Chinese Empire.

In the same way, the empire set up a civilian office in Russia and sent diplomats to engage in private diplomatic activities.

Victora has been very sad recently, and the reason is very simple, because a week ago, the empire suddenly launched a large-scale offensive in the direction of Siberia in Russia, and from the Russian generals on the Siberian front, the number of Chinese troops involved in the battle has exceeded 50,000, and they expect more troops to rush to the front.

Although the number of troops stationed in the Siberian direction is not small, and the total number of troops in this large area is 50,000 or 60,000, because it has to be dispersed to the vast Siberia, the strength is actually relatively weak.

If it is only against 450,000 Chinese troops, then it will not be a problem, but this time the Chinese launched such a large-scale offensive, everyone knows that this is just the beginning, and there will definitely be more troops added later, and then the Russians in the Siberian direction will be able to block it?

The generals at the front have already given them the answer, that is, it is difficult, it is difficult.

In the past week, the Russian army has been caught off guard by the onslaught of the Chinese army, and they have found that the density of the Chinese army's firepower is much greater than they expected, resulting in heavy losses among the front-line troops, and the telegram asking for help has been spread throughout Russia.

However, it is a great pity that although the total number of Russians is large, most of them are still stationed in Europe, and most of the mobile forces that can be mobilized today have been sent to the Balkans and the Caucasus to fight against Ottoman Turkey.

Although there are still some troops in the Central Asian direction, there are also British and Chinese in Central Asia, and although the Chinese troops in Central Asia are only tens of thousands, they cannot launch a large-scale attack, but it is no problem to contain the same number or even more Russian troops.

In addition, if Russia draws too many troops in the direction of Central Asia, the British are expected to fall into the trap next.

And the key thing is that due to the long distance, even if the Russian army wants to draw troops from Europe or Central Asia to reinforce the Siberian direction, it will take several months or even more than a year.

Without rail transportation, if you march on only two legs, you will not be able to go up fast.

That is to say, in a short period of time, at least three months, the Russian army in the Siberian direction can only rely on itself, and the about 40,000 Russian troops east of Lake Belga are already difficult to support, and tens of thousands of Russian troops stationed in the area west of Lake Belga have begun to advance eastward after receiving orders, but they are stubbornly intercepted by the 12th Army of the Chinese Army.

It is conceivably difficult to successfully open the passage on the south bank of Lake Berga, which is only 100 kilometers wide, so as to reinforce Tuchak and even Nebuchu.

In this case, it also led to a great panic in the upper echelons of Russia, according to the Tsar, who was personally leading the army to fight on the Balkan front, was already furious, on the one hand, sending a telegram to strictly order the Russian army in Siberia to hold on, and on the other hand, to raise reinforcements that could be raised from other directions.

At the same time, because Russia is already in fact caught in a large-scale war on two fronts, Rao is a European steamroller, but it is also difficult to bear such huge pressure.

In order to obtain a buffer time, but also to avoid the danger of 40,000 Russian troops in the area east of Lake Berga falling into the danger of being surrounded and annihilated, the Russian top brass gave Viktora an order, asking him to immediately start diplomatic negotiations with the Chinese Empire, even if it could not make the Chinese retreat, but at least delay the pace of the Chinese offensive and buy buffer time for Russia.

The Russian top brass has made it clear that the great Russian Empire has begun a nationwide mobilization, and that a large number of serfs and workers are being forcibly conscripted to form new troops, and it will not be long before more gray cattle will be able to take their guns to the battlefield and fight for the glory of the double-headed eagle.

It's a pity that these take time!

And what Russia lacks now is these times, not to mention half a year, three months, according to the situation in Siberia, it is estimated that it will not be able to support it for a month.

Unlike the tepid fighting of the Russian-Turkish war, which also had strong traces of the Franco-Prussian War, the offensive launched by the Chinese army in the direction of Siberia was so fierce that many Russian generals who had been fighting with the Chinese army for a long time were very uncomfortable.

To say that the Russian army's combat experience against China, especially the Russian army stationed in Central Asia and Siberia, it is very rich, because these two have been hostile to each other for 20 years, and there have been countless battles of all sizes, although most of them are small-scale battles of dozens or hundreds of people, but it is enough for the Russian army to find out the basic situation of the Chinese army.

Russia is no stranger to a large number of steel breech-loading rifled guns and 1872 northern rifles equipped by the Chinese army, such as rear-loading artillery, since the Franco-Prussian War, not only the Chinese Empire followed the German Franco-Prussian War and began to equip rear-loading artillery on a large scale, but other countries have also not been idle.

The Russian army is also currently equipped with a large number of rear-loading artillery.

In the case of repeating rifles, due to the entry into service of the Empire's 1872 Northern rifle, it was still in a state of military secrecy for the first few years, but after 1875, this rifle was known to various countries, and countries set off a wave of research and development of repeating rifles.

The Russians themselves are developing a repeating rifle on the basis of the Bodan Bu 2, but it will not take a year or two to develop a new rifle to finalize.

Don't think that the rifle looks simple and the price is not high, but it is a rifle that can be equipped by the army in large quantities and become a standard weapon, and its development process often takes a very long time.

Even if the design is completed, it will take a lot of time to conduct experiments, tests, etc.

For example, after the 1864 Linde rifle was put into service in the Empire, the Rear-loading rifled rifle with metal bullets was basically developed around 1865, and the British first modified the existing 1859 Enfield rifle and entered service around 1868, and then entered service with the Martini-Henry rifle in 1870.

The Bodan rifle of the Russians, also entered mass service in 1870 after the completion of the final second model.

When it came to the era of repeating rifles, because the empire carried out strict secrecy about this rifle after the 1872 model northern rifle was in service, the earliest equipment of this rifle was mostly the domestic garrison troops, and when the production lines of the major arsenals matured, a large number of rifles could be provided, and then the whole army was gradually reloaded.

In fact, it was not until 1875 that the Imperial Army began to redress the entire army.

In the same year, Britain and France got the details of the 1872 Northern rifle, and then they all began to develop bursts.

Let's not talk about other countries, the Russians officially carried out the study of the modification of the Bodan rifle in 1876, but the modification was not very smooth.

Repeating rifles and previous single-shot rifles have a great congenital difference, many mature single-shot rifles are actually not suitable for conversion into rear-loading rifles, such as the famous Linde series rifles in the Empire, its modification journey is not very smooth, and finally led to failure in the selection of repeating rifles, although the Royal Arms Company was not willing to fail in the following years, continued to design new repeating rifles, and launched the so-called 1876 Linde rifle, but also received a symbolic tens of thousands of military orders.

However, in addition to the fact that the name of the 1876 Linde rifle still retains the Linde rifle, the core design concept is actually completely different from the 1858 and 1864 Linde rifles that have been passed down in the previous veins.

It is rumored that they have now begun to research a new generation of smokeless gunpowder rifles based on smokeless gunpowder, and put forward the design concept of small-caliber rifles, claiming that the caliber of the next-generation rifle will be reduced to less than eight millimeters.

In addition, another purpose of this 1876 Linde rifle was to compete for foreign orders after the future empire opened up the export rights of repeating rifles.

Although the domestic choice of the northern rifle, but in the international market, the northern rifle is not well-known, and the Royal Arms Company's Linde rifle is a well-known firearms brand in the world, and its reputation is not inferior to the Enfield rifle in the early years of the British.

Even when the Royal Arms Company sells rear-loading artillery, it sells dog meat on the head of a sheep, and calls the artillery Linde artillery, in order to take advantage of the good reputation of Linde rifles.

In the eyes of the leaders of many countries, especially some small countries and forces, the Linde rifle represents the best rifle they can buy, and this is fully proved in the early years of the 1858 Linde rifle and the 1864 Linde rifle.

In the five years from 1872 to 1877, the 1864 Linde rifle accounted for about 30 percent of the free market in the global firearms market, excluding the rifles developed by various countries.

From Mexico in the Americas, Argentina and Chile in South America, to several countries in East Asia, the standard rifles they use are all Linde rifles.

In Central Asia and Europe, Ottoman Turkey, a major customer of contemporary international arms dealers, was also a loyal user of the 1864 Linde rifle, and in addition to direct imports in the early years, Ottoman Turkey also purchased patent grants and production lines and began to produce the rifle on its own.

On the eve of the Russo-Turkish War, the Turks placed an order for 100,000 Linde rifles to the Empire in one go!

In the seventies, the Reich's Lind rifle, the German Mauser rifle, and the British Martini-Henry rifle almost accounted for most of the international ordnance orders.

The good export of Linde rifles has brought a huge amount of foreign exchange cash income to the royal weapons, so it is natural to want to continue to maintain it in the era of repeating rifles.

As for the Northern rifle, although this rifle is deeply loved in China, when it comes to the potential in the international market, it must be inferior to the Linde rifle.

Just as the Chinese people in the late Qing Dynasty had a soft spot for Mauser rifles and loved Krupp guns very much, customers in many countries now have a great affection for Linde rifles.

However, although the United Kingdom and other countries have begun to modify repeating rifles, they have not yet formed a mature system, and it is estimated that it will take one to two years for countries to equip repeating rifles on a large scale.

And when that time comes, like the 1864 Linde rifle, the Empire will definitely lift the export restrictions for the 1872 Northern rifle and the 1876 Linde rifle as soon as possible.

When the time comes, these domestic defense enterprises will be able to make another profit.

It's just that at this point in time, apart from the Chinese Empire, there was no country in mass service with repeating rifles, and neither did the Russians.

While the Chinese army was suffering from a headache over the massive consumption of ammunition, Russia was panicking because of the heavy firepower of the Chinese army.

This panic is not imaginary, but real.

Half a month after the Chinese army launched a full-scale attack, when the Russian tsar was still worried about how to kill the Turkish army on the opposite side, and then end the Russian-Turkish war and turn back to deal with the Chinese.

The 35th Division of the Chinese Army launched a fierce attack on Tuchak that lasted for a week with more than twice the superiority in strength, more than five times the superiority in artillery fire, and the superiority of the repeating rifles that exceeded the times.

Although the Russian army resisted very bravely, it could not resist the attack of the Chinese army in the face of the general situation.

A week later, more than half of the Russian forces in Tuchakny had been killed or wounded, and they were forced to surrender to the Chinese army when they ran out of ammunition and had no hope of breaking out.

The loss of Tuchak, more than half of the more than 6,000 Russian troops killed and wounded, and the rest all surrendered, this news quickly spread to every corner of the world with the help of telegrams, causing people to exclaim. (To be continued.) )