Last year, the Tsarist summer offensive against the German-Austrian army recaptured much of the land previously occupied by the German-Austrian army, and also achieved a relative tactical victory, but the situation was not optimistic.

Neither the military head of the General Staff of Tsarist Russia nor Tsar Nicholas II at that time expected such a great victory for Commander-in-Chief Brusilov. Not a single person had confidence in his offensive and was not prepared to provide him with reserves or supplies. By the time their offensive had waned by the end of June, the weary Russians had captured more than 200,000 prisoners, and their advancing troops had seen the Carpathian passes.

By mid-August last year, the Austro-German forces had stabilized the front, and repeated counteroffensives against weak Russian strongholds had recaptured many small tracts of land, especially around Lutsk. Despite the lack of adequate reserves and munitions, Brusilov not only held on to most of the sixty miles of land he had seized from the Austrians, but also attacked repeatedly. The fighting did not end until the second week of September, when the Austrians and Germans had suffered more than 250,000 casualties and a similar number of prisoners. The Russians paid a staggering price of a million men. The Russian peasants were always left without weapons or ammunition. Sometimes he charged with a bayonet tied to a club, and lacking the most ordinary tools, even had to break barbed wire with his bare hands.

The military policy of the tsars was either slaughter or stagnation. Last winter, due to the extreme lack of supplies at the front, the number of Russian soldiers who deserted was more than a million. Morale was very low, and the deserted soldiers openly lived in their homes, without interference from the authorities. Corruption and inefficiency permeate all segments of society. Army contractors receive money but only supply a portion of the supplies, often of poor quality.

Germany had already seen the weakness of Tsarist Russia. Although there are still millions of troops on the front line of Tsarist Russia, less than one million are really capable of fighting, and the other millions of people are too cumbersome even to fight soy sauce.

So since the Second Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the Southwest Front of the Russian Army changed defenses. The German-Austrian forces were ready for a large-scale counterattack and officially declared unrestricted submarine warfare.

On January 5, 1917, 2.4 million German-Austrian troops launched a large-scale attack on the Tsarist Russian defense line, and the southwestern defense line of Tsarist Russia garrisoned by the Second Army of China was also attacked by the German-Austrian army.

The Russian General Command always sent Brusilov support too late, but it was delivered slowly and laboriously by horse-drawn wagons on rutted dirt roads, while the Germans galloped east along the efficient railway.

Less than three days after the start of the war, the Tsarist Russian line was defeated by the Germans, from Lutsk at the forefront to Zhytomyr. Seeing that Kiev was behind them, the Russians barely managed to stabilize their position.

The front line of the Chinese Second Army was in the area of Iasi, but the soldiers of the Second Army were basically Southeast Asian soldiers who had not received much training and lacked weapons and ammunition. Under the command of Zhang Xiaozhun and others, he barely resisted for four days, and then feared that the Tsarist Russia would be defeated too quickly and the German army would be copied from the north to the south, so he had to lead his troops to retreat to Lebnica.

The battle was fought for less than half a month before it stopped, and the Germans occupied a large part of Tsarist Russia. The Russian army lost 300,000 people in battle. 500,000 captured and 6,000 missing. The Chinese Second Army also lost 120,000 men in this battle, and although the Germans were victorious, the losses were not small.

On January 20, Xiao Zhenlei convened a meeting to analyze the battle situation of the presidential staff group, and Jiang Fangzhen, chief of the general staff, was also among the meeting. At the meeting, Yang Shiqi first reported the results of military intelligence analysis and the analysis of the situation in Europe, saying: "According to the analysis of the information sent back by our intelligence system in Tsarist Russia, we know that riots and uprisings of all sizes are breaking out in various parts of Tsarist Russia. The speaker of the State Duma of Tsarist Russia, Rodjanko, even warned Tsar Nicholas II when the rebellion was sweeping the country. Nicholas II wrote to Empress Alexandra and said, 'This pot-bellied rodjanko has written me another piece of nonsense, and I don't even want to answer'. And the most conservative parties in the Duma agreed that the tsar must be removed. Moderate Socialist Alexander? Kerensky advocated an anti-Tsarist coup d'état 'by terrorist means if necessary', and Chief of Staff Alekseev was planning to arrest the Empress and force the Tsar to carry out reforms. At present, a large-scale strike is breaking out in Petrograd, and Tsar Nicholas II has sent troops to suppress it, but according to the information we have received, the troops sent are like brothers to the insurgents and strikers".

Everyone was amused by the last word "like brothers", Xiao Zhenlei smiled when he heard the words and said: "Okay, I admit that their relationship is very good, then you mean that the reason why the Germans stopped attacking was caused by the civil strife that was breaking out in Russia, why did the Germans do this?" What is their purpose? ”

"Yes!" Yang Shiqi nodded and said, "Our intelligence officers in Germany have recently sent back some information showing that Admiral Ludendorff of the German High Command had a secret meeting with the Russian revolutionary Vladimi, and they may have reached some agreement. Half a month ago, Ludendorff arranged for Vladimi and a group of revolutionaries to travel from Switzerland to the small Baltic port city of Zasnitz via Germany, and from there to Malmö in Sweden, and then from Malmö to Russia. We speculate that the purpose of this move by Germany was to seek a separate peace with Russia in order to concentrate all its forces on the Western Front. Because Germany's goals can only be achieved by supporting the Russian revolutionaries in overthrowing the Tsarist authorities and establishing a new Russian government! ”

Jiang Fangzhen said: "In this way, it makes sense for Germany to stop attacking at this time!" It's just that if there is a problem within Tsarist Russia, then the situation of our Second Army in the Eastern European Theater will be very dangerous, because we can't be sure whether the new government established after the collapse of the Tsarist government will still be on the side of the Entente, if they unilaterally make peace with Germany and take action against our Second Army, our Second Army will be surrounded on all sides, and when the time comes, the supply will be cut off, and the backup will be cut off, which can only be a dead end! ”

After listening to Jiang Fangzhen's analysis, everyone immediately understood the consequences of this matter, they were all hoping for the early collapse of the Tsarist government, if the Tsarist Russian authorities collapsed, Hua Guo could immediately start the plan to annex Siberia, but now the Second Army was in a dangerous situation.

A member of the staff group asked, "So, why don't you immediately order the Second Army to be withdrawn?" Or retreat to the vicinity of the Kazakh steppes, where our troops are garrisoned in the north and south, and even if the future new Russian government turns its face, the Second Army Corps can fight against them together with our troops stationed there! ”

Cai Yi shook his head and said: "This won't work at all, not to mention that the Tsarist Russian authorities have not been overthrown now, even if Tsarist Russia is overthrown and a new Russian government is established, the Second Army Corps cannot retreat, as long as Russia has not made peace with the Central Powers, the Second Army Corps cannot retreat, otherwise we will not be able to account to Britain and France and other Entente countries!" ”

Jiang Fangzhen said: "But we can't ignore the life and death of the Second Army, now the Second Army still has 800,000 troops, although the equipment is not good, but the ammunition is sufficient, although the training during this period of time was interrupted by the German attack, but they have not stopped training, I believe that as long as they complete the training, their combat effectiveness can be raised to a higher level, and now the question is how to ensure their safety?" Shall we cooperate with the First Army Corps in the direction of the Balkans and join forces in Romania or Bulgaria, or will they be stationed in their positions while we transport supplies to them from the Black Sea through the Turkish Straits through the Turkish Straits, increasing their ammunition and materiel reserves in order to prevent Russia from turning around and cutting off the Trans-Siberian Railway? ”

At this time, everyone looked at Xiao Zhenlei, after all, this involved the life and death of 800,000 people in the Second Legion, and no one dared to cross Xiao Zhenlei to decide their fate.

Xiao Zhenlei smoked a cigarette, and the smoke he spit out rose in front of him, which made him even more calm and calm at this time, and he said slowly: "Things are not as bad as you think, even if Tsar Nicholas II is overthrown, do you think that the Russian revolutionaries can seize power at the first time?" It's not that simple, except for the Russian revolutionaries who represent the proletarians at the bottom of society, the power of the Russian bourgeoisie should not be underestimated, and if the Tsar is overthrown, I think it is not the Vlakians who are most likely to take over power at the first time, but the Russian bourgeoisie, and only they will be able to take over the mess in Russia for the time being! But the Russian bourgeoisie is also unable to solve Russia's social problems, they can only last a year and a half at most, because the biggest problem in Russia now is the problem of food and the cessation of war, and all the food and living materials are in the hands of the landlord bourgeoisie, and of course they cannot give up their own interests, so the contradictions will break out again, and Russia will be chaotic again, and then we really need to be cautious. Within a year, we will not need to worry about the situation of the Second Army, and we will wait until I go to Cairo to attend the meeting of the heads of state of the Entente! By the way, how are my preparations for Cairo? ”

Yang Du hurriedly said: "We have repeatedly negotiated with Britain and France, and the specific time is set for February 12, and there are two ways to go: first, take a special plane, because Britain has purchased 300 fighters from our country, and our country has sent 300 fighters, Britain is worried that the shipping speed is too slow, so it has built three large airports in India, Pakistan, Iran, North Africa and other places to facilitate us to take off and fly back to Britain for every fighter we produce, and our army is also in Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Singapore, Baghdadand Jerusalem have also built air bases, and if they take this air route, it will not be too late for the president to leave even on March 11; The second is to take a naval warship, and in March we will have a batch of additional troops to be transported to the Asia Minor Peninsula and the Middle East, and there will be a naval detachment to escort the escort, and the president will be able to accompany him! Whichever route you choose, we can arrange it at any time." (To be continued......)