Three days later, Lynevich looked at the two telegrams he had just received with a pale face, and the corners of his eyes twitched.

One was from St. Petersburg, where His Majesty Tsar Nicholas II vehemently denounced the incompetence of the Far Eastern Army and ordered Lynevich to produce satisfactory results within one month, otherwise he would be removed from his post and investigated.

"I wish you had taken me out of this damn place now, so that I might not have to suffer so much."

Commander-in-Chief Linevich muttered very disrespectfully, opened the message that came with the telegram, and finally understood why the tsar was so angry.

A report from the Chinese side reads: "After a bloody battle, our heroic Northern Xinjiang Army successfully annihilated a Russian cavalry unit that invaded our territory at about 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Its leader, Major General Orlov, has given the heads of more than 6,000 people, and the rest are being encircled and suppressed with all their might. We have repeatedly stated that China is a peace-loving country and does not want disputes with its friendly neighbors. But we will never tolerate any form of aggression. ”

Linievich didn't continue to look down, and he could add the second half of the article with his eyes closed. is still the same old tone, while attacking the city on the battlefield and strategically rectifying to the death, while calling for peace and asking the other party to calm down, it is really a model of two-skinned face.

However, the previous paragraph is enough. The annihilation of the Orlov cavalry corps meant the bankruptcy of the entire operational plan for the southward attack. The annihilation of 24 cavalry companies in three or four days can only show one thing, the Chinese have long been prepared. The so-called defense of an empty Mongolia is simply a deliberately created trap!

Cavalry units were annihilated. And what about the other troops? Are you facing the same danger?

Linievich picked up a second telegram. It also made him hesitate to make up his mind.

The 1st Siberian Army fought hard for several days. Finally, he succeeded in breaking through the stubborn resistance of the defenders in front of him and opened a passage across Kyakhta into the Mongolian Plateau.

But the cost is heavy. The entire First Army was more than half disabled! For three days in a row, the attack was carried out under untold artillery bombardment, resulting in heavy casualties in every unit, and at worst, it was not even possible to form an effective command.

What was particularly fatal was that the First Army's will to fight was completely crushed. The rest of the soldiers and officers were unwarlike, and in the face of a smooth passage, they could not muster up the courage to continue to break through.

Linievich himself could not make up his mind. The entire Kyakhta defensive line was ostensibly opened, but the key position - the city of buying and selling. The mountain lines on both flanks and the artillery positions in the rear are still intact.

Although the defenders did not show any intention of taking the initiative to counterattack, the previous deadly artillery bombardment quickly weakened, as if they had run out of shells. But who knows if this is another deadly trap?

The previous Orlov cavalry regiment successfully passed, but was exterminated by the dogs who closed the door.

The First Army continues to follow up, is it the same result?

A good strategic plan has turned into a gamble that you can't grasp, and it's really frustrating to think about it.

Lynevich put down the message and returned to the map table to stare at the distribution of the situation between friend and foe. After pondering for a long time, he finally gritted his teeth and made a decision: "Order the First Army to continue to contain the enemy in front of you." The Second Army took over from the First Army and fought south. We're going to have to win anyway. ”

Yes, it's such a seemingly humble and pitiful goal.

Lynevich no longer imagines any earth-shattering feats, and it is worth it to win a victory, even if it is only a small partial victory, to smear a little glory on the defeated Russian army, even if it pays some sacrifices.

It has to be said that the successor commander-in-chief is quite strategic, and he knows that the victory or defeat in the Far East is related to the results of Tsarist Russia's tactics in the struggle of the European powers. Once it is seen that he is completely weak and incompetent, not only will the so-called great strategy of plotting the Balkans not work, but he may even be counterattacked by others.

Once the two ends are not pleased, and the attack from both sides becomes a two-end block, it is called a tragedy!

In the southeastern Baikal theater, with the update of the operational instructions of the Far Eastern Military District Command, the second wave of the Second Siberian Army, which was transported by the railway on the lake, began to mobilize. The corps commander, General Smirnov, temporarily assumed the post of commander-in-chief of the Southward Corps, and incorporated the remnants of the First Army into the combat system.

Smirnov did not rush to attack. He first went to the front line to take a turn, and after seeing the battlefield situation with his own eyes, he finally understood why the First Army fought so hard and so badly.

The entire Kyakhta defense line is very badly constructed. The combat space, which was not very wide, was cut into three sections by the carefully constructed multiple defense lines. The frontal width of each section of the available troops is extremely limited, and from the perspective of the Russian army, it will be a regiment to die, and any more will be squeezed into a pile, which is just cheap for the powerful artillery attack of the Chinese side.

Previously, the First Army suffered this big loss, and when it came up, the attack was too fierce, and it was blown up by the heavy artillery that split its head and covered its face! Later, he finally learned to be obedient, reduced the offensive force and adjusted the skirmish tactics, and found that the defensive firepower of the position opposite Nima was enough to resist a division!

Using a regiment of backwardly equipped infantry to attack the defensive positions of US imperialist GIs at the level of World War II can be imagined.

The so-called gap in the battlefield is just a passage that the Chinese side has taken the initiative to weaken artillery interception and abandon the first few fortifications.

Similarly, these passages did not allow for a large army to enter, and the Russians had to allocate a sufficient number of troops to occupy the trenches and then hold them to the death. Otherwise, once the main army has just poured into the Mongolian plateau, but this side is once again tied to the pocket, how miserable the end will be, it is chilling to think about.

Smirnov made a rough calculation, and his heart was called a greasy.

According to the ferocity of the firepower exposed by the defenders before, he had to leave at least one division here in order to barely ensure the safety of the rear road. The premise is that the consumption of ammunition on the Chinese side is not replenished.

But the Russian army is not optimistic! In order to open the gap, the First Army almost exhausted the ammunition it had prepared in a few days. Those lines of defense were also blown up by artillery. Outcome. The bodies of several defenders have not yet been found. It shows that people retreated very calmly. Even if there were casualties, they were all taken away.

After thinking about it, he felt uncertain, but the situation didn't allow him to think too much. The pressure from St. Petersburg is not only directed on Commander-in-Chief Linievich, but also on his senior officers.

As a member of the Russian upper echelons, the vested interests of Tsarist Russia, they had the responsibility and responsibility to preserve the dignity and honor of the empire. No matter how incompetent, positions and classes cannot be changed, and everyone has a natural consciousness in this regard.

After careful deployment, Smirnov finally came two weeks later. Launched the second wave of attacks to the south.

He didn't know that in this short period of time, the 11th Division of the 11th Army, which was in charge of the defensive line, had also completed supply and repair. The strength of the other two divisions was put into operation one after another, and they were replenished and replaced in an orderly manner.

As soon as the battle began, the Russian army first launched a fierce siege on the three divided positions, and the posture was very much like it wanted to take it all in one fell swoop and complete the breakthrough of the entire front.

The defenders also seemed to be completely unaware of the Russians' intentions, and continued to increase their forces to hold the line to the death. Judging by the density of fire and the order of resistance, it seems that it is not as tenacious and thorough as before. There were even a few times when I was almost broken through by the crazy hairs who drank the spirits.

However, this situation existed for a short time, and after the Russian offensive slowed down. They also quickly adjusted. As the battle entered the stalemate phase, the situation reversed, making the Russian army feel more and more heavy pressure.

The Russian army did not know that this was due to the rotation of the 11th Army on the battlefield.

When the new Chinese Army rose, its achievements were very impressive, which attracted the attention of the world powers. But more than a decade later, their number has steadily increased to more than one million, and most of the veterans with combat experience have become middle-level officers, but the soldiers are all raw melons and eggs.

In addition, the enemies that the entire army has fought are either half-like the poor Japanese army, or bandits and bandits from all walks of life who do not even have guns, and there is not a single opponent who is really worthy of their full strength.

After the launch of the war against Russia, the Northern Xinjiang Corps made a successful surprise attack, and the process was too smooth, and it did not play much role in training, which is actually not a good thing for the entire army.

Therefore, after careful deployment, His Excellency Yang Hao, the head of state, finally decided to use the Baikal theater as a battlefield to hone troops, and use the growing Russian army as a whetstone to effectively sharpen the army.

This kind of dry method comes from the battle between the two mountains in this world.

At that time, it took five years to get more than 200,000 troops from the seven major military regions to take turns to fight, and used Vietnamese monkeys as whetstones to quench and rebuild the reorganized Chinese army, and the effect was very obvious. This is a real battle for training.

When it came to the second plane, His Excellency the Great Führer naturally followed the same example, and with the huge generation difference in weapons and equipment, he gradually dispatched the army forces that had been carefully built in the past ten years. Among them, especially the Northern Army, because it bears the heavy responsibility of guarding the 10,000-mile frontier and is also a key force in land warfare, the sooner it sees blood, it will have more certainty when participating in the melee of the great powers.

As a result, the sad Russian army unknowingly acted as a very competent "blue army", taking out hundreds of thousands of troops and valuable ammunition and materials to serve as sparring partners for the Chinese army.

Based on the overall strategy of not wanting to fight the Sino-Russian war for too long, the frequency of front-line rotational battles naturally cannot be delayed for as long as before. Anyway, there are two railways directly passing through the entire front line, and the battlefield transportation is convenient, and the rotation of troops is relatively easy. Basically, other troops were dispersed into various positions in small batches, first replenishing the casualties and fatigue, and after a few battles, they continued to add new recruits and replace veterans.

That is to say, every time the Russian army is crippled once, it has to stop and repair, waiting for reinforcements from the rear to join the gap between battles, and the Chinese side also makes simultaneous rotations.

This caused every time the Russian army attacked, it was always found that the defenders had a period of panic in their performance, and that was because the recruits faced the fierce battle with the roar of artillery fire for the first time, and it was inevitable that they would not be able to adapt to it. However, as long as a period of time gradually settles down, the once strict training level is brought into play little by little, and the effectiveness of collective combat soars rapidly.

Where did the Russians know this! Not to mention the mess in the heads of the front-line commanders, it was Tsar Nicholas II of St. Petersburg, who saw all day long the chattering calls for an armistice from the Chinese side, repeatedly preaching all over the world that "we are a peace-loving nation", "we do not want war", "everyone is a good neighbor, if there is something to sit down and talk about, why do you have to fight".

Nicholas II vomited blood crookedly. Nima is purely taking advantage of the advantages and selling well! Oh, you Chinese suddenly started to rob Lao Tzu of more than one million square kilometers of land, not to mention the Far Eastern Railway, the Middle East Railway, and the Vladivostok port that you have worked so hard to build, and killed hundreds of thousands of our troops. Is there any peace talk in the world that refuses to make concessions?

Not only the Russians, but the entire world have expressed great contempt for the "hypocrisy" of the Chinese.

The British did not say anything on the surface, but also showed a detached posture of mediation, but behind the scenes, they complained more than once: "Who said that the Chinese are an old-fashioned people who want to save face?" Their ability to be cheeky and reverse right and wrong doesn't have to be worse than us British! It's just too fucked up to get a cheap and obedient style, tsk, it's not easy to deal with. ”

The diplomats of the British Empire had a very deep understanding of China, and in the last fifty years of the former Qing Dynasty, the British almost figured out the Chinese temperament. The entire formulation of China policy was made on this basis.

But I never expected that after only ten years, I had completely changed my appearance, and the degree of hypocrisy and shamelessness was very close to that of the UK!

This cliff is a huge hidden danger, and we have to find a way to solve it!

If the great powers knew about China's use of Russian Maozi to train their troops, they would not be shocked!

Smirnov used a feint to cover his true intentions for a breakthrough, and the Chinese defenders took turns to fight. The 11th Army quickly completed its rotation, and each unit went up to fight hard, and then gave up the ground for the novices to come up. In general, a recruit will not be in the position for more than a week.

No matter how it is rotated, the strength and equipment of the Chinese Army are laid out there. From the quality of the soldiers, to the training, to the ideology, to the comprehensive transcendence of weapons and ammunition, coupled with the fact that they are relying on a solid defensive line to fight, the new recruits enter the state very quickly, no matter how panicked, as long as a third of the veterans are present, they can easily withstand the attack of the Russians.

As a result, it was originally planned to suppress the offensive for a few days, and the Russians added more and more troops, and before they knew it, half of the Second Army was thrown in, and nothing was gained!

Smirnov was a little dumbfounded! What's the matter with this Nima, we are still planning to use more than 20,000 people in an army full of strange personnel, all of them to go on a rampage in the Mongolian battlefield, and this guy is careless and consumes half of it. Although there were not so many casualties, they were all pinned down on the battlefield and couldn't move.

That's all it takes, but the wastes of the First Army didn't take this opportunity to cheer up, and they couldn't be added to the offensive sequence in time. If you break through like this, the danger will be too great!

At first, Smirnov thought that the remnants of the First Army would be defeated by ferocious artillery fire, but in fact, he himself saw the scene of large-caliber heavy artillery covered bombardment, and his legs trembled!

Later, he suddenly discovered that the reason why the remaining units of the First Army could not recover their combat effectiveness was because of a serious shortage of qualified middle and lower-ranking officers. In the previous battle, most of the fools who spent money to climb the relationship through the back door were wiped out! Most of the people who are now filled in are illiterate soldiers promoted on the battlefield.

Smirnov's heart was pounding! What's going on?! He hurried down to investigate the current situation of the Second Army, and found that it was very similar to the First Army. As long as the middle and lower-level officers bravely take the lead in the charge, they are basically the fastest to die on the battlefield, and the proportion of officer losses far exceeds that of ordinary soldiers after a battle.

No matter how uncompetitive those officers are, they are always better than ordinary soldiers, but now they have made the command from top to bottom ineffective, and the battle is chaotic, let alone victory, it is extremely difficult for Nima to sustain it!

Smirnov hurriedly shared his discovery, and Lynevich's head exploded! (To be continued.) )