Skobelev rushed back to Almaty as fast as he could.

The war in Xinjiang has begun, but that's just an appetizer. The feast will have to wait until Skobelev himself acts.

"Imperial officers, my dear companions, open your eyes and cheer up! We will really fight the Chinese in Xinjiang! ”

All the officers in the meeting straightened up.

Major General Kirilenko first asked: "Your Excellency, how many reinforcements, artillery and supplies can we get?" ”

Skobelev's gaze swept around everyone's faces. "We will be supported by 5,000 men. Although these people are not heroic and capable of fighting, they will make our forces more abundant. As for artillery and supplies, the support we will receive will be the efforts of the entire Turkestan Governorate. ”

"We're going to take Erie. In two or three months, before the coldest part of winter arrives, we must at least take the Yili Valley and make a posture for attacking Urumqi to increase the bargaining chips between the empire and the Chinese. ”

Major General Ferozov turned his head to look at the map, and the whole of Erie was surrounded by three thick arrows, "Your Excellency, your opinion is wise, I completely agree. The support of the entire Turkestan Governorate will provide us with at least fifty cannons. "Not to mention food, ammunition, medicines and other substances.

In Central Asia, where the Russian government has a weak ruling base, the combined forces of the merchants will be more effective than the government's logistics.

"Therefore, we should do our best to take the Tusi Pool, solve the threat to the south, and then take the Ili River. In order to capture the entire Ili River valley, open the passage to the east.

One week. The first reinforcements will be sent to Almaty. ”

Skobelev's eyes sparkled. "So, let's do our best."

"Yes!" The officers knew where the support was received. This is a common thing in the foreign operations of the Russian army. The tsar's orders were to be carried out, and the realities of the troops were taken care of. The general's approach is the most correct.

……

The start of the war in Xinjiang is a striking mark, and it indicates the full-scale outbreak of the Sino-Russian war.

Previously, the war was all limited to the northeast, and although the area there was so vast, it was still a regional war.

If the Russians made appropriate concessions, Liu Xian would immediately press the momentum of the Qin army.

Compared with Russia, which takes time to restore its national strength, it also takes time for China to build up its national strength.

But this beautiful possibility has completely disappeared with the outbreak of the war in Xinjiang.

Alexander III, the 'hermit', even if he knew the current state of Tsarist Russia, could not bow his head to an Eastern country. The full-scale outbreak of war brought cheers from the ruling classes of most of Europe.

The British got their wish.

The Germans were no longer worried about the continued entry of Tsarist Russia into the Balkans and a complete tear with Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary felt the pressure lighten suddenly. Turkey, of course, is cheering more.

The only person who is likely to complain is France. But France's hostility to China is irreversible. Even if the two sides resume normal economic, trade and diplomatic exchanges. On the one hand, the French deplore the Sino-Russian war, and on the other hand, they are happy to see that China and Russia have forged an irresolvable blood feud.

Even the 'peerless independence' of the United States is cheering at the outbreak of the Sino-Russian War.

In the eyes of the Americans, China and Russia are both giants with large numbers and vast war potential, and the war between the dragon and the polar bear will be another 'Hundred Years War'. It is impossible for two countries to decide the winner in a short period of time. In this way, the pressure on the United States at sea along the Pacific coast is suddenly small.

There are also the Netherlands and Spain......

Only China is at a loss as to the sudden outbreak of war with the Russians. What's going on? There is no clue or sign at all, why did you suddenly fight in the Northeast? Then war broke out in Xinjiang!

It was so sudden.

The Huaxia Ribao and other official newspapers and periodicals, although they subsequently published articles on Russia's unequal treaties and successive seizures of large quantities of China's land, could not completely dispel the panic in people's hearts.

Or with the news of the successive victories of the Qin army in the northeast and in the Baikal region. The limelight of the people has suddenly changed for the better.

Liu Xian will naturally pay attention to the situation in China. After seeing this scene, there was no smile on his face. There has been no patriotic trend in China because of this, and there has been no trend of donations. Although the people have made a big crusade against the Russians after the limelight has changed, the donation boxes set up in various places and the additional 10 billion war bonds have been issued. It's not a big increase.

The people of this country still need more education. The reaction was too bland! It doesn't even feel like the boom in Britain during the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

But fortunately, no one came to make Liu Xian uncomfortable. No one is stupid enough to spew Liu Xian in the newspaper that he is 'reckless'.

……

Outer Mongolia, Kulun.

August 16. Xu Qi got up early, and yesterday was August 15. He killed a sheep and stewed two fish in his family. In Outer Mongolia. The latter is worth no less than a sheep. The family of four ate a mouth full of oil, and they had never eaten so much during the Chinese New Year in the past.

Last year, during the Chinese New Year, his family only cut a knife of meat and ate a meal of white-flour dumplings. After this year's summer grain, the family has savings, and the arrears have been repaid, and more importantly, his second brother was recruited by the government into the yamen to eat the official grain. The confidence of the family is there.

There was no training in the tunli today, so he was going to work in the fields, and by the way, he would repair the canal at the edge of his field. When these canals were built, they were excavated by the tunli organization, and after the land was divided, they were maintained by each family, and the tunli was repaired again after the farming was busy. If the maintenance is not good on weekdays, the tun chief may have to deduct points, and if the points are deducted too much, he will have to pay more when he pays the grain.

Xu Qi went to the yard to wash his face, and ate two steamed buns with pickles, and the little sister had already gotten up. The second brother, who was eating food in the government's mansion, did not live at home, and he couldn't come back to Kulun once a month. When I came back last month, I heard that he was preparing to take some bar exam, and if he passed the exam, he would be able to pick a higher level. When he officially becomes a judge of the Patrol Court, he may be transferred back to the mainland.

The Xu family doesn't look at the tinkling sound of poverty in their hometown of Henan, and they can only taste the taste of a full meal when they arrive in Outer Mongolia. But the Chinese are homesick, and the father of the Xu family has been in Outer Mongolia for two years. I cry every New Year's holiday. One moment he talked about his relatives and neighbors, and the other he talked about the ancestral grave at home.

If Xu Qi's second brother can really be transferred back to the mainland. Their family is very supportive.

The whole Kulun is one hundred and three tuns, and one tun is one hundred families. Only 50 people were selected for that selection test. The government specially posted a big red list at the gate of the tun, and the tun chiefs all came to the door to congratulate, and they chose Xu Qi's second brother alone.

Food and lodging, a salary of several hundred yuan per month, and various subsidies. Xu Qi's second brother has more income than the immigrants in the Kulun family, who use horses to plow the fields, and his status is higher.

Xu Qi bit the steamed bun in his hand, and the pickled vegetables were sandwiched inside. The winter in this place of Outer Mongolia is long, there is no vegetable to eat, and every household has to prepare pickled vegetables.

Another month. After a heavy snowfall, in the next half a year, every household relied on pickled vegetables and dried vegetables. Although the price of mutton in Kulen is very cheap, after there are frozen sheep in winter, you can change it and retreat with a few catties of grain. But after all, Han Chinese immigrants could not rely on mutton for food like the Mongols. Pickled vegetables and dried vegetables are indispensable.

Xu Qi has a strong physique and a simple temperament, and the hard life from childhood to adulthood has also made him tenacious, and he is very serious and hard-working in farm work. Even if it is the training of the militia in Tunli. He didn't feel miserable. The results are always top-notch in Tunli.

When the little sister also eats well, Xu Qi took a hoe and shovel and went out with the little sister. The two of them are still driving twenty or thirty sheep, which is a side business that their family has only started this year.

They have a plot of land in their house that is dedicated to growing alfalfa. But alfalfa yields a lot. It's too much to feed the horses alone. And he also raised sheep with them. It's just getting started.

Xu Xiaomei was only eleven or twelve years old, wearing a new cotton coat, and skillfully driving the sheep with a stick. I saw a sheep pulling dung. It is clamped and placed in a back basket, and the animal manure can be used as fuel after drying. And if you pull on the streets of Tunnei, you will be deducted points if you are caught.

Xu Qi constantly greeted residents and militia members he knew along the way. It is also the land of his house, which is near Tunzi. If they were far away, they would gather together and drive the carriage.

When the two arrived in the field, Xu Xiaomei took the sheep to the meadow, and then went around the neighborhood, first picked up all the dung she saw in the back basket, and then went to see how the small trees planted at the edge of the field were growing, and then followed the eldest brother with a shovel to get the ditch.

Outer Mongolia has little rainfall, with an average annual precipitation of about 120-250 mm, 70% of which is concentrated in June and July. Extensive planting and thin harvesting are necessary for the development of agriculture in this place.

But the importance of aqueducts must not be overlooked.

Xu Xiaomei looked at the soybeans that were about to be harvested in the field, and she was happy. "Big brother, next month, our family will collect so many beans, even if we pay taxes and pay back, I'm afraid we will have three or four years of rations left." For those who have just come out of hunger, food rations are limited to more than just wheat and rice.

Xu Qi wiped the sweat from his head, and his face was full of joy. Soybeans are not cheap at the moment, and Cullen has an oil mill of its own, and Cullen's grain depot itself buys soybeans at a high price. The Qin troops stationed on the Mongolian plateau also faced a shortage of vegetables in winter. In addition to pickled vegetables and dried vegetables, soy products are another source of dishes for the daily needs of the troops.

Tofu, soy milk, bean curd, bean curd, stinky tofu, bean paste, tempeh, water tofu, dried tofu (100 pages), bean sprouts, etc., Kulun's soybeans can be sold nearby. Its yield is higher than that of spring wheat.

Summer grain and autumn grain, this is the biggest benefit of millions of immigrants on the Mongolian plateau, especially those in Outer Mongolia, so far all year round.

Although their land was given by the state, horses, rations, seeds, shelter, agricultural implements, etc., were all 'loans' from the state. That's a huge amount for immigrants who have nothing. If you don't pay off this account first, few people will spend money to touch other industries. The Xu family is a good example, with such superior breeding conditions, the family only raises twenty or thirty sheep.

When the summer and autumn crops are harvested, the grain is sold to repay the loans, and the immigrants are happiest when they see their 'debts' decreased. (To be continued......)