"Brave Russian servicemen will thwart the attack of the Chinese on the coast!"

On the day of the outbreak of the war, the whole of St. Petersburg, and indeed the entire Russian Empire, was filled with an unprecedentedly optimistic view, and hardly any Russian would doubt that Russia would win the war! There is a well-known cartoon in Russia, the content of the cartoon is very simple, a Russian giant swallows a pigtailed Oriental soldier in one gulp, and that unrealistic blind confidence pervades the whole of Russia. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"One Russian soldier can defeat 10 Qing soldiers, and one Russian division can defeat 20 Qing divisions!"

In this blind self-confidence, the Russians' preparations for war are extremely limited, and in the eyes of the Russians, it may not take until the summer for the war to end.

"It's just a small-scale conflict that won't have any impact!"

In the eyes of many Russian generals, this war is not even a war at all, or even a small border conflict, which can be said to be not worth mentioning, and in the eyes of some, it is at most a conflict similar to the border incident of the Afghan border tribal conflict.

However, despite this, they still made all preparations, such as mobilizing nearly 300,000 troops from Europe and Western Siberia to reinforce the Zabaikal region and the Amur region.

But the war developed far beyond their expectations...... In the first week of the war, almost completely occupied by the Northeast Army, nearly 100,000 Russian troops were besieged in Vladivostok, and the Chinese completely won the initiative on the battlefield, so that the Russian army did not know how to stop their attack, and two Russian brigades in Amur, one was completely annihilated, and the other was forced to the west. Retreated, and in just a week the Amur region became occupied by the Chinese.

In Vladivostok, almost 100,000 Russian troops are struggling to hold out, and no one knows how long they will be able to hold out? The optimistic estimate is one to two years, of course, if the war can last that long. And the most pessimistic, estimated to be six to eight months, after the end of the battle at Amur, the generals of St. Petersburg mostly attributed the victory of the Chinese to the suddenness of the war and their lack of preparation, as if this was the best explanation, and the explanation for all the setbacks.

For Russia, the last time they lost was half a century ago, and that was in Britain. France, the defeat that was recruited by the attack of almost the whole world, is now only an attack by a group of savage Tatars!

Is it possible for Russia to be defeated by these barbarians? There is obviously no possibility, and in this blind self-confidence, almost every Russian stubbornly believes that the war will end soon, at least that Russia will win!

But today, a piece of news like winter thunder. But it shocked the whole of St. Petersburg, and the whole of Russia just as much!

"Vladivostok has fallen!"

Even those who have a government that is hostile to the revolutionaries. It was also difficult for them to believe the news, it was hard to believe that at the outbreak of the war, but in half a month the strongest fortress in the Far East fell, not to mention ordinary Russians?

"It can't be!"

Tsar Mikhail shouted in horror, not in horror, but in surprise! Utterly surprised, he said for a while.

"How is this possible? We have so many troops there. There are so many cannons! And so many generals! How could it have fallen so quickly? ”

Truly! He had a serious reason enough that almost half a century ago, in Sevastopol in the Crimea, when Sevastopol was not fully fortified, it was just a very ordinary city. But the Russian troops defending there held back the British, French, Turks, and even half the world's armies for a full 11 months.

Even so, before the fall of the city, the Russian army destroyed all the fortifications and planned the planned withdrawal of Sevastopol with artillery and logistics. After 11 months of siege, coalition forces finally entered Sevastopol, which was now in ruins.

And in that war Russia was inferior in terms of troops, artillery and the quality of weapons, and even the defenders of Sevastopol were extremely difficult in terms of weapons, ammunition and food, and they defended the honor of Lao Tzu Rus for Russia!

But what about now?

There is a complete fortress in Vladivostok, with hundreds of cannons, nearly a million shells, nearly 100,000 troops, and a large amount of food and medicine, although the port there is frozen up, but in any case, the defenders there are much better than the defenders of Sevastopol nearly half a century ago, not to mention that it was the British and the French who attacked Sevastopol, one of them has the most powerful navy in the world, and the other has the most powerful army in the world. Russia's defeat is inevitable.

But now in Vladivostok, only a bunch of barbaric Tatars are attacking, and a few decades ago, when Russia was defeated in the Crimea, it was still possible to get hundreds of thousands of square versts from that country at the negotiating table, but now?

Russia has not only lost the land that took half a century to seize from China, but even more fatally, Russia has lost its own honor, the honor of the Russian army! There is even an honor of the Russian Empire.

Half a century of seized land, how can this put an end to Mikhail? As the tsar of the Russian Empire, Mikhail knew very well that in St. Petersburg, in Russia, and even in Europe, many people felt that he was not a competent tsar, and even himself, who had doubted himself, that it was difficult to be a competent tsar.

He never thought that he would become a tsar, and if his two elder brothers had not died, at least he would not have to worry about these problems, but now, he had to face these problems, face the fiasco in the Far East.

"Werther, is this true? Did it really fall there? ”

Again, Mikhail asked, looking at Werther.

"Could it be a translation error in the telegram?"

When Mikhail asked these questions again, he didn't think about how naïve his question would be, but now he couldn't care so much, he knew that after the news came out, maybe in the whole of St. Petersburg, or even in the whole of Russia. Among the aristocracy, there may be many people who question his ability to lead, as for whether he can lead the vast empire of Russia,

Although he was reluctant to take over the Tsar's crown, it did not mean that Mikhail would tolerate doubts about his ability to lead Russia. Or to question his legitimacy,

"Your Majesty the Tsar!"

Looking at the Tsar, who looked stunned, Witte was silent for a moment.

"I think it's true, my majesty, that now on the Marina we have suffered an unprecedented fiasco! We must face this fact, my majesty! ”

Werther's words pierced Mikhail's last illusion, and he was stunned for a while before he smiled bitterly.

"Werther. I know, I know, there is no such possibility, but who would have thought that we would lose so quickly? ”

Smiling wryly Mikhail knew the map in front of him, looking at the Great Qing Kingdom on the map,

"When I was a teenager. A lot of people have told me how easy it is to beat this country. Even my grandfather, they didn't need an army to conquer the country, let them cede large tracts of land,"

With his eyes glued to the map, Mikhail's eyes changed somewhat.

"In the Far East, when my brothers were shamelessly assassinated by those yellow monkeys, despite circumnavigating half the world. But we easily defeated them and occupied the country, which at the time had a population of nearly 40 million, which was arguably the most glorious conquest of modern times. ”

Indeed, it is the most glorious conquest of modern times, in fact, since Napoleon. No other country has ever conquered so many peoples, but Russia has done it!

At the mention of the glory of the past, Mikhail's eyes showed envy, those victories belonged to his father, those glory belonged to his father, and even the Viceroyalty of the Far East was in honor of his brothers.

What does all this have to do with him? It can be said that there is nothing else to do with it except the Philippines. Yes, under his rule, Russia had its first colony of its own, and for the first time Russia stretched out its hands to the tropics, where the warm sunshine attracted all Russians.

But now, all of this is likely to be a thing of the past, if it fails like this again.

Russia will not only lose the Far East? There will also be the loss of the Viceroyalty of Nicholas, a colony of the Philippines.

Undoubtedly, this is not what he wants to see!

It can really be said that it is not something that he can accept. God knows, if you really lose it all,

"But now, now those Tatars, in just half a month, have not only occupied so much of our land, but also laid our strongest fortress in the Far East, Werther, tell me what the hell is going on?"

Mikhail wanted to know the answer, but apparently it was not something that Witte could answer him, and in fact, even Witt himself would come to the Tsar after repeated confirmation.

"Could it be because they don't have support from the sea?"

Mikhail now forgets that it was not a general standing in front of him, but the finance minister of Russia.

"Werther, our fleet, why didn't our fleet defend them......"

Witte did not show any impatience in the face of the Tsar's successive questions, he just stood in front of the Tsar and listened to his somewhat unprepared words.

As a Tsar he was too young to accept victory with pleasure, but he could not suffer setbacks, in fact for most young people, Werther, understandable, but he would not accept it, he would not accept that the Tsar would sink into the shadow of defeat.

"That's because the cunning Chinese blocked the entrance to the sea with tens of thousands of mines at the beginning of the war, and our fleet could only be trapped there, unable to support other areas."

Answering His Majesty's question first, Witt continued.

"Your Majesty, this is just the beginning! Far from the time to face defeat, Your Majesty, didn't you order the formation of a fleet to reinforce the Far East? ”

Witt asked, looking at the Tsar.

In fact, throughout St. Petersburg, Vitesse was adamantly opposed to organizing a fleet to reinforce the Far East, not because he feared possible defeat, but because he feared that the situation of the war would not be as limited as he hoped, and that he did not want to see the flames of war burn into the Chinese Pass, because it was very likely that it would lead to the intervention of Britain and other countries.

But now he is using the fleet to comfort His Majesty, to tell him that Russia has not failed.

"Fleet?"

First stunned, Mikhail said again.

"Our fleet, when it gets there, it will take at least half a year, maybe by the time we get there, the Philippines will have already fallen,"

By then, the Philippines would have fallen, and according to the agreement reached with the British, Russia could not build a fortress in the Philippines, and no one would suspect the Chinese, and with a gentle push, they could seize that colony.

The decision to send reinforcements was made precisely to strengthen the Pacific Fleet and deter the ambitions of other European countries, including Britain, against the Philippines, and of course, if given the opportunity, Russia would seize Borneo as compensation for the war.

"Yes, Your Majesty, this means that in the coming months, there will be new bad news coming in, the Chinese army has landed in the Philippines, we have lost that colony, this is very likely, after all, now our fleet is blocked in the port of Constantine, in the Philippines, we only have two cruisers, and less than 10,000 troops, the bad news will come soon......"

Compared with His Majesty, Witte's heart is probably even more uncomfortable, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he must raise enough military spending, where to raise military spending, can only issue bonds in the international bond markets such as Britain and France, but any news of failure will have a bad impact on the issuance of bonds.

This is the real reason why he came to see His Majesty, and the failure of Russia and Primorsky will inevitably affect the sale of bonds.

"Bad news always spreads quickly, if we lose the Philippines, then when the time comes, our bonds will definitely be affected in the international bond market, Your Majesty,"

"Bad news...... No one likes bad news! ”

Mikhail said helplessly.

"It seems that we really need some good news, at least a victory, a victory, to soothe the wounded hearts of the people, to restore confidence in Russia in the international market,"

Of course, Mikhail also needs victory, and after saying this, he looked at Witt and said.

"It seems that I need to push them to launch a new offensive in the Far East, and in any case, we must win a victory!"

Mikhail's eyes were fixed on the map and he said in a deep voice.

"Soon, the whole world will see this victory!" (To be continued.) )