Dragomilov did not expect that at the critical moment when the Northeast was arguing with Japan, the target chosen by the butcher knife would be himself. Although in the Russian Imperial Army, he was also a general, and he had real talents. And Alexander III also appreciated him very much and favored him, otherwise it would not have been possible to make him the dean of the Academy of the Imperial General Staff. But if you say a thousand, you can say 10,000, and the record is the best guarantee to support the position. However, in this respect, Dragomilov does not have much advantage, and cannot even be compared with Skobelev.

After all, he spent too much time sitting in his office and not being on the battlefield. The only real war experience was the Russian-Turkish War, and the troops he commanded at that time were only one division. At present, there are more than 38 divisions and regiments under his command, with a scale of more than 400,000 people. The drastic change in status and responsibility, even Dragomilov, who thought he was mentally prepared, was in a trance the moment he suddenly launched an attack in the northeast, and the world became so unreal in an instant.

"You're here? Is it really coming? Dragomilov's heart tightened.

The entire line of defense of the Russian Empire was built along the Yenisei River, but they did not defend much of the area north of the Angara River, where the river turned to the east. One is that these areas are vast and sparsely populated, and the climate is harsh. As long as the Tsarist army controlled the south, the northeastern army would not be able to obtain large-scale supplies even if it was able to successfully cross the river and invade. At that time, it may not be necessary for the Tsarist army to do anything, and cold and hunger will kill them. Second, the river itself is also a moat, and the farther north, the wider the river becomes, and the more difficult it is to attack. The third and most important point is that the Russian army really cannot afford to defend the entire Yenisei River. The river was the largest in the Russian Empire and flowed from its Mongolian source to the north into the Kara Sea, running through all of Russia from south to north. Although Dragomilov had an army of more than 400,000 men, he had to be evenly distributed on the east and west banks of the river, which was no different from suicide. The Northeast can concentrate its forces at will, and the entire defense line can be penetrated, and the waiting Russian army at that time can only be an endless pursuit in the Northeast.

After years of war with the Northeast, the Russian soldiers gradually learned the defense methods of the Northeast. Instead of building strong ramparts, trenches were dug across the battlefield, and strong fortifications and bunkers were built made of a mixture of cement and rock. The contact method between positions has also changed from the original errand to the cable telegraph method.

However, the ten divisions brought with Dragomirov were obviously unimpressed by the defensive methods of Skobelev's men, and the four divisions that built defenses on the east bank of the Yenisei River completely ignored the kind reminders of their predecessors who had fought for several years of war in the northeast and built besieged military camps.

Six of the ten divisions under Dragomilov were recruit divisions, which had been in existence for less than a year. As for the remaining four, that is, the four divisions deployed on the east bank of the Yenisei River, they were all troops drawn from the Kiev Military District by Alexander III. The commanders of the divisions were more or less inextricably linked with Dragomilov. In the eyes of these arrogant generals, the European powers deserve to be called the opponents of the empire, and the northeast ...... Isn't it just a few decades ago that a few thousand people in the empire had taken over the entire vast territory of the Outer Northeast, ruled by those opium-smoking yellow-skinned dwarves? After five or six years of war, the empire lost nearly half of its territory, and 300,000 people were pinned down on the banks of the Yenisei River and did nothing.

What's the difference between this and waste?

There were already many factions in the Tsarist Russian army, and the original reminder of Skobelev's subordinates was that they didn't want these self-righteous bastards to drag themselves down after being defeated by the Northeast. Since good words are hard to persuade damned ghosts, they are also happy to watch the excitement, and in the end, they may not know who will die first.

After reconnaissance, Zheng Haitao immediately discovered the disharmony on the Tsarist front, directly mobilized and arranged more than a dozen artillery positions, and at dawn on July 10, 1887, launched an artillery bombardment on the civil and wooden camps of these four divisions, while the rest of the Russian positions carried out a feint. The earth-shattering roar instantly woke up most of the Russian soldiers who were still sleeping in the tent camp, but many of them had a nightmare of never opening their eyes again under the fire of the newly equipped 152mm guns in the northeast. The surviving soldiers cried out in fear, and the officers were dazed, but they instinctively gathered the chaotic soldiers to organize the defense.

The artillery attack lasted fifteen minutes, and the Tsarist troops suffered heavy casualties. The wall, which was originally built of logs, earth, stone, and sand, has been baptized by artillery fire, and there have been gaps one by one, which looks like the teeth of an old man who is about to die. The officers, who were barely able to recover, began to direct the infantry, rushing up the earthen wall in preparation for the northeast attack, and filling the gap with earth and rocks so that the enemy would not rush in directly.

The cavalry had also finally assembled, and as soon as the officers gave the order, they would rush to the vast battlefield ahead.

However, to the surprise of these newcomers on the battlefield, the Northeast did not attack. Just when they were overwhelmed by their doubts, there was a strange roar in the sky, and when they looked up, the huge suspended figures made everyone feel fearful.

"Is this the airship of the Northeast?"

Vasilyevich was one of Skobelev's most important subordinates, and he currently commanded the 28th Infantry Division. He was somewhat uneasy about Skobelev's loss of power. Fortunately, however, the newly arrived commander, Dragomilov, was also the rector of the Academy of General Staff. Although the relationship between the two sides is not close, compared with Skobelev's other subordinates, he is somewhat inadequate, less than the top, more than the bottom.

It's just in response to an old Chinese saying, called Hades is easy to see, and the little ghost is difficult to pick. He got along well with Dragomilov, but the division commanders of the Kiev Military District he brought with him turned their nostrils to the sky one by one, that is, Vasilyevich had his lips thinned, and they did not accept the construction of the building, and they tried to build the defense as much as possible.

At the beginning of this year, a spring offensive was launched in the northeast, capturing the most cutting-edge city of Tsarist Russia, Teschet. It was also unfortunate for Tsarist Russia, when Skobelev had just left the front line and secretly returned to St. Petersburg, and the commander-in-chief of the front was temporarily represented by Chief of Staff Utkin. But it didn't take long for the commander, whose name means rabbit in Russian, to develop lobar pneumonia. And when the northeast attacked, it was just in time for him to have a fever, and his body temperature reached the highest point. After a few gunshots, the man didn't even have time to explain what was going on, and he kicked his leg directly.

The Russian army was leaderless for a while, and the northeast was like a bamboo. After the capture of Tayshet, the two sides exchanged initiatives on the battlefield that had been stalemate for a long time. The Northeast finally had the long-coveted frontier fortress, and on the one hand it stepped up the construction of fortifications to prevent the enemy from counterattacking, and on the other hand, it stepped up the construction of railways to solve the problem of logistics and supplies.

In order to gain time for his own construction, Zheng Haitao ordered several large cavalry divisions to attack in turn, to his surprise, the Tsarist Russian army, which was originally extremely tenacious, was like losing its backbone, and failed repeatedly, and finally was compressed by the Northeast Insurance Team on both sides of the Yenisei River.