Just as the Allied forces launched a large-scale landing and beach seizure operation on the Western Front, the battlefield on the Eastern Front also underwent a sudden change, which was mainly caused by the internal struggle of the Russian Provisional Government.

After the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Provisional Government, Milyukov, sent a note to the Allied governments pledging to continue participating in the First World War until the end of the victory, on April 20 and 21, a large-scale anti-war demonstration broke out among the workers and soldiers of St. Petersburg, demanding the dismissal of Milyukov and the Minister of War Guchkov, and demanding that the Provisional Government declare its withdrawal from the war, divide the landlords' land, and order the government to limit the price of grain and other goods so that the people can have enough to eat.

St. Petersburg's military commander, Kornilov, told the Provisional Government that he wanted to suppress the anti-war demonstrations by force, but the prime minister, Prince Lviv, refused to use violence. The Provisional Government finally accepted the terms of the resignation of Foreign Minister Miliukov and War Minister Guchkov and invited the Council of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies of St. Petersburg to form a coalition government.

After more than 10 days of demonstrations and negotiations, the two sides reached an agreement, but because the coalition government had absorbed many members of the Russian Revolutionary Party, the majority of the representatives of the soldiers' and workers' deputies quickly rose in the cabinet of the government, which made some of the workers' and soldiers' representatives below more and more troublesome.

The soldiers and workers, unable to get enough food and clothing, still had the idea of fighting the supplies of the Second and Fifth Army Corps of the Chinese Army, and transported the supplies from Nikolaev, the intermediate station of the Russian Southwestern Railway, to the front line of the Russian Southwestern Railway, a distance of five or six hundred kilometers. The Chinese army's material transportation was a combination of mule and horse transportation and truck convoys. In the past, the tsarist government was a little better, and in any case there was a fully functional government. Although many Russians are hungry, after all, they still have something to eat. And now the Russian Provisional Government first coexisted with two regimes, and now it has formed a chaotic coalition government, often showing two sides, unable to formulate decisive policies, and the people of the government agencies do not know who to listen to, so the government agencies do nothing at all, and the Russians are living more miserably than before, and they used to have some food, but now they have nothing at all. Therefore, many peasants and workers in the southwestern region of Russia turned their minds to the supplies of the Chinese army in the Eastern European theater.

When small groups of Russian workers and soldiers often touched the supply lines of the Chinese army to intercept supplies, confiscate vehicles, and detain or kill transporters, the headquarters of the commander of the Chinese Eastern European Theater began to pay attention.

Present at the meeting were Zhang Xiaozhun, commander of the Second Army Corps, Wu Peifu, deputy commander of the Corps, Yang Jie, chief of staff, Yao Qinian, commander of the Fifth Army Corps, Liu Ziyu, deputy commander of the Corps, and Xie Jincai, chief of staff.

At the meeting, Cai Ye first introduced the situation, and then said: "This is the situation, and now we must find a way to prevent this kind of thing from continuing to happen, if this kind of thing continues to happen for a long time." It won't be long before both our Second and Fifth Legions will be short of ammunition and food, do you have any good solutions? ”

Wu Peifu, deputy commander of the Second Army Corps, said: "Chief Cai, now we can only send heavy troops to protect the transportation channel. For those Russians who withheld our supplies, we must catch one and kill one by one, and we must make an example of each other. I don't think there's any other way to do it. Unless our army turns its guns and kills all the Russian troops and local governments in the southwestern region of Russia, we will rule by ourselves. But that doesn't seem realistic! ”

The room was filled with smoke, with people smoking and coughing. Liu Ziyu, deputy commander of the Fifth Army Corps, said: "Can't we send a note to the Russian government and ask their local government to send police and troops to arrest the Russians who intercept our supplies?" ”

Yang Jie, chief of staff of the Second Army Corps, shook his head and said: "I'm afraid this won't work, if the local army and police in Russia work, they wouldn't have done it a long time ago without our orders, and now all parts of Russia are in chaos, and having a government in most areas is equivalent to anarchy, and government agencies are not in charge of things at all!" ”

Zhang Xiaozhun frowned and said: "This is not good, that is not good, can we just sit and watch our supplies being robbed by the Russians on the road?" ”

Yao Qinian, the commander of the Fifth Army Corps, took a puff of cigarette and said: "I see, let's report to the country, this broken place, we will not defend it, let the Russians go to the brains themselves, and we will find a way to join the First Army Corps." You can look at where we are now, Russia is now in the midst of civil strife, our supply routes have been seriously threatened, this is equivalent to a person standing in the wilderness at night, no village in front of the village, no store, at any time may be besieged by wolves, our army is in this situation now, not to mention whether there are wolves attacking, even if not, sooner or later we will have to run out of food, isn't this dangerous? ”

Cai Ye knocked on the table and said: "Okay, in fact, before I came over, the country has realized that such a situation may occur, and has made the adjustment and deployment that I believe, but the time is still ripe, and it is inconvenient to take action for the time being, now we must first find a way to solve the problem of the transportation channel being attacked by the Russians, with the current situation, we can only send some troops along the way to protect the transportation channel, do you have any specific ideas?" ”

Xie Jincai, chief of staff of the Fifth Army Corps, said: "Chief Cai, we don't have to worry about the safety of the railway transportation line, every time the materials transported by rail are escorted by the escort troops, the key is the 600-kilometer road transportation line from Nikolaev to our defense area, I think it is possible to set up a military station at certain intervals on this transportation line, and every time the materials are delivered to one of the military stations, the escorted troops will withdraw to the original military station, and this military station will continue to be responsible for escorting. Take over the baton of supplies like a relay race, and finally deliver the supplies here! ”

When everyone heard this, they felt that this method was feasible, although the troops used were slightly larger, but compared to the huge amount of supplies, the use of this amount of troops was nothing at all. Cai Ye immediately asked: "Chief of Staff Xie, how far do you think it is to set up a military station, and how many people are needed for each military station?" ”

Xie Jincai said: "I think it is best to set up a military station every twenty kilometers, so that even if the transport convoy goes slowly, the escort troops can return within three hours, unless they encounter the enemy." At the same time, the station and the escort unit should be equipped with radio stations, so that in the event of a convoy being intercepted, the escort force can resist while sending a telegram to the nearest station requesting reinforcements. It is more than enough to deploy one company of troops at each station, and with the equipment and combat effectiveness of our Wehrmacht, even if the Germans want to break one of our companies, they will need a battalion! In addition, we can also set up a small airfield in the middle of this transport line, deploy three or five warplanes, and after receiving a telegram for help, take off fighters at any time for air reinforcement."

Cai Yi calculated that at a distance of 600 kilometers, setting up a military station every 20 kilometers would require about 28 military stations, that is, 28 infantry companies, and the total strength would be equivalent to the strength of an infantry division of a mechanized division, not counting other auxiliary arms and artillery.

Only one mechanized division can ensure the safety of this transportation line, which is very cost-effective no matter how you look at it, Cai Ye immediately agreed: "Okay, if you don't have any other better way, then use the method of Chief of Staff Xie, Chief of Staff Xie, this method is what you came up with, and you will have full authority to implement it, and transfer a division from the Fifth Army Corps to be responsible for building military stations along the transportation line and escorting supplies, so that the artillery units of the division and some auxiliary units will not go."

Xie Jincai got up and said, "Yes, sir!" ”

Later, Cai asked the communications department to send a telegram to China, reporting the Russians' interception of our army's supplies on the transportation line, and also reporting their method of building military stations along the way to protect the safety of the transportation line.

After reading the telegram, Xiao Zhenlei summoned Jiang Fangzhen and other senior military generals and members of the presidential staff to a meeting to discuss the matter of the Russians intercepting our army's supplies on the transportation line.

After explaining the plight of the Eastern European theater of operations, Xiao Zhenlei said: "Now the materials we have sent to the Second and Fifth Army Corps have been intercepted by the Russians on the transportation line many times, and the situation of Cai Ye and them is now very dangerous. Limited to our agreement with Britain and France, our army can not withdraw the Second Army Corps and the Fifth Army Corps from the Russian southwestern defense line without authorization, in the case of the supply line is threatened, they thought of setting up a military station on the transportation line to escort supplies along the way, but this is by no means a long-term situation, with the current situation in Russia, how the situation will go is still unclear, once Russia announces its withdrawal from the war, then Cai Yi and they will be in danger, in view of the current situation, how do we make decisions? What about not violating our agreements with Britain and France, but also ensuring the security of the Second and Fifth Army Corps? ”

Yang Du said: "President, I think that judging from the current situation, we cannot let the Second Army Corps and the Fifth Army sit idly by, and we cannot gamble their fate on the political situation in Russia in our favor. Let them ensure the safety of that stretch of coastline, and we must have enough ships to sail to the Black Sea, ready to take them to the peninsula of Asia Minor."

The others didn't react when they heard this, Xiao Zhenlei first shook his head and said: "This method is feasible, but there are too many ships that need to be used, don't forget that the Second Legion and the Fifth Legion have a total of 1.1 million people, and it is not easy for such a large number of troops to cross the sea, and it takes too long!" (To be continued......)