China's army reorganization, which began in March, has not been able to hide from the eyes of the great powers. Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, and other countries are vigorously collecting detailed information on the reorganization of the Chinese army. By mid-April, information on the reorganization of the Chinese army and the adjustment of the allocation of troops had been confirmed one after another, and the strengthening of the strength of the two major military regions in the northwest and northeast had aroused serious anxiety in Russia and Japan. The reply from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was that it was a purely normal military movement and that there was no need to make a fuss. Naturally, the Russians were not satisfied with this reply, and they were extremely worried that the Chinese army would launch an attack on the Russian Far East, and in recent times, the Russians' rather backward intelligence system has been receiving documents from the Chinese military (which later turned out to be forged by the Japanese), and those "mobilization orders" with confusing language and logic always say one thing, that is, the Russians have occupied 1 million square kilometers of China's territory, and China must take advantage of this excellent opportunity to take it back.

The French were as uneasy as the Russians. The root cause was the extreme passivity of the French army at the Battle of Verdun. Since February 21 (22 for China), the German army launched an attack on the area of the fortress of Verdun, due to the indecision of its commander-in-chief Chauffeur (who always suspected that Verdun was nothing more than a smokescreen for the Germans to conceal the direction of their true attack), the French positions on the east bank of the Merz River were almost completely lost, and even the huge and impregnable core fortress of Duvomont was occupied by the Germans. The Germans bombarded the Belgian fortress with the same giant howitzers they had captured a year and a half earlier, as the fortifications of the Verdun fortress had recently been renovated with an extra layer of cement and loose stone and earth. The new cupola-type fortifications have a very good shock absorption capacity, and are difficult for any shells to penetrate. After withstanding the heavy bombardment of German artillery, the fort was basically intact, and although the soldiers in the fort were shocked, they were not injured.

On 25 February, only 60 French soldiers defending the fort at Duvomont remained, and as far as they could, they cowered to the bottom of the fort as much as possible, and three detachments of German troops approached the fort from three directions, without suffering the expected blow. They entered the fortress along the way. There was no one to stop them. One German soldier even found an in-house restaurant. Ate a few hard-boiled eggs. Eventually, the terrified French were spotted and captured.

The fall of the fortress of Duvomont crumbled the position of the French commander General Castello on the east bank of the Merz River, but Ra Straw decided to continue the battle, and he immediately rushed to Verdun and held on to the west bank of the Merz River with the 2nd Army under the command of Xapé and Petain. Xia Fei agreed. The battle at Verdun began to spread in France, and the people were extremely dissatisfied with the passivity of the government and the army on the Verdun front. This led the French army to begin to attach great importance to the Verdun area. A large number of reserves began to reinforce them. From the end of February. The German and French armies launched an extremely brutal battle in the Verdun area, which gradually made this originally unknown French town famous all over the world and became an out-and-out meat grinder on the Western Front in Europe. The strategic intentions of the Chief of the General Staff of the German Army, General Falkingham, seemed to be being realized. Verdun was shedding the blood of the French all the time, and Falkingham did not seem to realize that Verdun was bleeding the French at the same time as he was quickly releasing the blood of the Germans.

As the battle entered April, the British and French forces were somewhat unable to hold on. Verdun became something that went beyond the proper status of a fortress and became a symbol of victory in the war, and it seemed that the duel of Verdun was lost without Verdun, and a large number of troops were transferred up, and the disgraced remnants were withdrawn to recuperate, and then transferred back to fight. In order to relieve the pressure in the direction of Verdun, the British began to plan an active attack on another battlefield, and the Somme was chosen as this location. But the Anglo-French forces believed that the strongest response should be on the Eastern Front, and it has now been confirmed that the Germans had withdrawn some of the main forces concentrated on the Eastern Front in 1915 using their well-established and efficient railway network back to the Western Front. The strength of the German army on the Eastern Front was at its lowest point since the beginning of the war. If the Russian army launches a fierce attack, it will be more effective than the offensive on the Somme. So the Russians were consulted, hoping that Russia would play its due role as an ally and use its manpower superiority to launch a decisive attack.

Tsar Nicholas II was such a man, honest, cowardly, incompetent. He has always fulfilled his obligations to the allies to the point of disregarding his own safety and hardship. Having personally taken the helm of the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, he also hoped to launch a large-scale offensive to improve the unfavorable situation. In the 20 months since the start of the war, the Russian army has lost a large part of its territory and suffered extremely heavy casualties, completely exposing the weakness of this old empire. The loss of manpower the tsar did not care at all, he once said on an informal occasion that for Russia the only surplus is people. The occupation of land was not a problem either, and the territory of Russia was so large that it was staggeringly large. Besides, as long as this war is won, those lands occupied by the Germans will not obediently return to the arms of the Reich? In the spring of 1916, the shortage of materials in the Russian army reached an unusually strict point, not only the shortage of ordnance was strict, but also all the military supplies were in trouble, and the evil consequences of chaotic management were further reflected, and there was often a phenomenon that the urgently needed materials of Unit A were issued to Unit B.

Due to the extremely severe casualties since the beginning of the war, a large number of skilled workers were conscripted, which further deteriorated the production situation, and a large number of factories were under-operated due to a lack of personnel or raw materials, further exacerbating the shortage of military materials on the front line.

In less than two years, Russia is already showing signs of collapse.

Russia must not collapse. Britain and France would never allow Russia to collapse.

If Russia does not collapse, it can only be transfused with blood. However, since Turkey joined the German-Austrian camp and the waterways to aid Russia from the Mediterranean were cut off, Britain could only take the unpredictable route of the Arctic Ocean to send the supplies it urgently needed to Russia. Entering 1916, this assistance was in an unsustainable situation. On the one hand, there is the problem of Britain itself, and the French front wants a bottomless pit that consumes the flesh and blood of the British Empire. On the other hand, there was the ravages of German submarines, just in February 1912. The tonnage of merchant ships sunk by German submarines in Britain was as high as 600,000 tons! The Germans seem to have found a way to make Britain fail quickly, my high seas fleet cannot defeat your large fleet, but my submarines can keep bleeding for you. It is unthinkable that an island country like Britain would lose the import of colonial materials, so Britain, which was increasingly taking the lead in the European war, urgently needed to change the situation and find new foreign aid.

Now that Russia feels threatened by China, it has been ascertained that the presence of Chinese troops in Manchuria and Outer Mongolia is making Russia increasingly uneasy. The situation now is that it is unrealistic to strengthen the forces of the Western Front, since the Far East has been demanding to increase its forces in preparation for the Russian Far East after the fall of China to Germany and Austria. The Chinese showed their ability in the war against Japan, when Japan taught Russia a hard lesson, but now it has suffered a crushing defeat to China. Such a logical relationship is deeply troubling to Russia. So. Russia rejected the British and French demands for pressure on Germany and Austria. Instead, the security of the Far East was considered.

Britain seems to have found a shortcut to victory, and that is to draw the deep-pocketed United States into the war. The U.S. government had grown increasingly disgusted with Germany's gassing of civilians during the war (thanks to successful British propaganda), and the Wilson government had already felt the urge to join the Entente. But anti-war sentiment in the United States was still strong, and the bloody brutality of the European war and the huge casualties that everyone expected frightened the Americans. Any voice that participated in the European competition was met with fierce criticism. The American people want the government to mediate and end the bloodshed in Europe, rather than joining the war to end the war. Wilson had to find a good reason to join the European race and convince the population. Otherwise, nothing can be done. And 1916 is a special year. It was an election year in the United States, and Wilson was seeking re-election with the slogan of ending the European war, and he could not consider joining the war at this time.

The Americans mentioned China to the British. Although China is also a year of change. But China's "dictator" does not seem to be in any danger of being re-elected unless he is determined to relinquish power. According to the understanding of the Americans, it is believed that China has not decided to join the German and Austrian sides, and that they are waiting for a price to sell, and as long as the Entente side offers conditions that are sufficient to impress China, China may completely abandon its traditional friendship with Germany and stand on the Entente side. China was not Japan, and China could provide tangible support to the Entente, either by mobilizing 30 or more divisions to ship Western Europe, or by providing reinforcements to Russia along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Even if the Chinese do not provide troops, like the cunning Japanese, at least Russia can feel at ease and no longer worry about the safety of the Far East. After the return of the Haust envoys, the United States intensified its persuasion of Britain and France, trying to make Britain, France, and Russia meet China's conditions and draw China into the Entente camp.

What did the Chinese mention? Tariff autonomy? The Colonial Question? Extraterritoriality? Are these things that important? It must be admitted that China was not 10 years ago, and the Chinese military has proven that they are qualified to make claims on sovereignty. Fortunately, they did not put forward conditions that were unacceptable to Britain and Russia. The question should be looked at from two aspects: what if China joins Germany and Austria? What would it be like?

The Americans convinced the British. Moreover, because of the deteriorating situation of the battlefield in Western Europe, Britain, France, and Russia finally reached a consensus on the China issue. The process was difficult, and the difficulties were even greater for Russia and France, who were desperate for new aid. In fact, the obstacle lies with Britain, which has always been uneasy about China's rise. However, it is better to agree to certain conditions to China than to add a hostile power to the Far East. Finally, the British sent an envoy to China in early April to negotiate with China on behalf of the Entente powers, and in any case to untie the knot by drawing China to their side.

British envoy Smith secretly arrived in Beijing on April 20, and he had the extremely important task of persuading China to end its neutrality anyway.

The 16th Brigade of the former 6th Division, where Major Yan Yulong belonged, was reorganized into the 49th Division of the 17th Army according to the order of the Ministry of National Defense. In order to commend the 16th Brigade's combat exploits, the Ministry of National Defense expanded the 17th Army with the brigade as the basic unit, and the brigade commander, Major General Qu Zhiyong (promoted to the rank of major general after the Shandong Campaign), was directly promoted to army commander, and the military headquarters was expanded with the 16th Brigade and Brigade Headquarters. Yan Yulong, the former commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 46th Regiment, was also promoted to lieutenant colonel and transferred to the newly formed 147th Regiment of the 49th Division as the regiment commander, crossing a very important step in the army.

According to the established practice of the Wehrmacht, officers at the regimental level have entered the ranks of middle-level officers, while officers below the battalion level (including battalions) can only be called grass-roots officers.

The 17th Army was incorporated into the Northwest Military Region, and the intended garrison area was Xifu (Baoji). The unit is still training and replenishing in the Shandong-Henan area, but officers at and above the regimental level are given a leave of absence and take a train to Beijing in batches to visit the capital. Yan Yulong then got a chance to enter Beijing, and he took the time to visit the old commander Lieutenant General Zhou Yi at the Fengtai Logistics College.

The Logistics College is subordinate to the Joint Logistics Headquarters and is the highest institution for training logistics officers. The area around Fengtai is full of military camps, and almost all the major organs of the headquarters are located here, including the General Staff, the Ministry of National Defense, the Joint Logistics Headquarters, and the Navy and Air Force Headquarters...... Fengtai, the gateway to Beijing, became the base camp of the military system.

According to the usual practice, the presidents and principals of military academies generally wear the rank of major general, and only the top leaders of the Fuzhou Naval Academy and the Jinan Military Academy wear the epaulettes of vice generals. The status of the logistics academy cannot be compared with that of the military academy, which is recognized as the highest academic institution of the navy and army, and after Zhou Yi's comeback, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general and served as the president of the logistics academy, obviously taking care of its history.

Yan Yulong has always maintained correspondence with the old chief. Even in the years when Zhou Yi was under house arrest, Yan Yulong reported his life and work at the frequency of one letter a month, introducing the situation in the outside world. He didn't know that every letter he had sent to Zhou Yi before had been inspected by the Military Intelligence Bureau, but all those letters that were okay had arrived in Zhou Yi's hands, which was a great comfort to Zhou Yi who was in prison.

In those years, there were really not many "loyal" subordinates like Yan Yulong.

Long Qian returned to his birthplace Shandong on his first tour after the founding of the People's Republic of China, hung the tomb of Lushan, and also visited Zhou Yi in Zhengjiazhuang. After that time, Zhou Yi's treatment was much better, probably because Long Qian had forgiven Zhou Yi's attitude in the Xinning Change. It wasn't until Zhou Yi was appointed as the dean of the Lieutenant General of the Logistics College that he unveiled the unbearable scene in the history of the Mengshan Army.

Zhou Yi was very happy with Yan Yulong's arrival, personally cooked to help Zheng Chan prepare a table of dishes for Yan Yulong, drank a lot of wine during the banquet, inquired in detail about the process of the Battle of Shandong, and was sincerely happy about Yan Yulong's progress, and said to Zheng Chan with a smile, I can't imagine that my original signal corps is now a lieutenant colonel!

Yan Yulong looked at the old chief whose sideburns were all white, but he couldn't bear it in his heart, "If there is no such thing, you are at least a general." ”

"Don't mention that!" Zhou Yi's expression was stern, "It's my fault for that matter." If it weren't for Commander Long's generosity, if I were anyone, I wouldn't have been able to save my head! ”

Yan Yulong also wanted to say, but was stopped by Zhou Yi's stern eyes. So the conversation turned to the great expansion of the army.

"Old leader, do you think we are going to war against Russia? Otherwise, why would a large number of troops be transferred to the northwest and northeast? The old 1st Division is also out of the customs. ”

"That's not your concern. This time, the 16th Brigade is lucky and will be directly expanded into an army, and the strength of the troops will definitely decline, so you should seize the time to train and not think about what the highest level is considering. With the president here, everything will be arranged properly. His eyes looked at the new green outside the window, "We people are lucky, follow the president, and see the birth and strength of a new China, aren't we?" Eat vegetables, eat vegetables. ”

The conversation shifted to housework, and no longer talked about official business. Zhou Yi had already heard that the British envoy had entered Beijing, and it was Marshal Feng Guozhu who told him on the phone, but he did not tell Yan Yulong. The veterans of the Mengshan Army back then, the only ones who kept in touch with Zhou Yi were Feng Guozhu.

Zhou Yi also knew that Long Qian was not in Beijing. After he became the dean of the Logistics College, his family was admitted to Haiyan Hall by Ouyang Zhong and had a family banquet. After that time, it was ostensibly restored to normal. No one mentions the change in Xinning anymore. But Zhou Yi knew that he would never return to the core of the army.

"Yulong, you have to remember that the most critical thing in a person's life is just a few steps, if you go right, your life will be smooth, and if you don't go right, you will fall step by step. Use your brain for everything, huh? On the occasion of parting, Zhou Yi said. (To be continued......)