Horatio. Herbert. Kitchener is a British Field Marshal, Earl of Khartoum, and the most representative and powerful figure in the British military circles. He was highly meritorious, had deep ties with the British aristocracy and many members of the cabinet, and had a close friendship with the royal family. As a young man, Kitchener served as an officer in the Royal Corps of Engineers. Served in the Middle East in 1883. In 1892, he became commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army, and then in the Boer War, in order to quickly defeat the Boers and eliminate the guerrillas, he did not hesitate to use all cruel means and burned in South Africa, destroyed Boer farms, established concentration camps to hold civilians (this is the first time the word concentration camp was officially used in history), and finally conquered South Africa. Although his actions in Africa have been condemned by many, he is still hailed as a national hero by the British. It's a pity that the ensuing East-West War made Kitchener's full of glory fade, and he suffered several defeats on the battlefield.

Britain withdrew from the war quite early, but everyone knew that it was only a face-saving job, and the British war machine continued to accompany the war until 1897. The year after the war, in 1898, Horatio . Herbert. Kitchener suppressed the Mahdi Sultan's army in Omdurman and became the governor of the Sultanate, preventing French expansion in Sudan and being made a viscount by the British crown.

During his tenure in India in 1902~1909, he reorganized the Anglo-Indian colonial army, which had suffered heavy losses a few years earlier, and expanded the total strength to one million. A disagreement with Sir Curzon, the Viceroy of India, led to the resignation of the Viceroy. Horatio. Herbert. Kitchener himself soon left India, serving for a year as governor of Egypt and rising to the rank of count.

Returning to India in 1910 as Commander-in-Chief of the Anglo-Indian Army, Kitchener has been working in India ever since. His roots in India are also very, very deep, and 15 years before and after that is really too long. The influence and authority of the Viceroy of India was not as great as that of him.

But such a person must now be a 'scapegoat'. to let the people vent their anger and fear, so that they can turn the finger on the government in other directions.

"I agree with the punishment of Marshal Kitchener, for the fiasco in Calcutta, someone must be responsible, and we must give an account to the people!" Lord of the Admiralty, Winston. Churchill said.

Everyone understands how wronged Kitchener is. The shock of the British people was clearly not entirely due to the defeat at the Battle of Calcutta, nor the subsequent series of defeats, and the British army had now withdrawn from all of North India, relying only on the natural geography of the Deccan Plateau to sniper the southward speed of the Chinese army. But that was the straw that broke the camel's back. The previous defeat of the British Empire in Australia, the price paid by Britain in the last war. The already bleak prospects for the Americans, the loss of hundreds of thousands of Austria-Hungary and Italy, the wounding of millions of people, and the tug-of-war between the Germans and the Russians in the north all added up to the fear in the hearts of the people, which was then detonated by the crisis in India......

The surrounding British military and political leaders were silent for a while. It was Len John, the number one boss of the British Army. Denton. Pinkerstone. Marshal French did not issue a rebuttal either. One thing that everyone agrees on, it is now necessary to find a scapegoat for the string of failures that the British Empire has endured. Just as Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy had already changed the supreme commanders of the two armies, Wilhelm II of Germany also sent Moltke Jr. to the management of logistics and transportation. Britain also needs such a person to exist, to attract heavy pressure from the British government to the people.

Kitchener was one such person. And if London is looking for a scapegoat. Let the anger of the people find a cathartic target, divert the attention of the people, and reduce the pressure on the government, so is there a more suitable scapegoat than Kitchener?

After the start of the war. Australia fell too quickly and was at an absolute disadvantage from the start. No matter how optimistic people are, they can't be optimistic about the Australian theater of operations. Therefore, the British only regretted the British commander in the Australian theater and did not have much anger. But India is different, India has a huge amount of manpower and material resources. Kitchener had raised a million-strong army a few years earlier, and the Battle of Calcutta had lasted two months. This is just like the Battle of Songhu in the Anti-Japanese War in China in the original time and space, and the whole country is full of sustenance for this battle.

The loss of India was acceptable to the British people as a whole. But there has to be a 'long' process. This 'task' was completed too quickly in Kitchener's hands. In less than a year, the countdown to the loss of India has begun.

Kitchener was the head of the British army in India, and he had an inseparable relationship with the British Empire's series of crushing defeats and losses in India. If it weren't for Kitchener's own great influence in the British Army, coupled with the maintenance of the cabinet and the royal family, he might have been transferred from the post of commander-in-chief of the Anglo-Indian army long ago. It doesn't matter if the person who succeeds him is capable of doing better than him.

This time, there was no way Kitchener could have escaped!

After Churchill's 'fall into the well', Len John . Denton. Pinkerstone. French did not stand up to speak for Kitchener, and it is conceivable that this conclusion has been disregarded by the entire British military and political leaders.

Douglas. Haig also remained sinking. Today's 'failure' does require someone to come forward and take responsibility, and Kitchener's is indeed a good candidate. Otherwise, who will the army promote? Is it the Chief of the General Staff of the Army, Field Marshal French? Haig didn't dare to be so brainless, he could only keep his mouth shut and remain silent!

"So, does everyone think that Count Kitchener is to blame for the present defeat?" Asquith glanced at everyone and asked again.

Still no one answered, and everyone remained silent. So Kitchener became the 'scapegoat' and it was unanimously agreed. For these high-ranking officials, this is undoubtedly the best outcome. This may be where the 'darkness' of politics lies, but for the British Empire at this time, this is definitely the best choice.

"Okay. When the situation at the front 'stabilized', let Monsieur Earl return to London. Asquith said with emotion in a tone that anyone knows. Kitchener's worst situation in India must not be entirely blamed on Kitchener, who is replaced by someone else who takes Kitchener's position. Definitely not doing any better than Kitchener. At least there was no second person in the British Imperial Army other than Kitchener who dared to build a million-strong Anglo-Indian army in India early, let alone a second person who had the great courage to order a comprehensive expansion of the Anglo-Indian army before the start of the war. So far. The number of recruits in the entire Anglo-Indian army has reached 2.25 million.

The British had suffered a series of defeats in North India, but the total number of Anglo-Indian troops was not much smaller now than it was before the war, and this was due to Kitchener. He did not deserve the honor of his first Earl of Khartoum and Field Marshal.

"Pushing out Marshal Kitchener is only a palliative, not a cure, yes, the meaning of this Chinese phrase is very suitable to describe the current situation. We can launch the first Kitchener, or we can launch the second Kitchener, but as long as the defeat on the battlefield is irreversible or alleviated. The crisis of the British Empire will never dissipate. ”

Asquith was left with only a handful of men, the true core of power in the British Empire during the war. For example, Churchill, such as Len John. Denton. Pinkerstone. French, such as Chancellor of the Exchequer Andrew . Bona. Toil.

"Sir Churchill, aircraft carriers and combat aircraft, the British Empire needs you to come up with the necessary results by the second half of next year at the latest."

"Field Marshal French, the British Empire, the entire Western civilization is in dire need of more advanced tanks and aircraft."

"Andrew, my Chancellor of the Exchequer. All the expenses of the British Empire next year are up to you. ”

Asquith did not believe that the British or Westerners really could fight any more than the Chinese. Everything is all a matter of armament, planes and tanks, the gap between the two sides is too great. It is so big that it can no longer be offset by human bravery and hard work. The only hope of the West in this war is to improve the performance of aircraft and combat vehicles as much as possible in the coming time, at least to withstand the attack of the Chinese.

"Mr. Prime Minister. The plan of the Army in India was to withdraw the main forces of the Eastern Army from the Mehanadi River defense line in the coming time, and then take advantage of the dense rivers in south-central India and the topography of the Deccan Plateau. Resist, at least until the Chinese New Year arrives, to stabilize the front line on the Godavari River. The dense rivers and the Dvodi-Munda Mountains were used to block the southward movement of the Chinese. ”

Kitchener's call was clear. Although the Anglo-Indian army in his hands still numbered a million men, its morale was seriously low. If the reason why it can still be an army. It was entirely controlled by the intimidation of more than 30,000 British soldiers in the hands of Kitchener and the deep influence of the British in India for hundreds of years. They could only rely on the topography and geography to delay the Chinese offensive step by step, and adopt the method of resistance to buy enough time.

It was no longer possible for the Anglo-Indian army to launch a large-scale counterattack or battle. It was an army with low morale and a lack of courage. They simply do not have the ability to confront the Chinese National Defense Forces head-on. Therefore, when Kitchener organized the retreat, he would blow up all the railways and bridges along the way, and the delay of the Chinese because of traffic would be longer than the process of the Sino-British war.

……

In New York, Liu Xian saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time in his 80-year life. It's just that it's a broken Statue of Liberty. Only a small arm remained in its right hand holding the torch, and the torch, a symbol of freedom, fell into the dirt. It also seems to symbolize something.

Liu Xian particularly appreciated this scene.

The Lady of Liberty with a broken arm gave him a sense of comfort from his bones.

Imagine the great beauty of the previous life, what a terrible and coaxing country, after dragging down the poor party Russia, it really established the hegemony of the whole world.

High-tech talents from all over the world are flocking to the United States. They owe their debts to the whole world. If Liu Xian was a young man of his age in his previous life, his whole life was in the shadow of Lao Mei.

Although he hated Little Japan the most, Lao Mei was the biggest enemy in the eyes of the Chinese angry youth at that time. And now, time and space are reversed, and the old man has not had time to really appear on the world stage, but he is about to be destroyed. It's a pity that it can't be humanized by outsiders either.

Liu Xian didn't venture to see the old American Capitol, anyway, he had already seen it once in Washington, and even the White House or something, he visited it all over Washington. At this time, the New York City area was still loud and crisp and strong, and there were still hundreds or thousands of fragments of American soldiers in the vast New York City area who continued to resist. These people are all heroes of the United States, and from the standpoint of a soldier, Liu Xian admires these soldiers who are doing an arduous but doomed struggle.

They are the real backbone of the nation, and they are real warriors compared to the American soldiers who walk into the POW camps with their hands raised. As the conqueror of this country and nation, Liu Xian is fortunate that there are not many such Americans.

The Battle of New Jersey is over. China invested 800,000 troops and annihilated and captured 430,000 American troops in 17 days. The Americans lost the entire state of New Jersey, a state with an area of only 20,000 square kilometers, and more than 3 million Americans.

This small state has the highest density of people in the United States.

New York City alone has a population of 2 million.

The advent of the war caused thousands of people to flee the land, but countless remained. Now all of them have a new identity - the vanquished.

And the vast majority of Americans already believe that in the near future, they will officially become "dead people."

The outbreak of the war broke out even the Americans themselves lost confidence, the British betrayed, the French and Germans ignored, and only the United States alone fought against the more than two million troops of the Chinese. This is a burden beyond the national power of the United States.

With the fall of New Jersey, the United States has only a small piece of land north of Lake Ontario, and it may be two or three months before the war is over completely. The United States is also perishing in one of these ways, and there should be a government-in-exile running to Europe, but it will not work at all.

The original army of more than 2 million has been scattered, and no one knows whether the American government in Boston will be able to raise 500,000 troops. Such a force is insignificant compared to the Chinese army at this moment. I believe that even those who have not long run from New York to Boston will not believe that the United States has a better tomorrow.

Liu Xian's 'grand strategy' is about to enter a consummation, and he believes that he will go to Europe in the summer at most, and after being busy in Europe for a while, he can return to China peacefully and happily spend the rest of his life.

So Liu Xian was in good spirits and wandered around the ruined Statue of Liberty for an hour before leaving the port by car. (To be continued.) )