In their opinion, as long as they can solve the Ottoman Empire in the shortest possible time, it will be equivalent to expanding their defensive circle outward by thousands of kilometers at once, especially if they can seize Istanbul, it will form two defense nodes of the Bosphorus and the Caucasus, even if they lose all the Ottoman lands they have occupied again, as long as they hold these two points, they will have enough time to solve Germany and Austria-Hungary, and then free up their hands to go all out to meet China.

Of course, they did not expect victory, their goal was still to negotiate peace in the case of superiority, and to lose as little as possible, driven by this kind of thinking, the American and British forces in the Balkans, and the Russian troops in the Ottoman battlefield, all went crazy and kept attacking, and the Chinese European Corps and the Ottoman army, which lacked ammunition, struggled to resist. But there were no enough supplies to be fatal after all, and the fronts in both directions were shrinking step by step, and just as the Chinese 15th and 17th armies began to attack Baghdad, the last three armies and two Ottoman armies left behind by the Chinese European Corps in the Balkans had already had to withdraw from Bulgaria into Ottoman territory.

On the eastern front, the Russian army advanced to the banks of the Sakarya River, as if some magical force was pushing it, and on this front, which was a life-and-death battle for the Ottoman Empire, Hamid II finally accepted Han Fei's construction and appointed the young general Kemal, who was in charge of the defense of Sakarya. The general, who had saved Turkey with the Battle of Sakarya ten years later, would stand on this stage that belonged to him, and the situation he faced at this time was far more dangerous than that time, he would face not the Greeks, but an entire Russian army, and he had only an Ottoman army of less than 100,000 men and 30,000 Chinese as the main force.

While Kemal was leading the Sino-Austrian forces in Sakarya, Denikin of Baghdad also led his men in a bloody battle. If Kemal was fighting with the hope of the entire empire, then here they are a completely hopeless battle. Baghdad could not be defended, and Kuropatkin was not prepared to hold it, and Denikin was like forgotten, alone in this ancient city, silently enduring ten times the enemy's attack, and the only thing that could help him was the remaining weapons and ammunition.

Surprisingly, however, the hero of the Russian Empire lived up to his reputation and held on to the isolated city like a rock, thanks in large part to Baghdad's geographical advantages. In the middle of an arid desert. Two great rivers that could be described as mighty were sandwiched between the ancient city on the left and the right, the wide Euphrates and Tigris protected his wings like two moats, and two huge trenches thirty kilometers long dug entirely by bulldozers connected the two rivers like canals, protecting his front and back. With hundreds of bulldozers and excavators seized in Baghdad, Denikin built a closed water network to protect himself, which was supposed to be shipped to Romania to build roads, but it turned out to be all cheap.

"Madamn, this kid is so cunning!" Lu Ziliang, commander of the 15th Group Army of the Chinese Army, sat on the plane and looked at Baghdad below, and said with some emotion.

"Cunning? Subordinates may not see. Wu Peifu, the chief of staff next to him, said with a smile.

"Do you have a good idea?" Lu Zihao asked curiously, this closed water network is indeed a headache. No matter which direction you attack, you must face the river, and the Russian army can maneuver quickly in either direction, and the only way is to smash it hard and take a bomb. The shells kept smashing down, and although the method was simple and crude, it was absolutely effective.

"You see that this place is full of yellow sand on the front and back, on the left and right, and only the green circle in Baghdad and the surrounding area, although the south side is okay. However, it is obviously not as suitable for growing crops as around Baghdad, which means that it is arid and the wettest area is the wettest. Wu Peifu said with a smile, pointing to Baghdad, which is almost surrounded by farmland.

"Excuse me, it's not for you to grow crops." Lu Ziliang said angrily.

"It's simple. This place is the lowest, so the rivers on both sides penetrate around Baghdad, and there is plenty of groundwater, so the crops here grow well, so it's very simple, the Russians can dig ditches, why can't we build dams? Wu Peifu said with a smile.

"Flood the Seventh Army!" Lu Ziliang's eyes immediately lit up.

"Yes, so our old examples are still very useful." Wu Peifu said.

This is indeed a very simple and effective method, the fifteenth army also has construction machinery in its hands, Baghdad can not use the railway even if it is captured in the short term, the southern line has already been destroyed when Brusilov besieged Basra, which is also the main reason for the slow pace of their march to Baghdad, it takes time to repair the railway, on the contrary, the simple road is much faster, so they have to use a lot of construction machinery, In fact, now these construction machines are responsible for ensuring the smooth flow of the improvised road from Basla here, and now they are simply being transferred.

Hundreds of bulldozers and excavators tried to build a temporary dam on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and it was nothing more than a river channel one or two hundred meters wide.

After determining the plan, Lu Ziliang immediately ordered the plane to return to the field airfield, and then summoned the staff officers of the staff department to formulate a plan, of course, this plan is mainly responsible for the engineers, find a dam site outside the range of the Russian artillery fire in the lower reaches of the two rivers, not only to build a dam on the river, in order to prevent the river from overflowing downstream to flood his own station, but also to pile up a sand bar dozens of kilometers long in the middle, there is no need on both sides, the terrain on both sides is much higher than in the middle. Soon those sappers studied the construction drawings, and then all the construction machinery was summoned, first in the middle of the construction dam, this is very simple, large bulldozers directly hugging the soil can be, this place is soft soil is very suitable for construction, in those bulldozers all night construction, a five or six high embankment quickly formed.

Of course, this embankment is outside the observation range of the Russian telescope, Denikin of Baghdad has no idea that he will soon enjoy the life of the water city of Venice in this vast desert, he is wondering why the Chinese have not attacked, as a smart general he instinctively felt that nothing good happened, and had the intention to send scouts, but the periphery was seen dead by Chinese soldiers, and his people could not get out at all, and he was not ready to go out at the beginning, so the protective dam had been completed when he was at a loss.

Immediately after the dam construction on the two rivers also began quickly, those trucks now do not pull ammunition, all modified earthwork, although not special dump trucks, but fortunately more than 200,000 troops have people, excavators and manual together, a large number of earthworks transported from the downstream piled on the bank, and then bulldozers directly into the river. The two banks started together, the river began to shrink to the middle a little bit, the river flow began to gradually become rapid, the soft earthwork is not a rock after all, the water flow speed reached a certain distance dù is easy to wash away, at this time simply fill the truck with earthwork and push it down, and even directly fill the river boat with sand and soil from the downstream to dig and sink, and soon the two dams will reach the stage of closing the dragon, in fact, the river water has overflowed outward at this time.

"The river is rising?" Denikin, who was studying and fighting in the sand table in the city of Baghdad, was confused by the news.

"Yes General, go and see, the waters of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers are rising, and some riverside neighborhoods in Baghdad have been flooded." The officer who reported said with a solemn face.

Denikin hurriedly ran out with him, and was dumbfounded when he arrived at the Euphrates River, the river, which was not very wide, had expanded three or four times, and it was still expanding, and it looked like it was a little smoky, and the city of Baghdad under his feet had begun to flood a large area, and those unlucky citizens of Baghdad were fleeing from their flooded homes in a hurry.

"Not good, the Chinese are damming downstream!" With his mind, he immediately understood what was going on, and couldn't help but exclaim, but unfortunately even if he guessed, it would be useless, even if he knew it at the beginning, there was no way, the terrain of Baghdad is like this, and it can flood if you are not careful, especially the Tigris River because the west bank is a lot higher, and the water will have to be poured into Baghdad if it rises slightly, the average altitude of the city is only thirty-four meters, and he has no place to channel.

At this time, the work of closing the two dams also began, and the trucks loaded with the rocks that had been painstakingly transported from Persia were directly pushed down by the bulldozer to the turbulent water, and as the water flow was blocked, then sandbags were thrown down, and when the mouth was completely blocked, the bulldozer simply directly hugged the sand and gradually increased the height to the level with the top of the dam, and the two dams were officially completed.

And then, Baghdad also began to really become an ocean, the rapidly rising river flooded the city in the shortest possible time, those Russian troops and Baghdad citizens in the city had to flee the city, as far as possible to find a place that was not flooded to hide, but as the river continued to rise, soon they could not find a place to hide, not to mention Baghdad, even Fallujah was flooded, because there was no way to avoid it, a large number of Russian soldiers and Baghdad citizens simply soaked in the water to swim, it is rare to have a small mound, It's densely packed like Penguin Beach.

Looking at this scene, Denikin couldn't help but sigh, and at this moment, a small rubber boat appeared on the river in the distance, and he helplessly patted an officer next to him on the shoulder and said, "Raise the white flag!" (To be continued......)