Chapter 623: Collapse of the Negotiations
Of course, the retreat of the 350,000 army is definitely not a matter of one sentence, even if it is just from the port of Ereli to Istanbul, it will take enough time, not to mention that the 350,000 army is not in the same place at all, starting from Dizge, Akyaze, Gaiwe, and Izmit, the entire front stretches for more than 100 kilometers, from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, and Ankara has two armies. Kuropatkin took his commander-in-chief and his commander-in-chief lightly armed and passed by car from the mountain road to Guò, and then boarded the landing ship of the Black Sea Fleet and left, but it was not so easy for the scattered armies to withdraw.
In a sense, Kuropatkin abandoned the army and fled, anyway, whether he could withdraw to Port Ereli or not depends on the ability of the Russian army itself, it is better to say that it is good to say, cleverly discard all the baggage, what cannons, ammunition, cars, and combat vehicles are all gone, and even machine guns and other things are thrown away when they play thoroughly, and then one by one they burrow into the mountains and forests and flee in a hurry towards Port Ereli, which is fifty kilometers away.
Those who are far away are dumbfounded, just like Ankara's Russian army is still in a fierce battle, how to escape by abandoning the city and fleeing, the opposite side is a mechanized group, no matter how you escape, you can't run away from the chariot, and the infantry in the field out of the city is completely the other party's meal, Ankara's two armies simply surrendered and pulled down after some entanglement.
And at this time, another armored group has also arrived, and they directly inserted into Bolu with their speed advantage, blocking the road for the remaining 150,000 Russian troops to retreat in one fell swoop, here the Russians finally saw what the real iron wall is, in front of the ring defense line with artillery as the core, with combat vehicles as the fortress, with bomber air support, and transport aircraft airdrop supplies, those Russian troops who are also in a hurry to jump over the wall are frantically attacking again and again and then falling in despair, Originally, the tactics of the volunteers who had made the volunteers hate Tohei in history completely decided the fate of the Russians in this time and space.
For four days, the 150,000 Russian troops paid 50,000 casualties and failed to open the Bolu defensive ring composed of two Chinese divisions. When the Ottoman army led by Kemal and the other three armored groups completed the encirclement, the remnants of the Russian army finally chose to surrender helplessly, so that the five Russian armies that had entered the Middle East were basically wiped out, and only Kuropatkin led less than 150,000 people were picked up by the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Port Ereli.
At the same time, the Chinese 8th and 12th armies attacking the Transcaucasia also occupied Tbilisi and Baku respectively, in fact, the Russian army has given up the defense of this area, only in Baku the fighting is more intense, but when the liberators of the Budapest airport returned to Aleppo and took off from there to bomb the city, Baku's 30,000 Russian troops immediately evacuated this world-famous oil field very smartly.
However, despite the brilliant victory of the Chinese and Austrian armies. But for the Entente group, what they wanted was also realized, the United States and Britain closed the door for the Chinese to enter Europe in Istanbul, although there were still more than 100,000 Chinese troops in Thessaloniki, but because of the supply problem, they could only hold on and could not fight back. Similarly, the Russian army in the Caucasus closed its gates, the Caucasus Mountains stretched across this 500-kilometer-wide isthmus, those snow-capped mountains blocked the attacker's path like a wall several thousand meters high, only two narrow passages along the coast on both sides, the Russian fleet on the Black Sea side, and only one army group on the Caspian side could be firmly blocked.
These two points hold. The Chinese Army on the southern front would never be able to enter Europe, and both of these points could be completely blocked with only a small number of troops, which was undoubtedly perfect for the Entente bloc, which was inferior in terms of strength compared to China, and they could safely turn around and clean up Germany and Austria-Hungary.
As for the northern line. The Siberian storm is the best defense of the Russians, and the Grand Duke Nicholas is still holding on to Chelyabinsk, even if he falls there, the Chinese Siberian Front will not be able to continue the offensive in the short term.
After this perfect strategic layout is completed. The representatives of the Entente finally confidently demanded the resumption of peace talks again in Stockholm, and the representatives of the Allied Group, led by China, readily agreed, and when the two sides sat down at the negotiating table. After the Entente delegates again presented a slightly revised draft of the negotiations from the previous one, they received a refusal from the chief negotiator of the Central Powers, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Tingfang of China.
The chief representative of the Entente, the British Foreign Secretary Sir Grey, is about to collapse, why don't you agree, this is not scientific!
"Your Excellency, I think we are in good faith, and the reparations of a billion pounds sterling, the recognition of your country's dominion over South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the terms of the original draft negotiations, and the cession by Russia of all the territories east of the Irtysh and the Tobol River, is this not enough proof of our sincerity, and is it not enough to satisfy your demands?" He asked in an almost pleading tone, at this time the British really did not want to fight, there was still North America to provide support for them before, now North America itself is difficult to protect, the support there is also cut off, and the Chinese bombers have caused great panic among the people, in any way they must stop this war.
Wu Tingfang thought to himself, I also want to agree, speaking of which, it has reached this condition, and there is indeed no need to make any more inches, but the problem is that my words are useless, how dare I agree if the emperor does not agree, the emperor is still waiting to play bomber to wash the floor, how can I remove the chessboard for him here?
"Sir, please note that you are negotiating with seventeen countries, including China, and that China is not the only one to be represented, and that your new draft of negotiations must meet the demands of all our countries, and do you not think that figure is ridiculous in terms of reparations? We are proposing 30 billion pounds, is this billion pounds of yours used to humiliate us? Wu Tingfang put on a lofty face and said lightly.
"Your Excellency, your numbers are an insult to us, aren't they?" Sir Grey almost gritted his teeth and said, there is no such bullying, it is still 30 billion pounds, and it is 30 billion gold pounds, and according to the gold content of the pound before the war, do you know how much it is? That's 220,000 tons of gold, and you pile up the whole world's gold and call it these?
Of course, Emperor Yang knew that there was not so much gold in the world, and the estimated total amount was less than 200,000 tons until a hundred years later, but since the British dared to give Germany more than 100,000 tons in World War I, why didn't he dare to give 220,000 tons to the British?
"Is it a lot? Maybe this is a bit of a lot, but it is nothing compared to the harm you have done to the innocent people of the Central Powers by provoking this war, since you have committed a crime, then you must come up with compensation, this is compensation for justice, not to mention that we do not ask you to pay all the reparations at once, you can pay it off in installments over sixty-six years. Wu Tingfang said lightly.
"Your Excellency, I don't see the sincerity of your negotiations at all, since there is no need for our negotiations to continue, I think we all need to calm down again." Sir Grey gritted his teeth and said that he really needed to calm down again, or he was afraid that he would not be able to control himself and strangle the old fellow in front of him.
"Well, since you don't want to end the war, then it's better to continue." Wu Tingfang said indifferently.
The third negotiation between the two blocs in Stockholm broke down again, and the Entente bloc, which had been cornered, immediately launched a fierce attack on Germany and Austria-Hungary again, of course, this fierceness was not at all a level compared to five years ago, the British currently had a total strength of only more than 2 million, France more than 1 million, North America 500,000, Italy less than 700,000, and Russia less than 4 million. In these countries, there are no young adults except for those who lack arms and legs.
Fortunately, their opponents are similar, the total strength of the German Army is less than 1.5 million, plus the Netherlands can reach 1.5 million, the total strength of the Austro-Hungarian Army is 1 million, and the rest of the mess adds up to about 500,000, this is all the young adults in Europe who can fight, and they have to fight, and if they don't fight, there will be nothing left, and for Germany and Austria, it will already be like this anyway, so they simply let it go.
"Your Excellency, Ambassador, please convey to your Emperor that this period of time is what we must insist on, that our goal is not only to win this war, but to win the future, to win a future in which we will not see our enemies for at least fifty years, and that I am in Asia, and your country is in Europe, and that we have an unrivaled advantage, and that if we want to accomplish this goal, we must completely destroy our enemies, not only on the battlefield, but also behind the battlefield, to put it simply, completely destroy their rear, their industry, Let them not have the possibility of getting up for fifty years.
As for the way to achieve this goal, it is very simple, bombing, bombing, bombing, bombing all the industrial cities of England, Russia, France, Italy into ruins, so that they can completely return to the Stone Age, and then we can look down on them from above.
Our bomber base in Georgia is being built, and it won't be long before the first Liberator bombers will take off from here to bomb all Russian cities within 1,600 kilometers, and there is also a base being built in Izmir, from which the Liberators can destroy the major cities of Italy, and Prague should also have one such base, where China will send bombers, and your country and Austria-Hungary will take care of the ammunition and fuel, and from here we can bomb all British cities, including French cities, of course. It doesn't take much, three to four months is enough to achieve our goal. Emperor Yang pointed to the map and said to Hai Jing. (To be continued......)