Holding binoculars in their hands, looking at Vladivostok, which had turned into a sea of fire in the distance, many officers were shocked by the spectacular sight in front of them. Although the Wehrmacht has also been trained in the past, and artillery is one of the most trained arms, few people have seen this scale of artillery shelling, except for the part that has returned from Europe...

After seeing the firepower of the artillery cluster, many officers felt that no one could survive this kind of shelling, even the Russian old hairy man who was known as rough and thick-skinned...

Listening to the remarks of those staff officers in the command headquarters, Feng Guozhang couldn't help but shake his head. Looking at the young, energetic faces around him, Feng Guozhang couldn't help but shake his head gently.

"It's still a little young..."Speaking of this, Feng Guozhang couldn't help but sigh softly.

Although the First Army is now strong, with nearly 200,000 troops, more than 700 artillery pieces including mortars, and thousands of light and heavy machine guns, Feng Guozhang knows very well where the shortcomings of the troops are...

Combat experience!

Although the nearly 200,000 Wehrmacht troops he led this time are all well-equipped, especially several main forces are armed to the teeth, and their equipment level has surpassed that of Britain, France, and Germany in Europe, second only to the United States on the other side of the ocean―――――― each infantry division in the United States has at least 1,000 light and heavy machine guns, and the Wehrmacht, even if it is a division of the first type, is only close to 700, and the gap between them is huge.

However, this is not surprising, given that the United States is the world's most industrially powerful. Although China's industrial strength has developed a lot in recent years, thanks to the European war, it can only barely compare with countries like Russia or Italy. As for countries like Britain, France, Germany, and the United States ...

China may have surpassed Britain and France in steel production, but it is clear that the industry needs to refer to more than just steel, and there are still many places in China that need to make up for it.

However, despite the high level of equipment of the Wehrmacht, the lack of combat experience was fatal.

Just like the shelling in front of them, many felt that under this kind of shelling, the Russians would not have survived at all. But actually...

Although Feng Guozhang had never been to Europe, he had also watched the Shandong Campaign that year, and he knew very well how strong the firepower of the Wehrmacht was at that time. Under that kind of firepower, only the Japanese who were in ordinary trenches and other fortifications were not killed, let alone the Russians hiding in the strong fortress...

The current shelling may be able to inflict heavy casualties on the Russians, but if it is because of this, it is assumed that the Russians in the fortress are almost dead. This is absolutely wrong...

If possible. Feng Guozhang is also willing to seek a battle like Sa Zhenbing, and use this battle to hone the officers and soldiers under his command. However, he was hoping for an easier battle, not a storm, especially if it was an extremely strong fortress...

Feng Guozhang knew very well that if he launched a strong fortress, even if the troops in his hands were several times more than the Russian army in the fortress, he would pay an extremely painful price.

So just after thinking about it, Feng Guozhang vetoed the plan of the attack in his heart. Instead, Tongguò resorted to a prolonged artillery bombardment to force the Russians inside the fortress to surrender.

Feng believes that there is a high probability that this will succeed. After all, the Russians in the fortress were in a state of isolation, and they were far inferior to the First Army in terms of strength. Coupled with the successive collapse of Tsarist Russia and the Kerensky government, it brought a great psychological shock to these Russian troops in the Far East, as long as they feel hopeless, forcing them to surrender is a very simple thing...

Of course, the premise is that Feng Guozhang must show the strength that can make the Russian army in the fortress desperate, and the method taken by Feng Guozhang is to shell...

In order to capture Vladivostok this time, Feng Guozhang prepared a total of more than 700 artillery pieces, of which 75-caliber guns and 105-caliber guns accounted for the vast majority, probably more than 500 guns, and the remaining nearly 200 guns were all 150-caliber guns and 210 and 240-caliber guns specially prepared by Yan Shao for Feng Guozhang, which can almost be called heavy artillery.

More than 700 artillery pieces opened fire together, and the formation was undoubtedly overwhelming. Almost instantly, Vladivostok has turned into a sea of fire, and the dense firepower has made the Russian artillery in the fortress have no power to fight back.

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For this passive situation, the Russian troops in the fortress were not surprised, and the resistance of the Russians was destroyed without the shelling of the Wehrmacht. It's just that when the shelling finally stopped after seven or eight hours, and the Russians were relieved, thinking that the Chinese outside were about to launch an offensive, and were grinding their fists and preparing to teach the invading Wehrmacht some lessons, more than an hour later, the shelling began again...

Moreover, the shelling continued for seven or eight hours, and continued every day thereafter, so it can be said that the Wehrmacht artillery group hardly rested at any other time, except at night, when the shelling was stopped in order to let the officers and men sleep peacefully.

On the railway line in the rear, supplies and other supplies were becoming scarce, and all the shells and barrels needed by the artillery group were replaced by them...

After three days, the artillery group of the 1st Army no longer knew how many shells had been fired at Vladivostok, and if you observe it from a high altitude, you can clearly see that Vladivostok is now full of dense craters, as if suffering from a dense phobia.

And in these three days, the Russian army in the fortress also suffered heavy casualties.

Although the fortifications of Vladivostok were very strong, in the final analysis, it was absolutely impossible for them to suffer casualties unilaterally. Even if you can only kill one person with 10 shots, 100 shots are 10 people, 100,000 guns are 10,000 people...

100,000 guns...

Is this a large number for an artillery cluster with more than seven hundred guns?

Of course, this kind of thing on the battlefield can't be counted like this, and the casualties of the Russian army in the fortress are obviously not so large, but. They really can't stand it...

So, just when Feng Guozhang was planning to let the artillery group come for another two days, and then try to see if he could send people to the fortress to persuade him to surrender. In the sky above the Vladivostok fortress, the Russians have already taken the initiative to hoist the white flag ...

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This is not surprising, although the artillery group has been shelling the fortress for three days in a row, and the whole of Vladivostok is almost in ruins, if the artillery bombardment of this scale alone can crush the defenders of the fortress, then the French and the expeditionary force in Verdun at the beginning could not have lasted so long.

What really made them choose to surrender was despair for the future.

At the time of the shelling of Vladivostok. The defenders of the fortress repeatedly telegraphed to the newly formed Russian government for help. However, there is only one answer, that is, persistence, persistence, as for when reinforcements will be available. But no one said this, and the only order they gave to the Vladivostok defenders was to insist...

At this point, even idiots knew that there would be no reinforcements at all, and they were like the German defenders in Qingdao in history. The only thing that can be done is to fight to the death. Loyal to the Kaiser...

It's just that...

The Germans still have at least one Kaiser to be loyal to, but what about them...

The Russian emperor has been overthrown, the Romanov dynasty that had ruled Russia for hundreds of years has also perished, and even the later provisional government was overthrown a few months later, and the current Soviet Russian government cannot be recognized by the Russian army in Vladivostok at all, and if it were not in a desperate situation, the Russian army in the fortress would not even ask for help from the Bolsheviks in St. Petersburg...

Now there is no way to get reinforcements. Then even for the sake of the inhabitants of the fortress, they will not be able to continue to hold on. Moreover, people are afraid of death.

If Feng Guozhang ordered the troops to launch an offensive after the shelling, maybe the Russians would have fought hard, but like Feng Guozhang is now, it is just shelling and has no tendency to attack at all, this is...

If Feng Guozhang just used artillery bombardment to the fortress for more than ten days, after more than ten days, the Wehrmacht who rushed up might only need to collect the corpses...

Moreover, during these three days, the shelling of the Wehrmacht showed no tendency to weaken in the slightest, and it was obviously impossible to wait until the other side ran out of shells...

So in the end, after determining that it was no longer meaningful to insist, the Russian troops in the fortress no longer insisted, and officially hung up the white flag and announced their surrender three days after the shelling.

With the surrender of the Russian army in Vladivostok, this land that had been plundered for decades was finally taken back by China from the hands of the marauders, when the entire territory of the Outer Northeast had already been captured by the Wehrmacht.

After seeing the white flag hanging above the fortress, the national defense officers and soldiers who understood what this meant immediately cheered and boiled, and Feng Guozhang also ordered someone to send a telegram to Yan Shao to convey the news back...

There is no doubt that the military operation planned by Yan Shao this time was successful...

But this is only the first step, and then Yan Shao has to recover the interest from the hands of the marauders, and on Yan Shao's side, the interest is rolling, the interest rate is raised, and the interest is very powerful...

The Russians have seized the Outer Northeast from China for so many years, and if you calculate the interest, how can you give ...

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The Russians surrendered so simply, which represented the correctness of Feng Guozhang's strategy and the recovery of the Outer Northeast.

Now that the Russians have surrendered, there is no need for Feng Guozhang to continue to waste shells, in fact, the complaints of the logistics department have been quite small recently, after all, Feng Guozhang has consumed a lot of ammunition in the past few days. Therefore, after seeing the white flag above the fortress, Feng Guozhang stopped the order he had just given to the artillery group, and then personally rushed to the fortress to recover Vladivostok from the Russians.

After three days, this once one of the strongest fortresses in the Far East is now unrecognizable, full of craters or rubble caused by shelling, and when Feng Guozhang entered Vladivostok with his troops, he had witnessed some Russians trying to dig out the Russians buried in the fortifications...

"If you want to rebuild this fortress, it will probably cost you a lot of money..."

Looking at the scene in front of him, Feng Guozhang sighed, but his words made the hearts of several Russians who accompanied him chill.

Originally, the reason why they let Feng Guozhang see this scene was to hope that Feng Guozhang would see what he had done in the past few days. And feel guilty for the shelling of the past few days, after all, it is not only soldiers who are buried, but also many civilians. It even includes some women, children, and the elderly...

Naturally, what they did to the Chinese in the past history is something they will never recall. People are usually like this, they only think about what others have done to them, but they never think about what they have done to others, especially those who think they are superior...

However, looking at Feng Guozhang's appearance, he seems to only care about the damage and reconstruction of the fortress. As for the civilian casualties caused by the shelling, they didn't seem to care at all, which inevitably made the hearts of the few Russians who accompanied them feel a little chilly...

"These cold-blooded yellow-skinned monkeys..."

Listen to Feng Guozhang's words. Several Russians couldn't help but curse loudly in their hearts, but no matter how badly they scolded in their hearts, at this moment, they could only follow behind Feng Guozhang with a smiling face. Who called them prisoners of war now. Their fate is in the hands of Feng Guozhang...

Meanwhile. They didn't know that Feng Guozhang really had some regrets in his heart at this time.

If it weren't for the fact that they surrendered too early, Feng Guozhang even wanted to continue the shelling for a few more days, as for the casualties in the fortress or something? Sorry, that's really not on his radar.

As mentioned earlier, what the Wehrmacht lacks most at the moment is actual combat experience, although the equipment of the Wehrmacht is amazing, but the actual combat experience is too lacking. It is simply not comparable to Britain, France, the United States, Germany and other countries that are fighting on the European battlefield...

Armies are honed in war, even if they are poorly equipped. But after a few years of war, it can also be honed into an elite―――――― unless this army is either defeated or flees on the battlefield, if so, then nothing can be honed, no, maybe it can be honed to the technique of escape, or the technique of surrender.

After the European War, whether it is Britain, France or the United States, they will eventually have a group of extremely elite troops, a group of troops that have experienced the bloody war in Europe.

China, on the other hand, also participated in the European War, but the number of participants was too small, and compared with the troops at home, the troops that participated in the European War can only be regarded as a minority...

So right now, the Wehrmacht is in dire need of a whetstone, or a copy to upgrade.

However, even if Feng Guozhang really wanted to hone his troops, he would not choose a strong fortress to hone it, after all, attacking a fortress is not an easy task for recruits. It's just that even if you don't go to the ordinary army units, it's okay to hone the artillery...

Unlike infantry, artillery may be a little more sophisticated, but they are in some ways simpler than infantry. After all, the infantry is responsible for both attack and defense, as well as detours, divisions, etc., etc., on the other hand, artillery is relatively simple, only need to do a little to ―――――― the enemy's head, and try not to let the opponent's shells fall on their own heads, as for the rest, the artillery does not need to be responsible, because that is the responsibility of the infantry...

And there is no doubt that the Vladivostok fortress in front of them this time is a very good target, as long as Feng Guozhang is given some time, he can completely use the Vladivostok fortress to hone the artillery. As for the reconstruction of the fortress, there is still a question of money?

The former Yan Shao has already made it very clear that as long as the place can be taken back, even if it is broken, it is not very difficult to rebuild. As for the large amount of wasted shells, will the people in the Ministry of Finance trouble themselves......... Feng Guozhang is a soldier, he only cares about fighting, and saving money for the Ministry of Finance is not his business as a soldier...

To be honest, as the Minister of the Army, Feng Guozhang has long been unhappy with those people in the Ministry of Finance, and every time he asks for military spending, he needs to rub his tongue with the people in the Ministry of Finance.

In the eyes of the military, the people in the Ministry of Finance are all iron roosters, stingy...

So there is a reasonable opportunity to waste, and Feng Guozhang will never waste it...

But now, now that the Russians have surrendered, it's too late to say anything ...

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The day after the Russians surrendered, in the ruins of the Vladivostok fortress, Feng Guozhang and others held a grand surrender ceremony, announcing the acceptance of the Russians' surrender, and officially hoisted the Chinese national flag, the red dragon flag, over Vladivostok...

The entire surrender ceremony took place in the watchful eyes of the Wehrmacht officers and other generals and Russians. As the red dragon flag was raised over Vladivostok, it was followed not only by the cheers of the officers and soldiers of the Wehrmacht in the fortress, but also by the sound of naval cannons on the sea...

After learning that Vladivostok had been recovered. Sa Zhenbing ordered the cannon to be fired in celebration, and the thunderous sound of the cannon came from the sea, if it wasn't for the Wehrmacht in the fortress who already knew about it, I am afraid that I would have thought that someone had called...

After firing the cannon, Sa Zhenbing also led the fleet into Vladivostok, which was once the most important Russian military port in the Far East...

At the same time, this is the first time in decades. For the first time, ships of the Chinese Navy sailed into this own military port...

When the navy ships sailed into the military port, looking at this dilapidated fortress, Sa Zhenbing was full of emotion. It's just that maybe it's not Seoul, so he didn't improvise a poem like he did in later generations, but just asked people to sort out the ports that were affected by the shelling. While looking at the captured ships...

Although the navy is very wealthy at the moment. In terms of scale alone, it can even be called the sixth largest naval power after Britain, Germany, the United States, Japan and France, but Sa Zhenbing's old navy is used to being poor after all, so even if it is just a little income, it will make Sa Zhenbing's old navy happy for a long time...

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With the red dragon flag of the Kuomintang government flying over Vladivostok, the news of the liberation of the Outer Northeast soon spread all over the world. After the news was transmitted back to China, the whole country was jubilant, and there were parades and celebrations in various cities. Schools in some cities even plan to set up youth condolence groups to go to the front line to pay respects to the soldiers of the First Army. After all, this is the first time that China has regained its lost ground. Many newspapers also reported on the military operation one after another, and some newspapers even organized famous reporters to go to the Northeast in order to obtain first-hand information.

As the leader of the national government, the exploits of the reconquest also brought Yan Shao great prestige, and his prestige was even higher than that of his victory on the European battlefield.

After all, no matter how well the expeditionary force fought in Europe, it was a battle for the Europeans, and at most it won back a few pieces of wasteland where birds don't. Although compared with the Middle East, the environment in the Outer Northeast does not seem to be much better, but for the people who have endured the humiliation of land reparations in the past, the reconquest of the lost territory is far higher than winning on the battlefield, although this is also a victory...

Unlike the domestic jubilation, the foreign media seem to be much calmer.

"I have to admit that the Chinese have found the best opportunity to recover the territory that the Russians snatched from them decades ago. And because of the relations between Soviet Russia and Soviet Russia, the countries could not blame it at all, because there was no doubt that this party, which was full of Bolsheviks, was the enemy of the whole world......... But one thing we need to be thankful for is that with the Chinese military action against Russia in the north, the interests of the countries in southern Asia will be safeguarded, because after offending the Russians, China will no longer have the strength to act against the colonies in the south, unless it wants to be the enemy of the whole world at the same time. ”

"Whether it was the Bolshevik-dominated Soviet Russia, or some other government, the two countries will be deeply entangled after China's military action in the northeast......... As Russia's only ice-free port in the Far East, its importance to Russia is unquestionable, and China's presence in Outer Mongolia can also pose a threat to the railway line that runs through Siberia, and only by intercepting it can divide the whole of Siberia in two..."

"So whoever succeeds Russia in the end will take a series of actions against China, and likewise, a strong China will also respond to such actions, and the two countries will be deeply entangled, and there will be no room to threaten the colonies in Southeast Asia......... That's something to celebrate, isn't it? ”

(Strictly speaking, Vladivostok is not an ice-free port, because Vladivostok has a 2-3 month ice period every winter.) However, due to the thin layer of ice, ships in the harbor can go to sea lightly with the help of icebreakers, so it can also be considered that Vladivostok is an ice-free port that can be navigated all year round. After the Russians occupied Vladivostok, they tried to occupy Port Arthur because Port Arthur was a real ice-free port with better conditions and an excellent geographical location. Bohai Bay can be easily blocked. ）

The article, published by the British Daily Newspaper, quickly spread throughout the UK.

As stated in the article, despite the annoyance with China's military actions. But whether it's the United Kingdom, France or the United States, they are actually a lot more relieved after some simple analysis.

A strong China is an absolute threat to the interests of the great powers in the Far East, after all, every great power needs to expand to the outside world in order to gain benefits.

The reason why Britain has become the strongest country is because it has the most colonies, and why the United States introduced the so-called 'Wilson Fourteen'. Because they were dissatisfied with the British monopoly on the resources and trade of these colonies...

At present, the world has been almost divided, and apart from the European and American powers, there are only those countries in South America. Or countries like Iran and Thailand that survive in the cracks. And, of course, a semi-colonial China.

Now that China has risen, it wants to look from the outside to find the resources it needs, but the problem is to look at the map. All the resources he could find were already from the Lord. In the absence of any other way. He can only follow a path similar to that of Germany, that is, to break the original world balance...

Of course, China's actions may not be as exaggerated as those of Germany, after all, China is too far away from the European and American powers to pose a direct threat to each other, at most by seizing a few of its colonies in the Far East.

But for these arrogant whites, not to mention a few pieces, even one is not tolerated.

It's just in Europe. Britain and France have suffered heavy losses, but what about China? Although an expeditionary force was also sent to Europe during the war. But this loss is not worth mentioning compared to the benefits that China gained in the war...

Now, even if China wanted to do something to the British and French colonies in Asia, the two countries would probably not be able to stop it. The French attitude here is relatively relaxed, after all, Vietnam is not their main colony, but Britain is different, whether it is 'Hong Kong', 'Burma', 'India', or 'Malaysia' are all British colonies, and his interests in Asia are too many...

So the war was not over yet, and the British in London had already begun to think about how they could contain China after the war.

The best way at the moment is to form an alliance with interests such as France and the United States to jointly deal with the threat from China, and on the Japanese side, considering the feud between China and Japan, it seems that the Anglo-Japanese alliance can also be used again...

It's just that before Britain could make a move, China had already taken action in the northeast. This made Britain angry at the same time, but also inexplicably reassured. After all, China's actions to the Northeast meant that it was safe for British interests in Southeast Asia for a short time.

China's foreign strategy is to move north, not south...

And given the importance of Vladivostok to Russia and the threat posed by China to Siberia, it is clear that it is unlikely that Soviet Russia or anything will rule Russia in the future, remain indifferent to the threat posed by China.

The entanglement between these two behemoths will make it impossible for China to do anything about the south, and Britain will be able to recuperate with peace of mind...

To be honest, the war has reached this point, and everyone is tired and doesn't want to fight anymore...

Of course, while reassuring, Britain also wanted to continue to agitate Russia to assume the responsibility of the Entente. Although the Bolsheviks are now in power in Soviet Russia, this is much easier for the British to use.

However, in the face of British agitation, although there was a great deal of controversy in Russia, it did not leak anything when negotiating with the British, but protested to the British government, believing that China's military action in the northeast had violated Russia's territory, and Britain should use its influence to force China to return home, apologize to Russia, and compensate the Russians for their losses...

As for Russia continuing to take responsibility or something.......... hehe, the weather today is really good...

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This attitude of the Russians made the British extremely angry, and not to mention for the time being, Britain's influence on China was limited, and when it came to the reconquest of territory, Downing Street did not expect China to withdraw at all. After receiving the information given by Yan Shao, the British, who confirmed the authenticity of the information, did not know the plans in the hearts of the Russians.

China is indeed a threat to the British, but they are now fighting for them in Europe. Although China certainly had its own careful thinking, both Verdun and the Somme proved China's loyalty to the cause of the Entente, and the hundreds of thousands of expeditionary forces fought on the Western Front many times stronger than the more than a million rubbish in Italy, and much stronger than the sinister Bolsheviks in Soviet Russia...

At present, you allow yourself to use your influence to persuade the Chinese to return, and on the other hand, you are colluding with the Germans, even if the British are no longer able to agree...

As a result, after several negotiations, the British, who had completely lost patience, directly threw the information provided by Yan Shao and the information they got during this time in front of the Russians.

In the face of this information, the faces of the Russians were ugly, and the faces of the British were not so good-looking.

In the end, the British and Russians completely collapsed, and the Russians returned home to continue their own withdrawal from the European war, while the British contacted China, France, the United States, the Netherlands and other countries, intending to teach the Russians a lesson as soon as Russia withdrew from the war, so that they could understand the price of betrayal...

Naturally, since China has already sent troops to the northeast, this matter does not need China's participation, in addition to hundreds of thousands of expeditionary forces continue to fight on the Western Front, the punishment of Soviet Russia is mainly completed by Britain and France, and the British have hooked up with the Russians who have been overthrown the Provisional Government and those who are dissatisfied with the Soviet Russian government...

These Bolsheviks were the 'enemies of the world' in the first place, and now that they are so ignorant of the heavens and the earth, the British naturally did not feel the need to keep them... (To be continued......)