On September 18, 1854, Han declared war on the Russian Empire.

Ignatchev, the Russian minister to China, walked out of the palace with a declaration of war in his hand, and his intuition told him that the Russian Empire was about to face a cruel test.

Li Yunzhong had been preparing for this war for three years, and both food and terrain exploration had been prepared, and the soldiers who participated in the war were all selected from all over the country.

A group of high-spirited soldiers walked through the parade ground in a neat queue, and their morale was not inferior to that of the native soldiers in Europe, and the members of the British and French joint advisory groups were surprised and delighted, and the elite level of the Han army's soldiers and horses greatly exceeded their expectations.

On the parade platform, the excitement of the British envoy Wen Han, the French minister to China, Bourblon, the British minister to China, and Steve, the head of the coalition advisory group, was undisguised.

"Your Majesty! If your army is all like this, then the Russian Empire is not your opponent! Steve couldn't help it anymore when he saw the new steel cannons, and couldn't help but compliment Li Yunzhong.

Li Yunzhong smiled reservedly and said loudly: "Thank you, Your Excellency, for your auspicious words, I hope that this battle can be won." ”

The Dutch envoy Mauserev secretly wiped a sweat, in Nanyang, the Dutch squeezed countless gold and silver from the local Chinese merchants every year, and also instigated the local natives to massacre the Chinese, if the Han emperor pursued this matter, then the Dutch business in the South Seas would be ruined, and the East India Company might become history.

The Spanish envoy was equally disgusted, and in the South Seas, the Spanish plagued the Chinese more than the Dutch. He was also afraid that the local Chinese would ask the Han emperor to administer justice.

This is, motor vehicles appeared on the parade ground. Behind the motor vehicle was a heavy gun of more than 100mm, and each gun looked murderous.

Steve saw a heavy cannon being dragged with ease. I couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh! God, what is this, is it a train running on flat ground? No! It's a car! ”

Li Yunzhong saw that many foreigners were amazed and surprised, so he glanced at Hong Renji and motioned for him to answer.

Hong Renji stepped forward, pointed to the tractor below, and introduced in English: "This is our latest product of Hanguo, although European cars have a history of nearly 100 years, but China's cars are definitely ahead of Europe." As you can see, these locomotives can transport cannons to a place of 400 miles in a day, such as the battle to recover Shaanxi and Gansu a few months ago, the rebel army after several field battles, all of them hid in the walled city, and our army only took five days to move 200 cannons to the front line, and the rebels were easily eliminated. ”

Steve sighed: "That's a great idea, in the wars in Europe, artillery was transported by train. Then it will be pulled by manpower and animals to the designated place, and if we have this kind of tractor early in the morning, we can transfer the artillery position as quickly as possible. ”

A simple military parade lasted all day, which greatly shocked the delegates of various European countries. There were joys and sorrows, such as the representatives of the Netherlands and Spain, who were still able to move around with the help of others, and the Portuguese representatives who had already planned to return Macao to the Han Kingdom. Otherwise, the Han State would have sent only 1,000 men to kill all the Portuguese in Macao.

In the south study, Li Yunzhong specially summoned several officials related to the northward march to discuss the matter. Li Yunzhong deliberately hung the map on the screen.

Zuo Zongtang secretly sighed that he always felt that the war with Russia was worth the loss. I heard that the emperor asked him to command the troops and horses all the way, but he still deliberately inquired about many things on the Russian side, and studied it privately for a few days, and he already had a detailed plan for sending troops.

Li Yunzhong came to the map and announced directly: "This time I am fighting with the Russian army, I plan to divide my troops into three routes, the first route is to attack Xinjiang, the goal is to occupy the land, whether it is Russia, or other small countries' territory, they will occupy it first, and then say, if there is any dissatisfaction, we will fight!" This route was commanded by Zuo Zongtang, and the position of the governor of Huguang was vacant first. ”

Zuo Zongtang had already guessed this result, so he didn't seem surprised, and stepped forward and asked, "Emperor Qiqi, how many people are there in Weichen along the way?" ”

Li Yunzhong said with a smile: "Xinjiang has just been annexed, and there are still troops to garrison, in this case, the army on the Western Front will temporarily increase the militia by 20,000, and Li Xuan's Eleventh Army, Li Hongzhang's Fourteenth Army, Zeng Guoquan's New Second Army, plus 20,000 people's army, a total of more than 100,000 people, you see, is it enough?" ”

Zuo Zongtang had already thought about how to march and occupy the city in an instant, and bowed down and said, "100,000 people are enough!" ”

Li Yunzhong nodded with satisfaction, and said to Li Xiucheng: "You will be in command of the middle road, the first army has 60,000 people, and I will send you another 30,000 militiamen, remember, give me a level of Mongolia, during which you are allowed to freely expand the cavalry, and generals below the regimental level can also be appointed by themselves, and my only requirement is to fight to Lake Baikal!" How, can it be done? ”

Li Xiucheng glanced at the location of Lake Baikal and replied: "Yes! However, Wechen has a request. ”

"Say!"

Li Xiucheng said: "I heard that the arsenal has developed a new weapon, and Weichen wants to equip some. ”

Li Yunzhong suddenly smiled slightly: "You mean the machine gun, but this machine gun is still in the test stage, and if it is not operated properly, there will be some problems when shooting, do you still want it?" ”

Li Xiucheng didn't have the idea of not wanting to, and couldn't wait to answer: "Yes!" Machine guns are no better against cavalry, and the Mongolian cavalry has many cavalry, and with machine guns, Weichen is completely sure. ”

"Okay, I'll order the Arsenal to expedite production and allocate you fifty of them."

Seeing that the emperor had finished distributing the two armies, Chen Yucheng was eager to try, the eastern front was the main target of this army, and he must not miss this opportunity.

Li Yunzhong pointed to the northeast direction again, and said fiercely: "The remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are still lingering in the northeast, the main purpose of this army is to eliminate the Manchu Dynasty, I plan to gather 150,000 troops to divide into two routes, one is to advance from Shanhaiguan, attack north, cut off the Manchu retreat to Russia, and set off by ship from Tianjin, land in Dalian, and go straight to Fengtian. ”

After a pause, seeing the solemn expressions of the ministers, Li Yunzhong continued: "The eastern front is personally commanded by me, Chen Yu has become the deputy commander-in-chief, Chen Yucheng commands the soldiers and horses all the way to Shanhaiguan, under the jurisdiction of 60,000 people of the Second Group Army and 40,000 people of the New First Army, Li Chunfa commands the soldiers and horses all the way in the direction of Dalian, and has 50,000 people under the jurisdiction of the Fourth Group Army. ”

"Yes!"

Wang Qinglu saw that Li Yunzhong had assigned the combat task, and said: "Your Majesty, our army has sent nearly 400,000 troops to the expedition this time, and the logistical pressure must be very great. ”

Zhao Liewen, the secretary of the Ministry of War, sighed: "It's a pity that the railway is only built to Shanhaiguan, otherwise how can so many people be used." ”

The doctors finally saw the power of the train.

Li Yunzhong asked indifferently: "Does the household department have a countermeasure?" ”

Wang Qinglu bowed down and replied: "There is only a large-scale requisition of people's husbands, just ......"

Li Yunzhong said: "Just what? ”

Wang Qinglu gritted his teeth slightly, and admonished: "This war with Russia, the outcome is really unpredictable, if it is delayed, it will definitely delay the cultivation of the fields, the north does not have to be in the south, most of the people here only rely on the fields for a living, if the agricultural time is delayed, I am afraid that there will be villains who take the opportunity to cause chaos." ”

Li Yunzhong remembered the lesson of Emperor Yang of Sui's expedition to Goryeo, and nodded again and again, deeply agreeing.

Zhang Suimou thought of the burning of the fields at the beginning, should he also burn their houses and fields? It was vetoed in an instant, if this suggestion was made, I was afraid that I would be scolded bloody, and my heart moved, and I thought of the fact that Li Hongzhang complained about too many prisoners in the original book, isn't this a ready-made people's husband!

"Your Majesty, Weichen has an idea."

"Say!"

Zhang then made up his mind and said loudly: "The Hui people in the northwest are in turmoil, and Lord Li has captured hundreds of thousands of troubled people, if you treat them as people's husbands to forgive their sins, not only can you save a batch of food and salary expenditures, but also transfer the Hui people from Shaanxi and Gansu, so that the place is stable and peaceful, please ask the emperor to learn clearly." ”

Li Yunzhong didn't want to take this responsibility, and asked everyone: "What do the Qing family think?" ”

"The emperor is wise!"

Depend on! What does that mean? When I asked you, you pushed the blame back, what a human being.

Wang Qinglu pondered for a while, and said with a wry smile: "The people are still insufficient, and the four-way army needs at least 600,000 people to ensure smooth logistics." ”

Zhang Suimou gritted his teeth and continued: "You don't know, our army has captured millions of people, and now they have reduced the most work in various places, especially in mines and road construction, there are more than 600,000, if they are temporarily transferred, it will be enough to meet the logistical needs. ”

Wang Qinglu was taken aback, he also heard for the first time that there were millions of captives in the Han Dynasty, and there must be some of them, and the captives were generally young and strong, even if all the Qing army was gathered together, I don't know if there were millions.

Seeing that all his colleagues were staring at him with strange faces, Zhang Suimou hurriedly replied: "These are all the truths, the Hui people are in turmoil, Lord Li has a good way, and he has captured more than 600,000 in just two months, plus the previous prisoners, especially the Shandong militia group, when they attacked Shandong, they rushed to kill and injure the Han army, and now after the autumn, they have captured more than 200,000 people." ”

Li Yunzhong waved his hand and made a decision: "In this way, the people are mainly captives, and Hubei is about to be pacified, and most of the Manchurians from all over the country have been killed?" Gather there, and there will be no use for worrying about it. ”

The matter of the people came to an end, and Zhao Liewen came out again to ask for instructions: "Emperor Qiqi, will all the cannons in the arsenal be allocated to the front-line army?" ”

"How many cannons are there in the arsenal?"

Zhao Liewen took out a small note and read: "There are 218 guns in total, 45 large-caliber artillery pieces, and the military department plans to allocate 73 guns to the Third Army. ”

Li Yunzhong pondered for a while and vetoed: "There is no war in the Third Army, all the artillery is supplied to the participating troops, and all the grenades are also distributed, don't leave one in the warehouse." ”

"Wechen understands."

Li Yunzhong took a deep breath, came to everyone, and said solemnly: "This battle is related to the national fortune of the Han Kingdom, everyone must not take it lightly, especially the two-way army on the Eastern Front, only victory is allowed, not defeat!" ”

Chen Yucheng and others led the order in unison: "Obey the order!" (To be continued......)