Hua's blunt questioning made Liu Bailiang's eyebrows tighten: "This is at the level of the campaign, let's care more about the overall situation." ”

"The big picture? The lives of 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers are also irrelevant to the overall situation? Qianhua asked in a stiff voice, ignoring Luo Sulan's dissuasive eyes on the side, she didn't want to find trouble without trouble, she just couldn't bear it.

"They are not pawns, they are not numbers in the game, they are living people! It is our compatriots, the backing of our regime, and the warriors who fought bloodily for the fortunes of the country! Overall situation? What is the big picture? For what kind of big situation can we use, play, and abandon those who believe in us, obey us, and fight for our ideals? ”

Luo Sulan looked shocked when she heard this, and hurriedly got up and persuaded her: "Your Majesty is angry...... This should be a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding...... Mr. Liu, you can also say a word. ”

Liu Bailiang's face turned dark, and he coldly met the sharp gaze that Qian Hua looked at directly, and said fiercely: "I have nothing to say." ”

"Why bother, everyone is a comrade, and there is something to discuss......"

Ma Feng, the shiny-haired quartermaster, also rose up to persuade him, but apparently no one cared what he said.

Zhang Yaoqian, opposite Ma Feng, raised his head and sneered: "You XX, a heavenly soldier?" I read a few broken books and chattered there crookedly, if it weren't for our old Captain Liu's sake......"

"Zhang Yaoqian, will you die if you don't shut up?"

Needless to say, this expansive majesty clearly came from the mouth of the most prestigious bigwig in the military department, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yang Zhengjin.

"I think Her Majesty is a little uncomfortable, so let's stop today's meeting."

Everyone looked at each other and parted unhappily.

In the flowery Versailles-style garden square outside the Chengxian Hall, Luo Sulan caught up with Liu Qianhua, who was walking quickly, and asked, "What are you doing here?" The matter of war. What are you fighting with the military department? Do you really think of yourself as an emperor? ”

Qianhua didn't answer, just pedaled and quickened her pace.

Luo Sulan gritted her teeth anxiously, grabbed her arm, and stopped in front of her: "Are you talking?" Originally, relying on your mediation, we finally reconciled with the military department, and everyone has dealt with it well until now, what do you want to do now? ”

"I don't want to say it right now."

It's the truth.

"And when are you going to say it? If you don't tell us, how can we help you? Luo Sulan almost stomped her feet, and the face of the middle-aged lady who was well maintained but had passed away completely lost her original graceful and calm posture.

"You guys? Who are you? What did you help me? ”

It's all out of the air. Qianhua knew that she had overspoken, pursed her pink lips, and turned her head not to look at Luo Sulan.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to target you, I need to be alone."

Although Luo Sulan was stabbed, she was not reconciled, and nodded: "Okay, I'll look for you at night." ”

……

In the other corner of the garden, Yang Zhengjin blushed and put his hands in his jacket pockets. In front of them stood Liu Zhang and the others, both of whom had the same unruly, unruly and unreasonable look on their faces.

How can you say such a thing in front of a leader? When the first emperor was there. Do you dare to say that? ”

Zhang Yao stretched his neck in front of him: "Captain Liu is Captain Liu, this kind of strange woman, why should you whisper to her?" ”

"Have you forgotten what the first emperor said before he died?" Yang Zhengjin didn't seem to be angry in his words, but it sounded cold to the bone.

Zhang Yaoqian's arrogance decreased slightly, and he snorted: "The first emperor ...... Emperor ...... The first emperor asked us to treat her like the Meiji Emperor of Japan, then, isn't the emperor of Japan just honestly listening to the words of important ministers, how can there be such a troublesome thing to trouble others? ”

Yang Zhengjin glanced at him and didn't refute him, but turned his gaze to Liu Bailiang, who was sneering and smiling.

"Old Yang. Let's put it bluntly. Liu Bailiang, who still felt a cold sweat on his back in the middle of summer, took the courage to speak, "It's not that we don't want to respect her and provide for her, she wants to stay in the palace and play with her face." Engage her in cheering, who can be unpleasant with her? Lao Yang, why should we accommodate her? Slap her a few times. Let her know what she is, what should she do when she goes back to the palace, and the world will be quiet, right? ”

As soon as Zhang Yao saw the support and help, he also came to the momentum: "Yes, I have discussed with Bailiang, there is no way to go on like this, it is difficult to ensure that there will be no chaos, we must completely return the power to the military department as soon as possible, so as to carry out our will to the end." ”

Yang Zhengjin snorted in his nose: "What do you want to do?" ”

"Now that we have the ability to disrupt our plans, only that woman's power is left, and she has collected the resources available to her, and the avenue of activity has been cut off, and she has become a caged bird with clipped wings, doing nothing harm, and naturally the world is peaceful."

"First of all, the Tiger and Leopard Battalion, the Eagle Wolf Team, and those equipment that have crossed over must be changed to be shared by the group, of course, the most important thing must be controlled by the military department, if it can't be done, the organization will be disbanded or eliminated, and the equipment will be destroyed, and it must not be left to the use of forces outside the military department."

"The second is to change the system of the Praetorian Guard and the attendant military attaché, abolish the emperor's right to judge the budget for the employment of the Praetorian Guard, and change it to the independent decision of the Ministry of Defense, and the attendant military attache is also sent by the Ministry of Defense and obeys the orders of the General Staff."

"The last is to cut the royal budget, the royal expenditure is reported to the Cabinet, and the appointment of advisers and public events by the Royal Family must be approved and arranged by the Cabinet......"

"That's enough."

Yang Zhengjin interrupted Zhang Yaoqian, who was talking about Xing, with an expressionless face.

"I haven't heard anything, and I haven't seen you here...... I'll act as if nothing happened today, so go back." ”

Liu Bailiang was happy when he heard this, and patted Zhang Yaoqian with a smile: "I know that Lao Yang is still our Lao Yang, don't worry, after the matter is completed, who is qualified to be a leader except you?" Even if something really happens, we will bear it, and I and Haruka-ma committed suicide on the spot, and we will never implicate others! Haruka, don't you say? ”

Zhang Yaoqian was a little flustered, and immediately came back to his senses, and nodded vigorously like a chicken pecking rice: "Yes, death will not sell brothers, let alone sell our land!" Things are going to go bad, I'm number one

, take a gun and shoot the head, aim it at the temple, and explode cleanly! ”

Yang Zhengjin turned around slowly as if he hadn't heard it. After only taking two steps, he braked suddenly, and said solemnly without looking back: "Find a time, go to the palace to apologize, don't be in a hurry, first do enough literary drama, fight for as much as possible, and don't use force lightly until the last moment." I will set the timing of the showdown, and I will not order it in person. No one is allowed to act on their own! ”

—

"Yes! Follow the leader's orders. ”

Liu Zhang and the others hurriedly saluted side by side, taking care of the matter.

When Yang Zhengjin was far away, Liu Bailiang spit on the ground and cursed: "Who does he think he is?" Do you really think of yourself as Captain Liu? I want to ride on the wall to reap the benefits, and I am reluctant to give power to others, looking forward and backward, and achieving nothing! If he plays like this, it will be amazing that we can conquer the world before we die! ”

Zhang Yao tilted his neck towards the back of the garden and did not comment.

"By the way, are we really going to apologize to that weird woman?"

Liu Bailiang didn't want to. Wrap your arms around his shoulders and leave: "Go, apologize for the apology." It doesn't matter if you kneel down, it doesn't matter if you slap her in the face, when the power is in hand, our brother will earn it back tenfold. ”

"Yes, earn it back! When the time comes......"

Zhang Yaoqian was smiling proudly, and suddenly remembered something, and patted his head with an oops: "By the way, you have to quickly take a telegram to Liang Tianhe, the commander of the advancing troops in his place, it turns out that Xiao Bin in the Praetorian Guard tied up Lao Yang's wife and brother Zhang Xinyu." When the trouble came out just now, I forgot to tell Lao Yang, you first take a telegram to ask for release, and then I will explain to Lao Yang. ”

Liu Bailiang squinted and thought about it. Waving his hand: "No, this matter is business-like." Lao Yang's temper, I don't know what to do, you just tell him, if he doesn't say it clearly, we will pretend to be confused, if he wants to say it clearly, you just tell Liang Tianhe that it was his order. You can figure it out, Liang Tianhe is his brother, and Lao Yang will be our roadblock sooner or later, and we can't hurt our brother's friendship for the sake of a roadblock. ”

……

Semipalatinsk, ferry.

The railway line stretching from Akdouka branched out a temporary line of money before the bombed Tieshire Iron Bridge to the South Bank of the Rush Military Train Wharf. The military trains from the interior were divided into several sections, dragged by winches onto modular pontoons, assembled on train rafts, crossed the wide Irtysh River in batches, regrouped at the train wharf on the north bank, or went to the nearest Semipalatinsk railway freight yard, or went directly to the Rubzosk front, 150 miles away.

The wharves on both sides of the river, together with several spacious flatbed train rafts shuttling on the river, and two mule-horse-driven pontoon bridges, maintained the survival and combat of nearly 300,000 Chinese officers and soldiers on the north bank of the Irtysh River -- it is no exaggeration to say that they are the choke point of the whole army.

Around the wharf, there are towering guard towers densely covered with wooden frames and straw huts, anti-aircraft machine gun emplacements made of sandbags, anti-aircraft gun emplacements made of civil engineering, and a ring of trenches and barbed wire. Behind the barbed wire, a masonry bunker was erected every one or two hundred meters, and between the bunkers, white-helmeted gendarmes led wolf dogs to patrol back and forth. In the lower reaches of the river in the ferry area, there is also a shore defense battery, equipped with rapid-fire field artillery, and motorized patrol boats brought by train with machine guns and small cannons fly back and forth on the water. Weather permitting, there were always a few small single-engine planes hovering over the ferry, and from time to time one or two swooped down until the ground could see the Red Trap Gold Ball on their wings with the Imperial Army Air Corps emblem —

Water, land and sky, iron walls, no gaps?

Suddenly, a sharp air raid siren sounded over the ferry, and the people around the crossing moved in a haphazard manner as if they had been kicked into a nest of ants—the apparent chaos lasted only a few seconds, and then magically flashed into an orderly collective action: anti-aircraft gunners and machine gunners rushed to their respective positions, sappers skillfully pulled up camouflage tents and released smoke screens for the docks and changing places, gendarmes calmly evacuated people and vehicles, and those who had nothing to do for the time being consciously hid in the hollows of the trenches, well-trained and experienced, Apparently this is not the first time it has been bombed.

In a trench on the pier on the north shore, several shirtless and sweaty soldiers were surprised to find a middle-aged general with a cigarette in his mouth next to them, pinching a delicate gold-painted binoculars and looking at the sky to the north.

"Four stars, General?"

"It's the Commander! Really, I've seen ......."

Hearing the discussion of the soldiers around him, the middle-aged general put down his binoculars, nodded and smiled casually: "I am Liang Tianhe, which unit are you from?" ”

"Report to the commander, we are from the 103rd Engineer Regiment."

One of the most astute-looking, lean soldiers replied.

Liang Tianhe looked left and right, sighed, lifted the telescope, and asked while looking at the sky: "It's hard." Stripped so naked, what are you doing? ”

"Report to the commander, we are digging an air-raid trench, and our company commander said that the flow of people here is getting denser and denser, and the original pit is not enough."

"Well, it's a good thing to dig more pits, but you have to dig well and dig accurately, and you have to set up markers, don't just trap people in it."

After a soft laugh. The atmosphere was much more relaxed.

"Sir, we'll dig the ground well." A simple-looking but strongest black-faced soldier responded seriously, but was immediately pushed and teased by his accomplices.

"Dig well, dig well, and you will die digging pits for the rest of your life."

"Dig deeper, drill through the earth, and get to the United States, okay?"

"Gai Ming'er will give you a medal for digging a pit, how big the pit you dig, the medal will be as big as it is, and it will crush you-"

You can see it. There are a lot of complaints about the work at hand.

Liang Tianhe shook his head and smiled: "The army is a big machine, and thousands of parts perform their duties. If a part fails, the machine has to be shut down or even destroyed. Some people charge and kill the enemy with guns, some people build bridges and pave roads and dig pits, without you digging pits here, how can the brothers in front rush to kill the enemy with peace of mind? It's not the bayonet that is the place of war, some people bleed, some people sweated, no matter how much blood or sweat was shed, the country and the people will remember you. Remember, you're making history. ”

The little clever nodded busily: "The words of the commander have gone to our hearts......"

"Sir. I also want to make meritorious contributions to the land, but I can stay here, I'm afraid it's no fun. "The black-faced GI is really cute.

Liang Tianhe was in a good mood today, so he wanted to cheer him up. The cigarette butt was pinched and patted the black-faced soldier on the shoulder: "Who said that you can't make meritorious service here?" Your Chief of Staff Yan used to be the leader of the cooking team. ”

"Really?" The black-faced GI didn't believe it.

"Lie to you, I'm a mule."

Another burst of laughter.

Suddenly. The surrounding anti-aircraft guns roared together, the smoke of gunpowder was filled, and the clear blue sky burst into black smoke, and in the middle of the formation was the formation of Russian bombers that had been frequently visited recently.

"Enemy planes! Put on your helmet and get it tight! ”

Liang Tianhe instructed the soldiers around him at the same time, but also tightened his body, as close to the bottom of the trench as possible, he knew his mission very well, and never disdained to pretend to be forced to walk with a horsewhip in the rain of bullets, only by surviving can he see the end, and only by surviving with sound hands and feet can he better face the end.

It's just that Liu Bailiang and the future they sketched are really what they want?

Is this nascent empire really capable of going that far?

Taking the fortunes of a country and the fate of hundreds of millions of people on the gambling table to satisfy the simple wishes of a small group of people, can you really be free of burden and calmly?

In one after another piercing whistling sounds, the shock wave that pierced the eardrum swept in, the ground trembled violently, and the loose soil on the trench wall collapsed in patches, and the smoke and dust billowed out, choking Liang Tianhe coughing.

The bombing lasted only a minute or two, and the enemy planes were long gone, but the shrill sirens were still whining.

Liang Tianhe spat out the dirt in his mouth and stood up, and there was a mess in front of him: huge craters, dumped wagons, soldiers calling for help, ammunition boxes, flour bags, and canned food boxes scattered all over the ground......

"It's on fire, it's on fire, it's on fire over there!"

Following the direction pointed by a military policeman, Liang Tianhe saw the stuffy tank wagons that were blazing, and there were more than a dozen wagons in front and behind it, all of which should have been loaded with ammunition.

"Follow me in a row!"

"The people of the second company are coming here......"

A few people rushed past him in a gust of wind, and they were the shirtless soldiers who were still complaining to Liang Tianhe just now.

"The hydrant is broken! Go get the bucket! ”

"Someone has to unhook the hook and loop!"

"It's too late, the fire is over, and we have to move the ammunition from the wagons on both sides......"

Sensing the tension and danger at the scene, Liang Tianhe instinctively wanted to leave, but when he saw the little clever and black-faced soldier who only had a one-sided edge rushing towards the burning ammunition truck with their bare hands, he unconsciously retracted his steps into the air.

The light of the fire danced on their dark and sweaty skin, and in the face of a truckload of burning ammunition that could blow them into powder at any moment, hundreds of engineer soldiers consciously lined up in a long queue of people and began to relay the transmission: buckets of water were passed to the wagons that caught fire, and at the same time empty buckets were sent back to the river, boxes of heavy ammunition were sent out from the wagons that were about to be burned, and from time to time one or two comrades who were injured or burned out of the fire......

"Commander, it's dangerous here, please get to the car quickly."

The accompanying guards urged, but Liang Tianhe waved his hand slightly: "Wait, I'll take a look...... Look at them and create your own history......"

The guard blinked in confusion, didn't insist anymore, just consciously leaned in front of Liang Tianhe, acting as a human shield.

Liang Tianhe stretched out his hand and pulled the young man to his shoulder, and muttered to himself while taking out his cigarette case: "I bet on them to win, what about you?" ”

……

Aleysk, command of the advance troops of the North-Western Front.

Xiao Bin was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back, and the arrogant man in front of him was Zhang Xinyu, the former cavalry brigade commander who had been squatting in the small black house for two days.

"Untie."

Xiao Bin waved his hand, and a guard immediately drew his knife forward, and untied the rope on Zhang Xinyu's body with three strikes and two blows.

"Do you know why I let you go?"

Zhang Xinyu rubbed his sour wrist and glanced at him obliquely, with no remorse in his eyes.

"I don't know what to do."

Xiao Bin shook his head, raised his hand and ordered: "Take him down to change his clothes, and the title and saber have been collected." ”

"You...... What do you want? Zhang Xinyu took a step back in surprise, looking like he had never expected such an encounter.

"From now on, you are no longer a colonel and brigade commander, but a private, and report to the 15th Company of the 1st Battalion of the 59th Regiment of the 2nd Division before three o'clock in the afternoon. You're good to go. Xiao Bin finished expressionlessly and waved his hand to send off the guests.

"What right do you have to do that? I am the commander of the first brigade with a letter of appointment from the National Defense Headquarters, and it is not your turn to remove me, and it is ...... to do so."

Xiao Bin interrupted him coldly: "That's right, I don't have power, but you listen, this is an order from the National Defense Headquarters, an order signed by Defense Minister Hook." Still have questions? ”

Zhang Xinyudeng's face turned pale, and his mouth was still hard: "Impossible, absolutely impossible, you are a false ministry order, you have to pay the price, you ......"

Xiao Bin glanced at the guard: "Take it down." ”

The two guards on the back of the tiger dragged Zhang Xinyu out of the door, and when they were about to reach the door, Xiao Bin suddenly called the guard.

Zhang Xinyu hung his head and was a little lucky: "You ...... What more do you want? ”

Xiao Bin motioned for the guards to let go of him, and leaned his shoulders into his ear: "The prime minister asked me to tell you to be a good soldier, make meritorious contributions, and don't lose his face again." ”

After that, he pushed him away: "This is what I want to say, go down." ”

This time, there was no need for the guards to do anything, Zhang Xinyu followed Xiao Bin's adjutant out of the door and changed into his private uniform, and another adjutant passed by the two of them, and when he entered the door, he saluted and reported: "Commander Du, please see me." "Please—you don't need to report it in the future, just let him in."