Due to the slow transmission of information and the backwardness of the means of transportation, the senior officers of the Mengshan Military Station were ordered to rush to Tianzhen in Qingcheng, and the Mid-Autumn Festival had already passed.

The last group to arrive were Situ Jun and Ye Yanbing, and as soon as they came, the reorganization meeting that had been planned for several days was held in Wang Yude's mansion. Present at the meeting were Long Qian, the supreme commander of the Mengshan Army, Ning Shijun, chief of staff, Situ Jun, deputy chief of staff and vice president of the military academy of the battalion, Ye Yanbing, vice president of the military academy of the battalion, Jiang Yun, director of the intelligence department, Song Jinguo, director of the logistics department, Cao Minzhong, director of the Military Law Supervision Division, Wang Mingyuan, commander of the reserve, Fan Deping, deputy commander, Deng Qinghua, chief of staff of the reserve, Lu Shan, the first standard commander, Feng Lun, deputy chief of staff, Hu Zongyu, chief of staff, Zhou Yi, the second standard commander, Feng Guozhu, deputy chief of staff, Lan Xinzhi, chief of staff, etc., the artillery battalion, cavalry battalion, engineer battalion, and baggage battalion directly under the headquarters. The commander of the guard battalion and the battalion commander of the No. 1 Bid Station and the two battalion commanders of the reserve who participated in the flood control in Wuding also attended the meeting as observers. Fang Shengyuan, the new Mengshanjun Senator and Secretary of Long Qian, was naturally also invited to attend the meeting.

In the Mengshan Army, the battalion commander is a senior officer. Except for the commanders of the first battalion of the reserve and the three battalions of the second standard who stayed in Fei County, almost all the senior officers attended the meeting.

The meeting was presided over by Chief of Staff Ning Shijun, who first introduced Fang Shengyuan to the participating officers, and then announced the agenda of the meeting, the first of which was Fang Shengyuan's introduction to the situation in Northeast China.

The generals present at the meeting were surprised. The news of the formation of the six towns of the new army by the imperial court has been known, and everyone is waiting for Long Qian to announce the reorganization order, how can a senator come out to talk about the situation in the northeast?

The reorganization of the Mengshan Army has already taken place, and the first time is the reorganization of Mengshan. the second time was the reorganization of Zhengjiazhuang, and the first time the establishment of the battalion was set up; The third was the formation of the Qinwang detachment, and the fourth was the "21" reorganization of the right wing of the Weisheng Army...... Each reorganization means the expansion of the troops and the promotion of posts. After coming to Tianzhen, the generals attending the meeting had already heard from the staff office about the details of the establishment of the fifth town, and at once two co-commanders and two infantry standards were added, and the cavalry and artillery would be expanded from the battalion level to the standard, even if the establishment and expansion were strictly in accordance with the imperial court. There will also be many higher positions waiting to be occupied. Some people who were expected to be promoted to the next level were eagerly looking forward to Long Qian's announcement. Therefore, when Ning Shijun announced that the first agenda of the meeting was to listen to the situation in the northeast, everyone couldn't help but be a little disappointed.

Everyone's expressions looked in Long Qian's eyes, and at the same time as Fang Shengyuan stood up. Long Qian also stood up. "I think everyone was a little surprised. Why did you invite everyone from all over the country to listen to the Senate explain the situation in the Northeast? I don't think most people get it. I know what you want to hear. I won't talk about it. Let me tell you, the Northeast will be the most important battlefield we are concerned about, after Senator Fang finished speaking. Give each of you half a day and a night to write an article on how to deal with the situation in the Northeast. Show it to me tomorrow morning. Whoever does not listen carefully will bear the consequences. Now, you are welcome to give a lecture by Senator Fang. ”

Applauded, but not enthusiastic.

"Please, Narugao." Long Qian made a gesture of invitation to Fang Shengyuan.

Fang Shengyuan, who was wearing a military uniform but no military hat, stood in front of the stage. He looked at the dozens of generals sitting under the stand, knowing that this was Long Qian's team, and he couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

"Generals, Fang has the trust of the commander, and he will tell you about the situation in the northeast for the commander. It is ashamed to say that in terms of grasping the situation in the northeast, Fang Mou thinks that he is not half as good as the commander. Therefore, if you say something wrong, please correct it in time......"

"Brother Mingao doesn't have to be polite to them. If there is anything you don't know, you can ask questions after the Senate has finished speaking. However, the lecture of the Senator shall not be interrupted in the middle. ”

"If you want to explain the situation in the northeast clearly, you still need to push forward two hundred years," Fang Shengyuan opened a map and hung it on the wooden board that had already been prepared with the help of Long Qian's adjutant Ouyang Zhong.

Ouyang Zhong was an adjutant selected by Long Qian from the Suiying Military Academy three months ago, and his personal guards Zhang Ping and Xiao Xue were both sent to study at the Suiying Military Academy. The reason why Ouyang Zhong, the squad leader of the second standard and third battalion of the Central Plains, was chosen because he had the highest degree of Chinese proficiency in that group of students.

Fang Shengyuan looked at the map for a while and began to speak, "The situation in the Northeast is characterized by the loss of sovereignty, and its evolution can be traced back to the sixteenth year of Chongzhen of Ming Sizong, that is, in 1643, when the Russians began to expand southward across the Outer Khingan Mountains. It entered the sea from the Heilongjiang River (known to the Russians as the Amur River) and then built the city of Yaksa. It was the seventh year of Shunzhi (i.e., 1650 AD), and then the city of Nebuchu, the tenth year of Shunzhi (1653). This was the beginning of the invasion of northeastern China. Kangxi, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, established the three feudatories and set out to solve the crisis in the northeast. At that time, the Russians were still very weak in the northeast, and the Qing army and the Russian army fought a battle in Yaxa, and after the defeat of the Russian army in Yaxa, they signed the Treaty of Nebuchu with the Qing court in desperation. It is clear that the land south of the Outer Khing'an Mountains belongs to China. But the Russians were not dead in their expansionist spirit and did not take the formal diplomatic treaty seriously. When Emperor Nicholas I of Russia ascended the throne and exiled a large number of criminals to Siberia, a new round of expansion to the East arose. In the twenty-seventh year of Daoguang (1847), Nicholas I appointed Muravyov as the governor of Eastern Siberia, who studied the situation and believed that in order to develop Siberia, it was necessary to use the Heilongjiang River. Lieutenant General Ming Yi sailed along the Heilongjiang River into the sea, only to know that Sakhalin Island is a large island. The Russians had always thought that Sakhalin was a peninsula. If you want to enter the Heilongjiang River, you must sail the Sea of Okhotsk, but the annual ice period of the Sea of Okhotsk is very long, which is very inconvenient. As a result, Heilongjiang's strategic position has risen sharply, and the Russians' desire to invade the northeast has flourished......"

The participating generals stared at the map, desperately taking notes.

So, the Russians began to build Nikolaivsk, the Gulf of Zhandkasler, and then moved south to Sakhalin Island. In the fourth year of Xianfeng (1854), the war between Russia and Turkey broke out, and Muravyov used the excuse of guarding against Britain and France (on the side of Turkey) to transport weapons from Heilongjiang to the interior, and the Qing court, which was intensively waging the war against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, had no time to take care of the northeast. The following year, Nicholas I died, and Alexander II ascended the throne as tsar, entrusting Muravyov with full powers to negotiate with China in order to redraw the border. It coincided with the outbreak of the Second Opium War. China's internal and external troubles intensified, and the Manchu government handed over the northeast issue to the Heilongjiang general Yishan to deal with. Under the threat of war by Muravyov, Yishan signed the Hun-Ai Treaty with Muravyov in the eighth year of Xianfeng (1858), ceding a large area of land north of the Heilongjiang River and east of the Ussuri River to be jointly administered by China and Russia. In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), the British and French forces fell into Beijing and burned the Old Summer Palace, and the Russian minister Ignatiev was ordered to mediate the war between Britain and France and China. Self-reliance. The Treaty of Beijing was signed, and the land east of the Ussuri River was ceded as Russian territory. The eastern outlet to the sea, which generations of tsars have dreamed of, has finally arrived! Vladivostok, the good port of the East, fell into the hands of the Russians! As a result, the Russians were not only able to occupy the Great Siberian Plain, but also controlled the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan. The passage south to the Pacific Ocean was opened.

"The rotten Manchu regime was powerless to stop the eastward expansion of the aggressive Russians. But the Japanese, who had completed the Meiji Restoration, collided head-on. The seventh year of Tongzhi (1868). After the Meiji Restoration, Japan's national power was greatly expanded, and it began to seek outward expansion. North Korea was the first target of Japan's scheme.

"Korea was originally a vassal of China. Japan's earliest invasion of Korea was in the Ming Dynasty, Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent troops to invade Korea, Korea asked for help from the suzerainty China, and Emperor Wanli sent troops to aid Korea, defeating Japan and thwarting Japan's ambition to invade Korea. Two hundred years later, Korea was once again facing Japanese aggression. At that time, the ruler of Joseon was Daewonjun, who had been implementing the policy of closing the country to the mainland, and was ousted by Concubine Min and her brother in the 12th year of Tongzhi (1873), and Concubine Min was in power, slightly changing the national policy of Daewonjun.

Li Hongzhang, who was in charge of the Manchu Qing Dynasty's diplomatic power at that time, knew that Korea's policy of closing the country to the outside world could not last, and Li Hongzhang, who considered himself good at the art of uniting A and controlling B, sent a letter to Li Yuyuan, the Joseon Taishi, urging him to sign contracts with other countries, hoping to reap the effect of containing each other. Therefore, in the first year of Guangxu (1875), Korea first signed a treaty with Japan, and as soon as this opening was opened, the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Austria and other powerful countries came over like sharks smelling blood, and all signed diplomatic relations with Korea. North Korea's doors have finally been opened.

"When the Daewonjun killed the French missionaries, the French questioned China because China was the suzerainty of Korea, and China replied with 'not to interfere in the internal affairs of Korea.'" Later, when an American merchant ship sailed on the Taedong River and its crew was killed by North Korea, the United States questioned China, which gave the same answer as France. When the Japanese heard about it, they sent an envoy to China in the 11th year of Tongzhi (1872) to ask whether the diplomatic answer to France and the United States was true, and China recognized it. As a result, Japan signed a treaty with Korea affirming that Korea was an independent country and would no longer be regarded as a vassal of China.

In the ninth year of Guangxu (1883), the soldiers who were laid off made a rebellion, and the conservative courtyard was the main one, attacking the Japanese embassy, killing the hired Japanese general Horimoto Lizo, Concubine Min fled, and secretly sent China for help. Li Hongzhang sent Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, and Wu Changqing, the commander of the Guangdong Naval Division, to quell the chaos. Wu Changqing stayed in North Korea and sent Prime Minister Yuan Shikai to trade and foreign affairs with North Korea. As a result, Concubine Min and the Korean ministers were quite dependent on China. This incident created Yuan Shikai's fame, this is history, and I feel involuntary in it.

However, some people in Korea were dissatisfied with Concubine Min and established the so-called Independence Party, which was attached to Japan, and in the tenth year of Guangxu (1884), the Independence Party rebelled, and Wu Changqing and Yuan Shikai were peaceful. The following year, Japan sent Ito Hirobumi to China and signed a contract with Li Hongzhang in Tianjin, stipulating that China and Japan would withdraw their troops in Korea at the same time, and that future military operations in Korea would require a note from the two countries. China and Japan are on a completely equal footing in the DPRK. In another ten years, the Dongxue Party rebelled, Korea begged for China's aid, and China sent troops into Korea, which led to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese War, the result of which is known to everyone, Japan completely tore apart the disguise of the Manchu Qing Dynasty's foreign power and cadres, and China paid 200 million taels of silver in compensation, and ceded Liaodong, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

"Taiwan and Penghu were too far away from Russia, but Liaodong was the land in Russia's expansion goals, so Russia, together with Germany and France, intervened and forced Japan to return Liaodong to China. Thus, the Russo-Japanese conflict arose.

"The Russo-Japanese War was on the verge of breaking out, and when it was, the fuse was the Gengzi Rebellion. In 1900, the Manchu court declared war on all nations, and the governors of the southeast united to resist the rebellion, while the generals of the three eastern provinces sent troops to attack the Russians. The Russians ordered the Amur troops to attack north of Jilin. It was a soldier of the Kwantung Province and attacked the south of Tieling. The Russian army of Amur was divided into four routes, the first road captured Hunai, the second road met with the first road, captured Mergen and Qiqihar, the third road captured Harbin, and the fourth road captured Hunchun and Ningguta. The four soldiers and horses met in Hulan. Attack Jilin. And the soldiers of the Kanto Province. It was divided into two roads, one to capture Jinzhou, the other to capture Niuzhuang and Liaoyang, and then to occupy Fengtian and Tieling. Then they moved westward to occupy Xinmin. Advance eastward to occupy Anton. Hijacking the Fengtian general Zengqi. To order the three eastern provinces. Thereupon. The three eastern provinces all fell into Russian hands.

"The Russian upper echelons were divided into two factions on the Far Eastern question, one was the main one to advance slowly, and the War Minister was Kuru Bojian. The other faction advocated rapid progress, with the Viceroy of the Far East, Alexev, and the Privy Counselor of the Russian Emperor, Besoso Berasov, who was quite trusted by the Russian Emperor because he operated a timber company in the Far East, and in order to pursue personal interests, he strongly advocated an active invasion of Manchuria and Korea, echoing the Viceroy of the Far East, Alexev. The Minister of War, Kulu Bojian, was inspecting the strength of the Russian army, believing that it would not be possible to wage a full-scale war with Japan in the Far East for a while and a half. According to the cautious War Minister's estimates, in the event of war with Japan, Japan would have no less than 400,000 troops at its disposal in Manchuria, and within a few days seven divisions would cross the sea to Manchuria. The Russian army in the Far East had only 80,000 troops, distributed on the long railway line from Vladivostok to Arthur, which was not enough to compete with the Japanese army. Russia's standing army is the largest in Europe, with a total of nearly 3 million, but because the Trans-Siberian Railway has not yet been completed, it is quite inconvenient to operate the troops, and it takes a lot of time. Therefore, he advocated slow progress, not only not to interfere in the affairs of North Korea, but also to avoid provoking Japan in terms of commerce. At this time, Korea was already a Japanese colony, and if it caused an economic conflict, war was inevitable.

In 1896, in the name of assisting Korea in resisting Japan, Russian businessmen obtained the right to harvest forests in North Korea and the right to manage forestry on the left bank of the Yalu and Tumen rivers. Then in 1902, the previous year, China was forced to agree to its right to harvest forests on the right bank of the two rivers. Therefore, a large-scale timber mining company was organized, with Besoso Berasov as the supervisor, Mai Tangtov, an important member of the General Staff Headquarters, as the general manager, and many Russian emperors and Russian nobles and dignitaries as shareholders of this company. The timber collected by the company is transported from the Yalu River to Dalian, sawn into timber and distributed everywhere. A very large sawmill was set up in Dalian, and a huge amount of money was invested in the construction of a wharf and dock, making it an increasingly prosperous commercial center. The construction of Dalian was accelerated, and the funds of the Lushun Fortress, which served as a military port, were misappropriated, making it difficult to complete the project. In the eyes of the Russian military, once Dalian loses Dalian, it will inevitably affect Lushun. The paradox is that Dalian became more prosperous, the construction of Lushun was weakened, and the interests of the Russians in Manchuria were more and more difficult to let go.

"Alekseev, the Governor-General of the Russian Far East, took office this year, and this man understands military affairs and is not weak. His views on the situation in Manchuria differed from that of the War Minister. Alekseev, who had full military authority in the Far East (under which the Russian Pacific Fleet was also nominally under his command), believed that Russia's powerful Pacific Fleet was sufficient to prevent the Japanese landings in Bohai Bay and West Korea Bend, so Japan could only attack Manchuria by land from Korea, and it had to avoid the fire of the Russian fleet. According to this estimate, after the declaration of war, Japan will have to enter Manchuria in about half a month, and the first wave of troops will not exceed three divisions, and it will take another ten days to two weeks before it can reinforce three more divisions. According to the experience of Gengzi year, Russia can concentrate about 100,000 troops in Manchuria in a short period of time (about ten days), which is enough to resist the first wave of Japanese attack. In the future, Russia will not necessarily be slower than Japan in terms of the speed of military increase. And Russia's standing military strength is even more overwhelming than Japan's, so there is no need to be afraid of Japan.

After Alekseev became governor of the Far East, the Minister of War Kulu Bojian studied the military deployment of Manchuria with him, and Alekseev's concern was that if Russia and Japan went to war, China might be on the side of Japan, so it was necessary to estimate the strength of China's troops, even though the Chinese army was extremely low in combat effectiveness.

"Alekseev's considerations are justified, because after all, it was the Russians who occupied the lands of Manchuria, and not the Japanese. With this in mind, Alekseev estimated China's possible military strength in the war, and came to the conclusion that Chinese may take out 2~70,000 troops trained by Japanese military advisers or German military advisers, and outside Shanhaiguan, China has 20,000 garrisons, and in the Gyeonggi area, China can mobilize 50,000 elite ......"

"Okay, here for now. I don't know if you heard clearly. Long Qian stood up and felt that what Fang Shengyuan had said was a little deeper, "The situation in the Northeast is centered on the dispute between Japan and Russia, and it is on the verge of breaking out. What should our army do? That's the question for everyone. Now you can ask questions. ”

Feng Lun stood up first, "Senator Fang just said, Russian Governor-General, I can't remember his name, there is a long list of ramblings, well, I think that China may send troops to help Japan, and even mobilize the Gyeonggi Army to help in the war." Now that the six towns of Beiyang have been formed, does Senator Fang think that the imperial court may drop us into the northeast to fight the Russian army? (To be continued......)

PS: Just came back. Approaching the end of the year, there are a lot of meetings, and I am annoyed.