In the early morning of April 2, the gunfire in the Ulan-Ude area had all subsided, and the Ulan-Ude battle between China and Russia came to an end. From start to finish, it only took a week. This not only made the Russian side unbelievable, but also greatly exceeded the expectations of the Chinese side. Before the battle began, Archduke Nicholas was ashamed to try to hold out in Ulan-Ude for more than three months, so as to delay the combined naval fleet of Britain, France, and Russia to make an expedition to China and achieve a reversal of the war in one fell swoop. Unexpectedly, in just one week, Ulan-Ude had already fallen. The Chinese side also initially believed that the battle of Ulan-Ude would take more than half a month, or even longer. However, it was not expected at all that it would take only half the time planned to end the battle.

In this battle, the Russian army deployed a total of 200,000 people in Ulan-Ude, and less than 20,000 troops fled, including tens of thousands of the 9th Cossack Regiment of the Russian Army who withdrew from the battlefield first and retreated to Irkutsk via the Verkhniy Baikal region. All that remains is to break through from Ulan-Ude, then cross Lake Baikal by water and return to Grand Duke Nikolai and his party in Irkutsk. Of the rest, more than 80,000 people were killed, many of whom died from injuries that had not been effectively treated. The remaining nearly 100,000 people were all in the prisoner-of-war camps built by China in Mongolian Province. Of course, after the situation on the Ulan-Ude front has stabilized, all these prisoners will also participate in labor. The General Staff and the Ministry of Transport have already planned to connect the country's railways with the Trans-Siberian Railway. Among them, the unfinished section of the Trans-Siberian Railway was also built by the Chinese side. In comparison, after the end of this war, these areas undoubtedly belonged to China, and the construction of these railways could not only strengthen the empire's control over these frontier areas, but also facilitate the empire's immigration to these frontier areas in the future, promote economic development, and so on. And the prisoners of the Russian army are precisely the best labor. Otherwise, the Chinese side would not have spent so much grain to feed them in vain.

It's just that this victory can only be said to be an imperfect victory for the Chinese side. In this war, the Chinese side also paid the price of nearly 20,000 casualties, of which tens of thousands were killed and seriously wounded. Among them, a large part of them were lost in street battles, and the other was the price paid in order to intercept the Russian army when the Russian army broke through. In the dark night, many of the squadron's weapon advantages could not be brought into play, and the casualties were relatively large. In addition, the flight of Grand Duke Nikolai and other high-ranking generals of the Russian army greatly reduced the victory of the Chinese side. If Grand Duke Nicholas and others can be captured or even killed, this will inevitably be a huge loss for the Russian army. and even completely disintegrated the fighting spirit of the Russian army. However, it is a pity that Grand Duke Nikolai and others fled back to Irkutsk, where they could organize the Russian army in Irkutsk to continue fighting with the Chinese side. Now, the Russian army in Irkutsk has soared to more than 200,000 people, and this number is still rising. In order to ensure victory, or rather not to lose so hard, Tsar Nicholas II had drawn troops from other parts of Russia to support the Eastern Siberian battlefield as much as possible. A large amount of loans were obtained from the British, and all of them were used to recruit new soldiers and buy weapons and equipment. In order to support the front, Russia has done everything in its might.

After the Battle of Ulan-Ude, the 1st Army, the 3rd Army, and the 3rd Cavalry Corps were all very tired from the battle, and the soldiers and war materials needed to be replenished. The northern battlefield once again stopped large-scale fighting. However, the Fourth Army began to attack, and from Baikalsk, they began to advance gradually towards Irkutsk. Get ready for the next battle of Irkutsk. If the Battle of Ulan-Ude is a turning point in the land war between China and Russia this time, then the next Battle of Irkutsk is an opportunity to completely defeat the Russian army into the abyss.

Both China and Russia are preparing for the Battle of Irkutsk. The Russian side is desperately trying to replenish troops and equipment to Irkutsk, while the Chinese side is seizing the time to transport ammunition and materials to the front line to ensure that in this general battle, it can get sufficient logistical material support, and there will be no embarrassment like the one during the battle of Ulan-Ude.

War Minister Cai Yun also returned to Beijing from the front line and returned to the base camp to explain the next battle plan.

On April 27, the base camp meeting was held, which Wang Yuze personally attended, as well as military giants and cabinet ministers.

"It has been more than a month since the war began, and so far, the emperor ** team has achieved great results. I am very gratified that it is with the hard work of the soldiers of the empire and the efforts of everyone that the empire has been able to come to this day. The war has reached the point where we are now, and we are not far from victory! The Russians had lost hundreds of thousands of troops, and although they were holding out, they were already demoralized. As long as the next Irkutsk War Empire is victorious, then Russia will be completely defeated. In terms of the navy, the combined fleets of Britain, France and Russia are almost ready, as long as they can defeat the combined fleet, then we will win this war! Next, the chief of staff will introduce to you the results achieved since this stage, as well as the specific arrangements for the next stage! Wang Yuze's face was full of smiles. It can be said that victory is getting closer and closer to China, and through this war, China will completely become a world-class power.

"Your Majesty, my lords! The war has been going on for 47 days since the beginning of the month, and in this period of one and a half months, the Imperial Navy has successively annihilated the Japanese Navy and the British Navy's Far East Fleet, and established the hegemony of the Imperial Navy in the Far East Pacific region. The Imperial Army won great victories in the Northeast, North, Northwest and South Seas. Since the beginning of the war, the Imperial Army has annihilated nearly 600,000 Russian troops, of which nearly 300,000 have been captured. Annihilated more than 100,000 British, French and colonial troops in Nanyang. Overall, on the land battlefield, the emperor ** team occupies an absolute advantage. Chief of the General Staff Xiong Wu said.

Hearing these numbers, the ministers on the other side of the cabinet were a little shocked. Although they all knew that the emperor ** team had been winning big battles, they didn't expect that they had already annihilated seven or eight hundred thousand enemies. This is the army of the Western powers, not the rotten army of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the past! At the same time, a thought was also circling in their minds, having annihilated so many enemies, how many casualties were there among the emperor's ** team? The so-called killing 1,000 enemies and self-loss of 800, destroying 7.8 million enemies, I'm afraid the loss of the emperor's ** team itself is not small!

"In order to achieve these victories, the imperial ** team also paid a huge price, in the past month and a half, the imperial ** team has suffered nearly 70,000 casualties, of which more than 23,000 were killed and more than 11,000 were seriously injured." Xiong Wu continued.

The important ministers of the cabinet breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this number. Nearly 70,000 casualties, seriously wounded and killed, add up to less than 35,000, such a price is not large. After all, where there is war, there will be death, and it is simply impossible to defeat a powerful enemy without dying alone. It may be possible in the future, but with the current level of technology, this is simply a fantasy. Of course, there are a lot of reasons why there are not many casualties, all because the emperor ** team used a lot of artillery and other sharp weapons in the battle, which can be said to be a victory made of steel.

"The next phase of the Imperial Navy's operations was to defeat the combined fleet of Britain, France, and Russia and the U.S. Navy in the eastern Pacific, in addition to assisting the land forces to land in Japan. The goal of the Imperial Army was to defeat Russia in the north, seize the entire South Seas for the Empire, land on Japan, completely destroy Japan, and defeat the United States. Xiong Wu continued. In these battle plans, the navy's defeat of the combined fleets of Britain, France, and Russia was the most important and the foundation of the battle.

Navy Minister Zhang Cheng and War Minister Cai Yun also said that they would definitely win as much as possible.

Next, the Cabinet also made a guarantee that during the war, the Cabinet would fully serve the army and ensure the victory of the army.

After the meeting, War Minister Cai Yun put forward a plan for the Battle of Irkutsk.

"Your Majesty, my lords, from the beginning of the war to the present, the strength of the Russian army has risen from 200,000 to 2.5 million. Although we have now eliminated 600,000 Russian troops, for the huge army, it has not really hurt its bones. This is very difficult for Russia, a country with a huge land area and population, to defeat them. For the next stage of the Irkutsk plan, the War Department came up with a new idea! Cai Yun said.

"What assumptions?" Wang Yuze asked. He also knew that if Russia was to be defeated, it was necessary to destroy the Russian army's vital forces as much as possible, so that the Russian army could not afford huge losses, and it was necessary to make peace with China.

"Your Majesty, the War Department plans to use Irkutsk as the main battlefield for the elimination of the Russian army, and attract a large number of Russian troops to Irkutsk. Just like Ulan-Ude, except that there will be more Russian troops in Irkutsk. Now, the Russian army in Irkutsk has only more than 200,000 people, less than 300,000 people. We plan to wait until the Russian army has gathered 500,000 men before launching an offensive to fight for a decisive victory! Cai Yun said firmly. (To be continued.) Please search, the novel is better and faster!)