After staying in China for a while, Jiang Baili finally set sail for Europe under the escort of several warships. After all, he can't stay in the country all the time, and the European side does need a qualified commander.

Although Liu Guangyuan's ability is not bad, but compared with Cai Yi and Jiang Baili, the gap is relatively large, and the shape of Europe is extremely complex, and the strength of the expeditionary force in Europe is as high as hundreds of thousands, it may not be much in a short time, but it is a long time......... I'm still a little worried.

What's more, Liu Guangyuan is only a lieutenant general, and Fuxi, who commanded operations on the Western Front, is a whole level worse than Haig. When cooperating, it often falls into a passive situation, so it is best to send Jiang Baili over early to support the overall situation, otherwise...

Even if you don't use the expeditionary force as cannon fodder, just let the expeditionary force carry out some more dangerous missions, do you say you will go or not? If Cai Yi is okay to say, after all, it is equal, but Liu Guangyuan's military rank is too low, and it is inevitable that he will fall behind in the talks.

Therefore, after discussing a relatively complete plan with Cai Yi and others, Jiang Baili went to Europe by boat alone―――――― the reason why he said he was alone was because before Cai Yi and the others arrived, Yan Shao had already sent the replacement officers to Europe, and just left Jiang Baili to wait for them...

It is not surprising that, leaving aside for the moment whether or not ordinary officers could have made any useful suggestions for such a large project, it is impossible for them to participate in such a highly classified project by their status alone, after all, even in the whole national government. There are only more than a dozen people who know, and even Yan Shao, the pillow man like Elanon, doesn't dare to reveal half a sentence, and only Caterina knows it. This is because she is the director of the Special Affairs Bureau, and many things must be done with her help...

Now that the plan has been roughly completed, it is natural that Jiang Baili can be sent to Europe...

There really needs to be someone in charge of things in Europe, and as for the rest of the details, Yan Shao and Cai Yi can complete it.

At this moment, Yan Shao was standing in the conference room, watching Cai Ye and Feng Guozhang and others discuss the details of the plan. There is information from the Special Affairs Bureau. Therefore, Cai Ye and others are somewhat sure in their hearts.

In fact, neither Cai nor Feng Guozhang were very worried about the occupation, because the Russians were not very strong in Siberia and other regions.

Historically, before the October Revolution. Despite the fact that Siberia is nominally the territory of the Russian Government, in reality the Russian Government pursues a predatory economic policy towards the Siberian region and does not take much to benefit the local economic development. The level of development of the productive forces in the region is very low, and the economic development lags far behind the level of the whole of Russia. in the entire economic structure. Agriculture is overwhelmingly dominant. 1913 year. The total output value of agriculture in Siberia accounts for 78% of the total output value of industry and agriculture in the region, and the total industrial output value of Siberia in the same year is only 1.5% of that of Russia.

At that time, except for the mining industry. The rest of the industrial sector in the Siberian region is extremely backward. The ferrous metallurgical industry is almost none, intermediate and final products produced by heavy industry. In particular, the proportion of products from the processing industry sector was negligible, almost all the products of light industry had to be imported from the European part of Russia, the attitude of the Russian government towards Siberia was almost no different from that of the colonies, and the colonial policy of the tsars also hindered the development of resources and the industrialization of Siberia.

Historically, the development of Siberia was after the October Revolution, when the Soviet government was established, and after the October Revolution, the process of resource development and industrialization in Siberia accelerated. Especially at the outbreak of World War II, Siberia, as the rear of Soviet Russia, developed at a much faster rate than other regions. In 1941-1945 almost one-quarter of the Soviet Union's capital investment was invested in infrastructure, and in 1942 Siberia produced more than one-quarter of the former Soviet steel and steel, one-third of pig iron, and nearly half of coal and coke.

However, at the moment, the Russian government did not recognize the importance of Siberia, which was only a few dozen towns and cities of small size, and its troops were vulnerable except for some troops in the Far East (mainly to defend against Japan and China, and after the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, mainly to defend against Japan).

Especially after the outbreak of World War I, Russia transferred part of its troops from the Far East to the Eastern Front, and at this moment Russia's strength in Siberia was the weakest, which was also the source of the confidence of Cai Ye and others, after all, they really couldn't imagine what could hinder their actions in Siberia...

The only thing to worry about is what will happen after the capture of Siberia ...

"Siberia is too big...", picking up the flask from the table and pouring himself a glass of wine, Cai Ye took the wine glass to the map hanging on the wall.

On the walls, the land of China and Russia is depicted in such detail that even the Russians themselves cannot compare with their own maps. This map is also a source of confidence for Cai Ye and others, in fact, since Yan Shao decided to seize the whole of Siberia from the Russians, he has been letting the secret service have some contact with the Russian high-level, and then they even got their own maps from the Russian military.

With the map of the Russians, coupled with the information obtained by the Special Affairs Bureau during its activities in Siberia, the two were combined, and the final result was a map hanging in front of Cai Ye and others.

There is a lot of information on it, I am afraid that even the Russians themselves do not understand.

This era is also different from later generations, although aviation technology has been developed to a certain extent, but it is still very primitive, satellites and other things still have many years to come out, the role of maps is very great, and it can even be said to be a country's military secrets, if it is not for the extreme corruption of the upper echelons of the Tsarist Russian government, otherwise the secret service bureau would not be able to get such a map lightly, and the price is still very low. It's only a few tens of thousands of yuan...

It took tens of thousands of yuan to get such a map, and it is no wonder that Cai Yi and others are so satisfied. After all, you have such a map in hand. In the future, when conducting military operations, unnecessary casualties can be reduced significantly.

"Now the only thing we have to worry about is the possible resistance of the locals to us, Siberia is so big that after the army enters, the only thing that can contact the rear is the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Central Asian Railway, if the Russians blow up both railways in order to resist. The situation will be very troublesome.......... there is no need to worry about the Dilan railway, this railway is in Xinjiang after all, although the situation in Xinjiang is not very stable. But it is always in our hands, and the problem lies in Central Asia and Siberia......... If there is resistance, it is difficult to say that there will be no problems with the long railway line, even if it is protected by a large number of troops. So I'd better prepare for both..."

Speaking of which. Cai Ye drank all the wine in the cup, and then turned his head to look at Yan Shao.

"The railway is the main transport route, but we have to be prepared for the possibility that the railway may be damaged, so it is better to prepare a separate logistics line while transporting supplies through the Guò railway......... Highway logistics line..."

"But..."Hearing Cai Yi's words, Feng Guozhang said with some hesitation. Siberia is so big that even some roads may not be able to meet the demand......... According to the information we have received, although in the past there were some roads in Siberia. But since the opening of the railway, these roads have been abandoned. It would be troublesome to reopen, and those roads are for people and horses, and even if they are repaired, they may not be of much use..."

"There's no need to worry about this..."Shaking his head, Wu Peifu stood up and explained. Our strategy is not to occupy the whole of Siberia at the beginning, so even if we have more troops, it will be useless, after all, Siberia is too big, and most of them are forests, as long as they drill into the forests, we can't do anything, and this is not necessarily our strategy..."Wu Peifu continued. "Our plan is to preemptively occupy the line from Central Asia to the Urals, to cut off the Russians from the Siberian side, and then to slowly resolve the Russian forces in the encirclement while they are isolated......... Although Siberia is not completely unsuitable for human life, most of the region is cold, especially in winter, and without aid from Europe, they alone will not be able to resist our encirclement, so as long as we can block the border, it will not be long before their resistance in Siberia will have to surrender obediently..."

Standing aside, Cai Yi nodded approvingly.

Indeed, this is the plan. Cai Ye has been to Europe, very well compared with China, the climate in Europe is obviously slightly colder, especially Siberia, a place near the polar regions, is extremely cold, now it may be nothing, but when winter comes, if the connection between Siberia and Europe is cut off, and then the Guò railway occupies the towns along the railway―――――― Siberia is sparsely populated, and the climate is cold, the town can only survive by relying on the railway line, and as long as the towns along the railway are occupied, This is equivalent to capturing all the towns in Siberia.

Without the town, even some of the resistance elements may not be able to hold out for long when the cold winter comes, hiding in the forest. If it is supplemented by strategies such as buying, it can only last for two or three years at most.

So the key to the whole plan is the Central Asian Railway, not the Siberian Railway, and he is also worried about the line from Central Asia to the Urals, not Siberia ...

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Unlike Siberia, Central Asia is a plain terrain with relatively ......... roads in addition to railways Refine? That's all it seems.

“……… Unlike Siberia, the railways in Central Asia are relatively well-developed and the climate is much warmer, so in addition to the railways, we can transport supplies to the front line by road, as long as we can block the connection between Siberia and the outside world, even if there are some resistance elements in the region, they will eventually collapse without a fight..."

Hearing Cai Yi's words, Yan Shao and Feng Guozhang bowed their heads slightly and agreed.

They have also seen information about Central Asia, and they know very well the topography there. In fact, the Central Asian Railway was opened to traffic not long ago, and the population there is larger than that of Siberia, so the roads are indeed much better than in Siberia, which is full of forests. The most important thing is that the journey from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains is much shorter than from the Far East.

In fact, this is also one of the reasons why Yan Shao had to build the Dilan Railway and agreed to the opening of the Central Asian Railway with Russia.

From the Eastern Railway in the northeast to the Ural Mountains, the journey is too long. No one can guarantee that something will not happen, and it is impossible to rely on roads for such a long distance, only on railways. If you're not careful, something will happen.

On the other hand, in Central Asia, the shorter distance, although it cannot be said that there will be no accidents, can at least reduce the probability of occurring. Reduce the number of troops needed for protection...

In addition, compared to Siberia. The road system in Central Asia is not very good, but it is also perfect, and even if the railways are often attacked, they can be compensated by road transport―――――― of course, the process will undoubtedly be very difficult, but at least there is one more option.

"It's simple..."Yan Shao nodded. We already have a decent number of motor vehicles in the army, and I can also place some orders for the following, eh......... Place an order for 5,000 trucks first. It should be enough for a short time, right? If that's not enough, the order can be increased..."

"It's still mainly about railways. The highway is just an auxiliary, it should be enough..."I lowered my head and thought about it, and after pondering for a while, Cai Yi nodded. "However, the reliability of motor vehicles is not very strong, so it is better for me to get some mules and horses, although it is a bit troublesome, but at least the possibility of problems with mules and horses is relatively small..."

Although motor vehicles have appeared in this era, mules and horses are the mainstream, so Cai Yi's construction is understandable, in fact, even in later generations, many armies are mainly based on mules and horses, and there are very few countries that can really complete mechanization, which is very good...

It's just that when he was building like this, Cai Ye smiled slightly bitterly in his heart.

Five thousand cars, this is not a big order, but he knows very well where Yan Shao just placed the order.

There is no doubt that this order can only be placed under Yan Shao's Yushi Company, after all, is that the largest automobile company in China at present, and other automobile companies......... Although there are currently one or two automobile companies in China, they cannot be compared with Yushi Group in terms of scale or others...

In fact, Cai Ye originally wanted Yan Shao to donate a batch of cars, anyway, even if it was 5,000 cars, the money needed was only a drop in the bucket for Yan Shao, but in the end, after thinking about it, Cai Ye vetoed this idea.

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Just as Yan Shao was talking to Cai Yi, Feng Guozhang on the side also stood up and proposed a proposal. "Is it possible to dispatch a certain number of tank units to cooperate in the operation? Isn't Central Asia a plain terrain, it should be more suitable for tanks, and if tanks are dispatched, it should also be of some help to capture Central Asia and the Urals..."

Central Asia is dominated by plains and hills, and the vegetation is mostly grasslands and deserts, so it is indeed a very suitable place for tank combat.

just listened to Feng Guozhang's construction, but Cai Yi on the side shook his head and said. "I'm afraid this is not very feasible..."Seeing that Feng Guozhang was a little puzzled, Cai Yi explained with a wry smile. Tanks are really good to use, the problem is that the reliability is too poor, and a short-distance attack may not be anything, but if it is a long-distance attack, when it reaches the destination, it is already a great miracle that one tenth of the tanks can survive, and if you are unlucky, I am afraid that none of them will be able to arrive, and all of them will break down due to breakdowns on the way..."

As a general fighting in Europe, Cai Ye knows a lot about the actual combat and reliability of tanks, many times when launching an attack, even just at the beginning, there will be a few tanks failure, usually if you are unlucky, many times only half of the number of tanks can be driven to the enemy's position, most of them are left in place or on the way due to failure―――――― which refers to not being destroyed by German anti-tank weapons, otherwise, I'm afraid the number of tanks that can drive into enemy positions is even smaller...

Over the years, the anti-tank capability of the German army has improved greatly, and after each battle, a considerable number of tanks have been lost in the hands of the Germans. Fortunately, at present, the tanks in Europe are mainly based on Britain and France, well, maybe in the future there will be another United States―――――― following Britain and France and other countries, the United States has also purchased production licenses from China, no way, who is called temporary cramming is too late, so it is easier to buy design drawings directly from China.

Although China also has some tank troops in Europe, the number is too small, so it cannot be regarded as the main force, and even the losses are much less...

Although Feng Guozhang's status is high, and he was once known as the most capable general in Beiyang, but since the establishment of the Guoshe government, he has not been on the battlefield for many years, and he has very little understanding of new weapons such as tanks, and his views on war are still in the Beiyang period, that is, before the outbreak of World War I, so it is not surprising that he does not understand.

However, after all, he is a veteran who has fought many battles, so after listening to Cai Yi's words, he quickly understood what he meant. (To be continued......)