"For the sake of the great friendship between the United States of America and the Russian Empire, and in order to bring our relations between our two countries even further, the United States of America is ready to lend you $200 million. Of course, the interest rate on this part of the loan is slightly higher, and most of it will be paid in kind. When the voice of the American ambassador to Russia reached the ears of the Russian diplomats, they could not help but be overjoyed, because they had finally found the motivation to continue the war!

Tsar Nicholas II was always a staunch supporter of eastward expansion. From the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War of that year, Nicholas II planned to infiltrate the Far East by various means, at first to provide military and economic assistance to Japan to open a gap with the help of Japanese hands, and then found that the Japanese Navy was too ineffective, and did not hesitate to send valuable armored cruiser groups to the Far East, and even to the back, the Japanese were stabbed in the back, and everything was done to gain a better foothold in the Far East!

As for what happened later, there is no need to say more, taking advantage of the civil strife in the Qing Dynasty, the Russians launched the First Sino-Russian War. And the result was a complete whitecoming, and then the Russians who did not hit the southern wall and did not look back launched the Second Sino-Russian War! As a result, the situation of the land battle was not yet clear, but the Russian-Dutch combined fleet, which had high hopes, was defeated twice in succession, especially in the just-concluded Battle of the Java Sea, the Russian-Dutch fleet lost a total of 4 capital ships and 3 armored cruisers, plus almost all torpedo boats and light cruisers, and the total tonnage lost reached more than 140,000 tons! Watching tens of millions of pounds go down the drain like this. Let Nicholas II also worry about the future of the war!

As for the proposal for an armistice mentioned by Makanov in his report, Nicholas II did not take it to heart. In his opinion, this is completely a manifestation of the war-fearing of the old general, who has already aged! "We don't need Makanouf now, he's old. His ambition and boldness have faded with the passage of time. We need a young man to lead our navy, Vice Admiral Essen is not bad, well, that's it, between his excellent performance in the naval battle of the Java Sea, he is now a vice admiral. Nicholas II said this to his close ministers after carefully reading the reports of Makanov and Essen. So, under the deliberate arrangement of Makanov. Essen is so unwittingly on the top!

Although the stubbornness of the Russian tsar was notoriously known, at the same time, in the face of huge losses in the fleet. Nicholas II still wondered if his fleet still had the capital to continue fighting, after all, the remaining warships were worth a lot of money! What's more, there are two French-made dreadnoughts heading to the Far East, and Nicholas II is counting on these two battleships to turn the tables! Nicholas II was not a senior naval officer, in his opinion. The three Ninghai-class battleships of the Huaxia Navy were not sunk. But it will be impossible to fight in a short period of time, and even if the Russian-Dutch fleet with reinforcements cannot defeat its opponent, it is still possible to maintain the blockade of the South China Sea route, right?

On the other hand, the tsar still had a glimmer of hope for land warfare, although the infiltration operation some time ago was not successful, but the Chinese army did not immediately launch an attack, which made the tsar have some more reverie. Especially when he learned that there was a large amount of information about the Chinese army in Kalimantan, Nicholas II even thought that part of the Chinese army was transferred to Southeast Asia, and if this was the case, it would undoubtedly have a great impact on the fighting in the northeast.

In fact, the main force of the Chinese Army in the northeast is not much. The report that the large presence of the Chinese Army in Kalimantan is nothing more than speculation and fabrication by the local Russian and Dutch Army in order to shirk the responsibility for the defeat, not to mention. Many of these ground forces fighting in Kalimantan are also marines. So based on this wrong judgment, Nicholas II still hoped in his heart that this war would continue.

This was nothing more than his heart's desire, and for it to be truly translated, the Russians needed concrete support. Britain and France have already expressed their desire for a truce in Russia, so they will certainly limit Russia in terms of funding. And at this time, the United States, which has been excluded from the circle, suddenly expressed its willingness to support the war of the Russians, and as soon as it struck, it was 200 million! Although the interest rate is 5% higher than normal, although it can only be used to buy American products! But this is undoubtedly a shot in the arm for embarrassed Russia!

As for what the Americans think, it is easy for anyone to understand that as a big country that has great ideas about the Pacific and the Far East, the United States wants to meddle in the affairs of the Far East in every possible way. After the failure of the original plan to join forces with Britain and France to balance China, the Americans were not discouraged but looked for the next opportunity with peace of mind, after all, the US Navy has not yet gained strength, and the shadow of defeat in the Spanish-American War has not yet dissipated. Therefore, in the face of the powerful Chinese fleet, the Americans did not choose to confront it head-on.

"With our money, with the help of the guns of the Russians, we will fight our enemies." When a congressman shouted such a sentence in Congress, his idea won the support of the vast majority of the participants, and under the impetus of these congressmen, the US Congress decisively passed the bill on borrowing against Russia! Of course, in order to take care of the interests of the merchants, the specific borrowing conditions are still very harsh! However, this was already great news for Russia, which had already reached the level of sudden illness and rushed to the hospital, so Nicholas II gladly accepted this plan.

The Americans wanted the war to continue, the Russians decided to continue, and the Chinese Republic and the German Empire opposite them also decided to fight the war! There is no point in a war without interests. With the hard work of the Chinese Navy, Kalimantan Island will sooner or later fall into the hands of the Chinese Republic, and the naval blockade of the Russians has already existed in name only. The traffic line is very smooth. But Xu Jie still felt that it was not enough! Drinking Mabaikal Lake and taking the deepest freshwater lake in the world into his bag is Xu Jie's biggest goal. It's not just an extra piece of territory. Rather, it was to provide a better base for the offensive against Russia in the late 1st World War! After more than ten years of construction after the end of the war, this area can definitely be used as the starting position for a new round of offensive of the Chinese Republic! So the Huaxia Army, which has been dormant for a long time, is also ready to launch a thunderous blow!

So far in the war, although the fatigue of the Chinese Navy has taken a long time to correct, the army has not suffered much loss except for dealing with the Russian cavalry that has made a detour, of course, this does not mean that the army is sleeping. A large number of people and supplies are being transported to the front line. Including the most elite armored units of the Huaxia Army, well, these things are upgraded from armored Alto to armored Santana in the eyes of Xu Jie, who has seen too many tanks in later generations. However, because of their relatively good design, these tanks have surpassed those multi-barrel monsters on his plane in terms of cost performance. To Xu Jie's expectations, the Germans were no less attentive to this army than Xu Jie. They even said that they could provide technical personnel to carry out battlefield care and maintenance of these tanks! The Germans bluntly stated that today the Chinese Army uses this force to fight the Russians, and tomorrow, Germany will use this force to defeat Russia!

Like the Americans, the Germans needed to use the hand of the Chinese Republic to weaken Russia to the greatest extent. But in terms of specific support, they are much more than the Americans! In addition to the Scharnhorst's pocket cruiser, which had joined the Chinese Navy and sunk a Russian armored cruiser, German aid in terms of funds and materials was also in full swing with the reopening of the shipping routes. The Germans also chose to directly replace part of the funds with goods to aid the Chinese Republic, just like the United States, but in terms of repayment, they were very lenient. The Republic of China can use everything that Germany needs to repay, such as tungsten sand, oil, non-ferrous metals or rubber, etc., of course, how can it, the retired warships of the Huaxia Navy can also offset this fund, these old ships The German Navy naturally looks down, but it does not mean that Germany's allies look down on it!

In addition to a large amount of materials and funds, the German Army also sent some secret fighters, of course, most of them entered the various armies of the Chinese Army as battlefield observers. In the opinion of Moltke Sr. and others, it was now necessary for the German soldiers to experience the feeling of face-to-face battle with the Russians. The contradictions between Germany and Britain and France were irreconcilable. But at the same time, the Germans also realized that it was obviously unrealistic to defeat the British and French troops hiding behind the defensive line in one battle. The goal of the Germans for that future battle was simple: to defeat Russia and free Germany from the dilemma of fighting on two fronts! So it's not too much to get to know the Russians' army in advance and even fight with them a little! Anyway, the warships of Germany and Russia have already fought each other at sea, and it is not a big deal for the two sides to engage in a small battle on land!

On the big chessboard of the Far East, the chess players and the pushers behind the scenes are carefully calculating every move, and they need to lay a good foundation for their future. Whether it is a chess player or a figure behind the scenes, they are all great powers in the world without exception. But at this time, there is a country that is quietly making small moves! And the name of this country is Japan! The island, once called Hokkaido, is now part of Russia, but it has never been out of Japan's view. Now seems to be a good time, China and Russia are fighting, and the energy of other powers in the world should also be on the seas of North Asia and Southeast Asia. So is it time for Japan to consider recovering Hokkaido with its own strength? The Japanese knew very well that it was the bond between the two countries in the First Sino-Japanese War. Even if the Russians are defeated in the end, Hokkaido will never return to Japan's territory!

Thank you for the reward of book friend Ahu 9006~~~. (To be continued......)