The yellow sand is full of autumn winds, and the wilderness is vast and cold at night. (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)

Sitting in the bumpy cab, Song Bing really felt the meaning of these two sentences, even if the sun was still stubbornly hanging in the west at the moment, the cold wind still poured into the car through the window.

In addition to the fluttering cool accident, "he felt as if the whole person was about to fall apart, and the magnificent northwest scenery outside the car window could not make people feel relaxed at all" Although the Northwest Army urgently recruited local people, "It also leveled the large number of rebel prisoners captured for the first time for this road, but the convoy still suffered all the way."

There is no way, there is no road here, and the territory is vast, how much can it do with just a few thousand prisoners and people, seeing that the fleet of 300 trucks that set off from Jiayuguan has now lost more than 50 trucks, he, the quartermaster, is also sweating profusely.

Bang knock.

There was another violent bump, and the heavy ammunition box on the body swayed, provoking a curse from the driver, "Even Song Bing snorted, this damn Northwest Fertile Plains is really too difficult to walk!"

The only thing that can make him breathe a little sigh of relief is that the pack horse team organized from Shaanxi and Gansu is about to arrive, plus the 100,000 people of the Sixth Construction Corps will also arrive, and there are finally sufficient human resources" But the weather is about to change again, and when it enters October, Xinjiang is afraid that it will snow.

Deserts, grasslands, mountains and valleys, plus this damn weather, no wonder the emperor and the general staff have to call every now and then to inquire about the situation in the northwest, not so much that the soldiers are fighting, but that their quartermaster corps is fighting.

As the battle line opened more and more, the logistics line became more and more and longer, which really made it difficult for him.

The bumpy lane made everyone lift their hearts, open their eyes wide, the more seemingly smooth the place, but the more reassuring everyone could not be reassured, the vehicles lost before were basically due to the driver's excessive tension and there was a man-made accident" So Song Bing would rather slow down the convoy than rush too quickly.

Fortunately, the Ili front camp is only more than 60 kilometers away from Urumqi, which has been listed as the base camp for material distribution, and even if it is four or five hours slower, it can be reached.

"The arrival of the car convoy brought laughter to the soldiers, and many people spontaneously stepped out of the resting tents to help the convoy carry ammunition and supplies.

Seeing the Song soldiers, Sun Jiugong also sighed, what he was worried about in the war in the northwest was logistics: "In order to maintain the smooth flow of materials from Jiayuguan to Urumqi, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces have invested no less than 50,000 people to ensure it, and the Prime Minister's Office has sent two construction corps of 200,000 people specifically for the construction of the railway" But it will take at least two years to open the railway in Urumqi, so at present it is mainly relying on pack horses and trucks.

The large-scale use of trucks has indeed helped the logistics a lot, but it has also brought other problems, although the trucks can walk on dirt roads, "but they need to keep the roads smooth, so for the first time, he also ordered that no prisoners be killed" specifically for leveling roads.

After Song Bing met Sun Jiugong and Ouyang Xiu and other officers, he immediately handed over the list of supplies this time, but after reading the list, everyone frowned, there was no shortage of food and drink, but the ammunition was too little, "Especially the shells, which are only enough for two bases per gun, are not enough to launch a major offensive at all."

In the face of this, "the Song soldiers are also helpless, the road from Jiayuguan to Urumqi is too difficult to walk, and the shells are all heavy big guys, and there are not many transports at a time, so they have been very scarce."

After seeing that the commander and the division commanders were frowning, Song Bing hurriedly said: "Commander, don't worry, we have received a telegram that the pack horse team from Shaanxi and Gansu will arrive in Urumqi tonight, and they will carry 10,000 shells of various types this time" and the Sixth Construction Corps will also arrive three days later, and each of them will be ordered to carry a few kilograms of ammunition on their backs when they come. 【 I want: super fast update ]"

After listening to Song Bing's words, the melancholy on Sun Jiugong's face immediately faded a lot, although the construction corps that came on foot must have brought small things like bullets, but the 10,000 shells of the pack horse team could be regarded as a solution to his urgent need.

Xinjiang war, there is never a quick victory" Zuo Zongtang is so powerful and has been fighting for nearly ten years, although he has the help of artillery trucks, but he must first compress the enemy army step by step to the range of activities, and then in the decisive battle.

Fortunately, he had taken the risk to recruit tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry, otherwise the first step alone would not have been completed in a year and a half.

After following Sun Jiugong and the others into the camp, Song Bing immediately shook his head with a wry smile, only to see a few ** soldiers tied to their upper bodies and whipping marks on their backs in the camp, but these guys didn't seem to be in too much pain, and they were still staring at a fat yellow sheep with lost hair in the hands of the head army and licking their lips.

This is not the first time he has seen this kind of scene, September is already the season of wearing a veil and a padded jacket at night, and it is already evening, and the wind is already much cooler, so it is really not a good thing to be tied up bare-chested.

Especially at night, when the north wind is howling, it will still make people feel cold, so fighting in such a sparsely populated and desolate place, in addition to the need for adequate supplies, how to maintain high morale will test every officer.

They are all men with strong blood, and the military regulations have extremely strict punishments for rape and abuse of women, so wine and food have become a good way for these soldiers to vent.

From the time of the expedition to the present, there have been many soldiers who have been fighting and committing crimes and can't even control their crotch, "Something inevitably happens, but as long as the officers don't make a fuss about this kind of thing, most of them just turn a blind eye, and as long as they don't harm the common people, they will tie it up like this, whip it a few times, and pull it down."

Some of the extra mischievous guys even take pride in who gets the whip.

"What a bastard!"

Song Bing scolded secretly, but he only dared to scold in his stomach, but he didn't dare to really make a sound, you must know that these division commanders and regimental commanders are more powerful than the other, if they scold their baby bumps, they don't know what little shoes they will wear in the future.

This is the army! A real army!

It's different from what he saw in the army academy and when he stayed in Germany, because there is no clean army in this world, a hundred kinds of rice to raise a hundred kinds of people, you can't guarantee that every soldier can be strict with himself, just like what happened after entering the Forbidden City last time, there are always petty thieves and lucky people who can't stand it because the emperor can't stand it because of "just too many appearances that time", so he let the second division be a reserve for a few months.

After entering the tent, Song Bing immediately handed Sun Jiugong the weekly intelligence summary of the General Staff that he had just received from Jiayuguan, because of the distance, unless the emergency telegram "It is impossible to maintain communication every day, and there is a lack of large generators on the front line, so after occupying Urumqi, the Northwest Army will use it as an intelligence center, and set up a high special long-wave communication elimination antenna."

The orderly had just finished making green tea for the officers, but Sun Jiugong, who was reading the telegram, slapped the table suddenly, frightening everyone to think that something was wrong and asked one after another.

"The southeast is going to start!"

"Southeast?"

"Great, it's finally time to clean up Britain and France!"

"It's time for those navy bastards to open up again."

"It's hard to say, the British and the Boers are pinching to the death, didn't they say last time that they pulled over 400,000 people? Drained all the soldiers from all over the world" How can you be desperate! ”

"Four hundred thousand? Grandma, I said why did the 1,000 of them disappear, and the feelings were not enough! ”

"Take advantage of his illness and ask for his life. In my opinion, "we should attack immediately, clean up these foreigners, turn around and go into Tibet, and go directly to India!" ”

"Day, small, good idea, that regiment? How about being a staff officer for me? ”

"Cai Lao Liu, get out, the corners of the wall have been dug up to my Yan San" Is the skin itchy again! ”

The news that he had just received attracted a burst of laughter from everyone, and Ouyang Xiu calmly asked, "Commander, what date has been set?" Is it a blast of wind or thunder? ”

"September 6th, the eighth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, thunder!"

"Thunder" is two code names.

Long before entering the formation of the Northwest Army, the General Staff actually convened the staff officers and senior officers of the whole army to deduce the battle in the southeast together, and made several different plans, and the wind and thunder were two of the main ones, so Ouyang Xiu asked.

"It's thunder."

Sun Jiugong slowly put down the intelligence summary and handed it to each officer to circulate.

Thunder is a code name for action, but it also represents a combat idea, that is, to have a heavy hammer and beat the drum! The key is to ensure the ferocity of the attack! Strive to solve the southeast with an overwhelming advantage, so that the European countries do not dare to fall too deep.

But this is only an idea, the war is unpredictable, although Britain was dragged by the Boers for most of its energy and strength, but Britain still has a Far Eastern Fleet after all, so one can imagine how much pressure on the General Staff at this time is.

Fighting two land battles at the same time, in which the northwest needs to consume a lot of materials, this is a big problem in front of anyone, so at this time, the Northwest Army, as one of the fists, must take action to "increase the pace of clearing and suppressing" to force the rebels to have to come to a decisive battle!

Thinking of this, Sun Jiugong immediately picked up the teacup and walked to the big map, his habitual action before the battle, the officers stopped their mouths one after another, and their eyes lit up.

"Report, General Staff Emergency Telegram."

Suddenly, "a sound made the atmosphere in the big tent tense up.

You must know that the General Staff rarely interferes in the decision-making of the Northwest Army, and since its departure, it has only been because the emperor has visited and asked all troops to be careful and send an urgent telegram, even if the war in the northwest is about to start, it is also sent in the form of a weekly summary, just for fear of affecting the decision-making of the front.

So as soon as they heard the word emergency, everyone's breath suddenly froze.

"Report, on September 4, the reconnaissance company of the 9th Infantry Division of Kulen had a brief exchange of fire with the Russian army while inspecting the border, and then went deep into Irkutsk on the shore of Lake Belga and found that an unknown Russian cavalry had arrived there, and the 9th Division had entered the red alert, so the 3rd Cavalry Division was ordered to go to Kulen immediately to help strengthen the defense!"

"Russian cavalry has been discovered in Irkutsk!"

It has long been reported that Russia has begun a large-scale increase in troops in Central Asia, West Asia and Siberia, but no one expected that the speed would be like this, where did this cavalry come from? Was it the elite Cossacks, or other troops? Could it be that this is the prelude to a large-scale offensive!

One question after another suddenly came to everyone's hearts, and Sun Jiugong turned his gaze sharply and aimed at Irkutsk outside Kulun!

September 4th, two days ago!

The problem of transferring a cavalry division from the northwest is not too big, because most of the cavalry in the hands of the rebels has been exhausted before, "there are only more than 20,000 left, and they are only equipped with spears and sabers", which is no longer a big threat, not to mention that there is still a strange army in his hand that has not been used so far" But the problem is that there are only two days left before the start of the southeast thunderstorm, and at this time, a large number of Russian cavalry with unknown numbers is found, will it affect the southeast?

"Song Bing"

"Here!" In the voice, Song Bing stood up violently.

"You set off immediately, take the truck team to meet the pack horse team, and tell them not to go to Urumqi, but to come here directly, and be sure to send the shells before noon tomorrow!"

"Yes."

"Cai Wenqi!"

"Here."

"The 3rd Cavalry Division immediately set off back to Bingkulun to help the 9th Infantry Division defend well, especially to be careful in the direction of Mulun!"

"Yes."

With Sun Jiugong's orders one by one, "every officer named should immediately get busy," the atmosphere in the large camp, which had just been leisurely and comfortable, suddenly became solemn, and even those soldiers who were tied up were exempted from freezing for several hours and immediately entered a state of readiness.

"The eighth day of August!"

Sun Jiugong and Ouyang Xiu glanced at each other, "They have seen through each other's thoughts, since the thunder is this day, then the Northwest Army can also use this today to let all those who are eyeing China understand the power of this country!"

Irkutsk is located on the shore of the beautiful Lake Belga, standing on the top of the castle and looking at the sunset, Kuropatkin, who is known as the "blue eye of Siberia", does not feel a trace of excitement.

It's all to blame on that damn Li Mo, he was assigned to this damn place, although he kept his position as Minister of the Imperial Army, but what was the use? In the next few years, I will have to stay in this ghost place, "Be the commander-in-chief of the Far East, and go directly to face the Chinese army!"

Damn, that's not a good idea!

And it's so desolate here, "What's the use of Fengjing being beautiful?"

As it grew dark, Kuropatkin felt as if his whole body was rotting, and he retreated into the room in a huff, not noticing that a dark shadow followed him into the room.

Ten minutes later, the black shadow drilled onto the balcony again, and then jumped down from the castle balcony nearly ten meters high without thinking, "When he approached the ground, he suddenly turned around like a harrier soaring in the sky, and flew out more than ten meters away with his toes on the wall, rolled twice, and hid in the woods outside the castle.

A few minutes later, seven or eight black shadows quickly flashed through the woods and disappeared next to the "Siberian Blue Arrow Eye" that Emperor Kangxi had "forgotten" about in the Treaty of Nebuchu.