Persia, Isfahan.

In front of the famous Palace of the Forty Pillars, Lieutenant General Aemond Allenby looked at the reflection of the 20 pillars in the clear water, and a hint of worry and melancholy flashed in his brown eyes from time to time.

As the new commander-in-chief of the Persian Front, he actually did not like this position, if it were not for the letter of Field Marshal Kitchener, who had been kind to him, "Go to Persia, or go back to Egypt." Perhaps he is still tormented in the meat grinder of the German Western Line at the moment.

It may be fortunate for anyone to be able to get out of the tormented Western Front, but it is also unfortunate because it means that they have lost the opportunity to save Europe.

Unlike other officers, in his opinion, the war was now basically clear, the Ottomans, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria did not affect the overall situation, and the main thing was that Germany had actually reached its limit, as long as it continued to put pressure on it, this string would definitely break in the end, but the biggest problem was that the Entente was currently short of time, because the ambitious Li Mo was commanding a large army.

The United States is obviously disappointing, the world's richest country lacks a war background, and after successive major naval defeats, it has already been a little disorganized, and it does not even dare to send more land forces to Europe.

In fact, the United States is the most critical key to victory, as long as they can continue to send more than 500,000 troops to Europe, Germany will be crushed, but because of domestic politics and other reasons, President Wilson rejected the later plan to send troops, resulting in the temporary failure of the idea of speeding up the solution to Germany.

Therefore, Marshal Kitchener demanded that he come here and defeat the Ottomans as soon as possible, as long as there was no such sick man of Europe, even if Limer's army landed on the Arabian Peninsula and reached Mesopotamia, it would be impossible to open up contact with Germany.

He admired Marshal Kitchener, because if it weren't for the fact that the marshal brought 3 million troops to Britain before the war, if it weren't for the fact that before the war he secretly ordered 4 million rifles and matching ammunition from China and the United States, respectively, and strictly stipulated that they should be delivered 15 years ago, then I am afraid that Australia and India would not even have guns and ammunition now, let alone armed enough troops.

The marshal knows better than anyone else, in fact, he also knows that Li Mo has not fully exerted his strength, which is not to say that he doesn't want to, but that most of the battlefields he faces are too far away.

In fact, Britain should be grateful to the sea, even if Li Mo's fleet is incomparable, he also faces constraints such as slow sea transportation, if it were not for the barrier of the sea, he may have already waved his army into Europe, you must know that up to now, he has armed a total of about 6 million troops, but because of the limited distance and transportation force, he can only first target the southeast and Australia in close proximity, plus the wind and snow in the north, so that this oriental monster can not be fully played.

The thought of the 500 million people in his hands makes the whole world shudder, which means that he can arm tens of millions of troops and fill the United States and Europe like locusts if he wants.

Now, there is only one last step left to eliminate Limer's black hand in Mesopotamia, that is, a division of the Ottoman Third Army stationed in Dizful, but unfortunately he lacks sufficient mobile forces, and the Indian cavalry division stationed here is really overwhelmed, so he must wait for a force that can decide the outcome of the war.

Russian Caucasian Cossack Cavalry Corps!

He likes cavalry, and he is even more envious that Russia can have such a good cavalry force, and the 30,000 Cossack cavalry secretly rushed from Baku this time will become the last straw that crushes the defense circle of Xinhua Greater Kuwait.

But before that, he had one more thing to do!

"Cole, have the troops from Aden to Port Salalah departed? Also, are the troops ready to go to Safaniye? Thinking of this, Allenby, who was accustomed to his surname, put away his horsewhip and walked out, although he was given a car, he still preferred war horses.

Cole was one of Allenby's assistants brought from the Western Front, and was his best companion all these years, so when he heard the interrogation, he immediately walked side by side and said: "A total of 15,000 people, consisting of the Italian North African army and our troops in Aden, have arrived in Qaeda, Colonel Sangeira, please rest assured, he guarantees to take control of this port of Salalah, the only one that can dock large ships, within three days!"

In addition, there are 70,000 troops going to Safamiyeh, but we are currently short of ships and can only be escorted by warships in batches, and it is expected that it will take 20 days to establish a defensive line at Sayfaniya. ”

"It's too slow!"

Allenby shook his head: "Cole, I hope you can remember that the Chinese will come faster than you think, and we must build a strong enough defensive line in Sefaniye so that we can stop their troops from landing on the peninsula." ”

"But" Cole hesitated for a moment, but still asked boldly: "General, do you really think that Xinhua will transport troops across the Indian Ocean now?" As far as I know, most of their transport forces are currently concentrated in the Southwest Pacific, and they don't have the scale until they defeat General Campbell. ”

"Cole, don't underestimate Li Mo's determination, he is a bold man, although I also know that he can't transport a large army for the time being, but tens of thousands can still be done."

"Tens of thousands? What's the use of that? Cole just wanted to laugh, but a sharp look made him suffocate in fright, and he quickly nodded: "General, I'll speed up." ”

"Oh, yes." Cole thought for a moment and then said: "Ibn Saud has protested to us not to bring the flames of war into the Arabian Peninsula, he added. ”

Allenby raised his horsewhip and said coldly: "I don't care what else he says, you go and tell him, either go to war with us, or just watch from the sidelines!" In addition, send someone to contact the Russian Caucasian Army Group to urge, these idiots, who have the best cavalry in the world, but at the same time have the slowest efficiency! ”

"Yes, General."

After Cole left, Allenby's eyes swept to the east again, he was sure that the first troops of Limer must have boarded the ship, and in this man's eyes, he would definitely know that if he lost Kuwait, if he occupied Mesopotamia by himself, and even forced the Ottomans to leave the war, all his dreams would come to an abrupt end!

So.

Allenby's eyes were cold, and he needed to give him a head-on blow here, so that he understood that he should not meddle in the war in Europe-

"Quick, quick!"

Zhao Sheng stood in front of the huge ro-ro wheel hatch, his mouth was about to cry out, and one after another M3 Cheetah tanks, Wildcat armored vehicles, and the latest "Wild Wolf" tracked vehicles lined up into the huge cabin.

This super-large transport ship equipped with steam turbines and oil-fired boilers is currently the most efficient ocean-going ship in Xinhua, which has three decks and can transport an armored regiment at a time, or 460 trucks, or 4,000 fully armed soldiers, and transport them to 6,000 nautical miles away at a speed of 16 knots, and the wide hatch makes loading and unloading extremely convenient.

It's a pity that there are only 20 ships of this kind at present, and the cost is not cheap, after the start of the war, all of them have been temporarily requisitioned by the navy, and most of them are currently used on Australian routes.

This time, together with 10 large Navy fast troop carriers, they will transport the 6th Mechanized Infantry Division and the 2nd Marine Division to the Arabian Peninsula, 3,000 nautical miles away.

As trucks loaded with oil drums and supplies continued to drive into the cabin, the waterline began to sink a little bit, Zhao Sheng finally breathed a sigh of relief, and waited until he finished checking the list to find that there was still an important thing that had not arrived.

Food!

Zhao Sheng's Sixth Mechanized Infantry Division was originally an infantry division, and after the start of the war, with a large number of tanks, trucks and other equipment entering the troops, the number of domestic mechanized infantry divisions has increased from 4 to 7 before the war, and the whole division has more than 20,000 people, plus two regiments of marines, a total of almost 35,000 people.

So many soldiers, and the expected half a month of mobility, the amount of food needed is very large, although the canned food and other things stored in the base have been transferred, but those are dry goods, the disadvantage of the ro-ro wheel is that there is no large enough kitchen, so on the way to transport the troops, enough dry food must be prepared, so the base specially arranged thousands of people to make steamed buns overnight, I heard that at least five days to ensure that each soldier eats.

Zhao Sheng was already anxious, and there was still half an hour before departure, if there was dry food.

"Division commander, dry food, dry food is here!" At the most urgent moment, trucks rushed towards the dock, and before Zhao Sheng could stop, he smelled the smell of steamed buns full of trucks.

"Master Zhao, we didn't make a mistake, right?" Sweating profusely, the person in charge of logistics rushed to the front, not noticing that he was still wearing an apron, and his face was also white and black.

After grabbing the list and reading it, Zhao Sheng finally breathed a sigh of relief, and saluted while beckoning the soldiers to speed up the move to the boat: "Thank you, I won the battle this time, and I will be the first to ask you for credit." ”

"Hehe, don't dare to be, don't dare to be."

When the two were handing over and saying goodbye, a loud whistle suddenly sounded in the bay, Zhao Sheng looked at his watch and found that the time had not yet come, he couldn't help but be a little surprised, and hurriedly walked to the open space, only to see that everyone was waving to a low-altitude hovering plane.

Seeing the colorful phoenix on the fuselage, Zhao Sheng hurriedly stood up and saluted, causing the person in charge of the base to ask quietly: "Senior Commander Zhao, what is this?" ”

"It's the emperor, this is the Royal One of the Air Force!" Zhao Sheng said excitedly and loudly.

"Shhh The old major in charge of logistics also hurriedly saluted, his eyes were even more sparkling, and he wiped his tears excitedly and said: "Your Majesty, it is the emperor who has come to see you off!" ”

Ten minutes later, the whining whistle sounded again, and a fleet of 16 large ships, protected by 8 Yangtze River class light cruisers, 20 destroyers and 2 supply ships, quickly drilled out of Subic Bay and headed south.

Looking at the departing fleet, Li Mocai on the Royal No. 1 slowly retracted his gaze and asked Chen Pingdao, who was sitting opposite, "Are there any new changes?" ”

"Yes."

Chen Ping nodded, took out the information he had just received before boarding, and said: "The port of Salalah was taken over yesterday by a force from Aden and Italian North Africa, with a total number of about 15,000 people, and now we are most worried that they will destroy the only deep-water dock there, so I have ordered the seals to leave early, and we must ensure that the fleet is protected before it arrives!"

In addition, the first batch of 3,000 troops of the Entente Persian Front had crossed the Persian Gulf and arrived at Saphiniyeh, blocking the railway line from Riyadh to Kuwait, but they did not attack Kuwait immediately, but built fortifications here, and two Sovereign-class battleships have also arrived here, judging from the range of naval guns, they can cover the entire railway line!

I reckon that Allenby should have known that we would be forced to send reinforcements, that we would have to take the better port of Salalah, and that we would use the railway, and that he might have contacted Campbell's Grand Fleet of India, set up a trap, and waited for us to get into it ourselves.

Now I have ordered all 17 submarines in the Aden Sea and the Indian Ocean to enter the Arabian Sea, along the lines between Mumbai and Salalah Harbor, to prevent a surprise attack by Campbell, and the task force is ready for a decisive battle.

"Then now it depends on whether his trap is strong, or our spears are sharper!" Li Mo took a deep breath, he is no stranger to this famous British general nicknamed the bloody bull, in fact, there are very few land generals who can be remembered by him in World War I, but this Allenby is really not simple, he was rated as the best British general during World War I by later military experts, because in history he used World War I equipment in Damascus and Jerusalem to fight a classic interspersed battle that only existed in World War II, and one laid the foundation for him to become a British marshal, and he was a real famous general!

Retracting his gaze from the map, Li Mo understood that this was a race against time, and it was also the army's first long-distance operation, just thinking of the distance of more than 1,500 kilometers from Salalah Port to Kuwait was enough to make everyone's scalp tingle, although the theoretical advance speed of the infantry division reached 30 kilometers per hour, but it was based on the improvement of the road.

According to the plan of the General Staff, after taking the port of Salalah, the army will take tanks and trucks as the lead, cross the desert to reach the Riyadh oasis, and then protect the infantry from there to Kuwait by train, but now Allenby has set up a defensive line in the most critical Saphaniyeh, and has also transferred two Sovereign-class battleships, obviously to give himself a hard time here!

Seeing that Li Mo didn't continue, Chen Ping looked at his watch and said, "Singapore's task force is making final preparations, and it is estimated that we can rush to see them off before they leave." ”

Li Mo nodded, glanced at the white clouds outside the window, as if he saw the face of the famous British general in the photo, and smiled coldly in his heart.

"Famous general! Hmph, that's for slapping the face! ”

(To be continued)