Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 285
After forming an alliance with Ottoman Turkey, Guan Xuqing no longer had to worry about the future. Now that the Chinese war had broken out, Guan Xuqing did not have to be polite to the Russians. The Russian soldiers captured in the Battle of Kulun could not be wasted, and they were all sent to Ili to repair the railway. up.

Surprisingly, the Russian people are not very interested in the Sino-Russian War, at least for now, the Russians are most concerned about the Tenth Russo-Turkish War and the intensifying Battle of the Marne, and the rest of their energy is also attracted With regard to the increasingly fierce class conflicts in the country, and the cloud of war hanging over the Far East, most Russians do not know that apart from the Russo-Turkish war, the Chinese have invaded Eastern Siberia.Just as the arrogant Americans claim to be able to win two local wars at the same time, but the current Russia is far from the capability of the United States in the future, even the Soviet Union is not capable.Russia has just undergone reforms, and there are many imperfections, but the noble heads of the Russians have not bowed their heads in the face of difficulties.

Although Nicholas II was very annoyed by the disastrous defeat of the Cossack cavalry and the Far Eastern Army, he successively replaced many senior generals of the army and navy, but the proud factor inherited from his ancestors made him still hold a little bit of luck. , in his mind, the Chinese army only achieved a temporary victory by virtue of its superiority in equipment, and it will not be long before the great Slavs will regroup and point their sharp swords at the Chinese imperial capital again.When I just heard that Zhang Zuolin's Far Eastern Frontier Army crossed Heilongjiang, Nicholas II didn't take it seriously. He has nearly 200 million troops in his hands. He can recruit another 100 million troops at any time if he wants to. The Far Eastern Frontier Army is a big deal. It is the strength of the nine divisions. As long as they dare to enter Russia, they will soon be overwhelmed by the artillery fire.

At this time, the Russian Telegraph Bureau was not perfect and could only cover some large cities. In contrast, the Far East had not yet carried out large-scale auxiliary facilities. In addition, the pace of urban construction in East Siberia was very slow and the population was sparse. As far as Yakutsk, an important city in the east, and St. Petersburg have not received any news, judging from the level of information development, Russia has lagged behind China by at least five years.

Since the start of the war between China and Russia, Western European countries have issued statements to keep China and Russia on balance, and demanded that trade interests in China and Russia be guaranteed.Of course, these are all diplomatic rhetoric, which is not as pale as a blank sheet of paper.However, the Allies are not monolithic. For many years, the British have regarded Russia as the biggest obstacle in Central Asia and the Far East, and the intention of the Russians to become the leader of Eurasia has long been a secret. In recent years, The Russians are becoming more and more arrogant, blatantly extending their tentacles to Europe and Africa to compete with the empire on which the sun never sets for maritime supremacy. This is absolutely intolerable to Britain, which has dominated for a hundred years.Therefore, Britain tried every means to weaken Russia's power. The Crimean War in 53 was when Russia tried its best to open the exit of the Black Sea into the Mediterranean Sea. This made Britain very worried, so it joined forces with France, a century-old feud, to launch a seemingly just crusade to defeat these Slavic madmen.It also made Russia honest for a while, but I didn't expect that the Russians were so crazy about the sea that they couldn't be understood by the British. Twenty years later, it made a comeback and once again attempted to launch a war against Ottoman. This time, Britain did not intend to come to the fore and only wanted to secretly support Ottoman.

As for the iron-clad ship Geerlai ordered by Osman at the Armstrong Shipyard, Osman, who was almost dragged down by the war, was unable to pay the huge fee. These two warships could only be parked at the shipyard. It's worse, and it may even close down for this reason.

But far away China is willing to buy this warship, which makes the shipyard facing bankruptcy grateful, and can't wait to sell 15% of the shares to the Imperial Investment Bank, making China's shares in this shipyard climb to 25%. [-]. Britain, which was in urgent need of war funds, quickly agreed to the sale of the ironclad ship.

At this time, urgent reports from the northwest region came to the capital like snowflakes. Guan Xuqing had already learned about this from the memorial a day earlier, and the battle in the northwest region was much more intense than that in Mongolia.Just after the Battle of Kulun, the Tsar sent 25 troops to Northwest China, and Yili General Chang Qing urgently mobilized 10,000+ troops from various places, plus local herdsmen, regiment training, garrisons, etc., added up. 30 people, dubbed by the Russian army as the "Ili Miscellaneous Army." Compared with the Battle of Kulun, there is still a gap in the Northwest battle, because the Mongolian cavalry has not been baptized in the war, so they lack quite scientific and effective tactics except for wolf tactics.At the same time, the northwest region has a considerable number of experienced Russian troops. They have been fighting against the Central Asian Khanates such as Kokand for many years, and their combat effectiveness has always remained strong.

The situation in the Northwest War was that Li Qifeng's [-]st Division fought the main force of the Russian army in the Yili area, and the two sides were not too eager to make progress.However, Liu Jintang in southern Xinjiang was more difficult. His troops were fighting fiercely with the Russians in Atush, west of Kashgar, and they all used their main force to fight. The battle between the two sides lasted for nearly a week.Later, Liu Jintang sent troops to patronize the Russian army's supply line out of a conspiracy, so that most of the supplies were difficult to transport to the Russian army, which also caused the morale of the Russian soldiers to be low.Since the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, the weather has become colder and colder. Without many measures to keep warm, many Russians were frozen to death. Many could not bear the hunger and had to kill each other's wounded soldiers to wrap their stomachs. The supply problem caused [-] Russian soldiers to die. Jun died in pain from hunger and cold.

Not long after, the main force of the Russian army in the Yili area also encountered the same problem. The Russians there wanted to supply supplies there, but because of the evil they committed in the Xinjiang area, the local people hated and feared it. People hid or moved to other places to escape the war.From time to time, a Russian detachment went out to look for supplies, but at this time, the local people would run to inform the Chinese army, and the Chinese army quickly intercepted and killed the Russian army on the way.

Later, the Russians had to mobilize a brigade of troops to rob, and it was very successful at first. Later, when the local people saw the Russians, they got into the underground pit or fled.Coupled with the interception of the Chinese army, it became more and more difficult for the Russians to supply.In the end, he had to go to a farther area to plunder. Liu Jintang knew that the supply of the Russian army was difficult. On the one hand, he strengthened the destruction of the Russian army's supply line, and on the other hand, he attacked the Russian army that came out to make trouble.Lacking food and cotton clothes, the death toll of the Russian army increased sharply, and hundreds of corpses were carried out of the barracks every day.

In desperation, the commander, Lieutenant General Ignatchev, had to order a retreat, but before he retreated to the Sino-Russian border, he was pursued by Liu Jintang in an all-round way. of mass murder.The remaining more than 5 people finally broke through the siege desperately and retreated to Werneburg.

"Great people can't fight against the Chinese army's reckless style of play." This is the most high-sounding excuse Ignatchev gave for the failure of this battle.

(End of this chapter)