1890 King of Southeast Asia

"Can't we discuss it again? Mr. Alexei, we can give a lot, Mongolia! Haven't you always wanted it? As long as there is money, we can allow them to be autonomous, or even independent."

"Also, the three provinces, you can do what you have always wanted to do in the three provinces now, as long as we pay according to the agreed contract."

"If it doesn't work, where else do you want? We can discuss it, we can discuss it."

It is hard to imagine that this tone of pleading came from the mouth of the former Qing Empire Regent, Prince Chun Zaifeng.

And the content of the Chinese language is even more unbearable to look at. Let's not talk about anything else, just the Mongolian Plateau. This place has always been the front line of the battle between Tsarist Russia and the Qing Empire.

In the past 100 years, the Qing Empire has always been strategically active because it can easily cut off Tsarist Russia's connection with the East and the West by starting from Mongolia.

Tsarist Russia's ability to control the territory in Asia is very weak due to the existence of permafrost. Even now, it is very difficult to carry out infrastructure on permafrost.

Starting from the northwest corner of the Qing Empire, although the supply line is still very long, the conditions are much better than those of Tsarist Russia, and it can support the army's crossing. The battle line will be pushed directly to Novosibirsk.

After Novosibirsk, it is Catherine, and further west is the Ural Mountains.

And Zaifeng, in his words, actually expressed the meaning of selling at a low price.

"I am very sorry, Your Excellency." Alexei was very tempted, but he could not change the will of the Russian emperor.

The Balkan coalition has already started fighting with the Ottoman Empire. In the first two weeks, it took advantage of the fact that the Ottoman Empire had not deployed its troops in place and made rapid progress.

But in the third week, a division of the Ottoman Empire that had just left the battle line arrived at the front line and easily defeated a division of Montenegro, and the situation began to take a sharp turn for the worse.

The Ottoman Empire continued to increase its troops, the battle line began to change repeatedly, and the war entered the stage of attrition.

If it was just attrition, the Balkan coalition would not be afraid of the Ottoman Empire that had just experienced the battle line, but the enemies of the Balkans were not only the Ottoman Empire.

Behind them is the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is in urgent need of an outlet for domestic conflicts and has long been eager for the Balkans!

"The Russian Empire will maintain a neutral attitude in this incident. This is the decision of our emperor. Your proposal is very tempting. I can only report it to His Majesty the Emperor of our country. Whether it can succeed depends on the intention of His Majesty the Emperor of our country." Alexei shook his head regretfully.

The main force of the Balkan coalition is Yugoslavia, who is inherently pro-Russian. If this war ends with the victory of the Balkan coalition, then the Slavs may get an outlet to the sea.

Even if it is not a direct outlet to the Russian Empire, as long as it can bypass the Turkish Strait, it is of great strategic significance.

Just like Nanhua wants to build a railway from Haifa to the Persian Gulf.

Helping the Balkan coalition to win has become the highest priority for the Tsar and his government. It is extremely uneconomical to waste a lot of energy in the Far East.

After Alexei left, Zaifeng smashed the table like a deflated ball.

When the Qing Empire showed signs of decline, the Americans fled immediately, supporting them only verbally.

Now, under the will of the Tsar, the Russian Empire has set its sights on the Balkans.

Except for Japan, no one continues to support the Qing Empire court!

The Qing Empire's finances have been exhausted and it is unable to continue the war, and Japan has no money and will not pay.

In fact, if the sunk costs were not too high, Japan would have withdrawn its troops.

At present, Japan is actively contacting Sun Zaizhi, hoping that Sun Zaizhi will recognize all the treaties signed between Japan and the Qing Empire - on the condition of withdrawing troops.

If Sun Zaizhi had not rejected this proposal in a tough tone, the Japanese gambler's psychology would have broken out, and the remaining 37th Division would have withdrawn.

…………

Time passed quickly, and it was mid-March, and the revolutionary army finally pushed the front line to the north.

Zheng Lei gathered various large-caliber artillery and formed a heavy artillery brigade to support this battle.

The heavy artillery brigade has two artillery regiments, namely the 152mm field artillery regiment of the former Second Guards Division and the heavy 152mm cannon regiment with a range of 16 kilometers produced by the three towns.

The latter is extremely powerful, but with a marching weight of more than ten tons, it can only be used for siege or positional warfare, or as a coastal defense artillery.

On March 15, Zheng Lei used a heavy 152mm cannon to bombard the earthen artillery platform and city wall outside Xuzhou from a long distance.

"Xuzhou has high walls and deep walls, and its strategic location is important. This is a fierce battle!" Huang Zhengfang observed the effect of the artillery bombardment.

The prototype of the 152mm heavy cannon is a coastal defense artillery, and there is no problem in using it for siege.

The earthen artillery platform was built during the Taiping Rebellion, and it was completely unable to resist the modern heavy firepower.

Even if the standards of decades ago were used to classify artillery according to the weight of the shells, the 152 heavy cannon was a heavy artillery of 120 pounds.

The earthen fort can only resist the red cannon in the hands of the Changmao.

Huang Zhengfang was not worried about the earthen fort. Even if it was a city wall, if one shot could not knock it down, he would just use more shots.

What he was worried about was the battle for the city, that is, the street fighting.

Insufficient material reserves, insufficient firepower density, and prohibited weapons cannot be used - after all, it is their own place.

"Don't just think about us, take the overall situation into consideration." Zheng Lei saw his worries.

"The overall situation?" Huang Zhengfang moved his head.

"Our firepower is far stronger than the other side, and it is more difficult for the other side to replenish supplies than us."

"In terms of morale, although they did not directly experience defeat, they retreated without fighting, which is also a defeat. Their morale is not high."

"Most importantly, most of the Qing Empire has changed hands. When the empire is about to collapse, more people are thinking about how to save themselves, rather than sinking with this broken ship."

"Bombard for another two hours, order the soldiers to eat, and wait until two o'clock in the afternoon, while the weather is good, to make a tentative attack."

"Let... the Third Light Infantry Division go."

Zheng Lei looked at the time, two minutes to twelve, this time is good.

"Yes!" Huang Zhengfang suddenly received so many complex information, and he was a little overwhelmed, and he executed the order subconsciously.

...

By two o'clock in the afternoon, the walls of Xuzhou were already broken. In fact, the walls only lasted half an hour before they were broken.

The artillery, which had lost its target, began to bombard the targets in the city. The prefectural government office, warehouses, barracks, etc. were bombarded by shells again and again, and they were all broken.

"Kill!"

The Third Light Infantry Division has a complex source of soldiers, including the Jiangnan New Army, revolutionary youth, and new soldiers recruited in Jinling and Shanghai.

Some people retained some habits, such as shouting during the charge.

After the infantry attack began, the artillery bombardment stopped, so that the Beiyang Army could not react in time. When they just climbed up the wall of a ruin, they ran into the revolutionary soldiers rushing up.

The scattered Beiyang Army could not organize an effective defense, and the Third Light Infantry Division easily rushed into the city.

"According to intelligence, there are two Beiyang divisions and two Japanese divisions in the city, a total of four divisions."

"If they want to defend the street fighting in Xuzhou City, it will cause us a lot of trouble."

"I apply to use burning..."

"Report! The Third Light Infantry Division is fighting fiercely with most of the enemy in the city. It was attacked by enemy artillery and the attack was blocked. Request artillery support."

Huang Zhengfang's words were interrupted by the signalman.

"Order the Third Infantry Division to establish a position on the spot, and the artillery observer will set off immediately." Zheng Lei said immediately.

"Yes!" The signalman saluted and left immediately.

"We are fighting a war for power, not for land or discourse power." Zheng Lei left Huang Zhengfang after saying one sentence.

Huang Zhengfang opened his mouth, but in the end, he said nothing.

...

"What happened?" Hu Weijie lay behind a collapsed wall, looking at the dwarf opposite.

"I don't know, it seems that there was an internal conflict, so the attempt to lure the enemy failed." Li Dahai, the commander of the first battalion, had been at the forefront and was also confused about what had just happened.

They received an order to stop the attack and establish a position, so Li Dahai led the first battalion to cover Hu Weijie in building the position.

Their opponent was the Japanese Youth Coalition Army, and when they saw that the revolutionary army stopped the attack, they subconsciously counterattacked, but were repelled by Li Dahai.

The position was almost built, and Li Dahai could withdraw, so he thought about ambush the enemy.

On the surface, Li Dahai "quietly" withdrew, but behind the scenes, heavy machine guns had been set up on both wings, waiting for the enemy to rush up.

The Japanese were the first to be fooled, and rushed up with bayonets, followed by some Beiyang troops.

The machine guns on both wings fired a burst of fire, leaving more than a hundred bodies, and the Japanese-Qing coalition hurried back.

Just when Li Dahai was really ready to leave, gunshots came from the opposite side. Li Dahai thought that the other side was not giving up and was ready to attack again, but found that the enemy did not come out at all.

"Don't care about him, let's retreat first. The bombardment will come later. If we don't retreat, we may be unlucky." Hu Weijie thought about it. The opportunity was good, but he couldn't confirm whether this was a trap.

The coordinates had been reported, and he had no need to gamble at all, and it was very dangerous to change them at this time.

During the war, everything could be said to be chaotic and busy. It was very dangerous to change the bombardment coordinates at this time.

Because you don't know whether the coordinates have been allocated. If you don't have time, they attack here and the shells fall, it will be dangerous.

"Captain, white flag!" Li Dahai pointed in the direction of the Japanese-Qing coalition, and a white flag was pointed out.

"Brothers on the other side, stop fighting! We killed the Japanese and we also want revolution!" A voice appeared behind the white flag.

The two sides were less than a hundred meters apart and could communicate normally.

"Want to surrender? Drop your weapons and roll over." Hu Weijie shouted and looked at his watch again.

"Brother, who are you? Call your superior..." The other side still wanted to bargain.

"The shells are coming soon, surrender quickly, the shells don't have eyes, if you don't surrender, we will withdraw!" Hu Weijie shouted and waved to Li Dahai.

Li Dahai nodded and organized the soldiers to retreat.

"Brother, there must be some benefits, right? Zhao'an is back..."

"If you want to surrender, surrender, if you don't surrender, roll, give you a piece of advice, the shells are coming soon!" Hu Weijie shook his head and turned to leave.

He was not afraid of any consequences if the news spread. In three minutes, it would be the scheduled bombardment time, and there was no time to react.

Sure enough, Hu Weijie felt a series of vibrations as soon as he returned to the position. He shook his head and found a stone to sit on.

"Captain, that group of people just came to surrender, and they are outside." Before he sat down, Li Dahai ran over.

"Be careful of fraud..."

"You lost your guns and squatted outside with your head in your hands. You can't deceive. Isn't it said that the Beiyang has good combat effectiveness? Why do I feel that it is about the same as the Ninth Town, and there is no fighting will." Li Dahai shook his head and handed Hu Weijie a cigarette.

"Is it not good that the enemy is weak?" Hu Weijie lit a cigarette, took a puff, and said with half-closed eyes:

"The Qing soldiers are all weaklings. They have been defeated in succession and have long lost their fighting spirit. If you treat them toughly, they will naturally become weak..."

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