the world is at stake

It doesn't take five or six years, just two or three months later, the frozen Lake Baikal will thaw, and the tens of kilometers wide lake will turn into a vast ocean.

Siberia is cold in winter and hot in summer.After the permafrost thaws, it turns into mud, making road traffic extremely difficult.At that time, neither of the two sides will be able to fight, and they can only stare blankly.

It doesn't matter to China, just slowly repair the earth and strengthen the infrastructure.Anyway, there is enough food in the country, the industrial and agricultural systems are complete, the internal circulation has started, the national mood is stable, and they are not afraid of anything.

Tsarist Russia has a so-called - Germany's mobilization is about to be completely completed, the national economy and industrial system will turn to war in an all-round way, and the arrow will inevitably be launched, and Russia will definitely be attacked.

At the time of life and death, Russia wants to place one or more main force groups on the Eastern Front.

The nearest major Russian city to Irkutsk is Novosibirsk, 3000 kilometers away.Novosibirsk is more than [-] kilometers away from St. Petersburg, the industrial and economic center of Russia.

To maintain a group army of 10,000+ troops in Irkutsk, the materials and transport capacity consumed are enough to maintain a front army with hundreds of thousands of troops on the western front.

Dragging can drag Tsarist Russia to death.

Even Britain and France are aware of China's intention to make a decision and move. Although they took the initiative to go to war, they have no intention of desperately attacking.It's a bit like 'I've played the cards, it's up to you'.

have no choice……

By January 1918, 1, at the urging of Tsarist Russia, Britain, France and Russia formed an alliance and declared war on Germany at the same time.On the day of the declaration of war, the British and French navies dispatched more than 3 warships to take advantage of the bad weather to raid Wilhelmshaven in northwest Germany.

The British home fleet dispatched 35 battleships and battle cruisers, including 29 'super dreadnoughts', seven aircraft carriers of different classes, [-] light cruisers, and more than [-] destroyers and minesweepers.

France also dispatched its Atlantic Fleet and Mediterranean Fleet to join hands with Britain.The total tonnage of the warships of the two countries is nearly 300 million tons, which can be regarded as an unprecedented super fleet.

But the result was not satisfactory-the Germans bet on their high seas fleet, deployed hundreds of submarines and torpedo boats to patrol the open sea, and learned of the British and French attacks through spies and translation interception, and set up traps.

Although the weather was bad, the aircraft carrier of the High Seas Fleet was unable to launch fighter jets.

However, its main force was warned to leave the port six hours before the enemy's attack, hid in Hamburg and Bremen with the help of the Rabe and Weser rivers, and confronted the British and French fleets with submarines, mines, and shore artillery.

When the weather improved the next day, Germany took off more than a thousand shore-based and sea-based fighters to raid the opponent's battleships and aircraft carriers-the Battle of Jutland did not break out, but an even more tragic sea-air battle broke out.

In order to compete for air supremacy and sea supremacy, the two sides fought fiercely.

On the same day, the armies of France and Germany attacked Belgium and the Netherlands at the same time, seized the dominant position, and launched offensive and defensive—Belgium and the Netherlands declared their country to die on the spot.

Germany took Denmark in six hours and attacked Norway at the same time, but its main force used the railway to pass through German-occupied Poland and into Russian-occupied Poland.

Five days later, Norway fell.

Also on the same day, Austria-Hungary declared war on Britain, France and Russia, but turned around to fight Italy.Romania decided to join the German camp, and the conscription mobilization attempted to take a piece of meat from Russia.

Still on the same day, the entire Commonwealth of Nations, including India, Canada, and Australia, declared war on the German camp.Britain and France demanded that China immediately withdraw from Russian territory, and declared war on China after being rejected.

China immediately announced that it was mobilizing 500 million troops to liberate all ethnic groups in Southeast Asia from the British and French colonists, break the oppression of the big powers, and establish a Chinese civilization circle.

Thus broke out the world war--only the Yankees were at the theater for the time being.

Chapter 45 Colony

Port of Maputo, Mozambique, Africa, January 1918, 1.

A 3000-ton passenger and cargo ship docked at the pier, and there were more than [-] haggard and anxious immigrants in the crowded cabin, most of whom were young women.

They sailed tens of thousands of kilometers in a crowded cabin and arrived at their destination in a bumpy month.Some people even died of illness due to their frailty and were buried in the sea.

The port hospital sent a medical team to pick up hundreds of weak patients.The rest were also sent to isolation camps, and it took at least half a month before they could go public.

Lieutenant Hu Dezhi of the Maputo garrison stood on the shore artillery position near the port, overlooking the sparse flow of people disembarking.The soldier next to him asked in a low voice, "Boss, is this the last passenger and cargo flight?"

Hu Dezhi nodded, and said in a deep voice: "The British have declared war on us. The nearby waters are not safe, and the Strait of Malacca is in the hands of the enemy. This should be the last ship in a while."

"I heard from the radio that this is a world war. Many people will die, and it will be very tragic." The soldier asked fearfully, "Boss, will the Brits come and beat us? Or block us?"

"It's hard to say." Hu Dezhi didn't sleep well these days, and he was full of worry. "Africa is not the main battlefield, but if you can fight, you can avoid it. You can't take the British guys lightly."

The soldiers are very young, not yet 20 years old.He looked back at the city behind the port area, and said in a low voice: "I miss my mother a little bit, and want to send her money so that she can live a better life. My mother must be worried about me."

Hu Dezhi patted the soldier on the shoulder and encouraged him: "Everyone wants to, so don't be afraid."

Compared with the beginning of last year, Maputo City has changed a lot.

The number of Chinese in the city has skyrocketed from more than 5000 to 20, and the urban area has expanded more than ten times.Many people had to live in tents because there were not enough masonry materials.

In the past year, one or two domestic passenger and cargo ships arrived in Maputo every week.Two to three thousand people and goods are transported each time.By the end of the year, the transportation was even tighter, almost one ship a day.

The Germans in the city were not without envy and complained: "The biggest problem with European colonization is that the population is too small. But this is not a problem for you China."

There are people who have everything.

Under the constraints of efficient organization and discipline, the sudden appearance of 20 Chinese immigrants showed strong expansion.Housing requires land, farming requires land, mining requires land, and building factories requires land.Hospitals, schools, government and military land all need land.

Maputo is nothing else, a vast wasteland.

Steam tractors that are being phased out in China have appeared in Maputo, five [-]-megawatt coal-fired power generating units have been installed, and dozens of steam boilers provide energy. The domestic industry has only been developing for seven or eight years, and the insufficient production capacity is bold. outsourcing.

Anyway, there is going to be a world war, and the one who can borrow money and sell the goods at this time is the ancestor.

Africa is wild and full of diseases, and the mortality rate of European colonists in Africa is very high.The Chinese responded by burning land, logging, building water conservancy, building ditches, dredging depressions, and eradicating mosquitoes.

There is great power in numbers.

In order to take root in the local area for a long time, the country deliberately ensures a certain proportion of young women among immigrants.Even if there are not enough women in China, women from Japan, Southeast Asia and even South Asia can do it.

The influx of a large number of Chinese immigrants has brought great panic to other colonists-the Boers, who are descendants of the Netherlands, have been reclaiming South Africa for two to three hundred years, with a population of only a few hundred thousand, which has caused great trouble to Britain.

There are 20 Chinese immigrants a year, is that okay?

In order to wipe out China's foothold in Africa, the British Governor of South Africa, Baron Buxton, tried every means, even dispatching a fleet to pretend to be pirates to plunder, or stirring up the hatred of the indigenous people, and further sending troops to expel them.

In one year, tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants died in various disasters.But they did hold their ground and continued to expand.The excellent foreign united front activities made the aborigines and Boers allies of Chinese immigrants to fight against the British.

Hu Dezhi drove back to the city from the shore artillery position, and wanted to ask if there was any special news about the new flight—Maputo was good for everything, but it was too far away from China and Europe, and the news was very obscure.

There is a "News" in the city, which is issued irregularly, basically republishing outdated news delivered by each flight.Newspaper editors squeezed to the pier and were chatting with the captain, and piles of domestic and foreign newspapers and magazines were unloaded from the ship.

"The latest news, it must be a war in Europe." The captain is a Malaysian Chinese who has traveled around the world and is well-informed.He took a pipe in his hand, smoked a few puffs, and said:

"The British and French fleets raided Wilhelmshaven, Germany, and fought very brutally. This is the largest sea and air battle in the history of mankind. The total tonnage of warships on both sides exceeds 400 million tons, and there are nearly [-] ships.

Germany used the High Seas Fleet as a bait, but it did not expect the British Navy to feint. While shelling Wilhelmshaven, with the help of several hours of fine weather, it dispatched carrier-based aircraft to attack the Port of Hamburg and several inland airports, and dropped guided bombs and Molotov cocktail.

Wilhelmshaven was completely destroyed, and the Port of Hamburg suffered heavy casualties.

The Germans never expected that their opponents were so courageous that they dared to risk their lives to enter the German airspace, so that many warships such as the 'Zeppelin', 'Bavaria' and 'Great Kurführer', which were hiding in the harbor, were sunk .

In addition, in order to lure the British home fleet to take the bait, Germany lost more than 300 submarines, destroyers and torpedo boats, and more than [-] fighter planes were destroyed.

But Britain and France were even worse. The weather forecast was inaccurate. The afternoon of the surprise attack and the next day were fine. Germany dispatched thousands of fighter planes to fight back and kill them, causing them to lose nearly a million tons of ships during their retreat.

Orion sinks, Iron Duke sinks, Warspite sinks, Hermes sinks, Normandie sinks, Lorraine sinks, Lyon sinks up...

Why, there are so many sunken ships that I can't remember them all.Anyway, this sea and air battle was really tragic, and both sides suffered great losses.

The downed pilot fell into the sea and was frozen into a block of ice.The wreckage of the fighter plane rose and fell with the waves, and the passing ships looked sideways.The sunken battleship took thousands of sailors and disappeared into the sea, and there were very few survivors.

It is said that there were so many casualties in the British Navy that every family in the Portsmouth Naval Base wore mourning and mourning, and there were thousands of widowed women.

Both sides of the war stated that they had won the victory, and now the domestic media commented that although Britain and France suffered heavy losses, the foundation is still there; the main force of the German High Seas Fleet is basically complete, and it still has the power to fight.Anyway, the war has just begun. "

The captain stunned the immigrants in Maputo port as if he was talking about storytelling.The main warships lost in this naval battle are more than that of China and Japan combined, so the strength of Britain, France and Germany is still there.

"What about in China?" Hu Dezhi asked anxiously, "Britain and France have also declared war on our country. Is there a war in East Asia?"

"There is nothing going on in the country." The captain was optimistic, "The domestic newspapers said that the war will be prolonged, so the people of the whole country are required to prepare for a hard life.

But we stopped fighting the Russians in the north in less than half a month, and the battle line was stuck in Lake Baikal.There is conscription in China, but many of them are engineers, such as going to Mongolia and Northwest to build railways.

As for the south, the National Defense Forces have entered several countries in Southeast Asia, but they have not fought with Britain and France much.I listened to the radio, saying that the war of liberation should be dominated by politics and economy, supplemented by fighting, and that all ethnic groups should mobilize their own strength to liberate themselves. "

The editor of the newspaper was brushing the records, and someone next to him yelled: "Hey, don't we just let the monkeys in Southeast Asia go to war by themselves. At most we can send key officers to help with training, provide weapons and ammunition, and let the monkeys pay for the cannon fodder."

The editor pushed his glasses and said in a low voice: "Pay attention to the influence, don't be a monkey, you will be a member of the Chinese civilization circle in the future. Although what you said is indeed the truth."

Everyone laughed, and the topic of discussion quickly returned to their home in Maputo.The newspaper editor asked: "What about us immigrants who are alone overseas? Will the British call?"

The captain's tone was restrained, and he frowned for a while before whispering: "I heard that Russia requested Britain to declare war on our country, and the British themselves don't really want to fight us.

Domestic tabloids have analyzed that China and Germany have not formed an alliance, and the UK may still have illusions and does not want to provoke us when Europe fights.

There are also newspapers saying that if Britain attacks Chinese overseas immigrants, the National Defense Forces might as well enter India from Burma, let the British lose their crown jewels, and experience what pain is. "

This remark aroused even more controversy, and Hu Dezhi curled his lips unworthily.At any rate, he had attended a military academy and understood the geography of China's surrounding areas. The terrain in Myanmar and Bangladesh, with high mountains and dense forests, was not suitable for large-scale infantry operations at all.

At most it is leading the Indian people to liberate themselves.

Although that's unlikely.

"By the way, Britain has recently recruited troops in India. It is said that two hundred Indian infantry divisions will be formed for use in Southeast Asia and other places, including South Africa. Besides, there are Canadian divisions, New Zealand divisions, and Australian divisions."

The captain's casual news made the immigrants in Maputo quite nervous.India also has a large population and low human life. It seems quite scary to be armed by the British.

It can be seen from this sea battle between Britain, France and Germany that the old imperialist countries such as Britain and France are indeed strong, and they can survive the loss of nearly one million tons of warships.Its military manufacturing capacity is several times stronger than that of China.

Hu Dezhi also felt overwhelmed. Maputo currently has a regular infantry division, plus two lightly armed militia divisions.The total force is in the early [-]s.The ratio of soldiers to civilians is ten to one, and the burden is extremely heavy.

In the past, with domestic support, the military and political personnel in Maputo did not feel any burden.But once the sea route is cut off, its pressure suddenly increases.

In the city, last year's 'Representative Office in Mozambique' was upgraded to 'Maputo Municipal Administration'.The entire military and political system was transferred from the country, and many "five small enterprises" were established to provide employment.

There are not only five small coal mines, small machinery, small glass, small paper, small textiles, small cement, small thermal power, and small chemical fertilizers, but they are all close to people's livelihood and development.

When Hu Dezhi returned to the city's Armed Forces Department, he got two pieces of news.

The good news is that the main force of the British South African fleet was transferred back to the mainland, and it is unlikely to bombard Maputo.The bad news is that two Indian infantry divisions were transferred to South Africa to attack Chinese-controlled Maputo.

Chapter 46 Cannon Fodder

XNUM X Year X NUM X Month.

South Africa, Cape Town, two troop carriers dock.

More than 5000 Indian soldiers lined up under the command of British officers and went ashore in an orderly manner.Under the rice flag, South African Governor Baron Buxton inspected the Sikh guard of honor and Gurkha mercenaries at the pier.

When the Commonwealth declared its entry into the world wars, its members were very active.

Australian Labor Party leader Andrew Fisher has sworn to King Charles I that "Australia will serve Great Britain to the last man and the last shilling."

The Governor-General of Canada has stated that he will mobilize at least 50 troops, Australia can provide 40, and New Zealand 20.Even South Africa can provide 200 white soldiers.India can provide [-] million cannon fodder.

The unity of the Commonwealth makes Baron Buxton feel extremely proud and encouraged, but after careful consideration, he finds that the situation is not as simple as imagined-the biggest variable is China and the United States.

In the original history, troops from Canada, New Zealand, and Australia were all available to fight in Europe.But now the Anzacs are destined to be placed in East Asia and cannot rush to help Europe.

The British immigrants in South Africa could not be transferred to Europe after forming an army. The British were even more worried that this African treasure land would be invaded by Chinese immigrants, so they decided to transfer some urgently mobilized South Asian cannon fodder to strengthen the garrison.

After inspecting the first arrivals of Indian and Nepalese infantry, Baron Buxton was depressed.It's not that the cannon fodder brought in is not elite enough, but the number of Chinese immigrants in Mozambique has skyrocketed from 20 to [-] within a year.

There are really too many Chinese, and the number of soldiers is almost endless.After being efficiently organized, they are not only good at fighting, but also good at building.The latter is the scariest.

There are very few ethnic groups that can combine these two characteristics. 20 Chinese immigrants quickly built a self-sufficient city in Maputo to meet the needs of external expansion.

While there seem to be many Indians, they are actually divided into hundreds or thousands of conflicting ethnic groups.Only the Sikhs, who accounted for less than [-] percent, could be recruited by the British.

As for the well-known Nepalese Gurkha mercenaries, there are even fewer mercenaries, and they will be killed if they can't even sustain a battle in the tragic attrition.

The only luck is that Africa is big enough. Cape Town, South Africa is [-] kilometers away from Maputo.Chinese immigrants are too busy just to occupy Mozambique, and they have no time to interfere with the British colony for the time being.

"It's a pity that Maputo was not wiped out when the number of Chinese was only [-], so that it became a serious problem." Baron Buxton returned to his Governor's Mansion and asked his attendants, "Is there any latest news?"

The Chinese immigrants in Maputo were worried that the British would come over, but in fact Baron Buxton was powerless.Instead, he worried that the Chinese would unite with the Boers and black natives to rebel.

Or this 'worry' is already a reality.

The squire read several telegrams from Johannesburg, South Africa, describing a joint exercise between the Boers, black natives, and Chinese troops.

"Exercise?" Baron Buxton laughed angrily, "I am the only one who can bring together these three irrelevant and even hostile forces."

The attendant marked on the map the approximate locations of two Boer cavalry divisions, three black infantry regiments, and a Chinese motorized infantry regiment, and said in a low voice to Baron Buxton: "Your Excellency, if we sit idly by, Northeast South Africa will be completely out of control." .”

High-level exercises are extremely difficult, and the requirements for commanders are greater than actual combat.This kind of military action that emphasizes organization can only be taught by the Chinese, and the Boers and black natives will definitely benefit greatly.

"What were the results of these three exercises?"

"Funny and ridiculous, it can be said to be a tragedy." The attendant wanted to laugh, but he couldn't laugh. "The insider reported to us that the Boer cavalry was unwilling to cooperate with the black infantry. The black infantry was completely sleepwalking.

The exercise failed to accomplish any of its stated tasks.

Only the Chinese motorized infantry regiment performed well and acted as a sharpening stone. Only 3000 people beat up the other two participating in the exercise. "

Mozambique has oil fields. Although it is not easy to exploit, it is not a problem to start several small oil refining projects to meet the needs of 20 people and even the Boers.This is the basis for the operation of the motorcycle regiment.

The attendant continued: "It is said that after the exercise, several black tribal chiefs agreed to hand over the power of training and command to the Chinese. The Boers may not be satisfied yet, but as long as they have ambitions, they will succumb sooner or later."

This is an ominous sign.

Baron Buxton flipped through the news from Southeast Asia on his desk. The Chinese also used the same trick in Indochina, relying on their interests and culture to attract local aborigines to join them.