Respectfully

In the seventh year of the Republic of China, on September 1916, 9 in the Gregorian calendar, on the Western Front in Europe, soldiers from the Allied and Allied Powers were still struggling in the muddy trenches.Most of them do not know that the history of world wars, or even the entire course of the First World War, will change today.

In the past two years of the war, soldiers on both sides have mastered the "essence" of trench warfare.As long as the commander did not issue a combat order, and the enemy on the opposite side did not launch an attack, the daytime was mostly time for rest and supplies.In addition, both sides often dig underground tunnels leading to the enemy's trenches. Once the predetermined location is dug, the large amount of explosives planted will make the enemy look good.The result of both sides doing this is that sometimes digging will encounter the enemy, and an engagement "under the ground" is inevitable.There is no retreat in such a battle, no artillery support, only fists and bullets.The fight doesn't end until everyone on one side is killed.

Belligerents also fired gas bombs when the wind was blowing in their favor.When the gas masks were still very simple, the soldiers of the Allied Powers had killed and injured tens of thousands of people under a poison gas attack by Germany, but with the Chinese gas masks and the capture from the German army, the British and French soldiers no longer talked about poison gas and changed their faces.But when the Germans started using mustard gas, bad luck would come again.

These are the past, from today, everything will be different.

The sun was rising, and with the sound of rumbling engines, eighteen black steel behemoths appeared on the battlefield.The diamond-shaped body and the steering wheels behind the car make them look quite weird.

The whistle of the British and French offensive sounded at the same time, and a large number of coalition soldiers who had received combat orders in advance jumped out of the trenches and followed the tanks to attack the German positions.

In the past, the uninhabited land where the British and French allied forces suffered heavy casualties, barbed wire fences that required countless lives to pass, and various bunkers were easily run over by tank tracks. Once they entered the attack range, the machine gunners and gunners in the tank immediately Open fire, the German army in the position has little power to fight back, and the power of the tank is fully revealed at this moment.

From 1915, when the British Army's first tank, the "little vagrant", came out, to September 1916, the UK produced more than 9 tanks. This was the result of the then Secretary of the Navy Churchill's private embezzlement of naval military expenditures.It was originally planned to send more than 100 tanks to the front line. Due to various reasons, only 100 tanks finally arrived. In one step, you will "lie down" on the spot.

In the end, only eighteen tanks launched the attack.Therefore, it is not unreasonable for the top British army to think that the current Mark I tank is just a toy.The performance of these tanks is too unstable.

The offensive of the British and French coalition forces continued. Eighteen tanks were scattered on a front more than ten kilometers long, and their effect was very limited.But the Allied soldiers who saw the tank for the first time didn't know what the monsters in front of them were. In shock, some of them threw away their weapons and turned to run away.

The offensive started smoothly, and the morale of the British and French allied forces was even higher. The British commander Haig, who had witnessed all this with his own eyes, was also relieved.However, with the sound of another engine sound, the situation on the battlefield changed.

Seven German tanks appeared.

The sudden appearance of these tanks was an accident to most of the German and British and French allied forces, but their appearance changed the situation on the battlefield.Mark I, met the opponent ahead of time.

The abilities of German engineers and arsenal technicians are indeed amazing. In such a short period of time, they not only improved the shape of the tank, but even installed a turret for the tank!The Ugly [-], like the female Mark [-], has no turret and has only machine guns, but the seven German tanks that appeared on the battlefield are all equipped with turrets and machine guns, and they are still long-barreled artillery.

At a distance of 500 meters, the German tanks opened fire one after another. The two Mark Is were destroyed in the first round of shelling and ignited a raging fire.

The encounter between British tanks and German tanks was at least one and a half years earlier than in history.What the Germans sent to the battlefield was no longer the huge and slow-moving A7V, but an ugly modified version named A6V, which was faster and had equally fierce firepower.

Seven A6Vs faced eighteen Mark Is. In terms of numbers, the British and French allied forces had an absolute advantage.In terms of firepower, each German tank is equipped with a 57mm main gun and six machine guns, and its effective hit distance can reach 2000 meters.

After the appearance of their own tanks, the German soldiers finally calmed down and began to organize defense and counterattack.A large number of machine guns, mortars and grenades roared.Shells and grenades continued to fall, and smoke rose from the attacking troops. The British and French allied forces' offensive was blocked. They tried to stabilize the occupied German positions, but found it difficult to do so.

In the firefight just now, three more Mark I tanks were destroyed, four broke down, and German soldiers began to attack the tracks of the tanks. It worked.Of the eighteen tanks, only four are still able to move, and the German army still has five tanks intact. Even if the speed is a bit slow, the mobility is completely unaffected.

When the German reinforcements appeared, the Anglo-French forces knew that their attack, or surprise attack with tanks, could only end in failure.During the retreat, three of the remaining four Mark I tanks had problems of one kind or another, and only one tank returned to the coalition position intact in the end.

It is lucky, but its companion is not necessarily.

The Anglo-French allied forces did not win the tank surprise attack as in history, and those tanks that broke down and were damaged on the battlefield could not be dragged back, and they could only watch them being destroyed or captured by the German army.

Haig, the frontline commander of the British army, smiled wryly. Since the battle in which 7 people were lost in one day, bad luck has been closely following the British army.In addition to the losses on the battlefield, Haig had to find a way to deal with the blame from the upper echelons of the army. After all, he "desperately" ordered the tanks to join the battle.

The British and French allied forces were covered by dark clouds, and the German army was in a relatively relaxed mood. They kept their positions and repelled the enemy's attack, even though the losses were equally huge.

After a short rest, many people's stomachs started to make noises, no matter how brave the soldiers were, they needed to eat.

Compared with the positions of the British and French allied forces, the German army repaired the trenches quite "comfortably" and equipped with generators. When a group of soldiers in rotation entered the "dining room", the light bulbs above their heads were emitting a faint yellow light.Soldiers had already lined up in front with lunch boxes. Judging from the expressions on everyone's faces, today's food should be quite good.

The German diet has always been known as "simple", and there is everything with sausages.Maybe eat a little better, and no one wants to.

Now the German army and the Anglo-French allied forces are facing certain difficulties in logistical supplies, especially food. Soldiers on both sides have been solemnly warned not to waste any food.In fact, no fool would do that.

"Paul, it's not the damn moldy bread today, is it?" a second lieutenant officer asked.

"Of course not." The soldier named Paul said: "Today, there are sausages, luncheon meat and beans. If you are lucky, you can get a cup of Chinese drink."

The so-called "Chinese people's drink" is a popular saying in the German army. It refers to fried noodles with oil, plus crushed peanuts and other nuts. Just one cup can maintain the calories for half a day or even a day.

"Praise God!" The second lieutenant sighed sincerely as he looked at the lunch box and the steaming water glass in Paul's hands.

There are only two things that can make a soldier happy after a hard battle, and one is three days' sleep, which is pure fantasy.The other is to fill the stomach with hot food. If there is a Huaxia filter cigarette, it will be even better.

Soldiers and officers were queuing up to receive food, and soon it was the second lieutenant's turn to interrogate. Fortunately, he not only got the hot drink he wanted, but also a whole sausage and a large piece of luncheon meat.When supplies were relatively abundant, each of them could get a whole box, but now they can only share one can between two or three people.

The sea was blocked by the British, and merchant ships from neutral countries had to work hard to transport their goods to Germany.The materials that China transported to East Prussia through the Trans-Siberian Railway, especially canned food and medicine, are extremely important to Germany today.Although American merchant ships will also ship canned food, from any perspective, Chinese canned food is more popular.

The food made by the Germans is very simple and the taste is not good, but it does not mean that they have no tongue and no taste buds.

The second lieutenant sat next to several soldiers with a lunch box, and they all ate big mouthfuls.One of the sergeants finished his meal and took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. The most common logo of Huaxia Cigarettes was printed on it, a "golden glitter", eh, bald head.

Seeing this pack of cigarettes, the eyes of the people around began to light up.

"This is from my father." The soldier said, tearing open the package, and each of the five people sitting together got one.

"Your father?"

"Yes." The soldier said: "My father is an engineer. He once worked in China and established friendship with two Chinese people. They called my father 'Master'."

"master?"

The weird pronunciation, after passing through the mouths of several people, has changed everything.

"They learned about my father's situation and sent us a lot of things from China, including food, medicine, cigarettes, and blankets." The soldier put the cigarette case in his coat pocket, "We are lucky. Father said we were By the grace of God, my two younger sisters can still eat sweets when other children can only eat black bread. There is enough medicine for the family when they are sick, which is more precious than anything.”

Several people were silent, the whole cigarette was burned out, the second lieutenant glanced at his watch, the meal time was over, and the relaxed mood became tense, and they became iron-blooded German soldiers again.

The same scenes and dialogue also occur in the Allied forces.The difference is that a large part of the German army's food supplies, especially canned meat, came from China, while the Allied forces had a larger share of American goods.

Since we want to pull the United States into our camp, we must naturally give these Yankees a "reward" that will tempt and satisfy them.Americans are at least willing to accept francs and other European currencies compared to the Chinese who only accept gold, silver, and British pounds, but they also do not accept rubles.This annoyed the Tsar considerably.There is no way to get annoyed, who let Tsarist Russia issue paper money indiscriminately for military expenses.

No one is willing to exchange the materials in their hands for a pile of waste paper, unless it is lack of heart.

The battlefield on the Western Front entered a stalemate again after the tanks of both sides showed up one after another.

The Anglo-French forces had tanks, and so did the Germans.

The German army has a cluster of artillery, and the British and French allied forces are not lacking.

The number of casualties of soldiers on both sides is increasing every day, and logistical supplies have become equally difficult.Under the condition that the conditions are equal, the only thing that the two sides can compete with is the will of the soldiers.

The battle on the western front was tense, and the Russian army attacking on the eastern front was forced to stop after reaching the Carpathian Mountains.Huge casualties and a chaotic command system exhausted Brusilov. When the Russian Supreme Command finally ordered reinforcements, Brusilov resolutely opposed it. He had already seen through the flaws in the Russian command system. The arrival of more troops will not only not help, but will also make the frontline command more chaotic.

Unfortunately, his objections didn't work.

Brusilov was very angry. He desperately wanted reinforcements and supplies, but he refused!Now he doesn't want it anymore, but he insists on it!Don't those generals at High Command never know what's going on at the front?Are the staff officers around them all pigs? !

No matter how angry Brusilov was, the established facts could not be changed. The chaos he expected still occurred. With the reinforcements assembled by Austria-Hungary and Germany, the Russian offensive became weak.At the end of September, the last large-scale offensive of the Tsarist army in World War I was also the one that achieved the greatest results, and it came to an end.

This attack saved the Tsarist Russian Empire a little "face", and also contained the Allied forces on the Western Front through the Eastern Front, but it also became another factor that accelerated the Tsar's downfall.

Huge military expenditures and losses forced the Tsar to agree to the request for additional banknotes again.The gold guarantee is less than 100 billion, but the rubles to be issued are 310 billion!This "money" will completely destroy the Russian economy.

At the beginning of October, the war situation in Europe continued to be anxious, and China's export volume also doubled several times.

The grain grown by farmers, the livestock raised by herdsmen, and the products produced under the assembly line of factories, whether it is a large factory or a family workshop, as long as there are qualified products, there is no need to worry about sales. As long as you are willing to work, you can make money!

The number of idlers has decreased, and the number of beggars has also decreased. A large number of farms and factories are recruiting workers. From south to north, even in the most remote areas of the southwestern provinces, the machines in the newly opened factories are running day and night. .

As long as you are willing to work, it is impossible to become rich overnight, at least you can fill your stomach.

Not only Chinese people, after Britain and France successively "sold" some of the disputed land on the southwestern border, faces of Southeast Asians and Indians also appeared in small factories and workshops near the border in Yunnan, Guangxi and other provinces.

Their wages are only half or one-third of that of Chinese people, but their lives are much better than those in China. More and more people are trying to find ways to cross the border. To curb the momentum of "cross-border smuggling", some of them were repatriated, most of them Indians.But even so, the number of "foreign workers" is still only increasing.

In mid-October, Guanbei World officially opened. On the basis of Guanbei Theater, a three-story building was expanded by more than three times. It gathered theater stage, cinema, juggling troupe, cross talk, storytelling, shadow puppetry, and even Western opera and new-style singing and dancing.There is also an ingenious game room, which is also enough to attract attention.

There are not only all kinds of entertainment here, but also various snack shops, each of which is small in size, but the business is quite good.

On the day of the opening, Li Jinyan specially invited Bai Lao and others to listen to the opera. Several people from Beijing and Tianjin will be on stage for half a month, as well as theater troupes and juggling troupes invited from the south. Although influenced by movies and Western culture, this time The most sought after by Chinese people at that time was still traditional opera and literature and art.

"Grandfather, Mr. Deng, Mr. Ran, Mr. Zhang, Mr. Meng, Mr. Kong, Mr. Zhao, this way please."

Li Jinyan acted as a "tour guide" dutifully. If he could make these old people happy, maybe he would have a better life in the future.

I went to ask Bai Lao for advice for "The Officialdom" before. Although I "benefited a lot", I paid a lot of money. Occasionally, when I think about it, my eyes are full of bitter tears. He never knew that these old gentlemen are not only proficient in traditional culture and Chinese studies , The understanding of officialdom is not inferior to that of Bai Lao.After being taught by them, Li Jinyan only felt that the whole person was going to be "sublimated".

When the stage started, with the sound of gongs and drums, Li Jinyan invited several old gentlemen to take their seats, and ordered someone to bring tea and fruit, and when he turned around, he saw Adjutant Li appearing at the door of the box.

"how?"

"Speak less." Lieutenant Li took out a telegram from the pocket of his military uniform jacket, "A telegram from Dalian."

Li Jinyan unfolded the telegram and glanced at it. There were only eight words on it. It had arrived in Dalian and the goods were in good condition.

Seeing this telegram, Li Jinyan's first reaction was to be happy, and the corners of his mouth almost reached his ears, but his second reaction was to turn his head and look at the old gentlemen who were sitting in the box, listening to the play with relish...