Respectfully

"Borrowing?" German Governor Waldeck was born as a naval colonel, but unlike ordinary Prussian soldiers who only knew how to obey and give orders, he was very smart and very cautious, which made him stable since he took office in 1911. sitting in the governor's seat.Instead of being caught and quickly kicked out like his predecessor.

Waldeck clasped his hands and said with a serious expression: "I hope you can explain the reason."

"Of course." Zhan Changqing nodded, he can speak fluent English, with a standard Oxford accent, which made it easy for him to communicate with Waldeck and Hux Shaoshen, "In Manchuria before During the negotiation process, your country's Minister Hacks Shaoshen was able to speak up for justice, and we have always been grateful."

Zhan Changqing's words made Hax Shaoshen curl his lips proudly, "Your Excellency, everything I do is out of justice in my heart."

Justice in my heart?As an invader who forcibly occupied Qingdao from China, how can we talk about justice with him, a Chinese?

According to Li Sanshao's words, that is, can you be more shameless?

Suppressing the anger rising in his heart, with a decent smile still on his face, Zhan Changqing continued: "There is an old saying in Huaxia, people who give us help, we will naturally return. And those who are not friendly to Huaxia savage neighbors must fight back!"

A savage neighbor who is not friendly to China?The speculation about this savage neighbor made Hacks Shaoshen and Waldeck a little excited. Obviously, this savage neighbor is either Russia or Japan!

Whichever it is, Germany is happy to see it succeed.The Kaiser and the Tsar were cousins, but they had irreconcilable conflicts in the Balkans.And Japan, an island country in the East, has already formed an alliance with Britain, and it is also an enemy of Germany!

Although Lou Shengfeng is only a local warlord, the land area under his jurisdiction is almost equivalent to a medium-sized country in Europe.This warlord is very strong and iron-blooded. Once his interests are violated, he will fight back desperately.The previous war with the Russians in Manchuria suffices to illustrate this point.Before the war, almost no one was optimistic about him, but he won beyond everyone's expectations. Even the Gallic Rooster had to admit that he was wrong.

What attracted the attention of the Germans was his successor, Lou Xiao. According to the data, he was a young man with the style of a Prussian soldier. He graduated with honors from the German military academy and was appreciated by Marshal Schlieffen.Almost all the troops he commanded were equipped with German weapons.This warlord force has faintly revealed its pro-German intentions. If they can further narrow the relationship with each other and use them to contain Russia's power in the Far East, His Majesty the Emperor will be very happy.

However, Delvac is still very cautious. Before Huaxia signed a foreign loan contract, it was nothing more than using railways, mines and even tariffs as collateral.Lou Shengfeng was very different from other Chinese upper-class rulers. It was hard for him to believe that such a warlord with obvious nationalist tendencies would act like others.

"With all due respect, Mr. Zhan, the loan is not free, nor is it unconditional." Delvac said.

"Of course." Zhan Changqing still had a smile on his face, "There is no free lunch in this world."

"So, what do you intend to use as collateral? Railways? Mines? Or something else?"

"Neither of them." Zhan Changqing didn't intend to tell these Germans straight to the point that they were going to grab the land from the Russians, then search for mineral deposits on it, and invite the Germans to develop it together. This condition seemed attractive, but it was more like It is an empty pie. The Germans are not fools. On the contrary, these seemingly rigid Prussians are smarter than anyone else.Zhan Changqing believes that if this condition is raised directly, the Germans will not be too interested. Whether it is snatching land from the Russians or finding mineral deposits on it, it is just a hypothesis and cannot bring actual benefits immediately.

He believes that another item in the negotiation conditions was also added at the request of Li Jinyan, which may achieve better results.

"Neither?" Hux Shaoshen and Delvac were a little confused by Zhan Changqing's words.

"If you agree to borrow money, most of the money will be used to purchase machinery and lathes in your country. We all know that German machinery is the best."

Zhan Changqing's obviously flattering words brought smiles to the faces of the two Germans. Indeed, the Ruhr area in Germany is the heart of the world's industry. They have enough confidence to proudly say to anyone, German machinery is the most sophisticated and the best in the world!

"Is it just to buy machinery and lathes?" Delvac no longer put on a serious posture, but relaxed on the chair, "In this case, how much is the loan?"

"4000 million German marks."

"How many?"

Hacks, Shaoshen and Delvak both thought they heard it wrong, 4000 million German marks, equivalent to 200 million pounds!Does it take so much money just to buy machinery and lathes?

"Of course it's not just that." Zhan Changqing paused halfway through his words, "Actually, we have another purpose."

His pretending to be mysterious successfully aroused the interest of the two Germans. Seeing that they were hooked, Zhan Changqing continued, "Your Excellency knows that we fought against the Russians not long ago and captured many Russian soldiers."

"Yes."

"Among these soldiers was a captain. He told us a secret in exchange for allowing him to stay in Huaxia."

"secret?"

"Yes, a secret." Zhan Changqing elongated and lowered his voice, "Coal mine! In Siberia, there is a coal mine with rich reserves!"

"Coal mine?"

"Yes, the captain's father is an expert and works for a Russian nobleman. He has found out the exact location of the mine, which is very close to the border of China. Unfortunately, this nobleman accidentally offended the Russian court. The life of a powerful figure in his life was lost, so it was forgotten."

Zhan Changqing began to fool the two Germans with half-truths and half-fakes. This place really exists, but whether there are mineral deposits there is another matter.His purpose is just to get the Germans to come up with money, and even if the matter is revealed, it can be pushed to the Russian captain.They were cheated too, weren't they?

Just when Zhan Changqing was fooling the Germans, the vanguard of the Southern Allied Forces had set out from Yanzhou, including the No.20 Second Division of the Six Southern Provinces, with division commander Sun Qingquan, the Cantonese Sixth Division, division commander Tang Yuhuang, and the Guangxi Army No.60 First Division , Teacher Pang Tianyi.Except for the No.20 Second Division, one division of the Guangxi Army and the Guangdong Army has only more than 8000 people.It is an unwritten practice of almost all armies to eat empty pay, and Sun Qingquan can't say anything.What he couldn't see was that a small number of soldiers of the Guangxi army were carrying bongs in addition to rifles, which were commonly known as two-handed soldiers.Since Song Zhou strictly ordered that opium-smoking soldiers were not allowed in the army of the six southern provinces, once an officer was found smoking opium, he would be immediately expelled from the army and never hired.However, Guangxi is located in a remote area and many people are poor. Planting opium is a way of life for the locals.The governor of Guangxi is a heavy smoker himself, as long as he is still in Guangxi, it is impossible to ban smoking in Guangxi.

"Can such an army fight?"

The 22nd Division is a newly formed unit, veterans account for less than one-third, and most of the rest are recruits. Don't look at the turbulence on the training ground, it will be revealed as soon as you open your mouth.

"Don't underestimate these people." A veteran patted the top of the recruit's head, "They are accurate and ruthless when they fire their guns, and the bullets bite every flesh!"

"Is it really that magical?"

"Don't believe it, you'll know it when you go to the battlefield."

The vanguard passed Qufu, and Sun Qingquan ordered to slow down, and the half-day journey took a full day.Send troops along the way to scout the flanks and expand the range by 300 meters.

Tang Yuhuang, Commander of the Sixth Division of the Cantonese Army, and Pang Tianyi, Commander of the No.60 First Division of the Guijun Army, did not take Sun Qingquan's over-cautiousness seriously. The speed of this kind of old ox pulling a wrecked cart was already dark in Tai'an!

They are here to fight, not to march!

Sun Qingquan could feel Tang and Pang's thoughts to a certain extent. It's not that he didn't want to speed up. After all, Tai'an was right in front of him, but he always had a bad premonition in his heart that the northern army would let them go smoothly so easily. Arrived in Tai'an?This is inevitable... As Tai'an got closer, Sun Qingquan's ominous premonition became stronger and stronger.

Boom boom boom!

Several deafening cannons sounded, and several huge craters exploded on the ground in the blink of an eye, billowing black smoke, the veterans subconsciously fell down, and the recruits' ears roared, their eyes blurred, or they stood there in a daze. In the same place, they either fled in all directions, and were soon killed by the next shell that fell.

The squad leader, platoon leader and company commanders yelled at these recruits who were like headless flies, telling them not to run around. None of the soldiers who were almost deafened by the sound of the artillery listened to them. As long as the veterans on the ground can still move, they also get up and run.Those who are motionless can hardly breathe.

"What are you running?! Come back!"

The three division commanders were immediately protected, and the shells landed a little far away from them, but seeing their soldiers being blown to death, how could they not feel distressed!

"Heavy artillery!" A group leader with a black face and blood on his body reported to Sun Qingquan: "Master, it's heavy artillery!"

"Heavy artillery?"

Sun Qingquan was startled, as far as he knew, the only heavy artillery unit in the coalition forces of the six northern provinces was in Lou Xiao's independent brigade!Did they meet the Independent Brigade?

The sound of the cannons still didn't stop, and Sun Qingquan didn't dare to think about anything else, what if the heavy cannons fell down?Don't worry about Sanqi 21, let's talk about it after running away.

The so-called recruits are afraid of artillery and veterans are afraid of numbers. When facing heavy artillery, they have become clouds.No matter how accurate the gun was, and no matter how desperate the bayonet was, a shell would still turn into scum!

Lou Xiao was riding on a horse, looking through the binoculars at the vanguard of the Southern Allied Army in chaos after several rounds of shelling. Is this the southern army?

"Young Marshal, I didn't expect this group of southern barbarians to fight so hard." A regiment leader also looked into the distance with a binoculars, "They all run faster than rabbits."

Marshal Lou didn't answer, and after a while, he suddenly said, "Stop shelling."

"Ah?" The battalion commander of the Heavy Artillery Battalion and his artillerymen were fighting vigorously. When they heard the order to stop the shelling, they didn't react for a while. Didn't they say that they would hit half the base?

"Young Marshal has an order, stop shelling!" The orderly repeated the order.

The three divisions who were running away found that the sound of the artillery stopped suddenly, and they looked back boldly, and suddenly jumped up in fright, and Sa Yazi ran faster than before.

"Cavalry!" He shouted at the top of his voice while running, "Cavalry is coming!"

It was Gui Jun who was shouting, and only Gui Jun could understand, but he didn't need to understand what he meant, the sound of rumbling horseshoes behind him was enough to explain everything.Sun Qingquan intentionally ordered some soldiers to stay and block, but no one listened to him.The fastest runner is already 200 meters ahead.

The battle started suddenly and was well planned, but the process was a bit of a joke.

Ever since the scandal of the southern government negotiating a traitorous treaty with the Japanese broke out, the northern coalition forces have changed their battle plan. They no longer plan to passively meet the enemy, but take the initiative to attack, destroy their vanguard first, and then attack Yanzhou and Linyi , hit them by surprise!The best result is to drive them out of Shandong completely.After that, he went southward, invaded Jiangsu, and joined forces with the Henan and Hubei armies to besiege Anhui!

Jiangsu and Zhejiang are Song Zhou's lairs, and he will not give up easily. There must be a fierce battle to be fought in Jiangsu, but the current domestic situation is very favorable to the north, and the southern government has lost popular support. Such an opportunity is really not easy.

It was Lou Xiao who proposed this bold attack plan, and he also took the initiative to undertake the main attack task.

Including the confrontation with the vanguard, and the attack on Yanzhou and Zaozhuang, the independent brigade took the lead.The Tenth Division and No.11 Division of the Six Northern Provinces responded as flanks, and the Ji Army and the Lu Army were also assigned tasks, but no matter how they looked, they looked like soy sauce roles.

In fact, they don’t want to fight soy sauce. Han Anshan, the backbone of the Lu army, went to Qingdao. In the previous series of activities of the Northern Allied Forces, the Ji army ran away more than 3000 soldiers, one-third of the lower-level officers, Even the battalion commander ran away twice!The rest of the people are also thinking about it, and the combat effectiveness of the army must be compromised.Let them bring such an army to the battlefield, isn't it waiting to be defeated?

As a result, the army of the six northern provinces, with strong troops and strong horses, undertook the most difficult task under the expectation of everyone.

At the beginning, the officers and soldiers of the Independent Brigade were still waiting for the battle. After all, those veterans said that the combat effectiveness of the Guangxi Army and the Guangdong Army was a little bit too evil. They said that they were accurate in shooting guns and cutting off their sons and grandchildren.But when they actually met each other face to face, these veterans realized that they were wrong, completely wrong!

Three years ago, they were still equipped with the same equipment as the Southern Army. The bullets were fired one by one, and after a few shots, they had to charge up with bayonets when the trumpet sounded. Now it is completely different. They have heavy artillery, machine guns, and German-made rifles!

When the heavy artillery fired, every shell fell down into a large pit with a diameter of tens of meters. Fighting like this is like bullying people!A few soldiers from the Ji Army and Lu Army who had defected to the Independent Brigade not long ago looked at the situation in front of them, their calves trembling. How would they fight such an army?