Vishnyak and Boris have had a great time in the past six months. Based on the principle of one shot to change the place and the thief not to miss the target, it is a huge gain. It is really disrupting the logistics supply line of the coalition forces.
A pot of porridge.
Let's put it this way, without these two brothers, Duke Mikhail's pressure would be much greater. However, although life was pleasant, when the coalition forces really started to pay attention to them, the trouble became bigger and bigger.
The coalition first strengthened the protection of the logistics lines and deployed a large number of troops on the transportation lines. Secondly, they made great efforts to do the work of the Bulgarian nobles. Anyway, they used both soft and hard methods. On the one hand, they gave money to appease them and on the other hand, they also killed the chickens and warned the monkeys.
After these two sets of combined punches, the living space of Vishnyak and Boris was compressed to the limit. In the past, they could easily attack the coalition logistics convoy and then calmly sell it to the Bulgarian nobles. It can be said that they made a lot of money every day.
But now every supply convoy of the coalition forces is equipped with heavy military protection, making it more difficult for them to get it. Sometimes even if they grab something, they may still lose money when they resell it.
You must know that the Bulgarians who follow them can't afford the expense because of their small profits. They can do it once or twice, but they won't be willing to do it if they do it too many times. In addition, the British and French bribe them with huge sums of money, and naturally more and more Bulgarians are willing to follow them.
The less.
Actually, this is not the most critical reason. The reason why the Bulgarians hesitated is because the Russian army's performance on the Crimean battlefield was too useless. Not only was it suppressed by Britain and France, Sevastopol was still in danger.
.
At this time, anyone with a clear mind knows what the current situation is. Now that the Russians have shown their disgrace, who would be willing to foolishly commit suicide with them?
Anyway, in the past month or so, Vishniak and Boris have not made a single deal, and they were almost caught by the coalition forces. If they hadn't run very fast, they would have been punished.
As a result, they who originally planned to try their best to support finally hesitated, and then sent someone to tell Li Xiao to ask if there was anything the know-it-all could do.
Li Xiao thought for a while and asked: "How many troops do Boris and the Bulgarian Resistance Army have now?"
"More than 20,000 people."
"Tell them that we sincerely welcome those who are willing to evacuate to Wallachia with them, and those who are unwilling to leave and want to stay, we will keep in touch so we can get together and part ways."
Hearing this, Alexey was stunned and asked: "You just give up, can't you hold on a little longer?"
Li Xiao sighed and said: "It is commendable that they can hold on for so long. There is no point in continuing to hold on. Let's withdraw!"
Alexey was still a little reluctant: "We rely on them to support our tight finances during this period. Without the extra income, I'm afraid we will have to make ends meet again?"
"If you can't make ends meet, just make ends meet!" Li Xiao sighed, "This war won't last long anyway. I estimate it will be over in four months at most, or maybe even as long as three months. We grit our teeth and survive these three months.
Enough!"
After a pause, he continued: "On the contrary, Boris and his friends are more valuable and we cannot let them die in Bulgaria in vain. Moreover, there will be some Bulgarians who are willing to cooperate with us and let them form a government in exile!"
Alexey couldn't figure out the use of forming a government-in-exile in name only. Li Xiao told him: "It is indeed useless on the surface, but this is our bargaining chip on the negotiating table in the future. Although this bargaining chip is very small,
Your mosquito legs are also meat, don’t waste it!”
Forming a government-in-exile is indeed a good trick for disgusting people. Although this time Russia's actions in Bulgaria can be said to be a complete failure. Let alone getting Bulgaria out of Turkey's control, it is impossible to give Bulgaria autonomy.
But if it doesn’t work this time, who can guarantee that it won’t work next time? Wouldn’t it be nice to set up a pro-Russian Bulgarian puppet regime in advance and let these people take over Bulgaria when they want revenge in the future?
What's more, although Russia was unsuccessful this time, Bulgaria's anti-Turkey stance has not relaxed. There are many people in Bulgaria who want to fight for national liberation and freedom. It is good to have such a government-in-exile to attract them to recruit the Leading Party!
However, this series of bad news still made Li Xiao feel heavy. Generally speaking, under his intervention, Russia performed much better in this war than in history, avoiding the outcome of being unilaterally beaten and having to lose power and humiliate the country.
But in the final analysis, there is still a distance from the result he expected. For example, Sevastopol, although a lot of work has been done, if Alexander II had not made up his mind early, it would still fall as it did in history.
The only thing that satisfied Li Xiao was that he saved the lives of Kornilov and Nakhimov. Historically, the siege of Sevastopol had just begun, and Kornilov died under the first round of artillery fire from the coalition forces.
will fall, and Nakhimov will also be killed in the subsequent siege operations.
To be honest, the death of these two people is a heavy loss and will bring great difficulties to the reconstruction of the Black Sea Fleet in the future.
With Li Xiao's intervention, although the war is not over yet, it can basically be said that they have saved their lives. In the future, their friendship may not be able to give Li Xiao great support in the military field.
Li Xiao carefully recalled what he did after the war broke out. Although it was not particularly perfect, it was basically passable. What he needs to do now is to try to divide Britain and France to fight for better conditions for Russia at the negotiation table.
.
Thinking of this, he said to Alexei: "I must go to Istanbul soon!"
Alexei blurted out: "Go to Uncle Leboeuf?"
Li Xiao nodded. As the senior counselor of the French Embassy in Turkey, Leboeuf had access to a lot of confidential information about France and the coalition forces, which was of great significance to him in judging the direction of the situation.
"This is too dangerous!" Alexey said worriedly, "You should know that due to the interference of the raiding fleet, the coalition forces have strengthened the naval blockade. It is too risky for you to go like this!"
Li Xiao smiled and said: "If you don't enter the tiger's den, how can you catch the tiger's cubs? And I have a suitable concealment of my identity. As a big French businessman, someone who has made significant contributions to the logistics supply of the coalition forces, I can't get into trouble if I sit on their warships."
!”
Alexei was speechless again. Only he knew how courageous Li Xiao was. With the legal identity that LeBoeuf helped him forge, he purchased several ships in the name of a wealthy French businessman to transport supplies to the coalition forces.
He made a lot of money in the smuggling business, mainly because he had contact with the attack fleet and didn't worry about being attacked at all, so he almost lost nothing.
After more than a year, he has made money and gained the friendship of the senior generals of the coalition forces. As long as his ship has the green light all the way, otherwise you would think that the ammunition of the Sevastopol defenders, especially the force, has played a huge role.