typeface
large
in
Small
Turn off the lights
Previous bookshelf directory Bookmark Next

Chapter Twenty-Eight Three Generals

"I agree with Commander Bao's opinion," Lin Wei said proactively.

"We really can't just wait here for the enemy to come to our door. This is too passive. I think we should not only send a small group of elites upstream, but also operate the Khabarovsk stronghold at the intersection of Sanjiang that we built last year.

stand up."

"A fortress can be built on the bank of the Ussuri River in the south, so that the fortress is not on the only path for the Russians, but it can block the Russians' retreat at critical moments."

With his statement like this, the little embarrassment in Bao Youzhi's heart suddenly disappeared.

"Wonderful!" Bao Youzhi said. This Russian attack can be regarded as an expedition. If we hold them back, we may really be able to annihilate them.

The Huai Navy has sea control and can supply supplies from the sea at any time. Even if it is a long way from the country, it is very close to Japan.

Relying on the relationship between the Huai Navy and the shogunate, it would be no problem to get some supplies from Japan.

However, the Russians' supplies had to travel thousands of miles along the Heilongjiang River to be delivered. Once the Huaihai Navy cut off their supplies, the 50,000-strong army was reduced to nothing.

The three finally reached an agreement and decided to take the decisive battle to Temple Street. Temple Street is now a military fortress. As long as the enemy does not have the support of naval guns, the Huai Navy has absolute certainty to defend Temple Street.

The three of them also divided their labors, with Lin Wei taking charge of Temple Street and organizing the construction of fortifications. Another major task he had was to organize manpower to cut down the forest around Temple Street and turn it into an open space.

The more than 10,000 prisoners Bao Youzhi brought this time came in handy.

At the same time, Linwei still needs to organize production. Although a war is about to begin, it can only be grown for one season in the Far East.

Therefore, necessary production still needs to be carried out. The side of Temple Street close to the river cannot be farmed and will become a battlefield. However, there is still a large area of ​​open space in the north of the city that has been simply burned to waste.

As long as it is leveled and the soil is turned over, it can become a good dry field. Planting corn, potatoes, soybeans and other crops will definitely yield a good harvest.

The craftsmanship passed down from our ancestors requires us to cultivate fields wherever we go. It would be a shameful waste to not cultivate the best land.

Temple Street has a temperate monsoon climate. The southeasterly wind begins to blow during this season. The warm wind from the sea is blocked by the mountains of the outer Xing'an Mountains, resulting in abundant precipitation.

This means that the land here basically does not need to be irrigated.

This meeting specifically discussed the non-military topic of farming. Although it is not a military issue, it is also related to whether the Huai Navy can station troops here for a long time in the future and how many troops will be stationed.

Food has always accounted for a large part of the army's logistics supplies. And if it is proven that food can be grown on a large scale here, more people can be moved here in the future.

In fact, this is exactly the case. After returning to Yangzhou, Dong Shuheng has already started the Far East immigration plan for the new year.

This time his plan is bigger. He plans to build twelve farms from Vladivostok along the coastline north to Temple Street.

These immigrants will mainly be recruited from Shandong, including family members of the Far East Garrison Brigade. However, these family members must be arranged near Temple Street.

Most of the people who entered Guandong in later generations were from Shandong, and there was bound to be a layer of involvement between Shandong and Northeast China.

The reason for building farms along the coast rather than along the inland Ussuri River.

On the one hand, this is because it will not come into contact with the forces of the Qing court. On the other hand, it can strengthen China's control here. On the other hand, it is because it facilitates communication by sea and has convenient transportation.

Historically, this place was ceded partly because the Qing government did not actually control it. Now what Dong Shuheng is doing is to make this place full of Chinese traces.

This year's first batch of immigrants has already set off by boat, along with five steam gunboats. The Huaihai Navy is already very mature in manufacturing these five-hundred-ton river gunboats.

Now that the new steam engine has been installed, the ship's speed is much faster than before. After the new 75mm naval gun with a turret is installed, its firepower is invincible in inland warfare.

These gunboats will sail along the offshore coast all the way to Temple Street. The coal replenishment along the way will be completed by supply ships.

The immigrants will first go to Vladivostok, and then look for a convenient point to build a farm along the coastline. Then they will start the preliminary construction and wait for the arrival of subsequent immigrants.

The population of 200,000 was just a drop in Shandong Province at this period. At the end of each dynasty, there were more people and less land, and the contradiction between population and land would be very serious.

Immigration is the best way to solve this problem, and the other is to consume the population through war.

With the secret help of Guangxi Bank of China and the Third Division, it is not difficult to achieve this immigration goal. What is rare is the early investment in transportation and farm construction.

To this end, Huaihai Shipping specially deployed a large fleet to be responsible for this immigration work.

As for Sakhalin Island, Dong Shuheng plans to focus on developing Aniva Bay at the southern end, where a Kuye City is now being built.

Dong Shuheng plans to build this place into a small industrial city to produce goods for trade with the natives on the island and the natives of Ezo Island in the south.

In addition, the port here will also be expanded. Dong Shuheng plans to use this place as a springboard to establish a summer route to North America along the southern tip of the Aleutian Islands.

This will be much closer than transiting from Hawaii.

In fact, Dong Shuheng also had plans to seize Tsarist Russia's territory in North America.

Today's North America is basically a tripartite situation of Britain, Russia and the United States. However, the Russians are the weakest and only own the relatively desolate Alaska region of North America.

The Americans have the best territory in North America, followed by the British, who control Canada.

However, they all face a problem, that is, their country does not have sufficient sources of immigrants.

However, if Dong Shuheng holds Alaska in his hands, this problem will not exist. As long as there is time, these lands will soon be filled with traces of human life by the Chinese.

Directly controlling a piece of land in North America is obviously much safer than simply engaging in racial infiltration.

If China has a legal territory in North America, then the Chinese people who come to North America in the future will be more cohesive.

Historically, Tsarist Russia would sell Alaska to the United States in a few years. Many Americans laughed at the Secretary of State who took the lead in purchasing Alaska and bought a large freezer for the United States.

No one knows the value of this place yet.

A few years later, people discovered a large amount of gold mines here. Only those who had ridiculed were slapped in the face.

It is precisely because of this deal that the United States will be able to participate in the carving up of the Arctic in the future.

The Russians were certainly not stupid. They sold Alaska and completely withdrew from North America because they no longer had the ability to maintain control there.

The British are advancing westward with heavy troops in Canada and may drive the Russians away at any time.

Therefore, Tsarist Russia simply sold Alaska to the Americans. Not only did it get a sum of cash, but it also made the British feel disgusted.

Historically, at this time, because of the Crimean War, Britain and France sent warships to the mouth of the Heilongjiang River to provoke the Russian fleet. However, because they sent too little force, they were defeated by the Russians.

Now, because of the birth of Dong Shuheng, he concentrated his efforts to destroy Tsarist Russia's maritime power in the Far East in advance and gained control of the sea.

Tsarist Russia is currently fighting in the west and cannot send its fleet to the east for support.

In this way, a squadron of the Nanyang Navy became the overlord on the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in the Far East.

The American Company of Tsarist Russia still has some armed merchant ships, but they have all retreated to the Juneau region of North America, where a large number of mercenaries from the American Company are now concentrated.

Previously, the gunboat detachment sent by Lin Wei went north along the coastline and discovered that Tsarist Russia's strongholds in Magadan and Kamchatka Peninsula had basically been abandoned.

Lin Wei is still considering whether to permanently occupy those strongholds after this war.

Bao Youzhi's task was to lead the light ships in the fleet up the river.

On the one hand, he had dealt with people in the upper reaches, so as to persuade them to escape or move to Temple Street with the fleet.

On the other hand, he is good at water warfare, and he is the only one best suited to the task of sniping the Russians on the river.

Wang Xiao's mission was to command part of the 4th Division to build a fortress on the banks of the Ussuri River to block the Russians' retreat at the critical moment.

The intersection of the three rivers became the famous Beidahuang in later generations, and now most of the place is a swampy wasteland.

The soil here is peat soil rich in organic matter. As long as canals are built to solve the drainage problem, this place will become good farmland.

This place was under the jurisdiction of General Jilin, but in fact the rule of the Qing court did not penetrate here.

The closest place to here is Linjiang Prefecture, but it is far to the west of the Wusuli River. Moreover, Linjiang Prefecture is also sparsely populated.

This was the result of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties' blockade of the Northeast for the past two hundred years to prevent Han people from migrating there, leaving large areas of fertile land in the Northeast undeveloped, and ultimately benefiting the Tsarist Russians.

Khabarovsk will be the next focus of the Huai Navy's development. In the future, it will be an important food base in the Far East.

With this food base as a support, the Huai Navy was more confident to compete for territory with Tsarist Russia in North Asia.

In addition, Bao Youzhi asked his deputy to lead the fleet northward, all the way along the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands to Alaska.

The fleet will carry a part of the marines to sweep the Russian American Company's stronghold in Alaska.

This is to take advantage of his illness and kill him. Although the American Company still has strong combat power on land, their armed merchant ships are no match for the Huai Navy fleet.

Bao Youzhi told the fleet going north this time to avoid the large strongholds of the Tsarist Russians and specifically pick out their small strongholds to deal with. At the same time, they should try to eliminate the maritime power of the Tsarist Russians.

In order for the Tsarist Russians to communicate with the mainland in North America, they had to use ships. Without ships, they would not even be able to transport the plundered furs back.

Moreover, these Tsarist Russians in North America had to obtain their food and material rights from outside.

There had been several major famines in Alaska before, and it was the Russian fleet that arrived in San Francisco that bought food from the Spanish. At that time, San Francisco was still under Spanish control.

Summer has now entered, which is the best season for sailing in the Arctic. At this time, if Bao Youzhi did not send the fleet to deal with these people, it would be derelict in his duty.

Moreover, the British instructors on the fleet were also very enthusiastic about this, and they were happy to help the Huai Navy deal with the Russians.

Even the nautical charts for the fleet to Alaska were provided by the British.

Information about the Huai Navy dispatching a large number of troops to the Far East also reached the ears of the British and French ministers.

They did not expect that Huai Haijun would actually keep his promise and go to war with the Russians. The whole of Europe knew that the Russians were not easy to mess with, and this Huai Haijun was really a newborn calf who was not afraid of tigers.

But in this case, Britain and France did not cause trouble to the Huai Navy anymore.

Even after the American Minister Malian returned from Japan, he provoked several times in front of the British and French ministers, but they still did not let the British and French ministers relent. They did not want to lose Huai Haijun, their best thug.

In their opinion, Americans can't even handle Japan, which only shows that Americans are too useless. Who is willing to listen to what useless people have to say?

In the Far East, the Huai Navy's three commanders and four lines launched operations to prepare for the overwhelming pressure of the Tsarist Russian army.

In the south, the elite troops led by Wei Changhui have returned to the outskirts of Tianjing, like cunning wolves, ready to break into Tianjing City at any time and deliver a thunderous blow to Yang Xiuqing.


This chapter has been completed!
Previous Bookshelf directory Bookmark Next