As agreed, after resting and recuperating, Soviet Russia launched an attack on the White Russian troops defending the Chita area.
In this attack, both sides had a tacit understanding not to invest in the Holy Knights. The Tsar was severely weakened after losing the Paladins stationed in the Far East, and was worried that workers' riots in the country would be unable to suppress them after being stimulated by the establishment of Soviet Russia, so he did not send any more troops.
The new Shenji came to support Chita's defense, but a regiment of Shenji was transferred to stay hundreds of kilometers behind the front to provide "psychological support."
The Soviet Union's decision not to send out goddesses was based on similar considerations. They had few goddesses to begin with, and they had to be prepared to suppress internal unrest.
Therefore, this battle that took place in the autumn of 1905 became a stage for the performance of conventional forces by both sides.
At first, the attack went smoothly. The Soviet army's outpost defense line was torn open by the Soviet Union's equipment advantage. Soon the Belarusian army's defense line shrank to a small area near Chita City.
However, when attacking Chita City, the Soviet Russian army encountered stubborn resistance. In the battle with the Chinese army, the Russian army learned many know-hows in the use of machine guns. The Belarusian army moved the Nanyang Army's northward detachment to defend Fengtian City.
The law was applied to the defense of Chita City. On the contrary, on the Soviet side, because almost all the officers were killed, the people's commissars leading the army believed that high morale alone would be enough to easily win, completely ignoring the opposition among the veterans.
Ordered to storm the fortified areas of the White Russian army.
As a result, a large number of Soviet soldiers fell under cross machine gun fire. In just a few days, the Soviet army's vitality was severely damaged and its morale was extremely low. They could only stay in place and make corrections.
At this time, the Belarusian army began to counterattack.
The White Russian army, which only had bolt-action rifles and bulky horse-drawn machine guns in hand, actually took only one day to drive away the Soviet army armed with semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns from the surrounding Chita city.
and launched a counterattack.
This counterattack directly drove the Red Army back to the starting point of their attack. If the Soviet goddess had not finally appeared over the battlefield, the attack of the White Russian army would have continued.
At this time, an accident occurred, which made the "anti-Russian forces abroad" unable to sit still.
The reason was that during the attack, the White Russian army seized a caravan of Chinese businessmen who were doing business on the battlefield and raking in money. The owner of the caravan said, "Master Yuan's army has gathered in Manchuria. You'd better be polite to me."
Then the Maozi Siberian troops themselves were quite gangster-y, and Volga got drunk on them and killed all the men in the caravan, while the two women who brought the food for cooking "disappeared".
This news was spread by spies lurking in the White Russian army. Public opinion within the Federation was in an uproar. The voice of war immediately became louder. The newspaper behind the Ministry of War even used half of the front page to write a huge ""
The word "war".
**
"Sir Lin," Sheng Xuanhuai put down his teacup and seemed ready to end his polite conversation, "What do you think of the war with Russia?"
Lin Youde looked at Sheng Xuanhuai. Of course he knew that this old man from the former Qing Dynasty, who was an important official in the dynasty, did not come to visit and reminisce about the past by flying on a cloud boat. Therefore, the answer was already decided after the intelligence agency received the news that Sheng Xuanhuai had left Beijing.
alright.
"Lord Sheng Xuanhuai, we are the Ministry of the Navy, and land warfare is not under our control."
Lin Youde didn't have much land force, and most of the basic troops were from the south. Seeing that winter was about to enter Russia, he didn't want to wade into troubled waters - he couldn't let the Japanese troops who had just been formed and whose loyalty had not been tested be left alone. superior?
In fact, according to Lin Youde's plan, he planned to shed the blood of the Russians to open a mining base for himself. He did not expect that the Soviet Union was so disappointing. Although its equipment had an advantage of almost a generation, it actually lost. Facts show that even if there is It’s impossible for people with the protagonist’s aura to have everything go smoothly…
With the current state of domestic public opinion, Lin Youde can only order his propaganda agencies to keep a low profile and play the ambiguity game. It seems that he has a position, but in fact, his analysis is all smoke and mirrors.
Probably because of this, Sheng Xuanhuai flew over to confirm Lin Youde's intention. After all, the next regular federal conference was just around the corner, and if war was to begin, a vote would have to be held at the next conference.
"Lord Lin," Sheng Xuanhuai pondered for a moment and continued, "If the Federation goes to war against the Russian Empire, we will face huge difficulties without your help."
For someone as old as Sheng Xuanhuai, he learned new words very quickly and "will face huge difficulties"... Lin Youde wanted to laugh when he thought about this, but luckily he held it back.
"Of course we support war. I have always insisted on paying with blood. But most of my troops are from the south. Winter is coming. I'm afraid the Marine Corps will not be able to help in land warfare."
"Mr. Lin, I won't beat you around the bush. If we want to go to war, we will need a lot of military expenditures. The current federal government may not be able to afford it."
A big reason why powerful powers in various provinces in the country are clamoring for war is that according to the federal provisional law, military expenses for using the army to fight foreign wars are borne by the federal central government. The more detailed national defense mobilization law is still being debated in the parliament. The current situation is that for When Russia goes to war, they don't have to spend money or send troops. If they win, they can rush there to do business. If they lose, the central government and the Ministry of War will take the blame.
Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of this free opportunity?
Don't even think about asking these people to donate money to support the war.
Therefore, Lin Youde, who controlled the Nanyang Bank and had money in his hands, became the target that the federal government must fight for. After all, Yuan Shikai knew how expensive the war was, and the people in the federal government who came from the revolutionary army knew even better - they felt the pain. .
Lin Youde, who knew these interests clearly, was not in a hurry to answer Sheng Xuanhuai. He drank tea leisurely and looked around, and remained silent.
It seems that this scene will give rise to some terrible emotions for many people: the old minister who has already shown his age is sitting at the bottom of the table, looking uneasy, as if he is waiting for some crucial decision, while on the other side is a man in his early thirties. , but calm and relaxed, with a plan in mind.
After buying enough, Lin Youde said to Sheng Xuanhuai calmly: "Sir, the central government can issue war bonds."
"War bonds..." Sheng Xuanhuai had a disappointed expression on his face for a moment. This plan had been discussed by the central government for a long time. Chen Tianhua, who was Lin Youde's representative at the central government at the time, was the mainstay in supporting this proposal, but everyone else felt that This is pure nonsense - who will buy it if it is released? Now that these words came out of Lin Youde's mouth, it immediately felt like he had reduced Master Lin's wisdom and prowess.
But Lin Youde added something unhurriedly, making himself wise and powerful again.
"The central government can issue war bonds and issue an order that the benefits obtained after the victory of the war will be distributed according to the number of bonds purchased, or it can more directly stipulate that the commodity monopoly and mineral mining in the occupied areas will only be used as a means to repay the bonds.
, those who did not buy the bonds will receive nothing.”
"But……"
"If you do this, I will buy bonds, in large quantities."
Sheng Xuanhuai also understood this time.
Lin Youde did this. On the one hand, the provinces had to buy bonds to prevent their interests from being monopolized by the Navy. On the other hand, if he bought a lot of bonds, everyone would not worry about the central government not paying back the money after losing.
—Who dares not to pay back Lin Youde’s money, right?
In this way, the fundraising problem was solved, and the expression on Sheng Xuanhuai's face became much more comfortable.
Declaring war on Russia is inevitable.
At this time, Lin Youde suddenly reminded: "Man, please remind Mr. Yuan and everyone in the central government for me that this Russian winter is very scary."
"Okay, I will convey it." Sheng Xuanhuai responded, but it seemed that he didn't take it seriously.