The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 416: Borrowing Money to Fight a War

Through the telescope he could see that the Russian cavalrymen who were riding their horses to the hill opposite the mountain road seemed to be observing very carefully, and even looked through the telescope for a long time.

The Cossack cavalry's action just now scared Wu Peifu so much that he thought that the opposing Guards' troops were not well concealed and were discovered by the Russian reconnaissance cavalry.

After just over ten minutes, the sound of a large group of horses running was heard in the distance, followed by thousands of Japanese cavalry charging forward.

Then, more than twenty minutes later, another large group of Russian troops, arranged in four columns, ran through the mountain road in the gap between the two hills in front of them.

When the main Russian army passed by, Liu Shijiu used the cover of wormwood to carefully observe the Russian army through a telescope.

Even though the Russian army was marching in four columns, it still took the Russian infantry nearly half an hour to pass through completely.

"Damn it, the Russians are really tough. We have wiped out about 40,000 to 50,000 of them, but we still have nearly 20,000 troops."

Wu Peifu explained, "The Russians have more than 100,000 troops outside the Great Wall this time, so it is very convenient for them to send reinforcements to Zhili. However, they have sent 60,000 to 70,000 troops into the Great Wall before and after, and they are likely to send more troops outside the Great Wall."

"Teacher said that although the Russians have a standing force of 1.3 to 400,000, they are mainly deployed in western Russia, always on guard against the Germans. And even if they want to transfer troops from the west, it won't be too many."

"It's thousands of miles from there to our Zhili, and the Russians can't afford much military expenditure. According to the teacher, the Russians borrowed money from France and Britain to go to war with us this time."

Wu Peifu's words shocked both Liu Shijiu and Zhu Kaishan.

Liu Shijiu cursed, "Damn it, this old Russian actually has more than a million soldiers like this! Fortunately, he is far away, otherwise we would have been in big trouble!"

Zhu Kaishan's perspective was somewhat different from Liu Shijiu's, and he said in surprise.

"This Russian territory is really fucking huge, it's thousands of miles away! And they can even borrow money to fight the war! The Russians have a blood feud with us! They want to fight us to the death!"

Wu Peifu smiled and said, "Although the Russians have a large army, their capital, St. Petersburg, is just to the west of their country."

"Because the Russians are so greedy and keep expanding their territory, they don't get along well with the great powers."

"He has to be on guard against Western powers stabbing him in the back, so he definitely doesn't dare to transfer too many of his troops here."

"The teacher said that the Russians can only send another 100,000 people at most."

"As for the Russians' large country, that's because they have been expanding eastward by annexing neighboring small countries for hundreds of years. In terms of area alone, it is the largest in the world."

"As for borrowing money to fight the war, I also asked the teacher, and the teacher said that this time it's not just the Russians, the Japanese devils don't have the money to go to war with us either."

"The Japanese also borrowed money from private banks in France and Britain."

"It is common for the great powers to borrow money to fight wars. Not only is it common for the great powers to borrow money from each other, but even the former emperor of France borrowed money from their domestic banks to fight wars."

Liu Shijiu spat and said, "The foreign devils are just too cunning. Forget it, let's not worry about their messy things. It's almost time."

In order to protect their artillery and provide timely artillery support to the troops in front, all the artillery units of the coalition forces were sandwiched between the front and rear coalition forces, and were four or five miles away from the front and rear coalition forces. However, this time the Russian army in front had been running to catch up with the retreating 3rd Mixed Brigade for a while, and the distance with the artillery units behind should be a little larger. According to the plan, the assault column and the opposite guard brigade should rush into the ambush position during this gap.

Liu Shijiu shouted to Wang Decheng who was not far away, "Order the troops, everyone, get ready to move forward."

"Tell them all to be careful. If anyone ruins the Marshal's plan, I will tear his head off."

Liu Yuanshou was going to form the 7th Mixed Brigade of Huguang, and had now rushed to the Luzhou Camp Office to receive trained artillerymen and some students from the camp school. Then he would wait there for Teng Yuzhao to lead his troops to Luzhou, and then assign him corresponding officers before rushing to Huguang.

Therefore, Liu Shijiu's Assault Column now has no chief of staff, and Wang Decheng is in charge of all related matters.

Liu Shijiu then said seriously to Zhu Kaishan who was eager to try, "The ambush location of your broadsword team is close to the roadside, you must keep an eye on your men. If something goes wrong with the broadsword team, I will not show mercy."

Seeing Liu Shijiu’s stern face, Zhu Kaishan did not dare to be vague and immediately stepped forward and spoke.

"Don't worry, Captain. If that bastard really messes things up, you don't have to do anything. I'll kill him first, and then I'll ask you to deal with him."

"it is good!"

Liu Shijiu waved his hand and shouted decisively, "Let's go."

After Liu Shijiu gave the order, Wu Peifu also waved his hand, and a messenger behind him immediately fled to the edge of the ditch, waving two small red and yellow flags to send flag signals to the opposite side.

Immediately, soldiers waving two small flags appeared in Wu Peifu's telescope.

They were located in the gap between two hills. Even if there were coalition forces on the northern mountain road at that time, they could not be seen using flag signals to communicate.

After Liu Shijiu issued the combat order, the two battalions of the assault column and the guards association immediately jumped out of the narrow ravine and began to trot, rushing quickly towards the hills on the side of the road.

The big knife team was the first to bear the brunt, and under the leadership of Zhu Kaishan, they ran quickly towards the mountain path.

The mission of the Big Sword Team is similar to the last time they ambushed the Allied transport troops. They are still the troops ambushed in the front.

On the side of the mountain road directly in front of them, there were several depressions covered with wormwood, which had been explored in advance.

After the battle started, the Big Sword Team needed to rush into the Japanese army as quickly as possible to prevent the Japanese army from organizing an effective counterattack and minimize casualties in the assault column that launched the charge.

This time, the mission of the Guards Association was mainly to block the Russian troops in front from returning for reinforcements. It was led by Li Zixiong, and Wu Peifu led two battalions in the center to support the blocking troops and the assault column.

The task of cutting off the Japanese reinforcements coming from behind was assigned to a battalion of the assault column.

The assault column would use its main force to attack the Japanese battalion that was escorting the Allied artillery. With its absolutely superior force, it would destroy the Japanese escort troops and the artillery personnel of the Japanese-Russian Allied Forces in the shortest time possible and seize the artillery and ammunition.

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(End of this chapter)