Chapter 416 Big guy!

The north wind whimpers, and the frost is like a blade.

In the south of March, spring buds may have appeared, but for Siberia, this winter will continue to rage for at least two months.

Zhao Long lifted the tent slightly, and the cold wind flashed through the gap like a blade. Looking at several soldiers in the distance who pulled an accidentally frozen war horse and walked in the deep snow of their legs and stomachs, as a commander, he couldn't help sighing and grabbed the hood and walked out.

This is a small town located in the northeast corner of Lake Baikal. The Siberian Railway passes through the town. It turns out that more than 1,000 Russian residents here have been deported to Angarsk, which is full of wire and bunkers 20 kilometers away. It has become a huge military camp, and even the war zone headquarters is located here. .

Walking out of the tent, it was still a continuous marching tent like a snow bag. The huge barracks was almost white at this moment. Except for the watchtowers and soldiers on duty around, the whole camp was immersed in silence.

Such a scene is not a day or two, but a full four months. Since last year, the three armies on the Russian Eastern Front were eaten. Using the captured trains, the three infantry divisions have quickly arrived on the outskirts of Angarsk and formed a complete encirclement of the Kuropatkin. Now all of the Northeast Theater have gathered here. Eight infantry divisions and two cavalry divisions, with a total strength of 180,000.

Although the besieged Kuropatkin was reinforced by 50,000 infantry in the west before the completion of the encirclement, and the total strength surged to 200,000 again, due to the loss of Chita and Irkutsk, a large number of materials were seized. In addition, the Fourth Infantry Division and the Ninth Infantry Division joined hands to block Zamu. The fortress of Sk blocked as many as 500,000 Russian [***] teams outside the railway line in one fell swoop, so that he could no longer get any support.

Although the force has a strong offensive posture, like the Russian army trapped outside Zamsk, the strong attack was artificially suppressed because of the bad weather and a large number of barbed wire bunkers.

It's not that the troops can't fight in winter. In fact, even now, many officers think that this kind of weather is beneficial to the attacking side, but the general reference takes into account that the losses and consumption of fighting in harsh weather are too great, and such casualties are obviously unnecessary when they are completely surrounded.

In the long winter, it is particularly important to ensure morale. In order to maintain morale and not to waste half a year, the headquarters specially organized the instructors of each division and regiment to hide in tents to give cultural lessons for everyone, and the general staff also opened the radio to the soldiers for the first time, so that the communication officer could pass the soldiers' messages through the rack. Set up a radio transmission tower to report safety to the family.

Although the telegrapher's work has increased greatly every day, a letter of sympathy organized by many schools and factories in China have kept the morale of the army at a good level, and the soldiers can continue to prepare for the decisive battle here at ease.

But there is also a crisis lurking in this kind of leisure. The most worried thing for him and the general manager is illness. The winter in the north, especially in Siberia, is unimaginable for outsiders. The temperature here can drop to minus 30 to 40 degrees. According to the soldiers, the urine is frozen before dripping on the ground.

This is unimaginable for ordinary people living in the south. Although a lot of preparations were made before the start of the war, those methods in the face of this severe winter are still a little overstretched, especially the soldiers in the army who grew up in the south, which is a severe test for them, starting from the war. At first, it was calculated that 6,700 people died in the army, but now the number has risen to 12,000 people. Three of the nearly 6,000 people were frozen to death, and the rest died of beribery.

I thought about freezing to death and frostbite before, but the appearance of athlete's foot disease caught the headquarters off guard. According to the military doctor, this is caused by a long-term lack of vegetables, but in this damn weather, I can't even see the green end. Where can he go to get vegetables?

Due to the heavy snow, the logistics supply of the army has become very difficult. Meat and white food are okay. As early as the beginning of last year, hundreds of thousands of workers were used to reserve a large amount of materials in Kulun and Urumqi, half of which were food, and they were also set up on the border such as the Tangnu Wuliang Sea. Supply station, so the endless horse-to-horse team can still ensure the army's rations, but vegetables are a big problem. At this moment, I'm afraid that the whole three provinces of Mongolia are not green at all. Where can I find them?

In this case, he can only ask Cullen to send more tea first, at least to let the soldiers relieve the smell of oil in their mouths, but this is not enough. According to the medical officer, if there is no large amount of vegetables to supplement the soldiers, it may cause an outbreak of athlete's foot.

This is not a joke. Seeing that it has survived for four months, if the last two months of horses lose their hoofs and finally affect the decisive battle after the beginning of spring, then the sin is really a big deal! So after he got the medical officer's report, he immediately sent a telegram to the chief counsellor, asking them to find a way to get some for himself, even if it was a rotten vegetable root.

It has been more than half a month since the telegram was sent out. The general manager just said that he would definitely provide support, but he didn't know how they would ship it. "Is it to use an airship?" This idea just came up, and it was immediately extinguished by Zhao Long himself. Last month, a reconnaissance airship was ready to go to the weather to see the movement of Angarsk, but half an hour after going up, it was forced to release the airbag because the propeller was frozen. Finally, after landing, it was found that one of the observers had been frozen. It's stiff, so using an airship in this kind of weather is almost the same as looking for death.

Since you don't need an airship, it must be a horse-to-carrying team, but it will take about ten days to arrive here from Cullen in this weather. It is even farther from the buns that can mobilize a batch of radish and cabbage to Cullen recently. It is estimated that it will really become a rotten vegetable root when it arrives.

"But rotten vegetable roots are better than nothing."

Zhao Long smiled bitterly. Just as he was about to go there to see if the horse team had arrived, suddenly there was a loud whistle in the distance, and then a large area of thick smoke appeared in the sky.

"Train?!"

Zhao Long's eyes widened. Although the Siberian artery from Vladivostok was not destroyed, it had already stopped because the snow was too deep. Why did the train appear at this time?

Although I didn't understand how the train arrived, the whistle was like a shot of stimulant, which suddenly blew up the camp that was still silent just now. The soldiers came out of the tent one after another to see who had the ability to drive the train without seeing the track without seeing the snow.

As the train slowly approached, Zhao Long couldn't help but widen his eyes. He only saw that the front train had two fronts, and the frontmost head was also equipped with a triangle. The front was sharp like a shovel-like two large steel plates, pushing down the two high-horsepower fronts at the same time. The snow was pushed to both sides along the pierced tip, revealing the rails laid below.

"Yes! Why didn't I expect to shovel the snow with a few cars together? When Zhao Long secretly scolded himself for being stupid, the train had slowly entered the camp. The two familiar figures had jumped down without waiting for the car to stop.

"Tang Xiao? Da Zhuang!"

"Haha, what a rare guest. I didn't expect you to come!"

Seeing the person coming, Zhao Long greeted him with a laugh. Du Dazhuang immediately saluted and said, "Report Commander, the Royal Guard Corps is responsible for escorting the arrival of supplies. Please accept it."

"Okay!" With the appearance of several trains behind, Zhao Long's mouth was about to smile. After returning the gift, he took the material list, handed it to the staff behind him and asked, "Why did you come?"

"What's more!" Tang Xiao is also a member of the cabinet now, but his temper has not changed. In addition, he and Zhao Long are the old man who came out of bitter Canada together, so he talked a lot casually. He stepped on the deep and shallow snow and said with a sad face, "For you, the emperor arrested me from the quilt in the middle of the night to solve the transportation. These big guys came just a few days ago, so you have to repay me well.

"Oops, there are many Russian women on the opposite side. If you are not afraid of a few more dark circles under your eyes, I will send someone to catch some and send you back to warm the bed?"

"Get out of here!"

Tang Xiao stared at the unscrupulous Commander Zhao. When he first arrived in Hawaii, he was hit by two dark circles in the family because he looked at the native girl a few times. There were few people who knew about the scandal. Who thought that the emperor didn't know whether it was intention or not, but he actually spilled the beans. Now these guys have to say two words when they see themselves. Isn't this a smear on the minister's face?

Stepping on the deep snow, Tang Xiao began to introduce to Zhao Long that as early as after the capture of Vladivostok, the Ministry of Construction received a strict order to open the branch railway from Harbin to Buri via Jiamusi within three months, and connect the increasingly perfected Northeast Railway Network with the Siberian artery. For this purpose, the construction The Ministry urgently increased the number of labor by 300,000, and temporarily recruited 100,000 people through North Korea, and a full 400,000 people started work at night.

However, due to heavy snow and other reasons, it took another month to get through, but it is also worth it, because the smooth opening of this branch has connected Yanjing with Siberia. Although it is impossible to achieve direct access due to the different rail system, and two trains are needed to connect, at least it can get rid of the fragile Through Mongolia's horse supply line, it has truly realized the ability to quickly transfer materials, laying a solid foundation for the thorough control of Siberia in the future.

When Tang Xiao was caught by Li Mo from the quilt, he immediately began to organize everyone to study how to break through the snow to make the railway move. Finally, someone thought of using several high-horsepower locomotives to connect in series, install two large snow shovels, and use the method of cleaning while walking. Finally, he finished everything more than ten days ago before taking it with A large number of cabbages and potatoes that have been prepared are on the road.

"There are five columns, 60 carts, forty are cabbages, potatoes, radishes, corn and other things, and the rest are military supplies." Tang Xiao stopped in front of an open carriage and pointed to the cabbage full of carriages and continued, "Lin Lianhui said that these things can reduce the incidence of athlete's foot, and he also said that you can rest assured that a new drug from the Ministry of Science and Technology has reached the final experimental stage and can treat this disease very well."

"That's great." As soon as he heard so many good things that can reduce the incidence of illness, Zhao Longxi quickly shouted to the staff around him, "What are you still doing? Organize troops to unload the goods quickly, and then distribute everyone's extra meals tonight.

"Yes!" The staff officer was also full of excitement and hurriedly saluted and went to invite people to unload the goods.

Seeing that everyone began to be busy, Tang Xiao mysteriously pulled Zhao Long to his side and asked, "I ask you, is the railway line from here to Zamsk still complete?"

"It's still complete. Kuropatkin is probably still thinking about fighting back, but he didn't destroy the railway, but why do you ask this?" Zhao Long asked puzzledly.

"It's not the same as you." Tang Xiao curled his lips and said, "Sun Jiugong also has athlete's foot disease, so you can only take two of these five cars. Anyway, there is a way to open the railway line, and we will continue to send it over. As for the rest, we have to send it to him first."

It's not surprising that there is foot disease in the Northwest Military Region. After all, the situation there is more difficult than its own, but it is not easy to send supplies across Angarsk. Although the railway was not damaged, there were 200,000 troops stationed there, and the troops concentrated on expelling tens of thousands of Russian people nearby before it snowed. They all rushed in to increase the burden of the Russian army, so it was simply a hornet's nest. It was no different from letting unprotected trains enter, right?

It seemed to see Zhao Long's worry. Tang Xiao and Du Dazhuang looked at each other and pulled Zhao Long back with a mysterious smile. Zhao Long, who was puzzled, wanted to ask what he wanted to do, but when he saw the third train, his eyes suddenly straightened.

Along the way, I only saw that the three trains used double-headed locomotives, but this did not surprise him. What was really surprised was that the fronts of the three trains were almost wrapped in thick steel plates. Not only were machine guns on the front of the train, but also the two sides of the carriage were full of shooting holes. The most exaggerated thing was that the front of the car, the middle Several naval 37mm rapid-fire cannons were also installed at the rear of the car. It is estimated that if he hadn't been afraid of increasing the weight and slowing down the speed, Tang Xiao would have fortified all the Army's 105mm guns.

It's a train here and there. It's just three steel monsters!

Thinking of the scene after they rushed into Angarsk and the Russian army came to be surrounded, even Zhao Long couldn't help but feel cold. He quickly patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, with this thing, I promise to send it over."

"Stop!"

Tang Xiao looked at Du Dazhuang, who was almost dark on the side of his face, and said with a smile, "My Commander Zhao, he finally caught an opportunity to make contributions. You can't grab it, can you?"

"Oh, that's right!" Zhao Long quickly patted his forehead. Du Dazhuang's thoughts over the years all know that the equipment and personnel of the Royal Forbidden Guard are the best, but because of the emperor's safety, he didn't have a chance to get some credit. How can he take credit for such a good opportunity now? He hurriedly laughed and said, "Look at me. I'm confused, so I'm going to be in trouble."

"But I'm afraid I won't be back until two months later."

"Commander, don't worry, the Forbidden Guard is ready to complete the task." Seeing Du Dazhuang leaving happily to prepare, Zhao Longcai smiled and asked, "How's Long Guozhang?"

Hearing Zhao Long ask the navy, Tang Xiao quickly patted his forehead and said, "Don't mention it, such a bastard as the navy are not good birds. Usually, I don't want this or that. Now it's good. After Ji Rushan and Lefei, now there is another Ning Xiaochuan, and he dares to run more than 10,000 nautical miles with two Jinghai ships. Chasing the buttocks of the Russian fleet made people restless and sinking more than a dozen destroyers and transport ships. If you want to say that the Russians are really pitiful, it is estimated that they must have one eye open during the sleep period.

"That's right, and Li Qiang is not a good bird. Look at what kind of crooked dates he trained? Dong Dahai, Liu Guishan and Wen Xiu are all troublemaker. Now it's all right. They jump out of Chang Gui. They touch a few ships at night, and they also chop up the Russian bodies and throw them into the sea to attract sharks!"

"Ah." Tang Xiao shook his head, as if he was mourning the dead Russian sailors, but there was a strange smile on the corners of his mouth and continued, "You don't know the tragedy. It is said that hundreds of Russian sailors who jumped into the sea from several sunken transport ships that night were bitten to death. In the end, the commander of Rogers and so on even ordered He was not allowed to go into the water to save people. In the end, even the Germans felt that they were in danger and took more than a dozen coal-carrying ships back to their hometown.

"But that boy has made great contributions. It is said that he caught some very important people. Even the emperor sent a special telegram to praise him, and he was ready to award him the Golden Navy Medal when he came back!"

Listening to Tang Xiao's narration and nagging, Zhao Long was also secretly funny. It was estimated that the head of the equipment department was forced by the military, so he deliberately counted a few words on these opportunities and quickly changed the topic and asked, "What about now? The Russian fleet is not coming?"

"Why don't you come? It's just that a few transport ships have been sunk. How can they be afraid? I didn't hear that another second expeditionary fleet came, ready to kill together after the round in the Red Sea.

"Another fleet is coming?"

"Yes." Tang Xiao rubbed his hands and seemed to be a little nervous. He said, "Lao Long has begun to gather the fleet. It is said that he will definitely fight at the beginning of April at the latest."

At this point, Tang Xiao finished nagging, and his face suddenly became serious. He whispered, "Zhao Long, the navy is about to open, so I have to go back immediately, and the emperor asked me to bring you a word before leaving."

"Oh? What do you say?"

"The emperor said that if possible, try to launch in early April, at least to cripple the Kuropatkin department!"

"Why? Didn't you say it was in May before? Do you want to cooperate with the navy? Zhao Long frowned and didn't understand why he suddenly had to advance the general attack time. The heavy snow in the north will not dissipate at the beginning of April.

"The navy does not need your cooperation, because the emperor has set out to go to Luzon in person, but he has just received the news that the British Prime Minister has postponed the visit. According to the speculation of the Intelligence Department, this may be a harbinger of Britain's interference in our war against Russia, so both the emperor and the Prime Minister's Office feel that there must be It is necessary to hit the Russian army hard before arriving in Salisbury.

"What? Aren't the British afraid of being beaten? Hearing the news, Zhao Long's eyes suddenly became cold, and his face became solemn.

"We don't know whether to fight or not, but Chen Ping has signed a transfer order. The first and second divisions of the Marines are stationed in Luzon, Borneo, Daxia and Taiwan to ensure the safety of the southeast coast and several overseas provinces. Even the two reserve divisions have begun to withdraw from Cullen." Speaking of this, Tang Xiao unbuttoned the button, took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Zhao Long: "This is the emperor's handwritten letter. The general situation is in it, but the emperor thinks that Britain should not go to war with us, but it is very likely that Germany, France and the United States will force us to stop the war."

"Although we are not afraid, it is not a few years ago. The emperor and the Prime Minister are no longer considering this war, but the external environment we will face after the war. In order to create a better international situation for us, the emperor and the Prime Minister are ready. If these families come to persuade peace at the same time, they are ready to agree. They have some conditions to prevent Europe and the United States from coming together to contain us after the war.

"So we guess that the mediation will definitely start after the arrival of Salisbury. The emperor hopes that your army can speed up and strive to create a fait accompli on the front line of mediation, and completely drive the Russian army to the west of Zamsk."

These words brought by Tang Xiao made Zhao Long understand a little, but Angarsk is the largest fortress of the Russian army in Siberia. It is not only full of barbed wire and bunkers, but also has 200,000 troops stationed at this moment. I'm afraid it's really difficult to lack the help of the air force in a short time.

As if to see Zhao Long's worries, Tang Xiao tilted the corners of his mouth again and smiled, "Are you worried about those barbed wire and trenches?"

"How do you know?"

"Haha." Tang Xiao smiled and said, "Sure enough, I was guessed by the emperor. Don't worry, I not only brought an armored train this time, but also brought you five real big guys."

"Real big guy?"

Tang Xiao didn't say anything, but continued to pull Zhao Long to the back of the third train. He only saw the three-trailer trailer towed at the rear of the train. When the soldiers pulled open the large oilcloth covering it, even Zhao Long's eyes suddenly straightened.

"We were going to call it an armored chariot, but the emperor said that the name was not good and changed it." Tang Xiao pointed to five huge iron boxes, but several wheels were inlaid with an iron belt, and there was a large machine gun on the top and left and right that had never been seen before. He excitedly introduced.

"Now, it's called a tank!"

"Tank?"

Hearing this strange name, Zhao Long was even more puzzled, but he soon knew the power of the five big guys, because he saw that after several soldiers warmed up the engine with torches and started it, the guy suddenly hit a thick tree with a thick bowl next to him as soon as black smoke spewed out of his tail.

Before everyone shouted to be careful, it was like a bull, crushing it, and finally crossed a trench more than one meter wide and turned back to its place. Even the thick snow could not delay it by half a step.

At that moment, everyone's eyes were straight, and there was only one thought in their hearts.

"It's really a big guy!"

(to be continued)