Yang Rui talked about the war so easily, but Xie Jintai was always worried about the war. As Russia approached Shenyang step by step, the Japanese had a tendency to jump over the wall in a hurry, and even the Japanese troops on the Liaodong front no longer launched an offensive, but transported the originally insufficient artillery shells to Zhili, their plan was to reduce the pressure on the southeast Liaodong front, so that the revival army could resist the Russian army with all its might, and they themselves strengthened the strength of Zhili, in order to occupy Beijing before the Russians invaded South Manchuria.

Because the General Staff has always wanted to push the front in Liaodong back to the North Korean side, plus to counterattack the Russian army, the Northeast Theater has always maintained 55 divisions, while on the North China side, even if troops are transferred from all over the country again, the military industry will go all out to produce machine guns, and the new rifles will all be replaced by old rifles, and the number of divisions will only be 20 after the increase of five divisions.

Twenty divisions against 22 Japanese divisions that were not fully organized were able to defend against the fierce attack of the Japanese army by trench warfare, but after all, there were too many new recruits, and most of the soldiers recruited in various places in North China were weak, so the reason why they were able to hold the battle line was because of the air force of the Fuxing Army, the effective artillery, and the strong fortifications, as well as Yang Rui and Zhu Kuansu's patrolling the front line from time to time to boost morale. In the past month, regardless of casualties on both sides, the Yangcun line and Fengrun line have all become flesh and blood mills, and the Kung Fu Army has suffered more than 60,000 casualties in a month.

But it is precisely because of this that the Japanese army found that the result of fighting a war of attrition with the Fuxing Army would only make itself weaker and weaker, and the enemy would become stronger and stronger, after all, no country could fight with China for manpower. Whether it was Emperor Taisho, the base camp, the General Staff Headquarters, the Manchurian Army, and the Naoli Dispatch Army, all the minds from top to bottom believed that the Naoli War must be fought quickly. Since Japan wants to solve the problem quickly. Then the next wave of attacks is bound to be rapid, can the front line withstand it? Xie Jintai didn't know. He just wanted to be able to stand up.

Xie Zhangtai was apprehensive in his heart, and took one cigarette after another, and Yang Rui took care of official business after saying that, only Zhang Shi sat quietly in the room, not anxious - judging from the observation of Kaczynski, the commissioner of the Intelligence Bureau, the Serbian side sent more than a dozen assassins, and the assassination was inevitable, and Archduke Ferdinand was riding in an open-top car to accept the welcome of the people, this naïve man was doomed. Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated. Europe would inevitably be in turmoil or even a full-scale war, so that the Baath Army, which did not need to bear the pressure of Russia in its entirety, would be much easier, and more than 70 divisions would be able to drive all the Japanese into the sea.

The inner study was extremely quiet, only the clock in the house, the intermittent but extremely pleasant sound of the piano in the backyard, and the sound of the acquaintance in the courtyard next door kept coming, but in addition to these sounds, Zhang Shi, who had calmed down, seemed to be able to hear the sound of artillery coming from the south downwind - even if there was no fighting, the Japanese large-caliber howitzers were still bombarding the front line fortifications endlessly. In a vain attempt to prevent the defenders from constantly repairing and fortifying them. The power of Japanese large-caliber howitzers was seen in Lushun ten years ago, and the kind of giant cannon that will make a roaring sound like a train when it flies and can splash smoke and dust for nearly 100 meters when it falls will never be forgotten once you see it.

The seconds ticked, and the clock kept ringing on time until half past four in the afternoon. The telegraph bell next door finally rang, and a few minutes later, the capable intelligence agent quickly decoded the telegram. Hearing the knock on the door, Yang Rui put down the pen and Xie Jintai put out the cigarette. When Zhang Shi glanced at the telegram and was thinking about it, Xie Jintai asked anxiously: "That person... Dead? ”

Xie Jintai let Zhang Shi swallow the words that came to his mouth. "Not yet," he replied, "now the target has just gotten off the train and is already on his way to the city hall with the local officials in tow." He was in an open-top car, and had to pass through countless crowds, with the Assassins hiding in the welcoming crowds. ”

Hearing that the plot had just begun, Xie Jintai, who had stood up, sat down again, lit another cigarette, and then asked, "Are our people ready?" ”

"It's all ready," Zhang Shi glanced at Yang Rui, and when he saw that he had no intention of objecting, he continued: "According to the previous arrangement, we will try not to do it, if they all fail, then it will be ......."

While Xie Jintai sat down, Yang Rui stood up, and he also lit the cigarette, and the smoke in the room became even worse for a while. He could imagine a convoy of motorcades driving along the streets to the welcome of the people on the other side of the world, in a bustling city, and then a few sudden gunshots, killing Ferdinand and his wife, and the war in Europe. Thinking that this assassination will cause tens of millions of people to die in battle, and an entire generation of European elites will be lost, Yang Rui is glad but feels extremely ironic at the same time, this should be the final destination of European civilization, not to be wiped out by other civilizations, but to die under the weapons forged by his own civilization.

This was the case in World War I, and the same was true in World War II, except that it was an arrogant madman who led a group of wronged remnants of World War I to finish the unfinished World War one after another. Twenty years earlier, while the German Army had surrendered in France, the Germans had been able to make up for the last part of the First World War as they wished—and it was not until the Reichstag in Berlin was captured by the Allies that the Great Leader surrendered to Germany. In contrast to Germany's stubbornness, Britain and France staged a wonderful play on how reason makes people stupid, and appeasement became an extremely loud term in this great drama with European-style rationality as the main idea.

By the end of these two dramas, European civilization has been shattered into pieces and moved forward by inertia, although the post-war United States is prosperous, but the original old European sense of civilization superiority is gone, they can preach that the American system will make the people more free and more materially prosperous, but the Yankees can no longer fill the life that is becoming more and more empty after the civilization is broken. Of course, in the face of such an ending, there are always people who do not give up, after Einstein completed the theory of relativity with a symbolic act - by turning his back on the European rational tradition and just imagining, an extremely happy doctor used sex to re-enact the fiction of history, but this is only the last return to the glory of European civilization, and he still cannot change the predetermined ending in the end......

Yang Rui stood silently in front of the window, looking through the screen window at the sun that rarely appeared outside, but it had already set in the west. There is inevitably a trace of vicissitudes in my heart, relative to the rise and fall of the empire. The withering and glory of civilization is the real major event worthy of attention of the ethnic group, and the Chinese civilization not only determines the fate of the Han nationality alone. She also has a stake in the fate of all the races that have invaded this civilization. Compared with the decline of Western civilization today, Chinese civilization has died three hundred years ago, when most of the gentry have become Ximenqing, and at the same time, Shixue began to rise, and Confucian ethics began to disintegrate...... What a wicked tartar!

Yang Rui, who had stood for a long time, scolded heavily in his heart, and at the same time as he scolded. The knock on the door sounded again, and Zhang Shi took the telegram and said with a smile: "Sir, the target is dead!" ”

"Really!?" Xie Jintai jumped up, grabbed the telegram in a few steps and said with great joy: "It's done, what should I do next?" ”

The content of the telegram Yang Rui was not surprising, Ferdinand was certain to die. He tilted his head sideways and thought for a moment, then asked, "Are both husbands and wives dead?" How did he die? ”

Xie Jintai only looked at the results when he read the telegram, while Zhang Shigang read the entire telegram and replied with Zhang Shi: "It's all dead." The Assassin shot Ferdinand in the head and his wife in the abdomen, killing them on the way to the hospital. ”

"Did the murderer catch it?" Yang Rui nodded, unhappy or surprised.

"Caught! And it's two. One shot and the other stopped the policeman next to him, and the two were arrested before they had time to commit suicide after the assassination. Zhang Shi replied. He said that it was also very easy to say this, Yang Rui's task was not only to kill the target. The murderer must also be caught, otherwise the assassination will become a headless unsolved case.

With Yang Rui's question. Xie Jintai, who was originally excited next to him, also calmed down, he kept telling himself not to get excited, just when he wanted to ask Yang Rui what to do, Yang Rui only said: "Then let's respond to all changes with the same." Vienna shouldn't be so quick to do anything to Serbia, right? Should we sit calm and watch for a few days before making a decision? ”

"Do you mean to slow down and think about Russia's peace......" Xie Jintai asked, he was a little puzzled, the strategy was predetermined, and now only the details are to be discussed.

He said that Yang Rui just laughed, but he didn't answer immediately, but explained to Zhang Shi: "This matter must be kept secret, and those who know it should pay special attention, especially those few Poles who don't know anything but participate in the action." ”

"Yes, sir!" Zhang Shi nodded unchanged, he understood the ultimate meaning of 'special attention', especially if this matter really caused a war in Europe, then the fact that the Chinese government was involved in it and had an assassination plan was exposed, and the result would only be catastrophic, and then the whole of Europe would accuse the war of being a conspiracy of China.

"Good! Go out first, and remember to pay more attention to the attitude of European politicians to this and the events that led to it, especially the reaction of the British, and the direction of public opinion in the major newspapers. Politicians and journalists who have maintained relationships before, don't lose track of them during this time, don't worry about the budget, but don't show your feet either. Then there were the Bolsheviks, who, after Austria-Hungary had taken a tough stance on Serbia, wanted them to launch popular protests in Russia with all their might, so that the Tsar would decide to go to war against Austria-Hungary in order to protect Serbia. Yang Rui then admonished, and finally emphasized uneasily: "You don't have to tell them what this will cause, just tell them that letting Russia fall into war is the only hope for the revolution to succeed." ”

"Yes, sir!" Zhang Shi agreed. He went out after he agreed, and the next thing was the response of the diplomatic system.

"If you want Russia to make peace, is it better to go to the United States or France?" Yang Rui asked.

"Of course it's France." As soon as the matter turned to diplomacy, Xie Jintai was confident, "After all, France and Russia are allies, as long as we can promise never to stand on the side of Germany, then they will do their best to dissuade the Tsar from negotiating peace, and the French are trying their best to get Russia to stop its war in East Asia and pay full attention to Europe, as long as we propose peace, they will definitely do their best to promote it." There's just one more problem......"

Xie Jintai wanted to speak and stopped, and only after Yang Rui looked at it did he say: "The peace proposal must be proposed by us, even if it is very confidential, Britain will soon know that once the matter of peace is reported, the public opinion will be ......."

"That's a real problem, but it's not too strict." Yang Rui didn't expect this. "We propose peace and send representatives to Russia. Or France, it's always a month or two on the road. And it is not possible to negotiate in a short period of time. The point is that we are only expressing an attitude of not wanting to fight with Russia. ”

"But what if the European countries don't react to this, and when are we going to talk about it?" Xie Zhangtai asked.

"Chung Yeung Festival is the deadline for landing. We will wait until that time at most, in fact, considering the storm and weather, the landing will be completed in August at the latest, that is to say, from now on, we will wait for 50 days at most, and it is impossible to really get stuck on the day of Chongyang. Yang Rui said. Fifty days later, he revealed the peace agreement with the French minister, and then waited for him to give back the news. In the end, send someone to sit down and talk, no matter how soon it will take a month, if the negotiation is a month, and repeat it several times at the same time, the time will be about the same. You don't have to worry about public opinion and Congress, it's really a negotiation without a mandate. ”

"What if it doesn't work out? I mean, the European countries can't fight in these 50 days? Xie asked, this was the outcome he feared the most.

"Then first annihilate the Russian army, and then take advantage of the fact that the Russian army in Europe has not yet arrived, turn the muzzle of the gun and kill the Japanese." Yang Rui was murderous. That's his response. "I don't believe that these backward armies that can only fight two-dimensional wars can turn against the sky!"

"In that case, I'll make an appointment with the French minister in a few days." Xie Jintai said.

"It should be, and it must be secretive. Sue France, if the news leaks out in advance, we will never admit it! Yang Rui nodded and then said, "The Germans have to go first." It is not an option to sue them that we are enemies on both sides, so we intend to make peace with the Russians at the appropriate time. But it is important to pay attention to the timing of your speech, and it is better to see if Germany will support Austria-Hungary in declaring war on Serbia. If they were in favor of Austria-Hungary, then there would be no need for us to say these things again; If they don't support Austria-Hungary, then we have to go to the Germans, but you have to be very careful not to let the Germans feel that we have dragged them down the pit. ”

"I understand! I understand! Xie Jintai had already planned this, and he knew exactly when to say what to say and what to do. Ferdinand was dead, and there were only two phases left, the first with Germany supporting Austria-Hungary in the war against Serbia, and the latter with Russia supporting Serbia in the war against Austria-Hungary and Germany. China's strategy in front is a showdown with Germany, which means that if you don't end the game, I will make a truce; The latter was to relieve Russia of its worries and allow it to deal with Germany with all its might. Of course, this is just a backup plan, and it is likely that the two sides will act at the same time, which is the most taboo for Xie Jintai.

The conspiracy of the Silver Palace ended, and in Europe, the news of Archduke Ferdinand's assassination spread all over the world, but everyone was indifferent to it, and many Austro-Hungarian aristocratic dignitaries, including the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, not only did not grieve what happened to Archduke Ferdinand, but they were relieved, for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which could not fight and would only get married, it would only be a shame for the empire for a rebel like Ferdinand to inherit the throne.

Therefore, when Ferdinand's father's body was brought back to Vienna, the royal family, in view of the Duchess's humble origins, held a humble funeral and required that each member of the royal family should not spend more than fifteen minutes at the funeral.

In the midst of everyone's cold reaction, Kaiser Wilhelm was furious, unlike Vienna's indifference to Ferdinand, in his opinion Ferdinand would be his future partner and loyal friend, thinking that the person who had been dining together a few weeks ago was now gone, the Kaiser supported Austria-Hungary to be tough on Serbia after a period of sadness. However, the Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Condra and Foreign Minister Besitold, who were bent on being tough on Serbia, were stopped by the Hungarian Prime Minister Tiza within the empire, and after the Assassins' interrogation was completed and Germany fully endorsed it again, Tisza could only reluctantly agree to the war, but he asked for an ultimatum to Serbia so that the next war could be more decent.

Foreign Minister Besittall had to painstakingly draft an ultimatum that would eventually be rejected, and then prepare to deliver it to Serbia on July 23, the day after the Russian-French summit. After receiving the information, the process of exerting pressure and persuasion on Germany was completely omitted, and Xie Jintai suddenly approached the French Minister to China Kant on the evening of that day, and without much greetings, he quickly expressed China's desire to make peace with Russia, and also euphemistically expressed his agreement to the key condition of Outer Mongolia's independence.

His request made the French minister smile. With Russia's successive victories in the war, the French feared that Russia, encouraged by this, would once again turn its attention to the Far East. And it was intended to provoke a major war in this Austro-Hungarian tough statement against Serbia, so that Germany would finally be completely strangled. In the past, there was a request from China for Kant to do everything possible to bring about the end of the Sino-Russian War. And now the Chinese are bent on peace, which is really a good thing.

Minister Kant repeatedly agreed to Xie Jintai's request for secrecy, and promised to make every effort to bring about the success of the peace talks between China and Russia. After Xie Jintai took his leave, he happily sent a telegram to China, the telegram arrived in France just the day before French President Poincaré's visit to Russia, originally worried that Russia would not be overjoyed with the Austro-Hungarian tough French, after going to Russia, President Poincaré was extremely happy to congratulate the Tsar on his victory in the Sino-Russian War, which made the Tsar and his favored subjects very happy.

And at this time. On July 23, the day of the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia, countless workers, students, and intellectuals took to the streets to demand that the Tsar protect the dear Slavic brothers, and the Tsar's ministers also believed that it was necessary to be tough on Austria-Hungary, and many wanted to unite France to wage war against the German-Austrian Alliance, and with the support of the ministers and subjects, the Tsar finally ordered Russian Foreign Minister Sazonov to send a telegram to Serbian Prime Minister Pašić, It was asked to reject the Vienna ultimatum. At the same time, the general mobilization of the Russian Army began.

The Russian-backed telegram arrived in Serbia, which soon straightened Prime Minister Pašić's waist and sent back to the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Serbia with a reply that the key part of the rejection of the secondary clause was accepted. Seeing that the ultimatum was not fully agreed, the embassy officials who received the reply immediately left Belgrade with their already packed luggage, a few days later. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and history was officially put into order.

When the news reached Beijing. Yang Rui immediately convened an operational meeting of the General Staff and demanded that the whole army begin to implement the final content of the Wanli Plan. The submarine force entered a state of first-class combat readiness, the fishing fleets of Guangzhou, Guangzhou, and Fujian all returned to port, the 1st Marine Division immediately left for Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Shanghai, and naval cruisers began to emerge from Wusongkou, and the revival forces in North China and Northeast China were preparing to counterattack the current Japanese army...... Countless encrypted messages were sent from Beijing, and the warplane, which had been withheld for a long time, was finally in full swing.

Shicheng County, Jiangxi, in the remaining veins of Wuyi Mountain, is the headquarters of the 1st Marine Division. The residual heat of the sunset made the division commander Colonel Lu Mengxiong very irritable, he grabbed a piece of watermelon and squatted at the mouth of the headquarters and snorted, when most of the watermelon was only left with the melon skin, the adjutant came in and reported that everyone had arrived, and then he heard the sound of horses' hooves, the first brigade commander Zhu Jiande and the second brigade commander Lu Wan rode horses and rushed to the entrance of the headquarters, and before the two got off the horse, Lu Mengxiong shouted: "Why are you so late?" Half of the melon was eaten by me. ”

Among the two, Zhu Jiande has not been the new brigade commander for a long time, as a general who is not from the revival army system, although he is qualified for all the training, but such a rapid promotion still surprises him, and in the case of not being able to communicate with the outside world for several years, he has to think that Cai Ye said good things in Beijing, which makes the new dynasty have a good eye for himself; And Lu Bang was not treated by his colleagues and officials as Xiangrui of the Fuxing Army, belonging to the kind that no one dared to partner with, although he belonged to the East China Theater, but he was arranged to come to the deep mountains and old forests in Jiangxi, he only felt that this was a disguised punishment, if it wasn't for the division commander to be able to meet the eyes, then the military life would be boring.

Lu Mengxiong shouted, 'Why is it so late?', and Zhu Jiande, who was deeply affected by Longen, reported: "Division commander, the weather is too hot, the horse is sick, and I don't dare to run fast even if I change horses." ”

And Lu Wan next to him said with a smile: "Division commander, Ruijin has been here for more than 30 miles, and it rained halfway......

One is restrained, the other is hippie and smiling, and Lu Mengxiong, who is not very serious in itself, scolded: "Damn, there are many things about the two of you!" Then he glanced around, explained a few words to the adjutant and said, "It's too hot in the house, so let's talk about it here." The General Staff Commander ordered......" As soon as Lu Mengxiong said the General Staff order, even the hippie smiling Lu Wan restrained his smile and held his head high with Zhu Jiande, "The 1st Marine Division will be drawn immediately, and the 1st Brigade Zhu Jiande's division will go to Fuzhou via Jianning, Taining, Shaxian, Nanping, and Minqing; The Lu Bang Department of the Second Brigade passed through Changting, Longyan, and Changtai and headed for Xiamen. When traveling, it is necessary to travel day and night, especially to avoid the main road, and not to leak the news ......" (to be continued......