Chapter 251 How Steel is Made

Chapter 251 How Steel is Made

Chapter 251 How Steel is Made

“Tashkent originally belonged to the Khanate of Khiva but was captured by Kokand 66 years ago.

Last year, the Russians joined forces with the Bukhara Khanate to attack the Kokand Khanate. The Russians occupied Tashkent, and the Bukhara Khanate occupied the Syr Darya Plain south of Tashkent with Gulistan as its core.

This move brought disaster to the Bukhara Khanate, as Russia's expansion route to the Kokand Khanate was blocked by the Bukhara Khanate.

The Russians were determined to expand southwards, and immediately turned against them and began to attack their recent temporary ally, the Bukhara Khanate.

At present, there are only 3,000 Cossacks who are constantly looting and encroaching, besieging Gulistan, and plundering the people and Bukhara herdsmen.

But this is the Russians' usual strategy. The Cossacks act as vanguards in the cold winter, clearing out small and medium-sized cities that are easy to attack.

When spring comes, it is foreseeable that the regular army stationed in Tashkent will move out in large numbers and directly attack Samarkand, an important city in Bukhara.

The Bukhara Khanate panicked. When they heard that our army was controlling the Kokand Khanate, they claimed to be a vassal of the Qing Dynasty and asked for help from the suzerain state. They asked us to fulfill our obligations as a suzerain state, send troops to help, and drive out the Cossack bandits.

I have the confidence that we can easily defeat the 3,000 Cossack bandits. If we plan carefully, we can wipe them out completely. Even if we fight against the Russian regular army in Tashkent, we will not be outdone. Please give me your instructions on whether to send troops or not."

After reading Dong Fuxiang's report, Shao Quanzhong asked the messenger who came to report the news, "How many regular troops do the Russians have in Tashkent?"

"About 20,000. Based on the Russians' experience in attacking Tashkent, they will mobilize troops from nearby areas when the battle begins, and the number may reach 30,000.

The Tashkent region can only supply a limited number of troops, and the Russians have to transport food from the Seven Rivers region, so they are unable to supply more troops. They also believe that 30,000 people are enough to destroy the three Central Asian countries of Bukhara, Kokand, and Khiva.

The Russians have long coveted the Fergana Basin and the rich Syr Darya and Amu Darya river basins. Once they occupy these two grain-producing areas, they will no longer have to worry about food shortages in Central Asia.

Shao Quanzhong chuckled, "Xingwu is itching to fight again. Tell him to stop daydreaming and guard the Fergana Basin honestly, and not get involved in the dog-eat-dog fight between the Bukhara Khanate and the Russians."

"Yes!"

"Come back and tell Dong Fuxiang to send someone to tell the Bukhara Khanate that a vassal state should behave like a vassal state. Send a formal document asking for submission, send an envoy to the capital to pay tribute, and invite us to station troops in Bukhara and Samarkand. Without these, they want us to help them out of nothing. It's wishful thinking. I don't think they have been hurt by the Russians yet."

"As ordered."

The messenger turned and walked away.

Hu Liuniang didn't understand why Shao Quanzhong didn't use such a good excuse to start a war. "Isn't Bukhara a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty? The Russians are attacking them. It's legitimate for us to support them and fight against them. Why can't we fight?"

"What a bullshit vassal state. In Central Asia, there are only two countries that are true vassal states of the Qing Dynasty, one is the Kazakh Khanate in the north, and the other is Badakhshan in the south.

The Kazakh Khanate has been destroyed. We just signed the Northwest Boundary Treaty with the Russians last year and gave up that piece of land. Regardless of whether this treaty is an unequal treaty or not, we have to accept it after signing it. At worst, we can win the next war and sign another treaty to get it back.

Badakhshan has been annexed by Afghanistan. I am now concentrating on dealing with the Russians and have no time to worry about that piece of land on the Pamir Plateau."

"Ah? It turns out Kokand wasn't even a real vassal state."

"Well, it turns out that when the Qing Dynasty put down the rebellion of the Dzungars, the army arrived in Kashgar, and Kokand was terrified and surrendered. At that time, Kokand was a vassal state. Later, they gradually became powerful again, and only had the name of a vassal state, and no longer paid tribute to the Qing Dynasty.

As for the Bukhara Khanate, they were afraid that the Qing army would march west to attack them, so they verbally said they wanted to be a vassal, but they never paid tribute, nor did they have a formal letter of credence. As soon as the Qing army returned, they pretended to have forgotten about it. How could there be such a vassal state? They just wanted to take advantage of us for nothing.

Humph, to fight against the Russians, the excuse that they occupied Tashkent in Kokand is enough. There is no way we will work for Bukhara in vain.

When the Russians take over the Bukhara Khanate's territory, I will fight it back and it will become ours. Let them ask the Russians for it. Isn't it better than us sending troops and killing people while the Bukhara Khanate takes advantage of it for nothing?"

"When are we going to fight the Russians?"

"Now everything is ready, except for the east wind from the Tianshan Valley. The Russians are a big country, with a territory larger than that of the Qing Dynasty. If you win a battle without much impact, you might even provoke them and they will attack with their entire country, which would be a waste of our efforts.

So we must try our best to gain absolute advantage. We should act like a bear when we are not in action, but when we are in action, we should give him a hard blow and make him feel the pain. Once he knows that we are not easy to mess with, he will be forced to come to the negotiation table and give us back our land.

If you want to hurt them all at once, you need heavy weapons."

Shao Quanzhong thought for a while, "Come here! Send all the captured Kokand soldiers to the Tianshan Canyon, and send an engineering battalion to help. Don't be afraid of wasting TNT explosives, we have plenty of them, blow them up as much as you can. Tell Dong Fuxiang not to be afraid of dead slaves, I don't care about the number of slaves lost, what I want is to repair the Tianshan Canyon as soon as possible!"

In the 19th century, any major project was surrounded by numerous desolate graves.

While the Suez Canal was under construction, 738.5 Egyptian laborers died, an average of deaths per kilometer, or almost one death per meter.

The amount of work involved in widening the canyon road here is far less than that of building a canal, but time is of the essence, and it will inevitably be a road of blood and tears for slaves. If there is no urgent military information, there will be a war. In Shao Quanzhong's current position, every decision is related to the lives of millions of people. If the foreign slaves don't die, more of his own soldiers will die.

Now that the Kokand people have surrendered to the country and are no longer considered a foreign race, this decision becomes even more difficult.

Most people can't stand this kind of pressure, but Shao Quanzhong does it with ease.

In his previous life, he had already trained himself to have a heart of steel, shouldering the heavy responsibility of his country and family, holding power in his hands when awake, and sleeping on the lap of a beautiful woman when drunk. This is the daily life of people like Mr. Shao.

After dealing with Dong Fuxiang's urgent report, Shao Quanzhong picked up Wenxiu's telegram.

Shao Quanzhong cannot put public interests before personal interests. He must put public interests before personal interests.

"Brother Shao, I'm in London now. Thanks to Zeng Xiaoyi, this smart kid, who helped me run around, everything went smoothly."

Who is Zeng Xiaoyi? Shao Quanzhong patted his head and thought for a long time before he remembered that he was my adopted nephew who called me uncle. Zhang Siwen's godson, one of the first batch of naval cadets to go to Britain, should be doing internship in Liao Rong's fleet now.

At the beginning, he came to the gate of Shaojiaweizi to ask me to be his godfather, but I refused and my fourth brother accepted him. That kid is almost as smart as me...

"When I arrived in London, I happened to see Liao Rong coming to the Armstrong Shipyard to receive the newly built warships, and I met Zeng Xiaoyi. He has always been responsible for running errands among the students studying in the UK, and he took the initiative to come and help. He is really a good boy.

By the way, Liao Rong asked me to help report that the warships he received this time included two 6,800-ton Wangfu-class battleships and six Johnson-class cruise frigates.

Zhang Siwen contacted the Americans again and bought the 4,360-ton medium-sized ironclad ship "Santa Maria" and the 1,350-ton small ironclad ship "Cheops" ordered by the Confederate Army at the Thompson Shipyard at a low price in the "Post-Civil War Weapons Sale". Both have now been built.

If we didn't buy the Santa Maria, Denmark was interested in buying it and renamed it the Denmark. The Prussians bid higher than ours for the Cheops and had already given it a name, the Prince Albert. But the Americans sold it to us at a low price because of their good relationship with us.

There is also some bad news. The Japanese have ordered the sister ship of the Cheops, the "East". They also have an ironclad ship, although it is a small one."

Humph, let me do the math. Among the warships ordered from the UK, the British still owe me two Minotaur-class ships, and two Royal Frog-class ships have not been delivered, but the rest have all been built and in my hands.

Including the two ready-made ships purchased, the newly renamed Nanyang Navy Mediterranean Fleet now has 32 large and small ironclad ships, with a tonnage of more than 70,000 tons, which is average, ranking third in the world. There is absolutely no problem in crushing the local chicken fleet, let alone Japan.

I need to find a legitimate excuse, at least after I take power...

"I sent Jisi and Jishu to study in the UK. Last time you sent Jiming to the UK, Shao Hengzhong heard about it and wrote back to insist that Jishu go with you. I considered that Jisi was four months younger than Jiming and Jishu, so I brought Jisi along as well."

It turns out that Wenxiu was just comparing herself to others. She was afraid that her son would fall behind and suffer in the future competition for the position of prince. She was also worried that Hui'er would not take care of Jisi as well as her own mother. By the way, Hui'er was pregnant and had no energy to take care of Jisi.

Alas, am I sending my son to my British brother’s house as a hostage?
"I won't stay in the UK for long. I still have Xiaoqi to take care of at home. When Jisi and Jishu start primary school next year, I will accompany Huier after she gives birth and then go back. Huier's due date is February next year.

Professor Luo Weilin's home, where Ji Ming was staying, was no longer able to accommodate him, so the old man introduced the home of his student Dr. John Du Dezhen for Ji Si and Ji Shu to stay there.

Dr. Du Dezhen succeeded Professor Luo Weilin as the second president of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. He was often on business trips and rented his house to a poor Prussian family living in London.

The tenant was very friendly, and the male owner was studying economics. Didn't you say that the eldest son Jiming would study military affairs, and the other children would study economics? This would be a good opportunity for Jisi and Jishu to receive some enlightenment. I gave the tenant some extra financial assistance, and they were very grateful, and promised to help us take care of the children..."

It is very expensive to send a telegram overseas, and only a big boss like Wenxiu who is not short of money would write such a long telegram.

Not bad, not bad. It seems Wenxiu is not that unreliable. It is almost November now. When she returns to Hailing next spring, my Western Expedition should not be over yet, so it won't delay our meeting.

"Call Xiu'er back and ask Jisi to learn German well from a cheap tutor so that he can study in Germany in the future. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. I'm worried about my son in the UK, so I'll send him to Germany as a safe place..."

After replying the telegram, Shao Quanzhong no longer cared about his son. Both wives were very smart, so I left it to them. I just hoped Huier could give me another son, I didn't like girls...

"report!"

Emery came in. "Sir, I suggest that the three main mixed divisions be transferred to Kashgar now to practice the new tactics I designed with the newly formed armored brigade and artillery division. However, the troops cannot eat nearby, which will waste a lot of ration transportation capacity."

"Can I see any new tactics?"

Infantry and artillery coordinated, the barrage of bullets advanced slowly, infantry and armored vehicles coordinated...

After reading Emery's training plan, Shao Quanzhong slammed the table and said, "Send them here, all of them. It's worth spending more coal and tractor parts on these tactics, Xiao Emery, you are really a genius!"

(End of this chapter)