Chapter 320 Sadness and Death
The pregnancy was more of a shock than a surprise to George and Anne.
For Ekaterina there was only joy.
George hasn't even gotten married yet, and Catherine is looking forward to having her grandson. She has made countless sets of clothes for the children, and she even doesn't hesitate to put people around George.
Now this result is naturally the most perfect. Ekaterina does not allow any accidents, which means that Anne should not travel long distances now, otherwise Ekaterina will definitely take Anne back to Vladivostok to raise the baby. of.
With Ekaterina coming to his side, George could finally breathe a sigh of relief and shift more energy to work.
Before the war started, all military observers believed that the Qing Dynasty's Beiyang Navy, with its larger displacement and larger main gun caliber, had greater advantages.
The Qing Empire was probably influenced by this kind of thinking, so it did not pay more attention to Japan.
No matter what the reason was, the Qing Navy did not add new ships after it was established. Starting in 1890, it even stopped upgrading its equipment, which seriously affected the combat effectiveness of the Beiyang Navy.
The Japanese are indeed despicable. As soon as they sent the credentials declaring war to the Qing embassy in Japan, the next moment the Japanese fleet launched a surprise attack on the Beiyang Navy.
The unprepared Qing army suffered heavy losses. Five ships, "Zhiyuan", "Jingyuan", "Chaoyong", "Yangwei" and "Guangjia" were sunk in the battle.
On the Japanese side, "Matsushima", "Yoshino", "Hiei", "Akagi" and "Saikyo Maru" were also severely damaged.
Although the Qing army was defeated in this battle, it did not completely lose its combat effectiveness.
However, in order to preserve his strength, Li Zhangtong ordered the Beiyang Fleet to hide in its home port and was not allowed to patrol the sea to meet the enemy, giving up sea control.
On September 17, the Japanese troops landed on the Liaodong Peninsula, and their troops were directed at Lushun, the home port of the Beiyang Fleet.
Purely in terms of weapons and equipment, there is no obvious generation difference between the Qing army and the Japanese army, and they are even more advanced in automatic weapons.
The failure of the Qing army was mainly due to the confusion of the command system and backward training methods.
There are many factions within the Qing army. There are 30,000 Qing troops stationed in Lushun. There are more than ten troop numbers. They are not subordinate to each other, their cooperation is unfamiliar, and their weapons and ammunition are not unified. This is very important to the Qing Dynasty. The army's logistics had a serious impact.
There are also problems with the training of the Qing army.
The main method of combat nowadays is to line up and shoot.
The Qing army was still able to stabilize its position during the exchange of fire.
Once the Japanese army charges and engages in hand-to-hand combat with the Qing army, the morale of the Qing army will collapse and the entire army will flee.
On October 25, the Japanese army captured Hushan. The surrounding Qing troops not only did not reinforce Hushan, but instead heard that Hushan had fallen and fled without fighting, leaving the gate of Lushun open.
On October 29, George came to Livadia Palace early to accompany Nicholas.
George did not come alone, he also brought his personal guard.
This earned George the hostility of the chamberlain Vrontsov Dakov.
"George, what do you want to do?"
Dakoff asked George. After Yasan sent Alfred to Nikolai, Dakov was fully responsible for Yasan's safety.
"Wallon, I am not your enemy. Like you, I just want to ensure Nicky's safety."
George really didn't want to usurp the throne.
"I will guarantee Nicky's safety, let your people leave!"
Dakoff's attitude was equally firm. George brought the guards over, which was essentially disrespectful to Dakoff.
However, Darkov did not persist for long, because Sergei, Grand Duke Vladimir, and Grand Duke Alexei who arrived later all brought their own personal guards.
George and the three Grand Dukes are all Nicholas' uncles.
Only George leads the guards, maybe George wants to usurp the throne.
The four uncles all brought guards, so they had the intention of guarding against each other.
“Each sentry post is jointly held by five of us, and each of us sends one, no more, no less.”
Vladimir broke the deadlock, he was the second in command of Asia II. The third son, he is the oldest in the Romanov family except Yasan.
“Each of us can only bring 2 people into the Livadia Palace, and we cannot carry weapons.”
George limits the number of people who can enter the Livadia Palace. These two people are very particular, one is a personal guard, and the other is an adjutant used to convey information.
"George, it's not your turn to speak here."
Sergey protects our George.
Alexey is the fourth child, Sergey is the fifth child, and Pavel is the sixth child.
Time was tight and there was no time to hold back. Although Sergey did not let George speak, George's suggestion was unanimously approved.
George brought into the Livadia Palace adjutant Deyan and chief of guard Yuri.
George arranged for Dejan to go to the lounge where all the adjutants were, and take Yuri to find Nikolai.
"George, it's terrible, the situation is terrible-"
Nicholas's face was full of tears. The Tsar's condition was very bad and he was now in a coma.
“Where is the thing I gave you?”
George had given Nicholas a box before and asked Nicholas to help keep it.
Alfred carried the box over.
George opened the box in front of Nikolai. Inside were two short-barreled revolvers produced by the Vladivostok Arsenal.
Putting aside the advantages, George would not be able to fight with others.
George is not afraid even if he fights with fists.
The moment George opened the box, Alfred's legs began to shake, and he looked at George with shock and shock.
Nicholas was only focused on his sadness and didn't pay attention to what George was doing.
George handed one gun to Yuri and stuffed the other gun into the holster under his arm.
After cleaning himself up, George sat down next to Nicholas.
"Nikki, from now on, you must hold yourself to the standards of the Tsar——"
George isn't the first to say this to Nikki.
After Alex came to Crimea, she was not satisfied with the palace doctors because the palace doctors did not report the Tsar's condition to Nicholas in time and did not let Nicholas decide what should be done. Do.
Alex hopes that Nicholas will be stronger and more independent.
This was originally a good thing.
But Alex forgot that besides Nicholas, there were also queens and grand dukes like George beside the Tsar.
The Tsar is not dead yet——
“I know, I will do it, I can——”
Nicholas kept cheering himself up.
Then George stayed close to Nicholas.
Even if Nicholas went to find Alex, George would not leave.
Alex has also realized that the situation is critical and expresses her gratitude to George for the first time.
George didn't dare to be careless. Even Nicholas's daily diet could only be eaten half an hour after the waiter had finished.
On the 30th, Ya San was still unconscious.
At 10 o'clock in the evening on the 31st, Yasan finally woke up. With the support of the queen, Yasan wore a robe and sat on a chair to receive George, Sergey and the other grand dukes respectively.
"Nicky, I have to leave, take care of your mother and your brother——"
After saying this, Ya San fell into coma again.
In the early morning of November 1, Ya San died due to ineffective treatment.
(End of this chapter)