On the eve of the fall of Liaodong, he led his troops in a remonstrance against the young marshal.

Lushun.

The headquarters building of the Kwantung Army.

This three-story brick and stone building is located on the hillside north of Lushun Port, and the windows overlook the entire naval port.

By now, it was already broad daylight, and sunlight shone through the thick clouds onto the gray-blue sea. Several destroyers were moored alone on the dock, their masts swaying gently in the sea breeze.

The main force of the combined fleet, which should have been docked in the naval port, had been mostly sunk by bombs, and almost all of the rest had escaped back to the Kingdom of Bhikshu.

Now, the entire port is empty, like the shell of a giant beast whose internal organs have been emptied.

In the telegraph room on the second floor of the headquarters, staff officer Kojiro sat at the table, clutching two telegram sheets in his hand.

His fingers were trembling.

The telegrams were sent from Liaoyang and Haicheng respectively, less than four hours apart.

The first letter came from Commander Honjo Shigeru, and the second from Major General Takeshita, commander of the 4th Brigade.

The two telegrams contained almost identical content, differing only slightly in wording, but conveyed the same message.

Farewell.

Kojiro laid the two telegrams side by side on the table and read them over again, word by word.

The first telegram was a farewell message from Honjo Shigeru.

"Our army was surrounded by enemy armored groups in Liaoyang, and the entire directly subordinate regiment was destroyed."

"Honjo will live and die with the headquarters. I pay my final respects to His Majesty the Emperor."

"We urge the Lushun side to immediately request reinforcements from the General Headquarters; the survival of the Kwantung Army rests on this moment."

"The enemy's strength far exceeds expectations, and the size of its armored forces is unprecedented since the start of the war."

"If Lushun falls, the Empire will lose its last landing point in Liaodong, and the entire territory of Manchuria will no longer belong to the Empire."

"Hold fast and await reinforcements. Lushun must not be lost!"

The second telegram, Takeshita's farewell message, was even more desperate and tragic.

"The 4th Brigade was bombed by enemy aircraft on the north bank of the Liao River. The Liao River Bridge was destroyed, and their retreat route was cut off."

"The enemy's armored formation is closing in from three sides; there is no hope of breaking out."

"Takeshita and all officers and soldiers of the 4th Brigade pledge their loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor."

"The enemy's forces outnumber ours several times over, with hundreds of tanks and warplanes darkening the sky. Our troops have no hope of retreating; we have no choice but to die to repay Your Majesty!"

Kojiro put down the telegram and raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.

General Honjo Shigeru, Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army, General of the Imperial Army, Farewell.

Major General Takeshita, commander of the 4th Brigade, bids farewell.

The two farewell telegrams meant that the two main forces of the Kwantung Army deployed in the Liaoyang and Haicheng areas no longer existed.

The 2nd Division's directly subordinate regiment, consisting of 3,000 elite troops, was completely annihilated.

The 4th Brigade, with 9,000 troops, was completely wiped out.

In total, twelve thousand men were wiped out from the Kwantung Army's order of battle in less than two days.

Now, what's left of the Lushun base camp?

Kojiro closed his eyes and mentally reviewed the existing troop strength.

The garrison battalion consists of three companies, totaling 1,080 men.

Two of the squadrons consisted of new recruits who had just arrived from the local area two months prior. They had less than six months of training time, and most of them had not even completed all the live-fire exercises.

The only company with any fighting capability was the First Company, but it was just a garrison company equipped with light weapons, without anti-tank guns or heavy artillery.

Military police, 500 men.

These men were quite effective at maintaining order and arresting anti-Japanese elements in Lushun, but when it came to fighting, their combat effectiveness was not as good as that of ordinary infantry.

This is the entire garrison force of Lushun.

One thousand five hundred and eighty people.

What they faced were tens of thousands of Northeast Army soldiers, hundreds of tanks, and hundreds of warplanes.

Kojiro opened his eyes and looked down at the two telegrams on the table.

"Colonel Kojiro!"

Lieutenant Nobuyuki Miyamoto, the deputy commander, pushed open the door and entered, his face showing barely concealed anxiety.

"The port observation post just reported that there have been a lot of explosions coming from the direction of the Liao River, which has been going on for almost half a day."

"The smoke and dust have obscured the entire northern sky, and we conclude..."

"No need to make a judgment."

Kojiro interrupted him, his voice hoarse as if it had been sanded.

He pushed the two telegrams in front of Miyamoto Shin, "Read them yourself."

Miyamoto Shin took the telegram, read it once, and began to tremble all over.

"Commander Honjo... Brigade Commander Takeshita..."

"They're all gone."

Kojiro finished speaking for him, "Right now, the Northeast Army's armored formations are moving south."

"The straight-line distance from the Liao River to Lushun is less than 100 kilometers. At the off-road speed of tanks, their vanguard will appear outside Lushun before tonight."

Miyamoto Shin's face turned deathly pale.

"Colonel, we...we only have 1,500 men."

"I know."

"Although the outer fortifications of Lushun are strong, they require troops to defend them."

"Fifteen hundred men are not even enough to fill the defensive lines of the two forts, Baiyushan and Huangjinshan."

"Not to mention the defensive perimeter of the city, which stretches for more than ten kilometers. If the enemy breaks through at any point, the entire defensive line will collapse like a house of cards."

"I know."

"We do not have anti-tank weapons."

"The garrison's armory only contained Type 38 rifles, Type 11 light machine guns, and a few Type 92 heavy machine guns."

"These things are okay against infantry, but against tanks, they're like tickling a tank."

"I know all of that!"

Kojiro slammed his hand on the table, silencing Miyamoto's nonsense.

"Miyamoto-kun".

His eyes were bloodshot, and he gritted his teeth as he said:

"If Port Arthur falls, the Empire will be completely finished in Manchuria. Do you understand what that means?"

Miyamoto Shin remained silent.

"This means that all the empire's more than 30 years of development on the continent since the Russo-Japanese War has been wiped out."

"The Kwantung Leased Territory will cease to exist, and Manchuria will be completely freed from the control of the Empire."

"Can you and I shoulder this responsibility?"

Miyamoto Shin's Adam's apple bobbed, and after a moment of deliberation, he voiced his thoughts.

"Colonel, we still have expatriates."

"There were approximately 53,000 Japanese residents in Lushun, including employees of the South Manchuria Railway, trading companies, shopkeepers, and their families, with most of them concentrated in the Taiyanggou and Old Town areas."

"Mobilize them."

A near-mad light burned in Miyamoto's eyes.

"All men aged sixteen to sixty shall be assigned to the garrison."

"We issued them weapons. There are still more than 10,000 Type 38 rifles and 300,000 rounds of ammunition in stock."

"If that's not enough, take bamboo spears, military knives, or anything that can kill."

"Let them guard the outer fortifications. The outer fortification system of Lushun was built by the Russians, and we spent another thirty years reinforcing it."

"Concrete bunkers, trenches, barbed wire, minefields—it has everything."

"With these fortifications, even a group of untrained expatriates could hold them off for a while."

"It's still uncertain who will emerge victorious."

Kojiro's eyes gradually brightened.

Yes, you're right.

"As long as we hold on, we can win. Tianjin also has the North China Garrison."

"A regiment of the 5th Division was stationed in Tianjin, which is less than 300 kilometers away from Lushun in a straight line."

"If we can hold out for two more days, the North China garrison will be able to reach Lushun by boat. Then, with an attack from both inside and outside, the outcome will be uncertain!"

"Two days."

Miyamoto Shin repeated, "We just need to hold out for two more days."

"Yes, two days."

Kojiro gritted his teeth and said, "Even if it costs lives, we'll fill it for two days."

He turned around, his gaze returning to the map.

His finger traced from the urban area of ​​Lushun to the outskirts, stopping at a defensive line marked "Longwangtang".

"There's one more thing."

Kojiro gritted his teeth and said, word by word:

"Didn't the Northeast Army love using civilians as shields? They did that back in Fengtian."

"Now, it's time for us to give them a taste of their own medicine."

Miyamoto Shin's expression changed slightly.

"What the colonel means is..."

"Arrest them."

Kojiro said bitterly:

"Arrest all the Chinese people in Lushun and take them to the outer defense positions."

"The more the better, men, women, young and old are all welcome."

"Tie them to the position and place them in front of the fortifications."

A sinister glint flashed in his eyes.

"No matter how ruthless the Northeast Army is, would they fire their own people into the sea? If they dared to fire, it would be a massacre of their compatriots."

"If he doesn't dare to fire, we can hold out for one more day. One more day is enough."

Miyamoto Shin paused for two seconds. Then, a smile bloomed on his face.

"The Colonel is wise!"

He snapped to attention, gave a military salute, and said, "I'll get to it right away! Mobilize the overseas Chinese and arrest the Chinese civilians—a two-pronged approach!"

"Go quickly."

Kojiro waved his hand. "We don't have much time left."

"The Northeast Army's planes could fly over Lushun at any time."

"Before they arrive, I want to see the position piled high with sandbags and civilians hanging from the barbed wire."

"Hai!"

Miyamoto Shin turned and strode out of the telegraph room.

The door slammed shut behind him, sending dust flying from the doorframe.

Kojiro stood by the window, watching through the glass as Miyamoto Shin's figure disappeared at the end of the corridor.

Then he turned his head and looked out the window at the gray-blue sea.

The sun was still shining brightly, the sea breeze was still salty, and the patrol boats in the harbor were still rocking gently.

Everything seemed so peaceful.

But he knew this was just the calm before the storm.