The sun never sets

The bigwigs in Tokyo reached an agreement, and the Japanese troops stationed in Korea immediately moved. The Japanese troops were divided into two groups. One group crossed the Tumen River and attacked Vladivostok; the other group crossed the Yalu River and attacked Harbin and Changchun. At the same time, the Japanese ambassador to Russia opened the secret document after receiving the code and submitted the declaration of war to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"I'm sorry. I want to maintain a friendly relationship with Lucia, but this is an order from my country. I can only submit a declaration of war to your country."

The Japanese ambassador bowed and apologized, acting politely, but the Russian diplomats were not buying it. The old Russian with a hooked nose took the declaration of war with a gloomy face and said bitterly: "You will regret it! The great Russian Empire will never forget today's humiliation!"

"Smimasai!"

The Japanese ambassador bowed again, his body almost bent at 90 degrees, as if he was really sorry, but he was about to laugh in his heart. Russia was in chaos now, and all kinds of revolutionary parties had emerged, including the Poles, Ukrainians, Finns, and the Tatars in Central Asia. There were rebellions everywhere. In his secret telegram to the country, he strongly supported declaring war on Russia. It would be a pity if he didn't seize such a godsend opportunity.

For the Japanese, morality, etiquette, and so on are not important. If the neighbor's house is on fire, you must rush in and rob the property. If you don't take advantage of the fire to rob, you will lose.

The Japanese army had been preparing for a long time and acted quickly. While declaring war on Russia, it also sent people to submit a note to China, stating that Japan sent troops this time to help China fight against Tsarist Russia and to expand the living space of the yellow race. The main targets were Outer Northeast regions such as Sakhalin Island and Vladivostok. Even if it occupied the land in the Northeast, it was to better fight the Russian army and would return it to China in the future.

However, Japan has made such a great sacrifice and hopes that China can give corresponding rewards.

The diplomatic note was first sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Wu Tingfang immediately sent it to the Prime Minister's Office. In front of Wu Tingfang, Wang Qi called the Eastern Front Headquarters and informed Marshal Lin, who was commanding the battle in Liaoyang, of the news.

Lin Yongchang knew about this earlier than Wang Qi. As long as he was awake, he would check the situation on the Yalu River every hour. After all, the Japanese loved to launch surprise attacks. In the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and Pearl Harbor, every time the Japanese started a war, they started with a surprise attack.

Living next door to the Japanese meant sleeping with one eye open. After Kodama Gentaro and the other members of the Japanese observation group left, Lin Yongchang knew that the Japanese army was going to make a decision, and he had prepared a table of food to entertain two groups of guests. Seeing the dense Japanese troops on the other side of the Yalu River, he thought the Japanese devils had other ideas. Fortunately, Japan chose to declare war on Russia, and the worst situation did not occur. Lin Yongchang finally felt relieved.

Since the Japanese had made their choice, there was no need to continue using the "cold gun and cold artillery" tactics in Liaoyang. They could defeat the Russian army in front of them and then surround Liaoyang. But things once again went beyond Lin Yongchang's expectations. Before the order from St. Petersburg came, Grand Duke Nicholas Romanov made a decision without authorization.

Lieutenant Constantine waved a white flag, passed through the barbed wire and trenches, and brought a letter from Grand Duke Nicholas. "We are willing to withdraw all our troops stationed in the northeast," Lieutenant Constantine, who once again acted as a messenger, said with a pale face but a calm tone, "We hope you can open the road and let our troops leave."

Lin Yongchang had a chair brought to Constantine, opened the letter, glanced at it, and then said, "St. Petersburg has not announced its surrender, so I don't really believe what you said."

"No, this is not a surrender, this is a ceasefire to end the war."

Lin Yongchang couldn't help but laugh. "I asked you to withdraw from China several times before, but Grand Duke Nicholas refused. Now that Japan has declared war on Russia, you are in an unfavorable situation of being attacked from all sides, and you are thinking of a ceasefire? Where in the world can such a good thing happen?"

"What does the Marshal want?"

"You must lay down your weapons and surrender unconditionally. Remember, it is an unconditional surrender!" Lin Yongchang sneered, "You came to China to kill people and set fire, and you still want to get away with it? You have made a good calculation!"

When Lin Yongchang got angry, the temperature in the air seemed to drop by ten degrees. Constantine shuddered. He should have been angry, but because of Lin's momentum, he opened his mouth and couldn't say a word.

come out.

"Go back and tell Nicholas that it's either unconditional surrender or being eliminated. There is no third way!"

A hero is someone who can make the impossible possible and find a third way out of the only two paths. Is Nicholas Romanov a hero? Lin Yongchang thinks not. He thinks Grand Duke Nicholas is at best a tinkerer. Nicholas Romanov can only do some superficial work but cannot solve Russia's real problems, but he is still better than Li Hongzhang and his ilk.

Lieutenant Constantine returned to the Liaoyang defense line, then rode straight to Liaoyang and delivered Lin Yongchang's reply letter to Grand Duke Nicholas. After opening the letter, Grand Duke Nicholas Romanov took a look and his face turned even paler.

"Sir, have the Chinese agreed to a ceasefire?"

The staff officers and generals nearby asked questions one after another. They had long been fed up with this endless war. The Chinese troops were everywhere, and the "cold guns and cold artillery" also made them miserable. The Russian artillery force was larger and had also launched a fierce counterattack, but it had used up all the reserve shells in just three days.

The Russians knew they were not prepared for war, but they did not expect that their shells would run out so quickly. Even though more shells were urgently transported from the rear, they were still not enough. Their shelling efficiency was too low. During the three-day mutual shelling, the Chinese fired more than 30,000 shells, only one-fifth of the Russians, but destroyed seven Russian artillery positions and more than 50 artillery pieces, as well as thousands of soldiers and thousands of large animals.

After that, the Russians never carried out large-scale artillery bombardments again, but instead learned from the Chinese to fire briefly and then quickly move away. Even so, Russian casualties continued to increase day by day. Russian soldiers claimed that Chinese troops were everywhere and they were surrounded. The generals also believed that they were actually in a semi-encircled situation, and the Chinese had begun to bombard the supply lines with artillery.

Now that they were finally leaving this frustrating and hopeless battlefield, the Russian generals all felt relieved. However, things were not as they had imagined. Grand Duke Nicholas shook his head and showed the beautiful Russian words on his heart to others, "The Chinese marshal demands our unconditional surrender."

Chapter 283 Counterattack

When Archduke Nicholas said that the Chinese demanded their unconditional surrender, there was a deathly silence, and then there were angry shouts, "This is too much! Do the Chinese think we are all dead?"

"We still have 300,000 troops. We must not surrender unconditionally!"

"Sir, give the order! Let the Chinese see how powerful we are!"

"Defeat the Chinese first, then teach those dwarfs a lesson!"

Nicholas Romanov had no choice. He could decide to end the war with the Chinese, but he could never accept unconditional surrender. He looked at the angry generals beside him and thought to himself: I should have known that the Japanese were unreliable. But I had no choice.

The Japanese betrayal was expected. Grand Duke Nicholas sighed and said, "Then prepare to attack, gentlemen. God and the Tsar are with us!"

The Russian army rejected the proposal of "unconditional surrender" and began to prepare for the attack. As they were assembling, the People's Army's long-range artillery attacks always came unexpectedly. The Russians had no other choice but to place the assembly point further away, except for counterattacks with artillery that had little effect.

No matter how accurate the People's Army's artillery is, there is a limit to its range. As long as it is far enough, there will be no problem.

Before Japan declared war on Russia, the People's Army had liberated villages and towns one after another, dividing and encircling the Russian troops in the Northeast in three places: Lushun, Liaoyang, and Harbin. When the news of the Russo-Japanese War came, the three encirclements were tightened.

The Rehe Corps cut off the railway between Harbin and Vladivostok, launched an attack on the outskirts of Harbin, and sent 20,000 troops eastward along the railway, hoping to block the Japanese army on the other side of the Yalu River. However, their actions were still a little late. The Japanese army had already entered the Northeast region. Some conflicts broke out between the two sides near Mudanjiang, with dozens of casualties on both sides, and then a standoff situation formed.

The Japanese army deployed to both sides, and the People's Army also deployed troops to both sides. Both sides dug trenches and fortifications, and the war was imminent. The People's Army and the Japanese army, who were nominally on the same side, did not regard each other as allies. They were just a little bit away from a fight.

Kodama Gentaro rushed to the army and prevented the situation from getting worse. He brought the latest order from the headquarters and led the Japanese army to attack Shuangchengzi in Tsarist Russia. Before leaving, Kodama Gentaro met with the Chinese generals and said that the previous conflict was a misunderstanding.

Both Oyama Iwao and Ito Hirobumi were very optimistic about Kodama Gentaro, believing that he was a general who truly knew how to fight and was superior to other Japanese generals. The most rare thing was that Kodama was not only able to lead troops in battle, but also able to govern the local area. After the Sino-Japanese War of 700-1200, Japan seized Taiwan and replaced three governors, but none of them were able to pacify Taiwan. At that time, the Japanese government had to spend million yen on Taiwan every year, and also took out million from the war reparations for military subsidies to Taiwan, but still failed to solve the problem.

In the end, it was Kodama Gentaro who became the fourth Governor-General of Taiwan. He adopted various policies such as division and co-ordination, military strikes, and economic support, which suppressed the resistance in Taiwan.

Go. The governor before Kodama Gentarō was Nogi Maresuke. Kodama probably had experience in cleaning up other people's messes. In another time and space, he also helped Nogi clean up the mess in Lushun.

Kodama Gentaro was very sincere, and the Rehe Corps, from the generals on the front line to the commander Wang Zuolin in the rear, believed that the Japanese were still sincere. However, Lin Yongchang remained unmoved and insisted on guarding against the Japanese. He ordered that the siege of Harbin should be postponed temporarily, and the Japanese army should be driven out of the Northeast first. If the Japanese launched an attack, they would have to fight back resolutely.

The Russian army has been surrounded, so they are not afraid even if the Japanese army attacks. They still have two elite troops, the [Mongolian Cavalry] and the [Guards], which have not been used. In addition, the North China Corps has been mobilized and can dispatch 100,000 people at any time. The Liaoxi Corps also has tens of thousands of people. Other places have also entered a state of combat readiness and will never give the Japanese a chance to launch a sneak attack.

The conflict on the Mudanjiang River did not develop into a war, so the Japanese army turned to attack Shuangchengzi and formed an encirclement of Vladivostok.

While the Japanese army was advancing by land and sea to attack Vladivostok, the Russian army outside Liaoyang was also making a last-ditch effort. Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholas assembled 100 large-caliber artillery pieces and launched a heavy bombardment on the positions of the People's Army. At this time, the Russian army could not care about anything else. Under the attack of the People's Army's long-range artillery, they fired the last tens of thousands of shells, and then more than battalions of Russian troops launched a charge on a wide front.

The Russian artillery shells rained down on the positions of the People's Army. Trenches, barbed wire, mines, firing points, everything was destroyed in the earth-shaking bombardment. Even if they dug anti-artillery holes, they could not withstand such intensive artillery fire. In previous battles, the Russian army distributed artillery evenly to each unit. After suffering many beatings from the People's Army, they not only learned how to dig trenches, pull barbed wire, and move positions after firing a few shots, but also learned how to use heavy artillery in a concentrated manner.

The concentrated use of artillery is not a new thing. Emperor Napoleon was a master of concentrated use of artillery, and that was more than a hundred years ago. But even Napoleon did not use so many heavy artillery in a concentrated manner. The firepower density of the Russian army has increased by more than ten times compared to the Napoleonic era.

The overwhelming bombardment destroyed the People's Army's several kilometers of fortifications. Even if the soldiers on the front line were not killed, they were shocked by the explosion and lost their combat effectiveness. The tide-like Russian army poured in from the opened gap, and then the People's Army's artillery bombardment fell on their heads.

Lin Yongchang's heavy artillery was not as many as the Russians, but his light artillery was far more than the Russians. When the Russians approached, all the artillery fired at the Russians at the fastest speed. Heavy machine guns were also pushed out and fired wildly at the Russians.

The Russian army's attack was fierce and violent. Countless people were torn to pieces by the artillery fire, and then more people rushed up stepping on the bodies of their comrades. The Russian army, who were good at bayonet fighting, lined up the soldiers in rows. When the front was broken up, they would line up again at the back, which looked like an endless tide.

But the Russian army was not a tide after all. The more fiercely they charged, the greater the casualties. The Tsar's gray animals fell to the ground one by one, their blood soaking the soil, and their screams and wails could not even cover the sound of the explosions.

Grand Duke Nicholas saw the Russian army being slaughtered through the telescope, and his hands could not help shaking.

Chapter 284 Disaster

"Da da da da da!"

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

"boom!"

In the firepower net woven by bullets and shells, Russian soldiers were torn to pieces one by one. The ground was littered with corpses and wounded Russian soldiers. Except for a few who had been tortured to the point of losing their minds and continued to charge, most of the Russian soldiers chose to lie on the ground and shoot at the Chinese behind the trenches.

The officers pointed their pistols and forced the soldiers to continue charging, but the Russian soldiers only rushed forward a few steps and then lay down again.

"Stand up and attack! You pigs!"

"If you don't get up, the machine guns will open fire!"

The officer yelled at the supervisory team: "Kill those cowards!"

Under the pressure of the machine guns of the supervision team, the Russian soldiers could only stand up bravely and continue to charge, and then they were knocked down by the oncoming bullets. Thanks to the efforts of the People's Army and the Russian supervision team, there were soon hundreds of corpses and wounded in the open ground between the two armies.

Except for the gap opened by heavy artillery, the Russian charge in other places turned into a disaster. Thousands of Russian soldiers fell in front of the People's Army's positions. Even if some Russian troops launched an attack through the gap, it was of no use.

The People's Army used artillery fire to cut off the Russian army's reinforcements, and the more than 3,000 Russian soldiers who broke in were surrounded. After more than an hour of fierce fighting, most of the Russian army was annihilated, and the remaining more than 1,000 chose to surrender.

At this point, the Russian army's full-scale offensive was declared bankrupt. After discovering that they could not penetrate the positions of the People's Army, the morale of the Russian army was like ice and snow under the hot sun in June, which quickly melted away. Russian Lieutenant Constantine once again crossed the battlefield with a white flag, demanding a ceasefire on the spot and treating the wounded.

Lin Yongchang agreed to the Russians' request. Not only did he allow the Russians to treat the wounded on the battlefield, he also sent all the captured wounded back to the Russians. However, he refused to provide medicine to the Russians unless the Russians released

Lay down your weapons and surrender unconditionally, otherwise, don't expect any help from Marshal Lin.

He wrote another letter of persuasion, but the conditions this time were not as harsh as the last time, and he no longer demanded unconditional surrender by the Russian army. "Officers and generals can keep weapons for self-defense, and as long as they have not committed crimes such as massacres and rapes, officers and soldiers will receive due treatment. As for the rest, we will have to wait for the results of the negotiations with St. Petersburg."

Constantine came and then left. He walked across the battlefield with a pale face, again and again. A Russian soldier whose legs and one arm were blown off was wailing on the ground, "Please, please, give me a shot! Please! For God's sake!"

The pale-faced Lieutenant Constantine paused, then picked up a Mosin-Nagant rifle and shot the wounded soldier to death. "Bang!" The gunshot alerted the people nearby. In the distant position, the People's Army soldiers poked their heads out and watched the battlefield vigilantly. After discovering that it was the Russians who were treating the wounded, they paid no more attention.

There are too many such things on the battlefield. In theory, many wounded soldiers can be rescued. As long as they are sent to the hospital in time, most of them can survive. But that is only theoretical. In reality, it is impossible to send seriously injured soldiers to the hospital in time. During transportation, the wounded will lose their lives due to excessive bleeding.

Field hospitals can provide first aid, but no one knows whether the patients can survive. These days, field hospitals are more like slaughterhouses, and doctors are like butchers. After each war, field hospitals are filled with sawed-off hands and feet. Screams and blood are the characteristics of field hospitals. The Russians' indifference to human life makes the conditions in their field hospitals lower than the average level of the great powers.

The People’s Army’s field hospital is better, but its treatment capacity is limited, so it can only focus on saving its own people first.

Lieutenant Constantine killed three people on the way here, and killed three more on the way back, all of whom needed his help to free them. When he returned to the Russian headquarters, his face became even paler.

Grand Duke Nicholas came from the city to the "Liaoyang Line". He had no hope of winning this attack. But since the generals all said they wanted to fight, he would follow their opinions. Now the results were out. Although there was no specific casualty statistics, based on the tragic scene he saw through the telescope, the Russian army had suffered at least tens of thousands of casualties in just half a day of attack.

Such a fierce battle reminded him of the night two years ago by the Liao River. That time, the Russian army suffered even more heavy losses, and tens of thousands of people became prisoners of the Chinese. Last time, the Chinese did not continue to pursue, but let the Russian army return to Liaoyang. Now they are in Liaoyang, and the Chinese will not let them leave again.

He closed his eyes in pain, and after a while, he said to the generals beside him: "Gentlemen, do you have any other suggestions?" No one spoke until Lieutenant Constantine came in and interrupted the silence in the headquarters. "Sir, these are the new conditions of the Chinese."

The Russian generals in the headquarters all looked at the letter. Grand Duke Nicholas took the letter and said self-deprecatingly: "Gentlemen, please don't worry. Is there anything worse than unconditional surrender?"

The Chinese did not take the opportunity to put forward more stringent conditions. On the contrary, the conditions this time were much better than last time. Grand Duke Nicholas Romanov frowned, subconsciously wondering if there was some conspiracy. Was it to trick them into laying down their arms and then massacre the prisoners?

The great powers have done this a lot. The British and Americans have done a lot, and the Russian army has done a lot. After doing it a lot, they will naturally worry about encountering the same thing. The main way for the later Wang Shi to slander China is to put the things that Wang Shi himself has done on China. Because they have done those bad things, they say that China will definitely do it.

This is the case with Grand Duke Nicholas now. Although the Chinese had acted like civilized people before and treated all the captured Russian prisoners, what if that was all fake? The Japanese acted so respectful, but they still backstabbed and attacked again and again?

Well, Archduke Nicholas was not too worried about his personal safety. But when the generals heard that they could keep their weapons for self-defense, they wanted more. Everyone had made a fortune in the Northeast, and they couldn't just lose the money they had worked so hard to earn. Some people were worried about being liquidated. The Chinese said they would investigate the crimes committed during the war, so they would rather fight to the death.

Just because we cannot break through the Chinese positions head-on does not mean we cannot break out from other directions.

Chapter 285 Hate

Although the Russian army had lost the possibility of winning, it was still some distance away from complete defeat. The Russian generals did not dare to attack, but they still had the courage to escape. After receiving the reply from Marshal Lin, the Russian army still did not want to surrender, and they quickly formulated a plan to break out.

We can't go to Shenyang, which has been surrounded by the Chinese, so we should go to Benxi from Pingzhou, and then go back to Vladivostok from Qingyuan Meihekou. Vladivostok, which the Russians call Vladivostok, is being attacked by the Japanese army and may not be safe, but the Russian army still has a psychological advantage over the Japanese army.

Being stabbed in the back by the Japanese army again made the Russian army angry at the Japanese. Many Russian generals believed that as long as they could retreat to Vladivostok and then attack the city's defenders from both inside and outside, they would be able to defeat the hateful Japanese again.

Myself.

Grand Duke Nicholas was very skeptical about this. Last time, the Japanese army was repelled, but the Russian army suffered heavy casualties. When the Japanese army caught up with them in Fengcheng, the desperate attack launched by those small Japanese soldiers shocked the Russian army. If the Russian army retreated from Liaoyang now, it would actually abandon the defenders in Lushun and Harbin, and would have to fight with the Chinese along the way. It was hard to say how many people could retreat to Vladivostok.

But he did not voice his doubts. The morale of the Russian army was already low enough, so there was no need to say anything that would shake the morale of the army. Didn't the other generals know this? Except for the really stupid ones, everyone else should know this, and they all pretended to be stupid and didn't expose this not-so-beautiful lie.

Breaking out would at least give us a chance of survival, but staying in Liaoyang would mean death.

Everyone knew this, so no one wanted to stay in Liaoyang and wait for death. Breaking out was not about running away without caring about anything. Someone needed to stay behind to stop the enemy. So who would stay? No one was a fool, and soon, the atmosphere in the headquarters became strange.

Grand Duke Nicholas looked at his generals. Most of them had flickering eyes, some lowered their heads, or looked away. Nicholas Romanov Nicholas was very dissatisfied. What was wrong with the Russian generals? They had no sense of responsibility! They were more active than the other in amassing wealth and chasing after beautiful ladies!

"Sir, I am willing to stay!"

Kontrachenko, the commander of the 7th Russian Division, took the initiative to step forward and said that he was willing to cover the entire army, which made everyone feel relieved. Grand Duke Nicholas Romanov looked at Kontrachenko, who had a firm gaze and did not evade at all.

The Grand Duke sighed in his heart. He did not want to keep Kontrachenko, not because he did not believe in his determination and command ability, but because Kontrachenko had the qualifications to become a famous general. Among the increasingly corrupt Russian generals, Kontrachenko was one of the few who was brave, fearless, and willing to sacrifice. Other generals were only willing to sacrifice their soldiers.

If possible, he hoped to bring Kontrachenko out of the dead end and let him grow into another Suvorov, another Kutuzov. In the past few years in the Far East, Grand Duke Nicholas only discovered Kontrachenko, a seed of a famous general. If possible, he would never put Kontrachenko to death.

But things in the world are not subject to human will. Many things are forced. Many times, it seems that there are many choices, but there are not. There is only one path to choose. Grand Duke Nicholas stepped forward and dusted off Major General Kontrachenko's uniform, saying: "Hold on for a week, and then surrender to the Chinese."

Kontrachenko shook his head. "I will not surrender!"

"This is an order!" The Grand Duke said sternly, "Major General Kontrachenko, this is an order! Are you going to disobey the military order?"

Kontrachenko hesitated, then replied after a moment: "No, sir, I will obey your orders."

Grand Duke Nicholas patted the major general on the shoulder, and then said to the relieved generals: "Get ready, we will break out tomorrow night."

The People's Army's attack became more intense, no longer the cold guns and cold artillery before. Instead, they began to conduct tentative attacks in some places. Grand Duke Nicholas knew that the Chinese were looking for weak points in the defense line through repeated attacks. In a few days, those Chinese in earth-gray uniforms would launch a real attack, just like at the beginning.

The Chinese were getting stronger, and each year they were stronger than the previous year. Grand Duke Nicholas clearly felt this, and the most direct manifestation was the increasing number of Chinese artillery. In field battles, the Russian artillery went from having an absolute advantage to being on par with the Chinese, and now being completely at a disadvantage, all in just three years.

The Russian army still had an advantage in terms of the number of heavy artillery, but in field battles, heavy artillery often could not keep up with the speed of infantry movement. By the time the heavy artillery was pulled to the battlefield, the Chinese army had already disappeared. Using light infantry to pursue would be at a disadvantage because there were not enough field artillery, which was an unsolvable problem.

Listening to the explosions and gunfire coming from the defense line in the distance, Grand Duke Nicholas Romanov Nicholas recalled the past few years and felt like he had a big dream. The Chinese progressed too fast. In comparison, Russia was like a broken carriage. While Russia was advancing slowly, the Chinese had already run ahead.

But the situation in the Far East had deteriorated to such an extent, not only because the Chinese army had become stronger, but also because the Japanese were too despicable. Grand Duke Nicholas Romanov hated those seemingly polite dwarfs and believed that the Japanese were responsible for most of the Russian army's current situation.

If he had not harbored illusions about the Japanese, he would not have set up a long snake formation and waited for the Chinese to attack, and he would not have been forced to break out. Now the Japanese are actually attacking Vladivostok!

Losing the Northeast is just giving up the gains of the past three years. If Vladivostok and other places are occupied by the Japanese, then Russia's efforts in the Far East for the past 100 years will all be ruined! The Russians have been struggling in the ice and snow for hundreds of years, and only now can they see the sea.

Going back thousands of miles at a time?

Grand Duke Nicholas Romanov thought helplessly: Perhaps I will be recorded in history as a shame for the Romanov dynasty. After fighting for decades, it ended up like this. It is really unacceptable!

Thinking of this, he hated the despicable Japanese again.