Chapter 147 Debriefing

In August and September 1904, the Japanese army launched two large-scale attacks in Liaoyang. Although they achieved certain results in the offensive, they were forced to fall into a stalemate because of the tenacious resistance of the Russian army, which then developed into a war of attrition.

Since July, Japan and Russia have contacted each other in the area of Liaoyang, and then the two sides have successively increased their troops and launched attacks or counterattacks. The Japanese troops alone have increased from hundreds of thousands to more than 200,000, and the Russian troops have also been reinforced from less than 100,000 to more than 300,000. However, in this process, the two sides There were also many people killed and injured. At least 80,000 Japanese soldiers on the front line in Liaoyang alone were killed, and more than a dozen others were injured.

More than 20,000 people died due to trench feet, athlete's foot, frostbite and other diseases.

The Russian army on the opposite side can't go there. Although the Russian army has adopted a strategic defense posture in the Liaoyang meat grinder, even the strategic defense needs to carry out a local counterattack. In this five-month-long Liaoyang battle, the actual situation is that the two sides keep fighting around certain strategic points. The competition has formed a war of attrition with heavy casualties.

For example, the strategic support points of the left wing of the Liaoyang Campaign, Shiguantun and Mantou Mountain have changed hands more than 30 times in the past few months. Almost the whole Mantou Mountain is covered with the bodies of soldiers from both sides, and the shells fired by the artillery of both sides have almost flattened the Mantou Mountain.

In the face of such a dilemma, both the Russian army and the Japanese army are at a loss. For the Japanese army, they have been unable to take Liaoyang for a long time. If they can't take Fengtian, it means that they can't establish the victory in Manchuria. Once the Russian army gets enough reinforcements one after another and then launch a large-scale counterattack, can it be blocked at that time? There is no guarantee in the mountains and rocks.

The strategic situation of the Russian army was also bad. Because the army was blocked on the front line of Liaoyang, Kuropkin sent troops south twice in June and October to try to break through the Japanese blockade to rescue the Lushun, and then they were intercepted by the Japanese army and failed. They not only failed but also suffered heavy losses.

In the reinforcement operation in October, he commanded nearly 300,000 troops to launch a partial counterattack and tried to cover the Lushun reinforcement detachment of 60,000 people to go south, but was strongly intercepted by the Japanese army. In the end, the reinforcement detachment was forced to retreat after more than 20,000 people were killed or injured, thus announcing the second brigade rescue of the Russian army. The operation completely failed, and the Russian army failed to organize a third rescue operation in the months after the failure.

As for Lushun, it is still the same. Although the Japanese army is not afraid of death and injury, there is still no way to take the Lushun Fortress. It is worth noting that the casualties of the Japanese army in the Battle of Lushun are not as large as Zhao Dongyun had expected.

Although Nogi Xidian has been shouting the meat bomb charge, in the face of the Lushun fortress where the defense force is much stronger than history, Nomu Xidian did not make the soldiers launch a death charge as stubbornly as in history, because the previous Lushun operations and Liaoyang operations have fully proved that the meat bomb tactics are not useful.

In addition, the Japanese army has suffered heavy losses on the front line of Liaoyang in the past few months. In order to intercept the large-scale counterattack of the Russian army in October, the first and third armies of Japan suffered extremely heavy losses. In order to restore the combat effectiveness of the front-line troops in Liaoyang, the Japanese army gave priority to the front line of Liaoyang, both soldiers and ammunition. As a result, the supply that Nogi Hidian can obtain has been greatly reduced, even less than the personnel and ammunition replenishment that can be obtained in history.

In this case, after launching the first general attack and suffered heavy casualties, even if his head was muddy, it was impossible to let the soldiers die in vain. Therefore, he adopted the suggestions of many subordinates and took raids, blasting and a large number of heavy trenches after gradually approaching. The gun continues to bombard. Anyway, it is slowly grinding.

However, this practice of the Japanese army made the Japanese navy quite dissatisfied, especially after the Russian Navy's Second Pacific Fleet had set off from the Baltic Sea in October, the Japanese navy was even more dissatisfied with the slowness of the Japanese army's attack on the Lushun.

Many young officers of the Japanese navy even shouted that they would kill Nogi Xidian, who was unable to conquer Lushun, and many people even ran to Nomu Xidian's home to throw stones to protest his incompetence in the Battle of Lushun.

History is so funny. In history, Nai Mu Xidian was severely criticized by the country for insisting on launching an attack on Lushun, which caused heavy casualties in the Third Army. However, Nai Mu Xidian in this time and space was criticized for being conservative and did not launch a second general attack on Lushun.

It is difficult for the Japanese navy or the Japanese people to understand the current predicament of the Japanese army. If the army fought very well in the first few months of the war, but in recent months, the army has fought extremely hard.

The Liaoyang front, which has been deadlocked for several months, needs to fill in the lives of many soldiers and countless shells every day. Not to mention launching an attack from Liaoyang to break through the Russian defense line, it is extremely difficult to defend the Russian counterattack now.

In this case, the Japanese army finally made a different choice from history. At the end of November, the Fifth Army, which was reorganized by the Yalu River Army, left the Yalu River defense line, but they did not go north along the temporary military railway to reinforce the Liaoyang front line, but turned to the northeast and went to the Xingjing area. The army's march route will find that their target is no longer Liaoyang, or even Fengtian, but Liaoyuan and Changtu in the north of Fengtian.

Its strategic purpose is very obvious. It will hope to use the new force of the Fifth Army to bypass Liaoyang, and then capture Changtu and cut off the railway links from Fengtian to Changchun, Vladivostok and Russia. Once it can capture Changtu and cut off the railway links between Fengtian and Jilin and Heilongjiang, then it can be said that The supply line of the Russian army in Liaoyang and Fengtian was cut off.

For a modern army, there is nothing worse than being cut off the supply line!

In the face of the abnormal movements of the Japanese army, Kuropatkin of the Russian army quickly dispatched troops near Changtu for defensive operations. At the same time, the Russian army also dispatched all the troops from Changchun, Jilin and Hailong provinces, and then went south between Tuchang and Xingjing. Its strategic purpose is very obvious. Your Japanese army Since you dare to send troops to take risks in Liaoyuan and Changtu. Then I dare to cut off your Fifth Army supply line and retreat. At that time, I don't know who will surround it!

After entering December, the war between Japan and Russia seemed to have suddenly changed from a previous position war to a sports war, as if the Liaoyang front line, which had devoured hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the two armies, was no longer important, and the strategic focus suddenly shifted to Changtu, Xingjing and other places.

However, this situation is actually because the front line of Liaoyang is too abnormal. Both the Japanese and the Russian army have been operating here for several months. Almost the whole front line is full of trenches and fortresses, and there is no way to break through from the front, so in this case The Japanese army sought a breakthrough from other directions, and it was normal for the Russian army to take this opportunity to launch a counterattack against the Japanese army from the flanks.

However, the good wishes of the two generals failed to come true. The Japanese Fifth Army did not go to Changtu at all. It was initially intercepted by the Russian army in the eastern Liao area, but the Russian army failed. However, at this time, after the Japanese generals found a large number of Russian troops in Hailong and other places in the northeast, they were afraid of falling into The besieged Japanese Fifth Army took the initiative to retreat.

Immediately after the two sides made contact with the Liuhe area, and a large-scale field battle broke out. This battle was different from the uniform position battle in Liaoyang. Because both sides did not have enough time to prepare, the battle became one of the few battles in the Russo-Japanese War with a strong Franco-French style. In the battle, the machine guns of both sides basically did not play a great role. On the contrary, the cavalry of both sides played a very large role.

The Akiyama Good Ancient Cavalry Detachment, which withdrew from the front line of Liaoyang and reinforced it to the Fifth Army, defeated the protection of Russian infantry with a strong attack when the two sides first came into contact, and successfully destroyed the artillery of the Russian army's two battalions. However, the cavalry of the Russian army was not bad. They did not play a strong attack, but learned from Akiyama Hagu a few months ago. They directly used the horses of the cavalry to pull more than a dozen heavy machine guns around the side of the Japanese army, and then built a machine gun position on the spot as a reef in the torrent, which not only killed and injured many Japanese soldiers, but also forced the Japanese army to give up. The original route is to make a detour to the west.

I have to say that although machine guns shine in this war, the cavalry has not lost its great strategic value. The cavalry forces on both sides still play a major role. Not to mention the traditional reconnaissance and detour, the most important thing is that the cavalry's engine power is still irreplaceable by other arms.

When the cavalry becomes a horse infantry, they can use their mechanical power to move behind the enemy in a short time. If they bring cavalry guns and heavy machine guns, they can still play a huge strategic role.

It is difficult to determine the outcome of this contact battle in the Liuhe area, because the casualties are almost the same, with about 7,000 or 8,000 people killed and injured, and neither of them has achieved their respective strategic goals. The purpose of the Fifth Army was not to escape. They were originally going to capture Changtu, Liaoyuan and other places, while the purpose of the Russian army was to stop the Japanese army from behind and annihilate it.

Now, after a battle between the two sides in the Liuhe area, the Japanese Fifth Army was forced to retreat to the southwest, and the Russian army also did not dare to pursue because of considerable losses and empty wings.

That is to say, a series of exchanges between the two sides around the eastern part of Fengtian have not changed the war situation between Liaoyang and Fengtian. Japan and Russia are still in a stalemate. However, with the increase of the number of fighting forces between the two sides and the extension of the front line, in fact, it is now not only limited to Liaoyang. By March 1905, the battle between the two sides With Fengtian as the center, it broke out on many fronts such as Liaoyang, Benxi and Liuhe at the same time. In the documents of the Japanese army, this battle has changed from the Battle of Liaoyang to the Battle of Fengtian.

In the direction of Lushun, Nomu Xidian was forced to launch a second general attack due to strong domestic pressure in December last year. After killing and injuring more than 10,000 people, he gave up the attack, then hoarding supplies, replenishing soldiers, and waiting for the winter to pass. It was not until March 1905 that Naoki, who had been criticized by China, launched a third general attack on Lushun, hoping to capture Lushun before the Russian Pacific Second Fleet arrived in the Far East.

When Russia came and went, China was also non-stop. Naturally, Zhao Dongyun would not be too careful about other things, but the political changes in Fengtian in March made Zhao Dongyun suddenly nervous.

In March, news came from Baoding and Beijing that the imperial court, who was seriously dissatisfied with the continuous deterioration of the situation in Fengtian, was about to call Zengqi back to Beijing to report on his duties.

Zengqi will return to Beijing to report, not to mention whether it will end or even end his political career, but the overall situation of Fengtian cannot be managed for a day. That is to say, during Zengqi's return to Beijing to debrief, whether Zengqi comes back to continue his general Shengjing or the court appoints others to be the new Sheng General Jing.

During this period, people have to take charge of Fengtian affairs first, that is, there must be a ' Acting General Shengjing' to take full control of Fengtian's military and civilian affairs during his debriefing.