Chapter 163 Fengtian Final Battle

In the battle between the Japanese navy and the Russian navy in the Strait, although the Japanese navy won a tragic victory at the cost of killing 1,000 enemies and 800, the Japanese navy achieved the strategic goal of Heihachiro Togo, that is, to send most of the Russian warships to the bottom of the sea.

Although a few warships, including three Russian battleships, fled to Vladivostok, Japan then mobilized a squadron to follow and completely blocked the export of the port of Vladivostok.

In this way, although Japan suffered heavy losses and could not even make up a few main ships escorted at sea, the Japanese navy still controlled the sea control. The Japan Maritime Supply Transport Line, which had been threatened and blocked by the Russian Navy for a month, was reopened, and a large number of Japanese transport aircraft departed from various ports. Later, he went to several ports in Andong and Liaodong Peninsula at the mouth of the Yalu River, and sent a large amount of supplies to the Japanese army, which lacked ammunition supplies.

Sometimes the victory or defeat of the war does not depend on the loss of both sides, but on whether their respective strategic goals are achieved. In the battle between the Japanese and Russian navies, it is obvious that the Russian navy has failed to complete the task of blocking Japan's maritime supply lines. Relatively speaking, the Japanese navy is naturally victorious, which ensures the smooth flow of the maritime supply line.

However, the victory of the Japanese navy did not give their army much chance to win. Although the maritime supply line was reopened, and the Japanese army could have been able to regain supplies from the Yellow Sea, but the Japanese army still could not change much on the battlefield of Fengtian.

In front of the machine gun fortress, barbed wire and trenches, the so-called "Fengtian decisive battle" plan launched by the Japanese army in March 1905 failed in only eight days. In these eight days, the Japanese army once again tried to bypass the well-guarded Liaoyang and detoured Fengtian from the east, but at the beginning, it was detoured After the interception of the Russian cavalry, the Russian Cossack cavalry who pulled heavy machine guns and cavalry guns had already given up their sabres and built a front line as an interception point. 5,000 Russian cavalry blocked the circuitous Japanese Fifth Army for nearly 60,000 people for a whole day, which can be regarded as a model of cavalry interception in modern history.

When the main force of Russia was mobilized, more than 60,000 people of the Japanese Fifth Army and more than 50,000 Russian troops launched a fierce battle, resulting in a war of attrition of repeated tactical points. In the end, the Japanese Fifth Army, which was killed and injured more than half, was forced to stop attacking.

If we add the cooperation of the secondary front, the Japanese army has invested more than 300,000 troops in this 'Fengtian Decisive Battle' battle, and more Russians on the opposite side, reaching more than 400,000 people. From the start of the Fifth Army's detour to the Japanese army's stop attacking, it took eight days, with more than 20,000 people and more than 60,000 injured.

And how many results have they achieved? About 100 meters advanced on the Liaoyang front line, and about 10 kilometers on the northeast front line, but there was no advance after being intercepted by the Russian army. Finally, it was forced to retreat and return to the place of departure, that is to say, the northeast front line did not make any advance.

In addition, 20,000 Russian troops were killed and 70,000 were injured.

The casualties of both sides are not because both sides are so stupid to rush directly to the machine gun fortress and barbed wire on the front line of Liaoyang, but because after the battle was launched, the two sides repeatedly competed for some tactical points, thus forming a cruel war of attrition. In the end, the two sides are no longer competing. The firepower is consumed.

After this 'Fengtian decisive battle', the Japanese army, which suffered heavy losses, also did not have the ability to continue to attack. As for the Russian army to defend it, there was no way to counterattack at all. Therefore, in the next few months of March, Liaoyang and Fengtian were relatively relatively Calm, both Japan and Russia are licking their wounds and accumulating strength to launch the next battle.

So in the summer of 1905, the land battle between Japan and Russia was mainly concentrated in Lushun!

In June 1905, the Japanese Third Army launched its fourth general attack on Lushun Fortress. The purpose of this general attack was very clear, that is, to capture Hill 203 and then drive the Russian fleet out of Lushun Port.

Naiki's strategy is so clear that the Russian side naturally knows the importance of Hill 203. On June 8, the Japanese captured Hill 203 for the first time, but only a few hours later, it was recaptured by the troops organized by the Russian army.

Then throughout June, the Japanese captured Hill 203 four times, but the occupation time was relatively short, and the longest was only three days.

However, although the Japanese army had not completely captured Highland 203 at that time, it would be a matter of time before the Russian army had run out of food to conquer Highland 203, which forced the Russian fleet to leave Lushun, which led to the subsequent naval battle between Japan and Russia in the Strait of Malaysia.

Because our fleet has left Lushun Port, Lushun Port has lost its strategic value as a strategic support point for attacking Japan's maritime supply line, and Hill 203 is also not necessary to continue to stick to it. Considering that our own ammunition and troops have been seriously insufficient, and considering that Lushun Port is the most The later task is to delay as much as possible to contain Japan's own troops.

So Russian* commander Konstantin Smirnov ordered to voluntarily abandon Hill 203 to avoid continuing the consumption of troops with Japan, and then concentrating valuable troops and ammunition at the headquarters of Lushun Fortress.

When the Battle of Lushun goes to this point, it can be said that the result of the Battle of Lushun can be predicted by everyone. Sooner or later, the Japanese army will conquer Lushun. The only question is how many casualties will Japan have to pay to take Lushun?

However, after the brutal depletion war on the 203 highland, Nai Mu Xidian's strength and ammunition are very scarce. In addition, at this time, Lushun has lost a threat to the two armies of Japan and the mainland, so despite the opposition of Namu Xidian, the Manchurian army commander Dashanyan ordered to suspend the attack on Lushun Fortress, and then He transferred more than half of the Third Army to the front line of Liaoyang in the north.

That is to say, at this time, the Japanese army has actually given up continuing to attack Lushun. Anyway, if it can't be conquered, it will have little impact on the battle situation. Naturally, there is no need to sacrifice the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers to forcibly conquer it.

After the tragic victory of the Japanese navy, Japan urgently needed to concentrate its forces to conquer Fengtian in order to achieve a decisive victory and end this damn war.

The Japanese Army transferred two divisions from the Lushun front line, and three divisions reinforced from the country, formed the Sixth Army in late July.

In the following July and August, countless people and materials were transported from Japan, and they were preparing to launch a larger battle.

Naturally, the Russian army opposite also felt great pressure. On the one hand, it continued to transfer troops and materials from China through the Far East Railway, and on the other hand, it searched for various combat materials from the northeast to respond to the next attack of the Japanese army.

Of course, there is no shortage of transactions with Zhao Dongyun here!

"Mr. Andre, how about it? Are you satisfied with the last batch of machine guns?" Zhao Dongyun took the bank check handed over by Andre with a smile.

Andre said, "According to the reaction of our army, the performance is quite good, which is not inferior to the production of our country, but the quantity is still too small!"

Zhao Dongyun said, "Now there are a lot of 40 heavy machine guns a month, and most of the machine guns of Fuyuan Machinery Factory have been taken away by you!"

Since the Russians proposed to send someone to help Zhao Dongyun establish a heavy machine gun production line last year, Fuyuan Machinery Factory soon set up a production line for MG01 heavy machine guns, with a monthly output of as many as 50, but most of these outputs were sold by the Russians, and the rest were sold by Beiyang every month. Purchased by the military.

Andre naturally knows that it is difficult to get more machine guns from Zhao Dongyun. He just complains habitually!

The arms trade between Zhao Dongyun and the Russians has been going on for a year and a half since the beginning of 1904, and both Russians and Zhao Dongyun have reaped a lot of benefits from it.

Although the Russians seemed to have paid a high price, they received a lot of valuable combat materials, especially heavy machine guns. In 1904, half of the heavy machine guns used by the Russian army were sold to them by Zhao Dongyun. Although the proportion decreased a lot in 1905, it was easy to see Zhao Dongyun sold to him. Our blessing is to make heavy machine guns.

These weapons and ammunition are difficult for the Russian army to buy even if they have money!

Compared with Zhao Dongyun, he also made huge profits. The weapons and ammunition he sold to the Russians were basically doubled. If the purchase price was one or two taels of silver, he basically sold two taels of silver, even if he reduced many costs such as transportation and personnel, Zhao Dongyun also made a profit.

However, nominally, this money was earned by Zhao Dongyun, but in fact, this money cannot be said to be Zhao Dongyun's private property, but belongs to the collective property of the third town, which is included in the small treasury of the third town. However, this small treasury cannot be put on the table. From the beginning, it was managed by Zhao Dongping, even Chen Guangyuan knows how much money the small vault in the third town has, not to mention Wang Zhanyuan.

Because the accounts are not disclosed, the small vault in the third town has gradually become Zhao Dongyun's private vault in the past two years. In the past year, Zhao Dongyun has quietly taken at least 500,000 silver from it. Of course, he did not take this silver to eat, spend and so on, but invested it into several subsidiaries of Fuyuan Yarn Factory. In order to let the Zhao family continue to control many subsidiaries under its name.

To some extent, Zhao Dongyun's behavior is an embezzlement of public funds and encroachment of collective property.

The 500,000 yuan taken away by Zhao Dongyun is a small head, and the large head of the small vault in the third town is still used to support the army.

Zhao Dongyun now has a third town and two Fengtian mixed associations. Although the third town is raised by the court, tens of thousands of taels of silver are missing every month. As for the two Fengtian mixed associations, Zhao Dongyun is even more dependent on Zhao Dongyun.

Fengtian's property income is just a little bit. If Zhao Dongyun wants to support the army, he has to rely on his own small treasury. It's not a matter to rely on the small treasury accumulated by the side door, so Zhao Dongyun has to find a way to get money, otherwise when the Russo-Japanese War is over, there will be no With the profits of the ordnance trade, he can't afford to support a town and a mixed association.