Time came to August, and a piece of news shocked the whole world. The Russians could no longer bear the war in the Far East and planned to negotiate for peace.
Yes, this news caught the world's attention, because the strength of the two does not match. Russia has the reputation of Europe's steamroller. Although Russia suffered a huge loss in the Crimean War decades ago, it was a joint effort between Britain and France.
, if the boss and the second child join forces to beat the third child, can they not lose?
And then Russia beat the Ottomans to a pulp, showing that they were still the furry bears that people couldn't ignore.
However, this time, Russia was defeated by an emerging country, which surprised all European countries. Moreover, this emerging country, Japan, still defeated the Mao Xiong without anyone directly helping, making all countries take a high look at Japan.
In fact, there was nothing that Mao Xiong could do about being forced to sue for peace, because before, they had suffered heavy losses in naval and land battles, and had not achieved a decent victory at all. This was especially true after the fall of Port Arthur.
The Russian army was even more disadvantaged because the Japanese Third Army, which was restrained by Port Arthur, was liberated.
For the Japanese army, in order to gain a strategic advantage, they must of course expand their results and bring Russia to the negotiating table as soon as possible. It was thought that as the war progressed, the Japanese government could no longer afford it. By the time Lushun was captured, the Japanese government had already prepared for this.
This war cost 1.52 billion yen, and the national treasury was already empty.
For example, if the British government had not secretly supported Japan's issuance of war bonds in London, Japan would have declared bankruptcy long ago. According to the estimates of the Ministry of Finance, even if the peace talks are now held, the debts Japan will bear will require the Ministry of Finance to spend money every year.
About 35% of total income is used to repay debt and interest.
Therefore, it has become the consensus of the Japanese government to defeat Russia as soon as possible and end this war.
As the commander of the Manchurian Army, General Dashanyan certainly knew this, so the Third Army, which had just finished the Lushun offensive and defensive battle, had no time to take a breath and was ordered to rush to the Fengtian line to prepare to drive the Russian army out of Fengtian.
At the end of February, the Japanese army assembled five army groups with 235,000 troops and 982 artillery pieces on the Shahe line, and completed preparations for the attack.
Opposite them, there was a Russian army of 290,000 men and 1,437 artillery pieces led by General Kuropatkin, who organized position defense on the front 150 kilometers south of Fengtian.
Judging from the strength and equipment, the Japanese army was at a disadvantage, but they actually dared to take the lead in launching an offensive.
Of course, there must be a reason why the Japanese army dared to attack. The Russian army was internally corrupt and incompetent, and the morale of its officers and soldiers was very low after several defeats. On the other hand, although the Japanese army did not have an advantage in terms of military strength and equipment, its morale was high. War has been fought between two sides since ancient times.
In a situation where the gap in military strength is not too big, the side with high morale has an advantage. So starting from March 2, the two sides started a big battle around Fengtian.
After 16 days of fighting, the Russian army was defeated. After paying the price of more than 90,000 casualties, it was forced to withdraw from Fengtian and retreated all the way to Siping.
The victorious Japanese army also felt uncomfortable, suffering more than 70,000 casualties and unable to catch up with the retreating Russian army.
The main reason for the higher casualties of the Japanese army than in history is firstly the reason for the training equipment of the Japanese army. Because Japan's finances are lower than in history, less is allocated to the army. And in the case of reduced funds
, and for this reason, we need to expand the army on a large scale, so many places save what they can, and the training intensity is also reduced a lot. Even the supplementary troops in the later period of the war were trained for three or four weeks before they even touched the gun a few times.
There are also many battlefields.
On the other hand, the Russian army is equipped with a lot of machine guns. The Russian army on the Fengtian front line is equipped with more than 300 of the famous Maxim machine guns. These machine guns, which serve as fire support points, gave the charging Japanese army enough
They suffered so much that after surrendering, Russian soldiers operating Maxim machine guns were killed by the enraged Japanese officers and soldiers.
On land, both the Japanese and Russian armies are now unable to attack. Faced with this situation, Russia can only place its hope on the sea, because everything can only rely on the sea, because the Second Pacific Army led by Lieutenant General Roger Stevinsky
The fleet finally arrived in the Far East.
The huge Second Pacific Fleet has a total tonnage of 360,000 tons and has 59 combat ships including 11 battleships and 5 large armored cruisers. Its size is nearly twice that of the Combined Fleet.
Although many of these battleships are just junk, the scale of such a huge battleship puts a lot of pressure on the Combined Fleet. For this reason, the commander of the Combined Fleet, Togo Heihachiro, on the one hand, stepped up his efforts to urge the shipbuilders to repair the two Genoa-class battleships as soon as possible.
To supplement the strength of his own combined fleet, on the one hand, he will judge and analyze the route of the Russian fleet.
At this time, because Port Arthur had fallen into the hands of the Japanese army, the Russian fleet could only sail to Vladivostok. There were two routes to Vladivostok: either through the Tsushima Strait and into the Sea of Japan, or via Soya or Tsugaru Strait, from near Hokkaido
into the Sea of Japan.
Togo Heihachiro judged that Roger Stevinsky would definitely pass through the Tsushima Strait, so he concentrated the combined fleet on Tsushima Island and the North Korean town bay to wait for the war. In addition, he also dispatched 4 armed merchant ships and 2
An old cruiser was conducting reconnaissance in the East China Sea to determine the position of the Russian fleet.
While Togo Heihachiro was waiting for the arrival of the Russian fleet, Roger Stevensky led the Russian Second Pacific Fleet and was undergoing repairs in Manila.
Because the number of Russian fleets is too large, the dock at the port cannot carry out maintenance and repairs on all warships. Roger Stevensky can only give priority to more advanced warships for maintenance, so there are three Genoa-class ships and two Borodino-class ships.
Battleships and three Garibaldi-class cruisers were prioritized for maintenance. In addition, the Russian officers and soldiers who had been exhausted for a long time also got a chance to repair. These Russian naval officers and soldiers were almost collapsing, and they were spending money in taverns, prostitutes and gambling.
All you have is energy.
Of course, with the influx of a large number of Russian officers and soldiers into Manila, there are also many things that are praised. Robbery, extortion, fights, rape and many other things were all done by these Russian idiots. For this reason, the Manila police within a day
More than 30 Russian officers and soldiers were captured. So much so that the Governor of Manila sent a serious warning to Roger Stevensky, saying that if he did not stop them, they would be driven out of Manila.
Faced with the threat from the Governor of Manila, Roger Stevinsky sent out the military police on board the ship to catch these veteran sailors and punish them, finally making these wanton sailors learn to restrain themselves.
However, the good time in Manila did not last long, and the telegram sent from St. Petersburg disrupted Rostevinsky's good mood. The Tsar ordered them to rush to Vladivostok as soon as possible in order to launch an offensive against Japan from the sea.
Faced with the Tsar's strict order, Rostevinsky had no choice but to order the officers and soldiers to return to the ship. As for the officers and soldiers arrested by the police station, they were put back on the ship after paying a high bail.
Roger Stevensky then set off and headed for Vladivostok with a huge fleet. However, he still had common sense in naval warfare and knew that huge auxiliary ships would only slow down his pace. Therefore, after leaving Manila, he only left four faster ships.
In addition to the fast transport ship and two hospital ships, other auxiliary ships were allowed to leave.
The news of the Russian fleet's departure from Manila was quickly learned by Japan.
All the battleships gathered in the combined fleet were already gearing up, waiting for the Russian troops coming from the east and giving them a heavy blow. One more thing to say here, the two Genoa-class battleships were finally repaired before the Russian ship set off from Manila. Togo Heihachiro, who had two more battleships,
Of course he was overjoyed, now he was more confident.
On the night of June 12, Roger Stevinsky quietly planned to pass through the Tsushima Strait with the Russian fleet, but a Japanese armed merchant ship discovered a hospital ship in the Russian fleet. Although Roger Stevinsky ordered a blackout,
This hospital ship with a noble lady was discovered by the Japanese ship because of its bright lights. After careful judgment, the armed merchant ship sent a telegram that it had discovered that the Russian fleet was sailing northeast.
After receiving the news about the Russian ship, all members of the combined fleet were dispatched, and finally discovered the Russian fleet in the early morning of the 13th. So in the Tsushima Strait, the largest naval battle of the 20th century began.
Next, Togo Heihachiro raised the Z flag on the flagship Japanese battleship Mikasa and issued the famous order. The empire will rise and fall in this battle, and everyone will work hard together.
This naval battle started at 11 o'clock in the morning and lasted until nightfall. After a hard-fought naval battle, the combined fleet won this naval battle. More than 40 Russian ships were sunk and captured, 5,879 people died, and 7,137 were captured.
people.
The Russian ships Eagle (formerly the Italian Garibaldi-class Francisco), Osliavia (formerly the Italian Genoa-class Bologna), Nicholas I, and Oriel were led by Rear Admiral Norbogatov.
Aplakshyn, Sinyavin, Great Sisoy, Navarin, Admiral Nakhimov and cruiser Emerald escaped towards Vladivostok.
Rear Admiral Ankvist had already left the battlefield before nightfall, led the cruisers Orji, Aurora and Pearl to the south, and finally sailed to Manila to be disarmed.
The remaining warships of the huge Russian Second Pacific Fleet have a total tonnage of only more than 90,000 tons, and they are basically old warships. It can be said that they have suffered a huge loss and have no power to fight back.
Of course, the joint fleet's victory in this naval battle did not come without paying a price. More than ten warships, including Shikishima, Yakumo, Asama, Takachiho, and Zhenyuan, were sunk in the naval battle. The Japanese suffered 2,741 casualties and lost 40,000 tons.
Many tons.
There are two main reasons why the Combined Fleet suffered more casualties than in history. First, the morale of the Russian fleet has been restored to a certain extent because it has been repairing in Manila for a long time. Second, the Russian fleet has a larger number of warships and has an advantage in tonnage.
So it is completely normal to have the idea of trying to compete.
The heavy losses on both land and sea made it impossible for Russia to see any hope of victory. At this time, there was also a problem within Russia. Revolutionary sentiment was already high in Russia, and the Russian government originally wanted to use a victory in the war to alleviate internal conflicts.
, but successive defeats on the battlefield have made domestic problems more prominent.
In December 1903, a strike occurred in St. Petersburg. Subsequently, the number of people from all walks of life who agreed with the strike continued to increase, and the number of strikers rose to 80,000.
On January 12, 1904, the Orthodox cleric Father Gaipan led a workers' organization of about 30,000 people to a peaceful demonstration in the square outside the Winter Palace, with the purpose of submitting a petition to the Tsar to express the plight of the working class and the people at the bottom of society.
Nicholas II had moved to Tsarskoye Selo since January 8 and was not at the Winter Palace on the day of the peaceful demonstration. At that time, the armed soldiers responsible for guarding the palace lined up to confront the demonstrators, and the number of people gathered gradually increased to twenty
Thousands of people. The soldiers later fired warning shots into the air.
Soon after, they shot at the crowd, and the people fled in panic and pushed each other. A conservative estimate was that there were about 1,000 casualties at the time. This bloody suppression incident aroused public anger, and the Russian people no longer looked to the Tsar, and a series of large-scale strikes
Happens everywhere.
In the industrial town of Lodz in Poland, workers carried out a general strike with the slogan "Down with dictatorship! Down with war!". At the same time, strikes, demonstrations or marches occurred one after another in Warsaw and other industrial centers. On January 28 of the same year,
Instigated by the Polish Socialist Party, the Kingdom of Poland and the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party, they called for a large-scale strike. More than 400,000 workers across Poland joined and lasted for four weeks.
At that time, the demonstrators also demanded improved conditions for workers and more autonomy for the Poles. In February, Polish university students began to join the demonstrations, and later even students from middle schools and primary schools joined. The students protested against Russification and demanded the right to learn Polish.
When the country was experiencing successive turmoils, even if Tsar Nicholas II wanted to continue fighting, he was unable to do so.
Therefore, in the end, only under the mediation of the United States, Russia had to make a request for peace talks.
So from August 19, Japan and Russia formally held peace talks in Portsmouth, USA, and signed the "Portsmouth Peace Treaty" on September 9, declaring the end of the Russo-Japanese War that had been going on for more than a year.
The Treaty of Portsmouth stipulates that Russia recognizes that Japan enjoys "excellent political, military and economic interests" in Korea and shall not hinder or interfere with any Japanese measures against Korea.
In addition, Russia will transfer the lease rights of Lushun Port, Dalian Bay and adjacent territorial waters and other related privileges to the Japanese government. The railway from Changchun (Kuanchengzi) to Lushun Port and all branch lines, as well as all ancillary rights
, property and coal mines were transferred to the Japanese government. In addition, the treaty also stipulated that Russia's lease rights to the Liaodong Peninsula and all nearby islands were permanently transferred to Japan.
The significance of this war, in addition to establishing Japan's status as a great power, is more important because "for the first time in history, an Asian country defeated a European country, and it was a great empire."
Of course, it was not easy for Japan to win this victory.
In this war, both sides fought tooth and nail.
Russia invested a total of 1.2 million troops, suffered casualties, 270,000 prisoners, lost 103 ships, and spent 2.3 billion rubles on military expenditures; Japan's total troops participating in the war were 1.09 million, with 276,000 casualties (including 97,000 killed in battle). Losses
There are 96 ships and military expenditures consume 1.93 billion yen.
