My Italian Chapter 492

Remember [New] for a second,! When the time came to August, a news shocked the whole world. In the war in the Far East, the Russians could not afford to negotiate peace.

That's right, this news caught the world's attention, because the strengths of the two did not match. Russia has a reputation as a European road roller. Although Russia lost a lot in the Crimean War decades ago, it was a joint effort between Britain and France.

And then Russia beat Osman again, showing that he is still the bear that can't be ignored.

But this time, Russia was defeated by an emerging country that surprised European countries. Moreover, this emerging country, Japan, defeated Mao Xiong without any direct help, and made all countries take a high look at Japan.

In fact, there is no way for Mao Xiong to be forced to make peace, because before, they lost a lot in naval and land battles, and they did not win a decent victory at all. The Russian army was even more disadvantaged, because the Japanese Third Army, which was contained by Lushun, was liberated.

For the Japanese army, to gain a strategic advantage, of course, it must expand the results and bring Russia to the negotiating table as soon as possible. I thought that as the war progressed, the Japanese government could no longer afford it. By the time Lushun was conquered, the Japanese government had spent 1.52 billion yen for the war, and the treasury had long been empty. If the British government had not secretly supported Japan to issue war bonds in London, Japan would have declared bankruptcy long ago. According to the estimates of the Ministry of Tibet, even if the peace talks are now negotiated, Japan will need to spend about 35% of its total fiscal revenue every year for debt repayment and interest payments.

Therefore, defeating Russia as soon as possible and ending the war has become the consensus of the Japanese government.

As the commander of the Manchurian Army, General Da Shanyan certainly knew this, so the Third Army, which had just ended the Lushun offensive and defensive battle, was ordered to rush to the front line of Fengtian, ready to drive the Russian army out of Fengtian. To this end, at the end of February, the Japanese army assembled 5 army groups of 235,000 people and 982 artillery pieces on the front line of Shahe, and completed offensive preparations.

Opposite them, a Russian army of 290,000 people led by Admiral Kuropatkin and 1,437 artillery pieces organized positional defense on the front 150 kilometers south of Fengtian.

In terms of strength and equipment, the Japanese army was at a disadvantage and dared to take the lead in launching the offensive.

Of course, there must be a reason why the Japanese army dared to attack. The Russian army was 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 troops and equipment, its morale was high. Since ancient times, wars have always been in a situation where the strength gap between the two armies is not too large, and the side with high morale has an advantage. So 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 cost of more than 90,000 casualties, they were forced to withdraw from the Fengtian front line and retreated all the way to Siping.

The victorious Japanese army was also uncomfortable, with more than 70,000 casualties, and was unable to catch up with the defeated Russian army.

The main reason for the higher casualties of the Japanese army than in history is that the Japanese army is training equipment. Because Japan's finances are lower than in history, less is allocated to the army. In the case of reduced funding, a large-scale expansion of the military is necessary for this purpose, so in many places, saving can be saved, and the training intensity has also been reduced a lot. Even in the late stage of the war, many recruits were brought to the battlefield without even touching their guns for three or four weeks of training.

On the other hand, the Russian army is equipped with a lot of machine guns. The famous Maxim machine guns were equipped with more than 300 machines by the Russian army on the front line of Fengtian. These machine guns, which acted as fire support points, made the charging Japanese army suffer enough, so that the Russian soldiers operating the Maxim machine guns surrendered. Afterwards, he was killed by angry Japanese soldiers.

On land, the Japanese and Russian armies are now unstoppable. Faced with this situation, Russia can only put its hope on the sea, because everything can only be counted on the sea, because the Second Pacific Ocean led by Lieutenant General Roger Stevinsky The fleet finally reached 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, nearly twice the size of the combined fleet.

Although among these battleships, there are a lot of scumbags, but such a huge scale of battleships puts a lot of pressure on the combined fleet. For this reason, Heihachiro Togo, the commander of the combined fleet, on the one hand, urged shipbuilders to repair the two Genoclass battleships as soon as possible to supplement the strength of his combined fleet, and on the other hand, made judgments and analysis on the route of the Russian fleet.

At this time, because Port Lushun had fallen into the hands of the Japanese army, the Russian fleet could only sail to Vladivostok. There are two waterways to Vladivostok: either through the Tsushima Strait into the Sea of ​​Japan, or through the Soya or Tsugaru Strait, from the vicinity of Hokkaido into the Sea of ​​Japan.

Togo Heihachiro judged that Roger Stevinsky would definitely take the Tsushima Strait, so he concentrated the combined fleet on the Tsushima Island and North Korea's Zhenhai Bay, waiting for the arrival of war. In addition, he also sent 4 armed merchant ships and 2 old cruisers to reconnaissance in the East China Sea in order to determine the position of the Russian fleet.

While Togo Heihachiro was waiting for the arrival of the Russian fleet, Roger Stevinsky led the Russian Second Pacific Fleet, which was being repaired in Manila.

Due to the size of the Russian fleet, the port's dockyard was unable to maintain all the warships. Roger Stevinsky can only give priority to the maintenance of the more advanced warships, so the three Genoclass battleships, the two Borodino-class battleships, and the three Garibaldi-class cruisers are given priority for maintenance. In addition, the Russian officers and soldiers who had been exhausted for a long time also got a chance to repair. These officers and soldiers of the Russian Navy had almost collapsed, and they spent their only energy in taverns, prostitutes and gambling.

Of course, with the influx of a large number of Russian officers and soldiers into Manila, there are also a lot of compliments, such as robbery, extortion, fights, **** (harmonious) and many other things, all of which are done by these Russians. For this reason, the Manila policeman within a day More than 30 Russian officers and soldiers were arrested. So much so that the Governor of Manila gave Roger Stevinsky a serious warning to drive them out of Manila if he did not stop them.

In the face of the threat of the Governor of Manila, Roger Stevinsky sent the military police on the ship to capture these old sailors and punish them, and finally let these presumptuous sailors know how to restrain.

But the good times in Manila didn't last long when a telegram from St. Petersburg upset Roger Stevinsky's good mood. The tsar ordered them to get to Vladivostok as soon as possible, in order to launch an offensive against Japan from the sea.

In the face of the Tsar's strict order, Roger Stevinsky 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 released back to the ship after paying high bail.

Roger Stevinsky then set off and headed for Vladivostok with a huge fleet. However, after the deadline, I still have common sense of naval warfare. I know that the huge auxiliary ships will only drag my footsteps. Therefore, after leaving Manila, except for the four faster transport ships and two medical ships, all other auxiliary ships were released. to let it go.

The news of the departure of the Russian fleet from Manila was soon learned by Japan.

All the warships in the combined fleet have already been gearing up, waiting for the Russian army coming from the east and giving them a hard blow. One more thing to say here, the two Genoclass battleships were finally repaired before the Russian ships set off from Manila. Togo Heihachiro, who had two more battleships, was of course overjoyed, and now he is more confident.

On the night of June 12, Roger Stevinsky quietly planned to cross the Tsushima Strait with the Russian fleet, but the Japanese armed merchant ships found a hospital ship in the Russian fleet. Although Roger Stevinsky ordered the blackout, the hospital ship with the lady was spotted by the Japanese ship because of its bright lights. After some careful determination, the armed merchant ship sent a telegram that the Russian fleet was sailing northeast.

After receiving the news of the Russian ship, all members of the combined fleet were dispatched, and finally found the Russian fleet in the early morning of the 13th. So in the Tsushima Strait, one of the largest naval battles of the twentieth century began.

Next, Heihachiro Togo raised the z-flag on the flagship Japanese battleship Mikasa, and issued the famous order.

The naval battle started at eleven in the morning and continued until nightfall. After a arduous naval battle, the combined fleet won this naval battle. More than 40 Russian ships were sunk and captured, 5,879 people were killed, and 7,137 people were captured.

Rear Admiral Norbergatov led the Russian ships Eagle (formerly the Italian Garibaldi-class Francisco), Osliavia (formerly the Italian Genoclass Bologna), Nicholas I, Auriel, Apraksim, Sinyavin, Great Sisoi, Navarin, Nakhimov General and the cruiser Emerald fled towards Vladivostok.

Rear Admiral Ankwest left the battlefield long before nightfall, and led the cruisers USS Orzi, USS Aurora and USS Pearl to the south, and finally sailed to Manila to be disarmed.

In the huge Russian Second Pacific Fleet, the remaining warships have a total tonnage of only more than 90,000 tons, and they are basically mainly old warships. It can be described as a big loss, and there is no way to fight back.

Of course, the victory of the combined fleet in this naval battle did not come without 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 more than 40,000 tons.

There are two main reasons for causing more casualties in the combined fleet than in history. First, the morale of the Russian fleet has been restored to a certain extent because of the long repair time in Manila. Second, the number of Russian warships is large, and the tonnage is also dominant, so the idea of ​​​​trying to compete is completely normal.

The land and sea have been hit hard, so that Russia has no hope of winning. At this time, there was also a problem in Russia. Originally, the revolutionary mood in Russia was high. The Russian government originally wanted to use the victory of a war to alleviate internal conflicts, but successive defeats on the battlefield led to more prominent domestic problems.

In December 1903, there was a strike in St. Petersburg, and then the number of people who agreed to the strike continued to increase, and the number of strikers climbed to 80,000.

On January 12, 1904, an Orthodox clergyman, Father Gaipang, led a labor organization of about 30,000 people to a peaceful demonstration in the square outside the Winter Palace.

Nicholas II has moved to the Imperial Village since January 8, and was not in the Winter Palace on the day of the peaceful demonstration. The armed soldiers who were responsible for guarding the palace at that time lined up to confront the demonstrators, and the number of people gathered had gradually increased to 200,000. Soldiers later fired warning shots into the air, and shortly afterwards shot at the crowd, who fled in panic and shoved. Conservative estimates put around 1,000 casualties at the time. This **** repression aroused public anger, the Russian people no longer expected the tsar, and a series of large-scale strikes took place in various places.

In Poland's industrial city of Lodz, workers held a general strike with the slogan "Down with the dictatorship! Down with the war!" At the same time, strikes, demonstrations or demonstrations took place one after another in Warsaw and other industrial centers. On January 28 of the same year, under the instigation of the Polish Socialist Party, the Kingdom of Poland and the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, a large-scale strike was called, and more than 400,000 workers throughout Poland joined for 4 weeks.

At that time, the demonstrators also demanded to improve the working environment and give the Poles more autonomy. In February, Polish university students joined the demonstration, and later even middle and elementary school students joined. The students protested against Russification and demanded the right to learn Polish.

When the domestic turmoil broke out one after another, even Tsar Nicholas II wanted to continue fighting, but he was unable to do so.

Therefore, in the end, only under the mediation of the United States, Russia had to ask for peace talks.

So from August 19th, Japan and Russia formally held peace talks in Portsmouth, USA~www.mtlnovel.com~ and signed the "Portsmouth Peace Treaty" on September 9th. It declared the end of the Russo-Japanese War, which had been going on for more than a year.

The Treaty of Portsmouth stipulated that Russia recognized Japan's political, military and economic "preeminent interests" in Korea and would not obstruct or interfere with any Japanese actions against Korea.

In addition, Russia transferred the lease rights of Port Lushun, Dalian Bay and its adjacent territorial waters and other related privileges to the Japanese government. The railway and all branch lines from Changchun (Kuanchengzi) to Port Arthur, as well as all attached rights, properties and coal mines, will be transferred to the Japanese government. In addition, the treaty also stipulated that Russia's lease of the Liaodong Peninsula and all nearby islands would be permanently ceded to Japan.

In addition to establishing Japan's status as a great power, the significance of this war is that "for the first time in history, an Asian country defeated a European country, and it was a great empire.

Of course, it is not easy for Japan to win this victory.

In this war, the two sides can be said to go out of their way.

Russia invested a total of 1.2 million troops, 270,000 casualties and captured 270,000 people, lost 103 ships, and spent 2.3 billion rubles. 96 ships were lost, and military expenditure was 1.93 billion yen.

Chapter end