My Italy

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 peace.

Yes, this news caught the world's attention because the strength of the two did not match. Russia has the reputation of being the steamroller of Europe. Although Russia suffered a huge loss in the Crimean War decades ago, it was Britain and France who joined forces to fight against the third. How can it not lose?

Then Russia beat the Ottomans to a pulp, showing that they were still the furry bears that people could not ignore.

But this time, Russia was defeated by an emerging country, which surprised European countries. Moreover, this emerging country, Japan, still defeated the Mao Xiong without anyone directly helping it, making other countries take a look at Japan.

In fact, there is nothing that can be done to force Mao Xiong to sue for peace, because before, they suffered huge losses in naval and land battles, and they did not win a decent victory at all. Especially after the fall of Port Arthur, they 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. I thought that as the war progressed, the Japanese government could no longer afford it. By the time Port Arthur was captured, the Japanese government had spent 1.52 billion yen on the war, and the national treasury was already empty. 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 estimates by the Ministry of Finance, even if the peace talks are now underway, Japan's debt alone will require the Ministry of Finance to spend about 35% of its total fiscal revenue every year on debt repayments and interest payments.

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 ended the offensive and defensive battle in Lushun, 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. For this reason, at the end of February, the Japanese army assembled 235,000 people and 982 artillery pieces from five group armies 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, organizing 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 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. Since ancient times, war has always been a situation where the gap in strength between the two armies is not too large, and the side with high morale has an advantage. So starting from March 2, the two parties started a war 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 the Fengtian line 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. As funds have been reduced, large-scale military expansion is required, so many places save what they can, and training intensity has also been reduced a lot. Even in the later stages of the war, many of the replacement soldiers were sent to the battlefield after three or four weeks of training before even touching a gun.

On the other hand, the Russian army is equipped with many machine guns. The Russian army on the Fengtian front line was equipped with more than 300 of the famous Maxim machine guns. These machine guns, which served as fire support points, gave the charging Japanese troops so much pain that the Russian soldiers operating the Maxim machine guns surrendered. Later, he was killed by angry Japanese 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 among these warships, there are many who are just passing by, but such a huge scale of warships puts great 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 shipbuilders to repair the two Genoa-class battleships as soon as possible to supplement the strength of his Combined Fleet, and on the other hand, he judged and analyzed 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 are two waterways to Vladivostok: either entering the Sea of ​​Japan through the Tsushima Strait, or entering the Sea of ​​Japan via the Soya or Tsugaru Strait from near Hokkaido.

Togo Heihachiro judged that Roger Stevinsky would definitely go through the Tsushima Strait, so he concentrated the combined fleet on Tsushima Island and the Zhen Bay in North Korea, waiting for the war to come. In addition, he also sent 4 armed merchant ships and 2 old cruisers to conduct reconnaissance in the East China Sea to determine the location 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 Russian fleet was too large, the port's dockyard was unable to repair and maintain all the warships. Roger Stevinsky could only give priority to the more advanced battleships for maintenance, so three Genoa-class battleships, two Borodino-class battleships, and three Garibaldi-class cruisers were 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 themselves. These Russian naval officers and soldiers were almost collapsed, and they spent their only energy in pubs, 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 praises. Many things such as robbery, extortion, fighting, rape, etc. 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 issued a serious warning to Roger Stevensky, threatening to drive them out of Manila if he did not stop them.

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, so that these troublemaking sailors finally knew what it meant to restrain themselves.

However, the good time in Manila did not last long. A telegram from St. Petersburg disturbed Roger Stevinsky'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, 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 to the ship after paying a high bail.

Roger Stevensky then set off, heading for Vladivostok with a large fleet. After all, I still have common sense in naval warfare, and I know that huge auxiliary ships will only slow down my pace. Therefore, after leaving Manila, except for four faster transport ships and two hospital ships, other auxiliary ships were released. Let him leave.

The news of the Russian fleet's departure from Manila was quickly learned by Japan.

All the warships in the combined fleet were already gearing up, waiting for the Russian army coming from the east to give them a severe blow. One more thing to say here is that the two Genoa-class battleships were finally repaired before the Russian ship set off from Manila. Togo Heihachiro, who had two more battleships, was of course overjoyed, and 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, the hospital ship with the lady was discovered by the Japanese ship because of the 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 news of the Russian ship, all members of the combined fleet dispatched, and finally discovered the Russian fleet in the early morning of the 13th. So in the Tsushima Strait, the largest naval battle in the twentieth 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.

The naval battle began at eleven o'clock in the morning and lasted until nightfall. After a hard-fought naval battle, the combined fleet won the naval battle. More than 40 Russian ships were sunk and captured, 5,879 people died and 7,137 were captured.

The Russian ships Eagle (formerly the Italian Garibaldi-class Francisco), Osliavia (formerly the Italian Genoa-class Bologna), Nikolay I, Aurel, Aplakzhin, 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 USS Orji, USS Aurora and USS Pearl to the south, and finally sailed to Manila to be disarmed.

The total tonnage of the remaining warships in the huge Russian Second Pacific Fleet is only more than 90,000 tons, and they are basically mainly old warships. It can be said that he was a huge loser and had no power to fight back.

Of course, the combined fleet's victory in this naval battle was not 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 suffered more than 40,000 tons of damage.

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. Secondly, the number of Russian warships is larger, and their tonnage is also superior, so the idea of ​​​​testing them is completely normal.

The heavy losses suffered on both land and sea made Russia lose hope of victory. At this time, there were also problems within Russia. Revolutionary sentiment was originally high in Russia. The Russian government originally wanted to use a victory in the war to alleviate internal conflicts, but successive defeats on the battlefield 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 peacefully demonstrate in the square outside the Winter Palace. The purpose was to submit 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 formed a formation to confront the demonstrators, and the crowd gradually increased to 200,000 people. The soldiers later fired warning shots in the air and soon after opened fire on the crowd, who jostled and fled in panic. A conservative estimate is that there were about 1,000 casualties at the time. This bloody suppression incident aroused public anger. The Russian people no longer looked to the Tsar, and a series of large-scale strikes occurred in various places.

In the industrial center of Poland, Lodz, workers carried out a general strike with the slogan "Down with dictatorship! Down with war!". At the same time, strikes, demonstrations or marches occurred in Warsaw and other industrial centers. On January 28 of the same year, instigated by the Polish Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, 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.

As turbulence broke out in his country, 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, United States, and signed the "Portsmouth Peace Treaty" on September 9. It declared 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 transferred to the Japanese government the lease rights of Port Arthur, Dalian Bay and adjacent territorial waters, as well as other related privileges. The railway from Changchun (Kuanchengzi) to Lushunkou and all branch lines, as well as all attached rights, properties and coal mines, will be transferred to the Japanese government. In addition, the treaty also stipulates that Russia's lease rights on the Liaodong Peninsula and all nearby islands will be 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 large 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 270,000 casualties, captured 270,000 soldiers, lost 103 ships, and spent 2.3 billion rubles on military expenditures; Japan participated in the war with a total of 1.09 million troops and suffered 276,000 casualties (including 97,000 killed in battle). 96 ships were lost and military expenditures were 1.93 billion yen.