The battle plan of the Russian army was as follows: the offensive was divided into two groups, the Eastern Corps (left) and the Siberian 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Armies and the Siberian Cavalry Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Stagriburg, who was responsible for outflanking from the right flank, inflicting a decisive blow on the Japanese right flank, cutting cross-cutting from the southeast, cutting off the Japanese supply line on the Korean Peninsula, and outflanking the rear of the Japanese flank; The coastal dragoon regiment was composed of others, and the commander was General Bildanlin, who was responsible for pinning down the left flank of the Japanese army and attracting the Japanese army. In addition, the 4th and 6th Siberian armies, the 1st army of the Nazabaykal Cavalry Division, and the Kokasas Cavalry Brigade were in reserve. The Japanese army was also divided into two corps, the eastern and western corps.

On October 11, the Eastern Corps of the Russian Army began to attack the defense line of Benxi Lake garrisoned by the Japanese army with the 1st and 3rd Siberian Armies as the two flanks, and the 8 brigades (battalions) of the Guards Reserve Infantry Brigade commanded by Major General Michiji Umezawa and the 14th Company (regiment) of the 12th Division were guarding Benxi Lake. As a result, the Japanese army, which was clearly inferior in forces, held the defensive line. After a day of fierce fighting between the two sides, all units of the Japanese army fell into a bitter battle, some of them ran out of reserves and had no troops to adjust, and some of them suffered great losses, many squadrons and squads lost all their officers, soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and some squads even lost all of them. And the Russian army was the attacker, and the losses were even greater, with the 3rd Siberian Army alone suffering more than 3,000 casualties.

However, the Western Corps of the Russian Army, which was responsible for containment, was dealt a heavy blow by Japan, and the attacking Russian troops were defeated by the Japanese army, and in the early morning of the 12th, Japan and Russia launched a fierce battle around the three stone mountains at the key points of the battlefield. The three stone mountains are located in the west of Beida Mountain, which is composed of three large granite stones and is a stone mountain on the plain, with an altitude of 114 meters, which can prevent the Japanese army from entering the Beida Mountain, protect the side and back of the Western Corps, so as to maintain the connection between the East and West Corps, and the Russian army guarding the three stone mountains has 2 regiments and an artillery brigade.

The two sides fought from 1 a.m. to 10 p.m., when the Japanese army invested 1 brigade and paid more than 1,500 casualties, and finally captured three stone hills.

However, despite the heavy price paid by Japan, it gained the initiative on the battlefield in one fell swoop, due to the fact that the connection between the Russian army's eastern and western corps was cut off, causing chaos in the Russian army, and the morale of the Russian army was not high, so the Siberian 4th Army and the 10th Army of the Western Corps took the lead in retreating, creating a big gap, and the eastern corps could only be forced to retreat, and soon the Russian army formed a comprehensive retreat.

However, due to the lack of troops, the Japanese army could not take advantage of the victory to march and expand the results of the battle, so it could only be forced to turn to the defense again on the vested position, and could only launch an offensive in local key areas, and on the night of October 15, the Japanese army attacked and captured Wanbao Mountain, the commanding heights of the Russian army, forming a threat to the Russian defense center. The Russian army then launched a counterattack, and after two days of fierce fighting, the Russian army finally recaptured Wanbaoshan and kept its position at the cost of 3,000 casualties. Then both sides were unable to fight again, and each consolidated its established positions and repaired fortifications to form a confrontation.

At the end of the Battle of Shahe, the Russian army suffered more than 40,000 casualties, of which 5,084 were killed and 5,868 were missing, while the Japanese suffered more than 20,000 casualties, of which 4,099 were killed. Although the Japanese did not achieve a complete victory, they suffered only half the casualties of the Russian army, and not only held their positions, but at the same time pushed the defensive line one step forward and created a good situation for the next Japanese attack on Mukden.

On the whole, although the Japanese army failed to conquer Lushun, it also completely cut off Lushun's external contacts, and was able to trap the defenders in Lushun with only one army, and completely blocked the remnants of the Pacific Fleet in the harbor with only a small number of warships, and basically completely ceded sea supremacy to Japan. On the northern front, after the Japanese army successively won the Battle of Liaoyang and the Battle of Shahe, Japan had achieved a great strategic advantage, and the Russian army had been forced to retreat to Mukden, and with Mukden as the core, it organized defense, and the overall situation was very passive.

By this time, everyone in Japan was very optimistic about the outcome of the war, believing that Russia had no strength to resist and that Japan was already sure of victory, and some newspapers even predicted that it would end by the end of this year at the earliest, and by February or March next year at the latest. Therefore, many media began to play up that this was a greater victory than the Sino-Japanese War, marking Japan's entry into the ranks of the world's leading powers, and some newspapers opened the terms of the armistice, believing that Japan could receive an indemnity of 8-10 excellent yen, and obtain land including the three eastern provinces of China, Yeye Island, Vladivostok Zainai, and so on.

However, at this moment, news came from Europe that in order to save the war situation, Russia had formed the Second Pacific Fleet with the Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet as a warship, with Rozhdestvensky as the commander, and sailed to the Far East to participate in the war, and the fleet had set sail from Europe on October 15. And on paper, the fleet was really strong, with a total of 7 battleships, 2 armored cruisers, 6 protective cruisers, 9 destroyers. Therefore, the European press commented: "All the efforts made by Japan up to this point will collapse after the arrival of the Russian Second Pacific Fleet."

It turned out that after the Battle of Liaoyang, almost all the European media believed that Russia's defeat had changed from "probably impossible" to a matter of "sooner or later". Tsarist Russia, of course, will not rest on its laurels. When the news broke that Russia had formed the Second Army in Manchuria to continue the war indefinitely, all Russia-related securities on the Paris Stock Exchange plummeted, and France, Russia's largest creditor and ally, had clearly expressed to Russia its desire to stop the war.

The Russian government is also very aware that the situation in the Far East is very crisis, in fact, in Russia, there have always been voices against this war, of course, not peace-loving, but think that there are better means than war, so at this time they have also made statements, that the war should be ended, otherwise it will cause a major political crisis in the country, after all, the signs have appeared, but Tsar Nicholas II believes that we must not sit idly by and watch the war in the Far East fail, not only lose the face of Russia, the dignified polar bear, actually defeated by the yellow-skinned monkey, which makes the fighting national sentiment embarrassed, as for the political crisis, the tsar believes that winning the war is the best way to resolve the crisis, so it is necessary to increase military investment in the Far East. So the tsar ordered the transfer of troops from Europe to help the Far East.

And Rozhdestvensky, who was only a major general at that time, suggested to the tsar that in order to reverse the situation in the Far East, it is not enough to increase the army, but to advance by sea and land, and now Russia has a total of three fleets, namely the Pacific Fleet in Asia, the Baltic Fleet in Europe, and the Black Sea Fleet. The strength of the Black Sea Fleet is still there, and now that the situation on the European side is relatively relaxed, these two fleets have nothing to do if they remain in port, so it is better to send one to the Far East, merge with the Pacific Fleet, and re-increase the Russian naval strength in the Far East, so that the victory can be reversed by advancing by sea and land.

Although the vast majority of people scoffed at Rozhdestvensky's proposal, believing that the feasibility of this proposal was extremely low, because the voyage to the Far East, whether in the Baltic Sea or the Black Sea, was close to 30,000 kilometers, and Russia did not have any bases and ports on the way to provide reinforcements, so even if the fleet was not forced to sail to the Far East, it would be exhausted, and it would be impossible to fight without a few months of repairs, and Japan would give the Russian fleet time to repair.

However, Nicholas II was very interested in this proposal, believing that it was an important step in reversing the situation in the Far East, so he immediately ordered the formation of the Second Pacific Fleet, with the Baltic Fleet as the main force and part of the Black Sea Fleet, to participate in the war in the Far East.

Originally, the tsar appointed Vice Admiral Perryluev, commander of the Baltic Fleet, as commander of the Second Pacific Fleet, but the vice admiral, who had been in trouble for a long time, knew that this trip was a bad luck and that it was difficult to say that he would not be able to win the Far East, and even if he did, he would not necessarily be able to change the situation in the Far East, so he refused the appointment and dismissal on the grounds of illness. And the tsar changed the position of commander to Rozhdestvensky, who made this proposal. Although at this time Rozhdestvensky's military rank was still a rear admiral, which was not enough to be the commander of the fleet, the tsar waved his pen and promoted Rozhdestvensky to lieutenant general, and the problem of seniority was easily solved.

After receiving this news, first of all, the heads of the Japanese government realized that they were thinking too optimistically, that Russia was not the Qing court, that Russia had 50 times the territory of Japan, 10 times the national income of Japan, and 3 times the population of Japan, and that it would not be easy to succumb after a few defeats. Soon, a new fleet will be organized that is not inferior to the Pacific Fleet.

Although the Pacific Fleet is now blocked in the port, this does not mean that the Pacific Fleet is unable to fight anymore, and now the Pacific Fleet still has 5 battleships and 1 armored cruiser, and its strength cannot be underestimated.

The Second Pacific Fleet had a large number of auxiliary ships, so the two sides would converge to form a huge fleet of 12 battleships, 3 armored cruisers, 6 protective cruisers, and 9 destroyers, and the strength would be far superior to that of the Japanese Combined Fleet.

Therefore, the Japanese cabinet, the army headquarters, the naval command department, and other departments hurriedly launched joint consultations, and finally made a resolution: Before the Second Pacific Fleet reaches the Far East, it will capture Arthur, annihilate the Pacific Fleet, and capture Mukden, so as to determine its absolute superiority. And the most important of them is to capture Lushun and annihilate the Pacific Fleet.

The army base camp also felt serious pressure, after all, now the Pacific Fleet is hiding in the harbor and cannot come out, and only after capturing Arthur can there be a chance to annihilate the Pacific Fleet. So the base camp also began to formally discuss the issue of whether to replace Nogi Noshinori, after all, Lushun could not be attacked, and the lord would be to blame.

However, Emperor Meiji believed that changing the battle would be a taboo for soldiers, and the removal of Nogi Noshinori at this time would undoubtedly be a great humiliation for him, and it was estimated that Nogi Noshinori would really commit suicide to maintain his dignity, but if a high-ranking officer like Nogi Noshinori committed suicide due to the unfavorable war, it would be a heavy blow to the morale of the army, so the base camp decided to give Nogi Noshinori another chance.

Moreover, the base camp also believes that although Nogi Noshinori failed to capture Lushun before, the defenders of Lushun must have caused heavy losses due to two consecutive attacks, and they consumed a lot of ammunition from the defenders, so it is estimated that the garrison of Lushun is now greatly weakened, and maybe another attack can capture Lushun. It's better to still give this opportunity to Nogi Noshinori.