The third blockade operation ended at 6 a.m. on May 3, and although the wind and waves were still very strong, the Combined Fleet did not return to the port of Incheon, but waited for the army convoy on the sea at the mouth of the Datong River, and then covered the landing of the army, and the landing site was set at Piziwo (Pulandian District, Dalian City), northeast of Yandao. The two sides converged at Saijima, and Heihachiro Togo sent the 3rd Fleet to escort the convoy.

On May 4, the mixed fleet of the Navy and Army set out and arrived at the landing site in the early morning of May 5, while the Russian army was still unprepared, although Alesekev immediately mobilized troops to stop the Japanese landing, but it was too late, the reinforcements marched along the coast, and on the way they were shelled by Japanese warships and retreated. By 11 a.m., the first wave of Japanese troops had landed successfully and a beachhead had been set up at the shore.

After learning that the Japanese army landed on the Liaodong Peninsula in two ways, Alesekev knew that the land battle had begun, and did not dare to stay in Lushun, and fled from Lushun by train at 11 o'clock that night, and appointed Rear Admiral Wittgoft as temporary acting commander.

However, at this time, the Pacific Fleet no longer had the courage to attack from Port Arthur, so Wittgeft believed that the number of fleets that could be dispatched now was insufficient, and it took eight hours to sail from Arthur to Piziwo, about 90 nautical miles, and once the Japanese fleet cut off the retreat, there was a danger of total annihilation, and refused to attack. Alekseev did not insist, but instructed the fleet to avoid losses.

Just when the Japanese army landed at Piziwo, the 1st Army, which captured Jiulian City, continued to advance north and captured Phoenix City. However, Phoenix was actually abandoned by the Russian army on its own initiative, because the commander-in-chief of the Far East, Kuropatkin, believed that it was necessary to concentrate forces in Liaoyang to fight a decisive battle with the Japanese army, first, Liaoyang has been operated by the Russian army for many years, and its back is Fengtian, which is conducive to the Russian army's concentration of troops and the decisive battle with the Japanese army; second, it can lengthen the Japanese army's reinforcement line, disperse the distribution of the Japanese army's troops, and weaken the Japanese army's combat effectiveness.

At this time, in Japan, there was once again a frenzy of support for the war, because from May 1, it can be said that the victory of the third closed operation, the victory of the Jiulian Castle, the successful landing operation of Piziwo, the capture of Phoenix, and so on, the victory was almost one after the other, so Tokyo once again held a "lantern parade" to celebrate the victory, and this time a total of more than 200,000 people participated.

As a result, two stampedes occurred in the crowd marching at night, killing 20 people and injuring 25 others, 16 of whom were teenagers under the age of 18. However, the accident did not stop the enthusiasm of the Japanese people for the war, and in the eyes of the Japanese people, the victory in the war against Russia had become a treasure in their pockets, so lantern parades throughout the country became the norm.

At the beginning of the war, most countries were not optimistic about Japan, and after the Japanese army successfully landed on the Liaodong Peninsula, the balance of public opinion has shifted to Japan's side, and all countries in the world generally believe that Japan has a better chance of winning, and Britain is even optimistic that Japan is actually in an invincible position.

Driven by a series of victories, Japan's bonds issued in the British and American financial markets were favored all the way, and the sales were excellent, and it was a British and American Jewish consortium that bought a large number of Japanese bonds, so that Japan raised a large amount of money, so the three batches of materials purchased from the East China government were also paid very happily and without delay.

In addition, the successive victories also made the confidence of the Japanese navy and army burst, believing that the Russian army was no more than a rel, and that relying on Japan's strength alone was enough to defeat the Russian army and achieve victory, and there was no need to ask the East China government to send troops to help, and the navy and army had reached a very rare consensus, and were colluding with the government, making a formal proposal to the government, and simply explicitly rejected the East China government.

But it soon became clear to Japan that it was too optimistic about the progress of the war and underestimated its brutality.

After the successful landing, the Japanese Army's next plan was to take a two-pronged approach, sending the 3rd Army to land in Piziwo, marching south to Jinzhou, completely cutting off the communication between Lushun and the outside world, and then the Navy and Army jointly captured Lushun, and at the same time, the Navy also dispatched 4 armored cruisers of the 2nd Squadron to be responsible for the security mission in the Sea of Japan, to find and eliminate the 3rd Fleet in the Sea of Japan, while the 2nd Army moved north to cooperate with the garrison in Phoenix, Jianghe, the 1st Army of Jiuliancheng, concentrated its forces to advance into Liaoyang and further threatened Mukden; if both operations could be successful, then the Russo-Japanese War would be decided. Of course, both the navy and the army are full of confidence in this battle plan.

The Army is actively mobilizing personnel and materials, while the Navy, in addition to dispatching warships to garrison the Sea of Japan, cruises outside Port Arthur from time to time to monitor the Russian troops in the harbor, maintain deterrence, and cover the Army's transport fleet. Although the third blockade operation was not successful, after Makarov's death, the morale of the Pacific Fleet plummeted, and it no longer had the courage to go out of the port to fight.

On 12 May, while carrying out a mine-sweeping mission at Dayaokou in the northeast of Dalian Bay, the No. 48* boat struck a minefield and sank; on 14 May, the communications ship "Miyako" struck a mine-sweeping mission near Dayaokou.

At this time, Lieutenant Colonel Ivanov, the captain of the Pacific Fleet's minelayer Amur, discovered the pattern of the Japanese fleet's route after observation, and the Japanese warships basically entered 10 nautical miles south of the port to carry out artillery bombardment, so he suggested to the acting commander Wittgift to deploy in this area*, which was approved by Wittgeft. It was foggy that day, so the Amur left the port and laid 50 capsules* at the location identified by Ivanov.

At 1 a.m. on May 15, while the 3rd Sentai was monitoring Port Arthur in heavy fog, a warship collision occurred, and the armored cruiser Kasuga, which Japan had just purchased from Italy, collided with the meritorious battleship Yoshino in the Sino-Japanese War. However, due to the near-zero visibility in the dense fog, the other ships were unable to carry out the rescue. By 2:10 a.m., the Yoshino sank, killing a total of 318 people on board and 90 rescued.

However, this accident did not affect the plan of action of the Combined Fleet, and after dawn, the fog gradually dissipated, and the 1st Squadron still went to the Russian ships in the port of Weishi in the southeast sea of Lao Tieshan as planned. And this is exactly the sea area where the Russian ship just mined yesterday.

At 9:50, the stern of the battleship Hatsuse struck a mine, and a huge explosion sounded, the hull shook violently, and the water near the flagship was reddish-brown.

The accompanying battleships Kasazhi and Yashima immediately took rescue action. However, at 10:15 a.m., the starboard rear of the Yashima, which was preparing to rescue the Hatsuse, was also struck by a mine, and in less than a minute, the starboard front was struck again.

At this time, the combined fleet was also a little at a loss, not knowing whether it was a mine or a submarine attack, Togo Heihachiro ordered the other ships not to act rashly, pay attention to the submarine, and ordered the Kasazaki to release the rope and prepare to tow the Hatsuse, but at 11:35, the rear turret of the Hatsuse hit the mine again, and caused the explosion of the powder magazine, and in less than two minutes, the Hatsuse sank into the water. The other Yashima was also flooded at this time, unable to be towed, and sank at 5 p.m.

However, at this time, although the Russian troops at the Lushun Golden Mountain Fort had already observed the mine-striking of the Hatsuse and Yashima, the acting commander Wittgerft only ordered the ships to send officers and men to the shore to observe the results of the battle, but did not send a fleet to attack, taking advantage of the situation to attack the combined fleet, and as a result, this great opportunity to turn the tables was missed in vain.

The Hatsuse and Yashima, both the main warships of the Combined Fleet, were sunk by a mine at the same time in one day, which was a heavy blow to the Combined Fleet. After receiving the report from Togo Hachiheiro, the Military Command Department was also taken aback, and Ito Yuhyung, the head of the Military Command Department, was afraid that such a heavy loss would affect the mood of the officers and soldiers and the people in the country, so he ordered to block the news and only announced that the two warships were injured and were being repaired. In order to supplement the combat effectiveness of the 1st Sentai Sentai Sentai , Heihachiro Togo only had to reorganize the two armored cruisers Nisshin and Kasuga that he had just purchased into the 1st Sentai Sentai Team, barely enough to make up the number of six. And Kasuga was also on the same day, having just sunk the Yoshino.

However, the Nisshin and Kasuga belong to the Italian Galipotti-class armored cruisers, with a displacement of only 7,700 tons, and the main guns are 4 203 mm, and the combat effectiveness is not even comparable to several 10,000-ton armored cruisers of the 2nd Sentai team, while the Hatsuse and Yashima have a displacement of about 15,000 tons, and the main guns are 4 305 mm caliber cannons, so the combat effectiveness of the 1st Sentai is naturally greatly reduced.

Two days later, the gunboat Oshima collided with the Akagi, and the destroyer Xiao sank again, and in just 5 days, the combined fleet lost 7 warships in a row, including 2 battleships with the core main force and 1 meritorious cruiser, but fortunately, the landing of the army was basically over at this time, so Heihachiro Togo ordered the fleet to suspend all operations and return to port for repairs.

But the Pacific Fleet still did not seize the opportunity to make a move, and thus missed the last chance to turn the tide.

Fortunately, the Japanese Army was not affected by the Navy, and of course the target of the naval blockade news also included the Army, so the Army did not know that the Navy had suffered a heavy blow unprecedented since the start of the war, and thought that the situation of the Navy was still very good. So on May 25, the army launched the Jinzhou Campaign, and on May 28, captured Jinzhou and Dalian, and the Russian troops and expatriates guarding Jinzhou and Dalian retreated to Lushun, so that the Japanese army completed the encirclement of Lushun and completely cut off all contact with Lushun to the outside world.