Just when the second anti-encirclement and suppression battle in the Hehu base area was about to begin, on the battlefield in Liaodong, the war between the East China government and Russia began again, and this time the battlefield was in the northernmost region of China.

After the fall of Vladivostok, Tsar Nicholas II made a speech to the country, hoping to divert the domestic contradictions from external troubles, and called on all forces in Russia to unite to jointly deal with the military pressure of the East China government. However, the effect of the speech greatly disappointed Nicholas II, and the contradictions in Russia not only did not ease, but continued to worsen.

In fact, at this time, the accumulation of contradictions in Russia was deep, and it was only under the political pressure of the tsarist government that it was not broken out, and in the past two years, Russia was first defeated militarily by Japan, and then by the East China government, not only lost its troops, but even lost Vladivostok, which also greatly reduced the authority of the tsarist government, and in the past two years of war, Russia also spent a huge amount of money, and the accumulation has cost more than 5 billion rubles, which is equivalent to about 500 million pounds, which is almost twice as much as Britain fought a Boer War. And huge military expenditures will inevitably drag down the domestic economy, and now Russia is in a depression, with a shortage of materials, soaring prices, soaring unemployment, and high taxes, and the ordinary people living almost to the minimum of food and clothing, such contradictions are not at all alleviated by the speech of Nicholas II.

Almost every day after the fall of Vladivostok, a large number of people gathered in front of the Winter Palace to petition and make their own demands! The peasants demanded lower taxes; the workers demanded jobs and bread; the petty businessmen and the petty bourgeoisie demanded the abolition of the imperial dictatorship; some elites, enlightened aristocrats, and even some officials demanded that the tsarist government immediately stop the war, carry out reforms, and reconvene the State Duma, and so on. propaganda, even incitement.

And because of the lesson of "Bloody Sunday", the Russian government did not dare to act too harshly against the masses of people who rallied and petitioned, and to a certain extent, it had a stimulating effect on the popular protests in Russia, and the whole of Russia was like sitting on a volcanic crater, and could be crushed at any time.

In fact, the tsarist government did not want to stop the war, but everyone knew that the current armistice negotiations would of course be unfavorable to Russia, not only could Northeast China not be able to keep it, but the "Yellow Russia" plan was completely cool, and even Vladivostok was about to be lost, so there could be no truce, at least not at this time. And the only way to quell this domestic turmoil is to win another victory on the battlefield. As a result, Russia asked Japan to enter the war in order to attract the strength of the People's Army and share the pressure of the Russian army. However, the Japanese government naturally did not come out to help Russia attract firepower, so it pushed left and right, and found various reasons for refusing to send troops to the war at this time.

But now that the situation in the country is becoming more and more tense, and the Governor-General of the Far East, Linnevich, is constantly sending telegrams to St. Petersburg asking for instructions on what to do next, the government must do something. So Nicholas II came up with a way, since Linnevich wanted domestic instructions on his next move, he simply gave him an order, asking Linnevich to immediately send troops to recover Vladivostok, as for how to fight this battle, that is Linnevich's business.

When the officials of the Russian government learned of the Tsar's order, they all cheered and shouted, "Your Majesty Shengming", because General Linnevich is a famous general comparable to Marshal Kutuzov, and if he can recover Mukden, he will definitely be able to recover Vladivostok again.

And listening to the praise of these officials, Nicholas II couldn't help but feel a little fluttering, he was really the wisest monarch of the Romantsev dynasty, what is the crisis in front of him, as long as Linnevich recovered Vladivostok, now the crowd protesting and petitioning outside will shout "Long live the Tsar". After surviving the current crisis, Russia will be even stronger, and its own merits will far surpass that of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great.

The tsar can now have dreams that surpass those of his ancestors, but Linnevich has long woken up from the dreams of famous generals and knows that he is not that material, not to mention that now that Vladivostok is lost, even if Kutuzov is resurrected, I am afraid that he will be helpless. Therefore, after receiving the Tsar's order, Linnevich just wanted to pull out his gun and commit suicide, which was simply an impossible task.

Linnevich is still very clear about the current situation, Vladivostok is impossible to recover, it is very good to be able to keep Harbin, and this will have to give up Shenyang, Changchun and other places, and withdraw all the troops stationed in Shenyang to defend Harbin, unless the country can send another 200,000 troops to itself in 3 or 5 days. However, not to mention whether the country can still draw out 200,000 troops at present, even if it can be dispatched, it will take at least three or four months for the troops to assemble and pull out and rush from Europe to the Far East.

However, Linnevich never expected that the tsar gave him such an order to recover Vladivostok, but he did not say that he could give up Shenyang.

Of course, the idea of suicide was only fleeting, and Linnevich was reluctant to die now, but the tsar's order must be carried out, and Shenyang could not be abandoned. Now in addition to the army stationed in Shenyang, the Russian army also has about 100,000 troops, half of which are stationed in Harbin, and the rest are scattered and stationed in other places, so Linnevich scraped together, demolished the east wall and made up the west wall, just like squeezing toothpaste, and withdrew two divisions from Shenyang, and finally spelled out 4 divisions and 3 brigades, which were the 3rd Division of the 17th Army of the 9th Army, The 35th Division, the 2nd Independent Brigade of the 1st Army, the 2nd Division of the 4th Siberian Army of the 1st Army, the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Division of the 3rd Siberian Army, the 1st Cavalry Brigade of the Siberian Cavalry Division, the 71st Division of the 5th Siberian Army of the 2nd Army, and the Railway Garrison, totaling about 93,000 troops. At the same time, Linnevich appointed the commander of the 17th Army, Lieutenant General Volkov, as commander of this attack on Vladivostok.

If only in terms of troops, the strength of the Russian army is higher than that of the Vladivostok Expeditionary Force, and the expeditionary force also needs to allocate a part of its troops to garrison Vladivostok, Shuangchengzi and other places, so there are only 75,000-80,000 people who can be put into the battlefield, while the Russian army can be put into battle without considering the place where it is stationed. But the Russian army is a temporary patchwork army, which cannot be compared with the army formed by the People's Army specifically for the attack on Vladivostok, and the morale of the two sides is not at the same level, so although Linnevich made such an arrangement, he did not even have a little bottom in his heart, and everything could only be resigned to fate.

And when Lieutenant General Volkov received this order, he also had a look of despiscation, and almost resigned on the spot. However, Volkov was promoted to lieutenant general and has been in the army for decades, so he can say that he will not do it, so he can only grit his teeth and continue.

Of course, after taking over the task, it is necessary to draw up a tactical plan, and of course there is no need to think much about the route of the march, that is, to march along the Binsui line; first, most of the areas in this area have not yet been developed, and there are only small roads, but after the railway is completed, the surrounding areas along the railway line will develop rapidly, and the transportation facilities will be relatively perfect, and it will be easy to enter the army; second, the railway can be used to transport weapons and materials, which is convenient, fast, and more efficient.

Therefore, Volkov decided to divide the whole army into two lines, north and south, and march within a range of 10-15 kilometers on both sides of the railway, so that it can not only avoid the resistance of the people's army, but also give full play to the transportation role of the railway.

The armies on the northern front were the 9th Division, the 35th Division, and the 2nd Brigade, and the armies on the southern front were the 2nd Division, the 71st Division, and the 1st Brigade. Volkov, on the other hand, sat in the middle and commanded by train, and the army was the 1st Cavalry Brigade and the Railway Garrison.

Volkov's train was modified in the style of the armored train of the People's Army, and the Russian army admired the armored train of the People's Army quite much, and moved the multi-riveted steamed steel from the sea to the land, which was also very in line with the Russian aesthetic view of stupidity, black and coarse, and naturally carried out similar transformation of its own train.

After all, to install artillery on the train, even if it is a 100 mm caliber artillery, it is also necessary to carry out major surgery on the train, and it must be assembled and constructed in a professional workshop, which is not available to the Russian army now, so it is only necessary to install steel plates on the train, install more than a dozen Makqin machine guns and Haqikais rapid-fire guns on the roof and both sides, and also install two 75 mm field guns.

In this way, the train also has a certain defensive power, which is the carriage that Volkov rides, and the steel plate on the side wall is thickened by 70 mm, which can resist 57 mm artillery attacks, and the attack power is not bad, and it is also considered a strong firepower in the Russian army, so the safety is still guaranteed, and Volkov will not come to the front line to command the battle, once the war is unfavorable, you can also quickly evacuate, Volkov is also quite satisfied with this arrangement.

After the distribution of forces was over, Volkov also ordered the army to set off and march along the railway line to Vladivostok.