On January 3, 1907, when most of the countries in the world were still immersed in the festive atmosphere of the New Year, East China officially launched an attack on the Russian army in the Far East, and launched the final battle of the Far East War, and called this war the closing operation.

In this offensive, the People's Army divided its troops into three routes: the western route set out from Qiqihar with one division, and the target was Aihui, that is, the city of Heilongjiang on the south bank of the Heilongjiang River; the middle route army attacked from Harbin with one division and two regiments, and the targets were Sanxing, Yichun, and Jiameng; and the eastern route was attacked by Hulin, with two divisions and one regiment, and the targets were Fuyuan, Boli (Khabarovsk), and the city of Amur, and then, depending on the situation, if necessary, it could fight all the way to Miaojie (Nikolasevsk).

The Third Route Army has a total of 4 divisions and 3 regiments, about 63,000 troops, and compared with the previous wars launched in the northeast, it is indeed a bit shabby, but in the goal of this war, the Russian army has fewer troops, and the Russian army is only stationed in Aihui, with only 1 battalion and 2 companies in the Yichun area, and Boli is only 2 battalions, with a total of only 3 battalions and 2 companies, about 2,500 people. Therefore, the People's Army has a bit of a sense of killing chickens.

Although after the Battle of Manchuria, East China basically drove the Russian army out of China, but the People's Army did not fully control the area north of Heilongjiang Province, and the strength of the People's Army was generally arranged along the Eastern Railway, mainly because the People's Army was insufficient, that is, it was necessary to deploy heavy troops in Manchuria to prevent the Russian army from counterattacking, and to be responsible for the daily security of the Northeast Region, which was really not taken care of, so it could only be arranged along the railway line to facilitate the dispatch of troops.

However, the Russian army is also under-strengthened, so it does not dare to press too hard, but only occupies a few strongholds on the northern border of China and Russia, along the Heilongjiang River, to ensure the existence of the Russian army. In fact, at this time, the population of the northern part of the Northeast is extremely sparse, the entire Heilongjiang Province covers an area of more than 420,000 square kilometers, but the population is only more than 120,000, as long as you control a stronghold, you can control the surrounding tens of thousands of square kilometers.

And this offensive of the People's Army, the western road, The purpose of the middle route is to completely expel the Russian army, fully control the Sino-Russian border, and appropriately extend its tentacles into the territory of Russia on the north bank of the Heilongjiang River, but it is not deep, only on the eastern front is the real offensive, not only to completely recover the Ussuri River basin, but also to push the army of the People's Army to the Amur River basin, and even to the temple street, which is already the only port in the Far East after Russia lost Vladivostok, although this port has at least more than 4 months of ice in 1 year, but it is better to have a port than never, after all, there are still 7 in 1 year8 months of use, if the temple street is lost, then Russia in the Far East will be completely blocked.

In addition, the direction of the Eastern Route Army's attack is also the farthest away from Chita, and there are interceptions on the way to the west and middle roads, so it is impossible for the Russian army in Chita to rush to reinforcements, and can only allow the People's Army to attack the two battalions of the Russian army with the absolute superiority of two divisions.

In fact, at this time, the Russian army has suddenly gathered about 300,000 troops in Chita, of which about 180,000 combat troops, and the rest are logistics personnel, which is a lot of troops, but Russia's poor logistics organization and scheduling ability makes the number of Russian troops stationed in Chita numerous, but ammunition and materials are insufficient, and the number of large and medium-caliber artillery is also extremely short, the whole army has only 32 artillery pieces above 100 mm caliber, and only 4 150 mm guns. Although Russia is also one of the great powers, and is considered a modern industrial country, there is still a considerable gap between industrial capacity and Britain, France, Germany and the United States, not to mention that Russia is not a peaceful place in the European direction, in the Balkans and the Black Sea coast, Russia must retain a considerable number of troops to garrison, so in the Far East, Russia is also a little stretched, and the personnel are easy to handle, but it is difficult to make up for the weapons and equipment。

Of course, His Majesty the Tsar did not care about these details, as long as the army was sent over, and as for the weapons, it was not the Tsar's concern.

But the tsar can ignore these details, but the chief general of the Russian army Linnevich can not ignore it, now Linnevich and the People's Army have fought many times, knowing that the People's Army is not only brave and good at fighting, but also extremely powerful firepower, by which it is the two armored trains of the People's Army, equipped with a total of 4 240 mm caliber guns, and more than 40 large and medium-caliber artillery, it can be said that the firepower of these two armored trains can compete with the firepower of the whole army of the Russian army. Therefore, although the People's Army had only one and a half armies, about 100,000 troops stationed in Manchuria, almost half of the Russian army, Linnevich did not dare to launch an attack on Manchuria.

In addition, the area to be defended by the Russian army is too large now, theoretically speaking, from Chita in the west to Miaoshan in the east, that is, Nikolaevsk, it is the area that the Russian army needs to defend, and the straight-line distance alone is enough to 1,500 kilometers, so even if the Russian army has 180,000, it is impossible to defend such a vast area. And due to the repeated defeats of the Russian army some time ago, the morale of the whole army is extremely low, and it is simply embarrassing to fight.

The main general Linnevich received some rumors from St. Petersburg during this time, it turned out that after the battle of Manchuria, the tsar was very annoyed, so he ordered Linnevich to be dismissed from his post and ordered Linnevich to return to St. Petersburg for investigation. But then the tsar appointed two generals in a row and asked them to go to the Far East to replace Linnevich, but they were all refused, because at this time everyone understood that the current Far East was a mess, and whoever took over was a huge pit, so naturally they all avoided it, and they would jump into the pit. At this time, some people also suggested to the tsar that it was best to let Linnevich stay in office, on the grounds that he was already familiar with the situation in the Far East and the tactics of the People's Army.

After Linnevich learned about this secret news, he not only beat his chest, this is to make himself guilty and meritorious in the Far East, it is obvious that he is roasting himself on the fire, it is better to suspend himself from his post and return to St. Petersburg to be investigated! In that way, he will be able to leave this ghost place, and there is no danger of going back to be investigated, because during the period of his tenure as governor of the Far East, everything he did could withstand the investigation, at most it was a dereliction of duty, and he was idle, and after a few years, the wind calmed down, and he could do his activities again, and there was a chance to make a comeback. And now he has to continue to hide in this ghost place, and make meritorious deeds.

Of course, Linnevich knew that meritorious service should not be thought about, and he could not even seek meritorious service, but he could not do it, because the area he had to defend was too large, and such a small number of troops could not be taken care of at all, so Linnevich decided after careful thinking that he would still concentrate his forces on Chita, while the area east of Chita would all be abandoned and resigned to fate.

After all, as long as Chita is not lost, it is true that the places east of Chita are difficult to preserve, but the places west of Chita can still be kept, and now Vladivostok, the main port in the Far East, has been lost, and it is estimated that this war is impossible to recover, so the rest of the Far East is actually insignificant, and if it is lost, it will be lost, in contrast, the place west of Chita is more important, so if Russia is destined to lose some more places this time, of course, it would rather lose the place east of Chita and preserve the west of Chita。

Of course, the best outcome for Linnevich now is that Russia immediately negotiates with East China**, reaches an agreement, and restores peace, even if it is worth paying some money and even ceding some places. Since Linnevich learned that Japan had already held negotiations with East China, he was even more anxious, because once Japan and East China successfully negotiated, East China would be able to concentrate all its forces against Russia, which would naturally be extremely unfavorable to Russia, and I don't know what the bureaucrats in St. Petersburg would think?

However, Linnevich's identity and position are impossible to directly propose to St. Petersburg to negotiate with East China, so Linnevich also played a small means to save the country, just last November and December 1906, Linnevich sent back two official documents to St. Petersburg in a row, emphasizing that the current situation in the Far East is extremely unfavorable to Russia, and he still needs at least 100,000 reinforcements and 600 artillery pieces, of which no less than 100 artillery pieces of 100 mm caliber and 20 guns of 150 mm caliber and so on.

In fact, Linnevich knew very well in his heart that it was impossible for St. Petersburg to meet these demands he had put forward, and his real purpose was to tell St. Petersburg that the war in the Far East could not be fought, and that he should quickly negotiate peace with East China. Either you can transfer yourself away, or at least you can be liberated. It has been almost 20 days since the second report was issued, but there has been no response at all, and I have not heard that Russia has any intention of negotiating with East China.

At some point, the absence of a response is itself a signal, and Linnevich is also considering whether to send a third report to St. Petersburg, and what should the third report be in order to make the bureaucrats in St. Petersburg realize the gravity of the situation? Of course, Linnevich also thinks that he still has time, because it is absolutely impossible for the KPA to launch an offensive in January, at least until March, so it is better for him to think everything through carefully.