Nogi Noshinori also knew that his time was short, and of course he hoped to prove himself in the remaining time, and on October 25 and November 23, he organized the Japanese army again and launched two attacks on Lushun, although the Japanese army still showed great courage and tenacity, and the charge even rushed to the top of the 203 heights at one point. However, the Russian artillery, together with the warships in the harbor, carried out indiscriminate shelling of the 203 heights, and countless Russian and Japanese soldiers who fought together fell to the ground in the artillery fire, and finally repelled the Japanese troops. And on November 30, Nogi Noshinori's second son, Nogi Hosunori, was killed. Both sons died on the battlefield, and Nogi Noshinori, who got the news, finally couldn't help it, and even cried in front of many subordinates.

And Japan finally couldn't hold its breath, because although by this time, Japan had achieved quite outstanding results on the battlefield, but it also paid a heavy price for this, and by this time, Japan had collected more than 700,000 troops for the war, including more than 500,000 combatants, and nearly 300,000 people served the war, occupying a total of about 1 million personnel. Now Japan's population is about 440 million, the war consumed more than 2% of Japan's population, and these people are young and middle-aged, is the main labor force, although the newspapers still continue to publicize the victory of the Japanese army, but the domestic conscription announcement has never stopped, so for the war, resulting in the loss of a large number of young people in the country, factory workers, farmers in the fields, and even rickshaw drivers on the street are all old people, which has a very serious impact on Japan's production and economy.

In addition, so far, the Japanese army has lost nearly 100,000 casualties or due to other reasons such as water and soil adaptation, and more than 30,000 of them have never been able to return to Japan. In China, more and more families are hanging the national flag with strips of black cloth on behalf of the families of the deceased. A poem written by a female singer and Akiko Yoshino in memory of her younger brother Dingqi, who was a soldier: "Ah, brother, we weep for you, please don't die!" was also widely circulated for a while.

In addition to the loss of personnel, Japan had spent more than 1 billion yen on the war effort, which was almost 6-7 times Japan's annual revenue, of which more than 800 million was supplied by debt, and the domestic debt reached more than 600 million yen. In addition, in order to support the war, a large amount of materials were used to support the war, resulting in the scarcity of goods in Japan, the price of goods has risen by three or four times, the living standards of the people have dropped significantly, and in some places there have even been riots and riots.

Although the current situation is still in a manageable range, and the news of successive victories has certainly hedged some of the war-weariness, if the war continues, these conditions will not only not be alleviated, but will also deteriorate further, and I am afraid that it will cause a serious social and economic crisis.

In contrast, although Russia suffered successive defeats, whether it was on the battlefield or in terms of economic and personnel losses, far surpassed Japan, but Russia had a huge national strength to support, and immediately organized a fleet to rush to the Far East to participate in the war, which is a typical example, so if the war turns into a long-term war of attrition, Japan will obviously not be able to consume Russia, and if it really happens, Japan's early victories on the battlefield will also be in vain.

So at this time, the issue of inviting the East China government to send troops to the war was also turned over and put in front of the cabinets.

The proponents argued that it would be too difficult and almost impossible for Japan to defeat Russia completely by relying on Japan's strength, and that even if Japan initially defeated Russia, it would only be a Pyrrhus-style victory, with heavy casualties and a great loss of national strength, and in the end it would only take advantage of the East China government. Therefore, it is better to draw the East China government into the war at this time, so that it can not help but share the burden of Japan, and at the same time, it can also put pressure on Russia to urge Russia to surrender as soon as possible and end the war. Moreover, it can also allow the war to consume the power of the East China government, and after the end of the war, Japan will still have enough strength to suppress the East China government.

Of course, once the East China government enters the war, then after defeating Russia, it will definitely have to share part of the post-war harvest to the East China government, and it will not be too little, but Russia is a big country, so the harvest after defeating Russia will never be less, even if part is given to the East China government, Japan should also be able to be full.

Therefore, although Japan can still be exempted from supporting it now, it should at least determine a time node, and once it reaches this point in time, Japan will not see the signs of a victorious end to the war, and it must ask the East China government to send troops to participate in the war.

After all, at this time, Japanese politicians knew that Japan absolutely could not afford to lose the war, and once it lost, it would be completely unable to turn over, and inviting the East China government to send troops to the war could ensure Japan's victory. So the cabinet did not dare to slack off, and immediately called officials for discussion. It should be said that this discussion was quite serious and serious.

After three days of discussions, Japan also consulted its ally Britain, Britain's attitude is that Japan can still support itself for a period of time, and even achieve a final victory, so at least within this year, there is no need to let the East China government participate in the war, it is better to wait until next year, and then discuss whether to want the East China government to enter the war, and if Japan really needs the East China government to participate in the war, Britain will also help Japan mobilize the East China government, and Britain can also help the Japanese government solve the problem of funding.

As far as the British Government is concerned, of course, it hopes that Japan will independently defeat Russia, and although Japan will certainly gain huge benefits after defeating Russia, Japan is, after all, an island country, with a small territory, and insufficient resources and population, which is Japan's congenital deficiency, so Britain has full self-confidence and can still control Japan. In fact, Britain does not care very much about whether Japan can defeat Russia, and it is best for both sides to fight two defeats and be injured, and even if Japan is defeated, as long as Russia can suffer heavy losses, Britain is also acceptable.

However, the East China government is different, although the East China government now has less territory and population than Japan, but backed by the vast Chinese mainland, once the East China government defeats Russia, not only can it obtain huge war dividends, but also can establish a huge prestige in Chinese mainland, and will never be alone again, and the Qing court is simply not their opponent, once the East China government unifies Chinese mainland, it will be an extremely formidable opponent to fully exploit China's huge territory, resources, and population advantages.

After all, there are indeed a lot of talented people in the Japanese government at this time, and you must know that the money borrowed by Britain must not only be repaid, but also calculated with interest, but the British government's proposal is consistent with Japan's plan to set the war node, so the Japanese cabinet decided to take 1905 as the war node, if it cannot capture Arthur before 1905, it can only ask the East China government to send troops, after all, Japan cannot bear the consequences of defeat.

There is still a month between now and 1905, which is a month related to the fate of Japan, and the army base camp was finally completely disappointed in Nogi Noshinori, and decided to replace Nogi Noshinori with General Kodama Gentaro, commanding the next attack on Lushun, of course, in order to take care of Nogi Noshinori's face, Kodama Gentaro commanded the whole army in the capacity of chief of the General Staff, and Nogi Noshinori's position as commander was not withdrawn, but only handed over the command, of course, in the name of the two of them jointly commanded.

After Gentaro Kodama took office, he first determined that the 203 heights were the key offensive targets, and the other targets were secondary, and changed the offensive tactics of Nogi Noshinori only infantry charge, but concentrated artillery, and he transferred four 280mm mortars to the front line, completing the concentration of artillery firepower. At the same time, Gentaro Kodama also pushed the headquarters forward to observe the landing point of the shelling more closely. In addition, Kodama Gentaro also negotiated with the navy, and the combined fleet also agreed to respond to the land attack from the sea.

On December 5th, the Japanese army launched an attack again, the two sides around the 203 heights, once again engaged in a desperate fight, the Japanese soldiers shouted "Banya" to launch an overwhelming attack, and the Russian army did not show weakness, while resisting, while shouting "Ula", the sound of guns and cannons, Jingran can not cover the sound of the soldiers on both sides shouting slogans.

In order to use artillery fire to suppress the firepower of the Russian army, Kodama Gentaro even ordered that the artillery was not allowed to stop firing during the infantry assault, and the severed arms and stumps of the Japanese and Russian soldiers were thrown into the sky by the huge wave of artillery shells, and the screams of tearing and tearing lungs were incessant, and the whole battlefield had become a sea of corpses and blood that made people palpitate, and the follow-up troops rushed into battle with the bodies of their comrades. Someone suggested to Gentaro Kodama that the losses in such an attack were too great and caused a lot of accidental injuries, and Gentaro Kodama replied with a blank face: "It doesn't matter if you have more people. This is a battle between Japan and the fortunes of the country, and the most important thing for us is time!"

After more than 6 hours of fierce fighting, by 13:30 in the afternoon, a squadron of the Japanese army finally climbed the 203 heights, and the Russian soldiers immediately rushed up from the fortifications and started a white-knuckle battle with the Japanese army. After more than 3 hours of repeated battles, it was not until around 17:00 that the Japanese army actually occupied the 203 heights, and almost all the 6,000 Russian soldiers defending the heights were killed.

At 8:30 p.m., Russian reinforcements arrived, trying to recapture Heights 203, but at this time the Japanese had built a simple defensive position on Heights 203, as a result, most of the Russian casualties, the counterattack failed, and at 10 o'clock the remnants of the Russian army retreated from several other heights near Heights 203, and the Japanese finally firmly held Heights 203 in their hands.

At 9 o'clock in the morning of December 6, after confirming that the Russian army had retreated, the Japanese army quickly occupied the adjacent Shengjia Mountain, Laohugou Mountain, Huatougou Mountain and other positions, further consolidating the 203 Heights, and at 10 o'clock, the tower-shaped observation post in the southwest of the 203 Heights was built, and four 280mm mortars were dragged up to the high ground, ready to shell the remaining enemy ships at any time.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, four huge guns launched an artillery bombardment on the Russian ships in Port Arthur, sank the battleships Poltava and Letvizan on the same day, sank the battleships Peresvet and Victory on the 7th, and the remaining battleship Sevastopol took advantage of the night to move to White Wolf Bay and sink itself, and sank the armored cruiser Bayan on the 9th, and the rest of the warships could only risk leaving the port to escape, but were intercepted by the combined fleet, either sunk or surrendered, and the Russian Pacific Fleet was finally annihilated.