On December 11, after confirming that all the warships in the port had been sunk, the Japanese suspended the artillery bombardment of Port Arthur and switched to attacking the city of Arthur. As a result, there were no people at Lushunkou during the day, and all of them hid in basements and dead corners. At this time, in the city of Arthur, the life of the troops and residents was becoming more and more difficult, the hospital was full of scurvy patients, there was a shortage of medicines, food was insufficient, and prices were skyrocketing. The garrison commander Stessel ordered the collection of reserve strategic reserves, and even several shops in the East China government were collected by the Russian army as temporary hospitals, and most of the supplies were also mobilized. The British cargo ship "King Arthur" docked at White Wolf Bay on the 12th and brought 50,000 bags of wheat flour from Mumbai.

At this time, Lieutenant General Stessel, commander of the Arthur Defense District, gathered officers and proposed that the 203rd Heights had been lost, the Pacific Fleet had been completely annihilated, and the importance of Arthur Pass as a fortress had been lost; for the sake of the wounded and tired officers and men, it was time to consider ending this situation and discussing the question of surrender. ”

The commander of the fortress, Major General Smirnov, believes that the 203 heights are just an outpost stronghold, the main line of resistance is still alive, and although the Pacific Fleet has been completely annihilated, the essence of Arthur's defense should not be changed, and Arthur has at least pinned down about 100,000 Japanese troops, which is of great significance to supporting the operation on the northern front, and the amount of artillery shells is enough to deal with two major battles, there are still 10 million rounds of ammunition, and there is still a month's reserve of food, so it has not yet reached a desperate situation, and even if it wants to surrender, it will have to wait until January next year to discuss it.

On December 15, Major General Kondrachenko, the chief of spy, was killed by a cannon while inspecting the East Jiguanshan Battery, which was not only the first senior officer of the Russian Army to be killed, but also the main designer of the defense plan and defense line of Arthur, and the right-hand man of the fortress commander Major General Smirnov, so the death of Major General Kondrachenko was a very heavy blow to the morale of the Russian army, and foreshadowed that the fall of Arthur became a matter of time.

On December 18, after arduous earthwork, the 2,300 kilograms* buried by the Japanese army under the East Jiguan Mountain fortress were detonated, destroying this almost impossible fortress, and the Japanese army took advantage of the situation to capture the East Jiguan Mountain. The gateway to the northeast of Lushun is wide open.

On December 28, the Japanese army captured the Erlongshan fortress directly north of Lushun, and continued to expand the gap in the Lushun defense line.

After 3 days of negotiations, on January 1, the first day of the New Year in 1905, Lieutenant General Stexel, commander of the Arthur Defense Zone, and Major General Smirnov, commander of the fortress, sent people to submit a letter of surrender to the Japanese army, and the remaining 32,500 people of the Lushun garrison became prisoners of the Japanese army.

The Battle of Arthur lasted for nearly one year, and the Japanese army invested a total of 136,000 people, while the casualties were as high as 62,000, the number of casualties exceeded 30,000, and the Russian army lost 23,000 people. It can be said that the Japanese army paid a very serious price in order to conquer Lushun. However, after the capture of Lushun, the Japanese army's gains were also huge, not only strategically further consolidated the advantages of the Japanese army, but also tactically finally relieved the Japanese army's worries, allowing the Japanese army to concentrate all its strength to deal with the battle on the northern front, instead of fighting on two fronts; moreover, after conquering Lushun, the more than 60,000 Japanese troops besieging Lushun were finally freed and could go north for reinforcements. Now Japan can also concentrate its forces for the next phase of the battle.

For the navy, the significance of conquering Arthur is even greater, because the navy was the first to participate in the war, the main battlefield has always been in the Lushun sea, and paid the painful price of two battleships, and now finally conquered Arthur, for the navy has also completed a phased task, and after the annihilation of the Pacific Fleet, Japan has fully obtained sea supremacy, so the combined fleet can also return to Japan for a comprehensive repair.

Since the beginning of the war, the Combined Fleet has been fighting continuously for 11 months, and not only the officers and men on the ships have been extremely exhausted, but even the warships have been somewhat overwhelmed, and the main warships have been somewhat damaged in the previous battles, but because of the tense war, they will not return to Japan for repairs if they do not have a great impact on the combat effectiveness of the warships; in addition, because the mechanical wear and tear of the warships in continuous combat is also very serious, and the part below the waterline has been covered with various shellfish baths, which has a great impact on the speed and performance of the warships, and now it is finally possible to carry out comprehensive repair and maintenance of the warshipsto put the fleet in the best possible shape to meet the Second Pacific Fleet.

Moreover, in the previous battles, the navy also exposed a lot of problems, the two biggest problems were that the hit rate was too low, and the tactical command was too rigid, so it was also possible to use this time to pay close attention to artillery training, and study tactical command, and attack again with a new look.

Most importantly, the Japanese cabinet finally breathed a sigh of relief, and finally captured Arthur before the time node, so that Japan regained confidence and saw the hope of defeating Russia independently. At this time, the battlefield was temporarily in a state of confrontation, and both Japan and Russia were accumulating strength for the next battle, so the Cabinet held a cabinet meeting with the headquarters and the military command department to discuss the next step of the battle.

Although Japan has already occupied the absolute initiative strategically, Russia still has the strength to resist, and there is still a considerable distance from complete victory, and the next stage of the war will focus on two things, one is to advance Mukden, and the other is to defeat the Second Pacific Fleet. In contrast, the second goal is easier to achieve, because after the annihilation of the Pacific Fleet, the strength of the Japanese Combined Fleet is no worse than that of the Second Pacific Fleet, and there are still 3-4 months of repair time, the Second Pacific Fleet has come from afar, and it has become a tired division in the Far East, and the Combined Fleet is waiting for work, so it is very likely to defeat the Second Pacific Fleet.

However, it was much more difficult to advance Mukden, because according to the reports of intelligence officers, the Russian army had gathered more than 250,000 troops in Mukden at this time, and was still sending more troops to Mukden, apparently intending to fight a decisive battle with Japan in Mukden. However, this is also an opportunity for Japan, if it can completely defeat the Russian army in Mukden and annihilate the main force of the Russian army, then it will be of great help to force Russia to surrender, so it must win the Battle of Mukden at all costs, and if the troops are insufficient, you can recruit troops at home.

However, some people have also pointed out that according to the results of the previous battle, Japan basically killed 1,000 enemies and lost 800 of its own losses, so even if Japan can finally defeat the Russian army in Mukden, it will inevitably suffer huge casualties, even if it is not a major loss of vitality, but its combat effectiveness will definitely drop sharply, and if the East China government takes the opportunity to send troops to participate in the war at this time, it can overwhelm Japan and Russia with strong forces and collect the final war dividends, such a situation is quite unfavorable to Japan.

In fact, the East China Government has been staring at the battlefield in northeast China all along, and it is also actively preparing for war internally, probably waiting for Japan and Russia to fight for two defeats and injuries, so as to take advantage of the opportunity to reap the benefits of the fishermen; although Japan and the East China Government have an agreement, and the East China Government must approve the dispatch of troops by Japan, this kind of agreement is unreliable, and Japan must defeat Russia alone and enjoy the war dividends alone, and at the same time preserve its strength and suppress the East China Government.

In the end, the Cabinet decided to communicate with its ally Britain first, and if Britain was willing to help Japan suppress the East China government from participating in the war, it would also be able to solve the dilemma that Japan was facing now, after all, Britain had always not wanted the East China government to participate in the war.

Soon the British government replied to Japan that it could come forward to help Japan and suppress the East China government from participating in the war, but hoped that Japan could first make it clear to the East China government that it did not want the East China government to participate in the war, and only in this way could Britain come forward to coordinate, after all, Japan and the East China government had a cooperation agreement, and Britain was only an ally of Japan and had nothing to do with the East China government.

In fact, at this time, the Japanese government still still has some speculative psychology, although it wants to monopolize the dividends of the war, but it does not dare to completely break with the East China government, after all, Japan is not completely sure of the upcoming Mukden Campaign, and Russia's national strength is too strong, just looking at Russia easily forming a Pacific Second Fleet, you know what kind of behemoth this is, so even if Japan wins the Mukden Campaign, it does not dare to say that it will win, and who dares to guarantee that Russia will not re-establish a Far Eastern army。 The East China government has somewhat let Japan have a hole card. Japan's wishful thinking is that it will not be busy and completely turn its face with the East China Government, in case there is a way back when the war is unfavorable, and when it really wants to turn its face with the East China Government, it will pull Britain to come forward to endorse and support it.

However, the British Empire is not in vain, Japan's little bit of caution has long been seen clearly by the British, and it wants to take advantage of all the conveniences, but it doesn't even want to eat a little loss, so there is such a good thing. The result was now very satisfactory to the British, and whatever the outcome of the Battle of Mukden was, the Russian power in the Far East would be weakened, and it would not be enough to pose a threat to the British. As for whether Japan can win in the end and reap the dividends of the war, it is not what Britain cares about. Britain even hoped that Russia would be able to maintain a certain degree of strength so that it could maintain a balance of power in the Far East, and that Japan, the East China Government, Russia, the Qing Dynasty, and even the United States were intertwined, but none of them could sit on their own.

However, at this time, the Japanese Government also knew that it was impossible to play the trick of doing everything and taking advantage of everything without suffering losses, and now it had to make a decision, either from now on, to completely abandon the back road of the East China Government, defeat Russia with its own strength, and win the final victory; or immediately invite the East China Government to participate in the war and finally divide the war dividends equally. Therefore, after three days of consultations, the Cabinet finally decided to formally propose to the East China Government that it did not want the East China Government to participate in the war.