The battle once again fell into a situation of attack and defense on both sides, without the threat of artillery, the KPA could rely on the position to defend more calmly, and despite the Japanese army's desperate attack, and paid a great price of casualties, it was still unable to break through the KPA's defensive line, and finally fought until almost the entire battlefield was covered with the corpses of Japanese soldiers.

In desperation, Nozu Michikan had no choice but to order to stop the attack and retreat. On this day's offensive, the number of Japanese casualties reached more than 3 2 0 0 people.

The attack was fruitless for two consecutive days, and the combat attrition reached more than 12,000 people, which dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the Japanese army, and because of the two days of fighting, the Japanese army lost nearly 6 0 0 0 soldiers, so many soldiers were privately circulated, the battle to attack Liaozhong was the second Lushun offensive battle. Some people even said that in order to capture Liaozhong, the Japanese army would have to pay the price of at least 50,000 casualties, and the armored train cannon made by the People's Army was even more legendary and miraculous, saying that the range of this weapon could reach 100 kilometers, and the overseas Chinese also mastered a mysterious technology that could see anything thousands of miles away, so as long as the Japanese army opened fire, it would be immediately locked and destroyed by the armored train gun.

In fact, the soldiers of the Japanese army have always received the ideological education of loyalty to the country, and more than 6,000 people were killed in two days, which will not cause a major blow to the morale of the Japanese army, and in the battle of attacking Lushun, there were astonishing losses of 16,000 casualties in one day, but it did not have much impact on the Japanese army, and later not only captured Lushun, but also won the victory in the Battle of Mukden.

But the current situation is different, the Russo-Japanese War has been fought for nearly one and a half years, and the soldiers of the Japanese army have experienced a long war, and they are already very tired. In the past, due to the continuous military victories of the Japanese army, the morale of the Japanese army could be maintained, but now the Liaohe battlefield has been continuously subjected to unfavorable situations, although the Japanese army's high-level deterrent blockade of the Lushun battlefield unfavorable news, but such a major matter is impossible to completely blockade, the soldiers here can hear a little wind, and the more the high-level blockade, the more gossip at the bottom, so the Japanese soldiers are naturally inevitably affected. The combination of these factors made the morale of the Japanese army extremely low and the war-weariness reached the limit.

And now Nozu Michikan is also in a dilemma, continue to fight, the Japanese army is almost impossible to break through the position of the People's Army, can only fight the second Lushun offensive battle, he is the second Nogi Noshinori, and anyway, Nogi Michikani finally with the help of Utama Gentaro, captured Lushun, but the situation he is facing now, I am afraid that there is no way even if Kodama Gentaro comes, because the Japanese army has no way to use artillery, but it retreats like this, and I am afraid that there is no way to explain to Oyama Rock, Nozu Michikan knows very well that Lushun basically can't be saved, if Japan loses the Liaohe War, which means that Japan will completely lose this war, and these hundreds of thousands of troops in Liaodong may not be able to return to Japan.

However, at this moment, Nozu Michikan received the news of the loss of Shaling Fort, and couldn't help but smile bitterly, because the loss of Shaling Fort meant that the People's Army had successfully reversed the unfavorable situation of being attacked on both sides, and whether the Japanese army could capture Liaozhong or not, they had already lost the battle of Liaohe. And Japan will also completely lose its foothold in Liaodong, and the next step will probably be to withdraw to Korea.

But for Nozu Michikan, the loss of Shaling Fort is a very good step, because Shaling Fort still did not hold out to the 3 days he requested, so he withdrew his troops now, and even lost the battle of Liaohe, there are enough reasons to prevaricate, although for the Japanese army as a whole, this is no difference. So Nozu Michikan immediately ordered the withdrawal of the army and retreated to Liaoyang.

The decisive withdrawal of the Japanese army also surprised Qiu Yahui, who originally planned to return to the army immediately after conquering Shaling Fort and then eat the main army of Nozu Michikan, but now it is obviously impossible. Therefore, Qiu Yahui was not in a hurry to retreat, but ordered the 9th Division to lead two reserve regiments to move south along the Liao River and capture Panshan and Yingkou counties, so as to obtain the two estuaries of the Liao River and provide convenient conditions for the transportation of materials by the People's Army in the future.

In fact, the two counties of Panshan and Yingkou are still under the jurisdiction of local officials of the Qing court, and neither Russia nor Japan has garrisoned troops in these two counties. However, the People's Army didn't care about that, anyway, the goal of the East China government was to occupy the entire three eastern provinces and establish the rule of the traversers in the three eastern provinces, so as long as it was the place in the three eastern provinces, it was to be occupied. Of course, in the name of the discussion, the People's Army waved the banner of "assisting defense" to help the two counties resist the Japanese attack, and if the officials of these two counties understand the matter, then they will enter the city peacefully, and if the local officials do not let the People's Army enter the city, then they will enter the city, and then the local officials will be given a big hat of "colluding with the Japanese invaders."

The local officials of the Qing court were also people who knew the time and affairs, and they did not understand the mystery, so the local officials of Panshan and Yingkou counties opened the city gates to welcome the People's Army into the city.

By 20 May, the KPA had occupied Panshan, At the end of the Liaohe Campaign, the Japanese army had a total of 15,247 killed, 18,263 wounded, 417 missing, 351 captured, and lost the area south of the Liaohe River south of Liaozhong, while the People's Army lost 3,847 killed, 5,271 wounded, 76 missing, and captured 5,143 rifles, 15 machine guns, 6 artillery pieces, 125417 bullets, and 216 horses, not only completely breaking through the defense line of the Liaohe River, completely controlling the lower reaches of the two branches of the Liaohe River, but also gaining Panshan, Yingkou two estuary, although in the end did not catch the Japanese army attacking Liaozhong, but it can also be regarded as a perfect victory.

By this time, the East China Government had officially entered the eastern Liaodong region, and the first phase of the operation had been completed, and the People's Army had won major victories on both the land and sea fronts, gaining sea supremacy, and gaining a firm foothold on land. However, in order to further expand the control of the People's Army in the Liaodong region and intervene more deeply in the situation in Liaodong, it is necessary to further invest troops, after all, the current strength of the People's Army in the Liaodong battlefield is only about 140,000 people, and there is a big gap between the Japanese and Russian armies, so the People's Army has also temporarily stopped expanding, and instead consolidated the area under its control, and waited for the follow-up army to reach Liaodong.

At the same time that the People's Army is winning victories on the battlefield, it is also engaged in fierce contests on another front. That is, the front of public opinion propaganda.

Following Japan's statement criticizing the East China Government on 13 May, various governments and media also issued statements and commentaries one after another to express their attitudes, among which the British and French governments were the most intense, strongly expressing their dissatisfaction with the East China Government's participation in the war.

The British Government expressed strong opposition to the fact that the East China Government's participation in the war would further complicate the situation in the Far East, make peace far away, and seriously endanger British interests in the Far East.

The French government also issued a statement, severely criticizing the East China government's participation in the war, holding that the irresponsible behavior of the East China government has undermined the balance of the region, further worsened and uncontrollable the situation in the Far East, and that the East China government must be responsible for all the serious consequences arising from this, and at the same time called on all countries to unite to put pressure on the East China government, and France will take all means to safeguard its own interests.

The news media of the two countries also published current commentaries and editorials one after another, the content of which was basically to criticize the East China Government, some maliciously demonizing the traversers, and some desperately attacking and smearing the East China Government, while the KPA Navy's surprise attack on the Japanese and Russian fleets was also regarded as a barbaric act of undeclared war; while some newspapers made a big fuss about the legitimacy, pointing out that the East China Government was not at all a legitimate government representing China and had not been recognized by other countries, so it was not qualified to represent China at all, still less to participate in the war in Liaodong.

However, France's ally Russia, the attitude is completely different, first of all, the Russian government welcomed the East China government's entry into the war, saying that Japan is the destroyer of order, the initiator of the war, the barbaric aggressor, should be punished, the East China government's participation in the war is completely legitimate, and the Russian government will negotiate with the East China government to jointly resist Japan's aggression in the Liaodong region, and after the end of the war, the Russian government will also continue to respect the [Treaty of Settlement of the Three Eastern Provinces] Return the territories of the three eastern provinces to the government representing China and guarantee peace in the Far East.

The Russian media, on the other hand, all gloated in a tone of schadenfreude, commenting on the East China government's participation in the war.

In fact, Britain, France and Russia have their own calculations, although Britain and France do not want the East China government to participate in the war, but the ideas are also different, because now the East China government is attacking Japan, at this time Britain has supported its own agents in the Far East, and Britain and Japan have signed an alliance treaty, the East China government's participation in the war not only hit Japan, but also may pull Britain into the war, so although the British government's statement is harsh, but it is very measured, and there is no mention of the [Anglo-Japanese Alliance Treaty] , but also to leave room for their next move.

France has no interests in the Far East, but it does not want Russia to sink deeper and deeper in the Far East, the Russo-Japanese War has reached this point, it is almost over, France can maneuver from it and put pressure on Russia, it can promote a truce between the two sides, and draw Russia's attention back to Europe to contain Germany, but as soon as the East China government enters the war, it will hit the Japanese army hard, which is equivalent to giving Russia hope again, and it is possible to continue to invest, and the end of the war will become far away, and Russia may continue to pay attention to the affairs of the Far East and flawless Europe, which is the most unfavorable situation for France。

And Russia also understands that the East China government will not be with itself all the way, and it is only for geographical reasons that it will fight Japan first, but now Russia and the East China government have not torn their faces after all, so they will not visit the East China government to suppress Japan first, as for respecting the [Treaty of Settlement of the Three Eastern Provinces], that is to say, anyway, for Russia, it is faster to turn the face than to turn the book, and it is easier to tear the contract than to tear the book.