By the time these 4,000 Imperial troops, who could not speak Japanese except Yaga, landed at the mouth of the Daling River, the artillery fire on the sea was already blazing. At the same time as Port Arthur was fighting for sea supremacy, the Japanese Army also began to land. On March 21, 30,000 men of the Japanese First Army plus more than 100 artillery pieces, under the command of General Kuroki Weizhen, first landed in Nanpu, the town of Haun, and marched north. After all, Lao Maozi had insufficient troops, so he simply gave up all the territory in Chao Xian, and the Japanese army arrived on the left bank of the Yalu River without resistance.

Defending on the banks of the Yalu River was the detachment of the Russian army "Dongman" under the command of Lieutenant General Zasulich. Zasulic has nearly 20,000 men and 62 artillery pieces, and it has been one and a half months since the withdrawal of the DPRK. However, the old Maozi who has spirits is a virtue of having wine today and getting drunk today, and he has long forgotten about strengthening the fortifications, fantasizing about charging with a volley of guns like fighting the Qing army, and bullying these semi-disabled people with an average of less than one meter and a half by virtue of his height and strength. The Russian troops were scattered and deployed on a wide front, basically did not count the direction of the enemy's possible attack, basically did not think about the enemy's possible tactics, drank two sips of loose liquor when they were annoyed, and slipped away by themselves when they were troubled until dawn.

When General Kuroki arrived, he was surprised to find that the Russian army had only built a trench like a dead snake formation, and there was almost no camouflage. The reserves, which accounted for about half of the total strength, were deployed 10 kilometers away, and during the period, the Russian artillery positions were completely exposed, and Kuroki almost didn't think that Lao Maozi was luring the enemy deeper. It was not until the night of April 30 that the Japanese army launched an attack, detoured to the left flank of the Russian army, and launched a fierce battle in Jiulian City the next day. When the Russian army carrying the wine bottle tried to resist the Japanese attack with artillery fire and counter-assault, the superior artillery of the Japanese army suppressed the Russian artillery fire from the concealed position according to the coordinate square, and the process similar to the exercise turned more than 60 artillery pieces into parts. Fearing that he would be surrounded, he ordered a retreat to Liaoyang in a panic. The 11th Infantry Regiment of East Siberia, which was closest to the front, unsurprisingly fell into the encirclement of the superior Japanese army, broke through aimlessly, suffered heavy casualties, and except for a few lucky ones who escaped with their lives, most of them became good material for the fertile land. This was the first defeat of the Russian army in ground operations, and it began the process of repeated defeats of the Russian army. The retreat of Zasulich's detachment opened the door for the Japanese army to enter the northeast. The 1st Army immediately advanced out of the Phoenix area, ready to march in the direction of Liaoyang at any time.

At the same time, the Japanese Second Army (4 divisions, about 40,000 men, 216 guns) under the command of General Obaogong also landed at Piziwo in the southeast of the Liaodong Peninsula in early May in an attempt to capture Lushun from the north. However, I didn't expect that after the bearded uncle Alekseev, the governor of the Far East, was rescued from Wu Chenxuan's hands and became interested in Chinese culture, he actually picked up more popular military culture textbooks such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Thirty-six Strategies for people to translate into Russian and learn the broad and profound Chinese culture. This time, the bearded governor made the 4th Infantry Division of the Russian Army, which was originally deployed in Jinzhou, quietly move to the west of the Daling River, and honestly assumed the role of the yellow bird. If this elite Russian division, with 18,000 men and 131 guns, suddenly appeared behind the Japanese Second Army under the command of General Fokker, then the Japanese army would have a lot of fun.

The luck of the Japanese army General Okubo Gong was so good that it was bursting, because the more than 4,000 troops of the "Xingya Volunteer Army" introduced by his army colleague Major General Takeuchi actually landed northward along the mouth of the Daling River without a book, and penetrated to the east bank of the Daling River, which just blocked the way of the 4th Infantry Division, and the first battle between the Wuyi New Army and the great powers began on the bank of the Daling River on this day.

"Where is the position of our army?" Wu Chenxuan and Wu Luzhen were spreading out the map on the back board of a four-wheeled carriage, and the staff officers hurriedly carried out the work on the map, and after a while, they plotted the positions of the third and fifth heavy artillery battalions.

"It turned out to be the right guard, and the big Linghe was in front. If you're in a hurry, you'll be able to camp in Panjin tonight. ”

"Fifty miles, well, it should be there in the afternoon. Did you order all the troops to form an army and march towards Panjin? ”

"Yes, Shouqing, I heard that Panjin's rice is very famous, how about letting the cooking class steam rice for everyone at night and make a meal of meat?"

"Yes, Chief."

"Then let the general affairs staff allocate a thousand oceans to the cooking soldiers, let them and the people from the general affairs office rush to Panjin by carriage first, and prepare to meet the army, I plan to stay in Panjin for ten days and a half months, and see the situation before it is too late."

"Yes, anyway, Kawashima has settled all those goods, mainly because their radio station will definitely not receive the signal from the Japanese army now." Wu Luzhen also felt that it was not appropriate to rush into the army, and he could guess with his toes that the old Maozi of Lushun Fortress had his back against the fortress, and his soldiers were strong and strong, and there were only three or four thousand soldiers and horses, which was not enough for the other party to stuff his teeth. The general affairs staff officer led the people straight to Panjin, and the rest of the field troops boiled boiled instant noodles or ate fried noodles and batter, anyway, they went into the city and camped at night, and it is said that a big meal of good rice and dried rice and meat was prepared, and no one cared about the quality of the meal at noon, it was enough to fill the stomach. In fact, each soldier still has three days of compressed biscuits and nutritious dried vegetables in his backpack, as well as a canned tin luncheon meat, but if you can eat hot meals, these are just reserves.

"Report, sir. A detachment of cavalry scouts discovered the enemy's situation. ”

"What?" Wu Chenxuan was shocked, after all, the distribution of Russian troops checked in historical data, the nearest Russian army is also near Jinzhou, Jinzhou and Panjin are simply the Qing army practicing Yong in front of the façade, so Wu Chenxuan did not let the troops be too cautious, but routinely sent cavalry reconnaissance detachments in several directions, but he didn't expect to really find traces of the Russian army.

"What is the situation of the enemy?" Wu Luzhen unfolded the map, the pencil in his hand was writing and drawing along with the cavalry report, and he quickly marked the situation between the enemy and the enemy.

"There was a regiment of more than 4,000 infantry in the forward, and a Cossack battalion, armed with a dozen artillery pieces and four machine guns." Wu Chenxuan pondered, "This is estimated to be a standard Russian infantry division, at least three or four regiments, about 15,000 people. ”

"They haven't noticed us yet. Do you want to avoid it first? Wu Luzhen didn't expect that he would encounter more than three times the pressure of the enemy as soon as he went ashore, and it was up to the supreme commander to make a decision on whether to fight or withdraw, but in order to maintain the image of the commander, it is generally better to avoid war and the like, so as not to look bad on the commander's face.

"No, sooner or later, our army will have to fight with Lao Maozi, and the brave will win when they meet on a narrow road, if we don't dare to fight hard, then the spirit of this army will be scattered, and the army that can only fight with the wind will not be able to become a big weapon." Wu Chenxuan thought about it for a while, but decided to fight. "Our terrain is unfavorable, and we can't ambush them. However, the Daling River has not yet thawed, although it is convenient for the enemy's movement, but it is also a place where we can take advantage of it. The main point of this engagement is to fight quickly and withdraw quickly. ”

"But the mobility of the Cossack battalion is much stronger than our infantry." A staff officer raised objections, and once the military discussion began, the military democratic style that Wu Chenxuan had been advocating was manifested.

"The horse-drawn machine gun is our killer weapon to restrain the Cossacks." Wu Luzhen has conducted a detailed study of the Russian army: "Our advantage is that we can decide when, where, and how to attack, and the opponent knows nothing about me." Let's put more effort into this. ”

"Either we will lay mines to slow down the enemy's march and set up an ambush to make a short assault on the enemy's baggage and rear. Then use the position to block the opponent's cavalry pursuit, then retreat to the north to attract the enemy into the mountains, and then use the terrain to block the opponent's infantry pursuit, after throwing off the enemy, and then contact the logistics troops of Panjin to assemble in Beizhen, and then transfer to Montenegro, all the way to the northeast, the enemy will not follow us to the Songhua River. "The combat staff officer is a graduate of Tianjin Wubei, and he also mixed in the Wuwei Army a few years ago, but unfortunately the team was broken up, and there were no acquaintances in the Wuwei Right Army, so it happened that Wu Chenxuan recruited troops and horses, so he defected to the Wuyi New Army. This staff officer Wang lacks practical combat experience, but he has outstanding planning ability, and he can be regarded as a good seedling of an operational staff officer.

"This plan is good, let's see if you can use this as a basis to formulate a battle plan." Wu Luzhen was also very satisfied with this plan, and planned to start planning the opening battle of entering Liao.

"Yes, but I have a few ideas about the details of the plan. The first is that the Daling River is now in a freezing period, so I plan to have our artillery first demarcate the coordinates of the entire section of the river, and then carry out a rapid artillery attack when the enemy crosses the river more than halfway through, causing confusion on the other side, and we can even arrange anti-infantry directional mines on the river bank to use limited detonation to injure a large number of enemies and slow down the speed and strength of the opponent's pursuit. The second is to divide into two clusters in the north and south directions to ambush, with the south being heavy and the north light. I agree with Staff Officer Wang's tactics of short assault and base defense, presetting several levels of blocking positions, retreating in echelons, and then blocking by artillery fire. The reason why the south is heavy and the north is light is to lead the enemy's main force to the Liaodong Peninsula region, so that the Japanese will not be idle, let's send them some old Maozi so that they can have a good time, let's take the opportunity to get rid of the golden cicada shell, and then return to Panjin, and eat our good rice and dry rice and meat while watching the big show. ”

"Hahaha." The staff officers burst into laughter, and the atmosphere suddenly lightened up.

"The third is that the troops ambushed on the northern front are the cavalry team and the second battalion of infantry, and they don't need to bring any pots and jars, but bring all the more than 300 mules left behind by the logistics, and try to use animal power to get rid of them. After the ambush, retreat quickly, so that the enemy thinks that you are the ones who are attracting their attention so that we can cover our retreat. As long as they got rid of the pursuit of the Russian army, they turned around and headed southwest. When the other side encounters an ambush, it will at least use most of the cavalry and infantry to pursue our troops on the southern front, and the task of the northern front is to take advantage of the opportunity of the opponent's laxity to strike at the opponent's baggage troops, snatch and destroy the opponent's supplies and ammunition as much as possible, and then decide how to meet in Panjin according to the situation. Fourth, this time we are mainly training the team, no one is allowed to fight hard to the death, if the unit loses more than 30 percent, the commander will be demoted, if the loss is more than 50 percent, I will be sent to the cooking class as a husband for three years. It is necessary to give full play to the superiority in firepower and mobility, lead the bull by the nose, and not deliberately pursue lethal effects; as long as the officers and soldiers are allowed to fight against the foreign powers in actual combat, the goal is to see the blood. Do you understand? ”

"Yes, Chief." All the staff officers agreed in unison, after all, their commanders were so wise that all the officers who had just come to the battle formation had a backbone in their hearts, and when their morale was high, their momentum rose, and the staff officers planned, operated, and gave orders to do things vigorously, which invisibly made some dazed grass-roots officers and soldiers were infected by this high fighting spirit, and they all began to make preparations before the battle in an orderly manner in accordance with the requirements of training. The first day of boarding Liaodong was about to be spent in the flames of war.