"Don't stop, keep attacking." Wu Luzhen was overjoyed when he saw this, and the three infantry battalions attacked with all their might, taking more than 30 pillboxes and breaking through two trench fortifications in just one hour. The gray Russian rout and armed civilians were blocked by the barbed wire on the 203 heights, and the Russian defenders on the heights were at a loss, and finally the Russian army got the order of Kuropatkin, machine guns, rifles and artillery strafed the compatriots in front of them as if they were dealing with the Japanese devils, and the crowd was quickly harvested like wheat by the sickle of death in the cursing, prayers and pleas in Russian.

"Fortunately, we didn't get too close to the main seat's orders." Wu Luzhen was in a cold sweat, he couldn't have imagined that there was such a murderous army to his own people, these people killed by them were all unarmed Chinese people and military robes wearing the same military uniforms, they seemed to kill with relish, lest one person slip through the net, it was simply inferior to beasts. Although Wu Luzhen did not expect it, General Wu Chenxuan, who was in command on the plane, was like a god, of course, when Du Niang eavesdropped on the order issued by Kuropatkin to the front-line commander through the telephone line. In fact, Lao Maozi's jackal nature, Wu Chenxuan also understands it, in order not to be overwhelmed by his own people, it is inevitable to shoot deserters. But later, when the rout army and civilians tried to bypass the defense line, they were also shot and even re-gunned, it was a matter of heart, I am afraid that the Russian army on the mountain also had a sense of guilt for such a murderous massacre of compatriots, but in order to kill people and be ashamed to face the mentality, so simply do not do two endless killings.

"Hold the existing positions and never attack the 203 heights, but also pay attention to dealing with the counterattack of the Russian army." Wu Chenxuan's order became a specific defensive deployment here in Wu Luzhen, and soon mines, directional mines, barbed wire, trenches, machine gun fortifications and projectile barrels were established, and a fortification group no less than the Western Front defense system of World War I was stubbornly resisted the waist of the Russian army, and the 203 heights were dug out from the inside of the Russian defense line. However, Wu Chenxuan did not arrogantly think that he could sweep Lushun with more than 3,000 guns, so this treasure land laid by his own people naturally had to be sold at a good price, although Nogi was an old-fashioned army horse manure, but Lieutenant General Ogawa Matsuji, the commander of the Fourth Division who was temporarily allocated to the Third Army, was a native of Osaka, and he was a good hand at doing business. Ogawa was authorized to negotiate with Wu Chenxuan about the handover of the defensive line, and after a simple but lively bargain, the traitorous business (after all, the occupied positions ceded to the Japanese army were China's inherent territory, over which the Chinese* government claimed indisputable sovereignty) was settled.

"They only demanded that after our army occupied Lushun, all Chinese and ethnic Chinese would belong to them, hoping that our army would pay attention to the honor and creed of the samurai, and restrain their subordinates from killing and destroying the personal and property of the Chinese. Then they agreed, with our consent, to hand over to us the two positions they now controlled, as the starting point for the general assault on Heights 204. Ogawa happily reported to the commander and chief of staff of the Third Army. Nogi and Ijichi didn't expect it to be so simple, after all, from the beginning of the war to the present week of fierce battles, so that the Japanese army suffered nearly 5,000 casualties, but only advanced less than a kilometer, away from the Lushun military port and the 203 heights, now I heard that the Qing country's volunteers actually stood out from the Russian army, interspersed with sneak attacks, defeated a regiment of the Russian army, and approached the 203 heights from the front, such a battle feats and how many lives to get in exchange for the starting position was actually given to them by the Qing people so simply, It simply made these three lieutenant generals of the Third Army a little hard to believe that this was the truth.

Business is business, and since the commanders of the Third Army of the Japanese Army have agreed, the junior officers and soldiers of the Japanese army naturally dare not disobey military orders. As soon as it was dark that afternoon, the two wings of the 11th Division of the Japanese Army had already entered the position and exchanged guards with the volunteers played by the Wuyi New Army. After leaving a map of mine deployment, Wu Luzhen led three battalions of the Volunteers of less than 2,700 men to pass in front of the Japanese army with great dignity. However, under the officialdom tradition of deceiving superiors and subordinates, junior officers could not report to their superiors at all, so the command of the Third Army still knew nothing about it. Although history was advanced by a few days, the Battle of the 203 Heights, which made Nogi and others so jealous of Lao Maozi, was still tenaciously launched between the Japanese and Russian armies.

After a night's rest, the Japanese attack on the 203 heights kicked off the prelude to the Lushun Siege. In the face of one round after another round of attacks by the Japanese army, the Russian army, relying on the fortifications built over the years, did not give an inch, condescended, and stubbornly resisted, resulting in only casualties and no progress left by the Japanese offensive. The Russian fortifications were so strong that the Japanese shells only damaged the surface and could not destroy it. The rational group structure of the fortifications enabled the firepower of the Russian army, especially the firepower of the machine guns, to form a dense firepower network, and it was difficult for the Japanese army to overcome this steel barrage. In order to reduce casualties, the Japanese army immediately switched to a night attack, but it still had little success, and the number of casualties continued to skyrocket, and even Nogi Noshinori's two sons were killed in front of the position. The fierceness of the battle did not shake Nogi Noshinori's fighting spirit in the slightest, and he claimed: The encircled Russian army died one less than one, and the Japanese army could replenish as much as they wanted.

On the night of the 23rd, Nogi Noshinori, who had already turned red-eyed, decided to take a desperate gamble and launch a large-scale attack at night, and used the "meat * bomb" tactics he flaunted to attack from the front, so the most fierce attack began. One surviving Russian soldier described the scene in his diary: "A landslide made of living people rolled towards us, and the Japanese rushed out of the valleys and ravines. Rifles and machine guns were fired, and searchlights went up and down, so that the Japanese soldiers could not open their eyes. They advance, pounce, jump up and run forward, and fall again. "The front of the Russian fortifications was covered with wounded and dead Japanese officers and soldiers lying on the ground, and the sound of gunfire and explosions was mixed with the miserable wails of the wounded. And the wave of Japanese attacks was still surging. The Japanese follow-up troops charged into battle with the bodies of their comrades. Fierce fighting continued until the 24th, and the Japanese suffered casualties, but only two small forts on the forward positions were occupied, and Heights 203 remained in the hands of the Russians. In this nearly week-long offensive, the Japanese casualties reached 27,900, accounting for about 1/3 of the total strength of the Third Army, while the Russian casualties also amounted to more than 3,500. In front of the 203 heights, there were piles of Japanese corpses and dying officers and soldiers, which seriously affected the morale of the Japanese troops. This situation forced Nogi Noshinori to abandon the assault on Heights 203 and instead strengthen the siege of Lushun, waiting for the replenishment of troops and equipment before attacking.

The Japanese assault was thwarted, which boosted the morale of the Russian army. The wishful thinking of the Russian commanders is to take advantage of the favorable terrain and strong fortifications of Arthur to contain the main enemy forces such as the Japanese Third Army on the one hand, so as to reduce the pressure of the Japanese army on the Russian troops on other battlefields, and on the other hand, to wait for reinforcements, while constantly depleting the Japanese army, wait for the arrival of the Russian Pacific Second Fleet, which is being formed, in order to finally regain the initiative on the battlefield.

After the failure of the assault, the operational intention of the Japanese base camp became clearer: Lushun must be occupied as soon as possible. Because as long as the battle at Lushun was successfully ended, the Third Army could be freed from Lushun and then join up with the other Japanese forces to compete and fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Russian Army on the Liaodong Peninsula. If the above-mentioned operational intentions fail, the consequences will be nothing more than this: the 1st and 3rd armies will continue to wear down under Arthur, and serious attrition will make it overstretched in front of the Russian army; 2. If the Russian Pacific Fleet in Port Arthur could not be completely destroyed, Japan would not have been able to win the war. In particular, once Russia's Second Pacific Fleet arrives and joins up with the fleet in the harbor, Russia is expected to regain sea supremacy, and the gains that Japan has already achieved are bound to be lost.

In less than five days, the Japanese Third Army began its second assault, the main target of which was still the 203 heights. For this strong attack, the Japanese army built new artillery positions on the periphery of Arthur in advance, equipped with a batch of 11-inch large-caliber siege guns. Unlike the first assault, which began with a tidal charge of infantry, in the second assault the Japanese focused on artillery battles. The Russian army did not show weakness, they dismantled the large-caliber guns on the capital ships of the Pacific Fleet and placed them on the army positions, and confronted the Japanese army-for-tat. The Japanese army urgently mobilized 28 cm howitzers from China to equip the artillery of the Third Army. In addition, the Japanese navy, which was anchored at sea, also supported the army's onslaught with naval guns.

At the front of the 203 heights, under the cover of artillery fire, the Japanese army used the method of digging tunnels to approach the Russian positions, and then carried out blasting. These tunnels are located less than 50 meters from the positions of the Russian army. However, the Russian army had long been aware of this, and they either opened artillery or threw explosive bags to stop the Japanese army, and at the same time, they also followed the Japanese army's example and also used the method of digging tunnels to approach the Japanese positions and destroy the Japanese fortifications. After many days of fierce fighting, the two sides were deadlocked in the forward position of Heights 203. The Japanese occupied only a few inconsequential areas of the front, but at the cost of another 6,000 killed. After more than a month of stalemate, on October 30, the Japanese army once again used heavy artillery to carry out a strong attack, although the shelling caused serious damage to the Russian fortifications, but the Russian army still firmly grasped the 203 heights. One combatant later wrote: "This is not a man-to-man struggle, but a man-to-man struggle with steel, burning oil, explosives, and the stench of corpses." ”

However, what is even more serious for Japan is that in mid-October, the Russian Pacific Second Fleet has set sail and is on its way to aid Arthur; In early November, Russia successively mobilized its land forces in the Arthur area in an attempt to reverse the situation in which the Russian army was significantly weaker than the Japanese army. Japanese Admiral Heihachiro Togo frequently appealed to the Japanese base camp: If there is no obvious change in the battle situation at Arthur by the end of November, the Japanese Navy's blockade of the sea will be weakened. He also sent a letter to Nogi Noshinori in his personal capacity, asking him to conquer Lushun as soon as possible and reverse the increasingly unfavorable situation for the Japanese army.

The Supreme High Command made the decision to completely destroy the Russian fleet in Port Arthur. On the orders of the Japanese High Command, Nogi Noshinori decided to launch a third strong attack, capture Arthur in one fell swoop, and completely destroy the Russian Pacific Fleet, so that it can no longer join the Russian Pacific Second Fleet, which came from afar.