In the spring of 1904, out of strategic considerations, Chentian upgraded the Königsberg Junior Military Academy to the Königsberg Military Academy, and expanded its scale as a training base for military personnel in East Prussia. Every year, 1,000 young people between the ages of 6 and 16 are admitted to the 6-10-year-old junior class, the 11-15 year old youth class and the 16-20 year old vocational class. After entering the youth class, they will begin to choose the direction they are interested in, and after entering the vocational class, they will enter the infantry command, artillery command, mechanical engineering, aircraft, surface ships, submarines and other specialties to receive different studies.

In addition, in order to increase his military and political "hearing", Chen Tian decided to let the military academy select about 50 cadets around the age of 10 from the graduates of the junior class every year for professional intelligence training. After six years of hard training, some of them were recruited into various German units, some were inserted into various German government departments, and some were faked to infiltrate the military and government departments of European countries. For this group of people, Chen Tian also gave them a special name: Bat Legion.

Drawing on the experience of future wars, Chen Tian also prepared to select a group of soldiers with particularly good shooting skills in the East Prussian Regiment for special sniper training, and their targets on the battlefield were mainly the officers of the opposing side. And among this group of people, some soldiers who are determined and willing to sacrifice their lives will be selected, and Chen Tian will let them leave the army and join another organization, the Thorn Birds, whose task is to assassinate.

It's a pity that the plan is beautiful, but there are always troubles of one kind or another to realize.

In 1904, most people basically had no idea about spies and special forces, let alone instructors in this area, so Chen Tian had to find Thomas. At this time, Thomas was not doing well in the intelligence room of the General Staff, and the style of the General Staff was to act in strict accordance with the regulations, so many of Thomas's opinions were not adopted, and the two hit it off after a small conversation, and Thomas immediately applied for transfer from the General Staff and entered the East Prussian Army in Chentian.

After all, Thomas has been in the intelligence department for 4 years, and he still knows a lot about the structure of the intelligence department, but he doesn't know much about the training of spies, to be exact, there are almost no professional spy training methods in that era, so the two of them groped their way forward in the dark.

In the selection of the Bat Legion, they selected cadets who were born poor, because their willpower and loyalty would be higher than others. These trainees are required to volunteer for their country, followed by a series of physical and mental tests, which require the consent of their families before they can undergo the next training.

Next, they arranged for the trainees to learn language skills, combat skills, engineering skills, first aid and self-rescue, social benefits, weapon use, and all kinds of training they could think of. Out of hands-on experience and self-training, Chen Tian and Thomas will often join their training. Every year, cadets are eliminated, and by the end of all the training, only 15 of them have been able to become the first members of the Bat Legion. Eight of them went on to study at other military academies or directly into the German army as ordinary graduates of the Königsberg Military Academy, four went to various German government offices and slowly climbed the ladder from the lowest level, and three were sent to France, where they worked their way up the French army or government departments.

Compared to the Bat Legion, the Thorn Bird of Chentian is much simpler. As long as they are skilled in marksmanship, orphans or have many brothers in the family and are not married, they can voluntarily participate in the selection and training of thorn birds. The training of the thorn bird is mainly in the areas of shooting, camouflage, willpower, endurance and loyalty.

In the years that followed, the Bat Legion and the Thorn Bird made immortal contributions to Chentian and Germany in the struggle for the German throne in World War I and afterward.

In February 1904, just as Tatsuten and Thomas were busy with the matter of the Bat Legion and the Thorn Birds, the Russo-Japanese War broke out on time according to the trajectory of history.

In 1894, Japan launched the Sino-Japanese War to invade China and Korea, forcing the Qing government to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ceded land and paid reparations, lost power and humiliated the country, and ceded the Liaodong Peninsula. Tsarist Russia, which was bent on annexing northeast China for its own sake, was not to be outdone, and co-opted Germany and France to create the "Three Kingdoms Intervention to Return Liao" incident to force Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula to China. In this regard, Japan holds a grudge and waits for an opportunity to retaliate. Soon after forcing Japan to return Liao, Tsarist Russia seized the privileges of building the China Eastern Railway and its branch lines in northeast China under the pretext of "returning Liao." Later, he forcibly leased Lushun and Dalian to the Chinese government, and took advantage of the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Coalition to occupy the entire three northeastern provinces. Russia's expansionist ambitions exacerbated its contradictions with Japan over the Northeast and Korea. After 10 years of preparation, Japan grew in strength, and in 1902 concluded the Anglo-Japanese alliance, determined to make a comeback and establish hegemony in the Tohoku region.

The direct cause of the intensification of the contradictions between Japan and Russia was Russia's refusal to withdraw its troops from northeastern China. After the signing of the Treaty of Xincho, Russia strongly advocated that all countries withdraw their troops from China as soon as possible, while its own troops remained in the northeast, and appointed a governor of the Far East. Unwilling to give up, Japan took the initiative to negotiate with Russia. In order to compete for territory in the Far East and plunder wealth, Japan and Russia are at loggerheads and do not give in to each other; While dispatching troops and preparing for war. Due to Russia's refusal to withdraw its troops from northeastern China, Japan issued an ultimatum to Russia on February 6, 1904, and announced the severance of diplomatic relations between Japan and Russia. At the same time, the Japanese Navy went into action. On 8 February, the Japanese Combined Fleet attacked a Russian warship in Port Arthur and declared war without declaring war. On the 10th, the governments of Japan and Russia declared war on each other, and the Russo-Japanese War officially began.

Lushun is located at the southwest end of the Liaodong Peninsula, surrounded by hills, as the gateway to the northeast and the throat of the Bohai Strait, and its strategic position is very important. Port Arthur is an ice-free port, the water in the port is shallow, relatively narrow, and there is only one 150-meter-wide estuary. The main forces of the Russian Pacific Fleet are stationed there. At midnight on 8 February, when Russian officers were holding a dinner in Arthur to celebrate the naming of the wife of the fleet commander, Admiral Stark, Heihachiro Togo commanded the Japanese Combined Fleet to launch a surprise attack, firing 16 torpedoes in succession, severely damaging three Russian warships, and opening the prelude to the war. Bursts of explosions and artillery continued to be heard, and the Russian officers on the shore were immediately stunned, wondering what had happened in the harbor. After the truth was revealed, they hurriedly returned to their respective warships and organized a counterattack. The Japanese ships were outnumbered and forced to retreat. The commander of the Russian fleet, fearing that he would be ambushed by mistake, ordered all ships not to pursue, avoid harbors without fighting, and stick to the fortress of Arthur. After the night attack on Port Arthur, Heihachiro Togo was very troubled when he saw that the Russian ships could not escape the harbor and that with the support of powerful coastal artillery fire, it was difficult for the Japanese Combined Fleet to inflict heavy damage on the Russian Pacific Fleet. In order to fully control the sea and reduce the threat to the Japanese sea lines of communication, Heihachiro Togo decided to follow the successful practice of the Spanish-American War, sinking the ship at the exit of Port Arthur, blockading the Russian fleet, and constantly shelling the Russian ships. From February 9 until early March, the Japanese army made several unsuccessful attempts to seal the port on shipwrecks. In early March, Makarov, the new commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet, took up his post in Arthur and immediately took a series of precautionary measures, and at the same time demanded that the fleet take the initiative to attack. On the basis of understanding the sea area, ships and fortresses, he decided to lay mines in the coastal area of the Liaodong Peninsula to prevent the Japanese army from landing and threatening the Lushun base from the flank; Intensify the repair of injured ships, send fleets to the sea, and strengthen training in coordinated operations on land and sea; The Vladivostok fleet was required to send troops south to the Sea of Japan, actively attack the Japanese sea lines of communication, and contain the actions of the Japanese Combined Fleet. These measures by Makarov improved the passive situation of the Russian army and gave the officers and men the confidence to defeat the Japanese army, but on 13 April, Makarov was killed in the sea because the battleship "Petropavlovsk" on which he was riding was hit by a mine and exploded while returning from going to sea. The new commander, Witgeft, believed that the fort Arthur could ensure the safety of the fleet, so he no longer took sorties, and from then on, the initiative in naval operations fell to the Japanese again.

In view of the fact that the navy was unable to annihilate the Russian Pacific Fleet, the Japanese wartime base camp decided to take offensive action on land. On March 21, the Japanese First Army, commanded by General Kuroki, first landed at Incheon, Korea, and advanced north to the Yalu River in mid-April. Because this move was unexpected by the Russian army, the Japanese army quickly defeated the East Manchurian detachment of the Russian army led by Zasulich, and occupied Jiulian City and Phoenix City, creating a situation of coercion on Liaoyang. At the same time, the Japanese Second Army, led by General Okubo Gong, successfully landed at Zhuanghe on the Liaodong Peninsula in early May and arrived in Jinzhou at the end of May; The Japanese Third Army, commanded by General Nogi Noshinori, also landed at Dalian Bay at the end of May and advanced to Lushun; The Japanese Fourth Army, commanded by General Nozu Michiguani, landed at Dagushan on the Liaodong Peninsula in mid-May and occupied Haicheng. The Japanese army succeeded in attacking on land one after another, leaving the Russian army in a passive position. The "General Headquarters of the Manchurian Army" of the Japanese army was originally prepared to take unified command of the four armies and engage in the battle of Liaoyang with the Russian army after the Third Army conquered Lushun.

By the fall of 1904, the Bat Regiment and the Thorn Bird had been formed and began to train in an orderly manner, and after placing the two units under Thomas's management, Chentian and Ollie set off for China to observe the largest war of the beginning of the century up close. There, an unexpected thing awaits him......