And this incident was purely the biggest joke of the century, and Kurobatkin, fearing that he would be surrounded by Japanese troops, "ordered the East Manchurian cluster to withdraw from the forward positions." ”

As a result, the area around Qilingzi, Anshan Station and Tengaobao was also occupied by the Japanese army.

The Russian East Manchurian and South Manchurian clusters retreated on muddy roads to the Liaoyang defensive line, and the Russian army retreated to Liaoyang, shortening the distance between the Japanese armies, so that the flanks could be connected.

The Russian troops retreating from the front line immediately built fortifications, dug trenches, and set up obstacles when they arrived at the new forward positions in Liaoyang.

Soon after the Russian army retreated, the Japanese army officially attacked Liaoyang, and the battle began.

The First Army took the lead in attacking the forward positions of the Russian army with 38 battalions and 96 guns, first charging on the right flank of the Third Siberian Army, and soon occupied the heights south and southwest of Breakfastun.

Then the Japanese Fourth Army and the Second Army launched a fierce attack on the frontal position of the First Army of Russia in Siberia on the front line of Shoushan Fort and Beidashan Mountain, the Russian army resisted stubbornly, in the Gaoqiao area, a battalion of the Russian army with the support of the machine gun company, when the Japanese army was lured to 750 meters away from the Russian position, suddenly opened fire, and the front row of the Japanese army fell instantly, 10 minutes later, the attacking Japanese army was completely annihilated, and the repeated charges of the Japanese army did not work, which fully reflected the power of the heavy machine gun.

The Russian army also organized about 120 artillery pieces of the Third and Tenth Armies of Siberia under unified command, fired at the Japanese artillery, suppressed the Japanese artillery fire, and caused heavy casualties to the Japanese infantry.

Until late at night, the three Russian armies were still holding their positions.

In fact, at this time, the battlefield was already in a favorable situation for the Russian army to switch to the counteroffensive, and at the same time Kurobatkin also ordered the commanders of the armies to "turn to the offensive in a possible and advantageous position." ”

However, given the ambiguity of the order, the three commanders did not immediately fail to switch to the offensive and thus lose their fighters, but on the contrary, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Manchurian Army, Oyama Iwa, ordered the troops to continue the offensive despite the heavy casualties of the troops.

So the next day, the advance of the 12th Division of the Japanese First Army crossed the Tang River, did not meet the resistance of the Russian army, crossed the Taizi River near Sickle Bay, and outflanked the right flank of the Russian army in Shangchagou. When the Russian command learned of this, Kurobatkin panicked, immediately changed his original disposition, decided to abandon the decisive battle, and ordered the army commanders to "withdraw to the second line of defense, shorten the line of defense in the main direction, and concentrate larger forces on the right bank of the Taizi River in order to repel the roundabout encirclement of the Japanese First Army."

In fact, the Japanese 1st Army crossed the Taizi River, which was quite adventurous, because the Russian army had three times the strength of the Japanese army in this area.

While Kurobatkin was concentrating his forces and preparing for a counterattack against the Japanese First Army, Kuroki had already concentrated his troops on the right bank of the Taizi River and began to take an offensive.

Finally, at the cost of heavy casualties, the area from the vicinity of Wudingzi Mountain to Mantou Mountain was occupied.

On the same day, the Japanese 4th and 2nd armies carried out a strong attack on the southern fortress of Liaoyang, but due to the strong positions of the Russian army, it was unsuccessful.

The 4th Division of the 2nd Army attacked the left flank of the Russian army again, and the divisions and regiments quickly approached the Russian army and confronted each other all night.

Since the Fourth and Second Armies were ignorant of the formation of the Russian troops on the position, the location of the fortresses, and the situation of the obstacles, they could only roughly judge the position of the Russian troops based on the sound of gunfire.

Despite the cooperation of the First Army, which had entered the right bank of the Taizi River, there was still no progress, and when the Japanese attack approached the front of the Russian position, it was suppressed by the heavy artillery fire of the Russian army, and repeatedly "stopped due to setbacks" and felt that "there was nothing to be done." ”

Even the Japanese soldiers, who advocated dedication to the emperor, were terrified in the face of such casualties.

That night, when the Japanese army was in a dilemma and at a loss, at the same time, the morale of the Russian army was also unprecedentedly low, and the Russian generals on the front line were also full of pessimistic arguments in their reports on the battle situation to Kurobatkin.

Zarubaev's report stated that General Zasulich's troops, which had been caught between the Japanese First and Fourth Armies, were now deeply short of ammunition and had requested an additional brigade to reinforce the reserves.

In his report, Shtakli Berge went so far as to lose confidence and said: "My situation is very dangerous, because in the nearly five days of fighting, several regiments have suffered heavy casualties, and without strong support, I not only cannot turn to the offensive, but is even unable to meet the battle." He even arbitrarily decided to "withdraw my troops to Liliangou in the middle of the night to stand by." ”

The above report made Kurobatkin very depressed, and he no longer wanted to fight, so he issued this order: "It is decided to withdraw the troops to Mukden and beyond Mukden, and to assemble and replenish them there for another battle." ”

In the early morning of the third day, Kurobatkin gave the order to the entire army to retreat to Mukden.

However, just after Kurobatkin gave the order to the whole army to retreat, the Japanese command, in view of the passive situation of the First Army and the heavy casualties, decided to withdraw its troops back at the same time as Kurobatkin gave the order to retreat, and to think of another good strategy.

But Kurobatkin's retreat order was one step ahead, after Kurobatkin and Dashan Yan issued the same retreat time, but because the morale of the Russian army in the past few days was really low, as soon as they heard the order to retreat, they wanted to retreat immediately, so when there were still two hours before the retreat time, the Russian army had already begun to retreat.

At this moment, the Japanese army was also preparing for the retreat, but when the Japanese scouts were preparing, they suddenly found that the Russian army on the opposite side had a strange movement, and these Japanese troops thought that these Russian troops were going to attack when they were retreating, and they were suddenly startled by these Japanese troops, but after observation, they found that the Russian army was also retreating, so the news was quickly sent to Dashan Yan.

After seeing such information, Dashanyan knew that the opportunity for victory was coming, so after the retreat of the Russian army, Dashanyan issued an order to occupy Liaoyang on the whole line, and ordered all the units of the Japanese army to feel happy to descend from the sky, immediately rushed into the Russian position, and occupied the city of Liaoyang at about 1 o'clock in the morning of the next day, and the battle of Liaoyang ended here.

After both sides gave the order to retreat because of the large casualties, the Russian army retreated before the Japanese army, resulting in the Japanese army taking Liaoyang City without much effort, and since then Kurobatkin's retreat order has immediately become the biggest joke of this century, and the prestige of the Tsarist government was suddenly swept away by the victory hand, not to mention what kind of reaction the tsar had after hearing this joke, in short, it was ugly.

This battle of Liaoyang lasted for two whole months, and for the Russian army, it was not only a simple matter as a joke, but also the loss of an important military base in southern Liaoning, and for the Japanese army, it was the opening of the door to Mukden.