"Extra, extra, because Tsarist Russia refused to withdraw its troops from our country's territory Lushun, my Qing Dynasty declared war on the Tsarist Russian Empire!"

"Extra, extra, the Northeast Plenipotentiary Envoy Yang Chao said that he will defend the rights and interests of the country and the dignity of the country and the nation at all costs!"

Extra, extra, Japan said that it had declared war on Russia with the obligations of the Qing Dynasty. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo”

"Extra, extra, the Japanese foreign minister said that China and Japan have the ability to maintain peace and stability in Asia, and the Northeast does not need the presence of Russian troops."

At the beginning of the new year of the Gregorian calendar, when Westerners were still celebrating Christmas, a war caused by the Northeast Crisis broke out, known as the Northeast War.

The Sino-Japanese combined fleet blocked Arthur at the first time, but fortunately the Russian fleet withdrew early, otherwise it would have been blocked inside, but it was useless for them to withdraw to Vladivostok, and they were also blocked by the Japanese.

This war, unlike the last Russo-Japanese War, from the very beginning, the whole world decided that the Russians would be defeated because the balance of power between the two sides was too great.

Let's talk about the Navy first, in the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Navy was almost completely annihilated, and there is nothing worth saying. Although the Japanese Navy also suffered heavy losses, although after repairs, and salvage repairs, the Japanese Navy restored two-thirds of the warships before the war, but in the face of the arrival of the dreadnought era, the Japanese began a frenzied second naval construction.

Japan took advantage of the replacement of the dreadnought era, but eliminated the old ships, the emperor once again announced after the war that he would only eat one meal a day, and called on the people to donate money to build a fleet, because the performance of the Japanese navy in the war was impressive, and it was already a national hero, and the people were still very supportive, the men were hungry, and the women sold their hues, little by little donations, the Japanese built six dreadnought-class battleships in the three years after the war, three of which were built by the British, One was built in Japan with the help of British engineers, and the last two were built by the Japanese themselves.

Of course, the Japanese are not satisfied. Because of the announcement of the Qing tyrants that they would also rebuild their own navy, they successively announced the construction plan of eight dreadnoughts, four of which were built in Shandong. Two in the United States and two in the United Kingdom, which greatly irritated the Japanese, who then expanded their shipbuilding program to build sixteen dreadnoughts. Build two 88 fleets with eight dreadnoughts as the core.

In fact, before the declaration of war against Russia, Japan and China had faintly broken out an arms race, what the Japanese did not know was that this was also deliberately provoked by Yang Chao, otherwise there would be no need for him to go to Britain last year to order two under the plan of already having six dreadnoughts, just to surpass Japan, stimulate Japan, and let the Japanese in the economic crisis continue to use funds for military expansion.

The purpose of the expansion of the Japanese was to make the British feel jealous. To make the British uneasy about this little brother is to create a rift between the Anglo-Japanese alliance and to encircle Japan diplomatically.

But the Japanese did not recognize this, they were following the example of Britain in everything, Britain had unrivaled naval superiority in Europe, and the Japanese thought that they were also an island country, so they would have absolute naval superiority in the East, but they did not calculate that if their shipbuilding plan was completed, they would become the third largest navy after Britain and Germany, which were in a naval competition.

The Anglo-German arms race began during the period of German expansion. And the real fierce competition began when the Germans began to expand in China.

After the occupation of Qingdao, Germany saw the need to expand its fleet to protect more and more maritime interests, and in 1898 the Fleet Law was introduced. It was to be organized into two sub-fleets of eight battleships each, plus one for the purpose of serving as the flagship of the fleet, for a total of seventeen battleships.

In its own waters, it should also have eight armored ships for shore defense, six large cruisers and 16 small cruisers for reconnaissance, and three and 10 large and small cruisers overseas. In addition, as a reserve force, it was necessary to keep two battleships. Three and four large and small cruisers. By 1 April 1904, Germany was to build 489 million marks to supplement the shortfall, including seven battleships, two large cruisers, and seventeen small cruisers.

The British Navy, on the other hand, took a-for-tat response, updated the "two-power standard" of the navy to a "double standard for Germany," took twice the size of the German navy as the construction goal, and resumed the policy of concentrating naval forces near the mainland, so as to constitute a deterrent to the enemy's base areas at all times.

It was precisely because the British contracted their naval power that they allied with the Japanese, hoping to use Japan's powerful navy to defeat the Beiyang Navy to protect British interests in the East and at the same time counterbalance Russian expansion.

But the British let the Japanese protect their interests, if the Japanese are a family dog, they can rest assured, but if the Japanese grow up to be a hungry wolf, can the British still rest assured?

This is one of the reasons why the British began to oppose the Japanese to start a war this time, and he has begun to restrain his dog, not wanting the dog to become wild and untamable after being stained with too much blood, but in the end the war broke out.

Although the Japanese had not yet completed the naval expansion that even the British masters feared, their fleet of six completed dreadnoughts as the core was more than enough to deal with the old fleet of the Russians in the previous dreadnought era.

In addition, I should not be underestimated in the Qing Dynasty, four dreadnoughts have been added under the Sa Zhenbing banner, two British-built, two American-made, and twelve large and small cruisers built by the Germans in Qingdao in the past two years.

No one in the international community doubted that the Russians would lose the naval battle.

The only change is the land war, but most people also believe that the Japanese combat effectiveness is not lost to the Russian army, and China's Shandong still has a strong military production capacity, China has unlimited human resources, if the Chinese can mobilize one-tenth of the force, it is enough to arm a million army, and it is a local battle, the Sino-Japanese coalition army should be able to defeat the Russian army.

Of course, there are also some staunch supporters of the whites, who think that the last time the Russians fought like that with the Japanese, it was because of domestic problems, and they were recaptured by the Qing army in the northeast, which was even more of a political blackmail and had nothing to do with the military, and now the Russians have solved the domestic problem, they have continued to increase grain production in the past two years, and have become the world's largest grain producer, and the domestic economy is stable, and has taken the lead in the economic crisis to begin to grow, in this case, it is impossible for the eastern yellow country to defeat white Russia.

You can't change their concept of this kind of racist, even if you win, they still have countless excuses, and Yang Chao doesn't bother to deal with this kind of person.

Of course, Yang Chao didn't have time to deal with them.

After the declaration of war, Yang Chao did not wave his army north, but built fortifications nearby in Harbin for defense.

Thirty kilometers north of Harbir, since last year, under the auspices of Wu Peifu, five fortifications have been built, and Yang Chao's combat method is still mainly defense, supplemented by attack, and the defense first consumes the living force of the Russian army.

Yang Chao inspected these fortifications, with machine-gun positions, trenches, and barbed wire as the core, plus some products with Chinese characteristics, such as a large number of thistles sprinkled in front of the positions.

This kind of thistle terrestris was used in ancient China to block the cavalry charge, and now it is used here to block the Russian infantry charge, and there is no problem, the infantry wants to pass through the barbed thistle defense area, there are only two ways, or find a way to clear a passage, but this depends on whether the machine gunner behind the barbed wire agrees; Either the Russian infantry is grinding their feet against the ground, but this will also create opportunities for the machine gunners.

Anyway, if the blood is not drained, it is impossible for the Russians to easily pass through the defensive network built by Wu Peifu.

Yang Chao even took a look around in the airship, and was very satisfied with Wu Peifu's defensive line, which was not a loss of a defensive position that had taken a year to build.

What worries Yang Chao is other questions: "How is the training of recruits?" ”

Recruits, recruits from the Northeast, after planning to start the war last year, Yang Chao asked Wu Peifu to start recruiting soldiers, and recruited them locally in the Northeast.

With the cooperation of the propaganda team of the Fuqiang Party, propaganda in various parts of the Northeast, if the Russians are allowed to enter, it will still harm everyone as before, during and after the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian army can make the common people in the Northeast miserable, otherwise Yang Chao would not have the ability to form a 300,000 bandit army to fight the Russians at that time.

Even the bandits can't stand the Russians, let alone the ordinary people, as soon as everyone heard that Lao Maozi was coming again, their enthusiasm for joining the army was still very high, and the recruitment work was completed in the first half of last year, recruiting 300,000 new soldiers, and recruiting 500,000 soldiers as a reserve force in the second half of the year.

"The 300,000 recruits have been trained for more than half a year and know how to operate weapons, so there should be no problem in defensive operations."

Wu Peifu reported.

Yang Chao was dissatisfied: "I don't want to listen to it, there are many things that should be done, and I should be able to win against Little Japan in the Qing Dynasty back then." I want to listen to the exact situation, what about the situation of the exercise? ”

Wu Peifu didn't dare to answer with ambiguous words, and said decisively: "The acting situation is very optimistic, and the defensive operations are decent, but the offensive operations are not yet well-trained." Please rest assured that as long as war breaks out, the Russians will not want to pass through Harbin for three years, unless they fly there. ”

Yang Chao nodded: "They can't fly!" ”

Yang Chao is very confident, and his self-confidence comes from his huge air fleet of more than 200 airships.

"What about the movements of the Russians?"

Yang Chao asked again, war has been declared, I declared war in the Qing Dynasty, and what is intended to be puzzling is that my Qing Dynasty did not attack.

And the Russians did not attack either, and the war looks strange at the moment.

"The Russians are massing their forces, and I don't think the Russians have the courage to pass through Harbin, and I doubt they will make a detour south from Vladivostok!"

Wu Peifu's self-confidence still makes Yang Chao very satisfied, but the Russians really plan to take a detour? (To be continued.) )