Chapter 3: The war finally broke out

Britain has always regarded Russia as its rival in the competition with China. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info It tried to fake Japan to prevent Russia from moving south to compete with it for the Yangtze River valley in China. As a result, Britain and Japan colluded with each other to sign the Anglo-Japanese alliance in London on January 30, 1902, and the spearhead was directed against Russia. However, in this world, the Anglo-Japanese alliance was not only against Russia, but also had another secret treaty, which said that if there was a change in northern China in the future, Britain and Japan would deal with it together.

Since the United States put forward the "open door" policy in 1899, it has tried to intervene in Northeast China several times, but Russia has turned it away. In order to break Russia's monopoly on China's northeast, the US government sided with Japan and Britain. Britain and the United States have given Japan a large amount of economic assistance to boost Japan's arms expansion.

France, still loyal to the Russian-French alliance. On March 12, 1902, Russia and France issued a proclamation in St. Petersburg, declaring that they reserved the freedom of their freedom of action in the event of future changes in the Far East or China in order to protect the interests of the two countries. This was to extend the Franco-Russian military alliance to the Far East, and the spearhead was directed at the Anglo-Japanese alliance. However, France did not want Russia to invest its main military forces in the Far East, so as not to weaken the strength of the Russo-French alliance against Germany in Europe, so it had a certain degree of reservation in its support for Russia's Far East policy.

Germany, continuing its policy of pushing Russia eastward. It hoped that the contradictions with Japan and even Britain would intensify due to Russia's occupation of Northeast China, force Russia to transfer Russian troops on the western border, and indirectly weaken the pressure of the Russian-French alliance on Germany. Therefore, Germany basically supported Russia's Far East policy in 1901~1904 (after the outbreak of the war, Germany continued to pursue this policy. When the Russian Baltic Fleet moved eastward, Germany offered to coalen it. Later, even a Russian-German "alliance" was brewing).

Thus, by the spring of 1902, the above-mentioned imperialist powers had formed two major blocs on the Far Eastern question: one was the Anglo-Japanese alliance, backed by the United States; The other is the Franco-Russian alliance. Germany opposed France in Europe and Russia in the Far East. At this point, the international conditions for the Russo-Japanese War had been formed.

Russia, the internal ruling group headed by the Tsar, is not monolithic on the issue of the war against Japan, but there are two factions. But in such basic aspects as the struggle with Japan for China and Korea, these two factions were the same thing, and both were faithful executors of the tsarist government's policy of aggression and expansion in the Far East. Their disagreement is mainly in terms of strategy. One faction was represented by Chancellor of the Exchequer Witte and Foreign Secretary Ramsdorff, among others.

Seeing Russia's difficulties both domestically and internationally, including in Europe and the Far East, they suggested that a decisive battle should be fought not lightly, but rather certain concessions should be made, and at the same time preparations for economic plunder and war should be intensified for China's economic plundering and war preparations, and that a decisive battle would be fought when the Baikal section of the Trans-Siberian Railway was opened, the transport capacity was increased, and the completion of Arthur and its outer fortresses was completed. The other faction was represented by the former Minister of the Imperial Empire, Alexander Bezobrazov, the Minister of Internal Affairs Vyacheslav Previ, the Governor-General of the Far East, Alekseev, and others.

This is a group of fanatical chauvinists, imperialist adventurers; They underestimated Japan's strength, believing that it was a small state and vulnerable to attack, and that "it could be overwhelmed by throwing a hat", that Russia needed a small victorious war in order to stop the revolution, and that "only by making Japan unequivocally understand that Russia was prepared to defend its interests in Manchuria and would not hesitate to resort to force if necessary" could they hope for success in the negotiations, and therefore advocated being tough on Japan. The closer the upsurge of the revolution in the country approached, the more this group of people wanted to find a way out of the war.

While the minds of the Russians were still in turmoil, the Japanese had already acted. Japan, which is the world's heavyest, solved the problem of the Yawata Iron and Steel Plant a year earlier, and the production of steel doubled, which in turn made it take more time for the Japanese to prepare. Because they were equipped with more heavy artillery, rapid-fire guns and heavy machine guns, it was more time-consuming to stock up on ammunition and sports personnel.

Nearly 20 days later than in the rest of the world, at the end of February, at the same time that Japan decided to sever diplomatic relations with Russia, the Japanese emperor ordered the start of military operations. The commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, summoned his subordinate commanders at 0:00 on February 26 to convey the emperor's decision and ordered the entire fleet to sail to the Yellow Sea to attack the Russian warships anchored at Arthur and Inchon (Jemulpo) respectively.

At this critical juncture, Russian officers and soldiers remained in a state of peaceful paralysis. The Pacific Squadron was anchored in the outer harbor of Arthur, and the "peacetime regulations" were still being applied to the warships, and it was decided to take supplementary measures to strengthen the vigilance, which had already begun on February 10, 1904. At night, the lightning protection net was not opened, but the searchlights on the warships illuminated the entrances and exits of the inner harbor.

However, Governor Alekseev and his cronies were aware of the breakdown of the Russian-Japanese negotiations, but did not take any contingency measures. Until a few hours before the Japanese attack on Arthur, the chief of staff of the fleet, Admiral Witheft, said that "the war cannot be fought."

During the day on February 28, 1904, a British steamboat sailed into Lushun, and the Japanese consul in Lushun immediately evacuated the overseas Chinese. Alekseev and other high-ranking generals also ignored this. In Petersburg, only a few people noticed the signs of war. For example, the commander of the port of Kronstadt, Makarov, sent a special letter to the Admiralty on 8 February 1904, drawing the attention of the ministry to the dangerous situation of the Arthur fleet and suggesting that the fleet be sailed into the inner harbor. Otherwise, the letter said, "we would have been forced to do so after the first night raid, and we would have to pay a heavy price for this mistake." However, until the beginning of the Japanese attack, the Russian fleet remained in the outer harbor and did not take the necessary protective measures.

At this time, the Japanese Togo Fleet was moving in the direction of Luda: 3 destroyer squadrons were preparing to attack the Russian fleet at Arthur Pass, and another 8 destroyers were heading for Dalian. At midnight on February 28, 1904, under the light of the coastal lighthouse and the searchlight of the Russian ships, the Japanese ships stared at the Russian fleet and fired 16 torpedoes at close range.

In another world, three of the first wave of torpedoes fired by the Japanese Navy hit the target, severely damaging three of Russia's best ships. But in this world, due to the strengthening of cooperation between the Northwest Town Guard and Japan for more than a year, the equipment of the Japanese Navy has improved, and the performance of torpedoes has improved somewhat, so the number of hits has increased to 5. The three Russian warships were not just heavily damaged, but two were sunk on the spot.

The sound of explosions and artillery alarmed the whole of Arthur. At that time, the officers of the Russian fleet were having a dinner party in the city, and it was not known what was going on in the harbor inside the fortress. The command inquired, and the next answer was that it was live ammunition. It wasn't until dawn that the wreck of the ship that had been hit near the harbor was discovered, and the truth was revealed.