In the Heilongjiang River basin, along both sides of the river, the Qing and Russian armies were guarding the south and north of the Yangtze River, and they were tense and confrontational.

Since the end of the Battle of Aihui, the Russian Far Eastern Army has suffered a great deal of debilitation. First, Lieutenant General Zasulich killed 30,000 elites of the Russian East Manchurian Army in the Hulan area, and then Lieutenant General Stessel, who fought the decisive battle of Aihui, personally buried the elite 11th Regiment of the Russian Army and the 2nd Amur Division, and these two major battles lost more than 50,000 elite Russian troops. Major General Kendrachev, who fought in Shengjing, achieved good results, occupied two-thirds of the territory under the jurisdiction of General Shengjing, and successively won the landing battle in southern Liaoning, the defense of the Yalu River, and the battle of Liaoyang, but his 2nd Primorsky Division and Amur Reading Brigade also appeared to be insufficient because of the attrition in the battle, and the lone army penetrated into the battle line for too long, which made it difficult to supply and led to the loss of strength to continue the offensive.

The tactical defeat of the Russian army, when the Afghan corps and Cossack cavalry regiments drawn from Central Asia arrived by the Russian army, the Russian army had lost more than 50,000 elite troops, which led to the failure of Russia's strategic intention to inflict a local superiority on the Qing army in the northeast region in a short period of time. Not only that, but as Cixi and Guangxu, the supreme rulers of the Qing Empire, saw that the Russian army was not as strong as imagined, and Russia did not have the sincerity to negotiate and threatened the land of Longxing, Cixi became emboldened, so there was a declaration of war on August 1.

After the declaration of war on August 1, the situation soon became more and more unfavorable for the Russian army. The remaining six towns of the Beiyang Army have been trained and have successively advanced into the three northeastern provinces, resulting in a weak number of Russian land forces. The amazing combat effectiveness of the first and second towns of the Beiyang Army in fighting against the Russian army, as well as the advanced weapons and equipment of the Beiyang Army, immediately put the Russian army at a disadvantage.

In view of the unfavorable war situation, the Russian political axe no longer has the self-confidence it had at the beginning, and has proudly boasted that it will occupy the three northeastern provinces within three months, but now it has to worry about the consequences of losing the war.

The Russian War Department, the Minister of War General Alekseev, who had just returned from the Winter Palace, was full of iron, how ugly it was.

"A bunch of rice buckets! Eater! Eater! ”

The War Department officers looked at each other, but quickly guessed why.

Undoubtedly, the spittle after the roar of Nicholas II sprayed War Minister Alekseev in the face. Alekseev did not dare to speak back to Nicholas II, so he had to vent this tone on other officers of the War Office.

"Your Excellency, I suggest that the Empire immediately declare war on the Qing Empire, and make a general mobilization for war, and mobilize a large army to pacify them."

"It's time to teach them a lesson!"

"Culbert Kim is old, and he should find a strong general to go to the Far East to clean up the situation."

"And Stexel, who has disgraced the Imperial Army, and should be court-martialed."

"Why don't you let Zasulich also go to court-martial? He also suffered defeat, and he lost the first battle! ”

"He's Werther's brother-in-law, who dares to touch him?"

…… A group of officials quickly digressed from the topic and made the entire War Department conference room look like a vegetable market.

"Enough!"

Alekseev slammed the table, and everyone fell silent.

After a long time, Alekseev sighed and said: "His Majesty the Tsar has been persuaded by Witte to prepare to temporarily end this war. Because it takes a huge amount of money for our military power to be sent to the Far East, and now the international silver price continues to fall sharply, the empire is facing huge inflationary pressure, and the finances cannot support the empire to launch an all-out war against China! ”

The crowd was in an uproar, and some officials were well aware of the impact of the international banking crisis on Russia, but many officials said they could not understand it.

Alekseev added: "However, His Majesty the Tsar has given us one last chance, and he has asked us to end this war with dignity and at the same time receive compensation and benefits from the Qing Empire in our favor. ”

The War Office adviser Kebnister led the way and asked, "Is this how we end the war?" This is really not a good ending, the European and American powers will laugh off their big teeth, so that the Imperial Army will not have face? ”

Alekseev gritted his teeth and said: "His Majesty the Tsar is as unwilling as we are!" I think that when our Trans-Siberian Railway is built, we can quickly and easily deliver a large army, and when the empire's finances improve, it will be time for us to get back face! ”

Russia was facing the dual problems of financial difficulties and the inconvenience of sending troops to the Far East due to serious domestic inflation caused by the international silver crisis, and the unfavorable operations of the Russian army in the Far East led to the unstable regime of Tsar Nicholas II, who had just ascended the throne.

Although Russia was not ready to fight again, Nicholas II demanded that the Russian army in the Far East must end the war with dignity, and that the Qing Empire and other powers should not think that Russia "can't do it".

The command of the Russian Far Eastern Military District, having received an order from the War Department to "end the war with dignity," urgently adjusted its strategic and tactical deployment.

The commander-in-chief, General Kurobetkin, ordered the Cossack cavalry regiment and the Afghan corps to stabilize the Heilongjiang defense line and maintain military pressure on the Qing army south of the Yangtze River. The Russian army fighting in southern Liaoning was the main bargaining chip in the negotiations, and Kuroberkin asked Major General Kendrachev to hold Liaoyang while mobilizing reinforcements from the 77th Division of the Afghan Corps.

The Russian army lost the battle on land, so Kuroberkin put his hope on the navy, the Russian Far East Fleet and the Amur River Fleet were strong and had an overwhelming advantage over the Qing Empire's navy. Kuroberkin ordered the Russian Far East Fleet to attack the Qing Empire's coastal cities under the blockade of Lushun and Weihaiwei in order to intimidate the Qing Empire. At the same time, the Amur River fleet was transferred upriver along the Heilongjiang River, attacking the cities and towns along the Heilongjiang River with the superior firepower of gunboats, and attacking the defensive positions of the Beiyang Army to carry out military deterrence. Kurobekin believed that such a strategic attack on the Qing Empire could force the Qing Empire to make concessions in negotiations.

After the Battle of Aihui, the Qing Empire resumed its defense of Heilongjiang. The 5th and 6th Towns of the Beiyang Army took over the defense areas of the 1st and 2nd Towns, maintaining vigilance against the Russian troops in Jiangbei, and the two sides continued to harass and shell each other from the north and south sides of the Heilongjiang River. However, because the Russian army has the strong fire support of the river gunboats of the Amur River Fleet, the Russian army has an advantage in the artillery battle.

The first and second towns were damaged in the Battle of Aihui and withdrew from the front line to Hulan to rest on the spot. At the same time, Wang Shizhen recruited troops on the spot nearby to supplement the troop consumption of the first and second towns. Recruits are trained on the spot, and under the leadership of veterans, they patrol and station various defensive fortresses on the Songhua River. The surviving officers and men of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Regiments formed a training regiment and recruited Mongolian herdsmen from the nearest Zhaonan Province as a source of cavalry. Because the Mongolian herdsmen were naturally good at riding and shooting, the surviving officers and soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Regiments had experience after being baptized with blood on the battlefield, and the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Regiments were quickly rebuilt after the combination of the two.

In the Mukden direction, after the third and fourth towns of the Beiyang Army were stationed, they took over the defense of Mukden. Since the Russian army did not move, they did not take the initiative to attack the Russian army.

The 7th and 8th Towns of the Beiyang Army were originally going to go to Guanwai, but Wang Chenhao was worried that his Beijing-Tianjin-Tang industrial base would be attacked by Russian marines, and in order to prevent the Russian army from landing on the coast of Beijing-Tianjin-Tangzhou, the 7th and 8th Towns did not move on the grounds of defending the security of Gyeonggi.

The war seems to have ended in a stalemate, with the Russian Far East Fleet shelling the Chinese coastal cities, but because most of these coastal cities were treaty ports, the powers had special interests in these cities, and in fact the Russian navy was just putting on a show, bombing two cannons to scare the local Qing officials.

Subsequently, under the mediation of France, the two countries resumed negotiations. The Russian side no longer proposes to occupy Heilongjiang Province, but demands the cession of the Liaodong Peninsula, compensation of 100 million taels for military expenses, allowing Russian ships to enter and exit freely in various ports, and allowing the Russian fleet to spend the winter in China.

This condition was still very harsh and unreasonable, and the Qing Empire did not accept it, but the Russian political axe had the sincerity to negotiate this time and allowed the Qing political axe to spend 50 million taels of silver to redeem the Liaodong Peninsula.

In order to cooperate with the negotiations, the Amur River Fleet and the 33rd Division of the Afghan Corps cooperated and launched an offensive in the direction of Sanjiangkou, where the Qing army was stationed.

The so-called Sanjiangkou is the confluence of the Songhua River and the Mudanjiang River, and joins the Heilongjiang River at the same river, so it is also called the Tongjiang estuary. It is located in the northeast corner of Jilin Province, the southeast corner of Heilongjiang Province, and the south of Amur Prefecture in Tsarist Russia. There is a delta named Molihong in the north of the estuary, the north of the continent is the territory of the Soviet Union, the south of the estuary belongs to Tongjiang County of Jilin Province, and the north of the mouth belongs to Suidong County of Heilongjiang Province. If you go up the Songhua River, along the way are Fujin, Huachuan, Tangyuan, Yilan, Fangzheng, Tonghe, Binxian, Mulan, Bayan, Hulan, Halejin (Harbin), Halejin is the center of the two theaters of Jilin Province and Heilongjiang Province of the Beiyang Army, and it is also an important military and political town in Northeast China, and its important position is self-evident. The mouth of the three rivers is 720 miles from Khalgin, and it takes only 12 hours for warships to travel back and forth, and if the mouth of the three rivers is lost, the Russian fleet can reach the city of Khalgin in a few days. Once Halkin falls, the 5th and 6th towns of the Beiyang Army in Heilongjiang Province will be attacked on three sides, and the danger is self-evident.

Therefore, regardless of the Russian army or the Beiyang Army, people of insight in both armies believe that the status of Sanjiangkou is extremely important. Sanjiangkou is destined to be calm after the baptism of blood.

Kurbertkin's defeat in land warfare led him to shift his focus to naval and river operations. Because the Heilongjiang, Songhua, and Nenjiang rivers have abundant water in summer and autumn, they give the river a great deal of room to play in combat. The Qing Empire was limited by the Aihun Treaty and had only a few small gunboats on the river, while the Russian Amur River Fleet had a large number of gunboats, gunboats, minelayers, and minesweepers, which were not only numerous, but also fierce. In particular, two 1,300-ton shallow-water heavy gunboats, the Novgorod and the Vice Admiralpopov, with their mobile fortresses equipped with four 152-mm guns, pose a great threat to the coastal infantry and battery fortifications. There are also six Peryn-class 640-ton gunboats, as well as five 230-ton gunboats. Although most of these gunboats were built in the sixties and seventies, and their hulls were somewhat old, it was very appropriate for Russia to send them to the Far East to deal with the Qing Empire.

The Russian army is obviously aware of this, and Kurobkin deployed the fleet of the Amur River region on the bank of the Russian river 400 meters north of the delta outside the mouth of the three rivers, the marines on the bank of the river, and the army department in the deep area.

At this time, the Qing side had only a few small gunboats on the river fleet. The six gunboats of Jiangping, Jiang'an, Jiangtong, Jiangjin, Jiangtai and Jiangqing, ranging from 225 to 355 tons, were all converted from inland paddle steamer merchant ships. The displacement is small, the ship is weak (mostly wooden hulls), the speed is slow (4.5 knots - 7.5 knots), and the strongest armament is only 2 British Vickers 47 mm guns and 2 machine guns, which are inferior to the gunboats of the Russian Amur fleet, not to mention the shallow water heavy gunboats, which are not of a class at all, and the gap is too big.

Li Hongzhang ordered Wang Shizhen to actively organize resistance and strive to rub the prestige of the Russian army again, so as to win bargaining chips and end the war as soon as possible.

Wang Shizhen knew very well that it was okay for these small gunboats to scare the common people, and they were no match for the Russian fleet at all in a war, so in order to strengthen the firepower on the river, he started the idea of refitting warships. Wang Shizhen used local materials and transferred four large-caliber river defense guns from the Jilin Ordnance Bureau, but because of the small tonnage of each ship, it was impossible to install large-caliber river defense guns (they sank when they were installed). So he ordered the installation of four 4.7-inch (120 mm) river defense guns on a scrapped commercial barge "Dongyi", and equipped the personnel on the "Jiang Heng" with the barge cannons; Since the "Dongyi" had no power, it was towed by the "Jiangan" and became a secret mobile water battery, and was towed to the swampy area near the mouth of the river, where it was hidden to provide artillery support, and could be towed to any area according to the needs of the war situation. The concealment was well done, and the officers and men endured the mosquitoes raging in the swamps and patiently waited for the Russian attack.

Despite this, Wang Shizhen still did not think that the Qing army of these river and water divisions and battalions had much combat power, and it was only a matter of time before the river operation would definitely fail.

In order to deal with the Amur fleet, Wang Shizhen secretly transferred the two artillery regiments of the first and second towns to a large crop field south of the Sanjiangkou to hide, as well as the three artillery regiments of the Jilin general Changshun. Wang Shizhen's goal was to suddenly launch a surprise attack on the Russian ships on the river with the fire of two artillery regiments and three artillery groups when the Amur fleet destroyed the Qing army's naval division battalion, which might be effective. However, in order to achieve the purpose of the operation, Wang Shizhen secretly requisitioned six merchant ships, preparing to suddenly rush into the middle of the river and sink on the channel when necessary, blocking the channel and trapping the Amur fleet in the middle, so as to facilitate the ground artillery attack.

In the early morning of October 12, the ships of the Amur District Fleet arrived at the mouth of the Songhua River, including two heavy gunboats, the Novgrad and Vice Admiral, six Peryn-class gunboats, five gunboats, and four armed steamers carrying marines.

At 6:12, the Novgrad first opened fire on the Qing army's shore defense artillery on the riverbank, and other Russian ships also launched at the same time, going back and forth on the river, bombarding the anchorage and ferry fortifications of the Qing army's river defense fleet with all their firepower.

The Jiang Ping, the flagship of the Songhua River Naval Division of the Qing Army, issued a signal to meet the enemy, and the ships of the naval division battalion anchored and returned fire, concentrating all their firepower to attack the enemy ships. The first battle between the Qing and Russian navies officially began.

The Tsarist Russian Navy was exceptionally well prepared, and they knew very well the combat effectiveness of the warships of the Songhua River Naval Division, so that they could be said to be able to distinguish them with their eyes closed. They quickly distributed their firepower, and the officers and men of the Russian Amur fleet were well-trained and their morale was very high compared to the officers and men of the Qing Army's naval division.

In the first five minutes of the battle, Vice Admiral ** Fu hit the flagship of the Songhua River Naval Division Battalion with the first volley of fire, and a 152-mm shell blew the Jiangping in two and sank instantly. The second salvo hit the Jiangqing, forcing it to be heavily damaged and withdrawn from the battle.

The number and firepower of the Russian gunboats surpassed that of the Songhua River Naval Division, and the Russian army had long been aware of the combat power of the Qing army, so the battle was one-sided from the beginning.

Despite this, there is still a bright spot in the Songhua River Water Division Camp. That is the "Dongyi" water battery that Wang Shizhen improvised to drum, because of its low hull, it is difficult for shells to hit, and the temporarily installed large-caliber guns can pose a great threat to the shallow water heavy gunboats of Tsarist Russia.

The main target of the "Dongyi" was the flagship of Tsarist Russia, the Novgrad, which was hit many times, but because the ship's side and deck were well armored, it was not seriously damaged, but the Russian fighters on the deck suffered heavy casualties.

The Russian shallow water heavy gunboats concentrated on attacking the "Dongyi", which posed the greatest threat to it, and the "Dongyi" evaded most of the attacks by virtue of its short size, and the Russian ship concentrated its artillery fire on the "Jiang'an" that was towing it. Soon after, it was hit by the boiler, causing an explosion, breaking the hull of the ship in two, and killing and wounding officers and men heavily.

Only half an hour after the start of the battle, six ships, Jiangping, Jiang'an, Jiangtong, Jiangjin, Jiangtai, and Jiangqing, were sunk one after another. The only thing still fighting on the river was the "Dongyi", which was not a warship, and it lost its towing boat and could not maneuver, and under the fierce attack of the Russian shallow water heavy gunboats, the hull was blown up, the artillery was also destroyed, and it was no longer able to fight, and was forced to sink itself, and its surviving officers and men jumped into the water and fled.

When the battle on the river was raging, Wang Shizhen ordered six merchant ships anchored not far from the upstream and downstream to move closer to the mouth of the three rivers. When the Songhua River Naval Division was completely annihilated, six merchant ships appeared in the front and rear of the Amur fleet and immediately began to sink themselves.

The Russian fleet immediately realized that something was wrong, but they had excessively despised the Qing army from the beginning, and it was too late to stop it at this moment.

At the same time, Wang Shizhen gave an order, and the two artillery regiments of the Beiyang Army and the three artillery regiments of General Jilin hidden in the crop fields, a total of 183 cannons, opened fire with a bang, and in an instant, the shells smashed into the Russian fleet on the river like hail.

(To be continued)