The Russo-Japanese War of 1904 was completely different from the Russo-Japanese War in history, and was affected by the fact that both Japan and Russia were equipped with heavy machine guns and dug trenches in large quantities, so that the attacking side would suffer great casualties.

In these two battles, which were fought almost simultaneously, the Russian army in the direction of Arthur gave the Japanese casualties with more machine guns and more complete fortifications than in history, and the Japanese paid the price of 15,000 men in the forward positions of the fortress alone, and forced the Japanese army to delay the general attack for more than a month and possibly even two months.

In the direction of Liaoyang, the Japanese offensive also suffered a heavy setback, and the number of Japanese casualties in two large-scale attacks launched in the past two months has reached 30,000.

From the outbreak of the war to the beginning of September, the Japanese army had suffered more than 50,000 casualties in the northeast, and thousands of people were suffering from beriberi and other diseases.

The Russian army on the opposite side is no better there, the previous battle of the Yalu River, a series of battles such as Jinzhou and Dalian on the Liaodong Peninsula in the middle of the period, and the southward offensive campaign launched in June to rescue Lushun have already caused relatively large losses to the Russian army, and in the later battle for the forward position of the Lushun fortress, the Russian army's own casualties were as high as thousands, and as for the Liaoyang Campaign, it killed 1,000 enemies and lost 800, and the Russian army also suffered more than 20,000 casualties.

This is nothing more than more casualties in history, what really has changed greatly with history is the beginning of the change in the tactics of both sides, what Zhao Dongyun himself did not expect is that whether it is the Japanese army or the Russian army, as soon as they discovered the important role of machine guns in the war, both sides are equipped with heavy machine guns on a large scale, and the equipment of a large number of heavy machine guns has become more powerful on both sides.

However, on the contrary, the infantry offensive tactics and weapons of the two sides have not been changed accordingly, and they still follow the line dense charge tactics of the Franco-Prussian War, which leads to a problem, that is, whether it is the Russian army or the Japanese army, once they launch the main attack, then 100% will suffer huge casualties.

Zhao Dongyun, who returned to Jinzhou from Baoding, also took this opportunity to once again tell his new tactical concept to a group of his subordinates: "With the widespread armament of everyone's heavy machine guns, from 24 to 40 or even 70 or 100 in a town in the past, the defense capability of the troops has increased dramatically. ”

It was not the first time that Chen Guangyuan and the others had heard Zhao Dongyun talk about these so-called new book tactics, but today he listened with a more attentive attitude than before, for fear of missing a word.

In the past, Chen Guangyuan only listened to many of the so-called new tactics and strategic concepts that Zhao Dongyun said, and then at most he sighed, "He is worthy of being the youngest boss in my Beiyang, and his knowledge is really extraordinary", and then he showed a certain curiosity about various so-called new tactics, but often did not pay attention to those novelties.

In the past few years, although many people in Beiyang have heard Zhao Dongyun explain the new tactics and the so-called new strategic concepts, most of them have only heard a novelty, except for some of Zhao Dongyun's descendants who will study it, most of the other friendly forces have ignored it.

The only difference is probably the heavy machine gun!

For example, Zhao Dongyun has tossed new infantry tactics for more than two years, and now only Zhao Dongyun promotes them in his own third town, at least Yuan Shikai did not support Zhao Dongyun to promote the so-called new infantry tactics.

And many times it's not that Yuan Shikai doesn't know whether it's good or bad, but Yuan Shikai thinks more than Zhao Dongyun, at least the mortar that Zhao Dongyun said, Yuan Shikai was moved, but when he found out that a town would need hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, he dispelled the idea, because now Yuan Shikai's top priority is not to equip any mortars or even more heavy machine guns, but to get out the fifth and sixth towns first, and then to plan other things.

However, this Russo-Japanese War seems to have proved that the various tactical concepts proposed by Zhao Dongyun in the past have become a reality, and three years ago, who in China except Zhao Dongyun would have thought that heavy machine guns would become weapons that would determine the outcome of a war?

Taking advantage of this Russo-Japanese War, Zhao Dongyun also felt that it was necessary for his officers to detach their eyes from the Franco-Prussian War decades ago.

I only heard Zhao Dongyun continue: "When the defensive capability far exceeds the offensive ability of the contemporary infantry, then there will be a stalemate in the Liaoyang War, and the two sides will begin to dig trenches and use machine guns and barbed wire to build an impassable front for the enemy!" At this time, if the infantry wants to try to break through the enemy's direction, it must not use the intensive charge tactics of the Franco-Prussian War decades ago! ”

At this time, Zhao Dongyun paused for a moment and added: "We can't do it now!" ”

The infantry drills used in the third town in Zhao Dongyun's hands are different from those of other towns in Beiyang, but they mainly strengthen the width of the infantry skirmishers, as well as the application of mortars and grenades, which is essentially not much different from the infantry tactics of contemporary powers.

In fact, if you want to break through the machine gun defense line, it is no longer the task of the infantry, the infantry tactics of Germany in the late stage of World War I in history have almost developed to the peak, and the infiltration tactics they have come up with cannot break through the machine guns and barbed wire on the Western Front, and what can really break through the machine gun defense is not tactics, but a weapon, that is, tanks!

Of course, it was still too early to talk about tanks today in 1904, and Zhao Dongyun did not expect that he could have tanks, so he very realistically stated a very important tactical concept to his subordinate officers:

"If we were to play against the enemy, what would we do? Is it to break through the enemy's defenses? No, what we have to do is for the enemy to attack our positions, fortresses, and as long as the enemy attacks our strong defenses, then we are half the victory! ”

Just as the army that was able to fire the first shot from the closest distance was victorious in the era of the Shot in Line, victory was within reach in World War I, when machine guns were all the rage, as long as you were able to make the enemy charge to the death against your strong defenses.

Of course, the soldiers of all countries are not stupid, and everyone will definitely not be stupid to crash into the enemy's strong position, just like the Japanese army in Liaoyang, when they faced the Russian army's machine-gun defense line, they also chose to attack in a roundabout way.

So the rest of the question revolves around how to intercept the enemy's detour and how to detour yourself!

However, after talking about the detour, Meng Enyuan, who has always liked to attack instead of defending, frowned and said: "The roundabout troops need more powerful firepower to launch an attack, in addition to the indirect support firepower such as mortars and grenades, if the machine gun cannot be directly pulled up to accompany the infantry to launch an attack, and the enemy's machine gun fire suppresses it, I am afraid it will be difficult to launch an attack along the way!" ”

Hearing Meng Enyuan's words, Zhao Dongyun raised his head with a smile: "This is indeed a problem, the existing machine guns are relatively heavy, but at this point, we can use guò to equip lighter machine guns to get machine gun support that accompanies the infantry attack!" ”

"A lighter machine gun?" Chen Guangyuan said: "Today's Maxim machine guns in various countries and the Hatch Chase machine guns on the French and Japanese sides are not lightweight, and I have not heard that there are light models for these two!" ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "They don't have it, doesn't it mean that others don't have it, I have heard some time ago that there is a Madsen machine gun in Denmark, the empty gun is only about nine kilograms, although the rate of fire and the ability to sustain fire are not as good as the Makqin machine gun, but it is still a qualified infantry fire support weapon, I have asked the Fuyuan machine to contact them." ”

Madsen light machine gun, this machine gun can be regarded as the first practical and mass-produced light machine gun, a few years ago began to design, this year Denmark began mass production and officially equipped with troops, and once launched, it has attracted the attention of many countries, is in the Russo-Japanese War, the world to buy machine guns Russia is the first time to place an order.

However, not long after the appearance of the Madsen light machine gun, although it attracted the attention of many countries, for the time being, it has not been equipped on a large scale, and even Denmark itself is not equipped much.

Hearing Zhao Dongyun say that it weighs only about nine kilograms, they all showed a curious look, you must know that the current Makqin machine gun is dozens of kilograms, not to mention letting the soldiers carry and accompany the infantry to charge, even the usual marching has to be disassembled to let the horses and mules be carried or let the carriage be carried, and in actual combat it is not even as light as the 80 mm mortar, at least the 80 mm mortar Although the march process has to be carried by horses, but in actual combat, it is carried by the soldiers after splitting, and the transfer speed is more convenient.

Immediately, Chen Guangyuan, Meng Enyuan and others all said that since they have this kind of offensive weapon, what are they waiting for, hurry up and place an order for import!

But how can it be so easy, this Madsen light machine gun has attracted the attention of various countries as soon as it was launched, Denmark's own orders, Russia's orders and other European countries and even Latin American countries have been targeted, it is estimated that orders have been piled up on the Madsen company's desk, even if you want to get the goods now, it is estimated that it will be after next year.

In addition, the number of light machine guns in an army will be far more than heavy machine guns, and heavy machine guns may be dozens or hundreds of them can be directly imported, but light machine guns are often hundreds or thousands, and more importantly, this Madsen light machine gun is very expensive, slightly cheaper than heavy machine guns, but compared with other light machine guns in later generations, the price difference is very large.

As for this expensive light machine gun, Zhao Dongyun didn't think about relying on imports entirely, his idea was to import a small amount as before, and then buy a patent to authorize his own production.