Jinzhou has always been an important town in eastern Liaoning, a place where soldiers must fight, this city is located in the eastern section of the western Liaoning corridor, the east is the endless Northeast Great Plain, and the north is the Songling Mountains, which are difficult to pass through the army, and the south is the wide Bohai Sea.

Behind it is the southwest direction, the strategic passage 'Liaoning West Corridor'.

It can be said that if Jinzhou is held, then the Liaoxi Corridor can be held, and if the Liaoxi Corridor is held, then it is possible to march to the Northeast, if Jinzhou is lost, then the enemy can reach the Shanhai Pass with a flat horse, because Jinzhou is so important, so Yuan Shikai will send Zhao Dongyun's Third Association to Jinzhou to garrison.

And sending Zhao Dongyun to Jinzhou, Liaodong, instead of sending Zhao Dongyun directly to Xinmin and Yingkou near the Liaohe River, can also be used to understand Yuan Shikai's attitude towards the situation in the northeast.

First of all, Yuan Shikai faced the tension of the situation in the northeast, and he had to send troops into Liaodong, because in that case, it would be difficult for Yuan Shikai to withstand the huge pressure at home and abroad.

On the other hand, Yuan Shikai is also trying to avoid a direct military conflict with Russia, because in that case, it will be Beiyang who is unlucky.

The situation in the Northeast in the summer of 1903 was actually beyond the control of the Qing government and Russia!

As early as 1901, Russia exerted huge pressure on the Qing government in order to annex the Northeast, but at that time, it was still the Beiyang people led by Li Hongzhang who presided over the negotiations with the foreign powers, so they still resisted Russia's diplomatic pressure and insisted on the sovereignty claim to the Northeast.

After the Xinchou Treaty, the pressure on the Qing government was greatly reduced, and it was naturally impossible to give up the sovereignty of the Northeast lightly, and Britain, the United States, Japan and other countries were unwilling to see Russia occupy the Northeast, so it also gave the Qing government extremely huge diplomatic pressure. This forced the Qing government to adopt a tough attitude in dealing with the northeast issue.

As a result, Russia found itself in an extremely difficult diplomatic situation from 1901 to 1902, as almost all the great powers demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from the northeast.

This led Russia and the Qing government to sign the "Treaty of Settlement of the Three Eastern Provinces", but Russia was naturally unwilling to do so, so after the first phase of the withdrawal of troops, the second phase was to find various reasons to refuse to withdraw troops and reoccupy Yingkou.

As a result, the turmoil in the northeast that began in April this year forced Japan to carry out an arms expansion war, and Britain and the United States and other countries strongly opposed Russia.

Moreover, the above three countries have also exerted strong diplomatic pressure on China, warning China not to accept Russia's demands. At the same time, there was also a certain amount of public opinion pressure among the people in China, and the southern governors headed by Zhang Zhidong were all clamoring for the alliance with Japan to reject Russia.

This led the Qing government to adopt a tough diplomatic posture toward Russia, whether it wanted it or not. In order to show a tough attitude and to block the possibility of the Russian army moving south, the Qing government asked Yuan Shikai to send troops into Liaodong.

For this situation, Yuan Shikai was very depressed and annoyed!

Because whether it is the southern governors led by Zhang Zhidong or the princes of the imperial court in Beijing, most of them only have one mouth, whether they persuade them to cede the northeast from Russia's demands or say that they will take a tough attitude to fight against Russia, they only say that they will not do it.

There is no one else who really does things except Beiyang!

In today's China, the Southern Governor headed by Zhang Zhidong, the Beiyang led by Yuan Shikai, and the Qing Imperial Family headed by Cixi are actually many relatively independent forces, and they do not have much common interests.

History has proved that whether it is the First Sino-Japanese War or the Gengzi Incident, in fact, it has nothing to do with the southern governors, the previous First Sino-Japanese War was the war between the Huai Army led by Li Hongzhang and the Japanese Army, the Gengzi Incident was the war between the Qing Imperial Family and the Eight-Nation Alliance, and now if there is a Sino-Russian war, then it will be a war between Beiyang and Russia led by Yuan Shikai.

Maybe it has something to do with the Qing imperial family, after all, Cixi Guangxu is the ruler of this country.

But it has nothing to do with Zhang Zhidong and other southern governors, Zhang Zhidong can be graceful and swimmer with Erlang's legs, gnawing melon seeds and shouting to start a war with Russia, anyway, it has nothing to do with them if the war starts, if you win, say twice how wise my decision was, if you lose, it must be the relationship between Yuan Shikai, a traitor.

It's a big deal to come to the Southeast Mutual Insurance again!

And for Yuan Shikai and other northern governors who bear the brunt, this is a major matter related to their lives, and it is impossible to be too cautious.

Therefore, in the face of pressure at home and abroad, Yuan Shikai must not give up the Northeast lightly, but he will not lightly march east of the Liao River to clash with the Russian army.

It was under this complex mentality that Yuan Shikai sent Zhao Dongyun's Third Association to Jinzhou, Liaodong.

Sending Zhao Dongyun's Third Association to Jinzhou, Liaodong, can give many people an explanation, and the imperial court is satisfied, because once the war breaks out, how can the Third Association hold out for a few days, and then Cixi and Guangxu will have time to hunt west for the third time.

The Great Powers were satisfied, because this represented China's tough attitude towards Russia, and that it would never give in to Russia's unreasonable demands, which were of paramount importance to the Great Powers.

And domestic public opinion is also satisfied.

In addition to these, he sent the Third Association to Jinzhou instead of Fengtian and Xinmin Hall further east, which also avoided further irritating Russia, so as to avoid a real war with Russia, in which case Yuan Shikai would cry to death!

Regarding Yuan Shikai's complex mentality, as a high-level general in the Beiyang system, Zhao Dongyun is naturally clear, because the interests of Beiyang represent the interests of Zhao Dongyun.

Now that the new Beiyang army has not succeeded, the plan now is to expand the army and expand the army again, so as not to cause accidents in the middle, and even less to have a war with Russia.

Therefore, Zhao Dongyun was still very cautious after arriving in Jinzhou, he did not send random telegrams like those governors in China who stood and talked without backache, shouting about war and the like, the first thing he did after arriving in Jinzhou was to inform the Russians, stating that his Third Association was only to press the ground in Jinzhou and defend the western Liaoning corridor, and he had no intention of advancing eastward.

This statement sounds like a coward or a traitor, but this is a helpless move in reality, when the country behind it is a weak country that is bullied by others, can you still point to the nose of the Russians and say: You are limited to leave within 24 hours, otherwise Lao Tzu will lead his troops to fight!

If you really do that, then it will be no different from Cixi's two goods.

Although Zhao Dongyun's historical memory knows that Russia will not take the initiative to go west and south, but he can appear in this era and lead it to Jinzhou, no one can guarantee whether Russia will not go south as in history.

Therefore, the first thing Zhao Dongyun did after arriving in Jinzhou was to have no intention of advancing eastward outside Russia, and the second thing was to order the troops to build fortifications.

As the so-called preparedness, no matter whether Russia comes or not, he Zhao Dongyun must be prepared, lest the Russian army come over when the time comes.

The urban area of Jinzhou is surrounded by water on three sides, and the periphery is surrounded by mountains on three sides, which can be said to be a city that is very conducive to defense, and there is also a very important factor that the railway inside and outside the Guanxi passes through Jinzhou.

In modern warfare, with the large amount of guns and artillery equipment, the consumption of materials in wartime has increased substantially, and when a modern army is fighting, it needs a huge amount of logistical materials, and when a large corps is fighting, it is simply impossible to rely on traditional foot transportation and horse transportation to supply supplies.

At this time, the importance of the railway is highlighted, in modern warfare, in fact, most of the battles are taken place along the railway, because the storage of the railway makes the later supply more convenient, on the contrary, if there is no railway, then the battle will be in the way, and the supply of materials is extremely inconvenient.

Jinzhou is an important route station of the Kanwai Railway (the predecessor of the Jingbong Railway).

When the combination of transportation and topographical factors made Jinzhou a strategic location, and if the Russian army wanted to advance westward, it must conquer Jinzhou.

In order to conquer Jinzhou, it was necessary to first conquer several highlands on the periphery of Jinzhou, so in the defense plan initially formulated by Zhao Dongyun, it was necessary to form peripheral support points with the large and small Bauhinia Mountains in the east, the Jiguan Mountain and Erlangdong Mountain in the northwest, and the Jiazi Mountain on the south side, and deploy artillery and machine guns on the high grounds.

At the same time, a number of defensive positions were built in Jinzhou City.

However, Zhao Dongyun's Third Association originally did not have many troops, and even if these positions were repaired, it would not be possible to have enough troops to deploy them, but Zhao Dongyun's idea was to ignore whether these positions would be used in the future, but to repair the positions first, after all, no one could say anything about the future.

Of course, the most important thing for Zhao Dongyun is not to hold Jinzhou, but to ensure his retreat, so the first thing he built was not the large and small Bauhinia Mountain positions in the front line, but to build the Songshan defense line in the south of Jinzhou, and deployed two infantry battalions here, and also deployed two cavalry battalions.

To prevent the Russian army from crossing the river from the lower reaches of the Daughter River, and then encircling Jinzhou from the south side, if that is the case, let alone defending Jinzhou, maybe Zhao Dongyun's Third Association will have to be trapped in Jinzhou, so in the face of the big problem of his own life and death, Zhao Dongyun's appearance is very conservative, and the strength of two infantry battalions and two cavalry battalions is deployed here, on the one hand, as the reserve of Jinzhou City, and on the other hand, it is also as a vigilance force in the lower reaches of the Daughter River.

"As long as Songshan Town is not lost, then our retreat will be guaranteed!" Lin Yongquan pointed to the map and said: "As for the Jinzhou City, I still build the city to stick to the city, so that it can effectively reduce the effectiveness of the enemy's artillery, and under the complex terrain of the city, our army's machine gun fire can be more effectively played." If the enemy carries out a large-scale frontal attack on Jinzhou, then it can effectively deplete the enemy's vital forces. ”

Zhao Dongyun nodded after hearing this: "Well, it seems that you are all working hard, but I still have to say one more thing, the defense of Jinzhou lies in the first battle, using machine guns and other sudden strikes against the Russian army, so it is necessary to concentrate machine guns, artillery and other firepower as much as possible." ”

Zhao Dongyun's words made Lin Yongquan puzzled: "If the machine guns are concentrated, what about other directions?" ”

Zhao Dongyun didn't care! In his prediction, if he is really unlucky to encounter the Russian army's attack, then what he can do is to take advantage of the Russian army's lack of understanding of the lethality of machine guns in the early stage and give the Russian army as much as possible.

At that time, if the Russian army launches an intensive charge all over the mountains, it will not be difficult to kill thousands of people a day!

Only by striking down the morale of the Russian army at the beginning can we talk about specific defenses next, and we will talk about whether we can hold it or not.

After all, the strength of his Third Association was too small, so small that the number of soldiers to fill the Jinzhou defense line was not enough, and in the face of this situation, Zhao Dongyun sent a telegram to Yuan Shikai requesting reinforcements.