In a forest more than 500 meters away from the seashore of Bokou Port, Wang Youlin, the tallest officer guarding Bokou City and the commander of the 1st Marine Brigade, set up his forward command post on a small hill in this wood, and hollowed out the inside of the hill to become a forward command post. ◇↓頂◇↓Point◇↓Small◇↓ said,

On the evening of September 11, Wang Youlin and Yin Jian, the commander of the Bokou garrison fleet, were both in the forward command post, Wang Youlin sighed and said: "This is how the war is, either you die or I live, don't be too sad, alas——"

The Bokou garrison fleet suffered heavy losses in the daytime battle, 7 warships were sunk, and the remaining 1 Yongfeng protective cruiser was seriously injured, in order not to be sunk, it directly drove onto the shoal, becoming a fixed sea battery, and the Yongfeng was seriously injured, plus it was an old protective cruiser that captured Russia, and there was no maintenance value after the war, which was equal to the basic loss of 8 warships of the Bokou garrison fleet.

Nearly 1,000 officers and men of the garrison fleet at Bokou, after the battle was over, there were only 355 people left in the count, some of whom were officers and men on the sunken warships, jumped into the sea and swam back to shore, and the rest of the officers and men sank into the sea with the warships.

However, the battle is not over yet, the Japanese army is on the sea outside Bokou Port, and there is no time for Yin Jian to remember the fallen comrades, Yin Jian said: "I'm fine, Lao Wang, let's study the next battle, today's Japanese landing losses are not small, will they give up landing from us?" Choosing to land from somewhere else in Sakhalin? ”

Wang Youlin smiled bitterly and said, "There is no way to do that." Our forces on Sakhalin are too small, and I have ordered the Sakhalin divisions to shrink their defenses. One regiment of the Marine Corps and one independent garrison regiment of the Dingbei Army all retreated to Yuanfeng City, and the other 1 regiment of Marines shrank to Xiangmen City, 280 kilometers north of Yuanfeng City. The emigrants from all over Sakhalin have also informed them to move to the mountains, or to enter the cities of Yuanfeng and Xiangmen, and I am now worried that the Japanese troops will land from the other shoals near the city, and we will be exposed to the enemy. ”

The city of Xiangmen is the city of Polonaysk, after Sakhalin Island was occupied by the Northeast Marines, the name was changed, and in the Russian land occupied by Lin Daxin, the names of many Russian cities were renamed with Chinese elements. Xiangmen City is also a port city. The Marines also built two batteries there the same size as the Port Harbor Battery.

Wang Youlin's worries soon became a reality, at noon on the 12th, 1 brigade of Japanese troops landed from a shoal near Bokou City, and then went around to the rear of Bokou City, launched an attack on Bokou City, fortunately Wang Youlin was prepared, was not caught off guard, relying on the city defense positions that had been built long ago, and the artillery support of 6 caliber 105 mm howitzers and 12 caliber 75 mm field guns on 3 batteries. After withstanding the frantic attack of 1 brigade of the Japanese army, after the 12th, Bokou City and Bokou Port were still under the control of the Northeast Marine Corps and the independent garrison regiment of the Dingbei Army.

As for the 6 230-mm and 6 193-mm large-caliber coastal defense guns on the 3 batteries, it was because they were fixed gun mounts. It was impossible to turn around and bombard the north side of Bokou City.

However, on the 13th and 14th, the Japanese army launched a fierce attack on the city and port of Hakukou from both land and sea directions. On the afternoon of the 14th, he finally broke through the city defense position of Bokou City and entered Bokou City. Subsequently, the officers and soldiers of the two sides in Bokou City engaged in a tragic street battle. The remaining officers and men of the garrison at the port were also engaged in street fighting.

The street fighting continued until the afternoon of the 15th, and the Japanese army, relying on its superiority in strength, had already compressed the officers and men of the Northeast Marine Corps, the Dingbei Army Independent Garrison Regiment, and the remnants of the Bokou Garrison Fleet in an area close to the port of Bokou.

In the end, Wang Youlin, the commander of the 1st Marine Brigade, saw that there was no hope of holding Bokou City and Bokou Port, so he ordered to blow up the three batteries on the shore and prepare to lead the remaining officers and soldiers to break through. And Yin Jian, the commander of the garrison fleet at Bokou, also ordered his subordinates to install explosives on the grounded Yongfeng protective cruiser, and even a seriously damaged old warship could not be left to the Japanese.

At 9 o'clock in the evening of the 15th, with several loud explosions, the surviving officers and soldiers of the Northeast took advantage of the night to launch a breakthrough battle, and successfully broke out of the area occupied by the Japanese army in Bokou City, and then ran all the way to Yuanfeng City, 30 kilometers away.

After the breakthrough troops withdrew to Yuanfeng City, the three troops, the Northeast Marine Corps, the Dingbei Army Independent Garrison Regiment and the Bokou Garrison Fleet, added up to only more than 1,000 people, and more than 4,000 officers and soldiers of the navy and land died in the battle for Bokou.

After the three divisions of the Japanese Army occupied the castle and the port of Bokou, they did not immediately continue to advance north and attack the castle of Yuanfeng, which was 30 kilometers away, but chose to rest at the castle.

It was not that these three Japanese divisions did not want to continue to attack northward, but that their own casualties were too great, and they were already a little powerless against Yuanfeng City, which was 30 kilometers away.

In the few days of the battle for Bokou, the three divisions suffered heavy losses, with 24,000 casualties, nearly 3,000 seriously wounded, and even more Japanese officers and men were slightly wounded, especially the 27th Division of the Japanese Army, which launched a beach-grabbing landing operation on 11 July, had almost lost its combat capability, and even the total number of wounded was less than 6,000. Therefore, the three division commanders Minagawa Shoichi, Ueno Haruo, and Rikumae Ikawa discussed and decided to postpone the northward march and rest in Haruguchi Castle, and at the same time sent people to report the situation to the base camp in Tokyo, Japan, hoping that the base camp would replenish the strength of the three divisions.

More than 1,000 officers and soldiers of the Northeast Sea and Army armies who retreated to Yuanfeng City, plus the Marine Corps and the independent garrison regiment of the Dingbei Army, which had already been in one regiment in Yuanfeng City, reached more than 5,000 troops, and under the command of Wang Youlin, commander of the 1st Marine Brigade, they began to strengthen the fortifications of Yuanfeng City.

In addition, Wang Youlin formed 12 militia companies with a number of 1,500 people from the immigrants in Yuanfeng City, distributed weapons, and raced against time to train the militia of these 12 militia companies.

The immigrants on Sakhalin Island are all new immigrants from the provinces of Kannai, and the militia organization on Sakhalin Island has not yet been established, so the combat effectiveness of these 12 militia companies can be imagined, but Wang Youlin has no choice, no one thought that the Japanese would go to war without declaring war, and put one of the targets on Sakhalin Island, Wang Youlin can only try to raise as many guards as possible, and wait for reinforcements.

After Lin Daxin received the battle situation on Sakhalin Island, he immediately ordered the dispatch of several airships to transport a number of troops of the Guards Division and the supply of weapons and ammunition to Yuanfeng City on Sakhalin Island to strengthen the defense force of Yuanfeng City.

However, the Japanese troops who landed in Far Eastern Province from the Wild Boar River Wharf have not launched an offensive since they landed on September 11, in fact, it is not that the Japanese army does not want to immediately launch an attack on the Dingbei Army in Far Eastern Province.

However, the Wild Boar River Wharf was originally only a small wharf for Russian fishing boats to dock, and only one natural berth could dock ships with a displacement of about 2,000 tons, and only some small boats with a displacement of no more than 300 tons could be docked in other places.

At this time, the other five divisions that came by transport ships from Japan also arrived in the waters outside the Wild Boar River wharf, and these five divisions were the second batch of army divisions prepared by the Japanese base camp to attack the Far Eastern Province, and when the first batch of Japanese transport ships carrying the five divisions returned to China, these transport ships would also send the third batch of five divisions of the army to the land of the Far Eastern Province.

Because the goal of this Japanese army was to occupy the Far East and the Northeast, and even other northern provinces under Lin Daxin, the Japanese army that 15 Japanese army divisions would form was called the Japanese Northern Dispatch Army.

The Japanese Minister of War, General Oyama Iwa, personally served as the commander of the Japanese dispatch army in northern China, and Oyama Yan considered that the first five divisions had already lost the suddenness of war in three days, so he decided to wait for all 15 divisions of the Japanese northern dispatch army to land in the area of the Wild Boar River wharf, and then use Mount Tai to press the offensive and then capture the Dingbei Army in the Far East and open the way to attack Heilongjiang Province.

The 2nd and 14th Divisions of the Dingbei Army in Far Eastern Province began to mobilize their forces and assembled on the front line of the Sikhote Mountains, which are more than 100 kilometers away from the Wild Boar River Wharf, preparing to block the Japanese army's westward advance by virtue of the mountain situation.

On 15 September, the day of the fall of the city of Bokou on Sakhalin Island and the port of Bokou, the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd Divisions of the Dingbei Army had already arrived at the Lushun Naval Base by train from Shenyang to Dalian.

At this time, in the port of the Arthur Naval Base, the 143 warships of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd fleets of the Northeast Navy, as well as 2 submarines of the submarine force, were ready to go on the expedition.

The officers and men of the three divisions of the 21st, 22nd and 23rd Divisions arrived at the Arthur Naval Base and, without resting, began to board the transport ships that had long been docked.

After all the officers and men and equipment of the three divisions had entered dozens of transport ships, they left the Arthur Naval Base under the escort of the three main fleets of the Northeast Navy, preparing to support the defenders of Sakhalin Island.

However, before reaching Sakhalin, the three main fleets of the Northeast Navy are likely to encounter the Japanese Combined Fleet at sea, and perhaps a decisive battle between the main fleet of the Northeast Navy and the Japanese Combined Fleet will be staged on the voyage to Sakhalin. (To be continued......)