The sun rises and the moon sets, the mountains and rivers are different colors, the turbulent year of 1905 has passed quietly, and a new era is slowly opening the curtain to the world. As the New Year approaches, the whole of Europe is immersed in a different kind of busy atmosphere, and newspapers and media have begun to search and review the various events that have occurred at home and abroad in the past year.

The most eye-catching event of this year was undoubtedly the ongoing Russo-Japanese conflict in the Far East.

Since March 1904, when Japan started the war, the two sides have been engaged in fierce fighting for 21 months in the land of Manchuria, which does not belong to them. The Battle of Okinawa, the Battle of Liaoyang, the Battle of Shahe, the Battle of Dalini Fortress, the Battle of Mukden, the Battle of Tsushima, ...... In the rapid operation of the war machine, the civilizations of the two countries were severely damaged, and more than 900 million pounds of wealth evaporated in the bloody and biting exchanges between snow bears and wolves, and hundreds of thousands of warring officers and soldiers were buried in foreign countries and stained with blood. The severity of the war made foreign field observers frightened; The natives of the warring area ran away early, lest the thunderous clash between the two beasts would affect them.

To this day, the two warring sides are still in a stalemate in North Manchuria, and there is no tendency for an armistice; The reason for this, which is completely different from the Portsmouth Agreement, in which Japan and Russia signed an armistice in September 1905, is still the butterfly effect caused by the Qing Dynasty. This effect is multifaceted, ranging from the change of Russia's own will to the pattern of the world that is different from that of the same period in history.

On another plane, Germany turned Theodore Roosevelt's phrase "with a stick in his mouth" to "raise his voice." Wielding a big gun". From the very beginning, he was shouting all day long to show his strength. So much so that they were soon placed on the British hostile list. Under these circumstances, Britain and France reached a reconciliation agreement in early 1904 aimed at jointly defending themselves against the German threat, and the two sides quickly completed the transformation from undying enemies to friends with each other.

However, it was clearly not enough for Britain and France to want to confront the German-Austrian alliance. Because once the war broke out, France, which could not resist the German attack alone on land, was still in a worrying situation, and the tens of thousands of expeditionary troops sent by Britain to aid France, which had been beaten by the Boers two years earlier, were pure scum with a combat strength of only five in the face of the well-equipped and well-trained German army, and they could not play any role at all! Therefore. Britain and France desperately needed to find a great power that could help them on land and pull them into the anti-German encirclement alliance, and France, an ally known as the steamroller of Europe, naturally came into the eyes of the two friends.

Although Russia was at war with Japan, a British ally, in order to colonize Yellow Russia and extend its paws into the Yangtze River valley, which was the traditional area of British power in China, and they were Britain's old feud in the Crimean War and predators of India; Although the British Liberals and Labour saw Russia as an evil country of flogging, brutality, backwardness, and murder of Jews, and Tsar Nicholas II was a "despicable murderer", the old hostility was not as strong as the new pressure. Russia, as a vast and populous army power, would play a huge role in the war against Germany, and Britain must be condescended to it. Therefore. Based on Russia's military adventures in the Far East, both Britain and France hoped that Russia would quickly cease war with Japan. The strategic center was then put back in Europe to target Germany. For the mediation of the war by Theodore Roosevelt, then President of the United States, both Britain and France were happy to support it, and put pressure on both warring sides to urge an armistice, which directly led to the signing of the Portsmouth Treaty.

In addition, Russia's own problems also played a major role in the signing of the armistice treaty. Since February 1905, a revolutionary movement has erupted in Russia that has spread over most of Europe, with citizens' marches, workers' strikes, urban riots, mob looting, and peasant arson...... The revolutionary riots even spread to the army, and the clashing between the army and the population increased day by day; The forces of division and independence also took advantage of the situation, and the entire empire was plunged into a chaotic and turbulent situation. As a result of the successive defeats of the army and navy on the battlefield, the tsarist government had completely lost the idea of suppressing the domestic riots and revolution through military victories in the war against Japan. Under the vigorous mediation and mediation of Britain, France, the United States and other powers and the fact that Japan did not put forward harsh conditions (Japan decided from the beginning of the war to accept the good news), the arrogant tsar could only silently swallow the bitter fruit of defeat, and signed this armistice treaty with Japan "not an inch of land and not a single ruble".

In this plane, however, the situation has changed dramatically. Because Germany had for a long time followed the valuable life lessons passed down by an elder, temporarily curtailing its sharpness and waiting for the day when it would be full-fledged, the impact on Britain from Germany was not as strong as it was in history. As a result, after 1903 British hatred remained primarily on France and Russia, focusing on the massive construction of the French Rapid Breakdown Patrol and the Russian threat of Manchuria. Although Edward VII, who single-handedly orchestrated the encirclement of Germany, had a good strategic mind and visited Paris in August 1905, where he had been fighting London for centuries, the rift between the two countries was too wide to be completely smoothed by a single state visit. Isn't it a long time since Edward's visit to France to the signing of the treaty of mutual understanding between the two sides?

Since Britain and France had not yet reached a complete treaty, and Britain was still wary of France, which was trying to cut off its supply lines on the sea, it was all the less likely that the British would have considered co-opting France, the more hated Russia, at this time, as they have historically done. With regard to the fierce Russo-Japanese War, Britain had no intention of mediating and pulling the strings, but secretly rejoiced at the situation in which Russia, a sworn enemy, had suffered repeated setbacks on the battlefield and the domestic situation was turbulent, and was eager to go into battle to clean them up in person. In Britain, the people did not have any good feelings for the corrupt and brutal Tsarist regime, and seeing that they were beaten by the allies of the British Empire in the Far East, it was too late to gloat, how could they still let the government intervene?

And the Russian ruling class, headed by Nicholas II, did not lose hope of defeating Japan in this position. Although Kaiser Wilhelm's trip to Björk Island did not succeed in breaking the Franco-Russian alliance's encirclement of Germany, his spontaneous words under the influence of the Qing Ying gave the distraught Tsar great encouragement and confidence. Japan's victory in the Far East was entirely due to the fact that the main Russian forces were limited by the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway and could not be fully deployed to Manchuria in a short period of time, so that Japan gained an advantage in some areas. As long as Russia can unswervingly carry out the war and survive the most dangerous period of internal turmoil, then Russia, which has completely defeated Japan in terms of finance, troops, output of major industrial products, and material reserves, will surely win the final victory of the war.

After a closed-door consultation with the ministers, Nikolai accepted the advice of his cousin, Willy, in a very rare way. After all, it was really difficult for Nikolai to admit that Russia had lost to a third-rate country like Japan; As Britain continued to be hostile to Russia and Germany vigorously cheered for Russia's war, Nikolai, who saw the hope of defeating Japan, also felt the need to continue the war for the sake of Russia's great power face. As for the wave after wave of revolutionary insurrection in China, Nikolai, who had paid a large amount of tuition fees in the violent suppression, also began to implement a strategy of dividing and co-opting the rioted people, using lies, blank checks, inducements, etc., to supplement the violence, and the effect gradually increased. Saratov Province is the only region in Russia that has remained stable thanks to the skill of Governor Stolypin, and there is a lot of experience to learn from. The Tsar had decided to transfer him to the Central Committee to take direct control of the pacification of the revolution in the country.

In the face of Japan's display of muscles in covering the landing of the army on Sakhalin Island with the main force of the Combined Fleet, including captured Russian warships, the tsarist government showed an extraordinary calmness beyond history, but was unmoved to mobilize troops to the Far East in a step-by-step manner. Sakhalin is such a barbarian land, temporarily losing it has no impact on the situation of the war at all, as long as the Russian army can win on the battlefield, then everything lost before can be regained!

In November 1905, in the violent and cold wind of Northern Manchuria, the Russian army from the Northern Cold Zone launched a new round of large-scale offensive against the Japanese army entrenched in Mukden. After the Battle of Mukden, the Russian army received a large number of supplements from the country, and the total strength has exceeded 650,000, and has 2,400 artillery pieces of various types for fire support, forming an absolute advantage over the 320,000 Japanese troops in front. Although the Japanese had the advantage in morale, soldier quality, and command art, the difference in strength between the two sides was too great. Faced with a thunderous tsunami, the Japanese were forced to retreat after two months of hard fighting, allowing the Russians to regain the territory they had lost six months after the end of the Battle of Mukden. Losses on both sides in the battle were staggering, with the Russian casualties approaching 100,000 and the Japanese losing more than 40,000 men and men in the defense. The huge consumption of personnel and materials has terrified the Japanese base camp, and Russia's move of forcibly attacking in spite of the huge wounds of domestic turmoil is the last thing they want to see, and they must find a way to end this war as soon as possible with the help of foreign forces! (To be continued......)

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