(As a note on the place names, Blagoveshchensk and Hailan Pao are the same place, the former is the Russian name, the latter is the Chinese name, in this article, when written from the Russian point of view, it is called Blagoveshchensk, and when it is written from the Chinese point of view, it is called "Hailan Pao".) ）

For the Russian army, the blow caused by the fall of Blagoveshchensk was devastating.

The connection between the center of Russia and the Far East depends on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and Blagoveshchensk is the most important station on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Blagoveshchensk was also an important node on the communications network, and the tsar's instructions and orders were transmitted through Blagoveshchensk to Khabarovsk and Vladivostok.

Now that Blagoveshchensk is occupied by the Chinese Army, the Commander-in-Chief of Romanevsky, who retreated to Khabarovsk, wants to receive orders from the Tsar, and needs to send a signal corps to bypass the defense area of the Chinese Army and go to the area north of Blagoveshchensk that is still in contact with Moscow to obtain instructions and orders from the Tsar.

The occupation of Blagoveshchensk by the Huaxia Army also gave Romanevsky a profound lesson, that is, it is almost impossible to block the Huaxia Army with defense, in this case, it is better to concentrate the forces of Khabarovsk and Vladivostok and launch a strategic decisive battle with the Huaxia Army, strive to completely annihilate the main force of the Huaxia Army, and turn the tide of the war in one fell swoop.

There are about 100,000 Russian troops retreating from Blagoveshchensk, Khabarovsk's troops are about 200,000, Vladivostok can also mobilize 200,000 troops, and the Huaxia Army is probably only 200,000 troops, so this strategic decisive battle still has a good chance of victory.

Romanevsky believes that the Huaxia Army in the entire northeast has been assembled in the Blagoveshchensk area, and if the Huaxia Army wants to increase its troops, it must mobilize troops from Hebei (Hebei was called Zhili in the Qing court, but now it has been changed) and Shandong, and it will take at least 15 days to transfer troops, while Vladivostok will only take about three days to transfer troops, and this time difference is the key to the victory of the Russian army.

Romanevsky immediately sent an order to the Vladivostok Military District, demanding that the Vladivostok Military District transfer 200,000 troops to Khabarovsk.

What Romanevsky didn't expect was that the Vladivostok Military District actually refused his order, and the reason for the refusal was that the Huaxia fleet was found outside the Vladivostok military port, including four Dynasty-class battleships and four Emperor-class cruisers, as well as about six transport ships.

At the time of the Second South Sea World War, the Russian Pacific Fleet had been completely wiped out under the blow of the Chinese Fleet, and at this time there were only some small destroyers remaining in Vladivostok, which were not the opponents of the Chinese Fleet outside at all.

Romanevsky had no choice but to cancel the plan to transfer troops from Vladivostok, it turned out that Lin Fei had already prepared to attack Vladivostok from the sea, this is an excellent military port, the home port of the Russian Far East Fleet back then, occupying here, can directly threaten the Kuril Islands and Hokkaido on the Japanese mainland, so Lin Fei sent a fleet to Vladivostok.

When rushing to Vladivostok, the fleet passed through the island of Tsushima between Japan and South Korea, and everyone knew very well in their hearts that this island would sooner or later be in the pocket of China.

Romanevsky canceled the plan to transfer troops from Vladivostok, and the Russian army participating in the strategic decisive battle was only 300,000, and Romanevsky felt that the 300,000 Russian troops were about the same, and the Huaxia Army in Blagoveshchensk at this time did not gain a firm foothold, and it should not be a big problem to eliminate them.

So Romanevsky gathered 300,000 Russian troops and counterattacked Blagoveshchensk, and on August 10, the Russian army officially set off.

On the side of the Huaxia Army, Lin Fei saw that the Northeast Front Army led by Niu Dalong had recovered Hailanpao, and immediately ordered Niu Dalong to rest for ten days and continue to attack Khabarovsk and Vladivostok to the south.

The Huaxia Army had just rested for two days, and on August 10, the scouts discovered that a large number of Russian troops were approaching Hailan Pao, and the number was roughly estimated to be about 300,000.

The Russian army's move was beyond everyone's expectations, whether it was Lin Fei or Niu Dalong, they all thought that the Russian army would defend Khabarovsk, but they didn't expect the Russian army to come out of Khabarovsk and counterattack Hailanbao.

100,000 against 300,000, even if the Huaxia Army has a strong will to fight and good personal military quality, there is no certainty of victory in such a confrontation, so Lin Fei decided to mobilize Hebei 1st Division, Hebei 2nd Division, Hebei 3rd Division, Shandong 1st Division, Shandong 2nd Division and Shandong 3rd Division, a total of 120,000 troops, to rush to the aid of Hailanpao.

It took about 15 days from the build-up of troops to the transportation of troops, that is, from 10 August to 25 August, the Huaxia Army led by Niu Dalong had to fight against three times its own strength.

Lin Fei instructed Niu Dalong that he could abandon Hailanpao and withdraw to Heihe City, the Russian fortifications in Hailanpao had been destroyed, and even if it was occupied by the Russian army, it would be easy to recapture it.

Niu Dalong had a different opinion, he decided to hold on to Hailan Pao, attract the Russian army to surround him, and then let the follow-up support troops directly attack Khabarovsk, cut off the retreat of the Russian army, and completely annihilate the main force of the Russian army in one fell swoop.

Lin Fei was worried that Niu Dalong's troops would not be able to hold it, but Niu Dalong assured Lin Fei that he would definitely be able to hold it, so Lin Fei decided to trust this subordinate and let him command the battle with full authority.

On 11 August, when both the Huaxia Army and the Russian army were moving intensively, on Lin Fei's side, Russian Ambassador Isinlovsky submitted a diplomatic note to Lin Fei on behalf of Tsar Nicholas II, hoping that the two countries would cease fighting and resolve the conflict in the Outer Northeast through consultation.

Lin Fei did not categorically refuse, but only told Isinlovsky that a truce was okay, but the entire Outer Northeast should be demilitarized, that is, the Russian army was not allowed to be stationed in the Outer Northeast.

Isinlovsky, of course, will not agree, but in doing so, he will give up the Outer Northeast to Lin Fei, and Isinlovsky also understands that Lin Fei must take the Outer Northeast.

Isinlovsky's heart was clouded, he knew that sooner or later the Outer Northeast would not be able to hold on, the most obvious reason was that the Outer Northeast was thousands of kilometers away from the core area of Russia, and it was only separated by a river from the main land of China.

The Outer Northeast, which will always be the Chinese people, although it will be ruled by foreign races, is also temporary, and sooner or later, these lands will return to the embrace of the Chinese nation, no matter who the foreign race that rules on them is and how powerful they are.

Now all the hope of Russia is that Romanevsky can lead the Russian army to defeat the main force of the Huaxia Army in Hailanpao, so that he can hold the Outer Northeast for several more decades.

At the same time, the Russian ambassador to Japan also sent a diplomatic note to Emperor Meiji of Japan, requesting that Emperor Meiji dispatch the Korean army and the Japanese troops stationed in Korea to cross the Yalu River and directly take northeast China.

Although Emperor Meiji wanted revenge, Japan was extremely weakened after several major wars and could not afford to start another major war, so Emperor Meiji expressed his willingness to send some of Japan's latest weapons to help Russia fight.

The Russian ambassador hurriedly asked what kind of combat weapon it was, and the Meiji Emperor smiled and pointed to the sky, and the Russian ambassador guessed: "Is it an airship?" ”

"No, it's the nemesis of the airship."

The Russian ambassador thought that the nemesis of the airship was an anti-aircraft gun, so he said in disappointment: "It must be an anti-aircraft gun, we already have it in Russia." ”

Emperor Meiji laughed loudly, "Of course it's not anti-aircraft guns, our kind of artillery is flying in the sky." ”

It turned out that the cannon that Emperor Meiji said about flying in the sky was the aircraft developed by the Wright brothers, and because Japan clearly regarded the aircraft as the main battle equipment from the beginning, the Wright brothers equipped the aircraft with weapons, which was completely different from the history of aircraft development in the Lin Fei era.

The Japanese did not have the knowledge of Lin Fei's travelers, and knew that the plane would bring drastic changes to future wars. Lin Fei was secretly developing the plane, and he would never take the plane out if he didn't accumulate enough performance advantages, and the first thing the Japanese wanted to do after they got the plane was to send it to the battlefield to see the effect.

When the Russian ambassador heard Emperor Meiji say "a cannon flying in the sky", he was confused and wanted to ask again, but Emperor Meiji said no more, and the Russian ambassador could only return disappointed.

There was an important port in the east of South Korea, called Cheongjin, which was very close to Vladivostok, so the Japanese loaded their planes onto transport them on transport ships from Cheongjin to Vladivostok and then to the Blagoveshchensk front.

On 12 August, the Russian army continued to march, and Niu Dalong commanded the Huaxia Army to build a defensive line on the periphery of Hailanpao.

In the process of building the defense line, the Russian prisoners of war played a huge role, the battle to recover Hailan Pao captured more than 70,000 Russian prisoners of war, the Huaxia army let these people dig trenches, they don't need to use whips and bayonets to drive away, only need two eggs, a steamed bun, can make the Russian prisoners of war happily dig trenches for a day, the food of ordinary soldiers in the Russian army is extremely poor, most of the time potatoes are dipped in salt. (Canghai shared the writing story on the WeChat public platform, please search on WeChat - qietingcanghai, that is, listen to Canghai's pinyin, reply 2 to watch)