Chi Chun first defeated the enemy in front of him with a resolute and resolute counterattack, rescued a cavalry regiment surrounded by the enemy, and then followed the ancient precept of the noble and fast soldiers, regardless of the fatigue of men and horses, and even more so the remaining enemy in the west, quickly concentrated two cavalry regiments, and went north overnight to flank the Russian army attacking Hatkule.

Chi Chunxian, the acting commander of the Tangnu Uliang Expeditionary Force, did everything perfectly after taking over the important task. It was the right choice to abandon the continuation of the attack on the two Russian cavalry divisions (the 3rd Division had already broken and its commander, Major General Badanov, was wounded in the night battle) and turned around and attacked the other Russian army. The direction and plan of its operations were based on the radio station of the Hatkuhler Mixed Brigade. Since yesterday, the contact with the headquarters has not been established, but the contact between Hatkule and himself is unimpeded, the strength of the Russian army has been known, Chi Chunxian's confidence is there, he is not worried about the safety of Yan Jindong's mixed brigade, in terms of strength and firepower, the two cavalry divisions will definitely not be able to defeat Hatkule, but the infantry can not form a movement of the cavalry, Chi Chun first wants a battle of annihilation, to use a perfect infantry cavalry cooperation to eliminate the two Russian divisions on the northern flank. In that case, the retreat of the expeditionary force would be safe.

In the early morning of April 30, the Battle of Hatkule began, and the Russian cavalry, which was helpless in front of the blazing firepower of the Chinese infantry, suffered a blow from behind, Chi Chun first concentrated two cavalry regiments to first attack the 11th Cavalry Division of the Russian Army on the northern flank, the position of this division was northwest of Hatkule, this deployment demonstrated Chi Chun's determination to fight the war of annihilation first, he did not start against the Russian army in the southwest first, but went around in a circle. Push the Russian army to the south, and form a triangular encirclement with the mixed brigade, the main force of the cavalry brigade led by him, and the 1st cavalry regiment, the headquarters guard battalion, and the artillery battalion that withdrew from Boletus.

Chi Chunxian's blow to the 11th Cavalry Division of the Russian Army first fell on its baggage troops, a battalion of Russian troops was quickly wiped out, a large amount of baggage fell into Chi Chunxian's hands, the Russian army turned around and attacked the enemy from behind, and its back suffered the attack of mixed brigades, especially the artillery commanded by Huang Jinhui played well, and the three artillery battalions risked accidentally injuring friendly troops to bombard the 11th Division of the Russian Army, which made the division quickly collapse. The Russian army did not expect that the Chinese army had such a powerful artillery force in Hatkule, and a large number of shells fell on the assembled Russian cavalry. Give it heavy dà kill. Wait for the two cavalry regiments in Chi Chunxian's hands to charge. The 11th Division of the Russian Army is already difficult to effectively organize a confrontation. In the dawn of dawn, in the wilderness northwest of Hatkule, the Chinese cavalry chased the routed Russian army and rolled south. Yan Jindong commanded the two infantry regiments of the mixed brigade to rush out of Hatkule in two ways to the south and join the one-sided battlefield. It aggravated the rout of the Russian army even more. Another Russian division, the Russian 10th Cavalry Division, located on the offensive line southwest of Khatkule, did not have time to rescue the defeated 11th Division. They had to deal with the infantry attack of the mixed brigade.

In the eyes of the Russian army. Cavalry had a great advantage over infantry in the field, especially the Cossack riders who grew up on horseback. However, in the Battle of Khatkule, the Russian army had no advantage in the face of the infantry equipped with a large number of machine guns and mortars, especially the mortars dealt a huge blow to the Russian cavalry. One shell after another accurately fell into the dense cavalry ranks, blowing up the Russians on their backs, and the fire of the heavy machine guns with a longer range swept down the Russians in pieces, and the killing and wounding of the horses was extremely severe. When another Chinese cavalry appeared behind the Russian army, the 10th Division, which was personally commanded by the commander of the Russian army, also collapsed.

The Battle of Hatkule lasted only four and a half hours. By mid-nine o'clock in the morning, the battlefield was basically silent, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force basically annihilated the 11th Division of the Russian Army, inflicted heavy losses on the 10th Division of the Russian Army, captured more than 1,900 enemies, killed more than 650 enemies, and captured all the baggage of the Russian army on the northern front. Since the weapons of the expeditionary force basically used Russian-style calibers, the captured ammunition made up for the loss, which greatly relieved Chi Chunxian.

Objectively speaking, the Chinese Expeditionary Force did not have the conditions for an expedition, and although Lushan organized two baggage regiments to carry ammunition and supplies, the absence of a steady stream of reinforcements from the rear made the expeditionary force in fact a "disposable" force. A Makqin heavy machine gun is enough to fire 450~500 rounds of ammunition in one minute, a Huayuan 2 light machine gun is enough to fire 400 rounds, and the bullets carried by an ammunition hand can barely provide a machine gunner with two minutes of shooting. Even two baggage regiments equipped with a large number of wagons could hardly supply the troops with high intensity of operations.

In view of the ammunition problem and the fact that the horses had run out of strength, Chi Chun did not pursue the Russian troops who broke through the siege, and after taking in the prisoners and cleaning up the battlefield, the expeditionary force all withdrew into Hatkule, where they would take a short rest and then retreat along the road with the body of the fallen commander.

The four divisions sent by the Russian army from Erkou suffered a devastating blow in just three days, one division (the 11th Division) was basically lost, and the other division (the 3rd Division) was also basically incapacitated. The Russian army retreated to Chahanbulon, and its commander reported to his superiors that the Chinese army was extremely large and fierce, and that it was impossible to expel the Chinese army with its current strength, and asked for support. Before reinforcements arrived, they could only delay the advance of the Chinese army to the west as much as possible with their existing strength.

They do not know that the Chinese have already decided to retreat.

The Battle of Tangnu-Ulianghai broke out in a way that neither side expected. Lu Shan, who pacified Outer Mongolia, thus strengthened his confidence, and he believed that Russia would not intervene with arms, so he chose to recover Tangnu Ulianghai in one go. Lushan did not realize that Tangnu Ulianghai was different from Outer Mongolia (the Russians did not even allow the Outer Mongolian separatist forces to include Tangnu Ulianghai in the territory of the Great Mongolian State)

Lu Shan paid the price of his life for his light enemy, which brought great variables to the diplomatic and military pattern of the nascent republic. In this sense, the battle of Tangnu-Ulianghai was by no means an ordinary military conflict, and the victory or defeat could not be judged by simply calculating the losses of troops and weapons on both sides.

The Lushan Expeditionary Force entered the Tangnu-Ulianghai and broke through the Russian bottom line.

The commander of the garrison at Erkou, General Mishuchenko, was furious when he learned of the Chinese advance, and without waiting for the final instructions from Petersburg, he immediately mobilized and cobbled together four cavalry divisions, which were all his cavalry strength. Go south to Tangnu Ulianghai to expel the Chinese army.

General Mishuchenko was a veteran general who had participated in the Russian army, and he did not think that this Chinese army, which had invaded the sacred territory of the empire, had an invincible force. Obviously, they came from Kulen, and it has been confirmed that the Chinese army sent to Kulen was nothing more than an infantry division plus a cavalry brigade. Even if they came with their whole army, four cavalry divisions would be enough to deal with it.

General Mishuchenko ordered troops to be sent and did not receive orders from Petersburg. He did report it to his superiors, but for some reason Petersburg never responded to his request. Mishuchenko thought that this was within his responsibility, and the Chinese seemed to be carried away by the recovery of Kulen, and even thought of Tangnu Ulianghai to catch a hand! This is absolutely not a no-go!

Some time ago, the new Chinese government sent troops to Outer Mongolia. Two opinions emerged from the Russian top. One is to send troops to teach the Chinese who do not know the height of the sky and the height of the earth, and take the opportunity to promote the true independence of Outer Mongolia. After the Trans-Siberian Railway became the lifeline of the Far East, the issue of the safety of the railway was also put on the agenda. You don't need to have a lot of military knowledge, just look at the map. What does it mean for the Trans-Siberian Railway and the whole of Siberia to demarcate Outer Mongolia from the Chinese territory? So. Some "far-sighted" people in Russia have been working for this great cause. In Outer Mongolia, a great deal of strength has been invested to support independent forces by various means. The reason why the Living Buddha declared independence in the autumn of 1909 and became the emperor of the "Great Mongolia" was because China had fallen into civil strife. It is simply incapable of safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity. The timing was indeed good, but I didn't expect the Mengshan Army's anti-Qing war to end quickly, and a regime countless times stronger than the Manchu Qing was quickly born. Ignoring the fact that the country was not yet truly unified, this regime sent troops to quell the rebellion, and swept away the separatist forces in Outer Mongolia with lightning speed, and a large number of separatist leaders below Jebtsundan were killed, and the "Great Mongolian State" disappeared after only six months of existence.

In the process, Russia only protested. Protest against what? It is internationally recognized that Outer Mongolia is Chinese territory, and that no sovereign country's behavior of safeguarding national territorial integrity should be blamed, and the Russians are very thick-skinned, but it is difficult to say that China is encroaching on Russian territory, and they can only protest against the "brutal" behavior of the Northern Army in Outer Mongolia.

This is not the style of the Russian Empire. The reason why the main war faction did not achieve armed intervention was due to the difficult situation inside and outside the Russian Empire, which was currently unable to devote more military force to Outer Mongolia and even the Tangnu-Ulianghai region.

While advocating armed intervention, another opinion has emerged, and that is restraint. The reasons for opposing armed intervention in the situation in Outer Mongolia are very strong, and given the good cooperation between the new Chinese government and the Russian military (mainly the Far Eastern Military District), it is their fundamental purpose to draw the Chinese into the Russian camp. Although China's strength is weak enough for Russia to be regarded as a strategic partner, the Lords and factions believe that with the overthrow of the Manchu Qing by the Mengshan Army, the situation in China has changed dramatically, and it is no longer the Manchu period at all. The Mengshan Army had a powerful force that the Manchus did not have, and although this force could not yet influence the international environment, analyzing the situation in Russia, it really did not have the strength to launch a full-scale war against China in the Far East. Lieutenant General Artemyev, chief of staff of the Far Eastern Military District, who calculated the strength required for the war, sided with the main faction, and he believed that if the armed forces were to promote the independence of Outer Mongolia, it was necessary to annihilate the main force of the Chinese army in North Manchuria, in that case, the Russian army needed to concentrate at least two army groups and a huge military strength of 25~30 divisions, otherwise it would not be able to achieve its goal. This is still based on the fact that the new Chinese government does not exert all its strength. If the Chinese mobilized all their troops to fight the Russian army in Manchuria regardless of the situation, the Russian army would face a more difficult situation than the Russo-Japanese War. Artemiev thought that the Chinese army could mobilize thirty or more brigades into Manchuria, and that they would have a faster time to mobilize their forces! The brigades of the Chinese Army are comparable to the divisions of the Russian army, and Artemyev is well aware of the training level and equipment of the troops of the Northern Military District commanded by Lu Shan, because Artemiev once observed a regimental-level confrontation exercise of the Northern Military District. In his report to Petersburg, General Artemiev wrote, "Their firepower has significantly surpassed that of the Russian army in the Far East, especially machine guns and mortars...... In particular, its main force, the 9th Division, whose training had already surpassed that of the Japanese troops of the Russo-Japanese War, invented a number of noteworthy tactics, a force not to be taken lightly. ”

Therefore, General Artemiev does not advocate war against China. It was believed that the settlement of the Outer Mongolian question would require a good moment - when the situation in Europe would turn in favor of the Empire, for example, after the German-Austrian threat to Russia was lifted. China will not be a problem. But the conditions are not available. When the empire goes to war against China, the Chinese are likely to receive direct support from Japan, which has long coveted Manchuria, and Germany is likely to side with China, thus drawing China into the camp of the Allies. General Artemiev believed that it would be unwise to push the new Chinese government into the camp of the Allies, which would contain more power of the Empire, and that for the security of the Far East, the Empire must have 30~40 divisions in the Far East, and with the strengthening of China's military power in Manchuria. The empire must then strengthen its power to maintain the balance of power. This is an outcome that the Empire does not want to see. On the flip side, the empire would gain greater benefits if it remained friendly with China, and the empire would not only remove the military threat to the Far East. And it will curb Japan's ambitions. Someday. The Reich would regain Manchuria, at least the ice-free port of Arthur.

The fundamental difference between the main peace faction and the main war faction lies in the fact that one is to focus on the future and the other is to take into account the present. For the control of Manchuria and the division of Outer Mongolia is consistent. The difference is only in time.

The results of the Battle of Tangnu-Ulianghai were obtained by Petersburg ahead of Beijing. This result was much more than Petersburg expected, and the four elite cavalry divisions were beaten all over the ground to find teeth, and it only took three days! Tsar Nicholas II listened to the report, severely reprimanded General Mishuchenko for "sending troops without authorization", and ordered him to be removed from his post as a punishment.

Earlier, Petersburg studied the situation in the Donu-Ulianghai, and the Tsar, who had been on the side of the Lord-Peace faction and focused all his attention on the Balkan direction, was angry at the entry of Chinese troops into the Tangnu-Ulianghai, and Mishuchenko's military operations were commended by the Tsar. But Yanzhòng's defeat terrified the Tsar, and Mishuchenko, a general who had played a major role in the Battle of Mukden, became a scapegoat. Nicholas II was a weak and changeable monarch, and if the Russian army won at the Donnu-Ulianghai, Bigula II would never stop, and he needed a glorious victory to boost confidence and stabilize the situation, but now that he had suffered a terrible defeat, he immediately became hesitant, fearing that the situation would deteriorate further and lead to a greater crisis.

The defeat of the Russian army in the Tangnu-Ulianghai triggered a series of variables, and Petersburg feared that the Chinese would take the opportunity to attack and cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway, and even worried about the city of Erkou - the hub of the entire Trans-Siberian Railway, and once it fell, the Far East would be isolated! The total strength of the Russian army in the Far East is only 21 incomplete divisions. Since the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth, the main forces of the Russian army have withdrawn from the Far East, how could they have considered that the Chinese would pose a threat to the Far East?

Is this going to be a full-scale showdown with the Chinese? Petersburg argued about this for two days, and finally decided to mobilize forces to recover the Donnu-Ulianghai. If the Chinese were allowed to occupy the Tangnu-Ulianghai, not to mention the military results, the Russian Empire could not afford to lose this face!

The military plan was still under urgent discussion, and the main generals of the Far Eastern Army were recalled to Petersburg. But soon, conclusive news came that the Chinese expeditionary force had retreated. This result gave Petersburg a sigh of relief, and the solution to the Donnu-Uliang crisis brought a new option. Russian Foreign Minister Izvolsky strongly advocated the cancellation of military operations against the Donu-Ulianghai and even Manchuria and the use of diplomatic means to resolve the crisis. Some of the generals agreed with the Foreign Minister that General Kulopatkin, who had lost face in the Russo-Japanese War, did not agree with another uncertain military operation in the Far East, and that the Empire must not be caught in the dilemma of fighting on two fronts at present, and must concentrate its efforts on dealing with the Balkan crisis. General Artemyev, who had returned to Petersburg from Vladivostok, was recognized as a man with a clear understanding of the military power of the new China, and he was summoned separately by the Tsar, who changed his position after learning that the Chinese army had voluntarily withdrawn from the Tangnu-Ulianghai and built a call for further military operations in favor of diplomacy. General Artemyev reported to the Tsar about the military strength of the new China, which was no less powerful in Manchuria than the Japanese army in the Russo-Japanese War. This blow hit Tsar Nicholas II in the soft underbelly. The internal crises that erupted in the Tsarist Empire from 1905 onwards were triggered by this, and even shook the Tsar's rule. And if again, something akin to the defeat of the Russo-Japanese War...... Nicholas II did not dare to think about it anymore.

General Artemyev brought a message from the Chinese, which was transmitted to him by the Northern Military District in accordance with the instructions of the Ministry of National Defense -- that the Chinese troops had entered the Tangnu-Ulianghai to eliminate the separatist forces in Outer Mongolia and had no intention of becoming enemies of Russia. The Chinese expressed regret over the conflict between the two armies and used negotiations to resolve the issue.

Lieutenant General Artemyev believes that the results of the battle of Donu-Uliang must not be openly publicized, but must be hidden, the domestic and international situation does not allow Russia to lose, and if the news of the defeat of the Russian army in the area of the Donu-Uliang Sea spreads, it will be extremely unfavorable for the empire. Therefore, General Artemyev negotiated with the Chinese - demanding reparations and punishing the culprits, "Your Majesty, we can tolerate for the time being, not only the Tangnu-Ulianghai is the territory of the Empire, including Manchuria will eventually be the territory of the Empire, but we need to be patient in the current situation." ”

The political and economic situation in the empire was quite bad, and Nicholas II knew it well. He is reluctant to go to war - spending more resources in secondary directions is not what he wants to see. Now that the Chinese have withdrawn, let's solve it diplomatically. "However, the Empire will never swallow this breath!" Nicholas II snapped.

"Of course, the contemptible yellow-skinned monkey is not the main consideration of the Empire, and when the Empire is free, it can completely repeat the story of 1900." Artemiev said to the tsar. (To be continued......)