Ulan-Ude, Command of the Russian Far Eastern Front, May 25, 1904, night.

Lieutenant General Linievich, commander-in-chief of the Far Eastern Front, who had just had dinner, ordered the orderlies to retreat, and he wanted to retreat into the large sofa in the living room to rest alone, but he was distracted by the repeatedly jumping map symbols in front of him.

After struggling for a few seconds, he decided to go back to the map table next door.

If this plan can be perfectly realized, the two Chinese armies will be destroyed, and the Russian 5th Army, which is surrounded in Chita, will be saved.

The name of the plan was set as "the first operational plan of the Four Rivers Campaign," and the so-called four rivers meant four major rivers within the predetermined combat area: the Selenga and Uda rivers, which flow into Lake Baikal, and the Shilok and Chikoy rivers, which flow into the Selenga River, respectively.

From south to north, along the line from the Selenga River to the Uda River, Lynevich deployed all six armies at his disposal: the 7th Army, the 4th Army, the Reserve Army, the 6th Army, the 3rd Army, and the 2nd Army.

Thereinto:

The 7th Army (7G), deployed on the Kyakhta-Novoselenginsk line, had 7 infantry divisions and 4 cavalry divisions, with a total of 165,000 men and 622 artillery pieces. The 21st Army, consisting of 2 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry divisions, was responsible for launching a diversionary attack on the enemy's Mongolian army, and the 16th and 20th armies, composed of 5 other infantry divisions and 2 cavalry divisions, would cut off the right flank of the Chinese Mongolian Army with the support of the artillery belonging to the group army, break through the defensive line of the Chinese Sixth Army, advance northeast to Petrovsk, and block the rear road of the Chinese First Army.

The 4th Army (4G), deployed on the line from Novoselenginsk to Ulan-Ude, had 6 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry divisions, with a total of 145,000 men and 546 artillery pieces. The Army, with all three corps (22nd, 25th, 27th Armies), was to break through the line of the 4th Army on the right flank of the enemy's 1st Army and advance southeast to Petrovsk, where it would encircle the enemy's 1st Army together with the 7th Army.

Around Ulan-Ude was a reserve army group (RG) with 3 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry divisions, with a total of 70,000 men and 266 artillery pieces. The army group, as the general reserve of the campaign, will be put into the "most critical places" at the "most critical moments".

The 6th Army (6G), deployed on the line from Ulan-Ude to Khorlinsk, has 6 infantry divisions and 4 cavalry divisions, with a total of 148,000 men and 582 artillery pieces. The army group operated on the left flank of the 4th Army, and was responsible for breaking through the front of the 5th Army on the left flank of the enemy's Second Army with all 3 corps (18th, 19th, and 24th armies) and advancing southeast to Hillock, blocking the rear of the enemy's Second Army on the one hand, and threatening the rear of the enemy's Chita Raiders on the other.

The 3rd Army (3G), deployed on the line from Khorinsk to Poperechnoye, had 6 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry divisions, with a total of 146,000 men and 570 artillery pieces. The army group was to break through the line of the Second Army on the right flank of the enemy's Second Army from the center and advance south all the way to Hillock, where together with the 6th Army formed an encirclement of the main force of the enemy's Second Army.

The 2nd Army (2G), deployed east of Poperechnoye, had 2 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry divisions, with a total of 51,000 men and 202 artillery pieces. The army was responsible for attacking the right flank of the enemy's 2nd Army, trying to break through the enemy's defensive lines in the passes north of Mount Yablonov in order to provide direct aid to the 5th Army, which was encircled in Chita.

Since the war was being fought on the mainland, Rinnevich did not worry about the source of intelligence, and every week, thousands of Russian "refugees" secretly crossed the long front to the north bank of the Uda River and the west bank of the Selenga River, including civilians who volunteered to provide information out of patriotism, and there were also spies specially arranged behind enemy lines by Lynevich as early as the retreat of Chita, so that Lynevich could roughly grasp the movement and deployment of the East Asian coalition forces.

According to the information established before the launch of the campaign, the First Army of the Chinese Army deployed on the east bank of the Selenga River consisted of the Sixth Army on the left flank and the Fourth Army on the right flank. The Sixth Army was roughly in front of the Russian 7th Army, and the Fourth Army was roughly in front of the Russian 4th Army, the former consisting of 3 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry brigade and 1 independent artillery brigade, while the latter was left with only two reserve infantry divisions, 1 cavalry brigade and 1 independent artillery regiment due to the recent transfer of a division to support the Eastern Front. General Li Xuedong's Fourth Army had been fighting on the Western Front since the end of 1903 and had rich experience in actual combat. General Lu Kaiping's Sixth Army was originally the general reserve of the Western Front of the Allied Forces, and its subordinate units had hardly experienced actual combat.

The Second Army of the Chinese Army, deployed on the south bank of the Wuda River, consisted of the Fifth Army on the left flank and the Second Army on the right flank. The Fifth Army was roughly in front of the Russian 6th Army, and the Second Army was roughly in front of the Russian 3rd and 2nd Armies. It also consists of 3 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry brigade and 1 separate artillery brigade. Among them, General Xiao Lieri's Second Army once conquered the Boli Fortress, and undertook an important breakthrough mission in the Battle of Chita, and had extremely rich experience in actual combat. In contrast, General Zhao Minhe's Fifth Army was composed entirely of reserve divisions, and it had not undertaken more critical tasks in previous battles, and its actual combat experience was slightly inferior.

Petrovsk, located at the rear of the two armies, only about 100 kilometers from Ulan-Ude, was the forward headquarters of the Allied Western Front, and the territory where the rumored invincible army of the Chinese Imperial Janissaries was stationed.

The Chinese Army's Praetorian Guard Field Army has 4-5 Praetorian Guard divisions, 1 Praetorian Cavalry Brigade and 1 Praetorian Guard Artillery Brigade, each of which is equipped with an impressive number of artillery and machine guns, and the average quality of its officers and men is far beyond that of the "garbage army of any country in the world." However, according to the reports of the Russian commanders who have fought with the Praetorian Guard, the 1st and 2nd Praetorian Guard Divisions are the most powerful in the Praetorian Guard, and the other two or three divisions are not much different from the standing infantry divisions of the Chinese National Defense Army in terms of weapons and the quality of soldiers.

Linevich understood to his face that the other side had deployed the Janissary Field Army in such a position, apparently to use this so-called "most elite force on the planet" as the general reserve of the front army to deal with all kinds of situations that might occur. At present, the coalition forces are attacking the Russian 5th Army trapped in the Chita fortress with all their might, and Chita is just choking the supply arteries leading to the Selenga River and the front line of the Uda River. Unable to turn to the offensive, the Chinese army had to build a series of defensive positions along the Line of Control between the two sides, however, it was impossible to be fully prepared on a front of hundreds of kilometers, and it was reasonable to retain a strong reserve as a "fire brigade" to fill the gap in the battle line.

"So we want the five armies to attack at the same time, so that the other side has to disperse and use reserves!"

At the operational meeting a week ago, Rinnevich had intended exactly that.

Two days ago, that is, on May 23, the battle began, with the support of more than 2,000 artillery, 700,000 troops launched a fierce attack on the Chinese army from a front of more than 400 kilometers, when it was windy weather, the Chinese army's flight units could not be dispatched, the Russian army "finally got rid of the harassment of those dejected crows on its head", it was going smoothly for a while, and the 7th Army on the left flank of the front army was making particularly rapid progress, and within two days, the 16th Army of the group army was about to face the 21st Infantry Division of the Chinese Army Reserve to repel more than 20 kilometers, It penetrated deeply between the Chinese Sixth Army and the Mongol 1st Cavalry Corps on its left flank. On the right flank of the front army, the 6th Army and the 4th Army on the left flank suffered stubborn resistance in their all-out attack on the Fifth Army of the Chinese Army, but with the superiority in manpower and firepower, the 19th Army of the 6th Army still advanced more than 10 kilometers in two days and broke through between the Fourth Army and the Fifth Army of the Chinese Army, which was tantamount to breaking the link between the First Army of the Chinese Army and the forward defense line of the Second Army.

However, since this morning, the battle reports from the front have begun to become unpleasant.

Originally, Linievich was most worried that the enemy's air weapons would wreak havoc on the heads of his troops when the weather improved, but although the sky was clear early that morning, the headquarters did not receive any reports of large-scale attacks by the Chinese aviation units on the front.

“…… Then the general said to me gloomily with his hands behind his back: "Sir, think about it, for nine months we have been harassed by them, yes, harassment, and have been tormented to the point of madness, and now that the sun has come out, and the wind is beautiful, where have all those green-headed flies and French baguettes hid in such wonderful moments? ”

- Chronicle of the Eastern Front, François de Laniac (France), 1907.

Although the danger in the air did not appear for the time being, the Russian ground offensive came to a standstill, and during the day, the Fifth Army under the command of General Zhao Minhe launched a clean counterattack on the flank of the advancing 6th Army, severely damaging two regiments of the 19th Army to which it belonged, and completely halting the offensive momentum of the 19th Army.

On the left flank of the Front, the 16th Army, which had advanced farthest, had to stop to stabilize the supply lines due to a series of cost-effective assaults by the Mongol 1st Cavalry Corps on the flanks of the 7th Army.

On other offensive points, the 4th and 2nd armies of the Chinese army, which were experienced in actual combat, pressed the Russians in front of their positions, and the three Russian armies attacking the two Chinese armies advanced only 1 to 3 kilometers in three full days.

Could it be that only three days after the start of the campaign, the reserves were to be thrown in?

Linievich's eyebrows were twisted into a "#" word.

At the same time, thousands of kilometers away in Beijing, more depression and troubles condensed into thick rain clouds......