Artyom, rear command post of the Eastern Front.

It is located about 30 kilometers northeast of the city of Vladivostok and about 15 kilometers away from the first main line of defense of the Russian army.

On the watchtower of Artyom Town Office, a feminine-looking yet energetic general stands with an all-black high-powered binoculars, observing the planes and airships that take off and land around the airport.

"Commander Liu, so interested, came here to see the plane."

The speaker, who had just emerged from under the ladder, had a thin melon seed face, coupled with the sharp eyes of a sharpshooter, was of medium stature, and spoke with a slight Sichuan accent, it was none other than General Wang Zhi, chief of staff of the Eastern Front.

The person known as "Commander Liu" is, of course, General Liu Bailiang, the commander of the Eastern Front, at this time he put down his binoculars, and a self-deprecating smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: "It's not that I'm not interested, I just want to relax and relax, and when I see those things flying around, I feel like I'm going to float off the ground and soar in the sky with them." ”

Wang Zhi stepped on the floor of the watchtower, his black leather boots rubbed against the parapet wall unconsciously, and his understanding eyes flew away towards Liu Bailiang.

"Depressed, huh? The Pacific Fleet must be smashed before June 1, otherwise you will ask - Wu Weigong's death order, I am also very troubled, but I think it is time to make up your mind. Even if it is filled with flesh and blood, it will fill the fortress in front of me - the chief of the general staff told me that this is the exact words of Wu Weigong. ”

Liu Bailiang turned his back, supported the parapet wall of the lookout with both hands back, and shook slightly: "Why don't I want to complete the task early, but the casualties are getting heavier and heavier, the morale is getting lower and lower, and some companies and even teams are collectively disobedient and unwilling to continue to attack, do I want to wipe out the disobedient troops?" The bushido spirit on the Japanese side was also in full swing, and war weariness spread everywhere, and incidents of disobedience and violence against officers were one after another, and it was impossible to continue the assault in such a situation. ”

Wang Zhi took out a pack of Hademen and handed it to Liu Bailiang: "Don't worry, you will definitely succeed this time, the surroundings of Mount Kimir have been blown up to the ground, we will work harder, continue to break through the center, rush through this mountain beam, and occupy their defensive core Trudovoye, and the entire first line of defense will naturally collapse." ”

Liu Bailiang took the cigarette, put one on his ear, and put the other on his mouth for Wang Zhi to light it.

Liu Bailiang doesn't smoke often, and he has to smoke more than two cigarettes at a time.

The smoke blurred Liu Bailiang's expression.

"That being said, but there is still a line of defense behind it, and even if the first line of defense is successfully broken, it will take a lot of time to immediately repair the roads, lay small railways, move heavy artillery and build heavy artillery positions, launch forward battles, dig parallel trenches and extend communication trenches in front of enemy forts......

"The general offensive has been resumed in the past two days, and if we want to attack continuously, the other side will not get any supplementary reinforcements, and it will not be able to withstand attrition at all, and I think the morale of the other side is not much better now."

Liu Bailiang flicked the ashes of his cigarette, and the ashes were like smoke, and the smoke was like ashes.

"In any case, let's do our best to complete the task, I understand the reason, but I'm a little bored in my heart, so come up and take a look at the plane, it's okay now, let's hold a combat meeting."

"Yes."

Above the arched roof of the lookout, the sky was as clear as a whole piece of crystal clear.

With Artyom's Slavic town in the background, a large attack ship of the "Strong Cloud" with a length of more than two hundred meters dragged its massive, dazzling golden dragon body through the air and pressed towards the already devastated mountain beams to the south.

Vladivostok (Vladivostok), the command of the fortified defense district.

Since the failure of the Pacific Fleet to break through in the early winter of last year, Alekseyev, the Governor-General of the Far East, who tried to take the opportunity to run back to his hometown but had to flee back to Vladivostok in embarrassment, has never taken a step out of the Governor's Palace, and the military and political power of the fortified defense area has been changed to the full responsibility of Lieutenant General Stessel, former commander of the First Army in the Far East.

It was 5 April, and the weather was terrifyingly clear, with more than 10 large and medium-sized airships attacking the military port of Vladivostok in succession, and dozens of other planes bombing and strafing the city. The newly repaired armored battleship "Dawn" was heavily damaged by heavy bombs fired by Chinese airships, the armored battleships "Retvizhan" and "Victory," which were close to repair, were damaged to varying degrees, and the gunboat "Manghan" was sunk. More than 200 officers and men of the Navy and Army and hundreds of civilians were killed in the bombing, and the city's housing facilities were severely damaged.

It was already night, and Stessel had come out of the basement of his cramped headquarters and ordered a meeting of the senior generals of the army and navy.

After a while, the generals rushed to the headquarters one after another.

Rear Admiral Wittgeft, commander of the Pacific Fleet, was the first to arrive, and sat sullenly waiting for the others, and he huddled in the cellar of the fleet headquarters all day, not daring or unwilling to watch his fleet being wantonly slaughtered by the perverted aerial weapons of the other side.

Ress, Stexel's chief of staff, arrived at the scene, and he was a "fox shrewd" fellow, very good at managing the governor's intentions, and keeping everything in order, to Stexel's satisfaction.

The commander of the land defense line of the fortress, Major General Kontrachenko, strode in with a dusty face, and throughout the day he was inspecting the middle of the first line of defense centered on Mount Kimir, during which he was bombarded by the heavy artillery of the coalition forces, and two of the ten staff officers and guards accompanying him were killed and three were wounded. However, the icy stern expression on Konterachenko's face seemed to indicate that there was no way to contain toxins such as fear and cowardice in his soul.

Lieutenant General Zarubaev, the commander of the middle sector of the 1st line of defense, accompanied Kontrachenko, was almost killed in the sudden blazing artillery fire, and he still looked terrified.

Coming in next was Lieutenant General Fock, commander of the Western Sector, who was tall, sturdy and slightly fat, with a black beard, but his lips were smooth above and below, and his two small green eyes sparkled in the sparse and slightly reddish sockets of his eyebrows, showing a little cunning. His extravagance has long been known to all, even at the most critical moments of the first two general attacks of the Chinese army, he never gave up the habit of eating two exquisite meals a day and spending half an hour on afternoon tea, and it is no secret that the most beautiful prostitutes in the city often come and go to his mansion, that is, this Fock, when the second general offensive of the Allied forces reached its climax in mid-March, he was ashamed to propose to Stessel to surrender. Now his face was still filled with the vulgar happiness of enjoying a good meal.

Major General Boleman, commander of the Eastern Sector, walked in worriedly, the facilities in charge of the defense area were the weakest compared to the other two defense areas, and although the terrain was more favorable, it was also in a dangerous situation of collapse under the repeated frenzied attacks of the Japanese troops in front of him.

The last to arrive was the commander of the artillery of the fortified area, Major General Bere, a neat little old man with gray hair and a smooth combed head, with a very thin face, but with large rabbit-like ears, a well-trimmed gray beard under the low bridge of the long nose, two slightly thicker lips protruding a little, while the chin was pulled back, and a courteous smile always floating at the corners of his mouth. In fact, many officers secretly believed that he was "yin and yang", and many had witnessed Bere's wife, Nadasha, frequently visiting the residence of "this sexually developed male dog" in Fock, and the legend that he lost his sexual function due to an artillery accident during one of the exercises is not unfounded...... Despite this, the extremely well-groomed Bere, who was always neatly dressed, had a clear eye for his work, was orderly in everything, and was always serious in front of his subordinates, which, combined with his deep artillery expertise, made him universally respected and obedient in the fortress artillery unit.

As soon as the meeting began, Fleet Commander Wittgeft first informed the fleet of all captains of the meeting of the decision.

“…… We unanimously agreed that the conditions for a general breakout of the detachment were no longer in place, and the majority of the population was negative about the possibility of a scattered breakout. Therefore, the meeting decided that, starting immediately, the entire personnel, naval guns, and ammunition of the detachment will be used to support the land front, while the warships will shell the enemy's positions directly from the harbor or from the sea in small formations, continue to lay mines in the sea areas where the enemy blockades the activities of the ships, and dispatch destroyers to reconnoiter and attack the enemy's small ships at any time. ”

"We intend to dismantle a total of 130 guns, including six-inch secondary guns, and the corresponding ammunition and hand them over to the land defense line, and transfer some of the crews from the warship to operate these guns. We are also prepared to form a marine company with personnel drawn from the officers and men of the ships and shore installations to be ready to support all sections of the land defense line. ”

"We will also send our school shooters to the front line to correct the ...... of our warship guns shelling enemy land positions"

Stexel, of course, welcomed this with ten thousand: "...... Thanks to the full help of the fleet, with your support, we will be able to deal with the evil East Asian Yellow Dogs with greater strength. The latest news shows that the main force of the Second Pacific Squadron has already sailed to the Gulf of Guinea, and including the time for anchoring and recuperation, assembly and training, the squadron should be able to sail to the waters of the South China Sea in three months...... It is about the honor of the Russian servicemen and the territorial integrity of the motherland, I hope that everyone will work together, and history will give us the evaluation they deserve - the heroic and victorious defense of Vladivostok! ”

The chief of staff, Reis, hurriedly applauded, but the applause that followed was sparse, almost like a cheer.

The commander of the land defense line of the fortress, Kontrachenko, pressed his hand on the table and glanced at Reis with disdain: "The situation of the land defense line is already very critical, we must mobilize all our forces to resist the enemy's increasingly fierce attacks, since the siege of the fortress in mid-October last year, our garrison has successively 16,000 officers and soldiers killed and missing, and more than 10,000 seriously wounded who cannot return to the battlefield...... What is even more serious is that the enemy has already occupied some artillery blind spots in front of the main fortress of the first main line of defense, and is digging parallel trenches and communication trenches on a large scale, and is trying to extend the tunnels under the forts...... The power of the enemy's heavy artillery should not be underestimated, and today the enemy shelled the positions of our troops on Mount Kimir, and both General Zalubayev and I witnessed with our own eyes the tremendous destructive power of the heavy artillery shells......

"It turns out that General Kontrachenko will be scared too."

The commander of the Western Sector Defense Zone, Falck, was thorny in his words.

Kontrachenko showed no weakness: "Is it a brave expression for General Fock to hide in the official residence with a woman at the height of the war?" ”

Falck's beard twitched: "What did you say?" ”

Konterachenko's chin raised: "I understand in my heart, what do you ask me for?" I don't have time to record boring trivia outside of combat. ”

"Enough, now is not the time to attack each other, everyone should work together......"

Stessel shook his hand in the air, his tone tired. At first, he thought that the reinforcements from the country would soon arrive, but with the fall of the fortresses of Hailan Pao and Boli, the Amur River valley was completely wiped out by the Chinese army, and the Onon River side suffered frequent defeats, and Stessel's confidence continued to fall rapidly towards the bottom of a black hole.

Recently, the Chinese army's aircraft scattered leaflets, claiming that the main force of the Russian Far Eastern Army had been dealt a devastating blow on the line from the Onon River to the Inda River, and at least 150,000 people had been taken prisoner. Probably until the fortress ran out of food, it would not be able to wait for reinforcements on land. Now Stexel's only hope is placed on the Second Pacific Fleet, hold out for another three months, and when the Second Pacific Fleet arrives, everything will end with dignity - in fact, this is also the good hope of most Russian officers and men at present.

Calming out the slight friction between Kontrachenko and Falk, Stessel cleared his throat and spoke his thoughts.

"As you know, the situation is now very serious, and the enemy has approached the main fortresses of the first main line of defense, and has begun extensive tunneling operations. The first main line of defense gathers our most complete fortification group and most of the technical weapons, is the most important link of the fortress land defense circle, lost the first main line of defense, although we can retreat to the second main line of defense, but in this way, the fortress has fallen into a very dangerous situation, the second main line of defense is lost, only the city wall remains, we have no manpower and material resources to build the third line of defense, so holding the first main line of defense is our current central problem. I believe that in the present situation, we can only sit back and wait for the enemy to continue to defend to the death, and we should use reserves to launch a counterattack on the enemy on all fronts, and crucially, we must recapture the forward positions of the forts, drive the enemy far out of the dead corners of the fortress artillery fire, and break the enemy's attempt to dig tunnels and blast the fortresses. ”

Kontrachenko immediately stated: "I agree with the commander's idea, we cannot continue to sit idly by, we must use reserves to drive the enemy out of the position at the foot of the mountain." ”

Fuk shook his head again and again: "I think that in view of the enemy's far superiority in manpower and firepower, the first main line of defense will be broken sooner or later, and the counterattack is only a measure of rights and interests, and the recaptured position at the foot of the mountain will soon be taken away by the enemy again, so the result of repeated battles can only be to continuously consume our already small reserves, which will bring difficulties to continue to hold the fortress in the future." ”

Stessel glanced at Falk unhappily: "So what do you have to do?" ”

"In my opinion, it is necessary to secretly withdraw troops and artillery to the second line of defense, which is shorter in the defensive front, while the enemy has not yet launched a large-scale attack, so as to increase the density of the fire of the defense line, and also to strengthen the saved troops to the reserves, and in addition, because the second main line of defense is closer to the military port, it is also convenient for the naval guns to support land operations."

The commander of the fortress artillery, Bere, immediately questioned this: "I am afraid that this will be difficult to achieve, because the enemy's air weapons closely monitor our positions during the day, and at night the enemy often sends small detachments to carry out night attacks. Even if we were able to withdraw some of our forces and light artillery to the second line of defense at night, many of the large and medium-caliber artillery guns placed in the batteries and forts would not be able to be transferred overnight, and we could not predict when and where the enemy would attack and what scale, and if we encountered a large-scale attack from the enemy during the retreat, the situation would probably be out of control......"

Lieutenant General Zarubaev, commander of the Central Defense Zone, echoed uncertainly: "I agree with General Berey, on the one hand, in terms of technique, the enemy is too close to us, and it is difficult for a large-scale retreat not to be detected by the other side; On the other hand, abandoning a long-held position without a fight will have a negative impact on the morale of officers and soldiers......"

"Hurry up and counterattack, the only fortress in our defense zone will be overwhelmed by those short Japanese who are screaming at any time......"

Bowleman, commander of the Eastern Sector, had apparently been provoked by some kind of scene.

Of course, Reis does not forget to pat the commander on the back: "I think that the commander's wise decision is the only option we have at the moment, and it turns out that there is no better solution to the problem than to launch a counteroffensive." ”

Stessel was quite useful to Reis's words, and no longer paid attention to Furke, and followed everyone's argument: "Since it is so infeasible to retreat to the second main line of defense, let's start preparing for a counterattack now." General Kontrachenko, you will take concrete command of the counteroffensive and work out a battle plan with Lacey. General Bere commanded the artillery of the forts on the defensive line in a unified manner, and together with the commanders of the various defense districts, he was at the disposal of General Kontrachenko. The stakes are so high that General Kontrachenko is free to use any army unit you deem necessary, and General Wittgeft's fleet is prepared to be ready to be sent to the depths of Peter the Great's Bay to support the land-based operation......"

Stessel made a rough arrangement, leaving the matter to Kontrachenko in full charge.

Kontrachenko put forward a condition: "Commander, I not only need troops, but I also want your authorization to call upon the materials of the various arsenals and the craftsmen of the armory at will. ”

Stessel was stunned for a moment: "For what?" ”

Kontrachenko pouted at Bere: "General Bere once told me that his conventional artillery placed in batteries and fortresses has too large dead ends, especially those deployed on the high slopes of the mountain beams, and the enemy is useless as soon as he rushes to the foot of the mountain, and the front line urgently needs a trench mortar gun with a large angle of fire, high ballistics, and light and capable of firing large shells. We have captured mortars, also known as 'mortars', that meet this requirement, but these weapons are ineffective due to the lack of suitable shells. The other day, Bere and I went to Major Gobilia of the Ordnance Repair Institute and explained my idea to him, and he decided to give it a try, and then made several prototypes of guns from the barrel of a 47-mm naval gun mounted on a wheeled gun carriage to demonstrate to us, using super-caliber shells made of small mines, with a range of 50 to 400 meters, which are very useful for defensive warfare, and I intend to produce this weapon in large quantities, both for defense and for short counteroffensives. In addition, the 75-kilogram mine projectile device manufactured for us by the Navy's Ordnance Repair Institute is very useful, and this powerful defensive weapon is very popular on the front line, and it has been widely called 'thunder artillery'......

Stessel nodded again and again: "I agree, and I hope that the navy can cooperate with General Kontrachenko in this regard." ”

"In addition, I hope that an artillery commander can be appointed for each defensive area, so that it can better meet the needs of the operation."

"Very good, according to your opinion, it is up to you to arrange."

Stessel was now obedient to Contrachenko, and in such a time of depression and uneasiness, it was not a bad thing to have a man of great talent who was happy to share his worries.

The meeting was chaired by Kontrachenko, and the discussion of the counteroffensive quickly moved into detail.

The counteroffensive will begin at dusk, with the bombardment of possible enemy assembly points and artillery positions by fortress artillery, the shelling of enemy parallel trenches near their own fortresses by thunder artillery and trench mortar artillery, and then the assault will be launched after dark to drive the enemy out of the trenches.

The focus of the counteroffensive will be on the area around Mount Kimir, and General Zarubaev, commander of the central defense zone, will use 42 companies of defenders and 35 companies of reserves to attack the Chinese troops entrenched in the area from the mountainside to the foot of Mount Kimir.

Accordingly, counterattacks of varying sizes will be launched in the western and eastern sectors.

At the end of the day, the time for the counteroffensive on all fronts was set for three days later, that is, on 8 April.

After the meeting was adjourned, everyone walked out of Stexel's official residence.

Kontrachenko raised his eyes to the sky and sighed quietly: "What a clear sky......"

April 5, 1904 in the Western calendar, February 20 in the first year of the Chinese calendar, is the Qingming Festival. Vladivostok, sunny.