On May 1, 1904, Xu Si sent a letter to Long Qian. Dear General Dragon: I'm afraid to interrupt. The general wrote an inscription for the little girl, and he had a lot of fun, and privately thought that it might be better to compose it into a song. The general is talented, and the little woman already knows it. If you dare to make a small request, can you put aside your complicated official duties and compose a song for the lyrics? The book is not very frightened. Shun Rong Qi!

On May 9, 1904, Long Qian sent a letter to Xu Si: Miss Xu is well. The ugly work is not worthy of the Jiangnan meditation of talented women. It is difficult to disobey the order, and the music score is presented for the young lady to correct.

On May 11, 1904, Xu Si sent a letter to Long Qian: The previous letter was sent, and he was worried. The general is high and powerful, and he has every opportunity, and he can reply to the reckless request of the little woman. The masterpiece chanted again and again, the fairy song Lunyin, I can't admire it! The knowledge is shallow, and it seems to be different from the ancient and modern music styles, I wonder if it is an American style? But the little girl doesn't learn line notation, can she ask for advice in person?

On May 23, 1904, Long Qian sent a letter to Xu Si: near the military parade in Yanzhou...... Music is what the heart feels, and there must be many omissions that do not conform to the principles of music. You can ask your school master to correct it. In addition, the last three sentences should be sung in Peking Opera is better.

On May 25, 1904, Xu Si sent a letter to Long Qian: Changing to the tone of opera, it is really wonderful. Professor Gong Zili (a music teacher hired by his father) studied Western music theory deeply and was amazed by it. Because he was not allowed, Xu Si did not dare to show his real name. Did the general really not systematically study music theory? If so, then is it a genius...... I would venture to ask again, what is the best book for the general to look at the long classical works of our country? Hope to teach!

On June 1, 1904, Long Qian sent a letter to Xu Si: When Yu was abroad. He has watched "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin" and "Stone Story". I thought that "The Story of the Stone" was a strange book in the world, and it was deserved to be the first classical novel and included in the world's masterpieces. Its content is not limited to the love between men and women in aristocratic families, but also involves the imperial examination, etiquette, architecture, medical treatment, tea ceremony, food, clothing, customs, poetry, slang and many other aspects, all of which are exquisite and expressive, showing a colorful picture of the life of the upper class of society in the Yongqian period for future generations. Savor this book, it is really like a person drinking water, knowing whether it is warm or cold. Of course, there is also the description of the character's fate and the cold state of the world. It is a great innovation to reflect the decline of the dynasty with the rise and fall of the family. Long once doubted that he could do this strange book with the power of one person? Later, it was proved that the ancestor of the Cao family had been the companion of Emperor Kangxi. Credit for life without doubt. Although it is woven in Jiangnan by officials under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it is actually an intelligence station for the imperial court to monitor the dynamics of Jiangnan officialdom. Kangxi went to the south of the Yangtze River six times and stayed at Cao's house four times, and his grace can be seen. Experienced the decline of the family. Childhood food and clothing. Middle-aged people eat porridge to live. The contrast between them is the motivation and source of creation, and the strange book is from the hands of the children of the Cao family who have undergone great changes, and it is also appropriate!

In the past, it was used as a play for "The Story of Stones". Served with ......

This is Long Qian's longest letter to Xu Si. Soon, he received a reply from Xu Si, which was full of discussions about "The Story of Stones". Obviously, Xu Si didn't expect that the other party of her correspondence had a deep understanding of the classical novels she loved. Therefore, she went against the norm and used thousands of words to explain her "feeling after reading" of "The Stone Record" thoroughly, and at the same time mentioned the incomprehensible two sentences in "Linjiang Immortal" sent by Long Qian. I hope to get an explanation from Long Qian. But when this letter was sent, Long Qian did not reply.

Let's talk about Yang Shixiang. Weighing the pros and cons, Yang Shixiang decided to take a wait-and-see approach. In the eyes of others, it is Xiao Gui Cao Sui. Unable to withstand the pressure of Hu Xuezheng, the funding for the popularization of county-level secondary schools was also resumed. But the traffic construction is still stopped. Soon after Yang Shixiang inspected Huayuan Industrial, he set off for Yanzhou, saying that he wanted to inspect the construction of highways, but the senior officials of Shandong Province knew that Yang Shixiang had gone to see another industrial group, Zhongxing Industrial.

Yang Futai's trip, Long Qian did not follow this time. Recently, his energy has shifted from dealing with Yang Shixiang and Xu Si to the Kwantung war.

Part of the information on the progress of the battle situation came from the Kwantung intelligence system led by Tian Shubang. The other part came from the German headquarters in Qingdao, and on this basis, the Fifth Town Staff Office, the Intelligence Department, and the Ninth and Tenth Assistant Staff Sections transferred elite elites and set up a research group under the leadership of Situ Jun to analyze, collect, analyze, and study the Kwantung war situation. As for the imperial court, the military department was supposed to do its best to deal with the biggest war of the century on its own soil, but in fact it did nothing from the beginning to the end of the war.

But the Mengshan army could not sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, because the Kwantung region already had the Mengshan army's armament.

On the eve of the war, Japan had a small but well-trained standing army equipped with the latest weapons. After mobilization, the number of Japanese troops surged to 375,000, with 1,140 artillery pieces and 147 machine guns. The Japanese Navy has 80 combat ships, including 6 battleships, 8 armored cruisers, 12 light cruisers, 27 destroyers, and 19 small torpedo ships.

Russia, on the other hand, had the largest backbone army in the world at that time, but had only two armies in the Far East, numbering nearly 100,000 men. There are also 24,000 guards. It has 148 artillery pieces and 8 machine guns. The disadvantage is that the forces are relatively scattered, with more than 100,000 people scattered over the vast land from Primorsky Province to Manchuria, and it is difficult to form a fist. The fleet of the Russian Navy in the Far East has 63 ships of various types, including 7 armored ships, 4 armored cruisers, 7 light cruisers, 27 destroyers, 10 small torpedo ships, 2 minelayers and other ships.

On the eve of the outbreak of the war, the number of Japanese troops was 3 times that of the Russian army, the artillery was 8 times higher, the machine guns were 18 times, and the number of ships was 1.3 times.

The Russian Army was armed with the most advanced Type 1891 (Mosin Nagant) magazine rifle and the Type 1902 76mm rapid-fire field gun. But the coastal artillery and fortress artillery were basically equipped with old-fashioned artillery, and there were few mountain runs and machine guns. The naval ships were inferior to the Japanese in terms of speed, armor and firepower. The naval base at Port Arthur has not yet been completed, the land facilities of the base are weakly defended, and in terms of logistics, the Trans-Siberian Railway, which connects the European part of the country, has not yet been completed, and the traffic capacity is seriously insufficient. In a word, Russia has not yet completed its preparations for war against Japan.

Russia's strategy was to gain time in Liaoyang. Gathering and deploying troops in the Haicheng area, delaying the Japanese attack with part of the troops, the main force gradually retreating northward, and at the same time resolutely holding the mouth of Arthur, and finally turning to the general offensive, annihilating the main force of the Japanese army, landing on the Japanese islands, and completely defeating Japan.

On this basis, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army in the Far East and the Governor-General of the Far East, Alekseev, planned the following operations: 1. Garrison the Port of Arthur with 12,000 men; 2. Garrison Vladivostok with 7,000 men; 3. A main force was stationed at key points along the Dongqing Railway, making mobile arrangements, mainly to guard against the reinforcements of the Chinese army; 4. With 20,000 elite troops and 86 cannons, they were stationed at key points along the Yalu River. to delay the Japanese attack; 5. The rest of the troops were stationed in Shenyang, Liaoyang and other places. to respond.

Alekseev believed that with the natural danger of the Yalu River, the Russian army would definitely be able to stop the Japanese attack. If the enemy is defeated, it can gradually withdraw to the watershed line. Maintain contact with the main force. Suppose the Japanese army goes south to attack Lushun. then copied the rear road of the Japanese army.

War Minister Kulopatkin naturally did not believe in the war plans of the Far Eastern governor. He believes that if Japan enters the war, it will definitely not be Alekseev's estimate of 12~150,000 (Alekseev's previous judgment of the Japanese army was 12~150,000 troops and 450~500 artillery pieces). I'm afraid it's going to double! Because Japan has a limited standing force, but it has a very large reserve force, which can be more than doubled in a short period of time once mobilized. The Japanese army attacked with all its might, South Manchuria was not owned by Russia, and if it was not broken by the Japanese army, the main force of the Russian army must be concentrated on the line from Changchun to Harbin, waiting for domestic reinforcements. In this way, Lushun will inevitably fall into isolation. Because the fortifications of the fortress of Arthur Pass have not yet been completed, the success of the defense of Arthur Pass cannot be guaranteed. If Lushun loses, the Russian fleet loses its support, and the situation will be unimaginable.

Naturally, the main war faction did not want to listen to the bitter words of the Minister of War. Their mistake was to overestimate the combat effectiveness of the Russian fleet, believing that the Navy would never lose to Japan. The chief of staff of the fleet, Vigfut, compared the strength of the Russian and Japanese fleets and was convinced that his side would never lose to Japan. Since the navy would not fail, the Japanese army would never be able to land at Niuzhuang (Yingkou) or on the west bank of Korea. Therefore, Governor Alekseev judged that the Japanese army must avoid the area controlled by the Russian fleet and must land on the coast east of Incheon, and thus have to travel 200 miles by land to the Yalu River, and that North Korea is too mountainous and the transportation conditions are extremely poor, and it is too difficult to transport troops. Even if we arrived in Anton, there was still a 170-mile journey to Lushun, and it was not easy to march with bare hands in rainy and snowy weather, and the roads were all muddy, not to mention heavy artillery and other military supplies. Judging from this, Russia's war in Manchuria can be worry-free.

The problem is to estimate the strength of the navy, not to compare the number and tonnage of warships of the two sides, the age and speed of the warships, and more importantly, the training and morale of the crews, which are all important reasons for determining the victory or defeat of a sea. At that time, although there were many Russian warships in Arthur, there were only eleven that could fight, and the rest were all faulty and faulty, anyway, they were just a few of them. And the Japanese side could put into operation as many as fourteen battleships and cruisers. The average speed of Russian warships was only 16.3 knots, while the Japanese fleet reached 18.3 knots. The Russian fleet had only 42 guns over 6 inches, but the Japanese had 55. The Russian army has a total of 138 naval guns of 6 inches and below, while the Japanese have 184. There are only two Russian naval bases in the Far East, Port Arthur and Vladivostok, which occupied China in the last century. In both military ports, there is a shortage of large docks, and the Russian army has a plan to expand Port Arthur, but it has not been implemented. On the Japanese side, there were as many as six or seven bases, which were enough to accommodate its large warships. The port of Vladivostok is frozen from November to March, and it is difficult for warships to maneuver unless icebreakers are used to open the way. The four largest tonnage warships of the Russian army must use Vladivostok as their home port. Between Vladivostok and Arthur, there were three bases of the Japanese navy, which could easily divide the Russian fleet into two places, making it difficult to echo them.

The Japanese strategy was-for-tat, destroying the Russian fleet with surprise attacks, seizing sea supremacy, and securing their vital sea lines of communication. At the same time, the entire army was quickly transferred to Chinese mainland, seized the Port of Arthur, crushed the main Russian forces in the Liaoyang area, and then captured Sakhalin Island and the entire Manchuria, Ussuri Krai and Primorsky Krai.

On the night of February 8, 1904, the Japanese Navy suddenly attacked the Russian fleet anchored outside the Port of Arthur and immediately blocked the Port of Arthur, so that troops could be transferred from the sea to land without hindrance.

In mid-February, the Japanese First Army with Kuroki as its commander landed in Korea, and by mid-April, the army had advanced to the Sino-Korean border, defeated the Russian East Manchurian detachment in the battle of the Yalu River, and gradually seized the strategic initiative. On May 5, the Japanese Second Army with Obao Gong as its commander landed on the Liaodong Peninsula and occupied Jinzhou on May 26, cutting off the connection between Lushunkou and the Russian Manchurian Army, completing the intermediate breakthrough. On June 14~16, the Russian Siberian First Army and the Japanese Second Army to support the Port of Arthur had a meeting in Wafanggou, which was a station of the Eastern Railway, and the Japanese army had a great advantage in both strength and artillery, and after two days and nights of fighting, the Japanese army posed a great threat to the weak right flank of the Russian army, and the Russian army was forced to retreat north. In the battle, the Japanese lost about 1,200 people, and the Russian army lost 3,500 people.

The main force of the Japanese Second Army followed the pursuit and launched an attack on Liaoyang along the railway line. In order to completely encircle Lushunkou, the Japanese army formed a new 3rd Army, with Nogi Noshinori as its commander. The task of the army was obviously to besiege Lushunkou.

Since Kuroki set foot in the Kanto region for Zhen's First Army, Long Qian went to the staff office almost every day to study the battle situation with the "Kanto Group". The intelligence was fragmented, and the Germans could provide a comparison of the military strength of the two sides, but for the situation at the front, it came more from the intelligence department led by Jiang Yun. The intelligence of the Intelligence Department is a compilation of information obtained from intelligence stations in Beijing, Mukden and Harbin. And this information comes more from the South Manchurian detachment.

The South Manchurian detachment not only had to participate in this war to develop and strengthen itself, but also could not act as cannon fodder for the Russian army, so Long Qian issued instructions in succession, asking Lushan to absolutely maintain the independence of the detachment, place the detachment on the flank of the battle line, take ambush, surprise attack, and harassment as the basic tactics, and take the fight against the pro-Japanese local armed forces as the main task, vigorously develop the strength of the detachment, and prepare for the occupation of South Manchuria by the Japanese army and the detachment to move to North Manchuria to establish a long-term base area.

To this end, at the same time as the Battle of Wafanggou broke out, Long Qian once again selected and transferred 50 junior officers and staff officers to form the fourth batch of support forces, led by Shang Fengchun, deputy chief of the Ninth Staff Section, to the northeast. (To be continued......)