Age of Conquest: A Kings and Generals Podcast

Last time we spoke about the Russian counter offensive at Telissu. Kuropatkin sought to maintain a defensive posture and wait for reinforcements before launching offensives, but his superiors forced him to perform a hopeless attempt to rescue Port Arthur. With multiple Japanese armies on the move, Kuropatkin could not send the appropriate numbers necessary to relieve the city, and this led to utter disaster. Lt General Stakelberg was given the unfortunate job of advancing southwest to Prot Arthur and would end up running into the Japanese around Telissu. Despite being able to fortify the position and taking up a defensive posture, the battle would prove disastrous for the Russians. Everything was going quite well until the Japanese snuck upon the Russian right flank which buckled and opened the door to a rout. Stakelberg courageously led a counter attack to try and salvage the battle, but it was lost and with it the rescue of Port Arthur.   #78 The Russo-Japanese War part 5: The Japanese advance to Liaoyang    Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. After the battle of Telissu General Oku’s 2nd IJA rested for four days. While this was going on, the remainder of the 6th division arrived to Oku’s command. Meanwhile there was no rest for the Stakelberg’s men. The Russians overestimated the 4th IJA’s strength and now Stakelberg was receiving orders to occupy Kaiping to make sure the 10th IJA division could not threaten it. The battered men were not to happy to be tossed into another melting pot again. Their rearguard was provided by Lt General Simonov, but he became gravely ill and had to hand over command to Major General Samsonov. By June 20th, the 1st Siberian army corps took their new position at Kaiping. Despite the Russian losses, there was a lot of international criticism aimed at the Japanese. For all of their victories, they kept allowing the Russian forces to get away, they never pursued them too heavily. All four Japanese armies were experiencing supply issues. For example Oku’s 2nd IJA were supplied via Pulantien which was being rocked around by monsoons. Over at Dalny, the Russians had abandoned countless railway wagons, but had the good sense to remove their engines at least. The Japanese had a quick answer to this, they bought some engines from America, however the naval squadron at Vladivostok made a raid and managed to intercept two steamers carrying the engines over, now they sat at the bottom of the sea. This greatly delayed some heavy siege artillery for Nogi’s 3rd IJA to hit Port Arthur.  Regardless of the logistics hiccups, three Japanese armies still had to coordinate their advance upon Liaoyang. They needed to concentrate their efforts to exert a constant pressure on the Russians to thwart them consolidating properly. To gain access to the Liao valley, the Japanese were forced to go through the passes of Taling, Fenshuling and Motienling. Kuropatkin gave the job of blocking these areas to General Count Keller, who was seizing command of the Russian Eastern Force from the disgraced Zasulich from the Yalu disaster. Keller would have 25,000 men guarding the Motien Pass lying astride the Liaoyang and Antung roads. Keller was an intelligent and brave soldier, he had worked under Kuropatkin for quite some time. He was loyal to Kuropatkin, in truth they were quite good friends. Keller began to study the Japanese actions and he noticed they were extremely similar to what they had done during the Sino-Japanese War. Thus given history was to repeat itself as they say, he predicted the three Japanese armies would converge at Haicheng as they had done 10 years prior. Kuropatkin agreed with his friend's prediction and set about building up a force at Haicheng with the view it would stop the advance of the 2nd or 4th IJA.  Kuropatkin at this stage began making a bit of a mess of troop deployment and movements. He became obsessed multiple places would be hit by the Japanese and real or imaginary tried to plug said gaps in his greater manchurian defensive line. He dispatched a brigade of the 5th infantry division of Stakelberg’s force to hold a position at Tashihchiao and this would affect an upcoming battle. Now Keller over at the Motien pass was already weakened, because he had forces under him taken to help at the Telissu battle. Now he was receiving orders to release two more regiments to strengthen Haicheng. Kuropatkin then believed Kuroki’s 1st IJA were about to advance up Fenghuangcheng, so he ordered Keller to advance his force there to block against them. Likewise General Rennenkampf stationed at Saimachi was ordered to take his 5000 cavalry force and block Kuroki’s advance at Aiyangcheng.  Keller gathered 7 and a half battalions and began his advance against Kuroki. In 36 hours his men traveled over 40 miles, they became exhausted. They were 10 miles within reach of Fenghuangcheng and not a single Japanese had been seen. Keller and his men waited awhile, then ultimately pulled back to Motienpass by June 18th. General Kashtalinski made a report of these actions to a German military observer, Von Tettau stating “all that was achieved by this action was the ruination of 8000 pairs of boots, an item we are in short supply”. On June 19th, the Japanese scouts gave word of Rennenkampfs advance against Aiyangcheng. Thus the Japanese reinforced their detachment from Fenghuangcheng over to Aiyangcheng to make a defense. Yes, it turned out when Keller advanced he stopped 10 miles away from Fenghuangcheng not bothering to check the city to see if the Japanese were there. As a result Rennenkampf launched a failed attack against Aiyangcheng on June 22nd and was easily driven off. Kuroki could have made more of these two locations and given real battle, but he chose to hold back, his attention was drawn securing the railway line to his favored target, the Motienpass.  The 1st and 4th IJA received orders on the 19th and 22nd to advance. General Kawamura with the 4th would hit the Fenshuiling pass, defended by a Russian brigade. Kuroki believed the 2nd IJA would hit Kaiping around the same time, so he planned to hit the Motienpass in unison. General Oku’s advanced had stalled somewhat on June 21st around Hsiungyaocheng where he was forced to make camp and await supplies. He would remain there until July 6th as the Japanese were trying to solve numerous logistical issues. Railway carts from Pulantien heading for Telissu were improved upon, Chinese coolies were hired en masse for the job. The logistical situation did improve, but what would really make a difference was the seizure of Port Arthur that held all the facilities, equipment and railway functions necessary to send large loads.  Speaking of Port Arthur the new Admiral Witgeft was under pressure from Alexeiev and by proxy the Tsar to break out of the harbor and try to join up with the Vladivostok squadron. On June 20th there was a proposed departure for the fleet, everything was ready to go, then disaster struck. The editor of Bezobrazov’s “Novoe Krai” published a special edition literally announcing the departure that very day. Witgeft was forced to abandon the break out attempt to the dismay of the sailors eager to get out of the harbor as it looked like Port Arthur was going to face a siege soon. On June 23rd the fleet did depart, traveling carefully through the mine fields. Then at 6pm the IJN warships appeared over the horizon. The Russians saw the IJN Chinyen who was patrolling the Korean straits. Witgeft believed the entire combined fleet must be in the vicinity, but in truth Togo had dispatched 8 cruisers to hit the Vladivostok squadron who downed their two steamers back on the 15th. Togo received word from the Chinyen that the Tsarevitch and Retvizan were amongst the Russian ships. Togo was shocked the two battleships were repaired and out in the open sea, the Russians held a 6-4 advantage for larger ships. The IJN still held superior numbers with 53 ships vs Witgefts 18 however. By dusk the two opposing fleets began sailing parallel from another at a course of 18 miles. It was to be a moonlit evening, fit for battle. Despite the moonlit the advantage was to be had by torpedoes rather than naval gunfire, something the IJN would become specialists at during WW2. The Japanese had much more destroyers and torpedo boats and thus held a distinct advantage. Togo steered his flagship Mikasa towards the Russian line. Witgeft lost nerve and ordered the fleet to turn to starboard trying to make a return to Port Arthur and the security of her shore batteries. Upon seeing the Russians turning, Togo ordered his destroyers and torpedo boats to launch attacks upon their own attrition, rather than risking his battleships. In retrospect, Witgeft should have given battle and done as much damage as possible to the IJN battleships, given what would occur later at Port Arthur. But that is of course retrospect, maintaining the Pacific fleet in the hopes they could join the incoming baltic fleet was the winning idea of the day. The Russian fleet made a orderly retreat to Port Arthur trying to take it slow lest they hit mines. Only the Sevastopol would run into a mine, no other Russian warships were significantly damaged by naval gunfire or torpedoes. As for the IJN smaller warships, 5 of them took some hits from shore batteries, but no one sank. While it did not look like a significant engagement, it was another blow to the morale of the Russian navy and Togo had yet again managed to bottle up the Russians.  On June the 24th a rather strange order was issued from the IJA general HQ to all units “The fact has been proved that the Russian fleet is able to issue from the harbour of Port Arthur. The transport of provisions which will be required by the combined Manchurian Armies after their arrival at Liaoyang is therefore rendered uncertain, and it is not advisable for the Second Army to advance further north than Kaiping for the present. The battle of Liaoyang, which it was anticipated would be fought before the rainy season, will now be postponed till after it. Arrange your operations accordingly.” Why was this a rather strange order? It was inconceivable for the 2nd IJA to be permitted to advance to Kaiping while the 1st and 4th IJA’s had not yet broken through the Fenshuiling and Motien passes. The message thus spelt the doom of the 2nd IJA if the Russians were to find out and concentrate their forces against it. But was the order sent to the Japanese or perhaps was it a ruse for the Russians. The Japanese units uncharacteristically ignored the order, thus one would be led to believe it was a ruse. The actually Japanese plans were for the mountain passes to be secured prior to Oku closing in on the main russian forces. The supposed fake message was the contrary and exactly how the war went in 1894. Kuropatkin ended up taking forces away from the Motien pass to cover the supposed Oku advance. On June 26th Keller forfeited yet another regiment over to Haicheng and Kuropatkin went there himself that day. Thus on the 26 Haicheng held around 41 battalions and 18 cavalry squadrons.  Meanwhile the 4th IJA advanced upon Fenshuiling where the road descends to Haicheng and Tashishchiao astride the railway. The pass held high pine filled mountains to its north and less steep hills to its south with tracks running parallel in a main approach. On the pass the Russians deployed three infantry regiments, three batteries and a cossack battery. West of them was General Mishchenko with his Cossack brigade plus an infantry regiment. On the night of the 25th the Japanese advanced along an unguarded path trying to hook around the rear of the Russian right flank. They had with them some Maxim machine guns and mountain artillery pieces. Another group of Japanese took off their regulation boots and wore Japanese straw sandals to scale the northern face on the mountains undetected to get around the Russian left flank. It took both these detachments a day to maneuver. Altogether the plan was to hit the Russians on the morning of the 27th. At 5:15am on the 27th the battle commenced with an artillery duel. The Russians had camouflaged their guns using trees. The Japanese frontal assault suffered heavily and by 7am slowed down nearly to a halt. But it was just then when their left and right hooking detachments unleashed their fire power from the hilltops. The Russians were being hit from every angle and were quickly forces to pull back by 8am. As the Russian artillery began to move the Japanese pushed their frontal assault now enjoying better artillery support. By 10am the Russians were overwhelmed and retreating towards Hsimucheng. Their retreat left Mishchenko’s left exposed. Mishchenko attempted a counter attack, but by 7pm was likewise retreating.  The Japanese were able with ease to outmaneuver the Fenshuiling pass, but the Motien pass was another matter entirely. Try to imagine Thermopylae, a very narrow pass that a smaller force could guard with ease, it did not offer any flanking opportunities. Yet all the meddling by Kuropatkin to aid the theoretical attack upon Haicheng depleted Keller of men. Russian morale was at an all time low, man of the soldiers were utterly confused by their superiors orders. An account from the 12th east siberian rifle regiment over the two week period had this to say “This regiment had been ordered to Anshanchan on 15 June, but on reaching that place had been at once sent back to Count Keller. On the 26th it received orders to move to Tawan; but while on the march it received another order to retrace its steps and, at 1 a.m. on the 27th, reached the camp at Chinerhtun which it had left the previous morning. There it was met by an order from General Kuropatkin directing it to march at once to Haicheng. Leaving camp again at 4 a.m. on the 27th, it reached Haicheng on the 28th only to find it was to move next day to Liaoyang, this time by rail. Arriving there on the 30th, orders were again received to rejoin Count Keller’. As formidable as the Motien Pass was, to the utter shock of the Japanese on June the 30th, they captured it unopposed, the Russians had abandoned the position. A few days before, the 9th east siberian rifle regiment had been taken away from Keller to help out at Haicheng and it seems this caused such a state of indecision, alongside the capture of the Fengshuiling pass, Keller opted to pull back. The rain continued to fall from June 27th to July 5th making movement along the roads a nightmare for carts. Kurokis 1st IJA were suffering from logistical problems, he was forced to put the 12th division on half rations. If the rain persisted for more than 48 hours Kuroki would have had to retire his force to Fenghuangcheng, but the rain came to a temporary stop. When the rain ceased both sides went to work sending scouts to see what the other side was doing. The Russians could not figure out what the Japanese were going to do next, would they try to maneuver around their left flank or perhaps cut westward to the railway? On July 4th a reconnaissance in force was launched against Motienling by three battalions and it was easily repulsed. Meanwhile the Japanese were receiving intelligence from their Chinese spies amongst the Russians who reported the Russians had taken positions on some reverse slopes north of Motienling.  Now July 6th was the date set by the IJA general HQ for the advance of the three armies. General Oku led his four divisions northward and by midday on the 7th was in the vicinity of Kaiping, experiencing little to no opposition along the way. Oku’s scouts reported that Kaiping was garrisoned by Stakelberg’s 1st siberian corps while due north at Tashihciao, Lt General Zarubaiev’s 4th Siberian corps were in the process of reinforcing its garrison. Just above the city of Kaiping was a semicircle of hills dominating a flat open field. On these hills were 20,000 men ready to fire upon the incoming Japanese. Oku was very cautious having his men advance with their artillery placed into combat positions to hit Kaiping around 5:30am on the 9th of July. Stakelberg viewed the Japanese advance to Kaiping and feared an envelopment maneuver, so he withdrew the forces. Thus his semicircle hill position was captured by Oku’s 2nd IJA without a fight and they would dig in and remain there until 22nd of July. During their time on the hill they went to work improving the road, rail and sea lanes to establish better supply lines that could maintain Oku’s advance. Alexeiev had been pretty quiet for awhile, but in the face of all the territory loss he yet again began meddling. He instructed Kuropatkin that he should take offensive actions to block the advance of the 2nd and 4th IJA and push back the 1st IJA all the way back into Korea. Kuropatkin obviously thought this was folly and wanted to await further reinforcements, in particular the incoming 7th corps. Kuropatkin believed the Japanese strength was twice what it actually was, ironically Alexeiev would have a much more accurate idea of their numbers. Kuropatkin was not 100% against offensive actions however, he did favor Alexeiev’s idea to engage the 1st IJA, but certainly not the multiple offensives against separate Japanese armies. Alexeiev persisted to place pressure on Kuropatkin and against his better judgment he gave orders for Keller to perform a partial offensive against the Motien pass. Kuropatkin proposed Kellers Eastern Force of 40 battalions would attack what was nearly 80 battalions of Kuroki’s 1st IJA, while 97 battalions of the Russian southern force were ordered to withdraw if the 2nd and 4th IJA attacked who represented a combined for of around 90 battalions. You can see the fallacy in this. A large reason Kuropatkin gave such orders to Keller was because Keller was continuously requesting permission to retake Motienling. Keller received some reinforcements from the 9th division and had his force advance in three columns up the roads. As remarked by Kuropatkin of the small offensive “Taking into consideration the considerable increase of the Eastern Force, I ordered Count Keller to take the offensive, so as to again get possession of the passes. He did so, but although he had forty battalions under his command, he advanced with only twenty-four.’  During the night of July 16th the Russians advanced upon Japanese positions that had full telephone and alarm coverage. At 8am the Russians made a frontal assault out in the open and were absolutely cut down by Japanese artillery. The Russians artillery was not even able to help support the attack until 2:10pm whereupon their infantry were already withdrawing. Two other Russian columns advanced and met similar fates. Keller had kept one quarter of his forces in reserve. A british military observer, General Hamilton witnessed the battle and remarked the Russians were still utilizing section volley fire. It seemed to Hamilton they had no idea of the use and value of cover and that their officers led them with undue risks. He did praise their efforts at withdrawing but left the remark “It is passing strange that soldiers so steady and formidable in retreat should be so sticky in the attack”. After their loss, Keller had his men dig in a bit further north around Tawan which lies astride the Fenghuangchang-Liaoyang road. Kuroki was emboldened by the easy victories and sent the 12th division against the smaller twon of Chiaotou, hoping to use it as a springboard for a possible attack against the Russian lines of communication to Mukden. The garrison at Chiaotou was a brigade group of the 10th corps who were subjected to having their right flank attacked on july the 18th and 19th. The Russians were quickly forced to withdraw up the Liaoyang road. Rennenkampf was with his cavalry unit 25 miles due east and tried to assist them but received a wound to his thigh on the 13th and had to hand over command to General Liubavin. Liubavin dragged his feet around on the issue ultimately doing nothing to help. With the loss of Chiaotou, the rest of the 1st IJA were now advancing and this directly threatened Penshihu which lay along the railway line between Liaoyang and Mukden. Kuropatkin ordered the 10th corp to retake Chiaotou while Keller was to hold out at Tawan. Meanwhile Kuropatkin and Alexeiev continued to argue about strategy. With no real navy to administer, Alexeiev focused on the land war and was even planning the formation of two armies he would lead himself, placing Kuropatkin in command of one of them subordinate to him. You really have to be baffled by this, Alexeiev was an admiral, this was lunacy. Kuropatkin and Alexeiev met at Mukden on July 20th whereupon Alexeiev unfolded his plans to reinforce the Eastern Force who was to engage Kuroki. Kuropatkin remained unconvinced, but obedient nonetheless as he departed for Liaoyang where he publicly announced his intention to resume the offensive. The 10th and 17th corps were handed over to the Eastern Force while the 2nd IJA resumed their advance northwards, edging closer to the Eastern Force. By July 23rd Oku’s intelligence indicated the enemy force was roughly 4 divisions strong and had defensive lines going 10 miles long to towards the south part of Tashihciao. Tashihciao was strategically important because it sat on the junction of the main and secondary lines of the railway leading to the port city of Yingkou. Taking such a junction would greatly benefit the Japanese logistics. Oku cautiously approached as the 1st and 4th IJA were still occupying the mountains. Oku had his men approach in an extended line going 12 miles with his cavalry brigade screening his left flank. On his right flank was the 5th division followed by the 3rd, 6th and 4th to the extreme left. The Japanese advanced within 5 miles of the southern Russian lines.  Kuropatkin had personally selected Tashihciao and had it fortified heavily. Stakelberg’s 1st Siberian army corp had fallen back to join up with Lt General Zarubaiev’s 4th Siberian army corp, Zarubaiev would have overall command. Zarubaiev was given orders to withdraw to Haicheng if pressed upon by the enemy, yet again you can sense the defeatist mentality amongst the Russian commanders. Stakelberg took the right flank, Zarubaiev the left. Stakelergs sector rested along the railway and to his flank was General Kossogovski’s cavalry brigade, Kossogovski had taken command of the brigade from Samsonov. Zarubaievs sector was along the Tungta river with General Mishchenkos cavalry watching his flank. The Russians had a general reserve of 10 battalions and 16 artillery pieces along the center towards the left in two groupings. The left area was full of hills and ravines, while the right was low flat ground. The Russians had learnt some lessons from their defeats and made sure to have outposts on high grounds to be able to track Japanese movements.  Oku chose to advance along some fields of Kaoliang, providing some concealment, but not nearly enough to hide most of his forces advance. Oku’s intelligence indicated turning either flanks of the Russians would not be easy this time around. An attempt to divert forces against either flank might expose the Japanese lines of communication and spell a disastrous counter attack upon them. Oku decided not to risk anything, he ordered the 5th, 3rd and 6th divisions to launch a frontal assault on July 24th. He believed the 4th IJA’s movements would be on the Russians minds giving him an edge. Oku’s 4th division was held back on the left flank, expected to act against possible counter strokes. The 4th divisions orders were ‘take up a position near Wutaishan and will hold it in strength as a protection for the left flank of the army. No advance will be made therefrom until it is observed that the general attack elsewhere is succeeding.’ Along the far left was the cavalry screen and two infantry regiments held in reserve.  After the Russo-Japanese war Zarubaeiv would go on the record during a Russian staff debriefing, to state he was attacked by both the 2nd and 4th IJA at the battle of Tashihciao. It seems likely the Russians had misidentified the strength of the divisions facing them. The 4th and 6th IJA divisions were correctly identified, but the 3rd and 5th divisions in the hills it seems led the Russians to believe were only a single division and thus the confusion arrived with their movement. Alongside this General Mishchenko had apparently reported to Zarubaiev that the 10th IJA division were in the vicinity. During the early light of the 24th, the Russians saw three Japanese divisions advancing in a line. The 4 divisions was holding back as ordered and by 5:30am the Japanese artillery began to fire. The Russian left flank began an artillery duel while in the center the IJA 6th division performed what seemed to be a halfhearted assault. By midday the sun was intense and the Russian red cross found themselves extremely busy with cases of sunstroke. At 1pm Stakelberg dispatched an aide over to Zarubaiev, suggesting they should withdraw. Stakelberg stated it was his belief the Japanese main attack was about to hit and if the troops were in the forward trenches they would be met with extremely heavy casualties. He also reminded Zarubaiev, it was not Kuropatkins plan of the campaign to make a firm stand at Tashihciao. No Stakelbergs aid arrived to Zarubaiev’s HQ at the exact same time Zarubaeiv received a report from Zasulich that the 4th IJA were on the move. Zarubaiev was concerned, but not enough to order a withdrawal right away, especially when the sun was blazing at 100 degrees invited disaster for marching. Instead he sent a message back to Stakelberg simply stating he would consider withdrawing by nightfall.  In reality, Stakelberg was greatly overreacting. By 2pm 12 of the 12 Japanese batteries opposing his corps were assigned counter battery operations against two of his batteries beyond the hill line. At 3pm a reinforcement Russian battery joined up with them and combined were keeping the Japanese infantry at bay well into nightfall. The Japanese were taking heavy losses. Meanwhile back at 10:30am the 4th IJA division had advanced while skirmishing with Russian cavalry. At 1pm General Kossagovski performed a halfhearted attack against the Japanese left flank. His men fought with the Japanese 1st cavalry brigade who sent them packing north. Kossagovski reported the grounds too muddy for cavalry actions, but asserted he had effectively drawn the Japanese attention to his sector. At 8pm, Zarubaeiv decided to launch a counter attack upon the left flank given this information. Oku released one of his two reserve regiments to fill a gap that was emerging between his 4th and 6th divisions. Meanwhile the 3rd and 5th IJA divisions were trying to hit a weak point along the Russian line in the center. The 4th corps tossed 72 guns of which 32 were the new quick firing model against the 12 batteries supporting the Japanese. The Japanese were gravely outgunned in rate of fire and range.  Just before noon, Zarubaeiv ordered a counter attack. General Shileiko whose position was on the extreme left of the Russian line was to hit the flank of the 5th IJA division. He was also ordered to confer with Mishchenko and the commander of the general reserve. Mishchenko agreed to release cavalry units to Shileiko’s command but the commander of the general reserve refused to relinquish any of his units stating he had not received any orders to do so. The results was Shileiko’s vanguard being torn to pieces, while Mishchenkos cavalry units stayed safely away on the periphery before withdrawing. The counter attack was an abysmal failure. At 2pm Oku ordered his right flank divisions to press home their attack with or without artillery support. At 3:30pm the Japanese advanced in the face of terrifying Russian artillery. The 5th IJA division were battered and based the job to the 3rd division to keep moving forward. A Japanese battalion managed to seize a key Russian feature, but were quickly met with a counterattack that dislodged them. The 3rd divisions sector continued to perform intense fighting, but alongside the heat both sides were succumbing to inactivity. Stakelberg’s artillerymen were holding the Japanese at bay, effectively forcing the 2nd IJA to a grinding halt. The Russians still held 6 battalions in reserve while the Japanese held only 1.  The commander of the 5th IJA division was embarrassed by his men's performance and requested Oku allow him to launch a night attack, Oku agreed. At 10pm the 5th division surged across the valley and over some slopes screaming banzai taking the Russians by surprise. The Japanese were able to seize forward positions as the entire 5th division crashed along the front. By early afternoon on the 25th, the Russian position was in Japanese hands, the Russians rearguards were the only ones putting up a fight. Apparently the commanding Russian officer deemed it impossible to recapture the 10 mile front position and ordered a withdrawal. It’s hard to find real numbers on this incredible action, but it is assumed both sides took 1000 casualties each. The taking of this position effectively drove a wedge in the Russian lines and Zarubaeiv decided to order a withdrawal, Kuropatkin gave his support to the decision.  The two Russian corps now withdrew to Haicheng as Oku’s army captured Tashihciao and stayed there until August 1st. The withdrawal left General Zasulich in an exposed position at Hsimucheng. Zasulich ordered his rearguards to protect their flanks which were being harassed by the 2nd IJA. Meanwhile the 5th IJA division was transferred to General Nozu’s 4th IJA. Mishchenkos cavalry joined Zasulich giving the 2nd Siberian corps + a brigade of the 10th corps a total of 33 battalions, 31 squadrons and 80 artillery pieces. Nozu now commanded the 5th, 10th and 4th divisions along with the 10th Kobi brigade. Nozu’s ordered were to attack the Russians whenever possible, so he looked at Hsimucheng as a viable target.  At 2am on July 30th, the 10th division and reserve brigade advanced frontally against the Russian position at Hsimucheng while the 5th division hooked around the left of the Russians trying to cut off their line of retreat. The terrain was rocky and mountainous, not easy to fortify, thus the Russian defensive lines were not great. On the 31st the Japanese main attack hit the right side of the Russian position. Mishchenko’s cavalry and the 4th siberian corp rearguards began withdrawing, but Zasulichs main force held tight, bravely tossing counter attacks against the larger Japanese army. The 5th IJA division advanced upon the Russian right, joined by a detachment from the 3rd IJA division sent over by Oku. Zasulich’s men held until 11pm when orders from Kuropatkin came to withdraw to Haicheng. Yet again the Russians were retreating. At the battle of Hsimucheng the Russians took 1550 casualties and the Japanese 836. The battle of Hsimucheng also coincided with two other battles. The Russians had mobilized to regain the small town of Chiatou on July 24th and made an advance along the Lan river. The Russian 10th corp, less one brigade under General sluchevski took the lead while General Liubavin took some cavalry to guard the road to Mukden. Now the 10th corps were a European corps and there was great expectation they would walk over the Japanese. After news hit that the men were withdrawing from Tashihciao, Kuropatkin had rushed over to Liaoyang, but just prior ordered Sluchevski the same type of orders he gave Stakelberg at Telissu. The 10th corps divided itself into a vanguard, main body, left and right flank guards and advanced upon the isolated 2nd IJA right flank occupied by the 12th division. By July 30th both sides were grinding to a halt, artillery were dueling it out. 15 miles away were Keller’s two divisions dug in behind the lan River around Tawan and Yangtzuling. Keller had orders to stay where he was. Thus General Sluchevski, Keller and Liubavin could not aid another given their orders. On the 31st Kuroki resumed his offensive and decided he would hit all 3 of the enemy forces in the area one by one as long as they remained divided. Kuroki was acting independently, but saw such a grand opportunity he had to grab it. Now the 12th division at Chiaotou were about as far from the 2nd division as Sluchevski was from Keller. The 2nd division were guarding Motienling and to their left was a guards division. Early on the morning of the 31st, four battalions of the 2nd IJA division advanced along a goat track to join up with the 12th so they could attack a Russian brigade currently guarding a pass at Pienling, two miles south of Yushuling. The Russian brigade was isolated, but held a great defensive position, not enough so to repel two Japanese divisions however. According to British military observation testimony “In places the path was so narrow that the Russians could not move more than four abreast, and so steep were the hill sides, that they were quite unable to deploy for attack, or to make any effective reply to the Japanese fire. In this short space the losses suffered amounted to five or six hundred killed and wounded” The Russians were only saved from complete disaster by the arrival of a Terek-kuban cavalry regiment who dismounted and aided them. Sluchevski’s left flank meanwhile was caught by surprise during the night and the 12th division made a lot of progress. Then Sluchevski received a telegram from Kuropatkin telling him Keller was battling some 15 miles away. Kuropatkin had to inform him that expected reinforcements were thus not forthcoming. The 10th corps by this point had suffered 2000 casualties, their reserves were already in the battle. At 6:30 Sluchevskis cavalry left flank guard were deceived by a false report the Japanese artillery were turning to another area. The battle was going to hell in a hand basket as they say. Kuroki planned to hold the Russian front with his 2nd division while the guards division would hook into their right. The two divisions with reserves made a full assault. The Russians bravely tried to counter but failed to stop the onslaught. The Japanese gradually took the Russian forward trenches as the Russians were forced to perform a staggered retreat. The Russians and Japanese had light casualties in the few hundreds for the battle. Over in Kellers position, Japanese artillery seemed to be hunting down superior officers, Keller was hit by shrapnel tossing him to the ground with 37 wounds killing him instantly. The death of Keller destroyed the troops morale, he was a beloved commander who was notorious for leading at the front. General Kashtalinksi replaced Keller and ordered the reserves to come forward. Kuropatkin advised not tossing the reserves in, stating “hold back until the main effort of the Japanese has been disclosed”. Given the withdrawal at Hsimucheng and Yushuling, Kashtalinski was also told not to withdraw too hastily, but that is just what he did. Thus the road to Liaoyang seemed to be wide open, the Russians were offering nothing but withdrawals after withdrawals, when would they stand firm to fight? I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. As the Japanese advanced, so did the Russians, but in the opposite direction. British Lt General Sir Edward Bruce Hamley’s Operations of War states “Victory can only be won by striking”. Pungent words for Kuropatkin as he scrambled to perform offensives. 

Last time we spoke about the battle of Nanshan. After their loss at the battle of Yalu, the Russians began a withdrawal while trying to delay the Japanese advance upon Port Arthur. The 2nd IJA of General Oku landed at Pitzuwo along the Liaodong peninsula. To open the path to Port Arthur and cut her off from reinforcements from the rest of Manchuria. General Oku first had the 4th IJA division seize Chinchou before bombarding Nanshan both from land and sea. The Russian defenders led by Colonel Tretyakov fought like lions exacting a terrible price upon the Japanese, but ultimately it was the foolish General Fok who made a blunder of things resulting in a chaotic withdrawal. Nanshan was seized and General Nogi with the 3rd IJA began to land at Takushan ready to pounce on the prize of Dalny. Dalny was seized without a fight and now Nogi’s men prepared to besiege Port Arthur.    #77 The Russo-Japanese War part 4: The Russian counter offensive at Telissu   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. As we have seen with the battles of Yalu and Nanshan, the Russians seemed to have an enormous strategic problem. The core of the problem was the fact that the Tsar appointed General Kuropatkin to lead the war, but left the real power in the hands of Admiral Alexeiev. There were clear philosophical differences between the two men, hell one was an admiral trying to lead land battles. Kuropatkin understood logistics better, he knew they needed to bide time so more men could travel abroad the trans Siberian over to the far east so a proper offensive could be made. But Alexeiev and his financial friends in the Royal Timber company feared losing their investments in Manchuria. As I mentioned in an earlier episode Alexeiev’s position and appointment of Viceroyalty was actually the brainchild of Aleksandr Bezobrazov who recommended it to the Tsar. In many ways the Russo-Japanese war was fought for the financial benefit of some elites in Russia and this would help stoke revolutionary fever back home. Kuropatkin was not 100% sure of the Japanese disposition and intentions. The 1st IJA beat them at the Yalu and seemed to be heading northwest towards Liaoyang. The 2nd IJA landed at Pitzuwo, defeated them at Nanshan and now held Dalny. The 10th division, the nucleus of the soon to be created 4th IJA had landed at Takushan while the 3rd IJA seemed to still be in Japan. Kuropatkin wrote in his memoirs “it was incumbent on us, therefore to exercise great caution and to keep our forces as far as possible concentrated, so as to be ready to meet the attack of two or even three armies”. The slow pass of the trans Siberian railway to reinforce him by May was causing Kuropatkin to seriously consider withdrawing from Liaoyang to Harbin. But the Tsar and court demanded he go on the offensive to try and rescue Port Arthur. Alexeiev’s chief of staff Jalinski sent to Kuropatkin basically two options. Number 1, contain the 2nd IJA and attack the 1st IJA and 4th IJA in the direction of Yalu. Number 2 perform an offensive against the 2nd IJA to the north of Port Arthur while blocking the 1st IJA. Neither option was good, but Kuropatkin chose the 2nd one. Kuropatkin believed an attack from the direction of Liaoyang would leave the Russian right flank and rear exposed to a possible landing of the 3rd IJA. Kuropatkins staff believed such a landing might occur at Yingkou. Having to allocate troops to protect his right flank and rear, Kuropatkin only had 60-70 of his 94 battalions in mid may. The railway did not run towards Yalu, therefore his logistical lines would be terrible, feeding such an immense army was not easy.  On the other side, General Nogi who had commanded the 1st IJA brigade that took Port Arthur in 1894 was given initially the 1st and 11th divisions for the same task in 1904. It soon became very apparent he required at minimum 4 divisions for the job. His force began a siege against Port Arthur and this in turn affected Kuropatkin’s situation. Port Arthur had been provisioned to sustain 12 battalions for 12 months. But now it held 27 battalions and an enormous amount of refugees from places like Dalny, it was theorized to only be able to hold out for 6 months. On May 23rd Jalinski arrived to Kuropatkins HQ at Liaoyang whereupon he gave him the two options. Kuropatkin thought both options were idiotic and screamed at Jalinski, unwilling to comply. Alexeiev proposed sending the case to the Tsar for adjudication, thus both Kuropatkin and Alexeiev sent reports to the Tsar. Alexeievs case report drew attention to losing the navy and Port Arthur would lose the war based on a loss of morale. Kuropatkin explained going on an offensive southwards would simply expose his army to a devastating attack and it was better to hold up at Liaoyang and build up strength. He also advised that Port Arthur held no tactical significance anymore. The Tsar convened a council of war and they all agreed if Port Arthur fell the incoming baltic fleet would have nowhere to turn to. Thus Kuropatkin was instructed to rescue Port Arthur. In June of 1904, General Kuroki’s 1st IJA was due north of Yalu heading for Liaoyang. To confront them was Lt General Keller and Major General Rennenkampf, yes that crazy badass from the last war. They had roughly 23,000 infantry, 3600 cavalry and over 90 guns of various caliber. General Oku’s 2nd IJA meanwhile were going to be confronted by the 1st Siberian corps of Lt General Stakelberg who had 30,000 infantry, 3000 cavalry and over 100 guns. Within the 2nd IJA’s center was Geneal Nozu’s 10th IJA division who would be confronted by Major General Mishchenko’s Cossack brigade. To the rear at Liaoyang and Mukden was General Kuropatkin with his growing force of 36,000 infantry, 6000 cavalry and 120 guns. The European 21st division had just arrived, and the 10th army corps + two cavalry divisions were en route. As you can see, the Russians were being forced to separate their forces by the Japanese. If they consolidated the Russians would be a force to be reckoned with. The Russians strategic lifeline, their greatest advantage was the railway, any threat to it would crush the Russian war effort. This was something that deeply troubled Kuropatkin at all times, he would have 55,000 men deployed just to defend the line between the Ural Mountains and the Manchurian frontier. Within Manchuria a force of 25,000 men were assigned to protect the lines there. Meanwhile every strategic point such as railway bridges were being attacked by Honghuzi forces under the direct guidance of Japanese officers. The Qing officially told the Russians they were doing everything they could to thwart the Honghuzi menace, but in reality they were doing pretty much nothing at all. In a single month over 90 major attempts to disrupt the railway would occur between Mukden and Tiehling. On June 7th, Kuropatkin visited Stakelberg at his HQ to give him verbal orders to accompany the written ones he received “Your Excellency’s Army Corps is detailed with the object of drawing upon itself the greatest possible number of the enemy’s forces and thereby weakening his army operating in the Kwantung Peninsula. Your advance, therefore, against the enemy’s covering troops must be rapid and energetic, in the hope of crushing his advanced detachments should they prove to be weak in numbers. In the event of your encountering superior strength decisive action will be avoided and in no case will you allow the whole of your reserves to become engaged until the conditions are entirely clear. The object of our southerly movement is the capture of the Chinchou (Nanshan) position, and thereafter an advance on Port Arthur.” By late May, General Oku began to hear rumors the Russians were performing an advance so he dispatched the 1st Cavalry Brigade of Major General Akiyama to investigate the area of Telissu. The Japanese war plan at this moment was to gradually bring 3 of their armies together to confront the Manchurian army. The first target would be Liaoyang, but to advance to Liaoyang there were some large mountain ranges in the way. These were the Hsiungyaoshan and Fenshuling. The 1st and 4th IJA would have to pass through the passes of each mountain, those being the Motien and Fenshui passes. The Russians had fortified positions in both passes. Meanwhile, Akiyama’s cavalry reached Telissu on May 30th and ran into a Russian cavalry brigade led by General Samsonov. This began a small scale battle where both sides were attacking another while simultaneously trying to reinforce their position. The 2nd squadron of the 13th IJA cavalry regiment were charged upon their left flank by two squadrons of the 8th Siberian cossacks to shocking effect. The Japanese would note the Cossacks used their lances to excellent effect. Casualties were not heavy, but the Japanese understood in the realm of cavalry they were simply outmatched. Thus the Japanese cavalry soon took up a position on along the mountains where they could dismount and fight like dragoons.  On June 3rd General Akiyama reported back to Oku that elements of the 1st Siberian army corps were entering Telissu. Oku ordered Akiyama to pull out swiftly. On the 5th, Stakelberg arrived to Telissu as the main body of the 1st Siberian corps were getting off trains. Stakelberg ordered Samsonov to take his cavalry and fortify a position 5 miles to the south. Basically Stakelberg was leapfrogging towards Port Arthur, using the railway as a general path of advance. On the 6th Oku received a report of the cavalry advance and now the Japanese were beginning to see the Russians were trying to rescue Port Arthur. IJA general HQ sent orders to ramp up activity to weaken Stakelberg’s advance. Until this point the 1st and 4th IJA had been generally performing an offensive, however the 1st IJA were not exactly in a position to do so. The 10th division were still unloading at Takushan, to compensate General Kuroki was given a Guards brigade and ordered to seize Hsiuyen. Kuroki attacked Hsiuyen easily dislodging a force led by Mishchenko there by June 8th. Now back at Telissu, Stakelberg received reports on June 13th that over 20,000 Japanese were advancing north from Pulantien. He believed this to be an exaggeration so he sent three Cossack squadrons to investigate. On the same day, Oku’s supplies had finally arrived and his 2nd IJA were able to begin their advance towards Liaoyang. The Cossacks saw the movement and came back to report it to Stakelberg who quickly abandoned his offensive to instead await the enemy at their prepared defensive positions south of Telissu. By the early morning of the 14th, the Japanese were 14 miles away from the forward Russian trenches. If you pull out a map of Telissu, there is a river, the Fuchou that heads in its direction. South and parallel to this is the railway going directly through Wafangtien then through Telissu. General Stakelberg deployed his troops astride the railway. To the west of the railway were the under strengthened 9th East Siberian rifle division, 5 battalions and two batteries. East of the railway was the bulk of his forces; the 1st East siberian rifle division of 12 battalions and 4 batteries. Lt General Simonov arrived to the scene to take command of the 19 cavalry squadrons previously under Samsonov, his position would be right of the Russian line. Two regiment of the 9th east siberian division and a regiment of the 3rd siberian infantry division were enroute by rail. The Japanese as usual enjoyed exact details on the Russian order of battle via their spy network. Oku had his 3rd and 5th divisions perform a frontal attack with the railway being a divisional boundary line. His 4th division was to perform a sweep going around the Fuchou valley from the west to hit the Russians right flank. So if you were looking at this on a map basically the east had a Russian division with 4 batteries facing a Japanese division with a cavalry brigade and in the west the Russians had a brigade with two batteries, 19 cavalry squadrons to face against two full Japanese divisions.  The Russians defenses were lines of trenches running for 8.5 miles. The shelter trenches were 9 inches deep with 15 inches of parapet. Riflement would be crouched shoulder to shoulder with no overhead cover. Below the Russians the valley afforded the attacker decent covered approaches, thus poor fields of fire for the defender. To the south there were some hills that provided a screen the Japanese could use to conceal their movements. As was the case with most of the battles in this war, it was to be won and lost by artillery. The Russian senior artillery officers insisted their guns could only be effective firing upon stationary targets from covered positions. The junior officers thought this was folly, but were obliged to do as they were told. The brand new Russian quick firing gun would appear for the first time in this battle, but would not be used effectively. The major problem was that of training. The Russian artillery crews had only had these guns for 4 months and as one military observer noted ‘in many, if not in most, cases, had not carried out any practice with them; the supply of ammunition was no doubt a factor’. The men simply did not really understand the enormous capability the new weapon held, because if used effectively the Japanese really had no way to counter it. On the morning of the 14th, the 3 Japanese divisions advanced. The 3rd and 5th kept in visual contact along the railway as the 4th moved further northwest to perform their hook attack. The 6th division was just beginning to land and Oku ordered them to immediately come over to build up his reserve, by the day of the battle, two battalions would make up that reserve. The advance of the Japanese had been quite fast taking the Russians off guard. The Russians were unable to lay out their telephone lines in time and would be at the mercy of runners. The Russian screening forces were gradually brushed aside until at 2pm the Japanese ran into Russian artillery fire in the center. The Japanese artillery of the 3rd division responded trying to tease out the Russian artillery positions. By 3pm a fuel artillery duel was raging. Oku’s scouts re-estimated the Russians to be 3 divisions strong. Oku was well aware every hour that passed was an hour more Russian reinforcements were traveling to them via the railway. On the 15th 3000 infantry and two more artillery pieces would arrive. While the artillery duel raged, probing attacks were launched by the 34th IJA regiment against the left part of the Russian line. The 1st and 2nd East Siberian regiments had to consolidate to repel the attack, but in doing so the 2nd east siberian regiment took heavy casualties. By midday the 4th IJA division arrived to the scene and took up a position on the left bank of the Fuchou river. Their commander General Baron Ogawa read his orders at 5am on June 15th from Oku “As no danger is to be anticipated from the direction of the valley of the Fuchou river, you will detach a force of at least one brigade of infantry which will attack the enemy’s right flank and help the advance of the other divisions.” Ogawa ordered his men to clear the town of Fuchou, the Russians would have been able to see this action using heliographs, but there was a large fog concealing them. Now Stakelberg did not like his subordinate Samsonov, he had very little confidence in the mans ability and that of his Cossack cavalry. In fact when a British military observer was walking touring the defensive lines with Stakelberg he pointed out how vulnerable his right flank looked. Stakelberg remarked ‘I have a (cavalry) squadron or so near Fuchou, but, if three Japanese squadrons advance, mine will retire without finding out the Japanese strength.’ During the night of the 14th, said cavalry had actually discovered the Japanese advance upon their right flank and sent word of this to Stakelbergs chief of staff. The exact same British military observer happened to be present in the HQ and recalled “the chief of staff was told it was a report from Samsonov. It spoke of the Japanese advancing against their right flank. I thought to myself“that his chief had mentioned the possibility to me and would be glad to hear the news. My companion replied that Samsonov’s cavalry were completely useless and that he did not intend to worry Stakelberg about the message”. At 3:30pm, Oku established his new HQ at Wafangtian. By 11pm he ordered his two divisions on the left to perform an attack on the Russian left and center up to the line of the railway set for dawn on the 15th. While the Russians would be concentrating upon their left, the 5th division supported by elements of the 4th would turn their right flank. Stakelberg seeing the pressure on his left, ordered the commander of the reserves, Major General Flasko to move from the center to the left. Glasko arrived at 6pm and placed himself under the command of Major General Gerngross who was commanding the 1st division. Thus three quarters of the Russian strength was now focused in the east, no reserves were available to support the west until the anticipated reinforcements arrived by rail that very night. Both Oku and Stakelberg were seeking to perform counterstrokes at dawn on the 15th. A counterstroke is not a counter attack by the way, it differs as it is aimed generally at the destruction of enemy forces rather than the seizure of territory. Thus you seek to block the enemy advance with a strong defensive line and then hit the enemy flank with a hammer to cause as many casualties as possible. Counter strokes are quite difficult to pull off, they heavily depend on opportunism and quite honestly the boldness of commanders. Frequently in history you see counter strokes occur just when some fresh reinforcements arrive to the scene of battle. Now its not like General Stakelberg issued some operation order for a counter stroke, what he did was sent various commanders separate memoranda. Thus one commander did not know what the other was to do. The memoranda stated that the operation would begin between 1 and 2 am on the 15th, but in an event before daybreak. The exact timing was left to the mutual agreement of commanders like Glasko and Gerngross who were commanding over 16 battalions, half the infantry on the Russian side. The orders were passed down through the night. Men savored their rolled cigarettes, those in the front trenches ate a black bread around dusk. The Russians in the forward positions could hear the Japanese preparing themselves, everyone was anxious. At 2am some shots were fired from nervous Russian positions, starting a fusillade along the entire line. The Japanese advanced during the night closer to the Russian lines as Russian officers barked at their men to restore order. No one got any sleep that night. At 4am the battlefield had a large mist hit. General Gerngross decided his counter stroke would begin at 4am, he sent word to Stakelberg of his decision and awaited his commanders approval. So to reiterate…Gerngross sent word of his decision, its not like he asked “do you approve?”, he simply expected Stakelberg to reply “I approve”. To complicate things further, Glasko sent a runner to Gerngross asking what his orders were, since Gerngross was his superior, but Gerngross had not received a reply from Stakelberg. Stakelberg, probably a bit confused, did not want to intervene in his subordinates operation, the man probably assumed as any of us would that Gerngross was going through with what he said. It was then 6:40am, nothing had been done. Glasko spoke with his staff and they decided they had to take matters into their own hands, they would start an attack. It was at that moment orders arrived from Gerngross confirming the attack and that he promised support. As the troops set off suddenly another runner showed up with new orders for Glasko from Stakelberg reading “If the Japanese advance with superior force against our centre or in any other direction, the Corps will fall back slowly to Wauchialing. In this case, Major General Glasko will hold the line Kouchiatun–Tsuichiatun as long as possible, in order to give the troops falling back by Telissu time to traverse the defile north of Tsuichiatun. Should the Japanese retire, the troops will halt, and await further order.”  Needless to say, its never a great thing when a commander is about to begin an attack and his superior is advising easing on the gas pedal and potentially withdrawing. The situation became confused very quickly. Glasko frantically called back his troops and ordered them to occupy the Kouchiatun-Tsuichitun line. Meanwhile Gerngross completely unaware of any changes in orders ordered his men to attack at 7am expected and depending on Glasko’s men for support. Gerngross’s 3 infantry regiments advance over a 1500 yard front in three echelons. This resulted in only a third of his force being able to fire at any one time. The 3rd IJA division within their trenches were surprised by the attack. Now General Glasko received orders yet again to go forward, but the Russian artillery was petering out and the Japanese were growing stronger.  General Ueda leading the 5th IJA division heard news of the Russian attacks and determined to take matters into his own hands. He had his artillery cross the river at 7am and began smashing Simonov’s cavalry. Simonov believing he was only to perform delaying actions, pulled back northwest, thereby exposing the right flank of the Russian infantry lines. As the 5th division were battering the Russian forces, the 4th division arrived to the scene to add their weight against the thinly held Russian position. Soon the Russian right flank was being overwhelmed. At 11am Stakelberg received a distressing message that had originated back at 6am from his so called useless cavalry. It stated a strong force of Japanese were advancing southwest of Telissu. At that moment Stakelberg had a reserve of two battalions and another two battalions detraining at Telissu station. In a courageous manner, Stakelberg gathered the four battalions and personally launched an attack against the forward elements attacking his right flank. As brave as he was, he was too late to stop the inevitable. Stakelberg had two horses shot from under him before he issued orders to retreat at 11:30am.  West of the railway line, the Russian artillery was improving and the infantry lines were holding firm. The fighting became so fierce in the west, the lines converged and the men began to run out of ammunition and reportedly began tossing rocks at each other. General Oku was forced to toss half his reserve to assist the western front. Meanwhile Glasko’s advance had been delayed because his artillery crews were having trouble with the terrain. Glasko had given them orders to advance against the Japanese right flank to support Gerngross’s 1st east Siberian rifle division. For most of the morning, Gerngross’s attention was fixated at the developing threat west of the railway. Gradually Gerngross’s artillery became exposed and systematically annihilated. Gerngross’s right flank were then subjugated to enfilade artillery and rifle fire from the 5th IJA division causing tremendous casualties. Glasko’s forces failed to arrive to save Gerngross, thus on his own initiative by midday he ordered his division to withdraw. This order coincided with Glasko’s delayed advance which ran directly into the 1st Japanese cavalry brigade advancing to the right of the 3rd IJA division. The fierce Japanese advance was far too much for his force, so he also began withdrawing. At around 2pm General Oku received word more forces were reaching the battlefield so he finally tossed his last reserve battalion to help the 3rd division pressing home the attack. Four batteries passed through the railway gap at 2pm taking a position at Lungwangmiao which was the initial forward Russian line of defense. The artillery crews found abandoned Russian guns there. Below them heading north were four regiments of the 1st east siberian rifle division. The Japanese batteries unleashed shrapnel upon them in revenge for the hours it was tossed at them. To the east and west the Russians were contracting to the center.  Stakelberg was personally directing the withdrawal from the west, but around Telissu the bulk of his corps were being hit with artillery without mercy. The acting rearguard, the 9th east siberian rifle division, courageously held the heights west of the Telissu railway to give the men a chance at evacuating the carnage. At 2pm the whistling of a steam locomotive announced the arrival of the two remaining battalions of the 9th east siberian infantry regiment coming from Kaiping. As the men jumped off the train carts they were hit with artillery and soon the Japanese were surrounding the position, talk about entering a battlefield. The transport corps blocked the route at Panlashan and trying to exit north was impossible. The 1st east siberian division were fleeing for their lives under Japanese artillery heading east, for many days they would be hunted down, to be killed or captured. By 3pm the battle had become a catastrophe for the Russians. Like a miracle, torrential rain began. Visibility fell dramatically, Stakelberg managed to salvage what remained of his army and marched them over to Kaiping. Ultimately the battle was lost because Stakelberg was unaware of the Japanese build up against his right flank. With the loss at Telissu, the Russian attempt to relieve Port Arthur had failed. The Japanese had 217 deaths, 946 wounded, for the Russians it was 477 dead, 2240 wounded and 754 missing. Russian morale was falling apart while the Japanese felt like superhumans. When the news reached St Petersburg the government and people were becoming immune to the terrible news from the east. Things were a disaster in the east, but back home in Russia, discontent was turning into a hateful fever amongst the common people who would eventually rise up.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Kuropatkin never wanted to go on the offensive and when forced to do so, everything turned to ruin. Stakelberg and his men fought bravely, but one major oversight cost them the battle at Telissu and thus Port Arthur was now on her own.   

Last time we spoke about Admiral Togo’s struggle to destroy or firmly blockade the Russian fleet at Port Arthur and the bloody battle along the Yalu river. Togo had a tough time getting the Russians to come out to play with him. Ultimately Admiral Makarov had been a gleaming hope for the Russian navy, but his death spelt utter doom to them as well. Now that the Russian navy was effectively bottled up in Port Arthur and unwilling to come out again, the land campaigns of the war could begin. As the 2nd IJA were landing along the Liaodong Peninsula the 1st IJA of General Kuroki were going to have their first great battle of the war, at the Yalu river. Kuropatkin did not want to defend so south near Korea, but Alexeiev forced the issue and thus the Russians made a doomed defense at Yalu. Utterly defeated the Russians now had to flee north.    #76 The Russo-Japanese War part 3: the battle of Nanshan   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The Russians collapsed at Yalu and now were fleeing northwards towards Liaoyang. It was shocking. An oriental army had beaten a european one. The Japanese confidence exploded and the Russian morale imploded. As the Russians fled they chose not to set up intermediate defensive positions in the mountains overlooking the road to Fenghuangcheng nor the Great Wall due south of the town. Instead they bypassed it all to head for Liaoyang as quickly as possible. Thus the strategically important town of Fenghuangcheng was wide open to the Japanese who would bypass it as well and kept a even pace also heading for Liaoyang. The reason for this was simple, the 1st IJA’s job was to cut off the retreating Russian force from Port Arthur as their comrades in the 2nd IJA landed on the Liaodong peninsula to hit port arthur. The victory at Yalu had removed any threats upon Korea. Russia had demonstrated her inability to go on the offensive both at sea and on the land. Desperate times called for desperate measures. With the Russian pacific fleet stuck in Port Arthur, attempts began to be made for their rescue. The first idea put forward was to release the Russian Black Sea fleet, but this was problematic. Russia had recently fought a war with the Ottomans in 1877. They approached the Sultan about the issue as treaties had been made to keep the Russian fleet north of the Dardanelles forts. 12 warships would have to depart the Black Sea, and take a trip via the Suez Canal to get over to the Indian and then Pacific Oceans. It would take at least 63 days and over 65,000 tons of coal. It was an incredible gamble. If the fleet made it to the Pacific too late they may find Port Arthur captured and Vladivostok blockaded spelling catastrophe. Despite the naval losses and the loss at Yalu, Russia was still strong and could manage a defensive campaign. It was hoped if the Japanese extended further into the Kwantung peninsula and Liaoyang the Russians could recoil a bit, grab their immense reserves and launch counter attacks. But such maneuvers would require Russia to abandon Manchuria and then launch large scale counter offensives, something they were unwilling to do. On the other side, the fact the Russian fleet was not destroyed within Port Arthur was a thorn in their side. Rumors spread that the Baltic fleet would come over. Together the two fleets could overwhelm the Japanese. The Japanese had to seize Port Arthur strategically, and emotionally it was of the utmost importance to take revenge for the slighting she received during the Triple Intervention. On May 5th the 2nd IJA began to unload near Pitzuwo which lies between the Tasha and Lilan rivers. The Japanese newspress began to write of the landing and how the Japanese would next strike Nanshan. The Russians reading all the news trying to figure out the Japanese strategy began to believe they would strike anywhere but Nanshan. Meanwhile Admiral Alexeiev was ordered by the Tsar to take a train from Port Arthur for Mukden. This left General Stoessel in command of the Kwantung Peninsula, General Smirnov in command of Port Arthur’s fortress and Admiral Witgeft to lead the trapped naval forces. On May 6th Alexeiev gave firm advice to Witgeft that performing attacks upon the Japanese transports currently unloading freely upon the Liaodong peninsula just some 60 miles east of him, would be “desirable”. He did not give him a direct order to do so however, so Witgeft got his war council together to discuss the matter. No senior naval officer was willing to take initiative on their name. As you can imagine it was a case where no one wanted to give the order fearing repercussions, including Alexeiev. Thus Witgeft calculated the safest decision was to do nothing and await the baltic fleet. The naval officers watched as most of their high caliber guns were removed from the ships and added to the land defenses of port arthur.  General Oku’s 2nd IJA consisted of the 1st, 3rd and 4th division. Their first order of business was to seize Dalny so it could be used a landing and base of operations. To get to Dalny they would have to pass over Nanshan. It was a risky endeavor as the Russians could potentially received reinforcements from the north, thus Oku began his campaign by requesting reinforcements in the form of the 5th division and 1st cavalry brigade, though he would start his campaign before they could arrive. Oku ordered the 3rd and 4th divisions to block the potential threat from the north while the 1st division advanced southwards to Chinchou. Oku’s intelligence indicated the 2nd brigade of the 4th siberian rifle division led by major General Nadyein had recently been reinforce to roughly divisional strength from Port Arthur. At around 12:30pm Oku’s 1st division and the Nadyeins force ran into another and after losing 150 men Nadyein pulled back to Nanshan. Oku’s small victory here managed to sever rail communications of the Kwantung peninsula from the north. For those of you without a map on hand, the Liaodong peninsula and Kwantung peninsula are connected by an isthmus around 4000 yards wide. On both sides are muddy foreshore which at lower tides adds another 4000 yards of width. To the east is Dalien, to the west Chinchou bay. Southwest some 35 miles is Port Arthur with various large hill controlling its land approach. The most forward of these is Nanshan, a feature to the sea with large guns, that had to be overcome to get to Port Arthur. The position overlooked 4 miles to the east where there was the 2200 foot tall Mount Sampson and to the southwest was Nankuangling. The defense of Nanshan fell technically upon the commander of the 4th East Siberian rifle division, Lt General Fok, but in reality it would really fall upon Colonel Tretyakov of the 5th east siberian rifle regiement. General Fok was what was commonly referred to as a “police general”, a general produced during peace times. Like so many of these type of men, he rose through the ranks as a military trainer, as an administrator or just brushing the right shoulders. He was extremely suscepitable of other commanders ideas and this would really mess things up. Kuropatkin wanted to avoid another Yalu debacle so he cautioned Fok against against fighting the enemy too long at the cost of a proper withdrawal. Kuropatkin did not mean to imply Fok should withdraw at all, just that he must not allow his forces to be obliterated. Now General Stoessel also advised Fok. He told him to hold at Nanshin and go on the offensive as soon as the Japanese approached. These two contradicting pieces of advice would greatly confuse the battle for Nanshan.  Two miles behind Nanshan was a small town called Maoyitui where the 13th east siberian rifle regiment and another two miles behind them was the 15th east siberian rifle regiment. South east of them was the village of Lower Nankuanling where the 14th east siberian rifle regiment were stationed. Upon the narrow point of Dalienwan was a battery of heavy guns looking over Hand Bay where the gunship Bobr was also patrolling. Bobr was sealed in by minefields hoping to lure in some IJN warships. Colonel Tretyakov had 8 companies in his front line, one and half companies in local reserve, two companies of the 13th east siberian rifle regiment in general reserve and some scout forces of the 13th and 14th east siberian rifle regiment. In all he had roughly 2700 riflemen. North of him lay 3 IJA divisions of the 2nd IJA, the 3rd IJA division was just released from her holding position as the 5th IJA division just arrived to the scene.  On the 19th of May, the 10th IJA division landed at Takushan completely unmolested. The landing was done to confuse the Russians and offer flank protection. The 4th IJA division advanced from the direction of CHinchou taking the right flank, the 1st took the middle and the 3rd the left flank. The 2nd IJA had a total strength of around 38,500, 31,000 or so were riflement. The Russians had a potential 17,000 men to toss at the incoming Japanese but ultimately only 3000 would participate in the battle for Nanshan. Colonel Tretyakov had personally aided in the fortification of Nanshan during the Boxer Rebellion and war in Manchuria. At its height Nanshan was equipped to be garrisoned by two battalions and 90 guns, but its maintenance had really fallen apart. When the war broke out with Japan the Russians sought to repair and refortify Nanshan and hired 5000 Chinese coolies for the work, amongst them in disguise was Colonel Doi of the IJA. The eastern face of Nanshan held minefields and barbed wire fences over which Russians held excellent fields of fire. The western side was also defended by barbed wire fences laid across ravines, but the Russians found it unlikely the Japanese would advance from there. A continuous line of shelter trenches ran around the top of the hills providing a depth of four lines of alternative trenches. The Russians had learnt their lesson at Yalu and now dug their artillery in and connected them to telephone. Despite the excellent state of its defenses, Tretyakov was not fully happy. He recognized his western flank was a bit weak and his prospects for counter attacks or a withdrawal were unfavourable. What Tretyakov wanted and pleaded for was to release more men so he could close up his southern face and add more options to the battle, but General Fok rejected this and said to him “less heroism is required to defend this position than to retreat from it”. The 2nd IJA had 198 field and mountain artillery at their disposal, ut none of the enormous 4.72 inch howitzers at this time. The Russians had 48 quick firing field guns out of a total of 114 artillery pieces of various calibers between 3.4 to 6 inches. The Russians would enjoy the advantage of cover but only had around 150 shells per gun. This time it would be the Japanese obliged to expose their artillery when firing. Oku chose the 24th of May to begin the attack. A signal was sent to the IJN who dispatched the Akagi, Chokai, Heiyen Tsukushi to bombard the Russian positions over the next 2 days. The main assault would kick off on the 25th after naval and land artillery and softened up the Russian positions and the 4th IJA division had seized Chinchou, garrisoned by no more than 400 men. Terrible weather prevented the IJN forces from performing their naval bombardment on time, thus Oku postponed the main attack until the 26th.  Up on his HQ lookout, Tretyakov watched as the torrential rain tore at the mud, uncovering countless mines. There was no time to rebury them, the rain would continue to pour until the night of the 25th. Meanwhile the 4th IJA division was trying to break through the north gate of Chinchou and failing at the task. Because of the holdup, the 1st IJA division lent two battalions who hit Chnchou’s eastern gate and at 5:20am sapper blew in the gate as the Japanese stormed the city. The Russian defenders fled through the south gate, only to be cut down by the 4th IJA divisions fire. Around half a company would manage to survive and reach Nanshan’s trenches. The main attack finally kicked off at 4:30am with a 3 hour artillery duel. The Japanese focused their artillery upon the exposed minefield. The IJN flotilla arrived to Chinchou bay at 6am and began adding their cannons. The gunfire was so thunderous, the 3rd IJA landing at Pitzuwo could hear it. The 4th IJA division advanced from Chinchou along the beach. The Russians took notice to the threat to their left flank and began withdrawing two batteries from hills on Nanshan to the southwest to better hit the 4th division. The IJN flotilla saw this and mistakenly believed a retreat was in progress so they moved further south intending to bombard the Russians fleeing. This left the 4th IJA division without proper artillery support and they were torn to pieces by the batteries that had been moved. Signals were frantically tossed at the IJN who moved back to their original position by 10am and resumed their bombardment. The warships would remain there until 2pm, when the tide changes forced them to pull out. The Japanese had a terrible time advancing three divisions in a narrow front. Military advice of the day would have been something along the lines as “Algerian Tactics”, a colloquial term for the type of frontal attacks the French had made during their campaign in north africa. It was basically like a Prussian advancing phalanx, but these types of tactics had become useless with the advent of trench warfare. Oku preferred a three pronged simultaneous advance. By midday, the Japanese believed the Russians were shell shocked by the artillery and IJN fire, so two battalions were sent forward to seize the first row of trenches. A correspondent for the time had this to say “At first the straggling walls of Mauchiaying give them some cover, under which they have a moment’s breathing space. Then the gallant little infantry press on again up the breast of the slopes of the Russian position. It is an almost impossible task. As yet the defenders are not sufficiently shaken. An avalanche of concentrated fire from the infantry in the trenches, the machine guns in the Russian works, and the quick firing field artillery supporting the defences strike the Japanese to the full. They melt away from the glacis like solder before the flame of a blow pipe. A few who seem to have charmed lives struggle on till they reach the wire entanglements. It is a vain, if heroic, effort. Wasted within fifteen minutes, these two battalions cease to exist except as a trail of mutilated bodies at the foot of the Russian glacis.” The 1st IJA division was now halted 300 yards from the Russian trenches. Two out of the three battalions in the reserve were moved forward. The 3rd division was under enfiladed fire coming out of the southern shore. The 3rd division received the last reserve battalion to keep up their advance. The Japanese tossed over 9 charges at Nanshan throughout the day, but by 6pm the battle had reached a stalemate. Both sides had exhausted the majority of their artillery munitions. Tretyakov tossed his local reserve to his right flank and had held off the 3 Japanese divisions quite well. To his rear, General Fok held the reserve 13th, 14th and 15th east siberian regiments. Tretyakov had requested two companies, and although Fok promised to hand them over they had not come. Fok refused to hand over the forces because he was convinced the Japanese were going to land behind Tretyakov. Tretyakov’s right and center were holding well, but the constant shelling was taking a toll upon his left flank. The 5th and 9th companies were down to half their numbers under the intense artillery fire and the 4th IJA division was beginning to drive them out along the coastal area. The 4th division had waded through deep water and mud under fire against the Russians. Tretyakov had asked for his expected two companies from Fok to reinforce the left flank, but only arrived at the last minute and were useless. A dispatch from Reuters said of the collapse of the left flank “when the Russians finally retreated, the water was literally crimson”. Upon breaking the left flank, the Japanese turned inland to pursue them as they fled through ravines. General Fok was at his forward flank and saw this and immediately ordered his companies to withdraw, but he failed to pass this knowledge over to Tretyakov who was trying to salvage the situation. As the Japanese advanced up the feature, their comrades in the other flank and center surged forward causing an onslaught. The Russians were tossed into confusing seeing some of their forces in the failed flank withdraw. Some began to withdraw to the next line of trenches without orders, some stood their ground. Tretyakov toured the front to assess the situation and saw a munition dump at the railway station of Tafangshen suddenly explode killing nearly 20 men. He was enraged to find out Fok ordered the dump destroyed fearing it would fall to the Japanese. He also found out for the first time, forces he had requested from Fok, around 3 regiments who were to man defenses in the south had never been committed. He had planned to use such a force in the south to swing a counter attack against the Japanese.  Panic was overcoming the defenders, men began to rout, many fleeing south. Many Japanese began to bivouac on captured hills. Tretyakov attempted to restore order and managed to pull his forces together to make a more orderly withdrawal. His men had fought very well, losing 450 during the proper combat, but when the routing began he had lost 650, he was enraged and threw scorn at Fok. At 7:20pm the rising sun flag was raised over the heights of Nanshan, by 8pm the Japanese were eating their dinner upon their prize. The Japanese had 739 deaths and 5459 wounded. Amongst the dead was the 26 year old Katsusuke, the eldest son of General Nogi, a veteran of the battle for Port Arthur in 1894. He died of his wounds on May 30th of 1904. When Nogi received news of this he was about to travel over to take command of the 3rd IJA. He said this “There is to be no funeral ceremony, no mourning until the end of this war. When my surviving son and myself will be among the mourners or the mourned.’  The Japanese counted their munitions, they had expended 174 rounds per gun. Thus they had expended more rounds in a single battle than what was used during the entire Sino-Japanese war. At Nanshan 34,000 shells had been tossed alongside 2.2 million rounds of small arm munitions. Such news shocked Tokyo, but it was lessons the world would soon face in 1914. To give you an idea, at the third battle of Ypres in 1917, the British would expend 4,283,550 shells within two weeks. Basically war had evolved. The Japanese had to wait for their munition columns to reach them, which would occur by May 27th and then they resume their advance to Nankuanling junction and Dalienwan.  Dalny lying 8 miles away from the Nankuanling junction remained a well fortified position that could serve perhaps superior to that of Nanshan. Tretyakov’s men withdrawal was in the direction of Dalny as they abandoned 82 pieces of artillery and 10 machine guns in the process. They expected to take a rest and eat at Dalny, but General Fok ordered the entire echelon to make for Port Arthur with haste. The residents of Dalny found out Nanshan had fallen when the soldiers arrived, panic broke. Over 600 Russian civilian began to flee southwards as Dalny’s facilities were destroyed. General Stoessel made an official report that it had always been his intent to abandon Nanshan and dismissed the rumors of so much abandoned equipment as “old pieces of Chinese equipment from 1900”. When Tretyakov’s men arrived to Port Arthur on May 30th, Stoessel shouted at them “You are a wretched undisciplined corps of traitors, cowards and blackguards. I will try the lot of you by court martial. How did you dare leave Chinchou? Don’t dare to show yourself in Port Arthur, lest by your presence you infect the whole garrison with your cowardice.’ Stoessel than with reluctance handed out the Cross of St George to the wounded because it was the Tsar’s orders to do so. Tretyakov would later write in his memoirs ‘These were the sole recipients of rewards for the Nanshan battle, those slightly wounded receiving nothing for their bravery.’ It should be noted there were three unwounded men who received the Cross of St George for their bravery and one was General Fok. On May 3th, the 3rd IJA division entered Dalny uncontested, finding the town had been ransacked heavily by local Chinese. Much of the food provisions had been dispersed, but the dockyards, 290 railway wagons, workshops were all fully intact. The great port of Dalny was now in the 2nd IJA’s hands. The Japanese 1st and 11th division advanced through the 2nd IJA enroute to the 3rd IJA of General Nogi. Nogi was given the daunting task of bringing Port Arthur to her knees. Now the Russians had fallen back to a 15 mile long line of defence that ran from Shiapingtao on the east coast all the way to Anshishan on the west coast. Shiapingtao was roughly 18 miles south west of Dalny and Anshishan was around 18 miles away from Port Arthur. The first line of Russian defense was around the 800 foot high Waitoushan and 1000 foot high Prominent Peak. Prominent Peak which would later be named Sword Hill or “Kenshan” by General Nohi was vital to the security of Port Arther as it held an observation point that could see the movement of ships and overlooked Dalny. So it was one of the first major objectives required to be taken before a proper siege could be erected against the city.  On June 26th, Nogi had his men fight through the passes who easily dislodged the Russian defenders upon Waitoushan, but found Kenshan a much tougher nut to crack. A Russian naval force appeared around Shiapingtao, caused a delay to the seizure of Kenshan. The Russians launched 5 counter attacks to try and retake Waitoushan and secure Kenshan but they failed. When the cause seemed hopeless, Stoessel ordered the men to fall back 4 miles to the Green Hills to prepare the next line of defense. Meanwhile General Nogi was biding his time, awaiting reinforcements and further supplies to be brought over to Dalny. By mid July he would receive the 9th division to add to his 1st and 11th. Along with this he would get two independent reserve brigades, a naval brigade and an independent mixed artillery brigade. The 3rd IJA were soon 60,000 men strong.  On July 26th the 3rd IJA began an advance against the Russian defenses along the Green Hills. They would be formidable if it was not for their length and proximity to the railway offering the Japanese excellent outflanking options. It took three days to break the Russian lines. The Russians had fought very well suffering around 1000 casualties for the 4000 the Japanese incurred. Nogi ordered the men to advance quickly to not give the Russians a breath. The Russians pulled back to Fenghuangshan known also as the Wolf Hills. Tretyakov had this to say “I learnt that our men on Fenghuangshan had hurriedly retreated into the fortress without offering any serious resistance to the enemy. This was extremely unwelcome news, for now we should have to come into direct touch with the enemy round the fortress itself. “ General Nogi’s men were only receiving the first appetizer of the horror to come. The hill filled path to Port Arthur enacted devastating casualties upon the 3rd IJA, but when they would face the real defensive lines of Port Arthur, such as the Orphan hills and 203 meter hill, the Japanese would learn what 20th century warfare truly had become.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. General Nogi lost countless men and even his eldest son taking the formidable position of Nanshan. The Japanese were bleeding themselves in a new era of warfare to take back what they felt was theirs, the formidable Port Arthur. What more would it could the Japanese, and that of Nogi? 

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Russo-Japanese war. The Japanese knew to have any chance in the war against the Russians, they needed to deliver a deadly surprise attack against her fleet within the harbor of Port Arthur. Admiral Togo took the combined fleet and dispatched a force under Uriu to neutralize Chemulpo and land forces of the IJA 12th division. Meanwhile Togo ordered 10 destroyers to toss torpedoes at the Russian warships at anchor in Port Arthur, landing a few hits. It seemed to the Japanese that the Russians were fully paralyzed, so Togo elected to bring the combined fleet in to bombard the Russians into submission. Instead of being paralyzed the Russians counter fired using shore batteries causing the Japanese to back off. War was declared afterwards by both parties and now battles would rage over land and sea to see which empire would claim dominance over Asia.    #74 The Russo-Japanese War part 2: the battle of Yalu   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The combined fleet set out again on February 14th after just two days in port. The Fuji was still in dry dock in need of further repair. Other than Fuji, the fleet was back at sea in force. Despite taking numerous hits, it turned out the Russian shells were not as effective as the Japanese ammunition which used a new compound called Shimose, refined into a powder that gave the IJN shells a greater velocity, thus much more effective on impact. In the meantime, only a brave attack by two Japanese destroyers was brought upon the Russians at Port Arthur. Other than that nothing much had come about. While at Sasebo, Admiral Togo discussed with his fellow commanders the situation. Port Arthur’s harbor had basically become a large lake harbored the Russian ships, but at any moment they could be unleashed into the ocean. Togo needed to destroy the warships or trap them inside, and he came up with a daring plan. Togo sent out a special order, soliciting for volunteers for an extremely dangerous, practically suicidal mission. 2000 sailors volunteered, many writing their names in blood. The plan was quite simple, the volunteers were going to take ships and sink them at the entrance to the harbor. The ships selected were some very old steamers, capable of just 10 knots. On the evening of February 23rd, 5 old steamers set a course for Port Arthur with some torpedo boat escorts. Before the first light of the 24th, the Russian lookouts saw what appeared to be a steady convoy calmly approaching the harbors mouth. A Russian convey was long being awaited, thus many assumed it was them. Some Russian ships came in closer to examine the newcoming vessels closer and upon showering them with searchlights, the captain of the Retvizan quickly realized they were Japanese. Retvizan began opening fire, prompting the old steamers to run frantically through a gauntlet. The Japanese crews were blinded by searchlight as the guns of the Retvizan and shore batteries rained hell upon them. The leading steamer, the Mokoko Maru was hit by Retvizan at point blank range just due east of the harbor entrance. She sank quickly and the other steamers would face a similar fate one by one as they approached. Volunteer crews were shot to pieces or abandoned ship. Those who survived the shelling were rescued by torpedo boats. The mission was a terrible failure. The Russians did not quite understand what had occurred. Certainly the ships were no battleships, but some assumed it was another torpedo attack attempt and thus believed some warships had been sunk. Admiral Alexeiev desperate to boost morale send a message to the Tsar claiming a great naval victory. After further investigation, the steamers were found to be what they were and Alexeiev had to send a correction to the Tsar. Now all of this was going down in Port Arthur, but the Russians did have another force at their cold water port of Vladivostok. Under the command of Rear Admiral Jessel were the armored cruisers Gromoboi, Rurik, Boegatyr and Rossiya. Rear Admiral Kamimura was leading a cruiser squadron with torpedo boats around Tsushima. His duty was that of a picquet force to meet the Russian enemy if they came out to play. Alexeiev gave Jessel orders not to steam more than a single day from port. Jessel had thus only managed to sink two unarmed Japanese merchantmen with his small patrols.  Now upon the land, the former Minister of War, General Kuropatkin was appointed the land commander in Manchuria. He would depart St Petersburg on March 12th and arrive to Harbin by the 28th. For the sea, the disgraced Admiral Starck was to be replaced with Vice Admiral Makarov. The Russian government was trying to showcase to its troops, that the very best officers would lead them, it was a much needed boost of confidence. However Tsar Nicolas II also appointed Alexeiev as the Viceroy of the Russian far east, which gave Alexeiev higher authority than all government ministries in the region, making him beholden only to the Tsar himself. Alekseyev was a key member of the “Bezobrazov Circle” a politically motivated investment group led by Aleksandry Mikhailovich Bezobrazov whom sought to create a commercial enterprise, modeled after the British East India Company, reigning over Manchuria and Korea. A skilled lobbyist, Bezobrazov was the one who persuaded Tsar Nicolas II for Alekseiv’s appointment. This would prove ruinous.  Makarov departed his previous command at fort Kronstadt and received news cruisers Novik, Bayan and Askold were damaged. While enroute he received a report the Bezstrashni and Viestnitelni were intercepted by Japanese picquet forces while returning to port. They were attacked trying to race to Port Arthur and Vistnitelni was unable to get away, being destroyed around Pigeon bay. Thus the new commander was getting this picture of his forces accumulating unacceptable losses without even engaging the enemy. Makarov unlike Starck was not so conservative, he sought real action. Makarov was what you would call “a sailors sailor”. He was in excellent shape, was a noted naval tactician and had a copy of a book on his adversary Admiral Togo in his cabin at hand. During his voyage to the far east, Starck retained command and continued to fly his flag upon Petropavlovsk. Makarov would hoist his aboard the soon to be repaired Askold by march 14th. Soon Retvizan and Tsarevitch were patched up adequately to be battleworthy and destroyer flotillas were sent out of the harbor to hunt the Japanese. On March 10th, the blockading forces were attacked by the Russians. The Japanese were surprised at the sudden aggressiveness of the Russians, Togo believed they were finally willing to come out and battle. At the beginning of the war most eyes were set on seeing the performance of torpedoes, they were a relatively new weapon. They actually proved to be quite a disappointment. The weapon that would really make its mark was the seamine. The Japanese made continuous efforts to sent destroyers out at night to lay mines near the entrance of Port Arthur. The Russians did their best to watch these actions and when the tides rose high they would employ grappling hooks to clear fields. This simply pushed the Japanese to lay mines 10 feet below the surface. This resulted in mines actually being placed at various depths, thus when the tides were much higher most ships could pass right over, but if the tides lowered, this led to collisions.  Now back to March 10th, that night the Japanese attempted a ruse. A flotilla of 4 IJN destroyers approached Port Arthur and began parading outside to trying to lure out some Russian warships. Now emboldened, the Russians sent out 6 warships to chase the Japanese who lured them in the direction of Laoteshan. While they were chasing, another IJN destroyer flotilla came from behind and began mining the waters at the harbors entrance at around 4:30am. Eventually the Russian shore batteries saw what was going on and began to fire on the mining destroyers who made their quick escape. The Russian warships chasing the other flotilla heard the gunfire and quickly turned back. The 4 IJN mining destroyers got into position to attack the incoming Russians. 4 out of the 6 Russian warships dodged this and ran for the harbor, but the Ryeshitelni and Stereguschi found themselves blocked. It was 4 against 2 as the destroyers battling it out. The Ryeshitelni was hit a few times causing steering problems but she managed to flee to the harbor, the Stereguschi however was not so lucky. A 1 pounder shell struck a steam pipe in her boiler and engines causing an explosion that killed most of her engine room staff. Stereguschi’s captain tried to keep her on course, but her speed dropped and she was soon raked by all 4 Japanese destroyers. Her crew tried to fire back, until only 4 men of the crew were even capable of moving anymore. The IJN destroyer Sasanami let loose a cutter boat to board her as the Stereguschi was captured. The boarding party stepped over corpses and human body parts as they raised the Rising Sun flag. Suddenly the Russian cruisers Bayan and Novik were charging towards the mined harbor entrance. The Sasanami crews leapt back aboard to flee the scene as the Russians opened fire upon them.  It was a bit of excitement to be sure, but Makarov wanted real action, he sought to give battle. He began a intensive training of the fleet, performed tours and raised morale. Meanwhile on March 22nd the Fuji and Yashima were now stationed in Pigeon bay to fire to enforce the blockade effort. Suddenly they found themselves being fired upon by the Russians and saw cruiser Askold flying Makarov’s flag. Fuji took a minor hit and had to return to Sasebo for repairs. Togo and his fellow commanders now were realizing the Russians were growing in stature. Meanwhile the IJA guards division was only beginning to unload ashore in Korea. The Russian navy charging out of Port Arthur serious threatened the Japanese troop transit, Togo had to stop them.  The same suicidal plan was employed again. The crews were taken from 20,000 volunteers, another 4 old steamers were allocated to the mission. This time each ship was ballasted with cement and stones alongside a fail safe detonating system. On the night of march 26th, the 4 old steamers sailed 10 knots for the entrance to the harbor. Just before 2:30am their escorts departed and at 3:30am they were two miles from the harbor mouth when they were detected. A gun went off on Electric Hill signaling the presence of the enemy. Search lights blasted everywhere as the 4 steamers began a marathon while dodging incoming shell fire. The frontrunner, Chiyo was making good progress until the Russian destroyer Silny came in close and torpedoed her side. The steamers behind her were fired madly upon causing massive casualties as one by one sank. Two Japanese escort destroyers tried to fire torpedoes at the Silny and maged to hit her in the engine room. In the end both sides took casualties, but Port Arthur remained open.  Makarov’s patience was waning, on April 12th he was aboard the cruiser Diana searching for lost Russian destroyers who had been sent out to hunt the Japanese but failed to return. Diana’s lookout spotted a ship and her captain requested permission to open fire. Makarov was not sure if the ship was the enemy or one of his own, so he simply said to approach it cautiously. Unbeknownst to Makarov it was another ruse. Togo had been studying the Russian warship maneuvers, schedules and behaviors. He had noticed a pattern, when ships approached port arthur, the Russians would come out to investigate them by going north and south and east to west under the protective range of the shore batteries. He had formed a plan, led by the Koryu Maru who was hiding in the area ready to lay mines at the harbor mouth. 48 mines had been laid at the harbor mouth. As daylight was coming upon the morning of April 13th, Makarov’s force got close enough to the unidentified ship to realize it was the lost Strashni and she was being fired upon by 4 IJN destroyers. Strashni was being hit at point blank range, the majority of her crew were dead, she was a goner. Alerted by the naval fire, Makarov took the fleet in to battle. Cruiser Bayan was the first to arrive, joined by Askold, Diana and Novik. The Japanese quickly withdrew from them heading towards the main fleet. The slower Russian battleships were making their way with Petropavlosvk flying Makarovs flag, next to her was Poltava. They passed over the minefield without mishap. Makarov had ordered the area swept the previous night, but the sweep never occurred, he just got very lucky. Admiral Dewa watched the Russian fleet as they departed the harbor, Sevastopol, Peresvyet and Pobieda followed behind the flagship. Dewa sent word to Togo to spring the trap. Dewa opened fire drawing the Russians further south while Togo brought up the first division hoping for battle. When Makarov saw Togo's battleships on the horizon he quickly ordered his fleet to pull back under the range of their shore batteries. Aboard the Petropavlovsk was the grand duke Cyril, a cousin to the tsar, a famous artist named Vasili Verestchagin and Captain Crown. Makarov had expected a historic moment and wanted to share it with others. As Makarovs fleet got closer to the harbor he ordered the smaller warships to go inside it while the larger ships formed a line of battle. When the Japanese approached within 6 miles they would fall under the range of the shore batteries, Makarov expected a massacre upon them. Then at 9:43am a terrible explosion hit the bows of the Petropavlovsk rocking her, a second explosion ripped open a magazine and a third blew up her boiler. The ship quickly keeled over and went down bow first, as her propellers continued to spin. Within two minutes the flagship had hit 3 mines and fell under the waves, a complete disaster. The Japanese were only 10,000 yards away, cheering the explosive sounds. Togo ordered the men to take their caps off in silence when they realized it was Petropavlovsk that had struck the mines and sunk. At 10:15am Pobieda hit a mine, the Russians thought it was some sort of submarine attack and began firing wildly out the sea. When the Russians regained order they got back into the harbor one by one. Pobieda was the last to limp in. 630 men died aboard the Petropavlovsk, including Admiral Makarov, Vasili Verestchagin and Captain Crown, the Grand Duke Cyril had been launched off the warship from the explosion and although severely injured would survive. The death of Makarov shattered the morale of the Russian navy and in the motherland added fuel to an emerging revolutionary clamor.  The Japanese fleet were anchored off Elliot island on the 14th when they received the confirmed news of Makarovs death. Togo read out the telegram from Reuters and he ordered his fleet to fly their flags at half mast to give a day of mourning for an honored opponent that they esteemed a samurai for his aggressive behavior.  Makarovs death signaled an end to aggressive naval actions for quite some time. On May 3rd Togo launched further blocking actions. 8 steamers tried to perform the same suicidal mission as down twice before and failed like the others. Togo was so ashamed by the loss of life from these 3 missions that he stated the third mission had been a success, lying to the army. He did this under immense pressure, for it was his job to secure the sea lanes so Japanese troops could be safely landed along the Liaodong Peninsula. Luckily for him, the death of Makarov basically kept the Russian fleet bottled up in Port Arthur. Unluckily for him the Japanese saw their own losses to sea mines begin in May. On the 12th a destroyer hit a mine at Talienwan; the next day the battleship Hatsuse ran into a minefield laid out by the Amur and just like the Petropavlovsk was lost within a minute. She had hit two mines, one blew up her magazine, breaking apart her deck. The battleship Yashima closed in to help her but also hit a mine, but was able to limp away out of the sight of the Russians before she too sank. News of these ship losses were not released to the Japanese public. Chemulpo had been seized easily, the 12th division began landing there with ease. Now the 2nd, 12th and Guards division were of the 1st IJA, mobilized before the offset of the war. The Japanese held the advantage of being able to send troops faster via the sea, for the Russians the trans siberian railway still took a considerable amount of time. Thus the Japanese wanted to hit hard and fast, so alongside the 12th division the 2nd and guards were hoped to make a landing quickly after. The 12th division with some components of the 2nd division landed between the 17th and 22nd of February and began a quick march towards Pyongyang. The Japanese first entered Pyongyang on February 21st who quickly ran out some Cossacks. They set up supply posts enabling the rest of the 12th division to follow suit by the early march. Pyongyang became a focal point for supplies and provisions, the Japanese employed numerous Koreans for the logistical war effort. They bargained for provisions at a fair rate, for example purchasing pigs. A coolie army was hired, nearly 10,000 men strong. They were paid wages above the market norm and leaders amongst them received red bands to signify privileged positions within the Imperial Japanese Transport Corps.  On March 18th the 12th division advanced from Pyongyang to Anju dislodged two squadrons of Cossack cavalry there. Patrols from the first IJA indicated Chinampo lying around the mouth of the Taitong diver would make for an excellent landing point for men and supplies. Thus the commander of the 1st IJA, General Kuroki dispatched some forces of the guards and 2nd division from Hiroshima to land and secure Chinampo on March 13th. By the end of March the entire 1st IJA had landed in Korea. By this point the Japanese were confused at the lack of Russian interference, unbeknownst to them the Tsar had issued a directive to Alexeiev to overt any Russian action against the Japanese in Korea. The Russians still believed there was a chance the Japanese would just skirmish on the borders and not advance into Manchuria. Thus Alexeiev ordered the forces to allow the Japanese to land “on the whole extent of the western coast of Korea as high as Chemulpo and to permit their exploration as far north as the Yalu”.  While the Japanese were consolidating their logistical supply bases in Korea, the Russian logistics were facing countless problems. The Russians simply did not have the logistical organization that the Japanese had, they were basically living off the land. The Russians were coming into conflict with the local Manchurian populations who were actively resisting them. This was largely due to the recent war they just fought in Manchuria, Japanese funding Honghuzi forces and the Chinese and Koreans simply sympathize more with their fellow asian Japanese against the Russians. Honghuzi guerilla forces were working with Koreans along the northern border to harass the Russians, attacking and pillaging their supply lines. The Japanese war plan sought to have its 1st IJA attack and advance over the Yalu, while the 2nd IJA led by General Oku would land near Nanshan to cut Port Arthur off from the mainland. Now Kuroki’s 1st IJA may have had better supply lines, but to move the entire army north into Manchuria was still a logistical nightmare. To be more efficient the 1st IJA would focus its bulk along the western part of Korea where sea access was easier. The port of Rikaho was selected as a new forward landing and supply base. After securing it the Japanese continued north towards the Yalu and by the second week of April were in the same spot their forebears had taken in August of 1894.  By April 21st they were concentrating due south of Wiju drawing supplies from Chinampo, Boto and Rikaho. At this point many foreign military observers and correspondents were arriving. There was a deep hunger to study how new modern weaponry and tactics would work out on the battlefield, both the Russians and Japanese would have foreigners amongst them taking notes. It was an interesting time after all. Since the American Civil War, Taiping Rebellion and even Franco-Prussian War of 1870, military technology had advanced exponentially. There would be as many as a hundred foreign military observers from over 16 different nations in Manchuria and Korea during the war. This would also be exploited heavily for spying. Many of the observers were British who held obvious sympathies with the Japanese and thus would covertly hand over information. Now back on February 15th, General Kuropatkin presented the Tsar his campaign plan to win the war against Japan, a war might I note he never favored having. Kuropatkin estimated he would require 6 months to achieve a force of 200,000, the number he believed was necessary to undertake an offensive. Thus he sought to spend the 6 months assessing the Japanese strength while establishing strong defenses to the north of their perceived limit of advance. Basically he wanted to trade space for time, he did not seek to establish defenses too far south. But Kuropatkin was not the top brass, it was Alexeiev and Alexeiev ordered Kuropatkin not to abandon any territory. Thus Kuropatkin was forced to form a line of defenses near the Yalu. He dispatched General Zasulich, the new Eastern Detachment commander on April 22nd with specific orders “to retard the enemy in his passage; to determine his strength, dispositions and lines of march; to retreat as slowly as possible into the mountains”. Opposite and across the Yalu from Wiju is Chuliencheng, the town sits about 2 miles north of the river. The Yalu splits into two rivers and at the split point are a chain of islands. There were no bridges between the two banks, thus crossings would need to be made by small junks and sampans. Taking some of the islands in the Yalu was imperative to ease crossing points. At Fenghuangcheng the Yalu divided and going north became the Ai river. At the junction was a 500 foot high hill called Tiger’s head another important strategic location the Japanese would have to seize. Closer to the mouth of the Yalu on the northern side was the fortified town of Antung, which the Russians believed was extremely vulnerable to a Japanese landing attack. The Russian forces at the Yalu consisted of the 3rd Siberian Army corps alongside our old friend General Mishchenko’s trans-baikal cossack brigade. At Antung, led by Major General Kashtalinksi were 2580 riflemen, 400 cavalry scouts, 16 field guns and 8 machine guns. On the right flank 4 miles to the north at Tientzu was a reserve of 5200 riflemen and 16 guns; at Chuliencheng led by Major General Trusov were 5200 riflemen, 240 cavalry scouts and 16 guns. The right flank extended from the mouth of the Yalu to Takushan all under Mishchenkos command who held 1100 cavalry, 2400 riflemen, 8 field guns and 6 horse drawn guns. The left from going from Anpingho to Hsiapuhsiho around 40 miles northeast on the Yalu was 1250 cavalry, 1000 riflement and 8 mountain guns. Excluding the reserves, there were over 16,000 riflemen, 2350 cavalry, 630 cavalry scouts, 40 field guns, 8 mountain guns and 6 horse drawn guns covering a distance of over 170 miles. Facing them around Wiju would be a Japanese force of 42,500 men. The Russians had spread themselves out thinly along the river. At the base of numerous hills were Russian trenches, uncamouflaged, in full view from the opposite bank. The Russian artillery likewise was in full view, a large mistake. The Japanese had employed spies, often disguised as fisherman going along the rivers mapping out the Russian artillery positions, by the 23rd the Japanese had acquired the full layout and order of battle. General Kuroki made sure to conceal his strength and more importantly his main crossing point. Using screens of large trees and kaoliang, if you remember the boxer series that is a tall type of millet, well they used this type of cover to move their artillery and troops in secrecy. The Russians occupied the islands in the Yalu called Kyuri, Oseki and Kintei. On the 25th 6 batteries were brought up to support an infantry attack. IJN gunboats began harassing the forces at Antung as a diversion, trying to deceive the Russians into thinking their right flank was where the fighting would be had. At 9:45pm two battalions of the 2nd division crossed using pontoons to Kintei island completely unopposed. Sappers immediately went to work constructing bridges. At 4am a force of 250 soldiers of the Guards division landed and attacked 150 Russians on Kyuri, dislodging them at the cost of 12 men. The Russians quickly abandoned Kyuri and Kintei seeing them as lost causes, but suddenly without orders the men atop Tiger Hill also began withdrawing when they saw men leaving the islands.  The Japanese engineers began constructing 10 bridges using pontoons as a feint attack was launched against Chuliencheng. A bridge was erected made up of native boats placed side by side going across the Yalu. This bridge was a decoy. Russian artillery fired upon numerous positions giving their locations away as the concealed Japanese artillery systematically took them out one by one. Over at Antung a small flotilla of 6 gunboats continued to harass the fort and trenches. The local commander was convinced the Japanese would land and attack, again this was a deception. After a few days Kuroki had all he needed to unleash a blow. He sought to advance to Tangshancheng, between Fenghuangcheng and Antung. He had orders to work in concert with the 2nd IJA’s landing, this meant he was to a cross the Yalu on April 30th. However, Generals Oku, Kuorki and Admiral Togo met on April 25th where it was determined the deadline had to be pushed until May 1st or 2nd. Thus Kuroki was ordered to delay his attack until May 3rd. Kuroki concentrated his attention towards the weak Russian left flank. He required a crossing point over the Yalu to reconnoiter between the Yalu and Ai rivers. The Russians believed crossing the Ai would require boats, but the Japanese found a crossing point over at the right bank around Sukuchin. Kuroki had the 12th division focus on the right flank, the Guards in the middle to cross the Yalu via the Kyuri and Oseki islands to take a position on Chukodai island to the north and south of Tiger Hill, the 2nd division would hit the weak left. On May 1st the Japanese received some new toys from Chinampo, 20 4.72 inch howitzers organized into 5 batteries. Under the cover of darkness, these huge guns were placed into camouflaged trenches. Meanwhile back on the 29th of april the 12th division covertly crossed the Yalu during the night and moved 3 batteries into Chukyuri to cover the bridge making effort. At 11am on May 1st the Japanese artillery began firing, covering the 12th divisions as they crossed the right bank brushing aside light Russian opposition. Zasulich received word of this and tried to order reinforcements to Anpingho, but he still believed the activities of the 12th division to be a feint, a IJN flotilla was harassing Antung still. The reinforcements were thus delayed heavily. On april 29th and 4pm Zasulich despatched a battalion of the 22nd east Siberian rifle regiment with some mounted scouts and 2 guns to cross the Ai river and retake Tiger Hill. The Russians easily dislodged the Japanese platoon atop the hill who quickly joined their comrades over on Kyuri island.  The next morning the Japanese could see the Russians digging in on Tiger Hill, so the Guards divisional artillery on a hill south of a bridge leading to Kyuri island opened fire on them. There was no artillery response from the Russian artillery. At 10am two groups of sappers set out in boats to survey the waters opposite of Chukodai and at 10:30 were fired upon by a battery on some high ground north east of Chuliencheng. 6 4.72 inch batteries of the 12th division responded and within 16 minutes the Russian battery was neutralized suffering the deaths of 5 officers and 29 men. Another Russian battery east of Makau began firing and was smashed quickly by the Guards artillery.  Major General Kashtalinski took command of the Chuliencheng sector from Major General Trusov who became ill on April 28th. So severely had the Russian artillery and infantry suffered from the Japanese artillery, that at 11pm on April 30th, Kashtalinski requested permission from Zasulich to withdraw to some hills behind Chuliencheng. Zasulich refused this as Alexeiev’s orders were clear, not to give up any ground. Zasulich then received news, the men on Tigers Hill had abandoned it fearing encirclement, some elements of the Guards and 12th division linked up and took it. The 12th division were advancing in three columns towards the Ai river during the night and as Thomas Cowen of the Daily Chronicle reported “The men had to march, wade, wait their turn at a plank bridge or shallow ford, help each other up a slippery bank, pass, in single file sometimes, through a willow copse, wait, climb, jump, mud-scramble, and march again, for about six hours, getting into positions, ‘lining out’ in front of the long-extending Russian trenches. No light was allowed, nor a voice above an undertone, for the most part there were no roads to march on, but the men had to cross fields, grope in the gloom for strange paths, or struggle past obstructions where no path could be found, using dry water-courses as tracks till they led into pools, over stubbly cornfields, in and out among tenantless farm buildings, up country lanes and hillside footpaths, each officer and NCO peering into the gloom, feeling his way to the appointed spot, consulting a rough sketch plan and drawing his men after him.” At 3am the Russian 12th regiment reported back to Zasulich that they heard the sounds of wheels on the islands and believed artillery were crossing bridges, he did nothing. At 5am the morning fog dissipated and the Russians could now see opposite of them at Chuliencheng to Salankou at a distance of 6 miles, 3 Japanese divisions were in trenches waiting to pounce on them. Regimental priests egan sermons just before the scream of Japanese howitzers broke the morning quiet. The Japanese artillery were focused first on hunting Russian artillery, eventually some batteries at Makau fired back and within a few minutes were silenced. After this the Japanese artillery focused its full weight upon the Russian infantry in their trenches absolutely devastating them. In view of the lack of Russian artillery fire, Kuroki changed his plans somewhat and ordered the 12th division to perform an encirclement maneuver prior to the Guards and 2nd divisions attacks. By 7am all 3 Japanese divisions were advancing.  The Japanese stormed out of their trenches and rushed along the 200 yard wide waters of the Ai to the various crossing points like ants going through funnels. The Japanese troops carrying packs full with rations for 3 days moved as fast as they could through the water before being hit by the first Russian volley at a range of around 500 yards, about halfway across the river. It was an extreme range for the Russian rifles, but with the Japanese so packed up it was brutal. The Japanese did not loss momentum and soon were charging through Russian volleys up the river bank and knolls. Japanese officers began screaming ‘take cover and fire at will”. The 2nd division suffered tremendous casualties around Chuliencheng. The Japanese leapfrogged forward using fire and movement to great effect and soon were crashing into the forward Russian positions. When the Russians abandoned their forward positions for interior lines the Japanese artillery devestated them. The 12th east Siberian rifle regiment made a brave but hopeless counterattack and were swept aside. By 10am the main body of the Russian force were in a full retreat at Chuliencheng. The Japanese tried to storm a the road leading to Fenghuangcheng due north of Chuliencheng, but the full weight of the Russian retreat dislodged them. General Kashtalinski watched in horror as the right flank collapsed, however there was still hope. If Colonel Gromov held the left flank, they could maintain thir foothold on the Yalu. Colonel Gromov and his men were holding a position on the forward slopes overlooking the Ai river in the area of Potetientzu. His command held two battalions of the 22nd regiment and his focus was upon the right side where the guards division were now getting over the river and penetrated his thinly held line. Gromov then received news the 12th division were beggining to get over their part of the river. Gromov went over to see it for himself and he estimated there to be around 5 or 6 battalions advancing directly upon his position. He had no choice, he orderd a partial withdrawal, and as best as he could he tried to maintain order but a general withdrawal emerged as the Japanese gradually turned his flank. Gromov’s intent was to pull back to Chingkou, but the rapid advance of the Japanese forces him to saddle between Chingkou and Laofangkou.  Other than Gromov’s two battalions, the Russians were maintaining a reasonble withdrawal to defensive lines further back around the Hantuhotzu stream around two miles beyond the Ai. The force at Antung were being shelled by the IJN gunboats, aside from that they alongside the reserves at Tientzu had done basically nothing in the battle thus far. Kuroki ordered the Guards to occupy some hills above Hamatang, the 2nd division to advance upon Antung and the 12th to advance southwards to Taloufang. The 12th swept right through Chingkou en route to Hamatang smashing Gromov’s men. General Kashtalinksi’s men held the Guards and 2nd division back along the Hantuhotzu giving General Zasulich time to withdraw his troops at Antung to Tientzu. To over this withdrawal two battalions of the 11th east siberian regiment and a battery were detached to bolster Kashtalinski’s position along the Hantuhotzu. The Guards and 2nd division had to wait for their artillery to catch up to them as the 12th were putting pressure on Gromov’s men. At 12:15pm Gromov was forced to pull back to Liuchiakou and he sent a messenger to report such to General Kashtalinski’s HQ. At 1pm a messenger of General Zasulich arrived at Gromov’s HQ ordering him to retreat via Laochoutun. Meanwhile the messenger failed to get to Kashtalinski until 4pm, thus Kashtalinski would have literally no idea and thought everything was holding. Later Gromov would be courtmartialled for withdrawing the way he did. He would be exonerated later, but before that occurred he would shoot himself in shame.  Around 12pm Kashtalinski received word to his surprise that Gromov was withdrawing from Chingkou with the 22nd regiment in disarray and that the Japanese had seized Liuchiakou. His scouts were also telling him the Japanese were advancing on Laofangkou. Kashtalinski wanted to see this for himself douting his own scouts. What he saw was a complete disaster and he quickly ordered an immediate withdrawal from Hantuhotzu to Tientzu. His rearguard was the 11th company of the 22nd regiment who took up a position on a 570 foot high hill east of Hamatang. At around 2pm the 5th company of the 24th IJA regiment, the 12th divisions vanguard smashed into the southeast part of the Hamatang defensive line. Soon the 5th company held a blocking position forcing the retreating Russians to move further south of the 570 foot hill. Three batteries of the 12th division the narrived and began smashing Hamatang as the Guards and 2nd divisions men stormed forward positions. The 11th east Siberian regiment buckled and began fleeing into the valley beyond Hamatang already 26 officers and 900 men had been killed. The valley was around a mile wide, extremely open with fields extending up hillsides. There was basically no cover at all and when the Japanese took the heights they had an excellent view into the valley to fire upon the fleeing Russians. Suddenly the regiments priest in full regalia, grabbed a large cross and stood up. The surrounding surviving Russians around him stood up and the priest led the men through the valley to safety as he cried out “god have mercy” for Russians were being blown to pieces all around them. The priest was hit by 3 bullets before he fell bleeding over his cross as soldier grabbed him and carried him to the other side. The firing gradually lessened as the Japanese shouted banzais atop their hills and saluted the Russians withdrawing before them. The hero priest was evacuated to the Red Cross hospital at Mukden where he made a full physical recovery, though psychological he did not, he reportedly went insane.  The carnage was not found so great everywhere. 650 men of the 24th and 56th regiments who were holding out on a hill south east of Hamatang were pounced upon by a company of the guards division who screamed Banzai charging with their bayonets. The Russains lifted up a white flag and the Japanese allowed them to surrender. At 5:30pm the sun was setting across the battlefield, it had been a truly bloody sight. 2700 Russians lay dead, wounded or captured. The Japanese reported 1036 casualties. The Russians had lost 45 artillery pieces, 8 machine guns and 19 wagons full of munitions. The Japanese did not pursue the Russians fleeing to Liaoyang or Fenghuangcheng.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Russian fleet was trapped firmly with the harbor of Port Arthur allowing the Japanese to commence their land campaigns. The first major battle was at along the Yalu river which turned a crimson red with the blood of both sides. It was going to be a terrible war.   

Last time we spoke about the failure of diplomacy between the Empires of Russian and Japan as well as the Yellow Peril. The Russians said they would demobilize and pull out of Manchuria, but when the time actually came to do so, they suddenly had a change of heart. Japan felt threated, but extended the hand of diplomacy trying to thwart beginning a war against a great power. Tsar Nicholas II was being egged on by his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II, who utilized  Yellow Peril rhetory to push Russia into a war with Japan. The Russians did not put up a serious effort when it came to diplomacy, basically insulting Japan. Japan could only swallow so much, until she would take violent actions. The entire world was in for quite a shock, because a Sun was about to rise and a Bear was about to tumble.    #74 The Russo-Japanese War Part 1: The Surprise attack on Port Arthur   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. On January 13th of 1904, Japan proposed to Russia that she would recognize Russia's sphere of influence over Manchuria if Russia would respect her’s over Korea. It was a generous offer to maintain the peace, but Russia counter proposed that Japan respect her sphere of influence over Manchuria, and that Korea was basically open grounds. It was to be frank, an insult. It seemed clear to the Japanese the Russians were not serious about diplomacy, in fact they were biding time to build up their military strength in Asia. In February of 1904, Prime Minister Katsura’s cabinet decided for war. You really have to take a step back and look at what a colossal decision that was. Russia was a great power, Japan was considered an emerging regional power. Japan had defeated the Qing dynasty, yes, but in the minds of the great powers, this was nothing more than two lesser nations battling it out. A lot of the attitudes of the day were as you can imagine, racist. The idea of a non white nation going to war against a white nation let alone a great power, was ridiculous. So how did Japan think she was going to defeat a larger empire like Russia? For Japan the prospect of victory would rely on a pre-emptive strike against her fleet anchored at Port Arthur, sound a bit familiar? Yes in many ways you can think of this as a Pearl Harbor prequel. The idea similar to Pearl Harbor was to deliver a surprise attack and then issue the formal declaration of war. In the Pacific the Russian Far East fleet consisted of 7 battleships, 6 cruisers and 13 destroyers at Port Arthur. At Vladivostok there were 4 first class cruisers, with a number of torpedo boats. At Chemulpo in Korea were the protected cruisers Varya and gunboat Koreyetz. A crucial component of the conflict would be commanding the sea ways. Both nations recognized this fact all too well. The Russian far east fleet was constrained from year the round training by being icebound in Vladivostok for 3 months of the year. Her fleet was also a ragtag bunch with different armaments, speed, armor and flexibility. Russia was dependent on foreign built ships, though she was fully capable of building her own. Russia had ships built from Britain, Germany, France and the US. The Russian navy was based on conscription at 7 years with 3 years of reserve.  The IJN combined fleet consisted of 6 battleships, 10 cruisers, 40 destroyers and 40 smaller vessels, led by Vice Admiral Heihachiro Togo. The Russian ships were a hotchpotch of differing types, armaments and speeds, with a varied amount of armor protection. The Japanese ships were nearly all British built, uniform and faster. Alcohol excess amongst Russian crews was a serious problem. Baltic crews spent the 6 months of winter ashore because the gulf of Finland froze and because of bureaucratic demand for uniformity. So did the crews of the Black Sea fleet. Thus, Russian sailors spent less time at sea and less time training. The Japanese navy under British instruction spent more time at sea, and trained intensively. Japanese sailors were literate, while most Russian sailors were not. These variables would come out to play when dealing with steam-driven warships, the most technologically advanced weapons of the day.   Japan held an advantage over the Russians: an intricate spy network run by Baron Akashi Motojiro. He was sent as a roaming military attache all over Europe and, by 1902, moved to Saint Petersburg, setting up a network using locally-based Japanese merchants, workers and others sympathetic to Japan, making sure to pay more than the Russians did. He gathered valuable information on troop movements and naval development, and began to support Russian extremists such as Litvinoff, Orlovsky and Lenin. It is alleged he recruited the famous spy Sidney Reilly, who went to Manchuria and Port Arthur secretly gathering intelligence and, if it is to be believed, alongside his acquaintance Ho Liang Shung, stole the Port Arthur harbor defense plans and sold it to the IJN. Allegedly, Vice-Admiral Togo was given some false information from Reilly and other spies around Port Arthur about the garrison there being on full alert. This led him to not want to risk his capital ships against a well-prepared enemy. He thus elected to send a destroyer force to surprise-attack Port Arthur. To prepare for the war, the Japanese had troopships prepared in predetermined positions, already loaded with provisions and munitions. Aboard his flagship, Admiral Togo read to his admirals a message from Emperor Meiji before all of them lifted a glass of champagne and gave a few bonzai’s. The Japanese press were forced into utmost secrecy, everything possible was concealed. As the combined fleet departed on the morning of February the 7th, they had an agreement, whether at Port Arthur or if the Russian fleet found them first, the Japanese would fire first.  The IJN combined fleet made a rendezvous south of Chemulpo around Lindsay island. They were met by the Akashi who had been tasked with surveying the Russian navy’s movements in the region. The Akashi reported the Russian naval forces had not departed Port Arthur, everyone sighed with relief. The Russian naval forces outside Port Arthur were the unprotected cruisers Varyag and an old gunboat called the Koreyetz, both at anchor in Chemulpo. Chemulpo was a designated landing spot for the IJA, three troopships carrying 2500 troops detached from the combined fleet escorted by the armored cruisers Asama, Takachiho, Nanussa, unarmored cruisers Suma and Akashi and two torpedo boats. Commanding the small detachment was Rear Admiral Uriu. The Japanese intelligence indicated, alongside the two Russian warships there was numerous warships from other nations. The HMS Talbot, USS Vicksburg, Italy’s Elba, Frances Pascal and Japans protected cruiser Chiyoda were anchored there. Chiyoda slipped out of the port to meet up with the incoming Uriu who forwarded the information on the international presence. Uriu worried about the political consequences of attacking the Russians in the harbor next to international warships which was against international law. If they could lure the Russians out of the harbor it would be much better politically.   Meanwhile the Russians were in a bit of an awkward state. Many believed hostilities could break out at any moment, but did not have orders to attack first. The commander of the Koreyetz was quite nervous and wanted to receive an update from Port Arthur on the political situation so he departed from the harbor during the early afternoon. Unluckily for the Koreyetz she came across the incoming Japanese. Upon discovering the incoming ships were Japanese, the Koreyetz turned around, but some of her gunners were too trigger happy and fired two ineffectual shots.   The Koreyetz fled back to her anchorage beside the Varyag and Russian steamer Sungari. The 3 captains quickly met watching the Japanese warships also anchor within the harbor. Soon they could see the Japanese troopships unloaded troops and provisions around 6pm on February 8th. The Japanese troops went to work occupying the city and by 3am on the 9th, four IJA battalions of the 12th division had unloaded without incident. Rear admiral Uriu sent a letter to the senior Russian commander, Captain Stefanov advising him that hostilities existed between their two nations and that the Russian ships must leave the neutral port of Chemulpo. He also indicated he spoke to the other nationalities captains warning them to stay clear if a fire fight broke out in the harbor. The Russians had until noon to comply, if they stayed at 4pm, Uriu would attack.   Captain Stefanov ran over to the HMS Talbot to plead with her British captain to get the international ships to restrain the Japanese or help escort them out to sea. Captain Denis Bagly of the Talbot went out to meet Uriu with a letter signed by the other captains protesting the violation of a neutral port. Bagly had no illusions it was a useless gesture and he bid farewell to Stefanov, advising the man he should try to escape or surrender. Stefanov spoke with his fellow captains and they agreed surrender was not an option. At 11am, outgunned and outnumbered the two Russian warships departed the anchorage in front of numerous spectators. Varyags band played ‘god save the Tsar” as the sailors sang the anthem. They sailed directly at the awaiting Japanese fleet.    Upon seeing the Russians come out, the Asama trained her 8 inch guns on the Varyag and at a range of 4 miles opened fire. The new Shimose shells began to hit Varyag and soon Chiyoda added her guns to the duel. Eye witness, reporter Thomas Cowen had this to say of the scene “Her decks were being torn and riven, and men were dashed down in mangled heaps all round each gun, for the guns had no shields to protect their crews. Like the furious windsqualls in the height of a hurricane came the bursting of terrible explosives all the length of the ship, shattering and burning and sweeping away men and pieces of machinery indiscriminately”   The Varyag’s crew literally ran out of men to carry away the wounded on deck. A shell smashed into the bridge to the left of the captain killing his runner. Another shell hit to the captains right killing his bugler and taking some of the side of his face. Most of Varyags guns were silenced, she took a hit below the waterline and was listing to port. Despite all of this, the able men kept to their duty, trying to maneuver the ship by the propellers after her steering gear had been shot off. With no way to fight the enemy the captain ordered them to return to port and the maneuver left Koreyetz exposed to fire for the first time. Koreyetz could not even fire upon the enemy because her range was too limited and soon the Chiyoda began to fire upon her. Koreyetz captain decided to simply follow the crippled and on fire Varyag. Suddenly the gunfire ceased, the Japanese went back to where they anchored before and the two Russian warships did the same. Varyags superstructures were flattened, two of her four funnels were blown off and her masts as well. The Russian survivors were quickly taken aboard the Talbot, Elba and Pascal. The Russian captains had decided to scuttle the three ships. As the explosives went off, the band aboard the Elba played the Russian anthem. The Japanese sailors all bowed in a salute. Later within Chemulpo some of the Russian sailors would be treated by Japanese medical staff and all were permitted to return to Russia on parole, so that they would not take up arms again during the war.    Admiral Togo took the rest of the fleet to another rendezvous point, this time at Elliot island, some 65 miles east of Port Arthur. Togo’s fleet was divided into three divisions. The 1st division consisted of the 6 battleships, Asahi, Hatsuse, Shikishima, Yashima, Fuji and Togo’s flagship Mikasa. They had an overall speed of 18 knots and a displacement of 12300-15000 tons with broadsides weighing some 4000 lbs. The 2nd division consisted of armored cruisers, the Yagumo, Izumo, Iwate, Azuma and Tokiwa with an average speed of 24 knots. The third division consisted of unarmored cruisers Chitose, Takasago, Yoshino and Kasagi. Additionally 15 destroyers armed with the brand new Whitehead torpedo capable of 30 knots and 20 torpedo boats would take up the role of picquet.  Over in Port Arthur’s harbor the inner line consisted of 5 Russian battleships, Sevastopol, Petropavlovsk, Peresvyet, Pobieda and Poltava. In the middle line were the battleships Tsarevitch and Retvizan, alongside 3 cruisers. In the southernmost line were 3 other cruisers along with the duty ship Pallada. Patroling outside the harbor were destroyers Rastoropni and Bezstrashni around 20 miles out. The commander of the Russian Far Eastern Fleet was Vice Admiral Oscar Victorovitch Stark. It just so happened on February 8th he had planned a large birthday party for his wife. The guests would include Viceroy and Supreme Commander Admiral Alexeiev, his chief of staff Vice Admiral Witgeft, Starks deputy Rear admiral Uktomski and a plethora of other commanders and their wives. Stark actually suspected the Japanese would attack, most likely utilizing torpedoes in a surprise, but the Viceroy refused to allow him to prepare the fleet for war. None the less Stark ordered his captains to prepare to repel torpedo attacks. He ordered all ships to put out anti-torpedo nets and be prepared for action. However, several ships did not carry out these orders and did not take the situation seriously despite multiple night alarms. Many main battery guns were unloaded, many nets uncast, entire crews lay asleep in hammocks, and the two patrolling destroyers were told not to fire if they saw anything, but instead to report it to the CIC. This was because the Tsar had instructed his far Eastern forces, for political reasons, that if war should occur, Japan must be seen to have started it. Alongside this, the majority of the officer corps would be celebrating on the shore and at a party hosted by Admiral Starck for the birthday of his wife on the deck of his flagship, the Petropavlovsk. The celebrating crowd would in fact mistake explosions as cannon salutes for her birthday party. At 7pm Togo released his destroyers, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd flotillas had orders to proceed to Port Arthur while the 4th and 5th would try to ambush any Russian ships sailing around Dalny. 10 destroyers were enroute to Port Arthur, each warship held crews of around 50 men, armed with two 12 pounder guns, 4 6 pounders and two torpedoes.  The 1st Flotilla consisted of the destroyers : Shirakumo, Asashio, Kasumi, Akatsuki; 2nd Flotilla: Inazuma, Oboro, Ikazuchi; 3rd Flotilla: Usugumo, Shinonome, Sazanami. They used stearch lights, went towards Liau-ti-chan, allegedly using stolen plans from Sidney Reilly to navigate through the Russian minefield protecting the harbor. At 10:50pm, the 1st flotilla came across the two Russian destroyers on patrol, the Rastoropni and Bezstrashni. This prompted the 1st squadron to douse their lights, trying to avoid detection and slip past. During the process, the Japanese destroyer Oboro collided with the Ikazuchi, disabling her and blocking the path of the Inazuma. This in turn led the flotillas to become separated and were forced to act independently, with the Inazuma becoming lost and the Oboro limping slowly. 20 minutes after midnight, the 1st flotilla arrived, seeing Russian warship searchlights. Approaching closer they saw 3 ranks of ships and then the cruisers Pallada saw the Japanese destroyers, but presumed they were the returning Rastoropni and Bezstrashni. The Rastoropni and Bezstrashni had no radios and were rushing back to try and report the incoming Japanese. At 11:50pm Captain Asai Shojero aboard the Shiragumo gave the attack signal. The four destroyers turned to port and increased their speed to 30 knots before releasing two torpedoes each and turning southwards.  The Shiragumo fired the first two torpedoes, followed by two from the Asashio. Because the Pallada was more active, she received more attention than the rest. Pallada was hit amidship, caught fire and began to keel over. Retvizan was hit next at her bow creating a hole large enough for a car to pass through. Tsesarevitch’s steering gear was hit. When the explosion of the hit against Pallada was heard many of the Russian ships began firing wildly. The Kasumi fired her two torpedoes, followed by the Akatsuki. Ikazuhi acting alone, came to the scene and fired a single torpedo before fleeing south as well. The 3rd flotilla attracted by the explosions rushed to the scene, finding some lights approaching them, they doused their lights and stopped their engines. It turned out to be the Inazuma who had got lost and requested to join them. They continued finding the Russians ships in a wild disarray. Usugumo was the first to fire, followed by Shinonime and Inazuma before they made their escape south. Meanwhile the Sazanami had been separated from all the others since 11 pm, but had managed to slip past the two russian destroyers around 1:25am and came in to fire a single torpedo before also departing south. The last ship was the damaged Oboro who attempted to repair herself before limping towards the enemy. At 1:45am she fired a torpedo and made her escape. The Russians had been caught completely by surprise. Their skeleton crews aboard the battleships had no idea what was occurring. Many men tumbled out of their bunks awaiting orders, orders that never came. To further explain, when a ship is in action each individual has his own designated tasks, but when an attack comes unexpectedly and a large number of the crew are absent, orders have to be given on the spur of the moment. The explosions were heard by many in the city of Port Arthur, but countless assumed it to be fireworks for celebration. The Russians wild attempts at firing back upon the enemy were useless. The Norvik was the only ship to give chase to the enemy. The torpedo attack killed two officers, 29 sailors and wounded 8 others. Pallada was grounded under the western battery in the harbor; Retvizan was grounded on a ledge near the entrance passage and Tsesarevitch was grounded close to Retvizan. Out of a total of 16 torpedoes launched, only 3 found targets. A major reason for this was luckily due to the few crews who had deployed anti torpedo nets as suggested by Starck. By the way if you would like to see a visual representation of the attack, there is a fantastic Japanese series on the Russo Japanese war called “Saka no Ue no Kumo” narrated by the legendary Ken Watanabe. On my personal channel the pacific war channel one of my most popular episodes is on the Russo-Japanese war, and I used a lot of footage from the series. I will admit I embarrasingly messed up the episode by speeding up the narration somewhat because it was simply too long, but its still ok. By the time this podcast comes out I hope its alright to say, I have been writing a 10 part Russo Japanese War series for Kings and Generals and the animation will look awesome. But back to the story. Starcks staff briefed him on what had occurred and he immediately reported it to the Viceroy in a manner of “i told you so”. Starck most likely hoped the Viceroy would shoulder the blame alongside him, but instead rumors were spread to exaggerate the fact he was having a party for his wife during the event. None the less the two admirals quickly began to plan their next steps as they both assumed the IJN combined fleet was about to come in an attack them. The viceroy sent a message appealing for everyone to stay calm in the city while Starck ordered the fleet to be made ready for sea immeidately. Countless officers and sailors scrambled to get to their ships. Following the attack, at 8am, Togo dispatched Vice Admiral Dewa Shigeto with the four cruisers of the 3rd flottila to investigate Port Arthur and, if possible, lure them out south of Encounter Rock. At 9am, Dewa observed 9 Russian warships getting ready for sea, with 3 aground. The smaller vessels, such as gunboats, torpedo boats and mine planters were outside the harbor looking to be in disarray. Dewa approached within 7500 yards of the harbor, but no one fired upon him. This prompted Dewa to believe the Russians were completely paralyzed. Dewa wireless-messaged Togo that the Russians seemed to be paralyzed, the time was ripe to attack. Togo had wanted to lure the Russians away from Port Arthur's shore batteries, but the report prompted him to order an immediate attack. The Russian formation was quite all over the place. Askold was to the east, Bayan in the center, Novik was far to the west having attempted to chase the enemy, many of the other ships were still at anchor. Togo devised his 3 divisions to form a column coming in one after the other, each ship was to fire starboard. The Japanese approached the harbor at 11:55am. Port Arthur was tossed into pure chaos. Warships moved quickly to jettison inflammable material while coolies in sampans paddled through the jetsam. Captains lept about demanding status reports of their ships while all they could see was dakr smudges on the horizon. At a range of 8500 meters, the Mikasa was the first to fire her guns.  After firing her 12inch forward gun, she turned and opened fire with her starboard broadside, the other ships followed in same fashion. The Russian shore batteries erupted firing back on the Japanese causing a duel between the warships 12 inch guns aimed at the shore batteries while their 8 and 6 inch guns targetted the Russia nwarships. The Mikasa took a full 20 minutes to form her pass and was followed by Asahi, Fuji, Yashima, Shikishima and Hatsuse.  Asahi targeted a Peresviet type, Fuji & Yashima fired upon cruiser Bayan, Shikishima fired on a ship in the center and Hatsuse dueled the enemy nearest to her. With the exception of Novik, the Russian moved like ants around a nest beneath their fort guns, trying not to make themselves stationary targets. The Novik charged out of the harbor to meet the enemy and received a hell of a mauling for it. The Russian flagship Petropavlosvk flying Starcks flag was battered; Poltava took a hit and cruisers Diana and Askold were severely damaged. The damage was not a one way street however, Mikasa, Shikishima, Fuji, Hatsuse and Iwate took hits. The shore batteries were becoming increasingly effective. When the 2nd and 3rd divisions were making their turn, everything had become like a barrom brawl. Within just 5 minutes of the dueling, Mikasa had taken a 10 inch shell to her starboard side which ricocheted and exploded under her mainmast. Her chief engineer, a staff officer, a paymaster, one midshipman and 3 crew members were wounded, and part of her aft bridge was carried away. The Fuji received a shell through her forward casing, smashing a stack and exploding, killing a turret officer and wounding many. Shikishima then received a hit to her forward stack causing it to explode.   By 12:20, Admiral Togo realized that Dewa was incorrect in his assessment - the enemy was not paralyzed - thus he motioned the fleet to withdraw. After just a single run of it, Togo had decided to back out and rendezvous with Uriu at Chemulpo. The departing maneuver exposed Togo’s entire fleet to the full brunt of the Russian shore batteries. The Hatsuse, Fuji, Shikishima and Mikasa would take the lionshare of the damage, around 7 hits distributed amongst them. As the fleet made its turning point, the IJN cruisers took several hits. Within the 2nd Division: Azuma fired upon Novik, Iwate fired upon Askold, Iwaki fired upon Askold and then Bayan. As the cruisers turned to port to follow the 1st division Azuma was hit by three shells, one to her battle flag, the other off the water of her starboard quarter exploding, the third to her after turret. Yakumo was hit twice one to her forward main top and midshipman. Novik received many hits and fired torpedoes at Iwate missing.  Within the 3rd Division: Chitose (flag of admiral Dewa) fired on center, Takasago fired on Bayan, Kasagi fired upon a Sevastopol type, Takumo fired on nearest enemy ship. Takasago and Chitose then fired on Askold which alone came closer to them, a shell his Askolds second stack, another her forward stack. Chitose then attack Novik and Takasgo attacked Bayan. As they turned to withdraw they received no major hits. The IJN cruisers also launched salvos of torpedoes. The Novik trying to engage them closer evaded the torpedoes, but took several shells below her waterline. The Japanese finally got out of range of the dreaded batteries of Port Arthur, lucky to not have any ships sunk. The casualties were quite balanced for the engagement. The Russians had 150, the Japanese betwene 90 and 130. Neither had any warships sunk, but many were severely damaged. For the Japanese this was not a major issue, their damaged ships returned to Sasebo for immediate repairs, however for the Russians this was a major issue. Port Arthur held limited capabilities, they had only one small dry dock and another incomplete. This meant some of the larger Russian warships could not receive proper repairs, and now they were blockaded. Many 12 inch shells had fallen into the city. The Russo-Chinese bank was hit causing the employees to frantically burn the currency and prepare coins to be transported away. Lumps of coal littered the city grounds like confetti. Many Chinese grabbed their belongings and fled the city aboard steamers. Many buildings were damaged, civilian casualties were light. When the news of the surprise attack reached Tsar Nicholas II he was stunned. He could not believe the Japanese would initiate a warlike actions without formally declaring war first. His advisers had assured him the Japanese had been bluffing and would not dare attack. The first secretary of the British embassy, Cecil Spring Rice went on the record to state the Tsar was left “almost incredulous”.  Japan issued their declaration of war 3 hours after the surprise attack. Russia went on a war footing on the 10th and a few days later submitted their official declaration of war after stating to the international community Japans actions were dishonorable. In response Japan referenced the Russian attack on Sweden in 1808, which they did without declaring war first as a justification somewhat for their own actions.  The international community were mixed in their favor, but many did sympathize with the Japanese. Notably President Theodore Roosevelt held sympathetic views for the Japanese and the Japanese would take a strong notice to this. Admiral Togo was dissapointed in his lack of success with the surprise torpedo attack. But for now Japan had won command of the sea, the Russian navy was trapped. From Chemulpo, Togo sailed his damaged ships back to Sasebo for repairs, but would go on the record to state “He felt he failed to take the opportunity as Nelson would have done, to deal a blow to the Russian fleet from which they would not recover”. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Admiral Togo had delivered the very first blow of the Russo-Japanese war. His surprise attack upon Port Arthur was a bold and terrific strategy, but had he done enough to give Japan the upper hand in the battles to come?

Last time we spoke about the Red Bearded Honghuzi Bandits. Yes Manchuria and many parts of China proper have had a bandit problem going back to ancient times. The borderlands between the Russian Empire and Qing Dynasty proved to be the perfect grounds for bandits to evolve. The Honghuzi were getting larger, more organized and certain leaders amongst them would have long lasting impacts on the history of China. Such names that come to mind are Zhang Zuolin and the Dogmeat General Zhang Zongchang. Such forces were incorporated officially into the Qing military to thwart other bandit groups and eventually to harass the Russians or Japanese in conflict looming on the horizon. Everything seems to be hot in Manchuria, Russian has full on invaded her and is reluctant to drag her troops out. There are those unhappy with this circumstance and they will soon make themselves heard loud and clear.    #73 The Yellow Peril and a War in the East   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The Boxer Rebellion is over. The Russo-Chinese War in Manchuria is over. Order had been restored to Beijing and in Manchuria things were significantly quieted down. Now the other nations of the 8 nation alliance had their hands full dealing with the expedition against Beijing and they sort of turned a blind eye to what was a side conflict in Manchuria. But when things were settling down and 177,000 Russian forces had more or less invaded and were occupying Manchuria, well a lot of eyeballs bulged. Britain and Japan sought common cause, both had significant investments in the Asia-Pacific. For example Britain had Weihaiwei and was literally staring down at the Russians over in Port Arthur and Dalien. Japan had been slighted by the triple intervention by Russia, Germany and France, losing her acquisitions of Port Arthur and Dalien to the Russians. Manchuria was always seen as a buffer zone to the Japanese, she now hand a toehold in Korea and such large Russian activity in Manchuria was very threatening. Let us not forget the entire war between the Qing dynasty and Japan over Korea, to a lesser extent also had Russian as a 4th party. Russia did meddle in Korea and continuously antagonized Japan. Thus with common cause Japan and Britain formed an alliance on January 30th of 1902. In response Russia and France formed their own on March 16th of 1902. The alliances basically worked to thwart any other great powers from getting involved in a potential war between Japan and Russia.  Now Russia also agreed to the rest of the great powers that she would gradually withdraw her forces from Manchuria. It was to be rolled out in 3 periods of 6 months. The first phase saw southwest Manchuria evacuated and returned to China, but when it came to the second phase, suddenly Russia was making demands for concessions to the Qing dynasty.  Britain, Japan and the US protested the demands and this bolstered China to reject them. Now turned back the clock a bit there was another sticky situation. When chaos was erupting in Korea, King Gojong ran to the Russians for protection for over two years. This turned the nations favor towards the Russians over the Chinese and Japanese. Russia seized this opportunity to strengthen her forces in defense of her legation in Korea, and this action was met with actions taken up by Japan. Japanese and Russian officials met and this was the result verbatim: A further agreement between Russia and Japan had been signed in Tokyo on 25 April 1898. The agreement contained three understandings: The independence of Korea was assured; neither country would interfere in Korea’s domestic affairs. There would be no appointment of military or civil advisers without discussion with the interested parties. Russia agreed not to hinder Japan’s development of trade with Korea.  Aside from this the Russians of course wanted to seize as much as they could. A Russian-Korean bank was formed in 1897, and a timber cutting contract was given to Russian industrialists in the Yalu river area. In 1901, Tsar Nicholas II told Prince Henry of Prussia, "I do not want to seize Korea but under no circumstances can I allow Japan to become firmly established there. That will be a “casus belli." The contract only came into effect when the Manchurian railway projects were kicking off and when able bodies were around, which came about during the occupation of Manchuria. In april of 1903 Russians acquired some land and established a fort at Yongampo near the mouth of the Yalu river. America and Japan received similar concessions in the region. The Japanese began receiving reports, indicating Port Arthur was being heavily stocked with supplies and a large body of Russian troops were advancing across the Liaodong Peninsula towards Korea. Thus from the Japanese point of view it looked clear Russia was not honoring her agreements. On July 28th of 1903, the Japanese ambassador at St Petersburg was instructed to make it known to the Russians, the 7 demands they made to China was not seen as a “relaxation of her hold on Manchuria but rather a consolidation” Two days later, Russian Admiral Alexeiev was appointed Viceroy of the Far East. Alexeiev would hold supreme power to exercises diplomacy between Russian East Asia and her neighbors as well as command the Russian military and naval forces in the east. From the Japanese point of view, a permanent Russian occupation of Manchuria would be prejudicial over her own security and interests. It would also threaten Korea, which was her sphere of interest, one she was not looking to share. Russia agreed to consider drawing up a new treaty. On August 12th of 1903 a draft was presented at St Petersburg, but in the meantime Russia was strengthening her position in the far east. This tense situation kept going, until January 13th of 1904 when Japan offered to recognize Manchuria as being outside her sphere of interest, if Russia would agree Korea was Japan’s sphere of interest. It was to be blunt a very fair deal. Japan requested an early reply to the proposal, but by February 4th of 1904 no reply was forthcoming. Two days later the Japanese ambassador, Mr. Kurino called upon the Russian foreign minister, Count Lamsdorf to take his leave. Kurino explained to Lamsdorf that the Japanese government had decided to adopt some “independent action” deeming it necessary to defend its established rights and legitimate interests. Basically Japan's patience had come to an end. The Russian ambassador to Tokyo, Baron Rosen, had continuously sent warnings to his superiors in St Petersburg that if they continued to corner Japan, she would most certainly fight them. Such sentiment was shared by War Minister General Kuroptkin who resigned in a state of exasperation some months earlier. Tsar Nicholas II did not want a war, but he was continuously assured by his advisers, Japan was not strong enough to fight them. When Mr. Kurino took his leave, the immediate signal was made to Admiral Alexeiev, who was in Tokyo at the time. The new viceroy saw with his own eyes evidence of Japanese mobilization and he advised St Petersburg accordingly. The Japanese foreign ministry confirmed their government had run out of patience. However all of this was taken to be a bluff. It has been theorized Alexeiev was simply not averse to a war with a country he certainly deemed inferior to his own. It is also theorized Tsar Nicholas II probably believed if a war would to break out it would be a short and victorious one, and perhaps such an event could distract the tide of revolution hitting his nation, the people of Russia were not happy anymore about the Romanov rule. Funny enough, all of these talks, deceptions and plans were to take shape in China. The Chinese were literally never even thought of or spoken to, and soon a war would literally occur within their borders against their will. How did this all come about? It might sound a bit funny, but a large reason the Russo-Japanese War would occur would simply be a result of, pardon my french, shit talking by one Kaiser Wilhelm II. When Kaiser Wilhelm I died on March 9th of 1888, Germany fell to Frederick III who died of throat cancer only 99 days after taking the reins. On June 15th, a 29 year old Kaiser Wilhelm II took the throne. Now for those of you who don’t know, Otto von Bismarck, the man who unified Germany was during the late 19th century one of the greatest political players in the world. Bismarck had an incredible understanding of the balance of power theory and studied all the most powerful nations national interests. He brokered international deals using his knowledge to increase Germany’s standing in global politics and he also in many ways designed a system of international alliances to thwart a global war….which ironically would in many ways cause ww1. If you want to know more specifically about this by the way, check out Kings and Generals alliances that caused WW1, I wrote that script and its a fascinating story. Dan Carlin famously referred to Bismarcks work as creating a giant hand grenade, that if the pin got pulled out, only Bismarck understood how to put it back in. While Bismarck was in power things were pretty good, but he was such a colossal figure, that when the young Kaiser came into power, many of his advisers suggested he was being overshadowed by Bismarck. Kaiser Wilhelm II listening to his advisers, sought to stop Bismarck from taking the quote en quote “day to day” administration. Conflicts began to arise between the two men. Wilhelm did not understand the complexities of Bismarcks international relations and saw him as far too peaceful. Wilhelm gradually fell under the influence of his military leaders to the dismay of Bismarck who thought the Kaiser would lead them swiftly into a war with a nation like Russia. In 1890 Bismarck resigned under pressure from Wilhelm II and other German leaders, and as Dan Carlin would say, now the grenade he created was set to go off. Now when the new Kaiser venturing into international relations, he was deeply influenced by a ideological concept that he would use as a tool to coerce international players to act out. The concept is known as the “yellow peril” “le Peril Jaune” as coined by Russian sociologist Jacques Novikow in the late 19th century. In essence the yellow peril was a racist ideology that held asians to be subhuman, like apes and monkeys, but also that as a racial group should they unite, they would threaten what was thought to be the superior race of the day, whites. Basically the idea was that if all the nations of asia were to unite, they could retaliate against the White nations who were at the time colonizing or forcing unequal treaties upon them. There was also a religious element to it, that Christianity was under threat from the hoards of the east.  Now back to Wilhelm II, one of his advisers was the diplomat Max von Brandt who advised him that Imperial Germany had major colonial interests in China. The Triple Intervention that Germany endorsed was justified by the Kaiser under the guise it was to thwart what he began calling “die Gelbe Gefahr / the yellow peril”. The Kaiser began a propaganda campaign using the famous allegorical lithograph “Peoples of Europe, Guard your Most Sacred Possessions” created in 1895 by Hermann Knackfuss. You can google the image. The lithograph portrays the European monarchs with Germany as the leader of Europe personified by a “prehistoric warrior-goddesses being led by the Archangel Michael against the yellow peril from the east. The east is seen as a dark cloud of smoke which rests eerily upon a calm Buddha, wreathed in flame”. The imagery is very apparent, white and christianity is under threat from asian and their eastern religions. This type of ideology goes all the way back to Ancient Greece and Persia, its the age old west vs east stuff. Today you would call this sort of talk, a race war. Now you are probably asking, ok this leader of Germany is just a racist dude, how does this cause a war between Russia and Japan? This story is rather hilarious and hard to believe, but in summary, the Kaiser used the ideology to trick his cousin into war.  For those unaware, Kaiser Wilhelm II was first cousins with King Geoerge V of Britain,  to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, to Queens Marie of Romania, Maud of Norway, Victoria Eugene of Spain, and even the woman he would eventually marry, the Empress of Russia. Now the Germany presented to Wilhelm was involved in some alliances. I mentioned Britain and Japan had an alliance and France and Russian had an alliance. Wilhelm and his advisers sought to increase Germany’s stature. Wilhelm believed that if Russia went to war with Japan, it would break up the Franco-Russian alliance and with no one else to turn to, Russia would seek an alliance with Germany. Wilhelms reasoning was that France was not supporting of Russians expansion into asia and such aggressive actions like going to war with Japan would be highly disapproved by France. The French Premier Maurice Rouvier publicly declared that the Franco-Russian alliance applied only in Europe and not Asia and that if Japan and Russia went to war, France would remain neutral. Such rhetoric seemed to prove Wilhelms beliefs. Germany meanwhile felt threatened by Britain and had embarked on what was known as the Tirpitz Plan in the late 1890s. The Tirpitz plan was Germany’s plan to achieve world power status through naval power, but the world's greatest navy of course was Britain at the time. What essentially happened was Germany challenging Britain to an arms race in the form of naval warship building programs. Everything the Kaiser pursued during the late 19th century was what was called “Weltpolitik / world politics” which essentially was just Germany's imperialistic foreign policy to become a global power. Wilhelm and his advisers were playing world politics to weaken rivals and strengthen Germany plain and simple.  So Wilhelm believes he can break the French-Russian alliance and squeeze himself in Frances place if he can get the Russians to go to war with Japan who just happened to be allied to Germany’s main rival, Britain. Some real game of thrones stuff here. Wilhelm also believed if Germany could pull this off, France would be compelled to join them, forming a triple alliance against Britain and Japan so they could all pursue their expansionist policies in places like Asia. There was also the belief pulling this off would pull Russia away from the Balkans which was a huge source of tension with Germany’s main ally Austro-Hungary. Thats all fine and dandy, but how does Wilhelm get his cousin Tsar Nicholas to go to war with the Japanese, here comes the yellow peril.  Starting in 1895, Kaiser Wilhelm began using the Yellow Peril ideology to portray Germany as the great defender of the west against the barbarism of the east. But then all of a sudden Wilhelm began sending personal letters to his cousin Nicholas praising him as the quote “savior of the white races” and began urging him to take a more hardened approach to Asia. The letters between the two have been referred to as the “willy-nicky” letters, consisting of 75 messages sent back and forth between 1895-1914. I wont list them all of course but lets take a peak at how Wilhelm wrote to his cousin. In 1895 Wilhelm wrote this from Kaltenbronn Schwarzwald. I will paraphrase of course there's a ton of fluff. Dearest Nicky, I thank you sincerely for the excellent way in which you initiated the combined action of Europe[27] for the sake of its interests against Japan. It was high time that energetic steps were taken, and will make an excellent impression in Japan as elsewhere. It shows to evidence how necessary it is that we should hold together, and also that there is existent a base of common interests upon which all European nations may work in joint action for the welfare of all as is shown by the adherence of France to us two. May the conviction that this can be done without touching a nations honour, take root more and more firmly, then no doubt the fear of war in Europe will dissipate more and more. The kind and most valuable messages which you sent me through Osten Sacken[28] by Count Eulenburgs transmission in Vienna have given me a signal proof of your loyalty and openness towards me. I shall certainly do all in my power to keep Europe quiet and also guard the rear or Russia so that nobody shall hamper your action towards the Far East! For that is clearly the great task of the future for Russia to cultivate the Asian Continent and to defend Europe from the inroads of the Great Yellow race. In this you will always find me on your side ready to help you as best I can. You have well understood that call of Providence and have quickly grasped the moment; it is of immense political and historical value and much good will come of it. I shall with interest await the further development of our action and hope that, just as I will gladly help you to settle the question of eventual annexations[29] of portions of territory for Russia, you will kindly see that Germany may also be able to acquire a Port somewhere were it does not "gêne" you. You can see how Wilhelm is egging on his cousin about how Germany will have his back if he were to be bolder in Asia. Also the cute end bit about Germany acquiring some ports.  In 1898 for a New Years letter Wilhelm sent this Dearest Niky May this New Year be a happy one for you dear Allx and the whole of your house and country. May the plans, which you mature be fullfilled for the wellfare of your people. Henry's mission^ is one of the steps I have taken for the help and countenance of your lofty Ideals—without which no sovereign can exist—in promoting civilisation I. e. Christianity in [41] the Far East! Will you kindly accept a drawing I have sketched for you, showing the Symbolising figures of Russia and Germany as sentinels at the Yellow Sea for the proclaiming of the Gospel of Truth and Light in the East. I drew the sketch in the Xmas week under the blaze of the lights of theXmas trees!  Here Wilhelm is pressing upon the religious aspect and is basically flattering Nicholas. Again in 1898 Wilhelm wrote Dearest Nicky I must congratulate you most heartily at the successful issue of your action at Port Arthur ; we two will make a good pair of sentinels at the entrance of the gulf of Petchili, who will be duly respected especially by the Yellow Ones ! I think the way you managed to soothe the feelings of the "fretful Japs"by the masterly arrangement at Korea a remarkably fine piece of diplomacy and a great show of foresight; which Is apt to show what a boon it was that by your great journey,^ you were able to study the Question of the Far East locally and are now morally speaking the Master of Peking! Fretful Japs indeed In 1902 we get probably the most important letter involving the yellow peril Dear Nicky This is the more necessary as/certain symptoms in the East seems to show that Japan is becoming a rather restless customer and that the situation necessitates all coolness and decision of the Peace Powers. The news of the attachment of the Japanese General Yamai^—former leader of the Jap. troops in China—to the Legation at Peking in order to take in hand the reorganisation of the Chinese Army—i.e. for the unavowed object of driving every other foreigner out of China—is very serious. 20 to 30 Million of trained Chinese helped by half a dozen Jap. Divisions and led by fine, undaunted Christian hating Jap. Officers, is a future to be con- templated not without anxiety; and not impossible. In fact it is the coming into reality of the *'Yellow Peril" which I depicted some years ago, and for which engraving I was laughed at by the greater mass of the People for my graphic depiction of it ... Your devoted friend and cousin, Willy, Admiral of the Atlantic".  And there it is, an army of millions of Chinese led by Japanese officers, the yellow peril. So for years Wilhelm egged on his cousin, making him believe he was this savior of the white race, holding the yellow hoard back from sweeping over Europe. Wilhelm also made sure to leave ambiguous ideas that Germany had Russians back, that if war came and let's say a nation like Britain jumped into the mix, Germany would jump in too. Arguable if there was any reality behind these claims. Now back to the situation in the far east, King Gojong found his nation stuck between two tigers again, this time it was Japan and Russia. He believed the key to the issue was Manchuria and sought for Korea to remain as neutral as possible so she could hope to preserve her independence, I would saw independence with finger quotes. Meanwhile the Chinese ambassador to St Petersburg, Hu Weide was receiving reports from Beijing on whether Russia or Japan were likely to win such a war and how it would favor China. It was argued it was in China’s interest for Japan to win, because a Japanese victory would likely breakdown Russians stronghold on Manchuria and perhaps China could wrestle it all back in. China decided in December of 1903 to remain neutral if war came, because while she knew Japan was the only one in the far east capable of pushing Russia out, she also did not know what Japan’s ambitions might be in Manchuria.  In early 1904 negotiations continued between Russia and Japan, but like I mentioned earlier Japan gradually figured out Russia was not being serious. This was more than likely due to an infamous message sent by Wilhelm to Nicholas in December of 1903.  Since 97—Kiaochow—we have never left Russia in any doubt that we would cover her back in Europe, in case she decided to pursue a bigger policy in the Far East that might lead to military complications (with the aim of relieving our eastern border from the fearful pressure and threat of the massive Russian army!). Whereupon, Russia took Port Arthur and trusting us, took her fleet out of the Baltic, thereby making herself vulnerable to us by sea. In Danzig 01 and Reval 02, the same assurance was given again, with result that entire Russian divisions from Poland and European Russia were and are being sent to the Far East. This would not had happened if our governments had not been in agreement! Nicholas for his part was prepared to compromise with Japan, but the incessant letters from Wilhelm egging him on as a coward for thinking about compromising gradually broke the Tsar. The Kaiser wrote this: undertaking the protection and defence of the White Race, and with it, Christian civilization, against the Yellow Race. And whatever the Japs are determined to ensure the domination of the Yellow Race in East Asia, to put themselves at its head and organise and lead it into battle against the White Race. That is the kernel of the situation, and therefore there can be very little doubt about where the sympathies of all half-way intelligent Europeans should lie. England betrayed Europe's interests to America in a cowardly and shameful way over the Panama Canal question, so as to be left in 'peace' by the Yankees. Will the 'Tsar' likewise betray the interests of the White Race to the Yellow as to be 'left in peace' and not embarrass the Hague tribunal too much?. Nicholas replied he still sought peace, and Wilhelm replied in telegram “oh you innocent angel, this is the language of an innocent angel. But not that of a White Tsar!” Regardless of the Tsar’s feelings, Japan was firmly under the belief Russia was not serious about seeking a peaceful solution to their dispute over Manchuria and Korea. When Japan proposed recognizing Manchuria was Russia’s sphere of influence if Russia would respect their sphere of influence over Korea, the Russia counter proposal was basically, no, Russia would retain Manchuria and Korea would be open game.  Potential diplomatic resolutions between the two nations had thus failed. Historians generally argue it was the fault of Nicholas II who pushed his administration to give no ground. Why he acted this way though has two major arguments, one I have highlighted, the egging on by the Kaiser, but there was another element at play. The Russian people were frankly fed up with the royal family, the people were looking for change. To start a war and rile up patriotism could have been an attempt to quell the Russian people from revolutionary actions and in retrospect it certainly seems the case. The Tsar’s advisers despite being hawkish did not seek a war with Japan, they simply wanted to bully what they thought was a weaker nation into submission. Because the reality was, Manchuria was far, the trans siberian railway was not complete, moving troops and provisions such a distance was a colossal task.  Japan performed a large scale study of the Russian power in Manchuria. The Japanese had been secretly surveying and mapping as far as east of Lake Baikal. In 1904 the Japanese had 380,000 active and reserve army forces, 200,000 in the 2nd reserve, another 50,000 in conscription reserve and 220,000 trained men of the national army, thus they could in theory toss 850,000 men into a conflict and by conscripting perhaps 4,250,000 who would all have to be trained taking time and money. Japan’s effective strength was 257,000 infantry, 11,000 cavalry and 894 artillery pieces. They held 12 infantry divisions each containing 11,400 infantry, 430 cavalry and 36 guns a piece. Their troops received 12 months training, once the war started this would be cut to 6 months. Their artillery battalions held 3 batteries with both field and mountain guns ranging in caliber of 2.95 inches to 4.72 inches. Their infantry were equipped with a modern 1900 .256 inch magazine rifle that could fire 2000 yards but was effective at 300. Each soldier carried a knapsack, greatcoat and shelter tent. In their sacks were two days rations and entrenching tools. For machine guns they would receive Hotchkiss guns. The logistical system for the Japanese would be much better than the Russians. They had a series of lines of support. The soldiers carried two days rations, with echelons of transports that carried provisions behind them. Each division had its own transport battalion, including an ambulance train to deal with casualties. Chinese carts, Chinese and Korean coolies would all be paid premium prices for logistical aid. The Japanese would buy local foodstuff from the Koreans and Chinese at premium prices to earn the local populaces support over the Russians. For the Russians their army stood roughly at 4.5 million, but only 6 of the 25 European army corps would play an active role in the far east. By February of 1904 the Russians had roughly 60,000 troops, 3000 cavalry and 164 guns posted at Vladivostok, Harbin and Port Arthur. By Mid february this would be increased to 95,000; with 45,000 at Vladivostok, 8000 at Harbin, 9000 in Haicheng; 11,000 near the Yalu and 22,000 around Port Arthur. The Russian had the European 1st, 4th, 8th, 10th, 16th and 17th army corps each numbering 28,000 rifles and 112 guns. Alongside these were 7 Siberian corps. While the Russians held the advantage in numbers, the trans siberian was not complete and the route going around Lake Baikal formed a massive delay. Lake Baikal is basically the size of Switzerland, around 386 miles long. Thus the forces in Manchuria would be at the mercy of local foodstuffs for provisions, which meant they were competing with the Japanese to purchase them, while the Japanese had their own nations foodstuffs coming via sea transport, from Korea and of course within China. The Russian troops were armed with a .299 caliber rifles, but their training was lackluster and required all men to fire at short range on orders from superior officers. The upcoming war would catch the Russian gunners in the midst of a  re-equipment programme. A third of their guns were a new 3 inch quick firing gun with a range of 6000 yards, capable of battering the Japanese artillery. However the gunners training period was quite literally on the job. Thus many of the gunners were coming into the conflict with a new technology they had not even fired yet. Japan’s population was then 46.5 million, Russia’s 130 million. The Russian military opinion saw the Japanese “as little people who lived in paper houses…and wasted hours on flower arrangement and tea ceremonies”. However, Minister of War Kuropatkin visited Japan in 1903 and was impressed by their infantry and artillery, stating that they were equal to any European army, and advocated avoiding war with them. Russia’s navy was much larger, but divided between the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Pacific, whereas Japan’s was concentrated in her home waters. By 1902, Russia began strengthening her Pacific squadron and, by the end of 1903, had 7 battleships, 7 cruisers, 25 destroyers and 27 smaller ships. The IJN (the Japanese Navy) consisted of 6 battleships, 10 cruisers, 40 destroyers and 40 smaller vessels. The Russian ships were a hotchpotch of differing types, armaments and speeds, with a varied amount of armor protection. The Japanese ships were nearly all British built, uniform and faster. Alcohol excess amongst Russian crews was a serious problem. Baltic crews spent the 6 months of winter ashore because the gulf of Finland froze and because of bureaucratic demand for uniformity. So did the crews of the Black Sea fleet. Thus, Russian sailors spent less time at sea and less time training. The Japanese navy under British instruction spent more time at sea, and trained intensively. Japanese sailors were literate, while most Russian sailors were not. These variables would come out to play when dealing with steam-driven warships, the most technologically advanced weapons of the day. At the outbreak of the conflict the Russian Far East fleet would have 7 battleships, 6 cruisers and 13 destroyers at Port Arthur. At Vladivostok were 4 first class cruisers, with a number of torpedo boats. At Chemulpo in Korea were the protected cruisers Varya and gunboat Koreyetz. A crucial component of the conflict would be commanding the sea ways. Both nations recognized this fact all too well. The Russian far east fleet was constrained from year the round training by being icebound in Vladivostok for 3 months of the year. Her fleet was also a ragtag bunch with different armaments, speed, armor and flexibility. Russia was dependent on foreign built ships, though she was fully capable of building her own. Russia had ships built from Britain, Germany, France and the US. The Russian navy was based on conscription at 7 years with 3 years of reserve.  The IJN combined fleet was led by Vice-Admiral Heihachiro Togo. The two divided squadrons of the Russian Pacific Fleet were commanded overall by Admiral Oskar Ludvig Stark. The Main Russian squadron was in Port Arthur and the other cruiser squadron was at Vladivostok under the command of Admiral Nikolai Skrydlov. Port Arthur offered some shore artillery battery defense, though it was underfunded due to divestments for the development of Dalny, and its dry dock capabilities were quite limited compared to that of Sasebo. The Russians were bluffing the Japanese while continuing the strengthen their position in the far east. But the Japanese would not wait for them to do so.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Kaiser Wilhelm II had egged his cousin Tsar Nicholas II into facing against the Empire of Japan. Little did the Russian Tsar know, but he was about to send his nation to their doom, for the Japanese had done their homework and were determined to rid Manchuria of the Russian menace

Last time we spoke about the conquest of southern Manchuria. The Russians had consolidated their hold over northern Manchuria and now had the necessary amount of forces to quell the chaos in the south. The two last major strongholds held by the Qing and their Boxer allies were Liaoyang and Mukden. The Russians consolidated their forces while the Qing spread themselves out far too thinly. Each engagement saw Russian victories, despite the fact the Qing had the necessary numbers and weaponry necessary to serve decisive defeats to the Russians, if only they consolidated and coordinated properly their forces. Liaoyang fell easily, and with its fall the Qing commanders began to loot and abandon their infantry. Leaderless the infantry gradually scattered into the countryside leaving Mukden pretty much open for the taking. Manchuria was in chaos, and within that chaos the same type of people always emerged to take advantage,  bandits. But who were these people really?   #72 The Red Bearded Honghuzi    Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Manchuria has been called by many names. An English study in 1932 by Hubert Hessell Tiltman referred to Manchuria as “the cockpit of Asia, where drama never dies”. It has also been called by Yu Juemin in 1929 “the balkans in east asia”, which I think fits it nicely. So you heard me in length talk about Shandong and Manchuria. You heard my entire series on the Boxer Rebellion. Often you hear me refer to the “bandits”, in Shandong we saw the precursors to the Boxers rise up primarily to combat bandits. China proper and Manchuria had bandits since ancient times. But who exactly were the bandits? I would like to take us back to Manchuria to talk about a specific group or phenomenon of banditry. The major reason I am taking the time to do an episode on this, because to be honest we are about to jump into the Russo-Japanese War, is because the banditry problem and specific bandits will have an incredible amount of influence on China, Russia and Japan for the first half of the 20th century. For those of you who have not seen my personal channel, the pacific war channel you might already know where this is going. I created an extremely long series and reformed it into a single documentary on China’s warlord era. Its a fascinating part of the history of modern China and one I will tackle in this podcast series, god knows how long it will be. Some of the warlords started out as bandits, two in particular were extremely influential, I am of course talking about Zhang Zuolin and the Dogmeat General Zhang Zongchang. By the way if you want to hear more about the king of memes, Zhang Zongchang, check out my episode on him on my youtube channel, its a must see I guarantee it, funny as hell and…well pretty dark too. The word Honghuzi translates as “red bearded”. They were armed Chinese bandits who operated in northeast China, particular in the areas of the eastern Russia-China borderlands during the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th. The term Honghuzi is believed to originate back in the 1600s referring to Russians by Chinese who had red beards. These would be the indigenous peoples around the Amur region. Chinese bandits later would use fake red beards as a disguise. Honghuzi gangs grabbed new members from those seeking easy money. It could be peasants, those down on their luck, Qing army deserters, recent immigrants. Just about anyone who preferred robbing over working lumber mills or in mines as you can imagine. A Vladivostok newspaper wrote an article in 1896 referring to the phenomenon “Here he is, dirty, in rags, half-starved, laboring every day, in the rain, in clay sticky soil ... what joys in life does he have? ... No wonder he prefers joining the Honghuzi and a life full of adventures.” A honghuzi gang could be just two guys, or it could be several hundred strong. You can imagine large groups in the hundreds could perform large scale operations, bigger the gang, bigger the payoff. When Honghuzi groups came together to perform large scale operations it could threaten entire cities. Now I bet most of you have an image in your mind, a skinny, unwashed hooligan, probably wearing worn down rags, and obviously this could fit the description of many Honghuzi, but on average not really. Many of them were well dressed and extremely well armed. They typically performed crimes in spring and summer when it was easier to hide in the forest filled countryside or in the mountains. When I was speaking about Shandong I often mentioned these type of criminal seasons, highway robbery literally was seasonal work. In the autumn and winter times the Honghuzi typically hit the major cities and spent their booty on the usual stuff, alcohol, women and drugs, in this case opium. Many also held employment, like I said it was seasonal work, most were farmers.  Manchuria was ideal for this type of criminal activity. The Qing government based in Beijing had little control over their sparsely populated homeland and the local officials in Manchuria did not have sufficient resources to quell the Honghuzi. The Honghuzi also did not stop at local activity, they often crossed over to plunder Russian territory, such as the Ussuri Krai. The Honghuzi had quite an easy time hitting the borderlands as the Russians and Qin could not focus much resources to protect them. As you can imagine such border issues resulted in larger scale conflicts. When Honghuzi raided Russian territory they often stole anything you can imagine like cattle, were smuggling opium and even illegally performed gold mining. Illegal gold mining led to a clash between the Hongzhui and Russian forces. In 1867 when gold was discovered on the small island of Askold, some 50 kms away from Vladivostok, Manchurian began to come over to try their luck at gold mining, as did the Honghuzi. A Russian schooner, the Aleut on several occasion scattered illegal gold miners, but they just kept returning. 3 Russian sailors were killed in an armed clash and the Honghuzi’s chopped up their bodies in full view of the remaining Russian crew who fled in horror. The Russian government attempted to thwart the illegal gold mining and this led to what was called the Manzi War, Manzi is another name for Manchu. In 1868 Manchu and Honghuzi coordinated attacks upon Russian military posts and plundered and burned several towns, massacring settlers. In retaliation, Russian troops burnt down Manchu settlement known to shelter Honghuzi. By mid July the Honghuzi were gradually tossed back across the border into Manchuria. The Russians were not done, their forces pursued the Honghuzi as they fled back to Manchuria. Reportedly a Cossack sotnia penetrated Manchuria some several hundreds km’s pursuing Honghuzi. In 1879 Russian forces crossed the border and burned down a well known fortified Honghuzi fortress near Lake Khanka. Major Nozhin leading a detachment during this time ran into Qing troops and a small battle occurred. It was an embarrassing episode for the Russians who apologized for the incident. The Qing court was not pleased with the border crossings, but knew the nature of the Honghuzi menace and actually asked the Russians to continue pursuing the Honghuzi within their borders. Now I would like to talk about the stories of some famous Honghuzi. In 1875, Zhang Zuolin was born the third son of an impoverished family in Haicheng of Fengtian, modern day Liaoning province. His family had been rooted in Manchuria for a long time, but his father was unable to sustain the family after dividing the estate with Zhang’s uncle. Zhang only received two years of traditional education before leaving school following his fathers death. Nicknamed the “pimple”, Zhang was a thin and short boy. Zhang spent his early youth, fishing, gambling and brawling. When he first tried to make some money he worked as a waiter at an Inn where he came across tales of the Honghuzi. The only useful education he ever received was a bit of veterinary science, he underwent a brief period of veterinarian training, but ultimately he abandoned the career to pursue something else.  When the First Sino-Japanese War broke out, Zhang joined the Yi Army commanded by General Song Qing in 1894 to fight against the invading Japanese in Manchuria. However when the war ended and the Yi Army re-deployed, Zhang at the age of 21 departed them to take a job under his father in law to protect his village as the head of an armed band. There is a legend, most likely perpetuated by Zhang himself, that during a hunting trip he spotted a wounded Honghuzi on horseback and killed the man before stealing his horse to become a Honghuzi himself. Zhang led the group of bandits and earned this sort of Robinhood like mythos. Because he was illiterate he often referred to his experience as a bandit leader as “experience of the Green Forest” something his contemporary Zhang Zongchang would enthusiastically also state.  During the anarchic period between the first sino-japanese war and Russo-Japanese war, Honghuzi were both bandits plundering but also militiamen protecting towns. It was a complex situation and one that Zhang would become an expert in. Soon after Zhang had established his bandit group, it was dispersed by a larger group sponsored by the Russians. Zhang and the survivors joined another honghuzi group, run by Zhang Jinghui. Zhang would gradually become its leader, and Zhang Jinghui would later become a Lt under Zhang during the warlord era. When the Boxer rebellion broke out, Zhang’s gang joined the Qing army in their doomed resistance against the foreigners. Unlike the Boxers who ceased fighting when the war was over, the bandits kept on banditing.  As Zhang’s bandit group grew in size, he sought amnesty from the Qing government and became a militia commander in 1902. This would prove to be the first of a series of choices he made that would propel him to nearly become the leader of China. He was soon joined by Tang Yulin and Zhang Zuoxiang who would in their own right become Fengtian leaders. It seems Zhang’s willingness to form alliances was the key to his success. Now I don’t want to go too deep into it, but Zhang’s militia was ordered by the Qing government to fight against Russian sponsored Honghuzi during the Russo-Japanese war. His bandit force worked to escort traveling merchants within Manchuria during the war. Fighting as mercenaries, Zhangs group become recognized as a regular regiment within the Qing military and they began patrolling the borderlands of Manchuria, suppressing other bandit groups. An American Major - surgeon named Louis Livingston Seaman was working or the 1st regiment US volunteer engineers during the russo japanese war. His regiment was working with the 2nd IJA army in Manchuria and he personally met Zhang Zuolin who he described in some length to the Nation magazine.  "He had some amusing and exciting experiences with the Hung-hutzes (Chun-chuzes), ex-bandits, now nominally Chinese soldiery, many of whom were operating as guerrillas on the Russian flank and communications under Japanese officers, as is charged. The Japanese had in their employ Zhang Zuolin a famous Honghuzi leader who led his men against the Russians”.  Dr Seaman wrote a lengthy report of his story with the Honghuzi and Zhang Zuolin and I think it gives some flavor and a feeling of what the banditry types were like at their highest point. Dr. Seaman stated a Russian position had been swarmed by over 500 Honghuzi, the Russians took over 20 casualties before the Honghuzi hoard were finally driven off. The Qing troops seemed to let the Honghuzi roam around freely, most likely because "They can not be caught, the plain truth being that the best of fellowship exists between them and the imperial troops, their old comrades of yore." Seaman noticed the Honghuzi had a special hatred reserved for the Russians. There was much talk of past grievances, particularly that of the Blagovestchensk massacre when it was said 8000 unarmed men, women and children were driven at the point of a bayonet into the raging Amur river. Seaman met one Chin-wang-Tao who said a Russian officers who participated in the brutal massacre told him in 1900 ‘'the execution of my orders made me almost sick, for it seemed as though I could have walked across the river on the bodies of the floating dead.” Only 40 or so Chinese escaped the horror, many of them were employed by a leading foreign merchant who ransomed their lives at a thousand rubles a piece. Such atrocities were well remembered by the local Chinese who sought revenge. When Japan began to look for those sympathetic to their cause, willing to pay for it none the less, it was not hard to find enthusiastic Chinese. It was believed 10,000 or more Honghuzi divided into companies of around 200-300 each led by Japanese officers no less were in force during the conflict. Zhang Zuolin commanded a large army of Honghuzi allied to the Japanese and Dr. Seaman met him and his army while venturing near Newchwang.  There had been reports of raids by Honghuzi, also called the “red beards” though none of them had red beards, nor any kind of beard. Dr. Seaman’s companion, Captain Boyd became determined to meet them. The two men hoped to see for themselves the characteristics of these so called 10,000 strong guerrilla fighters that fight on the western border area of Manchuria. They were said to be hitting the rear and right flank of the Russian army, compelling it to quadruple its Cossack guards in the region to protect supply trains and refugees trying to flee from Port Arthur to Mukden. Both men had Chinese passports and received official credentials from Minister Conger to meet with General Ma who had assembled his forces on the borderland. General Ma was the commander in chief of the Qing forces in the region and also the de facto commander of 10,000 Honghuzi now wearing Qing uniforms. Many of the Honghuzi were great horsemen, having Manchu backgrounds they lived a mounted life and for centuries had defied the Qing authorities, roaming at will, levying tribute and performing numerous crimes. The leader of these marauders was Zhang Zuolin, who now held the rank of Colonel in the Qing army. Within two years Zhangs band had obtained mastery over the entire border region of Manchuria going some hundred miles. The Qing government ceased opposing them and simply made terms to adopt them into the army. Now they stood as troops in good standing, with highway robbery semi officially recognized as one of their perquisites. The adoption of Honghuzi into the army had not changed their habits of murder and robbing. When they were not plundering Russian refugees en route to Siberia or Russian supply trains they often took their plundering gaze on Chinese towns. Practically every peasant in the region at some time became a Honghuzi. It seemed to be at the time the crops were nearly full grown, when the broom corn was 12 to 15 feet high when peasants were most likely to turn to the life of outlaw. The staple crop of kaoliang affords the perfect cover for troops or honghuzi. The 8 nation alliance troops realized this the hard way when they marched from Taku to Beijing. With the tall kaoliang to hide their movements the peasants abandoned their legitimate work and took up weapons either alone or in groups to plunder the highways or rob smaller villages near where they lived. Sometimes people banded together to fight off the honghuzi. The Americans said it was a very similar situation in the philippines during their little war. The filipinos would call them amigos, then don on the clothes of the banditry class and try to rob them. Newchwang was visited by large organized robbers, many from Kaopangtzi. Dr.Seaman had the chance to take a photograph of Li Hongzhang and himself taken in the palace of the old Viceroy in Beijing, shortly before his death, it was the last picture of the old statesman, whom he knew very well by that point, he had made several visits to him in Beijing. Dr. Seaman stopped at Chinese Inn, and came across a merchant from Hsinmintung who was suffering from an affliction which he was able to relieve in some measure. The merchant heard we were traveling north and sought to meet the Honghuzi, he advised us to go at once to Hsinmingtung, where Zhang Zuolin was commanding forces. He even gave them a letter of introduction, the man turned out to be one of Zhang’s merchants. The letter proved very useful as when they traveled further, people in towns gave them better accommodations, they were greeted like friends. Hsinmingtung was the terminus of the railroad that connected Kaopangtzi with the main line from Tientsin. They were in the process of building the main line further to junction at Mukden. They arrived to Hsinmingtung and received special rooms from the merchants friends. There were Cossacks patrol north and east and Japanese southeast. Qing soldiers under General Ma were patrolling west and northwest and the Honghuzi were all around. The two men bought fireworks and had a small party with the locals establishing a standing within their community. The men then called upon the Chi Fu, prefect of the place whose name was Tsung Zao Ku and he received them cordially. Then they were finally presented to the great ex-bandit of all Manchuria, the leader of the Honghuzi,  Zhang Zuolin who at that point was a colonel in the Qing army. Zhang Zuolin was a handsome fellow, graceful and mild mannered. He made them feel at home in his luxurious yamen, and brewed them excellent tea in fine porcelain cups. Then he offered them a good bottle of wine, an old Madeira. The men took photos of Zhang Zuolin and his forces. Zhang told them they were now his guests and he had to attend to matters, they were at liberty to travel through the country at will, but to make sure they never traveled unattended or unarmed. In the meantime the men spoke with a guest of the Chi Fu named Chang Lin Lung from Mukden. He spoke about Zhang, saying years ago he ruled all the territory around with an iron fist, as a bandit, doing as he pleased west of the Liao river. When China absorbed him and his men into its army, he obtained an allowance to pay his men well, the government supplied them also. The two men learned what they had suspected, these honghuzi were now really officered by the Japanese. There were around 300 with Zhang Zuolin as his personal guard. There were 8 Japanese officers directing the operations of another band the two men visited. It was said Zhang paid handsomely for all of this. Some of the Japanese officers were disguised as Chinese and doing covert work. Their guerilla operations were embarrassing Kuropatkin’s army, robbing their supply trains forcing the Russians to double guards on lines of communication and adding more units to the right flank and rear. Two days before the two men arrived, a party of Russians were attacked by 200 Honghuzi, 7 miles from Hsinmintung. 5 were killed, 4 decapitated, their heads placed on pike poles. The same group of bandits whipped out a Cossack escort that was moving 1000 cattle and ponies to the Russian troops, the entire herd was stolen. Over 1000 Cossacks began revenge raids in the region in retaliation. At the offset of meeting Zhang, he showed an unusual amount of attention. Trumpets summoned his entire guards of 300 men, there was a great commotion and soon the whole outfit of his forces began lining up for inspection and kodak designs. Zhang gave 20 special guards for the two mens disposal and the next morning they went on an expedition of sightseeing. The plan was to visit neighboring bands, but when they reached 5 miles northeast, several Cossack scouts forced them away. They spent the night in Kowpangtze with 5 Japanese officers supported by a large number of Honghuzi. They took a railway train in the end to part ways. This was a glimpse at the future warlord of Manchuria as he ascended being a small-time bandit, to being the leader of the strongest bandit group in Manchuria and eventually found himself a role in the Qing military.  Another infamous warlord who started out as a Bandit was Zhang Zongchang. Certainly the most notorious of China’s warlord, Zhang Zongchang was in all essence a monster. Google or Youtube search his name and you will see meme videos everywhere, though might I add, I made a video talking about the funny parts of his life, but also the cold hard horror show that it also was, check out Zhang Zongchang the monster behind the meme.    Zhang Zongchang was born in 1881 in Yi county, present day Laizhou in Shandong. He grew up in an impoverished village. His father worked as a head shaver and trumpeter, a rampant alcoholic. His mother was basically what you would call a practicing witch, she performed exorcisms. The family moved to Manchuria when Zhang was in his teens and the parents separated. Zhang stayed with his mother who took on a new lover. Zhang quickly took to a life of crime in and around Harbin. He took up work as a pickpocket, a prospector, worked as a bouncer and found himself working as a laborer in Siberia. He picked up a lot of Russian, which would pay off big time down the road. He described himself as a graduate of “the school of forestry”. He became a hell of a big guy at 6 foot 6 and would be the tallest of the warlords, that was not all that was tall, if you know the meme you know the meme.    When the Russo-Japanese war broke out, while Zhang Zuolin helped the Japanese, Zhang Zongchang helped the Russians. He served as a auxiliary for the Imperial Russian Army, it was basically the same situation of Zuolin, he was a honghuzi gang leader. However his real fame came after the war. During the war he showed himself a very capable warrior and leader. He was known for “splitting melons” ie: bashing the skulls of his enemies with rifle butts. Zhang made a ton of friends amongst the Russian military, he got along very well with them. He acquired an enormous taste for fine things, particularly cigars, champagne and whiskey. Google him and you will probably see a cigar in his mouth. Now unlike Zuolin, Zongchang really only starts to do famous deeds after the Russo-Japanese War, I don’t want to go to far into the future, but I will give you a taste. For one thing why was he notoriously known as the “dogmeat general” you might ask?   The nickname “Dogmeat General”, was said to be based on his fascination with the domino game Pai Jiu. Others say his favorite brand of tonic was known as dogmeat. And of course there was the rumor he ate a meal of black chow chow dog every day, as it was popularly believed at the time that this boosted a man’s vitality.    Nicknames like “the lanky general or general with three long legs” were certainly something he publicized heavily. There was indeed the rumor old 86 referred to the length of his penis being 86 mexican silver dollars, there was also a nickname “72-cannon Zhang” referring to that length. I mean the man was 6 foot 6, people described him quote “with the physique of an elephant, the brain of a pig and the temperament of a tiger”.    Alongside his penis propaganda, he was a legendary womanizer. Take his other nickname for example “the general of three don’t-knows”: he did not know how many women, how many troops, or how much money he had. I think that nickname fits him better than the nickname he gave himself “the Great General of Justice and Might”.    He had a ton of concubines. The exact number of concubines he had has variously been reported between 30-50, but historians have a hard time trying to fix the numbers as Zhang himself allegedly did not know. Allegedly his concubines were from 26 different nationalities, each with her own washbowl marked with the flag of her nation. He was also said to give his concubines numbers since he could not remember their names nor speak their various languages. Many of these women he married, he was a polygamist after all. There was known to be Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Mongolians and at least one American amongst Zhang’s women.   Zhang was semi-literate, whenever people asked where he was educated he would say “the college of the green forest” a euphemism for banditry. Despite being semi-literate Zhang Zongchang is famously known for his poetry, most notably his Poem on Bastards:   You tell me to do this, He tells me to do that. You're all bastards, Go fuck your mother.   It should be noted a lot of the poetry attributed to Zhang Zongchang may have been fabricated by a political opponent named Han Fuju who took over Shandong Province after him. Now that’s enough about the two Zhang’s, trust me we are going to dig much deeper into these guys later on in the series, because I love the warlord era, its absolute insanity and very unknown to the west.    So the Honghuzi who are often called just bandits, had a lot of influence in Manchuria, they are just another piece of the larger puzzle as they say. Now the enormous amount of bandits in Manchuria alongside the Boxer movement is what drove Russia to invade Manchuria. The Russians sent over 177,000 troops in Manchuria, under the guise it was merely to protect their railway construction efforts. This raised a lot of eyebrows as they say. By 1902 order had been restored in Beijing, the armed forces were thinning out. Britain and Japan were wary of Russia’s increasing influence in the far east. Britain and Japan entered into an alliance on January 30th of 1902. The terms dictated if either nation was to go to war to protect its regional interests against a third power, the unaffected party would not only remain neutral but would try to prevent the conflict from widening. If an additional power, like France or Germany joined the war, either Japan or Britain would help the other. The alliance worked to Japan’s favor allowing her to consolidate her recent acquisition of Korea and bolster her interest in Manchuria. Russia countered this by declaring a similar alliance on March 16th of 1902 with France.    Now everyone expected Russia to withdraw her enormous troops from Manchuria, and on April 8th of 1902, during the Manchurian Convention, Russia confirmed her ultimate aim to evacuate Manchuria on the condition the railway and Russian citizens were protected by the Chinese. It was agreed the Russian withdrawal would be done in three phases. Over three periods, each 6 months. After the first 6 months, the first assigned territory, southwest of Mukden was evacuated and returned to China. The anticipated second phase of the withdrawal from the remainder of the province of Mukden and Kirin did not occur however. When the Qing ambassador in St Petersburg enquired what the delay was, he was waved off. Then 20 days after the withdrawal had begun, Beijing was presented with demands for concessions in Manchuria.   None of the returned territory was in any way to be given to another power.  Mongolia’s system of government was not to be altered.  No new ports or towns were to be developed or opened in Manchuria without informing Russia. Foreigners serving in the Chinese government were not to exercise authority in northern Manchuria.  The telegraph line connecting the Liaotung Peninsula with Peking was to be assured. On Newchwang being returned to China, the Customs’ dues were to continue to be paid into the Russo-Chinese Bank.  The rights acquired by Russian interests or Russian people were to be continue   On April 29th encouraged by the protests and support of Britain, the US and Japan, China rejected the 7 demands. Japan was greatly threatened by all of this and little by little, the same situation we saw unfold prior to the first sino-japanese war, was occurring all over again in Manchuria.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Honghuzi were a unique type of banditry that had an enormous role in the history of Manchuria. Those like Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zongchang would join their ranks and earn great fame. With so many bandits in Manchuria however, conflict would soon arise.

Last time we spoke about the conquest of Northern Manchuria. The outbreak of violence all over Manchuria and even across the Amur river resulted in a full scale Russian invasion. Beginning in northern Manchuria, the Russian gradually advanced across the border to first secure endangered Russian pockets of civilians and forces, but soon cities all over northern manchurian were being seized. The Chinese attempted many offensives, but instead of consolidating a large force to defeat each Russian army, they performed numerous simultaneous operations. Hailar, Tsitsihar, Kirin and Haicheng all fell one by one. Manchu generals were dying on the battlefield or committing suicide as Russian detachments ran incredible fast and effective campaigns. Although the Russian string of victories were grand, the Manchu had more forces, more war materials and were fighting for their homelands, the Russians would need even more reinforcements if they were to take the south.    #71 The Russo-Chinese War Part 4: The Conquest of Southern Manchuria   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The fall of Haicheng gave Mishchenko’s men a period of much needed R&R. The number one objective, Mukden could not be taken with the forces at hand, thus the Russians would need to wait for large reinforcements coming over from Europe. For 43 days the men remained active, but they were restless. Everyone was awaiting the arrival of Lt General Subotich, commander of the Russian forces for the Kwantung region. Cossack patrols scoured Manchuria, speaking with local Manchu contacts whom they had known for years. Intelligence in early September indicated, 50,000 well armed troops with 60 Kripp artillery pieces, some Maxim and Nordenfeld machine guns were defending the way between Liaoyang and Mukden. Subotish reached Haicheng on September 21st and would have at his disposal 47 companies, two and half sotnias and 28 artillery pieces, roughly 9000 or so men. The Chinese held numerical superiority and they wielded modern european weapons with vast amounts of war supplies. But the Russians were now acutely aware the Chinese lacked discipline, marksmanship and leadership. The inhabitants of Manchuria had lost faith in their defenders. The Mongols had all but abandoned them. A lot of towns saw their Manchu bannermen as opportunistic plunderers and they began to hide provisions from them. A lot of towns upon seeing incoming Russian forces would hoist white flags to the dismay of the Chinese troops. Chinese militiamen were gradually dissolving back into the populace abandoning the regular troops. Subotich received such intelligence and would use it to his advantage. He made a proclamation in early september “notwithstanding the repeated orders of the military command and the imperial sovereign's desire, proclaimed to everyone, under no circumstances to burn down villages, there are scoundrels who do not hold dear the Tsar’s will and have no regard for other people's property, acquired by sweat of peasants, Chinese though they may be. Such scoundrels will be shot”. With this Subotich won an important psychological victory, for the Manchurian populace were clamoring for peace and the dismissal of their Manchu defenders. Subotich understood the actions of his enemy as months of campaign information was given to him. The Chinese forces were aggressive until met by Russian advances, whereupon they typical fled. Whenever Russian halted advances, the Chinese regrouped and attacked, this kept going on in cycles. Thus to truly end the enemies' will to fight it would be necessary to pursue them and not let up, depriving them the opportunity to regroup. Subotich planned a three pronged offensive. A central force would attack Anshan; a western force would hit Newchwang and upon defeating it would envelope east to help hit Anshan. The eastern force, more light and mobile would get around the enemy to cut off their retreat. On September 23rd the western force advanced upon Newchwang led by General Fleisher. They consisted of the 1st, 2nd and 11th east siberian rifle regiments, two sotnias of Verkhneudinsk Cossacks, a infantry battery, a platoon cavalry battery and mobile section of the red cross. Around Newchwang were 6000 Chinese led by General Shou. Newchwang was surrounded by mountains that could conceal troop movements. General Shou chose not to defend the city and instead had his forces perform harassing actions. On September 24th General Fleisher entered the city. Now General Shou expected the Russians to make camp at Newchwang for some time, so he made his own camp only 4 miles away, hoping to perform some more harassing actions. However General Fleisher left only a small garrison and carried on immediately to hasten the envelopment of Anshan where 14,000 Chinese were entrenched. Fleishers men came upon Shou’s quickly and this led Shou to scramble a retreat which turned into a rout. The Chinese planned to withdraw eastward into the Chienshan hills to allow the Russian to go past towards their main force located at Sha-ho. They thought they would come back down the hill and hit the Russian rear, but now they were fleeing directly towards Sha-ho bringing the Russians into their own camp. Mounted Cossacks managed to for 2/3rds of Shous men to scatter in all directions, thus only 2000 of his men reached Sha-ho.  Meanwhile Colonel Artamonov, Subotich’s chief of staff road out personally with two sotnias to perform a reconnaissance of Anshan’s defenses. They rode along the fortified heights forcing the Chinese to open fire from a distance as he sketched the Chinese artillery emplacements. He soon figured out the Chinese had stretched their line going 4.5 miles, the right flank leaned into a hill and their left to a fortified temple. Their trenches were arranged in tiers and held some 14,000 men and perhaps 30 guns. At 5:30am on the 26th the Russian main force was advancing in two columns towards Anshan. The central column commanded by Atramonov consisted of the 13 and 14th rifle regiments, two companies of the 15th east siberian regiment, three and a half batteries, a machine gun battery and a platoon of Verkhneudinsk Cossacks. The right column led by Mishchenko consisted of two companies and two sotnias of railway guards and 4 guns of the 1st Transbaikal cossack battery. Mishchenko’s force was taking a northeast approach going through Tatun, Anshanchan and the Anshan pass. He faced no resistance and was soon 4.5 miles ahead of the main force, so he decided to wait in the Anshan heights. Mishchenko was personally going up a hill to look for a route to bring his artillery up when suddenly the eastern hills exploded with artillery shells and rifle volleys. To the Russians surprise the Chinese had taken to the hills to ambush them and now they could see Manchu bannermen galloping down the slopes as they bellowed horns. The Russians hastily took up positions and Mishchenko unaware how large the enemy forces even were ordered Strakhov and Denison to dislodge the Chinese from the heights. Mishchenk assumed two Cossack sotnias would be up to the task, each merely 40 men or less as many others were on patrol. The 80 men charged up the hills unknowingly into the very center of 14,000 Chinese. Mishchenko sent the rest of his detachment up the hills, and this time the Russians faced real opposition.  The maelstrom of gunfire was so intense the Russians believed the Chinese were attacking them also from their rear. Then unexpectedly the Chinese began to fall back clearing the hills, only rearguard firing was seen. It would turn out, the Russians had panicked so much, their own forces began firing on forward units leading them to believe the Chinese were behind them during the short engagement! Mishchenko began burying the dead as Orlov joined them with the sections of the Red Cross to tend to the wounded. The Chinese had pulled back northwards towards the Sha river, intending to lure the Russian into a huge horseshoe formation formed around the village of Shahopu at the top and the Chienshan hills on the west and east. Together with reserve forces at Mukden and the remnants of the scattered Newchwang detachment the Chinese planned to make a stand.  On paper the Russians had no chance to defeat the Chinese position. They had 53,000 men guarded a 8 mile long horseshoe perimeter. However 3000 of General Shou’s men failed to make it and 14,000 men of the Anshan force arrived too late to join the battle effectively. Yte despite that the Chinese main force was 30,000 strong, absolutely dwarfing the 18.5 companies and 2 sotnias that were employed against them. The Manchu commanders faced another major problem, a all to common one for later Qing dynasty armies. The chinese battalions had been full strength on paper during peacetime, whereupon commanders were pocketing half or more of the salary funds. When the hostilities broke out, they hastily refilled their forces with anyone they could grab, this would account for the poor marksmanship and discipline. There were boys of 15 and men of 50, many bandits who joined eager to plunder but not fight.  With the Russians on his heels, General Shou only got to the Chinese defensive lines on the eve of the battle. Various commanders had position their men at their own discretion as far away as possible from the expected point of attack. Shou attempted to tighten the overextended lines, but many commanders refused to accept his authority. Allegedly many commanders stated “why would we listen to a man who runs away from battle”. Shou’s rash beheadings of several officers because of this, just prior to the outbreak of battle did not have a good effect on morale. In fact his attempts to reform lines properly actually just added more confusion when the battle started.  The Chinese lines were so extended the Russians lacked the numbers to effectively hit the front and flanks. Subotish elected to begin the battle with an artillery duel. His artillery was on his left flank initially, but he quickly moved it to the middle and began pounding each part of the Chinese lines, one after another. Meanwhile his infantry continuously got into assembly positions awaiting a breakthrough in the center. At 6am on the 27th Mishchenko went out with his two companies, two sotnias and 4 guns to hit the enemy positions in the Anshan heights near the Laiao and Sha rivers. He discovered Chinese positions along some mountains. He took his own artillery up a mountain which would later be called Mt Mishchenko where he began a artillery duel. Suddenly his railway guards were being surrounded by Chinese infantry. Grenades and bullets were being tossed everywhere. The Chinese were coming in waves, Mishchenko had made a real blunder. He thought he was attacking an outpost when in fact he was fighting in the midst of 30,000 Chinese. From the tip of Shahopu some 4200 feet away, Chinese artillery were firing upon his artillery. The artillery firing grenades were sending shrapnel everywhere causing a bloody carnage. The Chinese artillery were firing effectively, casualties were mounting and Mishchenkos artillery ammunition was running out. Mishchenko believed his detachments days might finally be over. But the Chinese did not press their attack.  The Chinese continued their bombardment, but did not release a deathblow with their infantry. Enough time passed by for Artamonov to arrive in the sector with a vanguard and by 11am, Mishchenkos artillery was joined by Artamonov’s who also handed over much needed ammunition. Together now 12 guns strong they both fired upon the Chinese  and the gun duel was tipping to their favor. It seems the Chinese did not realize how small the force was that was facing them and only pressed their attack when Mishchenko received reinforcements, they lost their opportunity to overrun him. Mishchenko and Artamonov pushed against the Chinese center. General Subotich viewing this unfold unleashed a flank attack and by mid afternoon the Chinese had been dislodged from their formidable position. By nighttime the Chinese were fleeing for Liaoyang.  Some of the best Qing commanders lost at Shahopu such as Generals Yun, Fen and Hsu. They were unable to control their men, who scattered into the countryside and began plundering. The commanders were mortified at the breakdown of discipline and took the men they could to Mukden. Once they reached Mukden, they tendered their resignations to Beijing. Instead of defending the Manchurian capital or negotiate its surrender to preserve what could be preserved, the generals went to work gathering every cart and wagon they could to plunder the banks and treasury. They deserted their troops allowing them to simply scatter across Manchuria and Mongolia. The northern Manchurian detachments headed for Mukden, Tiehling and Fakumen like a swarm of marauders plundering every town and small village along the way. Mostly units formed in Liaoyang province stood their ground against Subotich’s advance.  Subotichs patrols reported the Chinese were entrenching themselves on some hills half way between Shahopu and Liaoyang. At 6:30am on the 28th, General Fleisher advanced with his column trying to get around the right flank and storm the western face of the Liaoyang fortress. Meanwhile Mishchenko departed with his column at 8:20am going through some mountains to get across the left flank and hit the eastern gates of the Liaoyang fortress; and the center column of Colonel Artamonov set out at 8:30 to make a frontal assault. The Chinese sent Manchu cavalry to harass the vanguards of the Russian forces, but Cossack sabers were winning the engagements heavily. Many of these Manchu cavalry units would put up a fight, then rush to the nearest village to hide amongst civilians.  Artamonov’s path took him to a central part of the Liaoyang walls. Artamonov set up his artillery to batter them and distract their attention from the flanking maneuvers. At 2pm, Fleisher approached the western walls. The defenders fired only a few shots, killing around 7 Russian before fleeing eastwards into the mountains. On the other side of the nearby river, Russian artillery was pummeling the walls, forcing the Chinese to abandon many of their modern Krupp and Nordenfeld guns. Once Fleisher was mounting his attack, Artamonov ordered his men to storm the central position, driving the defenders towards a village from which many were firing up Fleishers position. Now finding themselves attacked from two simultaneous fronts, the Chinese fled, abandoning more and more artillery pieces. In around 30 minutes the Russian flag was hoisted over the fortress and Artamonov’s men wasted no time pursuing the fleeing enemy. Mishchenko meanwhile kept up his bad luck of running directly into heavy opposition. His column was advancing through some mountains and again, unable to see past some heights he had ventured into a large force of 6000 Chinese. The Chinese were those who had fled Shahopu. The feared being encircled so they took up a very overextended line. When Mishchenko saw the Chinese forces he had his artillery rapid fire before tossing two companies to drive the Chinese deeper into the mountains. With orders not to pursue the enemy further, Mishchenko turned to Liaoyang where his exhausted men got a days rest. The Russians only reported 10 deaths and 64 wounded for the battle, again they noted terrible accuracy by the Chinese riflemen to be the reason for low casualties. They also noted many Chinese artillery shells did not explode, so one can expect corruption to be the causation.  The Russians found the barracks they once defended and graves of their fallen comrades dug open with their remains tossed everywhere. The Russians were furious to see such a thing, they took all the remains they could find, reburied them that night with full military honors. Konstantin was at the scene and upon seeing the undug graves he began an investigation. He interrogated some recent POW’s and they told him the gruesome details. Their former comrades had been held at the Liaoyang jail. They were given foul water and stinking excrete for food and were beaten until they ate it. They wounds were not cleaned nor bandaged and they had rampant infections. They soon began to smell so bad, their Chinese guards began to complain. The Chinese jail commander had those with festering wounds decapitated. The prisoners were routinely forbidden to lie down to sleep unless they used the severed heads of their comrades for a pillow. After a few days many of the men used the heads for pillows. Many chinees drew silly faces upon them and made them kiss piglets all over for humiliation. They were tortured horribly, many of them had their limbs cut off slowly and bled out. With a wild anger in their hearts the Russians now looked to Mukden. Lt General Subotich wasted little time advancing the men to the cradle of the Qing dynasty. Mukden had a population of 200,000 and constituted a major commercial and industrial center for Manchuia. The city was surrounded by 11 miles of outer earth wall and an inner brick wall with towers and gunports. It was around 3 miles in circumference. Intelligence indicated there was a lot of friction between northern and southern China. While Liaoyang may have offered strong resistance, Mukden was expected to be a cake walk. A captured Qing officer told Subotich “if our forces were unable to defend liaoyang, they will abandon Mukden”. The final offensive began on September 30th and would be spearheaded by Colonel Mishchenko, now reinforced with the 5th Verkhneudinsk Cossack sotnia and a scouting party of the 11th and 14th rifle regiments. Next would be Colonel Dombrovskii with three and a half battalions of infantry, 16 artillery, 4 heavy machine guns, sappers and a squadron of Cossacks, after that the bulk of Subotichs army. The Russians advanced along the imperial highway without any opposition. The Chinese were completely demoralized after the endless string of defeats. Inhabitants of the villages along the way told the Russians the Chinese soldiers had been deserted by their Generals and were withdrawing into the countryside. They also said at first the Chinese soldiers only took food from them, but soon this became open plundering of anything. It seems the Russian proclamation that they would not lift a finger on the civilians had a side effect, the villages began denying food to the chinese troops and this led to conflicts. There of course were many Russians who plundered the Chinese, but most would think of this as depriving the enemy. Upon seeing what the enemy was doing to its own citizens, the Russians were filled with further hate. Many of the Chinese villagers would rush up to the Russians giving them chickens, vegetables and eggs, which only strengthened the Russian troops mindset that the enemy soldiers needed to be defeated quickly so their citizens could live at peace again. Another Chinese officer POW told the Russians Mukden was not going to be defended and in fact was probably burning down. The Russian advance quickened. Mishchenko ordered the 8th Don Cossack sotnia of Podesaul led by Denisov to rush over to Mukden to see if the rumors were true. The intelligence would prove accurate, Mukden was abandoned, however there was a catch. The Chinese planned to blow up Mukden and the Russians with it. The Manchu had placed mines with electric lead wires through countless buildings, ammunition dumps, gates and private homes. The entire population was chased out of the city before any of this was done, trying to keep it of the utmost secret. The Manchu generals expected the Russians to attack Mukden on October 2nd. However they were so busy plundering and mining the city the commanders neglected to post guards on the walls, so when Denisov’s patrol showed up on October 1st the gates were wide open. When the Chinese mounted patrols caught sight of the Russians they began firing upon them from the outskirts of the city. The Cossack ignored them and galloped through the southern gates of Mukden sabering through sentries. They quickly occupied a tower that was part of the southern wall and opened fire on Chinese tents down below. Chinese frantically began running as the Cossacks butchered anyone they saw. The Chinese soldiers were in a state of panic, firing randomly at anything that looked like an enemy. The Cossacks were attempting to make it seem like they were a much larger force than they were, charging through streets wildly. In the distance Artamonov and Mishchenko were closing in on the city and could see their comrades were occupying a tower and firing upon Chinese. With excitement at the bravado of their comrades they rushed forward. Han, Manchu and Boxers were seen fighting each other for horses to escape the city. In their flight the Chinese forgot to detonate the mines.  At one of the gates boxes were buried with powder and phosphor matches and some of the Cossacks galloped over them, ignited the matches exploding the boxes upon the last Cossacks riding past. 6 men were killed, but in comparison to what the Chinese had planned it was a rather small price to pay.  At around sunset Konstantin arrived and occupied one of the eight gates of Mukden’s fortress walls. Cossacks ran through the city and its outskirts pushing out the Chinese to pacify the city. Entire quarters of Mukden were up in flames as the Chinese had burned down parts as they fled. The imperial palace was saved surprisingly. The fall of Mukden did not end the war over Manchuria, the Chinese did not surrender. Many scattered back to their villages, others became raiders continuing to attack both Russian and Chinese. Russian forces in Manchuria and Pechihili grew to 3900 officers and 173,00 men. However with Mukden taken, there was no longer a need for such a grand force and demobilization gradually began on October 3rd.  The Manchu general of Fengtian eventually sent word to General Subotich from Hsinminting that he was willing to enter peace negotiations. He laid blame completely upon the Boxers for the entire conflict, asserting he had done everything humanly possible to avoid violence and “to preserve the centuries old friendship between Russia and China”. He implored the Russians to continue anti bandit campaigns. The Honghuzi had been a problem long before this conflict. This title translates to “red beards”, they were armed Chinese bandits who operated on the eastern Russia-Chinese borderland during the late 19th to early 20th century. For decades they plundered the countryside defying the Qing authorities. They became so organized and strong, Qing officials would often find it necessary at times to make deals with them. This was sometimes by supplying them with foodstuff or occasionally bestowing military ranks upon their leaders. When wars occurred their ranks swelled. They had countless hideouts and the Russians found them to be quite the annoyance. The war had deeply impacted the harvests in Manchuria, numerous fields were not tended to properly and the population greatly suffered. Hunger began to stalk the land, the Manchuria railway transported large quantities of grain donated through charities to try and help. The Russians never attempted direct rule over the government in Manchuria. They had garrisons in major cities and dominated key officials as advisers. General Tserpitskii commanding the forces around Mukden had his subordinate Colonel Grmbchevskii advise the Manchu General of Mukden “the duties of the colonel are broad and demand much tact in the continuous cooperation, and frequently opposition, of the two authorities Russia and Chinese. He must play the role of a buffer”. There was some economic stimulus to Manchuria from the Russians, Mukden was quickly rebuilt, markets expanded, Russians helped police wherever they had interest. In most of Manchuria the Russians could do whatever they wanted, excluding Yingkou which held an international settlement.  War Minister Aleksey Kuropatkin sought to ensure the good conduct of Russian forces in Manchuria and ordered General Grodekov and Admiral Alekseev “See to it that the troops do not coerce the population in any way. With the last shot of battle the life of the natives, their honor, property, and customs must become inviolate for our troops”. Russia was well aware the other great powers resented their occupation and influence over the region.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. And so the Russian empire had consolidated its foothold in all of Manchuria. 177,000 Russians troops were now stationed within the breadbasket of Asia, under the guise they were only there to protect railways, but what if they decided not to leave?

Last time we spoke about the Blagoveshchensk massacre and war over the Amur river. The Chinese began a bombardment of the city of Blagoveshchensk striking panic and fear into her Russian inhabitants. The panic and fear led the Russian commanders ordered the deportation of many Chinese over the Amur river and this soon became a large-scale massacre. Countless Chinese drowned or were killed under the orders of the local Russian commanders. After the horrors on the Amur river the russians gradually received reinforcements and began a large scale offensive over the river to stop the Chinese attacks. First to be hit was Sakhalian, sending its Chinese defenders fleeing towards Aigun and Tsitsihar. The Chinese tried to fortify mountain positions to stop the Russians, but each fell one by one until the Russians had taken the cities. More Russians were crossing the border into Manchuria, the minor conflict had become a full scale invasion.    #70 The Russo-Chinese War Part 3: The Conquest of Northern Manchuria   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The conflict spread anywhere there was a Russian presence in Manchuria. The Manchu were gradually tossing their lot in with the Boxer cause and to be honest, the Manchu always hated the Russian encroachment in their homelands. Harbin held the headquarters for railroad construction in Manchuria. Its population swelled since the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, with refugees pouring in from the Liaodong peninsula, including other nationalities and Chinese christians. The month of june was rather peaceful for Harbin, the Chinese continued to work on the railway alongside their Russian colleagues. 60,000 Chinese laborers had recently come to Harbin to work and telegrams poured in from Manchu generals from Heilungchiang, Fengtian and Kirin guaranteeing the complete safety of the railway and Russians. But beginning in July, rumors spread of anti-foreign activity, telegrams from other Russian settlements being attacked flooded in. On July 5th, a report came in that the Roman catholic mission in Mukden had been destroyed and its Bishop was murdered. Civilians began to evacuate Harbin to Khabrovsk on steamers and barges. Harin braced itself for a Chinese attack, volunteer militias sprang up. Thousands of Chinese inhabitants of Harbin fled as Russian refugees flooded in from all over. Large numbers of Qing forces were reportedly converging on Harbin, so Captain Rzhevutskii came over from Tiehling with 6 officers, 250 Cossacks, militiamen and all of their families. His arrival bolstered the Harbin garrison who were only around 600 men, 300 of which had just come from Tsitsihar on July 14th. A force of 67 Cossack fought their way out of Kirin against a much larger force of Chinese. Their commander Savitskii was found at Laoshaokou on July 19th with only 38 Cossacks left, many wounded. Savitskii’s left eye was riddled with bullet splinters and his arm was in a sling. His men had rode out under the assurances of safe passage from the Manchu General of Kirin only to be attacked by 500 Manchu with artillery support. The Manchu fired shrapnel not just over the Cossacks, but their own infantry when they engaged in hand to hand combat. Savitskii claimed their killed some 200 Chinese before breaking through their lines and were pursued for over 5 days. A eyewitness to their arrival in Harbin had this to say “tears welled up in our eyes and anger began to boil in our hearts, when we saw the valiant heroes who had arrived. The men walked barefoot, with feet that were skinned almost to the bones, many only in their underwear, exhausted and emaciated. Truly one could not believe somehow that the Chinese had not succeeded in wiping this handful of men from the face of the earth”. Luckily for Harbin, on July 21st a steamer arrived to her dock from Khabarovsk carrying 1000 rifles, ammunition and 4 companies of reservists. Now Harbin counted 2000 defenders. On July 22nd a telegram came to Harbin from the Manchu General of Heilungchiang. It stated that while there had been cooperation with the Russian railway builders until this point, he regarded the Russian drowning of Chinese to be tantamount to a declaration of war and now both sides were free to attack the other. The message confused the Russians at Harbin for some time, having not heard of the Blagoveshchensk massacre. The rest of the message was crystal clear. The same Manchu General proclaimed the assault against Harbin would come soon and that the Russians should fight bravely for they would be exterminated without mercy. He did however offer safe passage for women and children out of Manchuria. 3000 women, children and wounded men departed Harbin aboard steamers on July 23rd. Meanwhile the Russians prepared their defenses and on the 25th the Chinese arrived. At 4am on the 26th the Chinese began firing their artillery from across the river. Their forces approached Harbin from the south and east successfully seizing the railway depot of the First Sungari Station and that railroad between the New part of the city and old Harbin. A Cossack counter attack during the afternoon drove most of the Chinese back in the direction of Ashiho. The Russians attempted to encircle the Chinese and quickly capture their artillery, but the Chinese withdrew in haste before they could. Countless Chinese who failed to rejoin the main body of their force were cut down by Cossacks. A smaller group of Chinese tried to hunker down at the railway depot and offered a stubborn fight until they were killed.  The Chinese took up a new position at the Hanhsin plant which had some large walls with towers providing good defense. From their fortifications the Chinese fired back upon the Russians, but once they burst open the main gate the Chinese were again on the move. As Sergei Grudzinskii entered the plant he had this to say of the scene “The corpses of men and cadavers of horses lay strewn about everywhere. Sabers and bayonets sparkled. People jostled each other in disorder. All had agitated faces, as if drunk. The noise of voices and swear words filled the air, which was saturated with the heavy smell of blood, sweat and gunpowder. Frightened children, ducks, oxen and horses ran around. Now and then the short, whiplashed like shots of our 20 caliber rifles were heard. The men had gotten all excited. There was no mercy for anyone. Aroused, someone had set fire to a house, and thick, black smoke rose to the sky, as the bright sun beamed indifferently on the picture of death and destruction below”. The Russians captured many Krupp field guns, German rifles and other war materials.  On July the 27th and 28th the Chinese continued to bombard Harbins dock from across the river and fired upon any trains going by. The Chinese were using any local infrastructure around for protection so the Russains began burning everything. By July 28th the Chinese were abandoning their positions on the other side of the river. Some skirmishing was done with rearguards and some Chinese POW’s revealed a second offensive, 25,000 men strong was scheduled to hit Harbin for August 3rd. But when the time came no Chinese army was to be found and steamers were coming to Harbin with relief forces, the siege of the city was over. With reinforcements on hand, the Russians sent word to nearby Ashih-ho where some 10,000 Chinese forces were gathering. The Russians notified them they wanted to re-establish friendly relations and called upon the Chinese to disband. They also wrote to the Manchu General of Heilungchiang who responded simply “I will be seeing you soon”. The commander of Ashihho responded by sending a small battery to fire upon Harbin. On August 17th the Russians advanced upon Ashiho, Major General Gerngros led a Cossack vanguard; Major General Alekseev commanded the main body around a mile behind; and overall command was under Major General Sakharov. They were 16 companies, 12.5 sotnias and 16 artillery pieces. By the 18th they reached Ashihho, they sent word to the Manchu commander asking his surrender and he replied he would disband his forces when General Sakharov compensated China for the destruction of Pa-yen-tung, Sanhsing and other places damaged while withdrawing from Manchuria. It seems his words were braver than his actions, for when the Russians stormed the gates they would find the city in a state of evacuation. Cossacks with artillery support stormed around the city from the west and east to cut off the fleeing Chinese. A large number were killed, many others taken prisoner. The commander of the 4th East Siberian Rifle regiment was appointed commandant of Ashihho. The major objections of the Russians in Manchuria by this point was to defeat the Qing forces allying themselves to the Boxers, to secure the railway construction and secure the Amur River navigation. For logistical purpose the job was divided in two; north manchurian campaigns were led by Lt General Grodekov and South Manchurian were under Vice Admiral Alekseev. Russia sought to recover the main railway line of the Chinese eastern railway that ran from the Transbaikal region, to Tsitsihar, Harbin, Pogranichnaia and Nikol’sk-Ussuriiskii. Alongside this the Russians also needed to seize Kirin and Mukden to consolidate control in the region. Now this was all a colossal task, the sheer distance from the Transbaikal region to Manchuria was incredible. There was a shortage of steamers, so barges and rafts had to be constructed, bad harvests resulted in less provisions and just getting men and supplies to the front was hellish. Nonetheless the job was to be done, and between June and July 16 battalions, 38 guns, 6 sotnias, 2 sapper companies and 2 railway companies were rushed from Priamur to Kwantung and Pechihli. To compensate for depleting the Priemur region, Siberia would need to send forces.   The mobilization was incredible. In the Transbaikal region in 1900 there was roughly 25,000 Russians of working age, from these 5000 men made up 5 cavalry regiments, 4 cavalry batteries and 4 infantry battalions were tossed together to form the “Hailar detachment” called so because they would advance against Hailar. They all had military training, but lacked a lot of discipline. The men were notorious for smoking in front of their superiors and during saluting times would often just nod their head. The Cossacks amongst them would not let superior officers strike them which was a custom in the army. But the men were pretty crack shots and could live off meager rations. Furthermore most of them had dealings and were on good terms with Mongols and Manchu. The leader of the Hailar detachment was Major General Orlov who mobilized them on July 25th and they proceeded from Abagaitui to cross the border. They followed the Hailar rivers until they reached the Dalai Nor railroad station on July 27th. They captured there 51 well armed Mongols without resistance and sent them back to Russia to help construct the Transbaikal railroad. From here they advanced to Ongun whereupon they saw at a distance some Manchu and Mongol cavalry spread out in orderly lines of single rank, behind them were infantry. According to some Chinese prisoners, the force was around 10,000 strong under the command of a General in Hailar. The Mongol cavalry advanced and fired upon them from a great distance, not hitting very much. The Russians held their fire, so the Mongols drew closer and pelted them with bullets. This time the Russian returned fire, but the Mongols persisted and dismounted from their horses, beginning to dig foxholes. The Russians resumed their defensive stance, watching the Chinese pull up artillery. At 11:45am the Russian’s received some reinforcements, 2000 additional bayonets, 1000 savers and 6 cannons of the Verkhneudinsk Cossack regiment. The Chinese artillery was roughly 5000 feet away, their riflemen just 800 or so. The Verkneudinsk regiment rode out upon their right flank at 1:50pm signaling the Russian general attack. Orlov took the left flank performing a small envelopment maneuver. It was a bold and bloody advance. At 2:10pm the Russian artillery began to fire and it was deadly accurate, the Chinese artillery quickly evacuated, unable to properly return fire. At 2:25pm Orlov tossed some reserves into the advance and soon the Russians were charging across an open plain driving the Chinese from a hill position. The mounted Cossacks pursued any retreating Chinese forces who were seen tossing their weapons and equipment as they ran. Orlov got caught up in the chase and excitement and was almost shot while his staff officer screamed “Sir! You’re being shot at!” Some Boxer forces stood their ground defiantly against Cossack sabers, butchered on the spot. The Russians had only 8 deaths and 17 wounded and claimed an incredible 900 casualties for the Chinese. Orlov sent his mounted forces to pursue the enemy and perform reconnaissance of Hailars defenses which his scouts reported was being abandoned. Orlov ordered a Cossack battery to rush to Hailar during the night of August 1st as he led more men against Urdingi. The roads were littered with abandoned equipment, but Orlov received a new report in the morning, Hailar was not abandoned after all. There was a call for help at the Hailar front, so Orlov sent two Sotnias of the 4th and 6th battalions and he personally came by August 3rd. Upon seeing the reinforcements, the Chinese began to abandon the city and Orlov would have his dinner inside Hailar on that day. Hailar was a small district city, but it was important strategically for the Chinese eastern railway’s construction. Orlov formed a supply depot at Hailar not only for his detachment, but for other Russian forces going through the area. Upon seeing the taking of Ongun and Hailar, the Mongols realized the Russians were stronger than the Manchu. The Mongols began abandoning the Chinese and fled to their homelands to wait out the conflict.  Meanwhile General Bao, one of China’s more able commander, realized the loss of Hailar was significant and began to approach the region from the Greater Hsing-an Mountains with a force 7000 strong. Cossack patrols reported Bao’s advance to Orlov and Orlov decided to go out and meet him. On August 14th the Russian took up a position at Ya-koshih some 23 miles east of Hailar. The two forces would clash at 2pm and the battle would rage for many hours. The brunt of the fighting was felt by the Transbaikal Cossack battalions who charged into Bao’s left flank. A severe thunderstorm broke out during the battle and Orlov used it to conceal a held back reserve battalion to charge into the right flank of the Chinese. When both flanks were being hit Orlov called for a general forward assault. General Bao was a well recognized figure and some Russian sotnias came across his dead body on the battlefield before they crashed into a Chinese rear guard at 10pm. The Chinese had routed and enraged by the intensity of the battle the Cossacks ran them down hard. The victory at Yakoshih would give Russia control over the western part of Manchuria up to the Greater Hsing’an Mountains. On the mountains a newly formed detachment under General Chou Mien established a heavily fortified position.  A flying detachment led by Bulatovich was sent to Hsing-an on August 19th and the approached the Chinese positions on the mountain to prod their defenses. Bulatovich personally led a small group to drive out a Chinese forward post near a bridge so most of his forces could get across a river to venture into the foot of the mountains. A full reconnaissance was performed, while the rest of the Hailar detachment were 40 miles away enroute. On August 20th, without waiting for reinforcements that were due to Hailar at any moment, Orlov advanced. Orlov took his forces to seize the Mien-tu-ho station, Ha-la-kuo station and I-Lieh’ko’te from which at a moment's notice he could help Bulatovich’s position, being just 10 miles away or so. Orlov ordered the forces to slowly push into the mountains proclaiming to the men “Well done Verkhneudinks Cossacks! With God, lets see what the mysterious Greater Hsing-an is like!” From the 3 different locations the men advanced. Orlov planned to cross over a ridge 20 miles south of the Chinese position to get behind their rear and cut off their road towards Tsitsihar. While planning his attack, Orlov received word that Beijing had just been taken by the 8 nation alliance on August 14th and that Harbin was occupied by Russians as well.  At 5am on August 23d, Bulatovich began a envelopment maneuver while the main body advanced with Orlov. The Chinese would be unable to see the main bodies movements due to the mountain ranges. Once they approached the Chinese rear, Orlov began planning out artillery positions and watched with binoculars through some bushes at the Chinese positions. His report of the actions state the Chinese trenches were dug absurdly, in a line of square holes across the main road that could only face a frontal attack. He was also surprised to find out many nearby heights held no enemy posts, they easily could be used against them. Orlov took up a position that overlooked the entire left flank of the Chinese position. His artillery positions were perfect, nothing would obstruct their bombardment. At 2am the next day Orlov sent forward companies to seize the nearby heights lest the Chinese grab them at the last minute. At 6:45am the Chinese had advanced forward on the right flank catching the Russian position in enfilade fire. Cossacks charged into them swiftly and at 7:30am the Russian artillery began its bombardment which quickly silence the Chinese artillery. Suddenly the Chinese right flank was hit with Cossack sotnia’s causing confusion. Chinese riflemen tried to get out of their trenches but were pinned down by the artillery shrapnel and soon the Cossacks were firing into the trenches butchering them. The battle was a brief one, the Chinese were simply not prepared to face attacks from multiple directions. After only 50 minutes the Chinese began a withdrawal. The Russians would have completely encircled and annihilated them, but the rear units rushed over to help a pinned down Russian company. Russian reported 3 deaths and 9 wounded, taking countless Chinese lives and seizing 5 artillery pieces and 120 carts of war materials.  The Chinese fled to Tsitsihar the capital of Heilungchiang province. Manchu General Shou Shan held a very strong garrison there. A detachment led by Bolsheretsk was already advancing upon Tsitsihar and Orlov was to meet up with him. On September the 2nd, Orlov arrived to the outskirts of Tsitsihar and 2 days later he entered the city, as the Bolsheretsk detachment had already battled and taken the city by August 28th. Its large Chinese garrison had fled towards Petuna. The reason they had fled was due to the psychological impact of General Rennenkampfs daring campaign, as you will recall General Shou Shan had committed suicide having lost to him. Apparently Shou Shan swallowed gold to rupture his intestines, I’ve never heard of that one before.  With the Hailar detachment and Bolsheretsk detachment together at Tsitsihar, they now had a force of 12 battalion, 14 sotnias and 22 artillery pieces altogether. Orlov sent orders for Rennenkampt to take 12 sotnias and 6 cavalry guns to advance upon Petuna while he would follow behind. Petuna was around 200 miles away and the Russians would have to ford the Nonni and Sungari rivers. Rennenkampft managed to get to Petuna in 5 days and found it sheltered 1500 Chinese Infantry and 150 cavalry units. A Qing official named Li rode out to parley with Rennenkampt, asserting to him they had 5000 men and asked for a armistice of 2 days. Rennenkampf replied that his detachment would be within Petuna that very evening and that by 6am all of the Chinese must come to their camp and lay down their arms. Rennenkampf really does seem like a badass doesn't he? At 6am on september 12th, the Chinese cavalry fully armed approached the camp and made a display of surrendering their arms. Then the Chinese infantry followed suit. The Chinese forces were herded away to help construct the railroad. On the 19th the main body reached Petuna, there Orlove and the other commanders decided to hit Kirin city, the capital of Kirin province. Mounted Cossacks were sent south of the Sungari river to hit Kirin from the south while the main body would advance north of the Sungair to hit Kirin from the north. Rennenkampf elected himself to perform a reconnaissance and set out on September 22nd with two sotnias. At 3pm the village of Tashuiho which lied on the junction of Mukden and Kirin was attacked by Rennekampfs force. Rennekampf was nearly speared to death during the attack, but they managed to fight off the Chinese. At 7am on the 23rd Rennenkmapf arrived to Kirin and a bearer of a flag of truce came out. The flag bearer asked for an armistice and again Rennenkampf rejected this and literally galloped into Kirin and headed for the Governor's mansion. This guy fancies himself Julius Caesar I guess. 220 Chinese cavalry who guarded the mansion were quickly surrounded and disarmed. Within Kirin Rennenkampf captured 69 modern rifles and 5000 other rifles of various dates which he tossed into the Sungari river. Rennenkampf had thus taken a fortified city of 120,000 inhabitants with 200 Cossacks, an unbelievable feat. But in reality, Prince Qing had actually ordered the governor of Kirin to suspend all hostility against the Russians. I bet Rennenkampf forgot to mention that part in his action report. Like I said a Julius Caesar kind of guy haha.  With Kirin in their hands, Orlovs detachment turned back to Harbin, where he would soon receive orders to return home so the Transbaikal Cossacks could tend to their farms, just in time for harvesting. Rennenkampf would remain in Kirin until the arrival of Major General Kryshanovskii with 4 squadrons of dragoons, 1 Chita Cossack sotnia, the 3rd Transbaikal cossack battery and a mounted train of artillery on September 26th. Rennenkampf took his small force to Tiehling where Russian forces were preparing for a large offensive against Mukden. Orlov’s campaign was an extremely fast one, his forces covered extreme distances, going 20 miles or so per day. A telegram from Lt General Matsievskii, the commander of the Transbaikal Cossack forces told Orlov his men had broken all records in the campaign. Casualties for the Hailar detachment were 468 in total. The Chinese had been routed, not by cowardice however. They fought bravely and were well armed, it seemed to Russian eye witness accounts they lacked proper marksmanship. The Qing officers seemed to be ignorant of modern military tactics and this heavily affected their organization. The Manchu General of Heilungchiang had sent troops simultaneously in three directions against the Hailar detachment, the Bolsheretsk detachment and the Khabarovsk detachment, not to mention sending other dispatches against Harbin. Orlov believed the Chinese could have won if they consolidated and hammered the Russians one force at a time. With the capture of Kirin, Qing officials now tried to ingratiate themselves with the Russians, giving them the old wine and dine treatment.  The final Russian offensive would be mounted in southern Manchuria. Major General Fleisher, was appointed commander of the newly formed South Manchurian Detachment. On August the 8th after Yingkou was taken, Mishchenko joined up with Domrovskii at Tashihciao. The Chinese had consolidated around Haicheng with a strength of around 4 battalion and 4 artillery pieces. The Russian forces at Tashihciao did not have many mounted Cossacks to perform a proper reconnaissance and as a result would not have a good idea of the Chinese strength. Thus the Russians overestimated the enemy. Fleisher ordered 3 columns to advance, in the middle was Colonel Aurenius leading the 3rd East Sierian rifle regiment with 8 guns and a section of Cossacks; on the left was Mishchenko with two companies, two Cossack squadrons and the 1st Transbaikal Cossack battery; and on the right was Dombrovskii with 4 and a half companies of the 11th east siberian rifle regiment, 4 guns and a squadron of Cossacks. The three columns departed Tashihciao on August 10th. Aurelius’s central column ran into a Chinese outpost who upon seeing them began to flee north towards Haicheng, only to run into Mishchenko’s forces. Dombrovskii’s column were advancing through some difficult mountain terrain to try and block escape routes for the Chinese. Mishchenko’s force suffered casualties from Chinese artillery, but when the Chinese tried to press an attack, the 1st Cossack Battery battered their formations. Aurelius tried to advance faster to catch up to the Chinese, but they kept slipping away. In the face of the advancing Russians, the Chinese evacuated Huchuangtun, destroying all useful war materials there. On August 11th the Russian columns reunited for and made camp, then the next day continued towards Haicheng in two columns. The main column commanded by Fleisher consisted of his detachment, Dombrovskii’s detachment and sotnia of Cossacks. They advanced northward along the railway line. The other column led by Mishchenko traveled parallel with the main column to the left.  General Shou planned to lure the Russians over towards Newchwang and spring a trap, but his subordinates refused to abandon Haicheng without a fight. Yun assumed command over the Haicheng militia and had his forces harass Mishchenko’s smaller column as they advanced. Yun set up an ambush for Mishchenko, deploying some artillery on a mountain range, but the Russians quickly overran them. While Mishchenko was fighting in the mountain range, a large force of Boxers from Haicheng tried to recapture the Chinese artillery. The Russians saw a hoard of yellow sash wearing Boxers, most of whom were prepared for hand to hand combat. The Boxers charged the Russians furiously, and Russians reported seeing very old men, some young boys and even a few girls amongst their force. Cossacks reported the Boxers tried to grab them down from their horses, but were no match for sabers. At 2am on August 12th the Russians were brushing off the attacks and ambushes and continuing their advance. By this point the Chinese had roughly 4000 regular troops, 8 artillery pieces and 1000 Boxers who had all retreated during the night for Haicheng. When the Russians reached Haicheng, the Chinese defenses collapsed. The Russian artillery had only just begun firing as the Chinese artillery crews abandoned their equipment and began fleeing. The only real resistance would be rear guard actions as the Russians stormed into Haicheng. Patrols were first sent into the city to see what kind of state it was in. Many inhabitants were known to the Russians as they were workers on the railway and the patrol forces assured them all they would see no harm. As the Russian main force entered the city, the Chinese came out with gifts of chicken, eggs and vegetables and both sides were quite relieved by the outcome. Konstantin had entered the city and met with some Chinese families he knew from railway work, gave them all assurances there was going to be no violence within the city. Railway guards were initially stationed in the city, but soon relieved whereupon regular Russian troops came in. Konstantin had departed Haicheng for some meetings and when he returned some days later, he went to a Chinese family acquaintance to find they had been butchered inside the home. Konstantin recalled “two old men lay in puddles of blood, bayoneted to death, while a young boy, about eight years old, with his belly ripped open, squirmed in agony”. Konstantin was livid, and went to the nearest sergeant major to ask where the other Chinese were and was told “they are farther away from their sin”. That same day a doctor in Konstantins regiment was called upon to revive an old woman and younger girl. Both had been expelled for the city, ran into solders who killed the older womans husband and raped the younger girl. In agony the two tossed themselves into a river to commit suicide. The old woman was revived, and the girl died. Konstantin bitterly watched as more innocent bystanders died. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Northern Manchuria is firmly under Russian control and gradually southern Manchuria is falling to the same fate. The price of war as usual is always felt heaviest on the innocent civilian populations. Unfortunately Manchuria will face such horror for decades to come. 

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Russo-Chinese War of 1900. Though its been only referred to as the Russian invasion of Manchuria during the Boxer Rebellion, this event was far larger and more impactful than it seems. The recent Russian acquisitions after the Triple Intervention brought numerous railway workers and guards into the Manchu homelands. It was a joint venture between the Qing and Russian empires, but the year of 1900 brought the Boxer movement into the mix. The Russians were isolated in various pockets throughout Manchuria and were being attacked by Boxers and Manchu’s who likewise shared their anti foreign sentiment. Violence broke out in places like Hsiungyuehcheng, Baitouzi, Liaoyang and Haicheng, seeing Russian forces fleeing one to the next, trying to consolidate for protection. The Russians have received a pretty bloody nose, but they were just about to punch back.   #69 The Russo-Chinese War Part 2: The Blagoveshchensk Massacre on the Amur River    Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The Russo-Chinese War is a bit more difficult to talk about in a chronological order as so much is going on in different places at roughly the same time. It differed from the conflict going on in China proper also in the fact it was very much bilateral rather than international. However there were exceptions seen in places like Yingkou. Yingkou was a treaty port on the Liaodong gulf and had an international settlement. Foreign consulates and missions were present. Yingkou was going to be connected to the South Manchurian railway line and would experience Boxer agitation early on. Boxers began by plastering the city with anti-christian placards, proclamations and youth were practicing martial arts in her streets. Then adult Boxers began pouring into Manchuria where they gradually harassed westerners. It did not happen overnight, it was gradual work, but soon Boxers were fortifying positions. In June of 1900, Vice Admiral ALekseev telegraphed the Russian Minister of War from Yingkou, indicating he required more guards. The Minister of War forwarded the telegram to the Minister of Foreign affairs with the recommendation the Admiral should be given authority to take whatever measures necessary to prevent the outbreak of hostilities near Russian held railway territory. The foreign Minister, Count Mikhail Murav’ev agreed and recommended Russian forces not go far beyond the Kwantung region in their efforts. Tsar Nicholas II also added comments “It is extremely important for us not to scatter our forces”. When Tientsin saw an outbreak of violence, and the railway lines in Manchuria were being attacked, Colonel Dombrovskii was sent from Port Arthur to Tashihciao with the 11th East Siberian Rifle regiment, a battery and a Sotnia of Cossacks. Colonel Khoreunzhenkov followed this up with his detachment from Port Arthur coming via train to Tashihciao while the 7th and 8th East Sierian rifle regiments proceeded to Yingkou and Tashihciao via sea transport. Because Yingkou was a treaty port, Russian gunboats were on hand when the violence erupted. When Qing forces began to mass up around Yingkou a bit due north, the Russians sent an envoy to meet with the local General Shou to inform him Russian gunboats would level the city to the ground should the Chinese attack the Russian settlement. General Shou was livid at this, but kept everything at Bay until August 4th. By that point in time, Russian Consul Andrei Timchenko-Ostroverkhov had asked Colonel Mishchenko and General Fleisher who arrived on July 29th not to disrupt the peace with any military actions.  Meanwhile General Chin Cheng the commander of Qing forces in the province of Fengtian decided to counteract Russian occupations of key points in the Liaodong Peninsula. He deployed large numbers of troops to Yingkou and Anshanchan, while retaining a reserve at Shahotzu. Chin Cheng also sent a request to Beijing to release 20 battalions to the Liaodong Gulf to operate behind the Russian lines and smash their railway lines. Smaller detachments would fight delaying actions while gradually pulling back to Yingkou. The Qing’s plan was to lure the Russians over to Anshan, then overwhelm them with superior numbers from 3 directions coming from Yingkou, Shahotzu and the Chienshan mountains. The detachments coming from Yingkou and Beijing would cut off escape routes. Before this, the Qing were more or less uncoordinated and not very effective in their military actions. However now with forces larger than, 50,000 men each, with 60 or so artillery pieces under the command of a commander in chief, they were about to become a lot more threatening.  Now while this large maneuver was being prepared, a smaller battle took place at Yingkou on July 26th. Mishchenko now at Yingkou received reports that Khorunzhenkov had pushed out many Qing forces away from Hsiungyuehcheng, and now those said forces were enroute to Yingkou. Mishchenko elected to go out and meet them head on with two and a half companies alongside two artillery pieces. His forces advanced northeast of the city walls and proclaimed the Qing there had one hour to remove their forces from the walls. The Qing defenders armed with Mauser rifles fired off in defiance and soon messengers from incoming Qing forces began galloping towards the city. 15 minutes before an hour had passed the Russians began deploying themselves to a fight. Konstantin and Mamonov led their companies towards the northern and eastern forces; Troitskii and Prokipenko with their 7th siberian companies guarded the right flank incase Qing came from the city. When the ultimatum expired the Russians began to open fire, met equally back with Qing fire. Within 15 minutes the Russians had battered the walls with their artillery and were scaling the walls. The Qing fired back while making an evacuation of the city. Two Cossack squadrons with sabers in hand pursued the fleeing Qing. The Russians gradually advanced against the city, then suddenly a special message arrived from the Consul demanding they halt the attack. The fleeing Qing forces from Hsiungyuehcheng whom Mishchenko was trying to cut off from Yingkou had found out about their attack and were now scattering amongst neighboring towns. Thus Mishchenko’s actions seemed to have worked. Mishchenko’s forces would have to sporadically raise up similar actions against the hostile elements within Yingkou, seeing countless Boxers and sympathizers flee the city. This peaked one day seeing a small battle before the Russians finally stormed the city now greatly depleted of its warriors. The Russians captured the arsenal and military stores and left a half company to guard the entrance to the city. On August 5th, Vice Admiral Evgenii Alekseev arrived at Yingkou on the cruiser Zabiiaka. Alekseev was 55 years old at the time, a short stocky man, with a rather large head and hooked nose. His large beard was beginning to gray, but the man was full of energy and demanded swift action from his men. He issued a speech on August 6th “the hostile behavior of the Chinese authorities who had first encouraged the rebellion and then declared that they could not maintain order ended in an open attack on our forces placed in the city in accordance to the wish of the Consular body. During the said attack the Chinese authorities had fled leaving the town to its fate. To avoid disorder and looting by the Chinese mo and with the object of protecting the commerce of the port and the property of the foreigners the Russian military authority found it necessary to place the town under the guard of the Imperial Russian troops.” Foreign consuls began to request Alekseev send for more reinforcements, stating if he did not do so they would have to ask the Japanese. The British were not very keen on the Russian occupation, and when the Russians attempted placing their flags over British owned establishments it got pretty heated. But the foreigners did feel more at ease with Russian forces guarding the international settlement, for now it seemed peaceful. Over on the western side of the Amur River at its juncture is a place called Blagoveshchensk. It was founded in 1856 as a military post, originally named Ust-zeisk. In 1858 because of its strategic location and economic value, it became the military, civil and judicial center of the newly formed Amur province. It also held a seat for a military governor. It was renamed Blagoveshchensk meaning “good news place” and its first governor General, Nikolai Murav’ev Amurskii announced its annexation in 1858. Soon some Cossacks moved in to form a local village called Verkhne-Blagoveshchensk “upper blagoveshchensk”. The city grew quickly, by 1900 she had nearly 38,000 inhabitants with over 3700 houses. An American traveler descried the city “as fine for its leading banks and stores as Portland, Maine or Oregon could show, or any smaller city of the Union. ”.The city had schools, libraries, a theater and telephone service. Now the Amur river formed the boundary between the Qing dynasty and the Russian empire going for hundreds of miles. To the east opposite Blagoveshchensk was the Manchu city of Sakhalian. Sakhalian had opened up to foreign trade in 1858 when there was a Manchurian gold rush and in the 1880’s her population boomed to 50,000. Both cities freely went back and forth by boats and junks or over ice in winter to trade.  In May of 1900, reports of unrest in China reached Blagoveshchensk, but this aroused little concern, it sounded to everyone like the common troubles of any given year. The people of Manchuria resented foreign activity in their heartland and were eager for the Russians to withdraw, but for decades relations between the Russians and Chinese were pretty good, friendly, certainly more so than with other western powers at least. The residents of Blagoveshchensk failed to see the signs of the looming conflict. On July 8th, Chinese living in Blagoveshchensk suddenly began crossing the Amur river, with all of their belongings.  By late May some Russians went to trade for cattle in Sakhalian and reported sighting 7000 troops in the mountains beyond Sakhalian. The activity was dismissed as routine maneuvers. On June 24th word was received that the 8 nation alliance had just ceased the Taku forts and that same day posters emerged in Blagoveshchensk about mobilizing the Priamur region. Reservists began pouring into the city from neighboring towns, ships were carrying men up the Zeia river. The city’s residents thought everything was ridiculous, how could China resist so many powers, was this all necessary? A resident of Blagoveshchensk, A .V Kirkhner wrote this of the situation “So accustomed had everyone become to looking on China and the Chinese with utter disdain, and so familiar had their cowardice become to all inhabitants along the border, that there was hardly anyone who expected a serious war with china”. The russian reservists were pretty angry about the situation. They had been pulled away from their work, their families, now with nothing but bottles of vodka to drown their sorrows. Many cursed the Chinese for driving wages down in the region and this led to violence on the Russian side. Angry Russians would frequently harass neighboring villages, causing many Chinese to flee across the Amur. On June 28th telegrams came to Blagoveshchensk conveying the Russian government's declaration made on the 24th that there was no war with China, the troops that took Taku and Tientsin were merely helping the Qing government crush the insurgents who were destroying railroads. This created more confusion for the people in the Amur region. The governor feared things might get out of hand so he closed down bars and warned residents to not spread false rumors or cause panic and above all else not to molest the Chinese inhabitants, anyone who did would be punished. The military began preparing measures to stop internal disorder, to quell possible bandit raids. Cossacks were dispatched out to protect telegraph lines and patrols were sent to thwart banditry. Chinese and Russian homes began to be robbed or at least rumors suggested as such and the different nationalities became suspicious of the other. Newspapers began spreading messages to thwart violence, asking the Russian population to have a “sober view” of things. News came of von Kettelers murder on July 12th, and of the outbreak of hostility at Harbin and along numerous railway lines in Manchuria. However the people of Blagoveshchensk simply believed all of the hostility was confined to the area of Beijing and perhaps the interior of Manchuria, certainly it would not reach them in such a remote place. On July 14th a private steamer, the Mikhail enroute from Khabarovsk to Blagoveshchensk alongside 5 barges passed by the Qing village of Aigun, when Qing officials signaled them to dock. The Russians failed to understand what they wanted and kept going. The Qing opened fire on Mikhail until it stopped, they then came aboard and saw the cargo was all military supplies, thus they placed the crew under arrest. A few hours later the Russian steamer Selenga was going downstream and came over to investigate the Mikhail. The Qing officials on the shore screamed at the vessel and her commander COlonel Kol’shmit could see there were Qing troops set up on the shore. He quickly ordered his men to go full steam ahead, but when they did the Qing opened fire. The Colonel, 4 Cossacks and 2 sailors were severely wounded in the mayhem. Kol’shmit rushed Blagoveshchensk with his battered ship.  News of the conflict raised an alarm that this was a premeditated act of war. The arrested men of the Mikhail were let go and returned bearing a message from the district chief of Aigun stating he had acted on the orders of the military governor of Tsitsihar, not to let any ship pass. That same night two companies of the 2nd East Siberian line battalion, 6 artillery pieces and the Amur Cossack regiment crossed the Zeia river taking up defensive positions. The next day Blagoveshchensk organized a volunteer defense force. On July 15th, everything seemed quite calm, some Manchu came over to Blagoveshchensk calmly asking to fetch some belongings. A steam cutter patrolled the Amur and police searched any Chinese who came over. The reservists were at ease, many cooped up in their barracks. Suddenly the Qing began firing from across the river caughting the Russians by surprise. Panic ensued, residents fled the Amur river area, pursued by Qing bullets. Rumors spread that the Manchu were landing on their side of the river, countless turned to defend their homes, women and children surged out of the area. When volunteer fighters found Chinese trying to get across the river away from Blagoveshchensk they immediately attacked them, all having heard of the rumors Chinese had landed ashore on their side. Chinese tossed grenades in the streets wounding many innocent civilians. By 9pm the Qing guns finally went silent as volunteers dug trenches along the waterfront. Steamers Mikhail and Selenga proceeded up the Amur and saw Chinese forces building ramparts along the river bank.  On July 16th the Qing opened fire again, this time on a larger scale. Men were now in foxholes, police were running through the streets looking for Chinese. Boxer posters were discovered in the Chinese quarter of the city. Allegedly, these posters stated that Manchu had landed ashore and for all Chinese in the city to raise up arms against the Russians. The police began rounding up any Chinese they found, aided by volunteers. Many Chinese were beaten up, all weapons were confiscated. Wild rumors were rampant amongst the residents. At 5pm a force was seen on the horizon, many thought it was Manchu coming to kill them all. It turned out to be more Chinese being herded from local villages by Cossacks. All the Chinese were being kept at the police station, but now the numbers were swelling to several thousand. There was simply no room for the mass of people at the police station, so many were moved to a lumber mill along the Zeia. They were left under the guard of 80 recruits armed with axes. The night was quiet, none tried to escape. The next day, the first group of Chinese, around 3500, were moved to the Verkhne-Blagoveshchensk station for deportation across the river. They were escorted by a small forces, marching 6 miles during a particularly hot day. Many of the old and sick collapsed and some police officers ordered them axed to death, several were killed. Evidence later would show countless were robbed. A number of armed Cossacks rode out to meet the caravan and help convoy them across the river. There were no boats, not even sampans at the shore they were brought to. Some Russians argued they could not send the Chinese back, as there was a siege-like situation. They argued they could not provide the guards for 3000 Chinese in the city.  Ten years after this controversial event that had been argued to this very day, a Russian journal called Vestnik Evropy tried to tell the story of what happened based on gathered evidence and testimony of locals. This is what the article had to say “Nevertheless the point of crossing was the width of the river at this place was over 700 feet, while the depth reached 14 feet. The current was very strong here, and furthermore a considerable wind was blowing. Having chosen the place, it was decided that this was enough, that nothing further was needed for the crossing. The Chinese were simply driven into the water and ordered to swim. Part of those in front went into the water. Some swam, but soon began to drown. The remainder did not dare to go into the water. Then the Cossacks began to urge them on with nagaikas (whips) and all who had rifles, Cossacks, settlers, old men and children opened fire. The shooting lasted about half an hour, after which a considerable number of Chinese corpses piled up on shore. Then, after the shooting, the commander of the detachment decided to resort to ordinary arms as well. The Cossacks chopped with their sabers, while the recruits were ordered to kill the “disobedient” Chinese with their axes. When some of the recruits lacked fortitude for this, the Cossacks threatened “to decapitate them as traitors”. The Chinese cried; some crossed themselves with the “orthodox cross” pleading that they not be killed, but nothing helped. Before the completion of the crossing a mounted party of Cossacks from one of the Amur Cossack regiments also participated in the shooting at the Chinese. The commander of the mounted party at first had not wanted to fire, but upon the demand of the Police chief ordered his men to fire five rounds each, and then continued on his way, in spite of the request of Ataman N (commander of the Cossacks who came out to meet the caravan), to remain with his detachment and “shoot a while longer”, as the Cossacks of the settlement had run out of ammunition. He agreed only to take a note from the Cossack commander to the squadron commander about the sending of help; but this request remained unfulfilled. During the crossing of the first party of Chinese, it was found, the majority had perished, some had drowned, others had been slain. Not more than a hundred Chinese had swum to the other shore and saved themselves. The article goes on to state the crossing was more of an extermination. Many recruits testified during the investigations after that orders were to drown the Chinese.  This massacre did not seem to satisfy the Russians involved, for on July 19th and 21st two more parties were sent to the crossing of 170 and 66 Chinese. They were killed in a similar fashion, all of this was overseen by the chief of police. Some Chinese swam to safety, but not many. The people who butchered the Chinese did not hide their actions, though their superiors sent reports that most of the Chinese had swam to the other side and only a few were killed for disobedience. The military governor of the Amur region demanded an inquiry be made, but he did not self report the matter to the Governor General after the investigation showcased the horror. General Griskii was indicted for the crime, he argued in his defense that he acted in accordance with preserving the peace and that he left the matter to the chief of police. He had taken no interest in the details of what occurred during deportation operation. The chief of police accused a Colonel chairman of the Amur military government for being responsible for the massacre.  There was an investigation looking into atrocities committed elsewhere in the Amur region. It was found out in the village of Poirkovkaia, 85 Chinese including a Qing colonel were arrested and the chief of police at Blagoveshchensk telegram the police over there “send Chinese river or annihilate if they resist”. When the police replied whether they were to drown the Chinese or just let them cross the river the chief replied on July 20th “one must be crazy and foolish to ask what to do with the Chinese. When one is told to do away with them, one should do so without deliberation. The Chinese colonel is not to be kept in a separate place, but in a cell on the same level as the others. Everything in his possession should be taken away. All my orders are to be executed without any evasion; do not act willfully or bother me with nonsense.” The chief would then sent a circular telegram out to all his subordinates stating “annihilate Chinese appearing on our side, without asking for instructions”. The police force at the village testified they provided boats to the Chinese, but that Cossacks who were providing escort had fired upon them and killed most of them. At the village of Albazinskaia it was reported that 100 Chinese were peacefully boated across the river when they saw the telegrams. At the village of Pokrovka, the local forces asked for confirmation of the telegram orders from General Gribskii, who ordered on July 20th “that it be impressed on the local Russian authorities that Russia’s struggle was with armed Chinese, who engaged in hostilities against them. Peaceful, harmless Chinese, particularly unarmed ones, are not to be harmed in any war. To save their lives, they are to be sent to their side on boats or steamers”. Upon hearing this, the police chief of Blagoveshchensk suddenly reversed his telegram orders and now stated that peaceful Chinese must not be molested.  In the end, the investigation found no real steps were taken by the Russian government to punish the guilty. General Gribskii was relieve of his duties, but in consideration of his otherwise perfect record, he was not dismissed from the service. The chief of police was dismissed from his position and other culprits of the ordering of atrocities were discharged dishonorably, but all subordinates who performed the murders were freed of the responsibility. In the public eyes, Gribskii and the others were disgraced. The topic of the massacre on the Amur was one the Russians would continue to avoid. Not all the villages in the region treated the Manchu poorly. At Dzhalinda, Markova and Ignashina, where boats were available, they safely moved the Chinese across. At Stretenskaia station Chinese residents were not molested. But certainly at Blagoveshchensk it saw the very worst horrors.  The gunfire across the Amur gradually ceased, the Russian population on their side of the border were relieved many of the Chinese had crossed to the other side. The Russian residents of Blagoveshchensk began returning to their homes. However the lull was a deception. During the night thousands of Chinese crossed the Amur river between Aigun and military post no 1 near the mouth of the Zeia. They got over undetected and were within 1400 feet of the military post, guarded by a handful of soldiers with some militiamen, around 400 men strong in all. At dawn on July 18th the Chinese opened fire at the militiamen. The men of the military post fired back, but made a withdrawal over to Blagoveshchensk. The Chinese followed quickly towards a part of the Zeia. Fortunately for the fleeing Russians a steamer was coming that way carrying a large number of Cossack troops who immediately landed and began to face the Chinese. One of the Chinese detachments tried to flee across the Amur and was wiped out. Rumors spread in Blagoveshchensk that the Manchu were trying to get around the city from the rear, and this caused a panic. The situation was critical, the few military troops in the area were moving back and forth between Blagoveshchensk and Aigun exhausting themselves. If the Chinese had seriously tried to invade, they would have easily overwhelmed the Russians settlements, but they didn't. It could perhaps be due to simply fear or poor strategy, but the Chinese never took advantage of the situation. Russian artillery, vastly outnumbered, tried to reply to the Qing artillery. One night when the Chinese fire was slack, 150 Russians crossed the Amur to prod the Chinese positions leading to a minor skirmish.  On July 19th, the Chinese tried to cross the Amur in two places, but were repulsed. The Qing gunfire continued to pound Blagoveshchensk and harass the Russian forces who were slowly being reinforced by men coming over from Khabarovsk. The Russians gradually were crossing the Amur to harass and cease Qing held outposts. Between July 19-21st, many smaller Chinese settlements on the Russian side of the Amur beyond the Zeia were plundered and destroyed. On the 22nd the Sungari made its way to the city dropping off large quantities of ammunition and guns from Khabarovsk. 380 rifles were then brought via horseback from Poiarkova and 700 new recruits were landed by the steamer Chikoi. The bombardment of Blagoveshchensk continued sporadically, but the Chinese were losing morale and disertions were increasing. On the 27th the steamer Selenga performed a reconnaissance of the enemy fortifications at Sakhalian as the Chinese fired wildly upon it. Selenga bombarded the enemy entrenchments and on the night of the 29th landed a detachment of Cossacks. General Gribskii estimated the Chinese had around 18,000 men and 45 artillery pieces in the Aigun-Blagoveshchensk region. By the end of the month the Chinese opportunity to take the city had passed, now the Russians were pouring their troops between Aigun and Blagoveshchensk, pressing the war upon the Chinese side. The Russians planned to attack Sakhalian and Aigun on the night of August 1st. In overall command were Major General Subotich and Captain Zapol’skii. The plan called for Colonel Pechenkin and Lt Colonel Ladyzhenskii to take the 4th and 5th Sotnias of the Amur Cossack regiment and 1st Sotnia of the Nervchinsk Cossack Regiment over the Amur just above Verkhne-lagoveshchensk. They would perform reconnaissance and take up an assembly position on the right flank. Colonel Frimann with 4 companies of the 2nd East Siberian Line battery, 8 guns of the 2nd east Sierian artillery brigade and half a sotnia of Amur Cossack regiment across from Verkhne-Blagoveshchensk. Frimann would be followed up by Colonel Shverin with 3 companies of the Chita Reserve regiment, 3 companies of the Stretensk reserve regiment, 8 guns of the 1st battalion of the Transbaikal artillery division and half a sotnia of the Amur Cossack regiment. Lt Colonel Poliakov would cross with the compositie reserve battalion of 5 companies. The steamer Aigun and the barge Kalifornia alongside 52 smaller vessels would convey the troops.  The Chinese artillery fired upon the steamers Selenga, Grazhdanin, Mikhail and Sungari who were going up and down the Amur trying to deflect enemy attention from the invasion. The Chinese expected a landing near the No 1 military post and placed their units accordingly. Where the Russians would actually land had a very small number of Chinese defenders. The Russians encountered little resistance landing and by the time the Chinese advanced to the landing site from the direction of Sakhalian, the Russians had already occupied strategic positions. The Russians bombarded the coastal entrenchments from the flank, driving the Chinese to abandon them. By 7:30am the Russians advanced against the incoming Chinese. At first the Chinese were withdrawing orderly, continuing to fire back, but by noon they began to route and fled for the mountains towards the road to Aigun. A major blunder on the side of the Chinese was continuing to use their artillery on the Russian steamers rather than hitting the advancing troops. The Chinese believed the steamers were carrying the invasion force and were duped.  Sakhalian was being evacuated without a fight, Cossack raiders would enter the city putting everything to the torch leaving just a few buildings standing. By 6pm when the Russian infantry reached Sakhalian, the Manchu town ceased to exist. While Sakhalin was being taken, the military transports and reserve of Major General Aleksandrov were ferried across the Amur and the Chinese were regrouping at Aigun. The Chinese dug into the mountains building up fortifications. When the Russians prodded their defenses on August 3rd, the Chinese fire was heavy upon them. However when the Chinese tried to follow up their successes, the Russians flanked them forcing them back to their entrenchments. The Russian Cossack cavalry made wild charges followed up with bayonet charges overrunning the Chinese positions. Most of the Chinese fled south for other mountain spurs in the direction of Tstsihar. Many of the units were scattered unable to provide much resistance. Around 200 Chinese were killed in the mountains while the Russians reported 5 deaths and 24 wounded. At 2pm on August 4th, the Russians resumed their offensive against Aigun, expecting a fierce resistance as it was an important commercial town. The main defensive entrenchments between the mountains and Aigun had to be taken one by one. For 5 hours the Russians advanced under Chinese fire, but their losses were light. The Chinese attempted a counter attack in the mountains, but were met with harsh artillery fire forcing them back by 7pm. Once in range Russian artillery began smashing Aigun. Fotengauer guns were setting the town ablaze while 400 Chinese infantrymen valiantly fought on the open field to their death to try and stop them. The Chinese were forced to abandon Aigun during the night. The following day the Russians moved in fighting house to house against the stubborn towns defenders who did not flee. In Aigun the Russians ceased cannons, machine guns and ammunition. Meanwhile Rennenkampf’s Cossack pursued the fleeing Chinese from village to village fighting skirmishes. Between August 7th to the 9th, Chinese rear guards, roughly 800 men with 300 cavalry, tried to fight the Cossacks off. On August the 10th the Chinese rallied to make a stand at the Hsing-an mountains. Rennenkampfs force of around four and half sotnia’s and 2 cavalry guns ran right into 4000 Chinese infantry and another 4000 Manchu Cavalry supported by 12 guns. The Cossacks galloped beyond the Chinese positions causing an onslaught that devolved into a struggle for survival for all. Cossacks slashed wildly as Chinese fired at point blank range. Artillery blasted the area causing carnage. The Chinese eventually were dislodged, but Rennenkampf had to wait for reinforcements to do so. It was on August 16th the Russians stormed the Chinese positions and on the 17th the Hsing-an pass was taken. Rennenkampt received a report the Chinese had fled to Tsitsihar and so he carried on for it. Tsitsihar was the capital of Heilungchiang province and on August 20th as Rennekampf’s cavalry approached 45 miles from it a flag of truce bearer sent by General Shou Shan, the Manchu General of the province proposed armistice. Rennekmapt rejected the offer and pushed forward. On August 18th Rennekampf took the city with 460 Cossacks while one of his units secured the ford across the Nonni river. The Chinese offered light resistance, General Shou Shan had poisoned himself. Rennenkampfs forces entered the city on August 29th captured 31 guns, it was an incredible set of victories. From this point Lt General Gribskii made a official proclamation to the Chinese of Manchuria telling them they had started the war by attacking Blagoveshchensk and now Russian held Aigun and countless towns in the region. Soon they would come to all of their villages and if they did not shoot at them, no harm will come to them. He said the Russians only wanted to peacefully build railroads and everyone would be left in peace to tend to their fields as was before. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The horrible massacre that occurred along the Amur river is a sore spot to this very day between Russia and China. What began as a rather small conflict quickly unfolded into a full blown Russian invasion of the Manchu homeland.