#Headline Creation Challenge#The belligerents of the Russo-Japanese War were Japan and Tsarist Russia, as a local war in the early 20th century, but the number of troops mobilized by both sides, the heavy casualties of soldiers, the frequent use of heavy machine guns, heavy artillery and other weapons, and the fierce battle of positional fortifications, was considered by later generations to be a hot weapon combat exercise before the "First World War", and some people jokingly called it "World War Zero".
Prelude to the outbreak of war
At the end of the 19th century, the Western imperialist powers such as Britain, France, Russia, the United States, and Germany, after completing the second industrial revolution, began to frantically compete for colonies and spheres of influence around the world, and attempted to reshuffle the world that had been divided.
In East Asia, the Qing dynasty was poor and weak, conservative and backward, and its armed forces were in ruins. So that at that time, China was regarded as a "big fat meat" by the Western powers, and it was looked at by various powers from north to south, looking for opportunities to find another piece of territory that could be started.
By 1894, Japan, which had risen after the Meiji Restoration, had targeted Korea, a protectorate of the Qing Dynasty, but had actually pointed the finger at China.
Japan thus launched the Sino-Japanese War, and in 1895 forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ceded China's Liaodong Peninsula and included the Korean Peninsula as its "protectorate".
However, in order to obtain ice-free port travel and shun, Tsarist Russia has long targeted northeast China, and Japan's vain attempt to annex the northeast region has seriously violated the interests of Tsarist Russia and caused strong dissatisfaction in Tsarist Russia. So Tsarist Russia joined France and Germany to put pressure on Japan to return Liaodong.
In the end, China compensated Japan with 30 million taels of silver as the so-called "ransom fee", which redeemed the Liaodong Peninsula, which is known in history as "the intervention of the three countries to return Liao".
Soon after forcing Japan to return Liao, Tsarist Russia seized privileges such as the construction of the Eastern Railway and its branch lines in northeast China under the pretext of "returning Liao to Liao", and forcibly leased Lushun and Dalian as strongholds.
The invasion of the eight-nation coalition in 1900 gave Japan and Russia the opportunity to take advantage of the fire and loot, and in the Gengzi Incident, the Russians took the opportunity to send heavy troops to occupy the northeast region, and did not leave after the war.
This move also touched on Japan's ambitions for the northeast, and Japan joined Britain, Germany and other countries to demand that Russia withdraw its troops. Under the pressure of international public opinion, the Russians had to spit out the additionally occupied territory. As a result, Russia hated Japan to death.
Britain's attitude is more ambiguous, and Britain has always pursued a continental balance of power. As recently as the second half of the 19th century, one of Britain's major strategies was to resist Russian expansion. Even in the far Far East, Britain was sure to stop Russia.
Britain's initial intention was to support the Qing Dynasty to stop the expansion of Russian power and become a powerful tool to contain Russia. But what I didn't expect was that in the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty would actually lose to the small country of Japan, which surprised the British.
Therefore, after reconsideration, Britain decided to re-support Japan as a new partner in the blockade of Russia, and the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance was signed in this context.
Japan's ambitions to control China's Liaodong Peninsula have not ceased for a moment. When Tsarist Russia occupied the port of Lushun, in order to be able to compete with Tsarist Russia in the region, the Japanese army sent spies to Lushun to spy on the defensive deployment of the Russian army and the strength of the Russian army.
Internationally, the British, of course, did not want Russia to continue to grow in the Far East. With the support of Britain and the United States, Japan no longer hidden, but eagerly prepared to show force against Tsarist Russia. A vicious battle between these two bandits is about to unfold in the land of northeast China.
Why did Tsarist Russia attach importance to Lushun?
The geographical location of Lushun Fortress is located at the southernmost tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, more than 30 kilometers away from Dalian in the east, facing the Yellow Sea in the south and the Bohai Sea in the northwest. Lushunkou and the Shandong Peninsula are separated by the Bohai Sea, which is the throat of the Bohai Sea and occupies the position of the mouth of the Bohai Sea, and its strategic position is very important.
After the Russians acquired the Lushun Fortress, an ice-free port in the western Pacific, they moved the Pacific Fleet base here in 1900. And at great expense, it was built into a powerful fortress in East Asia.
Why does Tsarist Russia attach so much importance to the port of Lushun? One of the important reasons lies in Russia's geographical environment, which, despite its vast territory, is still only a traditional land power rather than a sea power.
Due to the lack of access to the sea in the Indian Ocean, Russia's expansion was very unsmooth, and it was stuck everywhere by Western Europe, especially Britain. Russia's territorial waters in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, both close to the Arctic, are too cold to have fewer ice-free ports.
And the Black Sea region is more like a large lake, the only exit is like the mouth of a large bottle. Such a sea cannot restrain other countries, but rather makes its own Black Sea fleet always subject to the pincers of other countries when entering and exiting.
Therefore, the acquisition of the port of Lushun enabled Tsarist Russia to obtain the export of maritime hegemony in the Far East of the Pacific, which could control the nearby sea and obtain sea control, and the sea supply was very convenient, making its foreign expansion in the Far East very convenient.
It is precisely for this reason that the Japanese regard the Russian army and navy in the Lushun fortress as a thorn in their side, and once the war starts, they must first pull him out. Otherwise, their own sea lines of transport would be seriously threatened by the Russians.
The Japanese attacked the port of Lushun, kicking off the battle
In February 1904, Japan decided to go to war against Russia. In order to ensure the landing of the army on the Liaodong Peninsula and eliminate the main forces of the Russian army in the northeast, it was also decided that the Lushun fortress must be captured first. The "opening battle" of the Russo-Japanese War, which was also the most casualty battle, began in Lushun.
Judging by the comparison of military strength, the total strength of Tsarist Russia was several times that of the Japanese army. And from the indicators of national strength, population, and territorial area that support military strength, Japan has no advantage at all, and no one will believe that the Japanese army can win.
The propaganda poster of the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War thought that they could eat the Japanese in one bite
Russia's military power in the Far East is not weak, but the Russian bureaucracy is muddled and unprepared. Alekseyev, the Russian governor in Liao, was slow to react when he learned of the breakdown of the Japanese-Russian negotiations, and did not take contingency measures in the event of war.
And until a few hours before the Japanese sneak attack on Lushun Military Port, General Witheft, chief of staff of the Russian fleet stationed in Lushun Port, still underestimated the enemy, and even blindly optimistically believed:
"The question of war and peace is in the hands of our emperor".
At midnight on February 8, just as the Russian officers toasted each other at the Lushun Fortress and held a dinner to celebrate the naming day of the wife of the fleet commander General Stark, the main force of the Japanese Combined Fleet led by Japanese Vice Admiral Heihachiro Togo had quietly approached the Russian warship moored in the port of Lushun.
The Japanese, using the usual strategy of sneak attacks, launched a surprise attack on Russian warships, firing 16 torpedoes in a row. Awakened by the sound of the explosion, the Russian sailors hurriedly turned around and fled to the port of Lushun, where two Russian battleships and a cruiser were quickly sunk.
The continuous explosion frightened the noble ladies into screaming and unsteady standing, and the crisp sound and screams of glittering wine glasses clashing began one after another.
Ironically, the Russians thought it was a drill, and while the ladies were in shock, an officer hurried to comfort everyone. He announced: This is a drill and tells everyone not to panic, which quiets the shouting ladies and ladies.
As a result, this so-called "exercise" caused the Russian army to lose 3 warships as soon as the war began.
The Japanese Navy blockades the port of Lushun
The constant sound of explosions made the Russian defenders of Lushun Fortress sober up a little, and when they figured out that the war against Japan had broken out and the Japanese had begun to attack themselves, they hurriedly returned to their respective warships and positions to organize counterattacks.
Heihachiro Togo attempted to take the opportunity to eliminate the main force of the Russian First Pacific Fleet anchored in the port of Lushun, but under the heavy blows of Russian naval guns and shore artillery, he could only temporarily retreat. However, the commander of the Russian fleet was worried that there would be an ambush by the Japanese in the port of the fleet, so he did not dare to take advantage of the victory and pursue, but contracted in the port and did not fight.
Lushun Port has been carefully operated by the Beiyang Navy Division of the Qing Dynasty and the Russian Navy, and the fortifications are very strong, and all kinds of fortresses, artillery batteries and other military facilities are available.
The commander of the Russian fortress, Stersel, who had participated in the Eight-Nation Alliance, thought that he knew more about the northeast area, especially the terrain near Lushun, so although Lushun Port was surrounded by Japanese regiments, he still did not worry.
At the end of February, the Japanese attempted to block the exit of Lushun Port with ships laden with stones, but the port waterway environment was complicated, and the method of blocking the port by wrecks did not work. The Japanese Navy changed tactics and laid a large number of mines around the perimeter of the port in an attempt to seal the port.
In early March, Vice Admiral Makalo, the new commander of the Russian First Pacific Fleet, took up his post at Lushun, which boosted the morale of the officers and men of the Russian Navy. Vice Admiral Makarov was a distinguished general in the Russian Navy, who was proficient in naval warfare and cared for his soldiers. But what role can one Makarov play in the Tsarist Russian naval system, where corruption is rife and generally mediocre?
Makarov was very worried about the way the Japanese blockaded the port, knowing that this would lead to losing sea control and being stranded, so while strengthening his naval defenses, he actively looked for a way to break through the blockade and wanted to engage the Japanese navy in the vast sea.
But during the breakout operation, the armored ship "Pavlovsk", where Makarov was located, sank due to a mine, and Makarov died with the ship.
The withering of the famous generals made the Russians tremble and simply hide in the harbor to preserve their strength, and after the Japanese army was no longer a threat at sea, it could transport the army and supplies without scruples.
Escorted by Japanese warships, the Japanese 2nd and 3rd armies landed on the Liaodong Peninsula and occupied Dalian. At this point, the Japanese army cut off the land connection between Lushun and the Russian army in the Liaoshen area. The port was blocked, the land was besieged, and Lushun became an isolated and isolated city.
In order not to sit and die, the Russian Navy tried to make a desperate bet. On June 23, the Russian fleet attempted to break out of the port of Lushun and sail to Vladivostok, but encountered the Japanese fleet on the way, and the commander of the Russian fleet, Vitegoft, who feared the enemy and feared the war, did not dare to engage and returned to Lushun.
Nearly two months later, on August 10, more than 20 Russian ships took advantage of the early morning dawn to sail out of Lushun Port again and break through to Vladivostok. At noon, he encountered the Japanese ship again.
In the Battle of the Yellow Sea for a few hours, the Russian fleet was defeated, sunk and damaged many warships, and Witgerft was also killed by artillery, and the Russian fleet, which lost its command, could only flee back to Lushun again, and never dared to break through again.
Russian warships were used to fortify the fortress's artillery defenses and provide fire support to the fortress army, and nearly 300 guns were dismantled and handed over to the fortress's land defense Russian forces along with a large amount of ammunition.
By mid-August, the Japanese command sent an emissary to Lushun, arrogantly demanding that the Russians hand over the fortress, which the Russians flatly refused.
The Japanese Army began to attack the positions outside Lushun
In the months leading up to the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian defenders made great efforts to fortify the fortress of Lushun, which greatly improved its defenses.
Emergency deployment of the Russian army
The Russian army has set up a high-voltage power grid around the fortifications, and also laid a large number of mines and booby traps, all kinds of anti-infantry barbed wire, horse repelling horses, and the Russian defenders have increased to more than 40,000 people, equipped with more than 600 artillery pieces, and the navy has more than 30 warships of various kinds.
Coupled with the fact that the Russian Navy had decided not to break through the siege, the Lushun Fortress actually increased the firepower of naval artillery fire and sufficient ammunition, and the firepower of the defenders was greatly strengthened.
The fortified fortress of Lushun, with such a unique terrain, coupled with the determination of the Russian army to hold it, made the Japanese attack very troublesome. The Russians believed that the Lushun fortress would become a super-strong "eastern fortress" that no one could conquer.
The Japanese launched several strong attacks on the Shun Fortress, and due to the stubborn resistance of the Russian army, the Japanese army had to temporarily abandon the attempt to quickly capture the Lushun Fortress after paying heavy losses, and was forced to turn into a long-term siege.
On August 19, the Japanese 3rd Army, under the command of Commander Nogi Yoshinori, first launched a general attack on Jinzhou, the throat of Lushun, and engaged in a fierce battle with the 5,000 Russian troops stationed here.
The focus of the struggle between the two sides was to control Nanshan in Jinzhou, and the Japanese launched a fierce attack on Nanshan under the cover of heavy artillery fire. At that time, the infantry firepower configuration of the Japanese army was still very rudimentary, and only a small number of imported French-made light machine guns were imported.
The Russian army has widely purchased and equipped the highly lethal German-made Maximin heavy machine gun, and has strong fortifications. In terms of firepower configuration, the Russian defenders were clearly superior to the attacking Japanese.
Tragic scenes in the Russo-Japanese War
In the fierce battle in the Golden State, the Japanese army almost stepped on the corpses of their own people. After a full day of fierce fighting, the Japanese army finally captured the Nanshan position, and the surviving Russian troops returned to the Lushun fortress from the peripheral positions. However, the Japanese suffered more than 4,000 casualties in this battle, and even Nogi Yoshinori 's eldest son , Nogi Katsunori , was killed in this battle.
After the loss of Jinzhou, Stersel, who was in charge of the defense of Lushunkou, advocated shrinking the front and abandoning the peripheral positions of Lushun. All Russian troops retreated into the Lushun fortress and held on to help.
At this time, the number of Japanese troops surrounding Lushun Fortress had reached more than 60,000 people, equipped with 400 artillery pieces, and the Japanese army also dispatched more than 50 warships to block Lushun's access to the sea.
However, as long as Lushun remained in Russian hands, the Russian fleet could threaten the Japanese sea lines of communication at any time, and the Japanese army could not conduct large-scale ground operations in northeast China without occupying Lushun. Therefore, after resting for almost a month, the Japanese army brought in many siege heavy artillery to prepare for another strong attack on the Lushun fortress.
The 203 heights of the "corpse mountain and sea of blood"
In mid-September, the Japanese First Division, which was the main attacker, began to attack the western defense line of Lushun Fortress, and its main attack target was Heights 203. The 203 Heights is the commanding height of the Lushun Fortress, and after taking the 203 Heights, the artillery fire can overlook the entire Lushun, and the Japanese army can be said to be determined to win.
However, Heights 203 is covered with trenches, barbed wire. The Russian army's Maximin heavy machine guns and heavy artillery formed an incomparably terrifying fire network, and the Japanese corpses on the positions were strewn and piled up.
The red-eyed Nogi Yoshinori personally supervised the battle, howling and ordering the soldiers to only advance and not retreat. After several days of vicious fighting, on this narrow mountain less than 300 meters long and 50 meters wide, the roaring Japanese artillery poured more than 10,000 shells on it.
The indiscriminate artillery bombardment caused almost no grass on the mountain, but the Russian army relied on strong fortifications to avoid shells, and when the Japanese artillery fire stopped, they drilled out of the fortifications and prepared to counterattack. And when a large number of infantry groups of the Japanese army rushed up, the Japanese soldiers were greeted by heavy machine guns that breathed fire.
The continuous charge of the Japanese army was blown up by Russian artillery
The Russian artillery was not weak, and the heavy artillery removed from the naval ships constantly roared at the charging Japanese. Countless Japanese soldiers died under Russian heavy artillery, machine guns and rifles, and in some sections the corpses were piled up on three floors.
In this way, the Japanese army was repulsed again and again, and in these attacks, the Japanese infantry suffered heavy casualties, and even Nogi Yoshinori's second son Nogi Honori was killed in the charge. Nogi Yoshinori was almost mad and fell ill in anger. The Japanese had to suspend the attack.
In this attack, the casualties were counted, and the Japanese killed and wounded more than 7,000 people, while the Russian army suffered nearly 4,000 casualties.
Heights 203 not only suffered heavy casualties from the Japanese, but also suffered great losses from the Russians
The strong attack failed, and his two sons were also killed in battle, and Nogi had no choice, and when the strong attack was fruitless, he had a plan and ordered the soldiers to dig tunnels to penetrate the defenses of the Russian army, trying to sneak into the defense line through underground passages.
Unexpectedly, the Russian army observed the soil work of the Japanese army, so it dug a trench laterally around the perimeter of the defense line, which was quickly opened with the Japanese tunnel, the Japanese soldiers were shocked, it was too late to retreat, the Russian army aimed at the exit a shelling fiercely, as a result, the tunnel was blown up, the Japanese army was shelled and collapsed and killed and wounded more than 1,000 people.
At this time, the Russians had no salvation troops outside and no food and grass inside, and they were also panicked, but they had no way to retreat, and they could only fight to the death with the Japanese army. At this time, the Baltic Fleet, which the tsar ordered to come to reinforce, was still thousands of miles away, and it was only afraid that it would be a few months after reaching Lushun.
By the beginning of December, Nogi Yoshinori, who had become a battle of trapped beasts, once again organized 80,000 Japanese troops, and prepared to launch a general attack on Heights 203 for the third time in the early hours of the morning in the mode of "charging the sea of people".
Nogi Yoshinori recruited 3,000 brave and good fighters from various divisions, each with a white cloth belt hanging diagonally on his body so that he could identify each other in the dark. It turned out that these 3,000 people formed a death squad and wanted to charge at the front of tens of thousands of troops to carry out night attacks.
Before leaving, Nogi Yoshinori instructed the daredevils and howled:
"You are the excellent descendants of the Empire of Japan and the faithful samurai of His Majesty the Emperor, and you must serve the Emperor with your lives, move forward bravely, and never retreat!"
Under the domination of the spirit of bushido, these daredevils charged to the death and braved the artillery fire of the Russian army to rush to the position. During the scramble, the military flag planted on Heights 203 was changed several times.
The casualties of the 3,000 death squads reached nine out of ten, and the hillsides of the highland charge were so crowded with corpses that the Japanese soldiers behind could not step on the original land. However, the Japanese still could not take Heights 203.
The giant artillery made the sea tactic withdraw from the stage of history
Nogi Yoshinori was close to madness, and several times he had to tie a white cloth and take himself into battle, but was stopped by his subordinates. The Japanese army base camp was worried that this old madman would really go into battle by himself under madness, so the chief of the General Staff Kodama Gentaro was transferred to the Lushun front to command for him, and mobilized a number of huge guns of more than 200 mm to enhance firepower.
Kodama Gentaro is far more cunning than the dull Nogi Yoshinori and better at observing and analyzing the battlefield. After his arrival, he ordered all artillery fire from the east of the heights to be concentrated in the west and concentrated firepower.
And under the order of Kodama Gentaro, the Japanese army changed the old routine of washing the ground with artillery fire and charging by infantry. Instead, it was optimized into "infantry-artillery coordination" operations, and the artillery fire did not stop bombarding when the Japanese infantry charged, so as to avoid the time gap between the shelling and the charge being exploited by the Russian army.
After this set of tactical improvements, the Russian army could not resist, and the Japanese army also assisted in blasting tunnels to encroach on the positions of the Russians. Coupled with the large number of Japanese troops, finally on December 5, the Japanese army paid the price of 18,000 casualties to conquer Heights 203.
As soon as the Japanese occupied Heights 203, they immediately pulled their heavy artillery onto the heights, condescendingly shelled other Russian positions in the Lushun Fortress, and "named" the Russian warships moored in the port of Lushun.
The Russian First Pacific Fleet desperately broke through the encirclement, but the port of Lushun had long been tightly sealed by the Japanese Combined Fleet, which had been preparing for a long time, and could not break through, and as a result, it was either destroyed by Japanese naval mines outside the port or blown up by Japanese artillery fire on the high ground. A small number of surviving officers and soldiers fled to the positions of the fortified army.
During the indiscriminate bombing of the Japanese army, the Russian brigade lived in other positions for years, and was overwhelmed by artillery fire. Even the commander of the Russian fortress, known as the soul of defense, Kondratschink, was killed under Japanese artillery.
Among the remaining senior generals, Stetsel and Fokker, both of whom were frightened and unmotivated in the face of the Japanese offensive, and under the influence of these main surrender factions, the Russian army became even more scrapy.
The scene of the surrender of the Russian army to the Japanese
By January 1905, the remaining Russian troops had no way to flee and no desire to fight, so they had to surrender to the Japanese under Stetsel. In this way, after nearly 1 year of fortified battles, the Lushun Fortress finally fell to the hands of the Japanese army.
Casualties and subsequent effects of the Battle of Lushun
From February 1904 to January 1905, for nearly a year, Japan and Russia invested nearly 200,000 troops in the entire Lushun Campaign.
Among them, the cumulative strength of the Japanese army was as high as more than 100,000 people, and the casualties were nearly 60,000. The Russian defenders had more than 50,000 troops and more than 30,000 casualties.
Why are the Japanese casualties so large:
Nogi Yoshinori's miscommand was the main cause of Japanese casualties. Strictly speaking, this is a stupid conductor.
In commanding the attack, Nogi Yoshinori was monotonous, only knowing how to launch a suicide charge, without regard for the life and death of the soldiers. The arming and tactics of the Russian army, as well as the characteristics of the fortifications of Lushun, were not pondered and studied, and blindly relied on fierce attacks to achieve victory.
Nogi believed that the fanatical spirit of "bushido" would surely arouse the blood of the soldiers, overwhelm the opponent on the battlefield, and even foolishly believe that this lifeless charge could scare off the opponent.
As a result, the Japanese army's fierce and fearless charge, under the crossfire of the Russian army's Maximin heavy machine guns and various artillery pieces, sent heads.
In the case that hot weapon combat is already very mature, Nogi still unconsciously follows the cold weapon thinking and launches the "pig burst" charge. However, the monotonous bravery and toughness are almost useless in front of cannon machine guns, and will only be smashed by artillery and beaten into a sieve by heavy machine guns.
In later commentaries, military experts regarded him as a negative example, and even the Japanese writer Ryotaro Sima unceremoniously called Nogi a "foolish general".
When the Japanese returned to Japan after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, it was not flowers and applause that "welcomed" them, but the cries and protests of the families of nearly 200,000 dead and disabled soldiers.
After the truth about the heavy casualties in the Battle of Lushun was gradually revealed, the families of the dead pointed the finger at Nogi Yoshinori, and the people unanimously scolded him for indiscriminate command, and letters of accusations from his family flew like snowflakes. Under the surging public opinion, even calls for him to apologize for his sins continued to flow, but they were stopped by Emperor Meiji.
In 1912, Nogi Yoshinori finally cut himself at the same time as Emperor Meiji died, as a tribute to the many war dead and their families.
Subsequent effects:
The loss of the fortress of Lushun caused Russia to lose an important port of access to the sea in the Far East. And lost sea control in the war, which caused the situation of the entire Russo-Japanese War to deteriorate sharply.
The Russian army lost the land battle and suffered a serious setback in the naval battle: a few months after the fall of the Lushun fortress, at the end of May, the Russian Second Pacific Fleet, which had come to reinforce, was also annihilated by the Japanese navy in the Tsushima Strait, and the Russian navy's home was destroyed.
The Japanese army not only occupied the port of Lushun, but also controlled the sea power, so that it could continuously deliver reinforcements and food and ammunition from the sea.
And the Japanese army can then pull out its hands and do its best to surround and annihilate the Russian army defending in the Mukden area. The two sides clashed again in Mukden, and the 250,000 Japanese troops faced more than 300,000 Russian troops, which was obviously at a disadvantage. However, the Japanese troops occupying Lushun came to reinforce, causing the Russian army to suffer from the enemy. After dozens of days of fighting, the Russian army suffered another crushing defeat, and the Japanese army occupied Mukden.
The two sides were forced to negotiate and accept mediation:
From 1904 to 1905, Russia suffered a series of crushing defeats in both land and naval battles: the loss of the Lushun Fortress, the collapse of the Pacific First Fleet, and the total destruction of the Pacific Second Fleet that came to reinforce, coupled with the defeat of the Battle of Mukden, it was completely passive and basically lost the war.
By this time of the battle, the Russian army suffered heavy casualties, and the navy's hole cards were also played; The Japanese have almost devoted their national strength to the war, and the huge military expenditure and casualties have also pushed Japan's national strength to the limit.
Therefore, neither Japan nor Russia could afford to continue this "World War Zero". Soon after, with the mediation of the United States, negotiations between Russia and Japan began, and Russia basically transferred its interests in the northeast region to Japan and recognized Korea as Japan's "protectorate."
End
It is worth mentioning that after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, perhaps to celebrate the victory or to pay tribute to the souls of the dead, the Japanese army fought for the most brutal and fierce 203 Heights in this battle, and forged a memorial tower with shell skins and bullet casings consumed to attack the heights. Nogi Yoshinori personally inscribed the three characters "Erling Mountain" on the memorial tower.
Today, Heights 203 has become a tourist attraction, and the remains of bullet-mottled bunkers and fortifications silently tell the brutal battlefield of the past.
203 Tourist attractions in the Highlands
"Erling Mountain" - 203, in order to win the victory, the simple-minded and rigid tactics of Nogi Yoshinori put the lives of a large number of soldiers at risk and fought such tragic casualties. Is this inscription a self-boast of the victors, or is it a satirical satire of stupid generals who only know how to do things recklessly? At the time of the inscription, Nogi Yoshinori's mood is only difficult to describe.
The same thing as the crushing victory and the crushing defeat is the mountain of bones piled up on the battlefield. After the Battle of Lushun, it was difficult for both Japan and Russia to endure such high battle casualties. With the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth a few months later, the bite of the two robbers on the Chinese soil finally came to an end.