Preface
Throughout history, wars have often been accompanied by huge losses and reparations. After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's demand for high compensation against Russia was met with a domineering response from the tsar. This is not only a contest about money, but also a contest between two countries on the international stage.
But what kind of fierce war did Japan dare to demand as much as 3 billion yuan in compensation against Tsarist Russia? How did this unprecedented catastrophe, which caused countless innocent people in northeast China suffer, finally come to an end?
The pre-war Russo-Japanese contradictions
A reform movement of the Meiji Restoration not only enabled Japan to rapidly transform into a capitalist society, but also allowed Japan to rise rapidly under the slogan of "enriching the country and strengthening the army, colonizing and developing industry, and civilizing and enlightening", and even ranked among the rising capitalist powers.
At this time, Japan was not enough to compare with other Western powers, and urgently needed to continuously enhance its strength through military plunder, so it soon launched a war of aggression against Taiwan against China, and extorted a high indemnity of 500,000 taels of silver from the Qing government.
The huge benefits of the invasion made Japan determined to expand its territory in large quantities, and also formulated a full set of policies to encroach on Chinese mainland, and the first step was to forcibly open Korea by force, providing a good foothold for the subsequent aggression against China. But who knows, Tsarist Russia is also secretly coveting North Korea.
Tsarist Russia has been trying in vain to control the Far East, including Korea, so it announced the construction of the Siberian Railway. Japan was keenly aware of Tsarist Russia's ambitions and felt that its own interests were threatened, so as soon as the First Sino-Japanese War was won, they could not wait to force the Qing government to recognize Japan's sole control over Korea, and also took away a large area of territory, including the Liaodong Peninsula.
However, Tsarist Russia had always considered China's northeast region to be their sphere of influence, and in a fit of anger, they joined forces with Germany and France to impose interference in the Treaty of Shimonoseki and supported the return of Japan to the Liaodong Peninsula. At this time, the contradictions between Tsarist Russia and Japan were already quite obvious.
Despite such-for-tat confrontation between the two countries, Russia still has not given up its wolf ambitions against Korea and eastern China, saying that it wants to suppress the "rioters" and restore social order, but in fact it has no regard for the lives of innocent people, and with a wave of its hand, it has sent hundreds of thousands of troops to wantonly invade northeast China.
Even though many powers explicitly opposed it, Russia paid lip service to withdrawing its troops, but as a result, it used the protection of the railway as an excuse to control the northeast, which even legitimized the occupation of the northeast in disguise.
At this time, many pro-Russian forces in North Korea have begun to emerge one after another, blatantly enjoying Russia's support. Russia's arrogance and expansion in the northeast forced Japan to become hostile and classified Russia as an enemy, and the contradictions between the two countries were completely intensified.
Although the contradictions were already very acute, Japan did not dare to act rashly, but under the slogan of "lying down and tasting courage," it actively prepared for war after its victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, and was ready to rely on the war against Russia to invade eastern China on a large scale and realize the so-called "mainland policy" it had planned.
The Russo-Japanese War broke out
Russia's attempt to annex the Far East was so obvious that it had long aroused the dissatisfaction of other powers, especially Britain and the United States, who had long hoped that one country would break Russia's monopoly on military monopoly in northeastern China.
Britain was the first to propose an alliance with Japan, and in 1902 the two countries formally signed an alliance between the two countries. Although the United States did not sign an alliance, it also expressed its support for Japan in a false way, and expressed its support for Japan's complete control of Korea, and also hoped that Japan could prevent Russia's expansion into Northeast China.
However, Russia on the other side was almost isolated, and although Russia and France were allied, France did not want to use its main military power in the Far East.
In the face of such a favorable military situation, Japan is undoubtedly indispensable to war, and even the slightest hesitation may delay the war. At this time, however, there were two factions in Russia: one faction headed by Ramsdorff and others believed that it was necessary to wait for an opportunity to fight and not to be impulsive; while the fanatical chauvinists led by Bezobrazov felt that Japan was just a small state and that they could even "overwhelm him by throwing a hat."
Tsar Nicholas II also knew that they were not well prepared for war, but after thinking about it, he always felt that "concessions always lead to new concessions", so he decided to adopt a tough policy.
As soon as Japan and Russia officially broke off diplomatic relations on February 6, 1904, the back foot tacitly fought with each other on the night of February 8, and the Japanese army took the lead in attacking Arthur Pass, and the Russo-Japanese War officially broke out.
It is worth mentioning that although Japan and Russia were at war, the place where the war took place was China's territory, and hundreds of Chinese people who suffered were killed in the war, and the Qing government declared neutrality. What is even more outrageous is that after the Qing government declared neutrality, Japan and Russia still completely ignored the neutrality project in the war zone and the neutral zone, raped, killed, looted, burned, and committed all kinds of evil.
Japan claims 3 billion
Only by successfully occupying Arthur first could Japan conduct a more large-scale ground operation in the northeastern region. Different from the conservative strategy of the Russian army, the Japanese army can be said to have attacked Arthur very strongly, and wanted to quickly capture the fortress of Arthur, but wounded 1,000 enemies and lost 8,000 themselves.
Not only were the number of casualties much higher than that of the Russian army, but the long-term inability to attack also demoralized the Japanese army. So the Japanese army transferred the solid line to Liaoyang, Shahe and other places, and advanced all the way to Mukden after occupying Liaoyang, while continuing to attack Lushun while the troops on the Shahe side were still moving.
Surrounded by continuous fire and gunpowder smoke all over the ground, the fierce battle lasted several days and nights, exhausted all kinds of guns and artillery, and took hundreds of days, killing and wounding tens of thousands of soldiers, before taking Port Arthur.
The Battle of Mukden was the last battle of the Russo-Japanese War, and the Japanese army had an absolute advantage after taking Port Arthur, and the Russian army was unfortunately defeated, and Japan was victorious.
In this war, which lasted for more than a year, Japan can be said to have used all its military strength, and the economic and manpower consumed was much higher than that of Russia, so in the Japan-Russia peace talks after the war, Japan opened its mouth to demand a huge indemnity of up to 3 billion yuan from Russia.
To the surprise of everyone present, the tsar had a very tough attitude, and only replied with ten words simply and domineeringly - "If you don't want money, if you can't do it, you will continue to fight."
In the first place, Russia did not use all its military strength, and even if it continued to fight, they could afford to spend it. But how could Japan continue to fight, they simply could not afford to fight. However, as a result of this campaign, Japan's international status was greatly enhanced, and militarism was pushed to a peak.
epilogue
It was clear that China was the biggest victim of this war from beginning to end, but it was completely excluded from the peace talks, and could only watch Japan and Russia divide China's land. At that time, China was completely a fish on the knife board of a group of Western powers, a lamb to be slaughtered, and had no voice and dignity at all.
Therefore, if we are backward, we will be beaten, and only by making continuous progress can we have the ability to protect our national territory.
Therefore, we should draw lessons from history, remember the martyrs who died bravely in the war, cherish the hard-won achievements of peace, and jointly safeguard world peace and stability.