In the Liaodong Peninsula, a land that originally belonged to the Qing Dynasty, Japan and Russia fought a year-long battle for ports and railway transportation lines on the peninsula, after which the Russian government declined, the tsarist rule was overthrown, and Japan was also mired in the quagmire.
This incident began in 1894, when Japan invaded Korea and launched the Sino-Japanese War against China, and in 1895 forced China to sign the Sino-Japanese Maguan Treaty, seizing China's Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan and the Penghu Archipelago, and compensating 200 million taels of silver.
Maguan Treaty Site
This Liaodong Peninsula is also a place coveted by Tsarist Russia in the north for a long time, because it was occupied by Japan first, just six days after the signing of the "Maguan Treaty", Tsarist Russia joined forces with France and Germany to exert pressure on Japan, and finally China compensated Japan with 30 million taels of silver as a "redemption fee", redeeming the Liaodong Peninsula, known in history as "the intervention of the three countries to restore The Liao".
Just out of the wolf's den, and then fell into the tiger's mouth, the Qing government spent 30 million taels of silver to redeem the Liaodong Peninsula has not yet been warmed up, it was immediately seized by Tsarist Russia under the pretext of "returning liao meritorious service", seized the privilege of building a Middle East railway and its branch lines in northeast China, and forcibly leased Lushun and Dalian.
Helplessly, Japan could not defeat it, and Tsarist Russia could not afford it, and the Liaodong Peninsula once again changed hands from the Qing government.
Seeing that the Liaodong Peninsula it had returned to the Qing government had turned around and fallen into the hands of Tsarist Russia, Japan was very unwilling, so it sent a large number of spies in the Lushun port area to obtain the defensive deployment and related intelligence of the Russian army, and Japan could not wait to prepare to retake it again by force.
Liaodong Peninsula
Lushun Port is located in the southernmost tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, more than 30 kilometers east of Dalian, south of the Yellow Sea, northwest of the Bohai Sea, and the Shandong Peninsula across the Bohai Strait, is the throat of the Bohai Sea, compared with russia's own port, this port will not be frozen all year round. After the Russians obtained the ice-free port of Lushun Fortress, if they were treasured, they placed their Pacific Squadron base here in 1900 and spent a huge amount of money to build it into the most powerful fortress in the East.
On the night of February 8, 1904, just as all russian officers were attending the birthday dinner of the commander's wife, the Japanese army launched an attack on the port of Lushun under the command of Heihachiro Togo, and the first wave of raids led to the sinking of two Russian combat ships and a cruiser. In the subsequent operations, the Japanese army killed two supreme commanders of Tsarist Russia, blockaded the port, and gained control of the sea.
After the Japanese blockaded the port, the Russian fleet in the port became a decoration, and they watched the Japanese army transport infantry from the sea one by one to land, and the two sides fought on the peninsula for nearly a year, and finally ended with the surrender of the remaining 4,000 russians. The Japanese army invested more than 100,000 people in this battle, with nearly 60,000 casualties, and the Russian defenders more than 50,000 people, with more than 30,000 casualties.
At this point, the dog-bite-dog competition between Japan and Russia on Chinese soil has come to a temporary end.
Tsar Nicholas II
Just as the Russians and the Japanese were fighting bitterly in the harbor, Tsar Nicholas II, in order to protect the port of Lushun, the outlet of the Pacific Ocean, cut off the continuous supply line of the Japanese army on the sea, he drew ships from the distant Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet, and went directly to Vladivostok (Vladivostok) through the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, a total distance of nearly 20,000 kilometers, and there was no base in the middle. The officers and men of the ship were tired one by one, and when they arrived in Madagascar, Africa, they received the news that Lushun had been taken by the Japanese and the Russian First Fleet in the Pacific had been destroyed, which made most of the officers and men of the Russian fleet on board terrified, and many generals advocated returning the same way, but the commander of the fleet, Rozhjestevinsky, in order to earn some face for Russia, stubbornly followed the orders of the Tsar to continue to the east.
In May 1905, when the Russian fleet, which had been at sea for eight months, had just entered the ambush circle of Heihachiro Togo when it entered the "Strait of Tsushima", due to the wrong command of the commander of the fleet, Rozhdestvinsky, only three of the Russian warships were prominently encircled to reach Vladivostok (Vladivostok), 4 fled to the Philippines, 9 were captured, the rest were all sunk, the Russians were killed more than 5,000 people, more than 6,000 were captured, this battle almost destroyed all the belongings of the Russian navy, and the Japanese side, Only 3 torpedo ships were lost, and less than 1,000 casualties were inflicted.
The end of the Battle of Tsushima announced Russia's utter defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, which lasted nearly two years, and Tsar Nicholas II was no longer able to launch an attack on Japan from the sea, and the Japanese could not continue the war in view of the huge consumption of manpower and material resources.
Since the war is not fought, let's sign an armistice agreement between the two sides and negotiate compensation.
In September 1905, Japan and Russia signed the "Portsmouth Treaty" in the United States, before the signing of the contract, Japan because it was a victorious power, asked Russia for 3 billion yen in compensation and other conditions, Nicholas II listened, immediately refused to "ask for a penny, if you want to fight, continue to fight, the big deal europe side does not care, just with you here to die"
The Japanese panicked, and Japan spent 1.7 billion yen to start this war and borrowed 1.4 billion yen in foreign debt, at this time the Japanese treasury had less than 50 million on its books, and if it continued to fight, the Japanese economy would collapse. But if you don't take some money from Russia, then this battle will not only not be earned, but also lose a lot, and it will be fought for more than a year, with more than 70,000 casualties and more than a billion expenses, which is affordable for an island country in Japan.
The signing of the Portsmouth Contract
Tsarist Russia has no need to fight, Japan can fight but can't afford to fight.
In the end, Tsar Nicholas II did not pay a penny in compensation, but recognized Japan's privileges in Korea and China's Liaodong Peninsula, and the lease rights of Lushunkou and Dalian Bay and the territorial waters of nearby territories were given to Japan. Not only that, but Russia also lost many of the southern sakhalin islands and many nearby islands.
After this war, Tsarist Russia was in decline, the rule of Nicholas II was overthrown, and a riot was brewing in Japan.
The "Portsmouth Treaty" was the best plan that Japan could get under the circumstances at that time, and from the strategic goal of launching the war, it had been achieved, but when the news of the signing of the treaty came back to Japan, the public opinion circle exploded, and the saliva up and down was about to drown the Japanese government.
The common people do not know that Japan's national treasury has reached the bottom, nor do they know how important the railway port robbed by tens of thousands of Japanese casualties is, they only know that Russia lost the war, Japan won the war, but Japan did not get a penny of compensation, did not get the money is a loss, how can it lose in the war, the Sino-Japanese War has received 200 million taels of silver compensation from the Qing government, how can it be done without a penny this time? "The Japanese government is too weak and incompetent"!
For a time, the front page of the newspaper was full of insults to the government, and the headline was two big words "shame"!
Hibiya Park
More than 30,000 Tokyo citizens gathered at "Hibiya Park", and after a call of incitement, these 30,000 people took to the streets to protest the weakness of the Japanese government, demanded the annulment of the peace treaty, encouraged the government to continue to fight against Russia, to win the war, to lose money, and to cut the negotiator "Komura Shotaro" to pieces to thank the world.
The common people knew that the treaty signed between Japan and Russia had Britain and the United States from the middle of the mud, so they rushed to the church to smash and loot and finally burned, this burning could not be stopped, and the raging fire further ignited the anger of these patriots.
At that time, Japan's largest "Kokushin Shimbun" newspaper was always talking to the government, and its ass must have been crooked, so the newspaper was burned.
The traitorous ministers who had signed the treaty were fine, and those who could not beat him could find their dwellings, so someone burned down the residences of the ministers who had participated in the negotiations.
Japanese negotiator Shotaro Komura
The Tokyo Police Department saw how everyone was so impulsive, so it sent a large number of police officers to the streets to take order, and the people who had already set fire to the head of the people managed so much, so they burned a large number of police kiosks on the streets.
After burning the police, the police can not be arrested, the law does not blame the public, after all, the number of participants is too much, everyone is patriotic, and finally the government dispatched the army to suppress the rioting masses, which is the famous "Hibiya burning incident" in Japanese history.
2 police stations, 219 police stations or police kiosks, 13 churches, 53 homes and 15 trams were burned down during the riots. More than 500 people were injured, 17 died, more than 1,700 people were arrested, more than 300 were prosecuted, and 87 sentenced ended.
A few months later, Prime Minister Katsura Taro resigned, and Japan's ultra-nationalism arguably triumphed.
Through this incident, it can be seen that some Japanese people do not care at all about their own government's acts of aggression and deprivation of other countries, they ignore the harm caused by aggression against other countries, they only care about how much benefits their own country has gained, and they are wrapped up in the "patriotic name" and demand that the government should plunder more resources to satisfy selfish belligerence.
This narrow-minded, right-or-wrong nationalism naturally allowed those in power to extend a more unscrupulous hand of plunder to other countries, thus providing a breeding ground for Japanese militarism.
Two years later, the Japanese Military Ministry issued a military decree declaring that the Military Department was a military command organ directly under the Emperor and independent of the national affairs, and that the Prime Minister had no right to inquire into the affairs of the Military Department; the "General Staff Headquarters Ordinance" was amended, stipulating: "The General Staff Headquarters is in charge of national defense and the use of troops, and the Chief of Staff is directly subordinate to the Emperor, and the military affairs are planned and planned, and national defense and military use planning are in charge." ”
The Japanese military has elevated the political status of the General Staff Headquarters above that of the government and the prime minister.
Thus began an even greater catastrophe on earth.