I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 452 Trapped Beast
When the snow began to fall in Arthur's Fortress, Dashanyan was holding a military meeting at the North Fort of Jiguan Mountain.

The North Fort of Jiguanshan is the only relatively well-preserved fortress after the attack and defense of Arthur's Fortress.

The scale of Arthur's Fortress is very large, including a 9-kilometer-long sea defense line and a 22-kilometer-long land defense line. The sea defense line has a total of 27 permanent forts. The land defense line includes 8 fortresses, 9 fortresses, and 6 Permanent fort and 8 bastions.

When Arthur's Fortress was built, because the Siberian Railway had not yet been completed, Witte spent more funds on ensuring the Siberian Railway, and the allocation for Arthur's Fortress was not timely enough.

The cost of building Arthur's Fortress totaled about 1500 million rubles.

As of the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Fortress Arthur had only received an allocation of approximately 460 million rubles, which was less than one-third of the total project cost.

If the money is not provided, progress cannot be guaranteed.

When the Russo-Japanese War broke out, 18 forts on the coastal defense line were built. On the land defense line, only No. 4 fort, three military camps, and three forts were completed. Four more forts were under construction. Most of the other permanent fortifications, and even Construction hasn't started yet.

For such a half-baked project, Alexeyev actually said in his report to Nicholas that Arthur's Fortress would never fall.

After his inspection, Kuropatkin also believed that Arthur's Fortress was impregnable.

During the attack and defense of Arthur's Fortress, most of the fortifications built by the Russian army were destroyed.

After the Japanese army captured Arthur Fortress, they did not receive compensation and had no money to continue improving the fortifications. Therefore, the theoretically indestructible Arthur Fortress was actually a mess.

Dashanyan really didn't expect that the Japanese army would one day stick to Arthur's Fortress and wait for reinforcements like the Russian army in Kwantung.

To make matters worse, the material reserves of Arthur's Fortress are seriously insufficient. Not only is there a shortage of weapons, ammunition, food and medicine, but there is also a serious shortage of fuel for heating.

After the Japanese army captured Arthur's Fortress, they seized nearly 20 tons of high-quality coal used only to power warships.

These high-quality thermal coal, together with the large-caliber coastal defense guns of Fortress Arthur, were transported back to Japan as trophies by the Japanese army to show off, which once earned Dashanyan enough face.

How beautiful Dashanyan was at that time, but how miserable Dashanyan is now.

As the commander-in-chief, Dashanyan certainly has no shortage of charcoal for heating.

However, the blazing stove could not bring any warmth to Oyama Iwa and Kuroki Weizhen, Nozu Douki (commander of the Fourth Army), and Oubao Gong, who had just withdrawn from Fengtian to Arthur's Fortress.

Dashanyan, who is 64 years old this year, is known for his conservative tactics and is known as the slow Dashan.

But even this slow mountain showed a tactical prowess comparable to that of the Desert Fox when fighting Kuropatkin.

Compared with the high-spirited person half a year ago, Da Shanyan is now full of white hair and stooped. He is curled up by the stove with his cane in his arms, exuding an aura of impending decay from the inside out.

The weather has turned cold these days, and about a thousand Japanese soldiers died every day in Arthur's Fortress.

Most of the casualties were not caused by the bombardment of the Siberian fleet, but from the freezing weather and increasingly severe injuries.

The medical level of the Japanese army was even more backward than that of the Russian army.

In order to prevent wounded soldiers from wasting supplies, Dashanyan issued an order this morning not to treat wounded soldiers who were unable to continue fighting.

It sounds cruel, right?

But this is already very kind compared to Dashanyan during the Sino-Japanese War.

During the Sino-Japanese War of 1888-1894, influenza was rampant within the Japanese army, and many Japanese soldiers became ill.

Seeing that the number of sick people was increasing and that fewer and fewer people were able to fight, Oyama Iwa actually ordered all Japanese soldiers who were unable to fight due to the flu to be thrown into the incinerator to serve the emperor.

The reason why it didn't burn this time was not because of Dashanyan's conscience, but because of lack of fuel.

In order to keep warm, the Japanese army demolished all the heating wood in the Arthur Fortress and cut down a large amount of wood around the fortress. Even the wood originally used to continue the construction of the Arthur Fortress was also used for heating. Even so, more and more Japanese soldiers were suffering from frostbite.

"Any news from Tokyo?"

Dashanyan's only hope now is the mediation of Britain and the United States.

Heimu Weizhen shook his head slowly.

Nozu Michuki and Okubo Gon looked at each other, and they could see the despair in each other's eyes.

George was too cruel and did not give the Japanese troops in Kwantung a chance to escape back to Japan.

Dashanyan originally planned to escape on a British merchant ship.

Unexpectedly, the Russian Empire would not even give the British face. Even if the British evacuated their nationals under the banner of evacuation, the Siberian Fleet did not allow British merchant ships to enter Arthur Military Port.

On the afternoon of the day when the Russo-Japanese War broke out, a British merchant ship left Arthur Military Port in the name of evacuating overseas Chinese.

That night, the combined fleet carried out a sneak attack on Fortress Arthur and knew the location of the Pacific Fleet's battleships well.

George now has no evidence that British merchant ships tipped off the United Fleet.

However, George believes that as the war progresses, more and more secrets should come to light.

Since there is no hope of escape, we can only hold on.

The Kwantung Russian Army is advancing very quickly. After wiping out most of the Sixth Division, the Kwantung Russian Army has advanced to the Jinzhou Isthmus, which is the first line of defense for the Japanese army.

The Golden State Isthmus is about 60 kilometers away from Arthur's Fortress, and its width is about 4 kilometers.

During the Russo-Japanese War, a fierce battle broke out between the Japanese and Russian troops in the Jinzhou Isthmus. Since the defending Russian army only had one infantry regiment, it took the Japanese only one day to break through the Jinzhou Isthmus.

In order to capture the Jinzhou Isthmus, the Japanese army lost 133 officers and 4500 soldiers.

The Russian army lost about 1300 people.

The 1st Cavalry Division was not good at attacking fortresses. After arriving at the Jinzhou Isthmus, it did not rush to attack but waited for reinforcements.

The reinforcements that arrived before the army were the Siberian fleet.

On the left side of the Jinzhou Isthmus is Jinzhou Bay and on the right side is Hongweizi Bay.

After the cruisers of the Siberian Fleet arrived at Hongweizi Bay, they bombarded the Jinzhou position. Due to the sudden heavy snowfall and poor visibility, the bombardment was forced to stop and the battle would resume after the snow stopped.

The process of the Port Arthur offensive and defensive battle showed that without the protection of the fleet, the safety of Arthur's Fortress could not be guaranteed by the land defense line alone.

Da Shanyan closed his eyes in pain, as if someone was strangling his throat, and his breathing gradually became faster.

"The Princess of Edinburgh is on her way to St. Petersburg, hoping for good news."

Heimu Weizhen is not desperate. As long as there is a glimmer of hope, Heimu Weizhen will not give up.

The Princess of Edinburgh is Nicholas's only aunt Maria. After the death of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Maria lived in London all year round.

Dashanyan's eyes moved, then closed them tightly again.

This fire is too dazzling.

(End of this chapter)