Nogi Hashinomi also knew that he didn't have much time, and of course he also hoped to prove himself in the remaining time. On October 25 and November 23, he organized the Japanese army again to launch two attacks on Lushun. Although the Japanese army was still very brave and tenacious, they even charged to the top of the 203 Highland. However, the Russian artillery and warships in the harbor carried out indiscriminate bombardment on the 203 Highland. Countless Russian soldiers fighting together fell to the artillery fire and finally repelled the Japanese army. Moreover, on November 30, Nogi Hashinomi's second son, Nogi Hashinomi, was killed in battle. Both sons died on the battlefield. Nogi Hashinomi who received the news finally couldn't help but burst into tears in front of many subordinates.

Japan finally couldn't hold back because at this time, Japan had achieved quite outstanding results on the battlefield, but it also paid a heavy price for it. At this time, Japan had recruited more than 700,000 troops for the war, of which more than 500,000 combatants, and nearly 300,000 people served the war, occupying a total of about 1 million people. Japan's population is about 440 million, and the war consumed more than 2% of Japan's population. Moreover, these people are young and middle-aged people and are the main labor force. Although the newspapers continue to promote the victory of the Japanese army, the domestic conscription announcements have never stopped. Therefore, for the sake of the war, a large number of young and middle-aged people have lost their prime in China. Factory workers, farmers who work hard in the fields, and even the rickshaw drivers on the street are all old people, which has had a very serious impact on Japan's production and economy.

In addition, for this reason, the number of Japanese casualties or other reasons such as the failure to adapt to the environment and other reasons has reached nearly 100,000, and more than 30,000 of them have never returned to Japan. In China, more and more families have hung up the national flag with black cloth strips representing the families of the dead. A female singer and Akiko Akatsuko of Akano wrote a poem to miss her younger brother Dingqi: "Ah, brother, we cry for you, please don't die!" It was also widely circulated for a time.

In addition to personnel losses, Japan's funds spent more than 1 billion yen for the war by this time, almost 6-7 times Japan's annual fiscal revenue. More than 800 million of them were supplied by debt, and the debt from the country reached more than 600 million yen. In addition, in order to support the war, a large amount of materials were used to support the war, causing scarcity of goods in Japan, prices have risen by 3 or 4 times, and the living standards of the people have dropped sharply. Some places have even experienced riots and riots.

Although the current situation is still in a controllable domestic situation, and the continuous news of victory has hedged some war-weariness, if the war continues, these situations will not only not be alleviated, but will also worsen further, which may cause serious social and economic crises.

In contrast, although Russia suffered consecutive defeats, both on the battlefield and on the economy and personnel losses were far greater than Japan, Russia had huge national strength and immediately organized a fleet to rush to the Far East to participate in the war. This is a typical example. Therefore, if the war becomes a long-term war of attrition, Japan would obviously not be able to consume Russia. By then, Japan's early victory on the battlefield would be gone.

So at this time, the issue of inviting the East China government to send troops to the war was also revealed and placed in front of the cabinets.

The proposer believes that it is too difficult to completely defeat Russia by relying solely on the power of Japan, and it is almost impossible. Moreover, even if Japan defeated Russia in the first place, it was only a Pyros-like victory, and it suffered heavy casualties and suffered heavy national strength. In the end, it would only benefit the East China government. Therefore, it would be better to bring the East China government into the war at this time, so that it can share the burden of Japan, and at the same time put pressure on Russia to surrender as soon as possible and end the war. It can also allow the war to consume the power of the East China government. After the war is over, Japan still has enough strength to suppress the East China government.

Of course, once the East China government participates in the war, after defeating Russia, it will definitely be divided into part of the post-war gains to the East China government, and it will not be too little. But Russia is a big country, so the gains to the victory of Russia will never be small. Even if a part of the gains to the East China government, Japan should be able to be full.

Therefore, although Japan can still be free of support now, at least one time node should be determined. Once this time node is reached, Japan will not see any signs of a successful ending of the war, so it must ask the East China government to send troops to participate in the war.

At this time, this suggestion was still quite attractive to the Japanese government. After all, Japanese politicians knew that Japan must not lose this war. Once it lost, it would be completely unlucky. Inviting the East China government to send troops to fight can ensure that Japan wins. So the cabinet did not dare to neglect it and immediately recruited officials to discuss it. It should be said that this discussion was quite serious and serious.

After three days of discussion, Japan also consulted the opinions of its ally Britain. Britain's attitude is that Japan can still support itself for a period of time and achieve the final victory. Therefore, at least within this year, there is no need to let the East China government participate in the war. It is best to wait until next year to discuss whether the East China government will participate in the war. Moreover, if Japan really needs the East China government to participate in the war, the UK will also help Japan mobilize the East China government. In addition, the UK can also help the Japanese government solve the funding problem.

From the perspective of the British government, of course, I hope that Japan will defeat Russia independently. Although Japan will definitely gain huge benefits after defeating Russia, Japan is an island country after all, with a small territory, a shortage of resources and a lack of population. Therefore, Britain has sufficient confidence to control Japan. In fact, Britain does not care much whether Japan can defeat Russia. It is best to have a two-way defeat and be injured. What is Japan defeated? As long as it can cause heavy losses to Russia, Britain is acceptable.

But the East China government is different. Although the East China government now has a smaller population than Japan, it is backed by the vast mainland China. Once the East China government defeats Russia, it will not only gain huge war dividends, but also build a huge reputation in mainland China and will never be alone. The Qing court cannot be their opponent at all. Once the East China government unifies mainland China and fully develops China's huge territory, resources and population advantages, it will be an extremely terrible opponent.

The British government's plan was also estimated to be 5 or 6 points. After all, there were indeed many talents in the Japanese government at this time. You should know that the money borrowed by Britain not only had to be paid back, but also had to be counted as interest. However, the British government's suggestion was consistent with Japan's plan to set a war node. So after discussion, the Japanese cabinet decided to use 1905 as the war node. If the Lushun could not be captured before 1905, the East China government had to send troops. After all, Japan could not bear the consequences of its defeat.

There is still one month from now to 1905, which is one month since Guan Jian, which is related to Japan's fate. The Army Base Camp was finally completely disappointed with Nogi Hashinori and decided to replace Nogi Hashinori with General Otaro Gentaro to command the battle to attack Lushun. Of course, in order to take care of Nogi Hashinori's face, Otaro Gentaro commanded the entire army as the Chief of Staff, and Nogi Hashinori's position as commander was not withdrawn, but he only handed over the command power. Of course, in the famous discussion, the two were commanding together.

After taking office, Gentaro Genta took office, he first determined to focus on the attack target with the 203 Highlands as the focus, and other targets were set second. He changed the offensive tactics of Nogi's only capable of infantry charges, but instead concentrated artillery, which transferred four 280mm mortars to the front line to complete the concentration of artillery firepower. At the same time, Gentaro Gentaro also pushed the command forward to observe the landing point of the artillery near the nearby. In addition, Gentaro Gentaro also negotiated with the navy, and the joint fleet also agreed to support the land attack from sea.

On December 5, the Japanese army launched another attack, and the two sides fought again on the 203 Highlands. The Japanese soldiers shouted "Ban Zai" and launched a storm of attacks, while the Russian army was not showing weakness. While resisting, they shouted "Ula". The sound of guns and cannons could not conceal the slogans of the soldiers on both sides.

In order to use artillery fire to suppress the Russian firepower, Gentaro Ota ordered that the artillery was not allowed to stop shooting during the infantry assault. The broken arm and limbs of Japanese and Russian soldiers were thrown into the sky by the huge air waves of artillery shells, and screams of tearing sounds were endless all day long. Not long, the entire battlefield had become a heart-pounding sea of ​​corpses and blood, and the subsequent troops charged in the battle on their companions' bodies. Someone suggested to Gentaro Otaro that such an attack suffered too much loss and caused a lot of accidental injuries. Gentaro Otaro answered expressionlessly: "It doesn't matter if you die more. This is a battle for Japan to bet on national destiny. The most important thing for us is time!"

After more than 6 hours of fierce fighting, at 13:30 pm, a Japanese squadron finally climbed up the 203 Highlands, and the Russian soldiers immediately rushed up from the fortifications and launched hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army. The soldiers of both sides used bayonets, *, stones, and even teeth and hands to fight. The battlefield had become a life-devouring hell. After more than three hours of repeated struggles, it was not until around 17:00 that the Japanese army truly occupied the 203 Highlands, and almost all the 6,000 Russian soldiers defending the highlands were killed.

At 8:30 pm, the Russian reinforcements arrived and attempted to recapture the 203 Highlands. However, at this time, the Japanese army had built a simple defensive position on the 203 Highlands. As a result, most of the Russian army was killed and injured, and the counterattack failed. At 10 o'clock, the remnants of the Russian army retreated from several other highlands near the 203 Highlands. The Japanese army finally firmly grasped the 203 Highlands.

At 9 a.m. on December 6, after confirming that the Russian army had retreated, the Japanese army quickly occupied the adjacent Shengjia Mountain, Hugou Mountain, Huatou Mountain and other positions, further consolidating the 203 Highland. At 10 o'clock, the tower-shaped observation station in the southwest of the 203 Highland was built and four 280mm mortars were dragged to the highland, so that the remaining enemy ships could be bombarded at any time.
Chapter completed!