In the Heilongjiang River Basin, the two areas along the river, the Qing and Russian armies were defending the south and north of the Yangtze River, and were tensely confronting each other.

Since the end of the Battle of Aihui, the Russian Far East Army was greatly damaged. First, Lieutenant General Zassurich destroyed 30,000 elite Russian Eastern Manchu troops in the Huluan area, and then Lieutenant General Stexel, who fought in Aihui, personally destroyed the elite Russian 11th Infantry Regiment and the Amur Second Division. These two battles destroyed more than 50,000 elite Russian troops. Although Major General Kendrachev, who fought in Shengjing, had a good result and occupied two-thirds of the territory under the jurisdiction of General Shengjing, and successively won the landing battle in southern Liaoning, Yalu River Defense War and Liaoyang Battle, his Second Coastal Division and Amur Independent Brigade also seemed to be insufficient due to the reduction of combat personnel. In addition, the isolated army went deep into the front line too long, which made the supply difficulties without the strength to continue attacking.

The Russian army suffered a tactical failure. When the Afghan corps and Cossack cavalry regiments drawn from Central Asia arrived, the Russian army had lost more than 50,000 elite troops, which led to the failure of Russia's strategic intention of creating a local military advantage over the Qing army in a short period of time. Not only that, as Cixi, the highest powers of the Qing Empire, saw that the Russian army was not as powerful as imagined, and Russia had no sincerity in negotiating and threatened the land of Longxing, Cixi became bolder and declared war on August 1st.

After the declaration of war on August 1st, the situation quickly became increasingly unfavorable to the Russian army. The other six towns of the Beiyang Army had been trained and entered the three northeastern provinces one after another, resulting in the weak number of Russian land forces.

The amazing combat effectiveness of the first and second towns of the Beiyang Army in combat against the Russian army, as well as the advanced weapons and equipment of the Beiyang Army, put the Russian army at a disadvantage immediately.

In response to the unfavorable situation, Russia's political game has no longer had the confidence he had at the beginning. He made a bold statement and would occupy the three northeastern provinces within three months. Now he has to worry about the consequences of the failure of the war.

The Russian Army Department, General Alexeyev, the Minister of the Army who had just returned from the Winter Palace, had a face that was as ugly as it was.

"A bunch of rice buckets! rice buckets! rice buckets!"

Army officials looked at each other, but soon guessed the reason.

Undoubtedly, Nicholas II's roaring spitted out a look of Army Minister Alexeyev. Alexeyev did not dare to talk back to Nicholas II, so he had to express his tone to other officials in the Army Department.

"Mr. Minister, I suggest that the empire declare war on the Qing Empire immediately, and make a general mobilization of war, mobilize large troops to flatten them.

, "It's time to teach them a lesson!"

, "Kulbert King is old, so he should find a strong general to go to the Far East to clean up the situation."

, "And Stexel, who lost all the face of the Imperial Army, should send him to the military court."

"Why don't you let Zasulic go to military court too? He was also defeated, and he was defeated in the first battle!"

, "He is Werte's brother-in-law, who dares to touch him?"

A group of officials quickly drifted off topic, making the entire Army Department conference room look like a vegetable market.

"Enough!"

Alekseyev smashed the table violently, and everyone suddenly said silent.

After a long time, Alekseyev sighed and said, "His Majesty the Tsar has been persuaded by Vette" to temporarily end this war. Because it takes huge amounts of money to send our military power to the Far East, the international silver price continues to fall sharply. The empire is facing huge inflationary pressure, and the finances cannot support the empire to start a full war against China!"

Everyone was suddenly in an uproar, and some officials knew the impact of this international silver loss crisis on Russia.

But many officials said they could not understand.

Alekseev said again: "But His Majesty the Tsar gave us a last chance, and he asked us to end the war with a decent amount and get compensation and benefits from the Qing Empire that would benefit us."

Army Advisor Kbnister asked, "Did we end the war like this?"

This is really not a good ending. The European and American powers will laugh out loud, so how can the Imperial Army remain faced?"

Alekseev gritted his teeth and said, "His Majesty the Tsar is as unwilling as we do! I think when our Siberian Railway is built, we can quickly and easily send troops. When the empire's finances improve, it is time for us to get back our face!"

Russia suffered severe domestic inflation due to the international silver loss crisis, and faced the dual problems of financial difficulties and inconvenient military submission in the Far East. In addition, the Russian army in the Far East was unfavorable to fight, resulting in the regime of Tsar Nicholas II, who had just ascended the throne. Nicholas II believed in Werth's national policy of resolutely resolutely to fight against foreign countries. "Decided to stabilize the country first, and then find the place with the Qing Empire in the future.

Although Russia was not ready to fight again, Nicholas II demanded that the Russian army in the Far East must end the war decently and not let the Qing Empire and the powerful powers of various countries think that Russia is "not good".

The Russian Far East Military Region Command received an order from the Army Department to "end the war with decent end" and "emergency" to adjust its strategic and tactical deployment.

Commander-in-chief General Kurobert Jin ordered the Cossack Cavalry and the Afghan Corps to stabilize the defense line in Heilongjiang and maintain military pressure on the Qing army in Jiangnan. The Russian army fighting in southern Liaoning is the main bargaining chip in the negotiations. Kurobert Jin asked Major General Kendrachev to defend Liaoyang, and at the same time mobilized reinforcements from the Afghan Corps.

The Russian army failed to fight on land, and Kurobertkin placed his hope on the navy. The Russian Far East Fleet and Amur River Fleet were powerful and had an overwhelming advantage over the Qing Empire Navy.

Kurobertkin ordered the Russian Far East Fleet to attack important coastal cities of the Qing Empire while scraping Lushun and Weihaiwei, in order to intimidate the Qing Empire. At the same time, the Amur River fleet was transferred to the Heilongjiang River to go upstream, attacking towns along the Heilongjiang River with the superior firepower of gunboats, attacking the Beiyang Army's defensive positions, and conducting military deterrence. Kurobertkin believed that this strategic strike against the Qing Empire could force the Qing Empire to make concessions in negotiations.

After the Battle of Aihui, the Qing Empire restored its defense against Heilongjiang. The fifth and sixth towns of the Beiyang Army replaced the defense areas of the first and second towns, maintaining vigilance against the Russian army in the north and north of the Heilongjiang River. Both sides continuously harass and shelling the other side from the north and south sides of the Heilongjiang River. However, because the Russian army had strong firepower support from the inland gunboats of the Amur River Fleet, the Russian army took advantage of the artillery battle.

The first and second towns were damaged in the battle of Aihui and retreated from the front line to Hulan and rested on the spot.

At the same time, Wang Shizhen recruited soldiers nearby to supplement the military consumption of the first and second towns. The recruits were trained on the spot, patrolled and stationed various defensive fortresses in the Songhuā River under the leadership of veterans. The surviving officers and soldiers of the Cavalry Regiment and the Second Cavalry Regiment formed a coaching group, and recruited the Méng Ancient Herdsmen of the Korqin Right Middle Banner from the nearest Zhaonan Prefecture as cavalry soldiers. Because the Méng Ancient Herdsmen were naturally good at riding and shooting, the surviving officers and soldiers of the First and Second Cavalry Regiment and the Second Cavalry Regiment had experience after being baptized by blood on the battlefield. The two were quickly rebuilt.

In the direction of Fengtian, after Jingyang Army's third and fourth towns entered, he took over Fengtian Defense.

Since the Russian army did not take action, they did not take the initiative to attack the Russian army.

The Seventh and Eighth Towns of the Beiyang Army were originally going to go outside the pass, but Wang Chenhao was worried that his Beijing-Tianjin-Tang Industrial Base would be attacked by the Russian Marines, in order to prevent the Russian army from landing on the coast of Beijing-Tianjin-Tang. The Seventh and Eighth Towns remained on the grounds of protecting the security of the capital.

The Qing Russian War seemed to be in a stalemate. The Russian Far East Fleet shelled the coastal cities of China, but because most of these coastal cities were trading ports, the powers of various countries had special interests in these cities. In fact, the Russian navy was just doing it and bombarded two cannons to scare the local Qing Empire officials.

Subsequently, with France's mediation, the Qing and Russia restarted negotiations. Russia no longer proposed to seize Heilongjiang Province, but instead demanded to ced the Liaodong Peninsula to compensate 100 million taels of military expenditure, allowing Russian warships to enter and exit freely at various ports, and allowing Russian fleets to spend the winter in China.

This condition is still very harsh and unreasonable. The Qing Empire did not accept it, but the Russian government had the sincerity of negotiations this time and allowed the Qing government to spend 50 million taels of silver to redeem the Liaodong Peninsula.

In order to cooperate with the Champa, the Amur River Fleet and the 33rd Division of the Afghan Corps cooperated and launched an offensive towards the Sanjiangkou where the Qing army was stationed.

The so-called Sanjiangkou is the place where the Songhuā River meets with Mudanjiang, and then merges into Heilongjiang River, so it is also known as the Huntongjiangkou. The place is located in the northeast corner of Jilin Province, the southeast corner of Heilongjiang River, and the south of Amur Prefecture of Tsarist Russia. There is a delta called Molihong in the north of the Yangtze River. The north of the Yangtze River belongs to Tongjiang County in Jilin Province, and the north of the Yangtze River belongs to Suidong County in Heilongjiang Province. If you go up the Songhuā River, along the way are Fujin, Hua 11, Tangyuan, Yilan, Fangzheng, Tonghe, Binxian, and Mu.

Lan, Bayan, Hulan, Halejin (Harbin), Halejin is the center of the two war zones of the Beiyang Army Jilin Province and Heilongjiang Province, and is also a military and political center in the northeast. Its status is self-evident. Sanjiangkou is 720 miles away from Halejin, and warships only take 12 hours to travel. If Sanjiangkou is lost, the Russian fleet can arrive at the city of Halejin within a few days. Once Halejin falls, the fifth and sixth towns of the Beiyang Army in Heilongjiang Province will be attacked on three sides, and the danger will be self-evident.

Therefore, "whether the Russian army or the Beiyang Army, the knowledgeable people of the two armies believe that the status of Sanjiangkou is extremely important. Sanjiangkou is destined to be baptized by blood before it can be calm.

Kulbert King's failure in land war led to his shifting focus to naval and inland river warfare. Because the Heilongjiang, Songhuā River, and Nèn River have abundant water in summer and autumn, giving great room for combat on the river surface. The Qing Empire was limited by the Treaty of Aihui, and there were only a few small ships on the river surface.

Gunboats, while the Russian Amur Fleet has a large number of gunboats, gunboats, minesweepers, and minesweepers. Not only are they large in number, but they also have strong firepower. Especially the two 1300-ton shallow water heavy gunboats Nougorod and the Lieutenant General Bobov, which are equipped with mobile fortresses with 152mm naval guns, which pose a great threat to the defense infantry and fortifications of the opposite shore. There are also six Peren-class 6-40-ton gunboats and five 230-ton gunboats. Although most of these gunboats were built in the 1960s and 1970s and the hulls were a bit old, it was very appropriate for Russia to send them to the Far East to deal with the Qing Empire.

The Russian army obviously realized this. Kurobertkin arranged the Amur River area fleet on the Russian river bank 400 meters north of the Sanjiangkou outer delta, the Marine Corps were placed on the river bank, and part of the army was deployed in the deep area. All this was not deliberately concealed, and clearly expressed the combat intention to the Qing army on the opposite side.

At this time, the Qing army had only a few small gunboats on the inland fleet.

The six gunboats of Jiangping, Jiang'an, Jiangtong, Jiangjin, Jiangtai and Jiangqing range from 225 tons to 355 tons, are all transformed by inland paddle ships. The displacement is small, the hull is weak (mostly wooden shells), and the speed is slow by 7.5 knots). "The strongest military equipment is only 2 British Vitons 47mm guns and 2ting machine guns, which are not as good as those of the Russian Amur fleet, let alone shallow water heavy gunboats. They are not at the same level at all, and the gap is too big.

Li Hongzhang ordered Wang Shizhen to actively organize resistance and strive to revive the Russian army's prestige in order to win the bargaining chips and end the war with all the results.

Wang Shizhen knew that these small gunboats were okay to scare the people, but they were no match for the Russian fleet when fighting. In order to strengthen the firepower on the river, he had the idea of ​​modifying the warship. Wang Shizhen used local materials and transferred four large-caliber river defense guns from the Jilin Ordnance Bureau. However, because the tonnage of each ship was small, it was impossible to install large-caliber river defense guns (it was sunk when installed). So he ordered the installation of four 4.7-inch doors on a scrapped commercial barge on the "Dongyi" (

120mm) Jiangbing guns were installed on the barge to operate guns: because the "Dongyi" had no power and was towed by the "Jiang'an" ship, it became a secret mobile water turret and was towed to the swamp area near the river mouth, hidden there to provide artillery fire support, and can be towed to any area at will according to the needs of the battle situation. The hidden work was done well, and the officers and soldiers endured the raging mosquitoes in the swamp and waited patiently for the Russian attack.

Despite this, Wang Shizhen still did not think that the Qing army in these Jianghe Naval Divisions had much combat power. It was only a matter of time before the river battle would definitely fail.

In order to deal with the Amur fleet, Wang Shizhen secretly transferred the two artillery regiments of the First and Second Towns to a large area of ​​farmland south of Sanjiangkou to hide, as well as three artillery teams of Jilin General Changshun. Wang Shizhen's goal was to use the firepower of two artillery regiments and three artillery teams to launch a sudden attack on the Russian ships on the river when the Amur fleet destroyed the Qing army's naval camp, which might have achieved results. However, in order to achieve the combat purpose, Wang Shizhen secretly recruited six merchant ships, preparing to suddenly rush into the middle of the river and sink it on the waterway when necessary, blocking the waterway, trapping the Amur fleet in the middle to facilitate ground artillery attacks.

In the early morning of October 12, ships from the Amur River Fleet arrived at the Songhuā River Estuary, including the Novgrod, the two heavy gunboats of the Navy Lieutenant General Bobofu, six Peren-class gunboats, five gunboats, and armed ships carrying the Marine Corps.

At 6:12, the Novgrod first opened fire at the Qing army's shore defense artillery tower on the river bank. Other Russian ships also launched a round trip to the river surface at the same time, bombarding the Qing army's ferry defense fleet with all its firepower.

The flagship of the Qing army's Songhuā River Naval Division Camp, Jiangping, sent a signal to fight. The ships of the Naval Division Camp took off and fought back, concentrating all firepower to attack the enemy ships. The first battle between the Qing and Russian navy officially began.

The Tsarist Russian Navy was extremely well prepared. They knew the combat effectiveness of the warships in the Songhuā River Naval Division. They could tell that they could tell with their eyes closed. They quickly distributed firepower. Compared with the Qing naval officers and soldiers, the officers and soldiers of the Russian Amur Fleet were well-trained and their morale was also very high.

In the first five minutes of the war, the first round of firepower volleyball of the Navy Lieutenant General Bobofu hit the flagship Jiangping, the Songhuā River Naval Division Camp. With a 152mm shell, it blew the Jiangping into two pieces and sank immediately.

The second round of volley shot hit Jiang Qing again, forcing him to be severely injured and withdraw from the battle.

The number and firepower of Tsarist Russian gunboats exceeded that of Songhuā River Naval Station. In addition, the Russian army had long known the combat power of the Qing army, so the battle was one-sided at the beginning.

Despite this, the Songhuā River Naval Camp still has a highlight. That is, Wang Shizhen temporarily tinkered with the "Dongyi" water fortress. Its hull is small and the shells are difficult to hit. The temporarily installed large-caliber can pose a great threat to Tsarist Russia's shallow water heavy artillery boats.

The main target of the "Dong B" is the flagship Novgrod, Tsarist Russia. The ship was hit many times, but because the ship's side and deck had good armor protection and was not seriously damaged, it was just that the Russian combatants on the deck suffered heavy casualties.

Tsarist Russian shallow water heavy artillery boats concentrated on attacking the "Dong B" that poses the greatest threat to it, and the "Dong B"

The ship relied on its short size to avoid most attacks, and the Russian ship concentrated the artillery fire on the body of the "Jiang'an". The ship soon had a cannon on the side of the ship, and the deck broke, caught fire and burned: it was soon hit by the boiler, causing an explosion, and the hull was broken into two pieces, causing heavy casualties and casualties for officers and soldiers.

Just half an hour after the war started, the six ships of Jiangping, Jiang'an, Jiangtong, Jiangjin, Jiangtai and Jiangqing were successively sunk. The only ones who were still fighting on the river were not warships. The "Dongyi" lost its towed ship and could not move. Under the fierce attack of Tsarist Russian shallow water heavy artillery boats, the hull was blown up and the artillery was destroyed. They were powerless to fight again and were forced to sink themselves. The surviving officers and soldiers dived and fled.

When the battle on the river was in full swing, Wang Shizhen ordered six merchant ships parked not far from the upstream and downstream to move closer to the Sanjiangkou. When the Songhuā River Naval Camp was wiped out, the six merchant ships appeared in the front and rear of the Amur fleet and immediately began to sink.

The Russian fleet immediately realized that something was wrong, but they had excessively despised the Qing army from the beginning, and it was too late to stop it at this moment.
Chapter completed!