As of September 8, 1903, the coalition forces responsible for the assault on the Vladivostok fortress group were identified as:

* Third Army: Commander Lieutenant General Chen Xingyun, Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Zhao Minhe;

Jurisdiction

11th Infantry Division (34,000 men),

13th Infantry Division (34,000 men),

5th Cavalry Brigade (6,500 men),

4th Separate Artillery Brigade (5,600 men),

reserve 34th Infantry Division (34,000 men);

Departure area - Xingkai Lake to the south to the first line of Suifen River;

* First Korean Army: Commander General Kim Yong-nyeong, Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Seita Seoe

Jurisdiction

Korean Praetorian Guard Division (34,000 men),

1st Infantry Division of the DPRK (32,000 men),

Japanese 2nd Infantry Division (32,000 men),

1st Cavalry Brigade of North Korea (6,200 men),

North Korea's 1st Mixed Artillery Brigade (4,500 people),

the 6th Infantry Division (32,000 men);

Departure area - Suifenhe, China to the first line of Najin, North Korea.

There were two corps, 5 infantry divisions, 2 reserve infantry divisions, 2 cavalry brigades, and 2 artillery brigades, totaling 256,000 men. Although the number is large, the combat effectiveness of the various divisions and regiments is uneven.

The infantry divisions of Korea and Japan were organized according to the Chinese ones: each squad had 12 fighters, 3 squads per platoon, 3 platoons per company, 4 companies per battalion, 3 battalions per regiment, 3 regiments per brigade, and 3 brigades per division. However, in terms of armament, it is a grade lower than that of the Chinese Wehrmacht (with the exception of the Korean Praetorian Guard Division and the Japanese Guards Division, which are similar in armament to the infantry divisions of the Chinese Wehrmacht).

The Asahi Infantry Division Artillery Regiment had four battalions, all armed with 75-mm field guns, 18 guns per battalion, for a total of 72 guns in the whole regiment. The artillery regiment of the infantry division of the Chinese Wehrmacht is equipped with 36 90mm howitzers and 36 new 105mm cannons.

The artillery battalion of the Asahi infantry brigade was equipped with only 75 mm old mountain guns, a total of 18 guns. The artillery of the infantry brigade of the Chinese Wehrmacht is equipped with 18 75mm field guns and 6 100mm heavy mortars.

The artillery battery of the Asahi infantry regiment was equipped with six 57-mm old mountain guns. The artillery of the infantry regiment of the Chinese Wehrmacht is equipped with 6 57-mm mountain guns and 3 80-mm mortars.

The infantry battalion of Asahi was armed with a machine-gun platoon with 2 heavy machine guns, and its units below the company level had no light machine guns and no light mortars. The battalion fire support platoon of the Chinese National Defense Forces is equipped with three 60 mm mortars and two heavy machine guns, and each company is equipped with two light machine guns.

The main heavy artillery firepower of the First Army of the DPRK came from the 1st Mixed Artillery Brigade of the DPRK, which had three regiments, the first regiment was equipped with 9 305-mm siege guns provided by China, the second regiment was equipped with 54 150-mm old howitzers, and the third regiment was equipped with 54 75-mm field guns.

The Independent Fourth Artillery Brigade of the Third Field Army of the Chinese Army has a reinforced heavy artillery regiment and two heavy artillery regiments, equipped with 18 305-mm siege guns, 54 150-mm heavy howitzers, and 54 105-mm cannons.

The enemies faced by the Third Field Army of the Chinese Army and the First Army of Korea were:

The Primorsky Naval District, with the Governor-General of the Far East Aleksayev as its commander (the Commander-in-Chief of the Far East, Kuropatkin, has not yet arrived), the main forces include:

* The 1st Army of the Far East, under the command of Lieutenant General Stessel, the chief of staff, Major General Kantrachenko, under the command of the 2nd and 3rd armies of the Far East and a number of independent cavalry and artillery units, a total of 4 infantry divisions, 2 cavalry divisions, 2 separate artillery brigades and 3 separate cavalry regiments, 109,000 men, 346 field guns and 90 machine guns.

* Garrison of the Ussuriysk fortress: 13,000 men, 36 field guns, 127 fortress guns and 36 machine guns.

* Vladivostok fortress garrison: 38,000 men, 72 field guns, 546 fortress guns and 100 machine guns.

A total of 160,000 people, equipped with 442 field guns, 673 fortress guns, and 216 machine guns.

The deployment of the 1st Army of the Russian Far East was as follows:

The 3rd Division of the 2nd Army in the Far East was deployed in a vast area on the right bank of the Ussuri River between the Bikin River and Lake Xingkai, and its mission was to prevent the Chinese troops from crossing the river from that area, and to ensure communication with friendly forces on the Khabarovsk (Boli) side, and if it could not stop the Chinese army, to retreat to Spaskdalny, southeast of Lake Xingkai, to hold on to the reinforcements.

The 4th Division of the 2nd Army in the Far East was deployed on the Sino-Russian border from Xingkai Lake to Suifenhe, with villages and towns such as Tuligro and Pogranichny as outposts, and Khoroli, Kopovchi, and Pokrovka as second-line strongholds.

The Fifth Division of the Third Army in the Far East was deployed on the Sino-Russian and Sino-Korean borders from the Suifen River to the mouth of the Tumen River, in an attempt to rely on the outposts of Kraskino and Kolfovka to block the offensive of the coalition forces.

The 6th Division of the 3rd Army in the Far East and 3 cavalry regiments under the direct command of the Army Group were stationed in Ussuriysk (Shuangchengzi) as a general reserve, ready to launch a counteroffensive against the coalition forces.

The 2nd Cavalry Division of the 2nd Army of the Far East was responsible for supporting the 3rd Division, and the 3rd Cavalry Division of the 3rd Army of the Far East was stationed in Vladivostok (Vladivostok) as a mobile unit in case the coalition forces launched a landing operation from the east of Vladivostok and cut off the Russian field troops from the fortress of Vladivostok.

On the morning of September 9, 1903, in Suifenhe, a small town on the border between China and Russia, there was a tense atmosphere.

Suifenhe town is fifty or sixty kilometers away from the real "Suifen River" in a straight line, the west of the town is a forest, the east is a mountain, there is a barely feasible carriage road leading to Russia, the population of the town is only a few thousand, the main industry is logging, it does not seem to be very prosperous, but the residents live peacefully. I don't want to block the roads overnight, tens of thousands of soldiers actually drove close to the periphery of the town, the residents of the town were ordered not to go out, nor to open the windows, there were armed gendarmes guarding all the intersections, the streets were full of vehicles and horses, and the soldiers carrying guns in groups drove by, but it also provoked many curious teenagers to hide behind the doors and windows, peeking through the cracks in the doors and windows of those machine guns and cannons that had never been seen before.

Lieutenant General Chen Xingyun, commander of the Third Field Army, and Lieutenant General Zhao Minhe, chief of staff, each riding a white horse, hurried across the main street of Suifenhe, but when they were about to leave the town, they saw a gendarme scolding a girl in her teens with two slender braids.

Chen Xingyun reined in his horse and called out to the gendarme: "You, sergeant, what are you doing?" ”

The gendarme looked back, Chen Xingyun had two golden stars on his shoulders, and hurriedly straightened his chest and saluted: "Report to the commander, I am on a mission, this little guy doesn't listen to advice, he has to go out......"

"Why is she going out?"

"I just wanted to fetch water for my dad to drink, he fell and injured his leg when he went up the mountain to collect medicine yesterday......"

The little girl hurriedly replied, and Chen Xingyun smiled at her and nodded.

"I see, you go, just come back quickly."

The little girl happily bowed to Chen Xingyun, said "Uncle Xie Lu, Xie", and ran away quickly with the bucket.

Chen Xingyun watched her go away, and then turned to the gendarme: "You, sergeant, go and help her, bring her a bucket full!" ”

"Yes!"

The gendarme saluted, and chased after the girl with his gun on his back.

"She's a beautiful girl."

Chen Xingyun's side, Lieutenant General Zhao Minhe, chief of staff of the Third Field Army, commented.

"Brother Yuqing, are you interested? It's better to take it back and raise it, in a few years, maybe she will be a little beauty who can serve people, and how about being accepted as a concubine?

Chen Xingyun joked, such ridicule is not groundless, Zhao Minhe's name of Feng Liu reached the emperor and spread to the street corner. He was Chinese New Year's Eve at the age of thirty-five, and had one wife and six concubines, his wife Li was from Pyongyang, Korea, and two concubines from Japan, all of whom were brought back from the areas where he had conquered. However, this is not counting, Zhao Minhe adopted a ten-year-old orphan girl in the suburbs of Seoul after the Battle of Seoul, six years later, this girl became an adult, and her appearance was quite good, and Zhao Minhe was accepted as a side room.

Zhao Minhe, born in the 92nd class of Lu University, graduated from the first place in the infantry major of the whole school, and served as the commander of the first battalion of the famous "Yunlong" Regiment of the First Janissary Guard during the First Sino-Japanese War. In the Battle of Seoul, the 1st Battalion of Cho Min-ha, still as the vanguard of the whole regiment, made a roundabout breakthrough from Bukhansan Mountain in the north of Seoul, and captured 300 Japanese troops guarding Bukhansan Fortress, including Kiyota Congjiang, who is currently the chief of staff of the 1st Korean Army. Due to the rapid collapse of the defenders of Seoul, the roundabout operation of the forbidden regiment did not have any effect, and after this battle, Zhao Minhe was transferred to Ding Jieyun's Japanese Dispatch Army Headquarters as a liaison officer and promoted to lieutenant colonel due to his outstanding performance and a slight conflict with Lei Yuming, who was the commander of the regiment at the time. During the Battle of Akashigawa, Lei Yuming was killed in battle, and the Forbidden Regiment was replaced with a new commander, and Zhao Minhe did not expect to return to the Forbidden Regiment at that time. Until the Battle of Sekigahara, the forbidden regiment defended the Tianmanfeng battlefield, and most of the troops below the regiment commander died, and Zhao Minhe, who was sent by Ding Jieyun to the forbidden regiment to convey the order, was retained by Li Xuedong, a staff officer of the regiment headquarters, and temporarily acted as the head of the regiment, leading the whole regiment to fight to the death with the enemy, killing and wounding no less than 6,000 enemy troops in front of the battle, and the reputation of the steel regiment was not spread. After this battle, Zhao Minhe officially transferred to the head of the forbidden regiment, with the army to the city of Tokyo, after returning to China, in the Beijing division of the parade in the forefront of the whole regiment, and from the emperor took over the embroidered "cloud dragon regiment" battle flag, the forbidden regiment from then on officially enabled the title of "cloud dragon regiment". In the first year of Guangxing, Zhao Minhe was promoted to the commander of the Fifth Forbidden Brigade, and on the morning of May 17 of that year, under the order of Marshal Liu Yun, he attacked the headquarters of the Second Forbidden Division on the outskirts of Tianjin, and killed the recalcitrant commander of the Second Forbidden Division, Major General He Pengcheng, and soon after, he acted as the commander of the Second Forbidden Division.

Chen Xingyun, who partnered with Zhao Minhe, was eight years old when he was Chinese New Year's Eve, his name was Yuqing, he was born in the 91st level of Lu University, and he was the commander of the 15th Janissary Regiment at the beginning of the First Sino-Japanese War. The 15th Regiment of Houban followed Zhong Xiahuo's 1st Assault Group south, pursuing the remnants of the Japanese 6th Division until it joined forces with Ding Jieyun's Southern Army to besiege Seoul. After the start of the Battle of Seoul, the 15th Forbidden Regiment, as the vanguard of the main attack force, first broke into the city, and its first battalion broke into the center of the city under the leadership of the battalion commander Mo Huahu, and hacked to death in the chaos (note, it was hacked to death, not killed) The Japanese 22nd Wing Wing Captain Takeda Gongken Dazuo led to the loss of unified command of the Japanese army defending the position in the west of the city at a critical moment. After the end of the war on the Korean Peninsula, Chen Xingyun served as the commander of the Fifth Guard Brigade, and advanced into the Japanese archipelago under the command of Major General Liu Bailiang, and fought several battles in a row, until the Battle of Sekigahara, the Fifth Forbidden Brigade was responsible for attacking the position of the main peak of Nangong Mountain, because of the treacherous terrain, the officers and soldiers suffered heavy casualties, Chen Xingyun personally went to the forefront to spy on the enemy's position, commanded a regiment to attack from the weak part of the enemy's defensive line, and finally conquered the main peak and annihilated all the defenders. On May 17, the first year of Guangxing, on the order of Marshal Liu Yun, he led the whole brigade into Beijing, blocked Guanjie, arrested more than a dozen henchmen of Ding Jieyun's vassals, made meritorious contributions, and was immediately promoted to the commander of the Fourth Janissary Division. In 1897, he entered the mid-term training course of the Army University, and after graduation, he served as deputy army commander, army commander, deputy commander of the military region, deputy director of the Operations Department of the General Staff, commander of the military region, and in August 1903, he became the commander of the Third Field Army.

The past is also the past, and now, just when the two generals in their prime are showing their skills, more than 100,000 troops under their command gathered on the Sino-Russian border south of Xingkai Lake and north of Suifen River.

At this time, Zhao Minhe was ridiculed by Chen Xingyun, and he didn't quibble, only shook his head and smiled: "Where is the one who knows me?" Where is he who knows me? ”

Chen Xingyun was about to take the opportunity to say a few more words to him, but a herald on horseback came to report: "Commander Zheng of the 11th Division reports that the 91st Regiment and the 92nd Regiment of the 31st Brigade have successfully crossed the border and are advancing towards Bogranitzine in the form of a marching army......

After listening to the report, Zhao Minhe turned to Chen Xingyun and said: "The operation has begun, let's go to the front finger (former enemy headquarters) and see how the people in the logistics department are arranged." ”

"At least it won't let us command an army of 100,000 in a hen's coop."

Chen Xingyun said, and the two immediately whipped their horses, faced the rising sun, and disappeared at the end of the street in the blink of an eye.

End of the street...... A sergeant with a rifle on his back was carrying a bucket full of water in one hand, carefully avoiding the galloping horses and the crowded ranks of infantry, followed by a little girl with a large handful of dead branches in her arms, bouncing on the ground with great excitement.

The girl asked the sergeant, "Big brother, was that uncle very powerful just now?" ”

The sergeant shook his head and nodded again: "That...... He is the commander of the whole army, commanding more than 100,000 people, it should be said that he is very powerful......"

"Better than you."

"Of course, of course, he's a lieutenant general......"

"What is the ...... of a lieutenant general?"

"Lieutenant General...... How to say it, he is many levels older than me, in short, he is a very big official, and if he goes up two levels, he will be a marshal. ”

"Isn't that better than Mu Guiying, Mu Guiying is a marshal."

"Ah, there is no Mu Guiying now."

"Whoever says no, I'll be in the future."

The sergeant turned his head to look at her, shook his head and smiled: "You, don't dream, let's go back and serve your father quickly, find a good mother-in-law in the future, and marry Shun Shun is ......"

"I, Qi Bing, swear that I must become a generalissimo like Mu Guiying in this life, otherwise I will never marry!" The little girl cried out earnestly, and the sergeant stopped and looked at her in amazement.

"Your name is Qi Bing?"

"My brother's name is Qi Peng, he has grown very tall, even taller than you, he is studying in a middle school in the county...... He will also be a marshal in the future, he is the second Yue Wumu......"

The sergeant sighed helplessly: "Okay, Lord Marshal, what you need to do now is to go home immediately and boil medicine for your father, please hurry up, okay?" ”

The little girl called out "Zhilu Dao" and trotted to follow.

This is the first time that the little girl Qi Bing has revealed her dream to someone other than her brother, and whether this dream can come true depends on whether the lazy and impoverished author can still remember her name after having countless nightmares in the hungry state.

On September 9, the advance of the Third Field Army was as follows:

The 33rd Brigade of the 11th Infantry Division set out from the town of Suifenhe, crossed the border and, with the support of divisional artillery, repelled an infantry battalion of the Russian army stationed in the town of Pogranichka and occupied the town.

The 32nd Brigade of the 11th Infantry Division advanced side by side with the 33rd Brigade on the right flank of the 33rd Brigade, and its 94th Regiment advanced along the north bank of the Suifen River to repel the Russian avant-garde troops who came to harass it, marched 40 kilometers for several days, and advanced at night on the 9th to reach the front of the Russian defense line in the town of Pokrovka, which is about 60 kilometers away from Ussuriysk (Shuangchengzi), which is the main barrier due west of Ussuriysk, and is held by two and a half infantry battalions and 2 field artillery batteries of the Russian army. Instead, trenches were dug nearby and defensive positions were set up for the support of the follow-up troops.

The 37th Brigade of the 13th Infantry Division moved south along the western shore of Lake Xingkai and captured the small Russian village of Turirog on the border, and most of the defenders escaped with a battalion.

The 38th Brigade of the 13th Infantry Division spread out on the right flank of the 37th Brigade and, after crossing the border, took the village of Leshetnikovo, where it engaged in a short but fierce battle with the Russian defenders of one and a half battalions, and occupied the village after destroying one and a half battalions of the enemy.

The Fifth Cavalry Brigade directly under the corps strengthened the four brigades (i.e., the 32nd, 33rd, 37th, and 38th Brigades) deployed on the front line with the strength of four battalions, as the vanguard of these four infantry brigades, so as to enhance the reconnaissance capability of the field army.

The battles experienced by the 3rd Field Army that day appeared to be scattered, and the results reported throughout the day were 362 enemy killed, 19 captured, 74 killed and 251 wounded. This is because the Russian army does not intend to defend along the border, but only deploys a small number of outpost troops on the front line, and steadily retreats, which shows that its commanders still have a basic understanding, because with the strength and equipment of the Russian Primorsky Naval District, it is simply impossible to cause serious damage to the coalition forces under field conditions. Only by relying on strong fortifications and strong fortress firepower can the Russian army, which is inferior in both quantity and quality, be able to effectively consume the vitality of the coalition forces, which should be well understood by the commanders of both sides.

On the same day, the First Korean Army also launched an attack on Russia from the Sino-Russian and DPRK-Russian borders south of the Suifen River, with the Korean First Infantry Division in the north and the Japanese Second Division in the south.

The 2nd Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division of the DPRK encountered stubborn resistance from one and a half battalions and an artillery company of the Russian army during the attack on the village of Kolfovka, 20 kilometers south of the Suifen River, and the 4th Infantry Regiment of the DPRK Army, which was the main attacker, suffered 563 casualties and still failed to capture the village.

The 4th Brigade of the 2nd Japanese Division was attacked by Russian cavalry during the attack on the village of Kraskino, 30 kilometers east of the Tumen River, and its 10th Infantry Wing suffered 397 casualties and the 11th Infantry Wing lost 201, and failed to capture the village on the same day.

More difficult battles – and of course yet to come.

The 250,000-strong army, mighty, squeezed towards the fortress, the strong fortress, the fortress that was considered very strong and difficult to impreach, slowly, squeezing past.