Joseon Needs a Coup - Chapter 272
Only Noblemtl
#272. The Time of Destiny (1)
“···Therefore, the Navy requests that the Army launch a direct offensive against Port Arthur.”
At Imperial Headquarters, the Navy was requesting the Army to launch a large-scale offensive on land through direct landings.
For the past two months, the Combined Fleet has been making tireless efforts to dislodge the Russian fleet trapped in Port Arthur, but all efforts have failed, thanks to the sound judgment of the veteran Admiral Makarov, who took office around November of last year.
The Japanese Navy attempted to lure the Russian Pacific Fleet into the open sea outside Port Arthur in an attempt to destroy it, or to physically prevent it from leaving by stranding abandoned ships in the access routes, but all attempts were in vain.
Rather, the blockade operation was effectively a failure, as destroyers and cruisers were hit and damaged by mines laid by the Russian Navy, or were caught in a barrage of surprise attacks by the Russian fleet and the land-based artillery supporting them.
If the Baltic Fleet were to set sail, they would either be trapped in the front and back and die, or they would be unable to maintain their current offensive and would have to go out to defend the archipelago.
Moreover, rather than seizing control of the Korean Peninsula, the First Army was caught up in a sluggish battle situation and was stalled, and because of this, one of the Navy’s most important plans was also going down the drain.
“As you know, Your Majesty, our fleet’s reserves of anthracite coal, the fuel for our fleet, are slowly depleting. Operations are possible for the time being, but if the blockade is not sustained, the supply of anthracite coal will become a major problem.”
“So that’s why you were urging the 1st Army to quickly capture Pyongyang?”
“Yes. Even if we secure the Sadong coal mine in Pyongyang, our navy can receive 100,000 tons of high-quality anthracite coal per year. If we don’t secure it by next spring, the navy may seriously not be able to maintain the blockade.”
I tried using bituminous coal, but Marshal Oyama gave up.
If that happened, it was clear that the Minister of the Navy would be upset.
The nobles were already terrified that the fleet’s movements would be exposed because the smoke from the brief use of bituminous coal was so thick.
For one reason or another, the headquarters was simultaneously under pressure and the necessity of deploying large-scale ground forces.
Moreover, this was all the more necessary because Admiral Togo Heihachiro had already acknowledged that the Navy could not subdue Port Arthur on its own and was formally requesting the Army to launch a ground attack on Port Arthur.
“The army commanded by General Oku Yasugata, the commander of the 2nd Army, has already landed at Dalian and will soon take control of Jinzhou. They will then surround Lushun and support the 3rd Army so that it can directly attack the fortress.”
The map showed the expected advance routes of the 2nd and 3rd Armies.
The plan was for the 2nd Army to create an environment for surrounding Lushun by blocking the Russian forces in the Liaoyang area including Dalian, while the 3rd Army would directly attack the port and neutralize it.
“Well, the 1st Army hasn’t broken through the Uiju axis yet, so wouldn’t the supply line be a problem? The two pillars supporting Bongcheon are still holding on, so I wonder if it’s not too hasty. Wouldn’t it be better to have the 2nd Army land at Jinnampo and strike at the Joseon defense line to open the way, Marshal?”
Two pillars. These were terms that came out at some point in the headquarters.
If there were two strong pillars supporting Fengtian, one was Lushun and the other was the Korean Peninsula.
Therefore, the Imperial General Headquarters was planning to quickly cut off the Korean Peninsula, which was a relatively weak pillar, and then attack Lushun, and then destroy the Russian army’s Manchurian army with a four-pronged attack.
Of course, it was a problem because the pillars were holding up nicely, but in any case, with those pillars holding up, there was enough concern that if troops were to be deployed separately to Port Arthur, the main force of the Japanese army could be divided in two.
But General Oyama confronted these concerns head on.
“In any case, the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th divisions will land on the Korean peninsula within two weeks, and they will completely collapse the defense line together with the reorganized 1st Army and the Korean Garrison Command. Our army of nearly 200,000 men will be able to easily suppress the 60,000 to 80,000 Korean soldiers and LSKs at most.”
Marshal Oyama shouted, slamming his fist on a map showing Pyongyang.
Because he looked just like a goblin, everyone flinched at his actions and held their breath.
“If we push back that North Korean commander, Kim Si-hyeok or something, with a wave of soldiers and capture the Korean emperor and send him to Gyeongseong as a prisoner, then even my people won’t be able to hold out any longer.”
“Then, if you run away to Hamgyeong-do···.”
“Wouldn’t that be better? They’re just going to lock us in cages. It’s much better to annihilate the enemies gathered in one place than the scattered ones. In any case, once we break through the northwestern axis, we’ll just send our troops north toward Bongcheon.”
Oyama Iwao would rather have the Joseon bastards flock to Hamgyeong Province.
If they would just get out of their way and stay there for a thousand or ten thousand years, playing the role of an empire among themselves, I was thinking of giving them a brief respite that would allow them to survive.
“All right.”
“And contact the 2nd Army and tell them to push the Roske out quickly.”
After giving the order, he felt that it was time to wash away the shame he had suffered in Joseon, and decided to take a gamble.
It was a gamble that could not be reversed if it failed, but for the Japanese Empire, there was nowhere to retreat now.
After all, Joseon was only a secondary front, and it was soon to be completely destroyed through a large-scale offensive using eight divisions, so they decided not to worry about it any longer.
The time has come for the fate of the Japanese Empire to be decided.
***
“Commander, our garrison in Dalian has now collapsed. It seems that what was meant to happen has finally come.”
“what?”
Lieutenant General Anatoly Stessel, commander of the defense of Lushun and commander of the Kwantung Army, jumped to his feet as soon as he heard the story of Lieutenant General Konstantin Smirnov, commander of the Lushun fortress.
He was terrified and didn’t know what to do, but Lieutenant General Smirnov, Major General Kontrachenko, and Major General Fok accepted the fact with very calm expressions.
No, rather, his face was filled with tragedy.
After all, the future that was to come was now unfolding before their eyes.
“No, the Korean army is still holding out south of the Yalu River, and how can it be the Japanese army?!”
“Commander, didn’t you expect it would end up like this?”
“But, but···.”
Of course, it wasn’t completely unexpected that it would be Lieutenant General Stessel.
Even the cadets at Novosirk’s cavalry school knew that the Japanese army’s biggest target was Manchuria, and that the occupation of the Korean Peninsula and Port Arthur, which were gateways to annexing Manchuria, was a task that had to be accomplished first.
“We must now really step up our defense of Lushun. There is no more time left for us.”
“Ma, shouldn’t we ask the Manchurian Army Command for more reinforcements?”
Lieutenant General Smirnov looked at him with an unconcealed expression.
“commander···.”
Smirnov really didn’t like Stessel.
In the past few months, I had worked with Major General Kontrachenko immediately after taking office and had built up the defenses of Port Arthur, which was a vast wasteland, to this extent, but when he came in as the commander of the Kwantung Army and acted as he pleased, he interfered with many things.
“The Manchurian army is also in a bad situation. They are not gathering any troops at all, and if we send troops here easily, Mukden (Fengtian) will be put in danger.”
“Then, to Director Misenko in the Korean War-”
“Stop talking nonsense, Commander. If we take them out and the Korean army collapses, Lushun will be in real danger, beyond repair. Don’t you know that they are blocking the number of Japanese troops that would reach us and the time they would have had to take?”
He was open and blatant in his criticism of Stessel, using strong language.
As the atmosphere in the command center suddenly became cold, Major General Fok, who was commanding the 4th Siberian Rifle Division, spoke up to try to calm it down.
“Of course, the enemies broke our expectations and landed too early.”
It was true that they came earlier than expected.
Although there were differences among the staff, it was generally judged that a landing attempt would be made no later than February of the following year, 1904.
The rest was not too far off, and was expected to be between January and April.
Naturally, these predictions were made thanks to materials prepared in advance by the Russian War Ministry and the Manchurian Army Command.
They had already discussed and written several reports since 1901 on where and how they would advance if war with Japan broke out.
And everyone who called themselves a military expert said that the Japanese army would attempt a landing at Dalian only after they had broken through the Pyongyang-Uiju axis on the Korean peninsula.
Even the French and British military attachés were thinking the same thing.
Moreover, the Japanese army continued to be defeated by the Korean Empire’s army in the southern region, not to mention Pyongyang.
In two important battles, the Japanese army suffered crushing defeats, contrary to everyone’s expectations.
In just two months, a division was destroyed and a corps-level force was virtually eliminated from the battle line.
However, rather than reorganizing the front lines on the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese military took a move that was clearly a gamble.
In any case, now that it has come to this, the Russian military can no longer make final preparations through delay.
Major General Kontrachenko sighed and looked at the axis leading to Hill 203 and Mt. Dagusan, which had not yet been touched.
“Now that Dalian has fallen, the enemies will head towards Jinzhou. If Jinzhou falls… you all know what will happen.”
“If Jinzhou falls, the road to Lushun will be open. Why not send some of the fortress defense units to block the Japanese troops that have landed right now?”
“Hmm. That’s fine. But your unit won’t do. If you take out the units outside the fortress, we won’t be able to prepare for emergencies…”
The thought of having to defend the entire 29-verst (about 30 km) defensive line with only 44,000 men made Smirnov hesitate for a moment, but he decided that it would not be a bad idea if he could boost the morale of his troops by waging an appropriate delaying battle rather than losing Jinzhou too early.
“Let’s deploy Major General Fork’s 4th Division. If they can get into position there, they can buy us more than a month for Lushun.”
“Very well. Commander Fork, lead your troops to Jinzhou. Go and show those insolent brats the wrath of the Tsar and the Bogatyr.”
“All right.”
Now it was time to choose the best course of action available, and Smirnov was ready to make that choice.
As Major General Polk saluted and advanced toward his unit, Lieutenant General Smirnov, leaving Commander Stessel behind, looked at the Russian commanders and staff officers at the Port Arthur headquarters and shouted:
“Brave heroes of the Russian Empire, faithful subjects of the Tsar and devout followers of the Orthodox Church! Our Russian army has always been excellent in the defense of fortresses. Like the heroic Admiral Nakhimov at Sevastopol and our soldiers and sailors under him, we too will have a chance of victory if we fight the Japanese at Port Arthur as we have prepared.”
In preparation for this time, Smirnov brought in all the old-fashioned firearms used by the Qing army, creating a massive fortress artillery force of 650 guns.
Of course, most of them were firearms with limited range, so they could only be used for limited purposes, but this was not a big problem for the Russian army, which considered fighting from fortified positions to be a virtue.
“If we hold out and hold out… maybe our army in Manchuria and our ally, the Korean army, who has not retreated, will come to our rescue… It is a slim hope, but let us not lose heart and fight to the end.”
Everyone nodded at Smirnov’s words.
Now, the only thing left to do was to decide how many of those vile Japanese bastards were killed in Lushun, and the outcome of the war would depend on that.
“In the name of the great Tsar and our Orthodox Church, let us fight the enemy with all that is humanly possible. May the protection of God and the Tsar be with us all, and the mercy of the saints descend upon us.”
He made the sign of the cross in Orthodoxy and prayed fervently for mercy for all the soldiers in the Port Arthur Fortress.
The cards that would determine the next century of the Russian Empire were in their hands.