African Entrepreneurship Record

December 27, 1903.

”The Russians are not responding to our reasonable demands; their diplomats are simply stalling for time, and that only makes their war preparations ever more favorable. Russian troops are streaming continuously from Europe toward Asia. If we don’t react, we will not only be unable to penetrate the Far East Empire, we may even lose our Korean colony. Once I return, I will report Russia’s attitude to His Majesty the Emperor; war is unavoidable.”

At the end of 1903, after the negotiations between Japan and Russia broke down yet again, Ito Hirobumi said angrily to his entourage.

Faced with Russia’s aggressive posture, the Japanese Government was in fact mainly adopting a policy of forbearance. After all, anyone with eyes could see that Japan and Russia were not countries of the same scale. Even if Russia’s strength in the Far East was relatively thin, that was only in relation to Russia itself; in the eyes of neighboring states, Russia’s Far East military power was extremely strong.

Although the Japanese Government liked to act like a gambler, they were not stupid, so their attitude toward launching a war with Russia was relatively proactive.

Thus, in the early stages of diplomatic negotiations with Russia, Japan did not harbor illusions about expelling Russian influence in the short term, but merely hoped Russia would guarantee Japan’s interests and status in Korea. Yet Russia not only rejected the Japanese Government’s ”reasonable” demands, it also opposed Japan’s request to use Korean territory for military purposes, and this was clearly something the Japanese Government could not accept.

Negotiations between the two countries had begun at the end of last year, and after a full year of talks, the Japanese Government’s patience was exhausted. Of course, Japan’s weak posture in the negotiations did not mean that Japan loved peace. The reason was simple: Russia needed time, and so did Japan.

After a year of delay through negotiations, it was hard to say whether Russia was ready or not, but Japan’s navy had basically completed its expansion.

After the negotiations broke down in December, the Japanese imperial government finally resolved to strike first.

…

Lushun.

Time quickly turned to 1904. As the most important port in the Northeast Region of the Far East Empire, Lushun was now illegally occupied as a military base by the Russians.

Now it was one of Russia’s key naval bases in the Pacific Region. The number of warships there remained above forty throughout the year, and Russia had built the corresponding Lushun Fortress. While stationing tens of thousands of army troops, they had also emplaced more than a hundred coastal artillery pieces. At this scale, Lushun could be regarded by Russia as virtually impregnable.

On the night of January 3, Lushun was unusually quiet. Russian sailors were in their dreams, warships lay moored in the harbor without the slightest vigilance, unaware that disaster was quietly drawing near.

”It is now twelve thirty at midnight; ahead of us lies the anchorage of the Russian warships. Whether the Empire can rise depends entirely on this battle. We must annihilate the Russian Far East Fleet here!” Hachitaro Hira said to his subordinates.

As one of the rare ice-free ports year-round in the northern Far East, Lushun’s geographic position was extremely favorable. This allowed the Japanese Navy to carry out its plan, to undertake a risky night voyage, and to reach the nearby waters. This in turn showed, from another angle, how well prepared Japan was.

At 1:13 a.m., the Japanese Army was basically in position. The torpedo officer aboard the ”White Cloud” heard a series of tapping sounds coming through the speaking tube.

”Tang, tang—tang, tang, tang,” two short, then three short: this was the captain’s order to prepare for battle. ”Torpedoes, ready!” the torpedo officer called out in a low voice.

The torpedomen immediately went into motion. They deftly unscrewed the breech plugs of the launch tubes, inserted the propellant charges, then connected the firing circuits, and then turned off the safety on the torpedo warheads. The torpedo officer himself worked hard to adjust the sights, using the flickering lights to estimate the distance to the surrounding Russian ships.

At this moment, Russian patrol personnel made out at least seven Japanese warships on the dark sea and quickly reported it, but in that brief interval the Japanese Navy launched its attack.

”Boom…”

”?” Liers, an intelligence officer of East Africa’s National Defense Security Bureau lurking in Lushun, was jolted awake by the sound of gunfire.

The gunfire did not cease but continued to rumble. Liers hurriedly got up and went to the window. Following the direction of the sound, he saw fierce flames already rising within Lushun Harbor.

”So it’s begun!”

At this point Liers still did not dare be certain of his guess. He picked up the telescope on the windowsill and began to observe carefully. By dim light he could vaguely make out the hulks of warships drifting on the sea, and the shells were coming from these vessels whose nationality could not yet be determined.

But thinking of the instructions from above, Liers did not dare to be negligent. Without bothering to finish dressing, he switched on the light and began operating the telegraph in the room.

Liers checked the time, then began to transmit: ”At 1:20 a.m. on January 4, 1904, Russia’s Lushun Harbor was attacked by unidentified armed warships. Multiple Russian warships in Lushun Harbor have been hit. Specific casualties are unknown…”

Soon the East African homeland also received the news and wired back: ”Continue to investigate the specific situation and report intelligence in a timely manner.”

…

Rhein City.

With the special attention of the East African Government, news of Japan’s sneak attack on Lushun Harbor quickly reached the East African mainland, and Ernst convened a special meeting for it.

”According to what has been confirmed by the intelligence services, just yesterday afternoon (East Africa time) Japan, without a declaration of war, launched an attack on Russia. Russia’s Far East Fleet has suffered heavy losses, and Japan has blockaded Lushun Harbor. It can now basically be confirmed that the Russo-Japanese War has officially broken out.”

Ernst’s report was like a stone stirring up a thousand waves. Although the East African Government had long predicted this, the sudden outbreak of war, and Japan’s way of fighting that showed no sense of fair play, still triggered heated discussion among East African officials.

The Russian Far East Fleet was not to be underestimated; its strength could even be called formidable. This Far East Fleet possessed seven battleships—”Crown Prince,” ”Petrovsk,” ”Letvazan,” ”Pereyest,” ”Victory,” ”Potemkin,” and ”Sevastopol”—all with displacements of over ten thousand tons, along with a large number of cruisers and other combat vessels.

Even the East African Navy did not dare claim near-certain victory against the Russian Far East Fleet. Yet in a single night, this massive Russian Far East Fleet lost its fighting capacity; it was simply unimaginable.

One had to marvel at the deep foundations of the Russian Navy. Although the combat effectiveness of the Russian Navy was often called into question, before the Russo-Japanese War its navy had long ranked third in the world in scale, behind only the British Royal Navy and the French Navy.

The total tonnage of the Russian Navy reached as high as 500,000 tons, while at this time the British Royal Navy was only a little over one million tons. From this alone, the Russian Navy was nearly three times the size of the East African Navy.

Without participating in the naval arms race, the East African Navy had at this point also reached a total tonnage close to 200,000 tons, mainly because in recent years many battleships and submarines had been built. In this respect it was roughly on par with the war-mongering Japanese Navy.

The Japanese Navy’s total tonnage was a little over 200,000 tons, slightly higher than that of the East African Navy. After all, Japan had been desperately expanding its navy, pouring most of the state budget into the bottomless pit of naval construction, whereas East Africa had fully shifted into an economic development phase.

”Now keep a close watch on the actions of the Russian Government. They will inevitably turn to us for help. At this moment, if Russia doesn’t want to lose the war, it can only draw forces from the Baltic Sea or Black Sea Fleet and send them to the Far East waters to take part in the war. The Black Sea Fleet can be ruled out, since the United Kingdom will never allow Russian warships to pass through the Dardanelles Strait controlled by the Ottoman Empire.”

”Even if Russia were to risk passing through the Dardanelles Strait, it would be blocked by the United Kingdom at the Suez Canal. So the only force Russia can deploy is the Baltic Sea Fleet, and that fleet will, in all likelihood, pass along our West Coast and east coast. This will be our bargaining chip in further negotiations with Russia.”

”At the same time, in the war between the two countries in the Far East, we certainly cannot take part. We will only handle the preliminary preparations, provide certain services to the Russian Navy, and as for the course of the war, it is impossible for such minor changes to alter its overall direction.”