Japan mobilized immediately upon the Chinese declaration of war. China never seemed to mobilize – that seemed to them, perhaps, to be redundant.
Immediately, Japan trusted in these newly mobilized reserves to defend the homeland, while shuttling all the regular armies to Korea to back up those already on duty there.
It wasn’t until March, 1879, that Chinese and Japanese soldiers first met in combat. In the years between the two wars, Japan had constructed fortresses along the border. It was Japan’s strategy to place highly skilled defensive artists in command of these fortresses, and to let the Chinese come to Korea and spend themselves upon their walls.
Astonishingly, despite being outnumbered 4:1, Gen. Yahachi Tsuboi and his army inflict crippling casualties upon the enemy as they traverse the carefully selected and protected approaches to the defensive line. Japan has prepared for this for 5 years. As these traps were overcome, the casualties settled down into a more typical ratio.
The Chinese hit Chonchon in late March. Tragically, in a freak circumstance, the hero of the first Sino-Japanese War, Gen. Takahashi Shimamura, died of a gunshot wound to the head in the opening skirmishes of this battle. His death threw the defenses in Chonchon off balance. Gen. Kozo Arisugawa recovered quickly from his surprise elevation, and despite a bad first week of combat, his brilliance in defensive tactics made up for it in the first week of April, when his army was able to kill up to 2,000 of the enemy a day for 5 days.
The Japanese were so few that the immense Chinese armies couldn’t bring all their muskets to bear. The Chinese were encamped in unfriendly territory in numbers larger than the land could support, so sickness and hunger took their toll. And the concentrated fire of Japan’s more advanced rifles was telling, at times. The Chinese had also attacked only with infantry, which meant only Japan had the versatility of cavalry charges and advantages of artillery.
The Chinese hit the forts at Chongjin in mid-April, and there was combat along the entirety of the northern border of Korea. Japanese soldiers were also landed by sea at Boli, and also at Utchan, where they engaged an equivalent-size force of Chinese, but to much greater effect.
It was quickly becoming apparent how much improved the performance of the Japanese army was during this war, compared to the last.
Already, only 2 months into the fighting, China was perceived by observers on both sides to be losing the war. Of course, the Chinese remained utterly confident that numbers could overcome the steadfastness and accuracy of the Japanese defenders. But this was promising to be another long and bloody war. No one’s dominance was preordained.
The defenders at Chonchon, worn down from repeated wave attacks, withdrew in mid-May. But not before taking 39,000 Chinese down first (Japanese losses were 14,000). This would be another familiar trend. As soon as Arisugawa retreated, another fresh army was coming up from Pyongyang to ensure the Chinese had no peace.
The battle at Utchan, in the far north near Russia, was settling into a long period of trench warfare with attrition on both sides. In mid-May, the Chinese retreated from Utchan (+1.4 Warscore for Japan), and Japanese soldiers began trying to secure the province before more Chinese could arrive at the defense.
Soon, Gen. Sadao Okada was ably harassing the Chinese at Chonchon. He, like Arisugawa, was outnumbered, but his troops were spirited, and the enemy was tired. At Kimchaek, Gen. Tsuboi’s troops were very tired also, but they fought with ferociousness, and under Tsuboi’s leadership, achieved amazing progress against the Chinese, whose numbers were now about equal to Japan’s after so many losses.
On May 25, Gen. Tsuboi won an astounding victory (6.8 Warscore, +5 Prestige!, 3:1 ratio) when the still numerically superior Chinese broke and ran back toward Jilin. Tsuboi aggressively dispatched Gen. Heihachiro Terauchi to pursue the fleeing Chinese into Jilin while another fresh army moved from the south to take his place.
To the west, Gen. Okada defeated a huge Chinese army Jun. 4, inflicting 3 times the Japanese number of casualties (2.1 Warscore). To the northeast, Gen. Sumiyoshi Yamagata was similarly punishing a larger force of Chinese at Chongjin, defeating them decisively on Jun. 11, such that the entire enemy army surrendered (so far as I could tell – they just disappeared after the battle, which is a proper function of the game if certain conditions are met). His victory was heralded almost as loudly as Tsuboi’s (5.5 Warscore, 4.5 Prestige). Even without the highly anticipated machine guns, Japan’s military superiority was becoming very clear.
When Gen. Terauchi assaulted the barely-prepared defensive line of the defeated Chinese at Jilin, he had serious initial success. There were worries because other Chinese armies lurked. But he persisted. On Jun. 17, the Chinese gave up the ground again, and retreated deeper into Manchuria.
Gen. Okada, once victory was had at Chonchon, advanced into blood-soaked Mukden, and began adding to the iron in the soil. His initial offensive against Gen. Changlin Xiangying was stunning.
Other battles were being waged in the interior of Manchuria, at Boli, and in the mountains of Saghalian Oula. A landing was made, again, at Port Arthur. Japan was in full offensive mode, now – there were no active combats underway in Korea, and all four conflicts in late June were on Chinese territory. In another 6 provinces, Japanese armies roamed, unchallenged.
But China wasn’t defeated yet – she still had significant armies to throw at the surprisingly strong Japanese. July 3 brought victory at Mukden, but Jilin was embroiled in battle again, and Japanese troops were growing weary.
The Chinese began using fresh armies to press upon the tired Japanese, in a role-reversal. Some strategists, prognosticating in headquarters in Korea, expressed the belief that Japan should withdraw to Korean forts again, and await the deployment of the new machine guns, which would mow the Chinese down. Others did not want to wait to press the aggressive securing of enemy territory, in order to force a favorable peace.
While they argued, the futility of internecine fights between Asian countries was brought home, as word arrived that France had annexed Dai Nam and now held sway over almost all of Indochina.
What seemed clear, as did nothing else, was that this war would not be over soon, unless Japan were willing to accept a status-quo peace again. Consensus at home was that no, they would not be satisfied without territorial concessions. And so the word went forth to hold, where possible.
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). So, getting to protect, lets say, Taiwan, Hainan or even a substantial chunk of Manchuria would be a reasonable goal for this war ...
