Last time we spoke about the bloody siege of Port Arthur. General Maresuke Nogi lost a lot during the Russo-Japanese War, at Port Arthur it would cost him thousands of young men, his last son and in many ways his soul. The 3rd IJA fought tooth and nail to take each feature one by one, inching closer to the port city. Nogi’s initial strategy to target the east was a terrible failure, costing countless men and nearly his command. When prodded by Baron Kodama to target 203 meter Hill, Nogi’s men had finally found the crux to Port Arthur’s defenses. It was a terrible and bloody ordeal, but once 203 meter hill fell, the 3rd IJA were finally able to deploy their artillery in a position to smash the trapped Russian fleet. Now Port Arthur was back in Japanese hands and all that remained was Mukden.   #81 The Russo-Japanese War part 8: A stalemate at Shaho and Sandepu   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Port Arthur had finally fallen and the forces of Kuropatkin were once again on the retreat. Kuropatkin sought to establish defenses at Tiehling as the area was more suitable to make a stand rather than the plains surrounding Mukden. Yet as had become customary, Alexeiev intervened stressing ‘the continued retreat to Tiehling will not prove favorable to the morale of the army’. The Russian forces were completely demoralized and the Hong Huzi became emboldened. The Chinese bandits struck at the fleeing Russian forces, particularly the Cossacks. Japanese officers were directing their efforts, trying to hit train carts full of supplies. Russian soldiers and officers were suffering from dysentery and venereal diseases, many also fell to the bottle. Kuropatkins numerical advantage would see be lost, as General Nogi’s 3rd IJA would soon come join the rest. Tsar Nicholas II decided to form a second Manchurian Army, under the command of General Oscar Casmirovitch Grippenberg. The man was more politician than soldier, he had not seen active service since the Crimean War, and even then only commanded a battalion. At the ripe age of 66, deaf and quite the hypochondriac, he came to Manchuria, and brought with him news of the motherland. St Petersburg was seeing more dissonance, the people were in rapid disorder, the overall feeling was that of revolution.  For the Japanese side, they were also licking their wounds. They had lost many men, and to remedy the loss of manpower they created a new ordinance on September 29th raising an additional 46,548 men to replace over 1/6th of their army that had fallen. Marshal Oyama looked to his logistics, preparing for the next engagement and probably did not expect what Kuropatkin did. Kuropatkin suddenly went on the offensive. Kuropatkin sent out these orders ‘I order the Manchurian Army entrusted to my command to attack the enemy in whatever position he may be occupying having as the main object to gain possession of the right bank of the Taitzu river.’ He scheduled an attack to be made on October 5th, shaking the Russian army out of their depression, to see if they could exact vengeance.  Grippenberg and his command and not yet arrived to the theater of war when Kuropatkin began his offensive plans. Grippenberg’s army consisted of the 6th and 8th Siberian corps, the 61st infa