Sarah Paine

What happens is Russia keeps losing the battles, but it has an orderly retreat moving ever further northward, extending Japanese lines.

So that's an overview of how the war goes.

So you can orient the rest of the conversation here.

If you look at the invasion routes that Japan uses in the first Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, they're remarkably similar because guess what?

The geography hasn't changed.

And so if you want to send an army in to desired locations, it may well have to take similar routes.

And the British, the French, the Americans, Japanese had studied very carefully the first Sona Japanese War.

But apparently the Russians didn't waste their time on it because here's what's up.

If the Russians had studied it carefully, they would have known the Yalu River is lethal to send an army across that if there's an army waiting for it on the other side.

The Russians also would have realized that this Feng Shui Pass and the Mo Tian Pass, Mo Tian means literally scratch the skies,

that if you're prepared there, you're going to ruin an army coming through.

Of course, the Russians aren't prepared there.

And then they also would have known it, the Liaodong Peninsula, it has a very narrow neck.

If you cut the narrow neck, which is right where Dalny is, a big commercial port, you're going to get that port, which is connected to the railway, and you're going to be able to supply your armies going right up north.

In addition, it means you're probably going to get Port Arthur, the big naval base as well, because it's basically been turned into an island and you'll probably get that.

So the Russians should have figured out that they, but they didn't.

The Japanese literally blast through these locations.

And here's the key to reducing the fleet in Port Arthur.

Since the Russians wouldn't sortie, they're just sticking in harbor.

So the Japanese have to figure out a way to do it.