After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the Gengzi Incident, the Japanese army began to prepare for a big war with Russia, the new enemy expanding in Chinese mainland. However, apart from the gap between the system and equipment of the Russian army at that time and the army in the late Qing Dynasty, it is said that the Russian army lived in the cold north for a long time, which is incomparable to the Japanese army. Once engaged in war with the Russian army with great disparity in strength, the Japanese army will inevitably fall into the quagmire of the extremely cold zone in northeast China. At this time, the Japanese army was not ready to fight in the extremely cold zone. Strictly speaking, the Japanese army has not organized any troops for extreme cold training, let alone fighting. Therefore, the staff of the base camp thought it necessary to conduct an extremely cold marching exercise.

After planning, everyone agreed that the Bajiatian Mountain in Aomori Prefecture is similar to the environment in the northeast of China in altitude and climate conditions, so this task fell on the Eighth Division, a young division that was established only five years ago and was also the predecessor of the Kwantung Army. The Eighth Division is famous for its mediocre life.

After selection, it was decided that two sturdy Japanese captains, Fukushima Taizang and Shencheng Wenji, would each take two Japanese squadrons to cross Bajiatian Mountain from the west and east respectively. This year is190265438+1October 23rd, which happens to be the worst climate in Bajiatian Mountain.