Flag of the Dead: Baltic Condottieri

Welcome to the Northern Fleet of the Qing Empire, gentlemen Russian volunteers! And may God help you!

In the history of Russia there have been many wars and conflicts, but the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 occupies a special place among them. Defeat in it became one of the reasons for the end of such a state as the Russian Empire.

But ten years before the Russo-Japanese War, another conflict took place—one that allowed the Japanese Empire to be convinced of its own strength. The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 became the graduation exam for the nascent army and navy of the Land of the Rising Sun.

However, sometimes just one grain of sand is enough to make a well-oiled mechanism fail. And that grain of sand in the course of history was a simple—if not say average—young man who by the whim of unknown forces ended up at exactly the right time and in exactly the right place.

He saved at least one of those people who had a real chance to change the future course of that war. No, the person he saved was neither a member of the august imperial family, nor a multimillionaire. Not a genius scientist or a famous industrialist.

But the saved man, Captain 2nd Rank Yienish, was considered one of the leading artillery specialists of the entire Russian Imperial Navy.