After all, Tianjin's territory is still too small and the development space is limited, and only by attacking Shandong and establishing a stable base can the crossing group have broad development prospects.

On 10 November, the Military Council summoned a meeting of the principal officers of the crossing army to discuss the operational plan for attacking Shandong. Of course, the main battle plan has already been drawn up by the General Staff, and now it is only being made public, and the opinions of others will be listened to complete this battle plan.

On behalf of the General Staff, Xiao Jianjun briefed the officers attending the meeting on the plan for attacking Shandong.

The slide projector showed a map of the Shandong Peninsula on the screen, and Xiao Jianjun instructed the map, saying: "According to the battle plan formulated by the General Staff, this time the battle to attack Shandong will take Weihai and Qingdao as the targets, because these two places are now the colonies of Britain and Germany respectively, so if we capture these two places, we will not have contradictions with the Qing court, and at present, we cannot completely tear our faces with the Qing court." In addition, by seizing Weihai and Qingdao, we were able to occupy the high ground of public opinion, which became another typical example of propagandizing our fight against imperialism, the recovery of the concessions, and the safeguarding of national interests, so that the people at all levels throughout the country could see that we represented the progressive forces and the Qing court represented the backward forces. ”

At this time, Wang Hailong, the captain of the Yueyang ship, spoke: "Our ultimate goal is to completely occupy Shandong, or only Weihai and Qingdao. ”

Xiao Jianjun said: "Of course, it is to completely occupy Shandong, if you only capture Weihai and Qingdao." Then there is no difference with Tianjin. ”

Wang Hailong said: "Since we want to completely occupy Shandong, then after we seize Weihai and Qingdao, we will then attack other places, so sooner or later we will have to tear our faces with Qingjian, what should we do at that time?"

Xiao Jianjun said: "This point has been taken into account by the General Staff, first of all, to seize Weihai and Qingdao, which can allow us to gain a foothold in Shandong, and then use these two places as a base to expand to the entire Shandong region." Of course, there are many ways to expand the body, and military expansion is only one of the means, and it is not a means of advocacy. ”

Shang Jinfeng, the captain of the Kunming ship, said: "If military expansion is not the main means, then after we have seized Weihai and Jingdao, what means will we use to expand to the whole province of Shandong?"

Xiao Jianjun said: "There are two main means, one is to use the countryside and small towns as a breakthrough, and abandon the large and medium-sized cities, that is, the old time and space of the 'rural encirclement of the city' plan, in this way, we can seize the actual land and population, obtain real profits, and leave the large and medium-sized cities to the Qing court, on the surface can maintain balance, at least in a short period of time, will not cause too much impact, and after we control most of the land and population of Shandong, even if we tear the face with the Qing court, there is no matter, and use this kind of ' The plan of encircling the cities from the countryside mainly relied on the working groups in the rural areas, with the agrarian revolution as a means and military means as an auxiliary and guarantee. The other means is to take the upper route, that is, to negotiate directly with the Chun Ting, requiring us to have the right to rule the Shandong region, regardless of the way of the body, it can be that we are appointed as the governor of Shandong, and control Shandong within the framework of the Qing court, or the Qing court will directly assign Shandong to us to manage, and the Chun court only has the right to rule in name, and no matter how it is managed, it is up to us to have the final say, and to realize this plan, military force is only a deterrent force, not a means of implementation. ”

After listening to Xiao Jianjun's words, all the officers discussed for a while, and they had no objections. It should be said that the general plan formulated by the General Staff to attack Shandong did take a lot of painstaking efforts, although the traversers set up their own administrative organs in Tianjin, customs, set up officials, and set tax rates, completely ignoring the existence of the Qing court. But these things can only be done in Tianjin, and the current crossing group cannot completely tear its face with the Qing court, so it cannot directly conflict with the Qing court. Although Shandong has two colonies, most of the territory is still directly ruled by the Qing court, and at present, the travelers are naturally unable to directly use force against the Qing court, so the two main means formulated by the General Staff to seize Shandong are the best way for now.

Next, Xiao Jianjun said: "And this time the battle plan for seizing Weihai and Qingdao is to first form a mixed fleet, dispatch all the crossing ships except the Taihu ship, and four captured shallow gunboats to attack Weihai, and the force dispatched is a battalion of marines, After occupying Weihai, the fleet led a battalion of marines and a new battalion to attack Qingdao from the sea, leaving one new battalion to guard Weihai, and the remaining three new battalions attacked Jingdao by land and attacked by sea and land, and the entire operation plan was completed in five days, no more than a week. ”

At this time, the picture switched to the map of Weihaiwei, Xiao Jianjun said: "Weihaiwei is located at the easternmost point of the north coast of the Shandong Peninsula, and the north and south shores of the harbor are like two arms protruding into the sea, forming a semicircle, and Liugong Island is horizontally placed in front of it, forming a natural barrier on the sea. There are also islands such as Lianlin Island, Xiaohuangdao, Qingdao, and Yashi Island, which are distributed in the sea, and have become natural strongholds of coastal defense, and the situation is very dangerous. At the beginning of the establishment of the Beiyang Naval Division, Weihaiwei was used as one of the two main naval bases. Chunting built strong fortifications and a large number of forts in Weihaiwei, there are South Gang Fort Group, North Gang Fort Group on the shore, there are Donghong Fort, Yingmendong Fort, Nanzui Fort, Qidingshan Fort, Gongshohou Fort on Liugong Island, there are Ridao Fort and Huangdao Fort on other islands, there are more than 160 artillery pieces of various kinds, and more than 10,000 people are standing defenders. However, everyone knows the result of Weihaiwei, in the last battle of the First Sino-Japanese War, the result of the Battle of Weihaiwei ended with the complete defeat of the Qing army and the annihilation of the entire Beiyang Naval Division. ”

When everyone present heard this, they all fell silent, because everyone knew the result of the First Sino-Japanese War. At this time, Xiao Jianjun continued: "But the current Weihaiwei, of course, is not Weihaiwei before the First Sino-Japanese War, although after the signing of the [Treaty of Shimonoseki], Japan returned Weihaiwei to the Qing court, but demolished most of the forts in Weihaiwei, and the Qing court has not been restored. In 1898, the Qing court leased Weihaiwei to the British, but the British leased Weihaiwei for a short time, and the power was mainly in southeast China, and the purpose of leasing Weihaiwei was only to establish a stronghold in northern China and curb Russian expansion in northern China, so only some port facilities were repaired, but not much was repaired to the forts. At present, Weihaiwei's defense mainly relies on the South Gang Forts and the North Gang Forts on land, with about 20 artillery pieces. At present, the British garrison in Weihaiwei has only more than 300 people, most of them are Indian soldiers or Huayong battalions, and there are not many real British troops, and there are only three warships, namely the Edgar-class protective cruiser Endymion, the torpedo boat destroyer Sturgeon, and the Ray. ”

Army Commander Zhu Yaping said: "What is the Huayong Battalion, is it difficult to be an army composed of Chinese?"

Xiao Jianjun nodded and said with a smile: "This is really an army composed of Chinese, of course, the British recruited Chinese from Hong Kong, which is also the usual means of the British, recruiting the people of the colony to form an army to manage the colony, it can be regarded as the British version of Yiyi, in the eight-nation alliance, most of the British army is actually composed of foreigners, including the Huayong battalion, about six hundred people." ”

Wang Hailong said: "It's just a traitor army, don't be polite to them, just fight like a foreign army." ”

Xiao Jianjun smiled, and continued: "In the battle of Weihaiwei five years ago, the Japanese army first landed in the Rongcheng area of the tip of the island on the Shandong Peninsula about 40 kilometers east of Weihaiwei, and within ten days, a total of about 50,000 troops were assembled, and then the troops were divided into two routes by land to attack the Nanbang battery group in Weihaiwei. However, Weihaiwei's defense now cannot be the same as five years ago, and of course our troops are much smaller than the Japanese army at that time, so of course we cannot adopt the tactics of the Japanese army, but directly attack Weihaiwei from the north shore, first by the Kunming ship, the Xiangyang ship, The Huaihua ship shelled and cleared the forts, and at the same time attracted the British guards, I will pass you the map of the distribution of the batteries later, and the landing force took two hovercraft respectively, landed on the flanks of the north bank, captured the north shore batteries, and then covered the landing of two new battalions to attack the Weihai Acropolis, while the fleet eliminated the British warships anchored in the harbor, and finally captured Liugong Island, so as to completely occupy Weihaiwei. The Yueyang and Sanya warships were ambushed on the south coast of Weihaiwei, and if the British warships escaped, the Yueyang and Sanya warships were intercepted, and this attack was still carried out at night, which was the battle plan for attacking Weihaiwei. ”

"What about Qingdao?"

Xiao Jianjun said: "The number of defenders in Qingdao is more than that of Weihaiwei, a total of about six or seven hundred people, and all of them are German soldiers, so Qingdao's strength and combat effectiveness are much stronger than Weihaiwei, but the German lease of Qingdao has not been long, and there are no perfect coastal fortifications and batteries, but the German fleet that was defeated by us is now anchored in Qingdao, with a total of seven warships, including two battleships and a large armored cruiser. To attack Qingdao, it was necessary to advance by sea and land, and the army attacked from Weihaiwei to attract the forces of the German army, while the fleet bypassed Rongcheng Bay and attacked from the sea, first sinking all the German ships, and then landing and attacking Qingdao, so that the front and rear could be flanked and captured in one fell swoop. This is the entire battle plan, and I will send the relevant information to all combat units in a moment, and if you have any comments, you can put them forward now."