The Traverser launched an attack sooner than Wadsey had expected.

In his sleep, Wadsey was awakened by a violent explosion and immediately rolled over from the bed and sat up. In fact, Wadsey didn't sleep peacefully at all, after all, no one could sleep peacefully when such a great enemy was pressing. Therefore, although Wadsey fell asleep at night, he couldn't sleep in the bed tossing and turning, and his mind was full of thoughts about the defense of Qingdao, how long he could hold out, how the domestic diplomatic maneuvers were going, and when the reinforcements would arrive, until the second half of the night, Wadsey fell asleep in a daze.

After being woken up by the sound of explosions, Waldsea suddenly fell asleep, and the explosions were one after another, and it was impossible for Wadsey to sleep again, and at this moment, there was a "squeak", and his adjutant with two guards pushed open the door of Waldsi's bedroom, and seeing that the marshal had woken up, the adjutant immediately said: "Your Excellency Marshal, Bismarck Hill has been shelled by enemy troops. ”

Waldsi's heart sank, Bismarck Hill was the core of the German army's Qingdao defense line, and the overseas Chinese shelled Bismarck Hill at this time, and they did not know what their intentions were, but were they planning to launch an attack on Qingdao? While thinking about it, Wadsey immediately turned over and got out of bed, took his own clothes from the bedside, and said: "How is the situation on Bismarck Hill?"

The adjutant said: "I don't know yet, there is no news from the camp and the fort yet." ”

Wadsey nodded, and said as he dressed: "Send a telegram to the headquarters of Bismarck Hill immediately to understand the situation, and then notify the officers to report to the conference room of the Governor's Palace, and order the troops in each position to strengthen their vigilance." ”

The adjutant agreed, and immediately turned to leave, while the two guards came to help the marshal get dressed and dressed, and Wadsey was not very panicked at this time, because the Germans had not ascertained the position of the enemy's position, so it was impossible for the enemy to determine the position of the German army on Bismarck Hill, not to mention that it was night, so the enemy shelling was probably just a blind bombardment, and the purpose was probably only to interfere with the German army.

When Walder's suit was in order, and he came to the conference room of the Governor's Palace, and before the other officers could be present, Waldsee received a report from the Bismarck Hill Battery, which had been subjected to heavy enemy shelling, and that half of the artillery had now been destroyed, and the soldiers had suffered heavy casualties. And part of the bombardment of the fort actually came from the sea.

After receiving this news, Wadsey could not help but be greatly shocked: How did the enemy know the detailed location of the Bismarck battery, and how did he correct the firing unit? If it is possible for the army to find out the location of the Bismarck battery through secret posts and spies that are not detected by the German army, how can the navy aim at the target? Because there was no radio in this era, warships were basically cut off from the land after they went to sea, and they could only rely on the port telegraph office to send messages when they docked at the port, so it was impossible for the navy to obtain any information about the firing unit from the army.

However, now is not the time to pursue these things, Bismarck Hill is the core of the German defense of Qingdao, the main reason is the existence of Bismarck Battery, which is the only artillery position of the German army, and once this artillery position is destroyed, it is equivalent to destroying more than half of the German defense line. And Qingdao will not be able to hold it. Of course, Wadsey knew this, so he was very anxious at this time, but there was nothing he could do.

Of course, Wadsey didn't know that the layout of the German army's position and defense line was not a secret to the traverser, and with drones in the air, it was easy to shoot the layout of the German army's position and defense line clearly. At the same time, through the interrogation of the prisoners, the traverser knew that the Germans had drawn a large number of troops from the warships to strengthen the defense of Qingdao.

Therefore, Zhu Yaping immediately informed the command of Weihaiwei that it was suggested that the sea and land should coordinate the precession, and at the same time open fire and bombard the Bismarck battery from both the sea and land lines, first knocking out the strongest firepower of the German army in Qingdao, and then the sea and land armies will advance separately, and the army will attack by land through Moltke Mountain (water storage mountain) and Yirtis Mountain (Taiping Mountain), while the navy will attack Qingdao Bay, annihilate the remaining warships of the German army, and then carry out an amphibious landing.

After receiving Zhu Yaping's report, Xiao Jianjun, Shang Jinfeng, and others at the headquarters decided to accept the opinions of the front line and set the time for the bombardment of Bismarck's fort at 4 o'clock in the morning, because it would take some time for the warships to sail from Weihaiwei to Qingdao. Moreover, around four o'clock in the morning, which is often the time when one is most relaxed, and at this time, there are only about two hours before dawn, and after destroying the Bismarck battery, the army can launch an attack on the German line around dawn.

At the same time, at 2 p.m., six warships, including the Kunming, Yueyang, Sanya, Xiangyang, Huaihua, and Changbaishan warships, also set off from Weihai Bay and set off for Qingdao.

After receiving the reply from the headquarters, Zhu Yaping immediately ordered his headquarters to move forward to the Lao Yashan position, and at the same time, the second and fifth battalions of the People's Army, as well as the artillery battalion and the fire reinforcement battalion were stationed in the Lao Yashan position. Before dark, the nine 105 mm field guns of the artillery battalion were already in the Lao Yashan position, and they were arranged in three artillery positions. Raven Mountain is about 15 kilometers from Bajimai Mountain, which is exactly within the range of 105 mm caliber field guns.

In addition, the artillery battalion also has 18 75 mm howitzers, which are also ready, and as soon as the shelling starts, they will immediately move forward to provide fire support for the KPA to attack the German army in the next step. The 1st, 2nd, and 5th KPA battalions rested at night and got up at 4 a.m. to prepare for an attack on the German position.

At 4 o'clock in the morning, the fleet reached the sea northwest of Dagong Island, which was about 13 to 14 kilometers away from the Bismarck Mountain position, and the main guns of the Kunming, Xiangyang, and Huaihua ships were aimed at the Bismarck battery, while the Yueyang, Sanya, and Changbaishan ships continued to advance and went around to Jiaozhou Bay to carry out amphibious landing operations. At this time, on the Lao Yashan position, all the artillery of the People's Army was in place, and the nine 105 mm caliber field guns had been removed from their gun jackets, loaded with shells, and aimed at the Bismarck battery according to the firing unit provided by the drone.

After the navy and army made contact, both sides opened fire at the same time at the same time, and launched a fierce bombardment of the Bismarck battery.

Although there were enough soldiers left on the Bismarck battery, this was only to prevent a small number of enemy personnel from sabotage, or to prevent the enemy from setting up observation points near the battery to provide the enemy with range units. After all, the Bismarck battery is in the core area of Bismarck Mountain, and there is a Bismarck position established by the German army in front of it, so there is no need to worry about the enemy army attacking the Bismarck battery in a big way.

But the shells that fell from the sky did catch the Germans on the Bismarck battery by surprise, and a large number of shells fell from the air, most of which fell accurately within the range of the battery, causing a series of explosions. Originally, Bismarck's battery was built very simply, and there was no time to build a strong and covered fort, and the artillery was basically placed out of thin air, just a simple shed was built to protect it from the wind and rain. And the shells were only placed in nearby stone houses.

After the artillery fell, the artillery was naturally not spared, and the artillery was also killed and wounded, although there were also a small number of artillery firing back, but in fact, it was indiscriminate shooting, because in the dark night, the enemy's position could not be found at all, could not be aimed, and could only be resigned to fate, but the weak counterattack of the German army, because of the guidance of the UAV, so the artillery of the People's Army could find the German artillery position very accurately, and correct the firing unit of the artillery, the German counterattack was not strong, and was quickly destroyed.

The KPA shelling lasted about 40 minutes, and a total of more than 400 shells were fired, most of which were fired by the navy, only about 160 shells were fired by the army artillery, and more than 200 shells fell on the Bismarck battery, which dealt a devastating blow to the Bismarck battery, all the artillery on the battery was destroyed, most of the German soldiers guarding the battery were killed and wounded, and only a dozen people survived.

After destroying the Bismarck Battery, the Kunming, Xiangyang, and Huaihua ships continued to advance westward, rushing to the waters around Zhucha Island to attack the German warships in Qingdao Bay. The artillery of Lao Yashan was guided by the drone to correct the firing parameters, and this time it was the German position on Bismarck Hill. The remaining 18 75-mm howitzers immediately advanced to the area around the Jialing Mountains southwest of Lao Ya Mountain, which is about 6 or 7 kilometers away from Bismarck Mountain, which is exactly the range of the 75-mm howitzers, where they can directly bombard the other two positions of the German army, the Moltke Mountain position and the Irtis Mountain position.

The three army battalions had already been dispatched at 4 o'clock and advanced to the southwest area of Jialing Mountain, on the one hand, to defend the advancing 75-millimeter howitzers, and on the other hand, to prepare for an attack on Qingdao.

The news of the destruction of the Bismarck Fort reached the Qingdao Governor's Palace, and the German generals were shocked, because the destruction of the Bismarck Fort was almost equivalent to the loss of Qingdao, so everyone turned their heads to each other and looked frightened, and then the news came that the positions of Bismarck Mountain, Moltke Mountain, and Mount Irtis were all shelled by the enemy, and the warships in Qingdao Bay were also shelled. Everyone was even more panicked, if the enemy blocked Qingdao Bay, then they would not even be able to escape.

Wadsey was still calm at this time, because he knew that after the destruction of Bismarck's fort, this result had already been expected by him, and he had already thought of a countermeasure, so Wadsey immediately ordered the positions of Bismarck, Moltke, and Irtis to abandon their positions and launch a full-scale attack on the enemy.

When the generals heard this, they were even more in an uproar, and they did not understand why Waldsea had given such an order.