"Yaga! Why are there still Qing troops in the villages at the mouth of the Tang River, waving small flags, what do they want to do? Juggling! ”

On the Yoshino Bridge, Major General Samejima, the commander of the First Guerrilla Brigade, holding a telescope, saw two Qing soldiers waving colorful flags quickly on the top of an earthen fort in Jianhe Village.

Shark Island's heart jumped suddenly, and he had a very bad premonition.

It was at this time that all the army and navy soldiers on the surface of the ship group who were staring north felt that their backs were exploding, and their scalps were tingling.

In their field of vision, the first thing they saw was that in the blue and clean sky in the north, there seemed to be several strange fluctuations that distorted the void rate suddenly.

Then I silently saw huge fireballs explode on the ice to the north.

"The shelling is the artillery bombardment of the Qing army!"

"There are artillery, artillery!"

You don't even have to look at the surrounding warships, you can see the shelling before you hear the gunfire, and all the Japanese troops on the warships can easily come to this conclusion.

Suddenly, on all the warships, the Japanese commanders shouted and ordered: "Lookouts, search, find them!" ”

"Boom-"

At this time, the thunder from the north rolled in.

"Found them! No, and ——, their artillery is actually a separate artillery display! ——”

"The artillery of the Qing army has been discovered, and it is on the line 2.5 kilometers north of the coast, 7.5 kilometers away from the fleet, and there are no less than 8 positions! ——”

At this time, the smoke rising from the northern land could easily be caught by the Japanese signal soldiers, who shouted to report the observation data.

Ito Henyou's face turned blue and looked at the nearly 1,000 Japanese troops struggling on the ice belt under the bombardment of artillery, but they were helpless.

The choice of artillery positions of the Qing army was extremely clever, and at this distance, the ship group only had 4 203mm Armstrong rapid-fire guns equipped on the Yoshino, and 16 old Krupp rack guns on Naniwa and Takachiho, which could barely be reached.

However, the artillery positions of the Qing army were scattered.

If it is concentrated together, Yoshino, Naniwa, and Takachiho fire a salvo, as long as one of the 20 shells can smash into the artillery position of the Qing army, it will not die, and it can also make them lose a layer of skin.

However, 20 artillery pieces were scattered to bombard eight or nine Qing artillery, and Ito Hyungyou didn't need to think about it to know that before the artillery could accurately touch the edge of these artillery, the Qing artillery would pull away the artillery and fly away.

It's just a matter of blasting ice, pointing at these rapid-fire guns, as well as fierce high-explosive shells, that is, the strength of ten salvos, which can be easily completed.

Relying on the elite naval artillery of the Empire to operate, it does not even take more than two minutes.

In such a short period of time, what effective response can the elite Imperial Navy make?

In the rolling roar, the marching position of nearly 1,000 Japanese troops who had landed had become empty, with only about twenty or thirty black dots, which were the Japanese infantry who had temporarily survived the catastrophe.

However, the huge waves drenched their military jackets, and all around them were turbulent and broken ice, and without rescue, they would not be able to escape death sooner or later!

At this time, the shelling in the north was over, but in Ito Henyou's field of vision, the Qing signal soldiers on the earthen fort in Jianhe Village were still desperately waving the colorful flags.

One of the flags was pointing in the direction of Saikyo Maru, which was three miles away from the coast.

Moreover, a large number of Qing soldiers in Western-style military uniforms, holding high scarlet flags, rushed out of the large dense reeds on the west side of the Tang River and pounced on the Japanese positions in the battle at the mouth of the Tang River.

"Bastard! They're going to shell the Saikyo Maru! ”

At this moment, Ito felt his heart twitch tightly and contract into a ball.

The Imperial army was killed by a half-infantry brigade, plus a cavalry squadron, and three young commanders were killed, which in the eyes of Ito Henyoke, although ugly, but after all, it was not a big deal.

However, if the army general, the new chief of staff of the base camp, the governor of the Seiqing Dynasty, the imperial family, the 8th son of Prince Fushimi Miyakuni, and the adopted son of Emperor Komeimei, Prince Akihito Komatsumiya had an accident in today's war, it would be a big deal!

"Order the Saikyo Maru to flee south immediately, flee south, and withdraw from the range of the Qing army's artillery!"

Ito Hyungwoo pulled his neck and shouted: "Order the first guerrilla to immediately attack the Qing artillery!" Order Yoshino, Akitsu Chau, to bombard the Qing army at the mouth of the Tang River with 152 guns! - Luye, this bastard, what did the prince miss, he will not be redeemed for a hundred deaths! ”

After hearing the commander's words, 'They are going to shell the Saikyo Maru,' the surrounding group of admirals have changed color.

Then, after listening to Ito Henyou's sentence of 'order the Saikyo Maru to flee south immediately', the chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, Dewa Shige, ran towards the watchtower like a long flight, and yelled desperately all the way: "Order the Saikyo Maru, flee, flee!" ”

However, when Shoyu Ito gave the order to "order Yoshino, Akitsu to bombard the Qing army at the mouth of the Tang River with 152 cannons", a group of discolored admirals turned into a face full of horror.

At this time, on the sea, the Saikyo Maru is the closest to the coast, only about 1.5 kilometers.

The rest of the merchant ships are about 3.5 to 4 kilometers away from the coast.

The warships of the Combined Fleet are located at a distance of 6 kilometers from the north coast.

At this distance, 10 Armstrong rapid-fire guns above Yoshino and 4 152mm Armstrong rapid-fire guns above Akitsu could indeed cover the mouth of the Tang River with complete firepower.

But there are still 3 squadrons of the Imperial Army in there?

"They are doomed to death, and the fire on the Saikyo Maru must be washed away with blood;"

Ito Hensuke was furious at the stupidity of his subordinates, and roared and ordered to remind: "Yaga, don't deliver the order immediately!" ”

This batch of artillery of the Qing army was obviously the same type of artillery of the 80 rapid-fire guns captured in Weihaiwei, and more than a dozen of them were bombarded intensively within a range of 3 kilometers from the Xijing Maru.

Just thinking about it makes Ito Hyungwoo's scalp shudder.

"Woo-"

At this time, the armed merchant ship of the Saikyo Maru had just reacted and realized that it might have become the next prey of the Qing army.

So he cried 'woo', desperately increased his horsepower, suddenly turned the rudder, and began to flee south.

And in its stern and port side, 4 120mm rapid-fire guns, 2 47mm machine guns, and 1 57mm machine gun exploded almost simultaneously and fired at the Japanese positions at the mouth of the Tang River, which had been completely penetrated by the Qing army.

"Boom, boom, boom-"

Also at about the same time, the 14 Tsumon Brigade 80 field guns on the northern land, the Yoshino, Naniwa, Takachiho, and 203, 152, 260, and 150 guns on the Akitsu Island of the Japanese Combined Fleet exploded with a bang.

Shoot the warheads in the direction of their respective targets.

After seeing the Saikyo Maru brazenly bombarding the Qing-Japanese battle positions at the mouth of the Tang River, Sameshima Rengui, Kawahara Yoichi, Togo Heihachiro, Nomura Sada, and Uemura Hikoyuki all immediately let go of their worries.

At the same time as the artillery was ordered to bombard the fragmented artillery positions of the Qing army in the distance, the artillery was also ordered to bombard the positions at the mouth of the Tang River.

At this time, thousands of soldiers of the Jinmen Brigade had already thrown the Japanese army's Tanghekou position into chaos, and more than 400 Japanese troops were killed and stabbed to death by the soldiers of the Jinmen Brigade in less than four minutes.

In this short period of time, nearly 200 soldiers of the Jinmen Brigade were killed in the battle by desperate Japanese soldiers shouting at them.

"Victory!"

"Hooray!"

On the battlefield of the Tang River Estuary, there was a cheer, this feeling of binding the rabbit with a tiger is really dripping and exciting!

"Boom, boom, boom-"

However, before the delighted soldiers could begin to collect the loot, smoke billowed from the Saikyo Maru, about 1.6 kilometers southeast of the sea.

Then there was a huge roar of artillery fire.