Due to the concentration of the German defense forces on the outskirts of Qingdao city and the coastal batteries, the Japanese detachment did not meet resistance during the landing at Laoshan Bay, but on the Hedong cliff in the north of Laoshan Mountain, 15 pairs of eyes were closely watching the Japanese army's every move.

This German infantry was part of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the German East Asian Dispatch Army, and they had been stationed here as an outpost since Japan declared war on Germany. In those seemingly boring days, they had built barbed wire, deer firewood, and improvised fortifications, and the main position was on the eastern high ground, and the mountain road leading to it was not only rugged, but also tightly sealed by the only heavy machine gun.

According to this timely and valuable information, the air units stationed in Qingdao often came to drop bombs and strafe after attacking the Japanese Second Fleet, which caused certain losses to the Japanese landing force and dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the Japanese troops. Soon after, the Japanese landing force began to advance inland, and they learned about the situation from the local population, so they decided to uproot the German outpost.

In the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War, European armies were seen by Japanese officers and soldiers as outwardly powerful but in fact vulnerable paper tigers, and the Russians' outdated equipment made them think they had the most advanced weapons in their hands. In the coup d'état of 1909, which lasted only one day, the Japanese army lost many experienced, calm and important generals, and now the Japanese army has long been in the hands of a group of arrogant and frivolous young officers, bayonets and cannons have become the god of war worshiped by the Japanese army, and the machine guns that once played a huge role in the Russo-Japanese War have been thrown into the corner.

Still, the sheer size and tenacious willpower of the Japanese Army made it a force to be reckoned with, and the Japanese Navy was growing rapidly, and after the British Navy suffered Waterloo, the Japanese Navy had effectively become the third strongest navy in the world, just behind the German Navy, which had just achieved a historic victory, and the dynamic American Navy, stronger than the emaciated camel of Great Britain and its French allies.

In Laoshan Bay, several small trestle bridges have been built, several small ships are unloading supplies, countless small boats are going back and forth on the sea, transporting the supplies on large ships back to the beach one by one, the beach is piled up with various supplies, a large number of Japanese soldiers are regrouping, everything is busy and orderly, only a few smoking craters and pools of blood remind people that this place has been subjected to air raids not long ago.

"Sato Shaosa, reconnaissance report of the second squad!" On a flat field far from the beach, a Japanese communications soldier walked briskly up to a young officer, bowed his head and half-bowed, holding a piece of paper level above his head with both hands.

The officer took the report with a blank face, and after a while, he gave a loud order:

"Pack light!"

More than 400 Japanese soldiers threw down their backpacks, carrying only guns, ammunition and dry rations, and soon lined up in four neat rectangular queues on the flat ground.

"Let's go!"

The young Shaozo did not have any superfluous expressions and words, and rode a war horse to lead the way, and the Japanese army soldiers in khaki military uniforms and flat military caps resisted their rifles and followed silently.

This unit was an infantry squadron of the Japanese Horinai detachment, and one of the squads had already gone to reconnoiter the German outpost in the Laoshan area, and after learning that Hedong Cliff was the main German outpost in this area, Zuoto decided to take his squadron to capture it first.

After a round with the squad that had gone to reconnoitre, Sato ordered a squad to search ahead, with the main force of the squadron following up at a distance of about 300 meters from the rear. In the valley leading to Hedong Cliff, flanked by steep cliffs, the valley was littered with rocks, and the Japanese army marched very slowly.

When it was only 3 kilometers away from Hedong Cliff, Zuo Teng's avant-garde team stopped, and Zuo Teng saw through his telescope that on the northeastern slope of Hedong Cliff, several pointed helmets loomed in a shallow skirmisher's trench.

"The first squad immediately deployed, shooting on the spot! The second squad supported from the right flank, and the third and fourth squads marched towards the hills on both flanks and quickly surrounded the Germans there! After a little thought, Sato gave the order to attack.

The Japanese squad in front of the squad soon began to shoot, and the monotonous sound of rifles rang out in the valley, and the only heavy machine gun of the Japanese squad was aimed at the hillside, but the machine gunners had no intention of shooting. In order to save ammunition, these machine gunners developed the habit of not scattering eagles without seeing rabbits, but the German machine guns on the eastern high ground fired at the Japanese troops on both sides from time to time.

Half an hour later, the troops sent by Zuoto to the top of the hill on both flanks retreated, where not only were the rocks rugged and difficult to climb, but also the cliffs were everywhere, and with the German machine gun fire, the two squads could not rush up the hill at all.

"Rice bucket! Rubbish! Zuo Tengqi's face turned bruised, and the horsewhip was even more slammed on the two squad leaders, "You guys, now charge from the front!" If you can't take the German positions there, you don't have to come back to see me! ”

The two squad leaders glanced at the soldiers who were panting, and reluctantly drove them to launch a frontal assault on the hillside.

The Japanese soldiers shouted with bayonets, and they rushed to 400 meters of the German front line despite the German machine gun fire, when the soldiers who rushed to the front stopped shooting, and the other Japanese soldiers took the opportunity to approach the Germans from their flanks until they were forced to stop in front of the German barbed wire. By this time, dozens of Japanese soldiers were lying on the hillside, and the soldiers behind continued to rush upward, paying no attention to the wounded soldiers who were convulsing in pain.

Seeing that his soldiers began to struggle to tear down the German barbed wire, Sato Shaoza finally showed a reluctant smile on his face. However, several grenades were thrown out of the German skirmishers, and after an explosion in front of the barbed wire, more than a dozen Japanese soldiers in front fell to the ground, and the Japanese soldiers in the back also lay on the ground and stagnated.

"Bastard! Get it all up and keep going! Zuo Teng shouted hoarsely, but the hundreds of Japanese soldiers on the hillside were still suppressed and did not dare to get up, so angry that he roared and personally rushed towards the hillside, "Everyone rush with me!" ”

Encouraged by the earth-shattering sound of killing in the rear, the Japanese soldiers on the hillside finally climbed up again, but a few of them just stood up and fell down holding their chests, and the only machine gun in the German army had already exerted its power to the extreme......

Suddenly, the German machine-gun fire stopped, and after the last grenades were thrown from the German skirmishers, the German soldiers began to retreat. The Japanese soldiers took the opportunity to tear down the barbed wire fence and drill through it, and when they rushed into the German skirmishers, there was nothing left inside, and the Germans were long gone.

Standing on the hillside, looking at the wounded soldiers wailing all over the ground, Sato did not give the order to pursue but turned to the guard on the spot. After counting the losses, he found that he had 32 soldiers killed and 43 wounded in more than an hour of fighting, 16 of whom had completely lost the battle.

Soon after, the Japanese reconnaissance unit reported that the German soldiers who had retreated from Hedong Cliff had retreated all the way to the Willow Terrace resort villa area, where they had joined up with another German outpost there, bringing the Germans to more than 30 men.

"The 3rd squad and the wounded soldiers stayed behind to wait for backups, and the rest of the troops marched towards Willow Terrace!" Sato gritted his teeth and gave the order.

Soon, the Japanese soldiers set off again, but most of them looked tired and mud-stained with their uniforms compared to the spirits they had when they left the beach.

Liushutai is located in the middle of Laoshan Mountain, west of Beijiushui, 4 kilometers east of Chaoyin Waterfall, which is the eastern edge of the German Jiaozhou Bay lease. In the middle of the mountain valley, a green grove is dotted with red-tiled villas, and a small stream meanders through the canyon bottom. Soon after the Germans occupied Qingdao, they began to build a Western-style summer palace in this paradise-like place, and named it Machelenburg Villa after the famous German summer resort Macelenburg. The building complex is built in the midst of green water and green mountains, full of Western style, luxurious and beautiful. The villa complex is a special place for German officials or German officers and soldiers in Qingdao to take vacation, recuperation, and summer tourism.

After the outbreak of the war, the Germans built improvised positions and skirmish trenches around Willow Tower, preparing to stop the Japanese vanguard in this area.

After a rapid march, the Sato division arrived near Yanagishutai in the evening. In order to find out the situation of the German army in Liushutai, Zuoto sent more than a dozen soldiers to advance to the German formation to carry out reconnaissance. When approaching about 1,000 meters of the German position, the machine guns on the German position suddenly erupted orange tongues of fire, several Japanese soldiers were shot on the spot and fell, and the remaining Japanese soldiers retreated in panic.

Seeing the fierce frontal defensive fire of the German army, Zuo Teng led his troops to detour from the west side, but the German troops on the high ground on the west side had already been in full position, and just when the Japanese soldiers were about to advance quickly, the German bullets hit down with a face, and Zuo Teng's soldiers were caught off guard and fell down for a while.

Zuoto, whose eyes were red, decided to immediately attack the high ground, and at the same time sent a telegram requesting the follow-up Japanese troops to come to reinforcements as soon as possible.

"Everyone, show the spirit of the samurai! Advance! Death to those who retreat! ”

Zuoto jumped off his horse, drew his sword and personally led the charge towards the German positions on the high ground. Under these circumstances, the fighting spirit of the Japanese soldiers was rekindled, and some even took off their shirts and began to charge bare-chested.

The German soldiers were not frightened by the savagery and fearlessness of the Japanese soldiers, on the contrary, they calmly fired bullets at the Japanese soldiers. In fact, they had only two machine guns at Willow Tower, one on the frontal line of defense and one on this high ground.

The Japanese soldiers gradually approached the German positions on the high ground with the undulating terrain and low trees, but the German gunfire suddenly stopped again, and by the time Zuoto covered his bleeding left arm and led the other Japanese soldiers to the German position, it was already empty, only in the distance, the retreating German soldiers were still shooting sporadically in this direction.

As night fell, the Japanese troops appeared on the avenue of Willow Terrace one after another. When the Japanese troops gathered, they shouted long live the emperor in the drizzle in the drizzle, in front of the ruins and ruins of the German villas that were already only smoking green smoke.

During the whole battle, the Japanese suffered more than 100 casualties, captured a rifle, several tents and some clothing, and the Germans did not have any soldiers killed, only a few were slightly wounded.

In order to prevent the German summer house in Liushutai from falling into the hands of the Japanese army, the German soldiers set fire to the main buildings in the beautiful and luxurious Western architectural complex before retreating, and the war completely destroyed the beautiful summer palace of Liushutai.

In the one-day outpost battle, the purpose of the Japanese army to drive out the German outpost, and the German army also consumed a lot of Japanese soldiers in the blockade, this seems to be an acceptable result for both sides, but the unstable state of the Japanese army in the battle was silently remembered by the Germans.