After the First Opium War, until the Beiyang Naval Division did not form an army, in order to protect the safety of Tianjin and Beijing, the Qing government has always been committed to the construction of the Dagu Fort Group, and a large number of heavy artillery pieces have been placed.

In addition, in Beitang, 30 miles to the north, and Shuanggang, 60 miles upstream of the Haihe River, artillery groups were built and a large number of troops were stationed.

Since 1875, when Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, established the Beiyang Naval Division, the coastal defense thinking of the Qing Dynasty changed from the coastal defense artillery near the shore to block the enemy, to the warships of the 'strong ships and cannons' to fight against the enemy on the sea.

In this way, almost all the energy of the Beiyang land-based artillery group was invested in the construction of Weihai Weijun Port and Lushun Military Port, and there was no time to reequip the Dagu Fort.

As for Beitang and Shuanggang, it's even more useless.

In the past 20 years, it has been a critical period for the transition from wooden ships with iron ribs and hulls to full-body steel-hull ironclad ships.

The outdated artillery of the Dagu Fort, in addition to being useful in blockading the mouth of the Haihe River or bombarding the enemy's landing troops in the near vicinity, is basically a group of decorations for modern naval warfare.

This can't blame the Beitang garrison for fleeing, even if he doesn't escape, he can only be a live target for sorrow, and he can't even touch a single *** of the Japanese ship group.

However, in recent years, the Beiyang Navy Division has been known as the first in Asia and the sixth in the world, and it has been coquettish all day long in Nagasaki and the South Seas, and it has been in the limelight for a while.

Therefore, in the Qing Dynasty, everyone agreed that spending millions of silver to buy modern steel-hulled artillery in Dagukou was simply a waste.

Finally, in 1891, Tobe Shangshu Ontoshi stopped buying naval ordnance for three years.

Li Hongzhang has silver in his hand and no land, and the Dagu Fort is indeed too unsightly, so that the foreigners will inevitably lose the face of the Qing Dynasty.

Moreover, the purchase of coastal defense artillery and placed in the Dagu Fort is not considered a 'purchase of naval ordnance'. 、

Li Hongzhang played a marginal game, and in recent years, he has successively purchased 63 Krupp guns of large and small calibers for the Dagu Fort.

The Dagu South Artillery Group's 'Wei' character fort, 4 75mm caliber Krupp guns, with an effective firing range of 5,000 meters.

'Zhen' battery, 4 75mm caliber Krupp guns.

'Hai' character battery, 6 75mm caliber Krupp guns, 1 120mm 25 times caliber Krupp cannon, effective range of 5222 meters.

In the remaining 12 small batteries, 12 75mm caliber Krupp battalion guns were placed.

Dagu North Artillery Group 'Gate' Battery, 4 75mm caliber Krupp guns, 5 Krupp 120mm 25 times caliber guns.

And in the fort with the word 'high' located in front of the governor's palace and the arsenal.

Two 75mm caliber Krupp guns and two 120mm 35 times caliber (Type 1880) Krupp cannons were placed, with an effective firing range of 8,044 meters.

6 120mm 35x caliber (Type 1886) Krupp cannons with an effective firing range of 10,000 meters.

The remaining 13 small batteries were equipped with 17 75mm Krupp guns.

In the Dagu North Artillery Group, because the stone crack fort is built on the stone wall on the north bank of the Haihe River estuary, the artillery fire is only used to block the Haihe River estuary, and there is no need for long-range fire.

Therefore, all the copper cannons below 5,000 catties made by the Qing Dynasty, and dozens of catties of guns, nearly 100 catties of sub-mother cannons; Just symbolically put a 75 gun.

At this time, the Haihe River was frozen, and this fort temporarily lost the meaning of actual combat, and the anti-Japanese army only put a group of soldiers here to guard, and the troops were mainly rested in the Beijia 'door' word fort. North B 'high' character fort.

"Whew-"

Under the clear blue sky, eight Japanese warships arrived and then hovered about 3 nautical miles from the Dagukou Battery.

"Shoot artillery shells at uninhabited sea ice and expel all cargo ships, passenger ships."

Standing on the bridge of the Matsushima, Hensuke Ito took out his pocket watch and looked at the time, and ordered, "Order all ships to prepare for battle." ”

"Boom!"

The Yoshino's hull slammed, a large cloud of smoke rose from the ship, and a 150mm Armstrong rapid-fire gun on it spewed out a long tongue of fire that exploded over the Bohai Sea like thunder.

"Whoa—"

The sharp hissing of the projectile in the air stimulated the eardrums of everyone on the entire Tanggu coastline, and everyone changed color for it.

"Boom!"

A huge column of ice debris rose into the sky at the mouth of the Haihe River, blasting the thick ice into a huge hole.

The 150 rapid-fire guns on the Yoshino have a range of 7,000 meters, and at a distance of only 3 nautical miles (5.55 kilometers), they can easily cover the entire Dagu battery group, let alone just blow up the sea ice in front of the battery.

"Fight, run!"

Under this cannon, the five or six hundred coolies who were unloading at the ice wharf, and the coolies of the Daqing wharf, who had long been terrified, were all pale with horror.

Feeling the shaking of the ice beneath their feet, the porters shouted in horror and threw down the goods on their shoulders and fled to the shore without their lives.

"Come back, come back!"

"Bastard, there's a Hainan watermelon in there, my God! These damn Oriental pigs! ”

"Come back immediately, then the Oriental dwarf will never dare to touch my Great German cargo ship!"

"Don't run, pay plus one, oh, three, three,—— why are you dirty ghosts still running?"

"We're the world's number one bastards ——, the sun never sets, and it's Jingdezhen porcelain in it! You cowardly pigs and bastards! ”

However, despite the captains of these seven or eight Western cargo ships, no matter how earnestly they comforted and cried, the coolies of these five or six hundred wharves still rode away.

On top of the hard ice, countless sacks and wooden boxes were left.

Especially those wooden boxes containing porcelain, which were not strong in the first place, were torn apart.

The straw inside was exposed, and there was a large amount of porcelain that had rolled out and shattered, shimmering with a changing and beautiful luster in the sunlight.

And the sack containing the watermelon exploded one after another, and the red juice slowly dripped out of it, blooming gorgeous flowers on the ice.

"Boom!"

There was another huge cannon roar, and the violent fluctuations shook the ice belt along the coast one after another, and the 'pop' exploded.

And the goods that were thrown on the ice were bouncing slightly, especially the broken porcelain pieces, which were actually dancing on the ice like a dance.

The Japanese blockade of Bohai Haikou this time made many merchant shipowners who unloaded from the West to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Fuzhou keenly find business opportunities.

So they have received high-priced orders from Tianjin and Beijing, or run a high-priced passenger ferry ticket, wanting to make a short trip to make a lot of extra money.

As a result, these seven or eight unlucky cargo ships encountered the Japanese army and wanted to attack Dagukou today.

Needless to say, not only will the rest of the cargo not be able to be unloaded, but when the artillery fire is combined, the two or three thousand sacks (boxes) of goods that are thrown and piled up on this ice will also sink into the sea.

"He brewed it, Lao Tzu is looking for this group of grandsons to settle accounts!"

The red-nosed and bearded captain of the Russian cargo ship Khodka, Noma Szyfu, stood on the side of the ship angrily and shouted: "Drive the ship to the Oriental warship, Lao Tzu will let them compensate for the loss!" ”

"Yes, yes, let them compensate, and multiply the compensation to make up for the great fright we have suffered!"

Inspired by the French, German, British, and captains, they all shouted with red eyes and ordered the ships to sail towards the Japanese ships.