At about 6 o'clock in the middle of the night on the 7th, the ships of the Japanese Combined Fleet sailed out of Dalian Bay in the twilight snow and anchored in the waters at the mouth of the bay after bursting two mines. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The camps of Huang Jianxing and Cheng Moyi had stopped shelling beforehand.

The distance was too long, and the snow was falling to obstruct the view, and the shelling had lost its substance.

They gave up the fort and prepared to give it to Mao Chao, who was going to come over to practice the cannon in the near future.

Port Arthur.

Xu Bangdao's Gong Guards fled with death, leaving only more than 1,800 people, and after incorporating Zhao Huaiye's crippled 4 battalions, it will reach 3,000 troops.

Lianshun's Jiesheng battalion fled to Lushun with about 500 soldiers, and ate Zhou Dingcheng's 2 posts and the remaining 6 posts of Huaizi's army, and the strength reached 1,100 people.

In this way, Huang Shilin, Zhang Guangqian, the commander-in-chief of the Qinqing Army, Jiang Guidi, the commander-in-chief of the Guizi Army, Cheng Yunhe, the commander of the Heyu Army, Wei Rucheng, the commander of the Chengzi Army, Xu Bangdao, the commander of the Gongwei Army, and Lian Shun, the commander of the Jiesheng Battalion.

These seven commanders were in Port Arthur at this time, and a total of nearly 15,000 troops were gathered.

However, because Gong Zhaoyu fled, Guangdong Governor Tang Renlian should go to Fengtian, and Li Hongzhang did not call for a long time to determine the candidate for the president's leadership, the seven generals in Port Arthur were divided into separate units, and as soon as the meeting began, they quarreled into a mess, and what they said seemed to be reasonable, and no one was convinced by anyone.

The whole thing was scattered.

However, although Li Hongzhang did not choose a candidate for the president, he gave a strong order.

First, the Liaoning Southern Anti-Japanese Command Office took over the military treasury of Port Arthur.

After Yu Zeqing led his troops to take over the military arsenal, he immediately gathered a large number of civilians and soldiers at a high price in Port Arthur to transport arms to Dalian Bay.

Second, in a telegram, Li Hongzhang ordered all armies in Lushun to draw out at least 5,000 soldiers to assist the Liaoning Southern Anti-Japanese Command Office in transporting munitions.

In fact, Li Hongzhang is completely worried about this matter, who wants to send troops to guard the 'tattered' arms in the military treasury, and it is not silver and grain.

As for assisting in the delivery of munitions, I heard that the minimum pay a day was two taels of silver, and most of the soldiers were eager to try it.

And the cavalrymen with military horses in their hands and the soldiers with mules and horses were even more anxious.

You must know that their horses are tied to sleighs, and a trip can cost more than two taels of silver, but at least double.

Huang Shilin, Zhang Guangqian, Cheng Yunhe, Wei Rucheng, and Lian Shun immediately set the proportion of silver with their soldiers, and then released the cavalry, carts, and soldiers to Dalian to transport arms.

Jiang Guidi and Xu Bangdao directly refused to send troops on the grounds of preparing for war, but they lent all the carts in their hands to soldiers from other departments.

In just half a day, Yu Zeqing has gathered tens of thousands of transportation capacity in Port Arthur, and many of the remaining people are suspicious.

I think that after the first transportation of the people comes back, more people will take advantage of this agricultural season to make extra money.

The Japanese navy and army became extremely depressed because of this heavy snowfall.

All the warships of the Oriental Combined Fleet had to anchor outside the mouth of the bay and wait for the snow to stop and enter the bay again to clear mines.

The headquarters of the Japanese Second Army, cavalry, artillery units, as well as a large number of baggage and the Hasegawa Yoshido Brigade that had already marched to the Biliu River, also had to suspend the march and wait for the snow to stop.

There is no doubt that this timely heavy snowfall gave the anti-Japanese army a lot of time to buffer.

At noon on November 8, the 1st Division of the Japanese Army, which had been tortured by the artillery fire of the anti-Japanese army all morning, had to retreat in the heavy snow.

The 1st Brigade of Nogi Noshinori on Fuzhou Avenue retreated to the first line of fortification on the heights of Potou Mountain.

The main force of the 1st Division on Jinzhou Avenue retreated to the outside of the Shimenzi Heights, placing only artillery and two infantry squadrons on the Shimenzi Heights, and placing the strength of one cavalry squadron and one infantry squadron on the Wolongpo on the northern flank.

Then Yamachi Genji once again ordered the brigades to send a large number of soldiers to carry out a more thorough cleansing and sweep of the nearby villages, collecting all the resources that could be gathered.

At this point, the Jinzhou Qingri defense line once again returned to the way it was before the war.

The snow was falling heavily, and the weather was freezing.

The reinforcement army brought a large amount of coal from Dalian Bay and sent it to the front of the defense line to raise the fire for warmth.

The Japanese army did not have enough tents for the march, so they had to cut down pine branches everywhere to build simple houses, shivering in them, and using firewood to keep warm.

In the heavy snow, the entire post road from Dalian to Lushun was full of sleds, busy transporting boxes of bullets and shells to the Lushun Military Port.

The fortifications of Nanguanling are also being built intensively, and the soldiers and civilians with frostbite on their hands have dug up small ammunition depots on the mountain to store shells.

And in critical locations, earthen wall bunkers were built.

On this day, except for the roar of blind fire from the Jinzhou artillery positions and the coastal batteries of Dalian Bay, all the other battles were completely still.

"Boom-"

At 5:17 p.m., a scorching projectile fired from a 208mm caliber gun from the middle battery of Monk Island rushed through the dense snowflakes and smashed headlong into the side of the No. 21 torpedo boat moored at the mouth of the bay.

The huge and furious kinetic energy directly split this French custom-made torpedo boat with a displacement of only 80 tons into countless fragments of large and small pieces at the moment of smashing.

After a day of bombardment, the half-hung trainee artillerymen of Mao Chao's department finally collided with the dead rat and sank a ship of the Japanese Combined Fleet when it was impossible for them to see it.

Although this ship is not worth mentioning, it is actually the only warship of the Japanese army that the Qing State sank after the Battle of Toshima and the Battle of Dadonggou since the Qing and Japanese wars.

Unbeknownst to all the Qing troops, the Qing army finally broke their shameful record of zero eggs.

"Baga, are these Qing soldiers crazy, how can they fight like this?"

After receiving the report, Ito Yuhyung, who ran out of the cabin in a hurry, stood on the deck and scolded angrily.

In his eyes, he saw that about a mile ahead, the 21st torpedo boat that had been moored had turned into a debris floating on the water, and some soldiers who had fallen into the water were shouting in the water.

A nearby warship is putting a small boat to the rescue.

"The whole team set sail and retreated a nautical mile."

Ito Yohei said angrily: "It's not the silver of the empire, I see how long you can blow up?" ”

"When the snow stops, it's their end!"

The chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, Komsu Osa, smiled and said: "Commander, don't you feel that their artillery fire is very scattered, and it was even jerky and slow before, but after a day of blind shooting, it is only a little more fluent. ”

"You're saying they're all recruits?"

Listening to the words of Kompasu Sameshima, Ito couldn't help but be overjoyed.

"Even if they are not recruits, they rarely conduct artillery training, and it is obvious that the commanders of the Qing Kingdom have also thought of this and want to make up for it with their current training; However, this is simply not possible to make up for it in a short period of time! ”

"Okay, then wait until the sky is clear, so that these idiot artillerymen of the Qing Kingdom can appreciate the accuracy of my Eastern Empire's artillery fire!"

Ito Youheng looked proud.

On November 8, 1894, a blizzard raged throughout the Liaodong Peninsula for a whole day and two nights.

In the early morning of the 9th, the blizzard finally stopped, and soon a strong wind began to blow away the clouds in the sky.

By about four o'clock in the morning, the sky was already moonlight and the stars were brilliant.

The silver and white land is as beautiful as a fairy tale country.

At this time, the entire Jinda line was as silent as the eternal night.

Waiting for the dawn to come.

"Whew-"

As the thick curtain of the camp tent was lifted from the outside, Huang Jianxing walked in with a cold wind, which was a little different from what he expected, it was only less than 7 o'clock in the morning, but it was full of officers from all armies of the Jinda Defense Line standing inside.