The wars in Europe quickly transformed humanity into a beast. For many years, fighting between European nations was a medieval tradition, with few times when they were wiped out, and widespread damage to civilians was rare.

For many years, all military strategists knew that a war was brewing in Europe, and it was a large-scale war. Austro-Hungarian officers were eager to conquer the Balkans, German officers wanted to defeat Russia, and French officers wanted to take back Alsace and Lorraine, but when war did come, they were stunned. They were horrified by the scale of the war and the ferocity of the battle.

The new large-caliber artillery and machine guns are far more powerful than previous wars, and thousands of people fall on the battlefield every day. Tortured by the threat of death, the almost frenzied soldiers began to vent their bestial desires on the innocent common people, trying to relieve their fears in this way. Everywhere the Germans went, they treated everyone as if they were French, and everywhere in Belgium and Luxembourg there were ordinary people who were shot as French anniversaries. The German team was full of ridiculous rumors, such as gouging out the eyes and cutting off the nose and ears of the French after being injured. The officers allowed this rumor to spread in order to frighten the soldiers and prevent the wounded from surrendering to the French. The Germans received orders from Berlin to raise their own supplies in the occupied zone, and the well-trained German army became an armed bandit. From food to women's socks, there is nothing they don't grab.

The French, on the other hand, arrested Germans in Paris, and arrested anyone of German descent as suspects, and then tortured them to force them to admit that they were anniversaries and confess to their so-called comrades. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was even more aggressive in the Balkans, not to mention the Russian soldiers, who burned, killed, plundered and plundered all kinds of evil, and it was an insult to the animal kingdom to describe them as beasts.

In the beginning, the atrocities were the spontaneous actions of individual soldiers, and when both groups found that a quick victory was impossible, they invariably resorted to the most brutal methods, trying to intimidate each other through massacres in order to reduce the enemy's will to fight. The Germans even issued an infamous order to kill everyone on the south bank of the Meuse, from soldiers to civilians, even the elderly, women, and children. Towns were burned, innocent civilians were slaughtered, transportation was cut off, hunger and fear spread, and Europe was in a state of panic.

The massacre did bring fear, but because of fear, the will to resist on both sides became stronger and stronger, and surrendering anyway is death, it is better to fight to the death on the battlefield!

The war had been going on for less than two months, and both sides had already suffered heavy losses, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed. From the Balkans to Belgium, most of Europe is bleeding.

After the Battle of the Marne, the two major military groups saw that they could not win quickly, so they began to dig trenches, first by the French, and later by the Germans, first with improvised earthen trenches, and later into plank-reinforced trench sidewalls, reinforced concrete machine gun forts, barbed wire, and the terrifying Maxim machine gun!

Machine guns, trenches, barbed wire made up the graves of the attackers. Both sides prepared a large number of cavalry, only to find that there was no use at all. The cavalry group that launched the charge, before approaching the local position, had already been knocked down by dense artillery fire and machine guns, and it was easy for a few horses to approach the enemy, and they were blocked by dense layers of barbed wire, and the speed of the cavalry could not be exerted, and the tall volume just became a target, and was easily annihilated by the enemy.

Seeing the superiority of the defenders, both sides began to build fortifications again. The trenches grew longer and longer, stretching along the Swiss border to the Belgian coast. On the Western Front, the small makeshift trenches dug in the first few months quickly became deeper and more complex, gradually turning into large areas of defensive fortifications. The open space between the trenches of the opposing sides is called "no man's land", and its width varies from battlefield to battlefield. Trenches were even built in the Alps, and trenches were built to a height of 3,900 meters above sea level. These trenches cut over rugged ridges and through hard rock, many of which were actually located in glaciers.

Both the initiators of the war and the parties who had to deal with the war complained bitterly. At this time, finding allies and attacking the enemy's supply lines became the most important things.

Qingdao has become a hot spot in the Far East. A detachment of cruisers stationed here became a thorn in the side of the British. In order to pull out this nail, the British turned to the book for help.

The German governor in Qingdao, Waldeck, had a great headache, and in the face of an enemy whose strength and firepower were far superior to his own, it was the best choice to abandon Qingdao and escape.

But the German Emperor Wilhelm II himself sent a telegram telling him: "It is even more humiliating to surrender to the Russians in Tsingtao than to surrender to the Russians in Berlin!" ”

At this point, there was no other way but to hold on, but Waldeck also knew very well that in the face of the powerful combined fleet of sixty warships, the cruiser detachment staying in Qingdao would not only not play a role, but would be a burden. So, he gave an order in advance to make Vice Admiral Graff? Feng? Spee quietly left Qingdao with six cruisers, and then fought guerrilla attacks in the vast Pacific Ocean. Several other old ships remained in Qingdao so as not to drag down the cruiser detachment.

When Vice Admiral's fleet set off from Qingdao, he said that he was not ready for war, so he walked quite calmly, but the sensitive Vice Admiral always felt that there were countless pairs of eyes staring at them in the sky, which made him inexplicably panic.

The German vice admiral's judgment was accurate, and from the time the fleet left Qingdao, there were indeed eyes secretly watching them from the sky until the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau", as well as the light cruisers "Emden" and "Nuremberg", sailed out of China's territorial waters and sailed for Pohnpei Island in the distant Caroline Islands. Aerial surveillance from the Chinese Air Force is over.

Under the cover of the Second Fleet of the Combined Fleet, the Japanese army continued to land on the coast of China. The scheming general Yoshiko Akiyama brought in as many as 500 artillery pieces of various calibers from the country, as well as more than 100 Hatch Kaiss and Makqin machine guns, as well as the engineering shovels needed to build trenches. This is the experience he gained in the Russo-Russian War, and as a genius military strategist, it is impossible for him not to guard against the Chinese stabbing him in the back.

At the same time, the king of Asian espionage, Akashi Motojiro, told him the news that Marr, the German minister to China, formally proposed to the Chinese political axe to return the Jiaozhou Bay concession to China unconditionally.

Akiyama Yokoku gasped, it was too insidious for the Germans to make such a request at this time! If the Chinese political axe immediately agrees to accept it, then will the army withdraw or not? Mobilize three divisions and sixty warships, and just go back in such a gray way? How do you account to the Diet and the people?

Since the beginning of the first four years, the country has experienced an economic crisis that has lasted for 20 years, and the huge military expenditure accounts for half of the annual budget of the political axe, and the people have long been overwhelmed. If the troops are sent to vain, the angry people will force Admiral Yoshiko Akiyama, the prime minister, and the Minister of the Navy and Army to commit suicide by seppuku!

But if the troops are not withdrawn, they will face the attack of the Chinese and the Germans.

Akashi's intelligence shows that Chai Dongliang is a very tough guy, and has recently faced great pressure at home, using a foreign war to divert domestic contradictions, isn't this the most common method used by politicians?

Prime Minister Terauchi Masashi patted his chest and assured that the Chinese did not dare to go to war, but General Yoshiko Akiyama could not be so optimistic, he made all preparations, and even in order to fight against the unfavorable war situation that he might face, he even planned to use trench warfare to block the offensive of the [***] team, wait until the German army that had been besieged by regiments was annihilated, and then concentrate his forces against the Chinese.

The British once asked Yuben to try to put the war within the concession area and not to provoke the Chinese too much, but General Akiyama Yoshiko refused out of the vision of a military strategist, and if the 60,000 troops cowered in the narrow concession area, once the terrifying Chinese air force launched a fierce air strike, then the Yue army would face great difficulties. Therefore, the army landed at Longkou, 150 kilometers away from Qingdao, and unconventionally built a military station to ensure supplies. At the same time, the two aircraft carriers of the Suzhou Seaplane, which had just been refitted, searched the sea, while the planes of the Army Air Force kept patrolling the air from Qingdao to Longkou to prevent the surprise attack of the [***] squadron.

Germany also carried out aerial reconnaissance, and Germany only had two planes, two pilots, and a mechanic, and the slightly more advanced one was broken during training. The German governor was helpless, and suddenly remembered that there was a German-run Far East Flying Club in Taixi Town, so he requisitioned the only plane of that club. It was a small plane with a 75-horsepower engine, and the pilot, Lieutenant Boscher, had just taken off when he came across the reconnaissance plane. In order to maintain the maximum range, the reconnaissance plane did not load a machine gun, and after the two sides met, they first drew their pistols and fired at each other, and when they saw that the results were not good, they scolded each other in Chinese and German.

Lieutenant Boscher's second reconnaissance was not so lucky, two imitation copycat "Huaxia" biplanes, simultaneously strafed with Lewis machine guns, and Lieutenant Boscher's plane caught fire and rolled and fell from the sky.

The naval air force was triumphant and finally shot down an enemy plane in an air battle, which can be regarded as a precedent in the history of the war.

The United Fleet temporarily converted two seaplane aircraft carriers, carrying a total of 12 imitation "Huaxia-style" seaplanes, two-seater and two-wing, with a maximum altitude of 1,200 meters, carrying two Lewis machine guns, which can temporarily add bombs to the wings, but because they have not obtained the technology of weapon pylons, the copycat version of the "Huaxia-style" can only be tied to the wings with bombs, and when it is necessary to drop bombs, the co-pilot must climb out of the cabin, walk to the wings and cut the rope with a knife, and then let the bombs do a free-fall movement. The danger of this life is no less than that of an acrobat walking a tightrope in the air.

The army also carries an air force with 12 aircraft, four of which are original "Huaxia-style" two-plane two-seat wooden planes imported from China, and the remaining eight are imitations of the original aircraft. Like the Navy's, these planes are powered by Rolls-Royce V-eight petrol engines, the kind used in Rolls-Royce Silver Phantoms.

It has to be said that the quality of Rolls-Royce products is really not covered, this kind of gasoline engine rarely fails, to the satisfaction of the pilots, flying the plane is no longer the original extremely dangerous game. For the first time, he also regarded the airplane as a weapon that could defeat the enemy, rather than as a high-end toy.

On 28 August 1914, the military air force set out by boat with the infantry unit from Ujin, and on 2 September, after arriving at Longkou in heavy rain, it immediately began assembling the aircraft. On 8 September, an airfield was established in Pingdu; Since the beginning of the 13th, heavy rain has been pouring in the Longkou area, and the temporary hangar stored in the Longkou port has been hit by a storm, the local wind speed has reached 24 meters per second, the tents set up have been blown over, and most of the aircraft have been damaged. Immediately after the rainstorm, there was another flood, and on the 15th there was a sudden strong wind blowing at a speed of more than 30 meters per second, causing serious damage to the skin of the aircraft. From 17 to 22 July, planes of the Army Air Force flew from Pingdu to the airfield on the left bank of the Dagu River in the southeast of Jimo Nancun.

On 21 September, three planes of the Chinese army flew to Jimo Airport. It is prepared to use Jimo Airport to reconnoiter the deployment of German troops in Qingdao. In order to cooperate with the main force of the Yue Army, the German positions at Shimen Mountain, Gushan and Fushan were captured.

There is a tall mountain peak in the northeast suburbs of Qingdao City, because at the foot of the mountain, the Ming Dynasty once set up a floating mountain here, so the mountain got its name. The topography of Fushan is surrounded by mountain peaks, which are high and steep, and the terrain is extremely dangerous. There is almost no large vegetation on the mountain, and there is low herbaceous vegetation all over, which is easy to spot when people climbing. The mountain is mostly rocky, and there is only a small amount of clay soil at the foot of the mountain, and there is no way to go up or down the mountain. Halfway up the mountain, it was more difficult for the troops to climb. The top of the hill was rocky and interlaced with wolf teeth, making it easy for the defenders to build fortifications. In addition, there are large fields of sweet potatoes and peanuts on the flat land around the mountains, forming a large open field, which is very convenient for the German troops on the mountains to observe the offensive direction of the German army, and the command headquarters of the army is determined to capture Fushan and completely win the "eyes and ears of the German army," which in turn provides an effective commanding height for the army to observe the German army's forward positions.

The vanguard of the army braved the rain and marched on the rugged path, slowly approaching the tall and steep floating mountain, and a fierce battle was imminent.

At night, the tall floating mountain stands in the east of the outskirts of Qingdao like a huge landscape mural under the bright moon, the mountains are towering, the terrain is treacherous, the ground is full of bare rocks, and there is almost no way up the mountain. Fushan is located northeast of the German Zhanshan infantry defense fortress. The Germans set up a guard post on the mountain, and the officers and soldiers stationed there called themselves "Eagle's Nest Outposts", where they could monitor every move of the Japanese army, and they could also observe the activities of the Japanese army in the Shazikou area after landing. The guard post echoed the Gushan post to the north, and played the role of the eyes and ears of the German army in control of the overall situation along the entire defensive line. The army regarded it as a thorn in his eye and a thorn in his flesh. If Fushan can be captured, it will be possible to overlook the urban area of Qingdao from this commanding height, especially for observing the deployment of the main defensive line of the German army. Moreover, it can also provide the Second Fleet at sea with the direction of shelling targets. It was said that the headquarters of the division and regiment decided to capture Fushan before the 28th.

In the headquarters, General Yoshiko Akiyama paced restlessly, and his face that resembled a Westerner turned pale. And sitting next to him was the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Akashi Motojiro, and Lieutenant General Akashi's brows were also tightly locked.

"Akashi-kun, haven't you heard from Yanjing yet? What do the people of China want to do? General Akiyama finally couldn't help but ask.

(To be continued)