At the same time that the Japanese West Sea Fleet attacked the Chinese Navy at Shuri Port, the Japanese army of 50,000 Japanese troops led by Takahashi also launched a surprise attack on the Chinese Shence Army outside Shuri.

The roar of artillery was deafening.

The Japanese army gathered 200 artillery pieces to bombard the Shence Army camp, and the officers and soldiers of the 12th Town were responsible for defending the camp.

In the night, artillery fire was shining everywhere, and the gunfire was dense like rain.

Particularly conspicuous was the machine-gun bunker position of the Chinese Shence Army, where the Gatling machine guns fired outwards from the bunker opening, beating the charging Japanese troops to the ground and falling one by one.

For the first time, the Japanese army saw the Gatling machine gun, a weapon of mass destruction, and as the legend goes, it was extremely ferocious, known as the meat grinder on the Songhu battlefield.

"Bastard!" Takahashi trembled with anger, replaced several commanders in a row, and launched more than a dozen attacks in a row, but to no avail, instead causing a large number of casualties among his own soldiers.

"Hit all the artillery fire and bombard the enemy bunkers!"

"But then the enemy's artillery fire will not be suppressed!"

"I can't care about it so much, I must destroy the Chinese Shence Army as soon as possible, I always feel that the sound of the battle on the harbor is wrong!"

Takahashi looked at the harbor and saw the artillery fire in the sky, but he had heard the sound of Japanese ships firing their guns, and now there were more artillery sounds that he was not familiar with, which showed that the Chinese navy was gaining the advantage in firepower.

"If the navy is defeated, our army will have no way to retreat, and if it can't defeat the battalion of the Chinese Shence Army, it will be even more passive!"

"The artillery fire of the Chinese Shence Army is too fierce, if we have no artillery support, the losses will be even greater!"

After repeated research, Takahashi finally gave up on deploying artillery to bombard the machine gun bunkers of the Chinese Shence Army, and instead adopted a new tactic of manually carrying slag bags to blow up the bunkers.

A group of Japanese samurai loyal to the emperor acted as death squads, carrying bags of slag and crawling towards the pillboxes in the distance.

Since it is nighttime. The limited line of sight gave the Japanese samurai a chance, and soon the machine gun bunkers of the Shence Army were blown up one by one.

However, in order to cover the bombing of the bunkers by the Japanese samurai, the Japanese army launched a series of fierce attacks, killing and wounding countless people.

Almost a machine-gun bunker will replace hundreds or even thousands of Japanese casualties, and this battle damage ratio makes Takahashi almost vomit blood with anger.

The Commander of the Twelfth Town watched the destruction of machine gun bunkers, and instead of being afraid, he sneered even more mysteriously.

"The front-line troops were ordered to abandon their outlying positions. Alternately cover the retreat and hold the second-line position! ”

The Shence army then alternated cover, quickly retreated to the second-line position, and abandoned the first-line position.

Soon, the Japanese army occupied the front-line position, and Takahashi in the rear was suddenly overjoyed, and the original desire to retreat was immediately reinvigorated.

"Attack! Offensive! The first soldier to attack was promoted to three ranks, and the first 100 soldiers who rushed in were rewarded with ten silver dollars! ”

There must be brave men under the heavy reward, and Takahashi's reward stimulated the nerves of the Japanese soldiers. They quickly forgot the danger of the battlefield, and rushed forward one by one with a scream.

The Chinese Shence Army continued to rely on shockwave positions made of reinforced concrete to block the attack, and the Gatling machine guns spewed tongues of fire and shot the Japanese non-stop. Sweeping a large field is as easy as cutting wheat.

The battle became more and more intense, and the Japanese army became more and more frenzied.

It stands to reason that the Chinese Shence Army has two town troops. A total of 54 guns, but at the moment only 125 cannons and 155 heavy howitzers are counterattacking, and 75-mm infantry guns are not moving.

It turned out that Zhang Qiang felt that if he used equipment to crush the Japanese army at the beginning. It will inevitably make the Japanese army frightened, and they will not dare to attack again or directly turn around and run.

This is not in line with Zhang Qiang's fighting character, he likes to encircle and annihilate, a nest of ends, so after discussing with the commander of the 12th Town, the 12th Town will stay in the barracks to attract Japanese firepower, and Zhang Qiang will take the second town with all the light 75 infantry guns to outflank the road, cut off the Japanese supply line from the side and rear, and then annihilate all the 50,000 Japanese troops in one fell swoop.

When the Japanese occupied the first-line positions and launched a charge against the second-line positions, they suddenly found dense machine-gun fire from the anti-slope.

Dada......

In the anti-slope bunker, five Gatling machine guns spewed tongues of fire, strafing the Japanese troops from the flanks, forming a crossfire network with the machine gun fire of the second-line Shence Army.

In the blink of an eye, thousands of Japanese troops were strafed by this crossfire, falling one by one, and rivers of blood flowed.

"Bastard!"

"I was ambushed again!"

Takahashi, who was watching the battle in the back, was so angry that he bit his tongue and lips, blood flowed, and his hideous face looked particularly terrifying in the dark.

"Withdraw quickly!"

When the Japanese army withdrew, Takahashi did not attack again, but counted the casualties, and the 50,000 Japanese troops he brought with him have now suffered more than half of the casualties.

Whether to continue the offensive or not, Takahashi did not speak, and a group of officers were waiting, waiting for news from the port.

Soon, the Japanese troops sent to the port came back to report that the West Sea Fleet had been completely destroyed.

Upon hearing this news, the Japanese army was immediately panicked, and without the navy, they were waiting to die on the Ryukyu Island.

"Retreat immediately!"

"Itahara Brigade is broken!"

Takahashi made the decision without hesitation.

However, just as the Japanese began to retreat one after another, the flank and rear suddenly burst into fire, and the second town finally went around the rear of the Japanese flank and launched a surprise attack.

The Japanese soldiers were panicked and wanted to retreat to Shuri as soon as possible, but the rear was suddenly attacked, and there was chaos for a while.

The second town of the Shence Army is the elite of the elite of the Chinese army, with extremely strong combat effectiveness and good weapons and equipment, coupled with the sudden attack, the front unit of the Japanese army is the Nagoya Brigade, but it was defeated by a charge from the second town of the Shence Army in less than ten minutes.

On the other side, the 12 towns of the Shence Army also launched a counter-charge at the appointed time, and although the Itahara Brigade was prepared, it was still wiped out within ten minutes.

Takahashi ordered all troops to defend on the spot, but the whole army was in chaos, the soldiers only thought about fleeing for their lives, and only a few hundred people around him could listen to Takahashi's orders.

The Shence army flanked back and forth, and the momentum was like a bamboo.

Relying on the superiority of equipment and the proper use of tactics and tactics, after half an hour of fierce fighting, the resistance of a large number of Japanese troops was finally cleared and Takahashi was captured. He was so angry that he vomited blood three liters and braided his hair directly.

By noon the next day, the sporadic gunfire finally ended, and the 50,000 Japanese troops were annihilated.

The gate of Shuri City slowly opened, and Shang Tai appeared on the head of the city in fear, until he saw that it was the Chinese Shence Army coming triumphantly, that he breathed a sigh of relief and hurried out of the city to greet him.

Yu Tao and Zhang Qiang dealt with the affairs of the navy and army respectively, and then led troops into the city together.

The mighty and majestic Chinese Shince Army paraded in Shuri Castle and received congratulations from the common people of the Ryukyus.

Celebration banquets are naturally indispensable, but Shang Tai still secretly met with Yu Tao and Zhang Qiang before. Ask what **** means.

"As a vassal state of the Empire, Ryukyu can only pay tribute to the Empire in the future, and the military and diplomatic command of the Ryukyus can only be commanded by the Imperial Government in the future, and the King of the Ryukyus has no right to interfere. However, the Imperial Government would retain the title of King of the Ryukyus, and the King of the Ryukyus would still have administrative jurisdiction over the Ryukyus without prejudice to the decrees issued by the Imperial Government. ”

Beat Shang Tai with a stick first, and then give him a sweet date to eat.

Sure enough, Shang Tai's face was like ashes when he heard the first half of the sentence. However, when he heard that he was still the king of the Ryukyus and still had administrative jurisdiction over the Ryukyus, he was immediately relieved, which was much more relaxed than the conditions of the Japanese. Because Japan was completely annexed to the Ryukyus, the Shotai royal family was imprisoned in Edo and never saw the light of day. On the contrary, although the Chinese government also annexed the Ryukyus, it at least ensured the interests of Shangtai himself and his family, and the lesser of two evils. Shang Tai immediately accepted this condition.

The two sides negotiated the conditions, so the next celebration banquet was much easier, and both parties were happy. Only the pro-Japanese officials were terrified, because their backers had been defeated, and the fate that awaited them was bound to be bleak.

After the celebration, Zhang Qiang obtained evidence of pro-Japanese officials from Shang Tai and pro-Chinese officials, and began the Great Purge. All pro-Japanese factions were dismissed and questioned, and those who were lighter were demoted to commoners and those who were more serious were shot, and there was no choice between them and going to prison.

The takeover of the Ryukyus began quickly, and all Japanese were not welcomed, and they were forcibly expelled or imprisoned in concentration camps.

On the third day, the news reached Shanghai, and Li Weiguo finally breathed a sigh of relief, the Ryukyus were returned, and the Japanese West Sea Fleet was completely wiped out except for the Izumi ship, which escaped.

The Ryukyu king Shotai was to enter Beijing a month later to receive the canonization of the Chinese emperor, so Li Weiguo had no choice but to end this southern tour and return to Beijing.

At the same time, the 39th Town of the Chinese Shence Army has successfully entered the Ili region (Xinjiang), the 40th Town has entered Uriya Sutai (Outer Mongolia), the 41st Town has entered Ulanqab (Inner Mongolia), the 42nd Town has entered Krawusu (Tibet), and the 43rd Town has successfully stationed in Erut (Qinghai) in the West Sea.

Since Tibet has nominally agreed to be under the jurisdiction of the central government, the entry of the 42nd town into Krawusu was not blocked, after all, the central army came under the banner of preventing the invasion of the Russian army, so the local forces in Tibet could not refute it, and could only watch the imperial army enter Tibet.

However, although the officers and men of the 42nd Town were mentally prepared, the altitude sickness was still very strong, and not long after arriving in Tibet, more than 1,000 officers and men fell ill and were immediately transferred out of Tibet, and at the same time troops were transferred from other places to replenish them.

Fortunately, Tibet was resolved peacefully, and if it was a war, the local forces in Tibet would only need to fight guerrilla warfare to bring down the Chinese Shence Army.

Li Weiguo was very glad to get this news, thanks to the fact that he finally chose to settle the Tibet issue peacefully, otherwise he would have died of a headache.

On the day Li Weiguo returned to the capital, the 39th town in Xinjiang also sent back the first letter of success.

The battle report was still ten days ago.

After the 39 towns entered Xinjiang, with the cooperation of the local Ili general, they first relieved the siege of Kurhara Wusu, severely damaged the 7th Ranger Regiment of Tsarist Russia, and annihilated more than 800 enemies.

Then the 39 towns marched to Ili City, and fought fiercely with the main force of the 7th Ranger Regiment of Tsarist Russia in Ningyuan City for three days and three nights, and finally the 39 towns destroyed the city wall of Ningyuan with 155 mm heavy howitzers, and the 7th Ranger Regiment of Tsarist Russia suffered heavy casualties and was forced to abandon Ningyuan and retreat to Ili City.

In this battle, the Chinese Shence Army suffered more than 600 casualties and annihilated more than 3,000 enemies. Due to the huge consumption of ammunition, the logistics supply could not keep up, so he could only hold Ningyuan in a stalemate with the Russian army and wait for the logistics supply.

In the Northwest Campaign, especially in the era of hot weapons, logistics must keep up, otherwise even if the war is won, the occupation will have to be abandoned. In the Sino-Indian border war that year, it was because the logistics could not keep up, and if it was won, it had to retreat.

Now Li Weiguo also knows that the northwest road is difficult, and the logistics and transportation are very difficult, especially like the 155 mm heavy howitzers used by the Shence Army, the transportation of weapons and ammunition is very heavy. Even with truck support, there are few roads suitable for trucks, and most of them have to be pulled by mules and horses.

The railways in the Great Northwest must be built as soon as possible, and the sooner they are opened to traffic, the sooner the central government can strengthen its control over the Great Northwest Region, and vice versa, the risk of being one day later will be one day greater.

This is also one of the reasons why Li Weiguo was unwilling to start a full-scale war with Tsarist Russia in the northwest at this time, and only sent a small town of troops to recover the Ili region, because there was a full-scale war with Tsarist Russia, and it would be useless to have fewer troops.

Unless the railway is opened, it is impossible for Li Weiguo to make a big move in the great northwest region.

Of course, small wars can still be fought, and it doesn't matter how many years they last, after all, the great northwest is poor at the moment and has little value, so Li Weiguo can afford to drag it out, and the longer it drags on, the more dependent the tribes in the great northwest will have to rely on the central court, which is very beneficial to the central government's strengthening of control over the great northwest.

A month later, King Shotai of the Ryukyus arrived in Beijing with a delegation of envoys.

Li Weiguo received Shangtai at the Taihe Palace and made Shangtai the king of the Ryukyus.

The only difference is that in the past, when the kings of the Ryukyus were crowned kings, they would reward a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry, but this time Li Weiguo did not do that.

In his eyes, force determines everything, **** Shangguo is only effective within the range of artillery, if there is no strength, just by giving money to appease the vassal country, just for a face is a stupid act.

Li Weiguo only symbolically rewarded some domestic industrial goods, which he brought back from Shanghai, mostly textiles and handicrafts.

Shang Tai was not happy when he saw such a small reward, but when he faced Li Weiguo's fierce eyes, he was afraid in his heart, and that dissatisfaction disappeared immediately.

The weak always fear only the strong!

This time, Li Weiguo canonized the Ryukyu Kingdom, specially notified the ministers of European and American countries in China, as well as the envoys of the small countries of Fanbang who were nominally attached to China before, and let them witness this historical moment together.

In the eyes of the European and American powers, the so-called vassal states of the Qing Dynasty were only an alliance, not a colonial relationship.

This time, however, Li Weiguo clearly stipulated that the Ryukyu Kingdom had no diplomatic and military powers, only administrative powers, and this provision clearly referred to the relationship between colonies and overseas territories in the thinking of the great powers.

In this way, the Ryukyu Kingdom would be equivalent to China's colonies or overseas autonomous territories, and the European and American powers would not be able to bypass the Chinese government in conducting diplomatic and military exchanges with the Ryukyu Kingdom alone.

This was a disguised warning that made clear China's absolute suzerainty over the vassal states.

As for the envoys of other vassal states, they are also aware of this, and they can no longer treat the **** kingdom as a stupid and money-rich second goods, and if they want to get China's protection in the future, they must hand over their diplomatic and military rights, otherwise they will not want to take advantage of China again.

These small countries, which have taken advantage of thousands of years, are suddenly a little uncomfortable. (To be continued.) )