As of the early morning of June 28, more than 30,000 marines and all kinds of materials were loaded and unloaded, and the transport fleet returned to China under the protection of the escort fleet.

The port of Kagoshima did not become calm due to the departure of the landing fleet, but became more busy, and the First and Second Armies from the ports of Hangzhou and Shanghai arrived in Kagoshima one after another, carrying more heavy equipment and requiring more loading and unloading, and it became the world of engineers.

A large military camp was established near the city of Kagoshima, and the 1st Marine Division sent a part of its troops south to the Satsuma Peninsula with the goal of taking full control of the peninsula, while the rest of the 1st Division temporarily rested, maintained law and order in the vicinity of the Kagoshima city, helped build the barracks, and coordinated the landing of the larger army brothers.

The 2nd Marine Division went north and established a defensive line in the area from Makien to the capital more than 30 kilometers north of Kagoshima, and the 3rd Marine Division established a defensive line from Kawanai to Makien to firmly guard the vast landing ground. The Japanese did not give the Marines more time to build fortifications, and the 18th Cavalry Wing of the 14th Division, which had departed in advance, had already arrived near the defensive line, reconnoitring along the line, and seeing that they were about to move, they seemed to be very interested in storming the infantry line.

At about nine o'clock in the morning of the 28th, Utsunomiya led the 14th Division to the front line of Makien, and according to intelligence, the number of Chinese troops landing in Kyushu had exceeded 100,000, so Utsunomiya did not rush to attack, but waited for reinforcements from other forces in Kyushu.

"Major General Mito, it seems that Huaguo is not ready to attack!" The commander of the division, Lieutenant General Utsunomiya, rode on a horse and held a telescope to observe the defense line of the Huaguo army, surrounded by a group of subordinates and guards.

"Your Excellency, Division Commander. The Chinese Army did not seem to be as unbearable as the legend said, they had built the fortifications in an orderly manner in a short time, and the defensive line was long, and at least two divisions of troops were on this defensive line, which was not something that our 14th Division could oppose. Although he was very reluctant, he was anxious to see the enemy country conquer his own territory. But after observation, the commander of the 27th Infantry Brigade, Major General Mito, had to admit that the enemy was stronger than himself.

"So the enemy is only on the defensive, they can't land in Japan with great fanfare, just for the sake of the tiny Satsuma Peninsula! Our 14th Division was formed in too short a short time, individual units lacked soldiers and officers, and their equipment was relatively backward compared with first-class divisions, so it was probably inappropriate to rashly attack the enemy. Takasaki, commander of the 28th Infantry Brigade, said.

Utsunomiya nodded, they were all iron-clad Satsuma men, and of course they would not be afraid because the enemy was strong. Rather, the reality and General Obaogong have asked to wait until enough troops are gathered before launching an attack, and then they will use Nogi Noshinori's pig assault tactics to drive Huaguo into the sea!

At around five o'clock in the morning of the 29th, Lieutenant General Utsunomiya, who was the commander of the Kyushu garrison, gave the order to attack the enemy's defensive line. All eight reserve brigades temporarily formed by the Kyushu garrison arrived at the front line and were placed under the command of Utsunomiya. In addition, reserve soldiers mobilized by Okuhoko from Honshu, Shikoku, Hokkaido, etc., also gathered on Kyushu Island.

The Japanese army in the northeast repeatedly shrank, and in a few days the logistical problems became apparent, Marshal Dashanyan had no rice to cook, and the morale of the army was unstable. In the face of the imminent Russian army, it is still unknown whether it can hold on to its previous gains. However, Japan's focus has been on the side of expelling the Chinese army. For the Northeast, Dashanyan was strictly ordered to hold the line from the Liaodong Peninsula to North Korea.

The Japanese army collected artillery pieces of various calibers and eras from various arsenals, and after they were gathered, there were more than 400 guns, and Lieutenant General Utsunomiya had never experienced such a large-scale artillery bombardment, and he was a little excited to see the artillery position, and immediately gave the order to start the shelling.

Marine artillery crews immediately began calculations based on observational balloon and ballistic data, and quickly marked the locations of several Japanese artillery positions. The artillery who had been waiting for the battle immediately entered a busy state, one shell after another flew out of the barrel, and there was no time to care about the tortured ears, and the artillerymen immediately entered the preparation for the next round of shelling.

The Japanese attack was launched in the Muyuan area, in the middle of the Marine defense line, and the 2nd Marine Division deliberately strengthened the defense on this side. And all the artillery of the second division was concentrated here, and more than 140 guns of various types were at an absolute disadvantage in terms of numbers, but after the artillery battle began, the Japanese artillery was constantly destroyed.

The range of the Japanese artillery was too close to reach the enemy's artillery position, and Lieutenant General Utsunomiya turned from excitement to disappointment, and immediately adjusted his tactics and asked the artillery to directly attack the enemy's defensive position. Nearly an hour of artillery fighting inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese artillery, and the artillery positions were littered with human stumps and artillery wreckage.

Seeing that the enemy's defensive positions were swept by artillery, Utsunomiya ordered the infantry to attack, and as long as the enemy's infantry defensive positions were breached, its seemingly powerful artillery would be useless.

The first to attack was the 1st Brigade of the Kyushu Garrison, and most of these reservists were civilians, and a small number were retired veterans. Led by armed veterans, the recruits shouted and charged the enemy positions with katanas, bamboo guns, bows and arrows, etc., and the mobilization before the charge filled these Japanese soldiers with hatred and fanaticism, and most of them had no hope of returning alive.

Even the rifles in the hands of retired veterans are single-shot rifles, the number of reserves is too large, and the Japanese stocks of weapons are insufficient. At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, in order to save money, the Japanese upper echelons ordered a large number of war materials from China, including weapons and ammunition, but all of these materials were used on the front line of the war. When China stopped selling supplies to Japan in early 1905, the materials ordered from Britain, France, the United States and other countries could not be shipped for a while, so the reserve forces could only continue to use old-fashioned weapons and cold weapons.

If Japan had ordered supplies from Britain and the United States from the beginning, it would not have been without weapons to use now. It is important to know that it takes a lot of time for weapons to come down from a series of procedures such as placing an order, organizing production, and transporting, and it takes even longer from small batches to large-scale. Japan's own production capacity is even worse, most of its resources are used on the navy, a little bit of steel has been turned into steel plates for warships, and now even the largest steel factory in the country, Yaman Steelworks, has been shelled, and most of the overseas routes have been blocked by the Chinese fleet, so it can be said that Japan's war potential has now fallen to the lowest point.

In terms of overall strength, Japan only has the advantage of human resources, and they can recruit soldiers to go to the front at any time on their own territory, and Japan, with a population of more than 40 million, can spare the lives of its soldiers. Moreover, Japanese civilians have a very strong bushido spirit, and they are willing to die for the emperor and fight without risk.

The fighting spirit of the Japanese army brought a lot of trouble to the defending troops, and the so-called trouble was just to put the soldiers into a state of tension. After coming out of the anti-artillery holes, the soldiers entered the firing point and prepared for the onslaught around the defensive positions with machine guns as the core.

Minefields, barbed wire, rain of bullets, shells, the Marines could not build tighter fortifications in less than two days, but these simple layers of defense cost the Japanese army a heavy price, the 1st Brigade of the Reserve Regiment from the brigade commander to the most ordinary soldiers are charging, more than 8,000 troops scattered on the broad front of the frantic assault, in front of the Marine Corps defense spread a layer of corpses.

With the experience of fighting with Zhen ****, the Japanese army prepared sapper pliers and other tools in advance, and several sappers who were lucky enough to rush to the barbed wire began to cut the barbed wire, but they were soon hit by machine gun bullets, and the Japanese soldiers behind took over. The Japanese army, who was not afraid of death, finally opened several breaches in front of the barbed wire fortifications, and the Japanese army swarmed in.

It is Japan's fortune to have such soldiers, and there is no officer who does not want to have such soldiers who are not afraid of death, but the Marine officers and soldiers on the positions did not have time to sigh, and they focused their energies on how to maximize the use of the weapons in their hands in order to fight more accurately and shoot more ammunition in the shortest possible time.

The closer they got to the position, the denser the firepower became, and the short distance of one hundred meters seemed insurmountable, and the Japanese soldiers, who had almost lost their minds, finally flinched in the face of death, and the first wave of attacks failed, and the soldiers of the 1st Brigade who returned to the starting position were less than 2,000 people, and most of the officers, including the brigade commander, were killed.

Of course, Utsunomiya will not be sad or disappointed by this matter, the reservists are all cannon fodder in his heart, used to consume the enemy's ammunition and morale, and the pig assault tactic will continue until the enemy bows his head in front of the sea of people in the Great Japanese Empire.

The rumbling artillery sound on the front line made Cai Songpo and the three people walking in the ruins of Kagoshima secretly anxious, and the higher authorities ordered the 1st Marine Division and the 1st and 2nd Army Corps to stand still and prepare for attack. Now that the First and Second Armies had been ordered to go to the front, only the 1st Marine Division, which had landed on the merits, remained in the city as a military policeman.

Division Commander Lu Bao went to the headquarters for a meeting, and Zhen ****, which landed in Japan, including the Marine Corps, was temporarily organized into the First Group Army, but he did not hear that there were other units in the country that would go to Japan. (To be continued.) )