"Songpo, do you need help?" Jiang Fangzhen and Zhang Runnong grinned and found Cai Songpo, the head of the regiment, and Zhang Runnong asked when they met. At 9:40 p.m. that night, the 2nd Marine Regiment and the Artillery Regiment arrived in Kagoshima and swept away the batteries along the way.

After shaking hands with the two, Cai Songpo breathed a sigh of relief, after the Japanese army pushed into the city, his regiment did not rush into the city, and the night battle and street fighting, Cai Songpo was not so reckless.

"Of course it is needed, the above requires Kagoshima to be taken before midnight, and the intelligence indicates that the Japanese 14th Division is rushing here, and the unloading of the landing fleet must be completed as soon as possible." Cai Songpo said.

"Fighting overnight? It's not easy to fight! Jiang Fangzhen said.

The division commander Lu Bao, who was with the first regiment, had a plan in his heart, and after the second regiment and the artillery regiment converged, Lu Bao summoned the three regiment commanders and issued combat orders.

"Shelling Kagoshima directly? The artillery shells of our regiment are enough, but will they cause a large number of civilian casualties? Zhang Runnong was a little surprised when he heard the order of the division commander Lu Bao, this division commander is so ruthless!

"The order of the General Staff, immediately execute, what are you talking about!"

Runnong, who had been reprimanded by the division commander, returned to the artillery position in a gloomy manner and organized a fire strike. Even so, the three regiment commanders were full of insults at the orders of the division commander or the general staff, and they should indeed be ruthless in the face of the enemy, but there are a large number of civilians in Kagoshima, isn't this a war crime?

"Is the war against the enemy country so cruel, it seems that we are still too naïve, the war against Japan will not end in a short time, we must be conscious as middle-level officers!" Among the three, Jiang Fangzhen was the calmest, and said to the two. Runnon nodded, looked up at the dark Kagoshima city, and said to himself, "I'm sorry!" ”

The artillery regiment and the artillery battalions of each regiment opened fire on the city of Kagoshima with various types of artillery aimed at the city of Kagoshima. Kagoshima has 37,000 civilians. After about 1,000 armed men, Kagoshima was in flames after half an hour of shelling, and only the port area was not shelled, where more than 3,000 civilians fled for their lives, due to the scorching heat caused by the fire in the city. Most of the more than 3,000 civilians in the port area and the 300 soldiers guarding the port jumped into the sea to escape the heat and lack of oxygen.

The fire continued to burn, and the Marines could not have imagined that the fire would last so long, and the whole city was burning, so they could only wait outside. Destroyers had already appeared on the sea to clear mines, and the fire in Kagoshima was like a lighthouse to point the way for the destroyer detachment, and the progress of mine clearance was not fast overnight, and the task was not completed until more than 3 o'clock in the morning of the 27th. At this time, the fire in Kagoshima finally became smaller.

Lü Bao sent a company of soldiers to try to enter the harbor from where the fire had been extinguished, and the soldiers who did not encounter any resistance along the way were in agony, and they had to endure the pungent smell. Enduring the discomfort of the stomach caused by the charred corpse, and enduring the heat of the fire, it is like a burning fire.

The port was also implicated in the fire, but fortunately there was a breeze at night, and there were relatively few buildings in the port area, so it was finally complete, and the Japanese soldiers guarding it were also responsible for lighting the explosives that had been planted, but they all hid in the sea at night. Most of them sink to the bottom of the sea. Zhen **** was lucky to get a relatively complete port, which is the biggest goal of the raider Kagoshima.

Preliminary statistics. More than 23,000 civilians were killed or injured in the Kagoshima fire, accounting for two-thirds of the total, which is the reason for the recent heavy rain and damp houses. Japan, which is mostly made of wooden houses, is like a big fire, waiting for the artillery of the Zhenguo Army to ignite.

At three o'clock in the afternoon of the 27th, light rain fell from the sky, and the temperature in Kagoshima returned to normal. The Marines entered the city and formed defensive positions nearby. After a simple repair of the engineering troops in the port, the landing fleet approached the pier in turn and began to load and unload soldiers and cargo in large quantities. The soldiers, who had been floating on the sea for a day and a night, were finally able to land on solid ground.

"This is the victory you promised! Is this what it is called 'one Russian soldier defeats three Japanese soldiers'? The defeat of the Pacific Fleet, the fall of Lushun, the defeat of Liaoyang, and the defeat of the Battle of Mukden, are you using your defeat to repay my trust in you? "In the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Nicholas II is losing his temper in military uniform. This is the tenth time since the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War that he has fired at his opponents, and the expensive porcelain in the Winter Palace has suffered, and His Majesty the Tsar will drop the bottle whenever he gets angry.

The debris on the ground made the former minister Alexander feel distressed, but the tsar in front of him was even more troublesome. Before the war, it was you who advocated the war, and now the war is unfavorable and blames us, but as a courtier, isn't it just for the emperor to be angry! Next to him, Minister of Internal Affairs Previ, Minister of Finance Werther, and Foreign Minister Ramsdorff also lowered their heads and listened to His Majesty's reprimand, but Werther and Ramsdorff were a little gloating, and the two had advocated being cautious before, waiting for the opportunity to fight a decisive battle after the opening of the Baikal section of Siberia and the completion of the Lushun and the outer fortresses. So now is their time for pride.

"Your Majesty, the main forces of Kuropatkin's Far Eastern forces are still alive, and although our fleet has lost, it has not been without the strength to fight. Aleksev and Kuropatkin are trying to restore the morale of their troops, stock up supplies, and plan their next battle. Alexander waited for Nicholas II to calm down a little and then said.

Unexpectedly, this sentence made Nicholas II's anger explode again: "Do you continue to plan to fail?" The face of Tsarist Russia was lost to those two people! And the fool Rozhdestvinsky, who actually sank an entire fleet into the Pacific Ocean, and the stupider generals than him were Kuropatkin and Aleksev! ”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer added fuel to the fire: "Your Majesty, the war cannot continue, let's talk about peace." The French bankers will not continue to lend to us, the treasury is empty because of this war, the war that has lasted for more than a year has exhausted our national strength, and the financial situation is not optimistic! ”

Foreign Minister Ramsdorff said: "Your Majesty, the British, French and Americans will all help us speak for the peace talks, they don't want to see a Russia that dominates the Far East, and they don't want to see Japan that dominates the Far East, and they will inevitably limit the expansion of the Japanese in the peace talks, and if it is divided by the actual occupation line, we will not suffer too much loss in the Far East!" ”

Ramsdorff's last sentence stabbed Nicholas II in the sore spot: "Don't suffer? Our only ice-free port in the Far East is about to be lost, so is it still called a loss? ”

Ramsdorff was speechless, and the Russian desire to find an outlet to the sea crossed the boundaries of time, and was tirelessly pursued by generations, and this desire was one of the sources of many wars in modern times, including the Crimean War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the struggle for the Middle East with Britain.

"Your Majesty, there are many problems in the country, the revolutionary party is ready to move, and the financial situation is suffering, so it is better to seek a decent solution." Alexander, the main war faction, had to give in to reality and also persuaded Nicholas II. In fact, the biggest problem in the country is corruption, how many soldiers on the front line are because of the corruption of officials and generals and do not get enough ammunition supplies, and the Japanese have to retreat in the pig rush charge and lose the war, but this is something Alexander will not mention to Nicholas II, and no high-ranking official will mention it to Nicholas II, because they are the most corrupt officials.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, great news!" A palace attendant brandished a telegram and broke into the high-level conference room of His Majesty the Emperor without manners, attracting more than a dozen murderous glances.

Nicholas II, who was angry, ignored the fact that the person who came was one of his favorite chamberlains, and was just about to open his mouth to kill him, when he heard this chamberlain say in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, the Chinese Pacific Fleet suddenly attacked the Japanese Combined Fleet, and sank nine Japanese capital ships on the night of the 25th, and the Japanese Combined Fleet was destroyed, Your Majesty!" The chamberlain couldn't hide his excitement, and his hand holding the telegram trembled slightly.

This news was so sudden and incredible that Nicholas II took the telegram and studied it with his ministers for more than half an hour, and if it was true, it would be a surprise for Russia, and the impact on the war in the Far East would be immeasurable!

As news came one after another, the accuracy of the destruction of the Japanese Combined Fleet was confirmed, and the Chinese fleet avenged itself. At six o'clock in the evening of the 26th, Nicholas II got the greatest good news, Huaguo landed on the Japanese island of Kyushu and stabbed the Japanese in the soft underbelly! Moreover, the Japanese army in the northeast had already experienced a decline in morale and insufficient supplies, and Kuropatkin, Minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the Far Eastern Army, planned a skirmish, and after a trial it was found that the Japanese were really afraid and took the initiative to retreat some distance, which also proved the accuracy of the information. In addition, the world's major mainstream newspapers reported the outcome of the war, from laughing at the Russians to ridiculing the Japanese, so that the disgraced Nicholas II finally hugged the old face. (To be continued.) )