Suburbs of Laiyang City...

At the air base on the outskirts of Laiyang City, ground crews were asking the pilots of several reconnaissance planes that had just stopped about the traces of the fleet.

However, after hearing the inquiry from the ground staff, the drivers all shook their heads.

"We flew around Jiaozhou Bay, but we still didn't find any trace of myself..."

As he spoke, one of the pilots in the lead jumped off the plane and looked at his watch.

"I'm afraid those people won't be here today..."

Hearing the pilot say this, the ground crew nodded either disappointed or happy.

For them, perhaps it would be best if war never happened, after all, many Chinese and foreign newspapers now have no expectations for the Wehrmacht. In their opinion, Yue Ben greatly surpassed China in both national strength and military strength, not to mention that the war still took place near the sea, which brought him a great advantage.

"But it's raining a lot today..."

However, while the pilot was talking to the ground crew, a group of reconnaissance planes suddenly flew back from a distance and landed on the airfield under the guidance of the control tower.

Watching this group of four reconnaissance planes taxiing on the runway of the airport, a pilot said to his companion on the side.

"This team should have gone to Weihai to investigate, and I don't know if they found anything."

Hearing his words, the other pilot shook his head and said.

"I've seen enough..."

However, while they were still guessing, the four pilots climbed off the plane as fast as they could, and then broke free from the ground crew that helped them down, and quickly ran towards the control tower.

Seeing this scene, although the pilots didn't say anything.

But the pilots who watched this scene, as well as a group of ground crew, and the airport personnel in other positions, all felt that something was wrong.

"So flustered," one of the pilots muttered. I guess they found out..."

While the group was still speculating on the airport, the four pilots had already run into the control tower, but as soon as they entered the control tower, an officer with the rank of major had already come out and reprimanded.

"Slow down, what are you guys flustered about..."

It's no wonder that this major will reprimand them, because he is the boss of these four pilots, and he is also the captain of this fighter group―――――― of course, the current single-engine aircraft can only be used for reconnaissance purposes, and the others attack the enemy or something, "poof...", so you can call them a reconnaissance aircraft group.

And when he was still on the command tower just now, he had already seen his subordinates panicked, so he walked down directly with a deep sense of shame.

It's just that before this major can educate his subordinates, the commander of the four-plane formation has already said loudly.

"Sir, we've found traces of the Navy's fleet!"

"What?!"

Hearing him do this, the major didn't care about reprimanding anything, and hurriedly stepped forward and asked.

"You've found traces of me?"

"That's right, we also went to the top of Yue himself's head to confirm that it is indeed Yu himself's main fleet!"

"Where did you find them?!"

At this time, the major was already a little excited, you must know that although they had received the news of the departure of the expeditionary force a few days ago, they had not found any trace of Yue himself these days, and now...

"Is the war finally coming?"

The pilot didn't know that his boss in front of him was excited about the impending war, so he just continued.

"We found them near the waters of Longkou Bay!"

"Longkou Bay?"

Hearing the name of Longkouwan, the major frowned.

Longkou Bay is located on the west side of Yantai and Weihaiwei, and to put it simply, Longkou Bay and Jiaozhou Bay are opposite to each other in the north.

Now that he actually came straight to Longkou Bay, this was really beyond the major's expectations.

It's just that although he is the captain of a fighter brigade, this kind of thing is not his turn after all, so after nodding, he looked at the four humans.

"Let's go, you guys and I go to the base commander!"

As he spoke, the Major led a few men and walked briskly towards the top of the control tower.

After ascending the control tower, the commander of the base was also surprised when he learned that the expeditionary force had been found near the waters of Longkou Bay.

However, to be a colonel, after all, it is impossible to be the same as ordinary people, so just by being surprised, the commander of the base has already calmed down.

"Quick, send a report in the direction of Jinan, just say that our reconnaissance plane unit has discovered the main force of the expeditionary force in Longkou Bay, and we will report back to you later on the detailed deployment."

As he spoke, the base commander looked at the pilots.

"Let's talk carefully about which ships have been found in the waters of Longkou Bay." Then he said to the telegraph operator. "Remember, telegraph operator."

"Yes!"

The telegraph operator answered, and then picked up the pen and paper.

The pilot also knew that the matter was urgent, so without a short delay, he had already told the commander everything he had seen in the sky at that time.

Listening to the pilot's report, the commander's face suddenly became gloomy.

“……… Listening to what you just said, it seems that this is indeed the main force of the expeditionary force of the Ben..."

As he spoke, the commander took the paper recorded by the telegraph operator, looked at it, and nodded.

"Quick, send this to Jinan too."

"Yes!"

――――――――――

Although the distance between Jinan and Laiyang is not close, through wireless telegraphy, Laiyang's information was quickly transmitted to Jinan.

After obtaining information from Laiyang, Cai Ye and Yin Changheng, who were still in Jinan, were not too surprised, because Cai Ye had also considered that the Yue army would land there.

However, limited to the troops on hand, it was not enough to defend all the landing sites on the Shandong Peninsula, so Cai Ye could only deploy troops in important locations such as Jinan, Laiyang and Jiaozhou Bay, and other places could only choose to give up.

"Sure enough, without the support of the Navy, this situation is really passive..."

Without the support of the Navy, it is indeed too passive. Because it is possible for the enemy to land anywhere, and they cannot hold all of them.

But...

Even if they could hold all the landing points, they wouldn't do that.

Because according to the plan formulated in advance, the more than 50,000 troops of the expeditionary force will land on the Shandong Peninsula quite smoothly, and then they will stay on this land forever...

In the entire establishment of the army, there are only 18 divisions and regiments, and counting the Guards divisions that have never been dispatched, they are 19 standing divisions. And now, in order to take Shandong, he himself has dispatched two divisions at one time, if these two divisions can be left behind, then even if they can't break their muscles and bones, they will definitely be distressed for a long time.

"Fortunately, the people in the place where the army may land have been evacuated in advance..."

"yes," Yin Changheng also nodded. The people in Jiaozhou Bay, Longkou Bay and other places have been evacuated, otherwise when the war is together, I really don't know what will happen to the people there..."

Although Cai Ye and Yin Changheng are still young, they also know what the army did in Lushun back then. If the army had done something unforgivable to the local population after the landing, the consequences would have been unimaginable...

Merely...

Cai Ye and Yin Changheng were too optimistic about their predictions.

"Dad, those soldiers let us stay in Jinan for a while, and we come back like this, will something happen?"

In a village, a middle-aged woman in her 40s said with some concern.

"Those soldiers said that there was going to be a war recently..."

However, after listening to her words, the middle-aged man on the side said while unlocking the lock.

"What is there to worry about, those Orientals are here, is it difficult for us ordinary people?" Saying this, the middle-aged man had already unlocked the door of his house, and then beckoned. "Come in and see if we've lost anything since we're gone..."

Hearing her husband talk about the things at home, the woman also temporarily let go of her worries.

True, as early as the beginning of August, the troops deployed in Shandong had already begun to evacuate the people along the coast. However, not everyone is so cooperative, if they don't cooperate, it doesn't matter, and the worst thing is that after being evacuated, there are still many people sneaking back to their homes.

And there are not a few people like this, and the evacuation was carried out in a hurry, and the Wehrmacht, who was responsible for the evacuation, was simply not able to make detailed statistics, and as a result ...

Just like now, in Huangxian County (now Longkou City), hundreds of ordinary people sneaked back. And in the villages near the county seat, there are not many such people.

Perhaps for these people, they did not understand the difference between the Wehrmacht and the Army, nor did they understand what a war between countries was, and they did not know the old story of Lushun.

Of course, this does not mean that they are ignorant. In fact, they were very clever, because in some newspapers in Shandong, it was clearly stated that their targets were only Jiaozhou Bay and Qingdao.

And their Huang County is separated from Qingdao by several counties and towns...

In their opinion, it is a real war, and that is also a matter of Qingdao, what does it have to do with them ordinary people?

"When the Qing Dynasty was still there, those green battalions and patrol battalions were so bad, and I haven't heard that they did anything to slaughter villages and destroy towns, and those Oriental people are bad, and they can't be worse than them, right?"

With this attitude, the people who sneaked back home were not very worried.

However, the fact is that if there are no accidents, the military discipline of the Yue army may be much better than that of the Green Battalion, the Patrol Battalion, and even some Shandong garrisons during the Republic of China, but if something happens...

At that time, the army will become even worse than the demons...

――――――――――

On the afternoon of 15 August, the huge main fleet of the Chinese army arrived at Longkou Bay.

Subsequently, in the panicked expressions of the people of Huang County, a group of naval soldiers took the lead in landing.

"But if you want us to do these things for the army's horse manure, it's really..."

Jumping from the dinghy to the shore, a Navy soldier complained.

But a soldier on the other side said with a smile.

"Okay, don't complain, who told those horse manure troop carriers to sail so slowly, in the end we can only come up and have a look..."

After being discovered by the Wehrmacht's reconnaissance planes, Yuzaburo Kato ordered the fleet to sail at full speed to Longkou Bay, in order to complete the landing mission on Longkou Bay before the squadron reacted.

It's just that even in the fleet of the expeditionary force, the speed of the voyage must be divided into three, six, nine and so on. Among them, the fastest ships and battlecruisers were of course the Hanoi and King Kong-class battleships, and the slowest were the battleships and armored cruisers that were built before the Russo-Russian War, and of course, those troop carriers carrying the Japanese army...

The battleships and cruisers in the expeditionary fleet, even the old-fashioned ones, have no problem running at a speed of 20 knots, but these troop carriers ...

Looking at the slow appearance of the troop carrier, Yuzaburo Kato had no choice.

In the end, he had to leave a few armored cruisers and destroyer formations to escort the troop carriers, and he took the capital ships to Longkou Bay first―――――― he was not afraid that the fleet left behind would be attacked by the Chinese Navy, first, the Chinese Navy could not react so quickly, and second, even if the Chinese Navy really came, don't look at the ships left by Yuzaburo Kato are only second-class ships in the Yumoto Navy, but there is no problem in dealing with the current Chinese Navy.

What's more, according to the information obtained by Yuzaburo Kato, all the main ships of the Chinese Navy have been withdrawn to Fujian, and even the "Catherine" given to China by Austria-Hungary for free? The same was true of the "Queen Elizabeth" armored cruiser.

This armored cruiser with a displacement of 4,030 tons is powered by a steam engine, has a speed of 20 knots, and is equipped with eight 150mm naval guns. It was when the agreement signed between China and Germany came into force and was announced to the world that Austria-Hungary gave it to China for free―――――― anyway, it is unlikely that they will drive this armored cruiser back to Europe, it is better to do a favor directly, after all, the relationship between China and the Allies is not bad now.

It is better to give it to the Chinese than to let this armored cruiser sink or fall into the hands of the Entente.

In fact, this armored cruiser is now undergoing simple modifications on the slipway of the Fuzhou Ship Administration, such as replacing the eight 150mm naval guns on it with four twin 210mm naval guns, after all, the power of the 150mm caliber naval guns is too small, and "Catherine? The Empress Elizabeth "has enough tonnage and space for him to carry so much equipment."

As for replacing the steam engine with a steam turbine, this is not necessary, after all, if you want to change the power, you need to do a lot of surgery, and in that case, it will take too much time―――――― with this effort, how good is it to build a cruiser of the same tonnage?

"I originally wanted to take advantage of this war to consume the last bit of blood and blood of the Chinese Navy..."Looking at a large group of naval soldiers who boarded Huang County, Kato Yuzaburo said with a smile.

He didn't worry about the authenticity of the information, because even if the information was false, the Chinese Navy would not be able to pose any threat to the expeditionary force.

In the Pacific, with all the elite of the British Imperial Navy transferred back to Europe, no navy other than the United States could threaten the safety of the Tsumoto Navy, and Kato Yuzaburo was convinced of this...

――――――――――

Although Kamio Mitsutomi's troop transport fleet fell a lot of distance behind Kato Yuzaburo's main fleet, it only took more than half an hour for Kamio Mitsutomi's team to catch up.

It's just that when he commanded the divisions to land in Huang County, Kato Yuzaburo had already arranged everything in Huang County...

After landing in Huang County, Kato Yuzaburo had already dispatched naval soldiers to post pre-printed notices throughout the county.

There are not many contents on the notice, there are only five in total.

First, those who obstruct all the actions of the army will be beheaded.

Second, cut off the power supply or dump the loss of the person to behead.

3. Reward the person who detains or specifies the informant.

Fourth, if you don't know the crime, harbor the bandits, neighbors, and township guards will be severely punished.

5. If there is one person in the village who obstructs the movement of the army, the people of the village will be beheaded.

Although these are all printed by the military, it is a pity that at this time, the total number of people in Huangxian County is less than 1,000, and the total number of people in the county can never exceed 3,000, so everything Kato Yuzaburo did is really useless...

(The above five articles were published after the landing of the army in Longkou, Huangxian County, and are historical facts... ）

"You've done everything I'm going to do..."

After landing in Huang County, in the county government of the county seat, looking at Yuzaburo Kato, who was sitting there leisurely, Kamio Mitsutomi said with some breath.

However, Yuzaburo Kato just smiled.

"Colleagues, if I can help you do it, I don't need to thank you for helping you do it!!"

Thank you, sister!!

Holding back from saying this, Kamio Mitsutomi nodded.

And after glancing at the army generals behind Mitsutomi Kazuo, Yuzaburo Kato also nodded.

"Since you have come up, then I will go back to the flagship first, after all, in case the [***] team attacks, we also need to provide fire support to you..."

"The people of China?!"

Kamio Mitsutomi sneered.

"The demeanor of the people of China, I have seen it in Yanjing in 1900, so even if the army of China attacks, I am afraid it will not take you to do it..."

"Is it...," said Yuzaburo Kato indifferently. However, according to the observation of the Great Powers Observation Mission, the current Chinese National Defense Force may be inferior in quality to the armies of other countries, but in terms of equipment, it must..."

"Equipment?"

Hearing Yuzaburo Kato say the word equipment, Mitsutomi Kamio smiled contemptuously.

"During the First Sino-Japanese War, the equipment of the Chinese people was also stronger than that of our emperor's [***] team, but what was the final result? If the Chinese army is only well equipped, I will definitely reproduce what happened on the Korean Peninsula in Shandong..."

It's just that just when Shenwei Mitsutomi expressed his contempt for the Central [***] team, Cai Yi, who was in Jinan, ordered the air force to absolutely not act until the army completed the landing on Longkou Bay...

Because he not only wants to leave all the army in Shandong, but also has to deal a heavy blow to the navy...

(To be continued)