A hundred kilometers away, armored vehicles and light cavalry under the scorching sun surrounded and intercepted, laughing wildly.

One hundred kilometers away, a fierce explosion also sounded over Qingdao, where heavy rain had fallen again. As if sensing something, the Japanese Navy's artillery support formation completely ignored the loss of gun barrels and ammunition, and frantically threw heavy shells at Qingdao, covering even the urban areas that had basically not been hit in the previous few days, and pieces of houses trembling and collapsing under the artillery fire.

If the former Bismarck Fortress is the brain of Qingdao, then the Ilchis Fortress (Taipingshan Fortress) in the German mouth is a heavy axe to the sea. The Huiquanjiao Fort and the Taipingjiao Fort in front of it are two long guns sticking out of the mainland, two 240-mm Krupp heavy guns, four 210-mm coastal cannons, six German-made 150-mm long-range cannons, four 105-mm naval guns with fixed protective shields, six 90-mm field guns, four 88-mm field guns, seven 77-mm wheeled field guns, and four 50-mm rapid-fire machine guns, forming a tight and powerful naval defense firepower. In addition, the Tuandao Battery, located at the mouth of Jiaozhou Bay, also had four 210-mm heavy guns and four 150-mm cannons to provide support.

For the sake of His Majesty's ambition to dominate the world, German engineers took great pains to design and ingeniously design, not only hollowing out the Taiping Mountain to build underground fortifications that stretched for several kilometers, but also taking into account the threat from behind, so that all the cannons could rotate in 360 degrees in all directions, and also added thick steel helmets to all coastal heavy guns above 150 mm. In the end, it even rigorously calculated the landing point of the shells when they were attacked, and found the area with the lowest probability of being hit; although it could not be said that the bombs were 100 percent avoided, the Japanese Navy spent thousands of rounds of large and small shells in the past half a month without destroying much combat effectiveness, which shows the strength of its design.

In the tunnels deep in the mountains, the artillery teams were busy running back and forth, while the infantry were leaning against the cold rocks with their guns and taking the opportunity to take a nap. The electric lights overhead flickered on and off in the explosion, and because the drain had been damaged and the pumping machine had not been brought in from behind, the large mountain fortification, which could accommodate two regiments, was covered with sewage and garbage. After drilling like rats for half a month, the soldiers have become accustomed to the sight of stones flying inside the shells outside, and many brave ones simply set up temporary high beds to sleep in the dark to replenish their strength.

Sun Chuanfang walked all the way to the hilltop fort along the tunnel, where heavy gunners from the navy were bombarding targets on the sea with 210-millimeter heavy guns. The power is astonishing, but the effect is not great, not because the Japanese navy has learned how well-behaved, but because of the mine arrays that are densely spread along the coast, they are discouraged, and in the past half a month, five Japanese trawlers have been sunk by shore artillery groups in order to clear mines.

"Why is the King Kong missing?" Although Sun Chuanfang is an army, he can distinguish the appearance of some warships after fighting for half a month. The naval gunner, who accompanied the inspection, scratched his head: "We are also wondering, the observation post reported that the Kongo and Kurama had disappeared early this morning. ”

Sun Chuanfang has tasted the power of the naval guns of the two capital ships, the King Kong and the Kurama, and the injuries in the current fortress are basically caused by them, and when he heard that the whereabouts were unknown, he immediately twisted his eyebrows, and said worriedly: "Oh no, will it go south?" ”

The artillery commander could not predict either, and said: "We have reported to the higher authorities that at this time, the command has already sent planes to the sea, but they say that it is unlikely that they will go south, and it is very likely that they will go to the Tsushima Strait and North Korea." Speaking of this, the gun commander's expression suddenly became excited: "The submarine detachment of our navy is making a big fuss over there, I heard that Major Chen is killing over there, and it has been confirmed that seven Japanese merchant ships have been sunk, and now the channel from Korea to Japan is almost completely cut off, I estimate that the Japanese are in a hurry." ”

Sun Chuanfang didn't understand the navy, and he had only heard about submarines, but no matter what, he was able to divert the two most threatening capital ships and helped him a lot. However, he really admired Yang Qiu's methods, only those who experienced these fortresses could understand that if he hadn't deliberately squeezed the Japanese, forced them to fight Qingdao, and took out a lot of good things to seduce and take over from the Germans before Japan, I am afraid that he might not be able to take it down with 10,000 lives.

Of course, most of this is also luck, because no one knew that Europe would actually open up, and as soon as it was launched, it was a national mobilization of millions of people who would not give up.

As the former battalion commander of Beiyang Second Town, and now the commander of the 57th Brigade of the 18th Division, Sun Chuanfang believes that he has not caught up with a good opportunity. Like Wu Xiucai, the commander of the Sixth Division of the Northwest Army, he is also a world-minded person. Wu Peifu fished a division commander when he was in Xinyang, and the sneak attack on Tong fell into the eyes of others, although he was beaten and sent to the recruit camp for more than half a year of training, but he was finally promoted to the commander of the major general.

Although he realized that Beiyang was no longer good after the Xinyang War, he was only a battalion commander at that time, and he could only wait for others to fall like everyone else. When he was recruited, he inquired many times and found one thing after careful recollection, almost all of the main officers of the National Defense Force have the experience of studying in the crash course of the National Defense University, and Yang Qiu does not seem to like Japanese-style officers very much, which can be seen from the fact that the National Defense University is all European military instructors, so after being recruited, he simply gritted his teeth, and went directly to Feng Guozhang's path without even taking the soldiers, and applied for the National Defense University's crash course for further study.

After entering the crash course and clarifying the mode of modern warfare for the first time, he understood why the Beiyang, which imitated the Japanese army, would be defeated, and this was not the fault of the soldiers, let alone the big difference in weapons, but the huge gap in ideology and tactics between the officers. For the sake of his own future, he gritted his teeth, put down the shelf, and a group of hairy boys bit the pen every day to study and study, and completely abandoned the Japanese set of things. After graduation, he was assigned to the 18th Infantry Division as the deputy commander of the infantry, and at the beginning of the year he was promoted to the commander of the regiment, and three months ago he was promoted to the commander of the 57th Brigade.

The foundation of the 18th division is the three towns and four towns of the old Beiyang, and the division commander is Jin Yunpeng, but he always feels that Jin Yunpeng can be the division commander because Yang Qiu deliberately sells face is Duan Qirui. Now that Duan Qirui has fallen, his position as division commander may not be stable. Although he doesn't think much of Jin Yunpeng, he is also in the Beiyang vein after all. Now Beiyang is yesterday's yellow flower, except for Wu Peifu, Chen Huan and Xu Shuzheng, who have basically left Beiyang behind, only Jin Yunpeng is in charge of the 18th Division and Wang Chengbin is in charge of the 17th Division. Originally, there was a Li Chun in the 15th Division, but after he consciously took the rank of general and retired at the end of last year, the 15th Division fell into the hands of Li Gengen of the Yunnan Department. In addition, Sa Zhenbing's navy can barely be regarded as the Beiyang department, and only these few people are still holding the face of Beiyang, so he is extremely active in this battle, and he hopes to make a name for himself and not lose the prestige of the old Beiyang, at least not to lose to Chen Yan and Wu Xiucai, so that people can understand that Beiyang still has him.

After Sun Chuanfang explained a few words and reported the movement of the sea at any time, he was just about to go to see the infantry again, when the guards came to report that Jin Yunpeng had arrived. This made him very strange, because Qingdao was narrow and could not spread out the men and horses of the two divisions, so this time was basically stationed in turns, and the two division commanders were in Jiaozhou City for remote command most of the time, why did they suddenly come to the front line?

Sun Chuanfang thought about it and walked, and soon arrived at the command post deep underground, and as soon as he entered the door, he saw the division commander Jin Yunpeng and a major general officer about the same age as himself standing in front of the map and pointing.

"Xinyuan is back, you have worked hard during this time."

"Thank you for your concern." Sun Chuanfang saluted Jin Yunpeng. At present, Comrade Xiao Sun has not yet contracted a big addiction to smoking, and he has been trained in a crash course for officers for half a year, and after half a year of standardized training for the National Defense Force, he also has the posture of a front-line ace officer.

Jin Yunpeng, the division commander, has been poked in the backbone of Duan Qirui recently, so he is not very peaceful, but in the end, there is still real material. In addition, Yang Qiu and Cai Yi were more trusting, not only let him be in charge of the Qingdao fortress, but also sent back to personally direct the counterattack in the direction of the fortress. pulled Sun Chuanfang to introduce him: "This is Major General Qin Zhangshu, the commander of the 4th Brigade. Xiaochen (Qin Zhangshu), this is our 18th Division Xiao Zhuge Sun Chuanfang (character Xinyuan) mentioned to you just now, you are all front-line officers in the division, but you have to be close and close. ”

"I've seen Brother Xinyuan." Qin Zhangshu stretched out his hand and carefully looked at the officer who had risen the fastest in the old Beiyang Department recently. Sun Chuanfang also remembered that he had made great achievements in Xiaocang Mountain back then, and he had stubbornly blocked the continuous attack of more than 10,000 people in Wang Zhanyuan's fourth town. During this period of time, it was often rumored that the only brigade commander with the rank of major general in the 2nd Division would replace He Xi, who was not in good health, as the division commander after the war.

With this idea, he immediately had the heart of friendship, shook hands and laughed and talked a few words in the hope of getting closer.

Although Qingdao is not big, it is now stalemate between the enemy and us, and the positions are staggered, except for supplies and rotation and rest, it is basically a nail and a hole, and the contact between the troops depends entirely on the telephone lines that have been blown up and repaired, so we have really not met a few times in the past half a month, and we can't help but exchange a few more pleasantries.

At this time, the officers at all levels of the 57th Brigade and the 4th Brigade who were ordered to support came in one after another, Jin Yunpeng glanced at Qin Zhangshu and turned back to the map and said, "Xiaochen, why don't you come here." Although Qin Zhangshu may be promoted to division commander, his current military rank is lower than him, so he said modestly: "Commander Jin, you are the commander, let's talk about it." ”

"Hehe, they're all their own brothers."

Jin Yunpeng snorted, and suddenly found that these few sentences did not match the strict concept of the national defense army, and laughed a few times to get to the point when everyone sat down: "I got a telegram this morning, Laiyang has done it." ”

"Really! How's the fight going? Sun Chuanfang was the first to jump. Laiyang is the key to the battle of Qingdao! In order to ensure safety, Cai Ye not only put the 103rd Guard Division there, but also deployed the 102nd Guard Division in Jimo in the back to prevent accidents, so when he learned that Laiyang took the lead in starting a counterattack, everyone had a hunch that this meat grinder battle would probably be decided within a few days.

Jin Yunpeng and Qin Zhangshu still didn't know how Laiyang was fighting at the moment, and said: "The details are not clear, but this time Commander Cai is ruthless, in addition to the 103rd Division responsible for dragging, he also mobilized the 9th Division, the 15th Division and the 27th Reserve Division to attack from three sides. The commander-in-chief also went to Jiaozhou City to sit in person and transferred the personal guard armor company, I think Shirakawa Yoshinori may be more than lucky this time. ”

"Great! If you can knock out a few wings of the Japanese emperor's guard division, see how rampant they are. ”

"Come on, the Japanese Guards Division is a showmanship, if you really want to fight Shirakawa Yoshinori's Ninth Brigade, if you can defeat him, the Japanese army will hurt for at least a few months."

After being entangled with the 18th Division and the 6th Division of the Japanese Army in Qingdao for half a month, whether it was the former Beiyang or the original Southern Army, or the officers of the Southwest Lineage, they no longer felt that the Japanese army was unattainable. Especially after seeing them blink to each other in front of the fortresses and fortresses they guarded, they were even more uplifted, and they discussed that it was only cost-effective to eat that army first. Seeing this situation, Qin Zhangshu couldn't help but think of why Yang Qiu wanted to desperately let the 1st Division pull out the 38th Wing, after the Japanese army's undefeated window paper was pierced, it did greatly improve the morale of the troops, especially the front-line officers were no longer afraid when they saw the Japanese army, and his means and vision could be seen from this point. He smiled and said, "This time, Division Commander Jin was arranged by Commander-in-Chief and General Cai, asking us to cooperate with Laiyang to launch a large-scale counterattack in Qingdao. ”

Hearing that they were going to do it on their side, the officers were even more excited. Don't look at the fact that there are fortresses to defend now, but who wants to be okay to drill in and out every day like a mouse, seeing that the strength of the Japanese army begins to decline, they have long been waiting for the counterattack to come. So Sun Chuanfang immediately asked, "Brigade Commander Qin, how can he fight?" ”

"The commander-in-chief doesn't care about the specific battle, this counterattack is under the direct command of General Cai and our Bohai Theater Command." After Qin Zhangshu finished speaking, he took the initiative to hand over the right to speak to Jin Yunpeng: "The rest is for Master Jin to tell everyone." ”

Jin Yunpeng was very grateful to Qin Zhangshu for not stealing the limelight from him, and said: "The preliminary plan is that our 5th Brigade, 57th Brigade and 4th Brigade will squeeze and attack in the direction of Yangkou, Sifang and Taiping Bay at the same time, attract the Japanese troops around and cover the 6th Brigade to attack from Shuangfeng Mountain to the northern slope of Fushan. The 55th Brigade and the 2nd Regiment of the 102nd Division will also attack Wushan to contain the Japanese troops in Li Village, and the 56th Brigade will serve as the general reserve. Strive to lock up the Japanese 18th Division in the middle of Wushan and Fushan, and then cut off the coastal supply line and drive them out to sea in one fell swoop. ”

Sun Chuanfang pondered for a moment, touched his chin and slowly got up and said, "Commander." It's not that I'm talkative, I can rely on the support of fortress artillery to squeeze the attack, but how to deal with the fleet at sea? Listening to this movement outside, I am afraid that it will not be able to stop for a while and a half, and we can rely on the fortress to hide in defense, and if we attack, the infantry will have to break away from the protection of the bunker, and I am afraid that the casualties will be very large. ”

Qin Zhangshu glanced at Sun Chuanfang, and wrote down this person in his heart and said: "Brother Xinyuan is very right, Commander Cai and the command headquarters have also thought of this, so this counterattack will start after nightfall." ”

"Walk at night!" Sun Chuanfang nodded and said, "At night, the naval guns on the sea can't tell the enemy from the enemy, and it is difficult to support us, but in this way, I am afraid that we will only have six hours to use." ”

Qin Zhangshu smiled slightly, straightened his waist: "It's not six hours, it's four hours!" It's the end of summer, the days are long and the nights are short, and although there is heavy rain today, it will still be dangerous to start too early, so the time set by the command is to start at eight o'clock tonight! By four o'clock tomorrow morning, we must complete the cutting and encirclement of the Japanese 18th Division, and if we can't do it, we must immediately retract to the nearest fortress and bunker defense! ”

"Commander-in-Chief and Commander Cai asked me to tell you that there are only four hours in this battle! Be prepared to die and live! Sun Chuanfang secretly praised Qin Zhang's writing and being good at calculation, but he was also a little nervous by this sentence "there is death and no life". Although the Japanese army is not as good as before, the madness when fighting to the death is more ruthless than before, and the artillery on their side at night can not fight indiscriminately, and can only rely on the light firepower of mortars and grenadiers to fight a vicious battle!

As soon as he thought of this, a loud bang suddenly sounded above his head, and then the whole mountain seemed to shake.

"What's going on?" While discussing how to attack, the officers of the line and firepower arrangement jumped one after another. A moment later, the naval artillery commander just now rushed in with a bloody face and shouted, "Brigade Commander Sun is a heavy artillery!" The Japanese soldiers mounted the army's heavy artillery on the floating mountain! ”

Not to mention Sun Chuanfang, even Qin Zhangshu's face changed, and the army's heavy artillery was mounted to the top of Fushan Mountain? Doesn't this mean that you can condescendingly overlook the entire Qingdao fortress group? Jin Yunpeng slapped the table even harder: "Pass the order, all the fortresses and batteries will turn the cannons over, and they must kill it before nightfall!" ”