The night rain is continuous, and the sea breeze is howling.

The pouring rain poured down, and in the frenzied typhoon, squad after team of soldiers trampled on the mud and rushed towards the intended target. Everyone was ordered not to speak, everything that made a noise was dropped, and there were only bullets in the whole body, except for bayonets and water bottles stuck in leather cases! Bullets, all bullets! Since the bullets left behind by the Germans did not correspond to the Wehrmacht, each soldier was issued according to three bases. After horses were banned, the first wave of soldiers had to carry heavy 120-mm mortars and 70-mm infantry guns on their shoulders to various forts and fortresses, as well as gasoline to climb up.

Chu Nan ran at the front of the team, and the rain hit the steel helmet along the brim of the hat to form columns of water, and the wounds torn by shrapnel could be seen on the exposed arms. Starting from Xiaogan, this young brigade commander who fought the first night raid in China, participated in the northward advance, surrounded and annihilated Xiaocang Mountain, and garrisoned Wusheng Pass for a year, and from there led K all the way to the 103rd Division of the Zhengzhou Railway Bridge, and his left hand was almost torn by shrapnel, has become the mainstay of the National Defense Force. As a soldier, nothing is more memorable to him than the night attack of Chen Jiaao, it was the first time he fought side by side with Yang Qiu, and it was also the first time he came into contact with modern night attack tactics guided by machine guns as the core.

From that day on, he imagined participating in a battle that would decide the fate of his country.

In front of him now is the massive, sturdy and complex Bismarck Fortress, which was built in 1899 and is the core of the entire Qingdao fortress complex, which was completed in 1905 after six years of intense construction. There are not only very important artillery command posts, heavy artillery positions, sea and land observation posts, and other facilities, but also underground command posts that are large enough to accommodate a regiment. According to the agreement, more than 50 German soldiers and officers who voluntarily took off their uniforms became the guides of the officers and men to familiarize themselves with the fortress group, and the officers and orderlies quickly and skillfully deployed command posts and checked telephone lines.

The heavy artillery squad transferred from the navy climbed onto the battery under the cover of the infantry as soon as possible, and if the thick cement helmets gave them more peace of mind, then the four Krupp 280 mm and two Skoda 290 mm shore guns on the battery made everyone rub their hands together.

The gunners' sentiments lasted only a short time, and they began to take out shells from the bottom ammunition room and stuff them into the chambers, quietly waiting for the sunrise. "Report・Except for the Furong Mountain Coastal Fort, Taipingjiao Fort, and Yushan Fort, which have not yet been heard, the rest of the forts have been occupied.

The commander of the 57th Brigade Sun set up the command post at the Taiping Mountain Fortress (Ilchis Fortress), where the telephone line could go straight to that side. The supplies are also being counted gradually, and at present, the German army has sufficient reserves, with more than 10,000 rounds of 150 and 120 shells alone. There were a total of 66 cannons of various calibers and 5 Maxim machine guns in 11 main fortresses, 13 infantry positions and temporary fortifications. The staff officer quickly handed the list to Chu Nan. Then, with a pen, he connected the Chushui Mountain (Maertik Fortress), Taipingshan Fortress (Ilchis Fortress), and Jingshan Fortress (Bismarck Fortress) into a triangle on the map, and then connected the coastal forts, Taixi Town Fort, and Huiquanjiao Forts on the back side into a second triangle, and said: "This is the defensive core of Qingdao Fortress, with the three main forts as the central axis, and the three auxiliary forts attacking each other on the sea surface, and then deploying all kinds of small forts and fortresses at the dead corners of these forts. According to the German officer, the fiercest fighting in the past few days was Sifang Mountain and Taiping Town Fort (No. 4 Fortress), and I guess that the Japanese army should have wanted to take these two heights and rely on Li Village to deploy heavy artillery above to directly support the infantry. In addition, the telephone line to Jiaozhou City has been connected, and Commander Cai said that the armored train of the mobile artillery regiment and two long-range suppression battalions have arrived at Chengyang Station and can provide us with fire support at any time. ”

Judging from the introduction of the staff officer, the Qingdao fortress group does reflect the perfect German fortification construction ability, but Chu Nan stared at the observation window as if he hadn't heard it, raised his hand and interrupted the words: "Don't be superstitious about heavy artillery!" Any ultimately victorious ground war is paved by infantry with bullets and blood. We took the lead, but that doesn't mean we've won! Tell every soldier that I have no intention of getting out of Qingdao alive since I took over this mission, and I need everyone to be prepared to die! Tell them that we have pinched half of the fortunes of the country, and the peace of future generations is at our feet! What we have to do now is to hold on to every inch of land and fight to the end with courage, sacrifice and blood! ”

"Yes!"

The staff officer quickly picked up the phone, and when this speech was quickly conveyed to each battle position through the perfect telephone line left by the German army, the solemn moment of the approaching big battle spread to the entire Qingdao!

"Come on!" Fang Yuqiu, who was ordered to garrison the fortress of Taiping Town, put down the phone and suddenly ripped off his collar, pinned the black skull medal that was usually precious to life on his chest, and glanced at the Japanese position that began to move, and slapped the cold stone wall fiercely: "Japanese cub, Lao Tzu never thought of going back alive!" When the first light of dawn rose, the officers ate something as usual, sat cross-legged, tied streamers to their heads, stuffed bullet after bullet into the chamber of their guns, and then led their team to Sifang Mountain and the fortress.

The first thing to come was still the shelling on the sea, and because the wind and waves were too strong, they were worried that the spread of the undulating mine array would threaten the capital ships, so Yuzaburo Kato and Kenkichi Kato discussed with Kato sent the 2nd Fleet Mijima heavy artillery coastal defense ship with two cruisers Iwate and Akitsuzu and 6 destroyers from the 9th Destroyer Detachment to support the army.

With a displacement of only 4 tons, the Mijima and its sister ship Okishima were originally Ushakov-class coastal defense ships built by Russia in 1892, but they were wounded in the Russo-Japanese War and captured by Japan. The four slow and bulky old 254 naval guns were still powerful on the opposite shore, and the heavy shelling even drowned out the thunder, followed by a dozen 120 naval guns that also began to fire at Sifang Mountain and the infantry fortress of Taiping Town.

Powerful grenades continued to fall around the two positions, and a moment later the army's 75mm and 150mm artillery in the direction of Li Village also began to fire in this direction.

Kato Kenkichi held up the binoculars, saw that the two mountains were almost completely covered by gunsmoke, turned his head and said, "Kamio-kun, maybe Qingdao will open its doors for you today." Although there is a serious gap between land and sea, the strange thing is that the personal relationship between the two is good, and when he heard it, Kamio Mitsutomi couldn't help but have a trace of pride on his face: "Not maybe, but for sure!" Li Village's 240 siege artillery can be set up in the afternoon, and tomorrow we will no longer need your strong support. ”

"So, your army is already capable of completing the entire campaign?"

Kato Kenyoshi's words made the corners of Kamio Mitsutomi's mouth twitch a few times, and he avoided the topic and said: "As long as we can take Qingdao, we can establish a strong defense here after clearing the clear water mines, and then occupy the Jiaoji Railway and march to Jinan and Xuzhou!" ”

"Then I wish you success in advance." Although the two have a good personal relationship, Kato Kenkichi still has the arrogance of the navy and does not like to talk too much about the army. Just as he was about to inquire about the effect of the bombardment in front of him, several huge fireballs suddenly appeared on the two fortresses of Taipingshan and Jingshan, and four 280 mm and two 240 mm heavy guns opened fire! In the background, the 8 240 and 21 heavy guns on the Xizhen Fort and the Huiquanjiao Fort (after re-checking the information, there were actually 16 heavy guns above 200 mm in the Qingdao Fortress, which were written incorrectly in the previous chapter, but it can also be seen that the Germans in Qingdao really did not die to defend it) also fired at the sea at the same time.

In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen water columns tens of meters high rose around the artillery formation led by the Mijima, who had just been shelling Zhenghuan, and heavy shells roared out of the muzzles, and the naval artillery squad was busy with the help of German volunteers. In less than a few minutes, the destroyer Yamahiko, which was also captured from Russia, was the first to be shot, and the destroyer, which had a displacement of only 350 tons, was extremely unsuitable for this kind of wind and waves, when a 280-mm shell exploded three meters away from the left deck, the violent explosion directly covered the deck with dozens of tons of seawater, and dozens of untouched sailors were swept into the sea before waiting for their partners to rescue them, and a 210 shell that followed directly hit the stern, and the hundreds of kilograms of shells weighed down the stern of the ship just by the impact of the fall, After the explosion, the entire stern of the destroyer was broken in two, and it disappeared into the wind and waves in just a few minutes.

"Damn it!" Even if only one destroyer was lost, Kenkichi Kato still suffered terribly. In the past few days, the navy has damaged three destroyers and one cruiser, but the army has not completely taken Qingdao, which makes him angry: "Kamio-kun, you should strengthen the attack!" ”

Mitsutomi Kamio didn't pay much attention to a destroyer of several hundred tons, his eyes kept roaming back and forth on the four batteries, and after a moment, he suddenly turned his head and asked, "Your Excellency Kato, do you think it's strange?" ”

Kato Kenkichi, who was dying of pain, was stunned: "What's strange? ”

Looking at the artillery formation that began to retreat, Kamio Mitsutomi suddenly had an extremely bad feeling, pointed to the Taixi Town Fort and said: "There is the Taixi Battery, and the heavy artillery above has been supporting Sifang Mountain and Taiping Town a few days ago, why did you suddenly give up now?" They are not afraid of losing their positions ?! The two looked at each other, and before they could understand why the German heavy artillery group suddenly gave up support and opened fire on the sea, the communications officer brought a shocking news: "General! The King Kong sent urgent news, and they had just received a telegram from Tianjin. ̈The Germans had surrendered to China all the interests of the occupied territory, including Qingdao, the Jiaoji Railway and the concession, and declared that they would accept the supervision of the Chinese army until the end of the war! At present, they are holding a press conference in Beijing. ”

"Damn it, these damn Chinas and German ghosts!" Before the communications officer could finish the whole story, Mitsutomi Kamio had already stood up excitedly, eager to fly to the shore immediately and tell the news to the soldiers who were trudging through the mud. As if to confirm his shout, hundreds of fireballs exploded almost simultaneously on the eastern slope of the infantry fortress in Taiping Town! Because of the loss, the outer ring minefield, which was not detonated by power yesterday, was detonated at the same time after the Wehrmacht brought in a backup! Hundreds of mines exploding at the same time directly overturned an unprepared squadron.

The Heroic Spirit of Kudanzaka!.1. The number of troops in Qingdao has tripled!.