Outside Jinzhou City, while the Dingbei Army was in full swing preparing to attack Jinzhou City, a meeting of senior Japanese officers was also urgently held in the two headquarters of the Japanese Southern Route Army and the Northern Route Army.

At the headquarters of the Southern Route Army in Jinzhou City, the commander of the Southern Route Army, General Oyama Iwa, looked at the seven division commanders and one heavy artillery brigade commander in the headquarters, and two faces had already been replaced by newcomers. The position of the commander of the 12th Division, Yukie Sato, who had already fallen in battle, was held by Keiichiro Koyama, a brigade commander of the surviving 12th Division. The position of the commander of the heavy artillery brigade, Goro Ichihara, who had already been killed, was taken over by one of the surviving wing commanders of the heavy artillery brigade, Takahisa Masuda, who commanded the remaining 18 127-mm howitzers of the heavy artillery brigade.

Da Shanyan said with a gloomy face: "Now the Dingbei army outside the city is ready to attack the city!" It's time for you to serve the Japanese Empire! Gentlemen, the base camp commands! ”

With a "swoop", the 8 high-ranking Japanese officers all stood up, and Da Shanyan then said sternly: "The base camp orders our Southern Route Army to stop the Dingbei Army from going north at any cost, and block the Dingbei Army in the area south of Jinzhou, please remember!" It is at any cost! ”

After Oyama Iwa finished reading out the order of the base camp, the eight senior Japanese officers all sat back in their seats, and Oyama Iwa said with a stern face: "I just got the news that the weapons and ammunition that the mainland hired three British merchant ships to transport for our front line have been intercepted at sea!" 1 of the 3 British merchant ships was sunk, and 2 were brought back to Arthur! In other words, our Southern Route Army may not be able to replenish and replenish troops in the near future! ”

The faces of the eight senior officers of the Japanese Army present could not help but change when they heard this, especially Yoshida Shoichi, commander of the Second Division, and Keiichiro Koyama, the newly appointed commander of the 12th Division, showed even more bitter expressions.

The two divisions were outside the city of Dalian, and were attacked by the artillery fire of the naval fleet of the Navy Academy and the tide of the Dingbei Army, and the two divisions and regiments fought suffered heavy casualties, almost not one in ten, and now there are more than 2,000 people in each of the two divisions.

The commanders of the two divisions are waiting for the new recruits from Japan to replenish their own divisions, but listening to the meaning of Oyama Rock, the two divisions want to be re-reorganized in the distant future.

Dashanyan also knew that the 2nd Division and the 12th Division had no combat effectiveness, so he let the 2 divisions serve as the reserve for the defense of Jinzhou City, and the other 5 divisions and regiments were divided into various defense areas of Jinzhou City.

In the headquarters of the Japanese Northern Route Army far away in Shengjing, the commander of the Northern Route Army, the commander of the Japanese Army, Aritomo Yamaprefecture, looked at the four division commanders in the headquarters and said in a deep voice: "Because of the interruption of the sea route, the new divisions and regiments that the local government promised to replenish our Northern Route Army, and the recruits who supplemented your four divisions, there is no need to count on it in a short time!" Now the Southern Route Army will block the powerful Qing Dynasty Dingbei Army in Jinzhou City, and it is impossible to send troops to support us. Gentlemen, where do we go from here in the Northern Route Army? What do you have to say? ”

The commander of the 1st Division, Genji Yamachi, the commander of the 7th Division, Inoue Mazen, the commander of the 10th Division, Kueko Suzuki, and the commander of the 11th Division, Watanabe Yokogi, the four of them made eye contact, and the commander of the 1st Division, Genji Yamachi, first stood up and said, "Your Excellency, Commander!" Now we have 4 divisions in Shengjing, although after the brutal Shengjing offensive and defensive battle, there are only more than 40,000 people left in the 4 divisions! However, we wiped out tens of thousands of elite troops of the Qing Dynasty in Shengjing, so that the Qing Dynasty could only gather 100,000 rabble of green battalion soldiers at Shanhaiguan! I think that with the current strength of our Northern Route Army, we can definitely defeat the 100,000 rabble of green battalion soldiers and take Shanhaiguan in one fell swoop! After we take Shanhaiguan, we may not have to hit Beijing City! The Qing Dynasty will surrender in this war! ”

The commander of the 10th Division, Suzuki Koko, stood up and said, "I agree with the construction of the mountain king!" Our Northern Route Army shouldn't spend all its time in Shengjing City, waiting for domestic reinforcements! We also have more than 40,000 elite samurai of the Imperial Japan! You should take Shanhaiguan directly and capture Beijing, the capital of the Qing Dynasty! ”

The commander of the 7th Division, Inoue Maewen, and the commander of the 11th Division, Watanabe Yokoki, also agreed that the Northern Route Army should now start attacking Shanhaiguan.

The commander of the Northern Route Army, Shan County Youpeng, stood up with an excited face and said loudly: "Okay! You think the same thing as I do! Now the Combined Fleet has once again lost to the Beiyang Naval Division of the Qing Dynasty in a naval battle, the passage between us and the mainland sea has been blocked, and the Southern Route Army has also lost the strength to attack, and can only block the Dingbei Army in Jinzhou City! Now the whole war situation is very unfavorable to our Great Japan, if our Northern Route Army can defeat the Shanhai Pass, the whole situation of the war will be reversed, and our Northern Route Army will become the hero of the entire Great Japan! Ladies and gentlemen! Let's make it for Greater Japan! Fight bravely! ”

On March 24, 1895, the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th and 8th divisions of the Dingbei Army had been assembled outside Jinzhou City.

In the south outside the city of Jinzhou, the Japanese army relied on the fortifications of the original Dingbei Army to build three defensive lines. The first line of position was defended by 1 infantry wing of the 13th Division, which had just arrived in Liaodong!

"Boom-boom-boom-" The 20-minute shelling, because most of the Japanese troops were hiding in the anti-artillery holes, did not bring much losses, and after the shelling of the Dingbei Army was over, the Japanese troops ran out of the anti-artillery holes and entered the fortifications of the first position.

At this time, the Japanese soldiers in the fortifications were stunned to see the steel monsters appear in front of the first position, and they were slowly driving towards the first position, followed by countless soldiers of the Dingbei Army wearing black military uniforms behind the monsters. These steel monsters are the tanks and armored vehicles of the 2nd Division of the Dingbei Army.

"Shoot! Shoot! The Japanese officer shouted loudly. Immediately the Japanese soldiers began to shoot at tanks and armored vehicles.

"Jingle-ding-" Japanese soldiers' rifle bullets were ricocheted off tanks and armored vehicles, and the tanks and armored vehicles of the Northern Army began to fire at Japanese positions with tank guns and machine guns!

The tank's armament was a 115 mm smoothbore gun, a 7.62 mm machine gun and a 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun, plus an armored vehicle with a 14.5 mm machine gun and a 7.62 mm machine gun.

Followed by tanks and armored vehicles were nearly 2,000 infantry of the Second Division, who also rushed into the first line of Japanese positions, and with the cooperation of tanks and armored vehicles, they quickly eliminated the Japanese troops in the first line.

The Japanese army did not expect the first line of positions to be lost so quickly, and the commander of the Southern Route Army, Da Shanyan, was taken aback when he saw the tanks and armored vehicles of the Dingbei Army appear. Although he didn't know what this thing was, Da Shanyan, who was very sensitive to the battlefield, immediately judged that this kind of running steel monster must be very powerful, and the 1 infantry wing of the first line of positions could not resist the attack of this steel monster at all, and Da Shanyan immediately dispatched 1 infantry wing to support the first line, but unfortunately the tanks and armored vehicles were too fast, and the reinforcements had not yet reached the first line, and the position was broken through by tanks and armored vehicles!

The reinforcements of this infantry wing tried to recapture the first line, but under the blow of 50 tanks and 50 armored vehicles, the wolf bèi fled back to the second line, and by this time the supporting infantry wing of more than 3,000 people had already suffered more than half of the casualties!

On the wall of Jinzhou City, Da Shanyan looked at the tanks and armored vehicles of the Dingbei Army on the first line of positions with a blue face, and shouted angrily to his subordinates: "What is this? What are the intelligence services of the empire doing! The Dingbei Army is equipped with such a powerful chariot! Our Great Japanese Army doesn't even have a little news! ”

At this time, his face had turned a little pale, and the commander of the 13th Division, Takeya Yannai, asked, "Commander! Now what do we do? Such a tank of the enemy can withstand bullets! And with artillery and machine guns on it, our soldiers simply can't stop these steel chariots! ”

Da Shanyan didn't speak, just continued to stare at the tanks and armored vehicles rushing over by the Dingbei Army in the distance, his hand pressed against the city wall, and his green tendons bulged,

The second division of the Dingbei Army did not stay too long in the first position, and the tanks directly crossed the trench more than one meter wide and immediately rushed towards the second line of Japanese positions. The armored vehicles also found flat ground to bypass the trenches and rushed to the second line of positions with the tanks. The infantry of the 2nd Division also continued to rush forward with tanks and armored vehicles!

Seeing that the tanks and armored vehicles of the 2nd Division continued to attack, Dashan Yan immediately ordered anxiously: "Order the artillery to fire between the first and second positions, hoping that the artillery fire can destroy these steel combat vehicles!" ”

The 2nd Division of the Dingbei Army, which charged, was immediately bombarded by Japanese artillery fire, including even Japanese 127-mm howitzers.

This shelling allowed the Japanese to achieve some results, 7 armored vehicles were destroyed by Japanese artillery fire, especially 2 armored vehicles were hit by 127mm howitzers, which directly turned into 2 large fireballs.

However, the Japanese shells hit the tank and were still bounced off, and even a 127-mm howitzer hit the top of a tank, which did not destroy the tank, but only shocked the four crew members of the tank, made the tank pause, and continued to rush towards the second line of Japanese positions.

At the same time as the Japanese artillery fired, the 105-mm howitzers behind the Dingbei Army also began to fire to suppress the Japanese artillery units.

Under the leadership of 50 tanks of the second division of the Dingbei Army, the Dingbei Army quickly attacked the second line of Japanese positions, and soon nearly two Japanese infantry wings in the second position could not resist the attack of tanks, armored vehicles and the infantry of the second division of the Dingbei Army, and the remnants fled to the third line of Japanese positions!

Dashanyan was shocked by the power of this kind of chariot of the Dingbei Army, 2 types of chariots, the kind of chariot with only machine guns is okay, and it can be destroyed with artillery fire. But that kind of combat vehicle with a cannon can't even be destroyed by a direct hit of a 127-mm howitzer, which makes the Great Japanese Army how to fight!

However, the order of the base camp said that the Southern Route Army would defend Jinzhou City at any cost, and Dashanyan could only fight hard.

Dashanyan understands that it is impossible to stop the Dingbei Army outside Jinzhou City! It's only been 20 minutes since the start of the battle, and we've already lost 2 outlying positions in succession! Even the remaining peripheral positions can't resist the attack of those steel chariots of the Dingbei Army at all!

Dashanyan immediately made a decision and ordered the Japanese troops stationed in the third line to retreat to Jinzhou City. Dashanyan was ready to rely on the complex terrain in Jinzhou City to make arrangements for the chariots of the Northern Army, and Dashanyan issued an order to organize a death squad to wait for the steel chariots of the Dingbei Army to enter Jinzhou City, and let the daredevils hold the explosives bag used to blow up the steel chariots of the Northern Army. Dashanyan ordered the entire Southern Route Army to prepare for a street battle with the Dingbei Army in Jinzhou City!