On August 29, 1914, the former German army Fushan observation post in Qingdao.

Sappers were clearing the hilltop platform to build gun emplacements, and logs were spread from the foot of the hill to the top of the mountain, and hundreds of soldiers were pulling two thick 240-millimeter barrels. This is the largest standard howitzer of the Japanese Army at present, and it is also the key to whether Qingdao can be completely taken. Originally, they were supposed to be placed on the best location of the Sifang Mountain, but the Imperial Japanese Army, which had been known as the strongest in Asia for more than ten days, had never actually controlled it for more than two days, which made Mitsutomi Kamio very angry.

Even more infuriating! Standing at the observation post, he also had to wear a loose military uniform that did not fit, which made his back look a little funny, and the officers behind him did not bother to find a better fit for the lieutenant general, who were looking at a full 50mm grenadier canister. It's not that Japan is so stingy that they can't even afford to be a general's uniform, but last night a commando team attacked Li Village, and the grenadier blew up his room, fortunately he was not in the house at the time, but the military uniform and belongings were all destroyed.

The most unforgivable thing is that this assault team actually got lost and got into the tight defensive circle! A lost assault team can hit the Li Village Headquarters located southeast of Fushan Mountain, which is located near the sea, which makes the thousands of Japanese troops deployed on the periphery face it? So angry, he killed the wounded prisoners with his own hands, and also found this intact grenadier from his body, but unfortunately the light machine gun was blown up by the machine gunner with a grenade before he died, and he had to send the fragments back for study as before.

On the front of the telescope is the Taiping Mountain Fortress, which has stood still for more than ten days, and when he sees the thick reinforced concrete and all-steel helmet, he has a headache, and he scolds the German designer in the bottom of his heart. What kind of fortress is this! The naval guns on the sea can't hit, the 75mm field guns on the ground are tickling, the 5 and 120 are all white spots, and the 150 howitzers were targeted and killed by the 280 cannon heavy artillery because the range was too close! There are several kilometers of Tibetan bunkers in the mountain, ammunition depots, medical rooms, and so on, and a wing can not see the slightest human population crammed into it. But when you think it's safe to get close, you immediately turn into an angry hedgehog with a dense rain of bullets all over your body... One.

If the opposite side was the Far East, the Germans might have won a long time ago, because the number of German troops was only about 5,000, and the desperate consumption of one or two thousand people would naturally collapse, but the damned Germans gave up the fortress to the even more damned squadron ** not only played tricks, but also increased the strength several times! I have to consume more than 40,000 people. Is there anything more painful than this?

A full division was also deployed around the Shuangfeng Mountains, making it impossible for the troops to cut off the Jiaoji Railway, and during this period the Chinese used fishing boats and speedboats, gunboats and even ferries handed over by Germany to supply from Jiaozhou City on the water, making the strategy of encircling Qingdao a joke.

A group of fortresses that cannot be completely surrounded. It's a bad battle! That's more than 5,000 elite veterans of the Empire, and they're all lost here.

Kamio Mitsutomi felt that his heart was dripping blood, and he roughly calculated that the three main fortresses of Chushui Mountain, Taiping Mountain and Jingshan alone currently have 12 200mm heavy guns, 11 150 and 120 heavy guns, and 23 other artillery, plus more than 30 cannons in each fortress after the ** team has been replenished one after another! Coupled with the extravagant transition of heavy machine guns and light machine guns, it is simply impossible to speak. The navy was blocked by a mine array and could not get close, and now he could only count on the two 240 heavy guns that had taken ten days to lay the moving track to the foot of the hill and were being transported.

"General, a telegram from home." Jun Cao handed over the telegram, his eyes dodging and lowering his head: "General Kuroki Weizhen has already set off from Tokyo. "Jun Cao didn't dare to look at Kamio Mitsutomi because it was rumored in the army that the country had been very disappointed in this lieutenant general during this time, so he was ready to replace it with Kurogi who made great achievements in the Russo-Japanese War, and it should be true from this telegram.

Jun Cao's words also attracted the attention of other officers, Japan is a country with a very hierarchical concept, Kamio Mitsutomi, as the commander of the 18th Division, the lieutenant general of the Imperial Army, and the commander-in-chief of the Shandong Army are about to be dismissed, in addition to the dissatisfaction of the base camp, it also shows how incompetent these officers are.

"General, let me lead the troops to attack again! I promise to take the Taiping Mountain Fortress before Admiral Kuroki arrives! "The five major generals of Fajing Temple rushed out, he is the commander of the 19th Brigade and one of the henchmen of Kamio Mitsutomi. With his statement, several other brigade and wing officers jumped out one after another to say that they should continue the attack, but Lieutenant General Hanzo Yamanashi shook his head.

Hanzo Yamanashi, who was also a high-ranking officer who participated in the Russo-Japanese War, was very popular in the War Department, and said: "Your Excellency, Lieutenant General, I think you should explain to Tokyo that this battle has exceeded their imagination, and the squadron must have received the help of the German army to use the fortress so skillfully, and their firepower is also stronger than that of the Russian army back then." A fortress that cannot be completely surrounded one. We need enough time and troops. ”

"It's a pity that I don't have enough time, my Yamanashi-kun." After reading the telegram, Mitsutomi Kamio stuffed it into his pocket with a disappointed face: "The country is not at peace now, although we have blocked the news, but those returning expatriates and newspapers of various countries have revealed confusing information, rumors are everywhere in the city that we have failed, and Chinese spies have begun to spread the false news that Lushun has surrendered. Chief of Staff Hasegawa had already told me in a telegram that those hateful democrats were preparing to launch a nationwide march to end the war, if there had been no good news of it. ”

Yamanashi Hanzo didn't expect the domestic situation to be so bad, and said, "Then what should we do now?" Our losses are too great, Laoshan Bay will receive unknown artillery attacks every day, supply supplies are starting to be tight, wounded soldiers are not treated, the high temperature has made the corpses and wounds rot, even if the next batch of reinforcements from the 6th Division arrives, it may cause a plague! We can't wait here for Kuroki Daifu, can we? ”

"Of course not!"

Kamio Mitsutomi suddenly swept away and raised his voice, his gaze swept over the officer like a razor: "Since this morning, Major General Shirakawa Yoshinori has led 20,000 reinforcements to launch a full-scale attack on Laiyang and Laixi!" The 5th Division and the Guards Division are already doing their best, and as the proud Kurume Division of the Empire, we should cooperate with the liberation of all of Asia as the highest goal! Major General Hoji Goro, Major General Bunjiro Horiuchi, and Major General Yoshisui Yamada, mobilize your troops, and while the heavy artillery roars, I need you to rush to the fortress as soon as possible! ”

"Hey!" The three brigade commanders who were named nodded vigorously.

Yamanashi Hanzo opened his mouth but didn't know how to say it, he didn't like this kind of war that was filled purely with his life, just like he didn't like the way General Kinonishi buried his head in the impact and didn't care about life and death, but he also knew that this was Kamio Mitsutomi's last self-help action, and if he failed, maybe this officer, who was originally very promising to be promoted to general, would be swept into the grave of the reserves.

In fact, it's not just Kamio Mitsutomi who needs to save himself, but the entire Shandong Japanese army needs to save himself.

The artillery shells around the position of the 103rd Division in Laiyang City were denser than raindrops, and the explosion and gunpowder smoke filled almost all the three layers of trenches that the pilots saw, but the original sunlight seemed to have frozen at the moment, and no one could feel the temperature in it, or the soldiers in the fierce battle had completely forgotten the temperature.

In order to open the north gate to Qingdao and realize the dream of cutting off the Jiaodong Peninsula and the Jiaoji Railway, Shirakawa Yoshinori took out all his belongings! Two artillery wings with 72 75 field guns, a heavy artillery company with 6 Meiji Type 38 150 mm howitzers, 6 Meiji Type 38 105 mm howitzers, a siege heavy artillery brigade with 2 240 heavy guns and 4 mortars that participated in the Russo-Japanese War. That's 90 cannons! Even in the direction of Qingdao, there is no such luxurious equipment! Thanks to the increase in domestic steel production in the past few years, the army can finally come up with a batch of heavy artillery, but if it does not recapture the two vital iron mines of Baofen and Anshan as soon as possible, perhaps one day soldiers will only be able to use bamboo poles to deal with artillery.

How could Shirakawa Yoshinori, who had a deep-rooted artillery mentality, tolerate such a thing, so he vented all his anger on little Laiyang.

The ground seemed to be covered with a carpet of flames, and the explosive Shimose gunpowder flowed around the trench like flowing lava. The earth shook violently, the sound of artillery far outpaced the thunder, and the scream of cannonballs tearing through the air was incessant, and even wearing a thick wet mask could not stop the toxic smoke. Hundreds of fighters were killed by the whirling shrapnel before they could see the enemy infantry rushing up. Layers of stone and sand were covered in jagged infantry trenches by the blast wave, and the land that the soldiers had sworn to defend was burying them bit by bit.

What a spectacle! The two Japanese cavalry wings who were waiting for orders in the rear cheered Megatron, who seemed to see the mighty military might of the Japanese Empire. An agitated second lieutenant suddenly drew his saber and swung it vigorously past the cavalry, like the cheering before a medieval cavalry assault, shouting every time he ran past the cavalry. This made the lieutenant even more excited, as if he wanted to show off his skillful horseback skills, but before he could make a fancy move, all shouts were drowned out by an even more violent explosion.

"Is this the man's cannon and artillery?" The second lieutenant slammed the reins of his horse, staring blankly at the dozens of violent fireballs that suddenly appeared around his artillery position, and at the mushroom clouds that rose into the sky, which had been completely petrified! This is the former Chinese artillery with a maximum caliber of 75 mm? This is the army that is said to be unable to even pay the army? Asumasu is above! There are at least 30 or more heavy guns there!

"Playing artillery with me? Full speed press! Qiu Wenbin raised his binoculars and looked coldly at the Japanese artillery position that was already filled with gunsmoke, and raised a finger back. Mei Sheng, who was also hot and dry, didn't understand what this meant, grabbed a staff officer and asked, "Hey, brother." What does it mean for your teacher to put up a finger? Just play a round? ”

A round?

The staff officer glanced at the cavalry brigade commander who jumped up and down after coming to Laiyang, and the cavalry brigade commander who sent the "Ya" horse monkey coughed lightly: "It's not a round of coverage and suppression of the base. "Oh, a cardinality." Although the cavalry only has mortars and infantry guns, they still understand the word base, and now the troops receive ammunition, not to mention how many bullets they have given me, they all say how many bases, for example, the 80 and 120 mm mortars equipped by the cavalry brigade are 40 pieces. Wait a .40? 40 pieces! 12 doors 150! 24 1012 160 heavy mortars! Hit a cardinal number!

"The artillery of our infantry division has a base of 60.

60 rounds!

Mei Sheng's eyes are about to pop out! In the past few days, he got acquainted with two artillery company commanders and knew that the Warhammer Type 14 A 105 howitzers they used with a range of more than 1 meter weighed 17 kilograms each. Just 24 105 howitzers, calculated at a constant rate of 4 rounds per minute, that's 96 shells a minute! 1600 kg of throwing! "Bunny, don't give me the binoculars yet. Hurry up, I'm afraid that little Japan will blow up when it's too late. The corners of Mei Sheng's eyes twitched, shouted and snatched the binoculars in the guards' hands, and rushed to the roof of the building in a few steps, muttering vigorously.