At the beginning of March 1884, the entire Japanese government was eeriely silent, with no new military disposition or diplomatic contact, and the war on the East Asian continent seemed to have nothing to do with it, and did nothing to save the Imperial Army, which had nearly 200,000 troops.

Such a peculiar state of affairs is inconceivable to Western journalists and diplomats in Japan, and even to Japanese government officials themselves: What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for the mediation of the five countries? Is it waiting for the Army to perform some kind of miracle? Or are you waiting for the bad news from Zuihou?

Maybe it's both, maybe it's neither.

The Japanese government has felt that the situation is completely out of control, there is no military liliang in their hands to change all this, the navy has only two warships, plus a bunch of useless old gunboats, the army only has one division left, the army trained in the past ten years is all on the mainland, even if the country wants to reorganize the army, but what about the money? How can I buy guns if I don't have money? Because the finances have completely collapsed.

Taking a step back, with China firmly in control of the seas, even rearmament will not help.

Diplomatically powerless, the delegations of the five countries are still arguing over the minutiae. They are unwilling and do not dare to directly sue for peace with China, because whoever talks will become the sinner of the Yamato nation, and even the emperor will not dare to open this mouth.

The Japanese government even has luck in its heart, hoping that those abandoned army forces will be able to inflict great casualties on China and add more bargaining chips to Japan, and the Yamato nation will never pity others or its own people.

For the Emperor's clique, it is not only the war that is now in a desperate situation, but also the dominance of the country.

In order to support the cost of the war, the Japanese government frantically issued the yen, at this time the economy was completely finished, inflation reached an alarming level, the prices of all necessities of life soared like a roller coaster, the price of rice increased more than a hundred times in more than half a year, people went to the store to buy a box of matches with a whole bundle of money, and the yen completely depreciated, even worse than paper to wipe the buttocks.

Factories and enterprises are closing down in large numbers, all industries are withering, people are suffering, and there is turmoil everywhere, and the government can only rely on the "martial law" to strictly control it, but the energy of resistance is gathering, and some ultra-radical shili have even targeted the emperor himself.

The revolution is coming!

In Shandong, with the issuance of the order for Ding Yuntong's counterattack, the Southern Army of the Guards Army began a large-scale offensive. Due to the heavy casualties of the 3rd Division in the previous battle, it stayed in Weihaiwei to rest, and the 1st, 5th, and 8th Divisions attacked Rongcheng from three directions, while the Zuo Guigui Brigade served as a reserve.

From March 12, the two sides began to fight fiercely, and by the 14th, the Japanese army could no longer hold on, the ammunition had been exhausted, and the food had basically run out, and the soldiers relied on tree bark, grass roots, wild vegetables, rats, etc. to satisfy their hunger.

By the 15th, tens of thousands of Japanese troops had been completely encircled in a small area centered on the county seat of Rongcheng, surrounded by an iron barrel-like encirclement by the Chinese. The Guards mobilized tens of thousands of migrant workers from the rear and built a three-story defensive position more than ten kilometers deep around Rongcheng, with a large number of criss-crossing trenches, breastplates, and barricades, plus mines and countless fire points, which were simply impermeable to wind and rain, and not a single fly could fly out.

In the ditches of the Japanese army, corpses were piled up everywhere. Some of the wounded were still wriggling, but there was no medicine to treat them, and there were no more unwounded among the soldiers, no matter who they were, they all looked tired from a long battle.

The bad weather was even more crazy, after the snow fell, the rain began again, and the icy rain fell all night, most of the Japanese soldiers did not have raincoats at all, lying in the muddy ground, letting the muddy yellow muddy water soak their bodies, hunger had already destroyed their will. And the commander was not much better, and could only survive by drinking some gruel.

On the night of the 15th, Major General Kawamura Jingming, commander of the 10th Division, who had been wounded in Weihaiwei, died of acute septicemia due to lack of medicine, the wound became inflamed and erosive.

In the early morning of the 16th, the Japanese army, completely desperate, launched the "Jade Shattering" attack in Zuihou, and Oyama Iwa concentrated nearly 30,000 officers and soldiers who could still move around and launched attacks in four directions, shouting "Long live the emperor!" "A suicidal charge was launched at the Guards positions.

They were greeted by a storm of fire and endless deep ditch ramparts, and the Japanese soldiers could only fall in pieces, and some of them could only wail miserably before they died; Some have had shrapnel cut their throats, and their flesh was blurred; Some were blown into a cloud of pink air by the artillery fire.

This was simply a massacre, and in just half an hour, 7,000 Japanese troops were killed, including the commander of the 7th Division, Kuroki Weizhen, the staff officer of the 8th Division, Hisunao Oshima, and the brigade commander of the 9th Division, Nishikanjiro.

In the face of such a powerful firepower network, any bravery and fighting for their lives became meaningless, and the Japanese officers and soldiers behind finally showed hesitation, patrolling and retreating, and Dashan Yan sighed and had to end the attack.

Zuihou's energy was completely depleted, and all that awaited him was death. The Guards recruited some people who could speak Japanese, shouted in front of the battle, told the other party to surrender their guns and not kill, and continued to launch a psychological offensive.

Since victory is hopeless, a breakthrough is impossible, and living is torture, the only thing left is suicide.

Nogi Noshinori, commander of the 9th Division, on the night of the 16th, after bowing in the direction of the Eastern Emperor, cut his belly with a knife in accordance with the tradition of the samurai, and then asked his good friend Naomi to act as a "memorie" and cut off his head with a knife.

The samurai's caesarean section is just a formality, symbolically slashing twice on the belly, and then asking relatives or friends to help cut off the head, which is actually similar to beheading.

Nogi's suicide marked the despair of the war among the toughest men in the Japanese army.

Beginning on the 16th, the Guards began to continuously use empty ammunition to fire some letters of persuasion written in Japanese, asking the Japanese troops to raise the white flag and surrender, not forgetting their parents, relatives and children at home, as long as they lay down their arms, their lives can be safeguarded, and they will be treated well.

This is Ding Yuntong's order, because now the counteroffensive in the north is in urgent need of reinforcements, and it is impossible for the southern army to be consumed here for a long time, so it is best if the Japanese army can surrender as soon as possible.

The Guards also steamed white-flour steamed buns upwind of the forward position, allowing the aroma of the food to go down the wind, so as to tempt the Japanese troops and increase the persuasiveness of the letter of surrender.

You must know that the Shandong Combat Army is organized by some demobilized and retired veterans, unlike the Japanese standing army in the northeast, which is all young people in their twenties, many of these veterans are married, and they have their families and families to care, and their will to serve the emperor is not as strong as that of the standing army. And the desire to survive, the torture of hunger, the aroma of steamed buns, all kinds of temptations are consuming their fighting spirit.

Finally, on the night of the 16th, in the corner of the defensive line, several Japanese soldiers who were really hungry climbed into the Chinese position with a white cloth, these people were hungry and bone-ty, shivering from the cold, their expressions were sluggish, their hands and feet were stiff, and if it were not for the rolling of their eyes, they would almost be mistaken for skeletons.

With those who take the lead, there will be people who will continue to follow suit, and by the 17th, more and more people have crawled over, reaching hundreds overnight. The Japanese army organized gendarmes to intercept the various positions and killed dozens of escapees, but some of Zuihou's desperately hungry gendarmes crawled over on their own.

On the 18th, early in the morning, because Ding Yuntong had already called, asking for an end to the battle as soon as possible to reinforce the north. Therefore, the Guards issued an ultimatum to the Japanese army, again demanding that the Japanese surrender unconditionally by twelve o'clock at noon, otherwise a general attack would be launched.

However, the stubborn Japanese commanders adhered to the Bushido belief of "sacrificing their lives for duty" and insisted on resisting to the end and never surrendering.

At 12 o'clock at noon, the general attack of the Guards began, and hundreds of artillery pieces roared at the same time, and the sound of artillery woke up the earth like a spring thunder.

The entire Rongcheng was instantly shrouded in dust and gunsmoke, and the Japanese defensive positions were almost razed to the ground.

As soon as the cannon stopped, a majestic charge sounded, and the soldiers of the Guards leaped up from their fortifications as if countless arrows were flying forward.

In less than two hours, the Japanese army, which had long lost its combat capability, was completely defeated, and the Shandong combat army ceased to exist!