At 10 a.m. on November 5, at the British Embassy, negotiations between China and Japan on the Shandong War were officially held. The chief representative of the Chinese side is Gu Weijun, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the chief representative of the Japanese side is Ambassador to China Hayashi Quanzhu.

Gu Weijun judged from the fact that Japan did not send weighty officials to China (or to a third country) that the Japanese side was not sincere in the peace talks. Or there are still serious differences at the top of Japan's leadership on the settlement of the war issue through peace talks.

Gu Weijun reported to Tang Shaoyi and Fang Shengyuan on this that Jian Yiyi did not have to throw the Chinese side's hole cards. Anyway, our army has the upper hand.

The situation confirmed Gu Weijun's judgment. Ambassador Hayashi Kwon Suke's attitude was not at all like that of the defeated side, but like that of the victor. On the premise of opening the encirclement and allowing the encircled troops to withdraw from Shandong, they demanded that the Chinese side compensate Japan 200 million yen for the war expenses.

Although Gu Weijun is young, he has an extraordinary talent in diplomacy, and his experience of studying in a prestigious American university also gives him enough knowledge, so he immediately responded coldly to Lin Quanzhu, "If the Japanese side is so lazy, then there is nothing to talk about." After that, he nodded to Rui Enshi and Zhu Erdian, who participated in the negotiations, "The two ambassadors have already seen the sincerity of the Japanese side. I think it's better to use war to solve the remaining troubles. ”

Gu Weijun took his assistant and left, and the whole process ended in less than 40 minutes.

The reason why Lin Quanzhu made such a statement was that he had indeed received instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs not to allow any concessions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has come under tremendous pressure from the military ministry and public opinion.

With the fall of Shigenobu Okuma's cabinet, news of the disastrous defeat of the dispatch forces in China spread rapidly, triggering riots in many cities, including Tokyo. The Japanese people could not have imagined that the army that had defeated Russia would be defeated by the Empire! For Japanese people who have become arrogant despite their heavy tax burdens. This is unacceptable in any way!

In Tokyo, angry people attacked the mansions of Shigenobu Okuma and Masayi Terauchi with stones, smashing dozens of pieces of glass and clashing with police officers who arrived to maintain order, seriously injuring one person. This happened during the Russo-Japanese War, when the Russian Vladivostok squadron suddenly appeared in the waters of Tokyo Bay, and the angry crowd smashed all the glass in the house of Vice Admiral Hikonosei Uemura, the commander of the 2nd Fleet, with stones. In the eyes of the Japanese, Admiral Terauchi Masatsuki is a waste, a bastard, and a culprit! The aura and glory of the past are gone, and the Japanese, who have been dizzy by the country's booming power since the Meiji Restoration, cannot accept the reality of defeat at the hands of China. Further news came that the newly appointed Saionji cabinet had actually sued the despicable and incompetent Shina people for peace, which angered the Japanese even more. The riots continued to ferment with the connivance of the radical forces in Japan. Not only Shigenobu Okuma, who has stepped down, but even the high-ranking and powerful Saionji Gongwang has also been branded as a national thief.

The Chinese embassy was also attacked. Fortunately, the Tokyo police took full precautions under the Prime Minister's strict orders and did not cause a further diplomatic storm. But Chinese studying in Japan or staying in Japan for other purposes were hit differently, and a Chinese student at Waseda University was beaten to death.

Hayashi received instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, due to the slow transmission of information, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has not yet received the latest news from the Japanese government and the opposition. The first meeting held at the British Embassy on November 5 ended without a hitch.

The Saionji Cabinet came under tremendous pressure. The situation on the front line collapsed. How can the two veteran divisions under siege be rescued without making concessions to the Chinese? You must know that the 3rd and 6th divisions were the first units established in the Meiji Army, and they symbolized the honor of the army, and even such troops were completely annihilated. The Army was stripped of its last pair of pants. However, if concessions are made, it will inevitably lead to a boiling of public anger in the country, and it will be difficult for the cabinet of the Lord and the Xiyuan Temple to support it.

In fact, this is exactly what Youpeng in Shan County wants to see.

The military department also reacted. Chief of Staff Yoshimichi Hasegawa was ousted and replaced by Senior General Yusaku Uehara. Perhaps there was no one to replace Terauchi Masashi as a scapegoat, and the front-line commander-in-chief, who should bear a lot of responsibility, was not replaced.

Senior General Uehara, who had always advocated the expansion of the army, crossed the Ministry of War and issued an ambiguous order to the dispatch troops: The dispatch troops should take a positive attitude to strive for the improvement of the situation after the arrival of reinforcements. Contrary to the norm, this order from the General Staff Headquarters was given not only to Terauchi Masatake, but also to all divisions and regiments on the battlefield.

This is one of the great characteristics of the Japanese. It seems that if you make it clear, you can't show your status.

The 11th Division, which had arrived at Jiaozhou Bay and had taken over the defensive line of the 9th Division, was a new force, and it had long been annoyed by the instructions that no offensive was allowed in the country, and since the General Staff Headquarters had instructions to take active action, the 11th Division no longer heeded the warnings of Terauchi and Onishi. On the second day after Gu Weijun and Lin Quanzhu did not call the end of the negotiations, the two infantry brigades of the 11th Division (the 10th and the 22nd) launched fierce attacks on the positions held by the 17th Brigade of the 6th Division and the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division of the Chinese Army, in an attempt to tear open the blocking line of the Chinese Army and advance west to rescue the 3rd Division that was encircled in Gaomi.

The battlefield, which had been silent for nearly ten days, boiled again.

The Central Military Region reacted quickly, and according to the plan, the troops of the Eastern Front stubbornly resisted the onslaught of the 11th Division, and a total of five brigades (including the Military Region Cadet Brigade) of the reinforced 18th and 14th Divisions of the 3rd Division launched an attack on the besieged enemy. The heavy artillery regiment directly under the General Staff and the heavy artillery regiment of the Central Military Region were deployed in the Gaomi direction, and General Feng Guozhu, who was inspecting Gaomi, personally commanded the attack, and the main attacking force was the 18th Division of Chai Shouye, which concentrated its forces to fiercely attack the 18th Wing guarding Gaomi City from the south, and with the support of absolutely superior artillery and combat engineers, the first attack of the 157th Regiment of the 53rd Brigade tore through the defense line of the 18th Wing, and two hours later broke through the city wall, and the artillery that summed up the experience concentrated on bombarding the position of about 400 meters in front of the 157th Regiment. The dilapidated city wall was blown down, the moat was basically filled, the Japanese army's first-line firepower points were basically dumbed, and the combat engineers specially trained for battlefield breakthroughs used explosives bags and the Chinese army's unique blasting canisters continuously cleared the bunker fortifications built by the Japanese army. "The troops have broken through the city walls and are developing in depth. The 52nd Brigade was transferred to the offensive and ordered the 14th Division to contain it. ”

Feng Guozhu was overjoyed, and immediately ordered the 52nd Brigade to attack from the east and the 14th Division from the north, leaving his cherished Cadet Brigade to hold the western position and strictly prevent the remnants of the Japanese army from breaking through to the west.

At the same time as the annihilation of the 3rd Division began, Feng Guozhu ordered the troops on the Northern Front to also launch an attack on the 6th Division. The plan had already been formulated, and the attack targets on the northern front were limited, with the aim of deterring the Japanese army and dispelling the Japanese army's stupidity. in the overall plan of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff. The 3rd and 6th Divisions were listed as "hostages". Since the Japanese army is not willing to lose, let's take the 3rd Division.

But the 157th Regiment that stormed the city began to encounter resistance, and the Japanese once again showed their characteristic tenacity, with urgent reinforcements from a brigade of the 29th Brigade. The 18th Wing began to counterattack the Chinese army that had entered the breach. The besieged Japanese army did not sit idly by and wait for its annihilation. They transformed every street, every house, into a fortified position, and fierce and brutal street fighting began. The 9th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 157th Regiment, which was the first to break through, lost three company commanders within an hour - the company commander was killed, and the two acting company commanders were killed one after another.

The fiercest battles are not in Gaomi. It is also not in Changyi, but east of Jiaozhou Bay Jiaoxian. The 17th Brigade and the 50th Regiment, which had won the "Dezhou Regiment" before the founding of the People's Republic of China and participated in the founding parade before the founding of the People's Republic of China, were under heavy pressure, and the Japanese army's cutting-edge 10th Brigade concentrated its forces in an attempt to break through the position of the 50th Regiment, and the bloodiest positional blocking battle in the Shandong Campaign broke out.

The 6th Division was known for its good defense, and they had unique skills in building positions, and the 50th Regiment did not contribute to the attack on Qingdao, and was retained by Qu Hongxiang as a general reserve in the defense of Qingdao. When breaking through the encirclement of the 9th Division, the 50th Regiment fought with the 9th Division as the vanguard for two days, taking the lead in establishing contact with the 1st Division, and then placed it as the main force of the 17th Brigade in the most critical defensive position. Since the "truce," the 50 th Regiment has worked hard to dig fortifications and set up three continuous positions, and when inspecting the positions of the 50 th Regiment, Major General Qu Hongxiang pointed out suspiciously: If you do this, if you turn to the offensive, won't it be a great trouble?

From this question of Division Commander Qu Hongxiang, it is enough to get a glimpse of the solidity of the position of the 50th Regiment.

However, it was such a strong position, and before noon on the first day of the battle, the first two positions were all breached, and the 2nd Battalion and 6 Companies of the 2nd Battalion held on the second line could not be withdrawn, and were drowned in the torrent of the Japanese attack, and all the more than 140 officers and men of the company were killed in battle, and none of them survived. The artillery regiment of the 17th Brigade ran out of ammunition within three hours, all the mortars and assault guns of the regiment were dumbed out because of the lack of ammunition, one-third of the light and heavy machine guns stopped howling because of ammunition or spare barrels, and short and bloody hand-to-hand combat took place in many sections, and soldiers on both sides fought with bayonets and sapper shovels, and the phenomenon of detonating grenades and ending up at the same time was innumerable. The 17th Brigade did not transfer the reserves of two battalions to the direction of the 50th Regiment until 1 p.m. because it was worried about the direction of the Japanese main attack, and the 50th Regiment, which received reinforcements, launched a counterattack at 1:50 p.m., recaptured the second-line position in one fell swoop, and smashed the onslaught of the 10th Brigade.

Major Xiao Jianguo, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 51st Regiment, who reinforced the 50th Regiment, later recalled to the war correspondent of the "National Defense Daily", "I have never seen so many corpses gathered in such a small area. The sight made countless recruits vomit. The corpses were piled up on top of each other, almost filling the trenches. The barbed wire fence torn into pieces by artillery fire is covered with the corpses of devils, no, in fact, they are all minced meat, slaughterhouses? No, it must not be described as a slaughterhouse. When the corpses in the trenches were removed, the blood turned the bottom of the trenches into a sheet of plasma, and the shoes could not be removed. Afterwards, the soldiers would rather be barefoot and cold than wear boots, and they all threw them away. How many devils died? Where to count! Head? There aren't many complete heads either. Oh, we were still laughing at the 50th Regiment in our hearts, and we were blind to the military flag, but we only knew how the brothers of the 50th Regiment fought, and our regiment commander has always been unconvinced by the 50th Regiment, and now we have nothing to say......"

The "Texas Regiment" suffered 1,700 casualties in the nine-hour bloody battle, of which 544 were killed. The casualty rate of officers at the company and platoon level was as high as 70 per cent. The regiment commander, Colonel Hong Dazhong, cried and shouted to Division Commander Qu Hongxiang, it's a pity for my regiment, it's a pity for my regiment......

What Commander Hong didn't know was that the Japanese army had paid even heavier losses. The attack of the 10th Brigade on the 50th Regiment successively threw 5 infantry brigades, all of which were disabled. On that day, 1 group leader was killed and 2 wounded, and countless officers below the squadron leader were killed or wounded. This brigade, which had boasted to the division commander about Haikou, completely lost its offensive capability after half a day of bloody fighting.

After the war, the "Texas Regiment" was awarded by the Ministry of Defense and issued a regimental emblem printed with two crossed military flags, and the regiment became famous throughout the army and became a first-class ace regiment of the Wehrmacht! Priority was given to equipment and tasks, and they made great contributions on the battlefield of the national war in the later years -- their unique double-flag regimental emblem made opponents of different nationalities flee in despair.

On the same day, the 22nd Brigade, which had launched an attack on the southern flank, was also blocked by the 2nd Brigade. The 11th Division painfully admitted to Admiral Terauchi that they were unable to break through the strong defenses of the Chinese army. It was no longer high, and he had to bow his defeated head.

The battle of Gaomi was still going on, and the small county town was divided into two halves, the southern half was occupied by the 18th Division, and the northern half was still guarded by the Japanese army. After the fighting in Jiaozhou Bay ceased, the Chinese army's attack on the enemy in Gaomi also stopped. Shelling, infiltration, and sniper tactics, which the Japanese hated so much, became the main forms of warfare. In view of the victory in the Jiaozhou Bay Blockade Battle, the General Staff instructed the Central Military Region not to aim at the annihilation of the 3rd Division, compress, fire strikes, and completely trap the enemy!

On 9 November, Japan and Britain again put forward a request for peace talks to settle the war in Shandong. The Saionji Cabinet sent a delegation headed by Shuaki Kato to Tianjin to negotiate the details with China with British participation. The Chinese side rejected Japan's request to set the Japanese concession in Tianjin, and if it wanted to talk, it would come to Beijing for talks, and it would not talk about pulling it down. (To be continued......)