The news of the landing of the Japanese army was also immediately informed to the Italian side.

Italy was also very vigilant about the Japanese army's landing in Dengzhou on the Shandong Peninsula (Rongcheng County belonged to Dengzhou).

The newly formed Italian Dispatch Army in Pontianak also accelerated the pace of preparations.

In particular, Lieutenant General Alvaro, who is the commander of the dispatch force, knows the seriousness of this matter. As the military commander of this aid to the Qing Dynasty, Lieutenant General Álvaro of course also received a lot of information that outsiders did not know.

This aid to the Qing Dynasty was very important to Italy and could not be missed, so after receiving the news of the Japanese landing, he immediately approached Governor Antonio.

"Your Excellency the Governor, at present, there is a Japanese army on the Shandong Peninsula of the Qing Kingdom, which requires us to speed up our preparations, and we can't continue to wait."

Facing Lieutenant General Álvaro, who hurried to him, Antonio immediately asked. "How can I help you?"

Lieutenant General Álvaro took out a list and handed it to His Excellency the Governor. "I have divided the supplies needed by the dispatch army into several categories, the first of which is a priority necessity that must be prepared before departure, and the second is also a necessity, but it can be purchased at the stop. The third category can be provided by the Qing people, reducing our time for preparation. ”

Antonio, who took over the list, took a brief look, and the first category on the list was mainly the spare parts needed by the fleet and military supplies such as army spare artillery, ammunition, field telephones, etc., which the Qing State could not produce and did not have reserves.

The second category is food, winter clothes, raincoats, picks and shovels and other materials, although some materials look inconspicuous, but they are necessities. Of course, these necessities can be purchased in a short time in the Qing Kingdom, and they only need to spend a lot of money.

The third category is the materials stockpiled by the Qing state, such as ammunition, guns and other weapons.

This is not to say that the sending army and the army do not carry weapons, but there is no need to prepare spare weapons, and weapons such as guns and artillery will be lost on the battlefield, and they need to be replenished at this time. Therefore, in addition to the weapons for normal use, the army also needs to reserve a batch of weapons.

"There's no problem with that, I'll get the people below to step up their purchases."

Governor Antonio, who had read the list, immediately gave a positive answer, but then he said. "Judging from this list, it seems that you are very unoptimistic about the combat effectiveness of the Qing army?"

Faced with Antonio's words, Lieutenant General Álvaro did not deny it, but asked. "You have also seen the battle between the Qing people and Japan before, and their ability is indeed questionable."

"But this is their homeland, and Weihaiwei is the last home port of the Qing fleet, if it is taken away, the Qing fleet will have nowhere to go."

Obviously, with Antonio's character, it is difficult for him to believe in the idiom of defeat with one blow, which also shows that he does not know much about the Qing army, and of course this is also something misleading him.

He had a small Doge's Guard, half of which were Chinese in order to win over the Chinese, and in all respects they were similar to the Italian soldiers, and in some respects stronger. It was also due to the contact around him, so Antonio took a high look at the Qing army.

However, it is clear that Lieutenant General Álvaro, a military personnel, knows more about the military than the governor, because there were many Italian advisers in the Qing army.

"According to the report of our advisers in the Qing army, what is the name of the army controlled by Prime Minister Li, by the way, it is called the Huai army, they can think of it, their morale training is a headache, and the army marches to give money, which you can imagine. To put it mildly, I am most afraid that before we arrive, the Qing people will lose Weihaiwei, and that is the worst. ”

That's right, Lieutenant General Álvaro didn't understand the appropriation fee in the Qing army at all. If you don't give money, you won't leave, is this still the army of the country? How to implement military orders, and is it necessary to use money to motivate the army at any time? If this is the case, the European countries will not fight a big war, and everyone will go bankrupt.

However, although Lieutenant General Álvaro looked down on this, he still had to do it to help Qing Guo. In order to keep the Qing country from collapsing, he also worked hard.

"Don't worry, I will strictly order all departments to cooperate with you, and I will definitely let your fleet set off before the Qing army collapses."

"Thank you, and when I come back, I will taste my treasured wine with Your Excellency."

"That's it."

While Lieutenant General Álvaro was worried about the Qing army, Li Zhongtang, who was staying in Tianjin, was also worried.

Since the Japanese army landed in Rongcheng County, he has been receiving bad news in the past few days. According to reports from the front, the Japanese soldiers marched to Weihaiwei in two directions, one south and one north, and mobilized 25 battalions in Shandong to intercept and snipe. It is a pity that more than 10,000 soldiers and horses faced the attack of the Japanese, defeated one after another, currently in the northern line, has lost several key points of Gushan, Hedong Village, Baojia Village, only the hot spring village, Longjia Village is still in the hand, and the southern line also has no good news, Yangtingji, Hushan, hot spring soup have been lost, only Qiaotou set, Buliuji in the hands at present.

The Japanese army on the north and south lines is less than 40 miles away from Weihaiwei, what kind of battle is this? In vain, these battalion leaders spend so much money and food on weekdays, and none of them are of use in the battle array.

"General Antonio, when do you think your reinforcements will arrive, can you send a telegram to urge you?"

At this time, Li Zhongtang, who was already in a hurry, didn't care about anything else, and summoned the chief adviser, Major General Antonio, to ask about the time when the reinforcements would arrive.

Under the influence of the Qing State's invitation to Italian reinforcements, Rear Admiral Antonio is currently promoted, and he has been promoted from the chief adviser of the Beiyang Navy Division to the general adviser of the Huai Army, regardless of Rear Admiral Antonio, who forcibly let him add to the burden.

Although Antonio didn't know much about the army, he had a lot of Italian advisers in the Qing army, and after recruiting a few army advisers to form a small circle, Antonio still gave a few good suggestions, so this led to him being more and more valued by Li Zhongtang.

Of course, Li Zhongtang on this day is not normal, and after getting along for so many years, Antonio knows that this is anxious for Zhongtang. Of course, he also knew that the Qing army in Shandong was fighting very badly, because Li Zhongtang's main force was all placed in Liaodong, and although there were 30,000 or 40,000 troops in Shandong, most of them were newly formed and their combat effectiveness was worrisome.

But knowing is knowing, now he has to answer Li Zhongtang's words.

"Your Excellency, when the Japanese army landed, I had already sent a telegram to Lan Fang, and Lieutenant General Álvaro promised me that he would arrive in half a month. At present, four days have passed, and only 11 days need to hold Weihaiwei, then the Japanese army that landed will bring about its own destruction. ”

However, Major General Antonio's words did not reassure Li Zhongtang, and he continued. "Whether it can be shortened to a week, I am afraid that the front line will be lost, which will shake the morale of the army."

Hearing that Li Zhongtang still wanted reinforcements to speed up, Major General Antonio was shocked. "A week is too short, a lot of preparations have not been completed, and even some weapons and equipment may not be able to catch up."

"It doesn't matter, as long as my Huai army has it, your army can be used openly, just to be able to speed up."

"In that case, I'll need to ask to give an answer."

Although Antonio's words were not certain, Li Zhongtang immediately implemented them. "It's okay, the old man is waiting for good news here."

"Zhongtang, Weihaiwei's reinforcements still need to be urged, and Weihaiwei's troops are still not much."

"Okay, I'll tell them to speed up."

The telegram from Tianjin soon arrived in Pontianak by cable, and Major General Antonio gave a detailed account of the current state of affairs in the Shandong war, and also told Li Zhongtang about his request for reinforcements.

"Let the fleet speed up its preparations, and we'll be on the road in a week."

Considering the concern about the combat effectiveness of the Qing army, Lieutenant General Álvaro decided to set off without full preparation, although he may have discounted the combat effectiveness of the dispatched army, but in order to ensure that Weihaiwei is not lost, he can only do this first.

Although this will cause a lot of logistical trouble, it is not so much to take care of now.

So a week later, a huge fleet of ships transporting the 1st Guards Division headed north under the protection of the dispatch fleet, ready to engage the Japanese in the Far East.