Chapter 10 of Part 4 Underestimating the corruption and weakness of the Qing government

Chen Congyun had never understood one thing. Although the Third Division and the First Brigade were almost wiped out in Liaodong, the Japanese army still had to carry out the so-called Shandong Peninsula Battle. Is the Japanese brain broken? Or is it because of poor communication? After the war, Chen Congyun realized that after Katsura escaped from Haicheng, he immediately fell into the ocean of people's war. On the entire northeast land, when the Qing government troops fled in panic, countless civilians, facing the brutality of the Japanese army, were not afraid or retreat, picked up weapons that might have been found, and attacked these invaders everywhere.

So whether it is Katsura, Notsu Daokuen, or Nogikiki, after they fled, they were chased by civilian armed forces everywhere, and the journey of escape was very difficult. Taking Notsu Daokuen and Nogikikiki as examples, it was already the tenth day after the Gaiping War when they fled to Jinzhou. At this time, the landing operations on the Shandong Peninsula had reached a critical moment, and the Japanese army was attacking the Nangang Fort. As for Katsura, when he fled to Jiuliancheng, more than a thousand people under his command had nothing to do with refugees, but they were separated.

Kashitaro didn't understand anything even after he died. That night, before the troops stationed at Dashi Bridge, he did not find a large number of Chinese troops nearby. Why at night, the small Dashi Bridge was violently bombarded by nearly 7000 cannons? Just from a military perspective, Kashitaro arranged more than 10,000 people within a range of only five square kilometers of Dashi Bridge. But wasn't the Qing army defeated? Didn't the Qing army abandon almost all the cannons? Kashitaro, who fled to Jiulian City, chose to commit suicide by taking a caesarean section after taking a shower and changing clothes.

The next day, the Japanese army finally understood that the opponent they encountered this time was not the Qing army in the traditional sense, but a completely new army. This army was the Japanese intelligence department and had never truly understood its true combat effectiveness. But wasn't the new army in Jiangnan in China?

After Nozin Dokun fled to Jinzhou, he immediately telegraphed the Japanese army in Lushun and reported the battle situation ahead. But before he could sit firmly, the third division of the aftershock had already reached the city of Jinzhou. The reason why the aftershock came so late was entirely because it was necessary to leave enough time for Wan Shusheng's interspersed troops. When the aftershock appeared at Jinzhou, Wan Shusheng was only twenty miles away from Huayuankou.

Shandong Peninsula.

When Liu Yongfu led his troops to poke the Japanese army from behind the attack on the Nangang Fort, he found one thing differently, that is, there were many young and strong men in people's clothes in the team one after another. These people followed the troops, and even brought their own food. As long as they found the rough and tiring work, they rushed to do it. Carry the load, carry the arms, and help push the cannon truck.

Some women took children and placed tea on both sides of the road and stuffed the cooked eggs into the soldiers one by one. If this scene was seen by Chen Congyun, they would definitely say: "This is the People's War!"

Liu Yongfu didn't understand this truth, but it did not prevent him from being stopped by a group of gentry. Then he took a big bowl of wine brought by an old man, and killed it in one sip. Liu Yongfu laughed and said, "Brothers are rough people and stupid. The villagers just watch it. If they can't destroy the Japanese, brothers will fight against the Japanese."

On the morning of the 30th, the rumbling sound of cannons came to the Nangang fort. This was the Qing army on the fort firing at the Japanese army. To be precise, the Nangang fort was a group of cannons, or a group of fortresses. The advantage was that the fortifications were strong, the disadvantage was that the troops were weak. The most fatal point was that at the beginning of the war, Liu Chaowei of the "Gong" army escaped at the last moment, and the defenders of the fort were immediately without a leader. Most of the soldiers spontaneously fought against the Japanese army without command.

At noon, more than half of the fortresses were conquered by the Japanese army one after another. At this moment of crisis, there was a rumbling sound of cannons behind the Japanese army. The Japanese army, who were charging, suddenly discovered that their butt was stabbed hard.

Liu Yongfu first sent a cavalry battalion to attack the Japanese artillery positions, and then used the heavy artillery regiment and the heavy mortar regiment to carry out the most violent bombardment of the Japanese army. After the artillery fired all the artillery shells carried, the entire First Division launched an assault.

Like all new troops, the First Division also inherited this tradition. Once the entire army attacked, it would mean that the entire army would be bayonetized. Although Liu Yongfu wanted to charge with a bayonet, he was held tightly by his subordinates. The commander of the First Brigade, the Frenchman Carmondo, was even rolling his eyes at him, which made Liu Yongfu smile embarrassedly and put down the m1888 with the bayonet.

The Beiyang Navy, who left the port, ran into the Japanese Joint Fleet that was coming to intercept. The two sides set off and fought again at the sea. The battle was even more tragic. The first shot of the Dingyuan main gun landed on Yoshino's fly bridge. The unlucky Hirahachiro Togo was shocked by the explosion and landed hard on the deck, breaking one leg. The flagship of the Joint Fleet, Hachihiro, was hit by a shell from Zhenyuan in the first attack wave of the Beiyang Fleet. The 320mm main gun did not work, but instead caused the gun to hit the ammunition compartment. The huge and bulky 320mm main gun was directly tilted by the explosion of the ammunition compartment, killing several Japanese soldiers who were unable to escape. Yuki Ito had to change the flagship again because the middle section of the Hachita ship was in danger of breaking.

The Beiyang Navy did not take advantage of it. Langsu and Gao Qiansui's rapid-fire run made Jingyuan's flames soar into the sky. Deng Shichang's Zhiyuan was also run for more than a dozen times. Both sides fought back and forth until dark. After all the shells were cleaned, the Japanese Combined Fleet retreated again. However, this time they fled in a panic because the main force of the Japanese army on the Shandong Peninsula was attacked by Liu Yongfu and the Qing army on the fort, and fled in panic and retreated to Rongcheng.

Qiao Li, Fusang, was sunk, Jingyuan, Jiyuan sank, and Dingyuan was the most deadly. He was hit by a torpedo from a Japanese torpedo boat that was approaching. Fortunately, Dingyuan was really strong enough and drove back to the port staggeringly, and then survived. After this battle, the two giant ships of the Beiyang Navy were still there, and several new Japanese fast cruisers survived. The strength of the two sides was basically the same. The joint fleet that drove back to Lushun to replenish ammunition received a shocking news, Haicheng and Gaiping were lost, and the first army was equally damaged. Now the Chinese army has reached the city of Jinzhou.

The joint fleet hurriedly completed the replenishment and set off overnight to Rongcheng, intending to bring back the Shandong combat army.

But is there such a cheap thing? The Beiyang Navy, who was angry, simply waited for the Japanese fleet, Zhenyuan, Zhiyuan, and more than a dozen torpedo boats and mosquito gunships in the waters near Rongcheng, and were struggling desperately.

Ding Ruchang was willing to go out this time. When he learned that the Japanese army in Shandong were trapped in Rongcheng, Ding Ruchang did not dare to fire the Japanese army because of his cowardice.

At this time, it was really lively. The Qing army under various banners suddenly appeared like spring after the rain. Li Bingheng led his troops to more than 10,000 people day and night, and they were tired like dead dogs. They also arrived in Rongcheng. Yan Desheng, Liu Chaopei, the two escaped generals, also brought more than 1,000 people back. Dai Zongqian, Sun Wanling, Liu Shude and other troops also arrived one after another. Many miscellaneous and many regiments also came. In two days, the total number of Qing troops outside Rongcheng reached 40,000. Without the support of the navy, the Shandong combat army had no place to run away, so the Qing army was surrounded.

When the Japanese combined fleet saw the Beiyang Navy performing a desperate posture, they were worried that the Japanese army on the Liaodong Peninsula would not dare to continue fighting desperately, so they turned around and ran back to Lushun.

The joint fleet had just returned to Lushun and heard another bad news. The Gardenkou was lost. The Japanese army in a brigade of the defenders fought fiercely for a day and night, and all died for the country. In fact, hundreds of Japanese troops chose to surrender, but Wan Shusheng did not give face and stabbed them all to death with bayonets. They cut off their heads and exchanged them for silver dollars.

The fact that the new army did not keep prisoners and liked to behead their heads soon spread among the Japanese army. In view of the sharp turn of the war in Liaodong, the Japanese base camp urgently ordered the joint fleet to cover the Japanese army on the Liaodong Peninsula, retreated to North Korea, and abandoned the plan of a decisive battle in Zhili in order to ensure the entire territory of North Korea.

Shen Congyun chased her closely and failed to capture the main force of the Japanese Second Army. Two Japanese brigades fought to the Jinzhou defense and blocked the Third Division for three days. Wan Shusheng was even more unlucky and was preparing to pick up the Jinzhou retreat at Huayuankou. Who would have thought that the Japanese joint fleet cooperated with the main force of the Second Army to attack Huayuankou overnight with the strength of the two divisions. A series of ships and guns came over, and then the Japanese counterattacked. Wan Shusheng fought fiercely with the Japanese army for a whole day, losing more than 1,000 people. Although he also annihilated more than 1,000 enemies, he lost Huayuankou. He was forced to retreat to Dagushan.

At this time, Liu Yongfu made a mistake and failed to cut off the cable in time. As a result, the Japanese Shandong Operations Army used telegrams to contact the Japanese army in Lushun and took a bold military action.

The joint fleet sent three fast cruisers, Yoshino, Langsu and Gao Qiansu, suddenly appeared on the sea of ​​Weihai, which made Ding Ruchang have to lead the fleet back to defense. On the night of February 5, 1895, he was trapped and fled. Liu Yongfu planned to let them flee to death and starve to death, and even killed them with all his might. Liu Yongfu made the biggest military mistake in his life, and he actually still had hope for Li Bingheng and other escape generals. As a result, the Japanese Shandong Operations Army rushed out from the defense line headed by Li Bingheng. After fleeing to the sea, Dashanyan lost Che Baoshuai and used a brigade to block Liu Yongfufei's pursuit. With the cooperation of the joint fleet, he fled to the sea in a hurry.

After Shen Congyun learned that Ding Ruchang had been trapped by the Japanese Joint Fleet to lure the tiger away from the mountain, he also learned that most of the Shandong combat troops had escaped, and was so angry that he almost vomited blood.

As a result of the Shandong battle, the Japanese army was wiped out into two brigades and then fled directly to North Korea.

The pain of Chen Congyun without the navy continued. After half of the casualties, the two Japanese brigades in Jinzhou fled to Lushun. Chen Congyun rushed to chase after him, but was stunned when he arrived in Lushun. The large number of forts built by Li Hongzhang in the past burst into great power and became the amulet of the Japanese army.

Ding Ruchang was left with only one Zhenyuan and Zhiyuan, and he did not dare to leave Weihai too far. Chen Congyun could only watch the Japanese army flee from the sea. Before leaving, he also destroyed all the forts built by Lushunkou that cost tens of millions of taels. From Shandong to Liaodong, Chen Congyun's new army, from participating in the war to the Japanese voluntarily evacuating, wiped out more than 30,000 enemies and about two divisions. The Japanese army was defeated back to North Korea. It should be said that Chen Congyun won the battle, although the process did not seem perfect.

Faced with the failure on the Chinese battlefield, Japan exclaimed, "China has produced a sunny cloud." Fortunately, there was no prefix "Oriental Red, the Sun Rises" in front of it, otherwise it could be sung as a song.

The Japanese base camp quickly made adjustments and proposed that the current combat goal was to preserve the status of North Korea. That is, on the day when the Japanese army withdrew from the Liaodong Peninsula, Prince Chiren, the highest commander of the base camp, vomited blood and died. The whole country of Japan fell into a state of panic all day long, and was always worried that the Qing army would fight back to North Korea and then attack Japan's homeland. The Japanese base camp even proposed a plan for local combat and began to increase the defense of various forts.

The failure to annihilate all the Japanese troops in Liaodong exposed Chen Congyun's lack of naval flaws, and also exposed that due to the lack of numbers in the new army, sometimes they had to rely on the help of other Qing troops, which led to the failure to fully annihilate the Japanese troops in Shandong.

Chen Congyun, who was unwilling to accept his wish, led the new army to advance quickly towards the Yalu River border. Chen Congyun advanced quickly, and the Japanese army in Liaodong ran faster. When Chen Congyun and Song Qing's coalition forces reached Jiuliancheng and Yizhou, the Japanese army had already pushed all into North Korea.

Chen Congyun naturally refused to relax his pursuit of the Japanese army. After three days of rest, the entire army was about to enter North Korea and drove the Japanese army back to Japan, he received an urgent telegram from Li Hongzhang, and the Military Affairs Office also sent an urgent telegram.
Chapter completed!