Chapter 91 The decisive battle between the Chinese and German troops

The private exchanges between Chinese and German soldiers did not affect the atmosphere of the war between the two armies. This was just a seasoning before the war. After the German soldiers returned to their positions, they fought each other with life and death and did not show mercy. What should they do? It’s just that there was an extra plot between the soldiers on both sides of the country where heroes cherished heroes.

As the army of the two countries on the front line was about to break out, in the capital, the German envoy Hai Jing wanted to continue to blackmail the Qing government. Hai Jing led all German embassy personnel into the gate of the Zongli Yamen. The ministers of the Zongli Yamen, such as the Japanese Liuyi, the Beiyang minister Ronglu, and the Military Minister Li Hongzhang were all there. Hai Jing asked the interpreter to read the note full of crazy words:

Dear Your Majesty and His Excellency Mr. Ministers:

I declare to you in the name of our government: Jiaozhou Bay belongs to Germany. Originally, Germany did not need further negotiations with China, because no country in the world would help China regain Jiaozhou Bay.

The Chinese army attacked the troops stationed in Qingdao and the warships blocked Jiaozhou Bay. This was a provocation to our empire. Considering our traditional friendship with China, we chose to negotiate and sign an agreement.

Doing so can safeguard China's reputation. Our demands are expressed in the most humble way. We do not seek territorial cedes, and we recognize that this area continues to belong to the Chinese emperor. Our demands are simply to rent this small piece of place.

If you accept our agreement, in Europe, people will say: A powerful country like Germany must also take into account China's wishes. They have only rented a small area, and evacuated from most of the occupied areas in great harmony. As a friend of China, I advise you to choose the above path at this critical moment.

The Chinese emperor should hand over Jiaozhou Bay to Prince Henry as soon as possible and stop the attack. At present, the prince is leading the imperial fleet to head towards Jiaozhou Bay, and China should make a decision before this.

After Hai Jing finished speaking, he ignored the reactions of all the powerful Qing officials and led the German embassy staff out of the Zongli Yamen with arrogance.

The ministers of the Zongli Yamen were stunned, with different expressions of their faces. The Japanese faces were ashen. He was like a candle in the wind, as if he was withered, and had aged and weak body. He suffered this humiliation and kept coughing.

Sun Yuwen, the Minister of the General Administration, saw Hai Jing's arrogant and ferocious look, and threatened with force, showed fear on his face and was afraid.

He walked to Prince Gong and said, "Prince, Germany is powerful. Should we stop the front-line attacks first according to the requirements of the German envoy? We are sure to fight, and we are sure to be harmonious. We will start negotiations with victory. Qingdao is a small land with a small population, so it is okay to rent it to the German army."

Prince Gong pointed at Sun Yuwen's nose and cursed: "You, you, you also tried your best to make peace in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Now the situation in Shandong is very good, and you also want peace. Are you an official of my Qing court or an official of the Western countries?"

Sun Yuwen didn't dare to speak out, and thought to himself: I'm also thinking about the Qing Dynasty. Am I afraid that the people of the Despotics will not give up?

Prince Gong was so angry that he had just been humiliated by the German Minister Hai Jing, and he couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood. His clothes were bright red and his eyes were pierced. The ministers around him were panicked and came forward to persuade him to escape.

Li Hongzhang glanced at Sun Yuwen and said to the ministers around him: "Laishan, you can't say that. Although Germany is powerful, our Qing Dynasty is not bad. Now Wuyi's army has besieged the German army in Qingdao and will soon be defeated. Although Hai Jing said that the German fleet will go to China, according to the news I received, the Germans are just empty words and intimidation and have no substantial actions. As long as our Qing army attacks Qingdao as soon as possible and annihilates the German army in China, I believe that the German army will no longer ask to cede Jiaozhou Bay by then."

Prince Gong took a breath and said, "Shaoquan is reasonable. The Germans scared you like this in just a few words? The Qing army fought to the death in front of him, but you were waiting here to seek peace. When the news spread, what do you want the soldiers on the front line to think about? Who else will contribute to the court in the future? The mission is to let Nie Shicheng and Ye Zhikui end the war as soon as possible!"

Ronglu quickly said, "Prince, please rest assured. Ye Zhikui is the blessing of the Qing Dynasty. He is both wise and brave. After the slave returned, he ordered him to increase his offensive and seize Qingdao in one fell swoop, blocking the mouths of the people of the Gods."

After Ronglu left, the Japanese Liucai stood up with a trembling support from Li Hongzhang, but his eyes were covered in dust. Li Hongzhang saw it and thought to himself: This last Manchu royal family in the Qing Dynasty is wise, it seems that he will be in the near future. Who will I, Li Hongzhang, move closer to?

Not to mention that Prince Gong was seriously ill shortly after he returned, and his soul returned to nine heavens. Before his death, Prince Gong held Guangxu's hand and said with confidence: "I heard that Kang Youwei, a juren from Guangdong, advocated radical reforms, please be cautious and not trust villains." The smartest and capable person in the royal family of the Qing Dynasty at that time, died of illness in the royal palace with him full of regrets and infinite sorrow for the Qing Dynasty's future.

It is said that Nie Shicheng and Ye Zhikui agreed with Ronglu's telegram, and they are afraid that it will change if it is too late, Germany will expand its war, or other Western powers will take the opportunity to intervene.

After a whole day of cleaning, the soldiers of the Wuyi Army finally basically lost their original role in the German mine formation. Although there were still scattered mines, it had nothing to do with the overall situation.

In the early morning of April 5, the sky was clear and there was no strong wind. Sun Wanling's troops began to launch an offensive on the periphery of Qingdao Fortress, and the two sides launched a fierce gunfight, kicking off the battle.

In the end, the German army occupied the terrain and defeated several attacks by Sun Wanling and other Shandong New Army vanguards. However, this move tested the German army's dark trenches, defense and other firepower.

Seeing this, Ye Zhikui and Nie Shichen decided to use thunder to launch their troops together to break through the German army's fort position in one fell swoop.

At noon, German soldiers from three turrets in Qingdao had just had lunch when they saw six hydrogen balloons slowly rising from the enemy's position, and a commotion occurred.

When An Meng received the news, his face changed drastically. He could not have imagined that the Qing troops would have such a secret weapon. This time he hurriedly landed, and he had no weapons to face the sky. He could only pray to God to let the Qing people's hydrogen balloons be blown away by the wind.

The Wuyi Army's infantry and engineering grenadiers were also ready to launch a fierce offensive against the peripheral positions. Snipers interspersed and hid them. Once the heavenly soldiers made great achievements, it was their turn to go.

The horse team was placed behind it. If the German position was broken through, it would be pressed up and the horse team would not attack first. Because of this tough battle, the German army had strong firepower and machine gun fire. If it attacked first, it would suffer heavy losses and would not be left as a reserve force and wait for an opportunity to move.

The two sides were surprisingly silent before the battle, and they were watching the hydrogen balloons in the sky slowly flew towards the fort.

Ye Zhikui's flight brigade was divided into three routes, with each two hydrogen balloons attacking a turret. Under the attention of everyone, the heavenly soldiers finally flew over the German turret position. Seeing this, the German soldiers picked up rifles and fired the machine guns into the sky. However, the range was not enough, and no hydrogen balloon was hit.

Wang Tiansheng was a student who had just graduated from Tianjin Wubei Academy. Because he was brave and meticulous, he loved hydrogen balloons a lot when he was in the military academy and traveled on it many times. Therefore, when he learned that Wu Yi's army was preparing to build a heavenly soldier, he was the first to sign up. He had a long flight experience and skillful skills. Soon he was promoted to the captain of a hydrogen balloon, and he was in charge of more than a dozen pilots.

When the bomb dropper saw that he had already arrived above the fort, he asked with a little excitement in his voice: "Captain, can you drop a bomb?"

Wang Tiansheng kept observing down through the aiming equipment. When he heard this, he said, "Wait for a while, Xiao Liu, go a little further to the left."

The pilot Xiaoliu, who controlled the operation direction, hurriedly controlled the direction and let the hydrogen balloon slowly sail to the left.

Wang Tiansheng raised his hand while looking, raised his hand, suddenly pressed down, and shouted angrily: "It's this time, let it go!"

Several bomb droppers were ready, loading explosives, and waiting for their lives. After hearing this, they didn't hesitate at all. They quickly ignited it. As soon as they twisted the button, the mechanism was turned on, and the bomb fell from the hydrogen balloon with a whirlwind.

Everyone looked eagerly at the bomb falling quickly and clenched their fists. This was not an exercise, and the tension in their hearts could be imagined.

The first bomb lived up to expectations and fell straight down, detonated in the center of the German fort position, with a loud bang. Even the German army, who had already hidden in the tunnel, was blown out by the violent explosion shock wave and rolled out, in a mess and bloody manner. Four or five soldiers died at once, and the cannons were also slightly damaged.

Seeing this, the soldiers of Wuyi's army cheered and their tense moods relaxed. Seeing that Wang Tiansheng won the lead, several other hydrogen balloons were unwilling to fall behind. They aimed at and started to throw explosives. They rumbling for a while, and the rumbling sounds were endless. They exploded around the fort, which made the German army cry and howl, running around, and nowhere to hide. No one knew where the bombs of the Qing Dynasty were. Even the heavenly soldiers of Wuyi's army themselves knew that it was normal to throw falsely, and it was luck to throw them. Fortunately, the German army's fortress was large enough, and no matter how bad the luck was, it would explode inside.

Seeing this, Ye Zhikui ordered Feng Guozhang's artillery team to start attacking. Zhao Ergou had been promoted to battalion official, but he still did not change his habit of using artillery himself. When Feng Guozhang's order was issued, he was the first to shoot the German position.

Jiang is still old and is worthy of being the first artillery expert in Wuyi's army. He hit the German front-line fortress, which caused a burst of cheers.

The German rapid-fire artillery (there are artillery above the artillery, and the German army also had artillery troops) was not willing to fall behind. The two sides launched an instant bombardment. Fortunately, the Wuyi army was a unit established with the power of the country. The firepower of the German artillery was not as high as that of the enemy. The artillery teams bombed the infantry positions at the beginning, and soon they bombed the artillery positions directly based on the trajectory of the bomb. Ye Zhikui was heartbroken. These artillery were hard to get and were imported. Now they were fighting with the German army. It is still hard to say whether they could buy these artillery from Germany in the future.

After more than ten minutes of artillery battle, Duan Qirui, Song Pinglan and other infantry generals gave orders, and more than 3,000 soldiers of the Wuyi army were all over the mountains and launched the strongest charge. Because the German army lacked the support of artillery, they could not suppress the artillery team of the Wuyi army, resulting in direct resistance of the German front-line infantry. The German army had only 5 or 600 people in total, and the troops were too weak and scattered. It was really a huge difference. Even if the soldiers were brave, they could not recover the German decline.
Chapter completed!