Chapter 001 Login

January 25, 1895 of the Western calendar, the first day of the second year of the lunar calendar.

Rongcheng Bay, Longsleeping Australia, Luofenggang Village.

At 6:00 in the morning, in the sea in the east, a hazy morning light was projected in the faint morning fog, shining the seaside village into a faint silhouette, like an ink painting.

The small fishing village was silent. As early as half a month ago, all the villages along Rongcheng Bay were empty. Even the gatekeeper's dog followed the owners to flee to Jinan or further inland.

In fact, neither the imperial court nor local officials have issued a war warning to coastal residents or organized the evacuation of residents.

However, the people of the Qing Dynasty smelled the smell of war and made a decision from the gossip and the increasing number of Qing soldiers on the coast.

These gossips were officially dismissed as rumors. And the people of the Qing Dynasty are convinced of these so-called rumors.

This is the basic skill of the people of the Qing Dynasty to maintain their survival. In this seriously underdeveloped country, the original limited information was deliberately concealed by the imperial court, and the information that can be transmitted to the ears of the people is basically zero.

Fortunately, people have their own way of judging the situation - the rumors announced by the government are generally true. This method has proved to be effective for thousands of years.

Luofenggang Village is located in Longsao Bay. The surrounding terrain is flat and the sea is calm. It is not far from the Chengshanjiao lampstand, which is equipped with a lighthouse for ships to navigate.

Wang Shizhen, the sentry commander of the left battalion of Taijing of the Qing army, woke up with a soak of urine, rubbed his sleepy eyes and walked out of the bunker. A bitter cold wind on his face made him trembling.

The sky is bright, the sea is mist, and the sky is cloudy. It seems that it is going to snow again.

Wang Shizhen is a native of Zhili Zhengding. He was originally rich in his family. His great-grandfather was a famous local doctor, and his grandfather was a scholar practicing medicine and was highly respected in the local area. However, Wang Shizhen's father and uncle died young, and the Wang family gradually declined. Wang Shizhen entered a private school to study poetry at the age of 9. In the second year of Guangxu (1876), 15-year-old Wang Shizhen was favored by Ye Zhichao in Zhengding Zhentai at that time and was taken as a service soldier.

Wang Shizhen was smart and easy to learn, and was soon appreciated by Ye Zhichao. In the 11th year of Guangxu, Ye Zhichao recommended Wang Shizhen to enter Tianjin Martial Arts School and studied in artillery for 3 years. After graduation, he returned to Ye Zhichao's army and served as a gunnery teacher.

Before the outbreak of the Qing-Japanese War, Wang Shizhen came to North Korea with Ye Zhichao and stationed troops in Asan. The Japanese army mixed into a brigade to attack Asan. Ye Zhichao retreated without fighting. Wang Shizhen fled to Pyongyang with Ye Zhichao.

In Pyongyang, Wang Shizhen's troops were stationed at the position from Daximen to Qixingmen. During the battle, Wang Shizhen personally operated artillery and fought with the Japanese army. Her ring finger of her left hand was blown off by Japanese artillery fire, and her forehead was scratched by shrapnel, almost losing her life.

Not long after, Ye Zhichao ordered to give up Pyongyang. The whole army broke out and the Qing army was defeated on the whole line. Wang Shizhen's artillery team abandoned the cannons and ran to the Yalu River, suffering from hunger along the way. When fleeing to a small village, the officers and soldiers found two large jars under a farmer's firewood pile, which contained wheat flour, and officers and soldiers were wolves. He swallowed and ate two large jars of wheat flour cleanly. After eating, everyone was afraid of being overtaken by the Japanese and ran away.

Wang Shizhen fell alone at the end, put five taels of silver into the big tank, sealed the big tank and covered with firewood, and then chased the team.

After escaping the Yalu River, Ye Zhichao was dismissed by the court. Wang Shizhen's artillery team was merged into Nie Shicheng's Wuyi army and went to Liaodong to fight.

The Qing army was defeated in Liaodong and retreated from Jinzhou to Haicheng, while the Japanese army was pressing step by step. At this time, the Japanese army's attack on Shandong became more and more obvious, and the imperial court, under the pressure of the Japanese army, placed the main force in Liaodong, and Shandong's troops were extremely empty.

Dai Zongqian, who is in charge of Shandong's defense, asked the court for help, hoping to withdraw some troops in Liaodong to reinforce Shandong. Dai Zongqian's attempt seemed to be targeted by the Japanese. The Japanese's offensive in Liaodong was even more fierce. Song Qing, who was responsible for the battle in Liaodong, was too busy and was unable to reinforce Shandong at all.

However, the situation in Shandong is extremely critical. In desperation, the court had to order Li Bingheng, the governor of Shandong, to recruit villagers and train the new army. He has dealt with the attack of the Japanese army, which was purely temporary. From training to combat effectiveness, a force cannot be completed overnight. The Qing Dynasty hopes that Li Bingheng can recruit new soldiers to stop the Japanese attack, which is purely a fool's dream.

Sure enough, the news of the failure of the Qing army came one after another, and the people of Shandong were separated, and there were few volunteers. Li Bingheng took the best efforts to recruit three battalions, Jingjian Camp, Taijing Camp and Hecheng Camp, with a total strength of less than 2,000. And the recruits of these three battalions are all for silver, and their quality is extremely poor. They can't keep up with the training, and they have no combat effectiveness at all.

With no choice, Li Bingheng asked the court to remove some officers with actual combat experience from Liaodong and come to serve as officers in the new barracks. One is responsible for training, and the other is that once the war starts, with these officers, the army can cope with it for a while. Otherwise, these recruits will disperse as soon as they hear the sound of gunfire.

The court agreed to Li Bingheng's request, and in this way, Wang Shizhen and some other low-level officers were transferred to Shandong. Wang Shizhen was assigned to the left camp of Taijing and became a sentry chief.

Ten days ago, Taijing Zuoying was stationed in Fenggang Village.

All signs indicate that Rongcheng Bay will be the landing point of the Japanese army. The imperial court deployed heavy troops in Rongcheng Bay, at least tactically, was the right choice.

However, what puzzled Wang Shizhen was that the Qing army in Shandong had 40th Infantry Battalion and 8 Cavalry Battalion. Of the 48 battalions, only three battalions were recruits, while the court deployed the three weakest new barracks at the forefront of Rongcheng Bay, that is, the front position of the Japanese landing site.

Once the Japanese army launches a beach attack, the first of them are these three new barracks!

Or, on the other hand, when the Japanese launch an attack, they will face three camps with no combat effectiveness!

This is equivalent to giving up the Rongcheng Bay beach to the Japanese!

Wang Shizhen is just a low-level officer. Before that, he was not even a sentry commander. He was just a small military instructor. He didn't know at all that putting the three new barracks at the forefront was not meant by the imperial court, but by the leaders of various forces in the Shandong battlefield!

There are 48 battalions of infantry, and the commanders of each battalion are unwilling to be at the forefront. Everyone knows that once the Japanese army attacks, the front-line troops will inevitably suffer a severe blow from Japanese artillery fire. The troops are their own, and their lives are also their own. None of the battalion officers and their superiors are willing to use their own troops as cannon fodder.

Those battalion commanders are all professional officers, each with their own doors and paths in the court*. Only these three new barracks are temporarily recruited people. There is no *. Everyone pushed around. As a result, these three new barracks are pushed to the forefront.

Wang Shizhen doesn't understand these unspoken rules of officialdom, and he doesn't have the mood and time to study these unspoken rules.

The recruits of Taijing Left Battalion, who are responsible for guarding Luofenggang, have not even been able to walk well, let alone master basic individual tactics. They can't even crawl and shoot.

Wang Shizhen devoted all her energy to teaching these recruits to master basic tactical literacy, although the results of the teaching made him desperate.

The surroundings were surprisingly quiet, and Wang Shizhen frowned.

Lights flashed on the lighthouse not far away.

"Damn!" Wang Shizhen scolded hatefully, "The sentry of the dog days fell asleep again!"

Until now, these recruits can't do it. They don't sleep when they stand guard!

Wang Shizhen hurried to the Chengshanjiao Lighthouse. Under the stone lighthouse, there was a small door inside which was the watchtower of the lighthouse.

Wang Shizhen ran into the observation deck and saw the sentry holding a rifle, curled up under the observation hole, snoring like thunder.

Wang Shizhen grabbed the sentry's skirt, pulled the sentry up abruptly, and slapped him in the face.

The sentry was beaten with excitement, opened his eyes, covered his hot face, and stammered: "Report, report, be safe..."

A series of sounds, observing a group of seagulls spreading their wings and flying outside the mouth.

Wang Shizhen pushed away the sleepy sentry and lay on the observation hole.

The morning fog gradually dissipated, and countless black spots appeared on the sea level in the distance.

There are more and more black spots, occupying the entire sea level outside the observation hole.

In the roaring wind, the seagulls made panicked calls in mid-air.

"Scho, what is that?" The sentry asked with a strong Laiwu accent, and his tone was full of surprise.

"That's a fleet!" Wang Shizhen's voice was desperate.

Fire appeared on the dense black spots on the sea.

In the sky, there is a harsh beep.

Then, the roar of the falling Fenggang sounded.

Those were 36cm giant shells fired from the Matsushima, Qiaohe and Yandao cruisers. The main guns of these large cruisers greatly exceeded the caliber of the Qing army's shore guns, and the maximum caliber of the Qing army's shore guns was only 28 cm.

Countless giant shells exploded in Luofenggang Village. In the deafening explosion, Luofenggang Village disappeared into the strong smoke.

The lighthouse trembled in the gunfire, and the sentry sat on the ground.

Wang Shizhen grabbed the sentry's skirt: "Go quickly and inform the troops to enter the position, quickly!"

The sentry's face was pale, his fingers were on his ears, and his mouth was screaming.

His ears are deaf!

Wang Shizhen pushed away the sentry and rushed out of the lighthouse.

From the beach to the village, there is a sea of fire, and Luofenggang Village has long disappeared. This small coastal fishing village has been gently erased from the earth by the cannons of the joint fleet.

At the same time, 800 officers and soldiers of Jingtai's left battalion stationed in the village were erased.

Wang Shizhen leaned against the stone wall of the lighthouse, and he knew that he had saved his life.

The Japanese did not bombard the lighthouse. They wanted to keep the lighthouse to navigate the fleet.

Blessing the lighthouse, he and the sentry became the only survivors of Jingtai Left Camp!

On the sea, the dense black spots turned into a tall bridge, and countless boats lowered the sea from the bridge and rushed to the coast.

The landing battle has begun!