When there was a new prime minister in Italian politics, the war in the Far East was not affected and continued.
After the world-famous naval battle in the Yellow Sea, the Italian Expeditionary Force did not stop at all. Just eight hours after the naval battle, the task force visited the Japanese landing site at Qinglong Bay. After two hours of shelling, all was exhausted.
The Italian fleet left, leaving only a scene like a Shura field.
Although many things at the Japanese landing site have been moved, the blow to the morale of the Japanese army was huge. After all, there is a way out and there is no way out. How can this be the same?
Of course, what had a greater impact on the landing Japanese troops was the arrival of reinforcements. On the day after the bombardment, the Fourth Regiment of the 1st Guards Division landed at Weihaiwei. Although the foreign soldiers' legs were still weak after being at sea for so many days,
This is more powerful than anything else in boosting the morale of the defenders, not even the silver reward.
On the landing of the Japanese troops, their retreats were cut off one after another, and the enemy reinforcements were already a double blow. How could they still have the morale to continue attacking Weihaiwei? On the day the Italian reinforcements arrived, the Japanese troops were unable to continue the attack, and the next day they
With the evacuation, the siege of Weihaiwei came to an end.
During the more than ten days when the Japanese army attacked Weihaiwei, the Qing army lost nearly 10,000 people and the Japanese army lost more than 3,000 people. Although the Japanese army suffered small losses, its ammunition consumption was quite high, especially since it needed to be transported step by step from the landing site.
Increase the day
It is fortunate that this is the case, otherwise it would be difficult for the defenders to resist the Japanese offensive. (Don’t ask why the Japanese army retreated when they saw the reinforcements, or why they did not make a desperate attack. The Japanese army in Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War was not the Japanese army we are familiar with in later generations.)
After the Japanese army retreated, in the following ten days, the 1st Guards Division of the Italian Expeditionary Force arrived at Weihaiwei one after another. With more than 10,000 troops and their equipment, Weihaiwei not only made Weihaiwei impregnable, but also became a gathering point for the Qing army.
Wrong, this war is a war between the Qing Dynasty and Japan. If the Qing army did not appear, this would not be justified.
Li Zhongtang had great foresight, how could he allow others to say such gossip. So under his order, the Huai army that originally reinforced Weihaiwei was unified under the command of Ding Ruchang, the admiral of the Beiyang Navy.
Li Zhongtang chose a navy admiral to command the army?
There is nothing we can do about this. Although there are many battalions in the Huai army, there are only a few who can convince the masses. Wei Rugui and Ye Zhichao were beaten to death by the Japanese army and were escorted to Beijing to await trial.
As for Nie Shicheng, he was not qualified enough and needed to defend Shengjing, so he could not make the trip. Therefore, he could only appoint the general of Admiral Ding and let him be responsible for commanding the soldiers.
Well, this can be regarded as making the best use of everything. Although Admiral Ding is not good at naval battles, he is still very good at land battles. Although this happened more than ten years ago, at least he is managing these various camp heads.
At that time, Ding Ruchang was still very convincing.
Of course, it would not be easy to handle this matter with Admiral Ding alone. Zhou Fu, who was not Lord Zhongtang's right-hand man, was temporarily assigned the post of governor of Shandong and transferred over to coordinate matters with the 1st Guards Division commanded by Major General Pulev.
"Senior Zhou, are our food ready?"
In his command post, Major General Pulev asked about Zhou Fulai. Don't blame Major General Pulev for not knowing the position of governor, because it is a bit difficult for a foreigner to know the official positions in China in detail, especially Pulev who has just arrived.
This is even more true. Therefore, he could only use the official position he understood to be used on Zhou Fu.
After the translator conveyed Major General Pulev's words to Zhou Fu, he said, "General Pulev, the things you need are ready. Thirty thousand artillery shells and three million rounds of ammunition. We will search for them."
Tianjin City has already shipped it. In addition, 5,000 dans of rice and flour, 1,000 cattle and sheep, and most of the 3,000 horses have arrived. Don’t worry, they will definitely be shipped to you at the stipulated time."
Zhou Fu's words gave the translator a bit of a headache. After all, he didn't know how to translate this kind of measurement. Fortunately, he converted it and expressed it in terms of tons.
Major General Pulev was very satisfied after hearing Zhou Fu's answer. He nodded and said, "Very good. As long as you can deliver the supplies on time, the attack on the Japanese army will proceed as scheduled."
After listening to Pulev's words, Ding Ruchang on the side said happily, "It's so good, our army will definitely not let these Japanese Japanese pirates go."
Ding Ruchang's words made Major General Pulev look at him. Although he didn't want to admit it, after several days of observation, he believed that the 1st Guards Division would have fought more easily if there were not these friendly forces to hinder it.
Don't blame Pulev for thinking this, because after arriving at Weihaiwei, apart from dealing with the affairs of the 1st Guards Division, he spent most of his time observing his friendly forces. The result made him very dissatisfied. His friendly forces were really
It's too bad. If he goes by his opinion, all these people should be disbanded, leaving no one behind.
According to statistics, more than 60% of these friendly troops have been in the army for less than three months, and one-third of them still use cold weapons. Among the hot weapons, there are homemade guns and matchlock guns that are hundreds of years old.
, there are also many single-shot rifles, and of course there are also those using advanced rifles, but the number is not large, only about two thousand people.
Moreover, in addition to insufficient training, these people also have a rather fatal problem, that is, they do not understand modern military theory, and all they have learned are tactics from decades ago.
He had seen too much volley shooting training at Weihaiwei. It was pretty good. Soldiers who used cold weapons also trained in ancient cold weapon tactics.
Of course, the Weihai Guards are still good, but they are only good if they have strong fortifications. If they are separated from the fortifications, their training, technical and tactical deficiencies will be equally serious.
It can be said bluntly that he only needs a reinforced regiment of troops to defeat all of the more than 10,000 friendly troops. Because even if they are given enough weapons, these people still don't know how to use them, and they can't use them correctly to achieve the desired results.
desired effect.
Pulev now somewhat understands why the Japanese army showed such combat effectiveness against the Qing army. This was completely a foil to the friendly forces.
Of course Pulev thought so, but he couldn't do this. He smiled and said to Ding Ruchang. "General Ding, I hope that your army can protect my flanks by then. In addition, in order to improve the training level of your army, I hope that
I can send a regiment to help your army train before the war."
How could the two of them not understand the meaning of Pulev's words? It was obvious that they were not optimistic about them. But it was normal not to be optimistic about them. With a regiment of more than 2,000 foreign soldiers to help out, those Qiu Ba would be somewhat confident.
"Thank you General Pulev for your help."
Zhou Fu took Ding Ruchang with him and thanked Major General Pulev.
Major General Pulev then called Cosenz.
"Lieutenant Colonel Cosentz, your fourth regiment is responsible for training our friendly forces, and when we attack, it will be responsible for protecting our army's flanks."
Although he was assigned to the terrible job of training friendly troops to protect the flanks, what else Cosentz could say was that he could only accept it.
After all, his four regiments have the weakest combat effectiveness, and he is also the least qualified. What else would he do if he didn't do this?
"As you command, Commander."
Feeling depressed, Captain Cosentz left.
Unexpectedly, as soon as I walked out of the teacher's room, I was stopped by someone.
"Lieutenant Colonel Cosentz, wait a minute."
I saw an officer walking up to him with a fat Qing man.
"Lieutenant Colonel Cosentz, this Lieutenant Colonel Yuan is the person sent by the Qing Dynasty to connect with you. If you have any requests in the future, you can convey them through this Lieutenant Colonel Yuan."
Well, it’s still the same question. The officer at the division headquarters didn’t understand the position of the officer named Yuan, but in view of the principle of reciprocity, he casually assigned him the position of lieutenant colonel, regardless of whether the Qing army had a lieutenant colonel or not.
Military rank.
When Cosenz heard that he was an officer in contact with the Qing Dynasty, he immediately smiled. "Hello, Lieutenant Colonel Yuan."
"Hello, Lieutenant Colonel Cosentz, you can call me Yuan Weiting."
This Lieutenant Colonel Yuan Weiting spoke Italian, which surprised Cosenz. This was the first time he had seen someone who could speak Italian in the Qing Dynasty except for a translator.
This time Cosentz's smile was more sincere, "Lieutenant Colonel Yuan, you speak Italian well."
