Master Yuan, start!

"emission!"

One shell after another whistled up, making a deafening roar, and bombarded the Beiyang Navy in Weihaiwei.

The Qing troops in Weihaiwei had no time to escape and could only circle around Liugong Island, trying to avoid the artillery attacks from French warships.

At this time, the artillery batteries on Liugong Island and the north and south banks also reacted and launched a counterattack relying on some fortifications built in advance.

Weihaiwei was not as important as Tianjin. Before the Beiyang Fleet was established, it did not receive the attention of Li Hongzhang. The number of artillery batteries deployed there was far less than that of the Dagu Fort. Only dozens of guns were set up facing the Yellow Sea, and there was no time to set up covering artillery batteries facing the land.

Some of the artillery positions were just empty spaces with no cannons deployed.

Perhaps Li Hongzhang did not expect that the foreigners would one day attack Beijing from the coast, but now it is too late to say anything.

Courbet stood on his flagship, the Baya, and observed the artillery batteries on the distant mountains through a telescope.

After a moment, he said to the deputy general behind him: "I will lead the troops to find the landing beach. You concentrate your strengths and continue to patrol the north. If any Qing warships dare to go out to sea, they will be sunk."

"Yes!"

During the mutual bombardment between the Qing army's artillery and the French warships, no one noticed that the several ships behind the French army slowly faded out of sight.

A few hours later, the French first set foot on the undefended coast of Dengzhou, dozens of miles east of the Weihaiwei Fort.

"Soldiers, follow me. The Qing army's cannons are only facing the sea and cannot hit the land. Let's take them down from behind!"

"Yes, General!"

"Hi!"

In addition to the French, the Japanese also went ashore. Commander Taro Kobayashi could not hide his excitement and volunteered to be the pioneer.

After saying this, Taro Kobayashi carried his Enfield rifle on his back and led thousands of Japanese soldiers to rush towards the dangerous artillery position.

The Qing soldiers who were busy exchanging fire with the warships at sea had no idea that someone would come from behind. They were in a panic and didn't know what to do.

Weihaiwei fell easily.

Amidst the flames rising into the sky, a small boat took advantage of the night and secretly sailed towards Lushun in the north.

...

"What! Weihaiwei has been lost?" Yuan Xiangcheng was shocked. He had just heard two days ago that the French army was still attacking the city in Zhejiang, but he didn't expect that they would reach Weihaiwei today.

When Yuan Shikai received the news that the French army was heading north, he moved his camp from Jinzhou to Lushunkou, relying on the defense of Lushunkou for easier defense.

At the same time, because there are not many artillery shells pulled from Tianjin, the efficiency of the artillery batteries can be maximized by combining them in one place.

Without having time to think about it, Yuan Shikai hurriedly ordered Qu Nan and Han Bei to check the artillery position at Lushunkou and told him to instruct the gunners not to waste ammunition. If they were defeated, they should retreat at the first opportunity and not let the French repeat the same trick and kill everyone.

At the same time, an urgent telegram was sent to the central government of the Qing court, stating that the French army had captured Weihaiwei and was about to head north to Lushun, and that Beijing and Tianjin were in imminent danger.

Fortunately, he had a plan in advance. He made a big circle and stopped the few troop transport ships that were originally docked at Lushunkou at a hidden pier in Pulandian Bay in later generations.

If the French target was Beijing, they would not have lingered in Port Arthur for too long. At most, they would have destroyed the artillery batteries and then sailed west.

"boom!"

There was a loud noise, and before Yuan Xiang could get back to the city, he could hear Ming Ye's hurried footsteps.

"Chief Instructor, the French ship is coming! Our brothers can't even raise their heads. What should we do?"

I didn't expect them to come so soon. It seems they came after quickly cleaning up the remaining troops in Weihaiwei.

Yuan Xiangcheng was thinking about something, but he kept talking: "Mingye, pass on my order. If the front-line guns are targeted by the French, they must be abandoned decisively. All artillery will retreat to the rear batteries and focus on defending the beach to prevent the French from landing!"

Before he could respond, several more cannon shots were heard. Ming Ye hurriedly ran to the front line with Yuan Xiangcheng's orders.

On the French side, Courbet accelerated his voyage, intending to first annihilate the Qing navy on both wings of the Bohai Sea and then attack Tianjin to avoid any worries.

As a result, they found that the Qing Dynasty naval ships in Lushunkou had disappeared. In a rage, they smashed dozens of fishing boats and pointed their guns at the artillery batteries on the shore.

It was daybreak and the weather was good near Port Arthur. The artillery batteries near the coast were sitting ducks for the French warships.

After a few rounds of test firing, they could lock onto a turret and easily destroy it.

Because of its fixed position, the artillery was often forced to fight back, and only hit a few French cruisers that were on the edge and had no time to dodge.

The damage caused by the Lushun Fort was not even as great as that caused by the Weihaiwei Fort.

Just as Yuan Shikai's Jiashen Right Army retreated step by step and gave up the front battlefield, the French warships gave up firing after several attempts due to insufficient range.

"Chief Instructor, have the French given up the attack?" Ming Ye asked in confusion.

"It's hard to say. Half of the forts at Port Arthur are still standing. The French won't give up the opportunity to destroy them."

Sure enough, just as Yuan Xiangcheng finished speaking, the French began another round of artillery bombardment, but the focus of this round of artillery bombardment was not the artillery position on the mountain, but the beach position built by the Jiashen Right Army.

After a full quarter of an hour of bombardment, all the defensive fortifications set up by Yuan Shikai on the beach were completely destroyed.

After the bombardment ended, thousands of short, yellow-skinned soldiers came down from the French ships one after another.

"Master Yuan, they are Japanese, the Japanese who followed the French to capture Weihaiwei!"

Chapter 52: Unavoidable Battle

The Qing soldier who reported the news, who had just experienced the Battle of Weihaiwei a day ago, was extremely excited and recognized at a glance that it was the Japanese who attacked the Weihaiwei artillery fort from behind.

"Chief Instructor, all the members of the Tianjin Town of the Jiashen Right Army are on standby and ready to respond to the French landing at any time!" Duan Qirui gathered the defeated troops running over from the vicinity of the artillery position and said to Yuan Shikai.

In addition to Yuan Xiangcheng and the Qing soldier who reported the news, there was another person in the tent who was dressed luxuriously and looked nervous. He was Chenghou, the eldest son of Prince Li Shiduo who had been entrusted to Yuan Xiangcheng.

Yuan Xiangcheng put down the telescope in his hand and said calmly: "No need to respond, the Japanese have already landed and are ready to meet the enemy."

Yuan Xiangcheng did not want to fight this battle head-on. The right thing to do was to hide in the mountains and preserve his strength.

But Prince Li's son Chenghou was right next to him, a real military supervisor. If he really ran away without doing anything and asked Chenghou to report it, the Qing court would probably not approve it.

Chenghou followed Yuan Xiangcheng when he was training troops in Tianjin, but after two days of training he felt it was too hard, so he discussed with Yuan Xiangcheng whether he could skip the training at the academy and asked Yuan Xiangcheng to keep it a secret.

Yuan Shikai was of course happy to see this. Without Cheng Hou in the Beiyang Tianjin School, he did not have to hide many of his actions.

So Chenghou stayed in Tianjin for as long as Yuan Xiangcheng stayed there. Every day, he would listen to crosstalk and visit brothels, feeling very comfortable.

When Yuan Xiangcheng was ordered to be transferred to Jinzhou for defense, Chenghou was forced to follow him to Jinzhou. There were few entertainment activities in Lushun and there was danger of war, so Chenghou stayed by Yuan Xiangcheng's side every day, like a military supervisor.

After all, Yuan Xiangcheng can use telegrams, and he can also use honesty.

Therefore, he naturally could not talk about retreat in front of Chenghou, so Yuan Shikai could only show his determination to fight to the death in front of Duan Qirui.

"Chief Instructor, over 1000 new troops are still defending the forts on the far shore and haven't had time to withdraw. Another 1000 or so went into the city yesterday to evacuate the civilians.

"Incheon Town only set out a few days ago and won't arrive until the day after tomorrow at the earliest. We only have a little over 3000 men right now." Duan Qirui looked at Yuan Xiangcheng's order to meet the enemy, feeling somewhat uncertain.

"Head Instructor, are you sure you want to do it?! Right now, right here?!"

"Now is the time to win or lose!"

The French came too quickly, and Yuan Shikai had no time to do many things, but war will never be launched until people are ready.

As the sky darkened, the waves crashed against the shoreline with a deafening roar. One by one, Japanese soldiers disembarked from the French warships and walked across the beach, leaving deep tracks.

"Where are the French? Why don't the French come down?" Chenghou asked.

"The French target is the capital, and this landing must have been initiated by the Japanese."

"Then what is their purpose?"

Looking at the direction they were heading, Yuan Xiangcheng looked towards Lushun County. Yuan Xiangcheng could retreat to preserve his strength, but he could not abandon all the residents of the city in front of Chenghou.

Wu "Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The Japanese troops on the beach were still hearing the deafening sound of artillery fire behind them, but the leader Taro Kobayashi could not hide his excitement.

After the silk army captured several small towns around Weihaiwei, Kobayashi Taro stole treasures that he would never have imagined in his lifetime.

There is so much wealth in just a few small counties. How rich must this country be?

After dividing the treasure with Courbet fifty-fifty, Kobayashi decided to repeat the same trick and plunder the city of Port Arthur while bombarding the Port Arthur Fort.

However, this time Courbet did not allow the French army to accompany him in order to protect his limited army.

So Yuan Xiangcheng faced only more than 2000 Japanese soldiers.

The whole beach was a little too quiet, and Taro Kobayashi felt that the silence was a little scary.

Under normal circumstances, he would have noticed something was wrong long ago, but under the temptation of money, he chose to suppress his uneasiness.

Let the Japanese troops move closer to ease the anxiety in my heart.

Aren’t there any Qing army positions around the fort? Why are there no people here? Were they all scared away by the sound of artillery fire?

"All teams, move forward quickly and find cover after leaving the beach!" Taro Kobayashi shouted.

Just as the Japanese army was about to walk out of the beach and enter the mountains on the coast, a deafening sound came from the mountains on both sides.

"Kill!"

"Classmates! Kill all the Japanese and avenge our brothers in Weihai!"

The Jiashen Right Army, which had been lying in ambush, fired at the Japanese with the M1882 bought from the Germans.

The Jiashen Right Army still lacked combat experience. They could have allowed the Japanese to move forward a few dozen meters before opening fire, but some people were too nervous, their palms were sweating, and they couldn't help but open fire in advance.

One gunshot triggered a chorus of gunfire. Originally, a volley of fire could kill at least hundreds of Japanese soldiers, but firing in advance greatly reduced the threat of the volley.

Although the weapons of the Jiashen Right Army did not form a generation gap with the Japanese, fortunately, they still caused considerable casualties to the Japanese unintentionally.

When these Japanese soldiers saw the casualties among their friendly forces, they were not afraid of death. Instead, they shouted "Baga Yalu!" and rushed forward in the face of the guns of the Jiashen Right Army.

On both sides of the mountain, the Jiashenjiu army, which was originally in an ambush, became a little timid when they saw the fearless Japanese army. Some of them were so timid that they almost couldn't hold their guns.

"Don't be afraid of them. We are on high ground and have the advantage of terrain. We can just wait until they get closer and then launch a round of salvos!" Duan Qirui had studied for a few years, so his language was quite elegant.

Sheng Fei, who also participated in the riot in Seoul, was not so cultured. He shouted directly to the people around him:

"Don't be afraid, brothers! Hit the enemy from above and attack the idiots. The Japanese are not superhuman, we will definitely defeat them today."

When the red-eyed Japanese charged forward, the Jiashen Right Army, under the command of Duan Qirui, Sheng Fei and others, waited until the Japanese were only a hundred meters away from them and launched another round of volleys.

"shot!"

"boom"

Although the M1882 in the hands of Jiashen Right Army was only the most basic rifle, it still exerted unimaginable power in such terrain, and saw the Japanese falling one by one in front of them.

The feel of guns that had been trained for more than half a year returned to the hands of these soldiers. As the hands of the Jiashen Right Army no longer shook, their accuracy continued to improve.

The number of casualties among the Japanese army continued to rise. Many Japanese soldiers saw their companions being shot and wailing, their heads and intestines spilling out on the ground, and their bloodshot eyes gradually clearing up.