My Italy

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 ended, the task force visited the Japanese landing site at Qinglong Bay. After two hours of bombardment, when the exhausted Italian fleet left, only a scene like a Shura field was left.

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. The fourth regiment of the 1st Guards Division landed at Weihaiwei the day after the bombardment. Although the foreign soldiers' legs were still weak after being at sea for so many days, the morale boost of the defenders was stronger than anything else, not even a silver reward.

On the landing of the Japanese army, their retreat was 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 army could not 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's losses were relatively small, its ammunition consumption was quite high, especially since it needed to be transported step by step from the landing site, which made the Japanese army's attack more difficult. Fortunately, this was the case, otherwise the defenders would have been unable to withstand the Japanese offensive. (Don’t ask why the Japanese army retreated when they saw the reinforcements, or why they didn’t launch a desperate attack. The Japanese army of Sino-Japanese War of 1891-1891 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. Yes, 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 is very thoughtful, how can he let others 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 is not qualified enough and needs to defend Shengjing, so he cannot make the trip. Therefore, we can only select Admiral Ding's general 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 when managing the various camp heads, Ding Ruchang was still very able to convince the public.

Of course, this matter would not be easy to handle 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 First 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 difficult for a foreigner to know the official positions in China in detail, especially for Pulev who has just arrived. 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 only saw him speaking. "General Pulev, the things you need have been prepared. Thirty thousand artillery shells and three million rounds of ammunition have been brought here after we raided Tianjin. In addition, there are five thousand tons of rice and flour, and one thousand cattle and sheep. , most of the 3,000 horses have arrived, don’t worry, they will be delivered to you at the specified time.”

Zhou Fu's words gave the translator a bit of a headache. After all, he didn't know how to translate it for such a measurement. Fortunately, he converted it to tons and expressed it.

Major General Pulev was very satisfied after hearing Zhou Fu's answer, and he nodded. "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 just right. Our army will definitely not let these Japanese pirates go."

Ding Ruchang's words made Major General Pulev take a 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 without the drag of these friendly forces.

Don't blame Pulev for thinking so, because after arriving at Weihaiwei, apart from dealing with the First Guards Division, he spent most of his time observing his friendly forces. The result made him very dissatisfied. His friendly forces were really bad. According to 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. , and there are also many single-shot rifles. Of course, there are also some who use advanced rifles, but the number is not large, only about two thousand people.

Moreover, in addition to insufficient training, these people also have a very fatal problem, that is, they do not understand modern military theory, and they only learn tactics from decades ago.

He had seen too much volley shooting training in Weihaiwei. This is not bad. Soldiers who use cold weapons also train in ancient cold weapon tactics.

Of course, the Weihai Guards are still good, but they are only good if they have solid fortifications. If they are separated from the fortifications, their training, technical and tactical deficiencies will be equally serious.

It can be said without politeness that he only needs one 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 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 thinks so, but he can't do it. I saw him smiling at 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 to 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's normal not to be optimistic. With a regiment of more than 2,000 foreign soldiers to help out, those Qiu Ba will 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 Cosentz.

"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 forces to protect the flanks, what else could Cosentz say, he could only accept it.

After all, his four regiments have the weakest combat effectiveness, and he is also the least qualified. What else do you want to do if you don't do this?

"As you command, Commander."

With a belly full of depression, Captain Cosentz left.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked out of the teacher's room, he was stopped by someone.

"Lieutenant Colonel Cosentz, wait a minute."

I saw an officer walking up to him with a slightly 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 problem. 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. 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 anyone 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."

"Thanks!"

Lieutenant Colonel Yuan smiled more sincerely than Cosentz.