My Italy

"The enemy is coming, everyone be prepared."

"Is the machine gun crew ready?"

In the newly captured Lizishan position, an Italian officer was directing his soldiers to quickly prepare to hold on to the position.

Lizi Mountain is located on the northwest side of Rongcheng County. Although this mountain is only three to four hundred meters high, it is the commanding height. As long as you occupy this mountain, you can rely on the terrain to pose a sufficient threat to the county seat three to four thousand meters away.

By then, not to mention other artillery, even the 75mm mountain artillery of the Guards Division will be able to reach the county town.

That's right, the Japanese troops who landed in Shandong have all huddled in Rongcheng County and its surroundings. Although this was also a place of death, in order to delay the Italian army and buy time for the Japanese troops in the Liaodong Peninsula and Korea, its commander, Major General Izawa Hachiro, issued a death order, requiring every Japanese soldier to fight to the last man. (In order to prevent senior officers from being captured and shaking the morale of the military, senior officers such as Yamagata Aritomo and Yamachi Motoharu had been picked up in a dark night.)

Of course, this order was executed well at the beginning, because the Japanese army concealed the news of the defeat in the naval battle. The shelling of Qinglong Bay was said to be a sneak attack by the Italian fleet while the combined fleet was away.

Therefore, the resistance of the Japanese army is very strong. Even if Italian artillery washes the ground, the remaining Japanese troops are very effective. However, after the artillery was suppressed, the Japanese army could only rely on the Murata rifles in their hands to counterattack the Italian soldiers' offensive. However, the Japanese army's Murata rifles have a very slow rate of fire. The Murata Type 13 and Murata Type 22 they are mainly equipped with are single-shot rifles. Each shot is fired with a bullet. The number of the latest Murata Type 22 magazine rifles is Scarcity doesn't work at all.

As for the small number of Gatling six-barreled machine guns, they were too bulky and could easily attract Italian artillery attacks, making them perform poorly on the battlefield.

Moreover, the Gatling gun needs to be fired by hand and has too many shortcomings. Compared with the Maxim of the Italian army, there is a gap of two generations.

Therefore, after being focused on, the role of the Gatling gun in defense is not very obvious.

The influence of these various factors was also the main reason why Japanese positions were breached one after another.

In view of the fact that the Lizishan position is an important commanding height of the Japanese army, it is reasonable to attract a Japanese counterattack after being captured by the Italian army.

A large group of Japanese troops launched a counterattack against it under the bombardment of Italian artillery fire.

"Fire!"

The officers in the defensive position immediately ordered to open fire after the Japanese army entered a distance of 400 meters.

Following the officer's order, the soldiers on the position immediately used their weapons to pull the trigger on the charging enemy.

The crisp gunshots of Carcano rifles rang out densely in the position, and Japanese soldiers in the distance kept being knocked down. Of course, in the defensive battle, the absolute protagonist is the several Maxim machine guns on the position.

As an absolute killing weapon, the Maxim machine gun's performance in defensive battles is unmatched. Continuous shooting swept away the charging Japanese troops.

Major General Izawa Hachiro, who was watching the battle from a distance, had his eyes spitting fire.

"Baga, the enemy's firepower is so strong, why did Lieutenant Colonel Honda rush in like this? Isn't this a waste of soldiers' lives?"

Major General Izawa completely forgot about his strict orders to retake the position, and instead became concerned about the lives of the soldiers.

There was no way. When General Yamagata Aritomo and Lieutenant General Yamachi Motoharu left, they were strictly ordered to defend as long as possible, preferably for a month, leaving enough time for the Japanese troops elsewhere. Of course, if this is not possible, then half a month is acceptable.

Since Major General Izawa stayed, he was naturally determined to die, so he basically adopted a defensive approach. After all, defense always has an advantage over offense.

Of course, he doesn't always defend. For example, at key points, he also prepares reinforcements or counterattacks.

As the commander of the troops that reinforced Li Zishan, Lieutenant Colonel Honda was delayed by enemy artillery fire and the reinforcements were delayed. If Li Zishan was captured by the enemy, he had an unshirkable responsibility. It is understandable that he should be allowed to recapture Li Zishan.

It's just that the Italian troops who captured Lizishan had too much firepower, so the Honda team could only lose.

In fact, the Japanese army themselves also know that there is a generation gap between the Murata rifles in the hands of their own soldiers and the opponent's Carcano rifle. How can a single-loaded single-shot rifle compete with the opponent's magazine rifle in terms of firepower.

But now it's too late to change even if you want to, so the soldiers can only grit their teeth and persist.

The Italians did not give the Japanese army a chance to persist. After repelling the Japanese attack, the Italian army immediately dragged the cannon up the mountain.

In the next two days, relying on the advantage of occupying the commanding heights, the Italian army successively captured Dongzhao Mountain, Yujia Mountain, Yatou River and other places, and semi-encircled the Japanese army in Shandong in Rongcheng County.

Of course, the Japanese army did not stop resisting in the past two days. Feeling that they were about to be annihilated, the Japanese army launched one after another to stop the coalition's actions. However, they did not have the advantage in weapons, personnel, or geography. Under such circumstances, it was difficult for the Japanese army to take advantage, and they basically suffered most.

Watching the Yi-Qing coalition force the Japanese army into desperation step by step, the morale of the Japanese army itself is also declining, and deserters have appeared among the Japanese officers and soldiers.

This made Major General Pulev very satisfied, and also made the Qing army overjoyed. Some people even acted without permission to gain the upper hand and show off their prominence. However, it was obvious that some people were overthinking it. The Japanese army's position was still stable, and they lost thousands of soldiers for this.

This made Pulev furious and demanded an explanation from the Qing army. In fact, there is no need for Pulev to be angry, the Qing army itself was also angry. Should such a blind guy continue to do bad things?

So he wanted to stand out but he did it. Under the pressure of Zhou Fu, the chief envoy of Zhou, Ding Ruchang summoned everyone to kill a blind guy and sacrifice him to the flag. This kind of guy who is not successful enough but more than exposed, dares to harm Li Zhongtang. No matter who is standing in the background.

Following the farce-like Qing military dispute, the general attack on Rongcheng County began three days later.

This time Major General Pulev waved his hand, and two consecutive days of shelling honed the skills of the Italian artillery officers and soldiers, and also made the Japanese army and Mr. Zhou turn pale.

All the 30,000 artillery shells raised by Mr. Zhou were hit by this bombardment, but the effect was very good. The positions outside Rongcheng County were reduced to scorched earth, and most of the buildings in the city were destroyed.

Not to mention the city wall, it is a key target of attack.

According to subsequent statistics, the Japanese army suffered nearly 2,000 casualties in this bombardment, and those who were not injured were also severely damaged mentally. In addition, the loss of weapons was even more alarming. Only 13 of its 47 cannons were available, and only 3 of the 11 Gatling hand-cranked machine guns were available. Then the loss of ammunition and other materials was also huge. After all, this was the first time the Japanese army had seen such an indiscriminate attack with rich wealth, and they had no defense at all.

Now that the Japanese army was knocked out of spirit by the shelling, what are they waiting for? Major General Pulev finally allowed the Qing army to attack this time. The Italian army was responsible for the main attack in the west, while the north and south sides were handed over to the Qing army (the sea is not far to the east).

This time there was finally no mistake. It only took two days for the Italian main attack to capture the city wall on the west side. Then the Qing troops on both sides also captured the city wall with the help of the Italian army.

At this time, in accordance with European practice, Major General Pulev sent an envoy to demand the surrender of the Japanese army. After all, it has now been shown that the surviving Japanese troops have fallen into a dead end with no possibility of escape.

However, in the face of Pulev's persuasion to surrender, Major General Duan Ran of Izawa Hachiro refused.

Since the enemy persisted, there was nothing more to say. After another two days of fighting, the Japanese troops entrenched in Rongcheng County were completely wiped out.

At this point, the Japanese troops who landed in Shandong have been eliminated in their entirety. There may be a few who escaped by chance, but they no longer pose a threat.

In this battle, Italy lost 581 people, injured 987, lost 17 artillery pieces and more than 50,000 artillery shells, annihilated 14,200 Japanese troops, captured 5 artillery pieces, more than 2,900 guns, and captured more than 6,000 Japanese troops. .

Of course, there is also the credit of the ally Qing army. If the Qing army were not responsible for transporting supplies, detecting enemy situations and protecting flanks, the Italian army would not have been able to achieve such a smooth victory.

But no matter what, this heavy battle report can relieve Li Zhongtang's pressure to some extent. Of course, this is without considering the consumption of ammunition.