Beiyang Dream

At the same time that Emperor Guangxu and the Japanese army landed at Beitang in Tianjin.

Beitang Outer Sea.

On the flying bridge of the armed merchant ship "Saikyo Maru", General Oyama Iwao was holding up a telescope, looking at the Beitang Fort, which was still in the hands of the Qing army's Renzi Battalion in the distance.

The troops he commanded landed about 10 kilometers north of Beitang Fort two hours earlier.

We haven't captured Beitang Fort yet.

"Boom boom..."

The booming sound of cannons echoed in Da Shanyan's ears.

That's the battleship "White Mountain" firing.

The four 10-inch cannons spewed fire one shot after another, and the battleship's flying bridge would shake every time it fired.

Looking through the telescope, Da Shanyan saw plumes of smoke and dust suddenly rising from the Beitang Fort.

That was caused by a 10-inch shell from the "White Mountain" hitting and exploding.

The Beitang Fort was also firing back. Every now and then, you could see the muzzle flash, and then after a while, you could see a column of water "whoosh" up from the sea.

However, it is still at least one or two kilometers away from the "Baishan".

Da Shan Yan put down his binoculars and gave a cold snort.

According to reliable intelligence, the coastal defense cannons on Beitang Fortress are all 18-centimeter caliber cannons that were copied by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau in the eighth year of the Guangxu Emperor's reign.

That "old hand" was pretty good ten years ago, but now it's no good.

With a short range and poor accuracy, its effective range was only 6000 meters. Meanwhile, the "Baishan" was stationed 8000 meters away, and those old cannons couldn't hit it at all.

However, the four 10-inch guns of the "Baishan" were able to fire one by one at a time at the open-air gun emplacements of the Beitang Battery!

This is called a technological gap!

However, the biggest weakness of Beitang Fort is not that its cannons are ineffective.

Rather, it was because there were too few troops stationed there.

The two battalions of the Renzi unit, totaling 1000 men... simply couldn't defend them all.

Once the "Baishan" fired here, all 1000 men were sent to the gun emplacement, leaving the 10-kilometer-long Jianhe River mouth to the north unattended.

Thinking of this, Da Shanyan turned his head and glanced to the north.

That's the direction of the mouth of the Jianhe River.

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The Fourth Brigade, commanded by Prince Sadaya Fushimi, landed there early this morning!

That's the main direction to focus on.

According to intelligence, there was no Nanpu Army, let alone the Huai Army or the Zhili Training Army, in the area around the mouth of the Jianhe River.

His Highness has probably already taken all the "winning photos" for the landing.

That's right, it's "Win Photos"!

A Japanese imperial prince, leading the charge, personally commanded an expedition to land in Tianjin, and was about to storm Beijing and capture Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi alive. If this news reached Japan and Europe, it would be incredibly significant!

Kamakura was burned down, right?

Tokyo Bay is blocked, right?

It's okay.

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But our Prince has already landed in Tianjin!

Just tell me who won!

With this news out, those previous little troubles should be able to be forgotten.

Just as Da Shanyan was feeling quite pleased with himself, two red signal flares suddenly shot up into the sky in the distance with a "whoosh".

His chief of staff, Inoue Hikaru, immediately exclaimed, "Your Excellency! Look! His Highness the Prince has successfully landed!"

Da Shan Yan nodded.

It became.

No, we won!

Big win, huge win, mega win!

There's also the "win a photo" as proof.

......

On the dock of an unnamed small fishing village across the mouth of the Jianhe River.

Prince Sadaya Fushimi stood on a small sampan, a samurai sword in his hand, its blade gleaming in the sunlight. He took a deep breath, then pointed the sword forward and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Tsurikichi..."

Then we saw a dozen or so Japanese infantrymen, rifles with bayonets fixed, rushing off the small sampan. As they rushed off, they shouted "Sampan! Sampan!" and urged everyone to work hard.

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However, these people are slow.

It's like slow motion in a movie, running forward step by step, slowly.

"boom......"

A sound.

It wasn't the sound of cannons firing; it was the sound of magnesium powder exploding.

A Japanese army second lieutenant, a "photographer," stood on the shore, a large, bulky camera in front of him, its magnesium powder freshly burned and emitting a puff of white smoke. He glanced down at the camera, then looked up and shouted, "All done!!"

Upon hearing this, Prince Fushimi immediately sheathed his sword.

The infantrymen who had been charging in slow motion just moments before stopped, shouldered their rifles, and turned to look at the prince.

The photographer trotted up to the prince, bowed, and said, "Your Highness, the photos of your landing in Tianjin are ready!"

The prince nodded: "Yes, sir. Wash it and send it back to the country."

Photographer: "Hello!"

The prince sighed, his expression complex. He turned and walked towards the small fishing village, muttering to himself as he went:

There's nothing I can do!

His Majesty the Emperor said that the British must know that Japan is "winning"!

Therefore, "winning photos" is essential because only photos reveal the truth.

The Times can't just be filled with pictures of Qing Dynasty victories. What kind of nonsense would that be? There must be more pictures of Japanese victories!

As the prince walked along, a thought suddenly popped into his mind: Why does this battle seem like a theatrical performance?

As he was thinking, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him, followed by someone calling out, "Your Highness! Your Highness!"

The prince turned around and saw it was Zhong Muzhi.

That unlucky fellow, he was ambushed by Chang in Weihaiwei last time, lost his battalion commander position, and almost got demoted. If he can't quickly earn some merit, he'll be retiring as a regimental commander...

Nakagi ran up to the prince, stood at attention, saluted, and said breathlessly, "Your Highness! The entire 4th Sendai Regiment has successfully landed! Please give your instructions!"

The prince nodded: "Yes, sir."

He drew his knife again and pointed it at the Beitang Fort, which was being bombarded in the distance: "I order the 4th Sendai Regiment to immediately head south and capture the Beitang Fort! Tonight, I will rest inside the Beitang Fort!"

Nakagi no Ue puffed out his chest: "Hai!"

He turned and ran, shouting as he went, "The entire 4th Infantry Regiment... His Highness the Prince orders! Head south immediately! Attack the Beitang Fort!"

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The prince watched his retreating figure and then sheathed his sword.

He stood on the dock of that small fishing village, listening to the distant "Baishan" ship still firing its cannons, and watching the smoke still rising from the Beitang fort. He suddenly felt a little dazed.

This battle...

He shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

The photos have already been taken.

The person has already reached the shore.

Beitang Fortress, it's his tonight.

As for that Chang...

The prince thought for a moment. According to the intelligence, that person should still be in Korea, far away from here.

It shouldn't cause any problems for the time being, right?

......

North Korea, Jinnampo.

In the principal's conference room of Nanpu Military Academy, a map was spread out on a large table. The map was covered with messy drawings, circles and crosses, and a few crooked arrows.

He often stands by the table, one hand on his hip, the other poking around on the map.

There were three people standing next to him.

One was Feng Guozhang, another was Shang, and the third was Duan Zhigui.

Two of them are the vice principals of Nanpu, and the other is the chief of staff of Nanpu.

Chang pointed his finger at the Zhennanpu location on the map and said, "We've been working on Zhennanpu for three years now. We've built the port, the commercial area, and all the defenses outside. There are gun emplacements, trenches, barbed wire, and... well, reinforced concrete bunkers. We have everything we need."

We only need to leave one battalion; let's leave the 8th Training Battalion behind to guard the fort on Woniu Island.

"Also, place those four battalions of the Donghak Party's new army in Zhennanpo, and let them defend Zhennanpo as their main base!"

Feng Guozhang nodded and said, "Alright, leave 8 battalions for training. Add the Donghak Party members, and you'll have about 2500 men in total. That should be enough to guard Zhennanpu."

Chang moved his finger further north and pointed to the location of Benxi Lake.

He said, "Benxi Lake is extremely important to us. There are coal mines, railways, a branch railway under construction, railways in the mining area, an iron smelting plant and a coking plant under construction, as well as the supporting Benxi Town and Benxi Daying... Benxi Lake is south of Motianling, which is the eastern gateway to Shengjing!"

If the Japanese advance from the Korean side, Benxi Lake and Motianling will be the last strategic points that can stop them. Let's deploy the main force of the 2nd Training Brigade there.

Shang frowned upon hearing this and said, "Isn't that too many? Even after deducting the 8th Training Battalion from the 2nd Training Brigade, there are still 7 battalions left. Do we need so many people to defend Benxi Lake?"

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Chang nodded and said, "Yes, we will. 300 li southeast of Benxi Lake is Korea. 50 li northwest is Shengjing! If the Japanese can't take Lushun and Dalian, they might turn north and take Shengjing. Shengjing has its General and the Eighth Brigade; we don't need to worry about that... Do you understand?"

Of course... I understand!

Feng Guozhang, Shang, and Duan Zhigui are all intelligent men!

With just a little guidance, everyone will understand!

The three of them "understood" for a while, but no one said anything.

Finally, Duan Zhigui spoke first. He said, "Zhenbang, our Nanpu Military Academy's Training Corps only has three brigades..."

He often interrupted him, saying, "There are five!"

He counted on his fingers for Duan Zhigui to see: "The troops Zhongshan led in Weihaiwei are the Third Brigade. The troops Zhiquan led to protect the railway in Lushun and Dalian Bay are the Fourth Brigade. Add to that our First and Second Brigades, and that makes four brigades!"

There are also volunteer armies that the Donghak Party has gathered in Pyongan and Hwanghae provinces, which can also form a brigade. Doesn't that make five brigades?

In addition, General Nie has 10,000 men, and Lord Yuan left behind 3,000 new Korean troops. Our forces are sufficient, but..."

As he was speaking, footsteps suddenly came from the doorway, and then the curtain was lifted.

The person who came in was Wu Dingyuan, the director of the telecommunications department.

Wu Dingyuan held a telegram in his hand, his expression somewhat off. He quickly walked up to Chang and said, "Brother Zhenbang, this is a telegram we just received. It's for Commander Nie."

Speaking of which, there was a water, electricity, and telegraph line connecting Zhennanpu and Lushunkou. Telegrams sent from Beijing would go to the Nanpu Military Academy Telecommunications Office in Zhennanpu, and then be distributed elsewhere from there.

Chang took the telegram and glanced at it.

As he watched, the smile on his face disappeared.

Seeing that his expression was off, Feng Guozhang asked, "What's wrong?"

Chang didn't say anything and handed over the telegram.

When Feng Guozhang took it and looked at it, his expression changed.

Shang and Duan Zhigui also went over to take a look, and after they finished reading, none of them said anything.

The room was quiet for a while.

Finally, Duan Zhigui spoke first. He said, "Damn it, the Japanese pirates actually landed at Beitang!"

The Emperor has summoned General Nie back to Zhili to defend the capital... Minister Rong has already left with his cavalry from Heilongjiang and Jilin. Now that General Nie is gone too, such a large area—Korea, Liaonan, and Liaoxi—will be left with only…”

"It's just us left!"

Chang picked up where Duan Zhigui left off.

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He looked at the people in the room and suddenly laughed.

He said, "Isn't this great? After this war, at least southern and western Liaoning will be under the control of our Nanpu faction!"

Just as Chang finished speaking, someone came to report from outside: "Principal, someone from the British Consulate is requesting an audience, saying they were sent by Consul General Gyaltsen."

Chang paused for a moment, then laughed: "Oh ho, the British are looking for me? Interesting."

He turned to Feng Guozhang, Shang, and Duan Zhigui and said, "It seems the British are going to give me, the candidate for 'King of the Northeast,' a tough time!"

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