At the same time, in the wilderness about four miles southwest of Jiaozhou Bay, the 15th Artillery Regiment of the Third Division and the artillery battalion directly under the division headquarters had been solemnly treated. Thirty-nine cannons were divided into six artillery positions, about three miles apart from each other, and all the muzzles were aimed at the sea surface of Jiaozhou. As the "Xinhua" fired three flares, the twelve observation posts on the shore immediately reported the position of the Japanese fleet.

The commander of the Third Division, Li Xuanting, personally took the front line. After receiving the coordinates, he decisively ordered the firing.

Although it is unreasonable to use army cannons to deal with the navy, it is just a prelude. The role of army cannons is to shock the enemy as much as possible, and to increase lethality with diffused cannons as much as possible. All artillery soldiers guarded for more than two hours on a cold night, and now it is finally their turn to show their strength, and they immediately started to get busy.

"First team, fire!"

"The second team, everyone will take their place and fire."

"The shooting angle is shifted to the left by three yards, and the third team fires."

Flashes of light came from the darkness. If the thunder sounded like a winter night, the roar of cannons would make people feel frightened even if they were so far away. The shells crossed the night sky and exploded waves on the sea surface of Jiaozhou. As the Second Fleet was in a gathering state, the first round of cannon bombs hit the outer warships. A light destroyer bow caught fire, and several sailors who had not had time to avoid were burned by the fire, screaming "wow" and couldn't wait for friendly forces to get fire extinguishing devices, and jumped straight into the sea.

On the Kojima, Kato Tadaki was almost stunned and murmured to himself, "Is this the conspiracy of the Chinese? Use army cannons to attack the navy? Humph, I thought they were all a group of idiots who didn't understand military knowledge. I really didn't expect that even the IQ of the Germans would be lowered when they were with the Chinese."

Then he called his adjutant and ordered: "Order the Third Column to concentrate its firepower and open fire on the army on the shore. I want to see if their army cannons are powerful or our naval cannons are powerful!"

However, the order has not been conveyed yet. Qingdao Fortress, which was originally silent in the dark, seemed to have suddenly gained life, and all the shore defense guns within range began to attack. All the firepower of Qingdao Fortress was concentrated on the three battleships left by the Second Fleet at the entrance of Jiaozhou Bay and the small ships attached to it.

Although all three battleships were guarding the southernmost end of the sea estuary and maintaining the farthest distance from Qingdao Fortress, a considerable number of shore defense artillery could not hit the target. However, the *** obviously underestimated the power of Bismarck's main fortress. Qingdao Fortress is known as the number one fortress in East Asia, and all the credits must be attributed to Bismarck's main fortress.

The entire Bismarck Fort is located on the highest hill in Qingdao Fortress. The construction of this main turret alone took six years. The main turret is divided into two parts: the western artillery position and the northern artillery position. There are two cannons with fixed artillery mounts, but the cannon can be diverted to a firing angle of 180 degrees. There are four non-fixed artillery, and there are a total of six main cannons.

The six main guns are two 210mm cannons and four 280mm Krupp howitzers. In order to deal with the Qingdao War, Melwadek also drew two additional artillery squads from the infantry battalion and placed them behind the reinforced concrete shield wall behind the Bismarck Fort. The two artillery squads were equipped with two old 88mm field guns and four 180mm heavy artillery.

The three cannons were all aimed at the entrance of Jiaozhou Bay. All the cannons fired together. The overwhelming shells drew parabolas of different angles in the air and smashed hard on the hull of the Danhou. The heavy armor of the battleship endured the attack, but the entire hull was shaken, and thick smoke came out of the hull at the same time.

The battleship immediately began to fight back, which was within the effective range of the large-caliber carrier-based gun. The main guns of the three battleships roared, and the shells exploded between the mountains and forests of Qingdao Fortress, and many lower-position artillery positions were affected. Fortunately, the fortifications had enough tough fortifications to avoid serious injuries to personnel.

In Jiaozhou Bay, the German ships also opened fire at the main ship of the Second Fleet at the same time, and the two sides pursued each other in a counterclockwise direction. However, the four German cruisers knew it themselves. Once they found that the *** warship was approaching, they immediately opened the distance backward to avoid being covered with dense firepower.

Not long after, the flares emitted from the "Xinhua" fell to the sea and the light dimmed again.

When the "Xinhua" fired a flare for the second time, many engines roared over Jiaozhou Bay.

At this time, the land-surface artillery of the Third Division had stopped firing. The third column of the Japanese army could not find the direction for a moment and could only blindly bombard the places where there were fire. However, all the warships were surprised by the movements from the air. Many sailors and naval officers came to the deck and looked up at the side of the ship.

"What? Have you seen it?" someone asked.

"I can't see it, the light from the flares is a bit dazzling, blocking the view."

"It seems like it is an airplane, a Chinese plane."

"Quick, all staff are on guard, all staff are on guard!"

As the flares gradually floated down from the sky, the light finally neutralized a little, and a large number of aircraft appeared in the dark night without warning. All the main ships of the Second Fleet soon received air defense alerts. Although many captains and officers were still in a calm state of mind, they believed that the aircraft's machine guns could not penetrate the naval armor, and they were nothing more than attacking some crew members or causing interference. However, as the commander-in-chief of the Second Fleet, Kato Dingji did not think so. The ominous feeling lingered in his heart became stronger and stronger. From what is happening at the moment, it is not difficult to see that these were carefully planned and prepared steps, and the Germans deliberately lured the Second Fleet into the interior of Jiaozhou Bay!

The Japanese destroyer immediately moved closer to the main battleship and prepared to defend the Chinese Air Force's attack, and at the same time, he could try his best to avoid shells fired by German cruisers from the periphery.

However, just as everyone was sweating, a large group of planes in the sky did not make any diving moves, as if they did not see the second fleet main ship on the sea below, flying straight from the heads of each ship without panic.

The captain of the Akizushi Shimazu Hikaru chased him from the bow to the stern, and he exclaimed strangely: "What are they going to do? Is their flares in vain?"

On the Chongdao, Tadaki Kato was also surprised. When he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he quickly realized the intention of the Chinese Air Force and was shocked: "These aircraft are to attack the warships at the entrance of Jiaozhou Bay. Hurry, transfer all destroyers to the entrance of the sea!!"

But it was too late. Wouldn't it be said that the destroyers were all close to the formation of the main battleship of the Second Fleet, and it was difficult to make a fast schedule. Even if the rotation was finally completed, the speed was far less fast than the fighter.

In a blink of an eye, sixty fighter jets arrived over the southern waters of Jiaozhou Bay. The "Xinhua" airship also launched a third round of flares at this time. The abundant light illuminated the entire Jiaozhou sea. Three towering battleships were not far ahead of the fighter jets. The leading aircraft of each flight squad began to dive down, and other fighters followed closely behind in combat postures.

The Danou battleship was the first to discover the situation in the air and immediately started to evade. However, even if the huge battleship performed its best evasion in front of the fighter, it was as calm as slow motion play. The "Black Bat" combat squadron fired first, and the machine gun swept long along the deck of the Danou battleship. Although the bullets could not penetrate the steel plate, it caused a lot of trouble to the sailors on the deck and near the carrier-based guns. The dense strafing was almost everywhere. Unless they were hiding behind the carrier-based guns or in the cabin, the bullets flying all over the sky would always accidentally hit some people.

Screams and flames kept coming from the deck of Danou. The battleship without a high-angle heavy machine gun was simply powerless to fight back. The captain Danou had no choice but to order the sailors to use a rifle to fight back.
Chapter completed!