Chapter 23: The War Drums Beat Urgently

  September 20th, Asan, Korea, Headquarters of the Japanese First Army.

  Army General Yamakawa's friend had just arrived, but instead of cheers, he was greeted with a gloomy and somewhat oppressive atmosphere in the military camp. When he saw the bodies of Major Generals ōshima Yoshimasa and Tatekawa Shokai, he understood the source of the Japanese soldiers' oppression. In just two battles against the Qing army, one lieutenant general had been forced to death and another had been blown up. Among them was also Tatekawa Shokai, who was known as the "Military God" of the Japanese Army, which was a great blow to the Japanese Army.

  The county of Yamagata has a friend with a gloomy face, turned around and said to the chief of staff Ogawa again: "What kind of ability does the Chinese Ye Zhi-kui have, that he can force Daishima Gijō to death and kill Ritsuken Shōki? It seems that it is not simple at all. This time, you and I should make good preparations for the war."

  Yamagata Aritomo was a man of strict, gloomy and arrogant personality. So why did he look up to Yeh Chih-kui with such reverence? As a Japanese, Ogawa Shigetaro naturally understood the reason. During the Meiji Restoration movement, Yamagata Aritomo and Ryōma Sakamoto belonged to two different factions and often clashed violently, but Yamagata was always tragically defeated by Ryōma, who would strip him bare every time. Now facing Yeh Chih-kui, who had defeated Ryōma, even someone as arrogant as Yamagata couldn't help but feel a sense of awe.

  The chief of staff, Ogawa, looked at this and said it wouldn't do. He hastily analyzed: "The British call Ye Zhiwei the number one commander in East Asia, but that's not true. Ye Zhiwei is all name and no substance. According to previous intelligence from the Empire, Ye Zhiwei is young and inexperienced. Perhaps he can win a battle or two with his temporary fervor, but without experience in large-scale warfare, he is by no means comparable to Your Excellency."

  Seeing the county of Shan having a friend, Xiao Zhen carefully listened to his own words. Xiaochuan continued: "Moreover, Ye Zhikui has only participated in two battles, although both wars were won, but it cannot be denied that he used troops mainly with strange tactics, using conspiracy to win, which is a lower strategy. A military strategist not only needs to understand various conspiracies and tricks, but also needs to understand the army, practice the army, and use the army to defeat the enemy. Obviously, Ye Zhikui is not qualified in this regard. His troops are just a group of militia, compared with the empire's professional soldiers, they are still far behind. Therefore, as long as we are careful and cautious this time, and do not fall into his trap, it will be easy to win if we fight head-on."

  Xiao Chuan Youji is a China expert, with a clear understanding of the Huai Army. In fact, the Huai Army is essentially a group of private soldiers recruited by Li Hongzhang as militia. The real national defense army of the Qing Dynasty should be the Manchu Eight Banners, but this group of old soldiers has degenerated and can't even beat the militia, so now these militiamen are being used as the national defense army, which is a sad thing for this country.

  The county of Shan has a friend who nodded, collected his emotions and expressed his agreement: "In this way, our great Japanese imperial army will be divided into two routes. One route will be commanded by you from Pingdu South to Datongjiang to launch an attack. The other route will be personally commanded by me from Pingdu West to launch an attack. I believe the Qing army will definitely divide its troops to defend Pingdu in all directions, and in this way our great Japanese imperial army can concentrate its superior forces to attack the Qing army on one side. If the Qing army comes to support other directions, we can then use the tactic of 'virtuality and reality', attacking other directions." Ogawa had no objection, this was their pre-arranged plan.

  ……

  The Qing army stationed, Ye Zhiwei was assigned to defend the south bank of the Taedong River in Pyongyang. Ye Zhiwei divided his troops into two parts, with a smaller part guarding the ship bridge fort on the south bank of the Taedong River, led by Wu Xiujie, and the larger part deployed on the north bank of the Taedong River. In this way, as soon as the enemy arrived at the south bank of the Taedong River, the Qing army on the south bank could discover and counterattack in time, while the Qing army on the north bank could provide artillery support, and there would be enough buffer time to prevent the Japanese army from crossing the Taedong River. The Japanese attack on Pyongyang would also become an illusion.

  On the eve of the war, Ye Zhiqi inspected various forts and found that due to the arrival of the Japanese army, the atmosphere was a bit tense. At this time, he had received intelligence on the outcome of the Battle of the Yellow Sea and let out a sigh of relief, secretly rejoicing that the Beiyang Fleet had sunk several Japanese ships. With a spirited tone, he said to the surrounding officers: "Brothers, the Japanese are not worth fearing, no matter how many come, it's all in vain. One defeat and they'll retreat. I, Ye Zhiqi, have been undefeated since entering the dynasty, and have never taken them seriously. So you shouldn't ask me if I can hold onto Pyongyang, but rather when I will drive them into the sea. Of course, we must strategically despise the enemy, but tactically take them seriously. When it's time to eat, we should be able to eat; when it's time to shoot, we should be able to hit our mark. Whoever among you can bring me the head of Japanese Commander Yamagata Aritomo will be rewarded with two taels of silver." Everyone laughed, and the tense atmosphere before the battle was temporarily alleviated.

  At 4:00 on September 22, the 3rd Division led by Ogawa arrived at the south bank of the Taedong River Bridgehead with the 5th and 6th Regiments and the 10th Regiment, where they were discovered by soldiers from the Tiger Battalion who were on guard duty, fired warning shots, and the battle began.

  Ye Zhi's Tiger Brigade withstood the attack of over 10,000 Japanese soldiers, the pressure was immense, unfortunately, fighting is not just about numbers, and it was impossible for the Japanese army to fully deploy all its troops in this location.

  Kogawa first ordered the 10th Division to attack, but this division had just been defeated by Ye Zhikui's troops and was a bit timid when they saw Ye Zhikui's army, not daring to charge too fiercely.

  As they rushed forward with their heads down near the bridgehead, they suddenly found that in front of them were rows and rows of barbed wire. The Japanese army, who had never seen such a defensive method before, was stunned. What's the use of this iron wire? However, when they rushed to the front, they found themselves helpless against these barbed wires. If they tried to pull with their hands, they would be pierced by the sharp spikes and bleed profusely. If they tried to bite with their teeth, several teeth would break off and still not be able to bite through. If they tried to use their guns to pry, they found that there was no place to apply force.

  But on the battlefield, every second counts. Just as they were deep in thought and sighing with emotion, the soldiers of the Tiger Regiment hiding in the trenches opened fire. As soon as the Tiger Regiment's soldiers started firing, they found it was incredibly easy to hit their targets, even easier than killing chickens. Because the barbed wire stood in an open area, all they had to do was narrow their eyes and aim, without even needing to take careful aim, let alone bear any burden. The Japanese soldiers fell one after another, leaving behind a field of corpses.

  Ogawa was taken aback by this situation, and he couldn't help but wonder if he had really fallen behind the times.

  "Alright, no choice, might as well start with artillery bombardment then. After a few loud cannon shots, Xiaokang lifted up his binoculars to take a look, that mountain was still that mountain, that water was still that water, and the barbed wire was still that steel net. Even though it had been blasted with several gaps, it wasn't something people could crawl through. The windless, unyielding steel net stood upright there, as if mocking Xiaokang's ignorance."

  What to do? Ogawa rubbed his bald head. There was no specialized equipment in the existing weapons to deal with this thing, so he used human flesh to fill it up. With a wave of his hand, a team of daredevils rushed forward, pouncing on the barbed wire and opening up a path of human flesh for the troops behind. How could anyone say that the Japanese nation was not ruthless? He was not only cruel to others but also to his own people. These lower-ranking soldiers were just numbers in Ogawa's eyes; they could be replaced as long as victory was achieved, and there were still many women waiting for them back in the empire!

  Ye Zhi Kui saw the enemy's desperate actions through binoculars and couldn't help but sigh at the Japanese people's "craziness", they were all brainwashed by Bushido, not comparable to those Japanese people who were brainwashed by A-pictures in later generations.

  Fortunately I still have a backup, so Ye Zhi Kui ordered: Fire the cannon.

  When more than 2,000 devils trampled over the human passage of more than 1,000 devils across the barbed wire, they thought victory was in sight, but what awaited them ahead was death.

  Behind the barbed wire was a deep ditch, and the devils were so excited that they couldn't stop their footsteps. One by one, they fell into it, and the devils who had fallen in immediately got up, wanting to jump out. However, all the devils had bowlegs and were short-legged, and no matter how hard they jumped, they couldn't get out. At this time, they smelled a pungent smell again, and just as they were feeling surprised, shells exploded beside them, instantly blowing them into flying flesh.

  Inside the ditch, Ye Zhiwei had previously buried flammable materials and added various seasonings such as chili powder and mustard. These substances formed deadly toxic gases with the burning of the fire, according to statistics after the incident, less than 10% of the devils were directly blown up, only 30% were burned to death, and the remaining 60% were choked to death by smoke. Ye Zhiwei can be said to have pioneered the use of toxic gas bombs.