July 8, 1911, was a beautiful summer morning, with the sky bright enough to clearly see the shore. The German warships slowly approached the Lianyungang pier. Admiral Maximilian von Spee observed the beachhead positions near the port through the high-powered binoculars on his ship.

According to the operational plan, the German forces did not intend to drive deep from the start. Instead, they planned to build a defensive system near the port first and then use it as a base to occupy Lianyungang—or at least control the entire port.

But the moment the Germans landed the previous day, they were met with sniper fire from the People's Party. The People's Party marksmen were clearly hand-picked; at least, the Germans couldn't observe exactly where the enemy was hidden. Fortunately, the naval observers were also selected for their sharp eyesight, and the gunpowder smoke from the shots slightly revealed the snipers' positions. The German Marines immediately attacked, only to be met with fire from even more hidden locations as they moved forward in a crouch.

It wasn't just bullets; the People's Party actually used mortars. Admiral von Spee personally saw at least three mortar shells explode within the German advance ranks. The Marines immediately dropped to the ground, and the offensive was halted.

Out of necessity, the German naval guns opened fire on the People's Party blocking positions. Listening to the thunderous booms and feeling the tremors from the artillery fire, von Spee felt a pang of regret. Every shell of the German East Asia Squadron had been transported thousands of li from the German homeland. Due to transport constraints, they were not in a position to fire at will. This wasn't just a matter of shell count; the shells were consumables, and the gun barrels were consumables as well. The small-caliber secondary guns could be replaced by the navy themselves, but for the large-caliber main guns, there wasn't even a dock in China capable of performing a replacement.

After the secondary guns on the German warships fired a volley at the People's Party infantry and artillery positions, the Marines resumed their attack. Although the Germans were much more cautious this time, it was clear that the previous shelling had not completely eliminated the soldiers at the People's Party positions.

Worse still, the smoke from the shelling masked the smoke from the People's Party soldiers' shots. The People's Party must be using smokeless powder. It was only thanks to the naval observers' high vantage point and sharp vision that they could locate some of the People's Party fire points during the first round. But human vision has its limits; in the second round of fighting, the naval observers were completely unable to help.

The People's Party units' trademark deep-blue uniforms should have been easy to identify, but not a trace of deep blue could be seen on the beach. Mortars had an extremely annoying feature—their firing angle could be staggeringly high. The German warships, after all, could not fire from directly against the shore. The Germans possessed very little hydrological data for Lianyungang, and emergency surveys before the battle could only guarantee safe navigation routes for the ships.

In such close combat, if a single shell went astray and hit the German troops directly, the already under-strength German force could not afford such a loss. When the guns on the landing craft joined the battle, the People's Party mortars began to return fire without showing the slightest weakness. Although the mortar shells lacked the power to destroy a warship, von Spee personally saw at least two shells explode near a German gun position, which was immediately thrown into chaos, its fire silenced for quite some time.

The German troops were high in spirit; even facing fierce retaliation, they continued to strive forward. As the distance between the opposing infantries closed, the sound of rifle fire was joined by the explosions of hand grenades. Having taken losses, the German advance stalled. At this point, the heavy machine guns the Germans had dragged ashore under fire began to roar, sending a storm of bullets toward the People's Party positions hidden in the smoke, attempting to suppress their fire points. Crisp machine-gun fire immediately responded from the People's Party side—not from a single location, but from multiple fire points simultaneously. Through his binoculars, von Spee saw bits of rock and grit kicking up as the German machine guns became the target of intense fire. The German machine gunners were struck by the bullets, performing a contorted dance like small straw men before falling backward.

This was completely different from the battle he had imagined. Von Spee had expected to encounter People's Party formations or even a mass charge. But before the enemy could even be seen—and with no sign of trenches—the engagement was already this intense. If he hadn't seen his soldiers being struck down one by one, von Spee might have thought there were no enemies at all.

In the fierce exchange, the Germans, unable to hold their ground, had to retreat again. This time, von Spee dared not be overconfident. After all German troops had withdrawn to a completely safe zone, the main guns on the light and armored cruisers finally began to roar. If the vibration from the secondary guns was like someone tapping a tabletop with a finger, the main guns were like someone slamming the ground with a massive iron sledgehammer. The sensation was not on the same level at all. It was no longer just a vibration, but a swaying motion caused by the ships being pushed back slightly by the immense recoil.

Massive clouds of dust and smoke immediately rose from the People's Party positions. A single shell from an armored cruiser's 240mm main gun could blast a crater the size of half a football field. The shockwave could kill outright, or at least half-kill, any living creature within 200 meters of the explosion. Under such shelling, no matter how skillfully the People's Party hid, they could not escape.

Sure enough, after several rounds of shelling, the German army landed again and met no resistance whatsoever. Supplies were rapidly moved ashore, and the Germans began to establish their beachhead.

However, that night, after the German Navy followed basic safety protocols and moved away from the beachhead into safer waters, the German position fell. According to a report from the observation post on the light cruiser *Nürnberg*, which was patrolling closer to the shore, the beachhead had been struck by shells of unprecedented explosive power. The enemy's large-caliber artillery had performed close-range fire. The naval observer solemnly swore that, judging by the extremely peculiar muzzle flash, the diameter of these barrels might even be larger than those of the German armored cruisers. After enduring only about a dozen of these shells, delivered like a sudden rainstorm, the beachhead fell silent.

At dawn, Admiral Maximilian von Spee transferred to the light cruiser *Leipzig* and approached the shore. After yesterday's shelling, both the German positions and the former People's Party positions were a total mess. The only thing they shared was that after being ravaged by "heavy artillery" from both sides, no life remained on the ground—only waves crashing against the beach and rocks. The simple fortifications built with sandbags at the former German beachhead had been wiped flat. A few German corpses were faintly visible on the sand. Yesterday's German efforts had clearly failed.

Von Spee looked at the officers beside him; they also wore expressions of disbelief at the facts before them. The tactic the People's Party employed was very simple: do not defend on the beach, where they would be subjected to intense German fire. At the same time, absolutely do not allow the Germans to occupy the beachhead and build strong fortifications.

This wasn't a particularly rare tactic; what was rare was that the People's Party army could actually execute it. Beiyang was already the strongest Chinese army the Germans had seen, and while they knew Beiyang had lost to the People's Party, the Germans didn't care much. Beiyang's courage indeed surpassed that of the Qing army, but their tactics were mostly learned from Germany: shelling followed by infantry line attacks. Such a model might work in land battles, but facing a narrow position and a German fleet, the Germans were confident they could eliminate any number of Beiyang troops.

But while the German officers could understand the People's Party's tactics, such decisiveness and execution were simply beyond the imagination of the German military. This was not a quality Chinese soldiers should possess—and the firepower that destroyed the German beachhead was not something a Chinese army should have.

To seize Lianyungang, the German Pacific Fleet had brought two of its three Marine battalions based in Qingdao. In yesterday's battle—specifically, after the beachhead was completely destroyed that night—the German forces had lost two entire companies, nearly four hundred men. One-fourth of the entire Marine force had been wiped out on the beach of Lianyungang.

The situation facing the Germans had become unprecedentedly dangerous. If things repeated today as they had yesterday, half the Marines would be lost. The only way to ensure the safety of the beachhead was to send all landing forces ashore and expand the defensive perimeter. The problem with that was that a portion of the Marines would then move out of the protection of the naval guns. The main guns relied on land-based observers for guidance, and their efficiency would be greatly reduced. If an armored cruiser's main gun shell missed its mark... the mere thought was enough to make one shiver.

The People's Party was clearly engaging the Germans in a counter-offensive, and their troops demonstrated sophisticated combat abilities and skills—not just the infantry, but the artillery as well.

If this desperate landing operation failed, then the German attack on Lianyungang would become a grand joke. A warship only carried a few hundred shells; once they were fired, that was it. Even if they blasted Lianyungang into a flat plain, the People's Party could simply ignore it. What then? Admiral von Spee had no contingency plan.

After a morning of military meetings, the German Pacific Fleet finally decided: starting from the afternoon, they would fiercely bombard key points in the vicinity. Even if transport was cut off, it wouldn't be a problem; now, the Germans actually hoped *not* to engage the People's Party. At least until a stable fortification was built, they wished to avoid combat.

And once night fell, the German warships would take turns approaching the shore, using their guns for deterrent fire to prevent a possible People's Party attack. Once the fortress was built, the Germans could withstand any People's Party offensive. In this strategy, what the Germans wanted was to clear the path for the European and American powers, giving them a pretext to pressure the People's Party. As long as the Germans could hold out here, Lianyungang would become a second Jiaozhou Bay.

Having determined their course, the German warships began to redeploy, all gun muzzles adjusting their angles toward potential targets. The dilapidated houses in the port area, which had already fallen silent, were blown through the air like scraps of paper by the massive explosive power of the shells.

"Damn it!" Wu Xingchen swore, the veins on his forehead bulging upon hearing the news. This 190cm-tall People's Party cadre had a storied past. Although he was one of the original eight members from Shanghai, because he hadn't acted in unison with Chen Ke but had instead independently developed the Shandong base area, he had at one point faced a comprehensive investigation. Even so, Wu Xingchen had not given up on himself. After the Party organization regained control of the Shandong base area, Wu—having passed the investigation—became the commander of the Shandong Military Region once more. This time, he had personally volunteered to take the front line against the German landing.

Until the shelling began this afternoon, the People's Party tactics had been quite successful. Camouflage, along with artillery-proof bunkers, fire points, and communication trenches that fully utilized the terrain, had all played their parts. In the daytime battle, when the Germans made a large-scale retreat, the frontline commanders had judged correctly and also chose a total withdrawal through the smoke, resulting in few casualties. Specifically, in the night attack, "Heartless Cannons" transported to the front under cover of darkness had launched over a dozen explosive packs into the German beachhead. The unit had struck and retreated immediately; judging by the scene observed this morning, the results were brilliant.

But at this moment, Wu Xingchen had made a great error. Chen Ke's advice before the battle had been "movement"—to utilize the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's advantage of being familiar with the terrain, engaging the landing Germans in head-on combat with small units to effectively reduce the advantage of the German naval guns.

Following this reasoning, they should have only placed a small number of observers in the Lianyungang residential area, with the main force waiting at the jump-off points. Instead, Wu Xingchen had hoped to deliver a crushing blow to the Germans' second landing. He had stationed an entire company in the residential area of the port. Under the Germans' intense shelling, the fate of that company was already looking grim. Yet the People's Party possessed no heavy guns capable of returning fire against the German warships.

"Order the rear units: leave only a few observers. All other units retreat toward the defensive positions!" Even if a great mistake had been made, one could not allow one error to lead to another. This was the spirit repeatedly studied in the Party Committee. Since the Germans were shelling this way, the comrades at the jump-off points further back were also unsafe. Wu Xingchen could not continue to err.

Beside Wu Xingchen was Yan Fu, who also hadn't expected Wu's command post to be within range of the German naval guns. The People's Party's frontline command post was five kilometers from the front. German naval guns could fire at least twenty kilometers. Although the Germans couldn't cover everything with their fire, if a shell happened to "go astray," the command post would absolutely not hold up.

Though he believed himself capable of ignoring life and death, that was in naval combat. Being threatened in this one-sided manner now—it was impossible for him to feel nothing. But Yan Fu was present as a naval advisor, and he said, "If the Germans fire like this, they'll also use irregular shelling at night. It will be very dangerous for us to send out night-raid units again."

Wu Xingchen acted as if he hadn't heard Yan Fu's suggestion, but his words proved he clearly had. "Chairman Chen's order: we must pin the Germans down in Lianyungang. We cannot let them return to Qingdao. The night-raid units must be sent regardless of casualties. If anyone refuses orders, execute battlefield discipline immediately. Once discipline is executed, I will personally lead the night raid."

Li Changhao, the Political Commissar of the Shandong Military Region, frowned slightly as he looked at the dark-faced Wu Xingchen and then at Yan Fu, whose face had also darkened. He interjected, "Commander Wu, do not let your emotions take over. I will immediately gather the commissars and organize a night-raid unit composed of Party members."

Wu Xingchen harbored a deep, ocean-like hatred for Beiyang and had quite a grievance against Yan Fu in his heart, so his words were rather unpleasant to hear. Hearing Commissar Li's words, he also realized he had lost his composure. But now was not the time for apologies. He said, "I'll order the balloon unit to ascend immediately and observe the terrain. Heaven knows how many of the prepared communication lines can still be used after this German bombing."

Since everyone turned their focus to military work, a clash of tempers was for the moment forcibly avoided before it could escalate.