"Commander Pu! The Japanese are signaling us to surrender!" The voice of the port lighthouse signalman came over the phone.

"Signal Japan back, two words are enough: Get lost!" Pu Guanshui roared into the mouthpiece.

"Yes!" Although the signal wasn't very clear right now, the signalman's voice still carried a hint of laughter.

Hanging up the phone, Pu Guanshui grabbed the dedicated line for the battery, "Battery, do you copy? Battery, do you copy?"

"This is the battery, we copy!"

"Prepare to fire according to plan!" Pu Guanshui ordered.

"Yes!" The battery commander answered excitedly.

Putting down the battery phone, Pu Guanshui asked about the evacuation of the citizens. Since preparations had been made many times long ago, the masses were mentally prepared. The troops indicated that the citizens were evacuating well. "We must ensure the safety of the masses to the greatest extent possible," Pu Guanshui instructed.

This war would be the most dangerous one since the founding of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. Pu Guanshui still remembered the meeting Chen Ke specifically held with the main leaders of the Qingdao Military Sub-district.

"Comrades, do you know the power of a single 305mm shell?" Chen Ke asked straight to the point. After capturing the Qingdao Fortress, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had seized the German Navy's arsenal and had seen live 305mm shells inside. Through the captured German troops and Yan Fu's explanation, everyone knew just how powerful such shells could be. If a 305mm main gun's high-explosive shell landed on the ground, it could blast a crater three meters deep and eight meters in diameter. The powerful shockwave within 20 meters could directly kill a person.

"The only thing I can guarantee comrades is that the Japanese Navy cannot fire ten thousand of these shells at you. If they fire ten thousand, Japan's own finances will collapse first. Moreover, even if the Combined Fleet sorties in full force, the ammunition they carry for the 305mm main guns does not amount to ten thousand rounds." There was absolutely no joking in Chen Ke's expression, although these words sounded very much like a joke. "Let's do the math. Japan's national steel output in 1914 was less than 12,000 tons. A single 305mm shell weighs 400 kilograms. Even if Japan used all its steel for the year on this, that's only 30,000 rounds. In reality, this is fundamentally impossible. As militaristic as Japan is, they can't use all their steel to make 305mm shells. So, based on data calculations, Japan's stockpile is at most ten thousand rounds."

Pu Guanshui was a graduate of a German military academy after all; he knew Chen Ke was telling the comrades the worst-case scenario they faced. The 305mm guns would pose a huge threat to the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's Qingdao Military Sub-district. However, knowing where the threat lay and knowing the upper limit of the threat, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army could analyze the situation they faced. Pu Guanshui had answered at the time: "Chairman Chen, we must fight within the range of the Japanese naval guns. The comrades and I have already determined this. Does the Military Commission have any instructions?"

Chen Ke smiled bitterly: "Instructions and such, it's just the same few sentences back and forth. Fighting under enemy naval guns, none of us have experience in this area. So I can tell comrades the results of various data calculations, but as for what we will actually encounter, we are all novices. But Qingdao cannot be lost; there is nothing to discuss about this. Strategic retreat is one thing, being beaten away by the enemy is another. If we can be beaten out of Qingdao by someone, Beiyang will absolutely not let the retreating troops off. This needs no discussion."

Recalling Chen Ke's words, Pu Guanshui shook his head slightly, driving these thoughts that were useless for combat out of his mind. The maximum range of naval guns was 30 kilometers. Although accuracy was basically not a consideration beyond 30 kilometers, the danger always existed. Commanding the battle from 30 kilometers away was obviously inadvisable. The Qingdao Military Sub-district simply set up its command post inside the Qingdao Fortress command post built by the Germans. The purpose of the Qingdao Fortress's construction was to conduct artillery battles; the command post, located more than ten meters underground, did not have windows for direct observation of the enemy situation. To observe the enemy situation, one either had to brave the artillery fire or wait for the enemy's bombardment to pause temporarily. Pu Guanshui did not think it was necessary to take such a big risk to play the hero right now. All command was completed in the command post via telephone communication.

On the sea, after the Japanese fleet received the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's signal to "Get lost," they did not reply further. The Japanese fleet began to adjust its formation. The fleet on the sea adjusted its position according to the attack posture, and it looked like the battle was about to start.

Staff from the People's Party Internal Affairs Committee and patrol teams were patrolling various areas. Qingdao's geology was mountainous; there were many areas suitable for landing, and it wasn't possible to dig out a good defensive system with shovels as casually as in plain areas. Qingdao's defensive system was based on buildings and roads. After the troops took full control of the Qingdao urban area, they needed to urgently control all areas.

Citizens on the streets were carrying large and small bags, evacuating with the neighborhood committees of their respective communities. The patrol teams carefully searched street by street and alley by alley in the evacuated blocks. According to the instructions in the operational plan, the troops did not move fast, but they left no blind spots in their search.

The common people were both uneasy and dissatisfied with suddenly encountering such a change. In every block, people could be found who were hugging onto luck and refusing to evacuate. Facing the troops' persuasion, the masses kept explaining, "We absolutely won't run around, we'll hide at home and won't go out to cause trouble for the troops."

The troops also felt quite helpless. They patiently persuaded, "We have specifically explained that when the enemy fires cannons, they don't care if there are people in the houses. No matter how strong this house is, it can't block a cannonball. We are not trying to drive everyone away, but we really don't want everyone to get hurt."

"Comrades, we really won't go out. Can't we just not go out?" The masses still seemed to feel that leaving home might be even more unsafe.

"We said long ago, everyone evacuate with your respective units. If you don't leave, the other comrades in the unit will be anxious." No matter how unhappy the comrades of the troops were in their hearts, they tried their best to observe order and avoid forcibly driving the masses away as much as possible.

Just as they were speaking, a muffled sound suddenly came from the sky, followed by a screaming sound like fireworks. The faces of the troops' comrades changed instantly. "Take cover!" While shouting, the troops' comrades dragged the masses into relatively safe corners.

A moment later, the ground shook violently. Then a huge explosion sound came over. Now the troops didn't care whether the masses were willing or not; some dragged and pulled the masses towards the evacuation channel.

Other troops sped up their search speed. A figure suddenly flashed in front; judging by the clothes, it should be an ordinary civilian. "That person in front, don't run around, evacuate quickly," the troops' comrades shouted.

Hearing the voice, that guy not only didn't stop but ran away with all his might. The troops behind chased closely while blowing whistles. After running for a while, they heard someone in front shout: "Blocked him!"

Just as the patrol team behind relaxed, they suddenly heard an angry shout from in front, "This guy is a spy, come over quickly."

Upon hearing this, the comrades of the patrol team felt a jolt in their hearts. They unslung their guns and rushed over in three steps combined into two.

After the Japanese bombardment began, the forts of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army began to return fire successively according to the range of each fort. Amidst the rumbling cannon fire, signal flares were occasionally fired by people in the Qingdao area. The Japanese artillery fire would immediately concentrate fiercely on the area where the signal flare was. Pu Guanshui had long known that the Japanese had spies in Qingdao and had also bought off Chinese commoners in the Qingdao area. Although the position of the forts was not very hidden, hearing that three forts had been hit by enemy naval gunfire causing certain casualties, Pu Guanshui's killing intent rose greatly. But Pu Guanshui's duty was to command the Qingdao defense battle, not to lead a team to hunt down these pests. Forcing his mind back, Pu Guanshui sat quietly in the command post waiting for news.

"Hit a Japanese ship!" There was good news less than an hour into the artillery battle. "It's a frigate, it was hit and caught fire... It exploded, it exploded! That Japanese frigate exploded and sank!" After the operator shouted this news, he couldn't help but stand up.

"Good shot!" The command post immediately boiled over.

"Everyone can only be happy for one minute, continue working immediately after one minute," the Chief of Staff shouted. Although he ordered the comrades to quickly return to work status, the Chief of Staff's face was also full of smiles. This could be said to be a victory right from the start. It was the first time the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had sunk an enemy naval vessel; this was indeed an extremely fresh feeling. A moment later, several observation posts called in, reporting the observation of the sinking of the enemy warship. Now it could finally be confirmed that the battle result was not a false report.

As the commander directing the Qingdao campaign, Pu Guanshui felt quite apprehensive. Regarding the artillery battle between forts and warships, Chen Ke's view was that they couldn't hold out. There were many reasons why they couldn't hold out: forts couldn't move, while warships could constantly change positions. Even if the forts of the Qingdao Fortress had been reinforced, as long as they were hit by enemy battleship main guns, the forts would still suffer great damage. Pu Guanshui of course didn't know the real reason Chen Ke dared not explain clearly. In World War I and World War II, there were never cases of coastal defense forts destroying fleets. Even the Maginot Line historically played no role. The only fortifications that could be effective in a defensive battle against fierce firepower was Shangganling. But these histories were precisely the stuff Chen Ke couldn't use as "historical experience."

One of the experiences summarized by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army in the last Qingdao campaign was that fort defense could not be without forward positions. Chen Ke had mobilized the German forces to the maximum extent at that time, and the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army relied on numerical superiority to directly attack the Qingdao Fortress. Only then did they succeed. If the German troops inside the Qingdao Fortress had been abundant, the casualties of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army would have skyrocketed.

As the defending side of the Qingdao Fortress, Pu Guanshui commanded a force of 40,000 men. One division only placed a regiment of troops on the position, while the remaining troops and another division waited in the rear of Qingdao as field troops. They could reinforce the fortress at any time or strike at the enemy's flanking forces. A pure artillery battle could not last too long; even without the issue of ammunition supply, artillery needed to cool down after a period of time. This was the same for both the Japanese Navy and the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army's artillery.

Damage reports from the forts kept coming in. The military region had mobilized before the war, stating that artillery was the most dangerous combat unit in this war, and losses to the forts were unavoidable. Artillery was the unit with the highest technical content; although the damage reports made Pu Guanshui's heart ache, he still kept a cold face and treated the losses with a data-like attitude.

Outside, the cannons rumbled. If one distinguished carefully, one could still hear different cannon sounds. The dullest, most vibration-inducing ones were the main guns. This was the best weapon to suppress Japanese warships. If directly hit by a main gun, even a battleship couldn't withstand it. As for small boats, a single shot could break them in two. Pu Guanshui looked at the map, waiting for that critical period when the sound of the cannons would change. No matter how powerful the cannons were, even if they could blast Qingdao into ruins on their own, they could not let the Japanese occupy Qingdao. The final battle would still be a bloody battle between infantry.

Sure enough, the command post felt an increasingly intense sense of explosion shock, and news of forts being hit also came in faster. The large-caliber naval guns of the Japanese fleet began to suppress the large-caliber artillery of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. A phone call soon came in; Japanese landing craft began to approach the defensive positions set up by the Qingdao Fortress by the sea.

"How is the situation at the front-line positions?" Pu Guanshui asked.

"Casualties are heavy under the reverse slope positions. Fortunately, not many people were placed on the front-line positions, but now contact has been lost with one-third of the positions." The staff officer quickly reported the situation. This was also unavoidable. With the huge power of the Japanese 305mm shells, even if a front-light rear-heavy deployment was implemented and communication lines were cleared, if a shelter took a direct hit from a shell, there would inevitably be casualties.

"Commander Pu, taking shelling like this..." The Chief of Staff also felt uncomfortable. Everyone had received training on the destructive power of naval guns before the war, but actually facing the fierce bombardment of such giant guns, the actual feeling was simply unimaginable before the war.

Pu Guanshui immediately replied: "The enemy cannot maintain such an intense density of fire. A ship carries only one or two hundred shells. Small guns are useless against our fortifications. Counting all the large-caliber artillery of the entire Japanese fleet, it's just one or two thousand rounds. After firing them, Japan can only passively take a beating. We just need to carry through. Don't expect the Japanese to really rain down shells; they can't do that."

As if to verify Pu Guanshui's opinion, a congratulatory call came in again. "The Qingdao Hill Battery hit a large forward Japanese ship, it should be a battleship. It looks like the *Asahi*."

Since sinking an enemy destroyer for the first time, the Japanese fleet had not dared to get too close. In nearly two hours of shelling, there were several near misses exploding near the Japanese ships constantly cruising outside Qingdao, and two Japanese warships withdrew from the shelling line. On the surface, the Japanese ships were undamaged. Now that they could directly hit an enemy warship, the gloomy feeling after being beaten for half a day seemed to dissipate quite a bit.

"Did the Japanese ship sink?" the staff officer immediately asked loudly.

"No, just saw smoke, nothing happened. The enemy ship sailed away again!" A rather frustrated voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Can't our battery move the Japanese ships?" The staff officer hung up the phone and shouted in an unbelievable tone.

The Chief of Staff didn't make a sound. Pu Guanshui took over the conversation and replied: "If this kind of cannon could sink a ship with one shot, why would they spend so much money building warships? Don't think about such good things. Prepare to engage the Japanese landing troops."

The Japanese artillery fire no longer shot at the shore now, and didn't even shoot close to the shore batteries anymore. To cover the landing troops coming ashore, the fleet fired fiercely at the main gun positions of the Qingdao Fortress.

Every shell landing, especially heavy artillery shells, would trigger a feeling of the mountains shaking and the earth moving. For the infantry on the ground, this feeling was particularly strong. The forward-most troops gathered in several underground shelters dug long ago. The shockwaves from the shelling made the gas lamps hanging in the shelters sway constantly. Small stones were shaken off the stone walls from time to time. A considerable number of soldiers, at least the officers, had participated in the battle to capture the Qingdao Fortress. At that time, the artillery of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army couldn't even be called destructive firepower, but rather a pure suppressive firepower. Personally feeling this earth-shaking sensation, the comrades' faces didn't look good.

Following the order to set out, all soldiers grabbed their rifles and ran out along the passage. As soon as they exited the assembly area, the soldiers in front stopped there. The soldiers behind didn't expect this; unable to stop their feet, they bumped directly into the soldiers in front, making them stumble. Then the soldiers behind were also stunned.

In just over three hours, Qingdao had changed. The general terrain naturally wouldn't change, but within their field of vision, many originally intact buildings had now become ruined walls and rubble, and several large craters had appeared on the ground not far away. The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder smoke. This feeling, both familiar and strange, made it impossible for the soldiers to accept immediately.

"Double time, double time!" The squad and platoon leaders shouted while pulling the comrades of their own units to continue rushing towards the front-line positions.

In order to deal with the enemy's superior firepower, the Qingdao defense system presented a front-light rear-heavy layout. The enemy's firepower would definitely be concentrated on the front line. The front-light rear-heavy setup required troops to be able to ensure communication lines and enter the forefront to fight at any time, so as to maintain firepower at the forefront.

Under the leadership of grassroots commanders, the soldiers began to move forward. But along the way, they couldn't help looking around. The changes in the surroundings exceeded the comrades' imagination. Everyone felt bewildered, nervous, and fearful. During the march, there was no need to say nonsense like "we have entered the war" anymore. Every soldier fully understood that they were sprinting on the battlefield.