July 18th, inside the General Headquarters of the Beiyang Army attacking Qingdao, the atmosphere was so oppressive that none of the staff officers dared to make a sound. Outside, every short while, the dull, thunder-like sound of cannon fire would roll in from the horizon. This was a sound the Beiyang Army General Headquarters had begun to get used to over the past few days. Since the official attack on Qingdao began on July 13th, this was the most frequently heard sound. Every boom from the few giant guns of the Qingdao defenders could travel a long distance, and accompanying the sound of the cannons were countless pieces of bad news.

July 13th, "The 6th Army, 1st Division, 1st Brigade has suffered heavy casualties and cannot continue the siege!"

July 14th, "The 6th Army, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade has suffered heavy casualties and cannot continue the siege!"

July 16th, "The 6th Army, 2nd Division, 1st Brigade has suffered heavy casualties and cannot continue the siege!"

...

The fierce attacks launched by the Beiyang Army failed time and time again, and every failure resulted in heavy casualties. Jin Yunpeng urged the troops to attack every day, and the troops really did attack, but the war where the Beiyang Army lost the combat effectiveness of a brigade a day made Jin Yunpeng curse loudly every day. After he finally beat a staff officer in a fit of rage, no staff officer was not extremely nervous when entering the headquarters.

"Get people ready, I want to go to the front line to see exactly how hard Qingdao is to attack? The People's Party can take Qingdao, are we that much worse than them? Just using some bullshit barbed wire can stop our Beiyang Army?!" Jin Yunpeng roared with a hoarse voice. The staff officers didn't care about the content of the cursing at all; instead, the fact that Jin Yunpeng was going to the front line made everyone in the headquarters feel a burst of relief.

Jin Yunpeng didn't notice the reaction of the people around him at all; the rage in his heart was indescribable. After days of fierce fighting, the Beiyang Army hadn't even touched the city walls of Qingdao. According to reports, the People's Party had established a battle line that firmly blocked the Beiyang Army's attack route. Barbed wire, bunkers, trenches, machine gun positions—the reports were full of these words. The People's Party's heavy artillery was described as like a plague god; every shell caused heavy casualties to the Beiyang Army. Jin Yunpeng had entered the Beiyang Military Academy twice for advanced studies, and was then selected to study in the 1st Class of the Attached Artillery Camp Military School. After graduation, he remained as an instructor. How could he not know the actual power of shelling?

It must be that those people in front are incompetent, finding various excuses to deceive the headquarters. With a strong desire to kill one to warn a hundred, Jin Yunpeng decided to go to the front-line Beiyang troops to see what was actually happening.

Under the tight protection of his personal cavalry guard, Jin Yunpeng began to set off for the front line more than 30 li away. The scorching sun of July quickly made Jin Yunpeng's forehead sweat, which doubled his anger. The horses in the cavalry team were all good horses, and the cool breeze brought by letting them run at speed was actually quite nice. However, the closer they got to Qingdao, the clearer the once distant sound of artillery became. Not only that, after entering the range where the sharp whistling sound of shells tearing through the air could be heard, the huge shockwaves from the shells landing began to startle Jin Yunpeng's mount.

The Beiyang Army's military hospital was by the roadside in the rear of the attacking troops. The first large group of Beiyang Army soldiers Jin Yunpeng saw were these people. Wounded soldiers with white bandages wrapped around various injured parts could be seen everywhere around the hospital camp. Just glancing around, Jin Yunpeng could roughly judge that there were at least two or three thousand people here. And this was just what could be seen; inside the tents should be the seriously wounded who couldn't move at all. There must be at least five thousand wounded in the entire camp. Although the hospital camp was still some distance from the main road, the sounds carried by the wind included faint howls.

In just a few days, there were so many wounded soldiers; what kind of situation was the battlefield exactly? Jin Yunpeng suddenly felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave. Although he had long known that in war there is victory and defeat, fighting a war requires morale. If one has the thought of defeat before the battle, then everything will surely go wrong. Therefore, Jin Yunpeng had never considered the possibility of defeat against the People's Party. He had already used all the troops in his hands, wanting to rely on numerical superiority to take Qingdao. Judging by the situation before his eyes, it wasn't that the Beiyang Army hadn't engaged in large-scale combat. If there hadn't been large-scale combat, how could there be so many wounded soldiers? Suddenly, the uneasy feeling brought by the thought of possible defeat that had been suppressed at the bottom of his heart made Jin Yunpeng feel waves of chill on his back.

Long after passing the hospital camp, Jin Yunpeng's thoughts still couldn't struggle out of this uneasiness. It wasn't until he saw a group of people wearing Beiyang general officer uniforms appear on the road ahead. At this moment, the anger in Jin Yunpeng's heart had been knocked away by more than half by the miserable state of the hospital camp. He forcibly retracted his thoughts and urged his horse to gallop towards the group of welcoming Beiyang generals.

That a few days' time could strike a group of originally arrogant people into being dispirited or even disheartened—if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Jin Yunpeng would absolutely not have believed it. The group of Beiyang Army officers before his eyes opened Jin Yunpeng's eyes wide. The 6th Army Commander Zhao Yuke looked as if he had aged ten years. Of all the officers around him, not a single one had a normal expression; they were either blank, confused, or scared to death. In short, this group of Beiyang generals currently looked like frightened children; one couldn't tell at all that they were commanders of an army of a hundred thousand.

Seeing the cowardly appearance of this group, the anger that had originally subsided in Jin Yunpeng's heart burned even more vigorously. He roared from his horse, "Zhao Yuke, what kind of battle are you fighting?!"

Zhao Yuke, whose hands were forcefully pressed against his sides in a standing-at-attention posture, shook physically. After a moment, this man trembled continuously for a while, then suddenly raised his head, his eyes red, and shouted to Jin Yunpeng with a crying tone: "Commander Jin, come with me to a place!"

Someone nearby prepared a horse. Zhao Yuke ignored how surprised Jin Yunpeng behind him was and took the lead to gallop towards the left. Seeing Zhao Yuke behave so unexpectedly, Jin Yunpeng wasn't in a hurry to question Zhao Yuke's crimes. He urged his horse to follow behind Zhao Yuke.

Approaching a small hill, Jin Yunpeng smelled a foul odor, the smell of something starting to rot. But Zhao Yuke continued forward as if he didn't sense it. Jin Yunpeng had already followed this far, so he had no reason not to continue following. Just rounding the hill a bit, Jin Yunpeng saw a small patch of Beiyang soldiers lying on the ground.

In this big summer, Beiyang soldiers lying under the sun sleeping at noon? Jin Yunpeng immediately felt furious, but a moment later he understood. These weren't living people at all. Those people either had large patches of dried black blood on their bodies, or were simply missing arms and legs. Lying on the ground were all dead Beiyang Army corpses. The further forward he went, the wider Jin Yunpeng's field of vision became. He saw that on the ground, stretching out for almost a few li and dozens of meters wide, lay countless Beiyang Army corpses. Some Beiyang soldiers had their faces covered with cloth and were searching on the ground paved with these corpses. After Jin Yunpeng galloped closer, he saw piles of dirty metal things piled behind these Beiyang soldiers. Looking closely, they turned out to be piles of silver dollars. Those silver dollars were spotted with blood; only the parts not stained with blood reflected a metallic luster in the sunlight.

At this time, Zhao Yuke had already reined in his horse. When Jin Yunpeng arrived near him and reined in his horse, Zhao Yuke cried and said: "Commander Jin, we've fought for three days and died tens of thousands of people. It's not that my command is ineffective, nor is it that I didn't issue pay to everyone. We really can't fight on!"

There are many flies in summer, and corpses attract flies even more. When the Beiyang Army soldiers collecting the belongings of the war dead finished with a corpse and moved forward, they disturbed a patch of green-headed flies around them. And patches of huge green-headed flies buzzing wildly in the air seemed to form a black storm.

Jin Yunpeng also considered himself a hero, a hero who could kill until there were mountains of corpses and seas of blood without blinking an eye. But the Beiyang Army corpses before his eyes that stretched almost endlessly made Jin Yunpeng feel his stomach convulse. If it weren't for the constant news of defeat over the past few days making him too angry to eat, he probably would have started vomiting by now.

There must be at least a few thousand corpses on the ground, and beside this corpse collection site, several high mounds had already been piled up. Presumably, even more Beiyang Army corpses were buried underneath.

Just at this moment, a soldier collecting belongings from a corpse suddenly straightened his waist, tore off the face towel covering his face, and howled hysterically. Jin Yunpeng saw that Beiyang Army soldier howl first, then jump high, starting to cry and laugh at the same time. Then, the Beiyang Army soldier hopped and began to run on the ground covered with corpses, looking like he wanted to escape this hell. That person's pockets were bulging, appearing extremely heavy. Feeling the inconvenience brought by this weight, the soldier took out handfuls of silver dollars from his pockets, throwing them towards the sky and smashing them towards the ground. Handfuls of silver dollars flew and fell onto the large expanse of corpses, disappearing without a trace in moments.

Watching the crazy Beiyang soldier, listening to Zhao Yuke's wailing beside him, breathing the air filled with the smell of rot, and with large green-headed flies occasionally hitting Jin Yunpeng's face, leaving a painful sensation on his skin. On this field of death and madness, under the poisonous sun, Jin Yunpeng suddenly couldn't distinguish whether he was in the human world or in hell.

More than two hours later, a pale-faced Jin Yunpeng finally arrived in front of the People's Party's position, arriving before that defensive line which was said to have devoured countless Beiyang Army lives. There were no impressive peaks here, nor any dangerous terrain rugged enough to be impassable. This was just a piece of somewhat undulating flat land. Not only that, this place could only be described as desolate. It was hard to say if it was soil mixed with stones or stones covered with soil; there weren't even a few blades of grass.

What was impressive were the four rows of barbed wire supported by wooden stakes. The wooden stakes were very thick, and it was unknown how deep they were buried. Densely wound parallel barbed wire was on them. In places on these parallel wires, every short distance there were also diagonal strands, as if it were a sparse large net. Behind these barbed wire fences were the bunkers that occupied a huge amount of space in the reports. Those were some round things, not very large in number. They looked like stone, but no stone seams could be seen. They didn't protrude much from the ground, just two or three feet high. On the side facing the Beiyang Army, three dark windows were opened. Even with binoculars, one couldn't see what was inside at all.

Apart from this, there were the People's Party's trenches said to be behind the barbed wire, but now, apart from a few lines of earth, nothing could be seen at all. If it weren't for this strange barbed wire, those strange bunkers, the black traces left after being ravaged by massive artillery fire near the first row of broken barbed wire, and the faintly visible various severed limbs, Jin Yunpeng simply wouldn't dare to believe that this place had once devoured Beiyang Army lives in large numbers.

This was the most convenient place to attack Qingdao. Other areas were mostly mountainous, and the People's Party had constructed more defensive positions there that were difficult to break. Only this main road was the most convenient; as long as they could break through here, they could press straight on to Qingdao. But this place had precisely become a land of death; the Beiyang Army had lost over ten thousand men and still couldn't cross the threshold.

After observing the battlefield, Jin Yunpeng simply couldn't figure out how powerful these simple things were. Returning to the command post, Jin Yunpeng ordered that in the afternoon, the 3rd Division of the 6th Army should send a regiment to attack here. He wanted to see how a few wooden stakes set up on this flat land, simple to the point of being desolate, could stop an army of tens of thousands.

When the commander of the 3rd Division heard the order, his face immediately turned white. However, under Jin Yunpeng's murderous gaze, he still hurriedly went to issue the order. In the afternoon, the offensive battle indeed began.

Before the battle, the segment of distributing silver dollars certainly wouldn't be missing. Jin Yunpeng was worried about whether there would be embezzlement of this charge fee, so he went to check personally, but didn't see any signs of such things. The shouting about promising money and official positions after rushing over was something the Beiyang Army was familiar with and spoke very fluently. Soldiers in the Beiyang Army were not allowed to talk to each other; whisperers in the army would be killed. This was an order the Beiyang Army could still uphold. If they heard that other troops had been defeated, rumors would often wear down morale more than battle. So the troops of this regiment had morale like a rainbow, not taking what they faced seriously at all.

More than an hour later, the troops had arrived at the attack position. First came a round of shelling. The shells landed on this open ground, blasting up sky-filling crushed stones and clods of earth. for a time, the tremors coming from the ground made people unable to help their blood boil.

"Brothers, charge for me! Chop down those wooden stakes, rush across this flat land, and there will be heavy rewards, fifty silver dollars a person!" Amidst such shouting, the Beiyang Army rushed out under the leadership of junior officers. This was flat land, with simply no place to hide. Behind the charging army, the military band suddenly began to play the tune "The Beiyang Army is Advancing". That murderous music, combined with the infantry line of thousands of men charging side by side, really did have a feeling of toppling mountains and overturning seas.

The first line of barbed wire was already dilapidated and was easily rushed past. The second line was still considered slightly intact. The Beiyang Army soldiers either tried hard to chop the frontal barbed wire with engineer shovels or ran towards nearby gaps in the barbed wire, trying to bypass it as quickly as possible.

Up until this point, apart from the subconscious shouting and howling of the Beiyang Army, the People's Party's position remained silent throughout, without even a single gunshot.