Chapter 23

In the city of Pyongyang, Chaiye Yiguang had already discovered the Qing army several kilometers away from Pyongyang. According to the scouts, the Qing army numbered less than 5,000. Chaiye Yiguang judged that the Qing army was planning to attack Pyongyang. He knew that the Qing army had returned after leaving, which meant they were well-prepared, so he did not rashly launch an attack.

Chaiye Yiguang could not contact the main camp and had been anxious like an ant on a hot pan these past few days. He wanted to cross the Yalu River, but lacked food and ammunition. He also dared not retreat to Seoul. Seeing the Qing army's forces attacking today, he could only defend Pyongyang.

Thus, the only place on the battlefield where there was any engagement was Mount Peony.

A Japanese force of over a thousand surrounded Mount Peony and launched an attack from the southern slope.

The slope was over a thousand meters long, and the bottom was originally covered with dense forests. Many trees had been broken and burned during the Battle of Pyongyang, but they still provided cover and concealment for the Japanese troops.

Chen Fei, following Lin Yuan's orders to lure the enemy and then have the Qing army forces brought by Lin Yuan annihilate them, did not order the Qing army artillery in the fortress to bombard Pyongyang.

Eight hundred meters from the fortress, the dark blue uniforms of the Japanese army could be seen intermittently in the sparse forest. Chen Fei ordered the Qing army artillerymen to fire.

These captured Qing soldiers had suffered much at the hands of the Japanese. Upon receiving the order, they quickly acted, measuring the distance, adjusting the gun positions, and the first shell was fired. The first shell was mainly used to correct the deviation and prepare for the next round of accurate strikes.

The Japanese in the forest understood this as well. They knew that precise artillery fire would soon follow, but they were not afraid. The artillery's rate of fire was low, and after one shell, it would take some time for the next one to come. They could also predict the landing point based on the sound of the shell and dodge in time.

Nine 75mm artillery pieces fired first, the shells whistling toward the forest where the Japanese were. The Qing army shells exploded in the air above the forest, and dense shrapnel rained down, breaking branches and leaves. The Japanese hid behind the trees, so there were not many casualties.

At this point, the Japanese increased their speed. From their position to the open space, it was only 400 meters, which they covered in three minutes. During these three minutes, the artillery fired over ten times, killing and wounding over a hundred Japanese soldiers.

The Japanese approached the 400-meter open space, preparing to charge. In the Battle of Pyongyang, the Japanese had been able to capture the fortress by occupying the outer fortifications and using the heavy artillery there to breach the walls, then rushing through the gaps. Now, however, the heavy artillery in the outer fortifications had been destroyed by the carrier-based aircraft, so the Japanese carried ladders to climb the walls.

Chen Fei, on the fortress, saw the Japanese carrying ladders and found it amusing, reminding him of the historical dramas he had seen. He then gave the order to attack. At a distance of 400 meters, a person appeared as a small black dot to the naked eye, so the assault rifles in the hands of the marines were not very effective. At this distance, machine guns were the most lethal weapons.

Chen Fei had anticipated that the Japanese would use their numerical advantage to charge, so he brought all the machine guns from the Beijing warship. Three 12.7mm heavy machine guns and twelve 7.62mm light machine guns formed a wall of fire along the fortress walls. As soon as the Japanese charged, they were suppressed by the dense hail of bullets, leaving a large number of dead bodies behind before retreating in a panic.

The Qing soldiers took advantage of this break to reach the positions of the 250mm heavy artillery. These guns had been used by the Japanese to bombard Pyongyang after they occupied Mount Peony, but now they had become the Japanese's own nemesis!

The Japanese in the city suffered heavy artillery fire, and Chaiye Yiguang immediately ordered the assembly of the 9th Mixed Brigade, the 10th Infantry Brigade, and over 4,000 others to capture Mount Peony at all costs!

At this time, there were 60 marines and 40 Qing artillerymen in Mount Peony, totaling 100 people, who were about to resist an enemy forty times their number!

Chen Fei counted the ammunition in the fortress. The machine gun ammunition had been consumed by half in the previous battle, and the rifle ammunition had not been used. Despite this, Chen Fei was not panicked. After all, they had the greatest advantage: the sky. They could call for air support at any time, and their mission was to lure the Japanese into action and annihilate them centered around Mount Peony.

When the Japanese forces gathered like ants, Chen Fei began to wonder why the Qing soldiers led by the ship's captain had not yet launched an attack.

Chen Fei did not know that Lin Yuan had encountered an unexpected situation!

When Lin Yuan saw the Japanese forces moving out, he was about to persuade Ye Zhichao to deploy his troops. At this moment, a telegram from the Qing court arrived, ordering Ye Zhichao to stop all military actions and retreat to a safe area because the Qing court was preparing to negotiate with Japan!

Since the Combined Fleet lost contact, the Japanese main camp had not been idle. They were searching for the Combined Fleet while actively thinking of countermeasures. They had not found the Combined Fleet, and their contact with the Japanese forces on the Korean Peninsula had also been cut off. Although the Japanese could not imagine that an aircraft carrier had arrived, they knew they should stop fighting with the Qing court.

Thus, the Japanese, through the British envoy, sent a request for peace to the Viceroy of Zhili, the Minister of North China, and the Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Hall, Li Hongzhang.

Li Hongzhang did not dare to delay and immediately reported to the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager was preparing for her sixtieth birthday and naturally did not want fighting to continue at her doorstep. The Qing officials, such as Weng Tonghe, seeing the Japanese request for peace, believed that the might of the Celestial Empire had already subdued the barbarians and also supported the peace talks.

Thus, Li Hongzhang sent a telegram to Ye Zhichao, ordering him to stop all military actions. Lin Yuan did not know that Ye Zhichao had his own plans. He had received secret reports that Song Qing's forces had sailed from Lüshun, crossed the Yellow Sea, and did not enter Korea through the mouth of the Yalu River at Dandong but directly reached the mouth of the Taedong River. This meant that Song Qing's forces would arrive much faster than expected, and Ye Zhichao did not want his hard-won achievements to be taken by others.

Ye Zhichao's refusal to deploy troops was one thing, but what worried Lin Yuan even more was the gathering of dark clouds, which became thicker and thicker.

Lin Yuan quickly ordered the helicopters on the ship to take off and evacuate the marines and Qing soldiers from the fortress. Just as the order was given, a thunderclap sounded, and a torrential rain began!

The dark clouds pressed down on the ground, making it hard to breathe. The cloud layer was no more than 200 meters above the ground, and at this height, planes absolutely dared not fly because the air currents near the ground were very unstable. If an aircraft encountered wind shear and lost speed, it would crash. Moreover, the heavy rain made flying even more difficult.

At this moment, the Japanese positions sounded with artillery fire!

The Japanese pushed out over a dozen artillery pieces and began shelling the main fortress on Mount Peony.

Where did these artillery pieces come from? After the Battle of Pyongyang, a Japanese artillery company had been very protective of their equipment. To prevent the artillery from being exposed to sunlight, they cut down many branches and built shelters for the artillery. These branches inadvertently served as modern camouflage nets. Since the Beijing warship's reconnaissance of Pyongyang mainly relied on visible light photography, these artillery pieces were overlooked.

For Chen Fei and his men in Mount Peony, their greatest advantage, air strikes, no longer existed. First, they could not locate the Japanese artillery positions because the radar of the KJ-2000 early warning aircraft operated in the L-band (15-30 cm), which could not map equipment the size of artillery. They also could not use laser designators to guide the air force because the heavy rain and thick clouds would absorb a lot of laser energy.

The J-25 fighter jets, which could勉强 complete reconnaissance and mapping with their active electronically scanned array radar operating in the 3 cm band, were also unable to do so due to the heavy rain.

Faced with the Japanese infantry, the carrier-based aircraft were also helpless because they were too close to the marines. Without laser-guided equipment, there was a significant chance that the bombs would land on the marines.

A Japanese shell landed next to the 250mm heavy artillery, and the high-explosive shell fragments instantly detonated the shells stacked nearby. The deafening explosion made everyone's hearts tremble, and the explosion's power was so great that it blew off a small part of the fortress wall.

Chen Fei was covered in mud and water. He looked at the densely packed Japanese forces advancing and turned to his men, shouting, "Brothers, from the moment we boarded the helicopter, we were destined to be surrounded and to fight our way out with the guns in our hands! Brothers, drive the Japanese back! Avenge Nanjing! Settle a thousand years of grievances today!"

The marines and Qing soldiers shouted in unison, ready to face the most brutal battle!