On September 19th, which is the 16th day of the lunar leap month, the German soldiers set out from Tianjin at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, heading with a mighty force to attack the Beiting Battery. When they boarded the train, the German troops stationed in Tianjin were still playing music to give them a send-off, followed by a French artillery team.
When they arrived at the supply depot, the German soldiers got off the train. There were Russian soldiers stationed there, and after the two army leaders met and discussed, they decided that the German soldiers would be the vanguard, the Russian soldiers would attack the left wing, with the plan to rendezvous at Tanggu. After the two armies joined forces, reinforcements arrived in the form of numerous Russian naval soldiers. At midnight, the German and Russian army leaders gathered their officers to discuss the attack strategy. With the train ready, they ordered the troops aboard. After walking more than ten miles, the soldiers got off the train and slogged through the knee-deep mud of the salt marshes.
When they arrived at the battery, it was almost two o'clock. The Russian artillery team opened fire first, firing six shots before the battery began to return fire. However, the shells all missed, without hitting a single foreign soldier, who then launched an attack from the right.
Not long after, the German infantry led the way, with the artillery following behind, advancing a few more miles. As the sky gradually brightened, the Chinese soldiers began to fire continuously. The southern battery was a blazing inferno of fire. The defenders were brave enough, but their aim was terrible, so the foreign soldiers were not afraid at all. The foreign soldiers continued to advance bravely, but suddenly a landmine exploded on the left side, with the foreign soldiers luckily on the right side, causing no casualties. Caution increased. After a while, another landmine exploded, its sound echoing in the air. Two cavalry officers were blown to bits. The soldiers were terrified, carrying the wounded back while the artillery moved forward, gathering courage to continue firing. Every shot found its mark.
At seven o'clock, both sides really went at it with their cannons. Suddenly, the whole place blew up – smoke and fire everywhere! It turned out that the gunpowder depot was hit by enemy shells and caught fire. At this time, most of the cannons on both sides were shot to pieces. We only had one cannon left, and even that was sputtering.
Then the rain came down like a curtain, and the shooting stopped. The foreigners pulled back and counted their casualties, which were significant. The wounded were sent back to Tianjin for treatment. Then they began to discuss and realized that that fort was a tough nut to crack. They sent some guys back to Tianjin to grab two short-range cannons they'd captured earlier. Under the cover of darkness, they used a train to sneak those cannons in and opened fire.
Our guys fought hard, but then the foreigners unleashed poison gas, and we had to retreat. The artillery position was eventually occupied by the enemy.
In this battle, we used smokeless powder, so all they saw was a flash and then – boom! We killed a whole bunch of them. But man, we took a beating too. It was a bloodbath.
