afterglow

Chapter 256 Unnecessary Night Attack; Forced Crossing Arakawa
As night falls, under the deep and bright starry sky, the whole of Tokyo is brightly lit—even though the war has come, many people still live a life of feasting and feasting.

Especially in the public concession, the colorful neon lights are so bright and bright. The bars and dance halls are full of local plutocrats and Europeans with their female companions. Can't care less.

In a ballroom called "Robien", a blonde girl looked sideways at the man beside her.

She asked with some concern: "Philip, there were a lot of explosions on the coast today, what should we do?"

The latter looked indifferent, shrugged his shoulders, and replied: "This is a concession, and the Chinese will not disturb us."

Since the Ming Dynasty officials only said that they would take over the powers' areas of influence in Japan and would not revoke the concessions, then the war has nothing to do with these masters.

The Tokyo International Settlement has its own power plant, water supply plant, hospital, and various warehouses, and it can be self-sufficient for a month.

"Hey, isn't the wine ready yet? Why are you so slow?"

"Okay, ma'am, sorry to keep you waiting."

The bartender at the front desk mixed two glasses of whiskey and liqueur, and a thin Japanese girl in a waiter uniform walked over with a plate and served the wine to the couple.

Philip reached for two wine glasses, then looked at the waiter and asked, "What's your name? How old are you?"

The latter lowered his head and whispered back, "Xiaosong Molizi, she will be seventeen in a week."

"Are you still in school?"

"I didn't go to school after I graduated from St. Mary's Church Primary School..."

In fact, Philip was used to this for a long time. With his index and middle fingers, he took out a one pound note from the pocket of his suit jacket and handed it to her.

Today's US dollar is not considered a global currency, the British pound and gold are hard currencies, but in the Asia-Pacific region, Ming's universal banknotes can also be used.A pound was worth four dollars, or sixteen dimes, an unheard-of sum for a lowly ballroom boy.

Xiaosong Molizi opened her mouth slightly in surprise, but her eyes still showed hesitation, "Sir, this is too much..."

"I'm in a good mood today." Philip casually gave a reason, "Take it."

The female companion on the side, Emily, took out a lighter and lit a thin female cigarette, reminding: "Hide it well, be careful not to be snatched away."

Philip is a pretentious guy with a good family background. His father owns a machining factory in Seattle, which has survived the dark economic crisis and revived.And because Philip was dissatisfied with his strict father, he chose to travel across the ocean to Hangzhou in the Ming Dynasty to do business, but failed.

But he didn't want to return to Seattle in despair, so he sold the remaining assets and came to Tokyo with the remaining money, and started to resell supplies in an ingenious way.

The garrisons of the major powers in the concession are quite corrupt and lax due to lack of supervision. Tsarist Russian garrisons always drink heavily. In order to compensate for the alcohol, the officers take the lead in reselling military supplies; So he took all kinds of materials in the barracks to exchange for money; the Ming garrison was not bad.

Doing serious business ended in fiasco, but doing gray work like a fish in water, it can be said that Philip is also a strange talent.

As for his recent girlfriend Emily, her father is a Junker nobleman who fled abroad 18 years ago. He has a fief in Bad Laer in northern Germany. The family fled via Belgium, traveled across the ocean, and finally settled in Tokyo.

But Emily's father died of illness not long after, and her mother spent money like water because of the disposition of a noble lady. After squandering her family's wealth, she was unwilling to give up a luxurious life. The salary of a violin teacher was too low, so she put down her body and sold herself as a prostitute.With such a family situation, one can imagine the ups and downs of Emily's growth.

"Asshole, how much tip did that person give you? Hand it over!"

Emily’s previous reminders have been summed up in a nutshell. The good intentions hired by the ballroom (Japanese bodyguards and bodyguards) are the local ruffians around. They don’t have the slightest sympathy for the weak and bully.

Komatsu Molizi was trembling in front of the fierce and vicious sticks, so she had to honestly hand over the one pound note while shedding tears.

At least in the concession that is nearly half of the colony, although it is a civilized society on the surface, it is still applying the law of the jungle in essence. Such things are not uncommon.

The concession is like a paradise isolated from the world, and the people in it don't care about what happens outside.

In fact, even most Tokyoites in the urban area are insensitive, thinking that resistance is pointless, even harmful.

What is the use of resistance?Anyway, I can't beat him, but in the end it will make the Ming people angry, so it's better to kneel down and beg for surrender, and welcome Master Wang respectfully.

Under the soft moonlight projected by the first quarter moon, the Jiazi [-] spy fleet moored in the bay can be vaguely seen.

In order to avoid possible surprise attacks by torpedo boats or frogmen, the fleet strictly followed the rules and regulations to implement a blackout, and only a few destroyers with searchlights were cruising around the periphery.

The officers and soldiers of the Marine Regiment on the beachhead had already dug foxholes one after another, wrapped in blankets, leaning against the wall of the pit, and taking a nap.

And on the frontier security position, in the sparse double foxholes, the soldiers on security mission stared at the dark front, with rifles, bullets, and grenades all placed beside them.

Several directional mines were also placed 30 meters away, each oriented at an angle to achieve full coverage of 180° in front, and the killing angles overlap partially to maximize the killing effect.

In the face of new things, most people will inevitably hold an attitude of distrust, and the same is true for soldiers. Instead of setting up tripwires, they use electronically controlled detonators to hold these directional mines in their own hands.

Under the fearful situation, the time in the dark night seemed to pass extremely slowly.

In the middle of the night, those who are going to take a shift to rest are drowsy, and those who have just been woken up are in a daze.

At this time, someone heard some slight movement, followed the sound, and there seemed to be a black shadow moving in the vast night, and the distance was very close, less than 50 meters.

"Look, is there something moving?"

"where?"

A sergeant with sharp eyesight and quick hands picked up a flare gun and fired a flare into the sky.

Under the reflection of the bright white light cluster, the soldiers in the security position subconsciously stretched out their hands to block the light, but their eyes widened in the next second.

I saw more than a hundred figures with guns scattered in the field, roughly divided into six or seven groups, each with more than a dozen people.

"Enemy attack!!!"

I don't know whether the first shot was fired by our own side or the enemy's side. In an instant, the dense gunfire tore apart the quiet night.

"Retreat?!" Someone asked loudly to the second lieutenant in the foxhole next door.

The latter waved his hand and replied, "Not for now!"

Several flares fired by 80mm mortars from the beachhead illuminated the area brightly, and the visibility was no less than that of a clear day.

Someone pushed down the pressure lever of the detonator, and several explosion points appeared in front of the security position in an instant, and the roar of the violent explosion spread throughout the landing area.

Thousands of short steel rods and steel balls swept across the front of the security position, and a large number of prefabricated fragments were shot out, causing a bloody storm among the resistance army that attacked at night, and the screams became the aftertaste of the explosion.

Caught off guard, more than half of the two teams involved in the night attack were killed or injured at the beginning.

But their 81mm mortars began to bombard the Ming army's positions, and Jingui's 75mm mountain artillery was also put into use, and shells kept falling on the beachhead.

From the perspective of the warships moored on the sea, such a scene will definitely leave a deep memory - the sea and the sky are all black, only the reflection of the moon, and a small light spot flashes on the land in the distance, which is the muzzle of the gun The larger light clusters are the flames of shell explosions.

The tracer bombs fired by the machine guns were like red-hot knives scorched by flames, piercing through the black curtain covering the world; while the large flares fired by the destroyer’s 128mm naval gun were as bright as a small sun, as if directly lifting off the entire black curtain .

Neither side went any further, and the confrontation continued until dawn before subsiding.

Dozens of corpses of resistance soldiers were scattered within a radius of several hundred meters in front of the security position. Among them, the corpses killed by a large number of prefabricated fragments of directional mines were the most frightening, dilapidated and riddled with holes.

"It is reported that 17 people were slightly injured, eight were seriously injured, four were killed, and one died." A staff officer clasped his fists and reported.

Zhou Changfeng was squatting next to a pile of bonfire pits, with two branches lying sideways, and several cans of braised pork and soybeans on them.

He touched it with his hand, and it was still quite hot, so he quickly picked it up and put it on the ground, "The time has changed, and we will act according to the original plan at seven o'clock, so that the fleet will be ready."

Because they had been prepared for a long time, the night attack last night did not cause much damage to the landing troops.

All the units of the Marine Regiment have been disembarked, the mountain artillery team equipped with 80mm mountain artillery and the mortar battalion with 112mm heavy mortar have been deployed, and the field hospital has also been built.

According to the plan formulated before, the third battalion cooperated with the tank convoy, accompanied by two platoons of engineers, carrying equipment for crossing the river, and advanced along the road to the urban area of ​​Tokyo.

Since the landing point is in the southeast of downtown Tokyo, the river Arakawa has become a natural barrier in front of the Marine Corps.

The main task of the third battalion is to break through the opponent's line of defense, build a solid bridgehead after crossing the Arakawa, and build a pontoon for the follow-up troops to cross the river.

The Fujiwara Detachment was ordered to stop the First Marine Regiment. They blasted several bridges on Arakawa, and then set up a defense line, waiting for the arrival of the Ming army.

The tentative night attack last night did not have any effect. Only one-third of the two teams that participated in the battle withdrew.

In the field headquarters behind a collapsed bridge, the adjutant bowed and said: "The search squadron reports that the advance troops of the Ming army are approaching, about fifteen chariots and 1000 people."

Lieutenant Fujiwara Yoshiharu glanced at the map and calmly said: "Be prepared, unless the attack is blocked, they will not settle for second best. This is the best place to cross the river."

That's the fact, Zhou Changfeng didn't want to take a short detour, so he asked to take action on this first.

The eighteen [-]-type floating combat vehicles of the amphibious combat convoy marched in staggered columns, followed by infantry and engineers.

After Arakawa came into view, the chariots turned into a horizontal team under the order of captain Li Bin, and lined up along the river beach to ensure that the whole team could meet the opposite bank with maximum firepower.

Fan Qijin watched with a telescope for a long time, then nodded and said: "It is consistent with the conclusion of aerial reconnaissance. It is clear that there are two main lines of defense. It is hard to say whether there is a third line."

The step-by-step attack was launched quickly. The 80mm mortars belonging to the battalion began to attack the observed enemy positions, and the 80mm mountain artillery belonging to the regiment also fired indirectly.

The "Swallow" team, which took off from the Tianshi Zuoyuan, was responsible for close support. Nine [-]-type carrier-based dive bombers flew to the sky over Arakawa in a formation of three aircraft, and then strafed and bombed.

Excluding a few dud bombs, more than 30 100kg aerial bombs exploded one after another, and the detonation of tens of kilograms of TNT was shocking.

Under the tremendous power of intensive artillery fire and air strikes, most of the field fortifications built by the Resistance Army in the past two days were destroyed.The shelter that was directly hit by the aerial bomb collapsed and buried more than a dozen people alive, becoming the grave they dug for themselves.

During the one-hour firepower preparation, the mountain artillery team fired two and a half base shells, and the battalion mortar platoon was slightly less.

The long-term continuous firing made the root of the gun barrel show a faint red, and the exhausted artillerymen took out their cigarettes and touched them there, and the cigarettes were lit.

Zhou Changfeng specifically asked the fleet's artillery support to be at the end, and at intervals of 3 minutes, so as to achieve the goal of killing the enemy to the maximum extent.

"Wh-wh-"

A red and a yellow flare shot up into the sky.

The artillery fire all over the sky looked spectacular at the beginning, but it became boring after a long time. The chariot soldiers who lost their interest moved quickly, and the eighteen amphibious tanks lined up on the river bank slowly drove into the river.

In the eyes of the enemy army on the other side, this situation was the beginning of a formal attack. The surviving sentry immediately called the large troops into the dilapidated position, ready to meet the incoming Ming army.

The chariot convoy's feint was a great success, and the enemy troops, who were dazed by the previous bombardment, left the shelter one after another.

In Tokyo Bay, the main guns of the two battleships Zhanghe and Yongping have already pointed slightly obliquely in the target direction.

The two chief gunnery officers were staring at their watches, and now there were only a dozen seconds left in the three minutes required.

Four, three, two, one... time is up, fire!
In the calm bay, white waves were set off by the strong storm fired by the battleship's main gun salvo. A dozen rounds of 844kg 400mm high-explosive bombs flew out of the muzzle at a speed of 812m/s!

Although they are both twelve and a half inches in size, the twin-mounted naval guns equipped by these two battleships are old models, slightly inferior to the new model of the Longshuo, but it is difficult to distinguish between the superior and the inferior when shelling on the opposite shore.

The high-explosive bomb filled with 75kg of TNT and aluminum powder mixed explosives inside is extremely terrifying. The violent explosion seemed to overturn the entire land.

Remnants, arms, and broken pieces blown away by the shock wave flew all over the sky, some of which fell into the Arakawa, splashing circles of water waves.

(End of this chapter)