afterglow

Chapter 675: A Little Mistake; The Longest Day

A few years ago, when film projection technology matured, the Qianqing Palace set up a special place for the emperor to watch films, which could be regarded as the emperor's private cinema.

The light from the projector flickered in the dim room, sometimes bright and sometimes dim. Zhu Lingjing, with an expressionless face, stood with her arms folded across her chest, watching the latest news film.

[January of the third year of Jinghe｜Issue 3]

[Greetings | His Royal Highness the Crown Prince visits the Arsenal for inspection | Ministry of War]

"On the 21st of this month, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince visited the Wuhan Army Arsenal and inspected many factories. He extended cordial greetings to the people who were working hard in the rear battlefield during the war..."

"Your Highness sincerely praised the workers who worked hard and were good at production. All the workers were respectfully grateful for Your Highness's recognition of their work. After leaving the factory, Your Highness went to inspect the newly made guns..."

Zhu Lingjing was staring at the image on the screen, then suddenly her eyes moved elsewhere, and returned to the screen after a few seconds.

Although it sounds a bit strange, Jixiang Pictures Company is indeed the largest film production company in Ming Dynasty. It is a very typical bureaucratic capital and is also the designated partner of the official news agency Riyue Society.

[War in the Far North Alaska Direction｜Ministry of War]

"In the snowy mountains of Alaska, our soldiers fought against the enemy despite the severe cold, repeatedly defeated the enemy's attacks, and maintained the threat to the enemy's capital Anchorage. It was so difficult to hold on in such a situation..."

[Recent situation of Siberian allies｜Ministry of Rites]

"Mei Yiming, a doctor from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has arrived in Yekaterinburg and has been warmly welcomed. General Ilya, the leader of a friendly country, and his wife have come to greet him in the snow. Many refugees from the war-torn west have been properly accommodated, and the sick are being treated..."

"Tat-tat--"

The bland female voice of the announcer masked the footsteps outside, so the knock on the door seemed very sudden.

"Enter."

Su Yiyi and an attendant pushed the door open and entered, reporting, "Your Majesty, there is good news. Luo Daizhao sent a copy of the battle report from the front line."

The projector stopped running, and the lights in the room were turned on. Zhu Lingjing reached out and took the copy of the battle report.

Just half a day ago, a call came in saying that the US military officially landed today, but only this short period of time later, it was confirmed that a battleship was sunk?

"It's a good sign. It seems that our army's fightback is quite severe." She was secretly delighted for a moment, her lips slightly raised, and she immediately felt a lot more at ease.

She then raised her eyes and said, "Tell him Zhou Changfeng that there is no need to rush to announce the good news. He should be modest and focused on the battle."

Zhu Lingjing did want to show her presence, but the frontline soldiers were well-trained, with sufficient food and ammunition. From the front battlefield to the mid-way sea transportation logistics line and then to the mainland, everything was running stably, and there was really no room for intervention, so it was best to leave it alone.

What has made her alert these two days is the secret report of the Investigation Department of the Special Crop Research and Development Association - among the relevant personnel covered by the Jinwu Project, it can be confirmed that there are definitely people who have secret contacts with the German Society, but the clues are not sufficient at present, and the specific people, objects and events are still under investigation.

Some people have long been worried that the secrets of the Golden Crow Project might be leaked, because in pursuit of efficiency even some unsteady elements were recruited and employed.

Now, the worry has become a reality.

Currently, not many people know about the Jinwu Plan during the war, but it will definitely be gradually declassified after the war. By then, it will most likely cause an uproar and implicate many people.

Considering that Zhou played a key role in this, he will probably be questioned and criticized by the Advisory Council when the time comes.

It's not that serious, at most there will be all kinds of condemnation, accusations, and trouble, but it's not good to get into trouble like that.

Her instructions were to conduct a secret investigation for the time being and keep it strictly confidential so as not to affect the normal progress of the Golden Crow Project.

After being distracted for a moment, she came back to her senses and said to herself: "This is only the first day..."

There is an eighteen-hour time difference between the two places. The sun is high in the sky in Yingtianfu, the capital, while the sun is setting in the west on Oahu Island, Hawaii.

In the fields south of the ruined town of Kaneohe, the wreckage of more than a dozen Sherman and Johnston tanks were still burning. Puffs of black smoke gathered into larger columns that went straight into the sky. The sunset glow and black smoke together made the battlefield particularly poignant.

Two Corsair fighters swooped down from the sky. Faced with the continuous fire of bullets and shells, they hurriedly dropped the napalm bombs they were carrying without even firing a sweeping fire, then quickly turned around and flew away.

The land, which still had residual warmth, was once again engulfed by the sea of ​​fire. The colloidal gasoline with palmitic acid added burned to a temperature of thousands of degrees, and rolling heat waves swept around.

A truck's anti-aircraft gun was caught in some splashing gelatinous gasoline and was immediately enveloped by the black smoke emitted by the fireball. The windshield also shattered with crackling sounds under the high temperature.

The loader and gunner who were on fire staggered out of the vehicle, struggling and trying to take off their clothes in a panic. Seeing this, the co-pilot immediately found an asbestos fire blanket and rushed over to try to help put out the flames on their bodies.

In a hurry, the ammunition carrier didn't care about anything else and picked up the sodium bicarbonate fire extinguisher and sprayed it at the two of them.

In the front, after several hours of fierce fighting, the Jiuhua and Wutai had lost their initial glory, and their hulls and turrets were covered with bullet holes and burn marks.

The Wutai was hit by at least thirty shells, destroying its sub-turret, optical rangefinder, and main turret seat. In addition, the left track and several road wheels were blown off by bombs dropped by American planes.

The Jiuhua was slightly better. Its sub-turret was penetrated by a hard-core armor-piercing shell and the gunner was killed on the spot, but at least the main turret could still rotate normally.

Actual combat has proved that this sub-turret equipped with a 25.6mm machine gun is a superfluous and failed design. Although the 80mm thick armor is not weak, it cannot last long in high-intensity combat.

The car was filled with the smell of gunpowder and blood. When Feng Ziyu noticed that the sub-turret had not fired for a long time, he went over to open the compartment door, and then saw a bloody corpse slumped on the seat. The strong smell of blood filled the car.

"Time to go, back up!"

Several hours of fighting had exhausted everyone, and Feng Ziyu's voice when he shouted into the intercom in the car was a few decibels lower than at the beginning.

The greatest advantage of mobility cannot be given up, otherwise what is the difference between this so-called self-propelled coastal defense gun and those coastal defense guns fixed in reinforced concrete bunkers?
The radial engine roared, and the gearbox worked hard to drive the over 100-ton behemoth to slowly move backward. Because of its immature design, the engine overheating defect always existed. The temperature inside the Jiuhua was as high as 40 degrees, and everyone had to go into battle shirtless.

Seeing that the Wutai ship, which was dozens of meters away, had not moved, Feng Ziyu asked in confusion: "Captain Wang, why don't you retreat?"

Intermittent coughs and replies came over the radio, "Too many tracks and wheels have fallen off on the left side, but short-circuiting should be able to work. Let's try it at night." The crew of Wutai was unwilling to abandon the vehicle, so they decided to take a gamble and see if they could hold out until dark.

The afterglow of the setting sun stretched the shadows of the two steel beasts into very long ones, one still and one moving, gradually moving away.

After the Jiuhua had traveled more than a hundred meters at a speed slightly faster than walking, a series of loud rumbling noises came from behind.

Feng Ziyu's heart trembled. He turned his head and saw through the observation window of the commander's tower that the preset position had been covered by artillery fire.

The US troops attacking in this direction suffered heavy losses and were almost completely blocked by these two steel behemoths.

Because of the presence of the two, the tanks and infantry units were unable to clear out the nearby Ming army bunkers, nor were they able to break through forward.

The M6A1 Johnston, which the US military had high hopes for, was enough to deal with the Clouded Leopard, but it was beaten to the ground by the two tanks that appeared here inexplicably. The 820th Heavy Tank Battalion lost one-third of its troops here alone.

Because of this, the anxious US fleet's artillery support came quickly and fiercely.

The Baltimore-class heavy cruiser Boston fired two and a half salvos at the target location, firing a total of 18 203mm high-explosive bombs; South Dakota also fired 9 406mm high-explosive bombs.

A quarter of an hour later, infantrymen from a friendly position rushed to search and rescue, and found that the Wutai was not directly hit by any artillery shells, but one shell landed very close to the vehicle, breaking the welds of the vehicle body, and only one crew member survived.

January 1 was an especially long day. The landing battle on Oahu lasted from early morning till nightfall. As of 26:22 that evening, the US military still made little progress and the overall performance was lackluster.

In the Kaneohe area under the responsibility of the 1st Marine Division, the troops advanced approximately 1.5 to 2 km and suffered more than 1500 casualties.

In the Kailua area under the responsibility of the 4th Marine Division, the troops advanced approximately 2 to 2.5 km and suffered more than 1200 casualties.

In the middle peninsula area under the responsibility of the 38th Infantry Division, the Ming army did not deploy any defenses. There were only a few sniper teams and mortar teams. The US military completely occupied the area, and more than 100 casualties were caused by cold guns, cold artillery and mines.

除这以外，第786中型DD坦克营和820重型坦克营分别损失了33辆谢尔曼DD和12辆M6A1约翰斯顿重型坦克，伤亡210余人。

Historically, the U.S. military's M6 series heavy tanks were not put into actual combat, so they did not receive a nickname from the British Army. But now it is different. The aided M6A1 has accompanied the British Army in participating in the defensive battle against the German army in the Kirklareli area (west of Constantinople).

Following the naming convention of Grant and Sherman, the British Army named it the Johnston Heavy Tank after the famous Civil War general Joseph Johnston.

On the first day of the landing, the total casualties of the US ground forces exceeded 3100, with 732 deaths.

The surface ship forces suffered even greater losses, with a total casualties of more than 1200 people on that day, including 545 deaths.

Once a warship sinks, it is very easy for mass casualties to occur. For example, in the afternoon, the escort destroyer USS Orge (DE-101) sank quickly after being hit by a torpedo, and only a few people survived. When the USS Nevada sank, more than a thousand people were safely evacuated, but there were still hundreds of crew members in the lower cabins who did not have time to evacuate and sank to the bottom of the sea with the ship.

Although it felt a little strange, Zhou Changfeng found that he had a special appetite tonight, so he simply ate a steamed bun and a can of food in this small observation room.

A few days ago, he was still a little nervous, tense and had a poor appetite, but after watching the entire US military landing operation today, he was completely relieved.

Upon arriving at the headquarters, Zhu Lishuo heard the voice before he saw the person. He said with great regret: "This is still on the other side of the mountain. The mountain blocks my artillery from using its full strength. Otherwise, several field artillery groups on the island will attack together and blow up all their beachhead positions without leaving a single one!"

"The commander has arrived!"

"Attention! Stand at attention!"

Zhou Changfeng threw his helmet aside, put his hands on his waist and sighed, "Political tasks kill people. It's really ugly to fight a landing war under such conditions. It is roughly estimated that the US military has lost 3,000 to 4,000 people in the daytime combat today."

Zhao Hanfeng nodded and said, "It's roughly consistent. Just now, a few people from the 22nd Division Scout Battalion infiltrated the enemy's telephone lines. After eavesdropping, they said that a regiment of the 4th Marine Division in Kailua suffered a quarter of casualties."

"Oh? This sand table was modified quite timely." Zhou Changfeng scanned the sand table in front of him and gestured with his hand: "It took a lot of effort to attack the front line. The enemy can't attack the main defense line for the time being. Change the mission of the aviation force. Tomorrow, focus on attacking the aircraft carrier formation in the open sea and see if we can take down one."

"If we don't suppress the landing fleet near the coast, the pressure on the main defense line will be much greater." Zhao Hanfeng was a little worried.

Zhou Changfeng waved his hand, "Don't worry about that. The US armored forces suffered heavy losses today. If they lack tanks, their breakthrough efficiency will be very low. Besides, there are so many firepower points still hidden on the Koala Mountain. That's a big surprise."

To be fair, the landing operation of the US military went quite well and was well organized. The landings on various beaches were almost simultaneous, the fleet's artillery support responded quickly, and the enthusiasm of the two Marine divisions was also outstanding. Zhou Changfeng believed that this should have been close to the peak level of the US military in the original dimension in the past four or five years.

However, all of this is difficult to offset the many disadvantages of a forced landing and counterattack under the current circumstances.

If our side completely loses air superiority, it will naturally be unable to carry out air strikes to hinder the US fleet. The sky will certainly be filled with US aircraft. Our mobile forces will be suppressed and unable to move. Communications between various positions and defense zones will also be affected. It is easy to fall into the dilemma of fighting alone and being defeated one by one.

After comprehensive consideration, Zhou Changfeng decided to shift the focus of the shore-based aviation forces from suppressing the US landing fleet to attacking the more distant aircraft carrier fleet.

Late at night.

The firing of cold guns and cold cannons never stopped, and artillery flares and aviation flares also kept appearing in the night sky.

Ming army scouts, armed with grenades and submachine guns, infiltrated the US military positions under the cover of the brief darkness when the flares were extinguished, laying mines, ambushing lone enemy soldiers, and cutting telephone lines.

Seeing that the army and air force performed well, the navy was not willing to lag behind.

The 4th Squadron stationed at Pearl Harbor dispatched four destroyers and 13 torpedo boats to attempt a night attack on the US landing fleet in Kailua Bay.

The Ming army estimated that the enemy was most likely well prepared, so they were more cautious. This was indeed the case. After a brief exchange of fire, seeing that many enemy destroyers and cruisers were on high alert, the night attack fleet quickly withdrew from the battle.

That night, the Air Force sent a small number of bombers to drop floating mines into the bay to harass the US military, with a total of more than 100 mines dropped.

As the name suggests, a floating mine is a non-fixed mine that can float freely in the water. The Ming army used a 200kg small floating mine this time with a self-destruction countdown of 6 hours. Even if it is not triggered, it will float to the beach and explode after high tide.

The moon had moved to the west, and the soft moonlight was sprinkled on the ground. The airports on Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau were crowded with people, and the shells of aerial bombs carried on carts were shining with metallic luster.

"Trailer detached! Slide onto the runway!"

(End of this chapter)