The Republic of Heroes

The artillery captain also discovered the abnormal situation hidden in the fog of the river. After careful observation, it was clearly a fully armed battleship. He suddenly realized that he had been tricked!That warship is very likely to be the escaped armored cruiser Izumo, the flagship of the Third Fleet.

Until several flames flashed in the mist of the river, followed by the sound of piercing through the air, and then landed on the southern fort with precision.After the explosion and the huge earthquake, everyone carefully observed the battle damage. Fortunately, the cannon was intact and there were no casualties.But the artillery captain's heart was as heavy as lead.In naval battles, most of the first shots were fired to calibrate the point of impact, and the volleys calibrated by the opponent were so accurate, which shows that the sailors are well-trained, and this is definitely an extremely difficult guy.

Based on his knowledge of the Izumo, only two twin four-inch guns of this class of armored cruiser can cause substantial damage to the fort. Naval guns of this caliber fire an average of one shell every 2 minutes, while Wu Song The fortress artillery of the fort is relatively backward. Although the caliber reaches eight inches, it is an old-fashioned recoil cannon. It takes five to six minutes to fire a shell on average, and it takes time to turn and adjust the shooting elements. The old-fashioned The adjustment of the gun mount is extremely laborious, and it will take at least another 6 minutes.So in theory, even if it starts now, it will take a quarter of an hour before it can fire.

By then, Izumo's two twin four-inch guns had fired at least seven salvos, totaling 28 shells.The South Fort, which is closest to the Izumo, may face a devastating blow.

What's more terrible is that the Miaoko cruiser lying in the nest is still not weak in combat power, and it has become a corner with the Izumo, forming a two-sided attack on the Wusong Fort.Suddenly, the advantages of the Chinese defenders disappeared, and they even fell into an extremely dangerous situation.

Yu Sanhe was also aware of the change in the situation of the fort, but he reacted very quickly and immediately came up with a countermeasure.

"Let the artillery company aim at the Japanese ship in Jiangwu and give me a hard hit!"

The artillery captain woke up like a dream in an instant, and issued a series of orders to the semaphore soldiers.

"The North and South Forts concentrate their firepower to sink the Miaoko as soon as possible..."

"Please ask for instructions from the South Fort, whether to fight back against the Japanese ships that appeared on the right side of the fortress!"

The semaphore soldier asked hurriedly, even ignoring the fact that interrupting the officer's order was a violation of military law.

The artillery captain didn't bother to worry about such details, he waved his hands decisively and said:

"Order the South Fort to ignore the Izumo, and concentrate firepower to bombard the Myoko with the North Fort!"

The Artillery Captain was originally the commander of the North Fort, but because the commander of the South Fort was Deng Zhenquan's brother-in-law, he usually worked as a minion, and after Sanhe took over the fortress, he arrested him and took over the South Fort.But he also took a great risk with this order. Originally, Nanbaotai felt that he was discriminated against because of Deng Zhenquan's brother-in-law. Now that he was ordered not to fight back in the face of the Japanese ship attack, his dissatisfaction would definitely increase.It's fine if he wins this battle, but if he loses, he will first become the target of resentment and be attacked.

Once again, the salvos from the north and south fortresses were all empty, and everyone's hearts were tightly suspended. If this continues, the fortress fortresses will be bit by bit eaten away by the two Japanese ships.

The semaphore soldier raised his head from the observation point and shouted excitedly into the bunker: "It's hit! It's hit!"

Yu Sanhe said angrily: "Damn, what's going on, where did you hit?"

"The artillery brothers of the Ninth Regiment hit the Izumo!"

The semaphore soldier was scolded and said aggrievedly.

Only then did everyone realize that it was the infantry's howitzer that hit the enemy ship.Yu Sanhe hurriedly picked up the binoculars to observe the battle situation, and saw billowing smoke billowing from the hull of the Izumo. It was impossible to judge for a while what the specific outcome of the battle would be.But it was this hit that greatly boosted the morale of everyone in the fortress. The South Fort braved the Izumo's artillery fire and the North Fort fired another volley at the Myoko. The god of luck finally began to favor the defenders of the fortress. The [-]-inch artillery shells smashed through the front splint of the Myoko, and penetrated several layers of cabins below the deck in a row, and did not explode until the bottom. The water-proof compartment, but the entire hull was also severely warped due to the water entering the bow, and the front main gun could no longer fire due to the angle.

Miaoko's misfortunes never come singly, and a four-inch gun shell hit the twin four-inch gun turret at the stern of the ship.Since the Myoko is a treaty-class cruiser, the tonnage control is extremely strict, so sacrifices were made in the protection of the turret. Therefore, the four-inch gun shell easily tore through the turret armor. In just 30 seconds, due to the explosion of the shell, The entire turret was lifted into the sky by the powerful impact.The Miaoko was completely destroyed by a salvo of large-caliber naval guns, and the remaining small-caliber secondary guns were no longer a concern.

The morale of the Chinese defenders in the fortress has risen again, and the threat of the Myoko has been eliminated, and the remaining time can be used to attack the Izumo with all its strength.

Suddenly there was a roaring sound in the sky, and the semaphore soldiers raised their heads and couldn't help but change their expressions. They saw three planes approaching from a distance, and the underside of the wings was heavy, obviously full of bombs.

......

Wu Xiaoliang was on his way to Changshu at this time. A few hours ago, he had just been appointed by Chiang Kai-shek as the Beijing-Shanghai garrison commander, in charge of the defense of Nanjing and Shanghai.The situation in Qiyakou was not optimistic. Song Xilian's teaching corps was defeated by the Japanese landing force in just half a day. The No.11 Division who had just withdrawn from Hubei was ordered to organize the first line of defense in Changshu. The teacher is even more famous, he is Chen Cheng, the love general of Jiang Zhongzheng, the core figure of the Civil Engineering Department of the Kuomintang!

The second line of defense was set up on the front line of Jiangyin, defended by He Yingqin's old base and the first army that had just withdrawn from Hubei. The current army commander is Liu Zhi.This army is definitely a giant in the entire National Revolutionary Army sequence. Under normal circumstances, an army has two divisions and one or two independent brigades, and the army implements a two-two system, that is, one division has two brigades, and one brigade has two regiments.Since the First Army was the absolute descendant of Chiang Kai-shek, it actually organized nine divisions. In the first disarmament and drawdown, the First Army still retained three divisions, and the rest of the troops were reorganized into the 32nd Army and the Ninth Army. Two armies.

The most important thing is that the First Army implements a three-three system, that is, one division has three brigades, and one brigade has three regiments.Therefore, the strength of the First Army is the highest in the country. Jiang Zhongzheng put it on the front line of Jiangyin. He not only handed over the Nanjing portal to his direct descendants with confidence, but also placed high hopes on it, hoping that they can achieve fruitful results in the war against Japan. results.

Wu Xiaoliang's Second Army and Seventh Division were obviously not among the trusted troops, so they were sent to the front line.For all these reasons, even though Wu Xiaoliang is called the Beijing-Shanghai Garrison Commander, he may only be able to mobilize these two troops of his own.