plumnovel Chapter 83 Bombardment of the Japanese Fleet
Chapter 83 Bombardment of the Japanese Fleet
As soon as he finished speaking, he picked up his guard's submachine gun and led his soldiers to charge towards the river defense position.
Hearing the distant roar of naval guns and the rising smoke from the riverbank, Tani Hisao knew that the naval forces had finally arrived.
Along with them, landing forces will arrive, and under the cover of naval gunfire, they will land on the riverbank, occupy the Xiaguan Wharf, and completely cut off the enemy's possibility of crossing the Yangtze River to the north.
"The fleet has arrived; we can launch a general offensive from the front."
Shimono Kazuki stood to one side and said.
Tani Hisao was in high spirits and smiled calmly, saying, "Order the artillery to open fire and prepare for the attack."
"Let the other divisions launch their attacks as well. This time, we're attacking from multiple directions simultaneously, even cutting off their rear. I'd like to see how long they can hold out."
Not long after he finished speaking, Tani Hisao saw the streets covered by artillery fire.
This time, we should be able to break through the enemy lines, right?
Tani Hisao thought to himself, he didn't believe these enemies could hold out any longer.
Inside Li Jianghe's command post, Song Xilian's messenger finally arrived.
"Commander Li, the Japanese fleet has cut off the Yangtze River waterway and is shelling the Xiaguan Wharf. Our division commander said he will hold out on the front for as long as possible. Your unit can break out from the front of Nanjing."
"Breakout? Now is not the time. How long can Commander Song hold out?"
Li Jianghe asked.
He had already heard the roar of the ship's guns, which was much louder than the artillery currently being used by the Japanese.
The arrival of the Japanese fleet would block the Yangtze River waterway, and the Xiaguan Wharf was now a dead end.
Moreover, whether it was Chief of Staff Xiao Shen's troops, Song Xilian's troops, or even the troops in Nanjing, they would all be bombarded by Japanese warships.
Just like back in Shanghai.
"I don't know. The Japanese warships have fierce guns, and we only have three thousand remaining soldiers. I'm afraid we won't be able to hold out for long."
The messenger answered truthfully.
Looking at the streets ahead, also covered in artillery fire, Li Jianghe turned to the messenger and said:
"Tell them to go back and say that before 8 p.m. tonight, they need to gather Chief of Staff Xiao Shen and the military police so we can break out together."
"yes!!!"
After the messenger finished speaking, he saluted Li Jianghe and turned to rush towards Xiaguan Wharf.
This time, it wasn't just Japanese ground artillery that bombarded the streets; after supporting the landing troops, naval guns also began to turn their guns around and fiercely bombard the streets defended by the Nationalist army.
"Boom!!!!!"
Compared to ground artillery, the artillery on Japanese heavy cruisers was clearly superior in terms of firepower.
Li Jianghe dialed the artillery's number and shouted to Wang Chengzhu:
"Zhu Zi, immediately send men to the riverbank, aim your cannons at the Japanese warships, and blast them to pieces!"
Upon hearing this, Wang Chengzhu immediately said:
"Yes, Commander, I will personally lead the men there."
After saying that, he led several soldiers, jumped onto a truck, and rushed towards Yijiang Gate without saying another word.
On the river, aboard the Japanese heavy cruiser Kawauchi, Rear Admiral Hyakuhenai, the commander of the Third Fleet, was fiddling with prayer beads and his eyes slightly closed.
Around the Sendai, there were a large number of floating corpses.
Those were Nanjing residents fleeing from the ships that had been wrecked earlier.
"Commander, the landing force has already begun engaging the enemy."
The chief of staff reminded him in a low voice.
Opening his eyes, putting away the prayer beads, Hyakuhenai said calmly:
"That bunch of idiots in the army got off easy. If we delay for a few more days, they might wipe out their entire force and still not be able to take Nanjing."
After speaking, he picked up his binoculars and looked at the river defense positions destroyed by artillery fire, where Song Xilian's 36th Division soldiers were already engaged in fierce fighting with the landing forces.
"Like a mantis trying to stop a chariot."
Hyakuhenai snorted coldly, clearly not taking those few thousand remnants of the army seriously.
In the recent naval bombardment, Song Xilian's limited forces suffered heavy losses, leaving only two thousand men holding the river defense positions.
The military police led by Chief of Staff Xiao Shen were also shelled at the same time, suffering equally heavy losses.
On the river defense positions, the two sides had already engaged in close combat.
Song Xilian personally led the charge, wielding a submachine gun and continuously firing at the Japanese troops below.
A Nationalist soldier strapped grenades all over his body jumped off the position and into the midst of the Japanese troops, where he exploded with a bang.
Some Nationalist soldiers, on the verge of death, still managed to pull the pin on their grenades as Japanese soldiers passed by, grabbing one of the Japanese soldiers and dying together with him.
Some Nationalist soldiers, despite already being stabbed multiple times, gritted their teeth, swung their broadswords, and slashed at the Japanese soldiers.
Hyakuhenai looked at everything before him with great interest, chanting sutras for salvation, but he was actually summoning the souls of the dead Japanese soldiers, while also cursing the fallen Nationalist soldiers to be forever condemned to the Asura realm.
On the city wall, Wang Chengzhu gave a thumbs-up to the Chuannei ship and quickly measured the coordinate data.
"Transmit the coordinates immediately and bomb it to death."
Wang Chengzhu handed over a note and shouted.
They didn't have walkie-talkies, so they had to rely on their own two legs to run back and forth to communicate.
Fortunately, the Sichuan-style ship realized that there was no firepower in the city that could threaten them, and the Nationalist army's air force had long been exhausted, so it just brazenly stopped on the surface of the Yangtze River.
Also moored in the middle of the river with it were the light cruiser Jintsu and the Kuro.
The three warships are now lined up in a row, using their main and secondary guns to bombard the city streets.
On the artillery battalion's position, all 46 cannons had been turned around and their firing parameters were being adjusted, aimed directly at the Japanese fleet on the Yangtze River.
"Rapid Fire!! Release!!!"
With a roar, all 46 cannons opened fire simultaneously.
"Boom!!!"
The roar of artillery fire instantly filled the entire district. Whether it was medium-caliber field guns or large-caliber howitzers, they all opened fire simultaneously, launching projectiles towards the Japanese warships in the middle of the river.
The shells whistled closer and closer, to the point that the shrieks of Hyakuhenouchi and the soldiers on the ship became extremely piercing.
"Enemy artillery fire!!!"
Finally, Hyakuhenai suddenly opened his eyes and shouted.
The next moment, several shells arrived in an instant.
"Boom!!!"
With a deafening roar, the Japanese warship Sendai was hit by four shells in the blink of an eye.
One of the shells was from a 105mm heavy artillery shell, and this heavy artillery shell happened to hit the weak point in the Japanese armor plate.
"Boom!!!"
The shells exploded inside the Japanese ship's hold, and flames instantly spread inside, igniting multiple compartments.
The entire ship of the Sendai swayed slightly. When Mokugawa got up from the ground, he saw that the naval soldiers on the deck were dead and wounded, their flesh and blood torn apart by the explosion.
"Weigh anchor!!! The enemy has a large artillery force!!!"
"Hyakuhenai River roared."