It took about 3 minutes for the Hawker to turn, but in these 3 minutes, it was hit by 2 200-mm shells, 13 155-mm shells, and 12 130-mm shells, and almost all the buildings on the deck of the ship were blown up beyond recognition, except for the command room, and more than seventy percent of the ship's guns were destroyed by artillery fire, and more than 10 holes of various sizes were blown open by the side of the ship on the right side.

Since the Hawk was a protective cruiser with no vertical armor on the side of the ship, as long as a shell hit the side side, it would basically blow up a gap, and three of the holes were located near the waterline, and the dome armor of two holes was blown up, and a large amount of seawater poured into the cabin. Although the command room of the Hawker armor was protected by heavy armor and was not damaged, the entire warship had basically lost its combat effectiveness, and although the power system of the warship was not damaged much, the draft had increased by nearly half the depth, so the speed could only be maintained at 12 knots, and the soldiers and sailors on the ship were busy draining and rescuing.

Seeing that the Hawke had lost its combat effectiveness, the KPA warships concentrated their artillery fire and launched a fierce bombardment of the Gibraltar behind.

At this time, the Gibraltar was turning, and in the previous battle, the Hawker was in the way, so the Gibraltar did not suffer any damage, but after the Hawker had completed the turn, the Gibraltar was also completely exposed to KPA fire.

The KPA warships were in full swing and fiercely bombarded the Gibraltar, and the Hawke was entertained just now, and the Gibraltar experienced it all again, although the Gibraltar also fought hard to fire back, but it was helplessly outnumbered, and the firepower of a warship was of course unable to compete with the more than 10 warships of the KPA.

The battle lasted less than 2 minutes, and the Gibraltar had been hit by more than 20 shells, including a 155mm shell that hit the launch tube of the Gibraltar and detonated*, causing a shocking explosion, the entire warship was in flames and began to sink into the water, and the soldiers on board jumped into the sea to flee for their lives.

The two large cruisers were dealt a heavy blow, one wounded and one sunk, and the remaining six warships, all of which were destroyers of about 1,000 tons, were naturally no match for the KPA Navy, and as a result, they were sunk one after another, and the last two destroyers also surrendered to the KPA Navy. Although the Hawke withdrew from the battle and fled from the battlefield, due to the great reduction in speed, it was overtaken by the Jinan and Tianjin, and was eventually sunk.

In fact, the whole naval battle ended in only 40 minutes, 8 British and French warships, 6 were sunk, 2 surrendered, and another 318 British and French soldiers were captured.

After destroying the British and French fleets, the transport fleet caught up with the fleet and joined the fleet, sailed into the mouth of the Yangtze River together, and went straight upstream. The Jinan and Tianjin fleets led the 4th cruiser fleet, the 3rd destroyer fleet, and the 2nd Marine Division to attack the port of Shanghai; Luo Yue led the 2nd destroyer fleet, two river fleets, the 1st Marine Division, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Reserve Regiments sailed into the Huangpu River to attack the concession.

After sailing into the Huangpu River, the fleet first anchored at the dock in the Shanghai New District. Shanghai New Area is located in the north of the public concession, at the confluence of the Huangpu River and the Yangtze River, this section of the river is wide and deep, and after the development of the Shanghai New Area in recent years, the construction and facilities of the wharf are relatively perfect, and it can berth 10,000-ton merchant ships, so it is natural to berth these 1,000-ton and 100-ton warships.

At this time, Li Songchen, head of the Shanghai New Area, Ouyang Wen, head of the garrison, and officials of the Shanghai New Area were already at the wharf to welcome the arrival of the People's Army. When Luo Yue got off the boat, Li Songchen greeted him first and said, "General Luo, it's been a long time. ”

Li Songchen and Luo Yue worked together for a period of time, and later the East China Government was established, but Li Songchen stayed as the mayor of Tianjin, and Luo Yue moved to various places, but the two also met a few times, so they had a deep friendship. Li Songchen also played an important role in the East China Government's decision to attack Shanghai this time, and it was precisely Li Songchen's guarantee that after the People's Army occupied the Shanghai Concession, the Shanghai New Area would be able to ensure that order in the Shanghai Concession would be restored in a short period of time and that the East China Government would be under control in the Shanghai Concession. When the military working group decided to launch an offensive against Shanghai, Li Songchen was also appointed as a member of the Logistics and Management Committee of the Shanghai Theater.

Luo Yue said: "District Mayor Li, this time I want to trouble the Shanghai New District Government." ”

Li Songchen said with a smile: "There, there, it is our duty to assist the People's Army in combat. ”

At this time, Ouyang Wen also came over to salute Luo Yue and said, "Report to General Luo, we have received an order, and during this period, the Shanghai New Area Garrison Regiment will obey the orders of the Marine Corps." ”

Luo Yue nodded, returned the salute, and said, "Head Ouyang, we also need your cooperation this time." ”

Li Songchen said: "General Luo, the command is ready, let's go over first and then talk." ”

Luo Yue also knew that it would take some time for the army and equipment to get off the ship, and it was useless to stay at the dock now, so it was better to go to the headquarters first, at least let himself settle down first, so he said: "Okay, go to the headquarters first." ”

The headquarters is located in the northwest of Shanghai New District, about 5,000 meters away from the public concession, it was originally a large courtyard, covering an area of about 20 acres, with a total of more than 20 houses, with a construction area of more than 5,000 square meters. Jiang Yi and others took the initiative to change this piece of factory to the headquarters of the People's Army, and after Ouyang Wen inspected the factory facilities, he also thought that it was very suitable as a command center, not only to garrison troops, but also to reserve materials, so he first stationed a company to garrison the factory building, and carried out simple transformation.

The combat command room is about 100 square meters, and a sand table model of the Shanghai area is placed in the middle, and there are four maps of different sizes and proportions, although the People's Army also has the area of the Shanghai area, but the sand table is of course more intuitive than the map, and the map provided by the Shanghai New Area is also more detailed and perfect. In front of the sand table is a long conference table, and behind it is Luo Yue's lounge and office. In addition, the Shanghai New Area also prepared some supplies for the People's Army, which could ensure the consumption of the People's Army in the early stage of the war.

These are all made by the joint efforts of Li Songchen, Ouyang Wen, and the intelligence department. After Li Songchen succeeded Yang Yuxin as the mayor of the Shanghai New District, he not only continued Yang Yuxin's line of economic development, but also strengthened the penetration and influence of the society and culture in Shanghai, because Li Songchen's vision was much farther than Yang Yuxin's, and he knew that the East China government would occupy the Shanghai area sooner or later, and of course Li Songchen did not have to worry about military issues, but how to manage the occupation and ensure the prosperity of the Shanghai concession area needed to be seriously considered and arranged in advance. This is not only for the development of the East China Government, but also for Li Songchen himself, after all, once the East China Government occupies Shanghai, it will inevitably be managed by the Shanghai New District Government in the early stage, and if he does a good job, he is very likely to be promoted from the mayor of the Shanghai New District to the mayor of Shanghai, which will undoubtedly add a strong stroke to Li Songchen's political resume. After all, in modern times, Shanghai has a very special position in China's politics, economy and culture.

Therefore, on the one hand, Li Songchen continued to develop the economy of the Shanghai New Area, attract investment, and improve the quality of service, and on the other hand, he also went out of the Shanghai New Area, actively participated in the public activities in the Shanghai area and the concession, and interacted with foreigners in a reasonable and restrained manner, neither humble nor arrogant, and helped the Chinese businessmen in the concession several times to safeguard their interests and establish a positive and glorious image of the East China government in the Shanghai area. At the same time, he also assisted the personnel of the Ministry of Security to collect a large amount of intelligence and materials related to the concession, and almost knew the situation in the concession area perfectly.

Originally, the East China Government had very positive interactions with the students in Shanghai, but after Yang Yuxin took office, he did not show much concern for such activities, and basically handed over the responsibility to the staff of the Culture, Education, and Health Committee, and the Shanghai New District Government only guaranteed material and financial resources; Li Songchen obviously attached much more importance to this aspect of work, and often gave speeches at schools and social activities in the Shanghai area, on the one hand, to attract the attention of students and social personnel to the East China Government, and on the other hand, to publicize the government philosophy of the East China Government and to guide public opinion in Shanghai.

Before and after the East China government entered the war, it strengthened public opinion propaganda several times to justify the actions of the East China government, and each public opinion propaganda was initiated from the Shanghai area, in which the Shanghai New Area played an important role. Therefore, although the East China Government attacked the Shanghai area earlier than Li Songchen expected, Li Songchen dared to assure the Qingdao Executive Yuan that once the People's Army captured the Shanghai Concession, he was sure that he would restore order in the Concession in a short period of time, maintain the rule of the East China Government, and maintain the prosperity of the Shanghai Concession.

Although Luo Yue did not know Li Songchen's plans, he was very satisfied with the preliminary work done by the Shanghai New Area for the People's Army, and in the afternoon, the soldiers had already disembarked and rested, and were downloading the supplies that had been transported with the fleet, and there was also news from the fleet that the port of Shanghai had been successfully occupied.

In fact, Luo Yue had already thought of the battle plan, so he arranged it in front of the sand table: the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Division and the 2nd Reserve Regiment went around to the northern part of the concession and stationed in the old Chengxiang area to block the northern part of the concession; The 3rd Reserve Regiment was stationed in the area around Jing'an Temple to blockade the western part of the concession; the eastern part of the concession was the Huangpu River, which was blocked by the fleet; and the northern part of the concession was the Shanghai New Area, which was garrisoned and blocked by the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division, the 1st Reserve Regiment, and the Shanghai New Area Garrison Regiment; thus completing the encirclement of the entire concession area, and a regiment was transferred from the 2nd Division to pass through the area around the 16-Pu Wharf to contain the county seat of Shanghai.

The troops will set off tomorrow and are required to arrive at their designated positions before 6 o'clock and complete their positions before 7 o'clock to form a complete blockade of the Shanghai concession area.