January 21, 1929, 11 a.m., Sasebo Military Port, northwest coast of Kyushu Island, Japan.

As Japan's traditional shipbuilding center and an important naval base, this beautiful military port once witnessed the rise and prosperity of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and during the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, it became the home port and naval base camp of the Japanese Combined Fleet twice.

Today, Sasebo still has that unique geographical environment, it is still one of the best conditions of Japan's three deep-water military ports, but the glory of the Imperial Japanese Navy is no longer there, the past mast like a forest, gunboats like a mountain of lively scene with history is gone, there are only a few poor small ships in the huge harbor, the shipbuilding area slipway is paralyzed by a few cruisers that have not been completed and have been fatally hit from the air, in stark contrast to this scene of defeat, is the gorgeous marble platform that was once the emperor's imperial ship platformIn order to avoid the German bombing, a large white camouflage net was erected on the platform, and every railing and stone below was cleaned spotlessly, and a team of heavily armed naval soldiers even guarded and patrolled there day and night to ensure that no saboteurs could approach the place.

"There will come a time when the Empire will once again have the world's best navy, His Majesty the Emperor will be here to review the mighty fleet, and any country will submit to the prestige of the Empire, there will definitely be a day!"

Whenever he was on duty in shifts, a Japanese naval non-commissioned officer who looked to be over fifty years old would gently touch the outermost stone railing of the platform with his right hand, which had only four fingers left, and repeat it tirelessly, and every time he said this, the soldiers who followed him not only did not express doubt, but even had anticipation written in their eyes.

The docks, with its many deep-water berths, are now devoid of a few pedestrians, let alone the ships and workers who come to unload their cargo, and are quiet except for the two days a week when German bombers come to the ground. Occasionally, the calm was broken by the silver fighters, which appeared less and less often. As one of the surviving Japanese forces in Sasebo, and the westernmost link in Japan's air defense system, the Army's 9th Air Force was responsible for defending the skies of the harbor.

However, since the airfield and aviation facilities on Tsushima were completely razed by the Luftwaffe, the air force has retreated 50 kilometers from the east, and after the fall of Pusan, they still have to contend with faster and more maneuverable German dive bombers and even fighters. In just two months, they suffered more than a dozen defeats in a row, and finally reached the point where they could only carry out limited alert tasks. When the giant wheel of history irreversibly entered 1929, although it still retained the number of an air force, there were in fact less than 40 planes left in this unit, of which one-third were paralyzed or semi-paralyzed because of the lack of maintenance parts. In other words, the harbor defended by an army air force has long lost its most basic air barrier, and the task of defending the port naturally falls on the shoulders of the naval garrison and the ground forces of the army.

In Sasebo, the port area, a few steps away from the wharf, has long since lost the vibrancy of its heyday. There are few pedestrians in the streets and alleys. Most of the sights are Navy soldiers in dark blue military coats or army soldiers in khaki coats, of all ages, experiences and even weapons in their hands, some of whom have spent time in Southeast Asia. Some of them were still serving on the Korean Peninsula in the autumn of 1928, while others had only been conscripted into the army half a year earlier, and it is not too much to describe them as a motley army, and it was a patchwork of naval and army garrisons that took on the important task of defending the Sasebo port area and the surrounding military facilities.

When the last Japanese army unit on the Korean Peninsula was destroyed, the islands of Tsushima, Itsukuhara, and Iki became the westernmost strongholds of the Japanese army's mainland defense, and Fukuoka, Shimonoseki, and Sasebo, which were separated by dozens of kilometers from these islands, were the focus of the defense of the western front, and the defenders stationed here were not many, and there were more than 5,000 soldiers of the 17th Garrison Brigade of the Navy and 17,000 soldiers of the 35th Division of the Army in the Sasebo area of dozens of square kilometers alone, of which two-thirds of the troops were responsible for coastal defense. The other 1/3 is specialized air defense forces, however, a large number of defenders use relatively backward weapons and very limited air early warning forces, those 20 mm, 40 mm anti-aircraft guns have long been proved difficult to threaten the high-flying German heavy bombers, and 75 mm, 80 mm and 100 mm anti-aircraft guns are also difficult to do because of the slow rate of fire, poor accuracy of the weakness, and as the first anti-aircraft warning radar developed by Japan during the war "A" radar, its warning range is only 20 kilometers, And often due to weather and interference from the other party, it cannot work normally.

And not only in terms of armament, but also in terms of logistical replenishment. In the past three months, due to the successful occupation of the southern part of the Korean Peninsula by the German army and the establishment of a huge air base with Busan as the core, a large number of German fighters have been able to take off from the airfield only 200 kilometers away from Kyushu, and many German fighters, including fighters and dive bombers, have taken it as a common thing to enter Japanese airspace. The 35th Division of the Army alone lost nearly 3,000 soldiers and more than 60 anti-aircraft guns, but the Japanese military headquarters was not only faced with the dilemma of being overstretched, even if it wanted to mobilize reinforcements on the mainland, the seriously damaged transportation facilities made both cavalry, armored and infantry a pure foot army. The German air raids were intense, but the Sasebo garrison was told over and over again that the supplies and reinforcements they urgently needed were still "on the way".

Despite all these difficulties, it is undeniable that the Japanese soldiers possessed the most tenacious fighting spirit and indomitable spirit in the world, they had always despised the value of life, they regarded the meaning of existence as a service to the emperor, and in many cases they had to use their willpower to compensate for the disadvantage in weapons technology and the quality of their commanders, and the same is true at the Sasebo Military Port. Their enemies are so powerful, their armies are so incompetent, and their situation is so bad. Few of them became deserters, and today they bravely defend this largely abandoned harbor. Many of them believe that as long as the Yamato nation is not destroyed, as long as the Sasebo military port is not destroyed, they will always make a comeback one day

At 11:02 a.m., the soldiers of the cooking squad were preparing lunch, and the sound of chopping vegetables and the fading smell of rice made people forget the terrible war for a while and think about their stomachs. Three meals a day can only eat half full, but it makes the soldiers look forward to their next meal even more, although the slight, intermittent buzzing has lasted for more than an hour, but the reconnaissance and surveillance of German aircraft is already a very common thing for them, since their own artillery fire cannot reach the other side, and the other party will not disturb their own food, then continue to be so peaceful!

Suddenly, a loud bang came from the west side of the port area, and there had been no warning at all, no nervous air raid sirens. There was no familiar screeching sound when an aerial bomb fell. There was no gunfire and cannonball, everything was so normal.

The first bang was less than a second after that, and the second and third loud noises followed. When people habitually looked up at the heavens and the earth, the sight surprised everyone here, whether it was a navy soldier, an army soldier, or an ordinary civilian hiding behind the window!

Meteorites, to be exact, gray arrow-shaped man-made meteorites with flames, slashed through the air at a speed of more than 1 kilometer per second, one after another, like a meteor shower, descending on this already devastated land, and people could not even see a trace of an enemy, let alone make any resistance.

A series of explosions irritated people's fragile eardrums. Plumes of smoke rose everywhere, even if the explosion point was thousands of kilometers away from them, people could still clearly feel the impact of the huge power, if it was closer, people even fell because of the violent shaking in an instant, in an island country like Japan, where earthquakes are frequent, people have experienced more powerful earthquakes, but when this situation is man-made, people still feel deep fear from the bottom of their hearts.

Until half a minute after the 12th loud bang died down.

Whimpering anti-aircraft sirens sounded in the port area, soldiers began to struggle to turn their anti-aircraft guns, soldiers and civilians of non-air defense units began to pour into the anti-aircraft bunkers, but it was too late, the enemy offensive had just begun!

The panic did not subside, and people began to ask each other what had happened.

Was it the bombing of the Germans? Apparently not, the trajectory of their fall is categorically different from that of an aerial bomb!

Was it the shelling of the battleships of the Germans? Apparently not, the veterans knew exactly what kind of explosion was caused by the battleship's main guns, and no one could see exactly what was happening when the shells fell.

What is that? Could it be the legendary Flying Immortals?

In order to solve this mystery, people began to explore the traces left by those strange bombs, the almost circular craters were so large, even more than the largest crater people have ever seen, every inch of soil in it showed a charred black color after high temperature, everything within the explosion area seemed to be crushed into powder, and most of the buildings within tens of meters around collapsed!

"I've seen the Kii's shelling, and it's as powerful as its 410mm guns!"

The words of the Navy veteran made people look at the sea again, but where is there any trace of the German ** ship? What's more, the power of 12 such bombs actually far exceeded the damage and panic caused by a salvo of the super battleship Kii.

Ten minutes later, the air raid sirens were lifted, and people began to return to their posts or residences, twenty minutes later, the officers and men of the air defense forces were lifted from combat readiness, and half an hour later, when people thought that all this was a thing of the past, the meteor shower fell again!

At this time, in the A17 rocket launch base in Busan, many senior generals and technical experts, including Tatsuten, were listening to the observation reports from the three bombers hovering high above Sasebo:

“7…… 8…… 9…… 10、11…… Oh, 12, yes, we observed all 12 A17s exploding on the ground, except for one that landed offshore, and all 11 of them landed in the Sasebo port area, and we were able to observe all the plumes of smoke that made Sasebo a birthday cake lit with candles! …… Again, all 12 A17s fell as expected, and the timing was very accurate, almost every second! ”

"That pilot is funny!" Chen Tian said to Juliana beside him, "The birthday cake with candles is really beautiful!" ”

"It's incredible! Without pilots, they hit the target exactly after flying more than 200 kilometers! It's incredible! Ever since she saw those big "pencils" rise into the air with long tails of flames, Juliana seemed very surprised, and there was a bit of admiration in the surprise, the worship of this super-new technology, but also the worship of the great creativity of human beings.

"No, it's not accurate to say that the score is exactly right, at this distance our A17 is allowed to have a certain deviation, and the landing point is within this expected deviation range, even if the launch is successful!" Chen Tian said in a language that seemed quite professional to others, "For example, the rocket that landed in the offshore sea, it deviated from our target, that is, the port area of Sasebo, but it is also a qualified rocket, after all, our rocket navigation technology is still improving!" ”

"I see!" Juliana and several generals next to her, including Tirpitz and Ollie, all had a look of sudden realization, in front of Chentian, the "prophet", their understanding of rockets was indeed only in a very rudimentary stage.

At this moment, a technician in a white lab coat, accompanied by the emperor's attendants, arrived in the main observation hall.

"Your Majesty, the Doctor asks you if the next batch of A17s will be launched on time at 12 o'clock!"

"Uh......" Chen Tian looked at the generals around him, "No need, I'm very satisfied with the first two launches, now we should fill our stomachs first, as for the next batch of A17...... The launch is tentatively scheduled for 1:30 p.m. By the way, tell the Doctor that he should come over for dinner too! We want to celebrate, celebrate the successful launch of our A17, and celebrate the historic breakthrough of mankind in rocket technology! ”