So, Eiji Kondo sighed and said, "We also have our problems!" Our navy is a clear water yamen, think about it, water warfare, light consumption, what is the gain! Sink the enemy's ships, they fall into the water, and we can't catch anything. If the enemy sinks our ships, we will be even more unlucky, and we will be punished from above. There is no practical benefit in a real victory, and it will be even worse if a defeat is lost, so the feelings of the officers and men have been greatly affected and they cannot lift their spirits. ”

Okamura Ninji, the old fox, of course, heard the words as soon as he heard it, and it was a more practical trophy! Okamura Ninji smiled and said, "His Excellency Eiji Kondo is also quite realistic. In this way, if Tianjiazhen is conquered, fifty percent of our trophies will belong to the navy. ”

Kondo Eiji was overjoyed when he heard this, but on the surface he still pretended to be a gentleman, and said: "In fact, this is also a way to motivate soldiers, the navy is mainly heavy weapons, and the strength is down, and the benefits are not obtained, so of course the heart is unbalanced, which affects the combat situation." Isn't there a saying in China that if you can't make three profits, whoever starts the big five, I'm afraid that's what you say! ”

Okamura Ningji said in his heart, this Kondo Eiji is too difficult, he was originally greedy, and he had to say it so high-soundingly. However, attacking Tianjia Town, the navy should be said to be a big killer, and if the navy does not use force, its Imamura detachment may be finished. As soon as the Imamura detachment is finished, whether it is the 11th Army or itself, the losses suffered will not be mentioned.

Kondo Eiji took an inch and said: "Oh, I heard that our naval aviation accidentally bombed your trip to Taiwan, killing more than 70 people, and I deeply regret and sympathize with it. ”

Okamura Ningji said in his heart, it's okay if you don't mention it, but when I mention it, I feel angry in my heart, how did your naval aviation drop a bomb on the head of our Taiwan Botian detachment, killing so many people. We were going to go to the War Department to make a big fuss, at least to make your Yang Zijiang fleet lose face.

But now that there is a request for someone, this matter has to be put aside for the time being, and Okamura Ninji had no choice but to say kindly: "The cause of the accident is mainly on our side, and we complain that we did not notify the naval aviation in time." Thanks to the courageous actions of naval aviation, which provided great support to our army. ”

Eiji Kondo is also relieved, good things don't go out, bad things spread thousands of miles, if Okamura Ninji really pokes this matter to the top, he will be responsible no matter what.

At this point, the contest between Okamura Ninji and Kondo Eiji was also coming to an end, and Okamura Ninji sought strong support from the navy at the lowest cost to himself.

On the 18th, after the Yang Zijiang Fleet of the Third Fleet replenished the gunboats Li, Thumb, and Lian, two gunboats, the Chestnut and Thumb, invaded Tianjiazhen and made a tentative attack.

At that time, it was raining heavily, and the two warships thought that the fort in Tianjiazhen was out of sight, and quietly moved forward.

When the Japanese army entered the firing range, the fort in Tianjiazhen suddenly opened fire, and the skyrocketing water columns rose upwards around the chestnut and thumb, and the water splashed on the deck of the chestnut and thumb from time to time. Fire also opened on the batteries of Banbishan, and two waves of artillery fire fired angry shells at the Japanese gunboats.

The 105-mm howitzers on Xiangu Mountain were also fired, and they fired at the sides and back of the two gunboats, and these three guns formed a three-sided flanking situation, so that the Li and Thumb gunboats were under fire on three sides.

Suddenly, the right string of the thumb was shot, because the FH18 was so powerful, and the warship was immediately hit hard. The sailors on deck were killed and wounded, and the ship was not well steered. If it takes another shot, the thumb will be finished, so it can only make a hasty U-turn and run away in a hurry. However, due to the fact that there were mines nearby, he could only move in a small way, and finally turned his head and quickly fled downstream.

When the gunboat saw that the Thumb had run away and what he was still doing here, he quickly turned the bow of the ship and fled downstream.

On the 19th, Eiji Kondo, commander of the Yang Zijiang fleet, still did not give up, and once again dispatched the "Toba", "Nimi", "Chestnut", "Thumb", and "Lotus" to cover 11 motorboats and launch an attack on the Tianjiazhen Fort.

The guns of these five Japanese gunboats were quite powerful, and as soon as they reached the firing range of the guns, they launched a fierce artillery bombardment of the fortress. For a while, the huge fleet shells hit the outer positions of the Tianjiazhen Fort, and only the fire flashed everywhere, black smoke rose, and Tianjiazhen was shrouded in fire and smoke.

The forts in Tianjia Town also became powerful.

Eight heavy guns in Tianjiazhen fought back fiercely with mobile artillery, and huge water columns rose on the surface of the river, and the "whooshing" falling water also poured directly on the Japanese warships, and some of the water columns directly knocked down the Japanese sailors.

The Japanese warships were slow to move in minefields, so they did not dare to get too close to the fortress. The Japanese warships fired their guns at the limit of the range, so the hit rate was very low, while the national fortress guns could not shoot accurately because of their insufficient range.

Eiji Kondo said to Rear Admiral Ichiki, the captain of the "Toba": "Did you find anything wrong?" ”

Rear Admiral Ichiki, the captain of the "Toba", was not a vegetarian, and of course he saw that the problem was coming, and he said to Eiji Kondo: "Your Excellency, because the Chinese army has too many mines, our fleet of the Great Japanese Navy has no way to move forward, and there is no way to give full play to the power of our fleet's artillery fire. Only by clearing all the mines of the Chinese army can our fleet attack with all its might. ”

"Yo Xi!" Eiji Kondo looked at Major General Ichiki with appreciative eyes and said, "Just like I thought. So, it's up to our airboats to clear these mines! ”

It turned out that when the town of Dock was clearing, special minesweepers were originally used for minesweeping, and the losses were not small. After consulting with his staff, Kondo decided that it would be more cost-effective to use lighter and cheaper motorboats for minesweeping, so he brought 11 motorboats with him, whose main combat mission was minesweeping.

As a result, Eiji Kondo issued an order to 11 motorboats to carry out minesweeping operations.

These actions of the Japanese warships had already been seen with telescopes by Han Xing, Zhang Weihan, and Hou Dashan on Xiangu Mountain.

Han Xing said to Hou Dashan: "You are an artillery expert, how to deal with these small motorboats, there is a way, right!?" ”

Hou Dashan snorted and said, "These small motorboats are small and light, and they run quite fast, and the cannonballs are really difficult to deal with them." Howitzers have a type of shell called an aerial blast, which is designed to deal with scattered boats. Don't look at these shells against big warships, I think they are quite effective against these vulnerable small motorboats. I'll give it a try! ”

"Okay!" Han Xing said happily, "The brine points tofu, one thing drops one thing, then you can try it!" ”

Zhang Weihan also said excitedly: "How do you know if it works without the guò test?" Give it a try, give it a try! ”

Hou Dashan immediately returned to the Shicheng Fort, personally picked out some howitzer shells, adjusted the fuse, and then asked the artillerymen to quickly fire at the devil's motorboats.

Four powerful howitzer shells flew out in the breeches of the 105-mm light howitzers, drew a beautiful arc in the air, and then flew over these small motorboats, and when they were still about a hundred meters in the air, they suddenly exploded.

When these shells exploded, its radius was not 60 meters, but several hundred meters, and countless shrapnel formed a spherical shape in the air, and then flew in all directions. The flight speed of the fragmentation shrapnel is also quite amazing, no matter what the object, as long as it has speed, it also has lethality, not to mention the hideous and terrifying steel fragments.

The steel shards first hit the rubber-based motorboat, which quickly entered the water after being cut, and of course began to sink. There were also a lot of debris that directly hit the Japanese soldiers on the motorboat, and the dead fell into the water, drifting along the river, and the injured control could not hold his body, and was flashed by the high-speed motorboat, and also fell into the water.

Those who are dead are worry-free, but those who are not dead are indeed very troublesome, and they are desperately struggling in the water to get alive.

The powerful aerial explosion grenade not only wiped out the motorboats, but also the gunboats. The soldiers on the deck were killed or wounded one after another. But no matter what, their dead or wounded can still remain on board.

But the wounded in the water were different, under the impact of the river, they had to take care of their wounds, and kept shouting to the gunboats: "Help-help-"

Eiji Kondo was shocked when he saw this, and exclaimed loudly: "Save people, save people, first save the soldiers who fell into the water." ”

Soldiers were constantly rushing out of the cabins and running to the deck to save people. But also at this time, grenades constantly exploded in the air.

"Boom-" "Boom-" Fragments of extremely lethal grenades were constantly flying down in all directions.

The soldiers who ran to the deck were constantly killed or wounded by the flying shrapnel.

Rear Admiral Kazuki of the "Toba", who was a calf guard, shouted in panic: "It is not possible to go on like this. Our soldiers are all good soldiers, and we can't just let them lose their precious lives. ”

Eiji Kondo scolded in his heart: "Your Toba soldiers are fate, so the lives of the soldiers on the motorboat are not fate?" "But Eiji Kondo is calculating, and if he loses more lives to save the lives of the soldiers on these motorboats, it will be worth the loss.

Moreover, even if the soldiers in the water are rescued, there is little hope of survival.

As a result, Eiji Kondo gave the order to retreat: "In order to avoid suffering greater losses, the fleet will temporarily retreat." ”

When they came, they were 5 gunboats and 11 motorboats, but when they withdrew, 11 motorboats were missing.

The soldiers who landed on the motorboat in the water were still desperately shaking their hands and calling for help: "Help--help-" "For the sake of His Majesty the Emperor, help-" "I still have a wife and a three-year-old child, help-" "You can't go, you are gone, what should we do-"

Eiji Kondo closed his eyes, no longer daring to look at these soldiers crying for help in the water, he silently prayed in his heart: "You are all the most loyal soldiers in the imperial army, I will not forget you, and the navy will not forget you." Rest assured, your family members will be given the most generous pension according to the relevant procedures. I will work hard to make your tablet as close as possible to the Yasukuni Shrine, what else do you have to worry about? There should be, I've already arranged it all for you......"

On the 20th, the weather cleared, and the naval and air forces of both sides continued to prepare for a big battle.

Xu Da led the aviation formation of the Southern Expeditionary Army, four J-20 fighters, and four Y-8 transport planes flew confidently towards Tianjiazhen. Last time, due to heavy rainfall, the Yang Zijiang fleet of the Third Fleet escaped, can they still escape this time? As long as the Yang Zijiang fleet is defeated, then what hope does the army have to attack Tianjiazhen, it will definitely be a failure of the attack......

Xu Da was full of hope for victory and imagined that the future was bright.

However, the Japanese army was not idle, they were searching their stomachs and thinking of ways to deal with the air force of the Southern Expeditionary Army.