Rear Admiral Shigeichi Harata ordered the Third Fleet anchored in the Yangtze River to prepare to support the Third Group on the shore, while having the guards call the intelligence officer to his office.

The intelligence officer of the Hata detachment is a skinny and obscene young man, who was originally a gangster on the streets of Tokyo, who was forcibly sent to the army because of an accident that offended the eldest lady of the Yamaguchi family. But this guy was born to be an intelligence officer.,Soon after entering the army, Kenji Dohihara valued it and was transferred to the intelligence agency to learn the collection of intelligence.。

Before the outbreak of the Battle of Wuhan, he was transferred to the Central China Front and to Shanghai, where he was responsible for the formation of the intelligence organs of the five brigades and regiments newly transferred to the Chinese battlefield.

Major General Shigeichi Harata looked at the obscene young man in front of him, who made him very annoying, and pretended to be enthusiastic and said, "Sakuragi-kun, please take a seat." ”

Sakuragi Motozo said with some flattery: "Thank you, Your Excellency General, I don't know what important things Your Excellency called me to do, as long as Sakuragi can do it, Sakuragi will never refuse." "Actually, Sakuragi also hates this proud and arrogant Major General in his heart, but after all, he is a major general, and he is just a big general, although he is only one level behind, but in the army with a strict hierarchy of superiors and subordinates, the first level can determine life and death, and the superiors have every reason to order the subordinates to commit suicide by caesarean section. So although Sakuragi Moto's Sansa does not belong to the Hatada detachment, in the face of this major general's brigade commander, Sakuragi Motozo still has to show sincerity and fear.

"Sakuragi-kun, just now Kobayashi Jiro's department was attacked by an unknown Shina army, and lost some soldiers, and now the two sides are fighting around the lake, I want to know which of the Shina troops is stationed at the mouth of the lake? Who is the commander? Major General Shigeichi Harata asked.

Sakuragi replied quickly: "Garrisoned at Hukou is a brigade of the 20th Army of the descendants of the Nationalist Axe Chiang, this brigade is very strong in combat effectiveness, although there are only two regiments, but these two regiments are integrated infantry regiments of more than 3,000 people, and their overall strength is no less than an infantry wing of the empire. Two days ago, our informant came to report that a new group of troops had been stationed in the Hukou Fortress, and that the troops of Chiang's descendants, who had been stationed at Hukou, had withdrawn from Hukou on the same day and appeared in the area of Dashanling, south of Poyang Lake. As for the number of the newly stationed Zhina troops, we also inquired clearly, it is the 77th Brigade of the Inner Mongolia Military Region of the Eighth Route Army under the leadership of Zhina [***], and the brigade commander is called Han Yunhua. In order to confirm the correct surname of the news, the humble official specially sent someone to verify it, and found that this 77th Brigade was the branch that made General Terauchi Shouichi return to China in disgrace, and its commander was Han Yunhua, who killed several general-level officers in our empire. ”

"Nani? How could it be him, since it is him, then the third brigade is dangerous, this person does not make a move easily, once he makes a move, our army will definitely suffer heavy losses, and he annihilated not only the military units at the wing level, but also the military establishment at the brigade level, and the third brigade is not enough to stuff people's teeth. After saying that, Rear Admiral Shigeichi Harata immediately asked the telegraph soldiers to order the Third Fleet anchored on the Yangtze River to immediately send troops to support the Third Fleet.

Major General Shigeichi Harata is an officer in the army system. However, did he know that in addition to the well-known ship forces, the navy also has an unknown number of marines, which are all composed of the elite of the army, and its combat effectiveness is extremely strong, and it is generally suitable for beach landing, marine warfare, and other battles. And the Third Fleet happened to have such a force, which was specially replenished to the Third Fleet from the base camp before the Battle of Wuhan.

The sound of artillery fire on the shore also alarmed the warships anchored in the river, and for a time all the warships turned on the searchlights on the warships, and the entire river was illuminated as if it were daylight. At the same time, the Third Fleet also sent two small ships to quietly land and go ashore to investigate the situation. It's a pity that the two small patrol boats were wiped out by the soldiers of the Inner Mongolia Military Region who had been prepared for a long time as soon as they landed, and even the two small patrol boats were completely captured by Han Yunhua's troops.

After that, the Third Fleet no longer dared to send troops ashore at will, but Han Yunhua was not ready to let go of this fleet, and at the beginning of the battle, Han Yunhua ordered the Cheetah Special Combat Team to lurk in the Yangtze River, ready to wait for an opportunity to seize control of the warships. After reconnaissance, it was learned that there were a total of 42 warships moored on the river, including 8 light cruisers, 2 destroyers, 4 frigates, 8 troop carriers, 10 patrol boats, and 10 torpedo boats.

Although the Cheetah special operations team only has 176 people, as long as those large warships are done, then the remaining patrol boats and torpedo boats are not a piece of cake. When the Chinese marines boarded the troop carriers one after another to support the third brigade, before the Chinese marines came ashore, a group of Chinese troops equipped with fully automatic firepower suddenly appeared on the bank of the river where the Chinese army was about to land, and hundreds of light and heavy machine guns and submachine guns roared in unison at the Chinese marines, and suddenly, a large number of Chinese troops fell into the river.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Marine Corps of the Yue Army is indeed very strong, and the weapons equipped with them are all automatic firepower, they are now crushed in the river, and there is not enough fire support on the troop carriers, so the Yue Army suffered heavy losses for a while. At this time, there was a sudden violent whistling sound on the position of the [***] team, and the commander of the Third Fleet, Rear Admiral Yasuke Okawa, was suddenly colorless, and from this whistling sound, he could judge that the Chinese army was actually equipped with field heavy artillery. And it is also a 150mm caliber heavy gun, although this caliber of heavy artillery has almost no effect on large warships, but for personnel carriers with only a thin layer of armor, it is a deadly threat.

As Rear Admiral Yasuke Okawa predicted, three of the four troop carriers were shot at the first time, and one of them was directly dismembered in the river, and the remaining troop carriers did not care about the soldiers of the Marine Corps who were still in the river, and hurriedly retreated towards the Jiangxin area, wanting to withdraw from the range of the Chinese army's field heavy artillery and find a new landing site.

In addition, in the infantry battle on the shore, the counterattack hastily organized by Kobayashi Jiro had almost no effect, and in less than half an hour, all the peripheral positions of the 3rd Brigade were lost, and the soldiers of the 88th Regiment were pressed on the hillside and could not advance or retreat.

Kobayashi Jiro was anxious to find that the third brigade originally had more than 1,200 people, and now there were less than 700 people left, which means that in less than an hour of battle, more than 500 warriors of the empire were shattered. For this result, Kobayashi Jiro was extremely surprised, along the way they had also encountered many Chinese troops, among which there was no lack of stubborn resistance, such as Bao Changyi's department in Madang Fortress, but even so, the casualties of the army have always been far lower than that of the middle [***] team, and there has never been a case of more than half of the troops killed and wounded in less than an hour after the battle.

Seeing that things could not be done, if the third brigade here had to be wiped out, while Kobayashi Jiro was entangled, Major General Shigeichi Habata sent a telegram saying that the soldiers of a battalion of the Marine Corps would arrive in ten minutes, and ordered Kobayashi Jiro Nakasa to resist it. Kobayashi Jiro was overjoyed, and ordered the remaining infantry to form 3 assault teams and a reserve of 100 people, the assault team would be equipped with a light machine gun without ten people, and at the same time 17 temporary fire points, five people carrying a heavy machine gun, along the mountain stubbornly blocked the attack of Han Yunhua's department.

According to Han Yunhua's prediction, after the surprise attack of the Yue army, it is very likely that they will retreat backwards, or retreat in the direction of the Yue army and navy in the middle of the river, seeking refuge from the navy. However, the stubborn resistance of the Yue army made Han Yunhua very happy, originally Han Yunhua was still regretting that he could only watch the retreat of the Yue army's brigade for the sake of those dozens of ships, if he lost the bait of the third brigade, Han Yunhua would not be able to catch the big fish of the third fleet of the navy.

Now it's okay, since people don't want to go, then Han Yunhua has anything to say, just stay. In order to lure the marines off the ship as soon as possible, Han Yunhua ordered the two battalions of the 88th Regiment to increase the intensity of the attack. Suddenly, the troops on the position of the Third Brigade suddenly felt a lot more pressure, and the casualties of the soldiers also increased sharply. Kobayashi Jiro saw through the telescope that a large number of squadrons under the hillside had almost surrounded them, leaving only the east side unsurrounded, but it would not be long before the gap in the east side would be closed, and it would be difficult to run at that time. However, Kobayashi Jiro Nakasa thought of Major General Harata Shigeichi's order and immediately dismissed the decision to escape.

In view of the fact that the task of the first four troop carriers to support the Third Group had completely failed, the commander of the Third Fleet, Rear Admiral Yasuke Okawa, hurriedly caught up with all the marines on the warship and ordered the six troop carriers that were able to sail on board to land ten miles downstream, and immediately return to support the Third Group after landing.

Rear Admiral Yasuke Okawa does not think that there are any armed forces in China that can pose a threat to his Third Fleet, and it is almost impossible for the broken ships with the national axe to have any impact on the Third Fleet, and the largest caliber imported by China, the heavy artillery specially used to fight the large ships of the Chinese army, has already been blown up, and it is impossible to leave anything behind, so he dares to send out all the marines so unscrupulously, if he knows that this Reaper Squadron has been lurking under his warship, Major General Yasuke Okawa will definitely slip away at the first time.

(To be continued)