"It's not spicy!" Nathan scolded in a low voice and walked quickly to his wife: "Madam, didn't we say that we had arranged for someone to carry the belongings and brought our family on board today?" Why are you still procrastinating here? ”

Nathan's tone was not good, as a gentleman, he would not lose his temper with his wife in public, and now it is more rude to speak in this tone.

"Hani, what do you say! With such good weather today, how can you waste precious time to get busy? You should enjoy it! Madame Nathan chuckled under her breath, she was already surrounded by a lot of people, and she couldn't be rude in front of her friends.

Feeling the blood vessels on his forehead one by one, Nathan finally suppressed his anger, not to mention the faux pas, even Mrs. Nathan's family made Nathan very scruples, if it weren't for the help of Mrs. Nathan's family, he wouldn't have been able to go this far, maybe he would go home to farm after being discharged from the army!

Assistant Bradley pulled Sir Nathan aside and whispered, "Lord Governor, the expeditionary fleet has given these people confidence, and they do not want to flee in the same embarrassment as those merchants, but want to show their trust in the navy through this ball. The prom was attended by high-ranking officials and wives, and their unintentional actions may be very helpful for us to keep Hong Kong. ”

Nathan can't wait to kick his assistant out of the way and see if you'll be so brave when the cannonball lands on your head! Bradley has just retired from the Navy, and he still has a strong spirit of naval bravery, and it seems that he still needs to hone his skills, and when he is as sleek as himself, he will not say such bastard words again.

However, Nathan still can't say that: "Bradley, you're right, Hong Kong can't become panicked because of the invasion of the Chinese army, we have to lead by example." But, after all, war is our man's business. It is a dereliction of duty on the part of us men to let women and children in, so they must be sent away. You're not married, and you don't know what a lady and children mean to a husband, Bradley, will you help me get my family away? ”

Bradley burst into tears. Nodding his head again and again, he busily instructed his subordinates to carry various items to the wagons and then transport them to the merchant ships on the docks. As for the ladies who lingered at the ball, this was not something Bradley could command, and it was ultimately up to Nathan himself to persuade them.

The Chinese army did not keep the British army waiting, and when Nathan struggled to persuade his wife to pack up and prepare to flee, the "humming" sound from the air gradually spread to everyone's ears from far and near.

The sound of the airplane engine finally made the ladies panic, and without Nathan's persuasion, they hid in the house one by one and shivered like quails. The arrival of the plane heralded the imminent start of the war. Aerial reconnaissance was mainly used to find holes in British artillery positions and fortifications, and to relay detailed coordinates to the rear.

Fifteen minutes later, a massive artillery bombardment began, with the First Army concentrating 350 artillery pieces of more than 75 mm caliber, as well as 15 240 mm howitzers and 30 240 mm cannons prepared by the General Staff to knock down the fortifications of the Hong Kong fortress.

After returning from Japan, the First Army has been in the process of rest and training, and the First Army has not been allowed to participate in the battles of recovering Taiwan, Ryukyu, and going north to Henan. At this time, the first army was like a tiger out of the mountain, majestic. Faced with more than 10,000 troops stationed in Hong Kong and fortified with strong fortifications, the First Army formulated a thorough battle plan.

Compared to the troops going north. The opponent of the First Army was the British Army, and this alone was worthy of the pride of all the officers and men of the First Army, and the opponent was the British, so there were not so many concerns.

At least the artillery of the First Army did not have so many concerns, and intelligence indicated that the British had built cement pillbox fortifications south of the Shenzhen River. Then blast open its tortoise shell with a cannon. To provide conditions for the infantry to attack, under the guidance of the coordinates transmitted by the air force, countless shells rose from the artillery positions about seven kilometers north of the Shenzhen River and rained down on the British fortifications.

The first wave of shelling lasted thirty minutes, and the First Army threw tens of thousands of shells. Almost razed the British positions. Subsequently, the 2nd Division of the 1st Army, led by the armored regiment, launched a tentative attack on the British positions.

The British infantry who saw tanks for the first time did not perform as well as the Japanese troops on Kyushu Island, and the trenches built by the British troops in the forward positions were in disarray under the bombardment of the Chinese artillery, and the infantry of the 3rd Battalion of the British troops stationed in Hong Kong lay down in the trenches to avoid artillery fire, although the losses of the soldiers were not large, but the positions were broken. When the roar of the tanks reached the trench, the British soldiers could no longer bear the pressure and ran down the trench to the rear.

Things seemed to be going as smoothly as expected, and the Panzer Regiment quickly broke through the first line of British defense unscathed. The 3rd Infantry Regiment, which followed the assault behind the armored regiment, encountered only a few surrendered British soldiers - they were stunned by powerful artillery fire or buried in the dust and did not withdraw to the rear in time.

As the vanguard of the armored regiment, Second Lieutenant Dong Ping led five tanks to the forefront, like an arrow, straight into the depth of the enemy army. From the beginning to the present, it was very fortunate that not only did it not encounter resistance, but the five tanks did not break down due to their own failures, ensuring the complete combat effectiveness of the tank platoon.

"Burn, burn, pay attention to your left side."

"Burn received."

"Parts, watch the woods on the right."

"Parts received!"

Dong Ping poked his head out slightly, and the command tank "thief" he rode slowly drove in the bumps, and it was Lieutenant Dong Ping's biggest regret that he could not meet an opponent of the same level, and what he was most looking forward to was a big melee of thousands of tanks, so the collision of steel was the fate of the tank soldiers. It's a pity that at present, I can only bully the infantry of various countries, and I have no sense of achievement.

The terrain on the battlefield was relatively flat, and Dong Ping could see the stumps of weapons and billowing smoke on the British positions through binoculars, but he believed that the British troops were still prepared for relatively tough resistance, because there were very few British corpses seen along the way, and perhaps they would retreat to the rear to organize a second line of defense.

Really! When the "bandits" at the front crossed a two-meter-wide trench, the front suddenly became shorter, and in the bumps, Dong Ping saw many vague protrusions a thousand meters in front of him - that was the fortress of the Bu, the main fortification of the British army!

"Whoosh!" The sound suddenly came from his ears, and then Dong Ping saw a little light flashing at the fortress, and then the light became very dense, and the sound of violent explosions sounded everywhere in the tank company.

"This is a platoon of tanks, encountering strong British fortifications, asking for retreat!" Dong Ping immediately reported loudly by radio, and at this time, the "Hurricane" of the tank platoon was hit by a heavy shell, and the parts and raging fire in the sky showed that the "Hurricane" tank was completely destroyed, and the comrades inside could not survive!

The First Army still underestimated the level of British defense, and aerial reconnaissance could only roughly find the focus of British defense, but it was powerless against the British artillery hidden inside the pillbox. The previous artillery fire of the First Army did not destroy the concrete bunkers of the British army - unless the large-caliber shells hit the fortifications directly, and the British troops assembled in the bunker area finally found support, and cursed and operated the artillery to aim at the armored units in the assault.

During World War II, there were many ways to destroy tanks, from anti-tank mines, anti-tank rocket launchers, anti-tank guns, the tanks themselves, etc., but at this time when tanks first appeared, there were not many effective countermeasures, but at least large-scale, carpet shelling could turn tanks into iron coffins.

Unable to carry out accurate shelling, there were no direct-fire anti-tank guns, no specialized armor-piercing shells, the British hid in pillboxes and covered the area through which the combat vehicles passed by more than a hundred guns of large and small calibers. Even if there is no direct hit, the shock wave and concussion from the explosion are very uncomfortable for tanks and tank crews. Therefore, Dong Ping's choice of retreat was very wise, and fortunately he reported back in time, if the tank regiment plunged headlong into the coverage of British artillery, it was still unknown how much it would be able to escape.

After pouring out a few miles, Dong Ping had time to simply bandage the wound on his forehead, the blood mixed with the smoke made Dong Ping look very fierce, he was already relatively lucky, because five tanks did not come back from this attack, and those tank soldiers were more than lucky.

After encountering a big hedgehog, the First Army immediately changed its offensive deployment, in the face of solid fortifications, even the surprise attack of the armored forces was ineffective, until it was cleared, the armored troops and infantry could not risk heavy deaths to attack, who knows how many pillboxes, how many artillery, how many British troops defended, and how long the stored supplies could be used?

A second large-scale bombardment then began, and the all-superior artillery could comfortably rain shells onto the British positions, but later air reconnaissance showed that most of the pillboxes had survived after the bombardment, which meant that the role of the artillery was greatly weakened in front of the pillboxes. (To be continued.) )