From 1 June, upon learning of the Red Army's fierce attacks on all the borders with the Nationalist Government's control area in Nanking, the British Government realized that the situation was not good.

On the same day, the British government made a strongly worded statement in Parliament, stating that the British Empire would not allow any foreign power to change the balance of power in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River - a statement that was later exploited by Lin Han. Subsequently, the four capital ships of the Yangtze River Fleet stationed in Shanghai, the Gannet, the Tern, the Falcon, and the Moth, as well as the Harrier Eagle, which was transferred back from Hong Kong, all set out to sail up the Yangtze River to Anqing, which was turning into a war zone, to carry out armed deterrence in the name of "protecting overseas Chinese."

After the gannet incident, Britain strengthened the Far East Fleet and transferred both the Moth and the Harrier to Shanghai. At the same time, the garrison in the Shanghai concession also increased by 800 people.

The British made a statement on 1 June, and on 2 June the five warships set out together, arriving at the outskirts of Anqing on 4 June.

Unfortunately, the army of the Nationalist Government in Nanqing was even more unbearable than expected. The day before the British arrived, the defenders of Anqing only supported the airplanes in the sky, the artillery bombardment on the ground, the artillery bombardment on the river, and the joint reception of the water, land and air forces, and only supported the flag for 36 hours before they tore the flag and surrendered.

With regard to the interference of foreign forces in China's Red Revolution, the Red Army had long been prepared and prepared. The British Yangtze River Fleet had barely left Shanghai when the Red Army headquarters in Wuhan received the news.

On 4 June, led by the Gannet, five river gunboats lined up in a long snake formation in a straight line. Appeared on the river outside Anqing City.

The commander of the British Yangtze River Fleet in China, Mayt, stood at the bow of the ship, looking at Anqing, where the smoke had not been extinguished not far away.

Unlike the members of Congress who liked to talk about war against the Red Army, Commander Mette was not an aggressive hawk, but on the contrary, he was even opposed to the practice of driving the ship to Anqing for demonstration.

"That would only be self-inflicted!"

Before leaving Shanghai, he spoke very clearly to the British ambassador to China, Sir Judgan. (Note: Historically, Britain and China did not establish an ambassadorial-level relationship until after September 1935, and both were minister-level before.) However, because of the Treaty of London, the two sides established a higher level of diplomatic relations earlier.)

He said unequivocally to Ambassador Judkan: "The people of this country. There has been an awakening. The effect of such armed demonstrations will not be very good. ”

Ambassador Judgan sighed: "I agree with you, too, but that's what Downing Street meant. ”

In China, they are far more than the group of parliamentarians who drink afternoon tea with sun umbrellas in London's Downing Street. It is clearer how aggravated the situation in China is. Although the British newspapers did everything they could to disparage the Red Army of the South to the point of having long braids. Holding an arquebus. The invulnerability of the red "Yihekou Tuan" was blamed on the incompetence of the Nanjing Nationalist Government in "calling them pigs and insulting them," but they were in China very well aware of the strength of the red forces in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Of course they don't know. The British media's deliberate disparagement of the Red Army in southern China was entirely fueled by Lin Han. Anyway, "scandalizing the (crab) Chinese" is something that the British like to see, and Lin Han met their needs and pushed more hard in the back, so that the British continued to maintain the miscalculation that "as long as a few cannons are erected on the water, China can be brought to its knees".

Before leaving, Ambassador Judgan complained to Commander Maiden: "Now the attitude towards China on the other side of Downing Street is full of impetuous atmosphere. As early as this time last year, I repeatedly warned them that if we did not increase our support for the Nationalist Government in Nanking and increase the number of troops stationed in China, we would lose China in two years at most. But in Downing Street, under the control of the traitors of the Labour Party"

In the past year, all the reinforcements for the British troops stationed in Shanghai were the transfer of a thousand colonial troops from India and Singapore, and the addition of two river gunboats, and nothing more.

Britain's "investment" in China was insufficient, and Lin Han's manipulation of the media in Britain and the belittling of the Red Army in southern China and the "killing" of the strength of the British fleet in China were external factors, but the real reason was that Britain's national strength had declined sharply after World War I, and it was difficult for them to firmly control China as before.

Gone are the days when the British did whatever they wanted in China, like the surging river under their feet.

In the Wanxian Massacre in 1926, the British Yangtze River Fleet shelled the county seat in Wanxian, and was also retaliated by the local garrison.

At that time, they had already seen the power of the Chinese people once, but what really woke him up was the gannet incident more than half a year ago. The unhesitating firing of artillery by the Red Army in the forts on the shore at that time, and the evasive attitude of the British government afterwards, made him see the weakness of the British Empire and the weakness of the Yangtze River Fleet.

After the Gannet's post-mortem investigation, the British Navy confirmed that the opponent was using about four cannon guns of about four inches at that time, and the number was about four.

Where did the large-caliber cannons in the hands of the Red Army come from, the accepted version is from Soviet Russia. In the six months that he was stationed in Shanghai, the Soviets and Germans frantically used Shanghai as a transit point to transport a large number of arms and materials to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. More than nine months have passed since last year, and God knows how many cannons the Red Soviet Union and the German profiteers who pretended to be crazy have smuggled into the Red Bolsheviks -- since the fact that Hitler (pseudo) and the Red Army were engaged in arms dealings was exposed, the world's perception of Hitler has now changed, and the public opinion of Britain and the United States has been reversed into a pretending to be a crazy militant who is in fact a utilitarian and immoral Jewish profiteer, which embarrassed Hitler, who was once known for being anti-Semitic.

When he was about to arrive at Anqing, Commander Maiden gave strict orders to the captains of the five warships not to fire their guns without his permission. He knew very well in his heart that the Red Army had powerful enemy artillery in its hands, and that the channel of the Yangtze River was too narrow, and the weak armor of the river gunboats could not withstand the direct fire of the four-inch cannon. In the past six months, there has been intelligence that the German profiteer Führer even secretly sold a batch of 150-mm naval guns that had been "eliminated" to China. The Nationalist Government in Nanjing did not receive this batch of artillery. It is self-evident who its users will be.

Commander Maiden knew very well that his warships would never be able to fire at 150-millimeter naval guns, but he was more worried about the large number of Red Army planes that had appeared over Anqing a few days earlier. According to the news from all sides, this was the result of the Chinese god stick named Lin Han tricking Chairman Song and pulling most of the air force in his hands away to join the Bolsheviks.

On the river, about five kilometers from Anqing, Commander Maiden suddenly received an alarm from the ships behind him in the command room, and it turned out that some suspected artillery objects had been found on the hills on both sides of the Yangtze River.

Shocked, Commander Maiden picked up his binoculars. Look towards the direction pointed by the lookouts on both sides of the Yangtze River. Sure enough, more than a dozen long cannon tube-like objects stretching out of the river were found in the mountains on both sides. In the telescope, Commander Maiden saw that the objects that were suspected to be cannon barrels were covered with leaf camouflage nets, and the cannon body could not be seen clearly, but judging by the protruding barrels. This is at least a long-barreled cannon of more than five inches in caliber. The lethality to inland river ships is extremely huge. What's worse is that. These guns were all placed in high places, with good firing angles, and on both sides of the Yangtze River.

on five battleships. A piercing battle alarm sounded, and the sailors on the ship hurriedly took their positions, carried the shells, loaded them, shook the gun mounts, and prepared for battle.

"We found out too late."

A drop of cold sweat ran from the corner of Maiden's forehead, and he knew very well in his heart what would happen to the river gunboats and the prepared heavy artillery on the shore. The opponent must have set up a shooting demarcation on the river in advance, and it is very likely that the shooting will be corrected in advance, and in the event of an exchange of fire, the first hit rate will be extremely high.

The Red Army had excellent artillery shooters, as evidenced by the incident with the Gannet. When firing at night, eight shells hit four, which is already quite telling.

Commander Maiden was in a dilemma, and when the grass and trees were all soldiers, a searchlight came from the river bank in the distance, and it was the Red Army on the shore who was sending light to communicate with them.

The message sent by the Red Army told the British that an air force anti-ship exercise was underway ahead and that they could not advance for the time being, and that the Red Army would send a transport boat to communicate with them in a few moments.

"What, anti-ship exercises?"

Commander Maiden then noticed that about two kilometers ahead, there was a very inconspicuous small fishing boat parked on the river.

"Is this a Chinese-style dismount?"

Commander Maiden was slightly angry, but knowing that the situation was not good, he still agreed to the other party's permission to go on the ship.

A few minutes later, a petrol-powered transport boat departed from the shore, carrying six crew members and speeding towards the Gannet.

Soon the people came on board, and there were four people on board, and the leader was a young soldier who looked like a commander, and his two thick black eyebrows were extremely eye-catching, and after being introduced, Commander Maiden knew that his surname was Lin, and that he was a military commander, and he was frighteningly young, and he did not look more than thirty years old. There were three people in the entourage, one was an interpreter, one was a guard, and one was holding a camera, a reporter.

The British reporter who followed the Gannet filmed the scene of the four people boarding the ship. One of them, a photo of Commander Lin shaking hands with Commander Maiden, was published on the front page of The Times a dozen days later with the headline "China in Awakening." Commander Maiden, who was soft on the Red Army, was later criticized by the British press and the public.

The accompanying Chinese journalist took a similar photo, which appeared on the front page of the Xinhua Daily the next day under the headline: Sunset Anqing - The Last Elegy for the Empire That Never Sets in China.

Decades later, after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Britain, when the British journalist visited China with the British mission, he met the commander surnamed Lin, who was already the marshal of the Republic at this time.

Even if he had not been tricked by the Red Army's camouflage artillery array, Commander Maiden did not have the courage to go to war, and in fact all the officers and men of the ship at that time lost the courage to provoke the war after twenty minutes.

Twenty minutes later, the "exercises" of the Red Army began.

There was a buzzing roar of planes in the sky, and the naval officers and sailors on the ship looked up together, and soon noticed a row of black dots in the northwest.

Through the telescope, Commander Maiden recognized. It was a Hawker II fighter developed and equipped for the U.S. Navy, which was later sold to the Nationalist Government in Nanjing. However, Chairman Song was brutally tricked by the mysterious Chinese kung fu master, Taoist god Lin Han, and made the Bolshevik pilots he provided, and the result was that he joined the Red Army with planes and equipment.

There are a total of eight planes in the sky, with a two-person crew and four formations, which is different from the popular three-person crew in the United Kingdom, the V-shaped formation, and the formation is not too good-looking. (Three-person crew.) V-formations are extremely useless formations in air combat. This kind of formation made the British Air Force suffer enough during the French campaign, and the two-plane formation was the mainstream of the right path in World War II)

After flying over the Yangtze River, eight Hawker II fighters were led by the long plane, as the signal bombs were fired from the shore. One after the other. He began to swoop down against the still fishing boat on the river.

The Hawker II was the world's first fighter designed to dive bombing standards. Although the air combat capabilities are a little worse, the dive bombing capabilities are excellent (in fact, the Hawker fighter is only alive and well, by the standards of 1934 and 1935). It was still an excellent fighter for its time. It's just that in this era of drastic changes in the speed of aircraft performance improvement, last year's classics often become obsolete the next year. Not to mention the Anti-Japanese War in 1937. ）

A piercing screech sounded.

Wind whistles were installed on the dive-swooping Hawker II fighters, and the planes were affected by the air currents when they dived, emitting a piercing screech, which made many British sailors watching from three kilometers away cover their ears. And Commander Maiden stood side by side with the Chinese commander with an extremely expression, raised his head, and looked coldly at the plane that dropped bombs in a dive.

The man who led the plane was Yu Sheng, a former Northeast pilot with the best aircraft skills in the Red Army, and when he was in Germany, he met Udet, the ace pilot of World War I, who was also a big man who was obsessed with dive bombing, and learned a lot of dive bombing skills from him, and spent a lot of energy to practice.

The rest took the lead, drove down at an angle of 60 degrees, dropped a 200-kilogram fire bomb suspended from the belly of the plane at an altitude of 300 meters, and then quickly straightened and leveled. It followed as if it were biting a fish, and seven planes followed suit, dropping bombs at about the same height.

Boom, boom, boom continuous explosions rang out one after another around the fishing boat, the sound was unexpectedly small, and the splash was not loud.

Commander Lin comforted Commander Maiden, whose face was a little pale, and said: "Don't worry about that boat, this is just bomb throwing training, we use practice bombs, we use ordinary black powder, and the charge is not very sufficient, and most of the charge is sand." ”

A few minutes later, the exercise ended. Eight planes bombed in full dive made a circle at an altitude of seven hundred meters above the head of the British fleet, and then flew north. Before they could disappear, another group of eight planes flew over the sky to the south, and as usual, they circled again at the same height above the head of the British fleet, and then flew away.

The sharp-eyed British crew could even see with the naked eye that the eight new planes also had a fire bomb hanging on the belly, but no one knew whether this fire bomb was filled with TN (crab) T fire powder or ordinary black powder with sand.

The "bombed" fishing boat did not sink, and the crew of each of the five river gunboats saw his condition when five river gunboats passed him. The hull painted white is stained with red, red, green, yellow, and yellow dyes, and stands out in the June sun. There were two scorched black holes in the bow and hull of the ship, which were caused by two fire-fired bombs that were thrown too accurately and hit the hull of the ship directly, causing a small fire on the ship, but it was quickly extinguished by the crew who came on board to extinguish the fire. The fishing boat was made of pure wood, and although it had two large holes, it was still able to float tenaciously on the water.

The Red Army sailors who got on board simply extinguished the fire, filled the hole, and then pulled him to the surface of the river to mend it. For the passing British fleet, they were not even interested in taking a second look. The two large blackened holes in the ship, like two grinning sheets, were mercilessly mocking the humiliated British.

This river flotilla, led by Commander Maiden, did not end up docking at Anqing. The Red Army had prepared transport boats for them, and after taking Anqing, they had already settled the local foreign nationals. Through the Guò transport boats, the British warships received dozens of foreign nationals who had been trapped in Anqing because of the war, then turned around and went down, receiving expatriates in two cities along the way, Chizhou and Tongling, and finally returned to Shanghai in a gloomy manner.

Ten days later, the Battle of Nanjing began, and the defenders of the Jiangyin fortress holding Changkou rebelled and defected to the Communist Party, and the Yangtze River channel completely said "NO" to the foreign fleet. After that, his fleet never had a chance to cross Jiangyin, and at the end of June, it was driven out of Shanghai.

The Americans, who wanted to take the opportunity to follow the British to stir up some trouble in the Yangtze River, also had two small Roche gunboats on the Yangtze River, but after hearing about the humiliation suffered by the British in Anqing, the American captain "cleverly" took the first step to pick up the expatriates in the city before the Red Army could reach the city of Nanjing. The American captain did not want to cause trouble to prove the "survival" of the United States of America in China, but he also knew the fate of the river gunboats in the confrontation with shore guns and aircraft without air supremacy. Unless there is an instruction from Washington, he doesn't want to do this kind of stupid thing that is obviously a foolish thing of hitting an egg against a stone and bringing humiliation on himself. (To be continued......)

PS: There will be another chapter tonight, but the next chapter will be updated around two o'clock. After a while, twelve nods, I will fake an update, everyone don't rush to see it. Around 2-3 p.m. I'll correct it when I'm done writing the new 145 chapters.