"Bang Bang~~" Every minute, the battleship Gradun fired a shot at Shizhong Mountain, because the Jiujiang section of the Yangtze River is an unfamiliar waterway relative to the coalition forces, so the speed of travel is not fast, until ten minutes later, two battleships, two cruisers and most of the frigates entered the firing range, suddenly a hundred cannons were fired, the smoke of gunpowder on the river was billowing on the river, and the foot of Shizhong Mountain was also a column of water rushing to the sky, but the cannonballs that could really hit the top of the mountain were almost nothing.

This can't be helped, the first to fire in the fleet are cannons, and the cannons have a straight trajectory, and it is difficult to directly hit the top gun position.

However, Cowles and Van der Bergh did not care, the fleet would go a little further and would be within the range of the howitzers, and only then could they deliver a devastating blow to the hilltop gun position.

The two of them were hiding in the cabin, nervously observing the top of the mountain with binoculars, and after only a few seconds, with a whistling sound, nearly fifty points of light rose from all over Shizhong Mountain and smashed into the river.

Nearly 50 points of light, that is, nearly 50 shells, about half of which were missed, and the other half hit the ships scattered, and the fire and explosions continued, and even the flagship Gladun was slightly shocked, obviously hit.

But Cowles didn't care, but breathed a sigh of relief and said: "I really guessed correctly, the Democratic Alliance Army has deployed no more than fifty artillery pieces in Shizhong Mountain. ”

Van der Berg was puzzled: "Your Excellency Cowles, although the terrain of Shizhong Mountain is narrow, for example, it should not be difficult to squeeze one gun emplacement and put two guns, don't forget, Hong Kong's Taipingshan Fort is to lure the Russian-Austrian fleet into the depths by hiding its strength, and be careful of the old tricks of the Democratic Alliance." ”

Cowles smiled and waved his hand: "It's different, Hong Kong has an open sea. The NLD forces had to lure the fleet close enough to inflict heavy damage, and the Jiujiang River was narrow. Whether he lures us or not, there is no way to retreat, not to mention that we are setting up a phalanx. Once the naval guns opened fire with all their might, the concentrated bombardment of a small hill of only 0.08 square miles by 400 guns would inevitably bring devastating results to the opponent.

At such a time, any commander will not be left behind, and only by seizing the time and weakening the opponent's offensive force as much as possible can he win a chance for victory. ”

While the two were talking, the artillery at the top of the hill returned fire in turns, but each round was less than fifty shells. This also apparently proves the correctness of Cowles's judgment.

Although the hilltop artillery was limited, the rate of fire of four to eight rounds per minute made up for the lack of numbers to a considerable extent, and the ship's cannon could not hit the summit target, which led to the sinking of four minesweepers by the coalition forces in just a few minutes, one escort ship was seriously damaged, and one was directly disintegrated.

Cowles's calm bearing was gone, and the corners of his mouth kept twitching, but fortunately, it didn't take long. The fleet brought the distance closer to the range of the howitzers, and without his order, the howitzers on the side of the ships opened fire one after another, and the black smoke that the coalition forces had dreamed of finally rose from the top of the hill.

"Good!" Van der Berg couldn't help but exclaim, "I'm sure." There won't be another living person on the top of the mountain until it gets dark! ”

After this round of shelling, there were nearly ten gun emplacements on the top of the hill that were silent. Could it be that Vanderbergh would be so optimistic, but actually. Before the coalition shelling, some of the gun emplacements that could not build bunkers had already evacuated the personnel concerned. After all, artillery only attracts the attention of the fleet, and the real killer is torpedoes.

The fleet gradually approached Shizhong Mountain, the two sides came and went, the cannonballs whistled all over the sky, the gun positions on the top of the mountain continued to decrease, some of them gave up voluntarily, some were indeed destroyed, and the ships below sank two minesweepers and a frigate.

"Huh?" His own ship would be sunk, and as Cowles had anticipated, he only thought of another question and couldn't help asking, "Mr. Van der Berg, why haven't the NLD forces released mines until now?" ”

On the river ahead, there are no minelaying boats, and there are no mines in the river, and Van der Bergh's eyes also showed a look of surprise, in fact, for the mines of the Democratic Alliance Army, even if the minesweepers are all destroyed, the coalition forces have also prepared a backup plan, and the drifting mines can basically be ignored, only the anchor mines will bring some trouble, but the anchor mines are easy to leave potential safety hazards, generally speaking, it is not at an absolute disadvantage that the anchor mines will not be laid easily, and the current mountaintop still has nearly half of the artillery positions being fired, and the Democratic Alliance forces are not at all unable to fight back.

"Maybe it's because we know that the mines are useless to us." Vanderberg replied casually and continued to look up.

In fact, the Democratic Alliance did not lay mines, not as these two people thought, mainly because they were worried that the mines would interfere with the torpedoes, and if the torpedo hit the mines, it would be in vain, you know, under the technical conditions at that time, the cost of making a torpedo was very high.

Today, the NLD can build two torpedoes a day, and this time it has a full 100.

In the fierce firefight, no one noticed on the river, and in the low woods on both sides, some people dressed in mud-brown rubber clothes sneaked one after another, and every twenty people slowly descended into the river with difficulty carrying a launch tube painted in the color of bark.

The torpedoes manufactured by the Democratic Alliance are standard torpedoes with a caliber of 533 mm and a length of 7.8 meters according to the modern standard, and with the pipes, they are nearly 10 meters long and weigh 400 kilograms, with a total weight of 600 kilograms together with the launch tubes.

Taking advantage of the darkening sky, more and more torpedoes were put into the river, each launch tube by a dozen strong men wearing asbestos gloves tightly grasp the handle of the launcher, this can not be helped, nearly eight meters long torpedoes, the recoil force is amazing, if launched alone, after several reliable experiments, it takes at least fifteen people to ensure stable operation.

"Your Excellencies, look at what's on the riverside?" At this time, an adjutant suddenly noticed that the shallow area by the river had gathered NLD soldiers from nowhere, and stretched out his finger.

Cowles and Vanderberg both turned their heads to see a cylinder like a tree trunk floating on the bank of the river, their clothes the same color as mud paddles, and in the dim sky, it was easy to ignore the slightest mercilessness.

At this moment, the soldiers of the Democratic Alliance suddenly appeared, and they looked sneaky, and both of them were like Gerdon in their hearts, and hurriedly put on the binoculars, just in time to see a soldier pressing down on a wrench located at the end of a tree trunk.

At the tip of the thick stump-like object, a cylinder more than twenty feet long suddenly erupted, drawing a waterline of white flowers, and rushing towards the center of the river at an extremely fast speed.

"Oh God, what the hell is this!" Even if an iron pillar is shot at three to four times the speed of a warship, it will cause great damage, not to mention that as the distance approaches, you can hear the roar of the engine, Van der Bergh screams in a hurry.

"Boom!" There was a loud bang, which was much louder than the sound of a cannonball, and one of the outermost frigates was blown to pieces! (To be continued......)