Under the personal command of Du Kaishan, the artillery deployed on the front line of the anti-union artillery in Qikou, with the cooperation of two cannon artillery regiments and a 150 howitzer regiment, adopted the tactics of barrage firing and smashed the shells into pieces. The second wave of the Japanese landing force was busy rushing to the beach, and behind them was the Japanese army and navy transport ship group that was busy unloading the third and final wave of the landing force.

At the same time, the rocket artillery group of the Anti-Japanese Union also fired three salvos in a row in the direction of north and south of Qikou, and within a depth of seven kilometers of the Japanese landing area with Qikou Town as the core area. The area where the first wave of the Japanese landing force had just landed was covered with solid firepower.

The fire network composed of a variety of long-range artillery pieces of the Anti-Japanese Union instantly covered the entire beachhead Japanese position, an area of more than 10 square kilometers, in a rain of bullets. All of a sudden, the sound of artillery on the entire Qikou line shook the sky, and shrapnel flew everywhere. In addition, Du Kaishan adopted the method of three high-explosive grenades and one white phosphorus bomb in the howitzer group, turning the entire Qikou line into a purgatory for the Japanese army in an instant.

At this time, the second wave of the Japanese landing force had just arrived at the beachhead, and the Japanese infantry was landing from the landing craft. The Type 2 landing ships belonging to the army and navy have also just completed beach grabbing, and are unloading tanks that are ready to be used to cooperate with the infantry in the assault in depth, and a large number of infantry has already been recruited. And the third wave of landing forces is being converted from transport ships to landing craft.

In the face of the swarms of whistling shells, the Japanese army and navy landing ship units exposed to the bare and unobstructed beachhead, and the covering fleet behind them, which was firing to block the beachhead and in-depth communications, and preparing fire for the landing force's imminent in-depth attack, were caught off guard.

A 150 howitzer regiment, together with two 76-mm cannon battalions, fired a dense artillery shell to cover the area where a large number of Navy Type II landing ships, the army's SS landing craft group, and a large number of Daihatsu landing craft were located on the Qikou line.

Although the 150-millimeter howitzer group invested by the Anti-United Nations may not pose a great threat to combat ships because there are no special armor-piercing shells. However, there is no problem in dealing with those landing ships that are not too thick in skin and meat, as well as those large and medium-hair landing craft.

All of a sudden, at the two Japanese landing sites at the Qikou beachhead, a large number of people who were rushing to the beach were turned on their backs and in chaos. A large number of landing ships, along with the supplies, equipment and infantry being unloaded, were swept into the sky by shells. The ammunition that had been unloaded and piled up on the beachhead was detonated, causing a violent explosion that could be heard clearly for more than a dozen miles.

The Japanese landing ships on the beachhead were even more in a panic, and one by one they were destroyed as if they were shooting targets. An army SS landing craft that was in a hurry to reverse and break away simply panicked and crashed directly into a Dafa landing craft that had just arrived next to it.

Where can the Daihatsu landing craft, which was ignited by artillery shells, withstand the impact of this SS landing craft with a displacement of several hundred tons? was directly hit and turned over, and the Japanese soldiers who were jumping out inside were crushed with casualties. A tank, which had just left the landing craft, also turned around and collided with a medium-launch landing craft in a panic.

The navy was in charge of the landing area, and the two Type II landing ships were too close together when they were reversing and disengaged, and the sterns of the ships collided directly together, and all of them were blown up on the shoals by the ensuing artillery fire. The more than 600 Japanese soldiers on board the two Type II landing ships were all blocked by artillery fire, and the landing ships they were on were blown into a pile of parts.

When all the shells fired from the first round of rapid fire fell, the entire beachhead, along with the shoals, had become a purgatory on earth. Everywhere there were wrecked landing ships and heavy equipment, sailors of the Japanese Army's ship engineering unit responsible for water transportation, and naval ships were riddled with casualties.

Compared with the purgatory on the beach, the firepower suppression ships behind the Japanese landing fleet that rushed to the beach and landed on the beach, although the encounter was better, but it was not better than the landing ships. Fortunately, however, those ships were not busy unloading their cargo, like the landing ships, and could not move, and could only be passively beaten on the beachhead.

In addition, these ships with their own support directions are not clustered like landing ships. Although Du Kaishan concentrated more than 30 cannons with a caliber of more than 150 millimeters, they had a long range and great power, and their threat and lethality to ships far exceeded those of howitzers. However, those combat ships that have more or less some armor protection are also much better than landing ships in terms of their ability to resist strikes.

It's just that in the Japanese Navy, which is extremely rich in the number and type of large ships on weekdays, it mainly plays anti-submarine and air defense missions, or plays more supporting roles such as death squads attacking enemy ships with torpedoes and transporting army landing forces. Use more weapons in naval battles, either torpedoes or anti-aircraft guns.

Captains of destroyers and coastal defense ships who have almost too many opportunities to engage in a hearty artillery battle with their opponents of the same type in the US Navy. In order to cherish this rare and hearty opportunity to open fire, he took advantage of the shallow draft of his ship and sailed his ship to the closest place to the shore as much as possible, and only then did he open fire with his 127-millimeter or 120-millimeter high-level dual-purpose guns.

Behind them, the two light cruisers of the Japanese Navy, the Nagara and Tatsuda, although they were not as careless as these captains because of the deep draft. However, a total of eight 140-mm naval guns were concentrated to carry out fire strikes on the positions that might exist in the depth of the Anti-United Nations.

It's not a mistake for you to provide fire support to the Army, and it's an important duty of the Navy fleet in landing operations, but it's a bit too arrogant for you to get too close to the shore. As a result, when the first round of shells fired by the Anti-United Nations hit these ships that were even more unscrupulous in the face of opponents who seemed to be unable to fight back before the anti-United Nations artillery did not fire.

Fortunately, the deployment of these ships is not concentrated, otherwise this round of artillery fire will come down, and according to their location, there may not be a few ships left on the sea. But even then, in addition to one destroyer, two coastal defense ships and a training gunboat, were destroyed. All the rest of the ships involved in the battle were more or less hit by a few shells. Among the ships that relied on the shallow draft and were too far ahead, there were also a few unlucky ones.

When the first round of artillery bombardment of the Anti-Japanese Union ended, the Japanese fleet, which was still majestic in the sea of Qikou, changed its appearance in an instant. Five transport ships, three Type 1 landing ships, plus two coastal defense ships and a training ship full of crew members were accurately hit and directly blown up and paralyzed on the sea.

The seven Navy Type II landing ships, the Army's five SS landing craft, and more than 10 Daihatsu landing craft, along with tanks and heavy weapons that were being unloaded, were all blown up on the beachhead. And the rest of the transport ships and escort ships also suffered a few shells to a greater or lesser extent. As for the two light cruisers that were taken care of, they were even more bombed.

The Nagara was equipped with four single-mount 140-millimeter naval guns, and two of them were blown up at that time. The ship's facilities were blown up in a mess, and the anti-aircraft artillery fire was half crushed at that time. As for the situation of the Tatsuda, although it is slightly stronger than that of the Nagara, it is not strong there.

The light cruiser, which was lying across the fairway, was hit by a few 170-millimeter cannon shells in the front, and was blown up in a mess. The officers and men who were on the gun emplacements were killed and wounded by scattered shrapnel, and the two guns in the bow of the ship, together with the sighting equipment, were immediately destroyed.

In fact, Du Kaishan didn't know that because it was equipped with three twin-mounted 140-millimeter naval guns, it became the most powerful ship of the Japanese Navy closest to the beachhead, and it became one of the key targets of his artillery group. In the first round of shelling, dozens of shells were fired, and the coastal defense ship destroyed in the channel and the training gunboat had a considerable fate with the Chinese.

If the Chongqing navy personnel saw the two so-called coastal defense ships and the training ship, they would definitely be shocked and saddened. Because these two coastal defense ships plus the training ship were once the three best warships of the Chongqing Navy before the July 7 Incident, and they were also the latest three light cruisers.

Although the firepower of these three ships was strong, the tonnage was at most comparable to that of the Japanese Navy destroyers, and even less than the Japanese destroyers, but they were already the best warships of the Chinese Navy at that time. In particular, the two Ninghai-class light cruisers, equipped with three twin-mounted 140-millimeter naval guns and two twin-mounted torpedo tubes, were the most powerful warships of the original Chinese Navy and the two warships with the best communications equipment.

The two cruisers used by the Japanese Navy as coastal defense ships were once called Ninghai and Pinghai, and one was ordered by Chongqing from the Harima shipyard in Ishikawajima, Japan, at a discounted price for Soybeans in Northeast China before the war. One was copied by the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai after ordering parts from Japan according to the drawings.

After the outbreak of the 77 Incident, these two ships were sunk by the Japanese naval aviation in the Yangtze River. Because the fresh water of the Yangtze River is far less corrosive to ships than seawater, and the two ships are very new, even the Ninghai, which was made in Japan, has only been in service for five or six years.

The other cruiser, the Pinghai, was delayed for three or six years because of parts and artillery. When he was wounded and sat in the middle of the Yangtze River, he had only been in service for less than two years, and it was even a new ship at all. In addition to the addition of these two ships, one is made in Japan and the other is made with imported Japanese parts. In terms of maintenance and repair, it was easy for the Japanese Navy.

The ship's weapons, sighting, and communications equipment, with the exception of a few anti-aircraft machine guns, were all Japanese-type, and there were no difficulties in using them. Therefore, of course, the Japanese Navy did not allow these two warships to be salvaged and towed back to the Japanese mainland for maintenance and then kept for themselves. It's just that it was originally only used as a floating dormitory, and was not put into front-line combat use.

After all, these two so-called cruisers, which are not as big as the Akizuki-class destroyers of the Japanese Navy, although they were the most cutting-edge ships of the Chinese Navy at that time, they were at most a small role in the Japanese Navy, which has a complete range of ships and a large number of ships. Not many of them, not many of them. So after being dragged back to the mainland, it has not been sent to the front line to fight.

As for the training ship that was specially trained with new sailors this time, it was the former Chinese Navy's light cruiser Yatsen. It was also sunk by the Japanese army in the Yangtze River and floated, because the warship was launched for 31 years. Although it lacked armor, it was still in good condition, and it was accepted by the Japanese army. The old naval guns on the ship were dismantled, and a large number of anti-aircraft guns were added and then used as a training ship.

It's just that as the threat of submarine warfare carried out by the US military is getting bigger and bigger, the pressure on the Japanese Navy to escort ships is increasing, and the number of ships suitable for escort is becoming more and more insufficient. The tonnage and firepower of these two warships are sufficient, the space for transformation is also large, and the hull is new enough. The two warships were towed out again and used as coastal defense ships.