After the plan was continuously refined and optimized, the offensive was finally set three days later, during which all departments were running at high speed, all the troops participating in the battle were assembled at the predetermined location, and the logistics department also mobilized the people to rush to transport supplies, according to the slogan of the management committee, which was "all for the front."

During these three days, the British also surprisingly remained calm, perhaps slowly healing their "wounds", because the Liberation Army could not blockade Hong Kong from the sea, and the British could still travel back and forth to Guangzhou at will, and the two sides reached a strange "peace".

Thursday, July 15, fine, 6:20 a.m., the former enemy headquarters of the Liberation Army.

Ma Angelica, Wei Bozhi, Shen Xingshi, Li Shanglong and other high-ranking officials of the Guangfu Army all stood on a high platform built outdoors for observation, quietly looking at the opposite shore with binoculars, the sky was already white, but most of them had not yet woken up from their sleep. However, the British did not let their guard down, and figures shook in the batteries everywhere.

Wei Bozhi took back the telescope and asked Ma Angelica: "Are you ready to start?" The latter nodded. A group of people got off the high platform and walked into the headquarters, where even the officers above were waiting. Seeing the senior officers coming in, everyone's expressions became serious, Ma Angelica's gaze swept over everyone, in addition to the commanders at all levels standing solemnly on standby, the operational staff officers were finally checking the enemy's situation on the map, and in the corner, the communications department was also doing the final test of the instruments. Ma Angelica raised his wrist, "It's 6:44, everyone's watch!" ”

Du Ziteng was sitting in the cabin of the Xiangmihu with his knees crossed at this time, and the atmosphere of the battle made him very nervous. The deputy squad leader came over and sat down next to him and handed him a cigarette, the deputy squad leader is now "promoted", and his position is to teach the second squad leader of the second platoon of the second company of the teaching battalion, while Weng Zhongtian is the platoon leader of the first infantry battalion, Sun Suofu went to the general staff, and the "four" are still together with the two of them. Du Ziteng shook his head and did not take the cigarette from the deputy squad leader, who forced the cigarette into his hand, "Smoke!" Smoke it! Smoke one and don't get nervous! ”

"I'm not nervous." Du Ziteng still has a hard mouth.

"Nervousness is a normal emotion, it's not a big deal." The deputy squad leader comforted. Originally, he had persuaded the boy to go to other departments, but the other party insisted on joining the training camp, so he had to take him with him. In fact, at this point, boys also have their own considerations, except for a small number of boys who have iron-blooded feelings, more for the future. He thinks that he has no relatives anymore, everything can only rely on himself, he is just a high school student in the original world, he has no professional skills, and only in the army can he reflect his own value, and he will have the possibility of getting ahead in the future.

The deputy squad leader had no way of knowing Du Ziteng's thoughts, so he just continued to teach the latter the experience of battlefield survival, "After you go ashore, you will follow closely behind the armored car, don't run around!" Don't be afraid if the British open fire, their old cannon can't penetrate the armor of the armored car...... "The second company of the training battalion will land with the armored vehicles and cover their flanks and rear when the armored vehicles are attacking. As the saying goes, "recruits are afraid of artillery, veterans are afraid of machine guns", although the British did not have machine guns, there were still a lot of cannons, although the deputy squad leader was also on the battlefield for the first time, but it did not prevent him from putting his old qualifications to teach Du Ziteng, a recruit, experience.

Time passed little by little, and everyone was waiting for the final moment. When the clock in the headquarters pointed to seven o'clock, Ma Angelica picked up the phone, "I order!" The attack begins! ”

Moments later, the four 152 howitzers on Stonecutters Hill let out a roar that shook the ground, and then the observation post in Tsim Sha Tsui sent back a message, "The shells are on target." ”

Because the level of artillery was limited, it was not possible to carry out rapid fire, and the speed of firing the artillery was maintained at three rounds a minute. I saw that on the fort of Admiralty, in the barracks, a large area of fire exploded from time to time, and the shock wave formed by the explosion, and the shrapnel that swept around was constantly harvesting the lives of the British. Some of the soldiers who had not yet gotten up saw God in their sleep, and the soldiers who survived were also scurrying around in the sound of explosions, trying to find a safe place, but unfortunately the "152 Divine Cult" was not in vain, and people were constantly hit by fragments, becoming fragmented and flesh flying. They had never encountered such heavy artillery fire in the East that for a time they did not know how to respond. The officers could not find their subordinates, the soldiers could not find their superiors, and everyone was like a fly without a head, thinking of leaving this flaming hell with one mind.

Wolf was running around in the crowd in a pair of audit pants, and he was still sleeping in his bed when the shelling began, and the air from a shell exploding outside the window really lifted his bed, and by the time he woke up, he was already lying on the ground outside the house. Getting up from the ground, he couldn't think about it much, and his instinct for many years in the army made him subconsciously follow the flow of people and run in the direction where there was no explosion. Suddenly a gust of wind blew, and he saw a man running in front of him split in two from his waist, and a canopy of blood poured down from his head, and the stench of blood blurred his eyes, and he stumbled under his feet, fell to the ground, and then fainted.

After the shelling began, the "Hornet" also flew over Hong Kong, and in addition to providing fire support, it was also necessary to observe the effects of the shelling. The firing of the howitzer has been calculated a long time ago, but it has not been test-fired, and the accuracy needs to be tested. The "Hornet" had been hovering over the Admiralty barracks, and the situation inside the barracks was clear, the shelling lasted only two minutes, and the four howitzers fired a total of more than 20 shells, and the barracks and batteries were completely destroyed. Because of the sudden increase of more than 10,000 floating population, the barracks of the barracks could not be lived in at all, and many troops had to set up tents on the playground, which also caused heavy casualties among the British troops. On the open-air forts, seven of the eight 24-pounder long-barreled shore guns were directly turned into scrap metal, either bent or broken, or reduced to various parts, and a small amount of ammunition stored in the gun emplacements also exploded, aggravating the damage to the forts and the killing of personnel.

Wang Li on the "Bumblebee" reported the effect of the shelling to the command, and the 152 howitzer turned its muzzle and pointed the target at the Mount Davis.

At the same time, two wheeled armored vehicles were launched from the position of Tsim Sha Tsui East and advanced towards Hong Kong Island, followed by the "Xiangmi Lake" carrying the second company of the training battalion. The strait is less than two kilometers wide, and it took only ten minutes for armored vehicles to cross the strait before landing on a beach in Causeway Bay. Guarding the area was a British company, as bewildered as the Second Reich soldiers who had first seen tanks on the Somme Line, without the armament of the German army in 1916, but the wheeled armoured vehicles were significantly stronger, more agile and more powerful than the MK1 "Grand Nomad" tanks. Most of the British watched the two slowly approaching iron guys retreat, and some people raised their rifles and fired at the armored vehicles, but they did not see any effect, but were swept down by the machine guns of the armored vehicles, which turned the retreat of the British troops into an escape. A British second lieutenant commanded the soldiers to push out a light twelve-pounder mountain grenade, and then skillfully completed the loading, aiming, and shooting, at a distance of fifty meters, the solid round bullet was just "dang" left a white mark on the front of the armored vehicle and was ejected, and then the turret machine gun spit out tongues of fire was the last sight the British second lieutenant saw.

The ravages of armored vehicles on the beach cleared the way for the landing force, and when the "Xiangmi Lake" opened the foredeck, they were faced with a calm sandy beach, and it was impossible to imagine a fierce battle here if it were not for the scattered corpses and the undispersed smoke of gunpowder. After unloading the second company, the "Xiangmihu" turned around and went back to carry the follow-up troops, while the navy's speedboats also began to transport the second batch of landing troops across the strait.

The landing operation proceeded in an orderly manner, during which the British organized a battalion-sized counterattack, but were smashed to pieces in front of the second company's defensive line built with two armored vehicles. The British Enfield rifle was so far behind the Type 51 rifle in both range and accuracy that it didn't even have a chance to fire, and as soon as a few mountain grenades appeared, they were focused on recoilless guns and bazookas. In addition to increasing the casualties by nearly 100 casualties, the British army successfully consumed a batch of ammunition from the Liberation Army. At the same time, the 152 howitzers shelled the batteries at Mount Davis, Fortress Hill and Chai Wan in turn, all three of which were temporarily built to defend against the Liberation Army, and the backward field communications of the British army could not make the troops stationed in various places respond in time, and finally they all collapsed under heavy artillery fire.

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When the shelling began, General Spintozi had just woken up and was enjoying breakfast in the dining room. Although last night's meeting to deal with the current situation was held late at night, it did not prevent him from getting up at dawn as usual, and now the situation is getting more and more serious, and the British army has suffered defeats in a row, and even the general's favorite Assam milk tea cannot make him feel better.

No sooner had the clock struck seven than Spintozi heard a violent explosion outside the window, causing the windows of the dining room to shake back and forth. The general tore off the napkin under his neck, ran to the window and vigorously pushed the window open, only to see that the barracks under the hillside had been shrouded in smoke and dust. After a while, the second batch of shells fell again, although only four, and the shock wave was clearly felt even at the Doge's Palace, half a mile away. The shells fell at a rate of twenty or thirty seconds, and the general silently counted them, a total of six times before and after, that is, a total of twenty-four shells. The general deeply regretted that he had miscalculated the range of the artillery of the Liberation Army, and he knew that the barracks and batteries of Admiralty were finished, because he could even see the human body and the cannon rising into the air in the explosion.

After the shelling was over, the general turned his head and ordered the adjutant who appeared behind him at some point: "Davis, go to Wan Chai Pier and have a look, the Chinese may be about to attack." You convey my order to the commander of the garrison, and I ask him to hold the dock at all costs, and I will send him reinforcements at once. ”

Soon after Davis left, the explosion was heard again, and Spintozi went up to the roof terrace, only to find that it was the battery on Davis Ridge that had been shelled, which could not help but surprise him. The speed with which the Chinese's artillery changed targets made him feel incredible, and looking at the battery shrouded in smoke and dust, the forty-six-year-old veteran felt powerless like never before.

Half an hour later, Davis returned, bringing back the bad news, the Chinese did not seize the pier, but landed on a beach. They had a vehicle that could drive in the water, and they were covered in iron armor, not only could not penetrate the rifle, but even the artillery could not be gnawed, and the dock defenders organized a counterattack, which was also easily routed by the Chinese.

After listening to the report, Spintozzi turned his eyes to Ergin, who rushed to hear the news, but the latter frowned and did not say a word, and no one had any experience in solving the situation in front of him. The General could no longer wait for the Plenipotentiary to think slowly, and he had to exercise the duties of commander of the British forces in Hong Kong. "James, you go to Stanley immediately, and from there take the navy's transport boat to find the navy, and ask them to come back to support the army as soon as possible."

"What about you?" Ergin asked.

Spintozi was armed with Davis's help, belted and then pulled out his pistol, "I'll go and command the troops to stop the Chinese." ”