Episode 21 Confrontation

At about three o'clock in the morning on January 20, the Yangtze River was filled with fog, and now the darkness is increasing and the fog is increasing, but I really can't see my fingers.

On both sides of the Yangtze River, the north bank is pitch black and dead, without a trace of light. On the south bank, countless columns of searchlight stretched out into the river, moving in vain on the surface of the river, trying to find something.

Every ten seconds, a batch of flares rose in the sky, swaying into the air, spraying white magnesium light, slowly falling. When it falls into the river and extinguishes, another batch will be raised immediately, and there will never be a gap.

Despite this, visibility has only improved slightly.

Nan Ming was obviously on the verge of fear. Eighty percent of Nanming's sense of security is on the Yangtze River defense line. This winter has been hit by fog that has not been seen in 50 years, and this sense of security has been lost. Coupled with the "Your Majesty Dreams of Tengu" that was desperately rendered by the tabloids, the people of the whole country are now panicking, as if the Nanming Dynasty, which has been held for 300 years, is about to break the country this year.

In the past few days of the war, every night the Ming submarines and torpedo boats would desperately lay mines on the river, inspect old mines, and lay new mines. Engineers also planted mines on the muddy beach under the river embankment every day, and all the mines knocked out by the Qing army's artillery during the day were filled at night. Even the craters had to be planted with mines, so that the Qing army had nowhere to avoid on the beach. Today, the density of mines and mines is at an all-time high. This can be regarded as adding some confidence to the Nanming defenders: the fog affects the aiming of guns, but mines do not need eyes.

Not far from the searchlight, Nanming sent a large number of torpedo boats and submarines to patrol the Yangtze River, striving to discover the enemy's traces as soon as possible. Now several destroyers on both sides on the Yangtze River have long been sunk by the shore artillery of the other side after the start of the war. These days it is these "little guys" who are running on the river, and there are frequent encounters between the torpedo boats of the two sides at night. However, the Northern Qing Dynasty did not have a submarine force, and surface ships could not be transferred in, while Nanmingguang had more than 20 pocket submarines on the Yangtze River, and after the war, several medium-sized submarines were transferred from the East China Sea Fleet.

Submarines are weak in front of destroyers, but in front of torpedo boats, they are 100% strong. In particular, the medium-sized submarines that have just been transferred have a block of several hundred tons, a 40-mm machine gun, a 20-mm machine gun, and a 75-mm main gun on the foredeck, so the firepower can be described as powerful. In contrast, torpedo boats, which have only a few tens of tons and a 20-mm gun, are completely at a disadvantage. Launch a torpedo, the submarine target is too small, and it is difficult to hit without getting close. If you get closer, you're looking for death.

At present, the submarine "Qingshuang" of the East China Sea Fleet is cruising "suddenly" on the Nanjing River. In the past, night cruises were very careful to hide under the water, but now it is foggy, the enemy's shore artillery cannot hit him, and there are no destroyers on the Yangtze River, so he can swagger on the water. In this way, the field of vision is broadened, and the detection effect is much better.

On the conning tower, the captain and four observers wore waterproof coats and telescopes around their necks, but they only scanned the river with the naked eye. Because of the dense fog, you can only see more than ten meters away, and using a telescope will only affect the field of vision.

On the foredeck, gunners and loaders wore steel helmets, life jackets, and seat belts and stood by the 75-mm guns. The two little female soldiers stomped their feet, clasped their hands, touched their ears, looked at the dense fog around them, the waves under their feet, and chatted in a whisper.

A Gangnam girl said:

"The Yangtze River is really stable, there are no waves at all, and even the seat belts are bolted. They don't want to be too comfortable in the Yangtze River fleet. ”

Another Sichuan girl said:

"Hmph, what's comfortable? On the other side is Qingyusa, and they play with their heads every day. I don't know how the grasshopper sinks? ”

"Hehe, Grasshopper, even if I can marry a commander in the end, I will be willing to be sunk once......"

"Shh......h Don't say it, it's very spiritual...... The Chixiao didn't come back last night, and I heard that it hit its own mine and sank ......."

"Why, the Chixiao was transferred to Yanziji...... Was it the Ladybug that hit the mine, or was it their own submarine of the Yangtze River Fleet......"

"That's it, now the mines are too dense, and the fog is so big, even those they know well will collide, so we ......"

"Shh......h

The gunner shook his hand, listening hard into the fog, carefully discerning the direction:

"Seems to be ...... on our side"

The loader also heard it and hurriedly gestured to the conning tower. The conning tower was closer to the aft engine, which was not heard under the noise mask. Seeing their movements, the captain hurriedly ordered:

"Twin-engine parking."

After a few moments, the thrusters went out and the surroundings fell silent. Sure enough, the sound of an engine could be heard faintly in the thick fog. Just to the right of the submarine, not too far to the northwest. It's not one or two, but there are a lot of sounds, and they sound all over the place.

"Torpedo boats!"

One said.

"No," the captain shook his head, biting his lip, his face slowly changing color, "it's an assault boat!" ”

The sound grew louder and louder, and gradually there were voices in all directions, almost surrounding the submarine. There seem to be hundreds of thousands. The captain shouted:

"Sail at full speed with the right full rudder and get ready for battle! The observer withdraws from the bridge, and the gun crew prepares to shoot! Immediately send a report, encounter a large number of enemy infantry assault boats! ”

Before he finished speaking, the four observers around him "bang" into the hatch.

The screeching of the thrusters resounded, dragging up the white spray, and the steel body of the submarine quickly turned to the right, rushing in the direction of the sound. The captain was alone on the conning tower, clutching to the railing, searching with his eyes.

The crews of the three artillery crews were sweating and clutching the handles, and the loaders were holding the shells and drums, all of them pale, looking at the dark fog around them, not knowing what their fate would be.

Rao is submarine is very noisy, but the sound of the motors of the assault boats around is still getting louder and louder, dense, and you can already hear shouts and curses with northern accents everywhere:

"Grandma's bear, what's that?"

"Why is it so loud, but a submarine?"

"Eighty percent are torpedo boats!"

"I can't see it, get out of the way, don't bump into it!"

"Lie down, get down!"

"Shhh You're not seasick again, are you? ”

……

"Poof—ah—"

As the submarine shook, the bow was raised high to the bottom of the boat, and there was a scream and the sound of falling into the water, and the submarine pressed past an assault boat at a speed of 12 knots, leaving behind a series of fluttering cries for help.

Suddenly, the loader screamed, a hand stretched out from the water, and a Qing soldier who fell into the water grabbed her feet and desperately climbed to the deck. The loader struggled, and the shell in his arms hit the deck "dang", rolled again and fell into the river. She slumped on the deck, clutching the railing and kicking the soldier desperately, and the gunner came to help.

"Get out of the way!"

The captain on the command tower shouted, pulled out his revolver, aimed at the "snap" shot, and the Qing soldier slid into the water with blood from his mouth.

The fire from the pistol led to rifle fire from the surroundings, and the bullets whizzed by, clanging against the submarine's steel plates, and the foredeck's gunner and loader were instantly shot and killed, and the two bodies were hung by seat belts, dragged in the water, and braving blood.

Because the two guns were located on the gun mount at the rear of the conning tower, they were located higher and had a baffle, and the gun crew was still unharmed despite the sparks. Without the commander's order, the two machine guns immediately returned fire, and the 20-mm and 40-mm guns moved in all directions, spitting huge tongues of fire into the water, and the roar was deafening.

Suddenly, the sound of explosions and screams rang out, and the submarine went on a rampage at full speed, overturning several assault boats one after another, and the surrounding water surface was like a boiling pot, turning into a bloody soup, with dead and alive, like dumplings.

In the dense fog, the huge fire of the machine guns naturally became the best target, and for a time the rifle bullets flew like locusts, and the thin steel plate of the control tower was smashed to pieces, and the captain could only squat behind the steel plate guardrail, shouting to the cabin by feeling, and directing the course of the submarine. But on the contrary, the rifle fire on the surface of the water also indicated the target for the submarine artillery crew, the 40mm cannon turned more bulky and slower, but the 20mm cannon was much more flexible and double-linked, seeing that the muzzle flame there was relatively dense, the machine gun immediately pressed over, and within a few seconds, the assault boat was overturned.

Suddenly, the bombardier of the 20-mm cannon fell on his back. A few seconds later, there was a fire break. The gunner went to carry the drum himself, and as soon as he left the baffle, he was shot and killed. All that was left was a bulky 40mm cannon cannon.

"Alright," shouted the captain, patting the deck at his feet and rushing to the hatch, "full left, full speed!" ”

The submarine propeller roared, tossed the white waves, pulled up to 14 knots, turned and headed in the direction of the south shore, and soon left the slow assault boat behind. The 40mm cannon was still "thumping" and flicking tongues of fire into the distance behind them, and the two living girls were still firing like crazy with spasms and tears streaming down their faces.

……

After a short and fierce battle, this small piece of water left a floating corpse and a few overturned assault boats, the Qing soldiers who did not die in the water struggled, climbed on other assault boats, and overturned a few, the people on the assault boats did not let them get on, smashed their arms with the butts of their guns, and drowned many people for a while. The water surface is filled with fog, floating corpses, and it is extremely strange.

However, this was only a small part of the Qing army's long line of attack, only in the Nanjing section, more than ten kilometers of the river, at this time, tens of thousands of assault boats were divided into rows and sailed towards the south bank.

Suddenly, a flash of fire flashed in the darkness ahead, rising high columns of water, and then a muffled sound came.

Immediately afterwards, this muffled sound came one after another, and in the fog, the water columns rose one after another, and the fragments and stumps of the assault boat were thrown into the air and fell again.

The Qing army's assault boat group drove into the mine array.

Nanming's mines on the Yangtze River are specially made, not large iron balls with a diameter of one or two meters like sea mines, this kind of river mines are very small, only the size of a basketball, and can be very densely distributed, especially to deal with small targets such as torpedo boats and assault boats. This kind of small boat of eight people of the Qing army, once it collides, will be lifted into the sky.

The Yangtze River mine array in the Southern Ming Dynasty was only laid on its own side, and the reconnaissance and patrol were all run to the northern Qing half. A number of narrow lanes are set aside in the minefield for their own ships to enter and exit. In the captain's safe of each ship, there is a mine configuration map of its own defense section, indicating where the minefield is and where the channel is, which is the same as the code book, which is a high level of confidentiality. In order to maintain secrecy, Nanming will send minelayers to change the course from time to time, and will also send new mine maps to the captains. However, this kind of thing is easy to go wrong, and occasionally there will be accidents where your own ship is hit by a mine. Recently, in particular, the density of mines has increased considerably, and there have been several accidents involving mines.

But the costs are worth it, and now, the first barrier of the Yangtze River defense line has come into play.

The Qing troops in the assault boat almost watched a boatload of people in front of them being blown to pieces, and no longer dared to step forward to die, some operators stopped the ignition, and some turned around and drove back, for a while, the assault boats on the first line were in a mess, and the second and third line assault boats that followed closely behind were mixed together, and the formation was chaotic, colliding with each other, and some even knocked over. The shouts and curses mingled into a pot of porridge, and in the loudspeakers, the chief's voice shouted:

"Line up...... Line up...... Keep going......"

……

The ping-pong players on the river had already reported to the command headquarters by telephone the observation posts on the border line. At this time, the submarine force command also received a telegram from the Qingshuang, and also quickly reported to the Supreme Command in the Purple Mountain Fortress. The command immediately made a judgment: the expected Manchu Qing took advantage of the fog to invade the south and began!

On the defensive line, red lights flashed in the underground fortifications, and alarms echoed in the reinforced concrete tunnels. Shifts of sleeping soldiers got up, quickly put on their steel helmets, and rushed to their respective posts. The prefect with the brimmed hat stood in the hallway, waving and shouting:

"Quick! Fast! Hurry up and run!! ……”

Soon, an impassioned, calm voice echoed through the speakers:

"Fighters...... The Qing captives invaded on a large scale...... Behind us is our home, our parents, our wives and our sisters...... We swear to the death that we will not let the Qing Lu set foot on the south bank...... We are the strongest line of defense, we are well-trained, we are brave and we are not afraid of sacrifice...... Warriors, the fate of the Ming Empire is in your hands...... It's time to kill the enemy and serve the country and make contributions......"

In the underground passages that stretch for more than a dozen kilometers, the sound of sirens and morale-boosting voices echo everywhere. A train of electric pick-up trucks whizz along the railroad tracks and through the tunnels, transporting all kinds of supplies to various forts a few kilometers away. One by one, the fireproof and anti-virus doors were opened, and it was allowed to fly past.

A few hundred meters behind the embankment, there is a huge cannon fortress at intervals.

At the bottom of the huge steel-reinforced concrete fortress several meters thick, a group of artillerymen dressed up, wearing asbestos hoods, gloves, earplugs, and masks, rushed up from the living quarters several meters deep underground and entered the fortress.

The 280 mm caliber of the giant fortress cannon towered over the fortress, like a small locomotive, and the black hole of the gun just protruded a little from the firing port of the fortress.

On the basement floor, in the command room, a dozen or so officers were sitting around a small table, calculating firing data. An officer wearing a headset listens to the information and reports the approximate data to them, and after a quick calculation, the officers enter the data into another fire control computer. The big and small gears in the "computer" turned a few times, completed the calculation, and jumped out to shoot the elements accurately. By phone, first report the shooting to the artillery crew above.

The artillery commander listened to the microphone by the wall, and shouted loudly to shoot Zhu Yuan, and the artillerymen beside the giant cannon around him quickly shook the big and small handles, and the giant cannon moved forward a few meters on the rails, and the long barrel stretched out of the fortress and began to slowly rise.

At the bottom of the entire underground fortification, in the ammunition depot, several soldiers in canvas coats pushed small carts and carried a shell the size of a liquefied gas cylinder into the elevator. A non-commissioned officer held a phone and received an order:

"Yes, the shells got into the lift! Be! Rise up now! ”

With a gesture, the elevator whistled ————, and huge cannonballs rose from the depths of the earth to the ground. A moment later, the elevator came down again and delivered two more cylindrical powder packets.

In the turret, small cranes "clicked", and the shells were hoisted in chains to the position of the gun chamber. The four loaders held the shell steady, and with a combined push, the giant shell slid into the chamber. The leader of the reloading team yelled:

"280 mm high-explosive shell, loaded with the correct ——!!!"

Immediately afterwards, a coarse gunpowder bag was also fed into the chamber:

"The first section of the propellant, load the correct ——!!!"

"Propulsion Medicine Section 2, Load the Correct ——!!!"

"280 mm high-explosive projectile, ready for launch!!"

……

The gun commander held the phone and waited for the order of the commander-in-chief of the battery. A few meters underground, the commander-in-chief of the battery held a telephone and waited for an order from the Eastern Sector Defense Line Command.

A few minutes later, a shout:

"Yes, understood! Command, fire now! ”

"Shoot now!"

Inside the fort, red lights flashed, and sirens sounded sharply before the cannons were fired. The crew of the artillery jumped from the cannon, withdrew a few meters away, turned his back to the cannon, put down the asbestos hood, blocked his ears with his hands, and closed his eyes tightly.

A few seconds later, dazzling flames erupted from the firing port, a whistling air flow filled the interior of the fortress, the corners of the artillerymen's clothes were lifted, and the earth trembled.

Almost at the same time, depending on the distance, a series of thunderous roars were heard from the left and right.

Both Nanjing and Pukou could feel the trembling of the earth.

In the Nanjing section of the Yangtze River defense line, four 280-mm batteries, six 210-mm batteries, and twelve 155-mm batteries fired a salvo in an instant.

……

At the Pukou wharf, the Qing soldiers were crowded with people, clamoring for the whole team to board the boat, and the commanders of each battalion, company, and platoon gathered the team with iron loudspeakers to prevent them from getting separated in the fog. Rao is like this, the docks are still in chaos.

Because there were muddy beaches on both sides of the Pukou wharf, it was impossible to transport troops on board, so all the assault boats attacking Nanjing were now loaded in batches here, and then spread out into a wide front in the river, and then rushed to the south bank. The first attack wave had already set off by boat, and it sounded like an encounter on the river, and now it had encountered a mine, but this was all expected, and although the dock was crowded, it was not very panicked.

Suddenly, a semicircular light flashed on the south bank, and then a dense muffled thunder came, and all the Qing soldiers looked in dismay, and the air seemed to be torn apart.

After a few seconds......

A heavy artillery shell roared and fell, and the circular fire shock wave instantly drew a large snow-bright circle, and within a radius of dozens of meters, everything flew into the sky, and clods of earth, stones, trees, people, and trucks all rose into the sky with the black ground.

In the blink of an eye, a few more shells fell on Siye, and for a time the mountain collapsed and the ground cracked, and the ground shook.

……

This is just the landing of 155 mm shells, and the real terrible thing happened behind the Phoenix Mountain a few kilometers away, and the Qing army's heavy artillery positions arranged near Tangquan Town and Yongning Town were the targets of the Ming army's giant artillery. These 210, 280 mm shells were falling behind the mountain, and the fire was shining like an earthquake.

However, because the artillery positions of the Qing army were not fixed like the Pukou wharf, the Ming army did not know the exact location, but only fired a salvo in the general direction, mainly for the purpose of deterrence and suppression.

Ten minutes later, the Ming artillery shelling stopped.

At least ten shells landed in the dock area, most of them all around.

But just a dozen or so heavy shells left corpses all over the Pukou dock, and several cars were thrown into the distance, blazing. The Qing troops crowded here suffered heavy casualties, and there were screams and wails.

It took a long time for the living Qing soldiers to raise their heads one after another, and after confirming that they were safe and sound, they began to push and shove, and retreated in a chaotic manner. Many Qing soldiers who had a nervous breakdown roared, desperately trying to escape in all directions, as if they could be saved by escaping from this dock.

The gendarmes and officers shouted and fired warning shots, but to no avail, thousands of Qing soldiers squeezed them down and trampled on each other. Quite a few shouted:

"Brothers, the officials want us to die, run!"

"Run, ......"

"Running ......"

Two machine guns on the periphery of the pier "clicked" and spewed tongues of fire into the fleeing stream, and the crowd fell like mowing grass.

The escape was quickly suppressed, and large numbers of Qing troops continued to be forced at gunpoint by gendarmes and commanders to board assault boats.

At the station behind the wharf, there was a long roar, a train gasped and stopped, dozens of carriages opened, and countless Qing soldiers jumped down and poured into the dock to join the attacking team.

The assault boats on the river are already dense again.

Hundreds of soldiers were killed by artillery shells, machine gun suppression, and mines, but in the face of the inexhaustible accumulation of troops of the Qing army, it was only a drop in the bucket.

……

In Beijing, after reading the telegram, Emperor Guangwu gently threw it on the table, looked at a circle of generals who looked at each other, and said indifferently:

"I didn't expect the Ming army to be so accurate on a foggy day...... But that's just a fixed target. I didn't expect the mines of the Ming army to be so dense, but no matter how dense they were, it was only a few hundred meters, and it was originally prepared to fill in a road with people...... Tens of thousands of people have died, and we are not afraid. We are the ones who died...... Hehe, with this fog at the bottom, Nanming is in a catastrophe this time. I went to the Forbidden City in Nanjing for the Spring Festival, and my plan remained the same. ”

……

On the Yangtze River, the sky was already cloudy, but the fog was still thick, the visibility was very low, the assault boats were chaotic, the front wave and the back wave were mixed together, colliding with each other, and suddenly a megaphone shouted from behind:

"Get out of the way, get out of the way, flash a way!"

With the shouting, a steam sound different from that of the motor of the assault boat came, and gradually, a figure appeared in the fog. It was a small steamer for transporting coal, with a chimney overhead, and sparks spewing from the black smoke. The ship was now very high, not loaded with coal, and the hold was full of empty oil drums, and the sides and front of the ship were also full of empty oil drums. There was no one in the ship, and the rudder had been chained to death.

The Qing soldiers were all excited, and the assault boat got out of the way, allowing the small steamer to rush towards the mine array "suddenly, suddenly, suddenly".