Xiong Zhuguo is a well-known destroyer formation commander in the Ming Navy, and He Biao, the captain of the Tianshi Youyuan, knows his temper well, for fear that Xiong Zhuguo and Zhou will have a dispute and hurt his peace.

A middle-aged general who is anxious and a young general who is newly promoted, and there is infighting before this battle is over, so what is it?

According to common sense, the fleet must be under the sole responsibility of the chief officer of the fleet. But Zhou's other identity is here, and if he intervenes by force, it will be troublesome, and everyone will not be able to step down at that time.

It doesn't matter if you usually give him three points of thin noodles, but this is a battlefield where the winner is not scored, if we give face, will the enemy give it?

Seven Type 36 ship mines slowly landed, and the ground crew of the aircraft carrier swarmed up, unloading the torpedoes and then reloading the aerial bombs.

"What's going on? Why did the plane fly back? ”

"Back to the general soldier's words, I don't know, I'm asking Tianyou."

Finding that the right wall of the Tianshi City dared to talk to himself, Xiong Zhu was not light, and he dropped the cup on the spot, and the tea was splashed all over the ground.

"He He Biao is quite bold, and he talks to himself and sings the opposite? Someone came, dismissed him, and the first mate took over immediately. ”

Subsequently, in the bridge of the Tianshi Youyuan, several officers talked around the captain He Biao, and they looked very helpless in and out of their words.

After waiting for the precautions, He Biao handed the fish talisman representing the command of the battleship to the deputy captain.

The latter took it and raised his hand to give a chest salute.

"Sure enough, the peacemaker is the most annoying." He Biao, who couldn't cry or laugh, crossed his waist and glanced out the window, "Okay, it's time for vacation." ”

He Biao, who hit the muzzle of the gun, was dismissed and detained, but this also gave Xiong Zhuguo and Zhou Changfeng room to ease their differences.

The former still insisted on asking the aircraft carrier to take advantage of the situation to beat the TF-27 fleet, which was retreating in a hurry.

He explained again: "There is only this fleet left in this place, we have already sunk one, if we can kill the wounded one again, this place is not the sea is wide, what do you want to do?" Brother Zhou, do you think it's true? ”

What Zhou Changfeng is worried about is the safety of the Tianshi Youyuan, the land airfield was damaged, and it can be repaired quickly by bulldozers, but the aircraft carrier can't.

Especially this kind of wooden deck aircraft carrier, after being injured, it is likely that it will not be able to take off and land aircraft.

"But as you can see now, when the artillery jamming stops, the US military can almost restore the operation of the airport in only four to five hours, and the artillery fire is a little sparse, and they dare to take off."

For the reason he gave, Xiong Zhuguo felt inexplicable, "You can cross the Longa River with one assault, right?" Won't the airport be over the job? ”

"It's really possible, but the high ground south of the airport has not been taken, and if the airport is attacked directly, the US military can calmly retreat to the southeast."

"It doesn't hurt either, right? This island is full of jungles, full of miasma, retreat into the jungle... I'm afraid that I won't fight for a month. ”

After discussion, Zhou Changfeng, who had no other way, decided to launch a strong attack on Adelson Heights as soon as possible.

If it is not captured, then it will be the next best thing to attack the airfield directly, and this dangerous thing cannot always be in the hands of the Americans.

At 9:37 on the same day, the second wave of the Amaichi Ugaki spotted the TF-27 fleet that was sailing at high speed to the south.

After the torpedo planes returned first, the attack formation also had 11 Type 37 bombers and 5 Type 37 destroyers.

"Strange, why didn't you see that Pensacola-class?"

"Who among you saw it?"

"Isn't that the big one up ahead?"

"What do you kid think? Triple gun, that's New Orleans class. ”

The pilots wondered when they found that the Salt Lake City was no longer in the fleet, and that the only heavy cruiser was the Quincy.

It's all here, and you can't just look at it and go home empty-handed.

The group soon found the right opportunity to cut in and launch a fierce air attack on the fleet without air cover.

As the large-caliber anti-aircraft guns of the American fleet opened fire into the air, clouds of black smoke soon appeared in the sky.

However, the Ming dive bombers were actually slightly hindered, and all of them flew over the target and dived towards the Quincy one after another.

The Quincy, which was trying its best to evade, turned back and forth from left to right, leaving an S-shaped track, and the clear blue calm sea was also broken by the towering water column blasted by the bombs.

For a quarter of an hour, the Quincy was hit three times and four near-misses.

The medium- and close-range anti-aircraft firepower composed of 28mm anti-aircraft guns and 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns continued to pull the hips, and only two Type 37 ships were damaged.

As an excellent treaty-type heavy cruiser, the New Orleans class has good protection capabilities, and the deck armor is up to 63.5mm thick, which is not capable of being penetrated by 250kg semi-armor-piercing aerial bombs.

The Landsdale, which was damaged by friendly fire in the naval battle, was also more conspicuous, and was also attacked by the Ming army's aircraft group.

However, there was only one Type 37 ship bomber that dropped bombs on her, and the rest were fighter planes diving and strafing her, dropping several 50kg light aerial bombs.

The 250kg bomb dropped by the Type 37 ship landed less than 20 meters to the left of Landsdale, and the underwater shock wave broke through many holes in the waterline that had been repaired and filled, and some large pieces of high-speed fragments opened new holes.

The Ming air raid made the hapless destroyer's situation worse, as the seawater poured into the hull spread and the engine stalled.

At that time, the main culprit of the shelling of friendly ships was the Drayton, who went to the rescue and dragged it forward with a steel cable.

But the situation in Landsdale was still not improving, and the pumping machine was not draining as fast as the water could enter, and the inclination reached a dangerous level after an hour, and it could capsize at any time.

After nearly forty kilometers of towing and sailing, the Drayton was ordered to cut the steel cables and, after transferring the entire crew of the Landsdale, aimed at its waterline and fired continuously.

At 12:02 on March 24, Solomon's unlucky man was sunk by the McCall, which had accidentally hit her, and there was another ship on the dark bottom of the Coral Sea.

The strait between Tulagi and Guadalcanal was historically known as the Iron Bottom Strait because of the many fierce naval battles that took place and sank a large number of transport ships, warships and planes.

Now that the naval battle that has just ended, neither side has taken advantage, and it is difficult to conclude who will win or lose.

The Ming Navy lost the Asojiang light cruiser, an ammunition supply ship, and a submarine hunter, while the destroyer Chunhua, which initially encountered the TF-27 task force, was battered but miraculously not sunk.

The coalition lost the heavy cruiser Australia and the destroyer Landsdale, and in the end abandoned the plan to occupy the strait to support ground forces, and had to retreat in a hurry.

The Coalition was the loser in terms of losses, but the Americans did not, and only this one can be regarded as a relative success in the series of battles fought since the outbreak of the war.

Commodore Richmond Turner sent back a battle report stating that he had sunk 2 cruisers and 2 destroyers and severely damaged 1 battle cruiser.

The Pacific Fleet Command at Pearl Harbor immediately forwarded the telegram, and after discussion, Washington decided to inject a little water into it in order to boost the morale of the military and civilians.

At the behest of the government, newspapers and broadcasters began to hype up the victory in the Battle of Kuah.

The New York Times reported on the front page of the news that the US-Australia-Netherlands contingent had inflicted a brave surprise attack on the Ming army in a night battle, and the capital "VICTORY" on the cover was very eye-catching.

Brigadier General Richmond Turner thus became the focus of media rendering, and was promoted to the altar in a very short time.

The newspapers rushed to the Admiralty gates, and scrambled for a portrait of Richmond, so much so that a fight broke out in front of the public.

Soon, large photographs of Richmond appeared on the front pages of major newspapers, and the president wrote to the Admiralty to request his promotion.

"In view of the confidence of all citizens by Commodore Richmond Kelly Turner's faithful and courageous and successful leadership of the fleet to repel the enemy's fleet, I consider it necessary to be promoted in a timely manner."

Naturally, the Admiralty raised its hands in agreement, and for them it was a great thing to wash away the bad scandal of the previous Navy Ordnance; There was also a rare lack of opposition on the Senate side.

The order for promotion was immediately issued, and the TF-27 Task Force was just anchored in New Caledonia.

While the naval battle was going on, Xie Wancheng, who was ordered by Zhou Changfeng, led the brigade's engineer battalion and the anti-chemical brigade to reinforce the 1st Marine Regiment south of the Adelson Heights.

They marched along the route taken by the 1st Marine Regiment a few days earlier, widening the narrow and bumpy trail even further.

The distance of the road is only 11 kilometers in a straight line, but it is actually 20 kilometers high because of the twists and turns, up and down, and most of the time it has to be traversed through dense jungle by passing through many streams and mountains.

Sappers use chainsaws to cut down lush trees and cut vines as thick as a baby's arm with a knife and axe.

The felled trees are dragged to the side of the stream by powered trolleys, or they are erected and then put down on the edge of a ravine more than ten meters wide to make a simple bridge, and then the broken vines are used to make handrails for the bridge.

I don't know who said it first, but this winding road soon had a name that spread - the centipede trail.

However, the next day, the Ming army launched an attack that still ended in failure.

The 1st Marine Regiment was almost unable to advance an inch on both flanks, and at the cost of more than 280 casualties, it only captured a platoon-level position southeast of Heights 92, and the advance distance on the entire front was almost zero.

After receiving the news that "the attack of the rank was not going well", Zhou Changfeng was deeply surprised, and he decided to go there to direct the battle himself.

"If you don't move here for the time being, you will be fully responsible." He handed over the command to Zhao Hanfeng, then pulled his collar, pulled out his pistol and looked at it, "I'll go and have a long experience." ”

Zhou Changfeng brought with him two teams of the field supplementary battalion and one team of the air defense battalion, totaling more than 400 people, and also carried as much ammunition as possible.

In addition to the standard equipment, each soldier was to carry two additional days of field rations and some ammunition, some for one mortar shell, some for two heavy machine gun magazines, and some for an anti-aircraft gun magazine.

A dozen or so power trolleys were all brought in, and they were full of various supplies.

The heavy load made the soldiers pant like cattle, and the centipede trail was full of deep footprints.

When encountering a ridge or a drop in the ground, everyone can only unload the supplies on the trolley first, carry it up by manpower, and then force, pull or carry it together to transport the trolley itself.

At dusk, the weather suddenly darkened, and lightning thundered and rain poured down.

The soldiers put on ponchos and picked up plantain leaves the size of umbrellas to keep out the rain, but to no avail, from the recruits to Zhou, were all drenched.

The nights between the mountains were wet and cold, and it was extremely difficult for the firewood, which was basically soaked, to catch fire, and it took a long time to pour gasoline on the fire.

After a difficult march, the exhausted 2nd Support Army finally joined up with the regiment on the afternoon of 26 March.

I saw more than a dozen large tents set up in the makeshift open space, which was a temporary field hospital opened by a regiment, and the ground was stained with dark red blood.

Rushing medics and nurses back and forth were scattered across the floor, straps and unsealed packages of medicines. The seriously wounded can be housed in large tents, while the lightly wounded can only stay under a simple canopy.

"Fill the teams with supplementary battalions."

"Yes."

Subsequently, Zhou Changfeng saw the officers in the command headquarters with a sluggish atmosphere and gloomy expressions.

The day before yesterday, Xie Wancheng, who confidently guaranteed to take this high ground, was ashamed, saying that he would personally lead the team to attack again, and if he couldn't break through, he wouldn't come back.

This situation made Zhou Changfeng even more puzzled, he put his saber at the command headquarters, put on a steel helmet and went to the forward observation post in person.

Undulating hills, lush shrubs and grasses, criss-crossed trenches, and corpses strewn everywhere......

What he didn't know was that this place was known as the "Blood Ridge" in military history, and the 2nd Division launched a strong attack on it in history and ended in a crushing defeat.

During the five days and nights of bloody fighting, the US troops killed and wounded at least 2,200 Japanese soldiers at the cost of 86 killed and 192 wounded.

A captain and staff officer cried and said: "Junzuo, if you rush up the mountain three times, you will be able to rush up once, and you will be beaten back by the countercharge immediately......"

Xue Can, who was expressionless, handed a few pieces of paper with combat deployment written on them to Zhou Changfeng, "Junzuo, this is the deployment of the next round of attacks, please take a look." ”

Instead of dispersing forces to attack both flanks of Adelson Heights at the same time, concentrate forces on one flank.

Attacking the positions on the west flank in three directions, namely west, southwest, and south, a total of five infantry teams and two engineer teams were invested......

Zhou Changfeng has no opinion on this tactical strategy, and the arrangement is almost the same if he is replaced.

So what can be done? I can only continue to fight.

"Woohoo Blah-"

Mortar shells and rockets continued to fall on American positions, and rumbling artillery and piercing screams echoed through the mountains.

Until the moment before the Ming army launched an attack, the American Marines guarding their respective positions were still scooping water outside the trench with steel helmets and water bottles.

"Whoa—"

Red flares flew into the sky, and no one could remember how many flares had been raised in recent days.

"Da-da-da-"

Under the cover and support of heavy machine guns and recoilless guns, countless Ming marines and infantry climbed up from the muddy water and rushed from the starting position of the assault to the American position......

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(End of chapter)