Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

Just as Aoki was urged by the military police to board a slightly cleaner small naval transport boat painted with a red cross on a white background, a bigger movement came from the other side.

It burst out in the direction of the trumpet-shaped mouth where Suzhou River merges into Huangpu River!

"Oh my God! Look over there!" The young sailor at the helm of the transport boat shouted, pointing upstream.

Aoki held onto the cold and damp side of the boat and suddenly turned his head to look. His pupils suddenly contracted at what he saw.

On the vast surface of the Huangpu River, a huge, complex fleet full of inland atmosphere was seen sailing down the muddy river water!

Unlike the three neat transport ships, this fleet is composed of various ships, full of the spirit of the world.

Leading the way are several iconic Yangtze River gunboats!

They are low and flat, with square and solid bridges, shallow draft, and light naval guns temporarily reinforced with sandbags and steel plates installed on the bow or stern.

Aoki recognized one of the ships, which had a higher bridge, as the "Fushimi" gunboat, which he had seen many times on the Yangtze River, and the other was the slightly smaller "Katada" gunboat.

Their paintwork had long been mottled, their hulls riddled with bullet holes, and the sailors on the deck nervously scanned the two banks with their rifles, apparently to guard against possible sniper shots that might be fired from the ruins at any time.

Following closely behind the gunboats was a large motley army, including armed merchant ships with deep waterlines, old tugboats with smoke coming out of their chimneys, and even the heavy but large-capacity pontoons carrying coal were requisitioned and packed with dense figures.

Several requisitioned civilian steamers towed wooden sampans filled with soldiers, like a huge chain of floating islands, struggling forward in the turbid waves.

"It's us! The Yangtze River Fleet! Our fleet is back to reinforce us!" A naval logistics soldier who was unloading ammunition boxes on the shore jumped and shouted excitedly.

"There's also a fleet! Look at what's being towed behind those little steamers! They're all Marines!" A sergeant on the pier who was in charge of dispatching the wounded also added excitedly.

boom...!

The small-caliber gun on the Fushimi gunboat suddenly fired a shot at a suspected firing point somewhere in the direction of Hongkou, and the dull sound of the gun echoed on the surface of the river.

"Don't be nervous! You bastards! If you miss, you're done! Keep shooting!" The officer's stern reprimand came from the loudspeaker of the Fushimi, faintly heard by Jiang Feng.

The transport boat began to leave the dock, allowing Aoki to observe this second wave of reinforcements more completely from a slightly farther angle.

The large and small ships of the Yangtze River Fleet were not sailing blindly.

The gunboat first chooses suitable waters to anchor or cruise at low speed, with its gun muzzle vigilantly pointing in the direction of the urban threat, forming an outer fire support and warning barrier.

Larger merchant ships and barges seek berths close to the dock and slowly approach, preparing to unload heavy equipment or more reserve personnel.

But the scene that attracted Aoki's attention the most and shocked him the most was that when those large ships were still trying to reach the shore, countless small transport boats, motorboats and even small rowing boats manually pulled out from sampans were released from the fleet. Like hornets whose nests had been poked, they roared their engines or paddled hard, cutting through rapid white water lines on the turbid river surface!

Their goal is very clear: any place along the Hongkou coast where they can land!

Almost every one of these boats was packed with soldiers and ordinary expatriates holding weapons.

Some wore white sailor uniforms with their cuffs rolled up and the hems tucked into navy blue sailor pants.

They carried Type 38 or Mauser pistols on their backs, and instead of standard steel helmets, they wore combat caps or simply sailor caps. Some of them even temporarily tied blood-stained scarves on their foreheads.

The equipment was varied, including rifles, pistols, and large blades, which might have been captured from the Chinese army. Many people even had boxes of grenades in their arms.

They are the reinforcement force temporarily formed by the sailors on the Yangtze River Fleet!

Although their uniforms were not as uniform and formal as those of the Qingdao Marines, their toughness and experience in dealing with bandits and armies on the water for many years transformed into an even more ferocious and urgent momentum.

They are like wolves returning home, eager to pounce into their own yard to drive away the intruders, but no one considers that this so-called home was robbed. Now it is just the owner who wants to take it back...

"Hurry! Row faster! That pier over there! We can get on!" An officer on a small boat packed with twelve or thirteen sailors waved his arms and shouted.

"Bang, bang, bang..." A high-speed motorboat passed by the transport boat, and the Type 38 machine gun at the stern was pointing at the ruins of a building on the shore. The machine gunner and loader were both half-crouching, their fingers on the trigger, their eyes like eagles.

"Look at that wave! Hold the sampan steady!" The old captain on another large sampan yelled angrily, encouraging the sailors who were paddling hard.

"My brother is on the Katada!" A medic on the transport boat who was feeding water to a seriously injured soldier suddenly choked up and pointed at one of the old gunboats approaching the shore. "They're back! That's great!"

The transport boat that Takeshige Aoki was riding on carefully navigated the huge and turbid waves composed of various warships, transport ships and small boats that were swarming ashore.

The roar of engines, the groans of the wounded, the intermittent sound of gunfire on both sides of the strait, the long whistles and the hoarse shouts of the sailors were intertwined to compose a frenzied symphony of war mobilization and violent strangulation.

Finally, the transport boat struggled to approach the medical ship "Hira" anchored near the main channel in the middle of the river.

When he took his last step onto the deck of the medical ship and looked back at the other side, Hongkou was like a huge burning honeycomb, with flames and thick smoke billowing.

The reinforcements from the sea and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River were like two deadly torrents of steel, pouring continuously into every wound and gap in the city.

Aoki's mind flashed through the ecstatic face of the navy lieutenant commander and the rekindled spark of hope in the eyes of the dock soldiers.

Looking at the small boats still busy shuttling on the river, and the shadows of the huge warships lined up on the river in the distance.

And with the muffled but heart-shaking roar of the naval guns, a thought flashed through Aoki Takeshige's mind: Hongkou should be defensible...

At this time, Aoki Takeshige no longer had the enthusiasm he had when he first went to the front line, hoping to get rid of his embarrassing identity by relying on military achievements.

The only thought I have is that I survived...

He stumbled onto the cold steel deck of the medical ship "Hira".

The pungent smell of disinfectant and blood instantly replaced the smoke and stench on the shore, but failed to bring any peace. Instead, it mixed into a more straightforward smell of rust from war.

The cries of the wounded rose and fell, penetrating the thin siding of the cabin and piercing the eardrums like steel needles.

He was quickly placed in a relatively quiet corner, and the military doctor and nurse moved professionally and quickly.

The cold pair of scissors cut open his blood-stained and muddy police uniform with a few strokes, revealing a hideous wound on his back, a long tear left by a shell fragment, the edges of which were inflamed and swollen, and bloody.

The moment the disinfectant was poured on him, the intense burning pain made Aoki grit his teeth, veins on his forehead bulged, and a muffled groan squeezed out from the depths of his throat.

"Tsk, the shrapnel isn't too deep." A masked military doctor, revealing only tired eyes, quickly examined the wound and said to the military police sergeant waiting for the results. "It needs immediate debridement and suture. It's not a big deal."

"Yoshi, I'm glad you're okay. Give him treatment quickly. I'll take him to see Lieutenant Yoshida later."

"Hey! I'll arrange it right away!"