Republic of China: German-equipped divisions massacred as warlords guarded the nation's borders

The No. 2 Artillery Group of Wusongkou Fortress.

The barrels of the four 381mm coastal defense guns have completed their final elevation adjustments.

Inside the gun barrel, four capped armor-piercing shells, each weighing 860 kilograms, lay quietly in the propellant chamber.

Waiting for the order.

Inside the underground command post.

Chen Zijun stood in front of the huge sea area sand table, a cigar that was already half-burned between his right fingers.

His gaze fell on the small red flag representing the Hyuga on the sand table.

15,000 meters.

The maximum damage firing range at full power for the 381mm coastal defense gun.

"Commander!" Yang Yanzhao's voice came through the communications tube, trembling with excitement. "The four main guns of the second artillery group are fully loaded! Firing data are set! The Hyuga is completely within our frontal firing range; it's a sitting duck!"

Chen Zijun exhaled a puff of smoke.

"Uncle Yang."

"arrive!"

"Aim at its waterline armor belt."

"Break through it."

"Fire."

……

On the position of the No. 2 artillery group.

At the same time, all four giant cannons spewed out a ball of orange-red fire with a diameter of more than five meters!

boom!!!

The earth was trembling violently!

The shockwave from the cannons whipped up a fierce wind that blew away all the rubble and soil within a 30-meter radius of the position!

Four armor-piercing rounds, trailing visible white trajectories, streaked across the hazy dawn sky at an initial velocity of 732 meters per second.

The whistling sound was like the wailing of ghosts and wolves.

A distance of 15,000 meters.

Twenty seconds.

……

Bridge of the Hyuga-class frigate.

Yamaguchi Tamon was still slumped in his command chair.

His mind went blank.

Ninety-six aircraft.

The most elite air force transferred from the Japanese mainland by the Empire of Japan.

completely annihilated.

None of them flew back.

Tamon Yamaguchi's lips were trembling incessantly.

He tried to stand up, but his legs wouldn't obey him at all.

"Sir!"

The adjutant's voice suddenly became sharp and shrill.

"There are cannon flames on the shore!!!"

Yamaguchi Tamon suddenly looked up.

He saw it.

On the distant coastline of Wusongkou, four huge orange-red flames lit up almost simultaneously!

That instant.

During his decades-long naval career, Yamaguchi Tamon's instinctive fear of the muzzle flash of large-caliber naval guns was more intense than anything else.

His face instantly turned ashen.

"Turn the rudder!!! Turn the rudder at full speed!!!"

His voice was hoarse.

But it was too late.

The Hyuga was a battleship of 36,000 tons.

It takes at least forty-five seconds for a visible change in heading to occur during its turn.

The armor-piercing projectile flew over 15,000 meters.

It only takes twenty seconds.

boom!!!

The first armor-piercing shell struck the waterline armor belt amidships on the starboard side of the Hyuga at an almost vertical angle!

The fuse was activated the instant the 860-kilogram warhead made contact with the 350-millimeter-thick Vickers carburized steel armor.

The hardened tungsten alloy warhead of the capped armor-piercing projectile, traveling at a speed of over 700 meters per second, cleanly and decisively penetrated the entire armor plate like a red-hot knife cutting through butter!

The shell pierced the armor belt and exploded inside the Hyuga's main engine room!

Boom!!!

A muffled and terrifying explosion came from inside the Hyuga.

The entire 36,000-ton battleship trembled violently, like a giant that had been punched in the abdomen!

Followed by.

The second armor-piercing shell hit the forward bridge base of the Hyuga!

This shot was more accurate and more lethal.

The massive armor-piercing shell penetrated the armored compartment at the bottom of the bridge and detonated the ammunition elevator below the command tower inside!

boom!!!

Half of the bridge was blown into the air by this shell!

Twisted steel plates, shattered glass, and torn metal fragments, mixed with flames and thick smoke, spewed in all directions like a volcanic eruption!

Tamon Yamaguchi was blown away by the blast wave at the moment of the explosion.

His body slammed heavily against a steel partition, and several ribs simultaneously sent suffocating pain through them.

A piece of shrapnel the size of a thumb was deeply embedded in his right shoulder.

Blood instantly soaked through his once crisp naval officer's uniform.

"Cough cough cough..."

Yamaguchi Tamon lay on the deck, which was covered in broken glass and blood, coughing violently.

With each cough, a slurry of bloody foam with a rusty taste would gush from the corner of his mouth.

He used his left hand to support himself on the ground and struggled to lift his head.

The sight before him made his heart skip a beat.

The front half of the Hyuga was completely destroyed.

The bridge was reduced to half, the other half becoming a pile of twisted scrap metal emitting black smoke.

The mainmast lay askew on one side, the Rising Sun Flag hanging on it burned to a black rag.

The deck was littered with corpses and wounded.

Some sailors had half their heads shattered by shrapnel, their brains and blood mingling and flowing on the tilting deck.

Some sailors were engulfed in flames, emitting horrifying screams, rolling on the deck like human torches.

A series of secondary explosions came from the engine room.

The entire warship began to slowly list to starboard.

"Report……"

A communications soldier, his face covered in blood, crawled out of the rubble, his voice sounding like he was crying.

"Sir... All engines destroyed... Our ship has lost power... Severe flooding on the starboard side... Listing angle is increasing..."

Yamaguchi Tamon closed his eyes.

Totally destroyed.

The engine was completely destroyed.

His flagship, the 36,000-ton super-dreadnought battleship of the Japanese Empire, had been reduced to a piece of scrap metal floating on the sea.

An iron coffin where one can only wait to die.

"What about the other...ships?"

Yamaguchi Tamon's voice was so hoarse that it was almost inaudible.

The communications soldier's lips trembled violently.

"The Furutaka... its bow was blown off by a torpedo thirty minutes ago... it's... it's sunk..."

"The Kuma...was hit by shore artillery fire, causing its ammunition magazine to explode...and it sank..."

"All four Fubuki-class destroyers...were hit by shore artillery fire...and sank..."

"The light cruiser Abukuma... its main gun turrets have been blown off... it's on fire..."

"Currently, only three destroyers and five gunboats that just arrived from Qingdao remain capable of navigating..."

Each word "sunk" is like a dull knife, sawing back and forth in Yamaguchi Tamon's heart.

He once commanded more than 20 warships and 96 bombers.

They marched in a mighty force toward this so-called "Chinese warlord".

What did he say back then?

"We'll flatten Shanghai within three days."

just now.

His air force was completely wiped out.

His main battleship was sunk by a torpedo.

His cruiser was destroyed by shore artillery.

His destroyer was treated like a piece of paper.

He himself, a dignified Rear Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy, was lying face down on the ruins of his flagship, his face covered in blood.

Like a stray dog.

"Sir!"

The adjutant appeared out of nowhere and helped him up.

"Sir! The artillery on shore is reloading! A second salvo could come at any moment! We must retreat immediately! Otherwise, the Hyuga will be sunk!"

retreat.

The word made Yamaguchi Tamon's body tremble violently.

The navy of the Empire of Japan.

They have never retreated to any Asian country.

there has never been.

but.

He looked down at the deck beneath his feet, a mixture of blood and engine oil.

He glanced at the sailors screaming and writhing in the flames.

I glanced at the wreckage still emitting black smoke on the distant sea.

And those five troop transport ships.

There were also nearly eight thousand soldiers of the Japanese Empire on top.

If he doesn't order a retreat.

These eight thousand men, along with himself, would be crushed into dust by those terrifying coastal defense cannons.

"Lift……"

Yamaguchi Tamon's lips twitched for a long time.

at last.

He managed to squeeze out two words.

Those two words hurt him a thousand times more than the shrapnel wounds on his body.

"Raise the white flag."

"Invented the code telegraph."

"Request... a ceasefire."

The adjutant was stunned.

All the surviving officers on the bridge were stunned.

white flag.

On a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

The white flag should be raised.

"This is an order!!!"

Yamaguchi Tamon roared and spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Execute immediately!!! Assemble all operational ships to protect the troop transports during the retreat! Send a telegram to the other side in coded form requesting a temporary ceasefire from the Imperial Navy!"

His tears, mixed with blood, slid down his face.

"Saving those eight thousand soldiers... is the last thing I can do..."

……

Three minutes later.

A white flag made from a torn bed sheet was shakily raised to the top of the Hyuga's crooked, remaining mast.

at the same time.

A telegram in plain text was sent from the communications room of the Hyuga, which had been bombed to pieces.

The frequency covers the entire East China Sea.

"Commander of the Chinese Army... The Imperial Navy's First Expeditionary Fleet requests an immediate ceasefire... Our ship has raised the white flag... We request that the wounded be allowed to evacuate on humanitarian grounds..."

This telegram was received not only by Chen Jiajun's communications office.

It was also received by the British military intelligence, which was lying in the concession with antennas erected.

It was also received by the naval attaché who was stationed at the US consulate.

It was also received by the intelligence officer in the French Concession police station.

The whole world heard it.

The navy of the Empire of Japan.

To a Chinese warlord.

The white flag was raised.

This news was like a nuclear bomb, instantly detonating the entire Far East's communication network.

……

Wusongkou Fortress.

Underground command post.

The communications soldier handed the intercepted plaintext telegram to Chen Zijun.

"Commander! The Japanese have surrendered! The Hyuga has raised the white flag!"

Everyone in the command center was in an uproar.

"We won! We won!"

"We won!!!"

Li Dingguo's eyes reddened with emotion, and he slammed his fist on the table.

"Commander! The brothers fought their way from Shanghai to the East China Sea, and those bastards finally backed down!"

Chen Zijun picked up the telegram and read it over.

Then I watched it again.

His expression remained unchanged.

calm.

Icy.

It's like looking at a piece of waste paper.

"General..." Yang Yanzhao's voice came through the communication tube, "Should we stop reloading?"

Chen Zijun remained silent.

He slowly folded the plaintext telegram.

Then he stubbed out his cigar on the telegram.

With a hissing sound.

The paper was burned with a blackened hole.

"General?"

Li Dingguo tentatively called out.

Chen Zijun raised his head.

His eyes were as cold as the icy seawater outside Wusongkou.

"Who gave you permission to celebrate?"

The command center fell silent instantly.

Chen Zijun slowly stood up and walked to the front of the sand table.

His gaze swept over the dense red markings on that stretch of sea.

Those red markings represent sunken Japanese warships.

But there are also some markings that represent destroyers and troop transports that are still barely clinging to life.

"Sixty-seven lives were lost on Nanjing Road."

Chen Zijun's voice was very soft, but every word was like an ice pick piercing the heart of everyone present.

"The workers in Hongkou were treated like livestock."

"The bodies of the students who were shot in the International Settlement are still warm."

"When have they ever talked to us about humanitarianism?"

He turned around and looked at the communications soldier.

Send me a telegram back.

"Plain text. Let the whole world hear it."

The communications soldier nervously raised his pen.

Chen Zijun's lips curled up slightly in a smile.

That wasn't a smile.

That was Death's cold laugh.

"Chen Zijun of the Shanghai Garrison Command of the Republic of China wrote to Yamaguchi, the Japanese Navy."

"They invaded our territorial waters and killed our compatriots."

"Raise the white flag?"

"The word 'accepting the surrender of invaders' does not exist in my dictionary, Chen Zijun's dictionary."

"All troops, listen to my command!"

"Keep firing."

"Not a single one will be spared."