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

Yang Yanzhao did not say another word.

He grabbed the field telephone on the table, spun it around a few times as if the handle belonged to the Japanese, and roared with all his might—

"Attention all fortresses! Target: Izumo! Bearing: Northeast-Northeast, Distance: 16,800! All main guns—fire salvo!"

one second.

two seconds.

The third second.

On the mudflats of Wusongkou, four reinforced concrete fortresses disguised as abandoned fishing warehouses almost simultaneously shed their disguises. The heavy armor plates sprang open, revealing four thick, black cannon barrels.

280 mm, Krupp L/40 coastal defense cannon.

Each cannon barrel was thicker than an adult man's waist, and the cannon weighed over thirty tons. From the day the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1918, the manufacture of this terrifying weapon was strictly prohibited, let alone its export.

But Chen Zijun didn't care.

boom!!!

The four loud bangs almost merged into one.

The ground at the entire Wusongkou trembled, and the soil within a 200-meter radius around the fortress was lifted half a meter high by the blast waves from the cannons. Four jets of fire, each over 20 meters long, tore through the last darkness before dawn like four fire dragons.

Four armor-piercing projectiles, each weighing 320 kilograms, traveled a distance of 16,800 meters with an initial velocity of 820 meters per second.

Flight time: 21 seconds.

Bridge of the Izumo-class destroyer.

Nanyo Shiro was frantically organizing damage control; the flooding caused by the two torpedoes had already tilted the Izumo to the right by nearly five degrees, and the three forward compartments were completely filled with seawater. Only three boilers were still running.

Honestly, this nearly 10,000-ton armored cruiser was built two or three decades ago, and it is already outdated. If it weren't in the Far East and facing China, this kind of warship would have been phased out long ago.

Of course, being eliminated passively now might be worse than being eliminated voluntarily.

But it's still better than in the later era, where it was involved in several battles against China, and even though China sacrificed a lot of naval and air power, it still couldn't be sunk.

That would be truly tragic!

Nanyang Silang was still trying to figure out a way to escape the battlefield.

Then he heard a sound.

The sound wasn't like the whistling of artillery shells, but more like the sharp screech of an out-of-control train plunging down from the sky, tearing the air apart.

He raised his head.

I saw four black dots.

"shore--"

He only had time to utter one word.

The first 280mm armor-piercing shell hit the base of the Izumo's No. 2 turret.

The 320-kilogram projectile, with a terminal velocity approaching twice the speed of sound, pierced directly through the main armor belt of the Izumo's midsection like a red-hot iron poking into tofu. The 150-millimeter-thick Harvey steel plate was as brittle as a biscuit in front of the armor-piercing projectile.

The armor-piercing projectile detonated 0.05 seconds after penetrating the armor.

The explosion occurred in the ammunition hoisting shaft directly below the No. 2 turret.

There were more than twenty 203mm high-explosive shells and their corresponding propellant charges stored there.

Psychotic explosion.

The entire No. 2 turret was lifted off its base. The two gun barrels, along with the rotating ring and armored shield, a lump of iron weighing over eighty tons, were tossed into the air more than ten meters high like a toy before crashing into the sea.

Scalding flames erupted from the hole beneath the turret, igniting the gunpowder in the ammunition depot.

The middle section of the Izumo was like a giant bomb that had been stuffed inside, expanding, tearing, and exploding from the inside out.

The second armor-piercing shell hit the port side waterline at the bow.

The third shot landed on the deck between the aft funnel and the bridge.

The fourth shot went astray and entered the water 30 meters behind the stern.

All three shots hit.

Only the first volley.

Nanyang Shiro was knocked to the ground by the shockwave of the explosion.

The bridge was littered with shattered glass and flying metal fragments. Half of his left ear had been sliced ​​off by a piece of shrapnel, and blood was streaming down his neck. The chart table had collapsed, and the overhead steel beams were twisted and deformed, pinning down the legs of two staff officers.

Through the shattered observation window, he saw an apocalyptic scene.

The middle section of the Izumo is burning, not with ordinary flames, but with intense heat caused by the secondary explosion of ammunition.

A pillar of fire shot into the sky, turning the smokestacks of the Izumo into a bright red glow.

All that remains of the location of the No. 2 turret is a black hole with a diameter of more than five meters, filled with billowing smoke and occasional bursts of flame...

"Put out the fire! Put out the fire!"

He roared, but his throat was filled with smoke.

No one responded to him.

Because the second volley is coming.

Wusongkou No. 1 Fortress.

Yang Yanzhao put down the binoculars. His hands were still trembling, but the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile.

"Good! Hit! Turret number two has exploded!"

He turned to look at the phone on the other side: "88mm gun group, listen up! Target the superstructure and deck! Aim and wash them!"

Twelve 88mm Flak 18 anti-aircraft guns simultaneously emerged from their semi-concealed firing positions.

The 280mm coastal gun is a hammer used to smash through armor. The 88mm gun, on the other hand, is a scraper used to peel away skin and scrape away bone.

Bang bang bang bang!

The 88mm gun has a rate of fire that is more than ten times that of the 280mm coastal gun. When all twelve guns fire at the same time, they can fire nearly two hundred shells per minute on average.

A barrage of tracer rounds poured out from the shore, drawing blinding streaks of light in the pre-dawn darkness, pelting the Izumo's superstructure like raindrops in a storm.

The bridge was riddled with bullets.

The chimney was riddled with more than a dozen bullet holes.

The searchlights were all blown to pieces.

At the high-angle gun position, both the man and the gun were blown to pieces.

The Japanese sailors on deck, trying to put out the fire, to fight back, to do anything, couldn't even stand in the downpour of 88mm shells. Shrapnel flew everywhere, flesh and blood mingled with scrap metal, and the entire upper deck became an open-air slaughterhouse.

The third round of 280mm salvo.

This time it's even more accurate.

An armor-piercing shell hit the keel of the Izumo directly.

The keel is the backbone of a warship. A warship with its keel broken is like a person with their spine broken.

The Izumo let out a long, metallic wail. The sound was deep, sharp, and drawn-out, traveling from bow to stern, sounding like the final lament of a dying steel behemoth.

The hull begins to bend from the middle.

The steel behemoth, over a hundred meters long, slowly and irresistibly broke in half, like a bent iron rod.

Seawater poured in through the fracture, causing the front half to tilt to the left and the rear half to flip to the right. The smokestack collapsed, the mast broke, and the turrets, which had not yet been destroyed, detached from their bases as the ship twisted and rolled into the sea.

Nanyang Silang was trapped under a collapsed steel plate.

He had lost all feeling in his legs, and something sharp had pierced his chest. With each breath, a warm liquid oozed from the corner of his mouth.

He could feel the deck beneath his feet cracking, and the entire warship sinking.

The icy seawater seeped in from all directions, first to my ankles, then my calves, and then my waist.

He looked at the Rising Sun Flag above his head, which had been burned down to only half its original size, and his lips moved.

No one heard what he said.

The seawater reached his chest, then his chin, and then his nose.

October 1924, the Republic of China.

The armored cruiser Izumo of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the most sacred and inviolable imperial ship of His Majesty the Emperor, sank to the bottom of the dark and cold Yangtze River estuary, along with its crew, off the coast of Wusongkou.

Inside the command post.

Chen Zijun put down the binoculars.

There was no smile on his face.

"Officer Hu."

"exist!"

How many are alive on the sea surface?

Lieutenant Hu Qiankuan picked up his binoculars and looked for a few seconds. "...I estimate there are two or three hundred people in the water, some clinging to planks, some wearing life jackets, and some waving white flags..."

There was a moment of silence in the command post.

Someone whispered, "Young Marshal, should we send a speedboat to rescue them?"

Chen Zijun did not turn around.

"Anti-aircraft machine gun company."

"arrive!"

"Clean up the sea surface."

His voice was as calm as if he were talking about the weather today.

"Leave no one alive!"