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

Chapter 57 A Lament from Heaven! The Far East Trial with a 380mm Gap

dusk.

Wusongkou.

Twelve hours. Not a minute more, not a second less.

A golden system interface popped up in front of Chen Zijun's eyes.

[Unlimited Pay-to-Win System]

Current funds: £2,334,716 (+£1 per second)

New deployment: Large coastal defense fortress area module (completed)

Four fortress-class 380mm twin-mounted coastal defense guns are in place.

Eight 240mm cannons are in position.

Torpedo tube array ×4 is in place

The sonar detection system has been activated.

Electrified ammunition delivery chain in operation

A fortune of over 32 million pounds.

Adding to the eighteen million that was just spent.

This fortress is worth fifty million pounds.

That's enough to buy half of Shanghai.

Chen Zijun stood in the brand-new, fully enclosed steel command center and took a deep breath.

This is no longer the semi-underground bunker with three sides buried in the ground twelve hours ago. The entire command center is embedded in the belly of the highest hill in Wusongkou, with walls made of two-meter-thick armored steel plates and concrete composite layers. Above is a domed bulletproof dome. The observation windows in front have been replaced with forty-millimeter-thick bulletproof glass.

He looked out through the glass.

Wusongkou has changed.

On the four small hills along the coast, the camouflage netting had been half-lifted. Four huge, fully enclosed turrets, each three stories high, protruded from the hillsides, their outer shells encased in 300-millimeter-thick Krupp armor steel.

At the top of the turret, two incredibly thick gun barrels extend side by side.

It looked as if four black dragons had poked their heads out.

380mm, twin-mounted, fortress coastal defense gun.

Eight massive cannons stood coldly pointed out to the open sea.

Yang Yanzhao's voice came through the communicator, trembling.

"Young Marshal! What... what kind of cannon is this? I've been an artilleryman my whole life, and I've never seen a pipe this thick!"

Chen Zijun's lips twitched.

"The 380mm twin-mounted coastal defense fortress gun has a shell weighing 800 kilograms, a rate of fire of two rounds per minute, a maximum range of nearly 55,000 meters, and an effective range of 42,000 meters."

There was a two-second silence on the communicator.

"Eight hundred kilograms?!"

Yang Yanzhao's voice exploded. "Our previous 280mm shells only weighed 300 kilograms! One shot could cut the Rui-hao in two!" "One shot..."

"Once it's launched, the Hiei will be an iron coffin."

Yang Yanzhao remained silent.

But Chen Zijun could hear his heavy breathing. It was the excitement of an old gunner seeing a giant cannon he had never dared to dream of in his life.

"Uncle Yang, don't worry."

Chen Zijun's tone suddenly turned cold. "Wait for them to come to us."

"clear!"

……

The East China Sea is 60 nautical miles from the mouth of Wusong.

Yoshinori Shirakawa had been waiting for a full twelve hours.

The twelve-hour wait did not calm him down; instead, it drove him completely insane.

Six hours earlier, Tokyo had sent an urgent telegram bearing the military's red seal, containing only one sentence.

"Take over Shanghai's top business within three days. Otherwise, you're on your own."

He took his own life.

Four words.

Yoshinori Shirakawa crumpled the telegram into a ball and threw it into the ashtray.

He stood on the bridge of the Hiei, gazing at the sea at dusk. His eyes were bloodshot. The air force had been completely wiped out the day before yesterday, and the landing operation yesterday had been a disastrous failure, with two destroyers being taken down one by one by 280mm guns.

Embarrassing.

I left it at home.

He is not afraid of death.

What he feared most was dying a humiliating death. For a naval admiral of the Great Japanese Empire to be trapped at sea by a twenty-five-year-old Chinese warlord was worse than death.

"Kinoshita."

"Here!" Chief of Staff Major General Kinoshita jogged over.

"Have the reinforcements arrived yet?"

"The Second Air Fleet's aircraft have just arrived at the rear supply port, and the Ministry of the Navy has allocated four more destroyers to the combat formation..."

"Enough," Shirakawa Yoshinori interrupted him. "Give the order: All troops, launch a general offensive."

Major General Kinoshita's face turned deathly pale.

"Sir! It's already dark! A nighttime assault and landing has resulted in heavy casualties for our troops..."

"casualties?"

Shirakawa Yoshinori whirled around and grabbed Kinoshita by the collar. "Tell me! Is the loss of 40,000 lives more important, or is the flag of the Great Japanese Empire trampled underfoot by a Chinese man?!"

Major General Kinoshita dared not utter a sound.

Shirakawa Yoshinori released his grip, turned around, walked to the nautical chart, and slammed his fist heavily on the Wusongkou estuary.

"Hiei, Kirishima, Kongo, all three ships, advance at full speed! Use your 356mm main guns to flatten those gun emplacements! All destroyers, spread out for cover! Sixty troop transports follow behind the capital ships! Forty thousand men will land simultaneously!"

His voice was as hoarse as sandpaper grinding iron.

"Listen carefully! This is a do-or-die situation! Anyone who retreats even half a step will be court-martialed!"

"Hi!"

All the officers in the operations room responded in unison.

Commands were passed down through the ranks.

As dusk settled, the boilers of all sixty troop transport ships were pressurized. Thick plumes of black smoke billowed from the funnels of three 10,000-ton battlecruisers as their massive hulls cleaved through the waves, propelling them at full speed toward the Wusongkou.

It starts with the Hiei.

It has a displacement of 32,000 tons, eight 356mm main guns, and a 300mm frontal armor belt.

Yoshinori Shirakawa stood at the highest point of the bridge, his hands gripping the railing.

His face looked like a block of raw iron in the sunset.

……

Wusongkou Fortress.

"Report to the young marshal! The sonar system has detected a large-scale fleet movement! Bearing: 15 degrees east of north! Distance: 48 nautical miles! Approaching at high speed!"

Chen Zijun put down his teacup.

"They're here."

He stood up and walked to the fire control console. Sonar data, like writhing snakes, surged onto the glass screen in real time.

"Who's leading this?"

"Judging from the propeller frequency... Kongo-class! Displacement over 30,000 tons! Followed by two ships of the same class! Then a group of destroyers! And then... a group of troop transports!"

Chen Zijun narrowed his eyes.

The report stated that there were three battlecruisers, a dozen or so destroyers, and sixty troop transports.

Yoshinori Shirakawa has revealed all his secrets.

It's a do-or-die situation.

Unfortunately, he didn't know that Wusongkou was no longer the same Wusongkou it was twelve hours ago.

"The entire fortress is now in Level 1 combat readiness."

"yes!"

"Notify Yang Yanzhao. All 380mm main guns are loaded with armor-piercing shells. Target..."

His finger touched the largest spot of light on the glass screen.

"The biggest one."

……

Forty minutes later.

A dark mass of ships appeared on the sea surface.

The Japanese fleet approached in a triangular formation. The Hiei was at the forefront, flanked by the Kirishima and Kongo on the left and right. Sixteen destroyers were positioned on either side. Sixty troop transports were arranged in six columns behind them.

Vast and boundless. Overwhelming.

This is the largest landing fleet ever deployed on the Far East coast.

On the bridge of the Hiei.

"Report! Distance 25,000 meters! Within the maximum range of the 356mm main gun!"

Yoshinori Shirakawa held up his binoculars, staring intently at the outline of Wusongkou.

As dusk fell, he vaguely saw several strange dark figures on the hill.

Its shape... resembles a turret?

It's much larger than the 280mm gun emplacement I saw before. Much larger.

His brow furrowed slightly.

But only for a moment.

"Whatever it is," he sneered. "Nothing in this world can't be penetrated by 356mm!"

"All fleet! Fire all main guns!"

Boom boom boom boom!!!

The Hiei's four twin-mounted 356mm main guns roared simultaneously! Eight 600-kilogram armor-piercing shells whistled as they crashed into the Wusongkou!

Shells landed on the mountainside, exploding into huge plumes of dust. Rocks flew everywhere. Soil slid down.

But the four turrets remained completely still.

300mm Krupp armor steel.

The 356mm shells only left a faint white mark.

"Continue! Fire in volleys! Without stopping!"

The Kirishima and Kongo also joined the bombardment. A hail of shells from twenty-four 356mm main guns rained down on the mountains at Wusongkou like a storm.

The sky was bathed in red light.

But the turret remained as solid as a rock.

……

Fire control room of main gun turret number one.

Yang Yanzhao stared intently at the rangefinder.

The steel plates overhead clanged and clattered from the Japanese artillery shells. Dust fell in clumps. But inside the turret, everything was as peaceful as sitting on a comfortable bed.

"distance?"

"21,000 meters! And still closing in!"

"Twenty thousand meters!"

"18,000 meters! Entering the optimal firing range!"

Yang Yanzhao suddenly pressed the communicator.

"Young Marshal! The enemy flagship has entered the optimal range of 380!"

Chen Zijun's voice came through the communicator with an icy chill, as if it came from underground.

There is only one word.

"Execution."

Yang Yanzhao's eyes reddened.

He grasped the fire control gate.

The handle is made of cold iron.

The judgment of the Grim Reaper.

Left hand holds down the earmuff. Right hand slams down the gate!

boom!!!!!!!!

This sound was not from a cannon.

It was an earthquake.

Eight 380mm cannons fired simultaneously!

What spewed from the cannon was no longer flames, but a visible shockwave! Trees within a 300-meter radius were bent low by the blast. The seawater on the shore was whipped up by the storm from the cannon muzzle, creating a two-meter-high wall of waves. The fortress itself was trembling violently, and boulders tumbled down the cliff face.

Eight shots.

Each shot weighs over 800 kilograms.

The initial velocity was 820 meters per second.

The trajectory is almost a straight line.

From the muzzle to the target, it took less than twenty-five seconds.

On the bridge of the Hiei, Yoshinori Shirakawa was still urging them to continue firing salvos.

He did not hear the sound of the eight Death Gods descending from the sky.

Because bullets are faster than sound.

The first armor-piercing shell cut into the front of the Hiei's foredeck!

The 800-kilogram projectile penetrated the Hiei's 300-millimeter frontal armor belt at supersonic speed! That armor plate, which was known as the "thickest in the Far East," was as brittle as a piece of tin foil in front of the 380-millimeter armor-piercing projectile!

After penetrating, the projectile detonates deep within the former ammunition depot!

boom!!!!!!

The entire foredeck of the Hiei arched upwards! A mushroom-shaped fireball erupted from inside the hull, shooting thirty meters into the air! The No. 1 main gun turret, along with its more than 300-ton armor structure, was ripped out and tumbled through the air like an iron toy!

Immediately afterwards, the second and third armor-piercing rounds hit their targets in quick succession!

One shot pierced the armored command tower beneath the bridge. Another shot penetrated the midships boiler room.

The 32,000-ton steel behemoth emitted a chilling metallic cracking sound from its keel at that moment.

Click!

The Hiei... split open from the middle.

The tear ran the length of the ship. Seawater rushed into the fracture like a waterfall. The two ends of the ship tilted in opposite directions at a visible speed.

Yoshinori Shirakawa was thrown off the bridge by the shockwave of the explosion.

His body crashed onto the already red-hot deck. Half of his uniform caught fire.

He struggled to lift his head.

What we saw was the Hiei breaking in half.

The bow rose high, while the stern sank rapidly. Ammunition inside the ship detonated in a chain reaction, flames shooting from every porthole and vent, turning the entire warship into a floating steel inferno.

"No……"

His lips were moving.

"300mm of armor... how could it possibly be taken down in one shot..."

He didn't finish speaking.

Because the Hiei's aft ammunition magazine exploded at that moment.

A towering pillar of fire completely engulfed the stern of the 30,000-ton battlecruiser.

General Yoshinori Shirakawa, along with his flagship, his ambition, and his arrogance, were reduced to ashes in that deafening explosion.

It sank into the abyss of the East China Sea.

……

Command room of Wusongkou Fortress.

Chen Zijun put down the binoculars.

On the sea outside, bubbles and oil slicks were still churning where the Hiei had sunk. A huge plume of black smoke, like a collapsed chimney, hung crookedly on the twilight horizon.

Yang Yanzhao's voice cracked on the communicator.

"Young Marshal! Hit! All hits! The Hiei... the Hiei is sinking!!!"

Chen Zijun did not answer.

His gaze had already passed over the plume of black smoke and was now fixed on the distant sea.

Amidst the deafening roar of the flagship's explosion, the Kirishima and Kongo frantically steered their rudders and turned tail. In the chaos, the Kongo's bow rammed into and capsized one of its own destroyers; the sound of steel plates colliding could be heard more than ten kilometers away.

The sixty troop transport ships have completely lost command.

Like a swarm of headless flies with their heads chopped off, they scattered aimlessly across the twilight sea. Some fled north. Some ran east. Some circled in place, nearly colliding with their friendly ships.

confusion.

Utter chaos.

The Japanese army's massive fleet of sixty troop transport ships was like a flock of sheep that had lost its alpha wolf.

Chen Zijun watched all of this.

expressionless...