Night has always been the main time for the US military's activities, and before and after the "Battle of the Solomon Islands," the US military had to concentrate mainly on night activities when its overall strength was inferior to that of the Tang Army and that it had no advantage in air and sea supremacy. For example, the "Washington Express" was dispatched at night, and the US military's operations to reinforce fighters at front-line airfields were mainly carried out at night. The Tang Imperial army tried its best to avoid night battles, and night battles did not do much good to the Tang Imperial army.

Night fighting could not be avoided in a landing operation, and before night fell on the day of the landing, the Marines had only controlled a narrow beach with an area of less than three square kilometers, and the depth of the defense was only a few hundred meters, and it was obviously not enough to maintain only two loose lines of defense. The U.S. forces will definitely counterattack at night, and the Marines are ready for night battles, hoping to consume the U.S. forces in the night battle, expand the landing ground after dawn, and complete the first step of the landing operation.

The effect of the interception bombing of the bombers of the Tang Empire during the day manifested itself at this time. The large-scale bombing caused a large gap between the main forces deployed by the US troops behind the defense line and the front-line troops, and it was difficult for the US troops to deploy the offensive troops to the front line before dark, so they could only move at night. The bombers of the Tang Empire dropped a large number of submunitions behind the front-line positions of the US army, which could slow down the movement of the US troops, and secondly, it could serve as an alarm for the Marine Corps.

When the sound of explosions was faintly heard, the officers and men of the Marine Corps who had been guarding the beach before were mobilized. The bomblets were like sirens, and it was impossible for the U.S. reinforcements to remove all the submunitions quickly. Some of these submunitions are time bombs, while others are ordinary trigger mines. Aviation-thrown trigger mines have a similar structure to normal mines, with the addition of a safety unlocker. When these mines touch the ground, the upper safety is unlocked (mechanical insurance, the structure is very simple, the main thing is to use the impact force when landing to make the safety pop open, the mine into the state of readiness, but its reliability rate is also relatively low, and the ground explodes immediately after landing. And some of them were not able to lift the insurance because the impact speed was not enough, or they fell into the woods and mud), and this became an ordinary mine, which will detonate as soon as the US military steps on it, or is pressed by a vehicle. If it was daytime, U.S. sappers could easily clear the mines, but at night. Unless the sapper has a cat's eye, it will be difficult to spot all the mines on a fast march.

The explosions became more and more intense, and the officers and men of the Marine Corps quickly entered the defensive line, and many of them had just eaten dinner, and some took steamed buns, steamed buns and other food to their positions. There was a tense atmosphere in the air, and from time to time one or two lights popped out over the battlefield, which were fired by the mortars of the Marine Corps, which lasted for a short time and did not emit enough bright light. Only a small area can be illuminated. There was not a single puffy cloud in the sky. It was a little too clear, and the silver moonlight made the earth gray, even without the help of flares. Marines on the defensive line were still able to see clearly from tens of meters away.

Suddenly, a machine gun rang out, then stopped, and then came the shouting of the veteran, who turned out to be an inexperienced machine gunner who had taken the shaking shadow of the tree for an enemy, and went out in a daze. Calm returned to the battlefield again, but it was only short-lived, when the gray enemy figure appeared not far in front of the defensive line, several lights popped up in the sky, and the American troops who had quietly touched the Marine line were exposed to the orange light. This time.

There was a burst of gunfire from the position, and then the shells whistled down, and the battle began.

At this time, the ten cruisers in the First Task Force under the command of Tan Renhao were still rushing to the battlefield at full speed, and they were still about 15 nautical miles away from the landing site. Within five minutes, the Marine Corps commander sent two telegrams in succession, the first one reporting on the battle, and the second telegram asking directly where the fleet was.

"How much more time will it take us to get there?" Tan Renhao was also very anxious, he had already seen the flashes of light in the north. That's the flash of a shell when it explodes.

"At least ten minutes." The nautical staff officer does his essential job.

"Put the fleet into combat shape." Tan Renhao looked at Hao Dongjue, "The seaplane took off immediately, brought more 'incendiary bombs', and before the fleet arrived, drop the 'incendiary bombs' first to help the marines fight for a while." ”

Seaplanes took off from the cruisers one after another, each carrying an "incendiary bomb" with 250 liters of gasoline. These improvised bombs are of little use against solid targets, but they are powerful enough against exposed infantry.

250 liters of aviation gasoline is enough to burn for more than ten minutes in an area of several hundred square meters, and the fire caused by gasoline is almost impossible to extinguish.

By the time the fleet arrived at the shelled sea, the battlefield was already "burning," and more than 20 seaplanes dropped "incendiary bombs" and immediately flew back, loaded the bombs, and set off again. However, these seaplanes first had to land on the sea next to the battleship, and then be hoisted by a crane to the battleship's catapult, re-mount the "incendiary bombs", and eject to take off again.

It takes quite a bit of time. Now there is no need for seaplanes to provide artillery parameters for battleships, and the marines at the front will provide targets for shelling for battleships.

Tan Renhao went to the artillery center below to take a look, and several officers of the battleship's guns department were cooperating with the communications officers. The Marine Corps artillery fire instructor is responsible for providing the ship with the shelling parameters, and the communications officer receives the instructions and tells them to the gunnery officer, who immediately gives orders to their respective gun squads, and the whole process takes up to one to two minutes. Each ship had several radios on board to communicate with the Marines, and the Marines would have three or four groups of gunfire guides to provide artillery guidance to a cruiser.

In such a battle, the gunners on the cruisers, and even the gunners officers, did not see the enemy, but simply shelled according to the parameters provided by the shelling guides. The battlefield is divided into dozens of zones, each with a code, and hundreds of coordinate points are set up in each area, and all the shell director needs to do is to provide the battleship with the code of these areas, the specific coordinate points, and the number of shells to be fired. For example, a set of codes coded as 11023045010021 means that ten 200-mm high-explosive shells are needed at coordinates with an abscissa of 23 and an ordinate of 45 in the 11 area. If the last two numbers are 22, it is 200 mm armor-piercing, and if it is 32, it is 240 mm armor-piercing. In this set of codes, meaningful numbers are separated by 0s. The gunners can quickly determine the location of the target through this set of codes, and then combine the position of the battleship at this time to quickly calculate the shelling parameters, and the gunner can fire according to the shelling parameters provided by the gunners officers.

The whole chain of command is actually quite responsible. But it's very effective. A skilled artillery officer calculates the shelling parameters within a few seconds after receiving the code provided by the shelling instructor, and then gives the order to the artillery squad, and the skilled gunner can fire the first shell within ten seconds of receiving the shelling parameters. The communication link in the middle was carried out by voice, and the shelling guide provided only digital information, and even if it was intercepted by the enemy, the enemy would not be able to immediately understand the specific meaning of the string of numbers, let alone react within two minutes. Of course, for the sake of secrecy, it is possible to reverse the order of the numbers in the code in different battles. And this will only go down to the troops before the battle.

Tactical command in this kind of artillery battle does not need to be talked about Renhao to worry about. The specific arrangements for the artillery battle were all made by the gun staff officers in the fleet, and Tan Renhao only gave the order to start the artillery bombardment, and the specific work was done by the staff officers. As a matter of fact. This is the basic mode of battle, the combat mode of the navy, and the commander is only responsible for command at the campaign level, while the specific tactical command is all under the responsibility of junior officers.

Seaplane drops of "incendiary bombs" slowed down the first round of American attacks, and the ensuing shelling made it more difficult for Americans to get close to the lines of the Imperial Marines. The initial shelling lasted about twenty minutes, and the first group of more than 2,000 American troops retreated, leaving behind more than 1,000 bodies.

The shelling also ended at this time, and in more than half an hour of fighting, the marines suffered only a few dozen casualties, and outside their positions. Thousands of U.S. officers and soldiers have gone to see their God.

Calm was temporarily restored on the battlefield, and the seaplanes set off again. The first attack of the American army was also only tentative, and five minutes later, the American artillery began to counterattack. This time, it was a duel between the naval guns and the shore guns of the two sides. The Marine artillery guides could not provide the fleet with effective shelling parameters, and now it was the turn of the seaplanes circling over the battlefield to find targets for the fleet.

The battle began again, with the artillery of the US Army shelling the Marine Corps lines with all its might, and the fleet shelling the artillery positions of the US Army with all its might. The artillery battle was fiercer and more brutal. The artillery battle lasted from 7:55 to 8:30. The U.S. artillery was busy moving positions, and the fleet was only three nautical miles from the coastline, and if it advanced further, it would be in danger of running aground.

"Let the fleet move a little closer to the open sea." Tan Renhao was very worried that the battleship would run aground, "Ask the marines when their artillery can move, don't let us suppress the opponent's artillery positions alone." Also, send a telegram to the destroyer group, and rush over as soon as the supply is completed. ”

At ten o'clock, the full-scale counterattack of the American troops began, this time with infantry and artillery at the same time.

The battle is on again. The 10 cruisers were divided into two groups, one group was responsible for suppressing the US artillery, and the other group continued to provide close artillery support for the Marine Corps, and the 120-mm anti-aircraft guns on many warships were used, and the 120-mm high-explosive shells fired were quite powerful against ground targets, much more powerful than the shells of the 105-mm guns used by the US military.

The Marine defense line quickly collapsed, and at least 5,000 American troops launched counterattacks from three directions, and the American troops even dispatched tanks and armored vehicles, while the Marines had to rely on artillery to deal with these steel monsters except for the meagre bazookas. The battle was so tense that people couldn't breathe, and I am afraid that at this time, except for Tan Renhao, who was "watching" the battle outside the command cabin, all the officers and men in the fleet were a little nervous, and the counterattack of the American army was too fierce.

This round of fighting lasted until about half past one, and the American troops were still unable to break through the defense line of the Marine Corps after paying a heavy price, and it was not the machine guns of the Marine Corps that hindered the advance of the American troops, but the fleet on the sea that could not be dealt with at all. The losses of the Marines were also heavy, with more than 300 officers and men killed, and several hundred wounded being taken to the beach to await transport to hospital ships.

The third U.S. counterattack, which began at 2:50 a.m., was even more violent.

Looking at the fire flashing rapidly on the beach, Tan Renhao had to sigh that the performance of the American GIs on the battlefield was indeed very heroic, although the American soldiers would not be as desperate as the Japanese, let alone shoot at the imperial medical officers who helped them, but when they were not desperate, the courage, fighting spirit, and fighting quality they showed were not under the imperial army, and they were also excellent soldiers.

The battle lasted until half-past four, and just ten minutes later, the fourth and final round of the American counterattack began. It was almost dawn, and if they could not rush to the beach after dawn, then the counterattack of the American army at night would be a complete failure, and with the arrival of the Tang Empire's bombers, it was impossible for them to carry out a large-scale counterattack during the day, and those bombers were more terrifying than the warships on the sea.

This round of counterattack by the US forces was more resolute, but the resistance of the marines was also more fierce, and on several fronts, the officers and men of the marines even launched a counterattack, and in many places, the soldiers of both sides were entangled together, and after running out of bullets in their rifles, they had already begun to engage in hand-to-hand combat with pistols, even bayonets and daggers.

"Carry out extended artillery bombardment to block the US military from sending reinforcements to the front line!" Tan Renhao gave his second order of the night at this time, "Contact the aviation troops and let them come over as soon as possible, and they will be responsible for the battle during the day." ”

It wasn't until 10 minutes before dawn that the U.S. military receded like a tide. When the first rays of dawn appeared over the battlefield, there were at least thousands of corpses of officers and soldiers on both sides of the battlefield with an area of less than five square kilometers, and the smell of blood filled the air, and when the roar of bombers came, the temporary calm on the battlefield was broken again.