Chapter Three: Defending Nanjing (10)
Compared with the previous day's weak plan to show the enemy, this time Ouyang Yun thought about the burning of the ship in much more detail, and it can be said that every detail was taken into account.
Xiao Yi's team had a total of ten people, including him, in groups of five, lurking on the beaches or reeds on both sides of the Yangtze River.
When the river began to be artificially foggy, Xiao Yi and the others immediately tensed their nerves, grabbed the binoculars in their hands, and stared at the bow and water parts of the Japanese ships passing through the mist on the river almost without blinking.
Yat and his team had a total of two radios, and the reason for this was to make it easier for them to get in touch with L-19. The L-19 bombers sent a telegram to them after reaching the sky above the Jiangyin fortress, and Xiao Yat's team who received the telegram only needed to confirm that the gasoline barrel chains had drifted into the Japanese ship group with the waves, and they would be able to send electricity to the L-19 and let them attack.
At about 10:50, just as the Japanese ships opened fire one after another, launching an artillery attack on the position of the Huangshan Fort and other fortress batteries and the position of the fleet, the gasoline barrel chain finally drifted into the Japanese ship group.
Xiao Yi immediately ordered: "Send electricity to L-19, you can attack!" ”
"Yes!" The two team members cooperated, placed the electric key on the back of a warrior, and started generating electricity.
Above, the captain of an L-19 that received the telegram immediately informed another L-19 next to him of this information, and then dived down from an altitude of 12,000 meters to the Japanese ship group.
In order to capture the fortress in Jiangyin in one fell swoop, Nagakawa, commander of the Japanese Navy's Third Fleet, personally commanded this time, and dispatched a total of more than 60 ships of various types, including four cruisers and more than 20 gunboats of various types.
When the Cadet Army began to release smoke bombs towards the river, the suspicious Nagakawa had a hint of suspicion. However, thinking that there were many mines laid by the Chinese Navy on this section of the river, he thought that this was an attempt by the Chinese people to cover up the traces of those mines laid in the shallow waters, so after transferring several minesweepers to the front of the fleet, he relaxed his vigilance. As the fleet got closer to the Jiangyin fortress, the smoke became thicker, and in order to prevent collision with mines, he ordered all the fleets to slow down their sailing, and at the same time began to frequently fire heavily at several batteries and the possible river area of the national naval fleet.
When the two L-19s arrived over the fleet, Nagakawa, who had received the report from the Kisarazu Air Force, was a little nervous, after all, according to the information he had, the bomb load of the bombers imported from the United States by the Cadet Army was very terrifying, and one bomb was worth 10 of them. However, thinking about the air defense of the entire fleet and the huge size of enemy aircraft, he was relieved again. He even hoped that those two planes would really bomb him, in that case, with the air defense capabilities of the fleet, he would definitely be able to beat them down.
At about 10:40 a.m., the minesweepers in front suddenly sent an enemy alarm, saying that a large number of gasoline drums had been found, and many of them were filled with gasoline. Nagagawa suddenly became nervous, not too stupid, he immediately realized that this was a plot of the Shina people, and after a little use of his brain, he thought of the possible consequences of these gasoline barrels. "Retreat! Disperse! Retreat all! Order, the minesweepers salvage the gasoline drums......" Suddenly he began to issue a series of orders, and at this moment, the air defense sirens sounded.
The L-19 flew very fast, and they quickly lowered to a distance of about 800 meters from the surface of the river, and then, as the bombardier pressed the bomb button, napalm roared down - dense black dots appeared in the sky above the Japanese fleet.
At a distance of 800 meters, for a free-falling bomb, it will be done in minutes. Then, the bombs exploded violently in a series of violent bursts - in Xiao Yat's telescope, the explosion generated a fire ball that grew at a terrifying rate, and instantly exploded from a small fire ball into a fireball the size of two basketball courts. Fireballs scattered in all directions, causing an immediate fire.
That's not all, those gasoline barrels filled with gasoline were transformed into napalm bombs at this time, some were directly detonated, and some were because they couldn't withstand the high temperature of the fire, and they exploded one after another, immediately turning the ship they were entangled in or the surface of the river into a sea of fire.
The damage caused by the two L-19s to the Japanese Third Fleet was not great, after all, the bomb load was limited, and the accuracy was not good, and less than half of the ten bombs really hit the target directly, but because of the detonation of those gasoline barrels, almost all the ships of the Japanese Third Fleet were caught in flames, and the casualties caused to the Japanese army could not be calculated. It is important to know that at that time, almost all the gunboats of the Japanese army were firing fiercely, that is, the Japanese combat personnel were on deck. Even if the ship was not directly hit, because it was trapped by the fire, even if those devil soldiers were not directly burned to death by the fire, there were not a few who were killed by the smoke or even scalded to death. Those ironclad ships, at this time, are not so much boats, but more appropriately described as iron pots, and those devil soldiers are the ants in the pot-"Commander, this napalm is really not a thing for human use!" The fire dispersed the smoke, and the single male saw through the telescope a large number of humanoid fireballs falling on the deck or jumping into the water, judging from the degree of struggle of his shape, it was definitely a painful pain, this guy who killed devils without blinking, as if he had suddenly changed the heart of a bodhisattva, so emotional.
On the flagship of the Japanese Third Fleet, Nagagawa was completely stunned by the tragic scene in front of him. Compared to most of the devil soldiers, this old devil is considered lucky. Why do you say that? Because of the commander, he stayed in the cab all the time, so he was lucky not to get touched by the napalm splashed with gasoline, and thus avoided becoming a humanoid fireball. However, even in the wheelhouse, he could not bear the heat caused by the burning on the deck, and after holding out for a few minutes, he was dragged to the bilge by several officers.
Just lighting a fire is not enough, the flames are together, and they are flames that water simply cannot extinguish. However, almost all of the Japanese gunboats had a large number of shells piled up on the decks, so that first the fire was fired, and then the bombs were killed because they were not resistant to high temperatures. These are not enough to make Changchuan collapse, after all, these deck bombs are unlikely to cause much damage to the hull, although heavy casualties are inevitable, but if he can bring back most of the ships in the fleet safely, I don't think he will be too harshly criticized. However, it was not only those shells that were detonated by the fire, but what Ouyang Yun didn't expect was that this fire, which spread almost the entire river, actually detonated some torpedoes, which directly led to the sinking of three small gunboats and two cruisers in the Japanese fleet.
This "burning of ships" has not ended here -- what the Chinese are best at is beating water dogs, and the officers and men of the Second Fleet of the Chinese Navy, who have been bullied by the Japanese army for a long time and even have to hide in military ports all the time, describe with deep hatred that their perception of the Japanese Third Fleet is still insufficient, and they finally seize such an opportunity, and naturally refuse to let it go. As a result, they who were originally responsible for the task of leading the enemy and were ready to be cannon fodder, but at this moment, they have become the real protagonists of this "river war".
Moreover, the forts of the fortress, which had been forced to be silent, finally couldn't bear the loneliness at this time and began to fire one after another.
Chen Shaokuan was originally going to take a look at this battle, after all, the warship he was on was a bit special, it was a national treasure of the Nanjing government, that is, the "Zhongshan ship". If he confessed here, he would be a great sinner. However, he didn't expect that Ouyang Yun would be able to use those gasoline barrels to create such a feast.
"His grandmother's, Ouyang Yun, this kid is really a god!" After witnessing the effect of the "burning ship", he shouted, and then said to the captain of the Zhongshan ship who was stunned next to him: "What are you still standing stupidly for?" Such a good opportunity, if you don't take the opportunity to get a handful, it's not a big loss! Lean in and beat him up hard! ”
What happened on the river was an absolute nightmare for the little devil pilots of the Japanese Kisarazu Air Force. It's really incredible, you have to know that this time the Third Fleet has not dispatched except for two aircraft carriers and a few battleships, and everything else that can be dispatched has been dispatched! But now it seems that the number of ships not only failed to reflect the advantage, but allowed the people of China to make a big profit......
"Eight squares! What could happen for Lang? ”
"What now?"
Of the three waves of Japanese fighters, except for those that were shot down, all the fighters of the first two waves had returned, and now there were only about nine attack planes left in the third wave.
The Chinese fleet's beating of the water dogs made them very disdainful, after all, they had not flown to Jiangyin Fortress for a day or two, but it was the first time they had seen the enemy behave so heroically. A group of little devils scolded hatefully, or muttered to themselves, and began to find their commander Hano Mitsunaka to take the idea. These devil pilots all knew that if there was no one to support the Third Fleet at this moment, then they would most likely be eaten by the fleet of the Shina people. Hano Mitsushi was aware of the overall situation, and he immediately ordered all fighters to abandon the current bombing targets and instead bomb the Chinese fleet.
There was a process of ideological change in the Japanese air force, and during this period, the first few ships of the Nationalist army had already tasted the wonderful taste of sinking the Japanese ships. Among them, because the Nakayama ship was the first to make the decision to pursue, it not only sank two Japanese minesweepers, but also beat a gunboat named Rongjian to the point that it was not working. However, the arrival of the Japanese aircraft made them have to turn to air defense warfare, for this reason, Chen Shaokuan was so angry that he cursed those devil soldiers flying in the sky, scolded several words of "his grandmother's", and then quoted the famous words of a certain ancient general of the Song Dynasty: The boiled duck actually flew!