After the air force could only withdraw from the battlefield for the time being, the one that had no threat was even more unscrupulous under the high-intensity air raids of the Anti-United Nations. Under the command of the new flagship gunboat Suma, the entire artillery fire of two-thirds of the ships was concentrated to impose a fire blockade on the Jintang Bridge and the Zizhulin port area. And with a firepower and ground artillery, the blockade of the King Kong Bridge and the Wanguo Bridge was carried out.

The threat posed by these Japanese ships to the attacking forces was quite deadly. Even more threatening than ground artillery. Even when a position is about to be lost, it uses indiscriminate artillery bombardment. The attacking forces of the Anti-Japanese Union were covered under artillery fire along with the remnants of the Japanese army.

Every time the attacking force advances, it has to pay a huge price. The uninterrupted fire support of these warships can be said to have directly led to the defeat of the continuous attack on the Jintang Bridge and the Konggang Bridge. However, after the air force withdrew from the battlefield, Tao Jingfei was helpless against these warships.

Several times, he wanted to mobilize a 150 howitzer regiment and a Type 92 105mm cannon battalion to enter the city to participate in the battle, and completely destroy the remaining 11 large and small Japanese ships. However, the complicated situation on both sides of the Haihe River has made him unable to make up his mind several times.

Coupled with the large and small alleys in Tianjin, rushing into it is like entering a gossip array, like a spider web as a special urban structure. and the repeated impact of the Japanese army fighting for every inch of land, so that Tao Jingfei's offensive not only paid a heavy price, but also made unusually slow progress. The progress of each day can only be described in meters.

In the face of the current stalemate on the battlefield of Tianjin City, as well as the increasing number of casualties, Tao Jingfei can be said to be at a loss. After attacking the city, they could not use artillery, and could only use the troops to advance into the city little by little. However, the Japanese army could use artillery fire unscrupulously, without any regard for the life or death of the Chinese.

Naval guns were used in conjunction with ground artillery to create dense walls of fire along the troops' attack routes. In particular, the tanks that could only move along the main streets, and a third of the tanks that were damaged in battle were lost to the Japanese intercepting fire. No matter how good the armor protection of the tank is, it will not be able to withstand a direct hit from a large-caliber naval gun.

What's more, although the tonnage of the Japanese Navy's ships on the Tianjin battlefield was small, it was under the crazy concept that the Japanese Navy always did not hesitate to weaken the protection of the ships and increase their firepower. The caliber of naval guns on these warships is more than 100 millimeters, but quite a few. Even those small gunboats and minesweepers of several hundred tons were armed with 120-mm high-level guns. Even the shallow-water heavy gunboat Suma, equipped with two 152-mm naval guns.

Although the aviation did not hesitate to sink the two largest and most powerful ships deployed by the Japanese in Tianjin. However, the remaining firepower of the Japanese ships was still quite strong. Although the narrow surface of the Haihe River limited the large-scale maneuverability of Japanese ships, their ability to quickly maneuver up and down was still incomparable with ordinary ground artillery.

Moreover, in addition to adding 92 infantry guns to the gunboats, the Japanese army strengthened the firepower of those gunboats that were only a few dozen tons. They also used civilian vessels such as barges and sailboats trapped in Tianjin to be equipped with 92 infantry guns, 41 mountain guns, and 25-mm anti-aircraft guns, and converted into mobile gunboats.

Even the three icebreakers, which were transferred by the Japanese Navy to Tianjin for winter maneuvers, were each equipped with a 150-millimeter heavy mortar and a 37 flat-fire gun. In addition to constantly opening up shipping lanes for ships, they also participate in fire support when needed.

A large number of naval guns of caliber of 76 mm or more were added to a large number of small-caliber machine guns and mountain artillery. With the exception of those small gunboats, each warship was equivalent to a mobile artillery battery. The warships moved up and down the Hai River, where the Japanese fired in that direction when they were nervous.

At the height of the battle for the Jintang Bridge, the British gunboat Suma, which had been converted by the Japanese Navy after the capture of Hong Kong, and the 120-mm high-level dual-purpose guns and one 76-mm anti-aircraft gun, were actually the No. 102 sea sweeper and a small gunboat of the super gunboat.

It even parked in front of the Jintang Bridge, facing the river surface of Dongmen Main Street, and directly opened fire to intercept the anti-United Nations tank troops advancing along Dongmen Main Street. Under the guidance of the artillery observers in front, its 152-mm naval guns and 120-mm naval guns were fired accurately and ruthlessly.

No matter how thick the armor of the tank invested by the Anti-United Nations is, it cannot withstand a direct hit of a shell with a caliber of more than 100 millimeters. The two tank platoons of the Anti-Japanese Union that attacked along the main street of the East Gate were all destroyed by the fire of the Japanese large-caliber naval guns in the rubble created by the Japanese army's deliberate blowing up of the buildings on both sides of the street.

As the largest port city in North China and the largest industrial and commercial city in North China, Tianjin has always been the center of the Japanese army's supply to the entire North China garrison. In the large and small Japanese military warehouses here, a large amount of ammunition and supplies were hoarded, as well as reserve weapons warehouses. These sufficient quantities of ammunition and equipment gave the Japanese army considerable confidence in defending Tianjin.

A naval warehouse in Tianjin alone has more than 50,000 shells in stock. There were more than 40 25-mm anti-aircraft guns and nearly 100 13-mm anti-aircraft machine guns, plus a large number of shells and bullets. There are also more than 20 120-mm high-level dual-purpose guns and 76-mm anti-aircraft guns for the navy.

In the army warehouse, there are enough reserve weapons to arm a division and several wings. Among them, the army warehouses do not count the mountain artillery, and there are more than 50 92 infantry guns and 31 mountain guns alone. It was also with these reserve equipment that the Japanese army carried out surprise modifications on the Tianjin naval ships.

With each ship, the firepower has increased at least doubled. In any case, these ships do not need to go to sea to fight for the time being, and only stay on the surface of the Haihe River to provide fire support for ground operations, and there is no need to consider the problem of wind and waves. As for whether the structure of the ship can withstand the damage caused by so many artillery fires, don't think about it for the time being.

If Tianjin could not be held, none of these ships would be able to escape. Rather than being destroyed by the enemy's targets one by one, it is better to fight to the death. The army and navy of Tianjin are all happy, but they can't keep everyone broken. Therefore, in this war, the Japanese army and navy, which have always been full of contradictions, can be described as unprecedented unity. The supreme commander of the Japanese Navy in Tianjin also acquiesced in the army's move to increase the firepower of the ships in a frenzied manner, regardless of the ship's bearing capacity.

The Japanese troops garrisoning Tianjin did not have to think about the consumption of ammunition at all. The unscrupulous use of artillery fire does not mean to be trapped in an isolated city at all. There are even some troubles, which are solved by artillery fire. The anti-union troops not only had to fight, but also had to rescue people and evacuate the masses from under the Japanese artillery fire, which can be described as extremely difficult.

The Tianjin battlefield could not solve the problem for a long time, and Yang Zhen was very worried. After the main force of the whole army moved south to Jizhong, Tianjin's strategic position in the entire Hebei battlefield was very important at present. In particular, Tianjin is now playing the role of connecting the two major battlefields of North China and Northeast China.

The side and rear are unstable, and Yang Zhen can't use all his energy to the front. After several considerations, Yang Zhen decided to temporarily hand over the Jizhong battlefield to Chen Hanzhang to be in charge, and he personally rushed to Tianjin. At present, the Jizhong battlefield is in a quiet period before the outbreak, and there should be no big problem for me to leave for a short time.

However, when Yang Zhen arrived at the Tao Jingfei command post of Haiguang Temple and saw Tao Jingfei, he was startled by Tao Jingfei's haggard face. has always paid great attention to the neatness of the army, and has always shaved his beard cleanly, and Tao Jingfei, who can see the figure of a person when he wears leather shoes. Now his face was full of stubble, his eyes were as red as rabbits, and his military uniform was covered with dust.

Looking at Tao Jingfei, who was unusually haggard in front of him, after listening to his report on the battle situation and taking the initiative to take responsibility for not fighting the battle, Yang Zhen shook his head: "I didn't come this time to hold anyone responsible, let alone listen to your words of responsibility, but to solve the problem." ”

"Your whole deployment, I thought about it carefully on the way here. On the whole, I don't think your deployment is basically without any problems, and it is also very much in line with the characteristics of the Tianjin battlefield. But since there's nothing wrong with your overall deployment, what's the problem? It seems to me that there are some problems with the use of tactics by you. ”

"However, the use of tanks in street fighting is itself a difficult problem to solve. Not only us, but for any army, how to reduce losses in street fighting is a headache. Especially since we are still in a situation where we are in a rat trap, it is not surprising that the losses are so large. ”

"I'll ask you now, do you have any consideration for tactical adjustments? Come up with a tactic that can work with you, this is the purpose of my visit to Tianjin. The current style of play must be changed, if you continue to fight like this, even if your six divisions are exhausted, they will not be able to take Tianjin City. ”

"And the people in Tianjin have to bear the same huge casualties. I saw on your periphery some of the people who had been evacuated from the city, and many of them were wounded. In this way, even if we take Tianjin, the largest industrial and commercial city in North China, will be in ruins. If that is the case, this is not in line with our original intention and significance of launching the Tianjin Campaign. ”

Yang Zhen's voice fell, and Tao Jingfei hesitated for a moment and said, "No. 1, I have made up my mind to change the current attack method based on battalions and companies. Disperse the troops, take the company as the formation, or even the platoon as the formation, and take advantage of the special structure of many alleys in Tianjin to adopt a multi-channel infiltration attack. ”

"Our troops have strong means of communication, and every infantry company has a walkie-talkie. At the same time, the individual weapons are all automatic firearms, and the firepower of a squad can compete with a small squad of the Japanese army, or even more troops, and we have also carried out independent combat training with the company as the formation. ”

"Tianjin's urban structure is quite special, full of large and small dense alleys like spider webs. We adopted the tactics of mercury and multi-channel infiltration, which allowed the Japanese artillery to take care of one thing and lose sight of the other, and it was not clear the direction of our main attack. As long as I open a few more gaps in all directions, I don't believe that I can't smash this crusty walnut. ”

"But number one, do you think there are some necessary areas where artillery can be used? I mean, even if it's just against the Japanese artillery positions. As long as the Japanese artillery can be suppressed, I promise to take the entire city of Tianjin in the shortest possible time. ”

"In terms of tactical use, I am ready to change the current tactics that can only follow the streets and alleys to develop in depth against the Japanese army. Although there were members of the Tianjin underground party who led the way for us in this battle, we could only follow the baton of the Japanese army. I decided to split the engineer battalions of the divisions and equip each company with at least one engineer platoon. ”

"Punch holes through walls and avoid a few main streets. Multiply the attack routes to avoid the Japanese artillery blockade. However, you have to approve the use of explosives in some places. Especially within the limits of the British Concession, the buildings were too solid. It takes too much time to open a hole for troops to walk through with a sapper pickaxe. ”