Chapter 141

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

Stationed at the Luodian Position was Huang Wei's Sixty-Seventh Division.

At the start of the war, the defensive works at Luodian had long been built in advance by the Liao Yaoxiang Brigade.

As for the Liao Yaoxiang Brigade, which was coordinating defense with the Fifteenth Group Army, it was now garrisoned behind Luodian.

Only once the Luodian Position was in danger would Liao Yaoxiang's Youth Army Second Brigade enter the Luodian Position and enter a combat state.

"Report to Commander Liao! Frontline reconnaissance posts have spotted the devils raising observation balloons—three in total—approaching near the Luodian Position!"

Liao Yaoxiang received the intelligence from his staff officer and frowned:

"Observation balloons again. Clearly the devils are using them to direct artillery fire, likely naval gunfire. Pass the intelligence to the Southwest Air Force and have them send fighters for support. Also notify Commander Huang Wei's 67th Division to carry out standard artillery avoidance measures, and put the entire brigade on combat readiness!"

At the Luodian main position, Huang Wei's Sixty-Seventh Division had all taken their preset defensive positions.

As the relieving force, after Huang Wei finished inspecting the entire defensive line, he felt genuine admiration for the professionalism of the engineer troops under Lv Muzhi's command.

The foremost main trench was not a simple straight line or zigzag; it was cleverly built into continuous broken lines according to the terrain, maximizing the reduction of the enemy's direct-fire casualty range.

The trench's cross-section design was especially exquisite: facing the direction of the Japanese attack, the parapet was built high and thick, requiring soldiers to stand on raised firing steps to fire outward, providing good protection and fields of fire.

On the side of the trench facing their own rear, however, the slope was designed to be very gentle.

Even if the Japanese paid a huge price to break in and occupy a section of trench, they could not possibly use that fortification to organize an effective defense.

Because for the attacking devils, this trench was specifically designed to deal with them—fortified against the attacker, but completely open at the rear; the occupiers would be entirely exposed to the Xia Army's fire from behind, trapped in a desperate situation of being unable to advance or retreat.

Communication trenches crisscrossed, closely connecting the frontline position with the rear battalion command posts, mortar positions, machine-gun pillboxes, supply depots, and retreat routes.

Although there hadn't been time to pour concrete, key sections were heavily reinforced with large logs and steel plates.

There were also the cat-ear holes scattered across the position—single or linked small anti-artillery caves dug into the trench side walls and reverse slopes, with entrances facing away from the enemy's direct-fire direction.

Huang Wei, behind the Luodian Position, could now see the devils' observation balloons with his own eyes.

Making such a big show of force—this definitely wasn't ordinary artillery bombardment.

Huang Wei immediately ordered most of the officers and men on the position to withdraw from the main position and move to the rear via communication trenches to take cover from the artillery, leaving only one battalion's soldiers to hold the cat-ear holes within the position.

Off the mouth of the Yangtze River, led by the Mutsu Battleship, the main and secondary guns of a total of ten warships all aimed toward Luodian, preparing for a simultaneous salvo.

The Mutsu's main guns had eight 410mm giant cannons, and its secondary guns were even more numerous. Because the battleship's tonnage was too large—essentially an illegal structure on the sea—the Mutsu could not penetrate deep into the Yangtze River Estuary and could only bombard from twenty li offshore. As for the other warships of smaller tonnage, they would move in close to Chongming Island to bombard.

Firing at land was not like firing at sea with nothing in the way. When the devils observed the artillery effect from the bridge, their line of sight would be obstructed by various terrain and objects, greatly reducing shooting accuracy. This was when they needed observation balloons or reconnaissance aircraft to direct the gunfire.

"Commence test firing!" Commander Gu Qingchuan gave the order.

The Mutsu Battleship's captain, Colonel Goto Eiji, personally issued various orders, while other destroyers, at closer range, also opened fire on the Luodian Position.

The Mutsu Battleship's giant shells weighing hundreds of kilograms and various small- and medium-caliber shells tore through the long sky, smashing toward the Luodian Xia Army position like hail.

In an instant, the area around Luodian was covered by continuous explosions and firelight and dense smoke and dust; the earth shook violently, as if a continuous earthquake was occurring.

In the basket of one of the observation balloons, a Japanese artillery observer who had undergone specialized training held high-powered binoculars, intently staring at the Luodian Position below.

Beside the Japanese observer was a radio operator, ready at any time to send his observation results back to the fleet.

"No good! The first salvo's impact point is off by about eight hundred meters to the east; the target area is on the wasteland ahead of the preset position."

The observer spoke at extreme speed: "Send a report to the Combined Fleet: correct the azimuth, distance unchanged."

The radio operator immediately transmitted the order.

Ten minutes later, the fleet corrected its trajectory and carried out a second round of firing according to the corrected parameters.

The observer stared tightly at the new explosion points: "Hit the front of the main position; some hit the first trench line! Good effect! Repeat the parameters, conduct creeping fire, cover the depth targets!"

At the same time, the Japanese carrier aircraft formation escorting the observation balloons was also circling above Luodian.

Some Type 96 carrier fighters, after confirming that ground anti-aircraft fire was weak, began diving down, repeatedly strafing the position with their onboard machine guns.

Under the guidance of the devils' observation balloons, the Japanese naval gunfire began plowing the ground from front to depth, carrying out stepwise saturation bombardment of the Luodian Position.

Gunpowder smoke filled the position, firelight sprang up everywhere, and shrapnel and shockwaves raged everywhere.

The infantry of the Japanese Third Division's Sixth Regiment and Eighteenth Regiment had by now finished assembling at the attack assembly area, waiting only for the naval gunfire to finish creeping before launching a charge against this heavily devastated position.

However, the soldiers of the Sixty-Seventh Division had long been prepared; the main force had long since withdrawn from the position, leaving only one battalion's soldiers to guard inside the position, ready to take over the position immediately once the bombardment ended.

The soldiers left behind by the Sixty-Seventh Division were all scattered in the cat-ear holes. According to the Liao Yaoxiang Brigade's earlier guidance, the soldiers half-knelt in the cat-ear holes, covered their ears, opened their mouths wide, to reduce damage to their bodies from shockwaves.

The cat-ear holes were dug very deep; even if 140mm or 127mm naval guns came in, the soldiers in the cat-ear holes would still be relatively safe.

But it cannot be denied that if they were bombed by the Mutsu's 410mm giant cannons, the cat-ear holes would be useless.

Boom! The devils' 410mm giant cannon shells fell into the position; even in the cat-ear holes, one shot would knock the 67th Division's officers and men near the impact point to the ground.

The devils' observer on the observation balloon discovered that there was no one in the airspace above the position, and couldn't help but frown: "Like the Mutsu generating power, the destructive effect on the enemy position is good, but no enemy troops were spotted on the Luodian Position; unclear whether they are hiding inside the anti-artillery fortifications, or simply not on the position at all!"

The Mutsu. Commander Gu Qingchuan received a telegram, looked at the eight 410mm naval guns still bombarding outside the porthole, and couldn't help but feel the pain: "Captain Goto, how many rounds has the main gun fired in salvo?"

"Report to Your Excellency the Commander, six salvo rounds have been fired!"

"Enough! Enough! Let the secondary guns keep firing, let the main guns rest for a while! After a few more salvo rounds, let the army hurry up and charge!"