Chapter 238

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

An Bang stared at the increasingly clear silhouettes of warships in the artillery observation mirror, silently calculating in his heart.

At this distance, for the large-caliber heavy guns in the fortress whose ranges often reached ten or twenty kilometers, it had already entered effective range, but was not yet the optimal killing distance, and exposing the core firepower points too early would only alert the enemy.

Let's give the Japanese warships a little appetizer first!

An Bang picked up the telephone and ordered: "Order: Huangshan No. 3, No. 4, Dongshan No. 1, No. 2, Xishan No. 1, Eshan No. 1 gun positions, attack the enemy fleet with the 88mm guns!"

An Bang chose to use the 88mm dual-purpose guns, which had a faster rate of fire, flexible firing arcs, and some gun positions were relatively concealed, for the first wave of strikes.

These guns were deployed in multiple gun batteries and fortresses, capable of forming crossfire without exposing all heavy guns at once.

The gun positions quickly reported ready; the gunners turned the elevation and direction machines, and through the indirect aiming device, aimed the slender gun barrels at targets on the river surface.

The shells had long been loaded, and the fuzes were set.

"Target: enemy vanguard destroyer and the gunboat on the left! Three rounds rapid fire! Fire!"

At An Bang's order, six gun positions, eleven 88mm dual-purpose semi-automatic guns opened fire on the Japanese warships.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!...

The muzzle flashes flickered briefly within the well-camouflaged embrasures; the sound, amplified and refracted by the mountain caves, was extremely shocking.

The shells rushed out of the barrels at extremely high muzzle velocity, cutting through the humid air over the Yangtze River, flying toward the river surface ten kilometers away.

The shell impacts were extremely concentrated; after all, the Yangtze was only so wide—where could the Japanese warships hide?

As long as the shells landed on the Yangtze River surface, whichever warship they hit would be unlucky.

Boom boom boom—!

Several tall water columns erupted on the river surface.

But this wasn't over yet; the 88mm guns reached a rate of fire of 15-20 rounds per minute—before the previous shell reached its target, the next shell was already on its way.

Translated onto the Japanese, it meant shells raining down, shaking the Yangtze River surface with thunderous noise.

Two of the shells directly hit the destroyer charging at the front!

One struck the forward deck, firelight and black smoke billowing up; the other hit near the waterline amidships, tearing open a hole as river water surged in.

The gunboat beside it was also damaged by shells, its speed suddenly dropping.

Alarms sounded on the Japanese warships, and the sailors and damage control team members, long prepared, rushed frantically to plug the breaches.

"Baka! The enemy opened fire!"

"The airstrike had no effect at all!"

The fleet fell into panic; the Yangtze was still too narrow compared to the sea surface. If the Jiangyin Fortress had abundant firepower, the entire river-going fleet would have no return.

The commander of the Tianlong Cruiser, seeing this, remained calm; he had already discerned that although these guns were dense, their caliber was not large, likely not exceeding 100mm.

He still needed to weigh the true strength of the Jiangyin Fortress himself!

Thus he dispatched two warships forward to conduct a fire reconnaissance mission.

According to the fleet commander's analysis, the previous few rounds of 88mm gun attacks were not heavy artillery strikes, and the threat of 88mm guns to the fleet was actually not great.

To be safe, the fleet commander dispatched the lead few warships to probe just how intense the Jiangyin Fortress's firepower really was.

Inside the Jiangyin Fortress Underground Command Post, Lv Muzhi's figure was almost pressed against the periscope eyepiece.

In his field of view, the situation on the Yangtze River surface was laid bare.

Several Japanese destroyers and gunboats, at a speed clearly faster than the following fleet groups, were breaking away from the main fleet and approaching the fortress direction.

As they sailed, they fired their naval guns at the Jiangyin Fortress.

"The Japanese are indeed cautious; this is fire reconnaissance." Lv Muzhi whispered to himself, then immediately grabbed the special phone beside him, directly connecting to the Huangshan Core Command Fort: "An Bang, do you see those two warships approaching?"

On the other end of the phone came An Bang's slightly hurried voice: "I see them, Lu Commander! The distance has closed to... less than five thousand meters! The 88mm guns are bombarding with full force; should we let the heavy guns inside the fortress fire? I guarantee we'll send them to feed the fish!"

"No!" Lv Muzhi rejected An Bang's request: "You must keep calm; order all gun batteries to continue dealing with them using the 88mm guns.

Not a single heavy gun is allowed to move for now; all large-caliber shore defense cannons, keep hidden!"

An Bang was after all at the frontline, worriedly saying: "The Japanese naval gun caliber is not small at all; if they get too close, I really worry......."

"Don't worry; I have confidence in the fortress's sturdiness. The enemy's warship naval guns won't cause too much damage to the Jiangyin Fortress. What we need to play now is a weak Jiangyin Fortress.

We must make the Japanese believe we have no large-caliber heavy guns. You must now show weakness to the enemy; the cards in your hand are only those 88mm guns, and you must put on an anxious appearance, let the brothers fire with vigor, don't be stingy with the shells—the shells in the ammunition depot are enough for you to consume!

You must let the enemy's main fleet draw near, striving to sink several more warships!"

On the other end of the phone, An Bang obviously took a deep breath before answering: "Understood! Show weakness to the enemy, lure the snake out of its hole; I'll arrange it right away!"

Orders were immediately turned into action.

The 88mm anti-aircraft guns inside the gun batteries continued firing, and even the mountain gun company of the fortress garrison began firing toward the river surface.

Bang bang bang!

The gunfire suddenly became intense, muzzle flashes flickering at different positions along the riverbank hills. Shells cut across the river surface, landing around the Japanese reconnaissance ships, water columns rising one after another.

For a time, the river surface seemed quite lively.

On the bridge of a Japanese destroyer advancing ahead, the captain held binoculars, carefully observing the muzzle flashes and shell impact points rising opposite.

The observer beside him quickly reported: "Confirmed enemy gun caliber, mainly medium and small caliber! There seem to be mountain gun shells, lacking the explosion characteristics of heavy shells!"

The captain undertaking the fire reconnaissance mission still couldn't relax; even though the 88mm guns were not large in caliber, as long as the numbers were sufficient and they concentrated fire on individual warships, even his own ship couldn't withstand it.

Shells continuously exploded into tall water columns around the Japanese reconnaissance ship formation; many shells hit the warship hulls, and the Japanese sailors panicked and threw themselves down.

"Enemy gunfire is still concentrated on our ship!"

"Confirmed mainly medium and small caliber dual-purpose guns!"

"Multiple damage control accidents!"

A captain of the reconnaissance formation turned to the signalman and said: "Report to the flagship: reconnaissance by fire is complete! Our Army's reconnaissance by fire has drawn concentrated strikes from enemy shore batteries; the situation is critical."

Observation shows the enemy's defensive fire consists mainly of small- and medium-caliber guns, insufficient to pose a lethal threat to our Sui River Fleet.

Request support as soon as possible; the reconnaissance fleet is about to be besieged to death by this swarm of bees!

Send the transport ships too!"

After hearing this, the captain of the Tianlong Cruiser in the rear finally revealed a smile.

The Jiangyin Fortress is overrated!

The 88-millimeter gun can strike sky and ground, but to hit a massive warship, it will take some grinding!

He directly ordered: "Full Fleet Attack! Cover the transport ships landing directly at Jiangyin Fortress!"