The violent explosion caused a power outage in some cabins of the Tongling, but the power was still there and the emergency power supply equipment was functioning normally.
The damage control team and other sailors worked hard to quickly control the water intrusion, and the power outage was restored within a short time. The Tongling now straightened its rudder, then continued to reverse, slowly retreating away from the dangerous mine area ahead.
The fracture was rough and messy. The steel plates of the ship's hull were curled and deformed, and various pipes and cables were exposed. It looked like the lotus root had been broken off with force, rather than neatly cut with a sharp blade.
However, although it looks extremely miserable, there is no risk of sinking, and the casualties are relatively small. A total of four people are missing, one person was killed, and seven people were seriously injured.
Adhering to the wartime rule of radio silence, Tongling used semaphores and lanterns to report the situation to the fleet.
Several flags were hung on the mast, and the signal lights were flashing - there were mines ahead, which was highly dangerous. Our ship was seriously injured and the situation was stable.
The fleet then stopped advancing, and the minesweeper squadron was immediately dispatched. The four minesweepers formed an echelon formation, sailed back and forth in a Z-shape in the target sea area, shot at floating mines to detonate them, and used minesweepers to clear fixed anchor mines.
The unfortunate encounter of the destroyer Tongling made everyone in the fleet realize that the battle had really begun. Now everyone was in danger and could lose their lives inadvertently at any time.
However, everyone still doesn't know what the degree of Japanese resistance will be, whether it will be light or heavy.
There were constant booming explosions coming from the front, which were drifting mines discovered by the minesweeper using its cannon or heavy machine gun fire.
Because the time left for the resistance forces was limited, less than thirty hours, and there was a lack of professional minelayers, they laid a limited number of mines in the waterway near Kawasaki.
The clear weather also improved the efficiency of clearing minefields. In just over an hour, four minesweepers quickly cleared hundreds of mines here.
Several dive bombers on reconnaissance missions also returned one after another and reported what they had seen - there were no visible fortifications near Kawasaki.
Maybe the fact is that the opponent did not set up a defense line, but it is also possible that they disguised the field fortifications well and successfully deceived the pilots' eyes.
Although the Tongling's encounter was horrifying, it did not dampen the morale of the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers. The Fourth Infantry Division was still in a very positive state and had begun preparations for landing.
At the same time, slightly north, the main force of the fleet has arrived in the Tokyo Pier area.
The fleet consisting of dozens of large and small warships changed its formation. The main body formed two parallel and staggered long snake formations, with some destroyers patrolling back and forth on the periphery. This was to prevent the possible appearance of torpedo boats or frogmen.
During the European War, a team of Italian frogmen secretly sneaked into the Austro-Hungarian naval base from underwater. The brave and careful frogmen created a glorious record - they successfully sunk the 20,000-ton Unitis with a small gain but a great success. Battleship.
Having learned from this experience, the navies of the major powers naturally paid more attention, studied methods to deal with frogman raids, and supplemented them in naval doctrine.
Although the Ming Dynasty did not participate in the war, its officials were happy to squander the experiences and lessons of other countries.
"...It is expected that the third echelon will be able to go ashore around five o'clock, and then it will only have to hold the beachhead position. However, if everything goes well, well...then we will implement Plan 2 and go deeper."
After finishing speaking, Zhou Changfeng reached out and tapped on the map, and then looked at the officers in front of him with different expressions.
Everyone immediately clasped their fists and responded loudly: "I have the order!"
Just after Shenshi, at 15:12, the landing operation of the 1st Marine Regiment began.
The battleships Zhanghe and Yongping both put down fast reconnaissance boats on both sides of the ship's stern. There were four boats in total. They carried more than twenty officers and soldiers of the first landing battle group reconnaissance team.
This is a high-speed speedboat used for reconnaissance of beaches before large forces land. It is smooth and rounded, made of aluminum alloy, and can carry six to eight soldiers. There are folding aluminum alloy ladders on both sides for the crew to get up and down.
As always, the Navy did not name this little thing after the year, but directly called it the "No. 1 reconnaissance boat". It has a total length of 15 meters and a displacement of six and a half tons. In order to achieve the purpose of rapid reconnaissance and search, it is equipped with a The 350-horsepower C-type III diesel engine can reach a maximum speed of 36 knots.
Four reconnaissance boats rushed towards the beach at high speed, leaving tracks on the calm sea.
The more than 20 officers and soldiers of the reconnaissance team landed safely on the beach without being attacked. They became the first people in the Marine Regiment to set foot on a foreign land.
They checked the surrounding environment and thought there was nothing unusual, so they fired two green flares.
At this point, the subsequent landing operations officially began.
The Ming Army and Navy themselves had studied and finalized the mode of landing operations. This was also the guideline for the Marine Corps to carry out its main business. Many landing operations doctrines were based on it.
Zhou Changfeng further improved the details on this basis and added many auxiliary concepts from later generations. However, these advanced concepts only exist in writing and sand table deductions for the time being, and I am afraid they will not be useful until the future landing in Nanyang.
All in all, when the Ming army carries out landing operations in the determined landing area, it is divided into three major steps tactically.
First, use aircraft and high-speed reconnaissance boats to conduct a thorough investigation of the beach, including the arrangement of obstacles, the steep and gentle slope of the beach, the distribution of firepower points, etc.
Second, naval warships prepare firepower on the beach and attack the discovered targets. After that, the shelling continued to cover the landing troops as they docked. When they were less than a mile away from the beach, the battleship began to extend its firepower deep to the rear.
Third, if there is an obstacle blocking it, the engineering unit must first go to the shore to destroy it. If there is no obstacle, it will be ignored. Subsequently, the landing troops landed on various landing ships to seize the beachhead position.
Battleships, aircraft carriers, and six landing ships have successively launched more than 20 landing craft. This wooden boat is about 12 meters long and is propelled by a 100-horsepower diesel engine. It has a maximum speed of ten knots and can carry ten people. A ton of cargo. When transporting troops, it can hold about forty people.
There were rope nets hanging from both sides of the battleship, and the heavily armed soldiers climbed down one by one through the rope nets, and finally jumped into the landing craft.
Xue Can's first battalion took the lead, and the eighteen landing craft also lined up after leaving the fleet and rushed to the beach at full speed.
Standing on the bridge of the battleship Zhanghe, Zhou Changfeng held a telescope. In his eyes, the tracks left by the landing craft were like a row of snow-white combs.
The landing went smoothly. Landing boats rushed onto the beach one after another. The springboard in front fell down with a crash. Soldiers carrying rifles ran out, quickly dispersed to the left and right sides, spread out their lines, and then or Crouching or lying on guard.
In this way, except for a few people who fell and were injured, hundreds of officers and soldiers of the first battalion established the beachhead position almost unscathed.
Subsequently, the second echelon also came ashore with ease.
Didn't it say there was some kind of resistance army? Why haven't I seen a shadow yet?
At 16:46 in the afternoon, the regiment headquarters, combat artillery team, engineering team, and amphibious combat convoy as the third echelon set off.
Zhou Changfeng was also in one of the landing craft. He intuitively believed that the resistance force organized by the Japanese could not be groundless. Since there was no attack during the beach landing, it is possible that the opponent chose defense in depth?
If you think about it rationally, this is completely reasonable.
There is a huge Ming army fleet parked in Tokyo Bay. If you dare to carry out beach defense, you are asking for death - even the permanent fortifications made of reinforced concrete are as fragile as building blocks in the face of the 12.5-inch, 400mm battleship armor-piercing projectile.
Instead of wasting troops in vain, it is better to push the Ming army deeper and resist step by step.
In Japan, which lacks strategic depth, if it cannot annihilate the enemy on the beach, it will be defeated once a large enemy force comes ashore.
However, because the brave defenders were sure from the beginning that this was a war destined to fail, they gave up setting up a defense line on the beach without any scruples.
Suddenly, a group of flashes of light burst out on the edge of the beach, followed by a second group, a third group...
A few seconds later, the booming explosion reached the ears of the officers and soldiers of the third echelon who were still sailing at sea.
Zhou Changfeng frowned subconsciously, and then raised the telescope.
Because the beach was wetter than the land inland, the explosion did not stir up much dust. The smoke dissipated quickly, and the Marine Corps' three-mountain wave flag planted on the beach was still flying.
According to his experience, it should be a shell fired by a medium-sized mortar.
The Japanese, who have very few heavy industries, now only have the ability to process supplied materials. The Tokyo Artillery Factory can manufacture a small number of 75mm mountain guns by importing British gun barrel steel. However, because the cost is too high, in recent years they can only focus on manufacturing mortars that can be completely produced by themselves. The imitation product is also the French Brande 81mm mortar used by countries around the world.
The beachhead troops who had been hit by more than a dozen shells began to try to fight back after a brief period of confusion. Some people remained as calm as possible under the bombardment, and their sharp eyes saw the smoke and faint fire when the enemy mortars were fired.
After hasty ranging and coordination, the eight 80mm mortars belonging to the first and second battalions fired back in that general direction.
The two Type 37 fighter jets that were hovering in the air lowered their altitude, hovering over the beachhead troops while shaking their wings left and right, signaling the mortars to stop firing back, lest their parabolic trajectories coincide with the aircraft's flight path and cause a big joke.
Subsequently, the two fighter planes, one behind the other, dived and fired at the newly exposed enemy mortar position.
A string of 7.36mm machine gun bullets stirred up clouds of dust on the field, and the dropped 50kg aerial bomb exploded, destroying one of the mortar launch bunkers.
When Zhou Changfeng stepped onto the beach from the landing craft, he couldn't help but have mixed feelings.
Now he has set foot on Japanese soil as a soldier, and the city of Tokyo is within easy reach.
Glory can't be mentioned, it can only be said that some obsessions have been slightly relieved.
Japan in this dimension is completely unqualified as an opponent. Indeed, if he completely abandoned his identity in his previous life, he should be as calm as thousands of other Ming army soldiers.
I'm afraid there's nothing to be proud of even if you plant the sun and moon flag in Batavia. Do you want to make everyone's hearts fluctuate? Then at least the sun and moon flag must be planted in Canberra.
The resistance army's shelling caused certain casualties to the 1st Marine Regiment, with 30 killed and 19 injured.
The well-trained officers and soldiers reacted quickly after being bombarded. Therefore, except for the first shell, which caught them off guard, everyone fell down in time to find cover. The subsequent dozen or so shells had little effect and only blew up a ship. Landing craft.
"Instructions are given for the first battalion to advance two miles to the northwest; the second battalion to advance two miles to the northeast and then build a defensive line; the heavy force battalion and the mountain artillery battalion will be deployed in place after landing; the chariot convoy ensures that there is a platoon available for support at any time."
"Yes." Xie Wancheng repeated his order loudly, "The two battalions advanced two miles to the northwest and northeast to build a defense line. The artillery was deployed on the spot, and the tanks were on standby in turns."
"By the way, remind all ministries to beware of enemy night attacks."
"It's an order."
The two battalions quickly took action. The heavily armed soldiers shifted into a sparse formation to prepare for artillery bombardment, and moved deeper in depth under the leadership of several vanguard groups.
The enemy army seemed to have disappeared. There was nothing unusual for two quarters of an hour. The previous shelling seemed like a dream.
The situation faced by the 1st Marine Regiment cannot be representative of other Ming armies, because everyone can vaguely hear subtle movements coming from the southwest.
That was Kawasaki City where the Fourth Division landed, about ten kilometers away in a straight line, and some earth-shaking sounds came across the distance.
At this moment, the 4th Infantry Division had been fighting fiercely with the resistance for a full hour.
The 10th Regiment has all been engaged in the battle, and the third battalion of the 11th Regiment has also been reinforced. Their opponent is the Matsumoto detachment who bravely defended the Turkish army.
As the commander of the third battalion of the 11th Regiment, He Cheng believes that as long as he breaks through the shaky defense line of the enemy in front of him, his will to resist can be completely broken, and Tokyo will be almost at his fingertips.
However, to his surprise and that of all the Ming army officers and soldiers, the resistance army was very determined to fight and would not give in almost an inch of ground.
In order to express their status as civilian volunteers, the Fenyong defenders did not wear military uniforms, but wore a variety of ordinary clothes, only distinguished by cloth strips of various colors tied on their arms.
The sunset was as red as blood, and the evening wilderness was swept by a storm of steel and explosives.
The mortars, infantry guns, and combat anti-aircraft guns belonging to the infantry regiment kept firing. Empty shell casings piled up into hills. The naval guns carried by Ming army destroyers and light cruisers on the sea were also roaring.
Countless artillery shells hit the enemy positions like hailstones. The positions built by the resistance forces with all their strength overnight were filled with smoke and debris, and the scene was so spectacular that it is difficult to describe.
The roar of artillery served as the background sound, and the shouts, whistles, and suona sounds of the Ming army intertwined into a unique ensemble.
"Damn it! It's hard to hit from the front, so you have to try from the flank. Send the order, the third team is ready to make a detour!" He Cheng was injured by a 6.5×50mm rifle bullet in his left arm, but it was still bleeding after being bandaged.
"yes!"
The fighting started at 15:57 pm and did not stop until the sun completely set.
However, more than two hours of fierce fighting achieved little results - two battalions of the 10th Regiment advanced 300 meters and suffered more than 300 casualties; one battalion of the 11th Regiment advanced 200 meters and suffered 110 casualties. The remaining people.
(End of chapter)
