As night falls, under the deep and bright starry sky, the entire Tokyo is brightly lit - even though the war has come, many people are still living a life of feasting and feasting.
Especially in the public concessions, the colorful neon lights are so bright. The bars and dance halls are full of local chaebols and Europeans with their female companions on their arms. They chat about the Ming army approaching the city, but what they say expresses Don't care.
In a dance club called "Robin", a blonde girl looked sideways at the man beside her.
She asked with some worry: "Philip, there were many explosions on the coast today. What should we do?"
The latter looked indifferent, shrugged, and replied: "This is a concession, and the Chinese will not disturb us."
Since the Ming Dynasty officials only said that they would take over the areas of influence of the great powers in Japan and would not revoke the concessions, then the war had nothing to do with masters like them.
The Tokyo Public Settlement has its own power plant, water plant, hospital, and various warehouses. It is easy to be self-sufficient for a month.
"Hey, the wine hasn't been mixed yet? Why are you so slow?"
"Okay ma'am, I'm sorry to keep you waiting."
The bartender at the front desk mixed two glasses of whiskey and liqueur, and a thin Japanese girl wearing a waiter's uniform walked over with a plate and presented the drinks to the man and woman.
Phillip reached for the two wine glasses, then looked at the waiter and asked: "What is your name? How old are you?"
The latter lowered his head and whispered back: "Xiao Song Molizi, you will be seventeen in one week."
"Are you still in school?"
"I haven't gone to school since I graduated from Santa Maria Church Primary School..."
In fact, Philip was already used to this. He took out a one-pound note from his suit jacket pocket with his index and middle fingers and handed it to her.
Today's US dollar is not considered a global currency, and pounds and gold are hard currencies. However, in the Asia-Pacific region, Ming Dynasty's universal banknotes are also universal. One pound was worth four dollars, or sixteen cents, which was an unheard of amount of money for a low-status ballroom waiter.
Komatsu Moliko opened her mouth slightly in surprise, but her eyes still showed hesitation, "Sir, this is too much..."
"I'm in a good mood today." Philip gave a reason casually, "Take it."
The female companion on the side, Emily, took out a lighter and lit a thin women's cigarette, reminding: "Hide it well, be careful not to be snatched away."
Philip is a pretentious guy with a good family background. His father owns a machine processing factory in Seattle, and he survived the dark economic crisis and revived it. Because Philip was dissatisfied with his strict father, he chose to travel across the ocean to Hangzhou in the Ming Dynasty to do business, but failed.
But he was unwilling to return to Seattle in despair, so he sold his remaining assets and came to Tokyo with the remaining money, where he started an ingenious business of reselling supplies.
The garrisons of all the major powers in the concession were quite corrupt and disorganized due to lack of supervision - the Tsarist Russian garrison always drank too much, and in order to pay for the alcohol, the officers took the lead in reselling military supplies; the British, French and American garrisons often took girls on their arms and wandered around, and the soldiers could not make ends meet. Then he took various supplies in the military camp and exchanged them for money; the Ming garrison was also pretty much the same.
Doing serious business ended in disastrous failure, but doing gray work was like a fish in water. It can be said that Philip was a strange talent.
As for his recent girlfriend Emily, her father was a small Junker noble who fled abroad eighteen years ago. He had a fiefdom in Batelaar, northern Germany. However, because he was firmly opposed to that and worried about being settled by his future wife, he decided to He fled with his family through Belgium, crossed the ocean, and finally settled in Tokyo.
But Emily's father died of illness not long after, and her mother spent money like water because of the aristocratic eldest daughter's temperament. After squandering all her wealth, she was unwilling to give up her luxurious life. The salary of a violin teacher was too low, so she put aside her status and became a prostitute. prostitute. With such a family situation, one can imagine the twists and turns of Emily's growth.
"Asshole, how much tip did that guy give you? Hand it over!"
Emily's previous reminder came true. The Yojimbo (Japanese bodyguards and guards) hired by the dance hall were the local gangsters around them. They bullied men and women and had no sympathy for the weak.
Komatsu Moliko trembled all over in front of the ferocious Yojim sticks, and had no choice but to hand over the one-pound note while shedding tears.
At least in the concession, which is almost half a colony, although it is a civilized society on the surface, the law of the jungle still applies in essence. Such things are not uncommon.
The concession is like a paradise isolated from the world, and the people in it don't care about what happens outside.
In fact, even most Tokyoites in urban areas are insensitive and believe that resistance is pointless or even harmful.
What's the use of resistance? He couldn't defeat him anyway, and it would only make Mingren angry in the end. It would be better to kneel down and ask for surrender and greet Master Wang respectfully.
Under the soft moonlight cast by the first quarter moon, the A-107 Special Agent Fleet anchored in the bay can be vaguely seen.
In order to avoid possible surprise attacks by torpedo boats or frogmen, the fleet strictly followed the regulations and implemented light control, with only a few destroyers with searchlights cruising back and forth in the periphery.
The officers and soldiers of the 1st Marine Regiment on the beachhead have dug foxholes, wrapped in blankets, leaning against the walls of the holes and taking a nap.
On the most forward security position, in the sparse two-man foxholes, the soldiers responsible for security stared at the dark front, with rifles, bullets, and grenades placed beside them.
Several directional mines were also placed thirty meters away, each facing an angle to completely cover 180° in front of them, and the killing angles partially overlapped to maximize the killing effect.
Facing new things, most people will inevitably have a distrustful attitude, and the same is true for soldiers. Instead of setting up trip wires, they use electronically controlled detonators to take these directional mines into their own hands.
In this state of fear, time seems to pass extremely slowly in the dark night.
In the second half of the night, those who were about to take a break were drowsy, and those who had just been woken up were in a daze.
At this time, someone heard some slight movement, and following the sound, there seemed to be a black shadow moving in the vast night, and the distance was already very close, less than fifty meters.
"Look, is something moving?"
"where?"
A sergeant with quick eyesight picked up a flare gun and fired a flare into the sky.
Under the bright white light group, the soldiers in the guard position subconsciously stretched out their hands to block the light, but their eyes widened the next second.
I saw more than a hundred figures holding guns scattered in the field, roughly divided into six or seven groups, with more than a dozen people in each group.
"Enemy attack!!!"
It was unknown whether the first shot was fired by our own side or the enemy. In an instant, the dense gunfire tore apart the quiet night.
"Retreat or not?!" someone asked loudly to the second lieutenant in the foxhole next door.
The latter waved his hand and replied: "Not yet!"
Several rounds of illumination shells fired from the 80mm mortars from the beachhead illuminated the area brightly, and the visibility was no less than that of a clear day.
Someone pressed the detonator's lever, and several explosion points instantly appeared in front of the warning position. The roar of the violent explosion spread throughout the entire landing area.
Thousands of short steel rods and steel balls swept across the front of the security position, and the massive amounts of prefabricated fragments ejected caused a bloody storm among the resistance forces who attacked at night. The shrill screams became the aftertaste of the explosion.
Caught off guard, more than half of the two teams involved in the night attack were killed or wounded at the beginning.
But their 81mm mortars began to bombard the Ming army's positions, and Jingui's 75mm mountain guns were also put into use. Shells continued to fall on the beachhead.
Viewed from the battleships anchored on the sea, such a scene will definitely leave a deep memory - the sea and sky are dark, with only the reflection of the moon, and there are small dots of light flashing on the land in the distance, which are the muzzles of guns. The larger light group is the flame of the exploding cannonball.
The tracer bullets fired by the machine guns were like red-hot knives burned by the flames, cutting through the black curtain covering the world; while the large illumination bombs fired by the destroyer's 128mm naval gun were as bright as a small sun, as if they directly lifted the entire black curtain. .
Neither side went further, and the shooting battle continued until dawn before gradually subsided.
Dozens of corpses of resistance soldiers were scattered in an area of several hundred meters in front of the security position. Among them, the corpses killed by a large number of prefabricated fragments of directed mines were the most horrifying, and they were riddled with holes.
"Reported, 17 people were slightly injured, eight were seriously injured, four were killed, and one person died." A staff officer reported with fists in his hand.
Zhou Changfeng was squatting next to a bonfire pit, with two branches placed horizontally and several cans of braised pork and soybeans on top.
He reached out and touched it. It felt quite hot, so he quickly picked it up and put it on the ground. "Change the time. At seven o'clock, we will proceed as planned and let the fleet be ready."
Because they were well prepared, last night's night attack did not cause much damage to the landing troops.
All units of the 1st Marine Regiment have been ashore, the mountain artillery team equipped with 80mm mountain guns and the mortar battalion equipped with 112mm heavy mortars have been deployed, and the field hospital has also been set up.
According to the previously formulated plan, the third battalion cooperated with the chariot convoy, accompanied by two platoons of engineers, carrying river crossing equipment, and advanced along the highway towards Tokyo city.
Since the landing point was in the southeast of Tokyo, the Arakawa river became a natural barrier in front of the Marine Corps.
The main task of the third battalion is to break through the opponent's defense line, establish a stable bridgehead after forcibly crossing the Arakawa River, and build a pontoon bridge for subsequent troops to cross the river.
The Fujiwara detachment was ordered to block the 1st Marine Regiment. They blasted several bridges on the Arakawa River, then set up a defense line and waited for the arrival of the Ming army.
Last night's tentative night attack did not have any effect. Only one-third of the two teams participating in the battle withdrew.
In the field headquarters behind a collapsed bridge, the adjutant bowed and said: "The search squadron reports that the Ming army's advance force is approaching, with about fifteen tanks and a thousand people."
Lieutenant Colonel Fujiwara Yoshiharu glanced at the map and said calmly: "Be prepared. Unless the attack is blocked, they will not settle for second best. This is the best place to cross the river."
This is the fact. Zhou Changfeng does not want to take a long detour temporarily, so he requires priority to take action on this.
The eighteen Type 35 floating combat vehicles in the amphibious combat convoy marched in staggered columns, followed closely by infantry and engineers.
After the Arakawa came into view, the tanks turned into a horizontal formation under the order of captain Li Bin and lined up along the river beach to ensure that the entire team could attack the other side with maximum firepower.
Fan Qijin held the telescope and observed for a long time, nodded and said: "It is consistent with the conclusion of aerial reconnaissance. Two main lines of defense are clearly visible. It is hard to say whether there is a third line."
The step-by-step attack was quickly launched. The battalion's 80mm mortars began to attack the observed enemy positions, and the regiment's 80mm mountain artillery team also subsequently conducted indirect fire.
The "Yan" team that took off from the Tianshi Zuoguan was responsible for close support. Nine 37-type carrier-based dive bombers flew into the sky above Arakawa in a three-plane formation arranged in a Zigzag pattern, and then strafed and bombed.
Excluding a few dumb bombs, more than thirty 100kg aerial bombs exploded one after another, and the news of dozens of kilograms of TNT being detonated was shocking.
Under the huge power of intensive artillery fire and air strikes, most of the field fortifications built by the resistance forces in the past two days were destroyed. The shelter that was directly hit by the aerial bomb collapsed and buried more than a dozen people alive, becoming the graves they dug for themselves.
During the fire preparation, which lasted about an hour, the mountain artillery team fired two and a half shells, and the battalion's mortar platoon fired slightly less.
The long-term continuous firing made the root of the barrel show a faint red color. The exhausted artillerymen took out their cigarettes and touched them there, and the cigarettes were lit.
Zhou Changfeng specifically requested that the fleet's artillery support should be placed last and should be separated by three minutes, so as to achieve the goal of maximizing the damage to the enemy.
"Boo-hoo--"
A red and a yellow flare shot into the sky.
The artillery fire in the sky looked spectacular at first, but it became boring after a while. The tank soldiers, who were less interested, moved quickly, and the eighteen amphibious tanks lined up on the river bank slowly drove into the river.
This situation was the beginning of a formal attack in the eyes of the enemy on the other side. The surviving sentries immediately called the large troops into the dilapidated positions to prepare to meet the incoming Ming army.
The feint of the chariot convoy was a great success, and the enemy troops who were stunned by the previous bombardment left the shelter one after another.
In Tokyo Bay, the main guns of the two battleships Showa and Eihei have been pointed slightly in the target direction.
The two main gunnery officers were staring at their watches. The three minutes required for the interval were now only a dozen seconds left.
Four, three, two, one... time's up, fire!
The calm bay was stirred up by the strong storm of the battleship's main gun salvo, causing white waves. A dozen 844kg 400mm high-explosive bombs flew out of the gun muzzle at a speed of 812m/s!
Although they are both twelve and a half inches, the twin-mounted naval guns equipped by these two battleships are of the old type, which is slightly inferior to the new model of the Long Shuo. However, it is difficult to distinguish them when shelling the other side.
The high-explosive bomb filled with 75kg of TNT and aluminum powder mixed explosives was extremely terrifying. The violent explosion seemed to overturn the entire land.
Broken limbs and broken pieces blown away by the shock wave were flying all over the sky, and some of them fell into the Arakawa, splashing into circles of water.
(End of chapter)
