November 25th, 1937, 9:23 AM:

Liu Xing grasped Lin Fan's hands with both of his. "Company Commander Lin! You can ask for anything you need."

Lin Fan looked at General Liu Xing, then at Commander Xu Kang. "Really anything?"

"Really anything!" Xu Kang said, his face filled with excitement.

Lin Fan laughed. "I already mentioned my request to Commander Xu Kang once.

If you're letting me bring it up again, I only have one thought:

If things become truly impossible, can the brothers inside the fortress try their best to take these cannons with them?

We can make some preparations beforehand.

Also, in the past few days, I've used up 1,500 mortar shells during training. Can those be replenished?

If possible, could you also provide some light rapid-firing cannons for my company to use during training?"

Liu Xing considered this for a moment. "Fifteen hundred mortar shells... I can give you a thousand.

The able should do more, after all. I think we can give them two more anti-aircraft guns during their training."

Xu Kang nodded. "I obey Commander Liu's orders."

Liu Xing continued, "Commander Lin's suggestion can be studied by Commander Xu.

It's good to have a contingency plan for extreme situations.

As a plan, it can be bold, just a formality on the surface.

But it must be practical and operational.

But it must be kept secret. The plan should only be communicated down to the company level. It's best not to let the ordinary soldiers know."

As the commander-in-chief, Liu Xing's instructions could only be agreed to by Xu Kang with a nod. "Immediately!"

Commander Liu Xing finished giving his instructions and looked at Lin Fan again. "Company Commander Lin, are there any other difficulties you need me to resolve?"

Lin Fan smiled and shook his head repeatedly. "No! None at all!

Commander, you treat my entire special company like national heroes.

The entire special company will repay you as such."

Liu Xing laughed happily. This sounded good.

And this team was indeed very capable!

Who cared what color this team was?

It wasn't that the National Revolutionary Army soldiers weren't brave, or that the navy on the river didn't have the skills.

But these soft powers couldn't withstand the Japanese devils' overwhelming hard technology.

Just like on the 13th of this month, at dawn: our navy's "Shi Yi Ba Yi" boat encountered three Japanese destroyers on the Jinji Port river surface.

Ma Buxiang, the chief training officer of the Jiangyin Lightning School, immediately ordered a torpedo attack.

The soldiers watched as the torpedoes flew quickly towards the Japanese destroyers.

They surged through the waves, constantly approaching the enemy ships, but unfortunately, due to the complex river surface, the torpedoes mistakenly hit a hidden reef and missed their target.

The enemy ships immediately retaliated with fierce firepower, and the "Shi Yi Ba Yi" was hit.

Faced with a life-or-death test, Ma Buxiang and all the officers and soldiers on board showed no fear and decided to perish together with the invaders.

The wounded speedboat advanced at high speed, charging towards the enemy ships. The enemy ships hurriedly turned to escape.

Two of the Japanese ships collided, and another ran aground.

At this moment, Japanese naval aviation planes arrived at the scene and launched an attack on our speedboat. The "Shi Yi Ba Yi" was hit and sank, and Ma Buxiang and all the officers and soldiers died for their country.

At that time, if there had been anti-aircraft support like today for the "Shi Yi Ba Yi"...

Chief Training Officer Ma and his soldiers would not only have avoided a heroic death, but would also have been able to annihilate all three Japanese destroyers.

Unfortunately, what had already happened could not be undone.

General Liu Xing looked at Lin Fan as if he were a treasure, and he also understood why the Japanese planes had all avoided this direction just now.

The reason was right in front of him.

It was still early, and the soldiers of the special company were already back to their intense training.

All the cannons that had been fired today needed to be maintained and serviced.

In addition, Commander Xu Kang kept his word, and two cannons and a thousand mortar shells were delivered in the morning.

Lin Fan immediately organized manpower to familiarize themselves with these two cannons.

He recognized them at a glance: they were Japanese Type 98 20mm anti-aircraft machine cannons.

Purely Japanese made, with a caliber of 20mm, a barrel length of 1,400mm, and a firing line height of 85mm.

The cannon body weighed 70kg, and the total weight for marching was 430kg.

The Type 100 tracer bullet weighed 0.132kg, and the Type 97 armor-piercing bullet weighed 0.12kg.

The elevation range was negative 10 degrees to positive 180 degrees, and the azimuth range was 360 degrees.

The combat firing rate was 120 rounds per minute, and the effective range was 2,500 meters.

This was a good thing. Lin Fan had fallen in love with it at first sight:

The power was relatively considerable, the firing rate was fast, and it was quite light for a cannon.

It could be carried away by mules and horses, and in an emergency, it could be carried away by manpower.

The firing rate was also acceptable.

Lin Fan had already decided: a mechanism should be designed on the cars to quickly secure these two cannons.

This was a sharp weapon for breaking through encirclements.

Thinking of the movies he had seen: a pickup truck with an anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on it, firing away, how cool was that?

If it was used to clear the way, no army could stop the advance of his team.

No sooner said than done: Lin Fan immediately had Feng Junya send people to lift the tripod of one of the cannons into the car compartment.

If this cannon was to be used, it had to be close to the front of the car.

Once a point was determined, the remaining points were easy to determine.

In fact, it was very simple. Three wooden blocks and three sandbags solved the problem.

Lin Fan liked this simple and crude solution the most.

Although there were only two of these cannons, Lin Fan required that this device be installed on all twelve cars of the special column.

In any case, it was better to be prepared.

Inspired by this, Lin Fan had already instructed the soldiers of the special column to install heavy machine guns on the cars.

This was a complete modification of the cars, wanting to use them as armored vehicles.

Unfortunately, Lin Fan didn't have tanks or armored vehicles.

In order to verify the effect of his modified makeshift armored vehicles.

Lin Fan didn't stop for a minute, and the soldiers of the special column dragged the cannons out for training again.

This time they didn't go far, just drove along the road to the land bridge, right there.

The special column tested the tactics of attacking while the convoy was in motion.

Although the accuracy of firing while in motion was very touching, suppressing fire was still very feasible.

If they stopped, they could immediately be used as fixed firing points.

They could exert 100% of the fixed firepower without any preparation time.

Coupled with the use of mortars, Lin Fan felt that this was enough.

This was another busy afternoon.

Commander Kiyoshi Hasegawa of the Japanese Third Fleet learned that none of the fleet he had sent out in the morning had survived.

A squadron of planes sent out later to carry out the rescue was completely annihilated, with only one survivor.

This survivor did not perfectly avoid the National Revolutionary Army's artillery fire through skill or luck.

He was Ōhata Toratarō, a deserter on the battlefield.

Ōhata Toratarō landed his plane at Nanpu Airport.

He was immediately arrested by the military police who rushed up.

His desertion was spreading throughout the air force, along with the news that all nine planes in the Tsukubiji Sōta squadron had crashed.

And after the Tsukubiji Sōta squadron was wiped out, all the planes that arrived later in the Third Fleet's air force privately changed their combat direction.

They did not carry out Commander Kiyoshi Hasegawa's orders to bomb and attack the Jiangyin Fortress.

These planes attacked Jingjiang, north of the Yangtze River, and launched a fierce bombing attack on the positions of Chang Ende's 111st Division.

After these planes dropped all their ammunition on the positions of the 111st Division.

They waved their wings and left without taking a single wisp of wind, returning to their respective departure points.

These planes were extremely safe.

How to deal with Ōhata Toratarō had now become a weather vane for the entire Third Fleet.

Strict punishment or a light sentence?

It all depended on Commander Kiyoshi Hasegawa's decision. Commander Kiyoshi Hasegawa had no reason to let him off lightly.

Violating orders on the battlefield only had one outcome: enforcement of discipline.

In order to remind the pilots of the entire air squadron: Ōhata Toratarō's execution did not last overnight, it was carried out at noon on the 25th.

All the pilots of the entire Third Fleet's air force were gathered at Nanpu Airport.

This was Commander Kiyoshi Hasegawa's order: he wanted all the pilots to know the consequences of disobeying orders.

In front of the more than 300 pilots of the air force, Ōhata Toratarō was escorted by the military police onto the airport runway:

Executed by firing squad!

After the execution was completed, South Wind Ryōtarō, the commander of the air force on the scene, gave a speech to all the pilots:

"You have all seen the fate of those who desert.

All pilots who flew out today will be given a demerit.

If there are any more cases of outwardly complying with orders but inwardly disobeying them.

Ōhata Toratarō will be your fate.

Now I order: continue to carry out the mission of bombing the Jiangyin Fortress this afternoon."

Ōhata Toratarō was the first person in the Japanese army to be executed under military law since the start of this campaign.

This incident greatly stimulated the pilots who were present at the execution ground.

Among the crowd watching the execution today, there were at least fifty who had received orders to bomb and attack the Jiangyin Fortress, but instead attacked Jingjiang across from Jiangyin.

In theory, they were no better than Ōhata Toratarō, but there were too many of them.

The law does not punish the many, and it is enough to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys.

Kiyoshi Hasegawa was unwilling to kill all fifty or so people.

He would rather use all fifty of them as cannon fodder on the battlefield.

Although he dealt with Ōhata Toratarō, who had deserted.

Commander Kiyoshi Hasegawa was still not at peace. He wanted to attack Jiangyin and take it down as soon as possible.

The Japanese army at this time also had such plans.

They had now occupied Wuxi and entered Wujin, completely entering behind the Jiangyin Fortress.

Lieutenant General Tateki Horiuchi, commander of the Japanese 13th Division, ordered the 104th Regiment and the 116th Regiment to attack Jiangyin from the direction of Wujin.

The 58th and 65th Regiments advanced towards Jiangyin along the Xicheng Highway.

Commander Kiyoshi Hasegawa of the Third Fleet ordered his marine corps to land and advance along the riverbank.

His entire Third Fleet was heading towards Jiangyin in a mighty manner along the Yangtze River.

The two regiments advancing along the Xicheng Line quickly appeared on the periphery of the Jiangyin defense line.

All the officers and soldiers of the entire Jiangyin defense line nervously watched the rolling iron torrent of the Japanese devils.

The two regiments of Japanese devils had nearly 6,000 infantry, and they appeared outside the Jiangyin defense line under the cover of dozens of tanks.

All the positions of the entire Jiangyin defense line were silent.

Colonel Michiichi Sasaki, commander of the 58th Regiment, and Lieutenant Colonel Tatsuya, commander of the 65th Regiment.

Both of them were extremely proud. They had fought all the way from Shanghai and had never encountered strong resistance from the National Revolutionary Army along the way.

In Shanghai, 700,000 National Revolutionary Army soldiers were defeated by them, and now a small Jiangyin county town.

In their minds, it was questionable whether the cannons on this ancient Jiangyin Fortress could even fire.

As for those pig heads in the navy, who couldn't break through this fortress in several months.

In the eyes of these two regimental commanders, it was entirely because the navy's combat effectiveness was too poor.

Colonel Michiichi Sasaki smiled and said to Lieutenant Colonel Tatsuya, commander of the regiment, "This afternoon we can stand on the Jiangyin Fortress and piss on those pig heads in the navy on the opposite side."

Lieutenant Colonel Tatsuya clearly felt that Colonel Michiichi Sasaki's vision was too small.

He smiled and corrected, "We only need an hour to walk from south to north across this small fortress of no more than ten kilometers.

We don't need an entire afternoon."

After speaking, he issued an order to the messenger beside him, "Full attack! In one hour, I want to stand on the Xiaoshan Fort and see the Yangtze River."

This order was very inspiring, and the soldiers of the two regiments were as excited as if they had been injected with chicken blood.

They followed behind the tanks, their khaki uniforms looking like a group of locusts jumping on the ground.

The entire Jiangyin defense line was still silent.

Lieutenant Colonel Tatsuya smiled and said, "The National Revolutionary Army's defense line has already been broken. Could it be that these defenders have already run away?"

At this moment, large patches of black spots suddenly appeared in the distant sky.

"We didn't call for air force guidance, did we?" Michiichi Sasaki was somewhat puzzled.

"Maybe they're not coming for this fortress, they're just going to other places for support," Lieutenant Colonel Tatsuya explained.

In order to prevent the navy from taking any credit for capturing the Jiangyin Fortress.

They had not notified the navy at all, nor were they willing to have the air force come to bomb it.

This was because the naval air force accounted for the absolute majority in the current Japanese air force.

The entire air force had not yet become independent.

What surprised the two regimental commanders was that those distant black spots were actually flying in the direction of Jiangyin.

The silence in front of them was finally broken: a shrill air raid siren sounded.

Echoing in the wilderness.

The enemy planes were coming, and there was anti-aircraft fire to meet them.

The army was coming from the front, and there were cannons on the fortress watching them.

Seeing that the Japanese infantry had entered the range of the artillery fire.

Commander Xu Kang ordered, "Fire!"

More than 30 cannons bombarded the Japanese attack force.

Lieutenant Colonel Tatsuya, who was following behind the force, was stunned by the sudden and fierce bombardment of his leading troops.

Taohara Mitsuo commanded the tank squadron under his command to attack Jiangyin along the Xicheng Highway.

In his eyes, this kind of attack was the most exciting.

The road was wide and flat without any obstacles, which was very suitable for his mechanized unit to advance.

He received an order from Division Commander Tateki Horiuchi to have his tank squadron cooperate with the 58th and 65th Regiments to attack Jiangyin.

For Taohara Mitsuo, this kind of task was purely a trivial matter.

He was driving a Japanese Type 89 "I-Go" medium tank, which was put into production by the Osaka Army Arsenal in 1929.

The full edge was 5.75 meters long, 2.18 meters wide, and 2.56 meters high, with an armor protection thickness of 10 to 17 mm.

The tank weighed 13 tons in combat, and was equipped with a 57 mm cannon.

It used a J-3 in-line six-cylinder air-cooled four-stroke diesel engine, with a power of 120 horsepower, a maximum driving speed of 20 kilometers per hour, and a maximum range of 170 kilometers.

Driving such a tank, it was basically invincible on this continent.

Taohara Mitsuo drove all the way from Shanghai to Wuxi. Along the way, he was hit countless times by the National Revolutionary Army's machine guns, but they did not even break the armor of this tank.

Therefore, he always believed that Division Commander Tateki Horiuchi's dispatch of his entire squadron to attack Jiangyin was overkill.

His mind was now focused on the attack on Nanjing.

Was there anything in this world more exciting than attacking Nanjing?

As a subordinate country, capturing the capital of the suzerain state was such a glorious thing?

The small Jiangyin, whether in terms of its city defenses or its defenders, could not be compared with Nanjing.

It could not even be compared with Wuxi, which they had just captured.

Taohara Mitsuo was still immersed in his fantasy, completely ignoring what the Jiangyin defenders in front of him would do.

In front of the 37 tanks under his command, all the resistance of the National Revolutionary Army was futile.

At this moment, Taohara Mitsuo saw the artillery fire coming from a distance.

The firing range of these artillery fires was so far that the cannons on these tanks could not reach them.

Taohara Mitsuo immediately ordered, "Speed up and rush forward, get closer and fight back!"

He never thought of retreating!

Commander Xu Kang watched the Japanese tank unit continue to advance, and ordered the artillery fire from all four forts to fire at the tanks and infantry.

More than 30 large-caliber cannons fired at the same time, and the ground shook.

The 305mm fortress guns did not need to directly hit the Japanese tanks. As long as they exploded three or four meters away from the tanks, the fragments generated could penetrate the armor of the tanks.

The generated shock wave could also overturn some light Japanese tanks.

Taohara Mitsuo quickly woke up from the exclamations of other tankers after his team was shelled:

It seemed that his squadron had run into a brick wall this time.

Judging from the reports from the various tanks under his command, less than five minutes into the battle, at least ten tanks had reported that they had been damaged by the explosions and could no longer move.

Taohara Mitsuo had to order again, "Retreat! Retreat!"

It was not so easy for so many tanks to turn around at once.

Moreover, there were also many tanks that had broken down on the way back, blocking the road back.

What made Taohara Mitsuo even more desperate was that the artillery fire from the fortress had not diminished at all.

It was really too difficult to escape before being destroyed, given the slow speed of these tanks.