Chapter 1 The Battle of Changxing Begins

Lieutenant Commander Oguri Yosuke commanded the three destroyers at the forefront, using the destroyer "Heki" as his flagship to lead the attack on Changxing.

The "Heki" destroyer was a "Wakatake-class" destroyer of the Japanese Navy, with the first ship launched in 1922.

The "Heki" destroyer displaced 820 tons, was 88.33 meters long, 8.08 meters wide, and had a draft of 2.51 meters. Its main engine had a power of 21,500 horsepower, a maximum speed of 35.3 knots per hour, and an economic range of 3,000 nautical miles.

It was equipped with three 120mm guns, two 7.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns, and four 533mm torpedo launchers, with a crew of 110 men.

The three similarly equipped destroyers plowed through the waves of Taihu Lake, followed by two medium gunboats and more than a hundred ships of various sizes and power.

Each motorized vessel towed a dozen or so unpowered wooden boats, forming a fleet that showed off its might in Taihu Lake.

The waves they created had long since caused the fishermen's small boats to rock incessantly. Under such circumstances, they dared not continue fishing.

The entire Taihu Lake was stirred into three-foot-high waves, and the fishermen's small boats tossed up and down in the troughs. Those who had already cast their nets were the most miserable: if they went with the flow now, they would lose their nets.

If they held their ground, they were afraid that their small boats would not be able to withstand the large waves and be capsized.

Those who were extremely lucky and had just pulled their nets onto their boats were now struggling in the waves, wanting only to reach the shore.

Sergeant Major Sanhe Dazhi stood on the deck of the destroyer, laughing as he watched the small boats struggling in the waves.

They had seen this scene far too often. In the past, when they sailed on the Yangtze River, it was the same. However, the fishermen on the Yangtze River were long accustomed to the waves caused by the large ships sailing on the river, and they would moor their boats on the shore long before they approached.

Unlike today, when hundreds of ships suddenly roamed Taihu Lake, stirring up high waves that caught the fishermen in Taihu Lake off guard.

Today, Lieutenant General Ogiwara Tateo ordered the 116th Infantry Regiment to send three infantry battalions to attack, leaving only one infantry battalion as a reserve force in the rear.

The Fujito Kuraki Battalion had suffered more than half its losses in yesterday's attack, and today they were back. However, the vanguard of the attack had been replaced by the 2nd Battalion, the Nagayama Naoki Battalion, followed closely by the 3rd Battalion, the Shinobu Taro Battalion, with the remnants of the Fujito Kuraki Battalion bringing up the rear.

Despite the crushing defeat they had suffered yesterday, the Japanese soldiers of the Fujito Kuraki Battalion still laughed as they watched the discomfited fishermen in the middle of Taihu Lake, unable to escape in time.

To them, sitting high and safe on their large ships, watching the fishermen struggle for survival in the waves, gave them a strange sense of pride.

Among these fishermen were scouts from the Special Task Force. Wu Wuji glared coldly at the Japanese warships rampaging through Taihu Lake, spat fiercely at them, and then turned and entered the cabin of his small boat.

Inside the cabin, two people were busy sending a telegram to the rear: "Japanese warships have entered Taihu Lake with more than a hundred ships.

Three destroyers escort, twenty-four gunboats accompany, followed by twelve cargo ships and more than a hundred sailboats, fully loaded with Japanese soldiers."

Lin Fan received this telegram while Pan Yongshan and the others were fighting the Japanese anti-aircraft units on the Tangshan front line. At this time yesterday, most of the Special Task Force's aircraft had been out on missions, and ground attack aircraft dared not take off.

Today was different. Lin Fan simply confirmed the position of the Japanese fleet and ordered Guan Guohao, the commander of the fighter squadron at Guangde Airport, to take off with the fighter squadron to escort bombers and ground attack aircraft to strike the Japanese who had invaded Taihu Lake.

At the same time, he ordered the Taihu Lake gunboat squadron, hidden in the waterways, to attack. Lin Fan had only one requirement: not to let a single Japanese soldier who had invaded Taihu Lake escape.

The fighting had been so fierce yesterday that the Special Task Force's gunboat squadron had not been dispatched. There was only one reason: no air cover!

Squadron Leader Gong Yingcai had been very anxious yesterday, and had repeatedly requested permission to go into battle from Yang Daren, but Yang Daren had refused.

All of the Special Task Force's gunboats were manufactured by themselves. Although they were based on the design of Japanese gunboats, Lin Fan had participated in the design and added a twin-mounted 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun.

The entire gunboat squadron had a full fifty-six gunboats. They usually patrolled Taihu Lake and had had a few small skirmishes with the water bandits on Taihu Lake, but this was the first time they had fought with a large Japanese force.

Yang Daren's reason for not dispatching the gunboat squadron was also very simple: battles were about morale, and the gunboat squadron's first battle had to be won handsomely, and losses could not be too great.

Today, they had the conditions for this. In the air, there were fighter escorts from the Special Task Force, as well as bombers to strike the Japanese warships, and ground attack aircraft to finish off the Japanese.

Gong Yingcai's squadron finally had the opportunity to go into battle. Although the gunboat squadron was launching a rapid attack, their speed could not exceed the speed of the aircraft rushing to the battlefield.

Squadron Leader Guan Guohao personally led the entire squadron into battle. This was also a habit of the Special Task Force: whenever there was a battle, the commander went first!

Company Commander Jin Tieyu was the first to take off from Guangde Airport in his fighter. From the airport to Taihu Lake was only a hundred miles away, and it took Jin Tieyu only a few minutes to see Taihu Lake.

Flying in the direction indicated by the intelligence, he saw the Japanese fleet in less than two minutes, a vast expanse of ships below.

Fu Ye and Liu Wei were on Jin Tieyu's left and right wings. As the company commander, Jin Tieyu gave the order: "Attack!"

The Japanese destroyers did not have strong anti-aircraft firepower. When Lieutenant Commander Oguri Yosuke saw the Special Task Force's aircraft arriving, he could only order the 7.7mm machine guns on the warships to fire at the aircraft.

The effect of this type of machine gun, with a range of only 1,000 meters, firing at aircraft was close to zero.

On the other hand, Jin Tieyu's fighters also had a 25mm autocannon, which opened fire on the Japanese destroyers. Although it could not sink the destroyers, it was perfectly capable of suppressing the machine guns and the 120mm howitzer on the ship.

Lieutenant Commander Oguri Yosuke looked at the cannons on his warship. Although they had horizontal and vertical firing angles, they could not be used as anti-aircraft guns, nor could they rotate 360 degrees.

This allowed the gunners on the 120mm howitzer to watch helplessly as the fighters flew in from behind, their machine guns firing non-stop, and their autocannons bombing without end.

After the fighters came Jiang Yuanwu and his bombers. Although the bombers arrived a little later, it was the perfect time to deal with the Japanese gunboats and destroyers that had already been ravaged by the fighters in front.

At first, there were still Japanese soldiers operating machine guns to fire at the aircraft, but after a round of attacks by thirty-six fighters, most of these Japanese soldiers who dared to fight back had fallen in pools of blood.

Jiang Yuanwu's bombers skimmed over the lake less than a hundred meters above the water, and aerial bombs were dropped non-stop.

At such close range, most of the bombs hit their targets. Even those that missed the target exploded next to the Japanese warships.

The exploding fragments sprayed in all directions, and some unlucky Japanese soldiers were hit by these fragments and fell down, even on the gunboats.

The fighters and bombers swept through the entire Japanese fleet from tail to head. Although the main targets were the three destroyers and twenty-four gunboats, it was the three infantry battalions of the 13th Division that bore the brunt of the attack.

These Japanese soldiers had just been leaning on the cargo ships, watching the small boats of the fishermen on Taihu Lake struggling in the turbulent waves, and now they were suffering retribution.

Machine gun bullets and aerial bombs landed on these cargo ships and sailboats, truly injuring those who touched them and killing those who were hit.

After the first wave of bombers flew over, Lieutenant Commander Oguri Yosuke looked at the gunboats that had just taken emergency evasive action and were already running around in a panic. Eight or nine of them had already stopped.

The remaining gunboats could no longer care about anything else and were still fleeing in a panic. One of the three destroyers had been hit by a bomb, and its speed of escape had slowed down.

His own flagship, the destroyer "Heki," had fortunately not been hit just now. At this moment, the destroyer was nervously watching the bombers in the air, ready to evade at any time.

Sergeant Major Sanhe Dazhi hid blankly inside the turret. He was a 120mm howitzer gunner on the "Heki" destroyer, and had just been watching the fishermen on the lake from a high and mighty position.

When he saw the Special Task Force's fighters attacking, he hid inside the turret. It had to be said that the turret's protective steel armor was very useful.

At least he and four or five other Japanese soldiers were hiding here, listening to the constant clanging of machine gun bullets hitting the steel plates. The steel plates absorbed all of these impacts.

Even so, Sergeant Major Sanhe Dazhi was still apprehensive and nervously watching the air. They had already seen that the nearby destroyer "Ōtaka" had been hit by a bomb.

The "Ōtaka" destroyer, which had originally been fleeing at full speed, was now slowing down. All the Japanese soldiers knew that it could no longer run, and that sinking was not far away.

Millennium Never Dream Fleet looked at the Japanese soldiers still fighting the fire on the deck, and then looked at the dark mass of aircraft overhead.

He had no choice but to issue a difficult order: "Abandon ship!"

A broken drum is hammered by ten thousand people! It was clear that the destroyer "Ōtaka" was now this broken drum.