Chapter 1 A Good Day

November 25, 1937, was, for Ji Guangyuan, captain of the No. 1 Fleet of the Heavenly Kingdom Navy, a good day!

For more than three months, the No. 1 Fleet had been battling wits and courage with the Japanese Navy, and there had never been a precedent for capturing a Japanese warship.

Today, he actually picked up a dead fish!

Captain Ji Guangyuan directed Vice Captain Rao Feibai to take nine of the most experienced soldiers to the stranded torpedo boat.

They fastened the tow rope and began to tow.

The Japanese torpedo boat was a bit heavy, and his torpedo boat couldn't move it.

Vice Captain Rao Feibai took the lead in jumping into the water, and the ten men lined up on both sides, working hard together to push the torpedo boat.

Everyone was a little anxious, knowing that the Japanese might not let this torpedo boat fall into the hands of the National Army so easily.

Maybe enemy planes would fly over in the next minute and destroy the torpedo boat.

The soldiers on Ji Guangyuan's torpedo boat also jumped into the water and ran to help.

Some of the soldiers from the 111th Division on the shore, who had been chasing the torpedo boat, also jumped into the water, and hundreds of people pushed the torpedo boat together.

Another group of soldiers were quickening their pace towards the pile of Japanese corpses not far away.

They were going to check whether there were any survivors among the motionless Japanese soldiers lying on the ground.

That's the way things are in the world; what you fear is what comes.

What Captain Ji Guangyuan and Vice Captain Rao Feibai feared most at the moment was the sudden arrival of Japanese planes.

Captain Ge Zhiqiang, who had the same worry, was also praying that the Japanese planes would be slow to arrive.

Just as everyone was pushing the boat, the air raid sirens sounded on both sides of the river.

The shrill air raid sirens rang out on both sides of the Yangtze River in the Jiangyin section.

The hundreds of National Army soldiers still in the water were working hard together, shouting, "One, two, one, push!

One, two, one, push!"

In the sky, a lot of black dots could already be seen, those were the Japanese planes.

Captain Ji Guangyuan shouted anxiously, "Abandon! Abandon! Release the cables.

Prepare to evacuate!"

At this moment, the torpedo boat, which had just been stranded on the shore like a dead fish, suddenly moved.

It moved again, like a turtle turned over on the shore, being pushed by the waves and beginning to turn over.

The stranded torpedo boat began to move towards the river, and once it started moving, it became faster and faster.

Soon it was completely afloat on the river, and Rao Feibai quickly jumped onto the torpedo boat, directing his nine men to start it up quickly.

The more than one hundred officers and soldiers of the 111th Division, who had just helped push the boat, quickly rushed back to shore.

They had to return to the defensive fortifications before the enemy planes arrived, otherwise, being exposed outside like this, they would not be able to withstand the machine-gun strafing of the Japanese attack planes.

Captain Ji Guangyuan had already ordered the anti-aircraft machine guns on his boat to face the direction from which the enemy planes were coming, ready to fire at any time.

His torpedo boat was also speeding away from here.

Captain Ge Zhiqiang couldn't care about rescuing the Japanese sailors on the river anymore.

He was also ordering his torpedo boat to speed away from this area, but today his torpedo boat had one hundred and thirty-three extra Japanese sailors.

The load was too heavy, and it couldn't go fast at all.

Now Captain Ge Zhiqiang could only hope that the Japanese weren't coming for him.

His torpedo boat was now completely at the mercy of the Japanese, with poor maneuverability and even worse resistance to attack.

Ji Guangyuan finally started the torpedo boat he had just captured and quickly sailed upstream.

When Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota received the order to rescue the Imperial Navy forces trapped in the Jiangyin section, requiring the support of the air squadron, he was the first to rush into the sky.

He circled the airport once, waiting for eight planes to accompany him before flying together along the Yangtze River towards the Jiangyin Fortress.

As they left, planes were still constantly taking off from the ground airport into the blue sky.

The air distance from Nanpu Airport to Jiangyin Fortress was only seventy kilometers, and it took only fifteen minutes at full speed.

Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota, leading eight planes, was the first to appear in the eyes of all the National Army soldiers on the Jiangyin defense line.

Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota's goal was clear: to rescue the Imperial Navy warships trapped in the east.

Therefore, his eyes were constantly searching the river, and he saw a warship capsized in the middle of the Yangtze River from a distance. This couldn't be a grounding!

There were many floating objects on the river, and many heads bobbing up and down.

Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota didn't care about these things; he cared about the Empire's warships.

But there was only one capsized warship on the river, and in Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota's opinion, this warship would definitely sink completely within five minutes.

He quickly reported what he saw.

Commander Hasegawa Kiyoshi of the Third Fleet couldn't believe the intelligence he received: in such a short time, a fleet of fourteen ships of various types that he had sent out was gone.

Thinking that so many warships he had sent out to meet them, he couldn't take back the sword he had drawn.

Commander Hasegawa Kiyoshi ordered, "Change the battle plan and carry out retaliatory strikes against the defending forces in the Jiangyin section."

The front-line pilots who received the order had no choice but to continue forward.

Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota had heard that Jiangyin was the graveyard of the air force.

This was what those pilots who had managed to escape had said.

There was one such pilot in Tsukubiji Sota's squadron.

And this person had long publicly clamored that he would never enter the Jiangyin airspace!

Obana Torataro was the one who would never enter the Jiangyin airspace.

When he was following Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota's squadron just now, he was consciously flying over the northern bank of the Yangtze River.

Obana Torataro believed that the local land god in the Jiangyin airspace didn't like them, these foreign invaders.

Therefore, he cast a spell, causing all the planes that flew in to crash.

Now that he had received Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota's order, he immediately refused to carry it out.

Obana Torataro refused very thoroughly, turning his plane towards the north bank and reporting, "I'm going back to Nanpu Airport."

If he were an army soldier, Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota would definitely enforce battlefield discipline at this time, but now this disobedient pilot was flying an Empire's plane, and Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota was really unwilling to waste the Empire's resources in this way.

He solemnly ordered on the radio, "Obana Torataro! You will be responsible for your actions.

You are now deserting in the face of the enemy and will be court-martialed when you return."

"I'm preserving the seeds for the Imperial Air Force. I'm not a coward. I just don't want to see you, you pig-head, wasting the Empire's planes like this," Obana Torataro was still quibbling.

"The order was issued by General Hasegawa Kiyoshi!" Tsukubiji Sota was truly clever for once.

"That doesn't change the fact that Hasegawa Kiyoshi is also a pig. Even a pig sitting in his position would do better than him.

At least a pig wouldn't issue such a muddled order," Obana Torataro was already unscrupulous.

Their conversation was not only broadcast in the squadron's communication.

At least thirty warplanes in the nearby airspace clearly heard the two men's argument.

Although most of the pilots felt the same way, no one dared to go back in a plane like Obana Torataro.

Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota felt greatly insulted: a deserter had appeared in the squadron he managed.

He felt that he had completely lost the face of the entire Imperial Air Force.

Although he was very unwilling, he still had to make a difficult decision: to report the incident of Obana Torataro's desertion to the higher-ups.

Now he could only use the bravest behavior and the most brilliant achievements to wash away such an insult.

So: Tsukubiji Sota led his squadron's nine planes, bravely swooping down towards the three torpedo boats on the river.

No matter what, he had to sink these torpedo boats today, even if he had to ram them with his plane, he had to sink them.

Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota had already made up his mind to die. In his opinion, the appearance of an Obana Torataro in his team was due to his lax management.

Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota's idea was not his alone. In fact, several pilots in his squadron had the same idea as him.

They closely followed Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota, swooping down together, towards the three torpedo boats that were moving in a zigzag pattern on the Yangtze River.

The speed of the torpedo boat at the rear of the river was obviously very slow.

Almost as slow as a cargo ship.

Looking down from the sky, Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota could clearly see that the torpedo boat was full of people.

A small torpedo boat, carrying so many people, of course, couldn't be fast.

Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota, piloting the plane, was at the front, and was also the first to see clearly that the people standing on the torpedo boat were all Imperial Navy sailors.

This only stunned him for a moment, but it didn't change Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota's idea: Imperial Navy sailors who had been taken prisoner were no longer his compatriots.

What about the spirit of Bushido? Rather be a shattered jade than an intact tile!

How could the Empire's soldiers be prisoners? Why didn't they commit suicide?

Countless accusations could make those sailors who were still standing on the torpedo boat have no face to live.

Now those sailors, soaked to the bone, were still standing on the torpedo boat, making different gestures, expressing the same meaning:

Please let us go!

How could this be possible?

Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota had just experienced the darkest moment in his life, his comrades had deserted in the face of the enemy.

Now he only had one sentence for all such cowards:

Go to hell!

Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota pressed the machine gun firing button.

The machine gun bullets hit the river, splashing up two rows of water.

Captain Ge Zhiqiang watched as the two rows of machine gun bullets were quickly approaching his torpedo boat.

And he was unable to stop it. The anti-aircraft machine guns on the torpedo boat were also firing back.

But he knew that this could only be symbolic.

From the beginning of the war until now, there hadn't been a single precedent for anti-aircraft machine guns shooting down Japanese planes.

Watching the two bullet lines in the water, extending up, they would hit his torpedo boat.

At this moment, a line of fire flew out from the south bank of the Yangtze River, one end connected to the Henggang pier on the south bank.

One end connected to Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota's plane, and the plane immediately exploded in mid-air.

All this happened too suddenly. Captain Ge Zhiqiang, who had not expected this kind of ending at all, stared blankly at the countless pieces of aircraft wreckage falling into the river behind the torpedo boat.

The originally turbulent river surface was suddenly filled with countless potholes.

But these potholes almost instantly returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

The aircraft wreckage entered the water, and the people on both sides of the Yangtze River only heard a sound.

A loud noise!

Captain Ji Guangyuan, who was commanding the torpedo boat to make a high-speed zigzag maneuver, heard the sound and quickly looked back.

He had missed the most exciting scene just now.

But he also saw the plane following closely behind Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota exploding in the same way in mid-air.

But he was farther away and couldn't feel the immediacy of Captain Ge Zhiqiang.

He couldn't see the spectacle of the aircraft wreckage entering the water, and he couldn't understand why so many fragments disappeared without a trace the moment they entered the water.

The river water concealed everything.

Captain Ge Zhiqiang was stunned at this time. Right in front of him, one Japanese plane after another kept exploding.

These planes seemed to have come to perform in front of him on purpose.

They swooped down to a place less than three hundred meters behind his torpedo boat and were connected by a line of fire flying out from the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Without exception, the planes connected to the line of fire all exploded in mid-air.

Captain Ge Zhiqiang forcibly twisted his head around, looking towards the south bank of the Yangtze River. He could feel his neck creaking like a rusty machine.

Now he had missed the best position to observe the Henggang pier.

He could only see a tongue of fire rushing out from a place on the south bank and hitting the swooping enemy plane.

This was also because his torpedo boat was moving too slowly, which was why he was able to see so much.

The two torpedo boats in front of him, which were at least a thousand meters away from his boat, could only see planes constantly exploding in the air.

Even so, seeing the Japanese planes at the very front exploding one after another, Captain Ji Guangyuan's eyes widened.

Not only him, but also Rao Feibai, who was driving the torpedo boat he had just captured, was also stunned.

But neither of them dared to watch too much. There were still a large group of Japanese planes behind them.

The two torpedo boats were still zigzagging through the waves as before.

Only Ge Zhiqiang's torpedo boat was like a turtle on the beach, left to the mercy of the Japanese planes that were rushing up.

After so many planes had been shot down in succession, the planes following behind Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota couldn't help but feel a little timid.

They all knew that this was a no-fly zone!

Just now, Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota's entire squadron, except for the coward who ran away, had been completely destroyed here.

They were truly shattered, this was not a figure of speech!

Taya Takuma Saburo was following behind Squadron Leader Tsukubiji Sota.

But because there were only three torpedo boats on the river, he saw a whole squadron of planes chasing after the heavy torpedo boat at the rear.

He could only choose to continue flying at a higher altitude, tracking the two torpedo boats in front.

Of course, pilot Taya Takuma Saburo also had the idea of avoiding the no-fly zone.

Therefore, he didn't start swooping down, but deliberately avoided the Jiangyin ground, flying on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

His plan was to let the fast-running torpedo boats in front rush forward a few more kilometers, preferably to the Jiangning Fortress territory in front.

At that time, he would swoop down again and show off his skills.

Lin Fan saw that today's enemy planes were not coming for Jiangyin, they were all flying along the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Taya Takuma Saburo really didn't expect that even if he showed respect for the Jiangyin Fortress in this way, he would receive the same respect in return.

Lin Fan very respectfully fired shells at the high-flying enemy planes on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

And Lin Fan didn't just fire one shell, he continuously fired at the Japanese planes on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

The effect was, of course, immediate.

Everyone saw that four more Japanese planes had fallen.

This result caused those Japanese pilots who already felt that they would explode at any moment to panic and frantically fly their planes towards the hinterland of the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Rao Feibai finally relaxed when he saw the Japanese planes changing direction.

Especially Captain Ge Zhiqiang, he finally breathed a sigh of relief: he didn't have to fight the Japanese planes today.

The entire sky within Lin Fan's sight no longer had a single plane.

At this time, he ordered, "Special Forces, immediately evacuate the position."

When Lin Fan led the team back to the Xiaoshan Fort, Jiang Fangzong Commander Liu Xing and Fortress Commander Xu Kang were both waiting at the Xiaoshan Fort.

Liu Xing praised Lin Fan's achievements this morning, repeatedly saying that this battle had greatly dampened the Japanese spirit and demonstrated the might of the National Army.

At this time, none of these people would have thought that just as they had reported the victory of sinking thirteen Japanese ships and capturing one torpedo boat at the Jiangyin Fortress this morning to the Nanjing Defense General Headquarters, it immediately caused a sensation: Nanjing was originally preparing to order the defending forces of the Jiangyin Fortress to retreat.

Because Wuxi had fallen and Wujin had fallen, the Japanese could now attack the fortress from behind Jiangyin.

The entire Jiangyin Fortress was actually surrounded on all sides, leaving only a section of the river behind the sunken ships and interrupted navigation channel for retreat.

Suddenly seeing the battle report sent by Liu Xing, the commander of the Jiangyin Defense Force, it immediately ignited everyone's confidence.

They believed that Jiangyin could still hold out for some time.

After all, the Jiangyin Fortress had a group of fortresses carefully designed by the Nanjing government, as well as several of the latest imported cannons.

So the plan to retreat from the Jiangyin Fortress was put on hold again.

Just as these generals were still discussing the plan, good news came from the front line of Jiangyin again: just as everyone was discussing whether to retreat or not, the Jiangyin Xiaoshan Platform shot down thirteen enemy planes, preventing the enemy planes from continuing to pursue the Navy torpedo boats deep into the Jiangning section of the Yangtze River.

With this battle report, the discussion at the entire meeting immediately stopped.

Everyone agreed: hold the Jiangyin Fortress.

The order to defend the fortress was immediately issued.