The cavalry battalion commander must be surprised.
The three gunboats do intend to move closer to the shore, but given the long river coastline, why would they move closer to that position?
Japanese, what tricks are you playing?
From their point of view, they were in a condescending position, and their field of view was much clearer than that of the Japanese troops in the river. Naturally, they could see very clearly. The open area on the riverside where the three Japanese gunboats were rushing against the gunfire was actually not the real shore.
.
It is a sandbank on the riverbank that is still thirty meters away from the real shore. Did the Japanese gunboats plan to use Jiangxinzhou as a bunker?
Gong Shaoxun saw it, and of course Tang Dao also saw it. He was also thinking about what the Japanese were doing.
Judging from the sight of the Japanese infantry on the gunboat that seemed to be arranging equipment in the field of view through the telescope, they should be preparing to land.
With three naval guns and a dozen heavy machine guns as fire cover, the infantry went ashore. The middle one attracted the attention of the accompanying Chinese infantry, and the other two were bypassed and outflanked by the two wings. This was the conventional tactic of the Japanese infantry.
Simple, yet extremely effective.
If the four rapid-fire cannons were to deal with four tanks, there wouldn't be much of a problem, but if they were to deal with three 50-meter-long steel behemoths, even if they could leave a lot of bullet holes and blast marks on them.
The power of the 37mm caliber artillery is still a bit too small after all, and it does not pose a great threat to the gunboat unless it can hit key locations such as its bow command post or ammunition magazine with one shot.
Otherwise, the three gunboats would not have been able to approach so confidently and drop their infantry at such a close range, intending to kill the Chinese infantry and artillery that sneaked up on them in one fell swoop.
Just as Tang Dao had guessed, three gunboats were attacked. As the supreme commander of the gunboat formation, Akita Tokaka said he did not request fighter support from the fleet, and did not even send a telegram reporting to the fleet.
The majestic Imperial Japanese Navy was invincible in this Battle of Songhu. The Chinese Navy was sunk in the Yangtze River without even having the courage to leave the Yangtze River Estuary. And the Army and the mainland were on board, how could they be bombarded by a few small cannons?
Are you rushing to report to your superiors?
As the most handsome boy in the Battle of Songhu, what he has to do is to annihilate the enemy and show the imperial navy's prowess in front of a group of stupid army soldiers.
Therefore, after several soldiers were killed and wounded by the Chinese small-caliber artillery, the humiliated Lieutenant Colonel Akita angrily ordered several staff officers to find a suitable landing site for the Army Malus on the shore.
This is not because the Navy Ma Lu feels sorry for the Army Ma Lu, but because of the quality of professional soldiers.
It cannot be said that we should just let the army and horses swim directly from the center of the river! Although the navy thought so for several moments.
Several staff officers stared with their telescopes until their eyes hurt. What they saw was either a vertical river bank a few meters high from the river, or a swamp full of reeds. Such a location was not suitable for infantry to land, especially that kind of swamp.
Don't be killed by Chinese guns, but trapped in the wetland and drowned.
The army, the horse and the land are all rubbish. If you expect them to know how to swim, they will definitely not show it.
Therefore, the staff focused on the three to four hundred meter long open space shrouded in mist on the river bank. Although the fog covered a large part of it, it was difficult to judge whether it was closely connected to the land by visual inspection.
, but the lush shrubs on it have actually proved in disguise that it is definitely not too far from the shore.
Besides, the army is just landing on land, not them? Why bother so much? As long as the area is suitable for infantry landing.
Even if the calculation is wrong, the distance to the shore is only about ten meters at most. You can just wade through the water. If that doesn't work, you can just return to the gunboat.
After a brief discussion, the naval staff officers provided the selected target to the furious Lieutenant Commander Akita Akita.
The soldiers were very fast. Seeing that the Chinese artillery was becoming more and more accurate, big holes were blown out of the three gunboats. Although they were not injured, they looked quite embarrassed. Lieutenant Colonel Akita quickly accepted a few
Suggestions from subordinates.
So, the three gunboats approached Jiangxinzhou at high speed. They waited until they were tens of meters away before they could see clearly that this was not a real river bank. It was more than 400 meters long and only 30 meters wide.
Fortunately, the tail section is vaguely connected to the river bank from this end. It is better to go there, even if you have to wade through the water, than to have to struggle to climb up the vertical river bank.
Of course, that’s all taken for granted.
As for what the infantrymen think, it doesn't matter. The lieutenant commander is the most handsome guy on these ships. Whatever he says will be done.
"They found the wrong landing location." Tang Dao finally made his own judgment based on the extremely strange behavior of the Japanese army.
“You mean, they think that’s the most suitable place to land?” The cavalry battalion commander opened his mouth in disbelief.
From their perspective, they can see it very clearly.
Many sandbars are called Jiangxinzhou because they are piled up by alluvial sand and gravel on the river bed. Just like the one where the Japanese troops are landing, the widest point is thirty meters away from the shore, and the narrowest point is about ten meters away.
rice.
When they came here in the evening, they asked the local guide because suddenly there was a special terrain called Jiangxin Island. The water here became particularly turbulent and the water depth was at least four meters. Fishermen set up nets here and could often catch big fish.
.
If a person jumps in, it will be fine if he is good at water skills, but if he has more than 20 kilograms of equipment on him, he should be prepared to use it as a weight!
It is simply a stupid choice to use this place as a landing place.
But if the Japanese are so stupid, why can’t we win?
After posing this question to himself, the cavalry battalion commander obviously felt a knot in his heart.
Although the major cavalry battalion commander was frustrated because the whole of China could not defeat a group of Japanese who were obviously mentally ill, this did not prevent him from quietly entering the position that the cavalry had set up and ordering the entire army to prepare for the Japanese infantry arriving at Jiangxinzhou.
Launch an attack.
The five cavalry companies have all become standard infantry and have established temporary field fortifications along the river bank. The approximately 800-meter-long position is in a semi-arc shape directly in front of Jiangxinzhou.
The position that was originally used to block the Japanese landing infantry was now used purely for attack, which made the cavalry quite uncomfortable.
However, despite the orders from the officers, they still aimed their guns at the Japanese infantry who were jumping from the gunboat into the river and landing on the sandbank more than 300 meters away.
The distance of more than 300 meters is by no means the limit for the effective range of the rifle at this time. Although most rifles in China are not qualified, there are several rifles that can meet this standard...
For example, the main equipment of the Sichuan Army is made in Hanyang. If you shoot this kind of rifle alone, you can basically just stare at it. That is to say, the medium-sized rifles equipped by the Central Army still have a straight trajectory at this range.
Fortunately, in addition to the formal rifles equipped by the Central Army, China also has an army equipped with rifles that are not inferior to the formal rifles.
The cavalry of the 67th Army is equipped with a Liao-made 13-type rifle. This rifle was designed by Fengtian Arsenal more than ten years ago. It combines the German Mauser 1907 rifle, the Japanese 38-type rifle and the Austrian 1912-type rifle.
The rifle was combined to become one of the best-performing rifles made locally in China.
The 7.92mm caliber bullet is extremely powerful, and its range is no less than that of the Japanese Type 38 rifle.
The five cavalry companies also possess thirty Liao-made Type 17 light machine guns. In fact, that thing is completely copied from the crooked light machine gun produced in the 11th year of Taisho.
To put it bluntly, the most powerful suppressive light firearms used by the infantry of the two armies in the upcoming battle will all be of the same model, but the Chinese side will be OEM.
It’s just that the OEM products obviously have many more light machine guns than the 12 light machine guns equipped by the two infantry squadrons of the Japanese army.
The two Japanese infantry squadrons who bravely jumped into the shallow water and quickly advanced towards the sandbank despite artillery fire had no idea what kind of disaster they would face.
Because, not only were they about to be at a disadvantage in terms of equipment and troops, but more importantly, there were not even a single mound of earth on Jiangxin Island except some shrubs.
