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Piaotian Literature of the Fourth Empire of China www.piaotia.com Chapter 380: The Kobe Massacre

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    (Thanks to book friend duro11 for his monthly ticket!)

    Osaka Bay is the sea area surrounded by the Osaka Plain and Awaji Island on the Pacific coast of southern Honshu Island, Japan.  It is bounded by the Kii Peninsula to the east, Awaji Island to the west, connected to the Seto Inland Sea via the Akashi Strait to the northwest, and connected to the Pacific Ocean via the Isuichi Channel from Okinoshima and Jinoshima to the south. It is a relatively closed bay.  It runs roughly from northeast to southwest, about 60 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide.  The water depth is nearly 20 meters in the eastern half and 60 meters near the north shore of Awaji Island in the west.

    Kobe is an important shipbuilding base that emerged in Japan after the Meiji Restoration. It is an advanced shipyard run by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and has been able to produce all the warships Japan needs.  After the Japanese government-run Kure Navy Yard, Yokosuka Naval Yard and Sasebo Naval Yard were destroyed by the Chinese Navy four years ago, the Japanese government began to support private shipyards on a large scale due to financial constraints.  Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Hitachi Shipyard are among the private shipyards that have benefited.

    In order to protect the Kobe Shipyard, the Japanese Navy specially built 12 fully enclosed reinforced concrete forts around the Kobe Shipyard.  These platforms are more than two meters thick and can defend against bombardment by large-caliber naval guns.  Equipped with more than two hundred naval guns, including 280 mm caliber, the defense here is second only to Tokyo Bay.

    "His Royal Highness Prince Arisugawa Norihito, the fleet is in pieces!" A Japanese middle-aged navy admiral who was somewhat thin and dark-skinned reported to Prince Arisugawa Norihito, the current supreme commander of the Japanese Navy.

    "Your Excellency Kawamura Junyoshi, order the troops to prepare for battle! The Chinese attack is about to begin!" Prince Arisugawa Palace Ehito said.  He did not take the destruction of the remaining Japanese fleet seriously.  Once Japan is finished, the navy will have no meaning of existence. As loyal warriors of the emperor, death is the best destination for these people.

    "Yes, Your Highness the Prince! The Army's heavy artillery brigades from both countries have also entered the battlefield!" Kawamura Junyoshi said.

    "The army's horse dung and their heavy howitzers have a range of less than ten kilometers and pose no threat to the China Navy at all. It is better to let them withdraw from the battle and prepare to resist the Chinese landing in the future!" Arisukawa Palace Weihito  The prince said disdainfully.

    "Your Highness, the Army's heavy artillery brigade is participating in the battle. This is what Katsuragi requested!" Kawamura Junyoshi said.

    "Then let them go!" Prince Arisugawa Palace Weihito said helplessly.  The fleet was wiped out and his status declined sharply.  Even though he is the prince of Japan, he no longer has much status in the cabinet.

    "Every ship, please pay attention. Prioritize attacking the Japanese forts and replace them with armor-piercing shells. Finally, destroy the Japanese shipyard. As for the two battleships that have been launched, be careful not to blow them up. After the war is over, this will be ours.  Come on!" Lieutenant General Li Haitao ordered.

    Two ¡®Sichuan-class¡¯ battleships and three ¡®Chengdu-class¡¯ heavy cruisers lined up in two battle lines, and began to launch artillery bombardment at a distance of 10,000 meters from Kobe Port. These five battleships were the main force to destroy Japan.  Japan is obviously well-prepared, and there is no need to risk its light cruisers and destroyers to avoid unnecessary losses.

    "Boom! Boom!" Artillery shells weighing more than 300 kilograms, carrying huge kinetic energy, slammed into the Japanese Navy's coastal defense batteries.  Although these forts have thick skin and thick flesh, it is difficult to withstand the bombardment of armor-piercing projectiles of this caliber.  If a fort is hit, even if it is not destroyed, the shock wave generated by the huge explosion is enough to kill the Japanese artillery inside.  Not to mention that the Japanese navy's coastal defense batteries can easily be destroyed with two or three shots.

    When the Chinese naval fleet launched an attack, the Japanese naval coastal defense fleet also launched a counterattack.  More than two hundred cannons of various calibers from 12 forts all began shelling.  For a moment, it was like rain falling on the sea, exploding water columns into the sky.

    However, compared with naval battleships, coastal defense batteries have inherent disadvantages.  Coast defense forts are fixed, and it is very troublesome to adjust the design direction, which is far less easy than naval guns.  At the same time, fixed forts are always easier to hit than battleships.

    "Boom! Boom! Boom!" The artillery battle was very fierce. The Chinese and Japanese sides were going back and forth. The shells made sharp whistles in the sky. People shouted and hit them hard, bursting out with huge power.  .

    The warships of the Chinese Navy are constantly moving on the sea, as if they are walking through a hail of bullets.  Although only the 12 305mm naval guns on the two 'Sichuan-class' battleships and the 12 280mm naval guns on the three 'Chengdu-class' heavy cruisers were fired, the power they caused far exceeded that of the Japanese navy.  More than two hundred coastal defense artillery pieces of the defense force.  The Japanese Navy's coastal defense artillery can hardly pose a threat to fast-moving targets, while the Chinese Navy's warships can clearly understand the Japanese Navy's coastal defense artillery batteries one by one.

    "Your Royal Highness, Fort No. 2be destroyed!  "Less than twenty minutes after the battle started, Kawamura Junyoshi reported to Prince Arisugawa Palace Ehito.

    Prince Arisugawa Palace Ehihito had no expression on his face, just using the telescope in his hand to quietly pay attention to the Chinese Navy warships showing off their power on the sea.  However, if you look carefully, you can see his hands holding the telescope tightly, and the knuckles have turned white from excessive exertion.  From this, we can see the anger in his heart.

    The fierce battle was still going on. By eleven o'clock, three of the Japanese naval coastal defense force's forts had been destroyed. As for the Chinese navy, only the battleship 'Xikang' was hit by a 155mm artillery shell and was  No substantial harm was caused.  The battleship's hard armor provides very good protection for the battleship.

    As more and more forts were destroyed, the firepower of the Japanese naval coastal defense forces gradually became sparse, which posed an even smaller threat to the Chinese navy.  In order to hit the target more accurately, at 12 noon, when there were only 5 coastal defense batteries of the Japanese Navy left, the Chinese Navy shortened the distance to 8,000 meters.

    "Boom! Boom! Boom!" Suddenly, a series of dense shelling burst out from the city of Kobe, and a large number of shells flew from the sky and smashed into the sea.  The Chinese navy was caught off guard, and several warships were hit.  Fortunately, these shells were only high-explosive shells. Although they caused certain casualties to the Chinese Navy, they did not cause any damage to the thickly armored warships.

    "Back off! Go back to 10,000 meters away!" Lieutenant General Li Haitao quickly ordered.  He thought it was a Japanese trap.

    "Chief of Staff! It's a high-explosive bomb, a 155mm heavy howitzer from the Japanese Army!" Brigadier General Zhao Hongcai, the captain of the Sichuan, said.

    ¡°Back off first, and then teach these little Japanese a lesson!¡± Li Haitao ordered.

    Soon, after retreating to 10,000 meters, the Japanese army's heavy artillery had no way to defeat the Chinese navy, and the Chinese navy also began to take revenge.

    The three heavy cruisers turned their guns and aimed at the city of Kobe where they had just fired.  As for whether there are civilians there, it is no longer considered.

    "Boom! Boom!" The 280mm main guns of the three heavy cruisers opened fire one after another, and high-explosive bombs of nearly 300 kilograms flew quickly towards the city of Kobe.  Ten seconds later, a series of violent explosions rang out in downtown Kobe.  Every explosion of a 280mm artillery shell can create a large crater with a diameter of tens of meters, and everything within a hundred meters will be destroyed.  Because the Japanese Army hid its heavy artillery brigade in the urban area, during the Chinese Navy's shelling, not only the Japanese Army's heavy artillery brigade paid a heavy price, but also the houses in downtown Kobe were destroyed.  The fire caused by the explosion of the high-explosive bomb quickly spread to the surrounding areas.  Japanese wooden houses are always very easy to cause large-scale losses during wars.

    "Your Highness, the Chinese launched an artillery bombardment on Kobe!" Kawamura Junyi said with a look of horror.

    "How many civilians are there in Kobe?" Prince Arisugawa Palace Wihito asked.

    "Most of them have been evacuated, but there are still about 100,000 people left in the city. These damn Chinese people, they actually attack civilians, they are worse than animals!" Kawamura Junyi cursed bitterly.

    "Those damn guys in the Army, they want to use civilians as human shields!" A trace of anger flashed on the face of Prince Arisugawa Palace Weihito.

    Using Kobe civilians as human shields is exactly the plan of the Japanese Army Ministry.  However, I did not expect that the Chinese Navy did not talk about benevolence and morality at all. After discovering the position of the Japanese Army's heavy artillery brigade, it immediately launched a counterattack. As for those civilians who were accidentally injured, they can only be considered unlucky.  Anyway, there are no good people among Japanese.

    The battle was very fierce. Two heavy artillery brigades of the Japanese Army suffered heavy losses under the bombardment of three heavy cruisers of the Chinese Navy.  Finally, the battle had to be withdrawn.  At that time, of their hundreds of 155mm heavy howitzers, there were less than twenty left.  As for the entire urban area of ??Kobe, it has become a sea of ????fire, and countless Japanese civilians were killed in this shelling.  According to statistics from the Japanese government afterwards, 100,000 people died in the fire in Kobe during the bombardment, and hundreds of thousands more were left homeless.  Of course, this is entirely because the Japanese government deliberately exaggerated in order to win sympathy from the international community.

    The attack on Kobe lasted until two o'clock in the afternoon.  All the Japanese navy's coastal defense batteries were destroyed.  Finally, the Chinese navy launched an artillery attack on the Kobe Shipyard and did not leave until it was reduced to rubble.

    After that, the Chinese navy did not leave Osaka Bay immediately, but launched attacks on other Japanese cities in Osaka Bay. Until nightfall, all the coastal industrial zones of Japanese cities along Osaka Bay were destroyed.Finally, the fleet left Osaka Bay from Kii Suido.

    PS: The fourth update is here!  Three updates tomorrow, no updates in the early morning!  Please subscribe, please give me a monthly pass!  (To be continued. Please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!)
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