Generally speaking, the imperialist powers of this era are similar to gangsters. "Gunboat diplomacy" is very popular. They like to drive fleets around the world. From time to time, they will intimidate those "uncivilized countries" and extort various kinds of money from them. Benefits, such as valuable minerals and the like.
But the problem is that "gunboat diplomacy" is one thing, and landing operations are another matter - mobilizing tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops, landing on the other side of the world, and fighting hard for months and months. Bullets and artillery shells have to be transported from tens of thousands of kilometers away, and the expense and expenditure are so huge that it is really unimaginable for ordinary people. For European countries that are currently in the midst of the unprecedented catastrophe of the global economic crisis and have already been struck by phobias by the last world war, it is enough for domestic left-wing radicals to launch riots.
Not to mention that the four countries participating in the intervention this time, Britain, France, the United States, and Japan, have always been scheming with each other. The last time they intervened in the Soviet revolution, the intervention forces of various countries devoted too much energy to trying to undermine each other and only used very little thought. The war with the Bolsheviks - for example, the interventionist forces of the Chinese Beiyang government spent a lot of time digging holes to torment the Japanese - in the end, the massive intervention operation ended in failure and ended in failure.
As for this intervention in the Chinese revolution, there is no reason why the same situation will not arise - the British and French have positioned themselves as supervisors, and their task is to urge the Japanese and Kuomintang troops to complete the "annihilation of the Red Bandits" and restore order in the Far East as soon as possible. Great cause, rather than leaving it to the "long-term workers" to do it for you. Therefore, although they dispatched a massive expedition fleet, it was considered to be actual combat training. But the land forces invested in it are really not much.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the British Empire¡¯s military strategy in the Far East. It is deteriorating day by day due to lack of attention and lack of financial support. Therefore, according to the intercepted telegrams, the British Far East Fleet only carried a total of three battalions of infantry, which were drawn from Hong Kong. The French Far East Fleet only transferred four Annan infantry battalions from Saigon, Haiphong, Hanoi and other places nearby - this force is completely symbolic.
As for the U.S. Pacific Fleetwellstrictly speaking, the United States did not have a "Pacific Fleet" at this time, only the Asian Fleet stationed in the Philippines. The U.S. fleet stationed in Hawaii was only part of the home fleet before 1940. During this intervention, the Americans were indeed ambitious to compete for leadership. However, the embarrassing military situation has seriously restricted the ambitions of the US military.
Although the United States was already the world's number one economic power as early as the beginning of the 20th century, it still enjoyed the superior defense environment provided by the two natural barriers of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Domestic isolationism and war weariness prevailed, and the entire army had only a pitiful There are 100,000 people, organized into 4 infantry divisions, 1 tank division and 1 reserve division. The number of tanks is only more than 300, even behind Poland. Barely ranked seventh in the world.
Of course, the U.S. Navy has a much stronger lineup than the Army, but after all, the warships cannot get ashore. Moreover, in such a short period of time, they were unable to mobilize local forces and only had time to mobilize the garrisons in Hawaii and the Philippines. It just so happens that in recent years, the United States is planning to make the Philippines independent¡ªthe United States has never had a tradition of operating colonies. Finding a way to establish an obedient puppet state and then exploit it through economic means is the "indirect rule" method preferred by Wall Street tycoons - the U.S. military stationed in the Philippines has withdrawn in large numbers, and the number has fallen to the lowest point, with a total of only about Twenty thousand people. More than half of them are indigenous Filipino soldiers This small amount of troops cannot do anything big, and they can't be exhausted.
so. Even though the garrisons from Guam and Wake Island were removed, the US military invading China still only managed to gather a few thousand marine troops.
"During this intervention, the ground troops that the European and American powers could put into the Chinese battlefield were less than 10,000 in number, so they had to recruit troops everywhere along the way, including the 20,000 Kuomintang troops in Fuzhou. The Central Army will all be dragged up to make up the number."
According to the intercepted wireless telegram, Wang Qiu calmly explained to Fang Zhimin the nature of the imperialist powers as fierce and evil paper tigers, "Now that the U.S. military has invested in the eastern Zhejiang front and is mixed up with Yu Jishi, then they have no power. More landing sites will be opened up.
Of course, if the four countries of Britain, France, the United States and the Netherlands try their best to spare all their troops stationed in Malaya, Annan, the Philippines, Java, and Sumatra, and even bring the Indian troops to China to fight, then even an army of 200,000 people can be gathered. But the question is, why are they so crazy about blocking the coffin? Don¡¯t forget, India is not stable today either. Gandhi and his comrades are tinkering with the independence movement all day long! "
¡°¡well¡there are less than 10,000 landing troops in total, and a large part of them have already been deployed in the battle in eastern Zhejiang.?¡The foreign devils really have nothing to fear, but what about their big ships and cannons? Fang Zhimin continued to ask, "our cannons can't reach them at all!" "
"Until the final solution can be put into effect, there are no suitable countermeasures for the time being. There are many ways to destroy the enemy fleet around Shanghai, but the problem is that we must not only ensure the destruction of the enemy, but also try to control the cost of the war so as not to destroy the enemy fleet. You will go bankrupt yourself."
Wang Qiu shrugged helplessly, "So, let the coastal defense artillery at Wusongkou withdraw first! Anyway, the best urban areas in Shanghai are along the Huangpu River, and there is basically nothing to explode in the coastal areas. The cannons are too late. It doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s dismantled, we don¡¯t lack artillery, but artillery in this era is not that easy to train. At the same time, we need to strengthen the air defense in urban areas ¨C don¡¯t worry, there is not much time left for imperialism to be arrogant in the East!¡±
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On March 10, the U.S. intervention fleet ended the bombardment of Ningbo and stationed on Zhoushan Island for a short rest. It was warmly welcomed by the local Kuomintang government. After replenishing some fresh water, vegetables and fresh meat, the American fleet once again pulled anchor and sailed towards Shanghai, the city that had started the war.
at the same time. In order not to fall behind in the competition with the Americans, the British and French fleets arrived around Shanghai first. Launched a fierce bombardment of Wusongkou.
¡ª¡ªThe thunderous "imperialist punishment" finally came to this group of Chinese revolutionaries who dared to challenge the majesty of imperialism.
On the water at dawn, two bright red signal rockets suddenly shot up. Then, following an order from the British Fleet Commander, the huge body of the battleship "Malaya" shook, and with a deafening roar, it spit out long orange-red flames, illuminating the dark sky. The heavy projectile opened a red trajectory in the air. After crossing a long distance of more than ten kilometers, we finally landed on the tidal flat of Wusongkou.
Next, several other majestic giant ships also vented their firepower one after another - during this one-sided bombardment from the opposite shore, five British and French battleships and battlecruisers turned their hulls sideways, and several turrets spit out smoke and fire. , fired alternately, and the huge sound of artillery rumbled and vibrated on the water of the Yangtze River Estuary. In the hazy morning light between the water and the sky, countless brilliant light groups suddenly lit up. It's like dozens of suns rising suddenly!
Immediately afterwards, the British artillery observation post temporarily set up on Woody Island used radio to report the battle situation data to the fleet and help the artillery correct the trajectory. In order to avoid the counterattack of the defenders and ensure the absolute safety of the fleet, these battleships were separated by a permanent Xingdao is shooting at Wusongkou. They gave full play to the ultra-long range of their own naval guns to bully the "short-legged" shore artillery of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.
Of course, it is obviously a very dangerous thing for a battleship that is supposed to be sailing on the ocean to rashly penetrate into the Yangtze River Estuary, which is densely covered with shoals and reefs. But sadly. Regarding the hydrological conditions of the Yangtze River Estuary, the British in this era were probably more aware than the Chinese.
A while passed. The guns of the light cruisers and destroyers also opened fire and joined the chorus one after another. Countless steel projectiles crossed the sea and landed on the muddy reed beaches and rice fields, emitting scarlet flames and clouds of smoke. Soon, a huge cloud of smoke covered Wu Song's mouth. Only occasionally, the flash of exploding shells could be seen through the gaps in the smoke. The scene was really spectacular.
Thousands of artillery shells of various calibers and types roared and roared on the outskirts of the largest city in China at the dawn of early spring, playing an uncoordinated but murderous symphony of war.
Suddenly, there was a strong flash of a big explosion on the shore, which probably hit the ammunition depot of Wusongkou Fort, causing British and French sailors to cheer.
¡°However, compared to the excitement on the water and the loud sound of cannons, the workers and peasants¡¯ Red Army on the land maintained an eerie silence. From the beginning to the end, until the gun exploded in the ammunition depot, the shore artillery at Wusongkou did not fire a single shell, which made people wonder whether the Red Army had already fled without a fight.
Therefore, after pouring firepower wantonly for more than an hour, the bored British and French intervention fleets gradually stopped bombarding, launched several small traffic boats from the battleships, and organized dozens of Marines to land on the beach safely. I stepped onto the mudflat at Wusongkou without incident.
This small force, which was thrown out as a pathfinder, used the cover of the embankments and bomb craters to walk and stop on the shore, firing a few random shots from time to time to embolden themselves, but no enemy ever fired at them In the end, they successfully passed through the smoke and broke into the ruins of Wusong Fort. They only saw a pile of twisted barrels and broken parts, but not a single complete or incomplete body, let alone any living people. .
Obviously, China¡¯s Boer?Vic was not as brave as they boasted in the propaganda, but had already escaped long ago.
This discovery made the senior officials of the British and French armies, who were a little worried, heave a sigh of relief. They felt that the Chinese Bolsheviks, who were said to be very ferocious and even full of science fiction, seemed to be nothing more than that. Previously, after being shocked to learn the bad news of the fall of Shanghai, After obtaining a bunch of appalling red propaganda materials, European and American countries tried to find out from Moscow the details of this mysterious Communist International column in the Far East through their own various channels. However, they were even more surprised to find that the Kremlin seemed to have no idea about this. They were also confusedand other guys who went to inquire about the news later found that the Kremlin seemed to know something, but was secretive about it, and was even very confused - what was going on?
(After a full half-month adventure, the genuine Communist International correspondents who sailed a poor fifteen-ton sailing ship from Shanghai and returned to their motherland after a long journey finally crossed the Tsushima Strait and Japan with difficulty. Sea. Successfully arrived in Vladivostok half-deadand delivered the letters and gifts from the fellow travelers to the desk of the "steel" uncle in the Kremlin)
so. In this intervention campaign, the coalition forces behaved like a schizophrenic patient - most people naturally sneered at the inferior "yellow-skinned monkeys" and felt that those propaganda materials were just fakes created to scare people. But there is also a small group of people who are worried about this, and even make various inappropriate and pessimistic remarks Fortunately, judging from the current situation, the Chinese people's performance is still as hopeless as before.
The next step, in accordance with the habit of Britain and France fighting colonial wars all over the world for so many years, the joint intervention fleet began to attack the French Annan Infantry Battalion. The British Indian Musketeers, as well as the Kuomintang troops forcibly pulled from Jiangbei, Nantong and other places, were delivered to a dilapidated small pier on the shore in a chaotic manner - naturally this small amount of troops was not enough to fight all the way to the center of Shanghai. Yes, but at least the winner's flag can be planted on the ruins of the enemy's fort, declaring the victory of the "civilized world", and perhaps even building a bridgehead here to threaten the enemy's hinterland at any time.
Another hour passed. A French colonel from the Annan colonial army also disembarked from the ship and climbed ashore to the ruins of Wusong Fort, which was littered with bomb craters. He first proudly placed the French tricolor flag next to the already flying Union Jack flag, then took out his telescope and looked ahead. I saw an empty space between the vast sky and the earth, with vegetables and crops growing in the flat fields. Mixed with a few clusters of sparse groves and some ponds, many villages and houses were vaguely visible, showing a quiet pastoral scenery but no enemy troops could be seen, and no fluttering weapons could be found either. Red flag, only two silver-white airships can be seen floating in the distance. The eye-catching sickle and hammer emblem on the airbag shines in the sunlight.
"Probably a Bolshevik air observation post" the colonel muttered in a low voice, "they seem to have some good equipment."
At this moment. Around the Wusong Fort, there were scattered clear gunshots from time to time, and a few grenade explosions, but they were all fired randomly by the landing troops, and the result was just a waste of ammunition. At this moment, a signal was sent from the rear fleet, asking if fire support was to be provided, and the colonel waved his hand impatiently: "There is no target on the shore at all, and one of our own people will be injured as soon as the gun is fired!"
Of course, although no enemy infantry could be seen in sight, the two Bolshevik airships in the sky were somewhat of a threat. Unfortunately, they were all far outside the maximum range of the ship-borne anti-aircraft guns Therefore, the colonel could only order the soldiers Set up anti-aircraft machine guns and prepare for air defense operations. At the same time, contact the flagship in the rear and ask if the ship's seaplanes can be dispatched to expel or destroy these two annoying big toys.
At the same time, it seemed to be inspired by the easy capture of Wusong Fort. An assault flotilla of fast motorboats and small gunboats also rushed into the Huangpu River from Wusongkou - in front were minesweepers, used to clear mines that the Bolsheviks might have laid in the river; behind were gunboats and troopships, used to Provide fire cover and beach attack - they lined up in neat formations and moved upstream along the quietly flowing meandering river, attempting to follow the attack route of the Opium War in the past and attack directly into the hinterland of Shanghai. Winning this shining pearl of the Far East again
However, the era of this war has changed, and the resistance of the Chinese people cannot be as weak as it was a hundred years ago.
In fact, the Chinese Bolsheviks¡¯ counterattack against the British and French coalition forces was absolutely sudden and violent, leaving the coalition forces with no time to take precautions.
¡ª¡ªThe assault fleet only traveled less than two kilometers from the Huangpu River estuary, and a dazzling red light lit up on the distant horizon!
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Then, accompanied by a scream that ripped through the air, a dense mass of rockets like a flock of migrating birds suddenly fell like a meteor shower, covering the former site of the Wusong Fort. On the ruins of the fort riddled with holes, Many new craters were exploded. The landing troops who were caught off guard were immediately killed and injured, because on such a piece of bare rubble and scorched earth, they had nowhere to hide!
¡ª¡ªThe orange-red flames soared into the sky, the sharp whistling sounds that tore through the air, the violent shaking that shook the earth The overwhelming rockets instantly turned this small area into a blazing sea of ????fire, and thousands of people were killed. The landing troops were pinned to the beach, taking casualties every minute. The screams of the dying people even overwhelmed the roar of the rocket explosion. The arms, thighs and intestines were blown to pieces, almost everywhere. The scene was horrifying! The sea of ????hot fire burned ragingly, roasting the body of the deceased with an unpleasant smell of human oil.
The assault fleet traveling upstream along the Huangpu River also suffered a sudden and violent bombardment. The terrible artillery fire cut into the perfect formation of the fleet and plunged them into chaos. The soldiers on each ship were horrified to see countless rockets coming like hail, hitting the water as if it were boiling. Sponsors of water were rising in front and behind each boat. Some rockets exploded in the air, sending shrapnel flying and hitting the steel plate, making a harsh noise. Some rockets hit the deck of the ship directly, immediately exploding black, smoking holes.
In just the blink of an eye, three traffic boats, a minesweeper and a shallow river gunboat were destroyed and overturned. The remaining small boats had no choice but to turn around and retreat. Unfortunately, there was a leak and it rained all night. They made mistakes in the chaos and had several collisions and scratches Fortunately, this small fleet was not the focus of the Red Army. After hitting the target, most of the remaining boats escaped.
Next, another round of bright and dazzling orange-red bolide roared onto the battleships of the British and French combined fleet in the distance (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation at Qidian. Monthly ticket, your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile phone users please go to m. to read.)