Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 14: Night Raid on the Izumo

At midnight, by the Huangpu River, a waning moon hangs high in the sky, warships are anchored on the river, and the rising sun flag fluttering in the wind makes people want to tear it down and use it to wipe their butts.

The huge body of the "Izumo" lay quietly on the sea like a sea owl. The Japanese sailors, who had been tossing and turning all day, had fallen asleep, leaving only a few armed men who were staying up all night listlessly.
Captain Fushimi Hiroyoshi always felt a little bored and couldn't fall asleep for a long time, so he simply ran to the deck alone to enjoy the sea breeze.

He was a member of the royal family and the eldest son of Prince Hiroyoshi Fushimi, the Chief of the Japanese Naval General Staff. Many people believed that he came to Shanghai to make money, but only he knew that he had always had a dream of conquering China in his heart.

Shanghai at night did not become silent because of the war. Looking around, there were lights everywhere and faint music could be heard. The Oriental City that Never Sleeps really lived up to its reputation.
This war was between China and Japan, and Shanghai belonged to the great powers. The "gentlemen" from the West in the concession enjoyed a life of luxury, but secretly engaged in banditry and even attempted to interfere in the empire's war against Shanghai. This made him feel uneasy whenever he thought about it.

"Shanghai will sooner or later be the exclusive property of the Empire, so just revel to your heart's content, there won't be many days like this!"

"Your Highness, it's too cold on the deck. You can't stay there for too long. It will take a toll on your body. You should go back to the bridge and rest."

Lieutenant Colonel Ryoichi Hirai, the deputy captain, had just returned from a night inspection and happened to see Prince Fushimi preening in the night breeze. Naturally, he would not miss such a great opportunity to flatter him, so he came over and whispered.

"Hirai-kun, I always have a bad feeling at night. I need to patrol the night guard more often to prevent the Chinese from making a surprise attack."

"Your Highness, the Chinese Navy has been frightened out of their wits. There is not a single ship within hundreds of miles of the surrounding sea. Their small sampans are as small as ants in front of the Izumo."

Colonel Fushimiya thought about it and it was no wonder that Lieutenant Colonel Hirai was so arrogant. The combined tonnage of the entire Chinese navy was not as much as that of an Izumo cruiser. Their navy had its backbone broken decades ago, and they would not dare to launch a sneak attack on the powerful Izumo.

Thinking of this, he shook his head and said:
"It seems that I overestimated the Chinese. They are not a threat to the powerful Imperial Navy. Instead, the Army lost face in Miaohang. The Wushu Division, which claimed that a single division could sweep across China, failed to capture the small town of Miaohang and suffered hundreds of casualties. His Majesty was furious."

The Japanese are such contradictory people. On the one hand, they tried to cover up their mistakes and only admitted to losing a few hundred soldiers. On the other hand, the emperor was furious. It seems that their emperor has too little vision.

Fortunately, Lieutenant Colonel Hirai had a broad vision. He would not miss any opportunity to laugh at the army's idiots. He took over Colonel Fushimi's words and said:
"The Army has always been arrogant and overconfident. They used to mock the Marines for being vulnerable, but now it seems they are even worse than the Marines. From what I understand, they have lost more than 3,000 soldiers."

Conflicts between the army and the navy have always existed, and mutual ridicule has become a tradition among middle and senior military officers. Although Colonel Fushimi Prince is a member of the royal family, he cannot seek special treatment, otherwise he will be excluded by other naval officers.

"Mr. Hirai, the army has lost face in front of His Majesty this time. Our navy should take this as a warning. This is Chinese territory, so we should be cautious."

Although Lieutenant Colonel Hirai did not care about Colonel Fushimi's warning in his heart, he still looked like he had learned something. After all, the other party had a father who was the Chief of the Naval General Staff and was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, so he had to flatter him.

Just as Lieutenant Colonel Hirai was praising Colonel Fushimi, two wooden boats were slowly approaching on the dark sea, carrying the 19th Route Army's death squads.
Wang Yaqiao said to the death squad leader Tang Aiguo:
“Captain Tang, the wooden boats are too big a target, we can’t send you any further;

You can only swim across the remaining several hundred meters on your own. We only have three mines, and they must be dived under the ship and detonated to be effective.

The sea water is very cold. Can you swim across while dragging the heavy mines? "Tang Aiguo shivered involuntarily as the sea breeze blew over him. He said:

"In order to avoid being discovered by the enemy, let's stay here. Although the sea water is cold, our brothers' blood is boiling!
Don't worry, we will definitely be able to swim to the Japanese warship and successfully complete the mission. Goodbye! "

After Tang Aiguo finished speaking, he resolutely jumped into the cold sea water. The other team members followed suit. At the same time, three high-explosive mines were carefully pushed into the sea water. They were tied to the divers' bodies with hemp ropes and then dragged slowly towards the "Izumo".

Tang Aiguo had the best physical fitness, and he also dragged one, with two team members escorting him;
The cold sea biting into their bodies, consuming their body heat. For the sake of national survival, they could only grit their teeth and persevere, moving forward with difficulty.
Towing mines consumes a lot of the team members' physical energy. From time to time, a team member sinks into the abyss due to exhaustion, and another team member will quietly fill in...

It was unknown how long it had passed, but the group Tang Aiguo was in was the first to swam to the "Izumo". At that time, he had no idea that Colonel Fushimiya was on the deck. Colonel Fushimiya had already turned around and returned to the academy to sleep. The temperature was low at night, and it was easy to get sick if you were exposed to the sea breeze for a long time.

"Your Highness, go and get some rest. I heard that the headquarters is discussing the issue of increasing troops. It won't be long before Shanghai will be in the hands of the empire."

Fushimiya shook his head to drive away the irritation in his heart, and returned to the lounge accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel Hirai.

As soon as I stepped onto the bridge, I heard a dull explosion, and then the entire ship shook violently;

Colonel Fushimiya lost his balance and fell heavily to the ground, knocking out two front teeth, becoming the first casualty in the attack.

"Boom! Boom!"

There were two more loud noises, and the ship began to shake again, almost capsizing...

Alarms suddenly sounded on the river, and warships frantically searched the sea for attackers. The Izumo was severely damaged, and the ship was in chaos, with sailors performing damage control operations everywhere.

On the dark sea, Tang Aiguo looked at the Izumo cruiser that was about to collapse but not sink, his face full of sorrow. Most of the team members had died. In order to increase the effect of the explosion, the members of Group 2 held the mines and crawled into the bottom of the ship, then rammed the warship with all their strength.
Unfortunately, the power of the mine was too small and it only blew a hole the size of a washbasin at the bottom, allowing seawater to pour into the bottom cabin. Unfortunately, it still failed to sink the Izumo.

The Japanese warships had partitions in the bottom holds, and the seawater that rushed in from the explosion could only fill one bottom hold, which was not enough to be fatal to the Izumo, which had a displacement of up to 10,000 tons.

Most of the team members sank to the bottom of the sea due to exhaustion, leaving only Tang Aiguo and two other team members alive.

"Brothers, have a safe journey!"

Tang Aiguo looked at the huge Japanese warships very unwillingly, and swam silently towards the river bank. He always wanted to leave some seeds for the suicide squad.

(End of this chapter)