You were tasked with guarding the Sihang Warehouse, and you brought out a Tiger tank?

"Reporting, Captain!"

The damage control officer's voice, trembling with tears, came through the megaphone:

"A large hole was torn in the left side of the bow armor."

The third, fifth, and seventh watertight compartments all ruptured, allowing a large amount of seawater to flood in.

The bow is sinking, and the speed has dropped to twenty-five knots.

"Baka!"

Harada slammed his fist against the bulkhead:

"Immediately seal off the damaged compartments."

Damage control team, immediately begin pumping operations and inject water into the starboard side for leveling.

The warships must not be allowed to stop.

Harada Satoru's heart pounded wildly, enveloped by an unprecedented sense of tension.

Because he had already heard it.

In the sky, the roar of twin-engine bombers, like a death knell, rang out once more.

Take advantage of his illness and kill him!

Lin Feng's aircraft squadron gave the Japanese no chance to catch their breath.

Another four-plane formation of HE-111 emerged from below the clouds, keeping a close eye on the Ashigara, whose speed had been greatly reduced and which was struggling on the sea.

"Protect the Ashigara! Open fire! Shoot down those Chinese planes!"

The flagship of the Sixth Destroyer Division, the Ikazuchi, which was responsible for escorting the ship, and the destroyer Den, immediately approached at full speed.

On the destroyer, at the open gun emplacements with no armor protection, the Japanese gunners frantically cranked the handles of the anti-aircraft machine guns and cannons, trying to drive away the approaching torpedo bombers with a dense barrage of bullets.

However, they were completely unaware that, above them, without the entanglement of the Type 96 carrier-based fighters, the BF-110 heavy fighter squadron, which had been responsible for high-altitude cover, had already set its sights on these lightly armed small boats with no air defense capabilities.

"Lightning Squadron, target the destroyer below."

The BF-110 lead pilot pushed down the control stick and gave a cold smile:

"Open a passage for the bomber brothers! Use the machine guns to wash the enemy's decks!"

"Buzz—!"

Several BF-110s roared down from an altitude of two thousand meters at a steep angle.

On the destroyer Ikazuchi, a Japanese sergeant major who was operating a 13.2mm machine gun suddenly felt a darkness above his head.

He looked up and saw two steel monsters, their noses spitting thick tongues of fire, rushing towards him.

"Thump thump thump—!"

The two terrifying 30mm MK 108 cannons on the nose of the BF-110 emitted a dull and deadly roar.

These low-velocity, heavy bullets, originally designed to tear through the armor of heavy bombers, struck the destroyer's steel plates, which were only a few millimeters thick, with as little ease as a hot knife through butter.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A series of 30mm high-explosive shells slammed heavily onto the open deck of the destroyer Ikazuchi.

Before the Japanese sergeant could even scream, his upper body was hit directly by a high-explosive shell.

His entire body instantly exploded into a cloud of blood mist, with bits of flesh and internal organs mixed with machine gun parts scattering in all directions.

The anti-aircraft gun positions on the deck instantly turned into a living hell.

The Japanese sailors who were frantically loading their ammunition were as if they were being swept away by an invisible giant scythe.

Limbs and severed arms flew wildly through the air, and blood instantly stained the gray deck red.

Just one dive-bombing volley.

The open anti-aircraft firepower on the destroyer Ikazuchi was shattered by the terrifying machine guns of the BF-110, and many Japanese sailors were laid out in an evenly distributed state.

The nearby destroyer, the Denki, also suffered damage, with a raging fire breaking out on its deck.

The Japanese damage control team members who were trying to put out the fire had just run onto the deck when they were shot to pieces by the BF-110s that were diving down again.

And just like that, a huge gap was torn open again in the Japanese air defense network.

"The passage is now open."

The BF-110 lead aircraft pulled up its nose and shouted over the radio:

"Fearless-03 Squad, it's up to you. Get that big fish back to the seabed!"

-----

Inside the bridge, Vice Admiral Kojiro Oikawa gripped the window frame tightly, watching helplessly as the escorting destroyers were being swept back and forth by twin-engine heavy fighters swooping down from the sky, their machine guns raking across the land.

"Baka! What are the anti-aircraft guns doing? Shoot them down!"

Oikawa Koshiro roared angrily.

The Izumo had just narrowly avoided a flying torpedo heading straight for its bow thanks to Captain Takeda's personal stern maneuvering.

Before the people on the bridge could even breathe a sigh of relief...

"Buzz—!"

A BF-110 heavy fighter, having just strafed a destroyer, pulled up its nose and the pilot keenly spotted the towering and massive bridge of the Izumo.

The pilot pushed the control stick, the nose of the plane suddenly aimed at the bridge of the Izumo, and pulled the trigger hard.

"Thump thump thump—!"

The two 30mm MK 108 cannons in the nose instantly spewed out deadly flames.

"Commander, be careful!"

A lieutenant colonel staff officer nearby caught a glimpse of the flickering firelight in the sky out of the corner of his eye. His eyes widened in fury, and he lunged forward, pinning Oikawa Koshiro firmly to the deck beneath him.

next second.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A series of 30mm high-explosive shells slammed heavily against the outside of the bridge.

The thick bulletproof glass that was originally designed to protect against shrapnel was as fragile as a sheet of paper in front of the 30mm cannon, and was shattered instantly.

A violent explosion erupted in the confined space inside the bridge.

Hot metal fragments, shards of glass, and wood chips flew wildly through the command room, like a storm of death.

"ah--!"

Screams echoed throughout the room.

A navigator who couldn't dodge in time had half his head sliced ​​off by shrapnel, and blood splattered on the chart table and the bulkhead.

After a period of chaos, the roar of machine guns faded into the distance.

Oikawa Koshiro pushed away the staff officer who was lying on top of him and was no longer breathing, and got up from the ground covered in dust.

He was breathing heavily, his ears ringing from the explosion.

He carefully stood up and looked around.

The once neat and solemn bridge has now been transformed into a slaughterhouse.

"Captain, Takeda-kun!"

Koshiro Oikawa's pupils contracted.

Captain Takeda of the Izumo was lying next to the helm, his snow-white uniform now completely stained red with blood on his right arm.

A piece of shrapnel the size of a palm severed the artery in his right arm, exposing the white bone fragments in a horrifying sight.

"Medics! Call medics quickly!"

Koshiro Oikawa shouted at the top of his lungs.

Chaos erupted again on the bridge.

Just then.

"Boom—!"

A muffled and enormous explosion suddenly came from the distant sea.

Even the massive hull of the Izumo trembled slightly.

Koshiro Oikawa's heart skipped a beat. Ignoring the blood all over the ground, he hurriedly grabbed the binoculars hanging around his neck and stumbled to the broken observation window to look into the distance.

My gaze traveled across the smoke billowing over the sea.

Koshiro Oikawa witnessed a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.

Not far from them, the heavy cruiser Ashigara was hit by another torpedo!

This time, the torpedo missed the bow and instead struck the Ashigara squarely on the starboard midsection of the armor belt.

A huge column of water shot into the sky, even covering the towering bridge of the Ashigara.

Even just by looking through his binoculars, Oikawa Koshiro could clearly see with the naked eye that the Ashigara's massive hull seemed to have begun to list noticeably to the right.

"Call Ashigara immediately and inquire about the situation," Oikawa Koshiro shouted at the communications officer.

A moment later, the communications officer raised his head, his face deathly pale:

"Commander, Ashigara has replied..."

Their starboard engine room was severely flooded, and both boilers were shut down.

The speed has been reduced to twelve knots and the ship is listing at more than fifteen degrees.

Captain Harada said, "In this situation of constant air raids, they...they probably...have no chance of survival."

Upon hearing this news, Koshiro Oikawa's legs went weak, and he almost collapsed to the ground.

The 13,000-ton heavy cruiser, the pride of the Imperial Navy, is gone just like that.

All ten 203mm 50-caliber Type 10 naval guns haven't even fired a single shot, and they're already finished?!

"Where are the escort planes? Where are those army idiots? Why haven't they arrived yet?!"

Koshiro Oikawa pounded anxiously on the window frame, like a desperate, trapped beast.

He looked up at the Great Xia fighter jets circling in the sky, and a deep sense of powerlessness and fear welled up inside him.

Is this the power of an airplane?

Those old fogies of the Fleet faction, like Suetsugu Nobumasa and his ilk, ultimately underestimated airplanes!