newbobooks Chapter 259 A Small Shock from the Domestically Produced 150mm Heavy Howitzer
Chapter 259 A Small Shock from the Domestically Produced 150mm Heavy Howitzer
Fuzhou, temporary coastal defense command center.
The sea breeze blew in through the open window, making the small red flags on the sand table flutter in the wind.
Chen Zijun was leaning back in his chair, holding an urgent military intelligence report from the front lines in northern Jiangsu.
Before him, Shen Li stood with his hands at his sides, his expression stern.
"Young Marshal, half an hour ago, an urgent telegram came from the Independent Brigade on the northern Jiangsu defense line. The 7th Mixed Brigade under Zhang Shizong of the Fengtian-Zhilu Allied Army, along with a cavalry division, has crossed the Grand Canal defense line. These scoundrels are extremely arrogant, smashing two of our forward outposts along the way, and even tying their horses to our telephone poles."
Upon hearing this, Chen Zijun's lips curled into a cold smile:
"Zhang Shizong, this 'dog meat general,' has actually become the vanguard for the foreigners this time. Barton had barely finished blowing his 'offshore balance' winds in the concession when people to the north immediately rolled up their trousers and waded into the water. Have they opened fire?"
"no."
Shen Li shook his head. "These people know the rules very well. They only use sabers and fists, and they keep saying things like, 'You are in cahoots with the Northern Expeditionary Army and have betrayed the Beiyang Army.' They are certain that we have just accepted the Guangzhou organization and are afraid to fire the first shot in the face of public opinion for the sake of 'disrupting peace and provoking civil war.'"
"They want to be thugs, but they can't bear to take off their clothes. They get all the cheap deals in the world?"
Chen Zijun stood up, walked to the window, looked at the surging sea outside, and coldly uttered a few words, "Tell Zang Keping on the front line in northern Jiangsu that I don't care how many of them have crossed the border. No negotiation, no warnings, no signal flares. Open fire directly and wipe out these scumbags as quickly as possible."
"Yes!" Shen Li's expression turned solemn, and he immediately stepped back to relay the order.
At this moment, on the front line of Xuzhou in northern Jiangsu, there was an artillery position hidden behind the hills.
Thirty-six gleaming 150mm Krupp heavy howitzers stood with their cold, menacing barrels raised high, pointing directly at the northern plains.
These heavy artillery pieces were not smuggled goods bought from foreigners, but rather the first batch of domestically produced heavy weapons assembled and manufactured independently by the Southeast Arsenal Heavy Industrial Park after acquiring a special armor steel production system and high-precision rifling machine tools.
The robust cannon barrels and heavy shields exude the purest violent aesthetics of the industrial age.
Artillery Brigade Commander Zang Keping stood at his observation post, binoculars in hand, silently watching the dust-covered Fengtian cavalry on the distant plains. Those scoundrels from the Zhili-Shandong Allied Army were riding their horses recklessly across the wilderness, some even making obscene and provocative gestures towards the southeastern defense line.
"You son of a bitch, do you really think Grandpa's cannons are made of paper?"
Zang Keping spat, glanced at his watch, and his face suddenly turned ferocious. "Time's up! The young marshal has ordered: no warnings, no warnings, open fire!"
As he swung his right arm down, the entire artillery position erupted in a deafening roar!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Thirty-six 150mm heavy guns fired simultaneously, their crimson flames tearing through the thin morning mist of northern Jiangsu. The violent recoil whipped up towering dust, and the earth trembled wildly, spreading outwards from the position. Even the Guanhe River seemed to pause for a moment amidst the roar.
A sharp, piercing whistle, like the roar of a train, echoed through the sky as dozens of heavy 150mm high-explosive shells, carrying destructive kinetic energy, traced long parabolic arcs and precisely struck the marching ranks of the Zhili-Lu Allied Army.
"Rumble rumble rumble—"
In an instant, huge black mushroom clouds rose from the distant plains, and the violent shockwaves, accompanied by orange-red flames, instantly tore apart all living things within a hundred meters.
The power of a 150mm high-explosive shell is terrifying. Once it hits the ground, warhorses and soldiers within a radius of tens of meters don't even have time to scream before they are instantly vaporized by the intense heat. The dense shrapnel is like the scythe of death, slicing wildly through the dense marching ranks, hurling limbs, flesh, and the remains of warhorses into the air dozens of meters high in the shockwave.
Commander Bi, who had been sitting on his horse directing the army in the Zhili-Shandong coalition, was thrown from his horse by the violent shockwave. He struggled to his feet from the mud, spitting out blood, and looked at the marching column around him, now a scene of carnage, and was completely terrified.
"What...what kind of cannon is this?! It's not a mountain gun, nor a field gun! Is this the main gun of a foreign warship?!"
"Run! Scatter! Scatter!"
However, on this flat plain, facing the endless coverage of heavy artillery, any tactical maneuver becomes a meaningless struggle.
Zang Keping had no intention of giving them any chance to surrender. Thirty-six heavy cannons fired at an extremely high rate, the shells falling from the sky like iron plows, ploughing the land again and again.
Within half an hour, a thousand domestically produced heavy artillery high-explosive shells were unleashed on the flat ground in front of the canal, completely annihilating the probing troops of the Zhili-Shandong Allied Army into the dust of history.
The scene was like a devastating blow from modern heavy industry to a backward military organization.
When the smoke of battle finally dissipated over the North China Plain, all that remained on the once flat wasteland were countless huge bomb craters and a nauseating smell of burning in the air.
The elite cavalry and mixed brigades that Zhang Shizong had placed high hopes on were all physically annihilated, except for a very few remnants who managed to escape on the outskirts.
Under the desperate protection of a group of personal guards, Brigade Commander Bi boarded a nearly wrecked truck and fled frantically away from Xuzhou. His eyes were glazed, his body trembled uncontrollably, and his mind was filled only with the destructive flames that had completely dyed the sky and earth red.
The news, traveling at the speed of radio waves, spread throughout China within half a day.
Nanjing, just now, through the negotiations on changing the flag during the Northern Expedition, coordinated the recovery of the Presidential Palace, Chiang Kai-shek's temporary headquarters, from Chen Zijun's hands.
"Snapped!"
Chiang Kai-shek slammed his hand on the table, his face ashen, his voice trembling: "What?! Chen Zijun, without a word, directly deployed thirty-six 150mm heavy artillery pieces to bombard the ground?! Has he gone mad?! He's openly provoking war and undermining unification!"
The deputy minister of military and political affairs next to him wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said cautiously.
"Principal, Chen Zijun included a solemn statement in the annex to his telegram announcing the change of flags, claiming that 'the remnants of the Fengtian clique plotted to sabotage the southeastern defense line, and the Southeastern Front Army, in accordance with regulations, launched a self-defense counterattack.' Moreover, Zhang Shizong in the north was in the wrong first; they did indeed cross the Grand Canal boundary..."
Chiang Kai-shek stared intently at the battle report on the table, his teeth grinding together.
What shocked him most was not Chen Zijun's ruthlessness, but the cold number on the battle report—thirty-six 150mm Krupp heavy guns.
"Damn it! The most elite guard division at headquarters is only equipped with four 75mm mountain guns, yet Chen Zijun can casually unleash thirty-six 150mm heavy artillery pieces in a single self-defense counterattack?! Where did he get so many cannons? Just how far has his arsenal developed?!"
No one could answer him.
This feeling of powerlessness at being absolutely crushed by industrial strength was like a bucket of ice water, completely chilling all of Chiang Kai-shek's budding micromanagement plans.
In the Shanghai International Settlement, when Consul General Barton received the frontline military intelligence report, the cigar in his hand fell directly onto the £10,000 handwoven carpet, burning a black hole in it.
"Thirty-six... domestically produced Krupp 150mm heavy howitzers?"
Barton's face paled, his lips trembling slightly: "Cunningham, tell me, what arsenal in China can independently mass-produce 150mm heavy artillery? Chen Zijun not only controls the finances of Southeast China, he has completed the closed loop of heavy industry!"
Fei Xindun's face was equally pale; his lips trembled as he painfully closed his eyes.
"Sir Baldon, our assessment was completely wrong. This is not a tiger at all; it is a modern monster that has mastered steel and gunpowder. The half a million pounds we loaned to the Fengtian clique may only be enough to paint the barrels of Chen Zijun's cannons once."
In the conference room, two veteran diplomats from imperialist powers looked at each other, feeling for the first time the terrifying roar of heavy industry from their homeland in the East, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Meanwhile, in the temporary command center for coastal defense in Fuzhou, Chen Zijun casually tossed the battle report on the defeat of the Zhili-Shandong Allied Army into the charcoal brazier.
Flames rose, turning the paper to ashes.
"Tell Uncle Zang that this battle went well. The quality of the domestically produced artillery shells is up to standard, and the workers in the heavy industrial park can get double pay."
Chen Zijun smiled slightly, walked to the map of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang defense zone behind him, and focused his gaze on the Shanghai International Settlement, the most central area.
"Open the cannons, and truth will fall to the ground."
"I shattered the foreigners' attempts to probe us. Now, they probably only have that assassination route left to take."
"Shen Li."
"Your subordinate is here."
"Keep a close watch on Wangping Street. Report to me immediately if there's any disturbance at the concession police station. It's time for the show of the Jiangzhe overlord to come to its grand finale."