Under One Person: One Person Goes

Chapter 440 The End
"True direction! Enemy ship is spotted! Distance 300! (Directly ahead, distance 300 meters! Enemy ship spotted!)"

"All ships deployed for battle! (Everyone, get to your battle positions!)"

"Tidangarita Riji! (Prepare for impact!)"

The observer who saw the enemy ship appearing so close shouted a warning and sounded the sirens.

At the cost of the lives of fourteen great sorcerers, and the serious injuries of Zhang Zhiwei, the master of the formation, whose life and death were unknown, the power of the Eight Diagrams, a strange formation made famous by Zhuge Wuhou, the greatest sorcerer a thousand years ago, was finally demonstrated.

Using the Qi of this local Feng Shui Qi Bureau as a carrier, the historical projections of four ironclad ships were successfully pulled from the past as the last stand in this blocking battle.

Because this area of ​​water covered by fog is hundreds of meters long in total, if it were not for the fear of the pitch-black fog, it would only take about ten minutes to cross it at the speed of the fleet.

So when the observers on the inland gunboat fleet of the Third Fleet of the Old Imperial Navy observed the enemy situation report, it was too late.

Especially these four ironclad ships seemed to appear out of thin air, not giving the commander of the Japanese fleet any time to react at all. As the supreme commander, Hasegawa Kiyoshi also stood up immediately when he heard the observer's report.

Ignoring the dissuasion of his subordinates around him, he ran out of the command room, looked forward, and kept shouting.

"Where did the enemy ship come from! Why is there an enemy ship here..."

The roaring sound stopped abruptly because he saw it.

When the four ironclad ships appeared before him through the fog, traces of battle were clearly visible on their hulls.

There is no doubt that it was the main gunboat of the National Navy that was destroyed in the waters of Jiangyin more than a month ago under his personal command!

They should have sunk underwater, waiting to be salvaged and modified, but instead they crossed time and space and came to the present, transformed into unyielding undead, and once again charged at the enemy ships that invaded their country!

"The main turret is ready for free firing!"

On the bridge, the Japanese Navy's chief gunnery officer issued the last order. The fleet's sirens sounded six short and one long beeps, and the deck switched to red tactical lighting.

The main and secondary weapons roared, trying to destroy the ghost ship that suddenly appeared in front of them again.

However, their thoughts were dashed. Just as they thought, there could be no enemy fleet in these waters. The gunboats they destroyed were just four ghost ships.

It was a projection that Zhang Zhiwei pulled from the past to the present with the help of Zhuge Wuhou's Eight Diagrams power. What maintained their existence at this moment was the invisible and intangible Qi of heaven and earth.

In essence, these four gunboats were mirages, but not entirely mirages.

They do not have all the attack means of gunboats and are just a mere showpiece, but their collision volume is real.

The inland gunboat fleet commanded by the old Japanese devil Hasegawa Kiyoshi only had time to fire the first round of shots. The shells neither penetrated the four ironclad ships nor exploded, but just pierced the hulls of the four ironclad ships.

These four ironclad ships carried the shells fired at them, listened to the screams of the invaders on the fleet, and rushed head-on towards their gunboats in fear!
The explosion was deafening, and the bow of the ship was deformed and twisted by the collision.

The hull was also hit and shifted, deviating from its current course, and moving towards the mines that Zhang Zhiwei had previously placed in this area of ​​water, which were transformed into mines swallowed by the previous tentative firing of these gunboats.

Explosions sounded one after another in the water area. From time to time, the Japanese soldiers who were standing unsteadily fell off the boat. Even though they were navy soldiers and proficient in water, under this most primitive collision, they would be pulled underwater by the whirlpools on the water surface and become nutrients for the creatures in this water area.

This encounter came and went quickly.

The role of these four ironclad ships is to attack by surprise, disperse the enemy's fleet, and crash them into the minefield before disappearing. Relying on the power of the shells fired by these gunboats before, they will lose the ability to continue fighting and advancing.

As for sinking or destroying it, that is impossible.

If you want to completely sink or destroy a main gunboat without directly hitting the opponent's ammunition depot, too many shells need to be thrown in. This cannot be done by simply summoning an Eight Diagrams.

As these four ironclad ships from the past completed their mission, they turned into phantoms and slowly disappeared. The fog that maintained this area of ​​water was also slowly dissipating as the Eight Diagrams collapsed.

Hasegawa Kiyoshi slowly stood up, holding his head which was broken by the collision and explosion, and looked at the fleet in front of him that had just experienced a terrifying moment.

Including the flagship Ataka which he was commanding at the time, the 11th Squadron gunboat fleet, which was specially designed for operations in inland rivers, had eight main gunboats, plus three destroyers and several small auxiliary ships.

Of course, the scale of these warships is naturally not as large as that of later generations, otherwise they would not be able to fight in the inland river basin. The auxiliary ships suffered little damage, after all, the main gunboats under his command were the ones that collided, so the auxiliary ships are now responsible for salvaging the Japanese soldiers who fell into the water.

However, among the eleven main battleships, two gunboats lost power, one destroyer took on water and was slowly sinking, and the remaining gunboats, including the flagship he was in charge of, all suffered some degree of damage.

It is not a big problem to continue fighting, but temporary repairs will be needed.

When the surrounding fog dissipated, Hasegawa Kiyoshi also saw the small sandbar island in the middle of the river, which was several hundred meters ahead of them and had its surface overturned by artillery shells.

It was on such a small sandbar, and such a small group of troops using wooden boats wrapped in iron, together with those Chinese practitioners whose lives were unknown, that they dealt a head-on blow to his fleet.

With such a casualty ratio, no one would believe him even if he reported it truthfully.

The most terrifying thing is that Hasegawa Kiyoshi cannot guarantee whether there will be similar traps waiting for him to run into in the next water area.

Hasegawa Kiyoshi sat in the command room, allowing the military doctor to bandage his head wound.

In his mind, he recalled a conversation when he was captured by Wang Yi on the Battle of Songhu.

"You have no choice, but I have many choices."

When Wang Yi's words came back to his mind, Hasegawa Kiyoshi also understood that he didn't dare to gamble anymore.

"Order, telegraph to the Supreme Commander of the Central China Front Army, Matsui Iwane, that because the Army's intelligence was wrong, we were ambushed by the Chinese army in the Yangtze River. Although we have defeated the enemy, we are unable to reach the designated waters and block the river as planned because we are unable to determine whether there are still ambushes ahead.

The Central China Front Army was ordered to confirm once again that there were no more ambushes along our route before we could continue to advance.

Based on the principle that the navy and the army are as close as fire and water, Hasegawa Kiyoshi directly put the blame on the old Japanese Matsui Iwane, and was also prepared to move the blame over bit by bit by means of passive resistance.

"Commander?!"

"What? We've already taken the city. With so many soldiers in the army, can't they completely surround the city? Or do you want to see what just happened happen again on the road we have to pass? If the army hadn't provided us with wrong information, how could we have this humiliating encounter today! Those guys in the army should commit seppuku and apologize to His Majesty the Emperor!"

"Hi!"

After hearing Hasegawa Kiyoshi's righteous accusation, these naval officers, who were already at odds with the army, also concluded that all the problems were the fault of those idiots in the army.

This telegram was also sent out according to the wishes of the old devil Hasegawa Kiyoshi.

As the blocking battle on Zhang Zhiwei's side came to an end, Liu Pozi, who had been secretly using the Yang Shen method to lead a group of Quanxing disciples to watch the battle, also led them back to the hilly woods on the shore and returned to her own body.

The souls returned, and all the Quanxing disciples looked at each other as if it was all a dream. They all had their own thoughts in their minds, but no one spoke out loud first.

They couldn't understand how Zhang Zhiwei, who was on the smooth path of cultivation, had a group of old seniors who were highly respected and had profound cultivation among the sorcerers, and an army that was not at all regular.

But they chose to do this futile action in this area of ​​water. Don't they know that even if they stop this fleet, they cannot save the city of Jinling which is sixty miles away?
They can't figure it out, but they know there's someone who can figure it out for them and help them find the answer.

"Everyone, did you enjoy this show?"

"It's fun, but Master, what do you think Zhang Zhiwei and those old guys think? Those old guys are easy to deal with. They only have a few years to live, so it doesn't matter where they die. But Zhang Zhiwei, he, he..."

"Want to know?"

"think."

"Then go find him and ask him the reason. He is not a disciple of Tianshi Mansion now. Are you afraid that he will beat you to death if he meets you? Even if he wants to, he can't do it now."

"Zhang Zhiwei is still alive? How can he still be alive after using such a heaven-defying magical power?"

"Because someone told him to live."

Ignoring his disciples' doubts, Wu Gensheng stood up, moved his legs, and ran towards the shore. Seeing this, all the disciples of Quan Xing followed him, wanting to find Zhang Zhiwei, whose life or death was unknown, and to ask him face to face for clarification.

(End of this chapter)