The Lushun Fortress finally fell into complete chaos at dawn. The artillery fire of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army could not compare to the American firepower in the Korean War after World War II, nor could it compare to the unprecedented artillery concentrations of World War I. However, in Asia, the Japanese army experienced for the first time what "artillery washing the ground" meant. After the artillery devastation, not only did the attacking Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army feel that the actual Lushun Fortress was vastly different from the "Simplified Lushun Fortress" replica, but the Japanese themselves felt even more profoundly that the Lushun Fortress had been changed beyond recognition.

The entire fortress, literally every part of it, had been hit by rockets. All Japanese troops in the positions set up outside had lost contact. Search parties reported that no survivors were found. Even semi-permanent fortifications, if the walls were slightly insufficiently thick, had large holes blown into them by high-explosive shells upon direct hits. This wasn't just in one place, but everywhere.

The place where the fortress commander was killed was in the center of the fortress; being far from the enemy did not save it. Every part of the entire fortress suffered indiscriminate shelling. Various defensive units urgently reported the situation to the command headquarters, but unfortunately, the commanders at the headquarters were already gone. First, a massive amount of information about fortress damage flooded the officers temporarily taking over the command, followed by a massive amount of information about the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army using poison gas. It wasn't that the Japanese headquarters personnel were incompetent, but that they had never imagined war could be fought like this. These Japanese soldiers completely lost control of the situation.

The headquarters could not react immediately, and the Japanese troops in various units were also helpless. Looking out from inside the fortress with fear and trepidation, there were bomb craters everywhere outside, raging flames everywhere, or flames about to go out due to lack of fuel. After confirming that the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was using poison gas, the Japanese officers and soldiers felt that even the air they breathed on Chinese soil was filled with deadly hostility. This greatly shook the morale of the Japanese army.

The artillery positions also suffered huge damage from the indiscriminate shelling, but most of them managed to persist. However, the surface appearance the artillerymen were used to was almost completely different. Many things they used as aiming landmarks were completely different from yesterday before sunset. Because of the poison gas, every strange smell in the air made the Japanese artillerymen feel suspicious and panicked. Every artilleryman covered his mouth and nose with a towel. Comrades who were familiar in the past instantly became strangers with blurred faces. This change had a considerable impact on their mentality, and the combat effectiveness of the Japanese artillerymen was also greatly discounted. When they tried hard to find the enemy artillery positions with artillery scopes, their eyes were always inadvertently attracted by the miserable state inside the fortress.

Then came new stimuli one after another. Just as the sky was brightening, a new series of explosions occurred in the Lushun Fortress, and the artillerymen could not find where the artillery positions of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were at all.

"Look at the sky!" A Japanese artillery observer shouted. Telescopes looked towards the sky, and then they saw a large number of huge aircraft passing over the Lushun Fortress. A series of small dots fell straight down from the planes. With an indescribably sharp whistling sound, the small dots became larger and larger. Huge bombs fell directly into the fortress. The huge explosions made the artillerymen realize that the power of these bombs was no less than that of 250mm caliber shells.

In the telescopes, the red five-pointed star was clearly visible on the silver-gray fuselage. That was the common symbol of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.

"What do we do? Shoot at the sky?" There were some clever ones among the artillerymen, but their clever suggestions received no response from others. The Lushun Fortress was designed without any consideration for air raids. The top of the fortress had always been a key reinforced defensive area, and the gun muzzles could not be raised to an angle to shoot at the sky at all. Moreover, the Japanese army had never conducted research and training on anti-aircraft artillery. Now, apart from waiting for the aircraft of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to bomb the fortress fiercely with bombs, the Japanese air force had no other way to deal with it.

Looking up at the sky monopolized by the Chinese Air Force, the feeling of being passively beaten on one side made the mood of these artillerymen desperate. Many Japanese soldiers suddenly suspected whether the gods in the sky had also joined the Chinese side and completely abandoned Japan on the ground.

Flying in the sky was the People's Air Force's latest bomber, the "H-4C". Towards the end of World War I, the Germans developed the Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI four-engine heavy bomber. The aircraft had a bomb load of 2000 kg and participated in the bombing of Britain and France at the end of the war. After the war ended, the Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germans were not allowed to possess such bombers. Like German submarines, this part of the technology was transferred to China by the "Former General Staff" which had gone behind the scenes, to continue research and development in China.

Of course, the former German soldiers, as was only right and proper, pocketed a part of the money China paid them, and the rest of the money was handed over to the people of the Former General Staff for distribution. Since the General Staff was ordered to dissolve by the Allied Powers, these unemployed soldiers had no wages to collect.

In 1923, the highest commander of the People's Air Force was the Air Force Commander. From the earliest organization starting from the group, to the later regiment commanders, division commanders, and corps commanders, the current Air Force Commander Chu Fengge was the eighteenth highest commander, and also the first commander of the Air Force to survive for more than 18 months.

At this time, the commander was in the Qingdao Fortress responsible for command. According to Chu Fengge's original intention, he wanted to personally lead the team to carry out the bombing mission. In the bold and fearless tradition of the People's Air Force, commanders must never hide in a safe place to command the battle. Not to mention that this was China's first real large-scale air force bombing operation. As a result, he was ordered by the Political Commissar at the Party Committee meeting not to participate in the battle personally. Military commanders naturally dared not resist the orders of the Party Committee, but Chu Fengge's restless performance fully demonstrated his mood at this time.

"Is there a new telegram from the Southern Liaoning Airport?" Chu Fengge asked the communicator for the umpteenth time.

"They have already sent a telegram just now. The weather conditions are very good, very suitable for combat." The communicator answered Chu Fengge's question cleverly.

"What about maritime reconnaissance?" Chu Fengge asked next. This bombing adopted shuttle bombing. Reconnaissance planes, fighter jets, and bombers took off and landed at a total of ten airports on both sides: six airports in the direction of Qingdao, Yantai, and Weihai, and four airports in the direction of Southern Liaoning. In terms of army and air force strength, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army naturally had full confidence against Japan. In the war so far, both branches of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had shown overwhelming superiority over Japan.

However, the Japanese army still held an overwhelming advantage in the navy, which was the most uncomfortable place for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. This was also where many senior commanders found Chen Ke's strategy very difficult to accept. Logically speaking, fostering strengths and circumventing weaknesses was the most effective way. The Military Commission had demonstrated many times that as long as the Japanese were driven out of Korea, the Japanese navy would have absolutely no ability to threaten China's coast. With heavy bombers like the H-4C, Chu Fengge was fully confident of taking off from future Korean airports and then fiercely bombing the Japanese mainland. However, Chen Ke, who had always been known for his strong offensive spirit, showed unusual conservatism in this matter. His explanation was "the time is not yet ripe".

Now the Military Commission finally issued an order. During this attack on the Lushun-Dalian area, if the Air Force discovered Japanese warships at sea, it could adopt a high-altitude bombing mode to attack them. But it must be high-altitude bombing, with ensuring the safety of the troops as the top priority.

Chu Fengge certainly knew what level the current aircraft were at. The "Tech Tree" plan of the People's Party's industrial department relied on national laboratories and the school system for overall technological design, so the technology from the Germans, which was far more substantial than China's, added a lot of categories to the "Tech Tree". With the technology provided by the Germans, aircraft performance improved linearly. At least the aircraft failure rate dropped, and the service life of parts was extended a lot. The fact that Chu Fengge had lived for 18 months after becoming commander was clear proof.

But there were limits to this. Just like the H-4C, the aircraft was changed from biplane to monoplane, a large amount of aluminum alloy material was used, and the fuel tank was wrapped with a rubber layer to prevent fuel leakage after being hit. If the Germans were designing for themselves, they would naturally consider the problem of aluminum materials deforming and burning after being hit. When designing for China, the German engineers only mentioned this problem. The Chinese side insisted on reducing the aircraft's own weight, so the German engineers did not insist anymore.

Once such an aircraft took a shell, it would be finished immediately. On the vast ocean, the survival rate of pilots after parachuting would also be very low, so low that they were basically hopeless. The People's Air Force certainly would not regard the lives of its own comrades as grass. The Air Force could fully understand Chen Ke's order. However, compliance could only happen when bombing the Japanese navy. If they didn't see the Japanese fleet at all, there was no point in complying or not.

In the midst of anxiety, the telegraph operator in the next room suddenly rushed in with a telegram, "Commander, the Air Force has just discovered enemy warships at sea and dropped bombs on them from high altitude before leaving. According to the report, it seems that the enemy warships were not hit."

"Good!" Chu Fengge shouted excitedly. With the hit rate of high-altitude bombing, it was even less reliable than rockets. But being able to drop bombs on the enemy itself meant that the Air Force had set a precedent for attacking the enemy navy!

However, this tolerance did not last for 30 seconds. Moments after saying "Good", Chu Fengge couldn't help but ask: "Did they really not hit the enemy?"

"The Air Force telegram said they saw no signs of a hit," the telegraph operator replied.

Actually, this answer was not quite right. After the Air Force formation discovered the Japanese navy at sea, they dropped more than sixty bombs. One bomb was extremely lucky and hit a Japanese warship, and it hit the Japanese navy's flagship, the Kongō. However, due to a fuse problem, the bomb did not explode. It just smashed a pit in the armor of the Kongō and bounced into the sea.

The Japanese navy fleet was anchored in Lushun Port. The shelling after midnight made the Japanese navy feel extremely shocked. It wasn't the power of the rockets; the power of main guns with a caliber of 280mm or more firing at land was far above that of rockets. The problem was that the rate of fire and life of naval guns made it impossible for warships to turn the entire Lushun Fortress into a sea of fire in a few minutes.

The Russo-Japanese War allowed Japan to learn the experience of joint land and sea offensives and joint land and sea defenses. The Japanese naval fleet, which was also in a state of first-level combat readiness, immediately weighed anchor and began to cruise near the waters of Lushun, ready to shell the attacking troops of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army at any time. Back then, Japan blockaded the coast of Lushun, allowing the Japanese army to attack without scruples. For China's weak navy, the Japanese navy simply didn't take it seriously. Even if the Chinese army showed strong firepower delivery capabilities, the Japanese navy did not believe that Chinese gunners could hit a fleet constantly changing positions at sea.

Reality gave the Japanese army a blow to the head. The Chinese artillery did not attack the Japanese navy. Just as dawn broke, the Chinese Air Force launched an attack on the Japanese navy. Bombs fell from the sky, and the Japanese navy had no means of defense at all. Especially that bomb that hit the Kongō, although it did not cause any damage, it still scared the Japanese navy into a cold sweat.

Naval observers found that the large Chinese formation had flown away, but more than three Chinese reconnaissance planes were hovering over the Japanese fleet like annoying flies. This clearly showed they were tracking the Japanese fleet and preparing for the next wave of attacks.

What to do? Everyone in the Japanese fleet wanted to solve this problem immediately.

The maximum range of the warship's main guns was only 30 kilometers. At this distance, the Japanese fleet could not talk about accuracy at all. The most critical thing was that only a small number of main guns could reach this distance. If they got close to the coast, God knows when the next bombing by the Chinese Air Force would arrive. The Japanese army also had no air defense experience. Judging from the hit by the bomb, the weight of this bomb was probably between 80 kg and 100 kg. God knows what power the bomb would have after exploding.

Just waiting to be bombed was definitely not an option; they had to dodge at least. The problem was that when dodging, the warships could not effectively complete the shelling mission against the land. What to do? This became the biggest feeling of the Japanese fleet.

Combined Fleet Commander Takeshita Isamu convened a meeting with a gloomy face on the flagship Kongō. The senior officers and staff of the headquarters also had gloomy faces. They already knew that the fortress defense commander had unfortunately been killed in action, and now they were encountering attacks from the sky. Both the Japanese army and navy believed that the Lushun Fortress was an impregnable fortress. At least if the war was limited to the Lushun-Dalian area, no matter how much price the Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army paid, it would be impossible to capture the Lushun Fortress. However, reality had exceeded pre-war imagination.

"We can divide the fleet into two parts and block the narrow section, which can contain the Chinese attack on the Lushun Fortress," the Chief of Staff suggested.

This suggestion sounded inexplicable. Some slow-reacting naval officers didn't understand it for a moment, but Takeshita Isamu understood. This suggestion was rather passive. The Chief of Staff implied that the Combined Fleet could not temporarily resist attacks from the air. In order to ensure combat capability, the fleet should be split into two. Even if a certain part of the fleet was attacked, the other part of the fleet could still maintain combat capability.

The Deputy Commander had already figured out the key points. He said angrily: "We can split into two, but can't the Shina air force split into two? Their reconnaissance planes have been following us. They can see clearly whatever we do."

The Chief of Staff was also blunt, "Then what should we do? Just wait here to be bombed?"

"The Chinese Air Force may not necessarily have that many planes to bomb us all the time. The Shina people can reconnoiter, and we can also reconnoiter in advance when their planes fly over," the Deputy Commander said angrily.

"What will our planes do after taking off? Get shot down?" The Chief of Staff was also unceremonious. The Japanese Air Force had always been in a state of being unilaterally slaughtered when facing the Chinese Air Force. This was a fact proven many times.

While the Combined Fleet was arguing endlessly, four nautical miles away from the Combined Fleet, four Chinese submarines had retracted their periscopes and snorkels, and quietly approached the Japanese Combined Fleet underwater.

There were wireless transmitters inside the submarines. The submarines only sent a few continuous short signals indicating that the target had been found. The headquarters quickly replied, "Attack!"

In the engine rooms quieted by electric drive, the commanders of the four submarines only issued brief orders, "Comrades, the days of the Japanese Navy baring its fangs and claws on the Chinese coast will be ended by us!"

"Yes!" The comrades answered one after another. Everyone had trained for so long just for this day. At the pre-war mobilization meeting, the troops had long known the campaign arrangement. Since Japan controlled the joint land and sea defense, what the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had to do was to make it impossible for the Japanese navy to participate in the Lushun campaign. The mission of the Air Force and Submarine Force was to strike the Japanese Combined Fleet. There was no need to annihilate the Combined Fleet. As long as the Combined Fleet could be prevented from participating in the battle smoothly, leaving combat space for the Army, the Navy would have completed its mission.

"Long live the motherland!" The captains said finally at the brief mobilization meetings. Facing a powerful enemy, every comrade in the submarine force knew how great the threat of death they faced was. The only reason that could keep everyone moving forward bravely was this one: for the motherland, for the people!

"Long live the motherland!" The commanders and fighters said at the same time.

Comrades at every post quickly took their places, and the silent underwater killers advanced towards their respective targets.

At 6:37 am on September 27, the Japanese Combined Fleet was attacked by torpedoes. A cruiser and a battleship were hit. Although both warships were thick-skinned and damage control was quite effective, the Combined Fleet fell into panic just like the Japanese troops inside the Lushun Fortress.

They finally understood that the war had changed. This was no longer a battle on the ground and at sea. The land and sea defenders of the Japanese Lushun Fortress faced all-round attacks from the land, from the air, and from underwater. There was no place safe in the three-dimensional area of the entire war.