The problem was that the explosions weren't confined to one place. It was as if two separate locations had exploded at the same time, setting off a series of violent secondary blasts.
Then, every so often, explosions sounded across the Yangtze River near Shanghai and out at sea, their echoes carrying over and over.
The people inside the warehouse were bewildered. They couldn't tell what was exploding.
But the two enormous mushroom clouds in the distance made it clear that the blasts had occurred on the Yangtze.
So they all grew curious!
After all, by this point, almost all the ships on the river belonged to the Japanese. If Japanese ships were exploding, did that mean another country had joined the war?
The Japanese attackers realized they were in danger, too. They had come by sea and enjoyed a huge advantage, so the violent explosions could only mean that the ships they'd traveled on were blowing up.
While the Japanese troops below hesitated, the soldiers inside Four Lines Warehouse came up with a new idea: they turned mortar shells upside down and threw them down in one go.
Carrying shields was exhausting enough. A grenade might not kill them, but it would certainly break bones.
But when the mortar shells exploded, they knocked down a whole group in an instant, sending the rest sprawling in every direction.
The soldiers on the roof seized the opportunity and opened fire. Before long, they had wiped out the attackers.
What puzzled them even more was that the snipers who had been suppressing their fire had suddenly stopped attacking.
Even more unbelievable, the follow-up assault that should have taken place that day never came.
What they didn't know was that the Fengxiang aircraft carrier and the Longxiang aircraft carrier, which had been anchored very