Chapter 267 Spear is like a shuttle

"What time is it?"

Le Fei stood on the flying bridge extending outward on the left side of the bridge, like a straight green pine, looking at the dark Uraga waterway, allowing the sea breeze to cross his cheeks.

Due to the unique three-storey high design of the Jinghai-class conning tower, the navigation bridge and the artillery bridge, the flat and wide observation bridge on the top of the navigation bridge has quietly disappeared, and the highest layer is replaced by a cylindrical shape, and a rangefinder runs through the observation tower from the middle.

Now if the officers want to rest and blow the wind, they have to squeeze into the narrow side bridge. Although the space is much smaller, no one complains. After all, this is a warship, not a comfortable cruise ship.

"There are still five minutes left."

The staff officer answered and looked at the unsmiling, strict and decisive young captain, and his eyes were full of admiration.

In the first naval battle, he ordered the reconnaissance ship to open fire to lure the enemy. In a short time, he sank two Japanese light patrols and three destroyers, allowing countries to see the firepower advantages of the Jinghai-class light patrol. Although the next three attacks were not outstanding, the haunted style still shocked the Japanese fleet, and in the end, they had to fight against the main force.

In the interception battle, it was the young captain who led the light patrol formation to force the Japanese to disperse the formation, and quickly solved the remaining two Japanese light patrols. At the most critical moment, relying on the three Jinghai-class ships, taking advantage of the thick fog on the sea, he decisively ordered a rapid raid. He took a good look at the weakness of the weak armor in the rear of the Yashima turret, directly broke one of the turrets within 5,000 meters, and also made the other main turret lose its combat effectiveness, laying the foundation for the main formation to solve the battleship.

Then, in the naval battle at noon today, he saw the weakness that the other party could not fight back when turning, and concentrated all his strength on shelling a little, opening the door of hell for the Bante.

This young captain has become the most dazzling star in the fleet after Ji Rushan, and also makes everyone understand why the young master personally ordered him to be directly promoted from the test ship to the first captain of the Jinghai class!

It's worth it to be able to follow such a captain all over the world, even if he is a staff officer for a lifetime! It's time." In the stunned spirit of the staff officer, Le Fei suddenly turned his head and smiled a rare smile at the corners of his mouth: "Let's begin."

The staff officer suddenly woke up and looked at the distributed watch. The pointer was still ten seconds away. He couldn't help but admire the captain who could pinch the time so accurately without looking at the watch, and quickly made a gesture to his partner in the bridge.

"Boom."

Standing on the protruding bridge, you can clearly see the twelve naval guns, each of which has risen to the maximum elevation. Because this is not a formal beginning, just to attract my attention to cover the smooth passage of the submarine troops, so Lefei chose to fire at the maximum distance, which not only made me look forward to the ship. Sigh, you can also take the opportunity to exercise the long-range shelling ability of the gun group.

Le Fei is very clear that with the exposure of the Jinghai class to the world, its unique naval gun layout structure and long-range rapid-fire capability will completely change the traditional idea that the larger the caliber of the world's naval guns, the better.

The indicators of naval gun speed, unified artillery caliber, high speed and large endurance will be proposed and studied one by one. There is no doubt that the Pacific Fleet will encounter more serious challenges in the next few years! Because if it can be faster, countries will come up with new warships to restrain the Jinghai class, especially in several countries in Britain and the United States. The scientific research and financial capabilities are far stronger than their own, so long-range artillery warfare will become the main means in the future!

But this alone can't keep the Pacific Fleet, so what will the young master do to deal with those greedy jackals?

Suddenly, a roar almost at the same time interrupted Lefei's thoughts. More than a dozen red flames suddenly spewed out from the starboard side, and the sharp roar of tearing the air circled on the night sky paper, and the exciting artillery battle began again.

Almost at the same time, the three sister ships also burst into roars. Before the fire broke out in the darkness in the distance, forty-eight naval guns burst into a roar again and fired a second round of sip.

This is what Le Fei and three other captains found after summarizing. Due to the small caliber of the naval gun, don't care about the hit rate. After hitting six rounds at the fastest speed, use the rangefinder to constantly correct the trajectory, instead of only one round of tests like a large-caliber naval gun to improve the accuracy as much as possible.

This is the essential difference between the light cruiser and the capital ship. From the day the four Jinghai-class ships were handed over to them, there was only one fast word left in their hearts.

The rumble of cannons broke the quiet night. Hundreds of fire regiments broke out from the shore artillery base in the distance. Such a dense shelling caught many Japanese artillerymen who had not slept all night to monitor the enemy off guard. They couldn't think of just four shadows. How could they shoot so many shells? If all the warships hidden in the dark in the distance come over, what kind of scene will it be?

A few minutes later, two large forts outside the Uraga waterway finally opened fire. Nearly a hundred flames rushed out of the darkness. At the same time, a formation of three gray shark-class and four herring-class submarines sailed into the Uraga waterway with the depth of the ventilation pipe in the rumble of artillery. After arriving in the middle section, they will dive into the water to avoid. The last large fort hidden into Tokyo Bay——

"Yamamoto, it's time for you to rest."

Looking at the opposite side, drinking a cup after another, like Yamamoto Quan Bingwei, a down-and-out ronin, Xixiang sighed.

On the dock in the distance, they were still busy. The four main battleships brought back were crookedly by the dock and were temporarily taken over by maintenance workers. However, they could only pump up the water in the general ship, remove the damaged barrel and armor and roughly clean them up. After the only remaining Yokohama Shipyard, they will be idle in two days. Only when you come out can you drag them somewhere for overhaul.

As for the original sailors and officers, they were all arranged to rest in the secluded barracks outside the dock, because they were really tired. After a interception battle exhausted all their physical strength, they were chased by the four warships that seemed to be full of gun barrel all the way and disturbed for thousands of miles before they finally returned here, so that they just Many people fainted directly when they got off the ship, and more of them didn't even eat, so they hid in the barracks and fell asleep.

In the loom, there were bursts of thunder from the sky. Both of them knew exactly what the sound was, but they were not too worried. Even if the two forts at the mouth of the waterway were lost, the mines in the waterway and the large shore artillery base in the center were enough to block the enemy, not to mention the three in their hands. A capital ship and two second-class cruisers that can be put into battle immediately, and two more will be added in two days. When they join the forts together to guard the waterway, it is impossible to enter without paying a huge price.

Unless the opponent's stupid troops to land, the Pacific Fleet will lose at least five to six capital ships, so the two can't wait for Li Mo to send the fleet in immediately. Even as long as the two capital ships of the other side are killed, the number on their own side will also be on the battleships. Re-repull the advantage.

So the only thing to worry about at this moment is how to let the breakout battleships be repaired as soon as possible. Due to the blockade for more than half a year, it is already in urgent need of supplies. If it hadn't been for Xixiang Congdao's worst plan from the beginning and ordered each ship to prepare a set of gun barrel and equipment to bring back by itself, I'm afraid that at this moment, even The naval guns can't be repaired.

"I should go." Xixiang got up from the road and finally looked at Yamamoto Quan Bingwei: "The base camp is still waiting for my report. I want to negotiate with them as soon as possible how to repair the warship as soon as possible. You can rest assured that even if I can't repair them completely, I can guarantee that all their cannons are intact within ten days.

Yamamoto Quanbingwei nodded numbly. He didn't know whether he was appreciating the taste of wine or listening to Xixiang's words. After a sudden sip, he staggered to the ground. In less than half a minute, the thunderous snoring sounded from the room.

"Protect the general well and try not to disturb their rest in the next few days!"

"Hi."

After taking care of it, Xixiang Congdao finally inspected four seriously damaged battleships, and then boarded the steamboat, ready to rush to the Tokyo base camp immediately and report the situation here in person.

The steamer drew a white track on the sea. Standing on the deck, Xixiang Congdao took advantage of the turn and looked at the dark waterway behind him. He didn't notice that one eye was staring at him in the dark not far away.

Through the periscope, Qin Shou saw the departing steamboat and several officers who came to see him off. He licked his lips and said that it was a pity. If it hadn't been for the time at this moment, he might have caught a big fish.

"How long will it take?"

"Half an hour."

"Gunnie, why is there still half an hour?"

The first mate's words, let Qin Shou rub his hands straight, and saw that the three main ships were still intact. The main ship was swaying in front of him, but he couldn't eat because he wanted to cooperate. It was like marrying his wife and making trouble in the bridal chamber, but he found that he had diarrhea all night, which was really disappointing!

Just when Qin Shou was waiting, outside the Uraga waterway, except for the damaged Antarctic Star and the North Star, which will be stationed at the mouth of the waterway, the rest of the ships have quietly entered the battle position under the cover of rumbling cannons.

"Yokosuka Port has not started to be mined yet." Tan Xiaozeng handed the telegram from the Grey Ridge Shark to Long Guozhang and said with a smile, "It seems that I really think this mine array can block us."

"Hmm! Find your own way to death." Long Guozhang didn't read the telegram. He grabbed the telescope and walked to the porthole: "Let's go, stop playing!"

Soon, when the order was conveyed to the ships, the remaining eleven capital ships were immediately incorporated into the artillery formation of the four Jinghai ships. The bomber pulled up the shells with three eye-catching red lines from the ammunition depot. Some old gunners who had participated in the bombardment of Vladivostok suddenly recognized what it was, and all of them suddenly turned red. The eyes are excited.

"Fire!"

When a harsh electric current sound came into the ears of each gun commander, the starboard side of the eleven capital ships burst into a huge fireball at the same time, and the Jinghai Light Patrol, which had been shelling at a low speed of two to three times a minute, seemed to be awakened by this earth-shaking noise, and the shelling speed suddenly doubled.

Such a huge and neat shelling sound scared the Japanese artillerymen in the two forts to look at the sky at the same time, and they did not know what would happen in more than ten seconds.

Boom!

A 152mm shell that landed first hit the distance of the cement bunker of the 250mm legal shore gun, which scared several soldiers to quickly shrink their heads to avoid. The officer was about to scold when he saw this, but before he could speak, he suddenly found that something was wrong.

After the shell exploded, there was no huge fireball as usual. Instead, it spewed out countless white fog spots. These fog spots flew out, poured into nearly 100 square meters of space, and then suddenly lit up.

The silk fog suddenly turned into countless sparks and burst into all parts of the bunker. A few drops of it also drilled into the bunker and fell on the officer's body and the shells next to it.

The officer was so scared that he hurriedly patted, but no matter how hard he tried, these sparks refused to extinguish as if there was life. A burst of piercing pain penetrated into his heart from the place where the spark splashed, which made him fall down, but it rolled less than a circle, and his clothes were all ignited. After a moment, the flames devoured him. A body.

The soldiers next to them opened their eyes wide. Don't you understand what time is Mars? How did it suddenly turn into a fireball? Not until they could figure it out, more shells exploded around. These shells, which were originally just smashed a big pit and took away a few deadly shells at most, this time brought countless flames. The scattered Mars spread between the positions with the strong wind.

The fact that the enemy suddenly changed the intensity of the shelling has not been figured out by everyone. Everyone feels as if they have fallen into a sea of fire, burning everywhere, on branches, grass, and even on steel, cement!

When the soldiers of the gun group were so scared that they picked up the tools they had already prepared to put out the fire, a strange scene left all the eyes with a large area of whites. The spark that fell on the shell of the shell of the shell did not go out, but became more and more fierce.

Soldiers don't understand that steel is not a spark. Why don't those flames go out? On the contrary, it is constantly expanding! What the hell is that?!

But they couldn't continue to think about it. A huge fireball rushed up from the bunker, and the thick cement bunker was overturned in the blink of an eye and intertwined into more sparks. The fireworks scattered and splashed everywhere, and then turned into a fierce fire again, engulfing everything around. Go.

The flames in the sky are wrapped in thick smoke and continue to spread out from the two shore gun positions. A fluffy phosphorus powder with a very low ignition point turned into countless sparks, covering the whole fort. Even those things that would not burn in the fire began to burn under this strange spark, and even the sky seemed to It's burned red.

"God, what on earth did you fight out by yourself?"

In just 30 rounds of shelling, many gunners and sailors who saw this scene for the first time stopped moving. They stared at the two forts completely covered by flames in the distance. Many people rubbed their eyes and swallowed their saliva.

"They are coming."

Tan Xiaozeng pushed Long Guozhang, who appreciated the masterpiece of the fleet, handed him the telescope and pointed to the sky. He saw more than a dozen small black dots passing over the top of the fleet along the firelight.

"All put on protective masks and go!" --

"Received the signal, received the signal!"

The sudden beep of the radio station, which had been silent for more than half a day, broke the dull atmosphere in the Grey Shark. The communication soldiers in the cabin almost jumped up excitedly. When a character was born from his pen, almost everyone surrounded the communication cabin that was opened separately and could only be entered by the captain and the messenger.

In less than a moment, the hatch was suddenly opened, and the blushing messenger handed the translated telegram to Qin Shou, and even forgot to salute: "Report, they are coming, right next to us!"

Qin Shou excitedly swirled the periscope. When he turned to the entrance of the waterway, he waved his right arm fiercely. He only saw several periscope masts rising on the water in the distance, just like a shark swimming outside the beach with only its dorsal fins, approaching the gray shark little by little.

As soon as he was about to speak, there was a beep in the communication. The telegraph rushed in. He couldn't sit down and began to write again. When he put down his pen and began to translate the message according to the special password book, his eyes suddenly turned red.

"The fleet has entered the waterway and is expected to arrive in an hour."

"The catapult squadron will arrive in 15 minutes."

"Authorization, you can choose the opportunity freely..."

"Attack!"

When the correspondent said the last two words, the gray shark suddenly became chaotic. Qin Shou did not order at all. The torpedo soldiers had already crossed the narrow hatch, locked the isolation module, rushed into the battle position, and began to unlock the torpedo.

There were even more noises in the power cabin. I don't know which daredevil fell down. Through the thick sealed door, the laughter and scolding from there could be heard in the command cabin.

"Send a telegram, team up according to the plan, and report after selecting the target."

"Gave the An Yunhao to me!"

The words of the commander caused a burst of jokes. The submarine troops seem to have a tradition. Whoever leads the team will leave the best fat to himself. Although the An Yun also has a sister ship Satsuma, it is obvious that the submarine commander is a grudge, just because the reckless Japanese sailor casually glances at him. It made him think about the American-made battleship in his heart.

The radio wave spread through the entire submarine force along the small antenna on the buoy. The four gray sharks first selected the target, and the remaining four herrings had to be bullied by the boss because of the small torpedo, and quietly touched by the surveillance waterway sub-flotilla led by an Austrian light patrol and two gunboats. Go.

Driven by the battery, the submarine that maintains the maximum depth of the periscope is almost silent, and even the sound of the waves when the propeller rotates slowly is submerged by the sound of the tide around it.

The improved and lengthened 433mm old-fashioned torpedo has a maximum range of only one kilometer, so the four herring class must be approached carefully to ensure the hit. Fortunately, the attention of this Japanese squadron was all focused on the direction of the waterway, and no underwater shadow quietly sneaking from the back of the bay was found. .

In the Torpedo cabin of the Grey Ridge Shark, the torpedo quickly pulled off the fuse at the tail of the last torpedo. After closing the launch tube and twisting the valve to lock it, he nodded to his partner.

Several torpedo soldiers immediately opened the compressed air valve, and a silky sound suddenly sounded in the pipe. The torpedo chief stared nervously at the pressure gauge on the edge of the four torpedo tubes. When the hands on the dial reached the yellow warning line, everyone closed the valve, grabbed the phone, and reported with suppressed excitement.

"The torpedo cabin is ready."

After getting the reply, the torpedo chief went to the remaining two thick torpedoes on the left shelf and stroked these cold big guys, as if he had seen his son, and the corners of his mouth said to himself.

550 mm, maximum range of 3500 meters, speed of 35 knots, trigger fuse, and the loading reached an unprecedented 150 kg!

Good boy!

Although the torpedo chief doesn't know a few words, and even his names are only learned in cultural classes in the army, he has a good surname that ordinary people don't have. It may be difficult for him to write down the above data with a pen, but they have been deeply engraved in the depths of his brain.

As for the periscope, Qin Shou, who was getting bigger and bigger in front of the camera, made him tremble with excitement. He knew more about what he had in his hand. This spear heavy thermodynamic torpedo not only condensed the painstaking efforts of dozens of research institutes in Honolulu, but also the young master participated in it.

But Qin Shou didn't know that in fact, Li Mo was not satisfied with the surname of the spear. Originally, he was going to use the oxygen torpedo, but he didn't know much about the principle of the oxygen torpedo, and with his current industrial ability and dangerous surname, he finally chose a safer thermodynamic device.

After Austrian designer Ludwig Aubry came to Honolulu with the introduction of talents, he immediately joined the naval design department. His innovative plan to install the gyroscope on the torpedo rudder was valued by Tang Xiao. After testing, it was found that the torpedo with gyroscope installed with accuracy. The most annoying maintenance of the depth has been improved by the first mate.

Later, Li Mo "prompted" the design of the combustion chamber, and proposed to spray fuel and air into the combustion chamber to ignite, change the method of gas-driven, and use the rapidly expanding gas to drive the torsion bar, and then drive the propeller to push. For this reason, he also temporarily put the big-headed monsters in the internal combustion engine laboratory such as Deselle. We all pulled into the torpedo design.

Finally, with the efforts of so many engineers, water mist is sprayed into the combustion chamber when the fuel is burning, generating water vapor, causing the gas in the combustion chamber to expand rapidly to increase power. And there is fresh water in the mine body, circulating around the wall of the combustion chamber. One part is used to cool the combustion chamber, and the other part is used to spray water mist to generate steam to enhance the torpedo power. The "moistual thermodynamic torpedo" was made eight years ahead of schedule. The design also makes Honolulu eight years ahead of the world average in a single weapon for the first time!

However, when everything was completed, the new torpedo named "Spear" made everyone fall through their glasses in the live ammunition test. After enhancing the power, because it was too heavy, the rate of fire of the torpedo could not exceed 30 knots, which was much worse than the indicator of at least 35 knots proposed by the young master, and the maximum range was only There are three thousand meters.

At this time, Master Li took action again. If the design of the combustion chamber is only a concept he heard when he was in the Navy Museum, completely relying on the concentration of human, material and financial resources to smash the fruit, then the only torpedo knowledge he knew, the later meaning of "piracy" The Dali designer added a sharp cap to the torpedo head to form an air hole in the torpedo's high-speed underwater motion head, which greatly reduced the resistance in the water, which can only be said to be shameless!

A simple hat, just like he installed a delayer for the triple gun, completely convinced all the designers and directly let Master Li seal the god of the torpedo world. If it hadn't been for the problem of too little power in the first-generation combustion chamber, it would have been possible to run at a speed of more than 40 knots!

Now everything is ready!

This spear, which condenses the painstaking efforts of thousands of people on Tanxiang Mountain and represents the highest level of torpedoes in various countries, has quietly aimed at the huge hull of the An Yun!

Qin Shou raised his wrist and looked at his watch.

Five minutes!

The thrower should already be overhead. Let the spear light up the target for them!

"No. 1 and No. 2 torpedo, launch!"

Pang, two dull sounds came from the front.

The gray shark shook gently, and the spear suddenly drilled out of the launch tube.

A few seconds later, six rapid white tails were pulled out almost at the same time on the dark sea next to it...

(to be continued)