Chapter 260 Can I go home?

Micronesia Islands.

Ye Zuyu withdrew his eyes from the darkness. Under the sea level in the distance, there was a broken and dense island, stretching for thousands of miles. He never thought that one day he would bring a warship to the depths of the ocean.

Compared with Lushun Port with Captain Jingyuan before, at this time did he understand what the navy is!

From Lushun to Ryukyu, from Ryukyu to Luzon, from Luzon to the west of Micronesia, we arrived at Honolulu through Wick Island, which is known as the foothold of the Pacific Ocean, and finally returned to Lushun from Honolulu through the Ogasawara Islands!

The teenager, who was not yet 20 years old, was turned into a Far East arsonist by Europe, denounced by the Americans as a war maniac, and nicknamed "our young master" by the people in the territory, already has a vast sea territory than the whole Qing Dynasty.

Perhaps those who are still in China, facing the loess and facing the sky will sneer at the use of so many big and small islands, but as a naval officer, Ye Zukui is very clear how much wealth this vast sea territory that will take several months to circle the vast sea.

More important than wealth, how important these seemingly inconspicuous islands are.

The heavy patrol under his feet galloped. The large cruiser, Admiral Nasimov, which originally belonged to Russia, has been transformed after more than half a year of modification. I'm afraid it is difficult to recognize even the original designer.

Although the original Chesma, Sinop, Admiral Kornilov and the ship Nasimov had a slight difference in the tonnage size of the hull, they were all listed as the same class after modification, and were renamed Vladivostok, Twin Cities, Manzhouli and Ussuri respectively.

The navy is numbered as the Vladivostok class, and the type is a heavy armored cruiser.

This is the unique classification of the Pacific Fleet, which simplifies the current chaotic classification of first-class, second-class battleships, first-class and second-class armored cruisers and so on. In the Pacific Fleet, first-class battleships are called battleships, second-class battleships and first-class armored cruisers are called heavy cruisers, and the rest are light cruisers. .

The remaining torpedo ships or mine attack ships in various countries are called destroyers. I heard that there is a kind of warship that can dive underwater and be called submarines in service recently, but he hasn't seen that force yet.

Although the newly commissioned four ships of Jinghai reached a full load displacement of 9,8 hundred tons, twice as many as the previous four light cruisers, they were included in the list of light cruisers due to the lack of marked heavy artillery.

Ussuri was originally a Russian first-class large armored cruiser with a full displacement of 7,600 tons. After this modification, the tonnage increased to 8,200 tons.

Compared with Vladivostok and Twins, which were converted with battleships, the Ussuri and Manchuria of the same class were a whole circle smaller, and the hull time was also long, so they had to sacrifice part of the armor and secondary artillery firepower in the end, and the coal load and endurance were also reduced a lot.

Two triple 45-caliber 203mm naval guns. If the weight and recoil of the new naval guns were not greatly reduced, I'm afraid these two heavy patrols would not be stuffed into them. However, all the original 20 secondary guns of various calibers were dismantled, leaving only eight 152mm secondary guns and four double 37mm deck rapid-fire guns. Look It seems that the artillery has been greatly reduced, but because of the triple gun in the front and back hemispheres, the attack ability has not been reduced, but has been enhanced a lot.

The combination of small water pipe coal-fired boilers and more efficient reciprocating steam engines is still first-line equipment in other countries, but it has gradually aged in the Pacific Fleet and can no longer be compared with the new power combination adopted by the Jinghai class, but it can still make the Ussuri guarantee 2 The speed of 0 knots.

From the Jingyuan ship of more than 2,000 tons in the past to the 8,000-ton heavy patrol today, Ye Zukui never dreamed that he would come to this day.

And this is not the most exciting thing for him. As the captain of a heavy cruiser and a senior officer in the navy, he can already involve some high-secret things, so he has seen the two Pacific charts carried with the young master and the chief of staff, which were only displayed in high-level meetings but never hung up. When he was the first After attending the senior officer's meeting, after seeing the chart, I almost fell off my chin.

Young master, it's not just Hawaii, Luzon, and West of Micronesia. His ambition is enough to swallow this ocean!

The map is just a hurried glance, but it has been engraved in my mind. Although it is still far from the final goal, and even the islands in Micronia such as the Marshall Islands are still under the control of Germany and Britain, one day, every island here will be planted with that flag!

Ye Zuyu slowly turned his head and looked at the fleet flag flying in the moonlight but still flying with the wind. The blood of the soldiers was stained with red clouds. The Chinese dragon stretched out its golden claws and explored the air, covering the blue ocean and breaking the cold warship!

Blood cloud dragon claw flag!

That is a battle flag that has been well-known all over the world and is still being dragged down by countless soldiers and planted step by step to the top of the mountain!

Ye Zuke took a deep breath, and the fishy sea breeze poured into his nasal cavity, which made his whole body very energetic. He looked at the sister ship Manchuria next to him and wondered whether Sa Zhenbing was also watching the battle flag, or was planning to use the new fleet to wash the shame of Beiyang with blood?!

With a slight smile, he immediately walked into the ship, which was his habit to inspect the cabins after turning off the lights.

In the aisle, most of the lights have been turned off, and only a few emergency lights are still shining faintly. A slight snoring comes from each rest cabin. Below the rest cabin is the ammunition compartment wrapped with thick armor.

When he quickly walked through the ammunition compartment and was ready to see the power module, a small conversation behind the thick iron door of the compartment attracted his attention. After the hatch, several soldiers who managed the ammunition depot were laughing while drawing graffiti on several thick 203mm shells.

"Dongzi, is what you said true?"

"Of course, why don't I take you down at night?" The soldier, known as Dongzi, promised, "Mrs. Zhang has told me that there will be a war tomorrow, so I have to write a sentence before the war."

"By the way, Dongzi, write a sentence for me."

"What to write?"

"I just write, my little woman, grandpa is here!"

"The dog said, think about women." A soldier kicked a kick and then said to Dongzi, "Help me write one too, just write that Beiyang is back!"

"Well, wait, I'll write one by one."

Outside the cabin door, Ye Zuyu laughed hoarly. Looking at the news of these sailors who managed the ammunition depot, it was quite timely. He dared to write big characters on the shell before the start of the war, but after the shell was smoked by gunpowder and high temperature, even if it did not explode on the Japanese warship, it was already dark and could not be seen clearly.

But this is also a good idea, at least it can boost morale.

Thinking of this, Ye Zuui pushed open the hatch. Several sailors who were writing all kinds of words on the shell suddenly turned white with fear. They hurriedly left their pen and dared not come out.

"Don't worry, I happen to pass by here and come in to have a look." Ye Zukui glanced at it and found that he thought it was the old gunner on his Jingyuan ship. He smiled and said, "Write a sentence for me that Beiyang has come to revenge!"

"Tube, captain, do you also write?" The old Beiyang gunner stared at Ye Zukui and almost dared not admit it.

"Write!" Ye Zujiu focused on his head and smiled, "But don't paint all the shells. If there is too much of this kind of paint, it will be attached to the barrel after burning, which will affect the accuracy."

He smiled and pointed to the "comp crime" tools of the sailors, confessed, and turned around and wanted to see the power module at the end. Captain, tomorrow? Is the Japanese fleet really here? The sailors looked at each other, and finally the old Beiyang asked their questions.

Ye Zukui turned his head, looked at Lao Beiyang and nodded, and then walked out of the ammunition compartment in a suppressed cheer.

Listening to the cheers behind him, the smile on the corners of his mouth deepened. The fleet did come. According to the plan, tomorrow is also the time of decisive battle, just!

I hope Lefei will leave some strength for them, otherwise the bullet will write, and I'm afraid I won't have a chance to hit a few shots--

Pang-Pang.

The muzzle of the naval gun, which seemed to be in a certain rhythm, spewed out a group of flames, and the smoke filled the sky, and even the moonlight above the head seemed to be shrouded.

In the turret, the electric bomber motor is endless, providing a steady stream of armor-piercing shells weighing 48 kilograms for the three main guns. If there are officials in the State Council again, they will definitely be angry and spit out blood.

This is not an ordinary shell. In addition to the heavier weight, the price of each shell is twice as much as that of ordinary armor-piercing bullets, second only to the rarely used special incendiary bombs, but the rising gunners obviously don't understand what saving is. In addition, the rate of fire of six rounds per minute will be 72 rounds per minute. Who can see? The heart will tighten.

With the increase of displacement and the small weight of shells, the four Jinghai class can equip each main gun with 500 shells, unlike battleships and heavy patrols, which are only about 150 rounds. However, although the number sounds quite large, in fact, if they shell at full speed, they can only last for 80 minutes.

No wonder the young master gave this kind of cannon a nickname called "water pipe".

In order to save shells, the gun captains reduced their speed to four rounds per minute, but even so, they could not stop the enthusiastic gunners from pushing one shell into the gun.

The reason is very simple, because the shelling distance at this moment has been narrowed to 12,000 meters. This distance is night again. It is said that the secondary guns of each ship are all paralyzed. Even if the main guns can still be powerful, in the absence of precise aiming means, it is an exaggeration to describe it with boots.

It's the best training opportunity!

However, in order to minimize the probability of being targeted, most of the light sources in the bridge have been turned off, leaving only a red emergency light. At this moment, the roar of the naval gun is no longer so neat, because the formation has already disbanded the volley order and lowered the shelling to the ships to play freely.

Le Fei took the coffee from the staff officer. According to the new combat regulations of the Pacific Navy, he had completely entrusted the shelling task to a more professional gunnery commander at this time, and became a watcher at ease.

It's not a burst of flames in the dark in the distance, which can no longer excite the officers in the bridge. At a distance of 12,000 kilometers, the fleet has no means to counterattack. If it hadn't been for the limitation of shells, everyone would have believed that they would have been shelling all the time, and the consumption would have died!

The only thing I'm worried about is the extremely fast torpedo boats, but there are three consecutive raids and raids in the front, and they are mainly aimed at the torpedo ships. There are only five of the twelve torpedo ships left.

The fragrant hot air rose up, and the fragrant nasal cavity suddenly cheered people up. However, some officers were not used to the smell. They brought oolong tea early. The strong tea fragrance not only relieves fatigue, but also went to the heat near the reprimand.

Of course, there are also some tea and coffee that I don't like, so I hid in a corner outside the bridge, took out the cigarettes and smoked it all the time to spend this relaxing but a long night.

Suddenly, a huge fire broke out again in the distance, and a torpedo ship did not know where it was hit. The figures ran around in the raging fire, and the hull was crooked.

"Another unlucky guy."

The idle mate leaned against the bulkhead and curled his lips.

After listening to it, everyone nodded quickly. The torpedo ship was indeed unlucky, because after the Yamamoto Quanbingwei on the opposite side had been attacked by a series of long-range raids before, they already knew that the target of the light patrol was the remaining two second-class protective cruisers and torpedo ships, so this time they were escorted behind the capital ship early, just afraid. Hit. Hit.

But I didn't expect that at a distance of at least 14,000 kilometers, the shell still crossed the capital ship and hit the torpedo ship. Unfortunately, it was too dark, and I don't know which gunner was so lucky.

A group of fires kept exploding from the remaining ten main ships in Japan, and the color rose like a red sky, but after all, the skin was rough and thick. If you want to sink them with a 152mm gun at such a long distance, you are really a hundred times luckier than hitting the torpedo ship.

"Report, it is said that the fleet has released smoke and turned around. Do you want to continue to pursue?" The captain turned his head and looked at Lefei.

"How many shells are left?" After handing the coffee to a serviceman, Lefei returned to the position on the ship. The gun staff quickly reported: "There are still about 100 shots left in each gun."

One hundred shots, you can still shell for about 15 minutes at full speed, but at such a long distance, coupled with the dark hit rate has dropped to 8%, even if you catch up, you can't do much damage.

"Where is the supply ship?"

"The signal ten minutes ago has arrived 40 nautical miles away and is on standby."

"Stop the shelling, let the Tingfeng, the Angni and the Hurricane continue to track, and make a radio contact every ten minutes." Le Fei quickly issued an order: "Order each ship, the communications officer must do a good job in the radio positioning calculation, and also correct it every ten minutes."

"Notify the supply fleet to be ready, and we will be there." Le Fei looked at his watch and said, "Arrive in two hours."

With the order of Lefei, the six light patrols immediately left the battle. The sudden stop of the shelling also made every sailor in the Japanese fleet breathe a sigh of relief. Hundreds of damage officers on the deck began to be busy. The long leather pipes were connected to the water pump, spewed out tons of seawater, and rushed to the flames of the ship.

Although the sailors have been very clear that the power of the other party's naval gun is not enough to penetrate the thick armor on the ship from 10,000 meters away, they still dare not be careless, because it is impossible to have thick armor protection in all places on the warship, and there are even many positions ** outside, such as a large number of deck rapid-fire gun positions, * * The gas steamer outside and the vertical deck is only a few tens of centimeters thin.

Looking at the soldiers who were running back and forth, but they were already tired and numb, Yamamoto Quan Bingwei, who came out of the command tower, only felt as if a bomb had been stuffed into his chest, but the fuse could not explode.

He didn't understand that he lost five warships in the first attack, including two second-class protective cruisers. He did not hesitate to consume very valuable coal and continuously changed the channel. Once again, he even left two battleships towed for protection, in order to find out whether the other party was chasing in the distance. He traced himself, but except for the haunted small black warship, he could not see any shadow at all. He even sent people to monitor the four cruisers who came to watch the battle, and did not find any signs of leaving or sending signals halfway. So why can the other party find himself accurately in the vast sea?

Hiding between a reef and an island, the other party killed from the other side and lost two torpedo ships.

At the risk of passing through an island, the other party had already blocked in front of the channel earlier, and the 20-minute continuous shelling almost cost him a capital ship.

Now it's midnight again. I also learned many times that the other party released smoke, maneuvered under the cover of the smoke, and then hid in the shadow of the island and turned off all the light sources, but the other party still found himself!

Are they a group of ghosts? It's the maggot of the tarch!

Yamamoto Quan Bingwei almost went crazy. He knew the other party's intention very well. They wanted to force themselves to be exhausted and create opportunities for the final battle through this continuous attack.

It's just that he doesn't know how many times there are such a disturbance. Damn Li Mo, why can't he have a good time like a warrior!

In the sound of Yamamoto's gritting his teeth, the open fire on the deck was extinguished again, and the bodies of hundreds of sailors had to be thrown into the sea. Most of the soldiers had finished the damage, and their work was concentrated on cleaning up and rinsing blood stains.

A gunner, with the help of his comrades-in-arms, came out of the protective shield of the rapid-fire gun with a frightened face. The 47mm Hackesian rapid-fire gun beside him had become a pile of scrap metal. Several partners had been torn to pieces, but he was lucky enough to survive. When he raised his head with a dark face and walked on his partner's body. When I went out of the battle, I found that the deck of the 16,000-ton Pang warship had already been gnawed by a dog, full of holes and debris.

The sailor raised his head blankly, looked at the Yamamoto's guard standing on the command tower, walked to the railing, looked at the position of the original enemies who had been shrouded in smoke, and slowly sat on the deck emitting the warmth, and his heart contracted.

Can I still go home?

(to be continued)