Chapter 568 Which way to go?

Sitting in front of the sea map, Chen Ping forgot the noise around him and looked straight at the Atlantic sea map. After half an hour, he turned his head. His eyes crossed the figures coming and going and threw them at the decoder that was working in the corner.

He only learned from the emperor a few days ago that the German radio password might be decrypted. Although he didn't know how the emperor knew about it, he made a serious mistake.

Didn't inform Germany in time!

This is not a political motive. Yes, it was indeed delayed, because the German war patrol attack had failed at that time, so there was no difference between one day earlier and one day later. At that time, everyone did not expect that Li Xiuyan would use the German communication system in the Atlantic to send a telegram.

This is an extremely serious incident. If he wants to be held accountable, he, the Chief of General Staff, will bear the brunt.

It has not been a day or two since the emergence of radio technology. All countries have invested a lot of research before the war. Technologies such as radio positioning, decoders, and communication password manuals have also begun to be applied, which has turned radio into a double-edged sword.

Use it well, this is a sharp weapon.

If you don't use it well, you will hurt yourself.

Just like at this moment, Germany has invested a lot in radio research, but according to Wang Shizhen, grass-roots officers still do not understand this new thing. Although they have a primary password book and other things, when forwarding telegrams from other troops, they will still indicate who forwarded from where, and so on.

Although this information is also encrypted, Britain has obtained a vital password book from Russia!

Even if only a small part can be translated, as long as they speculate that the 31st Fleet has reached the coast of West Africa, the search range of half of the original Atlantic Ocean will be compressed to a very small area.

Because the battlecruiser Tiger turned around halfway and rushed back, both Fleet A and Fleet E had already set off at that time, which also means that if the United Kingdom moves from north to south, Fleet E can increase by 2 knots with the help of the Canary Cold Stream from the north to the south! If the inference is correct, they should have arrived at the Cape Verde base and even have half a day of fuel replenishment time, and the U.S. A Fleet has also completed its supply in Puerto Rico, moving to the position of Maceyo (the Brazilian continent protruding from the Atlantic Ocean) and starting to cross the Atlantic from there!

Because it takes one day for Li Xiuyan's telegram to be forwarded back, which means that the encirclement is forming rapidly!

After the breach of confidentiality, the Allies can fully mobilize all ships on the African coastline to search. According to incomplete statistics, at least half of these nearly 100 warships are equipped with radios, that is to say, 40 can send messages back at any time, and then search scope according to their reconnaissance results. Gradually compress until the preliminary positioning is completed!

This is the role of radio.

More importantly, the emperor once said that Xinhua is the best radio technology in the world. It has the richest experience. In addition, his point dialing has formed a very strict rules. For example, the disorderly coder, even if the enemy gets it, it is translated into some numbers. These numbers are only available. Only after a special password book can we get the code word, and the final code word needs to be retranslated to become the final information.

It is precisely because of Xinhua's advanced and strict means that there is a huge gap between countries. This gap often causes many inadvertent mistakes. For example, although Li Xiuyan asked Germany to send back encrypted telegrams, Germany did not have such a strict means. The submarine I will receive it there, forward it from there and wait for the message to be sent back together.

What's annoying is that it is impossible for Xinhua to provide the latest radio and encryption technologies for the alliance. Whether it is political or military, it is not allowed, because the important surname of radio is too big!

Chen Ping turned his head again.

From the previous telegram and time of the 31st Fleet, it is inferred that the 31st Fleet should be active in the Gulf of Guinea, because this is already the limit of supplies, so they need to delay there for at least one night, which has won the opponent time.

And it is impossible for Li Xiuyan to stay at high speed all the time, so that the fuel will be insufficient. On the contrary, the two interception fleets can maintain a relatively fast speed for a long time because they have a general target and can get base supplies halfway, which is also the time for the opponent to rush to the battlefield.

The 31 fleet will undoubtedly face the most serious test. At this moment, the two interception fleets must have formed a situation of front blocking, crossing and chasing back. The front blocking must be the British E fleet, the U.S. fleet A crossing, and a large number of small fast warships and a temporary USS Australia that can fight. The South African fleet of battlecruisers.

If it is another warship, it may be a hundred dead, but after all, the Guam class is Xinhua's strongest, and even the most powerful battleship in the world at present. It has the ability to tear up the enemy from another 20,000 meters away, but the question is whether Li Xiuyan has been warned whether he can give full play to the advantages of radar and electronic capabilities. Out of the encirclement?

"Chief of Staff."

The voice interrupted Chen Ping's thoughts and turned his head to see that Zhang Zuolin had already stood beside him with a telegram.

Looking at the electric newspaper in his hand, Chen Ping suddenly stood up: "31 Fleet?!"

"It's related to them." Zhang Zuolin walked to the chart, picked up the pen in the Caribbean Sea and drew a straight line to Cape Verde: "The information that Germany has just transferred, the two Wyoming-class battleships that have been operating on the coast of the East Sea of Panama suddenly left there last night. We speculate that they may have gone to support Fleet A."

The Wyoming class is a first-class battleship built by the United States. It has two ships, the Wyoming and the Arkansas. It has six double-loaded 305mm guns and a displacement of 27,000 tons.

The two battleships have been operating in the Caribbean Sea. After the war, they entered Panama to provide support to the local U.S. Army and serve as the last sluice gate to protect the Panama Canal.

Their sudden departure undoubtedly confirmed that Britain and the United States really cracked the German telegram and roughly knew where the 31st Fleet was.

Now there are three roads in front of the 31st Fleet. The first is to immediately turn around and give up the mission. With their endurance at this time, they can stick to Chile or even the Cologne Islands, and the South African fleet behind them can't stop them.

The second way is to immediately cross the Atlantic Ocean and play against the U.S. A Fleet. Take advantage of the speed to quickly go to the Caribbean Sea with many islands, avoid the limelight, and then wait for the opportunity to go north to continue the mission.

Of course, there is the third and most difficult one, that is, to break through the British E fleet that has been prepared head-on, and then use the false news that Long Guozhang said in Shanghai that he would go to Germany to make a posture of going straight to the North Sea, attracting all British and American forces to the Gibraltar. Then cross the Atlantic from there and withdraw immediately after shelling New York!

This road is the most difficult, not to say that the British E fleet is more powerful than the American A fleet, because there are too many interception forces along the way, and it is the busiest waterway from Gibraltar to the east coast of the United States. Too many fleets along the way will expose their whereabouts.

So how will Li Xiuyan and Chen Shaokuan choose?

"Yuting, do you think the 31st Fleet will go the way?"

Hearing Chen Ping's inquiry, Zhang Zuolin thought about it and pointed to Gibraltar. He was not a naval expert or a strategic vision, but he knew that these two captains were fearless guys. The third way was the most dangerous, but it was the most unexpected route for Britain and the United States!

"Send an immediate report and order the Xinjiang and Dongmeng to go to Honolulu and get ready."

"Notify the Yasha formation to temporarily cancel the trip to Singapore, and all of them will campaign towards the Ogasawara Islands."

"In addition, inform Lefei to be ready to bomb San Francisco!"

After issuing a series of orders, Chen Ping suddenly turned his head and looked at the chart with cold eyes: "It's better to prepare for Ji Rushan. If something happens to the 31st Fleet, I will burn the war to the mainland in advance!" -

As time went by, the news of sudden entry into the preparation made some tired sailors who had just finished the replenishment task were very surprised, but everyone still ran into their positions and stood by.

With the steel cable being quickly withdrawn, after the Guam made a series of light signals, it drove in the direction of the disappearance of the Tumen River together with the Dongting Lake. Standing in the bridge, Li Xiuyan clenched his fist fiercely.

At the same time, the tile antenna on the top of the front bridge of the Tumenjiang began to rotate slowly. In an flash, countless electromagnetic wave signals were sent to the surroundings, and then the transmitted radio waves were received by signal detectors distributed throughout the ship, which were converted into radio signals and quickly transmitted to the closed electronic fire control under the conning tower. The cabin.

In front of the metal console like a dressing table, the electronic officer stared at the small round screen in front of him. A green horizontal line kept moving down from the top of the screen. Finally, when it disappeared at the bottom of the screen, the new horizontal line began to go down quickly again.

Behind him, the engineer with the ship was also nervous. After all, it was the first actual combat performance of the radar, so he commanded several assistants to carefully check the operation of the components, and he did not dare to leave half a step.

The sudden start-up and combat readiness orders made the air in the cabin almost anxious. Just as everyone felt that the cabin was getting hotter and hotter, a small dot suddenly lit up in the middle of the green horizontal line from the top of the screen.

This scene made the electronic officer and the engineer suddenly lean forward. Although the green dot flashed, as the horizontal line kept shining vertically across the screen, the green dot appeared again.

After just one minute, two more green dots appeared on the edge of the screen.

Catch the enemy!

"Quick, calculate the distance, and inform the bridge that the enemy ship has been found!"

"No. 3 starts on immediately, full power, full spectrum suppresses radio communication!"

"Fire control group, start calculating ballistics!"

The fire control module of the electronic module suddenly became busy, and soon the speed and distance measured by the radar were fed back to the bridge. Almost at the same time, twelve 152mm main guns and four 130mm secondary guns were aimed at the direction of the enemy.

Twenty minutes later, when the Tumenjiang optical ranging tower, which had completely turned off the lights, reported that three shadows similar to protective cruisers were found, the naval gun suddenly roared.

(to be continued)