Chapter 184 Night Battle

In the South China Sea, there is an isolated island in this sea, which is called "Nanwei Island".

This island is the fourth largest island in the Nansha Islands. There are a lot of birds on the island of Shanghai, and the birds and eggs are picked up. At the western end of the island, there is a well dug by Chinese fishermen decades ago, and there is fresh water to drink.

Nanwei Island is located on a table-shaped reef platform, near the triangle, about 350 meters long from the east to west, about 750 meters long from the northeast to the southwest, with an area of 0.15 square kilometers, with an average altitude of 2.5 meters. There are beaches around the island. There are reefs on the beach, and a sand embankment inward, about 5.5 meters high. The sand embankment surrounds. There is a low-lying reef in the middle, 2.4 meters above sea level. At the northern end of the island, there is a conical reef 7 meters high, and at the southernmost end there is another stone tower 5.5 meters high. In the northeast of the island, there are natural waterways reaching the edge of the island, reaching a depth of 14 meters, so it has become an excellent port in the southern sea area of the Nansha Islands.

Although the Nansha Islands were included in the territory as early as the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, in fact, Nanwei Island was the same as every reef in Nansha until the restoration last year, especially after the Suray Incident, after the navy went south to protect overseas Chinese and chose the South China Sea as a training ground, it began to name the islands, set up signs, and survey the sea. Figure.

Half a year ago, except for a naval telegraph station on Taiping Island, all the islands and reefs were uninhabited. Shortly after the declaration of war, a corporal came to Nanwei Island, an uninhabited island, with five sailors. They have now set up a lighthouse and a watchtower to monitor the ships coming and going nearby.

Then, various other devices were set up on the island. For example, a radio station was set up here, so a communication soldier, two communication technicians and a communication worker were added. They were stationed on the island with six sailors on the watchtower. Finally, the navy even installed an 88 mm naval gun here.

What really brought the island into the sight of the navy was selected as one of the mooring grounds for naval destroyers after the relevant plans were formulated by the Naval Staff.

Later, although the plan was adjusted, it was selected as the main berth of the naval torpedo boat troops. From that day on, with the help of merchant ships, the navy's torpedo boat troops were completely out of the nest, and finally waited for the arrival of the last moment in natural havens throughout the South China Sea.

"West wind, no clouds, clear sky"

"From 4 p.m., the west wind gradually increases, and the humidity on the sea increases"

As a naval soldier, Li Nanwen is not only responsible for the passing ships near the watchtower, but also to record the weather here. Eventually, these weather data will be sent to the Admiralty and finally forwarded to the weather forecasting agency.

China's meteorology and meteorological administration began to observe meteorology in Zijin Mountain, Nanjing after the founding of the empire. In that year, the Meteorological Society was established, and at the same time, the country was divided into 16 regions and began meteorological forecasting.

Since ancient times, weather conditions have been considered to determine the fate of war. Therefore, after the declaration of war, the navy began to set up observation stations near the battlefield. Observation stations have also been set up in Tianjin in Taiwan, Nansha, Xisha, Dongsha and other places. In the end, the information of these observation stations will be collected to the naval meteorological department, which will be analyzed by those meteorologists hired from abroad and make corresponding forecasts.

That's why Li Nanwen needs to carefully record the weather changes every hour. He understands that for himself, perhaps, this will be the greatest contribution he can make in this war that determines the fate of the country.

After coming to the barracks of the watchtower, I found that all the people gathered together with serious expressions to discuss something. The long horse of the watchtower is usually very concerned about him.

"Okay, it's on!"

After saying that, he picked up a translated message from the table and handed it to Li Nanwen.

Take over the newspaper and read it.

"The enemy fleet will pass through the 77 sea area. Pay attention to vigilance"

That is to say, the combined fleet will pass by the sea near Nanway Island.

"Ah!"

Li Nanwen looked at the telegram in surprise.

"Nur, that..."

"We are going to become a battlefield here!"

Ma Rufeng, who was standing there, looked more and more wrong. He took off all his clothes and left was a pair of shorts.

"You guys, come with me and bring the oil barrel quickly. It won't take long for the torpedo boat troops to drive through. We can't afford it for a minute!"

Torpedo boat!

The torpedo boat has never been big, but the small torpedo boat is a small boat that scares the enemy and the sailors who drive it.

The vast majority of torpedo boats are made of steel ribbed wooden shells. Even in this era of armored warships, torpedo boats still insist on wooden shells. Why do they use wooden shells? Because the wooden shells are light enough.

The torpedo boat commonly used in various countries is like a steam engine carrying a chimney, carrying a few torpedoes. He rushed to the side of the enemy's ship with the determination to die together and ran away after firing the torpedo. If you want to succeed, you have to rely on considerable courage and luck.

For the Chinese navy, the establishment and expansion of torpedo boat troops is actually a decision to the weak coastal defense made behind the restoration. For China, it takes too many risks to build a huge fleet in a short period of time. Even if the country takes out money, there are not enough naval officers and soldiers, which is because In this way, the navy will buy old merchant ships to transform training ships for training sailors. At the same time, it has designed the most advanced torpedo boat in this era, a torpedo boat with new power. The diesel engine has become a magic weapon of the navy. Compared with the steam engine, the small diesel engine makes the torpedo boat smaller. And the speed can also be faster.

Smaller and faster, to some extent, it means that torpedo boats can play more roles in naval battles, but this kind of torpedo boats can only be used for offshore defense. In fact, the torpedo boat's mission is also offshore defense. For the navy, the torpedo boat is a navy's dagger, used for self-defense!

"Like a beggar!"

Although the torpedo boat force is the only ship that uses diesel engines, the diesel engine does not make the sailors on the torpedo boat much cleaner than the uniforms of the soldiers of the torpedo boat that burn coal. The oil pollution also makes these sailors always dirty and plain, and the living conditions are also very bad. When sailing, they can only casually find a place full of sea water to nest for a while. When they want to relieve their hands, they can only squat on the edge of the ship, rely on the rope to fix their bodies, and expose their buttocks to the sea. This requires a big wave to bear the danger of falling into the sea when the rope is broken.

But for the sailors of the torpedo boat unit, none of this has any impact. All they support them is the pride of daring to rush to the enemy ship with a dagger in their hands and the ambition of Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin.

Since half a month ago, the paint on the hull of the ship has peeled off because of a long period of vigilance operations. If the navy flag is not hung on the tail of the boat, it can be regarded as a piece of rotten wood.

On the afternoon of the 20th, at 4:15 p.m., these torpedo boats on standby in various buning fields in the South China Sea received orders to prepare for departure.

"Get up, everyone. Prepare to leave the port"

Such orders were issued on all the torpedo boats on each mooring field, and the sailors ran out of the tent one after another, and they pulled the anchor at the same time. The anchoring machine rattled, and the diesel engine began to start.

Then, in the shelters of various islands and reefs, torpedo boats gushed out of the mouth of the bay, like a sharp arrow rushing into the sea against the waves.

When the torpedo boat drove out of the safe haven, the wind and waves from the west wind blowing in the afternoon were too big. The huge waves that could swallow the boat kept sweeping over, and the boat body shook back and forth. The officers standing in front of the compass on the boat grabbed the pillar beside them with one hand and gave instructions. If they let go, they might be swept into the waves and hit constantly.

Although you can usually wear a raincoat made of glued thin cotton cloth, because it may affect the movements of the battle, almost all officers are like Chinese pirates who run on this sea hundreds of years ago. The legs of their trousers are rolled up high, and there is a shoe cover on their feet, in order to prevent the sea from the neck. She came in, and they also wrapped a towel around their necks.

The torpedo boats drilled in and out between the waves, and sometimes the propellers were also exposed in mid-air, but the torpedo boats shuttling through the wind and waves did not slow down, and they all looked like they were fighting for their lives.

"The whole team accelerated to 30 knots, targeting 77 sea areas!"

From the light signal sent by the first boat commanded by the captain, Tian Jianqiang read the content of the signal. The 77 sea area is almost two hours away from here. After arriving there, the sky was already dark.

He looked up at the dark clouds in the sky. In addition to praying that there was no strong wind, he hoped that there would be no stars tonight. In that case, if the wind was a little smaller than now, today would be a perfect night, a night suitable for hunting.

"As long as they get close to 300 meters, they will be at a lack of time!"

Tian Jianqiang thought so in his heart that in the past many night attack drills, it turned out that as long as he was bold enough, he would be able to approach within 300 meters.

At 18:45, the sky in the South China Sea was completely darkened, and there were only a few stars in the sky through the dark clouds. At this time, the sea was still shrouded in deafening gunfire, and the naval battle continued.

The deafening sound of cannons, the cannon flames pierced the night, and the burning warships that are enough to light the sea. The South China Sea is still boiling. At night, the naval battle becomes more white and hot.

After a nearly two-hour pursuit battle, with the impact of many warships of the Second Fleet, the distance between the Second Fleet and the Combined Fleet has narrowed from the first 10 kilometers to about 8 kilometers. Sometimes with the help of the flames of shells and the flames burning when the warships, both sides can clearly see it. The soldiers on the other side were busy on the deck.

The shells of the enemy and us kept falling on the sea, stirring up a piece of water smoke after boiling. In particular, the water fumes stirred up by the 12-inch shells of the Japanese navy can exceed the height of the bridge and then fall on the deck like a waterfall. There are sounds of launches and explosions all over the sea, and the sounds that tear the atmosphere are like the sky and the earth are falling apart.

At this time, every ship of the Second Fleet seems to be almost unsupportable, and there is a scene of hell on earth everywhere. The closer the distance is, the greater the advantage of the joint fleet. At this time, the seven distant ships of the Second Fleet are completely shrouded in flames, and the flat distance at the tail of the fleet has already occurred a left tilt.

"Pingyuan" is behind the whole ship. At this time, the military uniforms all over his body have been soaked in sweat.

"The angle of shooting 12,..."

As an artillery officer, his position was the turret of the rear main gun. He was responsible for commanding the tail turret of the Pingyuan. After completing this step, the lifter began to raise 10-inch shells from the ammunition depot. The gunners in the turret immediately became busy and began to load the shells into the cannon.

The rear main turret, like the front, stretched out a ten-inch cannon. According to the routine, it should only be a sergeant to command this kind of turret, but with the shortage of manpower caused by the rapid expansion of the fleet, Shen Ziyang, an artillery officer who would even have two years to graduate, was placed in this position.

"S sir, the bomber is out of order!"

After another round of sangulation, with a shout, the tail turret of the Pingyuan suddenly became hoarse, and the lifting machine broke down, and the shell could not be transported.

"Xu Ling, troubleshoot immediately!"

Shen Ziyang shouted, and a soldier at the end of the gun immediately went down the ladder.

"Other people, hurry up to eat and drink some water!"

Shen Ziyang shouted in a hoarse voice. The naval battle that lasted for more than three hours had already made him tired, and now everyone is sticking here.

"An explosion occurred on the starboard side of Feiqian! ......"

The sound from the microphone made the exhausted people in the turret laugh.

"We can win!"

Shen Ziyang took the opportunity to mobilize and looked at the gunners who were blackened by gunfire smoke. Like them, he had already become black.

"That's right, sir, we sank their two warships, two cruisers, and one cruiser. These are five warships, and we only lost three cruisers. If we continue like this, we can send the joint fleet to the sea without the first fleet to come!"

Each of them has enough reasons to be proud. In terms of strength, the Second Fleet is far inferior to the Combined Fleet, its quality is still inferior to the Combined Fleet, and even they are in a downwind position. But even so, the Second Fleet is still in the upper hand. At least in terms of sinking tonnage ratio, the Second Fleet is indeed superior. The one who benefits.

"Quick, canvas, rubber pad..."

When Xu Ling immediately ran to the bottom of the ship to troubleshoot, there was water everywhere in the cabin. The damaged pipe sailors were desperately trying to save the warship. The Pingyuan had entered the water, which he had never known when he was in the turret. Under the dim light, it could clearly see that the sea water was It's red, and there are even corpses floating in it.

"Let, let..."

Without a trace of stopping, he shouted loudly. After turning a corner, he entered the hoist from another explosion-proof door. As soon as he entered the hoist, he saw the hoist stuck in mid-air. At this time, he suddenly heard an indescribable explosion above his head. The sound was so loud that it was so loud that it even exploded. After that, there was just a buzzing sound.

"It's a turret!"

The black smoke from the elevator hole made him realize that his turret might have been hit. He quickly ran back from below. When he returned to the turret again, he found that the turret had disappeared in half. There is a sea of fire around, and the footstep is full of blood. There were broken hands and feet and some broken bodies everywhere. Except for the seriously injured turret chief who was still dying there, all the others were blown up.

"Do you want to fight to the death..."

The bloody Shen Ziyang squeaked blood and roared at the words that no one could understand. The turret was hit by a 12-inch shell fired by the Japanese army. The Pingyuan was just an armored cruiser with weak armor. The armor on the top of his turret was not thick, but in most cases, it would never be hit by shells. Destroyed, but the 12-inch shell happened to hit his weakest ventilation window, and then blew up Pingyuan's tail gun.

Because this warship is a warship behind the palace, it is second only to the flagship "Dingyuan".

Especially in the evening, in order to prevent the second fleet from escaping, after the Japanese army sent a cruiser to stop the enemy, Cheng Biguang seized the opportunity to sink the armored cruiser Wuzuma, and took advantage of the short opportunity to grab a favorable position. After the joint fleet changed from the front of the battle to the pursuit, and the Pingyuan became the whole ship. The rear ship naturally suffered the hardest blow.

Almost after the start of the pursuit, the Pingyuan was hit by a 12-inch shell, which hit the turret of the front main gun. The barrel was bent, and the shrapnel flew around. Part of it flew to the bridge, and the captain standing there was interrupted by the waist. He died on the spot, and the shrapnel flying up to the middle and lower deck also killed and injured another 17 people.

Then another eight-inch shell landed on the turret of the front main gun, which had lost its combat effectiveness. The fragments generated by its explosion flew into the conning tower, injuring the captain of the Pingyuan ship and the captain of the ship. In addition, more than a dozen officers and sailors were beaten into blood. The warship with the destroyed front main gun was constantly sucking the enemy's shells as if they were equipped with magnets throughout the pursuit.

During the whole pursuit process, the attack on Pingyuan even far exceeded that of Dingyuan. After nearly two hours of attack, Pingyuan has now become a warship that can be sunk at any time under the continuous attack of artillery fire.

"The port gun aims until the last shell is fired!"

The previous shell fragments broke his left abdomen from the back of his abdomen, and the blood fell on the ship like rain from his big wound. But at this time, Ding Mu was still standing there and observing the enemy ship from a distance.

"S sir, the boiler compartment is flooded... lost power!"

"Immediately telegram to the commander, Pingyuan wishes the fleet a safe return, and our ship will fight until the last breath!"

Supporting his feet, the Ding curtain, which was completely stained with blood below his left waist, walked out of the conning tower. At this time, Pingyuan was completely burning, while the secondary guns on both sides of Pingyuan were still firing, and the sailors on the deck were still trying to extinguish the flames on the ship.

"The warriors selected from hundreds of millions of compatriots rushed to the enemy's array on a warship. The send-off people shook hands silently with the departing people. There were cold stars on the top of the mast in the middle of the night. We... sailors, go on an expedition today! On an expedition! On an expedition! Until the loyal soul floats all over the ocean, until the empire is majestic..."

He hummed this song in his voice, looking at the fleet that was getting farther away and the joint fleet getting closer and closer. A smile appeared on Ding Mu's face. He first patted the military uniform, and then even straightened the military cap.

Looking at the blood-soaked subordinates beside them and the young faces, their eyes were determined. Everyone understood that the last moment was coming. In a while, the rushed joint fleet would use cannons and torpedoes into the sea. Maybe, before that, they could fight for the fleet. Ten minutes.

"Captain!"

"It's really an honor for Ding to go to the Martyrs' Temple with you!"

When making a standard British naval salute, Ding Mu leaned forward slightly to show his respect for his comrades-in-arms in front of him.

"It's really lucky for me to live with the same life as the captain!"

"Captain, Commander's telegram!"

The radio director, who was also covered in blood, ran over with a telegram.

"I wish Pingyuan the souls of the emperors return to the Martyrs' Temple! Cheng, as the second commander, will ask the military department to protect the Pingyuan and the naval sequence!"

A simple telegram, simple and cold words! There is no comfort, and the same Ding Mu also knows that at this time, there can be no comfort at all!

"Okay, let me inform my brothers to see the ambition of the Chinese navy!"

In the last sentence, he almost roared out, and then there was a shout on the bridge.

"It's far away!"

"My ship will fight to the last bullet!"

Looking at the message, Cheng Biguang's mouth showed a wry smile. A sea breeze phoenix = wrapped in thick smoke drilled into the bridge from the crack, which was dazzling and choking. He threw away the message casually.

This is the last telegram of the Pingyuan. Pingyuan, who lost the main gun, is now using to resist the joint fleet. There are only a dozen secondary guns.

The front and rear two main guns were dumbed, and many of theboard guns were destroyed. Pingyuan, which was burning flames, left only had seven 150mm secondary guns. For the three Japanese armored cruisers that caught up, there was almost no power to fight back, but only the remaining seven 150mm secondary guns were still firing shells at the enemy ship. Unable to solve the battle quickly, the Japanese cruisers and destroyers rushed forward to launch a torpedo attack.

At this time, Ding Mu on the bridge wiped the blood on his face, looked at the thick smoke rising in the air, and had no choice but to use the microphone to shout at the door of his subordinates who insisted on pumping in the cabin.

"Attention, everyone, wear life jackets!"

(to be continued)