In Deng Jieqian's view, the first battle must be a good start, and the Chinese all believe in fate and omen, and a good start represents a bumper harvest of the year, and the first war can only succeed and not fail.

According to the position coordinates sent back by the reconnaissance plane, marked on the huge combat map, in the choice of the first operation, can not be too far, after all, it has entered the core position of the North Atlantic, whether it is the warships of the Entente countries or the fleet of merchant ships, under the premise of relatively dense, as far as possible to reduce navigation on the water, only to determine a safe place, will quickly be above the water, so that the distance of the submarine in the first battle can not be too far, within 150 nautical miles.

Comparing their location with the charts, after a comprehensive selection of the number, location, currents, and even the location, a group of ships with 22 merchant ships and 4 destroyers was determined.

Although the ships of this ship group are slightly less, compared to the most 32 ships, 10 less, but the tonnage is not small, all of them are cutting-edge, it is a standard ship of more than 10,000 tons, among the merchant ships, the standard 10,000-ton ship, the value, is a little lower than the two 5000-ton ships, but whether it is from the handling, or the cost, it is much lower, after a large number of losses, Britain and the United States when ordering new ships, almost no order about 5000 tons, unless it is a fast merchant ship, Most of them are orders of more than 10,000 tons.

This ship group, he has a large mixed ship of 18,700 tons at the largest, which is the largest in the surrounding sea area, which is also one of the reasons why he was identified as a target, but I don't know the biggest reason, the biggest reason is very simple, the goods transported on these ships, these ships are supported by German intelligence. In the midst of the difficult comparisons, it was clear where they came from, and even found out that almost all of the goods they transported were for the transportation of arms.

It is not very difficult to get the cargo of a merchant ship before it goes to sea. It's just that at this moment when World War I was getting more and more intense, Germany kept operating in the North Atlantic, and the merchant shipping manifest became a very secret thing.

In the midst of breaking relations. Attacking the convoy is the biggest break, as long as the convoy is almost wiped out, the remaining fleet will not become meat on the chopping board, then it will be the transportation of arms, and then there will be all kinds of transportation of raw materials, all kinds of daily necessities, military operations. Always with the military as the biggest goal.

Of course, there's a lot of confusion involved. For example, if you want to determine the type of these merchant ships and report them to the intelligence agencies in the United Kingdom, it is not always possible to confirm them, but they are within a radius of about 700 kilometers. Among the dozens of fleets of various sizes, it was fortunate to find 7 targets that had been monitored, and these seven were suspected arms transport ships that had been in and out of the arsenal docks. Luckily, these 7 ships are in a group, so the probability of this is very high.

After Deng Jieqian determined the target, through certain adjustments, for the sake of prudence, he selected the 12 submarines closest to this fleet, and the rest, with four submarines as a group, aimed at different targets, according to estimates, the first to contact the target was the 12 submarines carried by Deng Jieqian, and the remaining submarines each had its own mission, and their tasks were not so compulsory as Deng Jieqian, and there was no requirement that they must win, they were only incidental, and they played the role of icing on the cake.

After gathering 12 submarines, Deng Jieqian began to think about how to fight next, there is no doubt that when the wolves attack the escort merchant fleet, they must first clear his fangs, then the destroyers of the escort must be cleaned up, 22 merchant ships, 4 destroyers as protection, this protection force is decent.

4 destroyers, all of which are cutting-edge destroyers of about 1800 tons, the strong shipbuilding capabilities of the Americans, the first thing to show is these destroyers, after getting the shipbuilding technology of the British side, the United States quickly integrated and made a template for destroyers, between 1700 tons and 2200 tons, the functions are almost the same, and the modules are relatively separated.

These 4 are also one of the American destroyer styles, which are currently operating in the North Atlantic route of the professional escort fleet, their main task is anti-submarine, and the real engagement mission is carried out by the fleet, so they have 5 depth charge launch pads, sonar, and 16 small machine guns and 4 180 mm guns, it can be said that in terms of firepower and anti-submarine, the most balanced degree has been achieved, and such 4 destroyers protect ships with a total tonnage of more than 307,000 tons, also munitions, were delivered to reinforce Bordeaux's troops, and were one of the most important transport tasks of the Entente during the month.

Radio will attenuate underwater, but China's radio technology has exceeded the world's highest level, even under water, you can freely contact the outside world, Deng Jieqian is a very decisive person, after determining the target, immediately ordered to set off, under the command of the radio waves, 12 submarines like wild wolves, to this huge fleet of ships, at this moment, this transport fleet dominated by British ships, has not yet realized the danger coming, they still move forward step by step.

According to the information provided by the reconnaissance plane, the distance between them is about 50 nautical miles, and among them, there will be reconnaissance planes passing over their route to determine whether they are still following the established route, and when they have almost reached the predetermined position, the reconnaissance plane will leave, also just in case. Submarine attacks are always secretive, a reconnaissance plane hovering above the fleet will always attract some unnecessary attention, anyway, under the speed of merchant ships, as long as they are close to within 5 nautical miles, they basically can't run, 12 submarines, can cover a very large range, it is impossible to give them a chance to escape.

From 50 nautical miles away, enter the predetermined sea area, of which, there are more than 20 nautical miles above the water, more than 20 knots of speed, almost more than an hour, later, gradually sneaking below the surface, the plane can easily determine their direction, let a plane turn slightly, along the channel is good, the cruising speed of about 400 kilometers in economic mode, far from the water ships can dodge, at the first point, a slight oblique search, can be good to their position.

This flotilla really deviated from the previous direction, deviated from about 7 nautical miles, if it wasn't for the reconnaissance planes to do supplementary reconnaissance, maybe, they would miss their position, at least it would make the submarine force pay more underwater range, after all, they rushed to the predetermined position, but they did not wait for the fleet, and then whether it was to search around, or let the reconnaissance aircraft help, they would miss the best attack time, wasting precious range, compared to submarines, the range of the aircraft is a little easier, after all, the number of planes is relatively large, and the speed is relatively fast, 24 aircraft can form a network, and now it is just a matter of identifying the most important targets in the network.

Got the location information of the reconnaissance plane, compared with the previous route, there are still slight changes, but this change is not too much, according to the chart, the position of the two aircraft reconnaissance, as long as the position is slightly adjusted, they go even closer than before, almost at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the first batch of 5 ships entered the combat position, 5 submarines, showing a fan, forming an encirclement, 3 o'clock, the other 7 submarines also arrived at the predetermined position, at the height of the periscope, Deng Jieqian carefully looked at the position of the opponent's fleet, at this time, the British transport fleet, which had not yet found danger, was slowly moving at a speed of 12 knots from 1.5 nautical miles away, and it was expected to arrive at this position in about 8 minutes.

In 8 minutes, there will be no changes, the 12 submarines present a simple semicircle, each submarine is about a quarter of a nautical mile between them, and with the approach of the other party, and slowly move, finally, when the merchant fleet arrived at the ambush position, the 12 submarines have been concentrated in a semicircle of less than 1 nautical mile, things can no longer be changed, they will be raided.

American destroyers, the traditional way of escort, one in front and one behind, one left and one right, are distributed in the center of the entire merchant fleet, while the merchant fleet is in two columns, 11 ships, the length is more than 1 nautical mile, from the beginning to the end of almost 2 nautical miles, this is a very long team, but also relatively neat, all ships are moving at a constant speed.

In order to ensure a one-time hit, Deng Jieqian ordered the submarine to also change slightly, with two submarines as a group, staring at a destroyer, two 12 torpedoes, at close range, a destroyer that has not yet accelerated, it is impossible to dodge the sneak attack of the torpedo, this is different from the first time, with the previous results of the Australian fleet, they are full of confidence in the next attack.

On the sea, a calm, a huge fleet of transport ships, in the clear weather, moving fast, for them, it is another pleasant and calm mileage, itself full of danger, full of thrilling North Atlantic routes, but turned into a calm route, these British merchant ships in the past few months, have carried out more than 3 transports, not even a little problem, now, more than half of the voyage, it seems, another peaceful journey. But these British merchant ships did not know that under the water, there were 12 submarines, slowly coming westward towards them, and they were obviously divided into different teams, all aiming at their own targets, their fangs had been opened, and what awaited them would be blood and fire. (To be continued.) )