Every torpedo is an egg, and all we have to do is put the egg back into the coop safely. Major Huang Guangrui, the leader of the No. 1 Squadron flying in formation, couldn't help but think of the nagging of Commander Pan Shizhong when he was training before, that the training was a fake torpedo made of ceramics, and if anyone's 'torpedo' broke and sank into the water after it was dropped, it would be judged as a failure in training. After more than 100 training sessions, how to safely put the 'eggs' under the belly of the aircraft back into the chicken nest on the sea is already a mandatory condition for pilots.

The torpedo bomber formation was getting closer and closer, and he could see a few sailors on the Japanese ships either shouting at him in surprise or scrambling on the deck, and finally, when he had just entered two thousand meters away from the enemy ship, the 47mm Hatch Chase rapid-fire guns and 8mm machine guns on the three cruisers guarding Akitsu Prefecture, Chiyoda, and Chitose on the outside opened fire violently.

Although many large warships of the Japanese Navy have large-caliber artillery, many old ships, especially cruisers of less than 5,000 tons, are basically equipped with rapid-fire guns and machine guns of the last century, which is also the reason why torpedo bombers have to repeatedly confront anti-aircraft fire during training. With a neat line on the flanks of the enemy ships, flying at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour, and only fifteen meters above the sea, there is no better live target for the enemy who is ready, but for the torpedo bomber pilots, even if it is a live target, it is necessary to maintain the formation so that the 'eggs' can be safely returned to the chicken coop.

Looking at the fire of the Japanese ship's shooting, Major Huang Guangrui frowned at the same time, the Makqin machine gun pulled the bolt, and when the trigger was pulled, the nose also spewed flames, and he opened fire on his side. The remaining fifteen planes, which were advancing in unison, also opened fire immediately, and for a time the sea was staggered with guns and shells.

The gunners on the Japanese ships were unprepared for the eruption of fire from the planes. The dense bullets fired by the plane killed more than a dozen naked gunners and sailors in an instant, but it was the same. Fourteen 47mm rapid-fire guns and three 8mm machine guns on one side of the three cruisers also achieved results, and in a short split second, two planes were hit by three-pounder shells fired from rapid-fire guns and disintegrated, and several other planes were damaged, and these planes were either left behind, or their engines were damaged and began to stall and emit black smoke, and many of the remaining planes were hit by the torrential 8mm machine gun shells. But this had no effect on torpedo bombers, which were extremely strong and protected.

A distance of 1,000 meters is only a little more than 20 seconds for an aircraft traveling at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour, and the distance after that is the distance of a torpedo bomber. In the smoke, Major Huang Guangrui, who understood that he was already in place, nervously glanced at his comrades in the same team with his afterglow - the engine of his plane had been damaged, and puffs of black smoke rose from the nose of the plane, and under his best efforts, the plane finally barely flew within a thousand meters of the enemy ship - only to see that the gaps in the formation were filled by the remaining planes, and he endured it for another ten seconds in his joy, and then, under his control, the plane dropped slightly, about ten meters above the sea. The hand brake for dropping the torpedo was pulled, and suddenly, the plane shook violently and then lightly. The nose of the plane began to leap high into the air.

The air-dropped torpedoes are all compressed gas torpedoes with a diameter of 450 kilograms, and when they are dropped from the aircraft, the air valve at the tail is opened, and before falling into the sea, a visual air flow is sprayed out of the tail end of the torpedo at high speed, and after falling into the water, the torpedo that sank because of gravity rises to the surface of the sea in a few seconds under the impetus of compressed gas, and finally drags an obvious white trajectory and drives straight to the target at high speed.

The squadron leader in the very middle of the formation dropped a torpedo. The pilots on either side also dropped torpedoes based on his angle and in accordance with the fan principle. In an instant, more than a dozen white tracks on the sea went straight towards the Japanese ship.

According to the requirements of torpedo bombers to drop bombs. The pilot could drop a torpedo at a distance of 1,000 meters, but Major Huang Guangrui endured it for another 10 seconds after entering the 1,000 meter, which made the distance between the landing point and the Japanese ship less than 600 meters.

"I can only pray that Anameasu will complain." On the cruiser Akitsuzu, the captain of the cruiser Junza Arima, Nakasa, only gave the order to protect the flagship, and the only thing he did after that was to stand in the command tower with his hands folded and pray silently.

The distance of 600 meters was too close, and it took only forty seconds for the 35-knot high-speed approaching torpedo to hit the bow of the Chiyoda cruiser, and then the amidship and tail of the Chitose, and the Akitsu Prefecture, which was sailing at the end of the fleet, miraculously escaped this wave of torpedo attacks because of the failure of the torpedo depth, but the good luck of the outboard cruiser was the bad luck of the King Kong and Hiei, and among the eleven torpedoes issued in this round, except for the three that hit the outer cruiser, the remaining eight torpedoes were lost except for five, Two of the remaining three hit the Hiei and one hit the Kongo.

Unlike the Chitose, which sank in an instant with two hits, the Hiei was also hit by two torpedoes, but after all, it was a battleship with a thick skin, and although the torpedo exploded a hole of two meters directly, and the No. 7 boiler room was flooded, this only caused the Hiei's hull to tilt to the right five degrees, and the speed dropped slightly, and the two explosions did not bring heavy damage to the ammunition depot and other vital parts of the ship; As for the King Kong, the torpedo that hit did not cause it any substantial damage, and even the speed did not drop.

The first wave of the offensive injured six of his own planes and killed two pilots, and Colonel Liu Zuocheng, who led the team, did not care about any prohibitions, and what he wanted now was to sink all the Japanese ships that were now fleeing with wolves. So, under his command, the third squadron, which had been waiting by the side, launched another attack from the east of the Japanese fleet that had lost the cruiser barrier, and seeing this scene, the escort cruisers on the other side hurriedly changed course, hoping to block the Shina sea mine planes attacking from the east, but the planes were always faster than the warships, and before they arrived, the third torpedo bomber squadron completed the bombing.

This time, because of the interference of the fire of only one cruiser, the 3rd Squadron dropped the bombs very smoothly, and their bombing distance was closer than that of the 1st Squadron, less than 500 meters. Thirty seconds after the sixteen torpedoes entered the water, the Kongo and Hiei were hit again in succession. In the huge splash of water that rose into the sky, the bodies of the two battleships instantly paused and jumped in the explosion, and the keels and ribs of the ships made a 'creak... A loud creak......'. During the attack, the Hiei was hit by three torpedoes, and the massive explosion destroyed its hull defenses. All the auxiliary wall materials of the third machine room and the water pressure pipeline channel collapsed, and tons of seawater poured into the ship. The hull tilted to ten degrees, the bow of the ship was almost parallel to the sea, and the speed of the ship suddenly dropped from 24 knots to 8 knots when it had previously avoided the torpedo, causing it to quickly disengage from the group;

The King Kong was very lucky, most of the torpedoes fired at it avoided at its high speed of twenty-seven knots, and two of the three torpedoes that could not be dodged were too deep to pass under its ridge, and the last remaining torpedo hit the underside of the starboard auxiliary turret. However, this blow only caused water to flood the ammunition depot under the battery, and did not cause the ammunition depot to explode.

Seeing that the two giant ships were hit by their own side in a row, the pilots couldn't help but cheer, but at this time, Liu Zuocheng, who saw Biei starting to tilt, was full of cold sweat, this is over, disobey the order! He hurriedly ordered Yang Yat-sen, the leader of the second squadron, who did not drop bombs, to avoid the battleship and destroy the cruiser completely.

The extremely injured Hiei was getting slower and slower, and the King Kong, which had avoided torpedoes at high speed, could now only stagger away, and Yang Yat-sen, the leader of the second squadron, thought about the order while watching the prey. In the midst of curse and resentment, he finally led his team past the Hiei, which had only one breath left, and the Kongo, which fled quickly, and vented his anger on several other Japanese cruisers, this time the attack was no longer a squadron all. Instead, it was a squad attack, and four torpedo bombers formed a group to find the dead end of the enemy's defensive artillery, and approached the enemy ship to drop the torpedo.

The rapid artillery bombardment fleet consisting of two cutting-edge battleships and six protective cruisers was all damaged and four sunk in just half an hour of engagement. In the blazing afternoon sun, when the second wave of torpedo bombers arrived, the sea was full of Japanese sailors who were up and down, not knowing whether they were alive or dead.

The Japanese fleet, which had been looking over the battlefield, saw another flying plane. Finally, I died and came back to rescue, for fear of these vultures who had just come with water mines. Will take himself under the knife again. However, what the commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Kato, did not expect. The backward Hiei was getting worse and worse, the inclination of the hull was no longer the previous ten degrees, but to the irretrievable fourteen degrees, in order to balance the hull, everything that could be moved on the ship was moved to the port side, the crew all concentrated on the port side, and even the bodies of the sailors captured by the torpedo were piled up on the left side, and the right main anchor was also abandoned.

At this time, its only way to survive was to find the nearest island and run aground, but this is off the coast of China, and once the beach is grounded, the entire warship will eventually be captured by the China Navy, which is absolutely not acceptable to the Navy.

At 3:43 p.m., the Hiei lost power completely, the bow sank into the water, and the ship's machinery ceased to function.

After the torpedo bombers finished dropping bombs in formation, they saw that the Japanese ships were following from afar, and the pilots who had been in the air for four hours did not immediately return to the airfield, but surrounded the battleship Hiei like a flock of vultures, and at this time, the navy, which received a telegram from Colonel Liu Zuocheng, finally sent the Tongji training ship and several gunboats to the scene, although the sea was full of Japanese sailors, but the first thing they did was to fish up the pilots who had fallen into the water under the guidance of the planes.

Looking at the black shadow surrounded by dozens of planes more than ten kilometers away, Lieutenant Colonel Mao Zhongnan, the captain of the Tongji, was very surprised, and he asked the staff officer next to him, "What is that?" Is it also a Japanese ship? ”

"Yes, sir. It was the battleship Hiei. "Staff Officer Xu Bingxian has just received a telegram from the headquarters and knows what it is.

"That's a big... Big ship! Mao Zhongnan's mind suddenly appeared with a huge ship of more than 26,000 tons, which was a battleship of the same class as the King Kong, "Go and see if the Japanese will surrender." He hurried.

The Tongji started by approaching the Hiei quickly, and when the speed dropped within 10,000 meters, the lookout finally noticed that the Hiei was leaning towards Hiei, and then accelerated towards Hiei.

The 20,000-ton ship had tilted to the right by 20 degrees at this time, and it had completely lost power, and Major Mao Zhongnan suddenly felt a chill in his heart when he saw this scene, this is a god who has not been saved. But he still didn't give up. He began to wave the flag at the Hiei and demanded that the Japanese Navy crew accept the Hiei.

Looking at the broken ship of the last century in the Shina Navy, the officers on the Hiei didn't want to deal with Ben. After all, it was not the Shina Navy that sank Hiei, but the Shina Flying Aircraft Unit. It's okay to ask them to surrender to the flying planes, but to surrender to the Chinese navy, they won't do anything.

The officer thought so, but the sailors looked at the Tongji not far away, after all, their own fleet was far away, and the only one who could really save themselves was the Chinese navy.

The officers and men had different thoughts, and the captain of the ship, Takagi Shichidaro Osa, in order to give his subordinates a way to live, immediately ordered the signalman to contact the Shina Navy, while the Hiei leaned to Yan zhòng. Although he wanted to sink the battleship by itself, there was too much water in the ship now, which was difficult to do.

With the help of small boats, boatloads of Japanese sailors were transported to the Tongji, and the Tongji could not be loaded, so it was loaded onto the accompanying naval gunboats, and when the gunboats were also full, the cruise ship China Merchants from Shanghai also arrived, and more than 1,000 Japanese sailors were driven to the cruise ship.

After some tossing, the deck of the Tongji had been emptied, but the captain Mao Zhongnan surrounded the battleship Hiei, which was slowly sinking empty, but refused to leave. Everyone knows the captain's thoughts. Major Xu Bingxian, a staff officer who had been watching from the side, finally thought of a way, and he immediately said: "Captain, I really want to save the ship." There is still a way. ”

"What's the solution!?" Mao Zhongnan shouted loudly, and pulled the short-sighted staff officer over.

The captain was so excited, Xu Bingxian could understand very well, he held his glasses and said: "This ship has been hit by torpedoes in a row, which is why it is tilted so badly, and the most difficult thing is that it has lost power, so that it cannot rush to the beach and run aground." To save it, I think it is necessary to first restore its balance, and then drain some of the water in the ship. And I have to go to the Jiangnan factory to find a high-horsepower tugboat......"

"Aren't you talking nonsense? If you really want to restore balance, will the Japanese surrender and abandon their ships? When Mao Zhongnan heard it, he felt that this matter was not scored. A large ship of more than 20,000 tons, with thousands of tons of seawater in it. How can this be pumped dry.

"Captain, it's leaning to the right now because the torpedoes are all on the starboard side, what if two more torpedoes hit the port side?" Xu Bingxian was robbed of white by the captain, and his face suddenly turned red.

"What! Two more to the port side? Mao Zhongnan glared at Xu Bingxian, as if he was going to eat him.

"Yes, there are two on the port side, not enough for three more, but the tugboat must wait in advance, and as soon as it balances, it will start to tow, and it will not be delayed for a moment." Xu Bingxian said.

"It's the balance of the hull, can you tow it back to Shanghai?" Mao Zhongnan looked at Xu Bingxian, rolled his eyes a few times, and began to consider whether his method was feasible.

"Don't drag it back to Shanghai, just drag it over there immediately." Xu Bingxian pointed in a direction to the south: "The captain still remembers the Haitian, it ran into a reef and sank not far from the south, twenty nautical miles from here, and the ship will be saved if it is dragged to the ground." ”

"Ah, yes! Right!! Mao Zhongnan finally remembered that the Haitian sank in this area, and dragging the boat there might really be able to save it." Fast! Generate electricity now! Send a telegram to Commander Lin immediately! ”

The sinking of five Japanese ships, including a battleship of more than 20,000 tons, was on Lin Wenqian's desk. Although he did not say the deep meaning of the reason why the General Staff ordered not to sink the Japanese ships, he could still guess it, but now, good fellows, five ships were sunk at once, and there was a 20,000-ton battleship that had just been in service for a few days, and the Americans would be overjoyed.

"The Air Force said that it was red-eyed at that time, and the Japanese ship's protection capability was weak, so it was ......," Zhou Sixu, the chief of staff, explained on the side, and he was very understanding of the Air Force's explanation, "Shizhong called from Beijing to plead......

"What kind of favor is he asking for?" Lin Wenqian laughed at himself a little. "Didn't you hear firecrackers and whistles outside? This matter can only be criticized internally, and the merit of the newspaper must still be reported. ”

More than two hours had passed since the naval battle, and it was known everywhere in Shanghai that the Japanese wanted to attack Shanghai, but the revival army descended from the sky and sank five Japanese warships at once, including one ship of several tens of thousands of tons.

"Report!" Lin Wenqian laughed at himself, and the staff officer of the headquarters came in with a telegram, "Lieutenant Commander Mao Zhongnan, the captain of the Tongji training ship, said that he thought of a way to save the battleship Hiei. ”

"Oh!" Lin Wenqian and Zhou Sixu suddenly became interested. Raising his eyebrows, Lin Wenqian asked, "How can he save him?" ”

"Report to the commander, the situation is more complicated, and there are a lot of things to be mobilized." The staff officer took the telegram sent by the Tongji and didn't know what to say, so he had to hand over the telegram to Lin Wenqian to read for himself.

Lin Wenqian looked at it and handed it to Zhou Sixu, both of them finished reading, and Zhou Sixu said: "If this is the case, you can give it a try." However, this high-horsepower tugboat has to be found by the Jiangnan Factory. ”

When the news of the Air Force sinking five large ships of the Japanese Navy in the waters off Shengsi reached the Jiangnan Shipyard, Zheng Qingqing, the general office, was looking at the standard ships in the dock. Two years ago, the prime minister insisted on building a 300,000-ton dock, and he and Wei Han both strongly opposed it, believing that China did not need to build so many ships at present, but now that the European war is together, the foreign ships in the rivers and seas have returned to China, and businessmen from all over the country are anxious and looking for ships everywhere, but there is no way to find this ship, and a large number of goods are in various ports and docks. Gradually, those traders who couldn't wait didn't care when the foreigner's ship would return, and many people came to the shipyard to prepare for the ship.

However, most of these traders operate on a small scale, and even if they have deep pockets, they do not dare to spend hundreds of thousands of taels to order a large ship of several thousand tons, and the ships are all hundreds of tons. According to the plan of the Ministry of Industry, the Jiangnan Factory only built 6,000-ton and 4,000-ton standard ships, and handed over 2,000-ton and 1,000-ton ships to other shipyards. As soon as Jiangnan and Qiuxin were engaged, the owners of those foreign-funded shipyards saw the benefits and began to accept orders from the Ministry of Industry and began to build large ships, and for a time Shanghai's shipbuilding industry was prosperous.

In the huge dock, half of the hull of the ship is crawling with workers, these technicians who have just graduated from technical schools, who have learned how to build ships, and now apply what they have learned, plus they are young, and they will work to their deaths with a little praise and approval, and their efficiency is much higher than that of those old workers.

On the side of the dock, Zheng Qinglian looked at the more and more skilled workers and nodded with satisfaction, he was pointing to a certain part of the hull and wanted to speak, when an office clerk ran like crazy, and said without waiting for a breath when he arrived in front of him: "My lord, the headquarters will call in the middle of the week and say... It is said that it is in the sea off Shengsi... Sink a large Japanese ship, and now this ship is about to sink, ask if we have a high-horsepower tugboat? ”

The person who came was out of breath, Zheng Qinglian understood what he meant after a while, he was a native of Fujian, born in Mawei, and the generals of the navy were all fellow villagers, so he was no stranger to naval battles, and said urgently: "How big is the ship?" Did we win? ”

Zheng Qinglian's back question is just nonsense, they all went to tug, that is not to win, fortunately, the clerk only answered the previous question, and said at the moment: "It's very big, it is said that there are 26,000 tons." Now it is said that the hull of the ship has entered the water strictly, and the tilt has reached more than 20 degrees, and if it is not saved, it will sink. ”

"Ahh When Zheng Qinglian heard that it was such a big ship, his twisted beard suddenly broke a few pieces. However, it is not ambiguous to be the general office of the Jiangnan Factory after all, he turned around twice on the spot, slapped his thigh at the last time, and shouted: "Nunei, there is!" That turbine test ship can be towed! ”

The Prime Minister's will to build a large navy is extremely resolute, so the Ministry of Industry has long purchased a patent for the manufacture of impulse steam turbines from the Curtis Company of the United States, and then invested heavily in the trial construction of steam turbines, at the beginning of which a steam turbine with 8,000 horsepower was tried to build, and after being skilled, last year began to build a larger steam turbine with a horsepower of 24,000 horsepower. In order not to attract attention, these steam turbines are only installed on inconspicuous small boats, and the main purpose of sailing out to sea is to test the stability of the steam turbine operation and various numbers, and now the No. 2 steam turbine ship is being overhauled at the Jiangnan plant, with 24,000 horsepower, even a 30,000-ton ship can be towed.

Under the urgency of the matter, Zheng Qinglian no longer cared about any image, he ran back to the general office with a strip, and after a few phone calls, an hour later, the No. 2 turbine test ship immediately set sail and ran to the sea off Shengsi. (To be continued)