"Has the enemy's radio contact been detected?"

"No, it is not ruled out that they used a directional antenna, but the Guantong facility did not find that it had a similar antenna. Fire control radars were also not found in the enemy's main guns. ”

The captain hesitated: "Left rudder 30." ”

"Left rudder 30." The helmsman repeated.

The floor began to turn, but very slowly, and the turn of this single-oarled single-shaft submarine was always terrible when the power was low.

"Auxiliaries at full speed."

"Captain, with the little power of the auxiliary engine, we can't get rid of them no matter how much we accelerate?" Said the co-captain.

"You don't have to get rid of it, as long as you have the advantage in the inner circle, and they want to outflank, let them run a little more, as long as they get more distance from the main fleet. Once they are completely out of the fleet's flag or light communication range, they can compete with them one-on-one. ”

"One-on-one?" The co-captain hesitated, "Understood, kill him." ”

Cheng Dayang's plan was extremely thorough, taking into account almost all aspects. Of course, he knew the seriousness of the matter, and the problem with No. 419 was not only that he could not dive, but also that his weapons were insufficient, and that it was impossible to confront a large fleet, especially the enemy's air power. At present, the enemy strictly kept the radio silent, no matter what ulterior motives, but in fact it helped him, as long as the distance between the Kawauchi and the fleet was widened, the 6,000-ton cruiser that was rushing straight towards him could not communicate with the main fleet through the flag or light, so that he could stop without leaving any trouble. Of course, Cheng Dayang still has another thought hidden in his heart, he hopes to gain a foothold in law first, and then make a proper counterattack, after all, this is the high seas. Although No. 419 has fallen into a situation that is so grotesque that it is not easy to understand, he still hopes to be reasonable and responsible, and at least open the battle records in the future so that he can explain it to the command.

"Captain, do you really want to fight?" The commissar asked with concern.

"It depends. But I think it's hard to avoid a fight when the dog is so straight to catch up. ”

There is only one loophole in Cheng Dayang's calculations, that is, the speed, the speed of the tail chasing the enemy ship has reached 33 knots (still slowly improving) 419 is driven by diesel power, and can only run at full speed to 9 knots on the sea surface, and part of the power needs to be evenly fed to the cooling circuit, and now the speed is less than 8 knots. If it weren't for the cautious sparing of a large circle of enemy ships before, they should have caught up by now.

"30 degrees, left." The helmsman repeated, and after a long wait, 419 finally completed the captain's rudder order, turning 30 degrees to throw the enemy behind the ass again.

"Sure."

"Heading 275, sure."

"Report, trailing enemy ships continue to urge us to stop."

"Leave him alone. Report distance and gunwale. ”

"The radar range is 18.5 km, and the broadside angle is 170 °."

"I guess in an hour and a half, we can catch up with us."

Just as Cheng Dayang was planning a counterattack, the Japanese cruiser Naka (the same type of ship 419 misjudged as the "Kawauchi") was in the combat bridge. Teruo Akiyama, who has a serious face, is a little nervous; Of course, he was uneasy, not because he knew that he was fighting to the death, he didn't know what kind of opponent he was facing; Akiyama Daisa's worried question is whether to open fire and sink the submarine or force her to stop?

Early in the morning, the fleet was sailing towards Kaohsiung Port, and suddenly saw 2 signal flares rising from the east (one of which was actually fired by Lin Xiuxuan*), and the fleet commander immediately ordered the Nake number that fell at the end of the formation: "Turn around and take a look." ”

But when leaving the fleet, Akiyama did not receive specific instructions. It was only after discovering the wreckage of a seaplane that Akiyama felt that something had become serious, and then the lookout post discovered the submarine of unknown nationality, and he was a little hesitant because he had not made any plans for such an incident in advance. It seems that the submarine cannot be dived, and if it is forced to stop it and get some information, it should make more sense than to sink it directly, but will it work diplomatically?

"Sir, don't hesitate any longer, this submarine must have been sent by the US Navy to monitor our movements, it is likely that it has already discovered the movements of our fleet, if we don't sink her decisively, the enemy will spread the news to the Philippines, Chief Ozawa's plan ......" An impulsive combat staff officer bluntly admonished, of course, what he said was also the truth, this southward operation is of great importance, and he is most afraid of being informed in advance.

"Lieutenant Suzuki, don't forget that the base camp did not declare war on the United States, Britain and the Netherlands." Akiyama said with a serious face.

"Sir, that seaplane wreckage, you also saw it, daring to open fire on the Imperial Navy is tantamount to a declaration of war. If I don't make a decision, how can the imperial state exist? ”

"Needless to say, I don't think it's appropriate to start a rash fire, and it may lead to a diplomatic incident."

"Sir, wait a little longer, they're going to send a report?"

"Even if the report is sent, the Philippines may not be able to receive it at such a distance."

"But it is likely to be received by British and American spies in the Shanghai Concession."

The staff officer's words immediately woke up Akiyama Daisa, and he suddenly stood up from the captain's seat.

"It was reported that the enemy ship continued to turn to the northwest and still refused to stop." A new report came from the observation post.

"Distance? And the speed? ”

"The main rangefinder measured 10.5 nautical miles, and the firing command post considered the rate of change in distance to be significant, and the current estimate of the enemy's speed was about 9 knots."

Akiyama knew that for the five 140 mm 50 caliber guns available on one side, such a distance could barely fire, but it could only be fired with a large elevation angle, which meant that the flight time of the shells in the air was up to more than ten seconds, and this kind of shooting had to make complex calculations on the enemy's forward trajectory, and it was impossible to hit the first few rounds of shelling, and it was only by relying on the observer to estimate the distance of the water column of several rounds of the shells, and make echelon corrections, and finally have a chance. If you get close and use a straight ballistic trajectory to carry out a direct attack on the side projection of the enemy ship, you do not need to calculate the opponent's trajectory, but only need to simply measure the advance angle.

"Can we launch a reconnaissance plane to catch up and see?"

"Report, the catapult was not repaired all morning and could not take off for the time being."

It seems that the fleet was caught in a storm in the waters west of Kagoshima four days earlier, destroying only the rear catapult of the Naka. Without reconnaissance aircraft to observe, it seems that it is difficult to correct artillery fire at such a distance. And the combined image rangefinder on the mast, the calculation of the distance to similar targets is not very accurate.

For a long time, spies in the Japanese Empire had been secretly collecting mast height data from the main ships of the navies of hostile countries as a backup plan for estimating distances in wartime, but the targets in front of them were not only unrecognizable, but also did not have towering masts. Perhaps the ten-meter-long baseline rangefinder on the Nagato can be measured more accurately, but the accuracy of the Naka's rangefinder can only support * attacks at long distances.

"Is Lieutenant Yoshida sure he could sink it before they send the message?" Akiyama asked.

"That guy who is the gunner, there is no problem within 8 nautical miles, but you have to conduct a few test firings first, and I believe you will be sure to hit it."

"Well, the engine, full speed ahead." Captain Akiyama shouted loudly into one of the microphones in front, and then into another: "Shoot at the command post, get ready to fire." (Yes, the old ship didn't even have a telephone exchange system and was still using microphones).

As Akiyama Daisa's order arrived, sixty shirtless stokers in the boiler room struggled to shovel coal into the twelve boilers.

The original mission of the Nak was to assemble on Hainan Island and wait for diplomatic changes to cover the landing of the army in southern Vietnam, where the Japanese already controlled it. In order to maintain the suddenness of the action, the fleet transfer was extremely secret, but the suspicious submarine in front of him crossed a bar, and it was likely that he spied on the southward movement of the huge fleet. Such an ambiguous order really gave Akiyama quite a headache, and he turned his head to the southeast again, and the fleet had disappeared into the sea level, leaving only a cloud of smoke.

419's radar accurately tracked every movement of the Naka, including its terrifying speed increase of 35 knots, and the loud noise caused the sonar listeners below deck to suspect that there was a train moving on the sea.

"These Japanese are here to fight hard." Cheng Dayang shook his head and said, he said it was difficult for him to understand that this broken ship could catch up in such a rough way.

"Yes, the Self-Defense Forces' manoeuvring actions are compared to their ancestors, and they are simply embroidering." Deputy Captain Chu Aiyun said that he was the first person in the command cabin to confirm the age and situation of 419, and Cheng Dayang was somewhat hindsighted.

"Captain, the dog's pounce is coming, and it will shoot at any moment. Let's start first. ”

"It's not busy, at such a long distance, there is no radar ranging, and they can't be accurate. By the way, what about the sea surface swells? ”

"2.5 meters, there is an increase in wind speed."

"Very good, except that there is no radar, the gun control system of that broken ship should have a hard time overcoming compound roll, you can wait."

"Let the enemy strike first?"

"Yes, it's better to wait for them to do it first. Rest assured, I'm measured. At this distance, only the straight trajectory of large-caliber guns could pose a threat, and those small guns were not a problem. Cheng Dayang said contemptuously. Everyone couldn't tell whether his composure was real or fake, the temporary boat Great Wall Mansion was quite deep, and it was easy for ordinary people to see his thoughts from his expression, in fact, he just didn't want to risk attacking at the limit of the *range, after all, *After entering the water, he had to turn 180 degrees, and what he wanted was to send the enemy ship to the bottom of the sea without fail.

"Captain, the enemy ship is still moving to one side, and it seems that it doesn't want to catch up."

"Hehe, it seems that they want to use the fire of gun positions 2 and 3, or, perhaps, they may be afraid that we will fire at him with the tail tubes; It seems that they do not know that we do not have a tail * tube, and they do not know how big our hit angle (gunwale) is. Well, in another 20 minutes, it's time to enter China's coastal waters, right? ”

Deputy Captain Chu Aiyun sighed, he felt that his superiors were sometimes too brainless, burning their eyebrows, and they were still thinking about the legal bullshit, probably about the fact that the submarine crossed, and was still in a trance of doubt.

"* The firing commander calculates the angle of the center line of the salvo, note that after the range is unfolded, the second angle is set, the speed of 40 knots, the mode of sailing: deep water."

"Yes."

"Tell the Lookout Elder that I'm going to make a reply."

"You're still going to talk to the devils?" Deputy Captain Chu Aiyun was surprised, he was more straightforward and couldn't understand the captain's mind.

"The dignified Chinese Navy is not rude to come."