"Captain, it's time to eat, there are good dishes today, fresh bean sprouts. ”

Hirakawa Zhongliang nodded, and said to the first mate Aoki Tsuyoshi who was holding the lunch box: "Okay, Aoki-kun, I'll leave it to you here, I'll go get the meal." ”

Aoki Gang said: "Captain, you can go, in fact, there will be nothing at all, haven't we already received a telegram, the Russian fleet is about to sail to the Tsushima Strait, I don't understand why we are still guarding here?"

Hirakawa Zhongliang frowned and said, "Aoki-kun, don't complain, it is the duty of a soldier to obey orders. ”

When Aoki heard this, he hurriedly stood up and said, "Yes, Captain." ”

Hirakawa Tadaliang, captain of the reconnaissance ship Hoyomaru with the rank of lieutenant, was ordered to patrol the waters southeast of Jeju Island in search of the Russian fleet, and had been adrift at sea for 10 days. It is said that the navy has been adrift at sea for more than 10 days is not very high, but the Heyang Maru is a civilian ship refitted, with a displacement of less than 1,000 tons, and the space on the ship is not large, and a radio transmitter is installed, which makes the space on the ship more innovative, so both the comfort and the materials carried are very limited, and the life on the ship is very difficult, and the time of more than 10 days has made the whole ship personnel exhausted.

Today, because the sprouts of bean sprouts soaked in the ship have sprouted, there are finally some green vegetables to eat, and for the crew who have eaten rice balls for 7 or 8 days and salted fish, it is not attached to a good meal. In fact, soaking bean sprouts on a ship has been a practice since the 16th century, because the conditions required for the growth of bean sprouts are very low, and it is one of the most effective means to obtain vegetables from ships on long voyages.

Hirakawa Tadashi received his share of the meal in the kitchen and brought it to the rack room. Originally, there was a small dining room on the Wayo Maru, but because of the installation of a radio transmitter, the dining room was occupied, so the crew could only eat in their own quarters or on the deck, and Hirakawa Tadashi was the captain and could use his privilege to eat in the wheelhouse. In fact, it was not the ship Heyo Maru, and the situation of the other reconnaissance ships was similar.

At about 10 a.m., the Heyang Maru received a telegram that the Russian fleet had sailed through the waters off Jeju Island and headed for the Tsushima Strait. Of course, this telegram was not sent to the Heyang Maru, but the Heyang Maru happened to be within the range of the telegraph signal, so it was received, but the Heyang Maru did not receive an order to return to the sea, so they could only still patrol this sea area, but their vigilance had been greatly reduced, and there were many complaints.

At this time, although the Combined Fleet had completely grasped the whereabouts of the Russian fleet, it did not order the reconnaissance ships in other positions to return to the sea, first, out of prudence, after all, the Combined Fleet had not yet met the Russian fleet, and secondly, it was necessary to guard against the hands of the East China Government, so Heihachiro Togo still let these reconnaissance ships drift on the sea.

Hirakawa Tadashi finished eating the last bean sprouts, and licked his lips unsatisfied, only thinking that this was the most delicious food he had ever eaten in his life, but at this moment, he only heard an alarm from the lookout on the mast, and the mast was found in the southwest direction.

Hirakawa Tadōliang didn't dare to be careless when he heard this, because he was the captain of the ship, and of course he knew that his task was not only to search for the Russian fleet, but also to guard against the East China government fleet, so he hurriedly threw down the lunch box, ran to the bridge, picked up the monoculars, and looked southwest. At this time, the wind and waves on the sea were still very strong, and the Wayo Maru was undulating on the sea surface, but there was still some fog, and the visual distance was no more than 10 kilometers, even if it was a telescope, it could only see a distance of 12 or 3 kilometers.

In the fog in the distance, I could see the vague shape of 3 or 4 masts, but I couldn't tell whether it was a warship or a civilian ship. Hirakawa Tadōryo ordered the Yomaru to come closer so that it could be seen more clearly.

About 10 minutes later, Hirakawa Tadashi looked at 4 or 5 more masts, and the previous few ships could already be seen more clearly, low masts, slender hulls, and large beveled flying scissor bows, such ships in this era are only the East China government, and there is no semicolon.

Hirakawa Zhongliang's heart couldn't help but be surprised and happy, surprised that the fleet of the East China Government really came, which was by no means good news for the combined fleet, but he estimated that he was the first captain to discover the fleet of the East China Government, and this credit was not small. Hirakawa Tadaliang thought about it, and gave an order to the telegraph room: immediately send a power to the Mikasa, and find a suspected East China government fleet.

Nachihirakawa Tadaliang's order had just been handed down, but he received a reply from the telegraph room: the telegraph was broken, and the telegram could not be sent.

Hirakawa Tadaliang was stunned for a moment, scolded a Japanese national curse, hurriedly got off the bridge again, and rushed to the telegraph room. In fact, Hirakawa Tadashi didn't know anything about radio, and even when he went to the telegraph room, it didn't play a role, but Hirakawa Tadashi seemed to be better off psychologically.

When Hirakawa arrived at the telegraph room, he saw that the telegraph had been removed from a few shell plates, and two telegraph operators were constantly touching and moving around the telegraph, and the other two telegraph operators were standing aside with a bewildered expression, and the telegraph was constantly making a "zizi" sound. Although Hirakawa Tadashi did not understand radio, he usually heard the sound of "toot toot" from the telegraph, which was obviously wrong.

Hirakawa Tadashi said: "What happened to the telegraph?"

A telegraph operator shook his head and said, "I don't know." ”

Hirakawa asked again, "How long will it take to repair?"

The telegraph operator shook his head and said, "I don't know." ”

"Yaga!" This answer made Hirakawa Zhongliang angry, and another Japanese scolding came out, saying: "What are you all doing? I don't know anything, what's the use of asking you?"

Although these telegraph operators were not the official crew members of the Wayo Maru, but now they were on the ship after all, seeing that Hirakawa Tadashi was angry, a telegraph operator who was checking the telegraph said: "We don't know what's going on, it was like this an hour ago, we couldn't receive any signal, nothing could be sent, and we couldn't find the fault of the telegraph, this is the first time we have encountered such a problem." ”

Hirakawa Zhongliang was angry and anxious, and was about to roar a few more national curses, only to hear a loud "boom", Hirakawa Zhongliang only felt a huge force coming from the side, and the whole person was thrown out involuntarily, hitting the opposite wall, and the closed and dimly lit telegraph room suddenly lit up, and the wall on one side was blown open a big gap.

At this time, Hirakawa Zhongliang only felt a huge pain on his body, and then he found that there were 7 or 8 wounds on his body at some point, and there were 2 or 3 pieces of fragments that he didn't know where to insert them. The whole person couldn't move, and the sea water rushed in through the gap, and after a while, it flooded to Hirakawa Zhongliang.

―――――――― Divider ――――――――― Dividing Line――――――――

"Report to the captain, hit the target, two shots and two hits. ”

"Well, I've seen it, it's a good fight, plus the first two, a total of 6 shots and 6 hits, it seems that the maintenance of the Kunming ship is good, and the skills of our fighters are still there." Shang Jinfeng put down the telescope in his hand, in fact, at this time, he could also see that the entire ship of the Heyang Maru about 7 or 8 kilometers away had caught fire, and the stern of the ship had sunk below sea level.

At this time, Deputy Captain Han Chao also put down the binoculars and said, "Captain, I think there are still many people who have fallen into the water, do you want to save them." ”

Shang Jinfeng said with a smile: "The people who should be saved still have to be saved, but if they don't know what to do and must find death, then it's no wonder that we can't be blamed." Ordered the Qingzhou to release a lifeboat to save people, but to pay attention to their own safety, remember to bring the gun with them. ”

This was the third Japanese reconnaissance ship to be encountered by the KPA naval fleet, but the fate of the first two ships was the same as that of the Yoyo Maru, both of which were sunk. Although affected by the curvature of the earth, the scanning range of the Kunming's sea and air search radar can only reach 60 kilometers, but this distance is far beyond the visual range, so the KPA naval fleet has an absolute advantage in discovering the enemy first, and the three Japanese reconnaissance ships encountered were all discovered first, and then calmly arranged and prepared until the Japanese reconnaissance ship was finally sunk.

At the same time, the Kunming ship also turned on the electronic interference function to interfere with the radio transmitter of the Japanese reconnaissance ship; although the Kunming ship was not a professional electronic jamming ship, the radio technology and radio equipment of this era were still very primitive, so the Kunming ship was still very easy to interfere with the radio signals sent or received by the Japanese reconnaissance ship, so that the reconnaissance ship could not send the news of the discovery of the KPA naval fleet back to the headquarters of the combined fleet.

Originally, the H/PJ38 single-barreled 130mm naval guns of the Kunming ship were quite powerful, which exceeded the 200 mm naval guns of this era, and there was radar aiming, full computer control, and the accuracy was much higher than that of the naval guns of this era.

Each reconnaissance ship also had several dozen crew members, and at least nearly half of them were able to jump into the sea to escape in spite of the moment; when sinking the first reconnaissance ship, the KPA Navy, in the spirit of humanitarianism, immediately lowered the lifeboat and rescued the crew members who had fallen into the water. However, the crew of the reconnaissance ship were also all soldiers, and many of them not only refused to be rescued by the KPA, but a small number of Japanese soldiers shot at the KPA soldiers in the sea and wounded two people. Therefore, although after the sinking of the reconnaissance boat, the KPA still rescued the Japanese soldiers who had fallen into the water, but they were much more careful, and those who refused to rescue were of course left to fend for themselves, and if anyone shot at the KPA, they unceremoniously fired back.

However, the sinking of three reconnaissance ships only saved 12 Japanese soldiers, of whom only 7 were rescued by the KPA, while the other 5 were unconscious in the sea and dragged up by the KPA. In fact, the KPA dragged a total of 9 Japanese soldiers, but 4 of them struggled to jump back into the sea, and the KPA had no choice but to let him go.

Eventually, these 12 Japanese soldiers became the first prisoners of the KPA, and of course they will continue to see more of their companions in the days to come.