On the evening of September 12, local time, in the waters east of the Auckland Islands, the submarine "Wujiang".

Like the "Hanshui," which preemptively launched cruise missiles in Posha Bay a month ago and fired the first shot in the Bosa Bay War, the "Wujiang" belongs to the "Nanjiang" class and is the seventh ship of this class. However, the "Wujiang" is not equipped with a vertical launch system for launching cruise missiles.

For submarines operating on the sunset ocean, whether there is a vertical launch system or not, the impact is not great.

Inside the command center, more than a dozen officers and soldiers all looked intently at the captain of the boat, Major Ran Wenqiang, but his eyes were on the information screen in the middle

Just over ten minutes ago, Ran Wenqiang ordered to retract the towed sonar and prepare for battle.

When the enemy ship is more than 20 kilometers away, the sonar of the sideboard array can intercept the noise emitted by the enemy ship, and there is no need to use towed sonar.

Of course, enemy ships were also within the range of heavy torpedoes.

According to the original plan, unless the remaining officers and soldiers blew up the infrastructure in the base and activated the mines laid in the harbor, they had to wait for the order from above to confirm that they had entered a state of war with the Bran Kingdom before attacking the ships of the Bran Royal Navy.

Only in the war with the kingdom of Bran, or when they are attacked by Bran's army, will the remaining officers and soldiers start to act.

The sound of explosions is the signal for war!

The problem now is that the Bran Kingdom has not officially declared war on the Liangxia Empire, at least the "Wujiang" has not received the order to start a war with the Bran Kingdom.

However, the battleships of the Royal Navy of Bran appeared outside Scarpa Bay, preparing to enter the military port that was still controlled by the Imperial Navy.

Well, to fire at those battleships?

In the backup plan, there is a plan for dealing with similar situations, but it is not said to be dead, it has to be decided by the actual situation.

This is the actual situation, that is, whether the Bran battleship actually invaded Scapa Flow, posing a threat to the officers and men of the Imperial Navy left behind, and whether it can meet the officers and men left behind after the attack on the Bran battleship, and whether it can retreat smoothly after receiving it to ensure the safety of the ship.

There are so many uncertainties that anyone will hesitate.

Inside the Scarpa military port, there are dozens of officers and soldiers!

If the "Wujiang" is exposed and is discovered by the battleship Bran, then the only option for these remaining officers and soldiers is to surrender to the enemy after completing the mission.

Besides, there were dozens of officers and men on board the "Wujiang."

Although there are only 3 Bran battleships more than 20 kilometers away, judging from the characteristic noise, they are 1 Type 42 destroyer and 2 Type 22 frigates, and these three warships did not use active sonar, and did not find the "Wujiang" that is close at hand, so as long as the "Wujiang" makes a move, it is very sure to sink these 3 Bran battleships in one fell swoop, but at the beginning, the towed sonar also detected several targets, but it was too far away, dozens of kilometers to the east, or even hundreds of kilometers away, it was impossible to judge the nature of the target.

However, there is no need to make an accurate judgment.

That was supposed to be the home fleet of the Royal Navy in Bran, which had at least one "Invincible"-class aircraft carrier, and it must have carried a dozen anti-submarine helicopters.

As a small aircraft carrier mainly anti-submarine, the "Invincible" class mainly carries anti-submarine helicopters.

Only by going to ocean-going operations far from the mainland, that is, there is no way to rely on the local shore-based aviation to provide cover, the "invincible" class will carry a few "Sea Harriers".

Stay near the mainland to carry out anti-submarine escort missions, and the "Invincible" class only carries anti-submarine helicopters.

Theoretically, the "Invincible" class can carry up to more than 20 "Sea King" anti-submarine helicopters, and can dispatch eight at a time to carry out anti-submarine search missions in two directions.

Counting the anti-submarine helicopters carried by other warships, the anti-submarine network of an escort fleet of the "Invincible" class can reach up to 100 nautical miles.

If there is an aircraft carrier and more than a dozen anti-submarine helicopters in the east, then the "Wujiang" is killing itself now.

However, will it get better if it drags on?

Ran Wenqiang has served in the Imperial Navy for more than ten years, and has been a captain for five years, so he is very aware of the current situation, or situation.

The three destroyers running in front were obviously going to explore the way.

Obviously, the Royal Navy of Bran had already thought that the withdrawal of the Imperial Navy from Scapa Bay did not mean abandoning this vital military port.

There were definitely submarines of the Imperial Navy outside the port.

Obviously, it is not difficult for a large attack submarine to hide under the surface of the sea for a few days, or even dozens of days.

The point is that it is not so easy to find a lurking submarine.

Just with passive sonar, it's even more difficult.

In the current situation, if the three Bran battleships used active sonar, Ran Wenqiang would never hesitate at all, and would launch torpedoes to sink them all as soon as possible according to the backup plan, that is, after the Bran battleships entered the 12 nautical miles of actual control area.

The reason is simple.

The use of active sonar indicates hostility, which can be said to be under attack, so it is impossible for the "Wujiang" to remain silent at the risk of being detected and attacked.

But the problem is, the Bran battleship didn't use active sonar!

What's more, there has been no news that the Bran Kingdom has declared war on the Liangxia Empire.

Although the three Bran warships had entered the contiguous zone, the waters under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Navy, they showed no hostile intentions.

The key is that the "Wujiang" is not at risk of being exposed for the time being.

So, is it necessary to preemptively attack?

Finding that the icons on the screen had changed, and the speed of the three Bran warships had slowed down significantly, Ran Wenqiang immediately locked his brows.

What is this for?

Turn to retreat, or turn back and search again?

If you're planning to retreat, why make a special trip?

Besides, there is an aircraft carrier battle group dozens of kilometers away!

Actually, Ran Wenqiang immediately thought of it.

The three Bran battleships had already completed their tactical positions, and to put it simply, the Type 42 destroyer running at the front had reached the outside of the harbor, and the two Type 22 frigates were only slightly behind, so the Imperial submarines lying in ambush outside the harbor were now between these three warships and the fleet to the east.

Unless you attack first, the Imperial submarines hiding outside the military port will be cornered!

"Captain!"

"All officers and men are ready for battle!"

As soon as the new icon appeared on the screen, Ran Wenqiang gave the command.

It was a high-frequency signal that appeared in the east, and the submarine's fire control computer compared it and concluded that it was a low-flying anti-submarine helicopter.

It's just that it's still too far away.

More importantly, the anti-submarine helicopter may have flown at medium and high altitudes before, that is, after taking off from an aircraft carrier or other warship, it first flew at medium and high altitudes to save fuel, and only after reaching the search area did it reduce to a height close to the sea surface.

Although the noise emitted by the helicopter is very loud, the high-frequency noise will attenuate quickly when propagating, so the transmission distance is not far.

Only when flying low, passive sonar on a submarine is able to intercept the noise emitted by an anti-submarine helicopter.

The point is that anti-submarine helicopters do not have a clear purpose and do not fly at altitudes close to the surface of the sea.

Combined with the sudden deceleration of the previous 3 Bran warships, it is not difficult to think that the Bran fleet knew that there were Imperial submarines outside the military port, and they were coming to the Imperial submarines.

This imperial submarine is the "Wujiang".

Fortunately, Ran Wenqiang had already ordered to enter the combat state, but he did not let all the officers and soldiers take place, so after he issued the battle order, it took less than half a minute for more than 80 officers and men on the whole boat to enter their respective posts and prepare for battle.

As a matter of fact, there are only 46 combat posts on the "Wujiang," and at most only 46 officers and men are needed, and all the extra ones are damage management personnel.

Immediately, Ran Wenqiang asked the gunner to input target data for the three heavy torpedoes to ensure that the three torpedoes could be fired out at an emergency moment.

If you want to say anything, what worries Ran Wenqiang is not actually the three surface warships, nor an anti-submarine helicopter, but the Buran submarine that may be lurking nearby.

In the North Sunset Ocean, at least in the eastern waters of the North Sunset Ocean, the only attack submarines of the Royal Bran Navy that can pose a threat to the "Wujiang" are those few Bran Royal Navy attack submarines.

In the entire Western Continent group, only the Royal Navy of Bran had large attack submarines.

Ironically, the technology of the Royal Navy to build large attack submarines actually came from the Liangxia Empire, the product of military cooperation between the two sides.

In order to control the Bran Kingdom, to be precise, to split the Western Continent Group through the Bran Kingdom, the Liangxia Empire not only retained several military bases in the Bran Kingdom, but also strengthened military cooperation with the Bran Kingdom, the most influential of which was to rearm the Bran Royal Navy.

Because they had enough of submarines in World War II, when rebuilding their navy after the war, the Kingdom of Bran attached great importance to anti-submarine warfare. In addition to the development of the "Invincible" class, which is mainly anti-submarine, the Royal Navy of Bran paid special attention to large attack submarines.

Of course, with the advancement of technology, in the post-war anti-submarine warfare, the most powerful anti-submarine weapons are no longer warships and patrol aircraft, but submarines with more advanced performance. After the war, almost all of the large attack submarines took anti-submarine as their main task, and only small submarines mainly dominated the sea.

It was with the help of the Imperial Navy that the Royal Navy of Bran was the first to acquire the technology of building large submarines after the war, and it has been developed until now.

The Trafalgar class of the Royal Navy of Bran is one of the most advanced large attack submarines available today.

In fact, this name is enough to show how much hope the Royal Navy has for this type of submarine.

If anything, it is that there are few of them, or that the Kingdom of Bran does not have the ability to allow the Royal Navy to purchase too many ridiculously expensive large attack submarines.

To date, the Royal Navy has only 10 large attack submarines, including only four of the Trafalgar class.

Of the 10 large attack submarines, at least 1 patrolled the Nansunset Ocean, and 1 was on the route from the Nansunset to the mainland of the Bran Kingdom. Of the other 8, at least 4 are in the military port, and 1 is definitely in the dry dock for major repairs.

It can be seen that there are only 4 ships deployed in the vicinity of the mainland at most.

Two of them have to operate in the southern part of the mainland, that is, in the Bay of Biscay, to protect the strategic route to the Xuan Continent, especially the Luxinhai.

There is also one ship that has to operate near the North Sunset Ocean Route.

As a result, there is only one ship that can be deployed in the North Sea, facing Scapa Bay.

If you don't do it well, I'm afraid there won't be one.

The key is that the Auckland Islands are located north of the mainland of the Bran Kingdom, and in addition to dispatching the home fleet, it can also use shore-based patrol aircraft deployed on the mainland.

Even if you want to carry out anti-submarine missions here, you don't necessarily need to use large attack submarines.

The Royal Navy's "Supporter"-class small aircraft carriers, mainly operating near the mainland, were used to make up for the lack of large attack submarines.

In addition, the "Wujiang" is in the North Sea, and on the other side of the Auckland Islands is the more expansive North Sunset Ocean, which is more suitable for submarine activities.

If submarines must be sent, they will be deployed to the north or west of the archipelago.

Of course, 1 large attack submarine is enough.

If you want to say it, it only takes one chance to take out the "Wujiang".

However, there was no time for Ran Wenqiang to continue waiting.

After only about 3 minutes, the icon on the screen changed again.

It was not one anti-submarine helicopter flying to the east, it was two, but it flew close before, so the passive sonar was not able to detect it.

Now the two helicopters have separated.

In the usual anti-submarine battle, one is responsible for throwing sonar buoys in front or using a hanging sonar to search for submarines, while the other follows behind to ensure that the front one can drop anti-submarine torpedoes to attack as soon as the submarine is spotted.

In addition, 3 battleships to the west have also turned.

The situation couldn't be more obvious!

If it drags on any longer, and when the anti-submarine helicopters arrive, even if the "Wujiang" immediately launches a torpedo and sinks three Bran battleships, don't think about escaping.

Do it now, there is still a chance to escape.

Ran Wenqiang is not the kind of person who is indecisive, even as the captain of a submarine, he must have good patience, but it does not mean that he has to be indecisive.

If I had to say, the vast majority of submarine captains are actually decisive characters.

After giving the order to attack, that is, letting the three heavy torpedoes each lock on one Bran battleship, and adopting the full speed and full self-guidance mode, Ran Wenqiang specially told the chief navigator to record this order, especially the time when the order was given.

18:52 East District time.

About 3 minutes later, the "Wujiang" fired the first heavy torpedo.

In order to avoid mutual interference, two more torpedoes were fired at 30-second intervals.

All that's left is, of course, to wait and be ready to be attacked.

When the torpedo is fired, there is a very obvious sound, especially the bubble popping sound produced when the high-pressure air blows the torpedo out of the launch tube, which can be transmitted to a long distance, and it can definitely be intercepted by the passive sonar of the enemy ship and the sonar buoy of the anti-submarine helicopter.

If there is another Bran submarine nearby, the "Wujiang" can also be spotted.

However, in order to rely on this sound to judge the exact location of the "Wujiang", it needs to be close enough, as long as it is a little farther away, it is impossible.

In other words, if the Bran submarine is relatively far away, it is necessary to use active sonar to locate it.

To say, this is also the opportunity that Ran Wenqiang is waiting for.

As long as the submarine broke its silence, used active sonar, and thus revealed its whereabouts, the remaining torpedo of the "Wujiang" would have been useful.

It's just that what Ran Wenqiang was waiting for was not what he wanted.