Under the surface of the sea, 12 submarines are divided into 3 columns and move forward silently, diving 12 meters below the sea surface, although the visibility is very low, but it is very calm, because the wind and waves on the sea surface do not affect the sea surface at all, and the submarines diving at a speed of 7 nautical miles per hour are like black sharks.

In the 001 submarine that led the pilot, Luo Hongze, the captain of the group, sat calmly in the narrow command cabin, the calm on his face was pretended, but in fact, he was excited and nervous, after all, this was the first time that the submarine force had been put into actual combat, and it was such a large-scale actual combat, it was false to say that he was not nervous, but he could not let his officers and men notice his nervousness.

The submarine itself is not large, the interior space is even smaller, and the sound of the electric motor is not loud but fills all corners of the submarine, "the report ——, a large battleship was found in front of the left side. ”

Found a large battleship? Luo Hongze was shocked, could it be that he was discovered by the enemy fleet? Immediately he rejected this judgment, and if the enemy fleet discovered them, they should have opened fire, and with a slight groan, he gave the order in a deep voice, "Stop!" ”

As the captain of the independent submarine brigade, he knows very well that although Western countries have studied submarines, they have not developed submarines with actual combat value, and for the navies of Western countries, there is no awareness of antisubmarine at all, and the lookout posts on surface ships will not look below the surface of the sea at all.

What's more, it is difficult for the lookout post to detect the submarine painted black at a depth of 12 meters, and this smear has also been tried repeatedly, observing the seabed from the surface of the ship, due to the light, the sea surface is a few meters below is a black one, and the black submarine has good concealment, and it is impossible to be detected at all when it is stationary.

Although he was full of self-confidence, Luo Hongze was still a little worried, worried that the captains of other submarines would not be able to hold their breath and take the initiative to attack the enemy ships on the sea, and once the enemy ships were discovered, they might fall short.

Waiting is a kind of torment, time passed minute by minute, and it was not until ten minutes later, when there was still no abnormal movement, that Luo Hongze secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

On the sea, more than ten ironclad ships chopping the waves and moving forward at full speed, and soon arrived at the mouth of the bay, looking far away, the sea and the sky are the same, there is no sail, and there is not a single sail in sight.

On the flagship 'Sevani', the commander of the coalition forces, Du Bailei, looked puzzled and held a telescope to observe the Qing fleet in front, the Qing army that was originally in a posture of facing the battle actually turned around and fled, he was so depressed that he almost vomited blood, what kind of reputation is the Qing army doing?

At this time, the communications officer walked quickly to the front and reported: "The Italian fleet has arrived at the mouth of the bay, and nothing has been found in the nearby waters, so I beg for further instructions." ”

Du Bailei was silent for a long time with a gloomy face, he racked his brains and couldn't figure out what the intention of the Qing army's abnormal behavior was, and after a little muttering, he ordered in a deep voice, "Order, all fleets keep in formation and pursue at full speed!" After a pause, he continued: "Order the Italian fleet to return quickly, leaving four warships to patrol the mouth of the bay." ”

Under the sea, twelve submarines hovered quietly, Luo Hongze's face was as calm as ever, but he was very anxious, after all, the submarine had a limited diving time, but he didn't dare to take risks, to be precise, he didn't want to be exposed, the first debut of the submarine team, he didn't want to fall short.

After suffering in endless anxiety for nearly an hour, the observers once again detected a large warship turning over their heads, Luo Hongze breathed a long sigh of relief, and continued to wait for a quarter of an hour before he gave the order in a loud voice, "Full speed ahead!" ”

Another hour later, on the sea surface of the bay mouth, an inconspicuous periscope slowly emerged from the sea, slowly rotated, and soon stopped, locking on a battleship not far away, Luo Hongze looked at the periscope drenched in water, and said in a deep voice: "Torpedo preparation." ”

A huge explosion sounded on the sea, and an unprepared Italian battleship was accurately hit by a torpedo, and the huge battleship shook violently like a leaf, and was lifted out of the sea by the sea and immediately fell, breaking directly into two pieces from the middle.

The officers and men on the other two Italian battleships not far away were stunned for a moment, and they all looked at the scene in front of them with frightened and sluggish faces, which were hit by torpedoes, but the question is, where did the torpedoes come from? No Qing warships were found in the nearby sea.

"Underwater!" A lookout shouted with horror on his face, and several small black figures slowly surfaced on the surface, and the officers and men on the deck were terrified when they saw this scene, and before they could react accordingly, several torpedoes with extremely conspicuous trails approached quickly, and then several deafening explosions were heard one after another.

Ten nautical miles away, on the deck of another Italian battleship responsible for centering the communication, the captain Donatro's hands holding the binoculars trembled slightly, he couldn't believe the scene he had just seen, three battleships, one of which was still a 7,000-ton capital battleship, was sunk like this!

How exactly did the Qing army do it? Sweeping the empty sea, he suddenly understood, submarines! Definitely a submarine! The Qing army actually developed a submarine with actual combat value! The moment he reacted, his hair stood on end, he was terrified to the extreme, and shouted hysterically: "Withdraw!" Full speed out! ”

After the battleship sailed at high speed, Donatro came to his senses, in this case there was no need to worry about the Qing submarines, he ordered in a deep voice, "Fire!" Whistle the alarm! ”

The coalition fleet, which was biting the Qing fleet's full speed pursuit, quickly stopped, and on the flagship 'Sevani', the commander of the coalition forces, Du Bailei's face was a little pale, and the four Italian warships that stayed at the mouth of the bay to patrol were sunk three in an instant, and only one battleship that was far away from the mouth of the bay and was responsible for centering on the flag communication escaped, how did the Qing army do it? He's unconscious, he's in trouble!

Report ——。 The communications officer walked quickly to the front and reported: "Captain Donatro reports that the Qing army fired torpedoes from under the surface of the sea with the submarine. ”

Submarine? Du Bailei was speechless for a long time, the Qing people have developed a submarine with actual combat value? He immediately reacted that the abnormal behavior of the Qing fleet before was to cover the submarine.

Using submarines to block the mouth of the bay, the intention of the Qing army is self-evident, this is to completely annihilate their fleet! How many submarines did the Qing army have?

Du Bailei felt a chill in her heart, the Qing army was really insidious and cunning, premeditated, and at the time of the Battle of Durban, while showing weakness, she also threw out torpedo boats, misleading them into thinking that torpedo boats were newly developed naval weapons of the Qing Navy, making them self-righteous that as long as there were enough warships, they could rely on intensive artillery fire to suppress them remotely and defeat the Qing Navy in a grand manner!

Who would have thought that the naval weapons relied on by the Qing Navy were not only torpedo boats at all, but also submarines, submarines that could launch torpedoes from under the surface of the sea, which were far more terrifying and difficult to guard against than torpedo boats!

This Maputo is simply a huge trap, it should be said that from the beginning of the Battle of Durban, the Qing people have guided them step by step into this trap! He was sure that the Qing State would definitely not have only three or five submarines at the mouth of the bay, and they were already in a desperate situation.

Thinking about this, a deep sense of powerlessness swelled in his heart, compared to Qing Guo, they were not opponents at the same level at all!

He quickly forced himself to calm down, and soon, he said in a deep voice: "Order all fleets to defend in place, and immediately call the commanders of the fleets of all countries to come to a meeting!" , and let Captain Donatro participate. ”

The British fleet was close to the left, and Hebb also had a premonition that there had been a serious accident, so he hurriedly commanded the battleship to come over, and as soon as he stepped on the deck over the gangplank, he split his head and asked, "What happened?" ”

"The Qing army attacked the four Italian battleships patrolling at the mouth of the bay, three battleships were sunk at the same time, and only one battleship far from the mouth of the bay escaped." Du Bailei said succinctly: "According to the report of Donatro, the captain of the ship who escaped back, the Qing army used a submarine to launch torpedoes from under the sea. ”

"Submarines?" Hebu lost his voice.

"It's supposed to be a submarine, that's right." Du Bailei nodded heavily.

He Bu's face suddenly became extremely ugly, submarines, Qing Guo has actually developed a submarine that can be used in actual combat! Britain, France, the United States, Sweden, Italy, Germany and Russia have all been keen on developing submarines in recent years, but they have not been able to develop submarines with practical value, and the Qing Dynasty has once again walked ahead of all countries in the world.

Although he had long expected that the Qing Navy would deliberately hide its strength during the Battle of Durban, he always believed that the Qing Navy had greatly improved the attack power of the torpedo, and never dreamed that it would be a submarine, and it was also a submarine capable of launching torpedoes underwater.

Seeing that he was distracted, Du Bailei said softly: "The Qing fleet has submarines, and there may be quite a few of them, and now what we need to face is not to attack Maputo, but how to safely evacuate Maputo Bay." ”

Hebu nodded, it was undoubtedly a joke to continue to attack Maputo, "I think, from the very beginning, the Qing army has been luring us to attack Maputo, and I am afraid that it will not let us evacuate easily. ”

"That's what I'm worried about." Du Bailei's tone was very low.

Qing fleet, the flagship 'Jingyuan', Xiao Mingliang held a telescope to observe the movement of the opposing coalition fleet, the other party did not pursue, but put on a defensive posture, obviously aware of the submarine at the mouth of the bay, it seems that the coalition forces are going to have a temporary meeting, and the possibility of retreat is very high, he is not in a hurry, after all, it takes time to lay mines at the mouth of the bay.

Flagship 'Sewany', official hall.

After listening to the detailed briefing of Captain Donatro, the admirals of the fleets of the participating countries fell into silence.

Although Donatro did not witness the Qing submarine with his own eyes, judging from the description of the situation, it should be confirmed that it was indeed the Qing submarine, otherwise, it cannot be explained.

Submarines, and they are submarines that can launch torpedoes underwater, everyone's hearts are heavy, and the atmosphere is dull, Du Bailei lightly knocked his pipe and said: "In the face of the Qing fleet, which has submarines capable of launching torpedoes, we don't see any hope of victory, I think that we are in a very dangerous situation now, and we must give up attacking Maputo and evacuate Maputo Bay as soon as possible." ”

Listening to the translator, the commander of the German fleet, Felix von Bendemann, said in a deep voice: "The submarines of the Qing army put on a posture of blocking the mouth of the bay, with the aim of completely annihilating our combined fleet, if we choose to evacuate, the Qing fleet on the opposite side will definitely pursue, there are submarines sniping in front, and torpedo boats in the back, even if we can escape, we will pay a huge price." ”

Du Bailei glanced at him and said quietly: "If General Bendeman has any suggestions, you might as well say it clearly." ”

Bendman said in a deep voice: "Since there is a huge price to be paid for retreating, why don't we continue to attack?" Disrupting the deployment of the Qing army, we may still have a chance to ........ ”

"Opportunity? What chances? A chance to win? Du Bailei said very politely: "The Qing fleet on the opposite side will not exchange fire with us at all, if we continue to pursue, the other party will continue to flee and escape to the range of the shore defense artillery." ”

As he spoke, he took out a pocket watch and opened it to take a look, "It's already two o'clock in the afternoon, and if we delay until dark, we will be in danger of being wiped out!" ”

He Bu then spoke: "The Qing army is good at night fighting, and there are night flares, once it gets dark, our situation will be even more disadvantaged, and the Qing army's torpedoes are a greater threat at night. If we retreat now, although there is a submarine sniper in front, as long as the submarine shows up, it will be covered by dense artillery fire, and I think it is inevitable to pay a certain amount of casualties, but the price will not be so great that we can hardly bear it. ”

Bendman glanced at the generals present, "This Maputo Bay is a trap carefully laid by the Qing army, you won't deny it, right?" Think about it, the Qing army finally lured us in, will we leave easily? ”

Du Bailei's face was a little ugly, he knew very well that the current situation of the combined fleet was very dangerous, and the longer the delay here, the greater the danger, he didn't talk nonsense, and said straightforwardly: "The current situation, the forward and the rear will pay a lot of casualties, my opinion is that the warships of various countries should be broken up and mixed, and they should break through with all their might, and then talk about breaking through first." ”

He Bu took the lead in expressing his position, "The warships of various countries should be scattered and mixed and go all out to break through the siege, this proposal is very fair, and I agree with it." ”

"I'm for it." "I'm in favor of it too." Italy and Austria-Hungary have expressed their positions one after another.

Bendman shook his head helplessly, "It seems that I don't approve of and can't change this decision." However, I still want to remind you that the danger in front may be greater than that of the Qing fleet behind. ”

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