After sufficient acceleration, the 16 torpedo boats have reached their respective top speeds, and the cluster of sea charges forms a rather visual picture. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoThe smoke generating device on their tail spews white smoke incessantly, and the area of the smoke screen on the sea surface quickly becomes larger and thicker, and it is clear that the painstakingly large-scale smoke screen is not for the sake of creating an ornamental effect, and the hidden content behind the smoke screen is enough to whet the appetite of all who do not know what's going on. At this time in the viewing ship "Caesar." On the "Frederick III", the observant person may have noticed the change in Kaiser Wilhelm II's expression, as the British fleet had clearly overshadowed the German navy in the bombardment exercise, his face was tense and silent, and now his brow was furrowed, and the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned to reveal his pride.

On the smoky sea, a peculiar humming sound made people feel like a large swarm of dangerous wasps was approaching, and when this uneasy sense of urgency approached the extreme, a large group of light and small speedboats rushed out of the smoke screen. The snow-white paint made them look like waves rolling and jumping on the surface of the sea, and their incredible speed gave them a lightning-fast stature, and in just a few minutes, they caught up with the 16 large torpedo boats pulling smoke in front.

The escort torpedo boats, which were part of the joint exercise formation, were now in an interception position on the sea, and the obvious difference in size and speed made them look like riflemen in a formation to meet the wolves. I saw that these speedboats were neither attacking nor slowing down, they only fine-tuned their course, and quickly bypassed the opponent's interception line under the cover of their own torpedo boats -- looking down at the sea from the air, this was simply a strange picture of a waterfall hitting a rock!

Conventional torpedoes are completely ineffective against speedboats with a draft of less than one meter, and escort torpedo boats can only rely on naval guns of various calibers to intercept them, but the relative speed of more than 60 knots means that they can only staggered with high-speed speedboats for a moment, and even if they are equipped with small-caliber machine guns, they can only cause very limited damage to the speedboat group, and then watch these speedboats stab at the main force of their fleet like a short blade with a cold handle - according to the plan of this sea exercise, that is, the exercise script approved by Kaiser Wilhelm II himself, A multinational joint formation of battleships, cruisers, and escort ships attacked the convoy in enemy waters, and quickly annihilated the convoy with powerful artillery fire, and the enemy country sent a group of torpedo boats to counterattack, and the two sides launched a fierce offensive and defensive battle in the coastal area.

In the face of a strong attack on the enemy group of speedboats, the five German battleships in the fleet quickly opened fire. This time, instead of a deafening roar, the 240-mm gun pointed at the target fired a salute shell doped with lime powder from the training gun above the main gun. Flying over a distance of several thousand meters, these fireworks, exploded dozens of meters above the sea. In the daytime, the fireworks did not look as colorful as they did at night, and after flashing, they quickly formed dandelion-shaped gray-white smoke clusters, and the area covered by these smoke pools was roughly the same as the killing area of live ammunition, so as to deduce the effect of artillery bombardment in actual combat.

In the case of high-speed movement of the target, the accuracy of the first two rounds of firing of the battlefleet was not ideal, and most of the fireworks fell in front of those speedboats, but fortunately, the rate of fire of their main and auxiliary guns was relatively fast, and in the case of no round limit, follow-up shelling followed, and some of the speedboats that fell into the gray-white smoke ball withdrew from the exercise sequence on their own. In order to avoid the fire of the fleet, the speedboats gradually widened the distance, and the all-out sprint quickly narrowed the distance between them and the fleet, and the officers and men on the decks of the ships were already filled with a roar that was completely different from that of the traditional engines.

On the sea, speedboats painted black "SS-01" led the way. In the old world, one of Natsuki's big dreams was to own his own yacht, but his hard work was not proportional to the rewards. Before traveling to this plane, there was a time when it felt like he was floating in the endless void, and he saw it as an opportunity to think about life and meditate on life. Smooth out the arrogance, fade away the naivety, and use the practice without a trace to make yourself more mature and wise. In the years of his rebirth, he silently planned his life and laid the foundation silently, but anyone who had contact, whether it was a prince or nobleman, a high-ranking military and political official, a servant guard, or an ordinary role, would quietly observe the words and deeds of the other party. The flattery that should be flattered, the co-optation that can be co-opted, the Natsuki who had a clear preference and willful impulsiveness in the past is difficult to find in Joachim today.

On the relatively calm sea, thunder and lightning jumped uncontrollably on the crest of the waves, and the water splashed in the bow constantly washed over the tempered glass on the front of the cockpit (tempered glass can be traced back to the mid-17th century, and the Germans were officially patented in 1875). Ignoring the firework shells that could fall at any moment, Natsuki calmly surveyed the situation ahead: four German cruisers and six large torpedo boats supported from the left side of the battlefleet formed a close line of defense, and if necessary, they would block the torpedoes fired at the battleships; Five stocky German battleships lined up in a column behind them, their fore and aft decks and starboard flickering fires and rising gunsmoke, showing very dense defensive firepower; The six foreign warships participating in the exercise remained on the left side of the German battlefleet and fired unhurriedly with the salute shells provided by the German Navy.

According to common sense, it is difficult for a group of torpedo boats attacking from the front to break through such a tight fleet defense, but these "Thunderbolt" speedboats led by Natsuki are unusual, they are the fastest torpedo boats of this era, and the power of the sea is unparalleled - although they only have a endurance of more than 50 nautical miles at top speed, it is more than enough for cold arrows to penetrate the coastal sea!

"Unfold the lightning net!"

In the slow-moving battlefleet, the shouting of officers could be heard on the decks of the ships. Except for the sailors who continued to hold their posts with training guns and secondary guns, the rest of the fighters came to the broadside deck, and in groups of four or five they quickly untied the ropes holding the anti-torpedo nets in place, and used push rods to place the metal ring nets that resembled chain mail outside the ship's side to resist the terrible force of the torpedoes.

Viewed from the starboard side of the battleship, the impressive formation of torpedo boats had already struck through the area of smoke and dust, and it would take two minutes at most to get into the effective range of the torpedoes. If this was a real naval battle, all the officers and men of the German battlefleet would undoubtedly be frightened and even despaired, but as a multinational joint exercise, they were full of expectations for the performance of these high-speed torpedo boats.

In recent years, with the rapid rise of Germany, the competition between Britain and Germany in the field of industrial resources and overseas trade has increased day by day, and the competition related to national interests has also made the soldiers of the two countries gradually have the psychology of competing with each other. Two months ago, Britain and France signed a friendship agreement, in which Britain recognized Morocco as France's sphere of influence, which directly infringed on Germany's colonial interests in Morocco and aroused strong resentment among all strata of Germany. However, although Germany has a world-class army, the task of protecting its overseas colonies is mainly undertaken by the navy, and once the situation deteriorates, the German navy will not be able to confront the British fleet at present, which also makes the German naval officers and men subject to both honor and dignity.

Judging from the scale and production capacity of the shipbuilding industry, even if Germany uses the strength of the whole country to build warships, it will take a long time to catch up with the British Navy, but if a new cutting-edge weapon that can subvert the traditional mode of naval warfare appears, so that the battleships that dominate the sea are no longer invulnerable, and the navies of all countries return to the starting line regardless of strength or weakness, it will be a great opportunity for Germany to catch up with and surpass its opponents.

On the SS-01 speedboat, Natsuki looked at the dense flickering firelight in front of him with cold eyes, and the crackling fireworks elicited the memories in the depths of his mind, but his strong will firmly suppressed the distractions in his heart, and he was always engrossed in this sea exercise of special significance. Seeing that he had entered the effective control distance of the small-caliber rapid-fire gun, he turned the steering wheel lightly, and the snow-white speedboat immediately drew a beautiful arc on the sea, throwing the dazzling flash out of his line of sight.

Counting from 1 to 10, Natsuki spun the steering wheel and swung it from side to side irregularly, causing the "Thunderbolt" to dance strangely on the surface of the sea, and the fireworks bombs that landed near the speedboat became sparse. After driving more than a nautical mile, Natsuki saw the target fleet through the right porthole, he turned the steering wheel sharply, and the speedboat made a sharp turn of nearly 90 degrees on the sea, and the hull was tilted at such an angle that the whole person almost turned sideways. By the time the hull had regained level, the fleet's clear outline was in front of it.

Using his keen eye to scan the sea on the right, Natsuki saw that there were still a dozen or so speedboats attacking the frontal assault, and they had managed to attract most of the fleet's artillery fire, creating an opportunity for a roundabout attack on his companions at the tail of the fleet. Listening to the sounds coming from outside, Natsuki knew that the other speedboats of Team 1 were following closely behind him, and everything was going on in an orderly manner as normal training. Seeing that the time had come, he fine-tuned the course and put the "Great Elector" at the rear of the battlefleet into the improvised sight carved in the front window, and only had to wait for a distance of 200 meters before firing the rubber-tipped torpedo used for the exercise. With the current sea state and target speed, the hit rate can reach more than 60%, and the multi-boat combo can basically ensure the attack effect.

Seeing that he was about to score, Natsuki unconsciously glanced at the area on the left side of the formation where the British cruiser was located, and this glance made him stunned for a moment: a high-speed black object flew from the left front of the speedboat, and the position where it fell into the water was only seven or eight meters away from the bow of the boat, and the splash it stirred up was not very large, nor did it have any substantial impact on the speedboat, but Natsuki's brows immediately furrowed - there was a certain explosion delay after the firecracker bomb was launched, and if it was projected at a closer target, it would be equivalent to a small solid cannonball, If it hits the fast-moving Thunderbolt boat head-on, it is likely to cause the boat to be destroyed and killed, so the drill rules make it clear that the firecracker shells can only fire at targets beyond 400 meters, and the losses of the attackers within 400 meters will be calculated according to the estimated proportion, and all ships have strictly followed this safety rule before.

(End of chapter)