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Chapter 1369 The Sunken Giant Ship

At half past eleven o'clock in the afternoon, three giant oil tankers flying the American flag appeared at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the past two days, the 1st, 2nd, and 7th Battalions of the Southwest Air Force have taken turns attacking the lone ships of the Japanese army between Shanghai and the mainland, resulting in the sinking of one Japanese destroyer, two gunboats, and four supply ships, and the arrogant navy no longer dares to act alone, and the entire Third Fleet has no choice but to stay in the port of Shanghai with grievances, and the antiaircraft artillery group composed of light cruisers, the antiaircraft guns and antiaircraft machine gun positions in the port area, form a powerful anti-aircraft firepower, and protect themselves, so there is not a single one in the entire Yangtze River estuary The battleship spotted the trails of three oil tankers with very strange trajectories.

The three oil tankers parted ways at Yushan Island, one changed course and headed for the channel between Pudong and Changxing Island in Shanghai, one rushed to the river between Changxing Island and Chongming Island, and the third oil tanker cut through the waves, bypassing Chongming Island, and then suddenly turned to the left and headed towards the wide river.

The first oil tanker sailed past Hengsha Island, the American flag on the bow was taken down, and the crew of 218 lined up, looked back greedily at the oil tanker that had lived for months and had already had feelings, and then led by the captain, to the aft deck. Soon, the bulkhead below the stern deck, which had looked tight, suddenly parted to the sides, and as the gnashing door opened to the limit, a battleship emerged from below the tanker, and as the tanker continued to sail forward, the battleship revealed more and more area, and the crew members crouching on the deck railing became more and more excited.

When the battleship was about to completely break away from the tanker's belly, it suddenly started and sailed at the same speed as the tanker.

The crew quickly descended to the deck of the battleship below through the gangway erected by the ship's lifting equipment below. From this position, it can be seen that the belly of the tanker in front is specially designed to be hollow, and there are many iron chains and steel pillars inside the bulkhead.

The crew quickly moved into their respective positions and skillfully took control.

The battleship slowly slowed down, and after opening a distance from the tanker, it suddenly accelerated, overtook the tanker from the right, entered the main channel of the Yangtze River, and sailed quickly towards the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. At the same time, on the top of the battleship, where it was originally flat and flat, another layer of steel buildings appeared, and on the top of the battleship, iron rods slowly rose upward, and on the highest iron pole, the blue sky and white sun were full of red military flags fluttering high.

A Japanese destroyer that was on guard at the mouth of the Huangpu River spotted this strange-shaped ship coming from the mouth of the Yangtze River, and then looked at the Chinese naval flag flying high, estimated that the tonnage of this battleship was seven or eight thousand tons, and hurriedly reported it to the fleet headquarters.

Vice Admiral Kiyoshi Hasegawa, commander of the Third Fleet, was very surprised when he heard the report, and immediately took a torpedo boat with Nagumo Tadaichi, commander of the Eighth Sentai Force, and Sonosuke Kobayashi, commander of the Ninth Sentai Team, to the mouth of the Huangpu River and carefully observed it through a telescope.

At this time, the battleship was crossing the mouth of the Huangpu River at a very fast speed, and Hasegawa Kiyoshi was a veteran admiral, and at a cursory glance, the data of this battleship was clear:

There is a lifting platform in the bow, one in front and one in the rear, one in each of the triple 203mm main guns, one twin 127mm secondary guns in the forward direction, one in the rear, one on each side, and the anti-aircraft weapons include 40mm anti-aircraft guns and 20mm anti-aircraft guns, the specific number is unknown, but the total number should not be less than 60.

"Where did the China Navy get such an advanced cruiser?" As soon as Nanyun Zhong put down the binoculars, he asked in great surprise.

Sonosuke Kobayashi said viciously: "No matter how advanced it is, we will immediately send a fleet to catch up and sink it!" ”

Hasegawa Kiyoshi pointed to the sky helplessly, Kokobayashi Sonosuke and Nagumo Tadaichi raised their heads together, only to see that in the blue sky, more than 20 silver-gray fighters were circling, making difficult actions such as diving, climbing, and rotating from time to time.

Sonosuke Kobayashi lowered his head in frustration: "Before this, I never thought that fighters could determine the outcome of naval battles, and now I finally understand the intention of the predecessors of the Imperial Navy to painstakingly develop aircraft carriers, without fighters that control the sky, our battleships are like breaking wings, and the lesson is profound!" ”

Since Nagumo Tadaichi entered the Naval Academy, he has learned theories such as the decisive victory of artillery and giant ships in naval battles and the surprise victory of torpedoes, and now he suddenly comes into contact with a completely new world, which he can hardly accept. But the living reality told him that without the protection of powerful fighters, warships would be reduced to a supporting role in naval warfare, and at the age of 50, he decided to find more books on air supremacy to read, so that he could keep up with the changes of the times and not be eliminated.

Vice Admiral Hasegawa Kiyoshi seemed to have aged ten years all of a sudden, and sighed faintly: "Who can understand the heart-wrenching pain of watching the warships of the Shina Navy pass in front of us with their might, but we can't do anything?" Alas, the shame suffered by the Imperial Navy is too profound! ”

Speaking of this, he suddenly pointed to the right in surprise: "Look, what is that?" ”

"Tankers!?"

Nanyun Zhong's eyes widened.

Sonosuke Kobayashi nodded again and again: "That's right, it's an oil tanker!" ”

"What are such huge oil tankers doing at the mouth of the Yangtze River?" Hasegawa Kiyoshi looked at the two subordinates, and Nagumo Tadaichi and Kobayashi Sonosuke both had confused expressions.

At this moment, a sudden change occurred, and when the oil tanker sailed to a distance of more than 200 meters from the mouth of the Huangpu River, a huge explosion suddenly sounded, and with the billowing black smoke, a violent explosion was heard again.

The 50,000-ton oil tanker is a pioneering feat of this era, the huge hull is three or four hundred meters long, forty to fifty meters wide, and more than 30 meters high.

The huge explosion continued, as the compartment flooded, the engine quickly stalled, and the tanker stopped struggling and began to lean to one side. From the bow to the stern of the ship, a sky-high fire erupted, and when the water came into contact with the fire, it made a "whoosh" sound, and the water vapor filled the surface of the river, and even Hasegawa Kiyoshi and others could feel the wet heat.

There were more and more water seepage points under the hull, the tanker tilted more and more, and the sinking speed became faster and faster, and finally, in a huge roar, the tanker completely capsized, turned on its side on the river, and the water splashed into the sky, rising countless bubbles. The boat finally slowly lost its top, but through the shallow river, the huge outline of the oil tanker could still be clearly seen.

"Oh my God! What do I see? Nanyun Zhong wiped his eyes in disbelief, and then tugged at the skin on his arm, but the pain clearly told him that the scene in front of him was real, not an illusion.

Sonosuke Kobayashi was dumbfounded and muttered, "Is it a shipwreck?" A shipwreck in front of us? A repeat of the Titanic incident in 1937? ”

"Baga!"

Hasegawa Kiyoshi angrily scolded: "Haven't you seen it yet? This is a conspiracy of the Chinese people, who used this huge steamer to blow itself up and sink in order to block the Yangtze River channel, and our battleships and cruisers will no longer be able to enter the Yangtze River channel freely! ”

"This ......"

Sonosuke Kobayashi still couldn't believe it: "A new oil tanker that costs tens of millions of dollars is to blow itself up and sink to stop our naval attack? ”

Nagumo Zhongyi had already figured it out at this time: "That's right, Kobayashi-kun, the people of China are so crazy!" I guess it was done by those Chinese Americans in North America, who thought they would be able to help their homeland resist the attack of our Imperial Army, but does it make sense to do so? The Yangtze River channel is not the only one that has such an outlet to the sea, and the Imperial Navy will go around a little farther at most......"

Before Nan Yunzhong's words fell, another violent explosion came, although there was a gap of three or four kilometers between Changxing Island, but the thick smoke in the distance was clearly visible, and the sound of the explosion came clearly, through the distance difference in my heart a little calculation, I knew that this explosion was not inferior to the oil tanker explosion just now.

Sonosuke Kobayashi already understood what the voice was, and he was almost crazy: "Another multi-million-dollar ship!" Oh my God, the people of China are crazy, they actually threw a lot of money into the Yangtze River......"

Lieutenant General Hasegawa Kiyoshi had a gloomy face, and sighed faintly: "The people of China are amazing, they dare to break their wrists, it seems that they will soon launch an attack on Shanghai."

"Kobayashi-kun, compared to guarding a country, it's worth wasting this money, don't you see that in this Shanghai port, there are still twenty-eight ships of our Third Fleet, which add up to more than 200 million US dollars? The calculation of the people of China is very shrewd, if my expectations are good, the waterway in the north of Chongming Island will also be blocked by the giant ship of the people of China......"

When Hasegawa Kiyoshi said this, black smoke really rose in the farther sky, Hasegawa Kiyoshi raised the binoculars, carefully observed for a while, put it down and smiled coldly: "The people of China want to use their thirty or forty million dollars in exchange for our 200 million, no matter how this account is calculated, they will earn it, if they can get back the rights and interests of the Japanese concession, the value of the land alone will reach hundreds of millions, and winning this battle, the encouragement of their country's nation, military and people's morale is unlimited!" Kobayashi-kun, the people of China are much smarter than you! ”

"Hey!"

Sonosuke Kobayashi bowed ninety degrees, then lowered his head and asked, "Your Excellency Commander, then what should we do?" ”

"Wait! Sit tight! ”

Hasegawa Kiyoshi waved his hand: "The people of China are blocking not only the traffic of our Imperial Navy, they have cut off all the shipping routes to the port of Shanghai, it is estimated that soon all countries will react and jointly put pressure on the national government of China, we only need to help behind the scenes." In addition, we can also take advantage of this opportunity to get more assistance from countries such as Britain and the United States. There is an old saying among the people of China: "If you lose your horse, you will know if you are blessed", which is what you are talking about. ”

"Taught!"

This time, not only Sonosuke Kobayashi, but even Nagumo Tadaichi spontaneously bowed and saluted. At this moment, Nagumo Tadaichi learned a lot from Hasegawa Kiyoshi, and his ideological realm greatly increased, which helped him a lot to learn and comprehend the new tactics of the navy in the future, and a difficult opponent of the British and American navies was growing rapidly.