Chapter 673: Wolves (I)

Yesterday morning. Zhang Guangyang and his "Shark" ocean-going submarine were still hunting in the southern waters of the Tsushima Strait north of Sasebo, but I don't know if it was because of his bad luck or because the Japanese government took corresponding anti-submarine measures, since the "Shark" rushed from Jeju Island to the Tsushima Strait, for a whole day and a half, the "Shark" did not encounter any prey worthy of attack, let alone warships, even iron-hulled merchant ships, although it encountered some fishing boats and wooden-hulled merchant ships. However, Zhang Guangyang did not want to 'waste' shells or torpedoes on these prey that did not have much oil and water, because the Tsushima Strait is located between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, very close to Japan, and belongs to the dangerous sea area in the war, and it is far away from the Chinese mainland, so it is very inconvenient to replenish it, so Zhang Guangyang finally decided to give up the "chicken" ribs in the Tsushima Strait and use the limited ammunition and "medicine" to create the greatest results, so he commanded the "Shark" ocean-going submarine to sail to the Sasebo area.

"Shark" arrived in the waters of Sasebo last night, before. Zhang Guangyang was once ordered to command a submarine to conduct strategic reconnaissance in the southwest waters of the Japanese archipelago, and Sasebo also came, and seriously 'groped' the channel near this Japanese naval base, so he is no stranger to the sea here, but for the sake of insurance, he still decided to fully charge the battery compartment of the submarine before dawn, and then dived to the depth of the periscope, lurking on a reef, waiting for the prey to come by itself.

This tactic is called "waiting for the rabbit", because the "shark" lurking in the sea reefs are dense, Japanese warships generally do not patrol here, Zhang Guangyang and all his crew together in the sea surface patiently waiting for the prey, Sasebo is one of Japan's largest naval bases, here for a long time stationed the Japanese main warship, do not worry about no prey, Zhang Guangyang's only problem to worry about is the air in the submarine cabin, due to the long incubation time, although there is enough oxygen to replace ' medicine' board, but the air in the submarine will still become more and more turbid over time.

Fortunately, the "Shark" did not wait too long under the surface of the sea, and at half past nine o'clock in the morning, Zhang Guangyang observed several large warships sailing out of the military port through the eyepiece of the periscope; if he had been in a hurry, he might have launched an attack at that time, but Zhang Guangyang was not a person who was in a hurry to make noise, and the captain of the submarine was indeed not suitable for a person who was in a hurry, and Zhang Guangyang insisted that as long as he waited patiently. Sooner or later, big fish will take the bait, and he wants to hit not destroyers and cruisers, but battleships and battlecruisers.

So, Zhang Guangyang endured the 'sex', waiting for the big fish to take the bait, the effort paid off, after an hour of patient waiting, the big fish finally appeared in the eyepiece of the periscope, and it was a string of big fish.

It was not only a battle fleet that sailed out of the Sasebo military port, but also a convoy of transport ships, obviously, the Japanese army had a big operation, although Zhang Guangyang did not know what the specific action was, but he would never tolerate these prey escaping from under his nose, he wanted to attack.

"Attention all crews! We have discovered an enemy battle fleet and a transport fleet, and our boat is about to attack, so now immediately close all the watertight compartment 'doors' and all crew members will enter the combat state! Listen to me! ”

Zhang Guangyang turned the periscope and quickly searched all the waters around the submarine, but found no threatening targets. He decided to immediately approach that fleet.

The first thing Zhang Guangyang should do now is to select the most valuable target as the first target of attack from the many "tempting" targets, so which target should be determined as the first target of attack?

After careful consideration, Zhang Guangyang finally decided to attack one of the battleships first.

The battleship was the last to sail out of the military port, but after leaving the military port, it picked up speed and quickly caught the lead of the convoy, and was located to the north of the convoy, right on the best attack route of the Shark.

The speed of the submarine was very slow when it was under the surface of the sea, and it was impossible to catch up with the warships sailing at high speed, although there were transport ships that dragged down the speed of the Japanese fleet, but the average speed of the fleet was still above nine knots, and it continued to accelerate.

"The motor is at full speed! Turn the rudder and head ×××! The torpedo corpolet is equipped with a torpedo with a depth of four meters, an azimuth angle of ×××, and a rotation angle of ×××! …… Torpedo tubes No. 1 and No. 2 are loaded with torpedoes! Torpedo tubes No. 3 and No. 4 are ready to be loaded! …… Torpedo tubes No. 1 and No. 2 are ready to be fired, and they are fired at an interval of six seconds! …… Ready, shoot! ”

The "Shark" soon turned to the attack course, and with Zhang Guangyang's order, the two heavy direct-sailing torpedoes were quickly 'fired' out by the torpedo soldiers, dragging a long bubble and flying towards the battleship at a high speed of 40 knots.

Because he was far away from the target, almost 1,000 meters, which was close to the maximum range of a torpedo when it was sailing at high speed, Zhang Guangyang was a little worried about whether he would be able to hit it with one hit. Originally, he wanted to 'shoot' at the same time, but considering that the submarine only had eight spare torpedoes in total, and the fleet in front of him was coveted, he wanted to hit as many ships as possible, and sink a few more Japanese ships here, so that the Chinese troops on the Liaodong battlefield would bear less pressure, and this reason was very simple, so Zhang Guangyang finally decided to 'fire' the two thunders in unison, and opened the interval between the two torpedoes to avoid affecting each other's navigation stability to the greatest extent.

After these two torpedoes were fired, Zhang Guangyang did not stop attacking, but immediately chose another target, which was also a large warship.

"Keep it moving! Turn the rudder and head ×××! The torpedo corpolet is equipped with a torpedo with a depth of four meters, an azimuth angle of ×××, and a rotation angle of ×××! …… Torpedo tubes No. 3 and No. 4, loaded torpedoes! Shoot at six-second intervals! …… Ready, shoot! ”

But this was not the last target of Zhang Guangyang's attack, and immediately afterwards, the "Shark" turned its course, turned its bow in the direction of Sasebo Military Port, and aimed at the large warship that was walking last.

"Keep it moving! Turn the rudder and head ×××! Torpedo crews load torpedoes. The fixed depth is four meters, the azimuth angle is ×××, and the rotation angle is ×××! …… Torpedo tube No. 1, torpedo tube No. 2, load torpedo! Shoot at six-second intervals! …… Ready, shoot! ”

Now, there were only two spare torpedoes left in the submarine, Zhang Guangyang hesitated for a moment, and finally decided to withdraw from the attack, and these two torpedoes were used to supplement the 'shooting'.

After firing six torpedoes in one go, Zhang Guangyang had time to flip through the ship identification manual and finally confirm it. The first large warship he attacked that looked like a battleship was not really a battleship, but a battle cruiser, belonging to the "King Kong class".

The day before yesterday, Zhang Guangyang received a telegram from the Admiralty that it was known that the Japanese battle cruiser "King Kong" had been seriously damaged and stranded in Port Arthur by an attack by the Chinese Air Force and Navy.

As for the second warship attacked by Zhang Guangyang, it seems that it should be one of the "Kurama-class" battle cruisers, and as for the last large warship that has just sailed out of the main channel of the military port, Zhang Guangyang cannot determine its level for the time being due to the poor viewing angle.

Zhang Guangyang hurriedly threw down the ship identification manual and observed the Japanese fleet through the periscope, because of the long distance, it was difficult for the torpedo explosion shock 'wave' to make a sound on the hull of the submarine, and whether it hit the target or not, it could only rely on the periscope to observe, which was very dangerous; if the lookout soldiers of the Japanese warship found the periscope on the sea surface, the Japanese destroyers would pounce on the submarine in a very short period of time to attack the submarine.

What surprised Zhang Guangyang was not the Japanese destroyer, but the torpedo, when he moved his eyes to the periscope eyepiece, he had already seen the fire of the explosion and the huge "waves" and "flowers" that were "stirred" on the sea, and the bow of the transport ship was almost blown away, but according to Zhang Guangyang's calculations, there were still a few seconds before the first torpedo hit the target, and the distance between the battleship he was aiming at and the transport ship was too far away.

"Could it be a miscalculation? Or is there a problem with the periscope ruler? ”

Zhang Guangyang is a little strange, he trusts his computing power very much, as for the periscope, it was specially made by German technical experts in accordance with the special requirements of the Chinese Admiralty, and it has also undergone serious tests and actual combat tests, and the quality is definitely fine, so why did the torpedo hit the target in advance? And so far from the chosen target?

Just when Zhang Guangyang felt strange, a ball of fire and huge 'waves' and 'flowers' broke out on the sea, but it was only a minute and a half minutes. Zhang Guangyang had counted nine torpedo explosion points in the channel of the Japanese fleet, and even if all of his torpedoes hit the target, they would still have three more explosion points than the torpedoes he 'fired.'

"What's going on? Could it be that the Japanese fleet hit a mine? But how is it possible to lay mines here? …… Or, there is also a submarine lying in ambush nearby? ”

Zhang Guangyang immediately came to his senses that this time the ocean-going submarine force was ordered to attack Japan's coastal waters, and his "Shark" was only one of them, and there were also four "Shark-class" submarines and two ocean-going attack submarines imported from the United States operating in the coastal waters of Japan and the DPRK.

In fact, as early as two years ago, Zhang Guangyang and his comrades-in-arms practiced the "wolf pack at sea" tactic, which was used to deal with the fleet with escort fleets, but this time to attack the coastal waters of Japan, considering the insufficient number of ocean-going submarines, the General Staff did not specifically require the captains to use the "wolf pack at sea" tactics, so Zhang Guangyang was very surprised that there was actually a Chinese ocean-going submarine lurking near the "shark", because just last night, he also specially sent a coded telegram to the nearby sea area. Attempts were made to contact other submarines that might exist in the nearby waters and inform them to rush to Sasebo for a "dinner", but did not receive any callbacks.

"I don't know whose submarine is nearby? I'm afraid he was also frightened, I don't know how many torpedoes that guy put down? ”

Zhang Guangyang was a little surprised, but also a little proud, carefully counted the results, although a total of nine torpedoes hit the target, but some torpedoes hit the same target at the same time, so, a total of only six ships were mineed, including two warships, four transport ships, considering that Zhang Guangyang did not aim at the transport fleet at all, and his 'shooting' accuracy was not so bad, therefore, he thought that the captain who ambushed the Japanese fleet with him obviously focused his attack on those transport ships.

Although only six Japanese ships were hit by mines, this was enough, and this inadvertent "sea wolf pack" assault was destined to go down in history.