【2nd Update】

Before nightfall, in Pontianak Harbor, Deng Yun, Minister of National Defense, met with Major Li Weiguo, commander of the squadron and commander of the destroyer Jiujiang of the South China Navy, amid the rumbling of artillery outside the port.

1 destroyer, 3 torpedo boats, a total of 143 combative and bold young men, and 12 officers stood in front of Li Weiguo, their dark faces full of resolute and resolute expressions......

Li Weiguo naturally knows the difficulties of the night attack and the strength of the enemy, but it is the strength of the enemy that has inspired the high morale of himself and everyone here, from the day he joined the navy, everyone has the wild ideal of conquering the vast sea in their chests, and any enemy who blocks the Chinese nation from realizing the dream of a strong country will be crushed by his own fighting spirit, and his ultimate belonging should still be the dark and azure sea.

"Today, the British rely on their cannons to try to conquer the country we love by force, the robes of the North Bay Battery, with their blood and fighting spirit, have bankrupted the intentions of the British, and the robes of the Capital Brigade have defended our shores, and tonight, our sortie will make the British understand the courage of the Chinese Navy and the unimaginable will to fight...... Let's go! ”

After a brief order, Li Weiguo stood on the trestle and watched the officers and soldiers board the battleship one by one, and he jumped onto the destroyer Jiujiang and sailed out of Pontianak Port in the afterglow of the sunset.

In the downloaded bridge, Li Weiguo was already lying on the nautical chart with Zheng Hong, a surveying and mapping officer, where several routes had already been drawn. According to the intelligence of the battery observation post. The direction of the British navy's withdrawal before dusk was slightly southerly to the west. Therefore, Li Weiguo has analyzed the surrounding sea area before.

The Royal Navy fleet has observed more than 16 warships during the day today, all of which are large warships equipped with heavy artillery to participate in long-range shelling, and it is likely that there are more light cruisers and torpedo boats on the periphery to participate in the defense. The Royal Navy may currently have 2 destinations.

One is to anchor at night in the sea area between Pontianak and Bingang, this sea area has a huge space of more than 200 kilometers, but Tay Ho Island, a small island closest to Pontianak, is also more than 70 kilometers.

The inference of this criterion was not included in Li Weiguo's first choice, and any form of underestimating the opponent would be the most fatal mistake, and this was the basic principle that was derived from the most popular military deduction of the Nanyang Military Command College. His priority was for the British to move southwest. There is an intent to change the target of the attack...... At the same time, there is also the possibility of turning to attack Batavia, the capital of the island of Java.

"We came out 50 minutes later than them, and it stands to reason that the British Grand Fleet would not cruise at more than 8 knots, and they had a merchant fleet to resupply...... Unless, the main fleet of the British broke away from the merchant fleet and advanced alone...... Even then, we won't be able to handle the British convoy, and their sturdy-class, Orlando-class cruisers will pose a mortal threat to our small fleet......"

Zheng Hong held a steel ruler on the chart and calculated, night raids obviously could not follow and chase directly, any qualified naval commander would arrange enough vigilance on the tail of the fleet, although the Chinese navy's torpedo range has been fully strengthened, and the use of torsion gyroscopes makes torpedoes relatively stable at a speed of 30 knots to attack the enemy at a distance of 3,000 meters.

However, in the Navy's latest torpedo drill code, the torpedo boat attack is both threatening and stealthy, considering that this thing is aimed at the hands of the launcher completely reliby, so 1,000 meters is used as a regular training range, as for the ordinary night vision to attack, the enemy at a distance of 1,000 meters, unless the opponent is brightly lit, it is almost difficult to accurately locate.

"Ah Hong, we go around in such a big circle, will we not fire fast enough and miss the British fleet!" Li Weiguo is obviously most worried about this.

"Captain, this is already the best route for me, we can cruise with torpedo boats in tow, and we can run at least 13 knots, unless the British Grand Fleet can run a cruising speed of more than 12 knots, we will definitely be caught up by us in the first half of the night...... Of course, this is theoretical, this black light is blinding, and the moon is a shadow, although the entire fleet of the British can pull out more than ten or even twenty kilometers, but it is difficult to ensure that the lookout post misses the eye! ”

Zheng Hong's words, all the officers were sent to the lookout position on the battleship, obviously, Li Weiguo also agreed with his point of view, today is nearly a month and a half, if it is a sunny climate, it should be a situation when the moon is in the sky, but now it is really dark, I don't plan to come out in vain, any mistake is unforgivable!

Three hours later, when the night was already deep, a drizzle suddenly drifted on the sea, which made Li Weiguo, who was standing on the lookout, also quite angry, today's sea conditions were not good, the wind and waves were urgent, and the vision was greatly affected after the rain, he pondered for a while, and immediately decided to arrange six groups of officers to be equipped with good manpower, and each time three groups were on duty at the lookout, bow and stern lookout posts, and rotated once every hour to ensure the effect of the lookout all night.

In addition, it is to be hoped that the weather will better improve, in which case there may be a better chance of spotting the British in advance...... After the arrangements were made, Li Weiguo personally went to the basement boiler room and power machinery room to go around.

Wang Donghai, the young old mechanic, was climbing on the top of the steam turbine at this time, with a serious expression on his face, because of the consideration of the contact war, the engine and boiler room would have to run at full speed at that time, and now the six mechanic sergeants have all stayed in the almost deafening engine room, and they dare not be sloppy at all, as long as there is a little noise, they will immediately go to investigate, for fear that the chain will be dropped at that time.

The monotonous, neatly arranged crank transmission sound of huge engines on both sides of the mechanical room, a total of 80 pairs of steel transmission stems, transmits the huge kinetic energy emitted by the powerful HW-86 steam turbine to the large three-bladed propeller connected to the tail.

Just now Wang Donghai heard a strange friction sound of the steam turbine interval, which made him a little worried, the Jiujiang ship is not a new ship, it had participated in the Yellow Sea war against Russia earlier, but it had no chance to make meritorious service, but was hit by a 150mm Russian shell over the side chord and damaged the steam turbine at the stern, and then repaired at the Guangzhou Huangpu Shipyard and missed the battle behind, as a mechanic who grew up with the battleship, he was not willing to miss the opportunity to go out for the country again.

Wang Donghai climbed up and down and listened for a while, and finally found a small piece of black at the bottom of the second transmission shaft of the steam turbine just now...... He immediately realized that this was what he was looking for after almost half an hour...... The nearly 4,000 revolutions per minute of the conveyor shaft are not running at full speed, but it is virtually impossible to see anything on the shaft, let alone in this mechanical room full of neat "click-click" mechanical reciprocating motion.

He jumped off the pedal of the engine and was about to shout to the command tower, but when he turned his head, he saw Li Weiguo behind him, and he didn't care about explaining more, and immediately pulled him to the outside of the mechanical room as soon as he saluted, "Captain, I suggest that the left drive shaft be stopped immediately and the battleship cruise with a single shaft is driven, and I must confirm and deal with the wear of the left shaft!" ”

Li Weiguo raised his hand and saluted back, and couldn't help frowning, when is this, it's really unfortunate, the only thing I'm glad about is that he hasn't engaged in the battle yet, "Lao Wang, how long will it take to complete the overhaul?" ”

"It may take more than half an hour, depending on what is causing the friction point, and in the earliest case, the left drive shaft may only run at low speeds......"

"Mechanic, I order you to fix it at once, and give it to you...... 15 minutes! Li Weiguo patted Wang Donghai on the shoulder and nodded solemnly, from the captain to the stoker helpers on this battleship, they were all a collective in the same boat, and he was entrusting Wang Donghai with full authority for the arduous task.

Wang Donghai snapped back with a military salute, "Captain, make sure that you complete the task, you will definitely not drop the chain!" ”

Li Weiguo nodded with satisfaction, followed the mechanical chief into the noisy mechanical room, looked solemnly at each sergeant who was busy and nervous, then gave a military salute, patted Wang Donghai again, turned around and retreated!

At this moment, there was the sound of hurried footsteps on the stairs, and the two sergeants ran down with flashlights, and when they saw Li Weiguo from a distance, they immediately gestured and shouted in a suppressed voice: "Captain...... Emergency...... Emergency! ”

This immediately made Li Weiguo full of fighting spirit, he was afraid that he would not be able to touch the situation when he came out, it was really in vain, three steps and two steps rushed to the bridge, and he immediately saw that the observatory on the left side was already crowded with officers!

"What's the situation?" Li Donglai also asked in a deep voice.

Seeing Li Weiguo appear, several officers immediately moved out of the way, and the observer on the side immediately pointed to the position of the sea and sky, "Captain, look over there, there is a third-level light source...... Preliminary measurements have been made with a rangefinder, and the target point has not moved! ”

Li Weiguo sighed softly, it is actually very common to find bright light on the sea, but the Chinese army has also conducted a full study of the light source at sea, under normal circumstances, the light source produced by the warship at night is also very small, unless it is a normal cruise in peacetime, it will not exceed the first level of light source, and this three-level light source is already a very strong light source...... Or, it can only be made by a very large fleet...... (To be continued......)