【3rd Update】

After the reorganization of the Chinese Navy last year, the main ships were basically included in the Pacific Fleet, and although the South China Squadron was famous in the South Seas, after Xu Shoushan brought Dayu and Chiyou into the main fleet, the South China Fleet has become a veritable native fleet, and the focus is naturally on the cultivation of new naval personnel.

Of course, the naval tradition of abusing the Dutch fleet in those days was not lost at all, although this time it was only the Jiujiang ship and three 350-ton Stinger-class offshore torpedo boats built by the Whampoa Shipyard, but this heroic fighting spirit is still extremely strong!

Speaking of the Stinger-class torpedo boats that are tied to the tail of the Jiujiang ship today, we have to mention the Huangpu Shipyard in Guangzhou, which is now the latest of the four major shipyards in China.

Although the Whampoa Shipyard was not initially included in the ranks of the military industry, it was also a Nanyang lineage, so there was an opportunity to recruit many students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Nanyang University, and the original director of the Whampoa Shipyard was also an old man with a horsetail, and now it can be said that Li Hexing, the apprentice of Xu Guofang, the chief minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, has achieved fame.

As a result, Li Hexing also made full use of Xu Guofang's reputation in the military industrial system, and even took out the "Stinger" class torpedo boat developed by the shipyard itself to sell, this kind of steel-hulled torpedo boat that cost less than 300,000 South Ocean, although the tonnage is only 350 tons. But it is possible to configure 6 torpedoes and fire 3 at the same time. It adopts two 86 water-tube boilers and three-expansion steam engines. It can provide a strong power of 2400 horsepower, and can easily run at a speed of 26 knots.

Although this type of torpedo boat is good in all aspects, it has some short legs in the range, and the seaworthiness is really not good, and the 11th person of the whole ship is crammed into a space of less than 5 square meters. Subsequently, this type of torpedo boat received an order for 10 ships, and after it was delivered two years ago, all of them were sent to overseas bases as military ports.

In fact, the Stinger torpedo boat is already the last type received by the Pacific Fleet, and this type of ship is about to be completely eliminated in the entire Chinese naval establishment, especially after the emergence of the 1,200-ton Kunlun-class destroyer, but in the South China Detachment, the Stinger torpedo boat has taken on an important task tonight.

Under Li Weiguo's order, the D1 torpedo boat has quickly completed pressurization. After determining the bearing, he sped away...... Time flew by, and I waited for nearly 20 minutes. Second Lieutenant Cai of the D1 torpedo boat actually brought back a few living people, which surprised everyone.

The light source in the distance turned out to be not the British fleet that the detachment had been looking for for a long time, but ...... The reconnaissance brought extremely important news, the fire came from two private merchant ships of the South China Pontianak Trading House, 40 minutes earlier, they had the bad luck to pass by the British Grand Fleet, only to be sunk by the British cruisers chasing by the lights, and these few surviving sailors brought the news that the British fleet was not sailing south, but turned north.

This is extremely important information, Zheng Hong completed the calibration of the British Grand Fleet almost instantly, but after seeing this somewhat strange course, the surveying officer couldn't help but wonder, "Captain, are the British not dead yet, and are still preparing to attack our batteries?"

On the charts, the huge British fleet left Pontianak and headed southwest in a straight line, where it turned 90 degrees straight in the direction of Puran...... Of course, their destination will not be the island of Puran, which has only a few bare hills......

Li Weiguo looked at his pocket watch, picked up a pencil and surveyed it on the chart, and he and Zheng Hong immediately reached a consensus that the fleet entered a state of combat readiness, and the three torpedo boats that had originally relied on the Jiujiang ship to tow them in order to reduce the power burden also immediately launched a horizontal formation, opened up to a distance of more than 4 kilometers, and quickly turned to accelerate and sailed in the direction of north-northwest.

When the hour hand of Li Weiguo's pocket watch pointed to 11 o'clock at night, the D3 torpedo boat on the far left suddenly turned sharply, and it was nearly five minutes before it sent a brief light signal in the direction of the flagship Jiujiang...... Spot the enemy! It turned out that the continuous heavy rain at sea seriously affected the field of vision of sea detection, and before that, on the D3 torpedo boat, at the moment of lightning in the distance, it was suddenly found that there was a huge battleship sailing quietly on the sponge less than five kilometers on the right side, and at that moment, the rice flag fluttering on the stern of the British battleship was also immediately recognized.

So the D3 torpedo boat almost immediately turned its bow and sailed away from the other party, God knows if the lightning from the sky just now revealed itself, and in the end, the god of luck obviously favored Li Weiguo, the other party obviously did not notice the small torpedo boat that suddenly appeared in the southwest direction of the stern, at 11:15, the D1 torpedo boat reconnoitred again, confirming that in the darkness close at hand, the Royal Navy Grand Fleet was slowly sailing by, and the periphery even observed the vigilant fleet with searchlights.

At 11:20 a.m., the regrouped squadron under the jurisdiction of the Jiujiang ship had gathered to the sea area of 1.07 north latitude and 107.3 east longitude, and in the distance, Major Li Weiguo called the officers of the three torpedo boats to the battleship......

"The enemy's strength is far superior to ours, and our only advantage is speed!" Li Weiguo glanced at a few officers, after tonight's battle, no one knew if Lu Dao would have a chance to reunite, "If it is not for the enemy ships to open fire, absolutely do not take the lead in firing, you find the target and immediately fire the torpedo, no need to confirm the result, immediately evacuate in the direction of Pulan Island, encounter the pursuit of British warships, after circumnavigating Pulan Island, evacuate to Benua in the north...... Our Grand Fleet is in that direction, and you will get support! ”

"Major, in what way do we launch a raid? Is it a horizontal team impact? ”

"The Jiujiang ship is leading, and we will take advantage of the darkness to approach in columns...... The horizontal team target is too big, once you enter the combat distance, immediately look for the target and launch an attack! Li Weiguo stretched out his hand and pointed to the illusory location of the British fleet on the map, and ordered this almost audacious way of fighting.

"Yes!"

In the deep night, the four battleships quickly approached the British battleship group in the distance at full speed. The first series of Jiujiang ships. Major Li Weiguo had already run to the cockpit. At this moment, this is the heart of the battle...... The oncoming wind and rain could not extinguish the boiling will to fight in his heart, and at this moment, the bigger and bigger waves made the ups and downs of the battleship more intense, but this made him even more excited.

Our journey is a vast sea...... This is already the motto of every Chinese naval soldier and officer, and at this moment. This kind of passionate feeling of chopping waves and thorns is still so unforgettable, enough to make him pay all for it...... Including the most precious lives.

"Captain, 30 degrees ...... right front," the second officer pointed forward and shouted loudly at Li Weiguo.

In the dense wind and rain, with a lightning bolt, a stage of Victorian painted battleships suddenly revealed a huge hull, and the huge naval guns covered with gun vests on the bow made Li Weiguo, who was observing closely, very excited...... "Report the torpedo situation!" ”

"Torpedo No. 1 ready!"

"Torpedo No. 2 is ready for ...... Complete! "The microphone came with a response from the launch position of the 2 Chamber.

"The bow is deflected 30 degrees...... Ranging! Li Weiguo gave the order loudly, at this moment, he was a stealth killer with a stinger. And the enemy will eventually fall under his own fatal blow!

The sharply turning rudder immediately caused the Jiujiang ship to deflect sharply laterally on the crest of the big wave. And at this moment, another lightning bolt came unexpectedly, and suddenly illuminated the entire sea area as if it were day, and the posture of the Jiujiang ship standing on the cusp of the storm was ...... The long bow of the ship, which was completely different from the British battleship, and the red battle flag on the high bridge immediately attracted more attention!

Woowoowoo...... Whining......

In the distance, on the target that Li Weiguo had just chosen, the British officer who was serving as a lookout post had obviously spotted the unusual Jiujiang ship, and in an instant, a terrifying alarm sounded, and a lot of lights were lit up on the battleship at once, and panicked British officers and soldiers appeared.

"Suppress the direction, leave the British, they have to fight back, at least a few minutes...... How much distance! Li Weiguo shouted loudly.

"Less than 800 meters ......" next to an officer who had already arrived in time.

"Torpedo No. 1 prepares...... Countdown...... 5…… 4,3,2,1......" Li Weiguo yelled and made a one-size-fits-all jewelry, "Launch!" ”

The hull of the ship shook violently, and there was a sound like a bang, and a 480mm88 torpedo was sprayed out by high-pressure gas at a speed of nearly 40 knots, and the thermal energy engine at the tail end was also launched in an instant, and in the dark night, it rushed straight to the enemy ship in the distance.

Rumble...... Rumble......

At this time, two shells had already flown in from a distance, and they landed far in front of the Changsha ship, but this obviously did not have any effect of hindering.

"No. 2 ready ...... Launch! Less than five seconds after the first torpedo, the Jiujiang ship, which was holding on to the enemy, fired the second torpedo again, and at this moment, it was less than 500 meters away from the enemy ship, and a series of fierce artillery fire had already erupted from the frontal ground of the enemy's sidestring gun position.

In an instant, the commander tower of the Changsha ship shook violently, and Li Weiguo suddenly felt that his body flew up as light as a swallow and crashed into his favorite nautical chart mapping table, and a large ball of flames suddenly rushed into the bridge......

The first mate almost didn't need Li Weiguo to give an order, it was already full of rudder and turned sharply, and the Jiujiang ship almost reversed in all directions with a tilt of more than 45 degrees in the big waves, and at this moment, a series of shells still swept past the battleship and flew into the dark sea behind him.

"Full throttle...... Distance! After Li Weiguo shouted the order, the people had already rushed to the observation position on the right and looked in the direction of the enemy ship, which was already very blurred in the dark night.

Zheng Hong pinched his pocket watch and muttered loudly...... 6…… 5…… 4…… 3…… 2…… 1……

Everyone's eyes turned to the darkness in the distance, but the surprising explosion did not sound as expected, and the color of disappointment inevitably immediately appeared on everyone's faces, Li Weiguo was naturally very annoyed, and the torpedoes launched from a distance of 600 meters and less than 500 meters respectively did not hit...... This is definitely a big disappointment!

However, he can also list a bunch of reasons for this at once, and today's unstable sea is undoubtedly the biggest factor...... But now come back to the shot...... In that case, the danger will definitely increase several times over!

Rumble...... Boom......

At this moment, on the sea that was close at hand, suddenly several skyrocketing fires rose into the sky, although it was under the storm, but it was still extraordinarily clear, and the black smoke in the explosion and the large cargo did not weaken at all because of the heavy rain, and the strong light of the next successive explosions once again made the black curtain on the entire sea surface dissipate at once!

Li Weiguo was lying on the floor of the bridge, and when he looked up, he saw several British battleships rushing out from behind the flanks of the concentrated battleships from the blasting flames that rushed into the sky...... It is clear that the British did not line up in a single column, but in a double column...... This made him immediately depressed again, and he had already shot a few more into the darkness when he knew that he was in the dark, regardless of whether he was hit or not! (To be continued......)