Chapter 636: Under the Sea (Part I)

The army, navy, and air force are indispensable for modern national defense. Since the beginning of the 20 th century, the military technology of various countries has advanced by leaps and bounds, especially naval technology, which is changing with each passing day; in addition to the technological renewal of surface warships, the development of military technology under the surface of the water is even more jaw-dropping.

The concept of submarines, this kind of weapon is actually very "ancient", as early as the seventeenth century, there were studies of ships capable of sailing below the surface, but due to technical conditions, the prototype of the real submarine appeared at the end of the nineteenth century.

The inventor of the modern submarine was the Irish-American John Brown. Philip. Holland, who built the first "Holland submarine" for the U.S. Navy in 1897, had already built submarines, and from the very beginning, he designed submarines capable of firing torpedoes.

The development of submarines was not all smooth sailing, because the original use of gasoline engines as surface power engines, evaporated gasoline vapors filled the submarine's cabin, and a single spark could cause an explosion. This made piloting this underwater weapon a very risky job, and the range was very limited, and the 'sex' ability was mediocre, and it was only because of the Navy's interest in underwater attack tactics that the development of this underwater weapon was not interrupted.

After the improvement of the major naval powers, the submarine eventually became a relatively mature combat weapon, the naval powers have studied submarine manufacturing and tactics, in this arms race, the leading position of the Americans was soon surpassed by the French, the French shipyards first mass-produced ocean-going attack submarines, as for the French feud Germany, at first the reaction was sluggish, until the French submarine tactical thorn' It was only after the German Emperor that German shipyards began to imitate French submarines, and eventually came from behind, relying on strong national strength and advanced technology, as well as Germany's fanaticism for colonial expansion, German submarines finally became the technological leader.

As a weak naval country, China has focused on submarines from the very beginning, and under the planning of Zhao Bei, China has learned to manufacture submarines in a short period of time with Germany as a teacher, which is inseparable from Zhao Bei's strategic guidance, but it is even more inseparable from the technical help of German shipbuilding experts, without German technical experts and 'sophisticated' equipment, China will not become a country capable of assembling and manufacturing ocean-going attack submarines.

Of course, taking into account the needs of national strength as well as strategy. Chinese shipyards have not only built ocean-going submarines, but also many more near-shore defense submarines, which are suitable for operations in shallow waters due to their small displacement and small size, and the submarines that are now lurking beneath the surface of the Lushun mooring site are all such near-shore defense submarines.

In this "lightning plan," not only air force units but also naval units attacked Lushun and Dalian, and in addition to the speedboat units that carried out patrol missions in the Bohai Sea, the main naval forces involved in the attack were these submarine units.

Now lurking under the sea surface of the Port of Arthur there are a total of nine inshore defense submarines, of which there are two models, one is the "Sea Wolf class", which is China's own inshore submarines, a total of seven, and the other model is the "Sailor class", this kind of inshore submarine made by Austria-Hungary, it is actually an improved model of the American "Holland-class" submarine, China imported a total of five "Mariner-class" submarines from Austria-Hungary, and made necessary improvements to their power systems.

These submarines lurking at the entrance to the 'Gate' of the Second Squadron Base of the Japanese Combined Fleet actually arrived at their positions before the Air Force attacked, before dawn. These submarines are active on the surface of the sea, and after dawn they dive beneath the surface of the sea, sitting directly on the bottom of the sea, waiting for the end of the air force's operation.

According to the operational plan drawn up by the General Staff Headquarters, the Air Force will launch an attack on Lushun and Dalian at about 7 a.m., and the duration of the attack will not exceed 20 minutes, and the task of the submarine unit is to launch an attack on the Japanese warships in the harbor before and after the end of the air raid, in an effort to expand the results of the battle and its international influence, so that the Japanese Navy's fleet stationed in Lushun will lose its combat effectiveness.

Now, it was half past seven in the morning, and the submarine troops could make sorties.

……

The underwater displacement of the "Seawolf-class" submarine is less than 500 tons, and the same as the "Mariner-class", it is very suitable for activities in shallow seas, but because of the small number of torpedoes, it has higher requirements for the 'precision' accuracy of the attack, and the General Staff requires the commanders of the submarines to be sure that they do not miss a shot, one torpedo for a protective cruiser, two torpedoes for an armored cruiser, after all, the torpedoes equipped by the Navy are either sixteen-inch or eighteen-inch caliber, which is much larger and more powerful than the kind of "lobster" torpedoes of the Air Force. In the past, if a torpedo was a light warship, it was often a 'swap' ratio of one bomb and one ship.

As the captain of the "Sea Wolf", Rao Guoliang is now under a lot of pressure, it is not that he does not have the confidence to "exchange one bomb for one ship", he is just worried that there will not be enough prey for him to destroy, and he is worried that the air force has eliminated those several capital ships of the Japanese Navy. The Navy can only eat dried shrimp.

Rao Guoliang used to be an officer of the Sichuan New Army, and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Qin Bing was a comrade-in-arms, and they were also anti-Qing ** comrades of the League, when the "Wushen**" broke out and the Sichuan Uprising planned by the Sichuan League branch failed, he was also the same as Qin Bing, and left Sichuan with the cadres of the League and rushed to Wuhan Army, and has been staying in Xu Chongzhi's troops, until later the reorganization of the Fujian Army, Rao Guoliang was recommended by Xu Chongzhi to the Navy, participated in the first batch of submarine unit commander training courses, and successfully obtained a graduation certificate, after that, he became a submarine captain.

It is worth mentioning that Rao Guoliang was in the training class. Not only are they classmates with Zhang Guangyang, but the two are also good friends, and now, when Rao Guoliang is preparing to ambush a Japanese warship outside the mouth of Lushun, Zhang Guangyang is far away in the Pacific Ocean, and it is a pity that he cannot fight side by side with him.

In fact, in addition to regrets, Rao Guoliang is now somewhat jealous of Zhang Guangyang, because Zhang Guangyang is driving an ocean-going attack submarine, and compared with Rao Guoliang's "Sea Wolf", Zhang Guangyang's submarine is more powerful. Moreover, compared with Rao Guoliang's squatting in Lushun to ambush the Japanese warship, Zhang Guangyang's task was much more windy, and the order given by the General Staff to the ocean-going submarine unit was to "act cheaply."

With a good sentence of "acting cheaply", Rao Guoliang is fully convinced that with this "sword from above", Zhang Guangyang will definitely not take the destroyer in his eyes, and he will definitely go to look for "big prey".

It is no wonder that Rao Guoliang is jealous, because when he floated his submarine to the periscope depth, the first target he saw was a small destroyer, this kind of light warship with a displacement of less than a thousand tons is really unappetizing, Rao Guoliang, like everyone else, wants to fight large warships, such as heavy cruisers and battleships.

Rao's suspicions seemed to be confirmed, and after observing the sea surface with a periscope for several minutes, he did not find any Japanese warships in the outer mooring yard attacked by submarines, and apparently, the other captains were also looking for "more valuable targets".

Rao Guoliang turned his periscope to the narrow waterway in the inner and outer moorings, he thought it would be better to enter the inner moorings, but this would require avoiding the Japanese mine-laying areas near the waterways, and he would have to withdraw before his mine-laying submarines could mine there, he didn't know if other captains had made similar decisions before him, but he decided to give it a try now.

"Increase your speed to seven knots! Turn the rudder ×××! The No. 1 and No. 2 water tanks entered the water, and the submarine dived to five meters underwater! Put away the periscope! ”

Rao Guoliang issued a series of orders, aimed the bow of the submarine at the narrow channel connecting the inner and outer moorings, and then dived the submarine to a sufficient depth, he planned to dive directly into the inner mooring, but it was very dangerous to do so, because it could collide with the Japanese warship on the surface at any time, in order to be on the safe side, Rao Guoliang ordered the watertight cabin 'door' in the bow to be closed, and let the sailors in the front compartment concentrate in the command cabin.

In the closed command cabin, Rao Guoliang held a chronograph, carefully calculated the time, and estimated the time to arrive at the inner parking lot.

The air inside the boat was already very muddy, and the smell of engine oil and diesel made the breathing of all the crew very heavy, but no one spoke. They all looked at the chronograph in the captain's hand, looking forward to the time of battle.

"This is it! Slow down to two knots! Tanks No. 1 and No. 2 drain and float to periscope depth! The sailors got into the front compartment and prepared the torpedoes! ”

The periscope was quickly raised, and Rao Guoliang took off his navy soft hat and looked into the military port through the periscope.

The military port was already full of devastation, and Rao Guoliang was a little disappointed looking at the staggering Japanese warships, but his disappointment quickly disappeared, because he saw a large warship staggering towards the waterway.

It was the Japanese Navy armored cruiser "Asami", judging from the seriously damaged hull superstructure, this armored cruiser obviously ate a few aerial bombs of the Air Force, and the hull was tilted to the side a few degrees, it seems that it was also torpedoed below the waterline, now looking at the direction of this warship, maybe it intends to leave this dangerous sea area, and may even want to return to Japan for repairs.

"Haha! There is nowhere to find the iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get it! Bumped into Lao Tzu, count you kid unlucky! …… Attention all, get ready to fight! Torpedo crews load torpedoes! The azimuth is ×××, the rotation angle is ×××! Load the torpedo! ”

Rao Guoliang was so excited that he hurriedly ordered the torpedo to be loaded and prepared for battle.

For a moment, everyone in the submarine held their breath and listened to the sound of torpedo loading coming from the forward cabin, and they all understood that once this torpedo was 'fired', today's trade would be officially opened.