After flying forward for a long time, surrounded by the vast sea, the fuel meter showed that there was not much fuel.

Yang Mingyun's heart was anxious, and the wound on his waist became more and more painful, probably due to blood loss, he felt a burst of Venus in front of him, and his hands trembled.

As soon as the sea breeze picks up, the clouds and fog on the sea surface begin to increase, and visibility drops sharply.

At this moment, in the distant clouds, a fighter suddenly appeared.

Yang Mingyun immediately recognized that it was a "Gale" fighter of the Navy, and he couldn't help but secretly complain in his heart.

Although the helicopter he was flying did not have any markings, it was an authentic Chinese-made "Sparrow" plane, and it was unlikely that the plane would not attack it when it saw it.

Yang Mingyun shook his head, took a deep breath, and began to reduce his altitude, wanting to use ultra-low altitude flight to avoid the Yuben fighter, but at this time, the "gale" had already spotted him and immediately swooped towards him.

It was said that the fighter fired, Yang Mingyun tried his best to dodge the helicopter, but to no avail, and soon the helicopter began to burn, Yang Mingyun opened the hatch without hesitation and jumped down.

The moment he fell into the water, there was a loud bang overhead, and the helicopter exploded.

Yang Mingyun was struggling to swim in the water, while dodging the debris falling overhead, he raised his head and saw that the "gale" made a big circle in the air, and swooped over again, as if to shoot at himself who had fallen into the water.

"Bastard!" Yang Mingyun scolded with some despair.

At this moment, a series of red lights suddenly shot out in the distance, and the "gale" was instantly surrounded by black smoke balls.

Yang Mingyun glanced around and saw the figure of an aircraft carrier emitting smoke, followed by several destroyers. The artillery fire that attacked the "Gale" was fired from the two destroyers.

Seeing the red and blue "human" flags fluttering on aircraft carriers and destroyers, Yang Mingyun, who had always been cynical, suddenly felt an inexplicable cordiality, and even had a feeling of wanting to shed tears.

The "Gale" flew too low because of the attack on Yang Mingyun's helicopter, and just fell into the fire of the Chinese destroyer, it rushed left and right to fly away, but it was never able to break through the fire net, and soon it was hit by an anti-aircraft shell and exploded, turning into burning fragments and falling into the sea.

Soon, a small boat sailed over, and the Chinese sailors above rescued Yang Mingyun.

Yang Mingyun explained his identity to the sailors, and he was rescued on the aircraft carrier, the Chinese Navy's "Tiger Hill" aircraft carrier. The ship's doctor treated his wound and told him good news. A sailor brought him a hot meal, and Yang Mingyun, who had been hungry for a long time, devoured it.

After eating, the strong Yang Mingyun quickly regained his strength. Instead of resting in bed like the other wounded, he wandered around the aircraft carrier.

Only after this visit did he realize that the aircraft carrier had been seriously injured by the attack of the Japanese army.

Yang Mingyun went to the anti-aircraft gun deck and took a turn. The front left gun position where a heavy bomb fell was miserable, but to Yang Mingyun's surprise, the surviving gunners were still there indulging in the anti-aircraft guns. On the port side in the middle of the ship was a gun mount protruding outboard with a hinch on top of it a triple 25-mm gun. Although the other gun emplacements still protruded outboard, Yang Mingjun found that this gun emplacement had been heavily advanced. Later, Yang Mingjun learned that when the twelve gunners there were firing their guns, a bomb swept past the platform and landed in the sea below, and the air waves suddenly pushed the heavy gun mount forward, and the gunners were thrown onto the deck. As soon as they stood up, they moved the detachable guns and shells to another place, and went into battle again, but the gun mounts were deformed and could no longer protrude outboard.

At the 120-mm gun emplacements, the gunners were still holding their posts, preparing for a possible attack by the enemy in the evening. They were killed and wounded by strafing from enemy aircraft and by bomb fragments. They told Yang Mingjun that a gunner was busy loading 120-millimeter shells from the loaf machine into the automatic fuse loader when a wave of torpedo planes flew over with machine gun fire. The gunner kept working, and then picked up two shells from the loafer and put them into the loader, and suddenly fell headlong and died. He had been shot a few minutes earlier, but until he fell, he remained at his post.

A destroyer picked up the seriously wounded on the starboard side. Yang Mingjun found that the gunners were busy unloading the barrels and magazines of the 20mm guns (these barrels could be replaced after they were red). They knew that the destroyer also had this type of small-caliber gun, so the barrel was removed so that it would not sink with the warship and cause waste.

The fire on the aircraft carrier has burned to the place where the 127-mm shells are stored, and in order to prevent them from exploding on the ship, the gunners are throwing the shells into the sea.

Yang Mingjun returned to the flight deck and happened to meet the commander of the fighter squadron, Admiral Li Yuxi. He was surrounded by a group of pilots, mechanics, gunners, and flight attendants of his squadron. He was talking to them about the fate of the war, as in a classroom, but the deck beneath their feet had been attacked by the flames. A mechanic came up and reported that he had just fitted the major's plane with a new hand pump. Li Yuxi said wittily: "Thank you, this must have taken you a lot of time." ”

The man replied, "Yes." I picked out a new one from the stock and it took me a long time to put it up. The fire down there was frighteningly large. ”

Li Yuxi smiled and continued. He said to the people who were sitting or standing next to him: "Our squadron has participated in many battles and has not lost a single soldier so far, while we have dealt a heavy blow to the enemy. This is thanks to our maintenance personnel, as there has never been any mechanical failure in the fight against the enemy. We were united and covered each other when attacked, and that's why we won. ”

The pilots stayed under the wings in twos and threes, most of which bore bullet marks from today's battle. Someone shouted at them, "Who wants ice cream?" Here's what it is. "It was a few lively young men who remembered that the ice cream from the ship's snack bar was about to arrive at the Sea Dragon King's palace, so they ran down and brought up some large buckets, and also took paper cups and wooden spoons.

Ice cream is popular because the drinking water insulated bucket (drinking fountain) has been dry since 1 a.m. Standing on the hot flight deck, the ice cream is really cool and delicious. Especially after breakfast, people haven't really eaten a meal yet. At lunchtime, everyone was on the battlefield, and the chef made sandwiches and coffee with apples, and everyone passed on to eat, and now most of them were hungry.

Yang Mingyun stayed with Li Yuxi for a while, eating ice cream and listening to his jokes about flying his plane with the pilots. There was a strange problem with this plane, the firing coordinator that controlled a front gun was not working, and as a result, Li Yuxi punched a lot of holes in the propeller. The maintenance crew did their best to repair it, because a new propeller had to be destroyed each time, and the propeller could not grow like a mushroom. In the end, they replaced the coordinator, checked the electrical system, and even changed the engine last night.

This morning, the plane was piloted by Captain Ba Tiancheng. Before the plane lifted off, the ground crew leader reminded the pilot that the last propeller of this type on board had been installed on the plane. A few hours later, he was back on the aircraft carrier, the engine stopped, the ground crew was disappointed, and there were holes in the propellers. Ba Tiancheng said that he intercepted a torpedo plane and only thought about the problem with the artillery after aiming. He hesitated, but pressed the shot button anyway. There was another vibration like usual when shooting. This time he didn't care. It was said that the plane was hit and caught fire and fell. He estimated that the plane had been shot down by artillery shells and some propeller fragments.

Some pilots took out their little yellow rubber boats and gave them to the mechanics who were sliding down the rope into the sea. This kind of dinghy is more than enough to carry one person, and it is impossible to get wet on the feet of several people. A ground crew leader of the fighter squadron stepped into a small rubber boat and began rowing. He had a flare gun around his waist and his hat slanted over his head. Squadron Leader Qi Wenhao whistled at him, he rowed back and asked, "What's the matter, Squadron Leader?" ”

Qi Wenhao said: "It's okay. I just want to say that you look very good, and it's only 400 nautical miles. ”

Naval Commander Rong Keding came over and said to Yang Mingyun: "I said, you have already written a report for the newspaper, right?" (Yang told them he was a war correspondent.) Yang Mingjun replied, "It's written." But you haven't done anything for me. ”

"There's something you can report. In the last hour, we rode the Tiger Hill as if back to ancient times, with the rudder, communications, electric compass, and autopilot all out of order, and back to the era of using magnetic compasses, artificial rudders, and verbal communication of passwords. He said and smiled.

Admiral Jun Keding told Yang Mingyun that it was a recruit who reported the torpedo that hit first. The young man called the damage control service department and said that a torpedo had exploded a large hole in the waterline of his cabin, most of which was above the waterline.

"Why don't you plug it up?" An emotional sergeant major said.

The young man replied, "The hole is too big for me to plug." A cruiser can be seen from the cave. ”

"Then close the watertight door and leave it alone." The sergeant major admonished him.

There weren't a lot of people left on the flight deck. Leaving is Captain Qu Wentai. He slid from a flight deck more than ten meters high into the sea and swam out for 100 meters. Later, Yang Mingyun saw him turn around and swim back, and after a while, he climbed up along a rope.

"Why are you back?" One of the pilots asked.

"Oh, I'm a little lonely there, I don't know a single person there. When are you coming? He replied.

No one was in a hurry to leave the ship. Later, Yang Mingjun learned by name that 92 percent of the personnel on the ship had been saved. After listening to the report, Captain Yang Baiyu found that only eight percent of the personnel were missing. These men must have died in air combat, bombing, and torpedo attacks, but also in extinguishing fires and exploding inside ships. The captain was sure that all those who were alive at the time of the order to abandon the ship were saved.

Yang Mingyun and Rear Admiral Ai Xiaolei, the flight officer on the ship, finally walked around the flight deck and ran into Rear Admiral Bai Leshan, who looked a little worried.

Earlier that day, when he attacked him for landing on his return, the captain had scolded him for not shaving his face. Now he has a longer beard.

"Why haven't you shaved yet?" Major Ai Xiaolei asked.

He replied, "Oh, I don't have anything to scrape." That bomb blew up all my cabins. To make matters worse, the manuscript I showed you that night was burned. Two years of hard work were in vain. ”

He said that, as far as he knew, all of his men had left the ship and that he was ready to leave. People thought it was a good idea, so Yang Mingyun and Ai Xiaolei found a place behind starboard until a cruiser parked there sent a motorboat.

Yang Mingyun picked a rope with a big knot on his head and carefully slid it down. Ai Xiaolei was a little careless, he didn't hold the rope tightly, brushed the ground and slid into the water, his palm was hot, and one leg was broken.

Yang Mingjun climbed onto a raft and later on a motorboat. The motorboat also towed several life rafts full of people to the cruiser, and all of them got on board. Yang Mingyun stayed on the motorboat and went to fish for others with the helmsman.

This time the pilots drove to the port side of the "Tiger Hill", where some people had been swimming in the water for a long time. Those who were on the raft would be safe as long as Yang Mingyun drove to them, but some of them were almost exhausted, and if they didn't get them on the ship as soon as possible, they would also be in trouble.

The motorboat whirred past the stern of the "Tiger Hill" without towing the raft. The helmsman slammed the engine and rudder, and Yang Mingjun dragged the swimmer to the boat. The first person pulled up was Captain Lin Yudan, the meteorological officer of the warship. He wears only a shirt and is an expert swimmer. Yang Mingyun greeted him with a smile: "It's not like this when you go home, isn't it?" ”

"It's the easiest time to feel homesick." He laughs.

The pilots kept scooping up the crew from the water, and by the time they got to the side of Second Lieutenant Shanford of the 2nd Reconnaissance Squadron, they had already picked up almost 60 people. He was swimming sideways, holding a water bottle in one hand (Yang Mingjun later found the bottle empty) and listening to 50 cigarettes.

"Catch it, you fools." He said, holding up his hand.

Yang Mingyun took them and threw them to the people who had been rescued behind him, many of whom were lying on the board of the boat trying to cough up the seawater in their lungs. With a turn of his face, Shanford was already on board. He found a cigarette, held one in his mouth, patted Yang Mingyun on the back and said, "Is there a match?" "Yang Mingyun said no." Who has matches? He asked, turning around.

When Yang Mingyun returned to the cruiser, he passed by the stern of the "Tiger Hill" again, when it exploded violently, blowing away the flight deck in the middle of the warship and causing a large fire. Almost at the same time, the fire flashed, the bomb exploded, the warship shook violently, and black billowing smoke rose into the sky. Fragments of the deck and steel plates rained down on the surface of the sea in a radius of several hundred meters, threatening all those in the water and in the dinghy.

Later, Yang Mingjun learned that Lieutenant Commander Lin Zun and Rear Admiral Yang Baiyu were sliding down the rope from the "Tiger Hill" at that time, but they were shocked by the explosion on the ship and let go of their hands, and both of them fell into the sea.

Just a few minutes later, the back of the flight deck was blown up again. As soon as the torpedo's head exploded, the plane was washed into the sea. At this time, Rear Admiral Yang Baiyu and Lieutenant Commander Lin Zun swam to a motorboat and then transferred to a cruiser (which was already crowded with more than 800 survivors of the "Tiger Hill"). They were the last to leave the Tiger Hill, and had just finished their final inspection to see if all the crew had left the ship.

Lin Zun later told Yang Mingyun about the incident: "We walked towards the stern of the ship, and I urged the captain to hurry up, because I knew that those bombs should have exploded a long time ago. As if he was thinking something, he suddenly stopped, told me to wait, and ran towards the superstructure. I saw him run into the combat quarters, and when he came out a little later, he had a No. 1 hat on his head, the newest and heaviest hat with gold trim. ”

"As we walked to the side, he smiled and said, 'I heard that there will be no Phnom Penh after the war.' I don't want to replace it with that calico hat. I think it's better to keep the best stuff. ’”

Lin Zun said that when they came to the stern, the captain ordered him to slide down first. He found a rope to slide down, but Rear Admiral Yang Baiyu stood on it, staring thoughtfully back at the smoke-billowing warship.

"Hurry up, Captain. Don't wait. Lin Zun urged him. Rear Admiral Yang Baiyu looked down at him and said slowly, "I'm thinking...... I left the warship, and if the fire goes out, wouldn't I be too stupid? ”

It can be said that the sea water is hot now. The automatic water temperature gauge of the Tiger Hill is 32 degrees Celsius, which is only a few degrees Celsius lower than the temperature of the blood. In addition, sharks of all sizes swim between the reefs and follow ships across the Coral Sea.

The watchpost of the "Tiger Hill" constantly searched the nearby sea surface, and every rolling white wave could be suspected of being the track of the submarine's periscope. In the days leading up to the final battle, they had seen thousands of sharks, so everyone feared that if they did abandon the ship one day, those sharks would be a big scourge.

"If we swim in this sea, we're going to have to be eaten by sharks." Deck crews always say this with certainty when they are idle and chatting on the flight deck (the Navy calls it "braggart"). However, when this time really came, when the "Tiger Hill" abandoned the ship, thousands of people did not see a single shark. Neither on the flight deck nor on the lookout posts of the ambulances, the keen eyes did not see a single fin or the flickering tail that was exposed.

(To be continued)