Chapter 49: Embarkation
A nineteenth-century protective cruiser like the Swallow, if LĂź Liang was willing to receive it after the surrender, then it would have been necessary to have a certain number of sailors, and the number of sailors now is already insufficient. In addition, the second Cleveland-class is about to be launched, and the next surface and underwater ships owned by the Navy are all warships of the same era and World War II level, and the Navy does not win only by quantity. The most important thing is that if Huizhou uses the Swallow, it will be easy to be noticed by the outside world, and at this stage, Lu Liang does not have the strength to compete with the great powers.
It was not difficult for Lu Ming to sink a battleship that had already surrendered, and in the indoctrination and exposure of the instructors, including in the usual cultural studies, he knew that the great powers were the source of evil, and only by completely defeating them would his nation and country have a bright future. Judging from the telegram, the actions of the coalition forces did not regard their own citizens as human beings at all, so why should they be soft-hearted?
The fleeing crew of the Annoah were terrified, they knew what had happened, the devil's battleship did not even let go of the surrender, even the obnoxious Germans, which made them feel sad that they were dead and dead. They desperately tried to get out of here, but the Annoah was so badly damaged that it was traveling at a maximum speed of less than 5 knots, and the hull was constantly flooding, and the speed was slowing down. Finally, seawater soaked into the power compartment, and the battleship was completely paralyzed. The surviving crew of more than 100 people gathered on the deck in the smoke of gunpowder, and when they saw the Swallow constantly exploding, they immediately panicked, and they could not surrender, so they had to abandon ship and escape.
The Swallow's waterline armor was hit and bombarded, and it soon sank in a sea of water. Like a massacre, the Anoah, powerless to resist, soon followed.
"Send a telegram to inquire about the situation on the Luzon side, and we will rush over to support as soon as possible, and send another telegram to the chief to report on the situation of the naval battle." Lu Haidao.
"Great! Tell Lu Hai to make sure that none of the coalition sailors escape. Also, tell Luzon that four more submarine mining vehicles have rushed to support and should now arrive. "Lu Liang was overjoyed after receiving the telegram, the escort warships are gone, and those transport ships are like fish in a pot, we are done!
After the two warships pursued the enemy, the convoy continued to advance, and according to the plan made in advance, they would wait for the convoy to meet at the nearest port, that is, the port of Keelung, Taiwan. The sinking of the destroyer to the bottom of the sea made the captain of the fleet, Samuel, uneasy, and he ordered the sailors to roll out the guns, prepare guns and ammunition, and could not rule out the possibility that the enemy would be diverted from the mountain. These transports were equipped with guns at the time of departure, and each ship had no more than two 35mm field guns, and thirty sailors could act as musketeers, which was no problem against ordinary pirates.
Their threat was not from pirates, as four other mining vehicles sent by Gereliang under the sea converged with Luzon and prepared for action after communicating with light signals. The four mining vans were not loaded with soldiers, but were used to load and unload cargo on transport ships. The two escort battleships had been away for half an hour and were now able to surface.
Jackson was leaning on the side of the ship with his gun in his arms, and there was too much fuss on it, a fleet of this size, and it was an armed merchant ship equipped with artillery, how could any pirate not open his eyes? This is not the era of sailing a hundred years ago, because if a merchant ship runs slowly, it will be overtaken by pirates, this is a steam sailing ship!
"Hey, Jackson, look, there's a whale coming out for a breath." A crew member pointed to the sea and said to Jackson.
Jackson glanced at it, and he was a little puzzled, this is not what the whale looks like when it comes out of the sea. "Hyde, are you stupid, we don't see many whales, this situation is definitely not a whale. God, is it a Norwegian sea monster? Jackson suddenly shouted, and the churning of the water grew louder and louder, and then a swarthy figure emerged from the middle of the fleet, followed by another. The figure is getting bigger and bigger, attracting the attention of everyone in the fleet, what is that? The surface glows the color of steel, and its structure and curves are supposed to be the work of a human, and each one has five large boxes hanging from it.
Samuel is also not easy to decide, is these two things friend or foe? Monster or submarine? Could it be the "Nautilus" in Verne's novel? These two behemoths did not have the appearance of submarines at all, which was indescribably strange, and each of them was about twice the size of the transport ship, blocking the view of the crew between the transport fleet!
I saw that the huge boxes hanging on the sides of the mining truck, which happened to float on the surface of the sea, suddenly opened automatically, revealing a strange kind of dinghy. This is a mechanized landing craft specially built by the steel base for this operation, and the template is the LCM (3) type used by the US military during the Normandy landing. The 200 special operators were divided into 10 landing craft, each aimed at a transport ship, carrying about 20 special combat personnel, and two 12 and 7 mm Browning heavy machine guns on the landing craft to provide fire support. After the box was opened, the landing craft quickly started and headed for the transports on both sides, respectively.
Even if the crew is sluggish, they know that the comer is not good, the musketeers quickly aim and shoot, now is not the age of sails, the firepower is weak, and the guns and artillery on the transport ships are not comparable to a hundred years ago, what Norwegian sea monsters, giant octopuses are not a problem. The gunners also quickly adjusted their muzzles, ready to bombard the fast-moving strange ships. Sporadic bullets hit the landing craft, and the team members crouched in the landing craft, and the bullets either flew over or clanged into the hull. This mechanical landing craft has high-elastic steel protection on both sides, and the protection of the driver's seat even reaches 8 mm, which is simply impenetrable to bullets.
"Tengten!" The heavy machine guns on the landing craft were aimed at the gunners on the side of the transport ship and opened heavy fire, and some team members stood up with iron fist bazookas and aimed at the deck of the transport ship from the side of the landing craft, "Boom! "A rocket flew over the deck, and the landing craft was too jolty for the crew to hit accurately. But the Browning heavy machine gun got the job done, and the 12 or 7 mm bullets cut off the unobstructed gunner's waist, and even penetrated the hull of the ship, breaking one of the masts, perfectly blocking the ship's fire.
"Fall back and find cover to prevent enemy landing!" Samuel shouted, ducking his head back into the cabin of the transport ship, the deck was already riddled with bullet holes, and those bullets were so powerful that even the steel mast could break them, let alone people. It was only a short time, and the crew members gathered on the side had already suffered heavy losses, and less than twenty people had returned. Looking at the trembling crew, Samuel had a headache, they were not professional soldiers, and even real soldiers would collapse when they encountered such an incredible thing. What to do? Their purpose must be the cargo in the cabin, Samuel scolded fiercely, this kind of thing happened before leaving the coast of Qing Kingdom, there must be internal ghosts!
The landing craft smoothly leaned to the side of the transport ship, "Cover boarding, quick!" Luzon also participated in the ship-grabbing battle with the special combat troops, and he was afraid for a while after playing a beach-grabbing landing, he didn't expect that there would be artillery on the transport ship! Fortunately, it was suppressed by heavy machine guns, otherwise it would have caused damage to the landing craft.
"Whoosh!" A bullet flew over Luzon's head, and he immediately lowered his head, and then fired indiscriminately with a submachine gun in one hand, and taking advantage of this opportunity, another member of the team immediately climbed up, jumped onto the deck, and opened fire. The crew, who were hiding behind cover, were suppressed by Luzon fire and did not open fire, and it was good that they could resist.
Soon, more and more members of the team boarded the transport ship and began to make a detour to both sides. The situation was different on each transport ship, with the crews of five ships surrendering at the first time and being controlled by the special operations teams, and the crews of five transports still organizing a revolt but were quickly suppressed.
"Get into the cabin, be careful with the ambush and be careful not to use grenades!" After clearing the deck of the resistance, Luzon ordered the crew to enter the cabin, where there was likely to be a crew member hiding, and those precious cargo also needed to be carefully handled, and if heavy fire was used, it would probably cause damage, and the gain would outweigh the loss.