'Ahh He Qinian, a first-class soldier of the Ming Navy, covered his mouth with his hands and sneezed vigorously. The pen %fun %Ge www.biquge.info grabbed the outer edge of the raincoat on his body and tightened it tightly, and complained in a low voice, "I hate rainy days." ”

"Young man, this little rain is a piece of." Chen Ahu, a senior non-commissioned officer at the same outpost as He Qinian, had chocolate in his mouth and muttered, "I encountered a real heavy rain when I was on a routine cruise in the Marshall Islands with the South Pacific Local Fleet. It was like the sky was falling. It was pitch black on all sides, and there was water everywhere, and it hurt like a bullet when it hit a person's body! I was so scared that I peed my pants, and I thought that this time I was going to feed the fish. I didn't think about it, but I didn't think about it for a while. The sky cleared, and then even the sun came out. No one can say anything about God. ”

The two sailors chatting at the sentry post were both lookouts on the destroyer USS Jianli, the escort ship of the 107th Transport Fleet.

After following the escort of the 107th Convoy to the Kerama Channel, the Jianli was ordered to patrol the entrance between the outer islands and Tokaao Island to the south of the channel.

Originally, the wind and rain here were less, but the previous attack by the Japanese submarine caused chaos in the entire berth area. Lin Luo, who was greatly dissatisfied, asked the outer escort warships to expand the defensive circle to prevent a possible second wave of attacks.

The Kenri and three other destroyers sailed out of the Kerama waterway and began patrolling in the midst of the storm.

In fact, the Ming Navy is the same as the Japanese Navy in many places, or the Japanese Navy is constantly copying the Ming Navy. The two armies also attach great importance to academic qualifications and origins. Without a high degree of education and without further training in a regular military academy, the average soldier will reach the end of a senior non-commissioned officer. Unless they can make meritorious deeds that leave people speechless, they will have the opportunity to be escorted to the military academy to further their studies and become officers.

Chen Ahu was originally a fisherman from the rich coastal area, but because his family was poor, he only had a high school education. After joining the Navy, he performed well, and was promoted to non-commissioned officer with accumulated years of seniority.

Originally, this was the head, and it was almost the age of retirement. It's just that a sudden war has Chen Ahu's retirement report thrown into a drawer, and he will continue to follow the warship into the war.

"Brother Tiger." The young He Qinian turned his head to look at Chen Ahu in the sentry post, and said with a shy face, "I want to have a cigarette." ”

However, the navy has a clear rule that smoking outside the ship is absolutely not allowed during night sailing. Because the light of the cigarette butt may expose the warship that is being controlled by the light on the dark sea.

It stands to reason that it is impossible to have such a light that is not exposed, but the turtle is the turtle, even if it is unreasonable, you have to abide by it. Not to mention in the army.

However, if there is a policy, there will inevitably be a countermeasure. Isn't this a major mistake that can't be reversed, what's the big deal just to smoke a cigarette? The soldiers quietly hid and smoked, and generally no one wanted to care unless they met very serious officers.

The Jianli is a destroyer, and the lookout post on the ship is not large. Two sentinels can generally only have one to hide in the partition where the phone is placed inside to shelter from the rain, and the other has to blow the wind outside.

He Qinian didn't really want to smoke much, but more likely to avoid the rain. The salty and wet smell of the sea is washed by rain, and even wearing a raincoat can be uncomfortable.

"You kid." Chen Ahu, whose children were already in school, scolded with a smile and gave up his position to He Qinian, and lay on the telescope and began to observe the sea.

The radar technology of this era is far from reaching the standards of modern time and space, and the radar technology is still in a very primitive state. The first-generation sea-sounding radar installed on the Jianli was largely useless on such stormy nights. And in order to protect these delicate equipment, the radar is basically not turned on under such bad weather conditions.

At this time, sea monitoring can only rely on visual observation in the traditional sense. Those sentinels who have been eating cod liver oil all year round and have excellent eyesight will play a great role at this moment.

"Huh?" Chen Ahu, who had been lying on the telescope for a while, squinted his eyes suspiciously, raised his head to look at the dark sea in the distance, and then lay back on the telescope again after a while.

He Qinian, who was hiding in the partition and smoking a cigarette in small sips, enjoying the wonderful feeling brought by tobacco, suddenly felt a big hand on his shoulder. Before he could come back to his senses, his whole body was instantly dragged out.

"Boom." He Qinian, who crashed into the railing, looked at Chen Ahu's tall back with a grin, and didn't understand what was wrong at all. Immediately, I saw Chen Ahu grab the phone and roar loudly: "Bridge, bridge!" An unknown ship was found, and an unknown fleet was found directly ahead!! ”

......

"Sir! Sir!! In the captain's cabin of the Diego Garcia escort aircraft carrier, Lin Luo, who had just been lying down for a short time, was woken up by a rapid slamming of the door.

Hurriedly turned over and got up, Lin Luo, who had the military uniform on his body, opened the hatch. A young staff officer stood outside with an anxious face, and when he saw Lin Luo, he immediately raised his hand and saluted, shouting loudly, "The patrol fleet has sent an urgent telegram, they have encountered an unknown fleet about thirty nautical miles off the southern exit of the waterway!" Sending multiple identification signals to no avail! ”

Lin Luo suddenly shook, his hands clenched tightly unconsciously, and after taking a deep breath, he pushed away the staff officer in front of him, and hurriedly ran to the bridge.

"The commander enters the bridge, and the commander takes over command!" The shouts of the officer on duty rang out in the bridge. Lin Luo didn't care about returning the gift, and immediately asked loudly: "How is it?" Which fleet is it?! ”

"The latest telegram I just received." Li Ru, who was on night duty, raised his hand and pushed his glasses, and said in a deep voice with an ugly face, "The unknown fleet has fired." Now there is a fierce battle with the patrol fleet. According to the patrol fleet report, the enemy fleet was strong, and among the dense shells that fell were a large number of heavy artillery shells of more than 300 mm caliber! ”

Li Ru's words made Lin Luo's heart suddenly cool down. I thought it would be my own people, but I didn't expect that not only would it be fired directly, but there would also be a large number of heavy artillery. The only people in the navy who can sail to the sea and carry large-caliber heavy guns are capital ships.

And the capital ships of the Ming Navy in the western Pacific at this time are all concentrated at the berths of the Kerama waterway at this moment. That unidentified fleet outside is either American or Japanese!

"How did they get here?" After forcibly suppressing the panic in his heart, Lin Luo took the telegram and asked suspiciously while browsing.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the Ryukyu Campaign, the Ming Navy sent a large number of long-range reconnaissance aircraft and submarines to patrol the waters off Japan. At the same time, spies operating in Japan are also constantly monitoring and probing the movements of the Japanese navy day and night. So where did this fleet, which had never received any intelligence, come from?

The fleet that suddenly appeared off the Kerama Waterway was the First Battleship Fleet of the Combined Fleet of the Japanese Navy. It had under the jurisdiction of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd battleship detachments, and had seven battleships: Ise, Hyuga, Fuso, Kongo, Haruna, Kirishima, and Hiei.

Originally, the Yamashiro also belonged to this fleet, but after being sunk by the Yamashiro, Yamamoto Isoroku deliberately incorporated Nagato and Mutsu, which are directly under the Combined Fleet, as well as the super battleship Musashi and the Yamato, the flagship of the Combined Fleet, into this fleet in order to strengthen the strength of the First Fleet. The intention was to complete the battle, and a decisive assault operation was launched.

Yamamoto himself did not go with the fleet, but stayed at the Sasebo naval base to wait for news. In charge of directing the front-line operations was Vice Admiral Takasu Shiro.

In order to deal with the final battle with the Ming Navy, Yamamoto Fifty-six, who has a strong gambler character, pressed all the capital at once.

At home, the crackdown on spies has been intensified, and the movement of the fleet has been strictly guarded. At the same time, an air fleet with the Katsuragi as the flagship and a number of light aircraft carriers as the auxiliary was formed as a guise to go south with great fanfare to attract the attention of the Ming Navy.

Among them, the four Kongo-class battlecruisers of the Third Sentai of the First Fleet were advertised to the outside world as the escort force of the air fleet again. However, after leaving the port and going to sea in a high-profile manner, the four battle cruisers quickly left south with their escort ships, joined up with the battleship formation that had been waiting in the waters southeast of Tanegashima for a long time, and then quickly went south to secretly go to the waters near Ryukyu Island.

All of this was done at night, with strict anti-submarine navigation, and the strictest light control and radio silence. It was not discovered by Daming's reconnaissance planes and submarines all the way.

The battle plan of the Japanese was carefully arranged. They deliberately chose this rare good time for several days of heavy rain to launch the attack. Weather can sometimes be the deciding force.

The 1st Battleship Fleet, which was sailing covertly in the waters east of Ryukyu Island, quickly attacked from the southern waters of Ryukyu Island under the cover of a rainy night after receiving a code order from the Ministry of the Navy to the Kerama Waterway.

Judging by the intelligence, there is at least one Ming aircraft carrier fleet moored in the Kerama waterway that has little combat effectiveness at night, maybe two? A large number of convoys that are completely targets. In addition, there are a large number of various materials on the Kerama Islands, countless marines, and many front-line airfields are full of all kinds of fighters that the Japanese army hates.

As long as the battleship formation can successfully enter the mooring ground of the Ming army, then the battle may be rewritten.

As for the Ming battleship formation mentioned in the intelligence, the Japanese Navy did not pay much attention to it.

In their opinion, the four cutting-edge provincial capital-class battleships still have some combat effectiveness. But in the face of two Nagato-class and two super battleships, the Yamato-class is completely at a disadvantage.

As for the four old Superdreadnoughts, they were just too old. The average service life is close to fifteen years, and the Japanese Navy has seven battle cruisers and super dreadnoughts. Seven to four, this night battle of the Japanese Navy will undoubtedly win! (To be continued.) )