The pickup dragged its scarred body and drove at full speed to pursue it westward. But after chasing for more than an hour, the merchant ship was not found in the field of vision at all.

In this more than an hour, Zheng Xuechang has already received a report on the loss of the pickup number. In the fierce battle, he didn't feel it, but after the battle subsided, Zheng Xuechang knew that the losses in this battle were huge.

The pickup truck leaked in three places, although it was blocked, but it had affected the driving speed, and the maximum at this time was only 20 knots.

The losses in terms of personnel were even greater, with six killed and thirty-two wounded. Now the doctors on board are busy treating the wounded.

And most critically, the radio station was bombed. Originally, the station was the safest position, but a shell happened to explode on the antenna. The violent explosion of another shell also seriously damaged the radio station, and it is now being repaired as soon as possible.

Naval warfare is somehow more brutal than land warfare, and with the rapid improvement of artillery and weaponry, a multimillion-dollar warship is often decided in a short period of time. In the vast sea, a war is life and death, either sinking the opponent or being sunk by the opponent. The training and equipment of the Navy can make the difference between victory and defeat in just an hour or less. The pressure of this brutal battle is not something that outsiders can experience.

In the whole of World War II, there were not many large-scale naval battles. But often a single naval battle can determine the fate of a country. The most famous of these is the naval battle at Midway. After that battle, the navy began to decline.

Naval warfare is more demanding of the commander, and even impossible to think about, and must make the most advantageous response. The battle that took place between the Pickup and the four merchant ships was not a sea battle, but during this period, several changes in command were the line of life and death, and victory or defeat was instantaneous. If there is a large-caliber cannon on this freighter, when the pickup approaches, there is no doubt that even if the pickup sinks a few freighters at this time, it will definitely lose its combat effectiveness at this time.

Zheng Xuechang went through this battle, don't look at the lack of any physical labor, at this time the military uniform was completely soaked with sweat. When you are desperate, the overdraft caused by mental exhaustion and mental stress is extremely serious. Won't you be nervous if you win the battle? No, now the fighters are relatively high-spirited, but Zheng Xuechang does not dare to relax at all, under the calm appearance, his brain is running rapidly.

After more than an hour of pursuit, it was already completely dark. You can't see much distance on the ocean, and there is chaos three or five nautical miles away.

He must have extinguished the lights on the ship, and the devils are not all fools. Before the four merchant ships sank, they would surely have received a telegram.

Wandering the sea like this at night has no choice but to try your luck. As for the artifact of radar, it is common knowledge in later generations, but Zheng Xuechang has not even heard of it at this moment.

Now Zheng Xuechang pins his hopes on Ji Keliang's group, and the four members of Ji Keliang's sonar group are all music majors. Ji Kelian is not wrong, those who engage in music are not only good at hearing but also very good at distinguishing the subtle differences in various sounds.

The German audiophone, although it can filter and amplify the signal collected in the sea, is not an electronic product of the future after all, in fact, the surname can not be very strong, if you want Li Guang to comment, it is not even as good as any music editing software on the Internet in later generations, and it is the most rubbish one.

In order to find the merchant ship, the entire crew of the ship is now quiet, and the engine has stopped turning. Ji Kelian was very calm, carefully distinguishing the various sounds coming from the headphones. At this time, Tikerian's work was actually more difficult than listening on a submarine.

The pickup has a draft of just over three meters, and the noise on the ocean is very mixed, so it is extremely difficult to find a little other sound. When the submarine is in the water, the noise background is reduced to a weak level, which is more suitable for listening.

In more than ten minutes, Ji Keliang had already searched around the pickup number, and when he raised his head again, Zheng Xuechang asked, "How is it?" ”

"I can only be sure that there is no sound of propellers within ten nautical miles. ”

Zheng Xuechang had no choice but to continue driving northwest by luck. An hour later, the ship stopped again to listen. This time, Ji Kelian finally had a harvest.

Ji Keliang said: "Northeast, three o'clock." Not sure, though. ”

Although he was not sure, Zheng Xuechang had no other choice at this time, and the pickup truck stopped again after sailing in the direction pointed by Ji Keliang for half an hour.

This time, the speed of Ji Kelian's listening was very fast, only a minute or two, and Ji Kelian reported: "North, less than ten nautical miles. At this point, the other three students who were listening also confirmed.

Zheng Xuechang was overjoyed and immediately ordered the pickup number to pursue at full speed. You must know that three hours have passed since the start of the war, and Zheng Xuechang almost didn't have any hope of finding the freighter that slipped away, but relying on Ji Keliang's superhuman hearing, he was able to find this freighter, except for a miracle, it can only be praised as a miracle.

Now the person who admires Li Guang the most on the ship is none other than Zheng Xuechang. Don't look at Zheng Xuechang's background in the navy, but he really doesn't know that he needs to choose a music student for listening.

He didn't know where Li Guang, who had almost no common sense of warfare, got so much miscellaneous knowledge. If Li Guang hadn't arranged for a few music students to do the listening, it would definitely be difficult to discover the merchant ship. At least he himself, even though he was only five nautical miles away, could not hear the sound of the propellers of merchant ships from his listening ear.

A thin devil on the merchant ship "Wazumaru" was trembling. His name was Iwaki Junji, and he was not a seaman on a merchant ship, but an important figure in Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is one of the largest conglomerates in Japan, manufacturing not only aircraft and tanks but also warships, and is the driving force behind the militarism. In the war of aggression against China, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries made a lot of money and committed countless crimes against China. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is now controlled by the Iwaki family. Although Yan Qi Shunji's ranking in the family inheritance is nothing at all, after all, he is from a family that stands at the top of the family, and he cherishes his life very much.

At this moment, he is not only worried about his own life, but also about the cargo of this ship. This cargo is so important and extremely valuable. Yan Qi Shunji knew that if he lost this ship, then even if he saved his surname, then he would really be finished in Yan Qi's house. Although he is very low in the inheritance qualification ranking, he is personally ambitious. During this trip to the United States, Shunji Iwaki did an excellent job, performed well in a series of business negotiations, and purchased a lot of important equipment for Mitsubishi. Who would have thought that on the way back, he would encounter pirates, and they would be pirates with great firepower.

The merchant ship could have carried 4,000 tons of cargo, but this time it carried less than 3,000 tons. But the value of these 3,000 tons of cargo is staggering. Shunji Iwaki is the head of the procurement section of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' chariot factory, and he is a high-ranking young man in the group. He is only 30 years old, and even with the support of his family, it is extremely difficult to achieve such a position.

The largest amount of cargo on board the ship Yamaru was nickel-chromium steel plates. The rest are some large machine tools, as well as items such as large welding machines. Iwaki Shunji knew very well what these things were for.

In July 37, after Mitsubishi Heavy Industries launched the war of aggression against China, a tank won the bid. That is, the most famous tank in World War II - the 97 tank. If this tank is placed in 1937, it is indeed good, and its surname can far surpass the Soviet T26 and the German No. 1 and No. 2 tanks, and even the German No. 3 tank is not necessarily its opponent.

After winning the bid, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries began full production, but by the beginning of 38, the tank had not actually appeared on the battlefield in China.

At this time, in addition to the Xiaodou tank, the 95 light tank on the Chinese battlefield was the 95th light tank, and the so-called medium tank was still the 8-9 tank that could lag behind as the main force.

The "bamboo-breaking offensive" of the Yue army on the Chinese battlefield made the Yue army very optimistic, although it did not achieve the goal of destroying China in three months, but it had already taken the capital of China by the end of three or seven years. Therefore, many army forces feel that the 95 light tank will be able to dominate the world.

The equipment on the Chinese side is too poor, and there are not a few tanks at all at this time, and there are even fewer that can confront the 95 light tanks of the Japanese army, and the Soviet Union has assisted a few T26s, but so far they have not been trained well, and they have not been able to put into battle.

There was a lack of tanks in the Chinese army, but also anti-aircraft artillery. Don't look at the devil's Type 95 light tank, it only has a dozen millimeters of armor, but it is almost invincible on the battlefield. Heavy machine guns are no threat to the 12-millimeter alloy armor of the Type 95 tank unless they are at a close distance. Although it is effective to rely on fighters to blast it with grenade explosives, how many lives do it take to blow up a devil's tank.

However, it is important to know that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has invested heavily in the design and production of this tank, and if the military reduces the number of orders, it will pay off. As a result, through lobbying from many parties, the army side put forward a request. Officers commanded at the front, the proportion of casualties was too high, and there was a lack of radio tools, so a well-protected command vehicle was needed.

In fact, this was a bribe by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which satisfied the officers by providing the military with command vehicles, and the military no longer obstructed the procurement of the 97 tank.

And part of the nichrome alloy plate purchased by Iwaki Shunji is for the armor of this command tank. The current production of nickel-chromium alloy armor is forged by clumsy hydraulic presses, while the metallurgical industry in the United States is developed and can be rolled by large cold rolling mills. There is a big gap in production efficiency. Now Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, in order to be able to quickly provide this combat command vehicle, has no choice but to purchase it from the United States. After taking it back, it is a little cold hardened and it is excellent armor, which is much better than carburized steel homogeneous armor, and of course it is too expensive.

Mitsubishi is also trying to pat the military's sycophants. The 97 tank only used carburized armor, and only the 95 light tank in this tank used alloy armor. In order to pat the horse, Mitsubishi decided to equip this 97 combat command vehicle with alloy armor.

And because the alloy welding technology of this book is not up to standard, this time we also purchased special welding equipment from the United States.

As for machine tools or something, most of them were purchased to expand the production of 97 tanks, and they belong to quite high-end machine tools. The other part of the machine tools, including deep hole drilling and lathe boring machines, are purchased by other companies, and they are all for the military industry.

In fact, these machines were part of the machines purchased by Yuben for the production of 75mm guns. Li Guang's sneak attack on the sea has changed history a little, because the devils gave the old 75mm guns to the merchant ships, and they found that in the process of army expansion, the number of 75mm guns was seriously insufficient.

The 75mm field gun is not all garbage models equipped on merchant ships, but also quite advanced models, such as the Type 95 75mm field gun. The proportions of the body and tube are the same as those equipped on merchant ships, but the total weight has increased by less than 200 kilograms, while the firing range has increased to 10,800 meters, and the accuracy of the surname has also increased significantly. These machines were purchased in order to expand the production of Type 95 field artillery.

It is said that it can manufacture all kinds of artillery in the world today, but because it is still difficult to compare with the United States, Germany and Britain, the production of industrial machine tools is very primitive, and all manufacturing industries depend on the production of industrial machine tools. The level of industrial machine tools determines the level of a country's manufacturing industry. It is said that this mainly imports the high-grade machine tools and precision instruments required by the United States. This time, in order to expand the production capacity of the 75mm gun, a large loan was spent on several quite advanced machine tools.

After the invasion of China, the United States made extremely disgraceful commercial practices, and invested heavily in the military industry and helped the United States build a modern military industry. The Ford Company of the United States provided the modern metallurgical technology of the company, the Rockefeller consortium helped the company establish a new electrical industry, and the Mellon consortium helped the modernization of the aircraft industry. In 1938, after the full-scale invasion of China, the United States still gave a loan of $125 million to the United States to purchase strategic materials such as American industrial machine tools, thus strengthening the power of the company to manufacture arms for aggression against China.

As for the humanity and morality that Americans flaunt, they have no resistance in the face of money, and they are purely greedy for businessmen.

And the ship of Iwaki Shunji was all purchased with a loan from the United States. At this time, the captain and sailors on the Kazumaru were already in full battle, but Iwaki Shunji was considering surrendering.

He still hopes that his opponent is just a bunch of pirates, and the pirates are just for money, and these things on his ship are put in many countries, and no one will want them at all. Not even a few people can recognize this steel plate. If you are not an expert in industry, it is impossible to know the value of this steel plate.

He was now assessing the possibility that if the pirates didn't know the goods, he would be able to redeem them from the pirates for some money. The captain had already talked about his views before, and he would sink the ship as a last resort, but if the ship was sunk, then he Yan Qi Shunji would have to jump into the sea.

Now Iwaki Shunji was waiting for a reply from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and he sent a telegram back as soon as the war began, asking for support. At this time, the fleet of the Navy's fleet was still more than 700 nautical miles away from here for ocean-going training, and it was difficult to catch up even if it was rushed overnight. The only hope is that unless the navy is willing to do away with the fighters for this ship, and use the fighters to escort the ship. But all of this requires coordination between the family and the military.

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