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On 26 November, there was also a sneak attack on a Japanese merchant ship in the Pacific. This was a battle initiated by the first team of submarines led by Tikryan.

The first and second submarine fleets attacked the Japanese devils on the same day, and there was no communication in advance. Ji Keliang is far away in Panama, and it is difficult to contact Tang Gang, let alone Ren Tianyang.

Ren Tianyang's second submarine team is small in number because they are all small submarines and supply submarines, but when the manpower was first allocated, considering that the naval resistance army would face a battle when it arrived in Ceylon, and the second submarine team even had to undertake the task of encircling Tang Port, so all the veterans who had experienced the trip to the Atlantic Ocean were selected.

The No. 1 Submarine Squadron led by Ji Kelian has less than one-third of the veterans. According to Li Guang's plan, Ji Kelian could train and exercise for a period of time to run in the troops, and then set out for the North Pacific.

Ji Keliang is considered to be patient in the submarine force, at least much more patient than Ren Tianyang. But when the time entered November, Ji Kelian couldn't bear it. Everyone has the intention of winning, Ji Keliang and Ren Tianyang are competing in their usual training, and even picking up girls, Ji Keliang is of course unbearable to stay on the Stone Statue Island.

On 1 November, the four main submarines of the First Submarine Squadron and a supply ship with a displacement of 2,000 tons embarked on an expedition to the North Pacific.

During the voyage of more than half a month, more than 200 officers and men experienced a storm in the Pacific Ocean and crossed the equator, and the troops carried out the final run-in.

Tikerian was a cautious man, and his battle plan was relatively unproactive, but this is one of the essences of submarine warfare. Four submarines lined up ten nautical miles apart and intercepted the westward course of the Panama Canal. In this sea area, the Maritime Resistance Army has attacked Japanese merchant ships many times, and it can be said that it is a familiar road.

The most critical location is the Pixiu No. 1 led by Ji Keliang, which is the main channel for Japanese merchant ships.

Don't look at the fact that the Maritime Resistance Army has not attacked the Japanese merchant ships on this route for more than a year, but the little devils did not dare to relax their vigilance, especially in the sea areas where the Maritime Resistance Army launched several attacks, the little devils were even more careful.

The little devil is very good at living, and the level of careful planning is quite high. They found that it was too expensive to send warships to escort the convoy, so they sent a large number of armed merchant ships to participate in the escort while transporting them. The speed of these merchant ships is much higher than that of ordinary merchant ships, and most of them can run more than 20 knots.

Since the thirties, Japan has had a policy that all merchant ships with a speed of more than 19 knots will receive a state subsidy every month, in essence, these fast ships are the reserve force of the Japanese Navy, and they are also a supplement to the Japanese Navy.

Japan's strength is only relative to China, and there are six million tons of merchant ships in Japan, totaling thousands. Even if it was equipped with old guns, little Japan could not come up with thousands, or even tens of thousands, to equip all the merchant ships. The armed merchant ships of the little devils are much more shabby than the Germans, and most of the weapons equipped by the Germans for armed merchant ships are weapons of the level of 152MM cannon howitzers, and even torpedo tubes. The most powerful armed merchant ships are also said to be armed with catapults and water reconnaissance aircraft.

The Japanese devils had an advantage on the Chinese battlefield, and they won many battles, but the Chinese army did not have many artillery pieces, and the Japanese army did not capture much. The Germans were very different in this regard, the captured artillery was simply not used up, and even some models of artillery were equipped as consumables on armed merchant ships not because of their backwardness, but because their ammunition was not unified with the German army. even sold some of the excess to the Naval Resistance Army.

Even so, the merchant ship equipment of the little devils is quite barbaric. All merchant ships on the Pacific route from Japan to the Panama Canal had three to ten small-caliber guns and no fewer than two heavy machine guns.

THE ARMED MERCHANT SHIPS ARE EVEN MORE POWERFUL, AND A CONSIDERABLE PROPORTION OF THE SAILORS ON BOARD ARE RETIRED OFFICERS AND RESERVISTS OF THE JAPANESE NAVY, AND THE EQUIPMENT IS MORE POWERFUL, AND THE CALIBER OF THE ARTILLERY IS NOT SMALL, 75MM FIELD GUNS, 105MM FIELD GUNS, 120 FIELD GUNS, 150 FIELD GUNS, AND EVEN A SMALL NUMBER OF CANNONS. However, most of these guns are old old guns, which in Europe refer to the guns of the First World War, while in Japan the old guns date back to the last century.

Although the force of these merchant ships is not enough to compare with that of warships, they are actually quite powerful. According to the requirements of the Japanese escort formation, generally speaking, there were 30 ships up, such a huge fleet, with 150 guns of various calibers. If this kind of strength is put into the Japanese Army, it has already surpassed the heavy firepower equipment of an army division and regiment, and although it is all old artillery, its strength is still not to be underestimated.

Since September, the Americans have escalated sanctions against the Japanese. At present, the Japanese have cut off the goods they can buy from the United States, not only crude oil, but also scrap steel. In fact, the mainstream source of supplies for Japanese merchant ships coming from the Panama Canal is no longer the United States, but Latin American countries. Even oil, a significant part of which is purchased from several countries in Latin America.

In this era, the Japanese had many ways to obtain low-end raw materials from South America, but most of the South American countries were technologically backward, and there were very few industrial products such as steel except for basic raw materials.

Enterprises like Oolong Shipyard are a special case. But the real strength, Li Guang is very clear, it seems to be a huge scale, but to put it bluntly, it is just an assembly workshop, without American steel, boilers, steam engines, let alone 10,000-ton ships, aircraft carriers, even a guano ship cannot be built.

The Japanese are much better than the Oolong shipyard in this regard, and the industrial chain is perfect, but there are many weak links in the industrial chain, and it is definitely not good to leave the United States.

After six days of ambush on the fairway, Tikrian finally waited for the Japanese fleet. The little devil had clearly learned from the British escort experience, and merchant ships were no longer traveling alone or in small groups.

In the early morning mist, what unfolded before Tikerian was a huge team, full of thirty-five merchant ships of various kinds. This large fleet includes both oil tankers, dry bulk carriers, and ro-ro vessels. Ships vary in size, with the largest displacement around 25,000 tons and the smaller ones around 2,000 tons.

A fleet of this size is comparable to the British fleet. Little Japan has 6 million tons of merchant ships, and this fleet has 150,000 tons, accounting for one-fortieth of the total tonnage of Japan's merchant ships.

Ji Kelian was thrilled as soon as he found out about this huge fleet. Fatty, absolutely fatty.

The Maritime Resistance Army attacked Japanese merchant ships several times, and the size of the fleet encountered was not as huge as this one. Although the Japanese merchant ship formation was heavily guarded, the submarines of the Maritime Resistance Force had superior performance and were cautious enough to act, and the little devils did not find anything abnormal.

The submarine team of the Maritime Resistance Army, four submarines are now lurking quietly under the ocean like lone wolves. The wolf pack tactics of the Germans began to emerge in the Atlantic from August (historically October), and the wolf pack tactics of the Naval Resistance Army also appeared on this day in the Pacific theater.

According to the design of the wolf pack tactics, when the Japanese fleet is spotted, it is possible to call other submarines and attack together.

One of the things that puzzled Tikrian a little was that he didn't find any escort ships in this fleet. Ji Kelian's fighting style was different from Ren Tianyang's, he did not attack recklessly, nor did he immediately call the other three submarines to attack, but decided to carefully follow this huge fleet.

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