When he realized that the British might turn back and attack Hong Kong unconventionally, Deng Haoqian could no longer sit still.

"Record, ordered the task force to immediately retreat to a distance of about 10 nautical miles from Hong Kong, the radar was turned on at full power, and the key sea areas near Hong Kong were strictly guarded.

Order the Seawolf Brigade to immediately sail to the key offshore waters near Hong Kong, Sea A and Sea C.

Immediately report the latest analysis and prediction results to Major General Tao Qian, and request the naval air force at Bao'an Airport to increase aerial reconnaissance and make 100,000 preparations!! ”

After giving a few orders in one breath, Deng Haoqian walked out of the command room and saw that the entire task force was already returning home, and the distance of 100 nautical miles was only two or three hours for a new ship that was almost all built in the late 20s and early thirties.

As long as the British had not been blessed by their God, they had coincidentally rushed to the waters off Hong Kong during this time and successfully shelled Hong Kong, then Hong Kong would have been absolutely safe.

Deng Haoqian looked at the steel watch on his left wrist, it was already more than four o'clock in the afternoon, if there was no accident, when the task force rushed back, it was already nightfall.

"I hope to catch up just in time, a little sooner or later, it will be a huge trouble." As commander of the navy, Deng Haoqian was well aware of how serious the constraints of night battles were on the task force; with the exception of the Kunming and Chengdu aircraft carriers, the Yucheng-class cruisers and other warships did not have the qualifications to bombard the battleships' huge guns, and none of the two aircraft carriers had the ability to take off at night, and some of the Chengdu had carrier-based radar planes, but none of them were enough to deal with the British.

"Junguo, give me Colonel Ding Jialing, commander of the submarine force!"

Li Junguo, an operational staff officer, responded: "Yes! ”

At this time, Deng Haoqian knew that in the future, perhaps only submarines would have the ability to go to key sea areas to set up ambushes, and he would give an order to Dingjialing to attack immediately, and sink the British fleet as soon as it was discovered that it was close to Hong Kong and shelled the city.

Hong Kong, less than a nautical mile off the coast, is sparkling in the afterglow of the wind and tide. No one would have thought that under this boundless wave, there was actually a big black fish hidden.

This big black fish, quietly lurking in the deep sea at a depth of more than 40 meters, nearly 80 meters long, at first glance looks a little cigar-shaped shape, but has a part of the shape design suitable for sea navigation, this huge underwater monster looks very calm. Some large fish in the nearby seas, seeing this behemoth quietly suspended in the water, also avoided it from a distance, and occasionally even saw a small sperm whale seven or eight meters long, circling around from a distance, and seemed to be full of curiosity about this strange guy.

This big fish is one of the ten most advanced Nanhai-class submarines in the southwest, and the new shape of the cigar-shaped design is a blend of traditional design, taking into account the balance between underwater and surface navigation. After all, submarines of this period, due to battery and power, etc., could not dive too far underwater, and the Nanhai-class submarine was designed to be an ocean-going submarine capable of operating in the entire South China Sea, or even beyond. As a result, surface navigation has become a problem that has to be considered. Even if the new type of special steel for ships in the southwest has been put into production, even if there is a breakthrough in pressure-resistant technology, it will only be able to lead the Western submarines of the same class in some fields, and cannot exceed the limitations of the entire era.

The main thing is that Zhang Shusheng took the lead, and he guided a lot of things for the development of submarines.

More than 1,600 tons of displacement, maximum surface speed: 19.2 knots, maximum underwater speed: 9.6 knots, submarine design is more advanced, due to the use of Nanning battery factory production of a new large battery pack, underwater endurance has been greatly improved, compared with the same period of the submarine only about 60 nautical miles of underwater range, the Nanhai class submarine is equipped with an underwater snorkel, underwater range at a speed of 5.5 knots, can reach 90 nautical miles. It is designed to dive to a depth of 260 meters, which is also more than the main submarines equipped by various countries at the same time.

It is not that the southwest has comprehensively surpassed the West, but that the southwest has made a breakthrough in the special steel project, and then concentrated its financial resources to use new special ship steel and new submarines to build and equip these Nanhai-class submarines. Coupled with some advanced design concepts, the underwater submarine force of Westerners, who have not been tested by war for more than ten years, is of course lagging behind.

The whole submarine has the number of torpedo tubes: 6, including 4 in the bow / 2 in the stern, 28 rounds of ammunition, and it is unceremonious to say that if the enemy's anti-submarine forces are too weak, such a South Sea class may even send a small fleet down the trench to feed the fish.

In this era, this kind of submarine surnamed Neng is already considered very powerful. Under the leadership of Gan Chuanrui, director of the 2201 Research Institute of the Navy, from the beginning of its establishment in 1920, on the basis of the U-boat bought back by Germany, it has engaged in scientific research step by step, from scratch, more than ten years, from the initial 10-meter-long verification boat, to today's 80-meter-long Nanhai-class submarine, I have to say that with the help of Zhang Shusheng's data, the development direction of the submarine was clarified early, and the southwest finally let the navy realize local 'asymmetric warfare' in more than ten years, at least for now, the southwest navy is few and fine.

"Captain, this is the order I just received, and Commander Deng Haoqian personally gave it." The communications staff officer handed the order he had just received to Colonel Ding Jialing, the captain of the Seawolf Force, and gave a brief explanation, "Commander Deng suspects that behind the hasty and bizarre evacuation of the British from Hong Kong is a roundabout recovery plan led by the commander of the opposing side. They are likely to abandon fleeing to Singapore or waiting for reinforcements, and instead take a hop-by-the-road route back to Hong Kong to shell the city. ”

"Well, our area is the closest to the main city of Hong Kong, and there are only us and another offshore submarine nearby, so I hope there will be no problems."

Ding Jialing thought about it, this possibility is indeed very big, after all, the intelligence of the past few days shows that the British fleet is sometimes near and far away, but it is always impossible to completely capture the whereabouts.

Time is pressing, submarines distributed in other places are too late to come, originally in the Hong Kong campaign, the navy mobilized five offshore submarines and three Nanhai-class submarines, just because it needs to defend in several different directions, it seems a little stretched, after all, the task force is the most mobile naval force, at this time, the submarine force, the action is still too slow, the best is to wait for the rabbit. "Then let's try, behind the coast is the most prosperous part of the city, the British have been stationed in Hong Kong for a long time, they must know that they have ordered the other boats to be on guard and keep in touch with the brigade at all times."

Hong Kong has a total of three sea areas to defend, and the navy in the southwest is really stretched.

At the same time, Bao'an Airport, which had become somewhat quiet after a few days of hustle and bustle, became busy again, and fighter planes were either pushed out or pulled out by cars and placed on the runway.

In less than 20 minutes, the first Bird No. 1 had already taken off, with its nose raised high, and after hovering and elevating, it turned at a large angle in the air and flew toward Hong Kong.

At the same time, more fighters are refueling, and nearly 30 planes are on display at the entire airport, half of which are ready for war and half are on standby. Fighter planes are responsible for escorting and can also clear the enemy ships of possible anti-aircraft fire, while H-1 and H-2 bombers are equipped with 250 kg and 500 kg aerial bombs. In addition to the heavy aerial bombs, several torpedo planes were hanging a heavy torpedo of more than 700 kilograms on the plane, ready to surprise the small fleet of the British.

Seeing that it was getting dark, the Air Force fighters flew quickly over Hong Kong.

"Command, Sky Bird 11 reported that no British warships were found. Repeating, the fleet of the British was not found. ”

"Command, Sky Bird 12 reported that no British warships were found. Repeat, the enemy fleet was not found. ”

When the two bomber-converted reconnaissance planes also had to return home, it was almost dark, and at first the Skybird reconnaissance planes searched along the sea for traces of the British, and then the fighter and bomber formations also joined the search, however, no trace of the British was found in the radius of hundreds of nautical miles.

When Deng Haoqian received the report, he felt deeply puzzled, could it be that the British really hid in the South China Sea, or went to the French in Vietnam?

But he could not be persuaded by this assumption, for no other reason, once the British bombarded Hong Kong, the arrogance of the enemy would be extremely high, and it would have a huge negative impact on the entire military operation in the southwest and future negotiations.

After all, as the commander of the navy, he knew very well that the southwest was gambling, betting that the British would not survive first. But once Hong Kong is shelled, then domestic calls for war with the British will surely be louder than ever, and it is clear that now is not the time.

The situation is so weird, the Southwest Army can sink the British warships, but Hong Kong must not be shelled, which is why he would rather stay in the coastal waters of Hong Kong than chase it recklessly. He knew very well the power of the battleship, and the front main gun could cause huge casualties if it hit the city, not to mention that there were two cruisers, and three ships fired a salvo, and the consequences were unimaginable to him.

The British can be bold, but he does not dare to let the British do anything wrong, it is the Chinese who die, the trouble is too much to clean up, and it is the Chinese who suffer in the end.

South China Sea, 150 nautical miles from Hong Kong, southwest of Hong Kong.

"Full speed ahead!! Target Hong Kong. ”

When the afterglow of the setting was about to be swallowed up by the night, Colonel Sim finally ordered the fleet to set sail again, and in order to wait for this time of the setting day, he had been calculating for a long time, even several times, as if he had seen the Chinese plane the size of a bird in the sky. He was worried all the time, and he had a deep understanding of the horror of the Chinese Air Force, and the two destroyers were blown up before they could even finish sending telegrams.

He didn't think that his battleships were much more durable than destroyers, and he used to be, like other good captains of the Imperial Royal Navy, who believed that the cannon giant ship was the magic weapon of the navy, not the aircraft that would determine the naval battle, as the aircraft carriers who were clamoring for the reform of the navy said, and they were convinced that it was the cannon that would determine the naval battle. Even last month, a new type of heavy cruiser with a displacement of more than 11,000 tons was launched in China, which is really scary.

When he came into contact with the unlucky Hong Kong fleet, which had been smashed to death by an iron bullet dropped by a Chinese plane, he had doubted the words of the rear admiral of the Far East Fleet, thinking that he was greedy for life and afraid of death, but in this war in Hong Kong, he once again saw the Chinese air force. He had to accept the fact that 1932 was no longer 1840, when the Imperial Navy could rely on artillery giants to bombard Chinese batteries, but today, for the fighters in the sky, not to mention his three warships, even the entire Far Eastern Fleet seems helpless.

He believed in God, but he did not believe that only a few anti-aircraft guns symbolizing his surname could shoot down dozens of Chinese planes.

So he ordered the withdrawal from Hong Kong as soon as possible, but as a captain of the Royal Navy, the majesty of the Imperial Navy for hundreds of years made him desperate for a revenge against the Chinese. The bombardment of Hong Kong will be the most pleasant way to relieve hatred, just as the Imperial Navy has done all over the world, and when the enemy does not give in, we will blast open their mouths with artillery, smash their legs, which symbolize false dignity, and make them kneel and submit.

"God Almighty, bless the smooth operation."

When it got dark, Colonel Sim was lucky enough to escape the fear of the Chinese, and he knew that the fleet's only chance was to shell Hong Kong at night, when those pesky planes were unable to launch air strikes. Of course, he privately believed that the shelling at night might bring even greater surprises to those who stayed at home.

No matter how much he dies, he is a yellow-skinned monkey, not a civilized citizen of the Empire.

"My Warrior, you will use your cannon to tell the Chinese that the majesty of the Royal Navy of Britain cannot be violated. Together with you, I will be another real combat example of the heroic fighting of the Imperial Navy. ”

However, Colonel Sim had already figured out that if he survived the war until the end of the war, he would personally write to the pig-like officials of the Imperial Admiralty who were still kept in the dark suggesting that the British Empire should build more aircraft carriers instead of using them as maritime reconnaissance carriers.

Time passed quickly, and when Colonel Sim looked up from the chart, the first mate told him that Hong Kong was ten nautical miles away.

"Order 8 twin-mounted 15-inch main guns (381mm) and 12 6-inch secondary guns (152mm) ready to fire, so that the lads can shoot the most shells at the damned Chinese."

For battleships, ten nautical miles is only a dozen kilometers away, and if they advance a little further, they can shell Hong Kong, which the Chinese have just reclaimed, without reaching the shallows.

"Commander Deng, Colonel Ding Jialing, the captain of the Sea Wolf Force, sent a report again, and no trace of the British was found." The operational staff officer walked up to Deng Haoqian's side, and the rear admiral frowned at this time, as if he was worried about something.

Deng Haoqian was not worried about anything else, but the instinct in his heart, which was close to fear, kept reminding him that there must be a situation, perhaps because this was the first time that the navy had participated in a large-scale actual battle, which made him very stressed. The Navy is different from the Army and Air Force. The army can still run if it can't win, and without soldiers, it only needs a mobilization order to recruit more recruits, and if the air force fails, it can quickly build new fighters, but the navy, once the combat strength is too large, not to mention the excessive losses, if the enemy is still allowed to shell coastal defense, it will be even more guilty.

"Where is Ding Jialing's location?"

"They have concentrated three offshore submarines, two Nanhai-class submarines, and are patrolling within five nautical miles. Commander, the Nanhai-class submarines are equipped with sonar, and although they are not large towed sonars equipped by the task force, they can also stand the test of actual combat. The operational staff officer analyzed in a low voice.

"Well, tell them that the sea area in all three directions must be heavily guarded. I have a hunch that the British will definitely not give up, they will definitely come back, not for anything else, just because they can't bear this loss, they look down on us Chinese in their bones, they never even regard us as enemies, but as colonies, as backward yellow-skinned races. ”

Deng Haoqian remembered the high righteousness of his father Deng Gong back then, and couldn't help sighing, his father could die in battle to serve the country, but he couldn't, because he had to do everything possible to win the navy that belonged to this nation and belonged to this nascent navy.

At this time, the aircraft carrier task force needs to take refuge in a safe harbor, and Hong Kong will continue to be guarded by submarine forces.

"Report, the urgent information just received, 4 nautical miles off the coast of Hong Kong, a suspected target of the British fleet has been found, and Colonel Ding Jialing, the captain of the Sea Wolf Force, will attack it after identification."

An urgent military situation immediately alarmed the people in the entire flagship command center.

Six nautical miles off the coast of Hong Kong, the Nanhai-class submarine N05, sonar soldier He Guangyin has insisted on listening attentively for three hours, and what comes from the headphones seems to be the same ocean murmur forever.

The long-term concentration of attention made him a little overdrawn, and he reached into the pocket of his jacket and took out a long red pepper, and without thinking about it, he bit off one by one.

"Hah...... It's spicy. This little sonar soldier is different from others, he will not be restless when he eats chili peppers, but can make him more refreshed, and sure enough, in the next few minutes, he only feels that his whole body is full of strength, and the signal from the headphones is much clearer.

Suddenly, sonar soldier He Guangyin quickly took off his headphones and shouted loudly: "Enemy ship, find the enemy ship, it is definitely not our battleship!" ”

A low battle bell rang inside the submarine, and at this time several other submarines were two or three nautical miles away from the N05, and they could not catch up at all for a while.

Ding Jialing took a deep breath, and then calmly ordered: "Immediately send a telegram to Commander Deng Haoqian, our boat has found a large unknown ship at 114°16′ east longitude and 22°14′ north latitude, and the Hong Kong fleet, which is suspected to be British, will be sunk after screening clearly, or the battle alarm will be lifted." Ordered the other boats to quickly move closer to our boat N05. ”

"He Guangyin, are you sure that they are three large warships?" Ding Jialing was next to the sonar soldier, and after he put down the headphones, he asked again with confirmation.

"I'm sure, unless there are other nearly 30,000-ton giant ships in the South China Sea, judging from the sonar characteristics, the three sonar source targets are very consistent with one battleship and two cruisers of the Hong Kong fleet."

"Okay, I need you to make a final confirmation, including their speed, I need your report." At this time, the submarine could not float up for lookout, so naturally it could only pin its hopes on the sonar soldiers, who had become the eyes and ears of the submarine under the water of several tens of meters.

From time to time, He Guangyin confirmed again, "They are slowing down. ”

"Not good!!" Ding Jialing suddenly realized that this was only a few nautical miles away from the city of Hong Kong, and the British must have slowed down to prepare for the shelling, and originally planned to wait for the other boats to dare to come and surround this small fleet, but at this time it seemed that it was too late, "Pull the battle alarm, everyone is in place, and the torpedo compartment is filled with water." The whole boat floats at full speed to confirm the target. ”

When the N05 submarine finally surfaced, the periscope periscope was able to vaguely spot the big ship in the distance through the lens, and under the starlight, the three ships were faintly visible, and what was the Hong Kong fleet that was not the British who went and returned.

Seeing that the British battleships and cruisers were gradually slowing down, apparently preparing for an artillery bombardment, Ding Jialing decided to dive closer and fire torpedoes.

However, the N05 submarine had not yet entered the optimal firing distance of the torpedo, and the sonar crew issued another warning, and judging by the moving sonar signal, the British battleship had a huge shock.

"Oh no, the main guns of the British fired!!"

However, this time God was not on the side of the British, and even Colonel Sim, who was far away on the battleship, could tell by the intensity of the fire and smoke from the distant explosion that the shells fired by the main gun school did not hit the city.

"Prepare for the second school shot!"

Colonel Sim did not have any worries, only two rounds of school firing were needed, and the fury of one battleship and two cruisers would pour out on the Chinese.

However, this shelling was doomed to be unable to continue.

"Boom!!"

A violent explosion sounded suddenly, and the cruiser Dover on the side of the Warrior suddenly jumped higher out of thin air, and even Colonel Sim, who was standing on the Warrior, had the illusion that the cruiser Dover was instantly held up by the sea.

But in an instant, he hissed and roared, "Torpedoes!!" Torpedo!! Chinese torpedoes !! ”

The searchlights on the three battleships quickly turned on, but they were taken aback by what they saw.

The Dover's waterline was blasted into a huge opening, and the sea was pouring into it frantically. And there was a white wave that was shooting at three battleships, and the torpedoes, without even giving the British more time to think, missed through the gap, with a false alarm, and the second torpedo missed.

The cruiser was always not as thick-skinned as the battleship, and after eating a new torpedo in the Southwestern hunting suit, it opened near the waterline.

"Evacuate at full speed, evacuate at full speed."

At this time, Colonel Sim remembered something, submarines, damn submarines, Chinese there are submarines!! They actually happened to be on the fairway, waiting for themselves to collide.

Three warships, including the wounded Dover, were speeding away from the terrifying submarine waters.

"Launch, quick, launch!!"

Ding Jialing shouted loudly that he needed to use torpedoes to sink these executioners, who were actually trying to shell Hong Kong. He couldn't imagine what huge losses would be caused if he really let a nearly 400mm cannon shell Hong Kong. The shelling of civilians sounds scary and incredible, but he knows that the British do this kind of thing a lot, especially for Hong Kong, they have a huge 'sense of shame', and the crazy commander actually ordered the shelling of Hong Kong, then, they must be sunk and punished.

However, the battleship and the undamaged cruiser were so fast that the Warrior and the other undamaged cruiser Antor sailed out of the danger zone as quickly as the submarine did. And the unlucky cruiser Dover slowly stopped, and the torpedo drilled near the waterline actually damaged the power system of the battleship with good luck, and the unlucky Dover stopped at sea.

The last two torpedoes fired by the N05 submarine only hit the stern of the Warrior, and although the Warrior who fled in a hurry was not shot through the waterline like the unlucky Dover, it also suffered some battle damage, and the speed was obviously not mentioned to the maximum, but unfortunately, the damaged Warrior was also much faster than the N05 boat.

Seeing that there was nothing to be done, Ding Jialing had no choice but to order to monitor the heavily damaged cruiser and sink it with a torpedo as soon as there was any abnormal movement.

Early the next morning, when the overhauled Dover barely sailed into the bay of Hong Kong, the citizens of Hong Kong cheered, and the navy actually captured a seriously wounded British warship, which was an unprecedented thing, and it was even more astonishing than the defeat of the British army.

At this time, a Guilin-class destroyer was ordered to escort the Dover, which was occupied by soldiers of the Southwest Army, into the port, and the task force set sail early in the morning.

The target was the two remaining British battleships, after last night's sneak attack attempt, the British had been frightened, and fled to Vietnam overnight, but this time God still did not help the British, and the remaining two British battleships that fled in a hurry were discovered by a Sky Bird reconnaissance plane at dawn because of the speed damage of the Warrior.

The task force set sail urgently, and finally at about 10 o'clock in the morning, it entered the combat distance of carrier-based aircraft.

Closely followed by the Sky Bird reconnaissance plane, the two British battleships were like two desperate British cattle, but they were damaged by the close firing of the N05 boat, and they couldn't run fast, no matter how fast they were, how could they outrun the chasing bombers.

When Colonel Sim saw a large group of fighters flying in the sky, he looked down at the battleship with damaged tail rudders, pulled out a pistol, pointed it at his temple, and silently pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

A suicide shot seemed to announce the end of the British.

In the eyes of the British Royal Sailors, the Chinese were like crazy, their bombers did not follow a single fighter, but one after another frantically dived from all directions, and several of them flew down at a tricky angle to make people palpitate, dropping heavy bombs.

Bombs rained down, and a task force consisting of two aircraft carriers took off three groups of bombers with nearly 40 sorties to carry out an air attack on the two British warships like scrap metal.

"Boom............ Rumble............ Boom ............"

Although the anti-aircraft guns placed on battleships and cruisers, which were symbolized by the British, hit the Chinese planes several times, they were surprised to find that these Chinese fighters did not explode in volley, and after violent shocks, the bombers actually flew back.

Only then did they understand that the small-caliber anti-aircraft guns needed to deal with bombers with bulletproof designs.

Of course, it was also the British who had too few anti-aircraft guns, and the first round of bombardment was almost destroyed by heavy air raids. The smoke covering the sky made the remaining few air defense units lose their targets again, passively waiting for the aerial bombs dropped by the Chinese.

In the face of several batches of fighters released by the two aircraft carriers, the two lone British battleships looked so tragic and miserable, the 30,000-ton displacement of the Jumbo Warrior, with a number of huge cannons, armed to the teeth, but it could only wait for bombing.

When the last H-1 bomber dropped its bomb, it sent back a report, "Report, the Warrior is slowly sinking!" ”

(To be continued)