On the night of March 3, the Kanmon Strait in Japan.

Second Fleet of the Japanese Navy.

The Yubari-class light cruisers, with an unladen displacement of only 2,890 tons, led 10 Hakuro-class destroyers, which had just been launched before the end of last year, like Haye light boats, were shuttling rapidly through the strait. Less than 5,000 behind the two Kaohsiung-class ships is the huge main lineup of the Second Fleet of the Japanese Navy.

In the darkness of the night, the fleet, which sailed at high speed in the narrow and crooked strait, did not let out the slightest light, and all the anti-collision navigation lights were turned off, but no one in the fleet worried about accidents. After all, this is Japan's Guanmen Strait, and the high-speed passage to Guò Guanmen Strait at night is one of the daily training programs of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet, and every captain, first mate and chief navigator can complete it with their eyes closed.

But tonight's going to be a daily training isn't a daily training, it's a real naval fleet showdown! Although there were some hesitations and hesitations on the way to the Kanmon Strait, I felt that there was no need to be a martyr in this doomed war. But now, the will to fight of the officers and men of the Second Fleet has been completely ignited, and whether or not they are willing to accompany the burial of the dying Soviet Japan, this night battle at sea tonight must be fought well! Because they have gone to war and have no choice!

Chiaki Matsuda, commander of the 10th Mine Combat Squadron, known as a "geek" in the Japanese Red Navy, took a deep breath, expelled the last distractions in his heart, and stared at the pitch-black front with a pair of eyes that shone slightly in the night. The so-called mine in the noun of the Japanese Red Navy actually means torpedo. The 10th Mine Squadron consisted of 11 light cruisers and destroyers armed with 610mm caliber Type 93 spear torpedoes, and the flagship was the Yubari light cruiser. And tonight, the 10th Mine Squadron is the vanguard of the Second Fleet.

The deployment of Toyota's vice-military and Arima's Masafumi is exactly the same as Lin Zun's estimate. Take the lead and explore the path with light cruisers and destroyers, and after the capital ships and heavy cruisers. When he accepted the order, Vice Takeshi Toyoda personally told Matsuda Chiaki not to have any chance of surviving, now is the time for all the officers and men of the Second Fleet to sacrifice their lives for the country, you Matsuda is one step earlier, and I, Toyota, will soon follow!

"Comrade Commander. You look there. ”

Following the direction of Captain Yubari's finger, Matsuda saw a corner of Shimonoseki City not far away, shrouded in flames. "It's just a handful of rebels, the army will clean them up!" Matsuda's gaze turned to the front again. It seems that he wants to see through the inky night with the naked eye and find the Chinese fleet hiding behind the night. "Did you find anything from the observation posts on those islands?"

"Not yet...... Maybe tonight's action will be thrilling, right? The captain's voice was tinged with anticipation.

"Stop dreaming!" Chiaki Matsuda snorted coldly, pulling him out of his not-so-realistic fantasy. "The Storm Navy has a shipborne radar, so you don't need to get too close to the Guanmen Strait. It's fine to be 20,000 meters away. It's normal that the observation posts on those islands can't find it! ”

……

March 3, 8:35 p.m.

A rush siren sounded! The Japanese task force of the Chinese army, which was already a little nervous, was busy, and the five majestic battle cruisers began to recover, and the officers and men, who had just finished the sumptuous dinner since joining the navy in the small dining room of the ship, walked to their respective stations in an orderly manner.

"According to the analysis of the situation displayed on the radar screen, it should be their light cruisers and destroyers rushing to the front, a total of 11 of them, and then 6 larger targets behind. It is estimated that heavy cruisers, and in the rear are their main formations. There are five big guys, which are supposed to be capital ships. Lin Zun handed a handwritten report to the fleet commander Bo Fuping.

Bo Fuping and Chen Shukang stood side by side in the bridge, he did not reach out to receive the report, but asked Chen Shukang: "How far away did they release the torpedo last night?" ”

"About 15,000 meters, this is not only the number of radar observations of the Zhejiang, but all the shipborne radars give the same number jù, there should be no mistake?" Chen Shukang thought for a moment, turned his head and looked at Bo Fuping solemnly: "At such a distance, it can still hit accurately at night with extremely poor visibility, there is only one possibility, the Japanese are using manned suicide torpedoes!" ”

"Will there be a few submarines lurking on the battlefield?" Bo Fuping took out a pack of cigarettes and handed one to Chen Shukang.

"It's possible, but I'd prefer that the Japanese used a human torpedo." Chen Shukang took the cigarette, lit the fire with a lighter, and took a puff: "Last night's naval battle was in the Pacific Ocean, the waters around the battlefield were vast, and my fleet was sailing at high speed, and the two sides were not fighting for a long time, even if there were Japanese submarines underwater, it was difficult to find a chance to attack." ”

"Suicide torpedo...... These little Japan are really crazy! Bo Fuping shook his head, exhaled a puff of smoke, and turned back to ask Lin Zundao, "What is the distance now?" ”

"The straight-line distance is about 30,000 meters, at what distance can you fire?"

Bo Fuping looked at Chen Shukang, Chen Shukang thought for a while and said: "20,000 meters, anyway, our goal is not to sink a few Japanese destroyers." ”

Bo Fuping nodded and ordered: "Just 20,000 meters, pay attention to keeping a distance, don't let the enemy ships get too close, and order the patrol formation to be ready to attack and stop the enemy ships at any time...... By the way, are the submarines all ready? ”

"It's already in place." Lin Zun's voice fell, and the voice of the electronic officer of the Guangdong sounded: "Sir, the enemy ship formation has sailed out of the Guanmen Strait, at a distance of 28,000 meters!" ”

"Is the shelling plan ready?"

"At present, our side occupies a T-shaped position, which can concentrate all its firepower to attack one target, and use all its firepower to bombard the largest target...... Presumably a light cruiser. Chief of Staff Lin Zun reported loudly.

"No......" Bo Fuping waved his hand: "Let the patrol formation attack first and fire at a distance of 13,000 meters." Hit ten rounds of salvos and then retreat, luring the Japanese ship formation over to fight! Also, order the reconnaissance aircraft in the air to prepare to correct the landing point of the shells! ”

"Yes."

Wait until Lin Zun turned around and gave the order. Chen Shukang asked Bo Fuping in a low voice: "Chief Bo, is it a little early to let the patrol formation attack now?" The light cruisers and destroyers of the Japanese had heavy cruisers behind them, in case ......"

"Shu Kang." Bo Fuping interrupted his words and said with a smile: "You don't need to think about anything in case, you always have to take risks in a war, and sometimes it's just a gamble!" I'm still the same sentence, how can I know the high luck if I don't fight? ”

"26,000 meters!"

The nautical staff officer shouted loudly at this time. At this distance, if the capital ships were to open fire during the day, but it was night, and the sky was pitch black. The Japanese, who searched with the naked eye, did not know the exact location of the Chinese fleet at this time.

"Did the observation post find anything?"

On the light cruiser Yubari, Chiaki Matsuda's scalp was a little numb, although it was still pitch black ahead, but he didn't dare to take any chances. Chinese reconnaissance planes spotted the Second Fleet more than 4 hours in the afternoon. They had plenty of time to set up an ambush circle outside the Guanmen Strait! I wonder if there are forty or fifty 280mm cannons facing the Yubari that I am riding!

"Commander. There were no new reports. The captain of the Yubari shook his head, looked at the dark sea, and asked with some concern, "Are we going to continue north?" ”

"Go on!" Chiaki Matsuda said in a low voice: "The enemy must be nearby, as long as they open fire, they will be exposed, so that our capital ships and Hikoshima Fort and Guanmen Fort can find them......"

"Flares!"

Before Matsuda could finish his words, it was already as bright as day outside the porthole, and three dazzling clusters of light appeared in the sky above the 10th Mine Squadron, followed by several flares falling on the four sides of the formation. Then there was a rain of dense shells, and they hit the head and face.

Boom Boom Boom ......

The first wave of shells had already fallen, and the most recent one had even exploded 50 meters from the port side of the Yubari. A column of water several meters high rose into the air, and the huge waves even reached the deck of the Yubari.

However, whether it was Chiaki Matsuda or the ordinary sailors on the eleven Japanese light cruisers and destroyers, they all breathed a sigh of relief at the same time when they saw this wave of salvo fire from the Chinese fleet. Because these people are all old rivers and lakes who have "seen pigs running", although the scene of the shelling of the Chinese fleet is not small, the momentum of the battle patrol and even the heavy patrol shelling is still much worse in comparison, at most the 150mm naval guns are firing. In other words, it is very likely that everyone's lives will be saved, although it is still possible to sink the Yubari and Shiraro-class destroyers with 150mm first-class naval guns, but it is unlikely that these light ships will be smashed to pieces with a single shot.

Soon, the second round of shelling of the Chinese fleet began again, and the dazzling fire clusters came and went, and the landing points were much more accurate than the first round, and a few shells even fell about 10 meters from Yubari!

"The Chinese's artillery skills are really accurate!" Chiaki Matsuda wiped the cold sweat from her head and looked back at the captain of the Yubari. "Can you determine their approximate location?"

"Not yet, the distance is a bit far, and the line of sight is blocked by the Blue Island, and it may be necessary to contact the observation post on the Blue Island to determine the approximate location of the enemy......"

Matsuda Chiaki was stunned for a moment, if Blue Island blocked his view, then how did the enemy correct the ballistic landing point? Do they have clairvoyant eyes? Still is...... With radar? Or maybe you're lucky?

Raining shells fell again, and a dazzling ball of fire suddenly rose on the deck in front of the No. 1 battery in the bow of the light cruiser Yubari!

"Damn! Hit! There was a violent shake in the Yubari command tower, and Chiaki Matsuda hurriedly grabbed the handrail to stabilize his body and looked out of the porthole. In the thick of the smoke, Matsuda saw a huge hole appear in the bow of the Yubari, and from time to time there was a fire and smoke emitting from the outside.

Just when Matsuda Chiaki was in shock, the fourth and fifth salvos of the Chinese fleet hit again, and the 2,890-ton Yubari light cruiser seemed to have crashed headlong into the barrage composed of 155mm and 140mm shells.

“…… The third salvo hit the target, and in the fourth and fifth salvos, three more shells hit the Yubari. At that time, the accuracy of such an artillery bombardment was simply unbelievable, you must know that it was a night when you couldn't see your fingers! We found out later. There were several Wehrmacht naval reconnaissance planes hovering above our heads, and it was they that corrected the landing points for the Wehrmacht fleet, which is why they hit so accurately. ”

Later changed his name to Tian Qianqiu. Chiaki Matsuda, who changed his career to teach English and history at Keio University and later became a historian, wrote in his book "History of the Great East Asian War":

"The situation looked very desperate, the enemy shells kept hitting the Yubari like they had eyes, and we didn't even know where the enemy was! We have never encountered such a situation, we have never even imagined it, and at that moment we have no idea what to do? ”

In fact, "Geek" Chiaki Matsuda quickly knew what he had to do, and he made a decision that would have been debated for decades and could not be distinguished from right and wrong. After the end of the fifth salvo of the Chinese fleet. He immediately ordered the discarding of all Type 93 spear torpedoes and Red Army torpedoes, as he had been informed of the night battle between the Chinese and Japanese navies the night before. The martyrdom of the Type 93 spear torpedo caused heavy losses to the Japanese fleet!

Now that the approximate location of the Chinese fleet cannot be found, and naturally there is no chance to release a torpedo attack, there is no need to carry these torpedoes that will be hit by enemy shells at any time and explode.

However, once the 10th Mine Squadron threw away the torpedoes, its combat effectiveness was severely reduced. Not to mention the battle cruisers against the Chinese army. Even the Nanjing-class air defense cruisers of the Chinese army could not deal with it. So later, Arima Masafumi said that Matsuda's move was to throw away his weapon on the battlefield and run for his life, and he was not worthy of being a revolutionary soldier at all!

And Matsuda Chiaki defended himself: "If you don't throw away the torpedoes, the 10th Mine Squadron will not be able to complete the task of raiding the Chinese battle cruisers, because judging from the deployment of the other side, they have long understood our intentions, and there is only one result of continuing to carry Type 93 spear torpedoes to be shelled, that is, they all die, and they are worthless!" ”

It doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong in the views of Matsuda and Arima. But Matsuda's decision did put the Japanese Second Fleet in a very disadvantageous position, and at the same time frustrated most of the traps carefully laid by the Chinese Japanese task force.

……

8:48 a.m. Chiaki Matsuda's report that "all torpedoes had been discarded" was sent to the operational command center of the Akagi, the flagship of the Second Fleet, via guò radio waves.

"Baga! Matsuda, this coward, actually threw a torpedo into the sea! ”

This time, don't say it's Arima Masamune, even Toyota's vice takeshi can't help but want to slaughter Matsuda with one sword. The 10th Mine Squadron was originally in charge of a decisive assault mission, but now they actually threw torpedoes because they were afraid of death, and without torpedoes, how could they threaten the battle cruisers of the Chinese army?

"Commander, let the heavy cruisers attack!" Arima Zhengwen frowned and said: "The 6 heavy cruisers also have spear torpedoes and Red Army torpedoes, and their firepower is strong, they are not afraid of the Chinese army's air defense cruisers!" ”

Of course, there is no need to be afraid of air defense cruisers, but what about the battle cruisers of the Chinese army? But I can't care so much now, anyway, the Guanmen Strait is already the graveyard of the Second Fleet! Thinking of this, Vice Takeshi Toyoda nodded heavily and agreed with Arima Masa's construction.

At the same time, the Chinese opponents of the Second Fleet did not know that the 10th Mine Squadron had thrown away its torpedoes and became a toothless tiger. So their patrol formation, after firing 10 rounds of volleys and beating the Yubari to a serious wound and dying, retreated as planned. Bo Fuping, Chen Shukang, and Lin Zun, who commanded the battle on the battle cruiser Canton, were also confused after receiving the report that "the enemy's patrol formation was disbanded and fled."

Is this an escape? How can you escape? I wanted to use the battle cruiser to lure you away, but now I have let a few air defense cruisers and destroyers run away...... How will the next battle be fought?

"Commander, the enemy's heavy cruiser has come up!" The voice of the staff member broke the silence in the Canton Command Tower. Chen Shukang and Lin Zun looked at Bo Fuping at the same time, it seemed that there was no way to implement the original plan, and now they could only look at the command level of His Excellency the commander.

"It's okay, just use battlecruisers against them!" Bo Fuping thought for a while and ordered: "Wait for them to close the distance to 20,000 meters before firing, concentrate their firepower on one of the two largest heavy cruisers, and retreat at full speed after firing 10 rounds of salvo." ”

"Yes!"

The "two largest heavy cruisers" in Bo Fuping's mouth are actually Japan's Kaohsiung-class (named after Mount Kaohsiung in Kyoto, Japan) heavy cruisers, and in the Battle of Okinawa Island in 1932, two Kaohsiung-class cruisers were sunk by Chinese battlecruisers. And this time, it was the Kaohsiung-class heavy cruisers Maya and the heavy cruisers Chokai that appeared on the battlefield of the night battle of Kanmen.

And the size of the heavy cruisers of this class is very huge, after a round of modernization in 1935, the Maya and Chokai have a full load displacement of up to 15,781 tons! The length of the ship is 203.76 meters, which is more than 20 meters shorter than the Japanese Kaga-class battleships. Moreover, the Kaohsiung-class heavy cruiser also has a distinctive feature, which is the huge bridge like a castle. Because the Kaohsiung-class is designed as a candidate ship for the fleet flagship, the bridge needs to accommodate the facilities responsible for the fleet flagship, so it is particularly huge, coupled with the hull of more than 200 meters long, it really looks like a battleship from a distance......

"Battleship! Captain, the Japanese battleship is up! ”

The first mate of the P-031 submarine, Captain Feng Qicong, had been "watching" the battle through the guò periscope, and witnessed the Japanese destroyer formation being scattered by his own cruisers and destroyers, and at least four Japanese ships caught fire under 10 rounds of salvo, and one of the light cruisers seemed to lose power and floated on the water. I couldn't hold back my excitement for a long time, and I couldn't use a torpedo to take out this light patrol less than 5,000 meters away from my P-031 boat. However, there was an order from above, and the target of the submarine force tonight was Japanese battleships and battlecruisers, so they could only watch as the fat that could be eaten at any time could not be eaten. But fortunately, the Japanese battleships have now rushed out of the Kanmon Strait!

"Are you sure it's a battleship?" Feng Qicong's boss, Major Liu Guangkai, who graduated from the Cheung Chau Island Naval School a year earlier than him, was also trembling with excitement. The world war has been fought for more than three years, and it is the first time he has participated in actual combat! Sticking his eyes to the periscope, Liu Guangkai saw a huge Japanese warship passing through the flaming Japanese light cruiser!

Battleship!

Really a battleship!

Looking at this huge Japanese warship, Liu Guangkai's eyes were bloodshot, and he only thought about one thing in his mind, which was to sink it quickly! Since P-031 was lurking in the Kanmon Strait, a position that belonged to the Japanese Navy, he did not release a communication buoy, so he could not communicate with the outside world, and he, the captain, was the boss and had the right to give the order to attack!

"At 11 o'clock, four degrees to port."

"Maintain periscope height, the torpedo compartment is ready!"

"Ready for battle!"

Liu Guangkai suppressed his excitement and issued one order after another, but in fact, there was no need for so many orders, because the P-031 boat had long been ready for battle.

"4800 meters."

"4600 m ......"

"4000 meters!"

"3000 meters!"

Liu Guangkai's voice trembled slightly, making the atmosphere in the P-031 boat more and more tense, and drops of sweat rolled down the head and cheeks of the boatman, and everyone's eyes looked at Captain Liu. This distance is already completely within the range of the Type 533 torpedoes of the 28mm caliber equipped with the Chinese Navy. The Type 28 torpedo was produced in imitation of the British MK8 torpedo, and compared to the Japanese 93 Lance torpedo, the performance can only be described as mediocre, but very, very reliable. There is no reason to hit a battleship at a distance of 3,000 meters, and it is impossible not to blow it up if it hits, and the P-031 boat is still a large ocean-going submarine with 6 torpedo tubes in the bow and can shoot 6 Type 35 torpedoes at a time. Even if it's the Japanese Kaga, I'm afraid it would be a heavy blow if it didn't sink with so many torpedoes, right?

"Torpedoes No. 1 to No. 6 are ready, set to a depth of three meters!"

Liu Guangkai took a deep breath and roared with all his dantian qi: "Launch!" Torpedo firing from one to six! ”

Bang bang bang...... The body of P-031 shook, and six straight tracks appeared in the periscope at the same time. The entire submarine was silent at this time, and everyone stretched out their ears and waited for the roar of the explosion! (To be continued......)