On the vast sea, the fleet sailed at a normal speed of 14 knots, and flocks of seabirds fluttered in the sky and on the surface of the sea from time to time, and the seabirds squeaked, and the waves crashed against the armor plates on the side of the ship, making noises from time to time.

At the railing on the side of the ship, Cheng Biguang held on to the railing and looked at the place where the sea and the sky meet, when the alarm sounded on the ship, and an officer walked over quickly and saluted: "General, our fleet has arrived at the Uraga waterway, and in two hours it will arrive at the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan.

Cheng Biguang turned around and walked towards the command cabin when he heard this, and asked as he walked: "What kind of ships are the two patrol ships on the other side and how large is their displacement?" The direction of the escape? How far is it from us? ”

"Report to the general, it is two offshore patrol gunboats, initially estimated to be less than six hundred tons, are fleeing in the direction of Tokyo Bay, about 5 nautical miles away from our fleet!"

The two walked quickly, and soon came to the top command cabin, where Shen Shoukun, chief of staff and deputy commander, was commanding, and after hearing the reminder of the officer next to him, he turned his head and said to Cheng Biguang: "Old Cheng, you are here, the other party's two gunboats of less than 600 tons are about 5 nautical miles away from us, and I have already sent two cruisers, 'Dongsheng' and 'Haichang', to pursue!" ”

Cheng Biguang picked up the telescope and looked at the sea in front of him, and saw in the telescope that there were two small gunboats with vague figures in the distance, and there were two cruisers of his own side behind him who were rapidly pursuing, Dongsheng and Zhenjiang were 4,000-ton and 3,000-ton cruisers respectively, according to the caliber of the main guns of the ship's guns, Dongsheng was a heavy cruiser, and Haichang was a light cruiser, their speed was basically the same, both had 28 knots, but Haichang was a light patrol after all, and it still had a certain advantage in speed, with a maximum speed of 29 knots. This is already the fastest light patrol in the world today.

Cheng Biguang asked while observing: "How long can we pursue the effective range of the naval guns?" ”

An officer next to him had obviously already calculated, and replied: "Report to the sir, now the other party is less than five nautical miles away from the Dongsheng and Haichang, and is already within the range of the ship's guns. According to the comparison between the speed of our warship and the speed of the opponent, you can pursue it to an effective range in five minutes at most! ”

"Hmm!" Cheng Biguang looked at it and said, "I don't know if there is a telegraph on the other side's gunboat, if there is a telegraph machine, it is estimated that the Yokosuka Naval Base already knows about our arrival." If there is no transmitter, our cruisers will catch up and sink them, and we can also catch Yokosuka Naval Base by surprise! ”

Shen Shoukun said: "Look at the figure of the other party, it should not be a newly built gunboat, if it is an old-fashioned gunboat, there should be no telegraph installed, judging from the current situation, even if Japan already knows that we are coming, there are no good measures to prevent our fleet, whether the Japanese know that we have arrived, it will not have much impact on our attack on Yokosuka." It was less than a two-hour flight from here to Yokosuka Naval Base, and even if the Japanese wanted to prepare or transfer anything, it was already too late! ”

With the current situation of Japan's naval bases, there are no air defense facilities at all, and there are no coastal defense batteries from here to the coastal area of Tokyo Bay, and the Japanese think that their naval fleet is the king and hegemon in Asia, so they have long dismantled the coastal defense batteries, and this thing can only be used by weak countries. Naval powers basically do not use shore defense batteries anymore. The Japanese had a naval fleet that could dominate Asia, and of course they did not bother to leave the huge shore defense batteries that required constant maintenance and cost to be there.

Cheng Biguang thought for a while and said: "I think it is better to take off a few fighters to quickly deal with those two Japanese offshore gunboats, on the one hand, it can delay their escape, and on the other hand, it can also give the torpedo planes some actual combat experience." Last time, our torpedo planes were spectators, and they didn't participate in the battle, Lao Shen, what do you see? ”

Shen Shoukun nodded and said, "I'll see it!" ”

"That's good!" Seeing that Shen Shoukun agreed, Cheng Biguang immediately said to the herald: "Order the No. 1 seaplane carrier to take off, one or two fighters and four torpedo planes, attack the two gunboats of the Japanese Navy in front, and let them fight steadily. Don't panic, the torpedo is put on the spot, and you have to find the right amount in advance! ”

"Yes, General!"

To tell the truth, using torpedo planes to attack small-tonnage gunboats is purely suspected of using cannons to fight mosquitoes, the tonnage of small gunboats is too small, and the length of the ships is limited, and the length of a small gunboat of five or six hundred tons is estimated to be only ten or twenty meters, and the speed of the gunboats is very fast, and it is not ordinarily difficult to hit such a small gunboat with torpedo planes.

Within a few minutes, our two pursuing cruisers had already begun to fire on the two small Japanese gunboats that were fleeing, boom, boom, boom, several cannon shots in a row, one shell after another fell around the two small Japanese gunboats that were fleeing, the shells fell into the water and exploded, and the water column rose into the sky, and the huge waves almost overturned the two small gunboats.

The carrier-based planes still took off, and after a while they caught up with the two small Japanese gunboats that were fleeing, and the fighters began to dive and strafe, while the cruisers pursuing in the rear were still firing their guns, and the torpedo planes were not to be outdone.

The captains of the two small Japanese gunboats were already about to cry, should they fight to the death like this? There were planes and machine guns in the sky, torpedo planes that dropped torpedoes, and cruisers in the back opened fire with naval guns.

The five or six hundred-ton gunboat basically had no protective armor, the deck superstructure was quickly smashed under the strafing fire of the fighters, the cockpit was in a mess, the glass was shattered, the helmsman and the captain were killed one after another, the gunboat began to spin in place because it could not be operated, a torpedo machine seized the opportunity to drop a torpedo, the pilot quickly calculated, the torpedo was in the middle of the gunboat, there was a loud "boom", and the small gunboat of five or six hundred tons was blown into two pieces on the spot.

The officers and men of the navy on the cruiser in the rear did not dare to show weakness after seeing the results achieved by the carrier-based aircraft, and the frequency of firing began to rise, and even the main guns of the 203 mm caliber ship guns also opened fire.

"Boom!" After several rounds of shelling, another small gunboat was not spared, it was hit by a 203-mm shell, it was completely destroyed, the small guns and other facilities on the deck were all destroyed, the other Japanese soldiers on the boat were all killed, the boat lost power, the side chord also broke a hole, seawater was pouring into it, although it had not sunk yet, but it was a matter of time before it sank, and after losing power, the speed quickly decreased, and another torpedo machine dropped a torpedo, hitting the bow of the small gunboat, "boom", The torpedo blew the small gunboat to the surface of the sea, and it sank less than a few minutes after it capsized.

"Solved!" A smile appeared on Shen Shoukun's face, the whole process took less than a quarter of an hour, but this is also normal, two latest cruisers, two fighters, four torpedo planes, and two small gunboats really can't be justified.

Cheng Biguang took out his pocket watch and looked at it, turned his head and said: "Old Shen, I think that we will attack Yokosuka with carrier-based aircraft first, and then clean up the mess after our fleet arrives, and not only destroy Yokosuka Naval Base today, but also bomb and shell Tokyo!" ”

Shen Shoukun thought for a while and nodded: "Yes, then send a report to the country, and after the country replies to the permission, the carrier-based aircraft will take off immediately, and now let the seaplane carrier get ready!" ”

"Good!" Cheng Biguang said to the herald: "Order, first, send a telegram to the naval headquarters, our fleet has arrived at the Uraga waterway, and it has been decided that carrier-based aircraft will take off to bomb the Yokosuka Naval Base, destroy the Yokosuka Naval Base, and then continue to bomb and shell Tokyo in Tokyo Bay, Japan, please allow the command to allow this operation!" secondly, to order the four seaplane carriers to prepare all carrier-based aircraft for take-off".

"Yes, General!" After the herald took note of the order, he turned to leave.

Yokosuka is far away from China, and now there is no land-based fighter whose combat radius can even reach this distance, unless you don't want to fly back and can bomb here, the Japanese are very clear about this, so the Yokosuka naval base has no defense at all, just to prevent the Chinese naval fleet from coming to shell, so the Yokosuka naval base has laid some mines on the surrounding waterways, but because the time is too short, the mines arranged are also extremely limited, And according to the drawings, not even a third of it was completed.

At present, the naval fleets of the vast majority of countries only use airplanes for reconnaissance, and all of them are seaplanes, and only the carrier-based aircraft that can take off and land freely on the decks of warships are the carrier-based planes of the Chinese naval fleet, and only the carrier-based planes of the Chinese naval fleet have already possessed combat capability and have formed a scale.

Half an hour later, the seaplane carrier was ready, the pilots were all in place, and some of the fighters had risen to the deck and were ready to take off.

The communications officer walked into the command compartment and saluted, saying, "Report to the commander, the command has called and approved this bombing and shelling of Yokosuka Naval Base and Tokyo!" ”

Cheng Biguang asked, "Are the seaplane carriers ready?" Is it possible to take off a carrier-based aircraft? ”

"Yes, sir, the seaplane carriers have sent telegrams, all ready!"

"Then pass my order and take off carrier-based aircraft in four batches, carrier-based aircraft on seaplane carriers No. 1 and No. 2 to bomb Yokosuka, and carrier-based aircraft on seaplane carriers No. 3 and No. 4 to bomb Tokyo! All ships of the fleet increased their speed and headed for Yokosuka Naval Base at a speed of eighteen knots per hour! ”

"Yes, sir!" (To be continued.) )xh118R1052