Enemy shells, shells of their own people, exploded around the Umeng Mountain. The orange-red signal that was sent over and over again was completely useless because of the long distance and poor visibility. Moreover, the Xi'an-class heavy patrol relied entirely on radio fire control radar to guide the artillery during night battles, so the weak signal was likely to be used by the lookout as a flashpoint for the shell, but instead provided the coordinates for the Kumano 8 kilometers away. "Boom!" A 210-mm shell exploded at close range in the stern, and the water column tilted the stern to the right, and when Yang Tiancheng tried to stand firm, he found that the speed of the destroyer began to decline rapidly.

"What's going on? Shot there? ”

"It's a propeller, and the right propeller seems to have been hit by a near miss."

"This is going to kill me!" Yang Tiancheng and the officers looked up to the sky and sighed. What is the difference between a destroyer without speed and a target? What's even more infuriating is that it sounds like it's still your own 210mm shell! I'm going to vomit blood. The battle can be fought to this extent, and it cannot be described as unlucky. "Captain, what should I do?" The navigator's face was distorted, and his crooked mouth twitched vigorously.

"Fight, it's a big deal to be a martyr!" Since he couldn't run away, Yang Tiancheng simply broke the jar and broke it. Anger arises from the heart, evil is born to the guts, anyway, no matter which side, one must be killed, otherwise it will be death. So he grabbed the gunner's collar: "Is the torpedo reloaded?" ”

"I've got four of them."

"Okay, listen to me, get ready to launch!"

"Launch? Captain, to whom to launch. ”

"!" Yang Tiancheng glared at the stupid gun commander, picked up the phone and shouted: "The main artillery listens to my orders, the anti-aircraft bombs are prepared, and the distance of the Japanese heavy patrol is reported." ”

"8,500 yards, 8,000 yards boom boom on the port side, close miss! 7,500 yards, 7,000 yards on deck! Full rudder on the left and fire a torpedo at the Kumano! After Yang Tiancheng gave the order, the fluttering Wumeng Mountain used only one propeller. Quickly turned to the right and fired four torpedoes from the Kumano. Without waiting for the torpedo to hit the target, he shouted again: "Main gun, anti-aircraft large inclination, fire at full speed!" ”

"Boom, boom." Three twin 120-mm high-level dual-purpose guns, at a rate of 16 rounds per minute, sprayed shells into the night sky. The cannonballs that burst into the sky formed a string of dark red streamers, which were especially noticeable on rainy nights.

"Sir, something seems wrong!" This string of shells finally made the Kunming Heavy Patrol who took the lead feel strange. To know. It's the middle of the night, it's windy and rainy outside, and who will have enough to eat and nothing to do for air defense operations? "Do you want to surrender? Temporary ceasefire! Call the target with an international channel. The captain of the Kunming immediately called for a halt to the shelling, and also asked the officer to use the international channel to call the small points targeted by the radio radar. But no matter how hard the correspondent tried, the radio waves were silent like mud cows entering the sea.

"Captain, the distance is approaching!" The captain of the Kunming was confused, but the approaching distance made him dare not mess around. Just as he was about to re-shell, a fireball actually lit up behind the "Japanese ship" that was firing indiscriminately into the sky. "Bastard. Come on! You're coming! Japanese mongrel, if you want to beat me, practice for a few more years! When the gambling torpedo finally hit the Kumano, Yang Tiancheng and the sailors went crazy. has no image at all, waving his hands, jumping on his feet, and shouting hysterically to vent his anger at being chased and beaten just now.

"Sir! Morse code was discovered, and the warship that was shooting into the sky was sending Morse code. "At this point. The Kunming's lookout finally spotted the faint and faint mast signal in the waves in the dark red line of fire that shot into the sky.

"Say what?"

"Say, speak."

"Say it, say it!"

The signal said. I'm Wumeng Mountain, and it's that bastard who beats Lao Tzu. ”

“。”

The Wumeng Mountain was saved, although the light signal can drive people crazy, but you can't continue to fire at your comrades just because you are scolded a few words, right?

From running the wrong way, to miraculously crossing the enemy fleet to sneak attack the battleship Haruna, to being targeted and pinned by 28 main guns of both sides and receiving hundreds of shells, and then hitting the bow of the Japanese heavy cruiser Kumano with a torpedo, and finally being able to come up with the Wumeng Mountain that used anti-aircraft guns to inform his comrades of this night in extremely poor visibility is legendary. And the most incredible thing is that after suffering a night of crime, the destroyer Wumeng Mountain only scratched its mast, its right propeller was smashed off by a near-miss, and four sailors were slightly injured, and for a time the reputation of "Lucky Ship" spread all over the world. Afterwards, the Wumeng Mountain was awarded the collective first-class merit by the Navy, and Yang Tiancheng and the officers were both awarded the Order of Congress. Under the vigorous publicity of reporters, there are even directors who took a fancy to this story and adapted it into a movie called "Lonely Hunting", which not only made Yang Tiancheng and Wumeng Mountain famous overnight, but also made him inherit his father's business thirty years later and was elected as the president of the Republic of China.

Knowing that they could correct their mistakes, the Kunming and Nanning immediately reset their targets and aimed their fire control radars at the heavy cruiser Kumano, whose bow was on fire.

At 1:30 a.m. on April 16, seven hours before the typhoon made landfall, the outpost of the Battle of the Ryukyus, which was later hailed as the world's largest naval battle, the Battle of Nanumea entered ** (the naval battle site was at Nanumea Atoll). Realizing that they had hit the wrong target, the Nanning and Kunming adjusted in time and, under the guidance of the fire control radar, successfully locked onto the Japanese heavy cruiser Kumano, which had escaped in the Battle of the Marianas. As a treaty heavy cruiser specifically aimed at the island class of Taiwan, the Kumano was even more unlucky than the Wumeng Mountain, because it not only entered the water in the middle of the mine and the speed dropped by 5 knots, but also faced two Xi'an-class heavy cruisers with a standard displacement of 18,700 tons.

In just eight minutes, 18 210 mm/L56 naval guns with a rate of fire of up to 8 pieces per minute, under the guidance of four radio fire control radars, poured 522 330 kg extra-heavy armor-piercing shells on the Kumano, which had a significant deceleration at a distance of 14,000. Even if the hit rate was only 10 percent later, 52 armor-piercing shells in a row made even a battleship tremble. Shells exploded when they penetrated into the weak armor, and from a distance, the entire warship was covered with fireballs.

When the Kumano was beaten by two Xi'an-class ships, the battleships Ninghai and Dinghai over there began a bombardment battle that could be called "artillery training". Xu Zengtang, who had sunk the Japanese heavy cruiser Aoba in the Battle of Jinoujiao, did not expect such a scene at all. When he approached the Haruna with two battleships, thinking that there would be a bloody artillery battle, he found that the deck of the Haruna had been tilted 11 degrees, and the eight main guns could not be aimed at all.

Beat the water dogs, what a chance!

Xu Zengtang did not hesitate, ordered to close to 15,000 meters, and staged a "miserable" artillery battle with 18 L55/330 mm naval guns. In the full 27 minutes, the Haruna only fired three salvos, none of which hit, on the contrary, the Ninghai and Dinghai, under the guidance of the radio fire control radar, hit the opponent 83 times in a row, not only sweeping the entire superstructure of the Haruna, but also continuously hitting the opponent's waterline main armor belt. In the end, the extremely penetrating 330-millimeter shells hit the turret shaft and ammunition depot in succession, and after several earth-shattering explosions, the nearly 30,000-ton Haruna battleship broke into three parts, and sank in the deep sea 110 nautical miles northeast of the atoll, with Kimura and 1,315 other Japanese naval officers and men.

By five o'clock in the morning, the Battle of Nanumea was over, with both the Haruna and Kumano sunk, as well as 2 Japanese special cruisers and 12 merchant ships, and the remaining 21 merchant ships all captured. Only the faster Furutaka and the Kagu Heavy Cruiser, taking advantage of the low visibility on the sea, escaped back to Rabaul -

In the Ogasawara Islands, in Elephant's Head Bay to the east of Ogasawara Island, the Nagato and the Mutsu are docked side by side, and next to the battleships Kongo and Hiei.

In the open area in front of the bay, the six fleets or modified aircraft carriers of the Shozuru, Soryu, Hiryu, Flying Eagle, Hayayabusa, and Ryuho were full of carrier-based aircraft, and ten heavy cruisers of the Tone, Chikuma, Myoko, Nachi, Ashigara, Haguro, Takao, Atago, Maya, and Torikai were guarded in the middle floor, and there were eight light cruisers on the outermost, including the Abukuma, Isuzu, Natori, Kinu, Agano, Yasu, Noo, and Sakago, as well as more than 30 destroyers.

This was the most powerful lineup of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and in just half a year, the Rising Sun Banner quickly retreated in the Pacific Ocean with a series of sunk lists. Except for the Yamato and Musashi, which were hiding for the final battle, only the Fourth Fleet of the Philippines and the Sixth Fleet of Rabaul remained in the Pacific Ocean at this time.

In a rush of footsteps, Ugaki, chief of staff of the Combined Fleet, crumbled the telegram, walked quickly into the command tower of the Nagato, and put the telegram in front of Yamamoto Fifty-six with his head at the head: "General, it's Kimura-kun's loyal telegram!" ”

"Loyalty?!" Tsukahara 243 and Nagumo Tadashi officers next to them heard these two words, and they suddenly rose up solemnly, and they all looked at Yamamoto Fifty-six with expressionless faces.

"He's a good captain, but he's not doing his job." As if he had expected it, Yamamoto fifty-six picked up the telegram and looked at it twice, and then put it lightly on the table. Although he pretended to be like a god and had nothing to do, he was actually very distressed. Because the Combined Fleet stopped here, half of the reason was waiting for news from the Haruna. According to his plan, if Haruna can break through, then he will do his best, regardless of the Ryukyus, and go straight to Wake Island and the Marshalls, and reopen the shipping route from the Coral Sea.

Because in the eyes of the Japanese Navy, as long as there is an oil channel, then it is very uneconomical to fight a decisive battle now, at least until the battleship Musashi is outfitted. Then, after the army greatly attritioned the opponent on the Ryukyu Island, it then attacked the opponent by surprise. But Kimura did not complete the mission, not only announcing the closure of the Coral Island Passage, but also the complete defeat of the Japanese Navy in the South Pacific, and making it meaningless for the Combined Fleet to continue southward.

Now that the road to the south is completely cut off, only the last work remains.

Fight early!

"Kuroshima-kun, in my name, please contact the base camp and tell His Excellency Umezu Yoshijiro of Okinawa to carry out the Jet-1 battle plan." (To be continued......)