() As the inferior Nantes army launched a counter-assault on all fronts, a fierce exchange of fire ensued, but due to the previous naval artillery attack and the lack of preparation for night battle, the army of the Grand Duchy of Sardinia had no choice but to retreat.

The Nantes army knew that the advantage of the road was not easy to come by, and they only bit behind the Sardinian army and did not give them the opportunity to organize their troops, so the Sardinian army, which had an advantage in strength, actually withdrew to the country after losing 80,000 people after losing 80,000 people.

The Sardinian army's clumsy performance in the war caused the Sardinian army to lose face at the top of the army, and since then the army of the Grand Duchy of Sardinia has been ridiculed by the countries of the Western Continent as the 'Sardinia Noodle Army'.

Just when the Grand Duchy of Sardinia failed in its offensive and withdrew to the country in disgrace, the first batch of new submarines built by the Chinese Consortium for the Yaman Empire arrived.

The submarine factory, which was originally small, actually produced submarines at a rate of twenty submarines per month, and the first batch of twenty submarines were delivered to the hands of the Yaman Empire after being assembled so quickly.

The submariners of the Yaman Empire have been trained for more than a month by using the ten retired Seawolf 1 submarines of the Chinese Imperial Navy under the training of instructors of the Chinese Empire.

Marshal Tiles, who was already suffocating, could no longer afford to wait any longer, and he immediately ordered twenty newly launched submarines to attack, while ten semi-new submarines stayed with their instructors to continue training new submariners.

Novices will inevitably have some problems on the road, but fortunately, the instructors of the Chinese Empire are very strict when they train, and these submariners have learned solidly, and the faults have been eliminated one by one.

These novice submariners were not yet proficient in operation and tactics, but they accepted the task of not attacking the Allied fleet, but attacking the merchant fleet, training their hands with those merchant ships that had no ability to resist, believing that these sailors could grow up quickly, and as it was, a strangulation war against the Allied sea transportation lines soon began.

"You're diving too deep, I want you to dive to a depth of five meters, it's eight meters, watch the meter or we'll be killed by you." Captain Hess of the U21 submarine scolded the crew as they were doing routine speed diving training after sailing.

For the first time, everyone sailed independently without an instructor, and even Hess, who was the captain, was inevitably a little nervous, and the average crew was even more nervous, often making some very routine small mistakes.

The helmsman immediately restored the submarine to a depth of five meters, and then smiled apologetically at Hess, Hess didn't lose his temper again, after all, he was a novice, it was understandable, to be honest, he was very easy to get angry after getting on the boat because of nervousness.

"There is a big fish, obedient, to say the least, 8,000 tons." The first mate, who was watching from the periscope, shouted, and Hess immediately ran over. Indeed, a huge freighter was slowly passing three hundred meters in front of them.

"Good opportunity." Hess excitedly picked up the communicator in the submarine: "Torpedo room, immediately load the No. 1 and No. 2 torpedo tubes." ”

"Torpedo room understood." Once the battle began, these excellent sailors forgot about their nervousness and began to work quickly according to the operating procedures.

"Three-quarters of the speed, stay on course." Hess continued to issue orders, and the helmsman's hand, which had been shaking all the time, finally stabilized, and he slowly operated the submarine with unusual composure.

"Torpedo No. 1 and No. 2 launched." Seeing that the opportunity could not be missed, Hess immediately issued an order, and the two torpedoes were pushed out of the torpedo tubes by high-pressure air, and the torpedoes sank slightly, and soon the air compressor started in the water, and the tail of the torpedo spewed a bubble and headed in the direction of the cargo ship.

Although the old torpedoes sold by the Chinese Empire to the Yaman Empire still used air compressor power, they also underwent certain improvements, mainly by adding simple gyroscopes and operable tails to the torpedoes, so that these torpedoes finally learned to walk the 'catwalk'.

Two straight lines of water quickly approached the merchant ship, and the crew of the merchant ship was unaware of the imminent threat of death. After two loud bangs, the fragile merchant ship was directly blown into several sections and gradually sank to the bottom of the sea.

"Float." Captain Hess commanded loudly, and the submarine quickly surfaced. Captain Hess led his crew to the narrow deck, admiring his prey.

The first mate bent down and found a distorted can from the water and said: "It's a ship with food, depending on the situation, it's canned food unique to the Chinese Foundation, but the ship is still from the Saar Empire." ”

The sailor on the side said: "If only we didn't use torpedoes, we can capture some canned food to eat, and I feel a little sick to my stomach when I eat those slimy military rations every day." ”

The first mate said: "Yes, this way we can also save torpedoes, after all, we can't bring many torpedoes at a time, and we have to go back to resupply them when we run out." ”

Captain Hess looked at the wreckage of the freighter and said, "I don't mind going back to resupply, but I would rather fight warships like my counterparts in the Chinese Empire." As a captain, when he was listening to the instructor's lectures, he once studied the example of the first battle of the Chinese Imperial Submarine Force against the Saldon Continental Fleet.

With the experience of the first successful operation, the crew's operation became smoother and smoother, and after several battles, his torpedoes were finally exhausted, and the shells of the deck guns were running out, so they had to turn around and return to the sea.

"Hess, how are you feeling this time?" Hess had just come ashore when a captain with a cigar in his mouth approached.

As soon as Hess turned around and found that it was his good friend, the captain of another submarine, Mondale, he smiled and said, "Not bad, a total of four merchant ships have been sunk, with a total tonnage of about 35,000 tons." ”

"So much?" Mondale was surprised: "You really deserve to be the first place in the previous assessments, and you made such a big move on your first voyage." I sank only one ship, or a coal carrier, which was only about 4,000 tons in total. ”

Hess patted his good friend on the shoulder and said, "It's already very good, I'm just lucky." What do you think? I heard that I have to rest for two days when I return to Hong Kong, so let's find a few old friends to have a drink. ”

Mondale nodded and said, "Of course, I'll call someone, this time I want you, the big hero, to have a treat, let's go to the best hotel and spend your winnings." ”

Within a few days, the Admiralty of the Saar Empire received a large amount of information claiming that dozens of merchant ships had been sunk by mysterious weapons, and strangely according to the reactions of the surviving sailors, these merchant ships had not seen warships in the vicinity before, so a large number of naval cruisers were sent out to search for the mysterious attackers.

"Captain, where are we going this time?" The helmsman asked excitedly, after the last voyage and several battles, he was no longer nervous.

Hess smiled and said, "Let's go to Liverpool Military Port." ”

"What?" The first mate on the side exclaimed, "The defense there is very tight." ”

Hess laughed, "That's right, but they don't know that they can attack underwater, and we have a very good chance of success." ”

Because of Hess's excellent performance last time, all the crew members of the U21 submarine were regarded as heroes, and now they are very convinced of Hess, and they are all eager to attack the military port after hearing Hess's explanation.

Taking advantage of the darkness of the night, the U21 submarine, which had fully charged its batteries, quietly dived into the water in a small harbor near the Liverpool military port and began to approach the military port at a slow speed.

From time to time, Hess raised his periscope to observe the surrounding situation, and then quickly lowered it to prevent detection by the enemy, and the crew in charge of the hydrophone kept an eye on even the slightest sound in the headphones.

In order to be able to increase the underwater range as much as possible, the submarine traveled at the most economical speed of five knots, and it took two hours to reach the entrance of the military port.

Hess raised his periscope again and observed: "Heading 093, a quarter full speed, let's go to the small harbor." ”

This operation was very dangerous, because the attack on the military port and the round-trip voyage almost reached the limit of the underwater range of the Seawolf 1 submarine, so Hess had to hurry up and recharge again in order to have more maneuvering ability.

Entering the small harbor, the U21 submarine was moored under a coal ship, and the security in the military port was very lax at this time, especially in this inconspicuous small corner, and the coal ships with little military value were docked, so there would be no guards here at all.

The U21 submarine took advantage of the cover of the coal carrier to extend the snorkel out of the sea, the diesel engine was turned on to charge the battery, and Hess also took advantage of the shadow of the coal carrier to stretch out the periscope to carefully observe the virtual reality in the military port.

Liverpool Military Harbour is one of the most important military ports of the Sahr Navy, where a detachment of the Saar Navy's home fleet is docked, with one Zhonghua ship and three former Zhonghua ships (the 'Zhonghua' class battleships became a watershed, and the same full-caliber main gun battleships as the 'Zhonghua' class became the Chinese ships, and the former ones equipped with secondary main guns were called the former Chinese ships), in addition to eight old ironclads and as many as thirteen cruisers and a large supply fleet.

Hess had come here for warships, but he knew very well that with the power of torpedoes, one or two of the new battleships would not have much effect, so he set his sights on the old ironclads and cruisers.

The Brave is the last rank of the Sar Empire's ironclad ship, and although it has a displacement of up to 11,000 tons, due to the appearance of the Rantei-class battleship, it has become a phased product and can only be used as a support firepower for the fleet.