Episode 164 The Hunt of the Wei Qing

The cruiser Weiqing has been at sea for more than a month.

It sailed from Zhanjiang Port in Guangdong on December 12 and crossed the Philippine Islands on the 25th into the western Pacific Ocean. After sailing eastward for five days, away from the Ryukyu Islands, on the 17th, the Weiqing turned northeast and entered the busier Pacific route. This route is mainly a trade route for some countries and regions along the coast of East Asia, such as the Ming Dynasty, Japan, the Soviet Union, the Southeast Asian colonies of Britain, France, the United States and the Netherlands, and Australia and South American countries. Now that the U.S. has stopped trading with Japan in steel and oil, Australia and South American countries have become Japan's largest trading partners. These resource-rich areas continued to fuel Japan's war machine.

Australia, South American countries, and some European countries, in short, as long as it is possible to conduct large trade with Japan, have received notes from the Ming government. They were told: now Japan and the Ming are belligerents, and the Ming is waging a war blockade of Japan. In accordance with the Hague Convention on Maritime Capture by Belligerents in Naval Warfare, if your merchant ship sails to Japan with prohibited cargo, it will be seized or sunk by our navy if it is discovered.

In response to Daming's note, European countries and Australia took it more seriously, prohibiting their own merchant ships from providing cargo transportation for Japan, insisting that Japan must send ships to transport goods at their own risk, and we only sell things, not carry them. After all, these European countries and the Ming Dynasty are inextricably linked with interests, both political and economic. Several European powers have great interests in Asia, either colonies or commercial interests, and they are more or less dependent on good relations with the Ming Dynasty. Australia, in particular, is not only close to Daming, but also its largest trading partner. None of these countries wanted to offend the Ming Dynasty for the sake of Japan.

But those South American countries are different. Daiichi Daming is not the biggest customer in South America, at least not bigger than Japan. Second, all countries in South America are far away from Daming, even if Daming is offended, Daming can't do anything to them. And unlike European countries, they have few political and commercial interests to defend in Asia. Therefore, South American countries basically ignored the note of the Ming Dynasty and did not prohibit their own shipowners from providing freight for Japan. This can make a lot of money, because the CIF price in Japan is very high.

And now, the Weiqing is on this route, and has begun to search for the Japanese fleet bound for Japan, as well as the Japanese fleet bound for other regions.

On 19 December, the Weiqing intercepted a Japanese merchant fleet sailing from Australia. This merchant fleet consisted of eight cargo ships, escorted by two destroyers. The Weiqing easily sank two Japanese destroyers before ordering the merchant fleet to stop for inspection. Probably because the cruiser looked much more deterrent than the submarine, five merchant ships accepted their fate on the spot and stopped for the Ming sailors to board. There were also three Japanese merchant ships that were more backbone, refusing to stop the ship, but speeding up to escape.

Wei Qing didn't even chase after him, but just raised his main cannon, and a few guns reimbursed all three merchant ships. Next, Ming sailors boarded the remaining five Japanese merchant ships for inspection. Although the Ming army knew that it must be "contraband" on the ship, this transition still had to be done. The Weiqing is not a submarine, but a cruiser, with sufficient speed, firepower, and deterrence, and is fully qualified to act in accordance with international conventions, and there is no need to let others grasp the handle and say things.

Sure enough, the five cargo ships were full of iron ore. Therefore, the officers of the Ming army read out the relevant articles of the "Convention on the Restriction of the Exercise of the Right of Capture in Naval Warfare" on the spot, and then imprisoned the Japanese crew members on the cruiser, and then "Dangdangdang" bombarded and sent five Japanese cargo ships to the bottom of the sea. Then, the Weiqing continued its cruise, unleashing its seaplanes and searching the fleet.

On December 23, the seaplane of the Weiqing searched for a Brazilian cargo ship sailing from the East, and it was suspected that it was bound for Japan. So the Weiqing increased its speed, caught up with it six hours later, and intercepted the ship. The sailors of the Ming army boarded the ship to inspect and found that it was full of iron ore. In the captain's cabin, customs documents and cargo documents were found, which proved that it was destined for Japan. So, the Ming sailors captured the Brazilian crew of the ship, locked it in the cargo hold of the cruiser with the Japanese, and then sank the Brazilian merchant ship with a few shots.

On Christmas Day, December 25, Wei Qing intercepted another Argentinian-flagged cargo ship, which was a shipload of copper ore, and the documents on board also proved that it was a Japanese order. The Weiqing sank the Argentine cargo ship again. The hapless Argentine captain and crew spent a Christmas of a lifetime in the gloomy and crowded hold of the Weiqing.

On 2 January, the Weiqing's seaplanes found a large Japanese convoy of 20 cargo ships and four tankers, escorted by eight destroyers, heading from south to north. It is estimated that this was opened from the European side of the Soviet Union, probably from the south of Australia, avoiding the Nanyang sphere of influence of the Ming Dynasty, and was not discovered. The Weiqing increased its horsepower and caught up with the convoy eight hours later.

But when they caught up, they were already very close to Okinawa, and they were already within the combat radius of Okinawa dive bombers. The Weiqing did not dare to engage in a slow artillery battle with the Japanese destroyers at a long distance, and it hoped for a quick victory. Therefore, the Weiqing gave up the range advantage, increased its horsepower and rushed to a distance of several kilometers, and engaged in an intensive artillery battle with eight Japanese destroyers.

Although the Japanese destroyers had only 120 mm guns, they were well-trained and had excellent gunnery. They lined up in a line, completely deployed all the main guns of the eight warships, and concentrated their firepower on the Weiqing with the "T" prefix tactically. At the same time, let merchant ships and oil tankers accelerate their evacuation.

The Weiqing also turned sideways over the hull, fully deploying the four main gun turrets and half of the secondary guns, bombarding the Japanese destroyers one by one.

In such a face-to-face artillery battle, both sides soon tasted each other's shells. Within 15 minutes, four Japanese destroyers were destroyed, and the Weiqing itself was hit by more than ten 120mm shells, and the rear bridge armor was damaged. The Wei Qing is now slightly injured, and is no longer in love with war, and does not want to have three long and two short in order to attack a merchant fleet. So, while turning the muzzle of the gun, the Wei Qing turned to shell the tanker, and at the same time turned its course and broke away from the battle.

And the Japanese fleet also wanted to get rid of this "beast" as soon as possible, the remaining four destroyers took cover at the end, and the rest of the merchant ships and tankers increased their horsepower and fled. But the Weiqing is a cruiser, and one of the conditions for being called a "cruiser" is to be able to be a powerful weapon platform that can attack multiple targets at the same time. As soon as the Wei Qing got out of the face-to-face "battle" artillery battle and got rid of the unfavorable position of the "T-shaped", nearly half of the artillery was immediately vacated. It shelled one Japanese destroyer on one side and two tankers on the other.

Twenty minutes later, the two sides gradually disengaged, leaving only some water columns rising far away. And by this time, one tanker had already sunk, and the other was on fire, burning crookedly.

Now, the Wei Qing is about to flee quickly.