Episode 79 Shelling of Brimstone Ships

At six o'clock in the morning, the Zhengde took Li Guang and two destroyers.

In the distance, the rolling hills can be seen faintly at sea level. That's Japan itself. The mountain on the right is Honshu Island, and the mountain on the left is Hokkaido. There is a rare section of the middle where there is no mountain, and that is the entrance to the Tsugaru Strait.

The captain of the Zhengde ordered the destroyer Doumu to stay here and monitor the movements of Japanese ships in the direction of the Sea of Japan. At the same time, it also listens on submarines to prevent Japanese submarines from sneaking into the strait, and then give the Zhengde a while.

Then, with Li Guang and another destroyer, the Shingetsu Fox, the Zhengde swaggered towards the Tsugaru Strait.

The three Ming warships faced the rising sun in the east, chopping the waves, the Ming military flag hunting and fluttering on the mast, and the black smoke of the heavy oil boiler rolled out from the top of their heads from time to time. Although there were only three ships left in the entire fleet, they were still majestic and formidable.

"Ahead - ship target!!" The observer of the destroyer at the forefront, holding a telescope, shouted at the top of his voice, "Direction-032!" Distance – 15000 meters!! ”

Immediately afterwards, another observer also shouted at the top of his voice:

"Ship Category - Unknown!! Nationality - unknown!! ”

Suddenly, the sound of battle sirens sounded throughout the ship. The sailors who had just finished breakfast at their combat posts jumped up at this time, put on their steel helmets, bulletproof vests and life jackets again, and shook their guns of various calibers with their hands and feet, all pointing their barrels forward.

Although the officers and men had experienced a desperate battle in the middle of the night, they still did not see fatigue and still seemed to be in high spirits.

At sea level ahead, a mast was exposed, and there was a puff of black smoke. Now it can only be said that it is a ship, as for what kind of ship, it is not yet visible.

The Xinyue Fox immediately used the signal light to report to the Zhengde in the rear. Zhengde ordered the Xinyue Fox to move forward at full speed and go to investigate. The Xinyue Fox screamed twice in the loudspeaker, and the whole immediately made a lot of noise, and the stern of the ship churned several times the white waves, and the speed of the ship quickly increased to 28 knots.

The steel warship of more than 1,000 tons is like a speedboat at this moment, undulating greatly on the sea surface, and the sharp bow of the ship plunges into the water and comes out again, bringing surging white waves on both sides. The sailors of the machine gun group and the torpedo group on the deck were covered by the waves, but one by one they were still nailed to the deck like iron towers, as if their feet had taken root.

Soon, the ship at sea level in the distance was revealed. As soon as the upper part was revealed, the destroyer's observer stared at the telescope and shouted:

"Target - Freighter !!"

Immediately, several other observers gave the same signal.

The Heart Moon Fox immediately sent a signal light to the Zhengde in the back.

Now the whole fleet is relieved again. When the discovery of black smoke and masts at sea level was reported just now, everyone's hearts were in their throats. Everyone thought it was the Kongo detachment that was blocking from the outside. If that's the case, it's going to be another tough battle. And it is the only two capital ships, dragging the crippled body, outnumbered, and less vicious.

The Zhengde in the rear also picked up speed and rushed forward. The distance between the Xinyue Fox in front and the freighter on the opposite side was getting closer and closer, and after a while, the other party's flag was clearly visible.

"Target Nationality – Japanese !!"

With such a shout, the officers and men of the Xinyue Fox seemed to have injected a shot in the arm, and everyone became excited. Everyone is gearing up and ready to slaughter.

The Zhengde in the back rushed forward with black smoke, and at the same time used the light to signal to the Li Guang behind it:

"Attack with me!"

……

The distance between the Ming destroyer and the Japanese cargo ship was only a few kilometers. And the other party didn't seem to know what was going on, and still drove forward with his head straight, without any intention of slowing down or turning around.

The captain of the Heart Moon Fox stood on the bridge, holding on to the railing, holding the binoculars and observing carefully, thinking to himself, the Japanese captain was probably also confused. He ate maritime food, and he must have recognized the flag of the Ming Navy, but he probably never saw it. Because the Ming navy has never been here.

Even the Japanese captain may not have known that the two countries were at war. The Japanese army attacked the Ming Dynasty in the middle of the night a few hours ago, and at that time, the civilian port of Hakodate was probably still asleep.

The Heart Moon Fox did not slow down, still moving forward at high speed with surging white waves, and sailed 500 meters from the side of the Japanese freighter. The two boats passed by.

It is a freighter of about 5,000 tons, and the bow of the ship is painted with the name of the ship: Shinkawa Maru. On the deck, dozens of sailors clung to the railing, scrambling to look at the Ming destroyer, pointing fingers and arguing loudly with each other.

These Japanese sailors only saw the Ming sailors on the deck of the destroyer, wearing steel helmets and body armor, guarding the gun emplacement, glancing coldly towards this side, with a mocking smile on their faces.

The mission of the Heart Moon Fox is not to deal with this cargo ship, but to hurry into the strait, check the situation in the strait, and then quickly cross the strait to the entrance to the Pacific Ocean on the other side, where it looks out for the wind and beware of the sudden appearance of the Kongo detachment.

……

At this time, the sailors on the Shinkawa Maru noticed an even more spectacular scene - the battleship Zhengde was covered in a fiery red morning sun and sailed head-on.

When the distance between the two ships was still more than 3,000 meters, the No. 1 turret of the Zhengde turned slightly sideways, and the two gun barrels slowly lifted, suddenly spewing out a large ball of flames.

The sea surface was instantly pushed away by the shock wave, and before the people on the Shinkawa Maru could understand what was going on, and before they could even hear the sound of cannons, the whole ship fell into an earth-shattering explosion.

A 15-inch shell slammed into the unarmored hull of the Shinkawa Maru and exploded violently, causing half of the deck of the 5,000-ton cargo ship to be torn off by the blast line, and the cranes and elevators on the deck were also broken in the billowing smoke, and the whole thing was planted into the sea.

Smoke and fire continued to erupt from the gaps in the deck and cracks in the hull, the flames became more and more intense, and white smoke continued to pour out, and the entire hull began to tilt.

There are probably not a few sailors left on the Shinkawa Maru who died. Only a few people, covered in fire, waved their limbs over the railing and jumped into the sea.

The Zhengde didn't bother to fire a second shot, and it didn't even slow down, and went straight to the entrance of the strait.

Li Guanghao, who was behind, caught up and didn't slow down, but when he drove past the Shinkawa Maru, he turned the No. 4 rear turret, and the two main guns fired a salvo. Two more 8-inch shells hit the body of the freighter and exploded, which really disintegrated the Shinkawa Maru completely.

The freighter's body was broken in half, and the bow and stern were raised high and sank rapidly.

The officers and men on the Zhengde and Li Guang were very excited. After a great battle at night and the loss of so many brothers, I finally felt a little pleasure of revenge.

However, they looked at the Japanese freighter, and it seemed a little weird. First of all, there was a large amount of white smoke spewing out of the hull, which was extremely strong, and now a pungent smell could be smelled from hundreds of meters away. And the flames on the ship were so fierce that they were spewing out almost through the windows and cracks, but there wasn't much burning oil slick on the surrounding water.

Suddenly, some sailors said:

"Brimstone! The cargo in the Japanese ship is sulfur! ”

Everyone understands it at once. Sulfur is a very important military raw material, and it is also a very important chemical raw material, and Japan is rich in sulfur. Needless to say, this shipload of sulfur was to be transported to the Soviet Union in exchange for supplies needed by Japan.

Now, even the ship with its cargo is lying on the bottom of the sea.

……

The Shingetsu Fox sailed into the Tsugaru Strait, slowed down a bit, and headed straight for the northeast, the entrance to the Pacific Ocean. The Tsugaru Strait is more than 90 kilometers long, that is, about 50 nautical miles, and is narrow at both ends and wide in the middle. The narrowest point at both ends is about twenty kilometers, while the widest point in the middle is forty or fifty kilometers.

In the middle of the wide section, the north shore is the port of Hakodate, and the south shore is a recessed bay called "Mutsu Bay", dozens of kilometers deep, and the bay is Aomori Port and Aomori Prefecture. However, it was impossible for the Ming fleet to venture deep into the Mitsu Bay, which was several tens of kilometers deep, so it only chose Hakodate on the north shore as the target for attack.

The Kogetsu Fox traveled at high speed, along a slightly northerly course in the strait, from a few kilometers off the southern coast of Hakodate Port, carefully observing the port city with binoculars along the way. And the people in the port of Hakodate, the people on the beach in Hakodate City, and thousands of people are also looking at the Shingetsu Fox. For such a civilian port, it is always more attractive to have warships passing by, and many people will climb to a high place to watch.

But just now, in the loudspeakers of the radio and various public places, a majestic "March of the Warships" first sounded, and then an announcer impassionedly announced that in order to punish the Ming State for its long-standing provocation against the Great Japanese Empire, to protect the security of Japan's territory and territorial waters, and to protect the Japanese people, the Imperial Japanese Army had launched an attack on the Ming army in Manchuria in the early hours of this morning.

By now, most Japanese throughout Japan already knew that the two countries were at war. The Japanese in Hakodate are no exception. Therefore, this morning they saw a warship passing by at high speed outside the harbor, and they all showed several times the usual attention, and they waited and watched. But at this distance, it is difficult to distinguish the flag on a warship with the naked eye.

And a small number of Japanese with telescopes, such as the captains of the ships in the port, the navigators and foremen of the docks, have clearly seen with binoculars, it is a Ming warship.

Soon, tension began to spread in the Hakodate port area. The Japanese didn't know what to do, and they didn't know what the Ming warships were going to do. It looks like it's just one, and it's just going to pass by.

But...... After about ten minutes, the real panic began to spread rapidly from the west side of Hakodate Port to the east side.

Because far to the west, a huge battleship appeared. The battleship was spewing black smoke and was murderous. And those who are looking forward to the telescope can barely tell that the flag on the warship belongs to the Ming army.