"A bunch of horse manure that doesn't know anything..."

Standing in the bridge and looking at the officers and soldiers on the deck who seemed to be in a good mood, Kimura, the captain of the transport ship, said with some disdain in his heart.

The contradiction between the Japanese army and navy can only be described as classical, and even the captain of the transport ship Kimura looked down on these army 'horse manure' on his ship. To be honest, the contradictions between these two branches of the armed forces are also a little strange, after all, if it were other countries, there might be some contradictions between the different branches of the military, but it is absolutely impossible to be so big, at least on the surface, they can still be harmonious, and if it is for the sake of national interests, they can also put aside an old grudge. Like the Japanese, the two branches of the armed forces are like enemies.

Even though it's a time of war, both sides still hope that the other will die...

In addition to the old grudge between the two services, there is another reason why Kimura will look down on these armies, and this reason is the same as he said, because they don't know anything...

At present, the news about the war in Shandong in Japan is actually in a state of blockade, except for a 'Longkou Bay' that is really impossible to hide, other things are almost completely concealed by the Japanese government―――――― there is no way, just Longkou Bay has made Okuma Shigexin they are anxious, how can they let the ordinary people know that even on land they are fighting very hard.

Even with it, including those Japanese officers and soldiers on the deck, most of the people knew the news was just that the army's war in Shandong was not going well, as for the rest? That's not something they can know.

However, Kimura is a well-informed person, so he knows very well that the war in Shandong can no longer be described as unsmooth. Even failure is not impossible. Thinking that the empire is likely to be defeated in the war, how can Kimura feel better? Even with the already not very good temper, it has deteriorated a lot.

"But this voyage is really smooth..."Seeing that Kimura's mood was not very good, a middle-aged man named Honda standing next to him chuckled softly. Listen to the news. The Chinese fleet is now docked at the docks in Shanghai and Fuzhou and is not moving, and there should be no problems with this voyage..."

"It's hard to say," Kimura shook his head. Chinese In addition to the fleet, there are submarines, and Vice Admiral Kato suffered a big loss in Longkou Bay because he underestimated this thing......... I'm afraid the consequences are unimaginable..."

"Don't worry, that time it was because it was defenseless, but this time it was prepared. It won't be so bad, not to mention that even if the Chinese plan to start with us, what can they do without intelligence? There is no time. There are no routes, and even the news of our departure is not clear, but this trip is still very safe..."

It is not clear that the information has actually been leaked, Honda said with a smile. Apparently confident in this voyage.

However, Kimura did not dare to think so. I don't know what the reason is, he always feels that something is wrong.

"Do the Chinese really not know that we are coming? Could it be that the Chinese just let us send those 'horse manure' of the army to Shandong? ”

Although Kimura felt that he was not very smart, judging from the unsmooth war in Longkou Bay and Shandong, he did not think that the Chinese were easy to deal with. And if something really happened, even with so many ships around him to escort him, he still felt a sense of unease.

But after all, he was only a small transport captain, and he could only obey orders from above. So no matter how uneasy he was, he could only choose to obey.

――――――――――――――――――――

Actually, it's not just him. Even the captains of the escort ships were nervous. Although they suffered heavy losses in the battle of Longkou Bay, this does not mean that they are stupid. It's just that I didn't expect the Chinese to use submarines like this. Now that they have learned their lesson, of course, they dare not take it as lightly as they used to Chinese―――――― although for them, it is better that all the 'horse manure' of the army is dead.

Even if there was no death order from above, it was not impossible that they would have thrown all the army on the ocean and waited for death. But this time they and the army people can be regarded as grasshoppers tied to a rope, although after the Chinese submarines come, they must first stare at the transport ships loaded with the army, but as escort ships, they must be very obstructive in the eyes of the Chinese, and at that time, unless they don't want to die, they can only find a way to save their own lives while taking into account the protection of the army.

Moreover, many of these captains had just returned to the mainland from Shandong and were on the task of escorting the ship, and they knew very well how bad the war in Shandong was, and they had personally experienced the battle of Longkou Bay, that nightmarish morning, so it can be said that they did not dare to be careless at all. Many people in the navy even looked at the surrounding sea with wide eyes, hoping to find some clues.

It's a pity that submarines are still a relatively new kind of technical equipment in this era, and there are no anti-submarine equipment such as sonar in this era, and the overall level of anti-submarine is not very high, so all the way down, they can say that they have not found anything.

Although nothing was found, it seems to be a good thing.

But no one knows if there is something hidden under the sea in this vicinity, and this sense of uneasiness in the face of the unknown also worries them.

At the same time, while these captains were still sailing quietly as usual, under the water, Gong Rang and the others were also ready to fight.

They sacrificed a lot for this attack.

First of all, after the battle of Longkou Bay, the entire submarine force was hidden in the Qingdao Fortress, carrying out repairs and other tasks, it can be said that after so many days, the palace let them not even go out of the Qingdao fortress once, which also made the palace make them complain in their hearts, if it weren't for the fact that the Fuzhou Shipping Administration Bureau sent a lot of submarines that had not yet carried out sea trials, so that the palace made them feel that things might not be as simple as they thought, maybe they would have united and ran to the commander of the fortress to protest.

After that, the original submarines were included, plus the new submarines. The number of submarines in the entire Qingdao fortress reached as many as 24, and after some inspection of the new submarines, they set off with Gong Rang and others a few days later. One of the routes to Japan, also Shandong...

It was at this time that they finally understood the orders given to them from above.

"The ambush is carrying two divisions of the army, and the fleet is heading for Shandong from the Japanese mainland..."

God knows how excited the palace was when they received this order from the mouth of the commander of the fortress.

At this time, even if you are not a very smart person, you can think clearly about how much it means if you use your brain a little. Two divisions? That's tens of thousands. Even for the Japanese, the loss of tens of thousands of people at once was a difficult loss to bear, after all, after mobilization. Japan's army strength is only about 500,000, and if it were to do so all at once, it would almost be equivalent to reducing one-tenth of its strength all at once...

Moreover, the Japanese army in Shandong will also fall into an isolated and helpless situation, and some news is clear to them. For example, in the north, two infantry divisions are rushing to Shandong. As long as it arrives. Then the strength of the national defense army in Shandong will be close to 200,000, almost twice as high as the Japanese army, plus now the war in Shandong is going well, let alone defeated, even if it is not impossible to annihilate it―――――― provided that these tens of thousands of people do not arrive in Shandong on time, otherwise in the face of more than 100,000 Japanese troops, only tens of thousands of troops, it is not easy to annihilate them all.

It is precisely for the total annihilation of such a big fish. They have been lurking in this waterway these days. It was also not clear to them why the commander was so sure that the Japanese fleet would pass through here, but since the order was so. Naturally, they only have to perform.

Moreover, they are not unclear about the existence of the Special Affairs Bureau, in their opinion, this information is likely to be obtained by the Special Affairs Bureau, otherwise it would not be possible for the above to be so clear about the movements of the Japanese army.

Again, in order to avoid startling the snakes, during the lurking during these days, although Japanese transport ships passed by them many times, they did not show up to ambush them.

After all, if they really do it, the Japanese are likely to wake up, and if they change the route, they will just take away the big meal that is coming here for the sake of a few transport ships, which is a bit more than worth the loss...

They endured it for days...

However, as a good hunter, it always takes some patience to wait for the prey they need most.

Now, these days of patience are finally bearing fruit...

――――――――――――――――――――

Holding the periscope tightly, Miyayo held his breath and stared at the Japanese fleet on the water, counting down the time they entered the ambush circle. At the same time, there was a dead silence in the submarine, almost no sound, all of them were looking at Gong Rang in the center, quietly waiting for his order.

didn't know what his subordinates were thinking, Gong Rang just silently counted.

"Fifty..."

At this time, the Japanese were still a little far from the ambush circle...

"Thirty..."

It's not very far away anymore ...

"Twenty..."

"Ten..."

"Do it!" Seeing that the Japanese had entered the ambush circle, Gong Rang suddenly shouted in a low voice.

After receiving the order, the crew, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately became busy, and almost the next moment, two torpedoes had already been fired from the submarine, drawing two white lines on the blue sea.

At the same time, more than two dozen submarines in ambush in other positions also moved at the same time, and soon the sea around the fleet was covered with white lines drawn by torpedoes.

The flagship of the entire escort fleet is the only remaining Kongo-class battle cruiser in the Japanese fleet, that is, the second ship of the Kongo-class 'Hiei'. What should I say, because the "Kongo" was originally produced by the United Kingdom, and the "Hiei" was produced by Japan, and the British shipbuilding technology was more developed than Japan, so although the "Kongo" ship was put into service earlier than the "Hiei", in fact, the performance of the "Kongo" ship was much stronger than that of the "Hiei", so when the "Kongo" ship sank in Longkou Bay, it dealt a great blow to Japan...

However, considering that Japan did not have many capital ships at this time, and the remaining ones were not suitable for escort missions, this time the 'Hiei' served as the flagship of the entire escort fleet.

In fact, the 'Hiei' is indeed more suitable for escort missions, and as for the other capital ships―――――― the capital ships in the Japanese fleet at the moment. There are only a few old, weak, sick and disabled left, except for a quasi-dreadnought-class 'Settsu' ship, and many of the rest are not even younger than Yan Shao. It's better to stay near Longkou Bay...

Inside the watchtower on the Hiei, two soldiers were staring boredly at the sea. Since the Hiei's watchtower was very good, the earth was not flat, and there was nothing around to obstruct the view, so the two of them could see a long distance from it.

If ordinary people had reached such a position, I am afraid that they would have been excited for a long time.

In fact, the two sailors did the same at first, only after the excitement had passed. Always looking at the same scenery, the two of them have become a little tired and tired.

But they had experienced that morning in Longkou Bay, and they still remembered the situation that day. So I don't dare to be careless. Even though I was tired of it, I tried to look at my surroundings.

Immediately after, they saw two white lines suddenly appear on the surface of the sea, and then a scene that frightened them happened. White lines appear out of thin air on the surface of the sea. Rushing towards the fleet at a very high speed...

Of course, the two of them knew what the white lines represented, and soon the alarm on the 'Hiei' was sounding throughout the battle cruiser, followed by the other escort ships around it, and a moment later, the alarm had completely enveloped the entire fleet.

"Quick, do evasive maneuvers...", looking at the torpedoes that suddenly appeared around, Nanataro Takagi ordered urgently, he was also the first captain of the 'Hiei'.

"Yes!"

Soon, the 'Hiei' made evasive moves according to Takagi's orders. This is probably the best way to deal with torpedoes. In fact, the best way to avoid a submarine attack is not any equipment, but precisely the speed of the ship. As long as the speed is fast enough, it is natural that the submarine has no way. On the other hand, it's a bit unlucky.

Of course, if you're unlucky enough, you shouldn't have mentioned it.

There were other ships that followed the 'Hiei' in evasive maneuvers, after all, they had already tried these torpedoes when they were in Longkou Bay, and now they didn't want to try again. Even the transports that had been protected by the escort fleet followed suit to evade them, but they were slow to do so because they were carrying too many people.

In fact, even if there were no people above, their movements would not be much faster, after all, they were just some transport ships.

――――――――――――――――――――

In the face of the offensive of the submarine forces, the entire fleet was in a panic.

For them, this is the first time they have been attacked by a submarine at sea, although there was also one in Longkou Bay, but at that time they were all berthed, they couldn't move at all, and they basically didn't accumulate any useful experience except for being beaten, so this time they seemed very flustered.

Forget about those escort ships, after all, they are regular warships, they are more mobile, and they are all long-trained crews, although the offensive of Gong Rang and others caught them a little off guard, but they are still very skilled in evasive actions.

The problem is that those transports ...

In this era, there were no professional transport ships, and most of the so-called transport ships were actually converted from some civilian ships, and some of them were even requisitioned by civilian ships―――――― which is not surprising, after all, even Japan's first seaplane carrier 'Wakanomiya Maru' was converted from British merchant ships.

Therefore, although there are some officers like Kimura on the transport ship, many of them are actually ordinary people. Even officers like Kimura were trained to protect against torpedoes in the past, so the entire transport fleet was in a hurry after being ambushed.

Even if it's a regular warship, it often happens that they collide with each other, isn't this the case with the Australian Melbourne in later generations, even if there is no problem, it still collides with friendly ships, not to mention this panic moment, maybe those warships can avoid it better, but those transport ships...

Not long after the 'Hiei' and other ships had just raised the alarm, and before the torpedoes that Miyaya had asked them to fire had arrived, they saw two transport ships crashing into each other on the sea.

Then another transport ship was loaded on the body of another destroyer...

This also caused the already chaotic fleet to suddenly become even more chaotic, and before the fleet itself could adjust, the white lines that shot at it had already slammed into the bodies of some of these warships...

The surface ships of this era were still lacking in the ability to deal with underwater threats, not to mention the sonar and anti-submarine torpedoes, which were common in later generations, and even ships equipped with depth bombs. At this time, the ships had only one anti-submarine means, that is, to use guò naval guns or torpedoes, and some even simply made a ramming angle in their bow to deal with those submarines.

The premise is that they can find the submarine that attacked them...

That's right, the submarine diving time at this time is indeed very small, even if it is small, as long as they do not emerge from the water, Takagi Shichitaro and others can only order the naval guns to carry out aimless shelling. And this kind of attack is basically impossible to hit unless it is lucky.

On the other hand, due to the suddenness of Miyarang and others, although not every torpedo can accurately hit the target, at least some of them still hit.

In this day and age, as long as the submarine is not discovered, then they are the real hunters, and even the most powerful battleships can only serve as the prey.

This point from a few later days, the U9 submarine Otto? Captain Wedigan sank the Royal Navy's three 10,000-ton armored cruisers in an hour with only six torpedoes on board, including the USS Aboukil, HMS Hogg, and USS Crecy, a total of 36,000 tons of warships and more than 1,000 officers and men... (To be continued......)