At 4 p.m. on May 19, 1029, Binghe returned to the shoreline. On the way back to the shoreline, Binghe, who was sitting on the train, frequently communicated with the port of Sea Crab Harbor with frequent radio waves.

The submarine formation, which was on full standby in the harbor, quickly began to operate after receiving the order from Binghe. The submarine almost poured out.

In this operation, the submarine only took the initiative to attack on the 19th, which was due to technical limitations.

Two years ago, Binghe's submarine program in West was aimed at 400 tons. But in fact, due to the poor industrial base of West, the workers of the port of Sea Crab were not very proficient, and at the beginning of 1029, the workers of Sea Crab Harbor had fully mastered the construction of submarines of only two hundred tons.

There are only three 420-ton submarines in the entire port of West, and these three large-tonnage submarines passed only after repeated inspection of the work steps. Without the technical guidance of the mechanical controllers, the workers of the Sea Crab Port will not be able to master the manufacture of larger-tonnage submarines in the short term, so they can only mass-produce small submarines of more than 200 tons.

And what is the difference between the combat power of a combat submarine of more than 200 tons and a combat submarine of more than 1,000 tons? In fact, as long as they can reach the combat position and lurk and encounter enemy ships, they will pose a huge threat to surface ships.

Combat submarines of more than 200 tons are more difficult to detect because of their small tonnage and low noise. In World War II, many small submarines achieved good results.

However, the range of the submarine of more than 200 tons is too short for it to be deployed in the open ocean, and it can only be used for coastal defense. However, the self-sustaining capacity of the combat submarine of more than 200 tons in Haicrab Port is 10 days, and it is 15 days when it is fully fed.

In Binghe's calculations, the commander assigned only five days to the submarine for the campaign mission, and the rest of the time must be reserved for the submarine captain to bring the entire crew home safely.

Due to the limitations of the small submarine itself, as well as the strategic audacity of Binghe, Binghe paid special attention to the information on the movements of the Oka fleet during the campaign.

At critical times, in critical sea areas, a sufficient number of submarines must be deployed to give the enemy a deadly ambush.

[7 p.m. on the 21st.] Binghe arrives at the Shuangqiu coastline. 】

In the makeshift base on the hill, Dusty is fanning the wind for Binghe.

Due to the need to observe the smoke column of the Oka steam fleet on the sea, Binghe expanded the field to fifteen kilometers every fifteen minutes, and the increase in body temperature made Binghe have to take off his mechanical suit and put on a thin summer dress, but the temperature of his whole body is still a little high. Under the bright red skin, the magic veins flashed and flickered, and Chenjia kept staring at this phenomenon on Binghe's body.

At this time, Binghe looked at the battle map with great concentration, picked up the pen and marked the location of the fleet on the map again, and then operated the radio waves to send signals in the sky with the field.

These markers show the path of the Oka Steam fleet on the map, and the track, which is still stretching on the map, will eventually enter a red circle on the map.

The location of the red circle - Hukou Strait.

The Hukou Strait is the gateway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Northwest Ocean of the world. When the Oka people rose to control this golden waterway nine hundred years ago, they built sea forts on either side. The sea fortress has a total of fifteen super cannons, and the powerful range is just enough to block the narrowest fifty kilometers of the Hukou Strait. Since then, no fleet has been able to seize control of the Oka in this strategically important location.

However, it seems that it is precisely because the Hukou Strait is an absolutely safe area in the minds of the Oka people that the Oka Empire's grand fleet did not enter the war zone when passing through here.

At 11 o'clock in the evening of the 21st, eight battleships with a tonnage of more than 10,000 tons, and 32 small warships of various types, formed a steel array, reaching the east side of the Hukou Strait. The boiler in the battleship turned on at full power to drive the ship's axle, and the fleet of tens of thousands of tons split waves in the sea. At the stern of the battleship, the white splash parted on the surface of the sea, dragging out a figure of eight wave dozens of kilometers long. And the battleship's chimney spewed out plumes of smoke at the same time. The industrial behemoths make their way south, showing off the power of the Empire.

After seeing the traces of the Grand Fleet from 400 kilometers away, Binghe immediately sent the information to the front line through a high-altitude airship, and a submarine on the front line that released a communication buoy on the sea surface received the information.

After the entire submarine group received important information about the number of the Oka fleet, the order of the fleet, the formation of the passage through the strait, etc., the diesel engine was turned off, the ventilation pipes were retracted, the electric motor was turned on, and the combat situation was carried out underwater.

The underwater fleet began to coordinate with the help of underwater sonic codes, and soon several strike formations were formed.

[Sailors have new magic to discern sounds in the sea, but this skill of sailors is a skill of the Age of Sails.] 】

However, times are advancing, and there are no ship engines in the Age of Sails. And in the age of steam, sailors standing on steam power using new magic, they can't hear about submarines at all. Because the propellers of the ships they are in are already very noisy, it is equivalent to sitting on a starting tractor and not being able to hear people a few meters away.

At present, most civilian sea ships and fishing boats are still sail-powered, and the sailor profession generally does not eliminate this skill, but it is not very useful on steel steam-powered ships on the battlefield.

There are only two techniques for detecting underwater submarines:

First, destroyers and frigates use a line of towed sonar to keep the towed sonar away from their own noise sources in order to detect underwater.

Second, a large number of anti-submarine aircraft, a wide range of sonar buoys. As soon as the submarine surfaced, the buoy immediately sent a signal, and the anti-submarine aircraft immediately flew over.

Of course, the two anti-submarine systems Oka people did not have, so Geng Zhi ran into the Seawolf mode carefully prepared for Binghe.

A year ago, when the naval bureaucrats of the Oka people learned of the underwater threat, the shortcomings of the reported submarines, and the fact that they were of very little applicability, and that West's own forces were only using submarines as a means of intimidation, they laughed aside, without thinking about formulating a plan to deal with the special circumstances that might occur in some cases.

The inaction of the bureaucracy in the past has caused serious consequences today.

At 11:34 a.m. on May 21, Grand Duke Lan Tao stood on the bridge of his battleship and spread out the field to look around. He was so irritable that he couldn't sleep tonight, so he walked to the bridge and went about the work of the fleet foreman.

Looking at the undulating sea at night and listening to the sound of the waves hitting the bow of the ship, the solitary Grand Duke Lan Tao fell into thought.

"A radius of one kilometer within the inner spherical field space, twenty kilometers of the observation range, this is the standard configuration of the fortress. Over the past hundred years, with the advent of long-range weapons, the role of the fortress has gradually become less effective than that of generals and authorities. The fortresses of the Oka Empire collectively chose to combine with battleships, using the guns, armor, and maneuvers unique to the capital ships to defend the status of the fortress profession. Rao is so, in the eyes of many nobles on the mainland, the decline of the fortress has become a trend.

But now, with their own amazing deeds, the maverick kid mocks us, the bastions, who are short-sighted in industrial technology. ”

"Electronically controlled airship"

"Remotely controlled warhead"

"Electric remote-controlled unmanned aircraft"

Grand Duke Lan Tao silently meditated on the new things that had emerged in this war. His keen political mind associates many facets.

"In the next two decades, there will be tremendous changes in the military technology of the mainland. If the combat power of the fortress is greatly increased, then the matching political power will also be greatly increased. At that time, the fortresses did not need to rely on the fleet, did not need to rely on the fortress, and could become the military core and guarantee the political status. So ......"

Grand Duke Lantao's eyes lit up, and he held the battleship's main gun and patted it on the barrel. Suddenly, he saw several direct splashes in the distance on the sea. The Grand Duke was taken aback, and he turned on multiple visual observation spells to take a closer look at the sea.

A few seconds later, the Grand Duke sent a communication alert to the surrounding fleets through the field: "Attention! Attention, full fleet! Torpedo! North! There are six! ”

The way to defend against mines is to reduce the speed of the ship or even stop the ship to search the sea, blow the mines away with the water created by the water cannon, and then detonate them with machine guns. To defend against torpedoes, on the other hand, is to increase the speed and then use the big steering to evade. So in the event of a torpedo attack, the formation of the fleet changes rapidly.

When hunting, wolves often like to have one or two wolves on the side to launch a feint attack to drive the target to the direction where their teammates are ambushing.

The torpedo seen by Grand Duke Lan Tao was fired by the feint attack group of four submarines.

Because when the surface forces encounter an attack, they do not know the underwater situation, and often their first reaction is to turn to evade it in accordance with the dogma.

When the torpedoes fired from the direction of the feint successfully attracted the attention of the fleet group of the Oka people, a large number of destroyers maneuvered to the flank of the capital battleship to try to help the capital ship block the mines. And the captain (the middle professional) also directs the crew to observe the distance.

It's just that they don't know that the real mortal threat to the Oka fleet is on the other side.

A large number of submarines with ventilation pipes folded away and advancing purely on batteries formed a hunting formation, quietly waiting for the Imperial fleet formation to take the initiative to approach the ambush circle.

Compared with the first wave of torpedoes with obvious tracks, the submarines hunted by this wave used silver-zinc battery-powered wire-guided torpedoes. It weighs 1.5 tons and has a warhead of 300 kilograms, which is a heavy weapon that kills with one hit, and there are no bubbles, and the track is very concealed.

Fifteen minutes later, when the first group of feint torpedoes was evaded by the fleet.

Grand Duke Lan Tao paced on the wooden deck of the capital ship (the wood was still a steel hull underneath, and the wood was used to protect from the sun and heat). After being torpedoed, Grand Duke Lan Tao constantly observed his surroundings in the field.

Historically, the entire Hukou Strait has not been attacked for three hundred years. Watchtowers and batteries on both sides were able to stop the fleet. Now, however, Oka is being torpedoed in this seemingly absolutely safe area. This made Grand Duke Lan Tao irritated.

"He's a fortress, but he's also a mechanical controller with incredible talent." Duke Lantao on the bridge repeated this sentence, wanting to remind himself through this sentence that he must not ignore something important.

From time to time, he looked up at the sea. But on the foggy sea at night, the fortress did not perceive the periscope hidden in the waves.

Grand Duke Lan Tao began to pay attention to the underwater situation within a kilometer of himself.

Suddenly, the fortress's face was shocked, and his domain realized that three torpedoes under the water had suddenly rushed into his domain. And these torpedoes began to approach the battleship.

Note: If each working position on the ship has an information display device, and the commander Lan Tao accurately and clearly transmits the information seen in the field to the position of the secondary gun, then the secondary gun can use the machine gun to strafe, and there is still room for recovery.

Now the surface track of the silver-zinc battery torpedo is extremely small, and it can only be detected in the fortress field, and it is difficult for the soldiers in the secondary artillery position to see. Even if you control the artillery, you can't hit the right position.

Finally, in the last minute before the impact, the fortress was constantly shouting in front of the toneric tube, and all the sailors waited until this torpedo burst.

With a "boom", the entire hull seemed to be arched by a giant beast under the sea. With a loud bang, huge cavitations bulged from underwater.

The side of the ship exploded directly, and a huge wave of water burst onto the deck. The hull of the ship shook violently, and all the soldiers on the deck fell because of the shock.

The Grand Duke took a few steps back on the deck, and then immediately stood firm. However, after gaining a foothold, he moved to the freeboard and looked down at the side of his ship. He saw that the absolutely circular area of water tremors was slowly spreading, and a huge crack of nearly ten meters was torn open on the side of the ship, and the sea water poured into the middle of the hull.

Just as Grand Duke Lan Tao looked down at the water flowing under the ship, a flash of explosion also appeared at a point and a half kilometer to the left, making the Grand Duke immediately look up in that direction, and there was the location of another battleship.

As the sound of the explosion in that place came, Grand Duke Lan Tao turned abruptly and pointed in the direction of the northwest land, and scolded angrily into the air: "Gun flame Bingnu, you, you!" ”

The sailors on the side hurriedly pulled the emotional Grand Duke away from the freeboard.

[Steam Calendar May 22, 1029 00:00 Time]

Using 43 submarines of varying tonnage, West ambushed the Oka people's northern ocean reinforcement Mediterranean fleet near the Hukou Strait.

As a result of the first wave of torpedo attacks, four battleships were heavily damaged, two of them sank directly, and the remaining two keels showed cracks and were also scrapped when they returned to port.

At the same time, a heavy cruiser of 5,000 tons was severely damaged, as well as a troop carrier.

Subsequently, during the search of the entire fleet, four more mines released by submarines were touched, and three destroyers sank to the bottom of the sea.

One hundred and twenty-seven professionals, including one fortress, were killed in the attack. This was the greatest loss of the Oka Navy in three hundred years.

The only loss of West's casualties in the battle was that the interior of a 200-ton submarine was forced to abandon the ship due to improper flushing of the toilet at home.

。 m.