Cheng Dayang hugged the periscope tightly, looking at a puddle of his own vomit on the floor, still a little dizzy.

He has been on an errand on a nuclear submarine for so many years, and he has long remembered what seasickness is, but today, his face is really lost. Fortunately, the sudden undersea earthquake has passed, and everyone else around them is also staggering, almost spitting out all their bitter gall.

A minute ago, the temporary captain Cheng Dayang thought that the submarine would disintegrate in the terrifying whirlpool, or be swallowed up directly by the cracks in the seabed. Now the horizontal rotation of the submarine has begun to slow down, and the slope of the floor has gradually recovered. This sudden earthquake seems to have stopped?

The command module was in shambles, and the emergency red lights flickered weakly in the sound of coughing. The captain glanced at the monitor in front of the command seat; Navigation, fire control, sonar, auxiliaries, and the "reactor control" that made his heart flutter were among the fault warnings, the watertight doors throughout the submarine were fine, and the internal air pressure and radioactive indicators in the aft compartment were normal.

"Heads of departments report the current damage." The captain, who came back to his senses, held the intercom in his hand and began to assess the damage.

"The situation in the electromechanical department is serious, the power system is seriously damaged, and the steam turbine is shut down urgently. The pressure in the pipeline in the unattended area drops, and there may be a steam leak in the circuit, which is under further investigation. ”

"Ballistic* main control room electrical failure, launch control computer restarting, No. 1 to 10* launch tubes are locked protectively...... Launch tubes 11 and 12 are intact. ”

"*Cabin reports that there is no equipment malfunction at the moment, but someone has been wounded in the head."

"The rudder reported that the boat was underpowered, the speed had dropped to 6 knots, the rudder effect was disappearing, and the ballast tanks needed to be rebalanced."

"According to the electromechanical supplementary report, the turbine generator has stopped, and there is a possibility of power outage in the whole boat, and batteries are needed."

The captain stood calmly on the platform in the middle of the command module, waiting for one bad news after another to pass his ears, and it was his duty to feign composure, because everyone in the command module was watching him anxiously.

Of course, he knew the priorities of all these issues, and the failure of the power part was necessarily the most intractable, and the strategic* issues were not considered a priority. Although only the steam turbine and turbine generator alarms are currently being given, he has indications that the cooling circuit may be a major concern. Even according to the minimum disposal standards, he should now immediately bring the submarine to the surface and evacuate most of the personnel to the deck and nearby sea, leaving only emergency damage management personnel to deal with the fault; But he weighed it again and again, and felt that he couldn't do it now, the situation in the mission sea area above his head was more complicated, and the P3C of a certain country came and went very frequently, and once they took photos of the surface, it was inevitable that they would start the propaganda machine, and the noise would not stop.

"Navigator, the track self-painting doesn't show, how did you do it there?" He asked the chart room over the intercom.

"The error is supercritical level, inertial navigation does not work, and it is necessary to float up and use satellite navigation to re-verify the position." On the other end of the intercom, the navigator Tao Jianjian deftly pushed back a mess of problems.

"Hey, can you measure the gravity distribution of the seabed for navigation verification?"

"I've tried, but there is a serious mismatch between the interferometer data and the database data, and I suspect that the earthquake just now not only destroyed the seabed landform, but also changed the gravity distribution of the area!"

The submarine can almost no longer find its own place, although Cheng Dayang is reluctant to float the plan, but all the solutions that can solve the problem in a low-key manner seem to be unworkable. It is common sense that if the periscope or other antenna sticks out of the sea for more than 20 seconds, there is a considerable chance that it will be detected by the surrounding air search radar, not to mention the entire submarine recklessly surfaced.

The captain didn't want to give in yet, and he had another thought, maybe he could find a slow merchant ship nearby to judge the main channel? When you surface outside the sea of Wenzhou, at least you won't be scolded by the detachment leader.

This time, it was actually Cheng Dayang's first time on a mission as the chief officer. There was a lot of resistance to his acceptance of the new submarine, and it is said that he fell from first to third in the race for the captain of the 419 boat. The main argument of the opponents was that he was too young and had made a few mistakes in the post of deputy captain. In addition to this, there are other rumors that a certain high-ranking member of the command does not think his name is very auspicious.

Regardless of whether the rumors are true or not, in short, when the official appointment quietly left him, the urgent task of the General Staff Intelligence Bureau was suddenly issued, and Cheng Dayang was scooped up from the bottom of the valley at once.

On the surface, the emergency mission, which had to be dispatched within five days, was simply to track down a scientific survey and mapping ship "Kasuga Maru" under the Technical Research Headquarters of the Japanese Ministry of Defense, and at the same time bring with it the personnel and equipment of a special detachment of the Intelligence Bureau, and a colonel of the Intelligence Bureau was to collect information about Kasuga Maru and analyze it. I don't know why, on the list of the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff, Cheng Dayang is higher than other competitors. In the end, the superiors had to compromise and let him serve as the "temporary captain" of the Project 419 nuclear submarine as a final expedition before the official appointment.

The first 10 days of the mission went smoothly, until 20 minutes ago, when a powerful submarine vortex almost shook the submarine apart; Now No. 419 is ostensibly out of danger, but in reality it is in the midst of an even bigger crisis.

"Report to the captain, the steam leakage was detected in the secondary circuit pipeline, which was confirmed to be the main cause of the protective separation steam turbine, and the core heat is currently increasing rapidly."

"How fast?"

“…… Faster than you think. Shu Ping, the chief of mechanical and electrical engineering, calmly dealt with a nonsense, his qualifications were older than Cheng Dayang, and he didn't take the acting captain very seriously.

"Is there any radioactive ...... detected?"

"Not for the time being, but the slowdown in the circulation of the shield is not a good sign, and there is also the problem of insufficient cooling."

"Is it possible to maintain a minimum of power, at least to ensure the cooling circuit?"

"No, the main line of the turbine generator is completely destroyed; At present, the power of the cooling pump is insufficient, and the cooling circuit will soon be in a state of natural circulation...... Ten minutes...... Within a maximum of 15 minutes, an emergency shutdown must be made, and then the cooling pump must be switched to auxiliary power. ”

"So there must be an 'emergency response'?"

"Yes, I explicitly recommend that it be treated as an 'emergency'. Evacuate the unnecessary personnel in the boat, leaving only my department and damage management personnel, and if possible, immediately notify the headquarters and send a few support boats. ”

"Tugboat back?"

"Not necessarily, but don't hope too much for a fix."

No. 419 is facing an unprecedentedly serious reactor undercooling failure, or it can already be called a serious accident, which is the first time in the history of the Chinese Navy, but among foreign counterparts, there are many lessons from the past that can be referred to.

"What the fuck is this?" Cheng Dayang turned his head and wanted to find Colonel Lin Xiuxuan, the intelligence chief sent to the boat by the General Staff Staff, who had brought this unfortunate mission a few days ago. Lin Xiuxuan seemed to be still there just now, but in the blink of an eye, he didn't know where he died.

In retrospect, the whole thing was really too strange, and about an hour ago, the 419 was approaching the "Kasuga Maru" that was stopping on the main engine, and the other party was unaware. No one knows why this Japanese ship, full of intrigue, suddenly dropped anchor and stopped in the "Dragon Triangle" area, which civilian ships avoided.

Then the Japanese ship quietly dropped a *. The explosion triggered a series of reactions in the crust of the seabed. Sonar No. 419, which was hiding in the shadows and watching, heard a terrifying movement on the bottom of the sea like a boiling pot, and this ballistic* submarine of nearly 10,000 tons was caught in reverse, and was caught by a super whirlpool, like a leaf of paper, spinning around the current, unable to get rid of.

In the face of the furious forces of nature, the power of one hundred and sixty megawatts is insignificant. When Cheng Dayang turned around, he was still thinking: Is it really his name that is unlucky?

"By the way, who in the sonar room listened to Kasugamaru's movements?"

"The sonar recorded that she had entered the water and sank in the rapids. The location of the sinking can be confirmed with active sonar. ”

"Holy shit, you deserve it."

Cheng Dayang scolded fiercely, he knew that the Kasuga Maru came here with a major conspiracy, and now this conspiracy can only be hidden at the bottom of the sea forever, of course, it is not excluded that Lin Xiuxuan knows some information.

"In the command module, the steam pressure in the main circuit continues to increase." On the other end of the intercom, the electromechanical chief became a little impatient, "No matter how you decide, you have to be fast." ”

Cheng Dayang reluctantly turned to the political commissar behind him for the last opinion, only to see the pale-faced political commissar nodding with a wry smile.

"Attention to the whole boat, the implementation of emergency shutdown is not an exercise, repeat, it is not a drill."

As he spoke, a shrill alarm sounded in the main passages of the submarine's decks, indicating that the submarine was about to rise urgently.

"The main ballast tanks were flooded, and the bow balanced rudder at an elevation angle of 15 degrees. Urgent ascent. ”

"Reactor control room, put down the control rods, and implement the shutdown."

With the command from the command module, everyone on board could feel that the submarine was slowly rising.

A few minutes later, the submarine reached the depth of the snorkel, the auxiliary diesel engine immediately began to operate, and the power was partially restored, which meant that the cooling pump could finally be restarted, and the situation was finally brought under control in the first step.

A green light-emitting diode lit up on the periscope, and the captain turned his training cap, lifted the periscope, and then put his head on the forehead pad on the eyepiece.

Cheng Dayang quickly checked the direction of about 200 degrees from due north to southwest, searched the sea level, and then turned to the west to check the direction of the mainland. Immediately after that, he conducted a 360° search of the air, and found nothing.

"Captain, I didn't receive the Beidou navigation satellite signal, and I didn't find any of them." The navigator calmly reported the Nth strange thing of the day.

"Does GPS work?"

"No, maybe there's something wrong with the receiver on the mast."

Cheng Dayang also felt strange, in the past, when a periscope was raised in such an area, the passive detection equipment on the mast would soon record all kinds of radio pulse signals, including signals from communication equipment and equipment, as well as navigation radars from warships and civilian ships, but today it is not the case, and almost no signals are received.

"Got out, Guantong Chang, turned on the sea/air search radar, immediately reported the emergency situation to the headquarters, and asked for a support ship to be dispatched. Also listen to the ships around you that are calling on the maritime channel? Let the command handle it together. ”

He was kind-hearted, and at this juncture he could still think of whether there were other ships in distress near the earthquake area that needed to be rescued along with them.

"Communication satellites could not be found...... A distress telegram has been sent by the radio, and there is no response from the command. ”

419 is like entering a shielded world.

"Today's foreign appearance is bigger. Anyone saw Lin Xiuxuan of the General Staff and told him to look for me on the shell. ”

Dropping the last sentence, the captain put on a raincoat, walked out of the command cabin, and with the crowd, climbed from the main lift passage to the enclosure, where he would continue to command the submarine.

At this time, the submarine has completely surfaced and lost its main power, as a nuclear submarine, this is obviously the most failed and embarrassing moment, according to the convention, the planes of the surrounding countries with their own evil intentions will immediately fly over to take pictures and collect evidence, and perhaps tomorrow, their newspapers will be full of articles ridiculing the serious failure of China's submarine forces.

In accordance with established procedures, all personnel outside the emergency response department, wearing orange life jackets, gathered on the foredeck from the forward lift. The boatswain led the group to inflate the same hue of life-saving valve and then pushed it into the sea.

Although an emergency shutdown has been implemented, the decay heat from the reactor can still be extremely dangerous, and according to standard procedures, the first few hours are better than soaking in condensate that may contain radioactive material.

The non-commissioned officer on the enclosure had already raised a hunting red flag, and a sailor had raised a navy flag with blue stripes on the foredeck. The current wave height is less than 1 meter, the sea state is at most level 3, the sky is clear, and the scenery is pleasant, but just now, the sea is afraid that the waves are monstrous.

"Report to the captain, the search radar found a flotilla passing in the northeast at a distance of 36 kilometers, which is very large."

The officer on duty standing beside him made a routine report.

Cheng Dayang was paying attention to the emergency evacuation of the people on the deck below, and did not pay much attention to the report of the shift commander.

"What's the situation?"

"The fleet consisted of 16 large vessels, in a dense formation, with an average speed of 17.5 knots, moving from north to south."

"The formation is dense? What ship? ”

"The radar cannot identify the type of ship, and it can only be judged from the size of the ocean-going bulk carrier, of which 3 are more than 200 meters in length, and they are judged to be Panamax tankers?"

"How is it possible for a Panamax tanker to reach a speed of more than 15 knots?" Cheng Dayang raised his head at this time, and he was a little surprised.

"I don't know. I have never seen a civilian ship sail in such a regular column. The watchman on the enclosure said that common sense told him that some of the ships were even much larger than the U.S. Navy's Ticonderoga-class cruisers, but smaller than Nimitz-class carriers and amphibious assault ships, so they were unlikely to be a fleet.

The captain did not speak, but raised his binoculars to look in a direction roughly due east. Seeing a faint black mist slowly moving along the horizon, he shook his head to show that either there were a few ships in the fleet that had faulty boilers, or some of them were burning coal or heavy oil.

"Is there anyone else in the sonar room? Can you analyze their host type with narrowband? ”

"The secondary departments have been withdrawn, this is your order."

"There are so weird things going on today."

The automatic alarm on the enclosure command station began to tick, and this time the anti-aircraft warning radar had detected a low-speed target and was approaching from the northeast; The speed is very low, like a drone, and the radar system still can't recognize the model.

"It's hell." The captain hatefully smashed the periscope behind him. So far, only the optical periscope has been reliable of all the observation equipment.

"Report to the captain, the translation room intercepted a Japanese kana message, at 4430 kHz."

"Get it on the bridge."

After a while, someone climbed up to the shell and shoved a piece of paper into his hand, which he unfolded absentmindedly and looked at.

"The town guard house to the sixty-seventh emergency call. The 12th Base Area Communications Department issued a radio communication and navigation detachment stationed on Kume Island to conduct a navigation signal test at 12:05 tomorrow. On July 1, 16, Minato Minato Minato Minato Ministry Communications Office, Yoshida. ”

"What kind of mess is this?" The captain crumpled the telegram and threw it into the sea, he did not remember that there was such a unit in the Self-Defense Forces, and the communication format and frequency bands used were very irregular, and it was obvious that the telegraph was neither set up for frequency hopping, nor was it connected to any encryption machine, which was obviously not the style of the Self-Defense Forces.

"Captain, I heard a faint medium-wave radio broadcast, in the direction of Keelung Port, it seems to be a Japanese advertisement."

"Got it, go back to your original post and continue to monitor."

"Yes."

Just in the sky about 20 kilometers away from the mess of the Project 419 ballistic * nuclear submarine, a slowly flying Type 95 water reconnaissance plane is doing defensive reconnaissance around the rear guard of the 7th Sentai Force, and the main scope of its reconnaissance is the waters west of Furushima, confirming that there are no US Navy submarines departing from the Philippines, stopping on the sea surface in this area to recharge.

The long flight in the morning made the pilot Cao Datian Wang a little sleepy, and he hoped to find his cruiser "Mogami" as soon as possible, and then he could sleep well.

The fleet's radio silence made navigation extremely difficult. In addition to the military command department's strict order to "go silent" to avoid the U.S. military listening units in the Pabuyan Strait in the Philippines, the radio navigation facilities on the nearby islands were all under the orders of the town guard, and during the test, there were also intermittent course measurement problems. Bing Cao Chang can only judge his position by measuring the broadcast of the Taipei Broadcasting Bureau, which is 120 kilometers away and has a power of only 1.5 kilowatts. A female voice with a Kyushu accent on the radio has been selling Seichi Maru from Saichi Nakajima's pharmacy. After the 45-minute commercial, it was followed by the inter-work radio gymnastics, and there was nothing to listen to.

He heard that the government was putting pressure on the Vichy government of France to abandon some ports and bases in Indochina, and the sudden southward movement of the fleet to Sanya was probably related to the paramilitary operation to cooperate with the army to occupy these ports.

Takayama, the observer behind him, suddenly slapped Ota the shoulder, and then pointed to the shore that was faintly visible under the sun.

"Look, coast."

"Ah, it's Keelung Port, I finally saw it." Datian nodded vigorously, "It seems that there is no problem with the course." ”

Observer Kazuo Takayama, with a map and a sextant on his lap and a telescope in his hand, looked around from time to time, looking much more serious than Ota. His two main jobs are navigation and reconnaissance, of course, if there is an enemy aircraft approaching, he must also operate a machine gun that can rotate 360 degrees to counterattack, however, it is now the 16th year of Showa, and the Nationalist Government has long lost the entire coastal zone and fled inland, so it should be impossible for any enemy aircraft to rush to the front of him on the sea surface of the East China Sea. The Minai cabinet has been making concessions to the United States, and it seems that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in a hurry to repair relations between the two countries.

A ray of sunlight shines through the rain clouds, illuminating the harsh sea, and there is a black floating object that alerts the mountains. He adjusted the telescope vigorously, and couldn't help but be overjoyed, it was a non-moving submarine, and there were some yellow lifeboats next to it.

First Class Pilot Kazuo Takayama picked up the intercom: "Cao Chang, at 2 o'clock, it seems to be an American submarine?" ”

"It's supposed to be our submarine, right?"

"Why don't you go over and have a look?"

"I said Takayama, if we go around one more circle, we may not be able to catch up with the meeting time, and Tanaka Osa will not stop and wait for us for too long."

"Captain Bing, it looks really suspicious, I mean...... Their flag is red. ”

"Probably the guys from the 19th dive team are charging, right? I heard that they are also going to Sanya. ”

Daejeon felt that Takayama was a little fussed, and wasn't the Imperial Navy flag also red?

"But the aft deck of that submarine arched a large chunk, probably hiding special attack equipment, not at all like our submarine."

The observer's remark eventually aroused Daejeon's wariness, so he weighed it up and decided to waste a little time turning to the west to see. However, Daejeon is not sure what he can gain, and Takayama's eyesight is good, but after all, recruits have little experience, and often make some low-level mistakes that are all grass and trees.

Cheng Dayang stood on the shell with a frown, waiting for the plane detected by the radar, which had just turned around and flew towards him from the original route in the northeast, but the plane was too slow, and the left and right had not yet appeared in sight. However, Lin Xiuxuan, who had been missing before, suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Director Lin, do you still know about it? I ask you, what the hell is going on? ”

"Old Cheng, we must best prepare for the worst." Lin Xiuxuan said something of unknown significance.

"Hehe, what could be worse? You still think we're not embarrassed enough? The captain said in a huff.

"I mean......" Director Lin stopped suddenly, he heard the buzzing of the sky, it seemed that without further words, Cheng Dayang would soon understand what was going on.

"Look, there's a plane to the northeast."

Someone on deck shouted. So the people on the hull, on the foredeck, and on the lifeboats on the sea looked there. Cheng Dayang is expected to have a telescope, and he will take advantage of it a little at this time.

It was a gray biplane that Cheng Dayang could not recognize for a while, with a long pontoon under the fuselage and two small pontoons under the wings, which obviously had the ability to take off and land on the sea. The red Japanese flag can be seen when the plane turns, but there is no white "Maritime Self-Defense Force" next to it.

Cheng Dayang opened his mouth and looked at it for a while, and found that the guy in the back seat was also holding a telescope to look at him, this fool was not afraid of covering the prickly heat, wearing a leather hat with fur on his head, goggles on it, a white scarf tightly tied in a suede lapel jacket, and a Rendan beard on his upper lip; What's even more interesting is that behind this unruly guy, there is also a machine gun.