The misty Uraga waterway mouth was covered with mountains, and the shore artillery positions on both sides of the bank were silent, until they watched the seven capital ships in disarray, under the protection of the two remaining light cruisers, slow down in a group and slowly burrow into the waterway, that the artillerymen breathed a sigh of relief.

Under the moonlight, at the end of the fleet, in the main turret behind the Anyun, more than a dozen sailors also got out of the thick turret, sat down on the charred deck, looked at the steel formations lined up on the sparkling sea in the distance, and silently prayed for luck.

From departure to engagement, in just a few hours, the four capital ships, which were originally considered to be the pride of the navy and the spiritual pillar of the people, lost a partner, and the scene of the Asami and Iwate being blown up and sunk still stimulates every nerve in them.

These sailors, who were recruited after the last battle, never thought that naval warfare had developed to the point where it is now, not to mention the powerful main guns behind them, and those smaller secondary guns, as long as they were hit, they were enough to kill.

A few steps earlier, a steel deck had risen high, and a charred section had stretched downward, pulling out a crack nearly three meters long, and the sailors could not imagine how terrible the result would be if this crack extended further down and did not enter the waterline.

Such cracks and holes abound on this 13,000-ton battleship, all of which were left by the traces left when the big turn could not be fired back, and in just a few minutes, the shells that fell like a torrential rain had already made everyone tremble.

A few muffled beeps came from inside the turret, a shout and a sound all over the deck, and the sailors looked at each other, reluctantly got up and joined the ranks of the deck sweepers.

A sailor walked down the gangway down the stern verandah, which was originally the favorite place of those officers, where he sat and drank tea and watched the sea, which was once the envy of many sailors.

But now, the sailors felt that the gallery was useless, and that it had no armor or gun emplacements, except to satisfy the selfish desires of the officers, and that it had occupied the already crowded space inside the ship.

The twisted metal railing and the hollow in the middle have completely rendered the gallery completely useless, and even if you return to Yokosuka, you will not waste precious resources to restore it.

Squatting on the deck, picking up a piece of shrapnel and throwing it into the sea, the sailor suddenly found that in the rolling track of the waves behind him, a short "dead branch" was rising and falling in the waves two hundred meters away.

Could it be the back of some kind of fish?

The sailor looked twice, and was about to get up and walk to the railing to take a closer look, but suddenly the shouts of his companions came from behind him, and he had to suppress his curiosity and climb onto the main deck to join in the hard clean-up work.

The sailor's gaze made Qin Shou, who was pinching the periscope and sticking to the lens, suddenly frightened into white sweat, coupled with the continuous influx of sea water above his head, soaking the vest drop by drop along the coat, only making him feel cold, until the sailor hurriedly returned to the main deck, he breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly adjusted the periscope depth.

Sure enough, curiosity killed the cat.

It's just that in order to see more clearly, I turned up some periscopes, and I almost exposed it, and if I was found to have ruined the plan, I'm afraid it would be light to send him to court-martial!

Seeing that the commander quickly adjusted the periscope, the sailors around him did not dare to come out, and the needle drop in the small cabin was suddenly audible.

After the periscope was lowered, the vision became blurred again in the waves stirred up by the propellers, and large streams of seawater poured into the cabin along the periscope, which was not tightly sealed, and dripped onto the deck.

This is a nasty and exciting job, lurking underwater all day, sometimes not seeing the sun for several days, I am afraid that only Qin Shou and his submariners are willing to eat.

The submarine under its feet was tailing the Anyun at a speed of eight knots, and the noisy diesel engine engine had long been turned off, and even loud speech was strictly forbidden.

Looking at the black shadows on both sides of the periscope constantly retreating, and An Yun still didn't show any signs of discovering himself, Qin Shou really put his mind at ease, it seems that the sailor is just curious, after all, there are not many people who know about submarines these years, especially in this sea area.

After handing over the periscope to the first mate to continue observing, Qin Shou turned around and walked to the chart table, grabbed an orange and rubbed it on his body a few times, and bit it hard without even peeling the skin, and the juice dripped down the corner of his mouth onto the placket that was already soaked, reflecting a trace of orange red.

The Uraga waterway is not too long, but if the first-generation mackerel-class submarine is used to carry out the tailgating mission, I am afraid that the battery will run out before it reaches the destination, but fortunately, there is this Gray Spine Shark, which is also the first boat of the four gray spine shark class.

It is 43 meters long, 8 meters wide at its widest point, and the underwater displacement has also increased to 520 tons, except that the length has not increased much, and all other indicators have almost doubled compared to the mackerel class.

The two new diesel engines allow the Greyverte Shark to sail continuously for 800 nautical miles at a speed of 12 knots, and if it is slowed down to 8 knots, it will reach a staggering distance of 1,000 nautical miles for the first time, which means that for the first time, the Greyvert Shark class has the ability to perform missions alone without relying on support ships.

The enlarged battery pack also allowed it to dive to a depth of 30 meters and work continuously for 90 minutes, enough to follow the fleet through the entire Uraga waterway to its destination.

Of course, these were not the things he was most excited about, what he was most happy about was that for the first time the submarine was equipped with a heavy torpedo of caliber 550 mm, which had just completed testing, and in addition to the four fully loaded launch tubes, there were four rounds of replenishment in the torpedo compartment.

A full eight heavy torpedoes, making the submarine truly the king of underwater sneak attacks, also gave him a second chance to attack, and did not need to flee immediately after shooting two torpedoes like the previous Mackerel.

"Fifteen degrees to the left rudder."

The voice of the first mate came, Qin Shou quickly looked at his watch, and wrote down the time and angle on the white paper.

From the moment it entered the waterway, the submarine followed the Anyun at a constant speed of eight knots, so it was easy to calculate how far it had traveled, as long as it was timed.

"Seventeen degrees on the right side."

The voice of the first mate came again, and while Qin Shou was recording, he kept cursing in his heart, these little ones deliberately made the waterway so complicated, flickering left and right, obviously not letting the warships sailing in the waterway start, if it weren't for the Gray Spine Shark, I'm afraid I don't know how much it would take to figure out the entire channel.

Time passed little by little, and the sailors sat and waited, they could not see the situation on the sea, only knew that outside this layer of iron shell, there were nearly a thousand mines lurking around, so almost all eyes were staring at the helmsman without blinking, for fear that he would turn in the wrong direction.

The helmsman was already so nervous that he was soaking wet, looking at the rows of instrument pointers in front of him, and grasping the rudder wheel that was trembling because he was in the wake of the huge propeller of the battleship in front of him, his fingers had begun to slowly stiffen.

"The tugboat appears."

"The enemy ships scattered."

"We're out of the waters!"

"Ten degrees on the right side, destination Yokosuka!"

With a series of voices from the first mate, Qin Shou quickly handed the full note to the navigator to calculate it immediately, and at the same time, rushed to the periscope and raised the periscope a little again.

In the footage, the four most damaged battleships have dispersed, several high-powered tugboats are slowly approaching, and although they are blurry, they are brightly lit in the distance.

Yokosuka, the first military port is close at hand! ――

"Report, greyvertebrate shark signal!"

A loud report made the smoke-shrouded command tower of the Polaris suddenly agitated, and the captain and staff officers who had been waiting impatiently for a long time all poured into the chart table.

After waiting for more than an hour, their patience had been exhausted, and even Long Guozhang and Tan Xiaozeng violently snuffed out their cigarette butts and rushed forward after hearing the report.

Everyone gathered around and quietly watched as the navigation staff officer marked the channel on the map of the Uraga waterway according to the telegram, and when he had finished the last stroke, he handed the telegram to the second staff officer for checking.

This kind of check and calculation was repeated three times, and finally the navigation staff officer stood up and saluted: "Report, the schematic map of the waterway is complete!" ”

Everyone sighed, but soon locked their thick eyebrows, looking at the two consecutive Z-shaped waterways, everyone couldn't help but scold, saying that I was too uninteresting, straight and open my legs and waiting for Lao Tzu to do it, how good it is, if it has to be so complicated, isn't it forced to kill them!

Long Guozhang slowly leaned down, propped his hands on the chart table, and looked at the last Z at the end of the last bend along the waterway, his eyes glistening with a cold light.

Judging from the schematic diagram, this section is undoubtedly the most difficult place to pass, the lower left corner of the Z is directly facing the largest shore artillery base, and the battleship entering is almost facing the other side with the bow of the ship, which not only blocks the shooting angle of the battleship behind, but also can only give full play to the power of the main gun in the front, which is equivalent to abandoning most of the artillery fire advantage!

Coupled with the close distance, the other party is the place with the most dense firepower, and it is simply a ghost gate!

"Why don't you let Xue Muhua blow up this fort first, and then go to Yokosuka?" Tan Xiaozeng suggested.

Long Guozhang shook his head, the airship is the most critical part of the whole plan, if they bomb the shore artillery base first, they will be exposed, even if they fly fast, they will not be able to replenish the ammunition in a few hours before flying back, in that case, the fleet will have enough time to evacuate, once they escape into the depths of Tokyo Bay, or simply sit and sink as a temporary battery, it will be too late.

"Let's go."

In the silence, a voice suddenly sounded, everyone turned their heads to look, only to see that Lin Taizeng and Liu Buyun had straightened their waists, and the former even squeezed away his partner, walked to the chart and pointed to the shore artillery base and said: "There are two main guns in front of the duke, and the four second-level main guns on the two sides of the bow can also play a role when facing the enemy, even if they can only be lined up one by one, as long as they deviate slightly from half of the hull, the Prince can also complete aiming." ”

"Twelve cannons, that's enough!"

Although Lin Taizeng said it simply, and the Duke-class battleships are indeed the only two battleships in the fleet that can exert half of the firepower advantage in the bow against the enemy, although the Jinghai-class can give full play to the advantage of ten naval guns, but the armor determines that they are not suitable for assault ships at all.

But the problem is that half of the hull is 10 meters away, and the devil knows if there are any mines within these 10 meters, and if they hit a mine, I am afraid that the entire channel will be blocked.

"I'm to the left, and Kaishi is to the right, five meters each." Liu Buyun smiled slightly: "The space will be opened, if I don't reserve five meters in a row, then they will believe in their own ship technology too much!" ”

"What are you going to do if you hit a mine?" Tan Xiaozeng asked.

"Accelerate the rudder, go straight to the shore along the minefield, and if you're lucky, maybe just run aground." Lin Tai said decisively, his eyes firmly looking at Long Guozhang, who was under him in the past, but now he was the commander of a huge fleet.

Long Guozhang slowly straightened his waist, looked at the two rejuvenated captains in front of him, felt that they were reawakened by the naval battle to be brave and decisive, and nodded vigorously.

"Command!"

With a swipe, the eyes in the command tower burned.

"The ships are ready, and an hour later, the four ships in Jinghai will begin shelling the mouth of the waterway to cover the submarine's entry into port."

"Inform the airship force and set off as soon as our shelling begins."

"One o'clock in the morning, enter the waterway on time." Long Guozhang looked at his watch and raised his head: "Striker ......!" ”

"Duke, Prince!" ――

Under the sultry moonlight, in the only flat open space on Hachijo Island, eighteen ships and giant shadows were neatly tied together, and countless soldiers around were busy, stuffing huge and strange bombs into the magazine.

This was all the belongings of the newly established airship force, and after giving priority to supply and concentrating several factories, it finally got three more ships than Li Mo had predicted.

In addition to these behemoths, all the soldiers involved in this mission were given gag orders and signed their names or had their fingerprints put on non-disclosure agreements under the supervision of the gendarmerie.

Such a strictly secrecy operation is the first time in the history of the Pacific Army, but it is also worth it, and everyone has been waiting for two years for today's departure!

Xue Muhua stood excitedly on the lawn, next to the No. 01 airship led by him, as the commander of the unit named the air force by the young master, he was only twenty-five years old, he was actually a halfway monk, he was only a naval staff officer at the earliest, because he put forward the argument that the range of naval guns should be increased, and the weak horizontal armor of the opponent's battleships should be avoided as much as possible during the decisive battle, and the weak horizontal armor of the opponent's battleships was gradually revealed.

Later, with a paper order, he had to leave his beloved navy, give up his dream of galloping the blue sea, and become an experimenter at the Honolulu Flight Laboratory.

At that time, he was full of grievances, and thought that he had offended people with his own arguments, so he was "assigned", and finally made trouble with the young master, but after seeing the young master again, he only got a sentence that the young master said with a smile.

"I'll give you a chance to hit the opponent's horizontal armor, do it or not!"

At that time, Xue Muhua didn't want to do it in his heart, but he still didn't say anything in the face of the young master, and finally had to come to the flying laboratory, leading dozens of young people who also knew nothing to become the so-called flight experimenters.

From not knowing anything, to the experimenter who later piloted the airship to the blue sky, he and his driving team paid unimaginable efforts, in the earliest days, they accompanied those big-headed monsters to gnaw books, listen to analysis meetings, discuss design plans, from Xiaobai in the clouds and mountains to the first experimental airship to take off for testing.

If those big-headed monsters are literary maniacs who insist on their dreams, then the test team he leads is a martial madman who gives up his life, when the first airship trembles slightly, when the earth is far away at his feet, when the figure becomes an ant, even the most daring flight tester is shaking with his legs trembling, sweating and peeing his pants.

But after the initial discomfort, the experimenters led by him gradually liked this feeling, and in the end, it even developed into a sad obsession without flying up for a day.

Now, even if he is asked to go back to command a fleet, he is not happy, especially after the young master increases the appropriation, starts to produce large airships, and reads the team of experimenters into an army, his good life has finally come!

In front of it, there are eighteen hippopotamus-class behemoths with a length of 140 meters and a maximum of 13 meters, which were once spindle-shaped and had a load of six tons, and in its huge belly, 24 special bombs weighing 250 kilograms were loaded.

When he started training with this kind of bomb for the first time a few months ago, he really understood what the young master meant by the words "give you a chance to hit the opponent's horizontal armor".

He couldn't imagine what kind of panic would be caused when these incendiary bombs, which required four strong men to lift and could burn even steel, smashed down on top of the enemy's head!

Now, all he has to do is to lead eighteen hippos to complete the first actual combat performance in the history of the Air Force!

When the bombs with four tail fins, which I heard was still designed by the young master himself, were loaded onto the trolley and loaded into the magazine of the airship, when the small light bulbs representing the completion were lit up outside the pod, and when the soldiers stood in front of the engine and held the crank and waited, the milky yellow bulb in the front was suddenly covered with a layer of red paper.

Red flashes!

The soldiers standing on both sides of the pod engine turned the crank vigorously, and after a few soft bangs, the engine immediately spewed out puffs of black smoke, blackening their faces and driving the propellers to rotate violently.

As the last engine was started, the lamppost that was still blood-red just now turned green again, and Xue Muhua's right hand moved like a windmill, which was a signal to take off!

After walking quickly onto the airship and closing the hatch, several ground crew members immediately untied the cable of the suspended airship, and the No. 01 airship, which was free from the shackles of the cable, was like a wild horse off the reins, and quickly rose into the sky.

One, two, three .......

When the eighteen airships were fully lifted into the air, the sky of Hachijojima was completely covered in shadows.

"Send a report, the trebuchet is on the road."

Standing on the airship, through the narrow porthole, looking at the partners who had already been grouped on the left and right, Xue Muhua's arrogance suddenly rose sharply, and he trembled with excitement, this is the first performance of the Air Force, and it is also a performance that will take the initiative to change the mode of war!

"Direction 010, target ......."

"Yokosuka!" ……

(To be continued)