Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Eighth Tiaohu Lishan
Friday, the 4th, sunny. At around nine o'clock in the morning, Guo Kui was sleeping soundly. Suddenly, there was a beeping sound. He immediately opened his eyes and sat up, startling the telegraph operator next to him.
Soldiers have never been afraid of sacrifice, but there was a question of whether it was worth it. Therefore, when he learned that the seven large ships controlled by Qi Minghao and the others had almost no combat power, Guo Kui got directly into the "
The Richelieu's communications room was closed.
At this moment, he stared at the second lieutenant and asked: "Telegram?"
"yes."
"Where did it come from?"
"Hanoi."
"Quick translation!"
"yes."
While the lieutenant was translating, Guo Kui lay on the side and read. About three minutes later, he read: "The main force of Japanese ships appeared in the area of Labuan Island -" The concept of Labuan Island was not in his mind, so he immediately ran out to find Qi Minghao.
Qi Minghao had just changed his shift. When he heard him asking about the location of Labuan Island, he immediately understood. His eyes lit up and he asked: "Has the main force of the Japanese fleet gone to Labuan Island?"
Seeing his expression, Guo Kui knew something in his heart, and his tense heartstrings suddenly relaxed. He took out a cigarette and handed it to Qi Minghao and said, "You got the answer right, and I will reward you with a cigarette."
"I can't smoke!"
"Smoke one, smoke one. As a military cadet, I don't know how to smoke. I'm not afraid of people laughing at me if I say it. How far is Labuan Island from Singapore?"
"More than a thousand kilometers."
"Haha! Did Xu Kai and the others succeed?"
"It's not considered a success yet. We have to be able to contain the Japanese fleet there for at least a day and a night."
Guo Kui understood the relationship as soon as he thought about it. He lit a cigarette, took a deep breath and said, "I believe he has this ability! A big Mac like the 'Kaga' can sink a small sampan."
'Fengxiang' and 'Longxiang' are still on the table?"
Qi Minghao smiled bitterly: "Commander, this is not the algorithm. Let's put it this way, the submarine is the assassin of the sea. It can only rely on sneak attacks to achieve success, but now the Japanese army is prepared. So it is very difficult."
"No matter what, the Japs' main fleet is not in Singapore now!"
“The time difference is not calculated well, but it seems that’s all it can do.”
The second lieutenant had already translated all the messages. He came up and handed the complete message to Qi Minghao, asking him if he wanted to notify the British so that they could advance in advance.
Out of respect for the lives of the captured soldiers, Phillips personally directed the actions of the mixed fleet. Qi Minghao thought for a moment and said: "Send a telegram. Phillips was on night shift yesterday and should still be sleeping at the moment. Remember anything else.
Don’t mention it either.”
The second lieutenant should have retreated. Five minutes later, Qi Minghao and Guo Kui were discussing what Xu Kai should do to attract the attention of the Japanese while protecting themselves.
Phillips's voice came out: "Attention ships, I am Phillips. I now order all ships to maintain the original formation and advance at thirty knots, over!"
Phillips got up quickly enough. A little surprised, Qi Minghao grabbed the microphone and replied: "The 'Richelieu' received it!" and then issued a series of orders to the cadets on the ship.
A few minutes later, Qi Minghao was about to say something to Guo Kui. When he chose the channel on the right side in front of him, Phillips' voice came out again from the Mail: "I am Phillips, please pick up Commander Qi."
"I am Qi Minghao, Commander Phillips, please speak."
"Commander Qi, I have received the telegram. I would like to ask, was the main force of the Japanese Expedition Fleet attracted by your army?"
Qi Minghao and Guo Kui looked at each other, with the same meaning in their eyes: This British guy has his own tricks.
Qi Minghao: "Sorry, I don't know about this."
Phillips was silent for a while and said: "Commander Qi, you must be aware that the main force of the Japanese expeditionary fleet is the biggest threat to our operation. The main force of the Japanese fleet has been transferred away from Singapore waters. We have already succeeded in half of this operation.
If it can be towed to Labuan Island, the chance of success of our operation will be greatly increased. I suggest you communicate with Commander-in-Chief Ouyang about this matter!"
Guo Kui: "*, what a keen sense of smell - he must have sensed something!"
Qi Minghao waved his hand towards him, pressed the send button and said: "Okay."
"God bless you, thank you very much!" Phillips replied.
Putting down his words, Qi Minghao responded to Guo Kui's words just now: "He is worthy of being a man from the world's strongest navy. This Phillips is a character."
Guo Kui did not continue this topic, but asked: "If we advance at a speed of thirty knots, how long will it take to reach the target sea area?"
Qi Minghao looked at the chart and said, "If nothing happens, we can arrive at around three o'clock tomorrow morning."
Guo Kui looked at his watch: "Does that mean there are still fifteen hours at most?"
"yes."
"Then I have to go and rest. Xiao Qi, you'd better go and take a nap too."
"I just woke up and I feel very energetic now."
Time went back six hours. At about three o'clock in the morning, on the ocean west of Labuan Island, Xu Kai was commanding the Song-class ship that had made great achievements the night before yesterday, playing a hide-and-seek game with the little Japanese.
Guo Kui and Qi Minghao thought that it would be difficult for them to continue to attract the attention of the Japanese warships when surrounded by so many Japanese warships. In fact, they achieved it very easily. By firing active sonar at a frigate, Long Xiang coincidentally
The aircraft carrier "Kaga" was on the inner side of the frigate. Having learned the painful lesson of the "Kaga" aircraft carrier being attacked and sunk by a torpedo, the Japanese commander of the Ryujo aircraft carrier fleet did not dare to be careless and immediately ordered the entire fleet to conduct anti-submarine operations. However,
The Song class was so slippery that all the Japanese anti-submarine ships deployed in the fleet were unable to encircle it, so the Fengxiang aircraft carrier fleet also joined the encirclement and pursuit battle.
This cat-and-mouse game between the two sides lasted for more than four hours. This is why Xu Kai and the others discovered the enemy's main battleship Qi Minghao at three in the morning and did not receive the notification telegram until nine in the morning (for insurance, Xu Kai ordered the two
The Ming class returned to Haikou base first).
At dawn, the overturned merchant ship stood out in the eyes of the commander of the Ryukyu aircraft carrier fleet. Only then did the little devil remember that his responsibility was to take the transport fleet back to Singapore. The little devil also had good intentions and did not want to face resources in the empire.
In this difficult situation, we wasted the equipment of that ship and ordered the ship to be towed back. Well, originally the Ryukyu was not sailing fast, and being dragged down by it, the speed of the entire fleet was not fast, and now there are so many more
As a result, the overall speed of the fleet dropped by more than half. With the level of navigation at that time, it was almost a snail's speed. Then, the tragedy happened - when the Japanese Japanese army in Singapore suddenly discovered the huge fleet of the British and French coalition forces, Koizumi
When they were ordered to return soon, they were still more than 800 kilometers away from Singapore.
Because of this special situation, although the rescue operation actually started three hours later than Qi Minghao estimated, it was still enough for the officers and soldiers of the Jungle Special Operations Brigade to do their best.