At six o'clock in the morning, the Masanori, along with the Li Guang and two destroyers, arrived at the sea near the Tsugaru Strait.
On the sea level in the distance, you can vaguely see rolling mountains. That is the mainland of Japan. The mountains on the right are Honshu Island, and the mountains on the left are Hokkaido. There is a vague area without mountains in the middle, which is the Tsugaru Strait.
's entrance.
The captain of the Masanori ordered the destroyer Domuha to stay here to monitor the movements of Japanese ships in the Sea of Japan. He also listened to submarines to prevent Japanese submarines from sneaking into the strait and give the Masanori a break.
Then, the Masanori took the Liguang and another destroyer Xinyuehu and headed towards the Tsugaru Strait in a swaggering manner.
Three Ming warships faced the rising sun in the east, cutting through the waves, with the Ming flag flying on the mast, and black smoke from the heavy oil boilers billowing from overhead. Although these three ships were the only ones left in the entire fleet,
Still majestic and intimidating.
"Ahead - ship target!!" The observer of the Xinyuehu destroyer at the front held a telescope and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Bearing - 032!! Distance - 15,000 meters!!"
Immediately afterwards, another observer shouted at the top of his lungs:
In an instant, the battle siren rang throughout the ship. The sailors who had just finished breakfast at their combat posts jumped up, put on their helmets, bulletproof vests and life jackets again, and fidgeted with various weapons.
caliber artillery, all pointed their barrels forward.
Although the officers and soldiers have experienced a desperate battle for most of the night, they still show no signs of fatigue and still appear to be full of energy.
On the sea level ahead, a mast and a puff of black smoke are exposed. It can only be said to be a ship. As for what kind of ship it is, we can't see it yet.
The Xinyue Fox immediately used a signal light to report to the Zhengde behind. The Zhengde ordered the Xinyue Fox to move forward at full speed and go to inspect. The Xinyue Fox screamed twice from the tweeter, and the whole body immediately made a loud noise, and the ship's stern rolled.
There were several times more whitecaps, and the speed quickly reached 28 knots.
The steel battleship of more than a thousand tons was like a speedboat at this moment, undulating on the sea. The pointed bow plunged into the water, and then came out again, bringing up billowing white waves on both sides. The mechanisms on the deck
The whole body of the gun crew and the torpedo crew were covered by the waves, but they were still like iron towers, nailed to the deck and motionless, as if their feet had taken root.
Soon, the ship on the sea level in the distance was exposed. When the upper part was exposed, the destroyer's observer stared at the telescope and shouted:
"Target - freighter!!!"
Immediately, several other observers gave the same signal one after another.
Xinyuehu immediately sent a signal to the Zhengde behind.
Now, everyone in the fleet breathed a sigh of relief. When they reported that black smoke and masts were found on the sea level, everyone's hearts were in their throats. Everyone thought that the King Kong Squadron was blocking it from outside.
.If that is the case, then we will face another fierce battle. Moreover, there are only two main ships, dragging their disabled bodies, outnumbered, and the odds are against them.
The Zhengde in the rear also accelerated and rushed forward. The distance between the Xinyue Fox in front and the freighter on the opposite side became closer and closer. After a while, the flag of the other side was clearly visible.
"Target nationality - Japan!!!"
With such a shout, all the officers and soldiers on the Xinyue Fox seemed to have been injected with a shot in the arm, and everyone became excited. Everyone was gearing up and ready to kill.
The Zhengde No. behind was dragging black smoke forward while using its lights to signal to the Li Guang No. behind:
"Follow me to attack!"
…
The distance between the Ming destroyer and the Japanese cargo ship was only a few thousand meters. The other side seemed to not know what was going on, and was still driving forward without any intention of slowing down or turning around.
The captain of the Xinyuehu stood on the bridge, holding on to the railing and holding a telescope to observe carefully. He thought to himself that the Japanese captain was probably confused too. He was a maritime person, so he must have recognized the flag of the Ming Dynasty Navy, but he probably
I have never seen it before. Because the Ming Navy has never been here.
Even the Japanese captain may not know that the two countries are already at war. The Japanese army made a sneak attack on the Ming Dynasty a few hours ago in the middle of the night, and at that time, the civilian port of Hakodate was probably still sleeping.
The Xinyue Fox did not slow down, and continued to move forward at high speed with the torrential white waves, passing 500 meters from the side of the Japanese freighter. The two ships passed by each other.
This is a cargo ship of about 5,000 tons, with the name of the ship painted on the bow: Shinkawa Maru. On the deck, dozens of sailors grabbed the railings, scrambling to look at the Ming destroyer, gesticulating, and arguing loudly with each other.
These Japanese sailors only saw Ming sailors wearing helmets and body armor on the deck of the destroyer, guarding the gun emplacements, glancing coldly in this direction, with mocking smiles on their faces.
The mission of the Xinyue Fox is not to deal with this cargo ship, but to forcefully enter the strait, check the situation in the strait, and then quickly cross the strait to reach the entrance to the Pacific Ocean on the other side, where it will look out for the wind and beware of the sudden appearance of the King Kong squadron.
.
…
At this time, the sailors of the Shinkawa Marujo noticed an even more spectacular scene - the battleship Masantoku, covered in the fiery red sun, sailed towards the ship.
When the distance between the two ships was still more than 3,000 meters, the No. 1 turret of the Zhengde turned slightly sideways, and the two gun barrels slowly lifted up, suddenly spurting out a large ball of flame.
The sea surface was instantly pushed away by the shock wave into a huge fan-shaped wave. Before the people in Shinkawa Maru knew what was going on, and even before they could hear the sound of cannons, the entire ship was caught in an earth-shattering explosion.
A 15-inch shell penetrated the unarmored hull of the Shinkawa Maru and exploded violently. Half of the deck of the 5,000-ton cargo ship was ripped off by the explosion line. The cranes and elevators on the deck were also billowing smoke.
It broke in the middle and fell into the sea entirely.
Thick smoke and fire continued to spurt out from the large holes in the deck and cracks in the hull. The flames became more and more fierce, white smoke continued to spurt out, and the entire hull began to tilt.
There were probably only a few sailors left on the Shinkawa Maru who died. There were only a few people, covered with fire, waving their limbs and climbing over the railing, jumping into the sea.
The Zhengde didn't even bother to fire a second shot. It didn't even slow down and headed straight towards the entrance of the strait to kill the enemy.
The Li Guang ship behind caught up and did not slow down. However, when it passed by the Shinkawa Maru, it turned the No. 4 rear turret and fired a salvo of two main guns. Two more 8-inch shells hit the freighter and exploded.
, this time really completely disintegrated Shinkawa Maru.
The cargo ship's body was broken into two halves, the bow and stern were raised high, and it sank rapidly.
The officers and soldiers on the Zhengde and Li Guang were very excited to see it. They had lost so many brothers in a battle at night, and now they finally felt a little pleasure of revenge.
However, the way they looked at the Japanese freighter seemed a bit strange. First, a large amount of white smoke was sprayed out from the hull, which was extremely strong. Now, a pungent smell can be smelled hundreds of meters away. Moreover,
The flames on the ship were so fierce that they almost spurted out from the windows and cracks, but there was not much burning oil slick on the surrounding seawater.
Suddenly, some sailors said:
"Sulfur! The cargo in the Japanese ship is sulfur!"
Everyone understood at once. Sulfur is a very important military raw material and a very important chemical raw material, and Japan is rich in sulfur. Needless to say, this ship of sulfur is to be transported to the Soviet Union in exchange for materials Japan needs.
Now, even the ship and its cargo are lying on the bottom of the sea.
…
The Shinyue Fox sailed into the Tsugaru Strait, slowed down a bit, and headed straight to the northeast, which is the entrance to the Pacific Ocean. The Tsugaru Strait is more than ninety kilometers long, or about fifty nautical miles, and is narrow at both ends.
, wide in the middle. The narrowest points at both ends are about 20 kilometers, while the widest point in the middle is 40 to 50 kilometers.
In the wide section in the middle, the north shore is Hakodate Port, and the south shore is a recessed bay called "Mutsu Bay", which is dozens of kilometers deep. In the bay are Aomori Port and Aomori Prefecture. However, the Ming fleet cannot risk going deep into the bay.
Mutsu Bay is 1,000 kilometers deep, so Hakodate on the north shore was chosen as the attack target.
The Xinyue Fox drove at high speed along the route slightly north of the strait, several kilometers away from the southern coast of Hakodate Port, carefully observing the port city with telescopes all the way. The people in Hakodate Port, Han
Thousands of people on the beach in Tateshi are also looking at the Xinyue Fox. For such a civilian port, it is always more attractive when a warship passes by, and many people will climb to a high place to watch.
But just now, the majestic "Warship March" sounded first on the radio and from the speakers in various public places, and then an announcer announced impassionedly that in order to punish the Ming Dynasty for its long-term provocation against the Japanese Empire,
In order to protect Japan's territory and territorial sea security, and to protect Japanese citizens, the Imperial Japanese Army has launched an attack on the Ming Army in Manchuria early this morning.
Now, most Japanese people in Japan already know that the two countries are at war. The Japanese in Hakodate are no exception. So this morning when they saw a warship passing by at high speed outside the harbor, they all showed several times their usual concern.
I waited eagerly. But at this distance, it was difficult to distinguish the flag on the warship with the naked eye.
The few Japanese who had telescopes, such as the captains of ships in the harbor, the pilots at the pier, the foremen, etc., all used their telescopes to clearly see that it was a Ming army warship.
Soon, tension began to spread in the Hakodate port area. The Japanese didn't know what to do or what the Ming warships were going to do. It seemed like there was only one ship, and it was just passing by.
But... about ten minutes later, the real panic began to spread rapidly from the west side of Hakodate Port to the east side.
Because a huge battleship appeared on the distant sea to the west. The battleship was spitting out black smoke and filled with murderous intent. And anyone with a telescope could barely tell that the flag on the warship belonged to the Ming army.