The two ships that were converted into anti-aircraft submarines were named "Yitian" and "Qingzhi". The names of the boats were derived from Cao Cao's two swords during the Three Kingdoms period: Yitian Sword and Qingzhi Sword. It is said that the Qingzhi Sword later fell into the hands of Zhao Zilong.
Here, it became Zhao Zilong’s sword.
The two anti-aircraft submarines traveled together, bypassing the southern end of Zhoushan Island, and then passed eastward through the waterway between Putuo Mountain and Zhujiajian. In front of them was the boundless East China Sea, and only in the north could one see people from time to time.
A small island appears - it is the Zhongjieshan Islands, the easternmost one of the Zhoushan Islands
There are many small islands like this in the Zhoushan Islands. Except for the larger islands with fishing villages, most of the small islands are uninhabited. On many of these uninhabited islands, the East China Sea Fleet has built forts, or
A small number of Marines are stationed at the observation post, and daily supplies are delivered by speedboat.
Three hours later, at nine o'clock in the morning, about 8,000 meters to the north, the Four Sisters Islands were vaguely seen. These are four small islands grouped together, and they are the easternmost group of small islands in the Zhongjieshan Islands. It's okay.
It is said that it is the island in the entire Zhoushan Archipelago that goes the deepest into the East China Sea. After driving past the Four Sisters Islands, and further to the east, you will see the endless East China Sea.
The fort defenders on the Four Sisters Island saw the Yitian and Qingjiu. The fort flashed its signal light:
"Take care! Be safe!"
The Yitian and Qingzhi cruised eastward while dragging Bailang and returned to the signal light:
"Thank you!"
The fort in the north gradually disappeared and fell to the west behind. Gradually, nothing could be seen around except sea water. Of course, there was also the dazzling sun in the southeast sky.
Now, they have completely sailed out of the Zhoushan Islands, and are completely surrounded by the ocean. The two submarines are like two little ants, crawling forward inch by inch on the great plain, looking extremely small.
If the submarines usually set sail, at this time, it would be time to go their separate ways, sail to their respective "hunting ranges" and start cruising, respectively, to search for enemy ships. But now, the Yitian and the Qingji have no intention of separating, and they are still together.
Let's go. Since this is the first time an anti-aircraft submarine goes out for hunting, it is of great significance. Only victory is allowed and no defeat is allowed. Two submarines traveling together can increase their anti-air firepower exponentially. Therefore, in the combat plan, the two submarines have to go from start to finish.
In the end, we must be together closely.
On the conning tower, the four machine gun positions are also four observation positions. The four machine gunners are also observers. In addition to these four observers, two more observers are added to the control tower of each submarine, namely
Six people. Three of them are responsible for the observation at 12 o'clock, 9 o'clock, and 6 o'clock. According to the current heading, that is, due east, due north, and due west. These three observers are also responsible for observing.
It is necessary to take into account the directions between the three directions, that is, northeast, northwest, and southwest.
In other words, the three people in the north are responsible for observation in six directions.
However, the other three people are responsible for a much smaller observation range, namely the southeast and due south directions. Two people are observing the southeast at the same time. Because the southeast is exactly the direction of the sun. As long as the enemy aircraft has experience, it will always
It likes to use the sun for cover, and only swoops down to attack when it is flying very close. In a word, the southeast is the high-risk direction now. In the afternoon, it will be the southwest.
The lenses of the two telescopes in the southeast and due south are dark-coated and can look directly at the sun. When the angle of the sun changes, or when the submarine turns, the two coated telescopes must also change positions and always face the direction of the sun.
"Target - bomber group!!!" the communications officer and observer due south of the Aoji suddenly screamed, "Distance - 5000 meters!!!"
A junior officer next to him shouted at the hatch without saying a word:
"Emergency Dive!!!"
Immediately, sharp alarm bells rang inside and outside the submarine, and the observers on the conning tower quickly filed into the hatch. The gun crews on the front and rear decks also deftly took off their seat belts and got into the side hatch of the conning tower.
The front deck of the Qingjiu was engulfed by sea water. The communications officer was the last one to go down. Before she went down, she waved a signal flag at the Yitian twice to signal it to make an emergency dive. Then she also got into the control tower and spun around.
Go up to the watertight door. At this time, the sea water has reached the top of the control tower.
The Yitian, a few hundred meters away, was also making an emergency dive, and its front deck had already sunk into the seawater.
After a while, both submarines were completely underwater, leaving only a large piece of white foam churning on the sea surface. Soon, even the foam disappeared. The entire sea surface returned to calm, as if the two submarines had never existed.
Inside the Aoi submarine, the red warning light flashed rapidly, the alarm bell blared, and all the crew members ran desperately to the torpedo room at the front of the submarine. The entire submarine was filled with chaotic footsteps, screams, cups and plates of tea.
The sound of the jar falling to the floor... ping ping ping ping ping, clattering.
The boatswain huddled beside the aisle and shouted:
"Quick! Quick! Quick! Just run fast! Otherwise you will die! Run, run, run!!!"
The girls sprinted skillfully in the narrow aisle. One person in front slipped and fell, and the person behind held her hands on both sides of the bed and jumped over her head like a vaulting horse. Then the one who fell also flew to the side.
Get up and continue to rush forward...
The torpedo room at the front was already packed with thirty or forty people, all lying on the ground, clinging to each other, forming a "human mountain". There were still people from behind who rushed towards the "human mountain" and jumped directly to join.
Coming in, there was a splash of "ouch".
Soon, all the crew members in non-important positions were crowded into the torpedo room. Dozens of people greatly increased the weight of the front of the submarine, greatly speeding up the submarine's submergence angle and speeding up the submarine's drilling speed.
The boatswain was the last to get in, glanced at the dozens of little girls with pale faces, put his index finger on his mouth, stared, and whispered:
"Shh..."
Point upward at the same time.
Everyone shut their mouths tightly and no one said a word. Dozens of people crowded together were so quiet. Everyone stared nervously upward, staring at the steel plates and pipelines above, holding their breath and praying.
Waiting for the explosion.
In the command cabin in the middle section of the submarine, several officers were tiptoeing around, performing their duties and busying themselves nervously. The captain held the chart table, grabbed his wet hair, and picked up a towel to wipe his face.
The remaining seawater that poured in during the dive still trickled down the hatch of the control tower overhead.
Although this time it was an airplane, not a destroyer, and it was impossible to use sonar to find submarines, everyone still habitually kept quiet. In the silence, the engineer officer whispered the order:
"The bow is 8 degrees, the stern is 6 degrees...Okay, hold on, take your time..."
Following her orders, the two operators opposite the chart table steadily operated the front and rear diving wings, and the submarine slowly adjusted its forward angle. The two small water columns in the angle gauge rose and fell, and the pointer on the depth gauge rose and fell.
Moving bit by bit: 45m...50m...55m...60m...
Everyone's mind was gradually filled with doubts: We have been diving for so long and we haven't heard any explosions yet. This is not normal. Could it be that the enemy plane flew over us and dropped a bomb far away?
The sonar soldier in the next cabin wore headphones, closed his eyes slightly, slowly turned the steering handle, and carefully identified the sounds coming from every angle. If there was a faint explosion in the distance, that was right.
The chief engineer continued to dive the submarine to a depth of about 80 meters. The captain said:
"Okay, let's go to this depth first."
The chief engineer immediately ordered the operators to adjust the nose and tail diving fins and slowly "flatten" the submarine.
In this "submarine squadron", the Qingjiu is the flagship. The captain of the Qingjiu is also the "fleet commander". At this time, the captain ordered the communications officer to contact the Yitian, and both parties maintained a common course, speed, and depth.
Although a submarine is basically cut off from communication with the outside world once it dives underwater, the two submarines are now so close that they can use sound waves instead of radio waves to communicate. Both submarines are equipped with special underwater sound systems, which can act like telegraphs.
Similarly, sound waves are emitted into the sea. Using sea water as a medium, sound waves can travel a considerable distance.
"Melodious" high-frequency sound waves spread in the surrounding seawater, spreading the code. If there is a destroyer, the submarine cannot do this. It will only help the destroyer locate the submarine's position.
Soon, the Qingzhi received an echo from the Yitian a few hundred meters away. The "underwater telegraph" automatically printed the signal on the paper tape based on the sound waves and transmitted it out.
The communications officer tore off the paper tape, glanced at the brief signal, and said:
"Captain, the Yitian understands that it will maintain the same course, speed and depth as us."
The captain nodded:
"very good."
In the silence, everyone is making a conspiracy... Bomber group? This is not very common! There are always one or two enemy planes cruising the sea, how can it be a group? Besides, this is just outside the Zhoushan Islands, or
As for the scope of Ming's air superiority, how could the Japanese bombers dare to run so close? Are they here to sneak attack the Ming military port? Just like the Tianshu squadron attacked the Japanese military port?
The engineer officer stared at the communications officer and finally spoke: "Aying, did you really see the bomber group?"
Communications manager Aying and the captain looked at each other, smiled mysteriously, and said nothing.
The engineer officer couldn't help but asked again: "Approximately how many aircraft are there?...Don't think that our army's own fleet is an enemy aircraft, right?"
The captain was a captain in his thirties. She looked at the two of them and smiled: "Aying did the right thing. I would rather the observer made a hundred false alarms than miss one. We can't make false alarms."
It was an emergency dive. If you miss the report, you will die."
Then, the captain turned around and picked up the broadcast microphone and said to the whole boat: "Okay, little girls, don't be afraid. I am the captain. This is just an exercise to test whether everyone's skills are rusty. Okay,
Let’s all get up and work.”
After saying this, all the girls on the boat let out a sigh of relief, and sweat broke out all over their bodies. Several officers in the command cabin also closed their eyes and leaned gently against the bulkhead, their faces
The blush returned to her face. Only Aying was smiling and proud.
Then, the captain ordered the submarine to continue diving to comprehensively test the deep-diving performance of the submarine after modification. This step is very important, and it cannot be tested in the port, including the Zhoushan Islands. The water there is too shallow, only a dozen meters.
Twenty or thirty meters. Now, submarines have to face deep dive tests of more than 100 meters.
If there is any problem, it is best to expose it at this time. Even if there is a serious water leak, there is still time to emerge from the water urgently and return to the port to repair it. At most, the mission will be ruined. If you really need to face the enemy and need to dive deep to save your life, then emerge
The problem is, that's the end of it. Not only will there be extra pressure from depth charges, but as long as you get out of the water, you'll be captured.
The Qingjiao issued a further dive command to the Yitian, and then began to dive itself.
100 meters...110 meters...120 meters...
The pointer on the depth meter slowly moved from the green field to the yellow field, and then from the yellow field to the orange field.
The submarine began to reverberate with the sound of "squeak...squeak...quack...quack..." and the moans of the steel plates. The pressure-resistant hull was squeezed by the huge water pressure around it, making various terrifying and strange sounds.
, as if it was about to break. Some pipe joints began to spray water thinly. The engine officer hurried over and tightened it with a wrench.
Now, the depth pointer is slowly approaching the red zone, approaching the depth of 150 meters - this is the designed dangerous depth of the submarine. If you dive any further, safety is no longer guaranteed.
The groaning sound of the steel plates inside the boat gradually turned into a loud noise, and the "bang, bang, bang, bang" was so scary. The faces of the officers and soldiers inside the boat began to slowly turn pale again. They didn't know what the captain wanted to do.
"Okay," the captain smiled slightly, scratched the water from his hair, nodded, "That's it. Let's get out of the water."
Several officers around him took a deep breath again, and the color returned to their faces.
The engine officer was busy directing the operators to move the diving wing and inject compressed air into the water tank to drain the water. The communications officer was busy sending an "underwater telegram" to the Yitian so that it could also come out of the water...
On the sunny sea surface, a gray steel giant jumped out with a "crash", and the harsh sound of the diesel engine suddenly resounded across the sea. The Qingzhi submarine emerged from the sea dripping with water, and began to move forward through the waves, dragging white marks.
Soon, another "giant beast" emerged from a few hundred meters away and followed the Qingzhao through the waves.
The hatch of the control tower of the Qingmai was opened, and several observers and machine guns came out first to carry out alert observation. Then, the three machine gun crews also came out and took their positions.
At this moment, the communications officer shouted again:
A group of girls were shocked and said to themselves: Sister, you don’t know how to do it?!
But no one dared to take it for granted, and nervously turned the muzzle of the gun and muzzle to the 105th southeast direction—that is, the direction of the sun.
Under the sun's flare, a small black dot appeared. It couldn't be seen unless you looked carefully. The small black dot skillfully used the cover of strong light to approach the two submarines.
The communications officer waved the signal flag rapidly, and the Yitian in the north also understood.
Now, the two anti-aircraft submarines raised their guns and opened their mouths to prepare for the attack.