afterglow

Chapter 365 Accidental exchange of one for one; we failed
"Slow down and move forward."

"Commander-in-Chief orders, advance one step!"

"Report, the car is coming in."

Because there are a large number of ships and they are about to enter the river mouth, in order to avoid collision accidents and to have enough reaction time after discovering the mines, the Ming army's landing fleet is maintaining a low speed of 7 knots at this moment.

Because visibility was poor due to the weak light reflected by the waning moon, Huang Simin, the heavy cruiser captain of the Wuyishan and chief officer of the landing fleet, did not intend to take risks and wanted to wait until dawn before entering the river mouth.

Li Yuanhai, who had an acquaintance with Zhou back then, is still serving as the captain of the Fuqing. Although he has been promoted to lieutenant colonel, he lost the competition for the captain of the light cruiser of the Xiangjiang last year.

However, this dark-skinned, medium-sized old navy man didn't want to sit in an office at the base at all, so he continued to serve as the captain of the destroyer - maybe he would be able to make contributions on thousands of miles of sea territory?
The Fuqing he commanded was an ordinary Dinghai-class destroyer. It was commissioned in the 25th year of Zhichang and had as many as 43 sister ships of the same class.

这种普通的舰队驱逐舰的标准排水量为一千四百余吨，武器装备包括4座单装128㎜舰炮、3具三联装512㎜鱼雷发射器、6座单装20.8㎜高射炮、6挺12.8㎜高射机枪。

According to the air defense transformation draft prepared by the Naval Office of the Ministry of War, this class of destroyers should remove some anti-aircraft machine guns and add 38.4mm anti-aircraft guns with excellent performance. However, due to the rush of time, a large number of warships did not have time to dock and undergo transformation.

A few minutes later, at 5:16, the lookout post of the Fuqing also spotted the silhouette of the ship approaching rapidly from the south.

After preliminary analysis, the lookout post issued an alarm, claiming to have spotted an enemy light cruiser and four destroyers.

But then, some uncertain lookout posts mistakenly revised the report just now, believing that the incoming enemy was one heavy cruiser, one light cruiser, and three destroyers.

At this moment, the distance between the two sides is less than 7000 meters, and the enemy ship is likely to rush in at high speed to launch torpedoes!
"Send the order! The whole team is deployed for combat! The whole team speeds up and prepares to avoid torpedoes; our ship supports with flares, turns on the searchlight, advances three, and turns to [-]; the fourth, sixth, and seventh ships head on to intercept!"

"Order!"

The urgent battle sirens of jingling bells resounded throughout the ship, and all the sailors dropped what they were doing and went straight to their respective battle stations.

The helmsman at the helm slowly turned the rudder to the right, and the other helmsman reached out to push the rod and set the clock to advance three.

"The car enters three!"

Within tens of seconds, electromagnetic waves and light signals transmitted the command to every ship in the fleet.

The huge Wuyishan began to turn slowly, and the underwater propellers at the stern of the ship were also rotating faster. The light beams from several searchlights instantly cut through the night and hit the light cruiser Java, illuminating it brightly.

"Boom! Boom!"

The triple main gun spit out dazzling flames, and two large 208mm artillery flares flew out of the muzzle one after another.

The two flew over the Dutch fleet and disintegrated. The parachute slowly descended with a luminous tube suspended. The huge amount of light emitted when the aluminum-magnesium powder burned illuminated the sea area with a radius of several kilometers as bright as day!
The Ming fleet immediately realized the mistake in their previous identification - the one that started was not a heavy cruiser, but a Java-class light cruiser.

"I'll go! How did these guys sneak up here?"

"I'm afraid I went out to sea at night and came all the way at full speed."

"You are really desperate. There is no going back. You will definitely die at dawn!"

The destroyer Fuqing located on the side of the fleet was the first to complete preparations for speeding up and turning, and took the lead to meet the sudden enemy fleet.

Li Yuanhai calmly ordered: "Prepare mines and prepare all guns to fire."

At this time, the Java in the distance opened fire first, followed by two destroyers.

Six rounds of 150mm conventional bombs and a dozen rounds of 120mm conventional bombs fell into the sea one after another near the Fuqing. Some exploded and some sank silently.

The Fuqing had also completed the range measurement, and the four 128mm naval guns soon opened fire together under the coordination of the main gun firing director.

"Gunnery officer orders, disperse the enemy fleet and prepare for lightning strikes!"

"Lightning strike to [-], wide fan!"

"put!"

Each torpedo was pushed out of the triple torpedo launcher by compressed air. Six torpedoes fell into the water one after another. The coaxial counter-rotating propellers rotated at high speed and drove quickly towards the distance.

The Ming fleet's immediate priority is to block and disperse the incoming Dutch fleet, because it is impossible to expect them to be wiped out all at once.

Just a few seconds after the Fuqing fired all its torpedoes, the fourth salvo from the destroyer Van Gant hit.

A 120mm conventional bullet hit the middle of the first chimney of the Fuqing. After drilling through, it exploded in the middle. It tore a large hole in the chimney and twisted half of the chimney to the side.

However, the target of the Ming destroyers was the Java. At the same time, at least four battleships were focusing on the Java light cruiser, which was brightly illuminated by searchlights.

Because the distance was not too far, the destroyers Fuqing and Longquan quickly hit their targets - three 128mm explosive bombs exploded at the bow and amidships of the Java. In the flash of fire, you could see some fragments flying into the target. Sea.

The main armor belt of the Java-class light cruiser is 75mm thick, which is relatively solid. The 128mm naval gun is naturally powerless during medium and long-range firefights, and can only bombard the superstructure with grenades.

Karel Dorman responded calmly and found that the Ming fleet responded quickly. He realized that this surprise attack might not be very effective.

In the past few years since he came to the Dutch East Indus, he has intentionally or unintentionally learned many Chinese sayings, such as "If you don't hit the south wall, you won't look back; if you hit the south wall, you will still hit your head and break your blood." Obviously Karel doesn't want to be a A guy who works hard to the end.

"Abort the assault, launch torpedoes, release smoke and retreat." He ordered.

The four Dutch destroyers stopped charging. They turned one after another while sailing at a high speed of 26 knots, and at the same time launched a wave of torpedoes.

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"

Peter Hein and De Wet successfully launched all six torpedoes.

The Van Gant only fired 3 missiles due to a malfunction in the rotation mechanism of its launcher; the Cotton Aire's inadequate torpedo preparations resulted in a leak of compressed air, and 6 of the 4 torpedoes launched sank directly. Into the bottom of the sea.

A dozen tracks appeared in the strait at once, but the visibility was low at night, and the white light of the flares and the flickering explosions also greatly disturbed the sailors' sight.

"Holy shit! Torpedoes! Eight o'clock, nine o'clock!"

"Stop blaring! One, two, three... report! Six torpedoes heading three two five."

On the flickering sea surface, the tracks of those torpedoes were faintly visible.

The Ming destroyers began to evade maneuvers almost at the same time, facing the direction of the torpedo attack, and then made slight adjustments.

One torpedo was missed from the left and right, and the agile destroyers easily dodged all the torpedoes.The Ming army sailors who breathed a sigh of relief saw clouds of gray-white smoke emerging on the sea in the distance, and the shadows of the enemy warships were quickly lost in it.

But at this time, after three consecutive calibration shots, the Wuyishan hit the Java with its second salvo.

A 208mm anti-explosive bomb accurately hit the seaplane park between the two chimneys in the middle of the hull.

"boom!!!"

The violent explosion made the Dutch sailors tremble and sway left and right. The blasted crane booms, railings, lifebuoys and other items were lifted into the sky by the shock wave.

The two Fokker C11W seaplanes were restored to factory condition on the spot, and the leaked aviation gasoline turned the entire middle deck into a blazing sea of ​​flames.

On the bridge of the Wuyishan heavy patrol, the naval officers and soldiers were overjoyed when they saw this and clapped their hands and applauded.

"Beautiful play!"

"it is good!!!"

Zhou Changfeng, who was watching the excitement here, also secretly applauded. He witnessed the whole process - the fire burst out, a small fireball mushroom cloud appeared briefly, and then the middle part of the battleship could be seen covered with ignition spots.

He felt that the fragile light cruiser would definitely not be able to escape after being hit by such a heavy blow. The Wuyishan-class heavy cruiser of the Ming Army was a special case among the treaty-type heavy cruisers. The power of its 208mm naval gun was significantly greater than that of other heavy cruisers of other powers. of eight-inch naval guns.

For example, the Type 208 137mm armor-piercing projectile weighs 10kg, which is almost [-]kg heavier than the conventional eight-inch naval gun armor-piercing projectile.

Zhou Changfeng saw that the officers and soldiers on the bridge were very excited and eager to kill them all, so he turned his head and asked: "Do you want to pursue them?"

Huang Simin shook his head and said: "No, that bullet was not an armor-piercing bullet and did not damage any vital points. Okay, give me the order to withdraw the troops!"

Pursuing at night is too dangerous. If you break out of the smoke ball released by the Dutch destroyer, you may suddenly encounter a torpedo. If you can't avoid it, the loss will outweigh the gain.

The task given to the escort fleet this time is to escort the landing troops ashore. They will not be responsible for intercepting and killing the Dutch fleet. If they do it for them, it will only lead to chaos.

The sudden encounter here and the whereabouts of the Dutch fleet have been sent to the command center. When daybreak, the aviation force and the fleet cruising in the Java Sea can kill the Dutch who failed to attack.

But at this moment, the Pearl River light cruiser unexpectedly achieved results——

In the last salvo she fired, a 144mm armor-piercing round landed on the sea five meters behind the destroyer Cotton Eyre. The shell traveled several meters underwater and then hit the stern of the ship and detonated.

The Cotton Eyre's rudder and left propeller were destroyed, and the right propeller was damaged. She slowed down while turning in a circle, with a speed of only 8 knots, and then kept turning at this low speed with a large radius.

So she was quickly surrounded, and shells of different calibers hit the destroyer, which was like a target.

As if to prove that the remaining reflections of the former glory of the Netherlands were equally beautiful, the Dutch sailors bravely persisted in fighting.

At first they were able to fire threatening volleys, but as more and more shells hit the Cotton Eyre and the firing director was blown up, they were left to fight on their own.

The sailors of the Cotton Eyre were typical of courageous but mediocre quality. Four of the six torpedoes they launched sank. Although the remaining two sailed normally, they used a low speed gear due to a setting error.

When the torpedoes launched by other destroyers ran out of fuel and stalled and sank, the two torpedoes continued to sail 7000 meters north.

They passed through the Ming army's escort fleet and then went straight to the transport fleet.

When the destroyer USS Cotton Eyre was turned into a slowly sinking bonfire at sea by shells, one of the 533mm torpedoes hit the front of the hull of the passenger liner Chang Hong.

"Boom!!!"

The deafening roar made the Ming army officers and soldiers in the entire sea area look over. Everyone saw the rapidly dimming firelight and the falling water spray.

"what's the situation?!"

"It's baffling, what's going on?"

"I'm afraid it's not a torpedo."

After being surprised, Zhou Changfeng urged urgently: "Go to the rescue quickly, there are all oil workers up there!"

The Ming Dynasty was fully prepared for the Old Port and Balikpapan Oilfield. Although the military was confident and said it was [-]% sure, the court still organized a response team.

National Oil and Gas Company and Chongsheng Petroleum Company deployed capable engineers and workers to be responsible for emergency repairs and taking over the captured oil production wells and refineries. The personnel and equipment were carried by the Changhong passenger and cargo ship.

How could a mere [-]-ton civilian ship withstand the attack of a naval torpedo?
The Changhong soon tilted visibly to the naked eye due to a large amount of water. Fortunately, the power and power supply were still stable. The captain personally drove the ship to the coast while organizing the drainage.

At 6:11 in the morning, the Changhong, whose roll had reached [-] degrees, touched the coast, slowly stopped with the sound of metal twisting, and successfully ran aground before capsizing.

After dawn, everything became calm, except for a layer of heavy oil and scattered debris floating on the sea.

The Fuqing salvaged the Dutch sailors from the Cotton Aire aboard, and the transport ships in the fleet also began to release small boats one after another to send the troops ashore.

Zhou Changfeng was worried that the tricky Dutch would lay mines in the river channels, so he rejected the proposal to go up the river and landed directly at the mouth of the river.

Soldiers were very fast, and it took too long to completely disembark the large force, so he repeated his old tricks and deployed the 800st and [-]nd Battalions of the [-]st Marine Regiment, as well as some artillery and engineers, to lead the advance force of more than [-] people all the way to Head south to the old port.

The two battalions of the 3th Regiment of the Dutch 9rd Infantry Division on the first line of defense were demoralized because they heard that "elite Chinese paratroopers" had appeared on the outskirts of the old port city.

"... First use a shoulder-to-shoulder assault to crush the outer resistance, then go a few miles deep to both sides, and then launch a counter-attack to resolve the battle neatly!"

Facing the multi-pronged attack personally directed by Zhou Changfeng, the Dutch and Indian troops were defeated. From sunset to sundown, they had already lost most of their positions.

Zhou did not intend to delay until the next day, so these terrified Dutch and Indian troops quickly fell apart. The officers and soldiers captured 500 prisoners alone.

In fact, many indigenous soldiers surrendered on their own initiative. They lined up and walked neatly with guns on their shoulders. After being captured by the Ming army, it was obvious that they looked relieved, as if they had been reborn.

In fact, at this time, dozens of kilometers away in the old port, the office building of Shell's BPM refinery was already flying the Ming Dynasty military flag.

The Dutch 8th Infantry Regiment and the British 13th Infantry Brigade tried to counterattack three times, but in vain, leaving more than 100 corpses in front of the [-]st Parachute Regiment.

After learning that Ming army reinforcements had landed at the mouth of the river, Major General Dominic sighed and said helplessly: "Now we have to admit that we have failed."

(End of this chapter)