afterglow

Chapter 542: Lexington renamed; fertilizer for mushrooms
The sky is clear, the sun is shining brightly, the boundless blue sea is covered with microwaves, and a dozen long white tracks can be seen at a glance.

Following the track back to its source, we saw a fleet sailing toward the northeast, surrounded by destroyers and submarine hunters, guarding the oilers and aircraft carriers in the middle.

Dongyou No. 11 oil tanker is replenishing fuel for the Lexington, and the two ships are sailing at low speeds one after the other.

This was a routine refueling exercise at sea, and no fuel actually flowed from the pipeline.

The Ming Navy is studying a more efficient left and right refueling method, but it has not yet been promoted. Currently, it mainly uses the traditional front and rear refueling method.

In the bridge, a major stared at the moving second hand of his pocket watch and said loudly: "There is a quarter of an hour left in the refueling operation."

"Maintain course." Captain Zeming, the captain, said calmly.

Looking at the boundless blue sea, Guan Zeming, who was in a complicated mood, couldn't help but sigh that his luck was really not very good.

He once served as a navigation officer on the Tianshi Youyuan, and was later transferred to the Taiwei Youyuan as a first officer. He fully expected to be able to independently command an aircraft carrier - most likely a Fomalhaut-class aircraft carrier.

However, the second and third ships of the Fomalhaut-class were both sunk in the Battle of Tarawa, and the Taiwei Uyuan was also sunk by a surprise attack at the end of the battle. His job change was also interrupted and he was transferred to Hangzhou (Navy). Became a professor at the Armed Forces Academy.

After dismantling the US-made 203mm naval gun, 127mm high-level dual-purpose gun, and 28mm anti-aircraft gun, the shipyard installed more and more complete self-defense weapons configurations for the Lexington.

Although some people think that retaining the original ship name is a better way to ridicule, the Lexington was still renamed. The Ministry of War and Navy Administration gave out ship names such as Tianguan, Yinghuo, Antares, Spica, etc. for selection. In the end, Zhu Lingjing chose Confused.

The additional weapons and equipment and structural reinforcements have increased the displacement of the Lexington, and the stability of the repaired electric motor main engine is not as good as before.

After a brief moment of surprise, a thought suddenly popped into his mind - his grandma's, couldn't this be the periscope of an enemy submarine? !
Recalling the anti-submarine essentials and the knowledge that everyone must master during the training camp, the current situation is completely consistent with what was said at that time.

During this period, in order to repair its unique electric motor main engine manufactured by General Electric Company, Chuting Shipyard had to seek technical support from thermal power plants, and after much trouble, it was finally properly restored to the point where it could continue to operate.

The Taiweiyuan class of the Ming army is also an aircraft carrier rebuilt based on the battlecruiser. The Lexington class has many similarities with it. For example, the slender hull ensures excellent high-speed performance while also increasing the turning radius. It's too big, and its flexibility is average. I might not be able to accept it if someone else takes command for a while.

This resulted in the Lexington only running at a speed of 29.6 knots during the full-load sea trial. Although it was close to 33 knots when overloaded, a series of abnormal conditions occurred after more than half an hour and the overload had to be terminated.

He raised his hands to cover his eyes and turned his head to look over. He saw something strange on the sea in the distance, which was constantly reflecting sunlight.

Because the damage was severe, additional reinforcements were made on some ribs and cracks during repair to ensure structural strength.

Suddenly, a sailor on Dongyou No. 11 felt himself being dazzled by light.

Who should command the captured Lexington after it is repaired?

"Something's happening!" he shouted immediately.

At the Chuting Shipyard in Guangzhou, the Lexington, which was riddled with holes by torpedoes and aerial bombs, completed the "big fight" repair.

As a result, two months later, a change came to light, and a transfer order from the Ministry of War pulled him out of his despair.

If you cite scriptures, you will find that Yinghuo-Mars had nothing to do with auspiciousness during the Qin and Han Dynasties. The "Yinghuo Shou Xin" of Mars retrograde is an extremely dangerous celestial phenomenon.

The turning radius of the Taiweiyuan class is 1550m, and that of the Lexington class is as high as 1600m; in comparison, the formally designed aircraft carrier Yorktown class is only 1070m.

这些高射炮包括两舷平台的4座双联装128㎜高平两用炮、舰桥前边与后边共4座双联装128㎜高平两用炮，以及20座双联装38.4㎜高射炮、8座四联装20.8㎜高射炮、14门单装20.8㎜高射炮。

So this burden fell on Guan Zeming - as the former Taiwei Youyuan's first officer, he was fully qualified for this position.

The famous Li Chunfeng described it as "Ying deceives the heart, and the battle is invincible. Foreign generals fight to death, and the master is dead. Fire attacks the heart, and the emperor and the king have no heirs... When the master changes the government, the master goes to his palace."

It was 8:24 on August 14. In the waters west of the Ryukyu Islands, the fleet completed at-sea refueling training, and the Dongyou Oil No. 25 tanker began to recover the oil pipeline.

A more suitable candidate is the former captain of Taiwei Youyuan. Taiwei Youyuan was sunk in the Battle of Tarawa. The former captain subsequently became a candidate for the two giant armored aircraft carriers that were about to be completed. No.

At this moment, in the bridge of the Yinghuo, Guan Zeming was discussing the sea trials and training with the engineering officer and navigation officer.

"The results of previous tests are that there are many minor problems. If you increase the power output, problems will easily occur. The overload should not exceed two quarters of an hour."

"Then this is too restrictive. Even short-range tactical maneuvers will take hours at least."

"Yeah, what did the shipyard say? Can it be repaired again? The current speed is neither high nor low. It's useless."

Everyone is very dissatisfied with the speed of the Yinghuo, because the maximum speed of 29.6 knots under normal conditions cannot follow the other Ming army aircraft carriers.

The siren suddenly sounded, and someone rushed over, shouting: "Submarine alarm!"

The signal lights flashed, the radio frequency band was filled with inquiries, and individual warships had begun to leave the team and perform evasive maneuvers.

The sound of gunfire also came from the distance. It was the anti-aircraft guns of the destroyer Dengfeng firing at the sea, causing water to splash everywhere.

A submarine hunting ship accelerated and turned, rushing over from the periphery of the fleet. Several depth bombs were thrown out, and the call of "This ship is dropping bombs" came over the radio.

Ten seconds later, several groups of white swells suddenly burst out from the sea surface, first swelling out of the water, and then blooming.

"Boom! Boom!"

One wave after another, several more depth charges were thrown out and fell into the sea...

After more than half an hour, a set of standard anti-submarine procedures was completed.

The sea surface was as calm as a mirror, as if nothing had happened, and no debris, debris, garbage, or oil stains could be seen.

The hydrophone did not detect any abnormalities. There was only the normal noise of the propellers of each ship.

A false alarm!
Guan Zeming breathed a sigh of relief and ordered: "Remove the alert and resume training. The next one is attack training."

"I have the order! Remove the alert and continue training."

But what no one expected was that the following training would be full of bad luck.

At dusk that day, the destroyer Dengfeng sent out a light signal to report that someone had fallen into the water, including two sailors and a petty officer. The fleet then slowed down and sent one destroyer and one submarine hunter each to search and rescue, but found nothing.

Such accidents are not uncommon in the navy, and can even be said to be commonplace.

The first lesson for sailors when they join the army is to be taught to fear the sea. The impact of falling into the sea from the deck is enough to injure people. At the least, it will cause them to be smashed to pieces. Moreover, even if they are wearing a life jacket, they can easily be sucked into the bottom of the ship, or they may be injured. It was drowned by the waves that came one after another.

The fleet continues to train, and the next project is concealed sortie training - completing the flight, formation, and air attack of the fleet in radio silence.

That night, the Ming Dynasty Navy's 20th Naval Service Detachment Meteorological Observation Station stationed in Manila issued a warning - large winds and waves are suspected to occur in the waters near Ryukyu. The wind speed may reach 6m/s, the wave height may reach m, and the sea conditions are not good.

Guan Zeming felt relieved when he learned that the storm was "just" this level, because this was a very conservative estimate and would usually not be reached. He was now more worried about whether there would really be enemy submarines in the nearby waters.

The Battle of Hawaii lasted for several months. The U.S. submarine force, which had initially solved the torpedo problem, was very active and achieved fruitful results, sinking more than 200,000 tons of merchant ships, not including some sunk warships.

The Ming army's logistics line suffered a severe blow, causing many naval officers and soldiers to suffer from submarine stress disorder.

However, in general, the anti-submarine situation is not yet serious. The arrogance of US submarines has been suppressed. The large number of destroyers, frigates, and submarine hunters of the Ming Dynasty made the happy time of the US submarine force a flash in the pan.

However, in order to ensure that the situation will not reverse again, sufficient preparations should be made both mentally and materially.

The most commonly used depth bombs today are powerful, but their hit rate is low and their anti-submarine efficiency is not high.

First, ships performing anti-submarine missions must sail at low speeds—usually no more than 15 knots—to prevent their own propeller noise from interfering with sonar and hydrophones.

Depth bombs are usually placed behind the ship and need to be sailed to the target before being released. The most important thing is that the sinking speed of the depth bomb is very slow, only about 2.5m/s. For example, when an enemy submarine is hiding at a depth of 100m, they will hear it. There is enough time to evade after the deep bomb hits the water.

This is not over yet, the disadvantages of depth charges do not stop there.

The huge noise caused by the violent explosion of depth bombs will significantly interfere with the ship's sonar and hydrophones. Only when the water calms down again can we continue to detect enemy submarines.

Zhou Changfeng naturally knew about the famous anti-submarine weapon Hedgehog bomb used by the British who valued anti-submarine in history. However, out of considerations of ensuring technical superiority, he has not put it into practice until now.

The hedgehog grenade launcher looks like it has one pole after another, which is vividly named as a hedgehog.

During the attack, 24 grenades on the launcher will be sprayed out one after another, with a maximum range of about 200m. The impact point of these 24 grenades is roughly a circle, like a lasso thrown out, trapping the enemy's submarine.

These anti-submarine grenades do not use depth pressure fuzes, but instead use collision trigger fuzes. If the grenade does not hit the target during sinking, it will not explode and will not hinder sonar and hydrophones, greatly improving anti-submarine efficiency. .

As long as it explodes, it means a hit has been achieved. What's more interesting is that each anti-submarine grenade has an additional impact fuse, which means that as long as one of the 24 grenades fired in each round explodes, it will cause a chain reaction. , causing the grenades next to it to explode one after another.

For enemy submarines, the sinking speed of these anti-submarine grenades is extremely fast - about 7.5m/s, which is almost three times that of ordinary depth bombs, and there is no reaction time at all.

【Picture】

Weighing the current situation, Zhou believes that it is time to put this anti-submarine weapon on the agenda.

R&D, testing, trial production, mass production, installation, and training all take time, and it is very appropriate to start work now.

At present, the Americans are building a large number of Little Shark-class ocean-going submarines. It may be difficult for these dozens of submarines to play as significant a role as they did in history.

After the imperial meeting, Zhou Changfeng continued to follow up on the Golden Crow Project, which was the Ming Dynasty's nuclear plan.

Zhu Lingjing attaches great importance to this aspect, and she has been paying attention to the progress because of her interest.

The Jessicabrina sent to the west coast of Africa successfully docked in Boma, and the special team successfully went to Hinkolobwe to purchase a large amount of "useless waste minerals" at low prices.

The uranium ore produced in Hinkolobwe has an exaggerated content of up to 60%, and even the lower-grade uranium ore has about 20%.

This is a jaw-dropping level. You must know that the content of many uranium ores is only 0.3%. The content of the relatively high-grade Eldorado uranium mine in Canada is about 1%, which is comparable to the Hincolobwe uranium mine. It's simply not worth mentioning.

During the four or three years in the original plane, the Americans specially purchased more than a thousand tons of uranium ore here and strictly escorted it to New York for storage as an important raw material for the Manhattan Project. After that, they mobilized an engineering unit to station here to dig deeper into the Hinkolobwe mine.

This time the Americans were not so lucky. Such a "feng shui treasure" was taken advantage of by Mingren with a secret trick.

The return journey of the Jacobrina can be said to be thrilling, and it was even accidentally hit by a submarine of the Annan Royal Navy. Fortunately, it was not hit, otherwise the flood would have washed away the Dragon King Temple.

The excited Zhou Changfeng took a special flight from the capital to the remote northwest, and his destination was an unknown place in the Hexi Corridor.

Because it was so unfamiliar, the plane got lost for a while and was preparing to return and land in Xining. Finally, it was difficult to find the right place under radio guidance.

After getting off the plane and leaving the airport, the group headed straight to the factory not far away.

Surrounded by barren mountains and ridges, this place looks like a simple settlement with a steel fence surrounding it and electrified barbed wire wrapped around it.

Patrol teams riding motorcycles with sidecars were constantly patrolling back and forth. At the entrance of the camp, there were watchtowers, horseback horses, sandbag bunkers, and even two Type 32 armored vehicles parked.

What's interesting is that there is a simple wooden archway that serves as a gate. The plaque above reads "Red Sand Castle" with three words painted in yellow paint.

This is the core area of ​​the Jinwu Project - elite talents from Imperial University of Science and Technology, Shuntian University of Technology, and Shanghai University of Science and Technology gather here.

Zhou Changfeng knew that two reactors had already been built here. Compared with the crude reactor he had seen before, which was only used to verify chain reactions, the graphite reactor under construction here was specifically used to produce plutonium.

After completion, a continuous supply of Pu-239 will be obtained from decay and become a necessary fertilizer for growing mushrooms.

Very good fertilizer and makes my mushrooms thrive!
The bulldozers were driving with a rumble, and the cranes were lifting the I-beams. There were pieces of lead sheets stacked under the temporary wooden shed in the distance...

Looking at the heated scene, Zhou Changfeng was intoxicated for a moment, and unknowingly he became obsessed with it.

After a while, with a smile on his face, he said leisurely: "Oh, the sun is so beautiful today, the sun is shining brightly."

Accompanying him was Zhao Zhansheng, the chief physicist of the project. He raised his head and glanced at the cloudless blue sky, and said inexplicably: "Yes, the sky is high and the clouds are wide in this land in Hexi, and the scenery is very good."

(End of this chapter)