afterglow

Chapter 700 Extra: Rowing on the Ocean
"Quick as the wind, fast as lightning; using the small to defeat the big, using the weak to defeat the strong." - "Instructions for the Navy's Fourth Light Torpedo Squadron"

In the late summer of the second year of Jinghe, Zhoushan Island.

It was a refreshing evening, with gusts of salty sea breeze blowing over the golden sea.

The deep blue sky was covered with thin, wave-like clouds, like soft, fluffy cotton wool.

"Shrimp dumplings with shredded radish, shark soup with vinegar, and braised yellow croaker. OK, that's it!"

Two blocks away from the Hangzhou Military Academy Zhoushan Branch is a seafood restaurant with more than a dozen tables set up along the coastal highway. A group of Naval Academy graduates wearing white naval uniforms and carrying the rank of warrant officer are having their last dinner together. They are all classmates majoring in lightning tactics.

Everyone was very excited and looked forward to sailing across the blue ocean on a giant steel ship and making great achievements to repay their country.

There was an exception in the midst of all the joy - Shi Chen, who was always cheerful, open-minded and generous, was particularly abnormal, and the smile on his face seemed forced.

Seeing him like this, someone comforted him, "Don't be sad, at least you are not going to the service unit."

Such relief seems like a mockery - how could a graduate of torpedo strike major be assigned to serve on a service ship?
Shi Chen was from Lianjiang County, Fuzhou Prefecture. He was stubborn by nature and had been a troublemaker since childhood. With his clever brain, he was admitted to the county liberal arts middle school but was nearly expelled twice.

In the summer of the 39th year of Zhichang, influenced by the propaganda posters, Shi Chen applied for the Hangzhou Naval Academy with great anticipation, longing to ride on that mighty steel warship in the future.

Even in a military academy with strict management, Shi Chen was still a notorious problem student. His myriad disciplinary violations were enough to fill two pages, and his academic performance was basically C at first glance.

It was no surprise, then, that he was assigned to a unit where he was not well-liked.

"There's a lot of fighting going on in Hawaii right now, and small boats are more agile and flexible, so they might be more suitable than large ships," another person consoled.

Shi Chen said with a smile: "I hope so."

He held his breath and swore to himself that he must do something great in the future!
As night fell, the table was in a mess and the last dinner was over.

The next day, after all the soldiers were promoted from warrant officers to second lieutenants, their three-year studies came to an end.

Everyone then went their separate ways, and it was unknown how many of them would be left when they met again in the future.

Four days later, at the Zhanjiang County Naval Base in Leizhou Prefecture.

After the Battle of Maui and the Battle of Maui, the tug-of-war in the Hawaiian Islands intensified. The three torpedo boat units of the Ming Navy could no longer meet the demand, so the Fourth Light Torpedo Detachment was established here.

Shi Chen was ordered to serve as the captain of the torpedo boat No. 88 Xun. He soon saw the small boat he was going to command.

Looking at the small torpedo boat, he felt a complex emotion in his heart.

This is my boat!
Although he could not compete with a proper battleship, he was at least the captain of a ship. Even if others served on destroyers or light cruisers, they were just trainee officers in the department.

"Greetings, sir!" Gunnery officer Zhang Zhengsheng saluted and looked at the young officer in front of him who was just starting out.

Shi Chen carefully scanned the torpedo boat. "This boat looks different from the training boats I've seen. It's not a standard Xun-shaped boat. Where is its instruction manual?"

Zhang Zhengsheng picked up a brochure with pictures and text from a pile of wooden boxes on the dock. "This is the wooden hulled version of the Type 2 ship manufactured by Xiangshan Shipyard. It has a 38mm anti-aircraft gun at the back and a more powerful engine, with a capacity of 1,000 horsepower."

The standard Xun-shaped torpedo boat has a steel hull, a total length of 24.2m, a twin 12.8mm anti-aircraft machine gun at the front, a single 20.8mm anti-aircraft gun at the rear, and a 512mm torpedo tube on each side; it is equipped with four 800-horsepower aviation radial engines, a maximum speed of 39 knots, and a displacement of 44 tons.

Steel hull versions are mostly built by Jiangsu and Zhejiang Shipbuilding Group, while shipyards in Guangdong that undertake construction tasks mainly produce wooden hull versions.

In ancient times, the Guangdong ships commonly used by the Guangdong navy were made of expensive and hard lychee wood, ebony, and ironwood. Because of the excellent material quality, the Guangdong ships were famous for their sturdiness and durability.

The steel-hull and wooden-hull versions of the Xun-shaped torpedo boats are basically the same in terms of strength and maintenance difficulty, with no difference. It all depends on which type the shipyard's construction experience is more suitable for.

Xunzi No. 88 is a wooden-hulled, firepower-enhanced model built by Xiangshan Shipyard, with a shell made of lychee wood and a frame made of ironwood and steel.

After the introduction, Zhang Zhengsheng suddenly remembered something and added, "I almost forgot that the newly built speedboats are also equipped with radio warning devices."

"Oh? It's become standard now." Shi Chen's eyes lit up when he heard that.

The inauguration ceremony was held soon. The crimson flag fluttered in the sea breeze, and the 4th Light Thunder Strike Detachment was announced to be established.

There were quite a few officers who took office together with Shi Chen, and their arrival injected soul into the newly established Fourth Detachment.

There is a clear distinction between non-commissioned officers and officers. The former are almost all experienced veterans. For example, gunnery officer Zhang Zhengsheng has been in the army for ten years, and smoke and thunder officer Song Quan has been in the army for twelve years.

If a combat unit is compared to a body, then the non-commissioned officers are the skeleton, the soldiers are the flesh and blood, and the officers are the brains.

Within two days, Shi Chen had completely understood the situation of the twenty-one officers and soldiers at No. 88 Xunzi, and his desire to achieve success became more and more urgent.

In the next two months, Xunzi No. 88 conducted training with more than a dozen other torpedo boats. There were very few rest days, and they had to get up early and go to bed late, working day and night.

After dozens of days of hard training, the long-awaited order to march finally came down, and everyone was eagerly looking forward to the moment of reaching the front line.

The four teams boarded three cargo ships and traveled from their home port of Zhanjiang to Pearl Harbor, halfway across the Pacific Ocean.

The long voyage was uneventful. The fleet consisting of seven or eight cargo ships, oil tankers and troop transport ships suffered three submarine attacks, but only one oil tanker was sunk.

When they arrived in early November, the 1st and 2nd Light Torpedo Squadrons had been fighting for three and a half months in a row. Their men and horses were exhausted, and the surviving torpedo boats were all badly damaged.

The 1st and 2nd Detachments were ordered to withdraw to Guam for rest and recuperation, and the 4th Light Torpedo Detachment took over their mission.

As a fully equipped and staffed new force, the Navy's Hawaiian Fleet Headquarters had high hopes for them and immediately threw them into a brutal battle.

Because of the loss of air superiority, the Hawaiian waters were fraught with dangers during the day. The warships might be able to rely on Pearl Harbor to barely protect themselves, but they still had to deliver supplies to the tens of thousands of officers and soldiers on Maui.

In practice, the Ming Navy discovered that destroyers were not suitable for supply missions because unloading was very troublesome. The four temporary docks at Maalaea Bay on Maui were repeatedly attacked by US air strikes every day, and emergency repairs often had to wait until late at night to be completed.

Therefore, the two supply operations carried out in mid-November were both very bad. The engineering troops worked until late at night to finally repair the dock, but the supplies unloaded from the destroyer could not be moved until dawn, and were finally destroyed by the bombing of US aircraft.

As a result, the Ming Navy began to use torpedo boats to carry out supply missions. Most of the torpedo boats were not equipped with torpedoes but were converted into various military supplies. They transported precious supplies to the Ming army on Maui under the escort of other torpedo boats and gunboats.

11月28日午夜23：20，十三艘纯黑涂装的鱼雷艇和四艘炮艇以32节高速疾驰在漆黑一片的大海上，迅速接近毛伊岛。

There were only two torpedo boats that were not carrying supplies, and the Xunzi No. 88 led by Shi Chen was one of them.

They had completed two previous missions safely without combat, but this time was different.

"There's movement in the east! Three o'clock!" the lookout shouted.

I saw a series of blurry black shadows surging in that direction, which were extremely difficult to identify.

Shi Chen picked up a shotgun, loaded it with a flare, and fired a shot in that direction.

Unlike parachute flares, signal flares do not have parachutes. Everyone saw an arc of orange light entering the darkness, and the dark shadows below were also illuminated for a moment.

Those black shadows...are the American torpedo boats! The PT-106 torpedo boat designed by Alco is equipped with four 533mm torpedo tubes and has a maximum speed of 40 knots.

【Picture】

The various data concepts mentioned in the textbooks and intelligence were deeply imprinted in Shi Chen's mind. He had simulated the confrontation scenes in his mind countless times.

The radar warning equipment did not capture any suspicious signals, so there should be no torpedo boats' natural enemies - destroyers - nearby.

The commander of the escort formation immediately ordered a battle to block the invading enemy.

The U.S. military did not know that the Ming army had begun using speedboats for transportation a few days ago, and only discovered it yesterday. Tonight, it decisively sent out an equally flexible torpedo boat force to attack.

A total of eleven PT torpedo boats from the 1st and 2nd Torpedo Boat Squadrons participated in the battle. They were divided into three groups and swooped down like sharp claws.

"Everyone, take your positions! Fight!"

"We must stop them!"

Compared to the grand showdown between big ships and huge cannons, the fight between tiny creatures seems to be more thrilling - because the distance is so close, sometimes you can even see the enemy's face under the flickering firelight!

The Ming army's torpedo boats and gunboats continuously fired 12.8mm bullets, 20.8mm shells, and 38.4mm shells. The dense fire net seemed to be trapping the prey, and the firepower easily suppressed the twin 12.7mm heavy machine guns of the US PT boats.

In the melee, Xunzi No. 88 was hit by a barrage of bullets and two people were injured.

Suddenly, a tracer bullet hit the sea surface at a very small angle of incidence and ricocheted, and actually flew and hit the front windshield of the cab of Xunzi No. 88. The trajectory of the ballistic bullet was a blunt-angle broken line light mark!
Shi Chen was stunned by this scene for a few seconds. When he came to his senses, he found that the enemy's firepower had obviously weakened and they all turned around and fled.

Obviously, realizing their insufficient firepower, the American torpedo boats were unwilling to fight to the end.

The Ming army sailors cheered and celebrated for repelling the invading enemy. Shi Chen was both happy and annoyed - he was happy that he had won the first battle, but he was annoyed that there was no result.

After the failure, the US torpedo boat force greatly increased its firepower and even abandoned torpedoes.

They removed the launch tubes, installed a T9 37mm aircraft cannon at the bow, and a 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun at the stern, in addition to the original twin 12.7mm Browning anti-aircraft machine guns.

The T9 aircraft cannon came from a crashed P-39 Flying Snake fighter. It was initially just a spontaneous attempt by the sailors, but after finding that it was effective, it was quickly promoted and became the standard equipment for PT torpedo boat units in the Pacific region.

【Picture】

In this way, the two sides began a wonderful and unique internal conflict. The Ming and American armies even tried to install multiple rocket launchers on torpedo boats.

From then until the end of the year, the newly born 4th Light Thunder Strike Brigade was baptized by the fire of war and grew into a sophisticated combat unit.

截止12月30日，四支队总计执行了18次侦察任务、43次巡逻任务、39次补给任务，取得了击沉6艘美军PT鱼雷艇、1艘LST登陆舰、2艘扫雷艇、5架飞机的不俗战果。

Such results are worthy of praise for the entire group. However, as a member of the group, Xunzi No. 88 only had a few achievements in assisting in sinking, which is not worth mentioning.

At the beginning of the year, the mission proceeded as usual, and the four teams had about ten days left before leaving the front line and returning to the rear for rest.

Under the stars, more than a dozen torpedo boats glided lightly on the blue-black sea.

Shi Chen stood next to the twin anti-aircraft guns at the bow of the boat, smoking a cigarette and gazing into the distance, letting the splashing waves wet his clothes.

The flying waves splashed on his face and extinguished his cigarette. He couldn't help but sigh at his bad luck.

When you are unlucky, even drinking cold water will get your teeth stuck!

But at this moment, someone suddenly shouted, "Something's happening! Radio signal detected!"

It turned out that after repeated interception operations failed, the US military decided to launch a night attack with light warships. This time it sent a small but elite fleet - the USS Cincinnati light cruiser and four destroyers, hoping to quickly destroy the Ming army's speedboats and then bombard the dock.

The four teams were unwilling to avoid fighting, and immediately deployed an attack formation, attacking the enemy from both sides.

As luck would have it, Xunzi No. 88 had a mechanical failure, the right propeller lost its power source, the speed dropped sharply, and it was unable to participate in the battle.

More than a dozen Ming torpedo boats bravely fought back, and the US fleet also discovered their prey and turned on their searchlights one after another to capture the target.

A distance of several kilometers is too far for torpedoes, but just right for medium-caliber naval guns.

Although the Ming army's torpedo boat formation continued to perform serpentine maneuvers and release smoke screens, it was still hit and damaged one after another.

At 2:03 in the middle of the night, the cab of Xun No. 127 was hit by a bullet, and the entire cab was blown away, turning it into an open-top speedboat; Xun No. was hit by a mm ordinary bullet in the oil tank, and turned into a blazing fireball in the blink of an eye.

During the approximately half-hour battle, the Ming army's torpedo boats fired more than ten torpedoes, but none of them hit the target.

At this time, it suddenly started raining in the night sky with considerable force, and visibility and sea conditions dropped sharply.

"Speed ​​up and go around the edge."

Although he was extremely depressed and almost couldn't help cursing, Shi Chen tried his best to stay calm, which is the basic quality of a naval officer.

After completing the emergency repairs, Xunzi No. 88 arrived quietly under his command and broke into the battlefield.

The radar of the destroyer Winslow detected the target, but the poor environment made it impossible for the U.S. sailors to confirm it visually, so they could only turn their guns and fire exactly according to the radar guidance.

The blue-black painted Xunzi No. 88 shuttled between the rising water columns like a ghost and quickly occupied the launching position.

"Just attack that destroyer leader!"

"understand!"

"Get in position! Release!"

Following Shi Chen's order, the smoke and torpedo officer Song Quan instructed to fire. Two torpedoes were pushed out of the launch tubes by compressed air and fell into the sea with a plop. The torpedo boat immediately turned sharply to disengage, drawing a graceful arc track on the sea.

Everyone was mistaken. The "destroyer leader" was actually the light cruiser USS Cincinnati.

"Boom!!!"

A huge column of water rose up, and the waves reflected the brilliant firelight.

"I got it! I really got it!"

"mighty!!!"

The sailors shouted excitedly, and Shi Chen couldn't help but burst into laughter.

If you don't call it, it's a blockbuster!
1月10日后半夜2：38，巽字八十八号发射的一枚512㎜鱼雷击中了辛辛那提号（CL-6）舰体中部，这艘轻型巡洋舰在一小时后沉没。

(End of this chapter)