The Republic of Heroes

In the Yangtze River outside the Wusong Fortress, the destroyers of the Japanese Third Fleet rushed over. According to the drowning soldiers, they saw a Chinese submarine floating up from the water and captured Admiral Shirakawa.Many people think this is too unbelievable and ridiculous.When did the Chinese have submarines?The empire's intelligence network in China is criss-crossed, from the private sector to the China government, from the Beiyang period to the Nationalist government period, and even high-level news. They have channels to obtain important information, but they have never heard of such a thing as China's submarines, and that The fact that a submarine could sink the battleship Nagato, which had just entered service in the Imperial Kingdom, made it hard for several Japanese military generals in Shanghai to accept.

One of these generals who held the exact opposite view was Yoshizaburo Nomura, Commander of the Third Fleet.He was lucky not to die in that catastrophe. After the battleship was irretrievable, he chose to jump out of the ship to survive like Shirakawa Yoshinori. Fortunately, he entered the water safely and was rescued in time by the rescue ship that arrived later. Just frightened.

At this time, Yoshisaburo Nomura was still in shock, but judging from his many years of naval experience, the Third Fleet and the Nagato were [-]% attacked by submarine torpedoes this time.

This point was confirmed by him from several sailors who immediately noticed the change on the sea surface. The torpedoes that appeared without warning on the surface of the river are clear proof. Not long ago, some people in the Imperial Navy advocated the development of underwater forces, but they were completely dismissed by a few marshals who were obsessed with large ships and cannons. No one mentioned the matter of submarines again, but I didn’t expect that there were still people with whimsical ideas. When he used submarines as the main force in naval warfare to carry out sneak attacks, what broke him the most was that the sneak attack was successful.

The Royal Navy suffered heavy losses. Except for the battleship Nagato, which was completely sunk and scrapped, almost all the main cruisers of the Third Fleet were severely damaged. Most of them sank at the bottom of the river because they were unable to save them. The loss they cannot afford is the disappearance of the Minister of War, Shirakawa Yoshinori.

Regarding the disappearance of General Bai Chuan, there are many versions circulated among the officers and sailors who were rescued from falling into the water.It is also said that Bai Qin saw that General Chuan jumped into the water to escape, but was captured by a submarine that rushed out of the water.The uniforms of the sailors who came out of the submarine were very similar to those of the Chinese army, and they were all yellow-skinned and black-haired Asians. This also became evidence that General Shirakawa was captured by the Chinese.

But Yoshisaburo Nomura would rather believe that Bai Chuanyi was buried in the sea of ​​fire to be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor. If he was really captured by the Chinese people... He closed his eyes, not daring to think about the consequences of this possibility.

If this is the case, it will be an unprecedented shame since the Meiji Reform of the Imperial Kingdom.

Those who are related to them should all have their stomachs cut open to thank His Majesty the Emperor.

At present, the navy with the highest rank and military rank is Yoshizaburo Nomura, and the army is Kenkichi Ueda.

Kenkichi Ueda's attitude is very clear, "I absolutely do not believe that General Shirakawa has been captured by the Chinese. Your Excellency must have been martyred in the sea of ​​fire! I suggest that you immediately report to the domestic staff headquarters the reasons for the fiasco and losses in this naval battle!"

The meaning of Kenkichi Ueda's words is obvious. The main responsibility for the fiasco lies with your navy. Don't bring the army to be buried with you. Take the main responsibility, don't try to drag the army to bury you.

Yoshisaburo Nomura heard the hidden knife in Kenkichi Ueda's words, but he didn't care about competing with the army at this time. The aftermath and revenge are the current top priorities.

"Mr. Ueda, I, Nomura Yoshisaburo, know that I have committed a serious crime. I have no face to return to China to see His Majesty the Emperor. After this incident, I will have to open my stomach to thank General Shirakawa. I have ordered the No. 13 and No. 16 destroyer squadrons to block the flow of the Yangtze River. At the mouth of the sea, and at the entrance of the Huangpu River, if the Chinese really launched a surprise attack with submarines, they would be trapped underwater."

Ueda Kenkichi sneered again and again and stopped talking...

At the junction of the Huangpu River and the Yangtze River, the destroyers formed several squadrons in a three-ship formation, blocking the passage of the Yangtze River to the sea, the Huangpu River, and the upper reaches.Because of his insistence, these destroyers are equipped with the latest British anti-submarine device ASDIC, which is an active sound detection device. The original equipment of these devices was opposed by the navy chiefs, but in the end he could not oppose it under his insistence. In short, of course, there is another reason that both asdic detection devices and depth charges used to attack and destroy submarines are extremely cheap. Therefore, in view of the cost-effectiveness of such equipment, the naval bosses finally chose to open one Close one eye.

In their view, submarines are nothing more than clown-like roles, and it is not worthwhile to massively modify existing destroyers for them.

What Yoshisaburo Nomura didn't expect was that his persistence was not in vain. Today, it could be put to great use. It took less than half an hour for the destroyer to block the entire river, and the first result of the battle was produced. A depth charge dropped by a destroyer of the No.13 Destroyer Squadron destroyed a target, and a large amount of debris and the corpses of Chinese sailors poured out of the water.

Nomura Yoshisaburo didn't know whether he should laugh or cry after receiving the excited result report from his attendants.He would rather hope that he had no results, and General Bai Chuan would just be burned to death or drowned.

Once the existence of the China submarine is confirmed, the possibility of General Bai Chuan being captured by the China people will also increase greatly, and the humiliation of the imperial country will inevitably be inevitable. Even at this moment, he still has a fluke in his heart.

While Yoshisaburo Nomura was worrying and tangling himself on the cruiser, a slender submarine sat quietly on the river bed only a few hundred meters away under the Yangtze River.On the surface of the river ten meters above, there are several destroyers advancing in a S-shaped search.These destroyers once detected abnormal noises nearby, trying to further determine the specific location of the sound source, but after they searched repeatedly several times, the sound source seemed to disappear out of thin air.

After all, the destroyer sailors seldom conduct actual anti-submarine combat training, so they are a little overwhelmed by this complicated situation, and can only search blindly on the water over and over again.

Some sailors complained: "Could it be that guy Watanabe who has a problem with his ears..."

And just below the destroyer, all the officers and soldiers in the submarine did not dare to speak out, and even spoke softly, for fear of making any noise.A major general was standing in front of the console in the command room, holding the handle welded to the body of the boat. He frowned, pursed his mouth, and tried to listen to the faint sound of the motor passing through his head with his head sideways.