69novels Chapter 290 The Sunset of the British Empire's Navy
Chapter 290 The Sunset of the British Empire's Navy
On the sea outside Wusongkou, strong winds whipped up layers of turbid waves, which slammed heavily against the steel hull of the British Far East Fleet flagship, the Royal Oak.
"Main guns of all ships, fully loaded!"
"Main gun locked on, elevation 12 degrees, ready to fire at any time!"
Inside the flagship's spacious command bridge, the gunnery officer gave a loud report.
Vice Admiral McDonald stood beside the chart table, straightened his crisp white wool uniform, and looked arrogantly at the distant coastline.
"After the order to fire was given, each ship fired three punitive salvos!"
McDonald’s tone was cold, carrying an unquestionable colonial authority.
"Let those foolish Far Eastern warlords know that offending the interests of the British Empire will be paid for in blood!"
"Not only their Jiangnan Shipyard, but also the entire defense zone within the Chinese-controlled area was bombed to pieces!"
"We'll make them beg us to stop the fire!"
On the deck, the British sailors in their white uniforms were even whistling merrily, completely disregarding the so-called "Chen Family Army Coastal Defense Fortress".
In their view, this was just another "gunboat diplomacy" like it was a century ago, where a few volleys of high-explosive shells would make the yellow-skinned people on the other side kneel down and beg for peace.
They didn't even receive intelligence that British Far East officials, for their own political gain, had sold the coastal defense guns of the Singapore fortress to Chen Zijun, nor did they receive any information from their ally, the Japanese Imperial Navy, that Chen Zijun had purchased 203mm and 230mm coastal defense guns from the German Empire long ago.
They thought they were facing the same powerful Far Eastern empire as in 1840!
However, beneath the turbulent surface of the sea...
In the icy, dark currents 32 meters deep, eight U-VII type heavy cruiser submarines, clad in jet-black anti-corrosion paint, glided silently across the seabed like ghosts.
This is one of the two submarine flotillas secretly formed by the Chen family army!
"The first squad has moved into its designated interception positions!"
Inside the U-101 of the First Submarine Flotilla, German-born submarine captain Hans was gripping the handle of the Zeiss periscope tightly with his gloved right hand.
His eyes gleamed with a frenzied and violent intensity, like that of a wolf.
"Do these British pigs really think this East China Sea is their backyard?!"
Hans grinned, revealing a row of cold, white teeth, and turned to shout at his adjutant beside him.
Meanwhile, aboard the U-102 submarine not far away, Zhao Dezhu, the commander of the second submarine flotilla, was also intently watching the sonar soldier's report.
"Commander Zhao! Commander Hans has sent a signal: the enemy ship's main guns have deflected and are locking onto our shipyard and the urban area of Shanghai!"
The soprano turned his head, his voice filled with barely suppressed murderous intent.
Zhao Dezhu slapped his thigh suddenly, his eyes wide open, and shouted sharply:
"Damn it! How dare they plunder our young marshal's property?!"
"Order all torpedo compartments to be flooded!"
"Load all of our newly commissioned magnetic heavy torpedoes!"
"Today I'm going to show these red-haired devils what the power of an underwater wolf really is!"
"Yes, sir! Fill the torpedo tubes with water, open the front cover!"
The operator frantically turned the valves, and a low, powerful mechanical clanging sound echoed in the forward compartment of the submarine.
"U-101, U-102, U-103... all eight submarines have locked onto their targets!"
"Target: Twelve enemy heavy cruisers, 1800 meters away!"
"Commander Hans's order: Fire a salvo from torpedo tubes No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5!"
Hans's deep, furious German commands spread rapidly through the underwater steel compartment via radio waves:
"Wolves, tear us apart!"
"Fire!"
Zhao Dezhu roared in response:
"Beat him!"
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
With a series of muffled sounds of compressed air being released, twenty-four black heavy magnetic torpedoes, trailing long white splashes of water, sped at a top speed of forty knots per hour, like underwater dragons weaving a giant net of death in the deep sea, heading straight for the hull of the British fleet!
At this moment, on the HMS Royal Oak, McDonnell was preparing to give the final order to fire.
"Tick-tock, tick-tock..."
The officer in the sonar monitoring room suddenly changed his expression. He pressed his earpiece tightly, and cold sweat instantly seeped out from his forehead.
"What...what is that sound?!"
"Extremely loud mechanical propeller noise! They're rapidly approaching us!"
"Too many to identify! Oh my god! They're torpedoes!"
"Large white trails spotted on the starboard side!"
The lookout's piercing screams instantly rang out through the loudspeakers, echoing across the entire deck of the flagship!
McDonald was jolted awake and rushed to the window, looking out at the sea.
On the once calm river surface, dozens of white death trails were rushing towards them at an extremely terrifying speed, surrounding them from all sides!
"That's impossible!"
McDonald's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and he screamed:
"How could a Far Eastern warlord possibly have submarines?! That's absolutely impossible!"
"Hard to port! Take evasive action immediately! Where's the lightning protection net? Lower it now!"
However, the cruiser, weighing several thousand tons, was extremely clumsy in evasive maneuvers in the narrow channel where the river met the sea.
Those crudely made steel wire lightning protection nets are completely useless in the face of magnetic torpedoes!
"Damn it! They're not impact fuses! They're in the hull!"
"boom!"
The first earth-shattering roar exploded!
A heavy magnetic torpedo detonated precisely beneath the keel of the British second heavy cruiser.
The powerful water pressure instantly created a bubbling wave tens of meters high, which directly lifted this heavy cruiser weighing thousands of tons out of the sea!
"Snap!"
With a sickening cracking sound, the steel structure of the heavy cruiser snapped instantly, and the entire warship broke in two seconds, with river water surging in like a tidal wave!
Immediately afterwards!
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The sea outside Wusongkou was instantly transformed into a hellish inferno!
A series of massive explosions resounded across the sea, sending hundreds of meters of water columns, accompanied by black smoke and steel fragments, into the sky, creating a scene of utter destruction!
"Help!"
"My leg! My leg is broken!"
"My God, what kind of demonic weapon is this?!"
The British sailors screamed as they were thrown into the icy water by the blast wave.
The three heavy cruisers had their keels broken in the first round of explosions and sank quickly with hundreds of soldiers.
The flagship HMS Royal Oak instantly became the core of the wolf pack's attack!
Four heavy torpedoes slammed into the hull of the ship in a fan shape!
"Boom!"
The flash from the explosion penetrated the double-layered armored bottom compartment and instantly detonated the secondary ammunition magazine in the middle of the warship!
"boom--!!"
This was a devastating series of massive explosions!
A massive fireball shot into the air, tearing the entire HMS Royal Oak into countless pieces!
McDonald didn't even have time to scream before he was instantly torn to shreds by the intense heat of the fire, turning into ashes everywhere!
On the sea, nine of the twelve heavy cruisers of the British Far East Fleet broke apart and sank on the spot in a mere ten minutes of "submarine warfare," while the remaining three were engulfed in flames and struggled on the sea, completely losing their combat capability!
The twilight of the British Empire, outside Wusongkou, crashed down in an extremely industrial way!
Not far away on the water, Hans opened the hatch, stood on the deck at the top of the submarine, and looked at the mess of warship wreckage and the British sailors struggling in the water.
He coldly put on his military cap, lit a cigarette, and slowly exhaled smoke rings.
"Well done, guys."
Hans turned to his adjutant with a cold smile and gave the following order:
"Return to base and send the battle report to the young marshal!"
"The financial and naval backbone of the British Empire in the Far East has been completely severed by us today!"
Two hours later, at the Jinzhou forward command post.
"Smack."
Shen Li looked excited and placed a battle report heavily on Chen Zijun's desk.
"Young Marshal! A great victory in Shanghai!"
"The First and Second Submarine Flotillas, in a joint operation off the coast of Wusongkou, annihilated all twelve heavy cruisers of the British Far East Fleet!"
"The flagship HMS Royal Oak suffered a massive explosion, killing thousands, including Fleet Commander McDonnell!"
"The short-selling operations of HSBC and other foreign banks have resulted in total financial losses, and the pricing power in Shanghai's financial markets has completely fallen into the hands of Southeast Bank!"
Upon hearing of this earth-shattering victory, the generals in the command post were all stunned, some even thinking they were listening to a fairy tale.
That's the British Far East Fleet!
They were completely wiped out by the iron turtle that Commander Chen hid underwater in just ten minutes?!
"Young Marshal...this...this is the sky falling!"
The Northwest Army representative's voice trembled.
"If the British retaliate, we..."
Chen Zijun didn't even glance at the battle report, casually tossing it aside as he leisurely sipped his tea.
"It won't collapse."
Chen Zijun sneered, his eyes full of disdain.
"The British Empire is too busy dealing with its own mess in Europe right now. The destruction of their Far East fleet will only trigger a financial and political tsunami in London, forcing them to negotiate with us."
"The focus now is not on these red-haired devils who have already sunk to the bottom, but on what's ahead."
At this point, Chen Zijun's eyes turned cold, and he tapped the Yalu River line on the map.
"We just received intelligence from Moranzhi."
"The main forces of the two Class A divisions of the Japanese Kwantung Army have completed their assembly and are preparing to cross the Yalu River and forcibly enter Fengtian and Jilin."
"They also issued a telegram."
Shen Li leaned forward and read aloud with some anger:
The Japanese military issued a statement saying: "This mission is to protect our nationals and to station troops along the Chinese Eastern Railway, which is in accordance with international treaty regulations. Although the number of troops is large, it is legal. We hope the Chinese military will exercise restraint and not over-interpret this."
"Over-interpretation?!"
Chen Zijun suddenly stood up, slamming his right hand heavily on the table, his eyes flashing with a violent fighting spirit and a cold killing intent.
"Damn it!"
"I'm not only going to over-interpret them, I'm going to bury them excessively deep in the black soil of Northeast China!"
"Tell the brothers below, the grand show has begun!"
"Prepare for battle!"