The door of the courtyard house has been welded dead

"Wow~!"

The bronze-colored propeller churned the seawater.

The generated bubbles, carried by the receding water flow, stretch out and become air "tunnels".

A massive, dark creature passed by on the seabed, startling the fish in the shallows, who scattered in all directions.

A nearly eight-meter-long man-eating shark, in front of the enormous creature underwater, looked like a little chick, flicking its tail fin and disappearing into the depths of the ocean in the blink of an eye.

The propeller's rotation speed began to slow down, and the submarine's hull moved forward slightly due to its final inertia and the ocean currents before finally coming to a stop.

"Beep, beep, thump thump~!"

The lower part of the nuclear submarine seemed to be making some kind of noise in the sea, and the seawater began to oscillate at a high frequency that was difficult to detect with the naked eye.

The sound was masked when the propeller was running, but once it came to a complete stop and the ocean quieted down, the frequency of the vibration became apparent.

Like the sound of bats in a cave, once the sonar starts operating at full power, the high-frequency shock waves quickly relay back to the hull when they collide with the surface of an object.

"A ship with a hole-33 is at our seven o'clock position!"

"A ship with three holes at the 9 o'clock position."

"Two ships, at the three o'clock position, directly behind, a 051-class destroyer is approaching."

"Wait, there's another one behind us, it's unfamiliar and unidentified, it's approaching our formation!"

Sonar compartment.

The sonar operator, wearing a well-sealed headset, listened carefully to the water ripple characteristics reflected by the sonar. Sonar operators on domestic ships have all received systematic training and can distinguish them by sound alone.

As a naval formation in the East China Sea drew closer, among the multiple approaching underwater acoustic signals, a completely unfamiliar water ripple feature reached the sonar operator's ears, instantly creating a tense atmosphere in the sonar room.

"Listen carefully and memorize the characteristics of this water ripple. This is a new type of equipment for our navy."

In the command center, Jiang Defu heard the report from the sonar module, picked up the intercom, and gave orders to the sonar module.

The sonar operator carefully recorded the unfamiliar water pattern. Based on the sound feedback, the unfamiliar signal was quite large and located below the sea surface, which meant it was a new type of submarine.

Jiang Defu stood in the command cabin, looking at the nautical chart drawn on the central table. Various rulers and pencils had been moved aside. He poked at the map with his finger, then looked at the radio ranging device. Combining the two, he confirmed that they had reached the designated sea area.

He pried open the handle of the observation equipment, pushed the periscope up, and an observation scope rose from the raised bridge of the ship. Only after the seawater slid off the lens did the field of vision begin to clear.

After turning 360 degrees, a 051-class destroyer came into view not far away; it was the only ship in the vicinity.

After picking up the external communication equipment and adjusting it to the same frequency band as 051, 051 began to patrol the nearby waters after a brief communication, and directed the underwater submarine formation to disperse in a circular shape after maintaining distance.

"Attention all units, our ship has entered the designated sea area. All personnel, please prepare for pre-launch checks!"

"Inspection of cabin one is complete."

"Second warehouse inspection complete."

"Sancang...!"

As the sounds of each completed inspection converged in the command center, Jiang Defu raised his wrist and checked the time on his watch.

"Current time in Beijing: 3:36 PM. Everyone check your watches. Over!"

The personnel in charge of each compartment almost simultaneously raised their wrists to check their respective times. After making the adjustments, they began to report in turn.

After straightening his clothes and adjusting his hat, Jiang Defu took a deep breath and picked up another communication device on the ship.

"Xuanwu calling Longgong, Xuanwu calling Longgong, 3:40 PM Beijing time, Xuanwu formation has arrived at the designated sea area and completed all pre-launch preparations, please give instructions!"

"Wait for orders~!" The relay signal wave, amplified by the 051 destroyer at sea, quickly flew towards the QingD naval base and the ZhouS naval base thousands of kilometers away.

The distance to Zhoushan is relatively shorter, so it's faster to receive the signal from the 051 ship.

Based on the radio coordinates, Qing D and Zhou S rechecked the location of the Xuanwu formation. After confirming that the information was correct, both bases simultaneously reported the information to the capital.

The waiting time was agonizing, but the formation, remaining silent, held its breath. However, the officers and soldiers who knew the specifics of the mission couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

As time ticked by, all the officers and men on the submarine felt the invisible pressure gradually increasing on their bodies.

Inside the submarine's command compartment, the air was hot from the continuous operation of electronic equipment, and there was a faint smell of engine oil mixed with the heat from the components.

Suddenly, the red-painted, mottled magnetic security phone burst into a piercing buzz, the sharp sound like an alarm, instantly tearing apart the tense silence inside the cabin.

The communications officer instinctively picked up the communications station, not even having time to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He skillfully operated the equipment to establish a dedicated line connection with the command level. The moment he picked up the receiver, his back muscles tensed instantly.

"Password verification!"

The communications soldier shouted into the receiver, waiting for the other party to give the dynamic verification password for the day.

After confirming that everything was correct, he quickly copied down the commands transmitted through the encrypted channel.

The pen nib scratched rapidly across the telegram paper, and before the ink was even dry, the political commissar snatched the paper away from him.

The political commissar wore tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses, and the dim yellow halo of the incandescent bulbs and the cold light of the green indicator lights flickered and intertwined on his face.

He dipped his index finger into the tip of his tongue, carefully opened his personal codebook, and compared the coded messages and timestamps in the telegrams line by line with keen eyes.

"Launch authorization confirmed. Code 9468543. Ship Zero-Nine-Two, Level 1 combat readiness switched to launch confirmation. Launch as scheduled at 5:00 PM sharp. Good luck, Ryugu!"

Jiang Defu remained unmoved, and only accepted the report after the political commissar had verified the order.

"Attention all officers and men of the 092 submarine, this is Captain Jiang Defu. I have received orders from higher command and obtained launch authorization. Our ship is now on Level 1 combat readiness and ready to launch."

"This is Political Commissar Zhuo Chen. The order has been confirmed, and the launch authorization has been confirmed. Comrades, I won't say much more. We've waited so long; whether it succeeds or not depends on this one shot!"

After the political commissar finished speaking, he stepped aside. His role was over: verifying orders and authorizations, boosting morale, and leaving the rest to the submarine captain and weapons officer.

The two men stood in front of the missile launch control console. Jiang Defu reached out and lifted the red dust cover covering the launch button. The plastic cover, made with technology from the 1980s, was lifted to reveal two keyholes.

Insert the key!

Jiang Defu took the key hanging around his neck and precisely screwed it into the lock. The sharp, piercing sound of the gears meshing was so loud it seemed to puncture eardrums.

The captain and weapons officer turned the two keys they carried at the same time, and the lights on the control panel began to illuminate, along with the orange backlight on the numeric keypad.

“Crack~!”

As the password was entered, a cover on the smooth "spine" of the submarine behind the bridge slowly lifted, revealing a circular, sealed launch tube.

"Countdown begins!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"Yao~!"

Jiang Defu pressed the button on the launch pad.

The submarine seemed to rock slightly, and from the destroyer, the clicking of cameras continued incessantly… (End of Chapter)