Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 248 Submarine!submarine! (1)
Guan Xuqing finished his five-day trip to Germany and returned to Beijing with a large delegation.During these five days, Germany only obtained a draft treaty of military friendship and mutual assistance from the Chinese that was close to a verbal promise, while the financial delegation headed by Sheng Xuanhuai successfully invested imperial funds in the pillar enterprises of the Germans. Purchased a large number of stocks and bonds of Hamburg Shipyard, Voltron Shipyard, Krupp, and Siemens, making China one of the decision-makers of these companies. Military enterprises have gained dozens of times the rich returns.Wilhelm II, who focused his attention on the world war, thought it was a friendly Chinese ally's military support for Germany. In return, he generously sold several of the most advanced weapon patent technologies to China at a low price. .The two sides have reached a number of industrial product trades, and Chinese business people have learned management experience that they could not learn in more than ten years from German companies.It can be said that Guan Xuqing fully achieved his intended purpose during his trip to Germany.

The first thing Guan Xuqing did after returning to the capital was to deal with government affairs first. Faced with a large pile of documents, his scalp felt a little numb. I really don’t know how Emperor Yongzheng managed to criticize more than 1 words every day.

Guan Xuqing's attention was immediately drawn to the report by the Governor of Malaysia, Feng Guozhang. In his mind, the South China Sea was the defense center of the imperial navy. Now that the world war is coming, if there is any trouble there, it will affect the entire strategic planning of the empire.

Feng Guozhang said in the report that since he took office, he first said that the life of the local people is stable and the social order is in order. Then he changed the subject and said that for nearly half a month, when the Australian and New Zealand fleets of the British Dominion patrolled the coast of the Philippines, It has repeatedly crossed into the South China Sea, repeatedly attacked Chinese fishing boats, and robbed people of their property, posing a serious threat to China's sovereignty over territorial waters.In addition, these ships often provoked and bombarded the patrol ships stationed in the South China Sea. The coastal defense officers and soldiers endured until they got orders.

"Go and call Feng Xianghua and Liu Buchan." Wang Shang responded and rushed to the military plane.Guan Xuqing held tightly to the armrest of the throne. Today, most of the sea and land in Southeast Asia are included in the territory of the empire. Only Indonesia and the Philippines are still under the control of the British country. These two areas have become a part of the southern part of the empire. The barrier has been blocking the empire's southward movement all the time. The Australian and New Zealand fleets have violated China's territorial waters many times, taking advantage of the weak maritime defense forces of the empire in this sea area. If they don't give them some color, maybe one day they will return The north will commit crimes on a large scale, causing lasting troubles to Southeast Asia.Thus, a bold idea was brewing in Guan Xuqing's mind.

The Sulawesi Sea is located in the southern part of the Philippine archipelago, surrounded by the Tapur Islands.The Philippine Islands are still under the actual control of the empire on which the sun never sets. The Australian and New Zealand Fleet, which consists of seven warships, is in charge of this sea area. The commander of this fleet is Colonel Simon of the Australian Navy.China's weak defense in the South China Sea has made this fleet feel like no one has been in the country for several months. Simon even thought that under the current situation, as long as the Ministry of the Navy gives an order, the Australian and New Zealand fleet can drive straight in and take down the Singapore military port.

At night, Simon's Australian and New Zealand fleet was escorting the three Chinese merchant ships that had just been looted, as well as hundreds of tons of tea and raw silk, and rushed to his country full of joy. He was sure that this harvest would be rewarded by the Admiralty.

Simon sat comfortably in the command cabin, smoking a Panama cigar, drinking pure black-brand whiskey, squinting at the dark sea outside the cabin.Suddenly, he felt the entire warship vibrate violently, and with a bang, half a bottle of whiskey fell to the ground and was smashed to pieces.

"Bastard Jack, how did you steer the boat!" Simon thought it was the driver's mistake, and yelled angrily.

"The Nottingham seems to have a mechanical breakdown," a signalman reported.

"Ask the semaphore what the hell are they doing?" Simon said angrily.

The moment Simon turned back to the cabin, the warship Aurora where he was on trembled violently. Simon staggered and fell to the ground. He clearly saw a jet of water gushing out from the port side with a height of tens of meters. The soldiers panicked and shouted loudly.

"Report to the commander, the hull below the port side is broken, we seem to be under attack!" A soldier's face was pale, and he couldn't speak clearly.

Before Simon could react, the bottoms of the other six warships exploded one after another. They desperately signaled to the Aurora Goddess: "Unknown attack, please request action orders."

Simon was very anxious. He took the binoculars and looked towards the sea surface. The sea water was sparkling under the bright moonlight. A huge black object occasionally undulating on the sea surface caught his attention. What is that?Is it a whale?Impossible, whales rarely attack ships.What the hell is that!

At this time, the semaphore from the Southampton made Simon realize, "We are under the attack of a trigger mine!" But this sea area has been under the control of the Australian and New Zealand Fleet. How can there be mines here?

"Order all warships to stop advancing!" Simon ordered decisively.

Sure enough, after the warship broke down, the series of explosions stopped, and the sea seemed to be calm again.The first officer of the Goddess of Aurora asked Simon for instructions on the next step. Simon frowned and said, "Before you figure out the situation, wait patiently here. Immediately send a telegram to the Admiralty for support."

The lightning incident just now was just the beginning of tonight's troubles. All seven warships suffered varying degrees of damage. The most damaged were the Tiger and the Princess. The front still looked so fragile, and a big hole half a meter wide was severely torn open, and sea water was poured into the main power cabin crazily, and then quickly spread to other cabins.The Tiger was like a fat man with a belly full of water, shaking constantly on the sea surface.

The Grand Princess was in even greater trouble. In addition to the damage to the port side, the rudder frame on the bottom of the ship was also blown beyond recognition, the transmission device was basically scrapped, and even the ability to drive was lost. All I could do was watch the huge hull slowly tilting.

"Colonel Simon, what should we do now, should we first find out the cause of the attack or?" the first mate asked sadly.

"No matter what the reason is, hurry up and rescue the two warships that are on the verge of sinking, that is the national treasure!" Simon's eyes were bloodshot, looking at the inclined Princess and the sinking Tiger, his heart was in a mess ball hemp.

Just when Simon was worried, trouble came again!
Someone on the deck exclaimed: "What's that!" Simon looked around, and several big black guys gradually appeared on the sparkling sea, one, two, three for a total of seven.Simon took a look through the binoculars and was shocked: "Submarine! Submarine! Order all warships to align their guns and fight back immediately! Immediately!"

Seven submarines lined up in a butterfly formation, slowly approaching at a speed of 8 knots, and the black hole on the top of the submarine was aimed at every warship of the Anzac Fleet. For Simon, it was even more terrifying than a nightmare. .As far as he knows, only a handful of countries in the world (Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States) are currently developing submarines, but they are all still in the theoretical design stage, but suddenly a submarine formation appears in front of them. The shock and fear can no longer be described in words.

Before the ships could adjust from the panic, under the undulating waves, advanced air compression powered torpedoes drew more than a dozen white wavy lines, like a group of ferocious tiger sharks. The lower side of the Goddess.

"Full right rudder! Quick!" Simon didn't dare to blink his eyes, his pupils dilated due to panic.

However, with a displacement of more than 5000 tons, it is definitely not an easy task to adjust the hull of the Dawn Goddess in a static state.boom!boom!Amidst the two loud bangs, the Aurora Goddess vibrated violently. The soldiers on the deck were like mosquitoes without legs. Some fell, and some were directly overturned into the sea.Two torpedoes penetrated the lower hull and exploded with astonishing force in the displacement compartment.

"Close the drainage compartment! Adjust the berth!" Based on his years of combat experience at sea, Simon immediately judged that the diameter of these torpedoes was at least 230mm. In the face of such huge torpedoes, the flat armor plates of the Anzac fleet were like window paper. Same thin.

At the same time, the Grand Princess, Tiger, Southampton, Nottingham, Australia, and New Zealand continued to experience huge explosions, especially the Tiger, which had already sunk below the waterline under multiple torpedo attacks , The sea water continuously opened three drainage hatches, instantly flooding the main engine compartment and the ammunition depot.Three more torpedoes directly entered the ammunition compartment after tearing apart the steel plates of the hulls of Nottingham and New Zealand. The explosion ignited hundreds of kilograms of ammunition piled there. Burned alive.

After a wave of torpedoes, the 85mm cannon on the top of the submarine began to spit out flames frantically at the Australian and New Zealand fleet. Fleet soldiers in a mess on the deck fell in a pool of blood, and the upper control rooms of each ship were destroyed. It was riddled with holes, and the raging fire on the Tiger and New Zealand quickly engulfed everything on the deck with an unstoppable force!
"The semaphore commanded all ships to fire back quickly!" Simon hid in the command room with a hoarse voice.

After a burst of chaos, the Goddess of Aurora was the first to escape from the panic, and the three Gatling cannons on the mast plate launched an effective attack on the black back floating on the sea.Under the command of the flagship, the ships also went into battle one after another, and the machine guns and side guns spewed out flames one after another.In an instant, the water column on the sea surface undulated continuously, the water vapor evaporated into thick fog, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder smoke.

(End of this chapter)