In the early morning of November 27, the North Atlantic Ocean.
The second detachment of the Texas Sea Self-Destroyers, flagship, the armored destroyer Maya.
It was a nice day in the North Atlantic tonight. The moon was dark, the wind was high, and the waves were rolling. The 3,000-ton armored cruiser was rising and falling, but not a single light was shining through.
In the bridge, Nobuto Taneseiichiro, the destroyer of the Dezhou Sea, stood with his arms folded and his beloved sword in one hand. Seeing several of his disciples pointing at the chart and discussing calculations, his eyebrows became more and more wrinkled. The tighter.
As his name suggests, this male Tan Seiichiro Nobuyo is a man who can do anything he wants. As a swordsman of the Tokugawa shogunate, he is proficient in the spearmanship of the Hohoin school, the bowmanship of the Yoshida style, and the swordsmanship of the Shinshin Kageryu. He is known as the three masters of "spear, bow, and sword". During his tenure in Edo, he competed with swordsmen from all over Japan many times and never lost. He was truly the best in Japan in terms of martial arts.
Because of his strong martial arts skills, he also won the opportunity to enter the Japanese Navy Training Institute, and graduated from the Naval Training Institute with the highest score in the training and the first place in the graduation exam. After graduation, he was sent by the shogunate to study in the Ming Dynasty. He became a disciple of Zhuge Weiyi, the then director of the Naval Staff College of the Ming Dynasty, and learned "Zhuge Liuhai Tactics". He also received Zhuge Weiyi's "true biography" and learned the unique "Secret Techniques for Night Fighting".
After completing his studies and returning to Japan, Nobutyou Otani Seiichiro entered the shogunate navy. Because he was the "descendant of Zhuge" and the best martial arts expert in Japan, he had a prosperous career in the shogunate navy and quickly became the deputy of the naval training center. long. He also received 1,000 shijialu and became the high-level flag bearer of the shogunate. He was about to reach the peak of his life. No one expected that the Japanese navy would disappear inexplicably.
It was not that I was wiped out, but that I was no longer there under the pressure of the Ming Dynasty's overwhelming superiority. It was really frustrating. Perhaps because he was too frustrated by the disintegration of the Shogunate Navy, the male believer Tan Seiichiro did not join the newly established Shogunate Coast Guard. Instead, he opened a dojo to teach his three skills of "gun, bow, and sword" until his good friend Not long ago, Enomoto Takenoki asked him to come out and join Dezhou Kaizi...
Originally, Enomoto Takenoki wanted his friend to command the frigate squadron, but Otani Nobuyoshi couldn't fly a plane, and he didn't believe that a small wooden biplane could sink a large battleship, so he joined the destroyer squadron. Made a commitment.
As a result, after the Battle of Norfolk Harbor and the New York Air Raid, Otani Nobuyoshi regretted it... He, a "Seichiro", had been skilled for more than thirty years, but he made mistakes in his profession (Navy). Hutu has become an outdated battleship faction.
However, he has no time to think about quickly "jumping back" to the aviation side, because Saigo Takamori gave him an extremely difficult task when evacuating the New York coast - to cut off the rear and prepare for a night battle with the enemy!
It is not easy to complete this task, because the position of the maritime aviation force when it evacuates the New York coast is not good - there is no sea to the north and west of the New York coast. That is the American continent. Of course, the maritime fleet cannot go there. Run in those two directions. The U.S. armored cruiser force pursuing the Haizi Air Force has occupied a position southeast of New York in advance. No matter whether the Haizi Air Force goes south, east, or southeast, it is easily intercepted.
Therefore, Saigo Takamori can only take the fleet to run southwest, that is, run along the east coast of the United States... Such a running method is of course not very ideal. It is easy for the United States to escape from the Gulf of Mexico. The main force of the Atlantic Fleet is blocked; secondly, it is too easy to be exposed - it must be exposed at dawn! Even if it was dark, we had to carefully turn off the lights and sail at night, for fear of being discovered by the shore or passing American ships.
But this is not the worst thing. The worst thing is that the armored destroyer under Otani is too slow!
These so-called armored destroyers are actually outdated "old ships" (the ships are actually not very old, but their performance is too outdated). Despite their small size of more than 3,000 tons, their speed is not as fast as those two ships with a speed of more than 20,000 tons. The frigate carrying tons of aircraft is faster... The difference is not just a little bit, but a full 5 knots! Akagi and Kaga, which were converted from civilian ships, now have a speed of 23 knots, while the "Kokugong" class cruiser (now a cruiser) only has a speed of 18 knots!
So when he was running away, Saigo felt that the six armored destroyers protecting the aircraft-carrying frigate were too cumbersome, so he simply ditched them and left first... Otani didn't even know what to say? Since Akagi and Kaga are so capable, why do they still need protection? Can't they just play with the two boats on their own? There were fights and planes, and 80 planes from two ships flew out in great numbers. Even if the enemy had a few battleships, they couldn't withstand such an explosion! When running away, their speed is still fast, 23 knots! The battleships and armored cruisers that can catch up with them now must all belong to Ming Dynasty. So he ran away as soon as he ran. Even if the enemy sends destroyers to chase them, the two aircraft-carrying frigates have many 155mm naval guns, which are enough to defend themselves.
Therefore, Otani's destroyer squadron is indeed a liability...
But Xixiang regards him as a burden, he can't give up on himself! We still have to work hard to escape, and we have to prepare for a night battle! Because Otani knows very well that you can't escape with a speed of 18 knots!
What's chasing him now is an armored cruiser detachment from the U.S. Atlantic Fleet! Although there are only 6 real cruisers in this detachment, there are still many destroyers with speeds exceeding 25 knots following them. And the 6-pack cruiser is faster than Otani's destroyer.
So it’s only a matter of time before they catch up!
What Otani can do now is to catch up as late as possible. If it can be delayed until dawn, then even if he is caught up, he can ask Saigo to send a plane to help.
"Follow, the radio has detected enemy electronic signals!"
Just when Ogu was thinking about how to delay it until dawn, the voice of the communications officer suddenly interrupted his thoughts.
"Can you confirm where the radio waves are coming from?" Otani asked quickly.
"The specific location cannot be determined, but it is certain that it was sent from near us, either from the US military radio on the shore, or..."
Before the communications officer could finish speaking, Nobuto Ogu had already made his immediate judgment: "Baga, we've been caught up!"
However, he quickly regained his composure and looked sharply at the graduates (undergraduates) from the former naval training institute who served as staff on the ship. , Tone, and Suzuya generate electricity, let each ship adopt Zhuge Liuye tactics, and send out elite night vision troops to prepare for battle!"
"Hayin!"
The so-called "Zhuge Liuye Tactics" actually uses the night to set up ambushes and lay torpedoes. It may seem ordinary, but as long as it is equipped with "night vision soldiers" selected and trained using the secret techniques of the Zhuge family, it will be able to fight in a hundred battles.
The method for selecting "night vision soldiers" is "audition". As long as the population base is large enough, some "night vision soldiers" can always be selected. After selecting "Night Eyes", you have to feed them cod liver and carrots. If conditions do not allow, feed them directly cod liver oil. You must also maintain enough sleep during duty, and prohibit excessive use of eyes, etc..... .It is said that this was the method used by King Zhuge Wuzhong to train elite soldiers for night fighting when he was fighting the Manchus.
...
"Vice Admiral, a call back from Rear Admiral Perry... He has led the battleship squadron through the Florida Strait and is heading north along the Florida Peninsula."
At the same time, in the bridge of the Pennsylvania, David Porter was standing in the bridge with the lights turned off, looking at the darkness outside with his brows furrowed... He had been chasing for several hours, but he didn't see anything. Seeing the shadow of the enemy, are you chasing in the wrong direction? It will be daylight in a while. If I can't catch up again, I'm afraid I will really lose it.
Just as he thought of this, a bright and dazzling fireball suddenly appeared in the southwest sky!
At this moment, David Porter, who had become accustomed to the dark night, could see nothing but the sudden appearance of a flare in the distance. But in his heart, he was like a mirror, this is... catching up!
