While the battle on the Rio de la Plata was going on, in the middle of the Rio de la Plata, the yellow water shone dazzlingly under the sunlight. A white wave split the river water, and a tower was vaguely visible.
The bow of the boat was vaguely visible in the stirred river water, and the waves mixed with countless foams were flying in the air beside the boat.
Holding a telescope and standing on the bridge that could only accommodate one person, Liu Tiannian looked at the scene in the distance.
Although submarines are now sailing on the Rio de la Plata, the vast river has no end as far as the eye can see.
The mouth of the Rio de la Plata is the widest estuary in the world, with a width of two hundred kilometers. Even this generation is more than a hundred kilometers wide. With such a vast river surface, people will always mistakenly think that this is the sea. But in fact, it is
This is just a river.
It was precisely because he was sailing on the river that Liu Tiannian would remind the helmsman to maintain the course through the microphone from time to time.
After all, the water depth here is only about 30 meters. Although there is no problem in sailing in such shallow water, it does involve certain risks for submarines.
"I hope I can complete the mission successfully."
Liu Tiannian said to himself.
In the past six months, Liu Tiannian has been leading submarine No. 001 for maritime training. Although after the war broke out, he was eager to play a role in the war, but he knew that what the troops needed most now was training.
They received a mission three days ago, and then he led the crew and left the base all the way to the mouth of the Rio de la Plata.
Where is the target?
While he was standing on the conning tower searching the river, suddenly, several plumes of smoke rising from the distant skyline caught his attention. After picking up the telescope and observing for a moment, he immediately went down from the bridge to the bottom cabin.
As soon as he entered the hold, he gave the order.
"Close the hatch!"
After receiving the order, the sailors immediately got busy, closing the hatch and turning off the microphone. After working for almost thirty seconds, the sailors loudly replied.
"The hatch is closed!"
"The microphone is off."
After hearing the reports from the sailors, Liu Tiannian, who had already walked to the command podium, issued the order.
"Dive!"
The small submarine dived very quickly, but disappeared from the river in the blink of an eye.
After diving into the depths of the periscope, Liu Tiannian put his general's hat back and raised the periscope with both hands. Then he put his eyes close to the periscope and carefully directed the submarine towards the target.
Almost half an hour later, a fleet appeared in his sight.
"Yes, the leading British warship is the Minotaur in front and the Hector behind it..."
He was no stranger to the "Hector". When he was studying in the UK, he once visited the "Hector" under construction in the shipyard. At that time, he never thought that one day he would be used as such.
There is no way to meet this warship again.
"It's a pity that you are no longer within the scope of the mission this time, otherwise..."
When aiming at the "Hector" through the periscope, Liu Tiannian silently gave the command to attack in his heart.
At this moment, he seemed to see a torpedo flying out of the submarine, spraying joyfully and flying towards the warship.
With a loud bang, the ironclad ship "Hector" was sunk!
What a brilliant achievement this will be for the world's first submarine!
Of course, it would be even more wonderful if the target could be changed to the ironclad "Minotaur".
You must know that it is an ironclad ship of more than 10,000 tons.
But even if the tonnage is so huge, so what?
It only takes two torpedoes, or at most three. It will definitely send him to the cold seabed!
It's a pity that he has a more important task! This idea is just a thought in his mind.
"Where are you anyway?"
Operating the periscope, Liu Tiannian continued to search for the target of his trip - the ironclad ship "May 25". It was an ironclad ship purchased from the United Kingdom by the Argentine Navy in order to deal with Nanhua's ironclad ships. This ironclad ship had a displacement of nearly 4,000 tons.
, also the flagship of the Argentine Navy.
Although its tonnage is not comparable to the ironclad "Hector", it is still a very good target. At least it can prove the submarine's combat effectiveness.
Staring at the target through the periscope, Liu Tiannian's eyes were cold, and occasionally he would lick his lips with his tongue.
"Torpedo room!"
"The depth is set at 3 meters!"
Moments after Liu Tiannian issued the order, a reply came from the sailors in the Torpedo Temple. In this era, they could only convey orders in the boat through this most primitive method.
"Depth 3 meters! Complete!"
As the command was given and repeated, a shout of "Ready!" finally came from the torpedo room. On a small submarine, the sound was transmitted very clearly.
500 meters away!
Although the distance was very close, Liu Tiannian still did not launch. He knew that he only had one chance to attack.
With the help of periscope distance measurement, Liu Tiannian shouted loudly when the distance was only about 200 meters.
"Torpedo launch!"
As the world's first submarine equipped with a torpedo launch tube, following Liu Tiannian's order, the torpedo commander in the torpedo room at the bow of No. 001 pulled down the launch rod with force.
"Bang..." The compressed air directly pushes the torpedo in the launch tube. Driven by the air, the torpedo rushes out of the launch tube, and then rushes towards the target. The speed of the torpedo is neither fast nor slow, even though the compressed air-driven engine is on the sea surface.
There were clear bubbles of boiling water left on it, but it was still running.
what is that?
No one even noticed its existence! After all, for the navy of this era, the threats they could see came from the sea and from the bombardment of the fleet.
Attack from under the sea?
Is it the legendary giant octopus?
So no one noticed anything strange on the sea surface at all. Even if they found the torpedo wake, they might think they had encountered a large dolphin that was spraying water.
After the No. 1 launch tube was launched, the No. 2 launch tube was also launched, and the two boiling white waves rushed straight into the distance.
Perhaps this is really the waves created by dolphins swimming in the sea.
When the two torpedoes flew towards the ironclad "May 25th" one after another, no one on the ironclad ship crowded with people noticed the torpedo wakes on the water.
Those Argentine soldiers who finally escaped were just crowded on the deck, smoking and talking. No one noticed anything strange on the sea.
Even when the torpedoes sailed close to the warship, no one noticed them.
However, it only took a moment for Liu Tiansheng to see a huge water column explode on the starboard side of the ironclad "May 25th" in the periscope. The violent explosion blasted out a water column up to 100 meters high.
"Torpedo No. 1 hit!"
When Liu Tiansheng's excited shouts rang out in the submarine, the crew members had already heard the explosion coming from a distance. Even though the submarine was hovering in the sea, the explosion still clearly reached everyone's ears.
"Long live!"
Amid the excited shouts, there was another loud noise, and the No. 2 torpedo hit the ironclad "May 25th" again. When the shock wave of the explosion hit, it was so close that even the submarine swayed.
, if you don’t have a firm footing, you can fall directly into the cabin.
"Dive at full speed!"
When Liu Tiansheng ordered to dive into the deep sea, the sea was already in chaos. The ironclad "May 25", which was hit by two torpedoes one after another, was seriously flooded.
As the ship tilted, the frightened and unaware sailors jumped into the sea without even waiting to put down the lifeboats.
None of them knew what happened, but now facing the rapidly sinking warship, jumping into the water was the best choice.
"Quick, slow down, there are mines!"
The British sailors on the ironclad "Minotaur" were also frightened by the violent explosion. They all looked nervously at the wide river.
In the end what happened?
It must be a mine.
He must have encountered a mine while sailing.
There are mines in the river!
The sailors looked at the river in horror. The soy water covered everything. No one could see the small submarine at the bottom of the river through the water.
At this time, it was floating quietly in the river. The submarine that had completed its mission left silently like a ghost on the bottom of the sea.
It left a trail of death and fear in its wake.
"Pay attention to the sea surface, there may be mines."
When the vice-captain gave the order, Henrys had already nervously come to the deck.
"what happened?"
He was originally chatting with Edward in the captain's cabin, but who would have thought that he would be interrupted by the sound of an explosion.
For a moment, he even thought that he was being attacked by the Nanhua Navy?
But he soon gave up this idea. He believed that no fleet in the world dared to challenge the British Royal Navy.
"General, mines! May 25th may have encountered a mine, and there were two mines!"
Two mines!
Major General Henrys opened his eyes, simply unable to believe what he heard.
"How can this be?"
"The two explosions were less than a second apart. Maybe the anchor mines dropped by the Paraguayans floated here. General, we must be more careful."
Mines are not a new thing. During the Civil War, mines produced in South China were widely used by the South to break the northern blockade. Although they failed to achieve their purpose, they were still used to bomb areas such as Hampton Roads.
It sank dozens of northern ships. Mines were also used in the Paraguay War.
Almost naturally, everyone thought that the "May 25th" encountered a mine deployed by Paraguay during the war. As for torpedoes... they had never heard of that thing.
"This is really Lopez's revenge!"
Standing in the command tower, looking at the slowly sinking "May 25th", Major General Henrys said.
Even when Lopez released these mines, he never thought that one day he would teach the Argentines such a painful lesson.
Or, this is God's arrangement.
"Ask President Sarnto if they have evacuated safely, and ask them if they need our help!"
Help is definitely needed. On the ironclad "May 25th", there are not only hundreds of sailors, but also thousands of army soldiers who have retreated to the warship.
And now they are all struggling on the water. Of course, many of them have no chance to struggle for help. They have sunk into the La Plata River along with the warship.
When the "Minotaur" lowered the lifeboat and asked for help from the Argentine Navy for the people who fell into the water, Sarento, who had already evacuated to the lifeboat, turned pale, and his eyes were fixed on the sinking "May 25"
"Japan" ironclad, there was only one thought left in his mind - it's over!
It’s all over!
"First of all, sir, I, our... treasury is finished!"
The central bank governor, who had just been rescued from the river like a drowned rat, was completely stunned. He looked at the flagship of the Argentine Navy in panic. He was about to be submerged by the river water.
Oh, God!
So what happened?
Treasury!
The treasury is on the ironclad "May 25th"!
In order to continue to resist, when evacuating Buenos Aires, according to the president's order, all the gold, gold and silver coins, bonds and other properties in the treasury and the central bank were secretly transported out of the vault and packed into boxes.
On board the ironclad "May 25th".
Originally, the gold and silver in the ironclad "May 25" was Argentina's hope to continue fighting, but what about now?
As the warship sank, everything was lost!
All gone!
Sarnto's face looked as ugly as if his biological father had died. He just stared at the "May 25th", his mind too empty to say a word.
No more gold.
Everything is gone. Even if he leads the army to withdraw to Uruguay, what can he do? When he has no money to pay military salaries or buy food, the anger of the officers and soldiers will be vented on him.
What will happen then?
Sarnto didn't even dare to think about it. He just sat on the lifeboat with a desperate expression, with only one thought left in his mind.
"Is this really God's will?"
Mine!
Who could have imagined that the fleet would encounter mines while sailing?
And I don’t know when those two mines were released by that guy Lopez.
What is even more unimaginable is that the mine actually hit the ironclad "May 25th" without any bias!
Apart from God's arrangement, Sarnto could not imagine any other possibility.
"My God, have you really abandoned your people and Argentina?"
Sarnto looked desperately at the slowly sinking ironclad "May 25th". The ironclad ship now sinking in the Rio de la Plata was no longer a warship, but theirs.
hope!
But hope just sank to the bottom of the river...
This chapter has been completed!