Chapter 279: Fearless In The First Battle
Dongzhu region. Inside the mountain, Shu troops were sweating profusely while operating; groups of hidden cannon positions were bombarding a Xian Han troop relentlessly.
As the Xian Han corps advanced into the inland of Giya Island, the war truly began.
In the trench covered with camouflage netting, Qin Shen used a periscope to watch the Xian Han troops that had temporarily withdrawn after the shelling, and had the telegraph machine nearby send a report, ordering the frontline troops’ cannon positions to immediately contract back into the trench.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, Later Han airships began counterattacking; one by one, bombs equipped with wooden plank glide wings flew onto the position like this, and the incendiary bombs’ charges were mixed with rubber grains, igniting a patch of black smoke on the position.
Qin Shen issued commands one by one, first ordering the bunker side to prepare; because next, the Xian Han infantry corps would begin the attack under the fire cover of the aerial bombing.
Half an hour later, the bunker midway up the hillside sprayed bullets, and the Xian Han landing troops suffered heavy casualties again.
Although they had repelled the Xian Han landing troops’ attacks several times in a row, the Shu troops were very panicked inside; because Xian Han now comprehensively led in technology, and in this battle, the Xian Han troops had submachine gun assault teams as well as automatic recoil rapid-fire cannons.
Qin Shen knew: starting from ten years ago, “See Future” had been on the Xian Han side.
(Ten years ago was when this generation’s Qilin Lord came to power; the Qilin Lord’s superpower system was called “See Future”.)
And this type of superpower had been awakening within the Eastern Shu camp over the past three hundred years.
…Technology…
Over these three hundred years, Eastern Shu had relied on successive technological advances to barely maintain a balance with Xian Han on the equatorial islands.
In the past century, Eastern Shu had used the explosive textile industry, chemical industry, and printing and dyeing industry to repeatedly pull in and control the Thousand Islands economy, but each time was chased and overtaken by Xian Han.
As soon as Eastern Shu exposed a new technology, the Xian Han side, short as five years or long as twenty years, would inevitably catch up.
Just like fifty years ago, after the Eastern Shu side mastered “coal smelting” technology in metal smelting, they cast high-quality steel cannons, replacing copper cannons; in that sailing battleship era, using technologies like rifled self-tightening processed by cannons, they created long-barreled steel cannons, gaining an advantage in naval gunfire precision.
But after Eastern Shu’s new weapons were put into actual combat, merely after sinking five Xian Han warships. Its technology was stolen by Xian Han sea merchants, then offered to the Imperial Court.
The Xian Han side spent ten years finding low-sulfur coal in Giaochi and high-grade iron ore in Lushan, also casting cannons of the same quality, comprehensively overtaking.
Finally, in these most recent thirty years, all of Eastern Shu’s military innovations have been figured out.
All-steel battleships, airships, and many other weapons and equipment—Xian Han now holds the advantage relying on technical reserves; while Eastern Shu, which saw the future earlier, is limited by its own industrial scale and cannot replicate them.
Fifty years ago, Eastern Shu’s last “See Future” ability user was still in Dian Continent; Eastern Shu had tried innovative equipment like liquid fuel rockets and large aluminum alloy skinned fighter jets, but all failed to be equipped due to insufficient innate conditions.
As for the liquid fuel rocket item, due to the fueling equipment not meeting standards, in the Eastern Shu test field, eight experiments resulted in three explosions, with multiple liquid fuel storage tank leaks causing serious fires, and reliability in doubt.
As for the aluminum alloy large warplanes, due to greater electromagnetic exposure effects, they were still shot down early in exercises.
What especially made Eastern Shu feel panicked was that what originally belonged to their side, the “See Future” superpower, in this generation “died out” from their side, and then—fell into Xian Han’s hands.
As a member of Eastern Shu’s Imperial Clan, when Qin Shen learned this truth, he first felt it was absolutely impossible! After confirming, he then felt confusion.
Xian Han is brimming with talent, whether in the coastal industries layout or firmly controlling the massive market for industrial products consumption on World Island; under all these innate superior conditions, Eastern Shu, this “land forgotten by the world,” is gradually weakening.
In the past, Eastern Shu could use “See Future” to take the lead and barely hold on;
But now, the “See Future” ability, which had been passed down orderly in Eastern Shu for three hundred years, has shifted to Xian Han. This matter completely drained the last bit of morale from Eastern Shu’s central group.
It’s just that Xian Han does not accept Eastern Shu’s submission as vassal, so the fight has lasted until today.
Qin Shen watched the Xian Han troops repelled by the tongues of flame in front of the trench. He felt no joy of victory in his heart, because Xian Han could afford to lose many times next; while every victory for Eastern Shu was a massive hemorrhage.
…Ambush…
February 2nd, Dragon Head Raising. Xian Han’s battle “progressed like a hot knife through butter,” and inside the rear Xuan 4th Sub-Fleet, there was also an atmosphere of some relaxation.
Um, at least in the reports, Xian Han had already recaptured half of Eastern Shu, with no sign of defeat, and Xuan Chong did not continue to nitpick.
Beating Eastern Shu requires firm will; failureist advisors are not wanted.
Eastern Shu’s predicament is similar to that in Xuan Chong’s spacetime, where Southern Song faced a already unified North. Whether Southern Song could exist depended on the North’s will.
In the late Southern Song, unwilling to pay tribute to the Yuan Dynasty, believing they could survive on their own strength, but under the persuasion of Northern Han ministers “Under Heaven is all orthodox, already possessing eight or nine out of ten, why abandon the orthodox,” Kublai Khan initiated the historical process of “division long must unite” on this land.
Eastern Shu is far more provocative than Southern Song; in the early days of Xian Han’s founding, three hundred years ago, during the Han army’s campaign against Annan, Eastern Shu people provided firearms and cannons to Annan, inciting rebellion in Giaochi.
Two hundred years ago, Eastern Shu intervened in the Dongying turmoil, deployed interference forces, and even kidnapped Xian Han scholars.
It can be said that some people in Eastern Shu understood their own strategic predicament at the time of Xian Han’s founding; jumping around like this for hundreds of years is just to take a gamble, to make Xian Han collapse.
But this repeated mischief and self-smart antics made Xian Han, which originally had no interest in the Southeast, regard it as a venomous snake beside the bed.
The degree of “friendliness” Xian Han people now feel toward Eastern Shu from the bottom of their hearts is not much less than in Xuan Chong’s spacetime toward “little Japan.”
The latest broadcast made the whole fleet enthusiastic, with high morale at sea, freely talking about the rewards after finishing the job.
After this war’s great victory, the primary merit of course goes to the frontline troops, but as rear patrol, there is also merit; upon return voyage, four times the allowance is not little, plus mission qualifications and merits.
For those young officers in the fleet, like Xuan Chong, participating in this war of exterminating Shu and being assigned to patrol work in this safe rear is a gilding trip arranged from above to build qualifications.
Xuan Chong had already heard on the public channel that the captain of the neighboring ship was discussing selecting a new courtesan after returning to port.
Of course, Xuan Chong felt his colleague was relaxing too much; on the Sparrow Eye Mantis Shrimp, Xuan Chong still required his fleet to follow normal duty procedures. No one was allowed to be off post.
Xuan Chong: Adults only have two states, one is completely serious and responsible, the other is completely relaxed.
During work, one should be completely serious, eliminating all risks; once you slack one step, there is a second step. I am also an ordinary person; if I don’t hold this line, there is no leeway to slack off.
Xuan Chong routinely responded to the information, then walked out of the command cabin to the mast, but the moment he went out, he suddenly heard a “rustling” sound.
This was the sound of the magnetic storm device; earlier, to prevent seagulls from shitting on the deck, Xuan Chong had turned on the electromagnetic device, and such a sound, he had heard when the fleet set out. Xuan Chong asked an old sailor and learned it was produced by the magnetic field intersection between this ship and other fleet ships.
And now, he was fifty nautical miles ahead of the fleet, and moving in the same direction as the entire fleet, which shouldn’t produce magnetic field collisions, so why was there a rustling sound?
Xuan Chong suddenly became alert and returned to the command cabin.
When Xuan Chong returned to his post, the other crew members, who had originally prepared to relax against their seats, once again sat up straight.
Xuan Chong looked at these crew members who clearly had not noticed anything unusual: “All ships on alert, launch unmanned scouting airplanes. This ship’s boiler pressurize to full speed.
Gasoline-powered unmanned airplane, carrying electromagnetic signal spark receiver, launched from the hull’s launch rack into the wind. The gasoline engine made a da-da-da sound as it flew toward the distant blue sky.
This unmanned airplane is disposable in wartime; internally, it uses a clockwork-like spring to control the rudders, flying back and forth in a zigzag route directly ahead of the fleet for exploration, swinging left and right like a windshield wiper within a fifty-kilometer range in front of the fleet.
If nothing is discovered and all is normal, after the unmanned airplane falls into the sea, it will activate its airbag and float on the water, then the ship will approach and lower a small boat to retrieve it.
This is similar to the unmanned submersible launch and recovery operations on Xuan Chong’s previous life’s navy research vessel.
In Xuan Chong’s world, radar uses high-power antennas for remote back-and-forth scanning, flashing targets in the area on the radar interface; this world follows a different technology path, having mechanical “electrosensitive devices” swing back and forth in the sky, producing electrical signals upon contact with the enemy fleet’s magnetic field, which are received by this ship.
And this method of judging fleet numbers, types, and scale by listening to the frequency and intensity of spark flickers is quite unintuitive compared to the previous life, just like traditional Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis.
But precisely, in present Han, “pulse diagnosis” is the content of “physiology” in the four items of imperial examination natural studies.
Xuan Chong repeatedly confirmed, the unmanned airplane patrolling left-right-left-right over the sea surface, the signals from the spark machine very weak; and in the ship operations room, “No anomalies!” “All normal!” as if reminding Xuan Chong not to overreact.
However, Xuan Chong heard a very faint “ka-ka” frequency, and after confirming the direction with the third round of zigzag route back and forth, Xuan Chong emitted torque, manipulating the unmanned airplane; the unmanned airplane, affected by this external torque twist, began probing further in a certain direction.
Suddenly, in the captain’s room, the radio monitoring equipment picked up “ka-ka” “ka-ka” becoming increasingly obvious.
After ten breaths, a burst of electrical spark explosion sounded, the monitoring personnel’s expressions initially indifferent, then covered in cold sweat. And beside them, Xuan Chong, without headphones, also diagnosed the “electrical spark signal” situation through pulse diagnosis. He directly pulled the electric bell in the captain’s room, putting the whole ship into combat status.
…Newbie angler’s reward period…
Directly ahead of the Eastern Shu surprise attack fleet, Eastern Shu’s airships had already spotted the airplane making “da-da” sounds in the sky.
This unmanned airplane flies in a zigzag pattern; each round trip, its spark detection equipment produces a spark excitation reaction with the warships carrying magnetic storm devices.
All educated people in the Han military know some pulse diagnosis.
This kind of monitoring that seems very troublesome to foreigners is like foreigners complaining chopsticks are inconvenient compared to knives and forks; for present Han soldiers who all know some pulse diagnosis, it is a tailor-made adapted technology.
Professional ship operators do not find “auscultating” spark flickers troublesome.
The Han military can determine the specific conditions of hulls in the enemy fleet during the process of the forward unmanned airplane flying intersecting with the intense electromagnetic warships.
Sure enough, on the Sparrow Eye Mantis Shrimp, as “sizzle” sounds rang one after another, the monitoring members held pencils and recorded stroke by stroke.
They can identify fleet positions through spark flickers; through one round of sparks, the intervals between each spark signal roughly outline the overall formation. And through the signal intensity amplification over two rounds of sparks, they can further discern the fleet’s advancing speed. (The faster the advance, the more significant the amplification in the second round of sparks, similar to the Doppler effect, like the difference in train whistle pitch at higher speeds.)
Xuan Chong’s body fixing technique requires keen ears, so he also learned this content, taking about three months to enter this circle; but he still thinks these present Han “pulse diagnosticians” are simply superhuman. But it must be said, Xuan Chong has gotten started.
…Kitten collides with big rat…
In the Eastern Shu fleet, at this time the fleet captain received intelligence from the airborne airships, and at the same time their launched spark unmanned airplanes also picked up the collision flash frequency from Xuan Chong’s destroyer’s magnetic storm device.
The entire fleet interior fell into tense busyness. People at the monitoring station involuntarily leaned forward, while the other ship officers rose from their tables and ran out to supervise their own team work.
The commander of this Eastern Shu fleet voyage picked up strong tea, looking at the sea chart. This time the whole fleet borrowed the typhoon, maintained radio silence, sailed thousands of kilometers in an arc, already hugging the first island chain, everything smooth, but encountered the present Han patrol fleet here.
This fleet commander at this moment gripped his jade pendant tightly, hoping this destroyer was just passing by. At this time, a female ship officer walked toward the captain.
Captain: “Hexin, what’s wrong?”
This female officer named Qin Hexin said: “I seem to have sensed a disturbance in ‘dragon power’.”
…Great Han Navy begins mobilization…
However, Xuan Chong at this time had already sent a message to his own fleet: “Unknown large fleet approaching closely!”
On the main ship, over twenty buckets filled with fish were placed on the deck. Zhou Xu, who was holding a fishing contest, took the military report from his deputy officer and put down his fishing rod.
His enthusiasm interrupted, he returned to the bridge and looked at the message sent by Xuan Chong. He asked: “Was that sea area patrolled the day before yesterday?”
A staff officer: “It has been patrolled, no issues found.”
Zhou Xu paced: “Send a report to Patrol 023, verify the message.”
During the discussion, a staff officer said: “Patrol 023 has a little tiger, eager for merit, so a bit of overreacting; I think, could he have mistaken a passing large merchant fleet for a fleet?”
The entire fleet was in the rear, no one believed it was an enemy fleet; moreover, taking a hothead’s words seriously and treating an unclear report earnestly somewhat lost face.
Xuan 4 sub-fleet belongs to the second-line navy, the fleet officers are all old slickers eliminated from the front line. After long periods without merits, they all have habitual slacking bad habits.
Zhou Xu also leaned this way, but for safety, he ordered two escort ships to go probe the situation there.
…Radio waves back and forth…
Xuan Chong learned headquarters would provide support, then here began pretending not to know about encountering the enemy; then activated magnetic layer concealment, natural turn, detour, trying to brush past the enemy large fleet and quietly follow.
The Eastern Shu side discovered this destroyer had left and breathed a sigh of relief; but four hours later, discovered two present Han escort ships speeding over.
The Shu general’s face changed, sounded the battle alarm, and immediately went full speed to meet the two escort ships.
Almost five kilometers away, while the two old-style escort ships were still sending “all normal,” they suddenly encountered dense shelling. In radio communications, they sent the highest level “enemy attack” signal.
Xuan Chong, quietly following the Eastern Shu fleet, heard the urgent “three long two short” report in the spark telegraph.
This was equivalent to the military version of “SOS”.
In response, on the ship, Xuan Chong had already sent eight torque lines through the ruler; each torque line track hung a torque network. Like a phased array, it conducted detection.
These networks, upon touching the Eastern Shu fleet on the sea surface, began feeding back mechanical information.
Xuan Chong thus “felt the pulse from afar” and discovered that this fleet of unknown identity had formed an attack formation against their two escort ships.
He also observed that above this enemy fleet of large ships, there were five large airships in stealth mode. And more new airships were still being added.
In the Eastern Shu Fleet, the core three aviation cruisers were conducting aviation operations, with the elevator platform rising from the side, lifting the airship body up.
Then the cruiser side’s steel frame, rotating like a crane, shifted the thirty-meter-long airship body to the periphery of the side. The airship’s uninflated “base cabin” traveled along the steel frame track of the crane’s boom to a position fifteen meters from the ship’s side; the airship’s top airbag slowly swelled, while below it surged the vast ocean.
This steel frame was just like something out of a movie depicting the “Age of Sail”; a pirate ship would extend a wooden plank from its side. The pirate captain would force disobedient crew members to walk the plank and jump into the sea.
Now this landing gear was placed on the ship’s side because the airship needed vast space to inflate its airbag during takeoff. Placed directly on the deck side and shifted beyond the gunwale, it wouldn’t occupy the deck’s spare space. So it was positioned on the side for airbag filling operations.
Xuan Chong saw that these aviation cruisers had already begun launching airships. The enemy ships intended to annihilate all warships that discovered them, sealing off the information.
And once their airships were all airborne, Eastern Shu would drop concealment and gain air observation advantage, at which point the Sparrow Eye Mantis Shrimp, hiding in the rear, would be discovered.
…Must strike first to gain the initiative…
In the captain’s quarters, Xuan Chong capped his drawing pen and tucked it into his chest pocket, then decisively issued the order to the personnel awaiting “advance or retreat” in the captain’s quarters: “No time left. Raise the battle flag and send the ‘horn’ signal over the sea.”
Military orders were like mountains. Despite most people on this warship just muddling through the days, despite Xuan Chong this young commander with no beard being very young; despite before Xuan Chong issued the order, most people not wanting to fight, since the reconnaissance mission was complete and returning would mean merit without fault; and the true fleet decisive battle should involve large-tonnage warships.
But when Xuan Chong’s unquestionable voice from the captain’s quarters permeated to each group, everyone executed like they had been acupointed.
The navy’s situation was somewhat different from the army’s; a navy captain’s authority was greater than that of an army officer of the same staffing quota.
Because on a warship, there was no such thing as retreat. When the army routs, the commander might preserve some strength to fight another day. In naval combat, if the ship sinks, the officers often go down with it.
Xuan Chong issued the combat order. The crew of this now outdated warship had waited in vain for over a decade, but now activated like a machine powering on, they immediately met the enemy at their posts.
One hundred fifty millimeter cannonballs began entering the breech. Second Mate: “Main guns loaded and ready.”
Xuan Chong: “Maintain concealment, full speed to close in. We need not spare our lives; aim to hit on the first shot.”
“We need not spare our lives” was the flag signal from seventy years ago in the Xian Han Navy’s great naval battle, when the commander led gunboats in a head-on charge; it represented the navy’s do-or-die battle spirit at sea.
The First Mate paused, then relayed the order—in his eyes, Xuan Chong had already earned the first merit by discovering the enemy first, with boundless prospects ahead; issuing this order now was somewhat unexpected.
The First Mate thought to himself: “The paratrooper imperial clan scion lives up to his dragon seed.”
With the order issued, on the Sparrow Eye Mantis Shrimp, all hands united as one, like a ballad humming in everyone’s ears.
