Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 2 Throwing the Torpedo
Along with the explosion, a shout of "Hurry up and put out the fire" came from outside the cabin. The Japanese ship's shells contained incendiary agents, which would burn when they hit the target. Lin Fei's heart jumped. It was a race against time. The Japanese ship's shells had already hit the stern of the ship. Maybe the next shell would directly hit the torpedo compartment. Each of the three black-headed torpedoes was loaded with 25 kilograms of nitrocellulose explosives. The three torpedoes had a total of 75 kilograms of explosives!
The destructive power of nitrocellulose explosives of this era could not catch up with the mixed explosives of RDX and TNT of their time, but the torpedo compartment was located near . Once an explosion occurred, a large amount of seawater would flow into the Zhiyuan ship. At this time, the Zhiyuan ship had been hit by bullets in many places, and many watertight compartments were flooded. If it was hit by three torpedoes, it would definitely sink!
Without time to think, Lin Fei reached out and pushed the launcher's shoulder hard. The launcher staggered back a few steps. Lin Yuan grabbed the launch wrench and pressed down with all his strength. The high-pressure air valve was immediately opened. With a "bang", high-pressure air rushed into the launch tube, pushing the torpedo free from the restraint of the arrester and falling into the water like a nimble flying fish, splashing a large wave.
The four people in the torpedo room were stunned. The launcher said to Lin Fei in a trembling voice: "You launched the torpedo without the order from Lord Liu. Anyone who acts without authorization and disobeys military orders will be executed immediately! Gunner, you will be beheaded..."
Lin Fei glanced at the launcher and said, "I don't care about that. If you want to live, just listen to me. Come and help me launch the next torpedo!" After Lin Fei finished speaking, he ignored the stunned Qing sailors and rushed to the torpedo track car. He reached out to release the brake of the track car and pushed the track car towards the launch tube.
Just as Lin Fei pushed the rail car, he heard Liu Daming's voice behind him: "Lin Fei, I saw you launch a torpedo! What are you going to do? Let go of the rail car, or I will shoot you!"
Lin Fei looked back and found that Liu Daming was holding a revolver in his hand with the muzzle facing him. The trick of "seizing the gun with bare hands" instantly came to his mind. Lin Fei made a lightning move and before Liu Daming could understand what was going on, he found that the revolver was already in Lin Fei's hands.
Lin Fei grabbed the pistol and pointed at Liu Daming, saying loudly: "The Japanese shells will hit here soon, get your men to fire the torpedoes immediately, quickly!"
Liu Daming was already stunned by Lin Fei's move of "grabbing the gun with bare hands". He did not react when he heard Lin Fei's words, but said in a daze: "How did you... take... the gun?"
Lin Fei shouted: "Hurry up and throw the torpedo out, it will be too late!"
Liu Daming's eyes flashed, and he became furious. He said, "I understand. You are a spy of the Japanese. You are worried that our Zhiyuan will get close to you and fire torpedoes, so you want to throw all our torpedoes into the sea..."
Lin Fei thought to himself: "If I keep talking nonsense with you, the Japanese warship's shells will really come. In order to prevent the torpedoes from exploding and injuring themselves in the event of an accident inside, modern warships have emergency torpedo ejection ports that can eject torpedoes out of the ship in an instant. I wonder if the Zhiyuan has one."
As Lin Fei was thinking, he looked towards the end of the track and saw a branch leading to the bulkhead. There was a door-like thing on the bulkhead with the words "Emergency Eject" written on it in English. Lin Fei pointed his gun at the old sailor and said viciously, "Open the emergency eject door!"
The old sailor looked confused, as if he didn't understand what Lin Fei said. Lin Fei then remembered that in the Beiyang Fleet, all words related to warship operations were spoken in English, so Lin Fei changed his words into English. The old sailor nodded and moved the hatch, and a big hole suddenly opened on the side. Lin Fei turned the switch and aimed the track car towards the hatch, then kicked the track car hard. The track car made a "clang clang" sound and fell into the sea from the hatch.
Lin Fei pointed at another rail car with his eyes. The old sailor understood and opened the hatch. Lin Fei walked over and kicked the rail car out. Seeing the rail car falling into the sea with the torpedo, Lin Fei breathed a sigh of relief. But at this moment, he heard Liu Daming behind him shouting, "Shoot, shoot, kill the spy Lin Fei!"
Lin Fei turned around and saw several sailors with rifles rushing into the torpedo compartment and pointing their guns at him. These sailors hated the Japanese army to the core and when they heard that Lin Fei was a spy, they wanted to shoot regardless of the fact that he was the gunner.
Seeing that the sailor's finger had already pressed the trigger, as long as he exerted more force, the bullets would make Lin Fei into a sieve. At this critical moment, he heard the piercing sound of shells breaking through the air from outside the cabin, and a shell hit the torpedo compartment! Lin Fei shouted at the top of his voice: "Get down!" Then he fell to the ground with a tiger pounce. Although Liu Daming and other sailors' reaction speed was far slower than Lin Fei's, they were not slow either. They fell to the ground after hearing Lin Fei's words.
Only a loud "bang" was heard, but there was no explosion. Everyone looked up and saw two large holes on the left bulkhead and the lower deck. It turned out that this shell was an armor-piercing shell that would not explode. It directly penetrated the torpedo bulkhead and the lower deck of the torpedo compartment. If Lin Fei had not pushed the torpedo out, this shell would have hit the torpedo, and the violent impact would inevitably cause the torpedo to explode!
Liu Daming and his men were stunned when they saw this scene. Lin Fei breathed a sigh of relief, sweating profusely, thinking: "That was a close call. The danger to the torpedo compartment has been eliminated. The most urgent task should be to defend against the Japanese torpedoes!"
Thinking of this, Lin Fei jumped up and shouted, "Hurry up and follow me to the deck to shoot down the Japanese torpedoes!"
Liu Daming stared with eyes as big as copper bells and said, "Attack the Japanese torpedoes? How do we do it?"
Lin Fei rushed out of the cabin and said, "Use water gun!"
Liu Daming obviously didn't understand what Lin Fei said. He followed Lin Fei out of the cabin and shouted, "How do you shoot a torpedo with a water gun?"
Lin Fei said as he walked up the stairs: "The Japanese torpedoes have neither gyroscopes nor pendulum accelerometers, so the heading control system can be ignored. If the torpedoes don't have a heading control system, the slightest disturbance from the outside world is enough to make it deviate! I will use a water gun to make the torpedo deviate!"
Liu Daming asked in surprise: "What did you say? What are Tuo something instrument and Bai something plan?"
Lin Fei thought to himself: "If I explain to you, the Zhiyuan would have been sunk !" Lin Fei ignored him and rushed onto the deck in a few steps. At this time, the Japanese ship had realized the threat of the Zhiyuan ship and concentrated its firepower to attack the Zhiyuan ship. The Japanese army had a large number of rapid-fire guns and a firing rate of up to five shells per minute. For a while, the Zhiyuan ship was surrounded by the "whoosh" sound of shells flying past and the "splash" sound of water splashing. Lin Fei looked up at the Yoshino ship in the distance, raised his hand and quickly measured the distance using the jump eye method - three hundred and fifty meters. Considering the relative speed of the two ships, this was a perfect time for the Japanese ship to launch a torpedo.
At this time, the deck was full of red flames. The scorching flames made people feel pain on their bodies, and the thick black smoke made it impossible to open their eyes. In the thick smoke, several sailors were holding water guns, aiming at the flames on the deck. Bright white water columns sprayed out from the water guns, pouring on the flames, making a "sizzling" sound.
Lin Fei half-knelt on the deck, lowered his body to avoid the flying shrapnel and thick black smoke, his eyes fixed on the sea. The torpedoes of this era were propelled by high-pressure air, which would form bubbles in the water. When these bubbles floated to the surface, they would form a long white strip, which was particularly eye-catching on the blue sea.
This long white strip clearly indicated the track of the torpedo. Lin Fei could completely find the underwater torpedo based on this long strip. At this moment, a long white strip appeared on the sea surface on the port side of the Zhiyuan ship . At the critical moment, Lin Fei rushed frantically towards a sailor holding a water gun!
"Hurry up and give me the water gun. There are torpedoes!"
The sailor turned around and said, "What did you say, Chief Gunner?"
Lin Fei pointed his finger at the sea and shouted, "Don't you see the torpedo over there? Hurry and give me the water gun!"
The sailor looked back at the sea, but unfortunately he did not understand the principle of torpedoes and did not recognize that the long white stripe on the water was the torpedo track. So he turned his head back and continued to put out the fire with a water gun.
At this moment, Liu Daming came out from under the deck, pointed at Lin Fei and shouted, "He is a spy! Catch him quickly."
Although Liu Daming's voice was loud, it was too noisy on the deck and no one could hear what Liu Daming said. So Liu Daming stopped shouting, rushed to Lin Fei and reached out to grab Lin Fei's collar. Lin Fei was staring at the torpedo intently and was caught by Liu Daming.
Lin Fei was also angry, thinking that he had risked his life to save the Zhiyuan ship, but you not only didn't appreciate it, but instead treated him as a spy! I might as well throw you into the sea first!
Just as Lin Fei was about to grab Liu Daming's hand and fight back, Deng Shichang's voice suddenly came from the ship: "Torpedo spotted on the port side of our ship, right rudder 15!"
Lin Fei knew that Deng Shichang's order of "right rudder fifteen" meant to turn the rudder fifteen degrees to the right, causing the Zhiyuan to turn around to avoid the torpedo. However, the Zhiyuan showed no tendency to turn, but continued to maintain its original course and rushed towards the Yoshino. Lin Fei was wondering what was going on, when he suddenly saw Deng Shichang running towards him with several sailors.
Deng Shichang was heard shouting in the distance: "Liu Daming, Lin Fei, what are you doing? Come over here quickly and help us move the steering wheel!" It turned out that there were two steering devices on the Zhiyuan ship. One was a hydraulic steering device, which was located near the command tower at the bow of the Zhiyuan ship. Deng Shichang gave the steering command and the helmsman could steer the ship. The steering command was transmitted to the rudder surface at the stern of the ship through the hydraulic transmission amplifier. The other was a manual steering device, located at the stern of the ship, which was what Deng Shichang called the "steering wheel".
