The War of Resistance Against Japan: Special Operations Battalion Traverses Shanghai and Slaughters

Long Fei took the binoculars, observed for a moment, and then asked with concern.

"You guys go get some sleep. I'll take charge of the observation. Under normal circumstances, the Shanghai Maru won't appear before us until tomorrow afternoon."

Next, Long Fei observed and pondered.

Just now, a bold idea suddenly popped into Long Fei's head, and he was startled by it.

However, now that he's calmed down and reflected on it, he finds the idea quite interesting.

However, Long Fei needed to follow this thought, sort out his ideas, and then refine and revise them.

A few hours later, when the team members who took over arrived on the deck, Long Fei's plan had been basically finalized.

However, now is not the time to tell everyone about this idea. Long Fei decided to wait until the right opportunity arises before making an announcement.

And so, everyone waited on the torpedo boat until noon on the 20th of the following day.

The Japanese cargo ship "Shanghai Maru" had been docked at the military pier in Shanghai for ten days.

During this period, the Kuomintang's military intelligence team secretly infiltrated and planted explosives.

Although the Japanese discovered and eliminated the two Kuomintang (KMT) action teams in time.

However, for safety reasons, the Emperor personally ordered a thorough inspection of the entire ship to ensure that nothing went wrong.

This inspection lasted for three days, so the Japanese were able to ensure that the "Shanghai Maru" could depart on time for the 20th.

After the inspection was completed, the Japanese immediately mobilized a large number of personnel to quickly count and load the goods.

The ship tasked with escorting the "Shanghai Maru" was the "Asakaze," a first-class destroyer of the 5th Destroyer Squadron of the Japanese Third Fleet.

At this moment, Captain Hayashi Risaku of the "Asakaze" had already ordered the entire ship to make preparations for departure.

Finally, on the night of the 19th, all the goods were loaded.

So, early on the 20th, the "Shanghai Maru" sounded its horn and slowly sailed out of the port.

The destroyer "Asakaze" followed closely behind, heading towards their destination, Yokohama Port near Kyoto, Japan.

Around noon, two Japanese ships appeared in the observer's field of vision, one after the other.

Long Fei was smoking and sunbathing on the deck when he received a report that a ship had appeared.

Long Fei immediately stood up, picked up his binoculars to check, and at the same time, he ordered the torpedo boat to be started immediately and ready to go at any time.

Twenty minutes later, the "Shanghai Maru" and "Asakaze" were getting closer and closer, and Long Fei could already see the ship numbers of the two ships through his binoculars.

"Immediately retreat, sail out of the sight of the Japanese ships, and then circle around to the rear of the Japanese destroyer 'Asakaze'."

As Long Fei gave the order, the torpedo boats immediately retreated until the Japanese ships were below sea level and out of sight.

Next, the torpedo boat adjusted its course and sped past the rear of the "Asakaze".

Once they reached the Japanese ships' course, Ryuhi ordered them to maintain a distance of three nautical miles from the "Asakaze" and follow it.

Because the typical sea level distance is more than four kilometers, beyond that distance, the torpedo boat would be below the sea level of the Japanese warship's field of vision, making it impossible for the enemy to detect it.

The reason for leaving them three nautical miles behind was to ensure they wouldn't be discovered by the Japanese.

The "Shanghai Maru" is a large cargo ship with a gross tonnage of 12,000 tons, so its maximum speed can only reach 20 knots, which is 20 nautical miles and more than 30 kilometers per hour.

Moreover, it does not travel at full speed under normal circumstances, so the "Shanghai Maru" is currently maintaining a speed of about fifteen knots.

At this speed, it would be less than 30 kilometers per hour, and less than 300 kilometers in ten hours.

Therefore, Long Fei was not in a hurry to make a move. With the torpedo boat's range of 1400 kilometers, minus the return trip, he could at least follow it for a day.

Moreover, at a speed of 15 knots, fuel consumption can be reduced significantly, thus increasing the driving range.

In addition, Long Fei discovered that the sea surface temperature had dropped significantly, and the drop was not small, at least seven or eight degrees.

This situation indicates that there is a high probability of sea fog occurring tonight or early tomorrow morning.

"We'll split into two shifts, taking turns driving the torpedo boats and observing. If all goes as expected, sea fog should appear as early as tonight."

After Long Fei finished making the announcement, everyone immediately cheered, and no one went into the cabin to rest.

One of the team members asked timidly, "Commander, I have a question I don't understand. Why do the Japanese ships have the character '丸' (maru) at the end of their names?"

Long Fei actually knew the answer to this question, so he immediately sat down and began to explain it to everyone.

"There are generally two interpretations to the question you raised. The first interpretation is that in ancient Japan, the area within a walled town was called a 'maru'."

"The ship looked like a separate floating town, so the Japanese added the character 'Maru' to the end of the ship's name."

"The second interpretation is that in ancient Japan, '丸' mainly referred to a chamber pot or latrine, which was considered filthy."

“The Japanese are influenced by the traditional Chinese beliefs that filth can drive away evil spirits and evil gods.”

"So the Japanese added the character '丸' (maru) to the end of the ship's name, hoping that the ship could avoid the evil spirits that roam the sea and thus seek peace."

After Long Fei finished explaining, Xie Qiang said with a cold smile.

"Unfortunately, the Japanese devils encountered our Dragon Flame Army. We are not some evil demons or gods, but gods of justice. So, adding the word 'pill' or even 'Ten-Ingredient Tonic Pill' wouldn't make a difference."

"Hahaha……"

Xie Qiang gritted his teeth and made a serious but joking remark, which made everyone burst into laughter.

After boarding the S100 torpedo boat, which was made in Germany, Long Fei inspected four torpedoes. Two of them had traditional contact fuses, while the other two had more advanced non-contact optical induction fuses.

Moreover, one torpedo was placed in each of the left and right sides of the torpedo tube.

Well, as the name suggests, a contact fuse means that a torpedo will only detonate when it hits an object.

This non-contact optical sensing fuse means the torpedo doesn't need to contact the ship's hull. Instead, once it enters the lower part of the hull, the light transmitted through the sea surface is blocked, causing a change in brightness, which immediately triggers the explosion.

The reason for this design is that the shock wave generated by the explosion is many times stronger when transmitted through seawater than in air.

If a torpedo explodes even a dozen meters below the hull, the force can lift the ship off the surface.

This would severely damage the ship's keel, even breaking it in half.

While a torpedo hitting the hull directly and exploding will blast a large hole in the ship, it will then sink due to flooding.

However, compared to the two, a non-contact explosion at the bottom of the ship is clearly more lethal and causes more serious damage to the ship.

Therefore, although sea fog had begun to form on the sea surface late at night, Long Fei decided to wait until dawn before attacking the Asakaze destroyer.

All twelve of them stayed up all night, anxiously waiting for dawn so they could deliver the fatal blow to the "Asakaze".

Finally, a glimmer of dawn appeared on the sea surface, and Long Fei immediately gave the order.

"Full speed ahead, catch up with the 'Asakaze', and prepare to attack."

At this moment, the sea surface was covered with large clumps of sea fog, but fortunately there were still some gaps between each clump of fog, so the view was not completely blocked.

The torpedo boat sped forward at full speed and soon spotted the stern of the "Asakaze".