What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 339 Crimson Week (April 7400 monthly votes)

[Flagship Random Battle]

【1V1】

【U4501: 5520/14100】

【victory】

[Achievement Acquired: Devastating Strike]

[Gained 600 million silver coins (800%), 132000 experience points (800%)]

Surprisingly, U4501 did not sink.

Unlike surface warships, once a submarine takes on water, it is irreversible unless there is a minor crack, and it will almost certainly sink if attacked.

However, the U4501 has a magical damage control system that repairs the water ingress and rupture by pressing the R button with invisible force. Apart from some performance loss, it does not degrade and then slowly drifts to safety at a speed of 10 knots.

Tang Wen witnessed the entire process from a third-person perspective, and he was also covered in a cold sweat.

Despite its speed advantage, the U4501 still had the outdated shape of a 30s submarine, and its hydrodynamic design was nowhere near as good as that of the Seawolf, which was optimized day and night by supercomputers.

The cavitation and noise generated after reaching 41 knots were so loud that they could be clearly heard by anti-submarine aircraft dozens of kilometers away.

Not to mention concealment, even the torpedoes launched by the Seawolf and the ship itself were drowned out by the noise.

U4501的艇长完全是抱着同归于尽心态朝主动声呐方向先盲射了4枚鱼雷，然后掉头发射完剩余6枚，直到抵近不足2公里时才发现海狼号，连续使用PING了3次后引导4枚鱼雷连续命中。

If Tang Wen remembers correctly, the first Seawolf-class submarine, the Seawolf, has just entered service and is the most advanced nuclear submarine in the Empire.

However, the Second Fleet's counterattack was limited to this. The U2501 that Tang Wen subsequently built and the K278 that had just been salvaged were still on their way, and all the other old U-boats that had been exposed were besieged and destroyed.

To date, three more U-boats have sunk.

If calculated based on personnel losses, the losses of the Clover, Coral Princess, Seawolf, and the three U-boats have exceeded 1200.

Unlike the last great battle, this time the losses were all due to conspiracies and schemes that could not be made public, which made Tang Wen feel a chill down his spine.

"Commander, aren't you going to the BBS today? The daily chat room will be launched soon for public testing!"

Feeling the body leaning against his neck, Tang Wen closed his eyes.

The Daily Chat Room is essentially Tang Wen's vision of QQ, but like BBS, it doesn't require account registration. Considering the relatively small number of internet users, it primarily provides a social channel in the form of chat rooms.

"I was just thinking, isn't the world a little too cruel?"

"I do not understand."

"So what kind of life do you want?"

The ship girl suddenly became excited, her red pupils slightly contracting:
"Of course it's firing cannons, the roar of waves and gunpowder."

Tang Wen: "..."

Just then, the satellite phone placed to the side rang.

It's Han Feng:
"President Tang, the monkeys have rebelled! They went to Feixin Island and captured people. While they were on the island, those prisoners sneaked out and caused trouble, beating up a young man who was passing by."

"Who is it? Is their life in danger?"

"It seems to be someone from the oil company named XXX. He's barely alive now, not a single bone is intact. We've already taken control of all those monkeys!"

"This is no ordinary monkey; it must be severely punished!"

Tang Wen said angrily, "If he dares to hurt one of our men, let him go feed the fish!"

"Yes!"

After hanging up the phone, Tang Wencai turned on his computer and registered for a chat room.

The nickname "Young Master Tang" has already been registered.

Tang Wen: "..."

[Welcome guest 1335, login as a guest] [Administrator mode, Gaijin intranet open]

[Visitor 1335: Song Nan, who bumped my account?!]

……

The Seawolf is the world's most advanced third-generation nuclear submarine.

Originally planned to build 30 ships, the project was ultimately cancelled after 27 ships were built due to their exorbitant cost of over $10 billion per ship.

Apart from diving depth, the Seawolf-class is almost in no way inferior to the Kosomoyets, and even surpasses it in many aspects of electromechanical and automation.

The first Seawolf was laid down in 1989 and launched in June 1995, but it was not actually put into service.

The USS Seawolf is expected to be officially delivered to the Navy in three months, and is still in the break-in period.

Johnson believed that hunting U-boats could be considered a relaxed practical training exercise, and the Seawolf itself shared this view.

Now, the Seawolf was sunk before it even entered service.

The second ship, the USS Connecticut, is still in dry dock and has not yet completed final assembly. The construction plan for the third ship is still undecided and is being tugged at by Congress over funding.

If the three Iowa-class battleships were to suffer a Pyrrhic victory and lose their combat capability, many high-ranking naval officers would secretly rejoice, feeling that these old guys had done a lot of pre-retirement preparation.

The sinking of the Perry-class destroyers is painful, but still within an acceptable range; it just means ordering a few more ships.

But the Seawolf was different; it represented the highest level of the Empire and the world, and it was sunk in battle.

They even failed despite having an intelligence advantage, helicopter guidance, and the overwhelming superiority of nuclear submarines over conventional submarines.

On the evening of April 11th, the headline that shocked the entire United States was:

The Clover ship has been sunk and is urgently being sought.

On the morning of April 12th, the front page read:
Two cruise ships sank in one day; 150 people have been rescued from the Clover cruise ship, and salvage operations are still ongoing.

The second edition is:
Imperial Navy discovers U-boat tracks

At noon, the title changed again:

[Residents in multiple locations received radio messages resembling those from the Second Fleet, but Minister Johnson denied the sinking of the HMS Clover.]

The afternoon's headline was:

Johnson: We have tracked more than 20 U-boats, sunk 5, and our East Coast is impregnable. We are determined to repel all underwater spies.

The huge gains were not only achieved by the United States, but also by aircraft and warships from various European forces that sank several U-boats, and a tense scramble for wreckage began throughout the Atlantic.

For the American public, although the sinking of the Clover was infuriating and heartbreaking, some people still found the continuous battle reports exciting.

Meanwhile, several members of Congress also publicly condemned the Second Fleet, insisting that it orchestrated the attack.

Rams and Kazimirz publicly stated their support for a full-scale effort to strike the Second Fleet and eliminate its threat to civilians.

The Federation officially brought the Second Fleet to the forefront, and everywhere there were cries of revenge and the execution of justice.

The international community has also paid close attention to the sinking of the Clover and Coral Princess cruise ships, which occurred almost simultaneously.

The Clover was filled with artists and their works; it was a huge loss to humanity.

The Coral Princess was home to many business leaders, which represents an economic loss for Luzon.

Several public charitable and humanitarian organizations spoke out, calling for an end to the persecution of ordinary people and organizing relief and fundraising efforts.

China responded immediately, with the Chinese ambassador to the United States issuing a public statement to express condolences to the victims and donating the first tranche of $100 million in aid, while condemning those who caused the accident.

Tang Wen also made a statement, announcing that he would contribute $100 million for the salvage and rescue efforts and for the aftermath of the tragedy. He publicly expressed his empathy for the tragedy and his willingness to overcome the difficulties with the resilient people of the United States.

However, after that, the Imperial Navy suddenly stopped making high-profile statements.

No news came out about the Seawolf, and no one knew that this most powerful submarine in the world would suffer the same fate as the K-278, with its first vessel failing.

(End of this chapter)