Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 166 Underwater Bomb
Indeed, what Wang Gensheng could think of was to send Wang Cuiyun to the outskirts of Siping for resettlement.

Although Wang Gensheng had seen the final battle, he knew that the outcome at Wuxiong Pass was not good.

However, Wang Gensheng did not have any good solutions.

Perhaps Wang Gensheng could use his meager power to transfer Wuxiong Pass away from Siping.

But so what! Wang Gensheng can transfer one person, but what about the other soldiers who participated in the defense of Siping?

Therefore, what Wang Gensheng needs to do now is not to transfer Wuxiong Pass away, but to think about how to reduce the pressure on the Siping garrison, such as by disrupting Laoji's maritime transport and supply.

Disrupt land-based transportation and supplies, after all, it's a distance of five or six hundred kilometers from Qin Shi Huang to Siping!

Such a long supply line naturally provides more opportunities to strike.

Just as Wang Gensheng was pondering the future strategic direction of the Special Operations Cavalry Regiment, Du Yiman of the Special Operations Cavalry Regiment held up a telegram and spoke to Wang Gensheng:
"Commander, the headquarters has sent a telegram commending you for the achievements of your cavalry regiment. They also want you to stay around Qinhuangdao and disrupt the enemy's supply lines. However, do not engage the enemy in direct combat. Wait for an opportunity to act, and prioritize preserving your own combat strength."

Clearly, the headquarters' idea was the same as Wang Gensheng's own: to use Wang Gensheng as a cavalry force to disrupt Lao Zi's supply lines. They also gave Wang Gensheng a lot of freedom in command, so that he wouldn't be bothered by orders from his superiors.

Wang Gensheng was naturally overjoyed, because this would allow him to seize the opportunity to act. So, Wang Gensheng immediately said to Du Yiman with delight:

"Reply to the General Headquarters and say that we will definitely follow the General Headquarters' instructions to sabotage the enemy's rear transportation and supply lines. Also, while we're at it, report on the rescue of Wang Cuiyun and other military dependents, and ask the General Headquarters to send local comrades to make arrangements."

Soon the headquarters replied, and then Wang Cuiyun and other comrades were assigned to local posts by Wang Gensheng.

Although there are not many comrades in Dongbei now, and even the land reform has not been carried out, there are still some local party comrades and some former anti-Japanese comrades.

Wang Gensheng felt it would be better to let Wang Cuiyun join the land reform work as previously arranged.

After all, once the land reform in Dongbei is completed, the fighting power that Dongbei can generate will be unprecedented.

Of course, the best way to cause destruction is to use underwater explosives to blow up the ships in Qin Shi Huang's port, which is the most convenient, efficient, and simplest method.

However, underwater bombs are not easy to manufacture. Unlike ordinary bombs, the most important thing about underwater bombs is that the delay time needs to be long enough.

After all, once the soldiers have swum to the bottom of the ship to plant the bombs, they need enough time to evacuate.

It's important to know that this is different from running on land, where the average person can run at a speed of eight or nine meters per second, and world-class athletes can run at a speed of ten meters per second.

Therefore, even the five-second detonation time of a grenade is enough for an average person to run forty or fifty meters on land.

But it's a different story in the water. In the water, even world-class athletes can only reach a speed of 120 meters per minute at most.

That's right, it's a speed of 120 meters per minute, which is equivalent to 2 meters per second. This is five times the distance of 10 meters per second on land.

Therefore, there must be enough distance. The solution is simple: just bring a long rope.

Just like pulling a landmine, it can be detonated by pulling a pin over a distance of one or two hundred meters, eliminating concerns about the underwater distance being too slow to reach a safe distance. Of course, the explosion of a single hand grenade might not be able to penetrate the hull of a ship.

After all, the hulls of ships are only a few centimeters thick, and some battleships even have hulls that are tens of centimeters thick. A hand grenade contains only about fifty grams of TNT, so it is impossible for it to cause effective damage.

However, there are ways to deal with this weak destructive power. After all, if one grenade is not enough, multiple grenades can be placed together and detonated.

However, a problem soon stopped Wang Gensheng: the grenade's explosive charge was too small.

After all, most hand grenades contain only about 40 to 50 grams of TNT.

To sink a warship or transport ship, you would need at least ten kilograms of TNT.

But ten kilograms of TNT is equivalent to the explosive charge of two hundred hand grenades!
Of course, it wasn't that Wang Gensheng didn't have that many grenades. After all, he had just wiped out an entire enemy siege regiment, and thus captured quite a few Mark II pineapple grenades.

Although there is no exact count, there are still four or five thousand, but this is not the main number.

The most important factor is its weight. Although a Mark II grenade only contains fifty or sixty grams of explosive, it weighs six hundred grams.

The reason it is so heavy is mainly due to its cast iron casing. In fact, whether it is the Magnesium Mark grenade or the Japanese melon grenade, their casings are all made of cast iron.

This is the main source of the grenade's weight. Later, in order to reduce the weight, a plastic steel ball shell was developed. This type of grenade is not only lightweight, but the steel ball fragments formed by its explosion can easily reach hundreds or even thousands.

For example, the HG85 grenade reduces its weight by nearly half to only 350 grams. The steel balls formed during the explosion can completely cover the kill zone, giving the shrapnel a greater chance of hitting vital parts of the human body.

Of course, the most crucial point is if Wang Gensheng were to take two hundred Mark II grenades, each weighing six hundred grams, to blow up the ship.

Its weight alone reaches 120 kilograms. Such a heavy weight is nothing to Wang Gensheng, after all, he can now pull 400 or 500 kilograms without any problem.

The key issue is that if Wang Gensheng were to go into the water carrying such a heavy load, he would definitely drown.

Therefore, Wang Gensheng could only use explosive charges instead. After all, the outer shell of the explosive charge was not made of cast iron but was wrapped in burlap. In addition, in order to ensure that the explosives inside the explosive charge were dry, they were also wrapped in oil paper to make them waterproof.

Thinking of this, Wang Gensheng quickly asked:

"Baili Xiu, have you inventoried the weapons and ammunition we captured this time? Did you find any TNT or other explosives?"

Upon hearing Wang Gensheng's words, Baili Xiu immediately shook her head and said:
"Reporting to the regimental commander, we haven't had time to count them yet. There are still many ammunition boxes that haven't been opened and checked!"

Wang Gensheng couldn't say anything about this, after all, he had just finished the night raid and came to Qinhuangdao to observe. He then met Wang Cuiyun and learned that the storyline of the final battle had a great impact on Wang Gensheng, which was why he forgot to count the spoils of war.

So, under Wang Gensheng's order, they began to take stock of the weapons and ammunition that had been captured.

Then came the very exciting news: ten ammunition boxes were filled with TNT.

(End of this chapter)