Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 175 Seizing the Warship
Wang Gensheng had been stuck in a dead end, always thinking about how to reduce his own weight so that the frogman soldiers could swim in the water and not sink.

However, no one considered adding buoyancy to the frogman warriors to balance the weight of their equipment.

Baili Xiu's words, however, helped Wang Gensheng, whose thinking had been stuck in a dead end, to come out of it.

As for the method to increase buoyancy, it was quite simple. Baili Xiu suggested using wood, but Wang Gensheng ultimately decided to use bamboo tubes, since bamboo tubes, especially hollow ones, could provide greater buoyancy than wood.

When Wang Gensheng, fully armed and carrying dozens of kilograms of bulletproof gear, could float in the water with almost no effort, he knew that Lao Ji's warships were about to change hands.

The buoyancy of the bamboo tubes effectively counteracted the sinking force brought about by the bulletproof equipment and weapons, so Wang Gensheng, who was wearing dozens of kilograms of bulletproof equipment, did not feel much downward force in the water.

So one night a week later, Wang Gensheng led a team of frogmen in full bulletproof gear and quietly infiltrated a warship of more than 1,000 tons to begin his operation to seize the ship.

At this moment, Wang Gensheng was also excited because if they succeeded, it would mean that the Liberation Army would also have warships.

It is important to know that during the War of Resistance against Japan, due to the loss of the coastline, the navy could only use a small number of gunboats to lay mines in inland rivers and lakes to prevent the Japanese from using the waterways to send ships, troops and supplies deep inland.

At the time of the victory in the War of Resistance against Japan, the navy was very weak. It nominally had two fleets, but the total number of ships was only fifteen small boats, with a total displacement of only 7,200 tons.

However, by this time all the Japanese had surrendered, so the Chinese army captured some Japanese warships. However, these warships were of relatively ordinary performance and tonnage, with the "Changzhi" and "Andong" being the more famous gunboats.

The Changzhi was a shallow-draft gunboat built by the Japanese, developed from the Uji. Completed in 1941, it had a full-load displacement of approximately 1,300 tons. It was armed with three 120mm guns, one 40mm machine gun, and eight 25mm machine guns.

Its maximum speed is 20 knots and its range is more than 3,000 nautical miles.

The Uji was an inland river gunboat, unlike ocean-going warships. It had a flat bottom and a draft of only a little over two meters.

This type of warship is suitable for navigation on inland waterways and in coastal waters. If needed, it can also make ocean voyages, but its ability to withstand wind and waves is relatively weak, and there are certain risks involved.

When the Japanese surrendered, there were five gunboats on the Yangtze River. Four of them escaped, but the Changzhi survived and was intercepted by the American fleet and handed over to the Chinese navy.

With a displacement of only 1,300 tons, it was nothing more than a mosquito boat in the eyes of a major naval power. For the weak National Navy, the "Uji" was a rare large warship, with more than 150 officers and men on board.

During the Liberation War, the United States provided the Nationalist Navy with two destroyers, twenty-four minesweepers, twenty-eight submarine chasers, and one hundred and ninety-three landing craft.

Yingguo gifted the Nationalist Navy a light cruiser and two destroyers.

The light cruiser that was given as a gift was called HMS Congqing. It was a "Aurora" class light cruiser built by the Royal Navy in the 1930s.

It has a displacement of 5,200 tons, a speed of 32 knots, and is equipped with six 152mm guns, eight 102mm anti-aircraft guns, eight 40mm machine guns, and six torpedo tubes.

Unlike the gunboats mentioned earlier, the Congqing possessed a certain degree of armor protection. Its side armor was 57 mm thick, its main gun turret armor was 25 mm thick, and its deck armor was also 25 mm thick.

Furthermore, this ocean-going warship has a range of up to 12,000 nautical miles.

The Congqing was a light cruiser with a large crew of 500.

This cruiser was once a highly decorated warship of the British Empire, having sunk more than ten Axis warships and over twenty merchant ships during World War II. As for why the British Empire gifted the old warship to the UK, it was mainly because Britain was no longer able to maintain its large navy after the war, and the Chōkei was already slated for decommissioning; it was better to give it away.

Therefore, the Qing became the largest warship in the old navy during the war of liberation.
In addition to the aforementioned warships, the Lao-Ji Navy also received 34 warships as compensation from the Japanese through a lottery.

These warships were old vessels from the Japanese Combined Fleet; they looked big, but most of them were actually inoperable.

Take the largest destroyer as an example. This destroyer is the "Akizuki-class" destroyer of the Japanese during World War II.

The ship entered service in January 1945 and has a full-load displacement of 2,700 tons.

Seeing that the tide had turned against them and they were on the verge of collapse, the Japanese were only equipped with some anti-aircraft guns. They were built as a mobile air defense ship for the homeland and did not even have a main gun installed.

Therefore, during the Liberation War, Chiang Kai-shek's navy was weak, but the PLA Navy still had no navy at all. So, the old navy was still somewhat useful at that time.

For the nation, the importance of the navy is self-evident; even a few destroyers have significant military and economic value.

Therefore, if Wang Gensheng continued to sink Lao Zi's warships, it would naturally be a huge loss for the Huaguo Navy.

Therefore, if Wang Gensheng is able to successfully capture an old quail's warship this time, it will naturally be of extraordinary significance.

The warship that Wang Gensheng used this time was not docked in the port, but was anchored on the sea about ten kilometers away from the port.

The main reason for this is that Wang Gensheng bombed the ships before, so now no ships are docked in Qinhuangdao Port at night.

Instead, they would anchor at sea a dozen kilometers from the port every night, so that they wouldn't have to worry about Wang Gensheng bombing their ships again.

After all, I know that at full swimming speed, a distance of more than ten kilometers can be easily completed by running in forty or fifty minutes.

However, the world record for swimming 10 kilometers takes nearly two hours to complete, so mooring warships more than 10 kilometers from the coast is indeed a good way to prevent ship bombing.

Without Liu Xiu's night-vision guidance, it took Wang Gensheng's frogman special forces team a full two and a half hours to get close to the warship.

Looking at the ship's side, which was more than three meters high, Wang Gensheng took out the hook rope he had prepared beforehand and hooked it onto the railing with just a light flick.

Then came the rope climbing operation, which the frogman special forces team was naturally very familiar with, as they had already trained in this subject before.

What's different this time is that they climbed from the water onto the warship, rather than from the ground onto the city wall.

However, the techniques for climbing are all quite similar.

So, in no time at all, Wang Gensheng led the frogman special forces team onto the deck of the warship.

However, unlike before, this time the frogman special forces team is equipped entirely with submachine guns.

(End of this chapter)