Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 194 The Hard-to-Kill Cruiser
While the soldiers of the Fourth Column of the Fourth Field Army were still working hard to build the defense of Tashan, Wang Gensheng had already set sail at sea in a cruise torpedo.

The icy seawater stimulated Wang Gensheng's body; most people could hardly endure such cold water for more than an hour.

Fortunately, Wang Gensheng was not an ordinary person, so even though he escaped before the impact and no one came to his rescue, he was able to swim back to shore on his own instead of freezing to death in the sea.

Just as Wang Gensheng was launching his cruise torpedoes, the warships, including the Qing, had already turned their hulls so that their sides faced the Tashan Mountain on the coast.

This side-alignment is naturally for better artillery fire.

Although warship shells can rotate almost 360 degrees, side-firing is the best solution to avoid interfering with each other during firing.

At this moment, the warships turned their turrets around, and their gun barrels were all aimed at the Tashan position, clearly ready to fire.

At this moment, the cruise torpedo piloted by Wang Gensheng had already entered a high-speed driving state.

The speed of 80 kilometers per hour caused the iron pipes that extended out of the sea to obtain oxygen to create very noticeable waves.

Three kilometers, two kilometers, eight hundred meters.

Wang Gensheng only deployed his drag chute when he was 800 meters away from the Congqing. The powerful resistance created by the deceleration chute pulled Wang Gensheng out of the torpedo's cockpit.

Meanwhile, the cruise torpedo, with its throttle and direction locked, continued to ram the Congqing at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour.

That's right, Wang Gensheng didn't deploy his parachute until he was 800 meters away to ensure an accurate hit.

Even without Wang Gensheng's control, the cruise torpedo continued to crash into the Congqing at its original direction and speed.

In less than a minute, or more precisely, the cruise torpedo hit the Congqing in just 36 seconds at a distance of 800 meters.

Thirty-six seconds later, a deafening explosion rang out.

The power of the 300-kilogram TNT explosion was felt by Wang Gensheng, who was more than 800 meters away from the Congqing ship.

Fortunately, it was already 800 meters away, and although the intensity of the shock wave was weaker underwater, it was still attenuated by cubic levels.

Therefore, Wang Gensheng only felt a moment of discomfort.

However, things didn't go well for the Congqing. A 300-kilogram underwater explosion blew through the Congqing's armor, which was 63 millimeters thick.

Ordinary tank guns can't penetrate it, but how much explosive charge does a tank gun have? Three hundred kilograms of explosives, especially when it explodes in water.

So they immediately tore a huge hole in the hull of the Congqing ship underwater.

Large amounts of seawater poured in at a rate of several tons per second, causing Qing's ship to begin to list.

Fortunately, the Ching-class destroyer was designed with the consequences of being hit by a torpedo in mind, so it had a watertight compartment. As a result, it was only hit by one torpedo and was not killed instantly.

After emergency rescue and water replenishment, the Congqing was saved.

However, this sudden attack left the officers and soldiers on the Congqing ship somewhat bewildered. When did the Liberation Army suddenly have a navy and torpedoes?

Wang Gensheng swam about 500 meters in the icy water before quietly surfacing to look at the Congqing, feeling somewhat regretful that he hadn't managed to sink it in one shot.

However, just as Wang Gensheng was feeling regretful, the Congqing exploded again. And this time, the explosion occurred in the same spot as before.

The two consecutive explosions at the same location immediately worsened the already dire situation for the Congqing.

Originally, Wang Gensheng's attack only blew through the outer shell of the Congqing. Although a large amount of seawater rushed in, the watertight compartments confined the seawater to a certain area.

The virus did not spread throughout the ship, so the cruiser, which could reach a full load of 7,000 tons, was actually not in any danger.

But now it's different. This cruise torpedo went straight through the big hole that Wang Gensheng blasted out and exploded inside the watertight compartment.

Of course, the torpedo's explosion also directly pierced the watertight compartment again, which was the warship's most important core component: the steam turbine engine room.

So, while the cruiser wasn't sunk, it was rendered a powerless, adrift vessel.

In fact, cruisers like the Congqing, with a full-load displacement of over 7,000 tons and multiple watertight compartments specifically designed to counter torpedoes, are extremely difficult to sink.

Basically, it takes four or five torpedoes hitting the same side to silence it.

For example, the battleship Yamato sank only after withstanding ten torpedoes.

As for why there was a second torpedo, it was mainly because after Wang Gensheng's attack, another member of the frogman special forces saw that one torpedo had not sunk the target, so he immediately volunteered to launch another one.

Then this guy thought that the reason why Wang Gensheng's first torpedo didn't sink the ship might be because it didn't penetrate the hole, so he controlled the torpedo to aim directly at the big hole that Wang Gensheng had previously blown.

Then, this time the cruise torpedo did not hit the outer armor of the warship, but entered the watertight compartment through the large hole blasted by Wang Gensheng's first torpedo.

It crashed directly into the watertight compartment, instantly blasting it open.

Such a large amount of seawater entered the steam turbine room, the core of the warship, through watertight compartments.

Indeed, a warship has many core areas, such as ammunition compartments, fuel tanks, and command rooms.

But the most important of them all is the wheel well.

This is the power core of a cruiser. If this area is flooded, it means that the warship has lost power and is now a moving target on the sea.

The fate of the Qing made the remaining four warships tremble with fear, lest they be next. In this cold weather, if they fell into the sea, they would freeze to death even if they were not caught.

Of course, Lao Ji also received the battle damage report of Cong Qing. Although it has not been sunk, it is almost in a state of damage.

However, when Lao Zi heard the news that the warship had been hit by a torpedo, his first thought was that the powerful forces behind the scenes had intervened.

Rather, it was something the Liberation Army did themselves, and they would never have imagined that the torpedo originally belonged to them.

So now the old fisherman is starting to hesitate, because if he continues to use the warships here as gun emplacements to attack Tashan, the consequence could very well be that they are all sunk.

However, if it is not placed here, then the Jinzhou-Shenyang campaign plan will be ruined, and Jinzhou will inevitably fall.

However, Wang Gensheng was unaware of what the old medaka was thinking. It took Wang Gensheng more than an hour to swim back to shore.

(End of this chapter)