Munitions Empire-Chapter 1229 - 1149 speedboats launch attack

In Shen Haiping’s command center, many officers were still busy. Even though the main fleet of the Shen Navy had been completely annihilated, the supporting officer system still remained, resulting in quite a few idle people.

Besides a few old destroyers hidden on the Northern Island, the Shen Navy now only had a few hundred suicide boats to bring out.

Due to a lack of sailors, half of these boats were filled with army officers drafted in for the numbers. At least they had some education, which made training them a bit easier.

Their downside was their unfamiliarity with naval technical equipment, thus lacking finesse in maneuvering the boats. However, an advantage was obvious: they were selected from the military, their determination for a suicidal mission was strong.

Some who were easier to train were coastal fishermen, who were very familiar with steering boats, making training quick. However, they lacked fighting spirit, with many fearful of "suicidal attacks" and reluctant to pilot boats crashing into enemy ships.

The navy could only mix these two types of people, supervising and learning from each other to ensure the suicide boats could resolutely carry out their suicidal missions.

As time went by, the Shen Navy was actually beginning to improve their suicide boats based on battlefield conditions.

They discovered that simply increasing the number of suicide boats with inferior boats didn’t yield good results.

In a recent raid operation, Shen Haiping deployed 30 boats attempting to attack the Tang destroyers shelling near Shen Capital, but only one boat exploded within ten meters of a Tang destroyer, scoring a minor damaging hit.

The remaining boats were sunk by Tang artillery, and most couldn’t even get within 500 meters.

Thus, seeking to rekindle some naval pride, Shen Haiping began attempting to equip the boats with searchlights, machine guns, and other weapons and equipment.

The searchlights were intended to provide a bit of night search capability for these boats, enabling night attacks. Despite poor experiments, Shen Haiping managed to equip many boats with searchlights.

Meanwhile, mounting a machine gun could be crucial to disrupt Tang intercepting fire at critical moments, which seemed necessary.

So, the Shen Navy brought out some anti-aircraft machine guns from warship stores and mounted them on the boats, giving them a degree of firepower.

Sometimes, people are inclined to inch forward: after equipping boats with machine guns, they then eyed cannons from storage.

All naval anti-aircraft guns had been transferred to land, so there were none left in naval stores. However, while the navy had none, the air force did...

Zero Fighters had reduced production due to bombing and engine capacity shortage, but cannon and fuselage production still had surplus. Instead of leaving them idle waiting for engine capacity, they figured it better to weld bases onto boats for makeshift use.

At this point, many of Mirage Country’s suicide boats were virtually the same as torpedo boats, minus the torpedoes.

What depressed Shen Haiping was that while the whole world sympathized with the Shen Army being crushed by the Tang Army, almost none were willing to help Shen Country.

Nobody was willing to covertly provide their purchased torpedo technology to support Mirage Country’s great war of defense...

So, Shen’s torpedo boats couldn’t appear anytime soon; they could only rely on suicide boats armed with various weapons.

Thus, within the command center of Admiral Shen Haiping, the system once set for directing the main fleet now worked to direct these boats. To outsiders unaware of the Shen Navy’s current situation, it might appear quite formal.

Just as Shen Haiping grew increasingly confident in the expanding boat fleet, an officer reported the latest intelligence: "Report, a coastal observation post has spotted two destroyers! They’re sailing along the coastline, seemingly provoking us."

"Provoking?" Shen Haiping was slightly taken aback. Recently, Tang destroyers only appeared offshore, mostly luring Shen Air Force’s suicidal planes to their doom, rarely venturing close to shore.

This time, their close approach was obviously intentional, which led Shen Haiping to consider provocation as a possibility right away.

The intelligence officer immediately lowered his head and stated, "Yes, ever since we damaged one of their destroyers last time, they haven’t sent ships this close for a long time."

"Where’s their destination?" Shen Haiping raised his head, looking at the nautical chart of Mirage Country and its surrounding area on the wall.

The officer walked to the chart, gestured at the approximate position of the Tang destroyers, and then traced their route along the shoreline: "If they don’t change their course, they’ll soon be near Shen Capital and could shell the port!"

"Are they covered by aircraft?" When Shen Haiping asked this, he was actually considering whether the air force could deploy planes to track the destroyers, allowing his boat fleet to surround and attack them.

His subordinates understood his implication and shook their heads, giving an uncertain response: "Not sure! Their planes can fly very high, ambushing above the clouds! Radar shows no enemy aircraft nearby... but we can’t be sure."

The Great Tang Empire’s fighter jets were incredibly fast; if launched from New Island or South Island, they could reach the battlefield in about 20 minutes.

This had happened many times. Each time Shen’s Zero Fighters arrived, the Tang planes would soon strike, resulting in losses for Shen, losing both planes and pilots.

Struck by the Great Tang Air Force’s 30mm cannons, Shen pilots rarely had a chance to parachute. Losing such valuable pilots, even Shen encouraging suicidal attacks couldn’t afford the loss.

In fact, the Tang Empire’s destroyers frequent the coastline near Ben Island now, usually acting as bait, luring Shen’s suicide planes.

The Tang army wished to consume more of Shen’s suicide planes before the next landing to reduce landing operation risks.

Whenever Tang warships appeared, Tang Country’s fighter jets or Butcher Fighters often lurked nearby, easily downing Shen’s Zero Fighters. After several such losses, Shen barely bothered to launch suicidal planes for pointless sacrifices.

"Should the port be notified to dispatch the boats?" the officer consulted Shen Haiping’s opinion.

Shen Haiping rubbed his chin, pondering. Dispatching the boats now matched their tactics; they preferred daytime combat over the Tang Army.

In the vast ocean, locating a destroyer wasn’t easy. If the enemy enacted strict light control, Shen’s suicide boats would struggle to find targets at night.

If a destroyer wished to escape by day, it could easily hide its tracks. At night, even more so.

Unless a specific area like Tang’s landing site was involved, it was unlikely the suicide boats would hit targets.

The first successful attack by suicide boats was due to their aim to raid the landing site, intercepted by Tang guard destroyers, not finding the destroyers themselves.

They sank the Tang destroyer the second time because it got close to Shen Capital, Tang destroyers moved during the day, followed by Shen’s aircraft guiding their suicide boats, encircling and attacking, scoring a victory.

Thus, while night raids seemed advantageous, in practice, due to the difficulty in finding targets, Shen’s suicide boats often attacked Tang destroyers more frequently in the daytime.

This time, the Tang destroyers neared the coastline, detected immediately by observation posts placed by Shen along the shore.

To Shen, this was indeed a provocative move: twenty days ago, the Tang Army had just lost a destroyer, and seven or eight days go, another was damaged nearby.

Though Shen lost more than a dozen suicide boats, they felt they gained something from the losses.

This time, the Tang destroyers returned again, obviously still unlearned, displaying a defiant attitude towards Shen’s suicidal attacks.

"Deploy the 13th team! If the enemy changes course, fall back!" Ultimately, Shen Haiping issued the order for action.

Despite uncertainty over the Tang Army’s intentions, allowing two destroyers to harass the coastline easily left no explanation for the Shen Emperor.

Furthermore, Shen didn’t mind the loss of a few boats: losing a few hundred men and over a dozen boats was nothing compared to losing the main fleet already.

He indeed took caution: he didn’t deploy the first ten teams; the earlier boat units were more professional and loyal, with greater battle efficiency compared to those behind.

By sending the later-numbered 13th team, any losses wouldn’t matter, it would also train novices. Hence, Shen Haiping chose the 13th team.

"Yes!" The officer immediately went to the phone, picked up the handset, and connected to the 13th team, issuing the deployment order.

Soon, receiving a series of reports from coastal defense posts, confirming the Tang fleet’s course coordinates, the 13th team’s commander released 20 various-sized boats to charge at the two Tang destroyers.

Meanwhile, the two Tang destroyers maintained their course, swiftly advancing along the shoreline.