Chapter Seventeen: Fishing in Troubled Waters

  At the beginning of the year, the Boxers were mainly active in Shandong and Zhili, and the Qing government also sent troops to suppress them several times. However, due to the large number of Boxers and many court officials' deep hatred for foreigners, they turned a blind eye to the Boxers' actions against foreigners, so these pacification and suppression efforts had little effect.

  Starting in April, a small number of Boxers also appeared in Beijing. By June, the number of Boxers in Beijing was increasing, and the embassies of various countries were getting anxious, requesting troops to enter Beijing to protect their safety. Liu Dekui received this news, thinking that the Eight-Nation Alliance had begun to take action, so he ordered the submarine fleet to set off, heading towards the waters near Tianjin and Tanggu, preparing to ambush the warships of various countries.

  The ancients said: When the book is used, it's too late to regret. Historically inaccurate Liu Yue guessed wrong this time. The raiding fleet composed of 6 "Tuna-class" submarines rushed to the waters near Dagukou and Tanggu in Tianjin under the cover of a cargo ship, but apart from an American freighter, they were all imperial naval patrol ships and merchant vessels.

  The submarine fleet hid during the day and emerged at night, and had been on continuous duty for half a month without discovering any large fleets. It wasn't until Liu received a telegram from the submarine fleet that he realized his mistake, but it was too late to change now, so he ordered the submarine fleet to continue their vigilance. Liu clearly remembered that the Eight-Nation Alliance would definitely attack the Dagu Fort, as he had visited Tanggu in his previous life and toured the Dagu Fort, even taking pictures. According to the tour guide, the Eight-Nation Alliance had entered the Hai River from here and occupied Tianjin.

  In mid-June, the military forces of various countries entering Beijing had already reached several hundred, and clashes with the Boxers in Beijing occurred from time to time, with casualties on both sides. At this point, Liu received a telegram from the submarine force: German, Russian, and British warships were found in the waters near Tianjin and Tanggu, but not many, totaling less than 10 ships.

  Liu Fei once again ordered the submarine fleet to launch a surprise attack according to plan on the night when the fleets of various countries started their attack, and the details did not need to be wired to Taiwan anymore. He only wanted results, not processes.

  On June 14, the warships of eight countries including Britain, America, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Austria had gathered in the waters near Tianjin, with more than 50 ships large and small, and began to move towards Dagu.

  The Dagu Emplacement is the gateway to Tianjin and Beijing, located on the west bank of the Haihe River in southeastern Tianjin, more than 50 kilometers away, facing Tanggu across the river. When Ming Chengzu Zhu Di moved his capital to Beijing, a fort was established here to guard against threats from the sea. After several hundred years of construction during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Dagu Emplacement has become a coastal fortress with five forts and hundreds of large-caliber artillery pieces.

  The navies of eight countries began shelling the Dagu Forts at 9 am, and it was not until much later that the Dagu Forts started to return fire sporadically.

  Wu Mingxue led 6 submarines to lurk in the rear of the Eight-Nation Alliance fleet, several miles away. He looked at the thick smoke rising from the direction of the artillery through the periscope but was powerless. It was daytime now, and there were many auxiliary ships of the Eight-Nation Alliance anchored around, so if they launched an attack, they would definitely be discovered. Once discovered, even large-caliber shells could hit submarines at a depth that the periscope could reach, and the shallow water near Dagu Port restricted the movement of the submarines. Therefore, to attack the ships of the Eight-Nation Alliance, they had to wait until nightfall.

  The artillery battle at Dagu continued until noon, when the Eight-Nation Alliance's troop ships began to transport landing troops towards the coast. The specific situation was unclear from the submarine, and since the warships of the Eight-Nation Alliance that had participated in the artillery battle were withdrawing backwards, giving way to the landing troops, the submarine force also had to withdraw backwards, lest it be discovered by the approaching warships through its periscope.

  They waited until nightfall, and the gunfire from the Dagu Fort side was no longer intense. Wu Mingxue knew that the fort had basically lost its defense, and most of the Eight-Nation Alliance's army had already landed on the coast. The original plan to attack the Eight-Nation Alliance's landing troops first could not be achieved. However, there were dozens of warships from the Eight-Nation Alliance anchored on the sea, scattered all over the place. Even if they used up all the torpedoes on the six submarines, it was unlikely that they could destroy all those ships.

  Under the cover of night, 6 submarines slowly moved to a position 1 kilometer away from Fleet Group 1 and launched their first wave of torpedo attacks against the nearest Russian fleet.

  This time, the Russian fleet had the most warships, with a total of 14, including 11 battleships. After a morning of shelling, they were all clustered together, anchored on the surface of the sea to rest. Most of the sailors were exhausted from the day's work and had already fallen asleep, leaving only the sailors on duty still standing guard on the warships.

  The first torpedo hit the Russian battleship "Peresvet", a newly launched battleship with a displacement of nearly 13,000 tons. With its strong French heritage, this battleship had three sturdy large smokestacks and towering command towers, making it look powerful and majestic from afar.

  All of these advantages made it the first to be attacked. From the periscope, several nearby ships were seen, and it was the largest and closest one, so why not attack it?

  As the first flash of flame erupted from the right forward part of "Peresvet", within less than 2 seconds, two larger fireballs burst out from the same side of the battleship. The massive shockwave blew several secondary guns on the ship's side directly into the sky, and the huge hull was blown to tilt to the left, due to its high center of gravity caused by the tall hull and superstructure, this battleship which originally had a high center of gravity slowly capsized and rolled over.

  As the Peresvet was hit, three other Russian battleships moored nearby also caught fire. Since they were at anchor, all 12 torpedoes in the first wave of attacks hit their targets. In an instant, the calm black sea surface seemed to open the gates of hell as flames, explosions, cries and screams burst out.

  The surrounding fleets of the eight nations did not know what had happened to the Russian fleet, and several warships that had not yet dropped anchor or extinguished their fires began to slowly turn around and accelerate, intending to get closer to the Russian fleet to provide assistance. On the remaining ships, sailors and officers who were on duty or had already rested emerged from the cabins, looking at the raging fire on several warships of the Russian fleet in a daze and at a loss.

  Less than ten minutes after the first explosion, several dazzling fireballs also burst out in the British fleet anchored on the other side of this waters, followed by various explosions. The shrill alarm sounded across the entire sea surface. Those who were busy lifting anchors, those who were busy igniting and pressurizing boilers, and those who were busy commanding various caliber secondary guns to search on the sea surface were all in chaos.

  As the Russian and British fleets were anchored at the outermost part of this sea area, all ships that wanted to disperse had to turn around in sequence, but on a dark night, with sudden attacks, explosions and fires burning on the surface, many ships lost their direction. Sometimes blind turns and chaotic movements would be more severe than enemy attacks, and within ten minutes or so, three pairs of ships collided and scraped against each other.

  The obscure attack is very rhythmic

  Every ten minutes or so, several warships would explode. The thick-skinned battleships could withstand one or two attacks, but the remaining cruisers were not so resilient. Basically, a fireball represented the end of a cruiser. Even if it didn't sink, it would either capsize due to rapid flooding or ignite its ammunition or torpedoes, blowing itself up into a massive fireball.

  The chaos lasted for an hour, with some ships sinking and others fleeing in disarray. The sea was finally free of exploding ships, leaving only the burning, capsized, and sunken warships, as well as large oil slicks, bodies, floating debris, and survivors clinging to wreckage.

  The commander-in-chief of the Eight-Nation Alliance fleet, British Admiral Edward Hobart Seymour, stood stupidly on his flagship, the battleship "Barfleur", staring at the burning sea in the distance. It was not that Admiral Seymour's command was incompetent or that his reaction was slow. The attack had come too suddenly, too accurately and too stealthily, all of the ships hit were seriously damaged, including the flagship "Barfleur" which was also hit once, relying on its thick skin and the fact that the boiler had not been extinguished at the time, it quickly left the anchorage and broke through a group of warships that had been frightened into fleeing in all directions.

  What's even more frightening is that from the first explosion to fleeing far away from the anchorage, not a single lookout on the entire battleship discovered any enemy ships or gunfire. For this kind of battle where the enemy can't be found, the admiral was truly powerless.

  All the warships that escaped gathered together, forming a temporary formation, maintaining combat speed, and patrolling around the attacked waters for more than half an hour to confirm that there were no further attacks. Only then did they send out several small warships to enter the attacked waters to rescue survivors. At this time, there were no surviving ships on the sea surface, all those that could move had escaped, and the rest either sank quickly or struggled and eventually sank into the water.