Chapter Twenty-Four: Underwater Shadow Assassin

  The submarine fleet led by Tian Ergou has more than 500 people, all of whom are elite troops carefully selected from the Navy. Initially, there were four submarines using a new invention - diesel-electric dual propulsion system, with a surface speed of about 10-15 knots and an underwater speed of 6-8 knots. The latest chapter of this book can be found on Baidu search: 16kbook net

  The main weapons are artillery, sea mines and torpedoes. The submarine fleet is mainly composed of about 300 technical operators, as well as about 200 frogmen who lay mines for the fleet.

  Then Tian Ergou continued to carry forward his spirit of hard work and struggle, leading the submarine fleet to start secret adaptive training. As the saying goes, what kind of general brings what kind of soldiers, that is not false at all.

  From the moment he took over the submarine fleet from Tian Ergou, his soldiers were as taciturn as Tian Ergou himself.

  Killed enemy individually strong, was called by other brother units as "Mad Dog Fleet".

  But also said

  To improve the performance of the submarine, Zhou Yu spent countless efforts.

  In Hawaii, Zhou Yu started a painstaking submarine plan. Four submarine production lines were introduced from Germany, three of which were installed in Hawaii and one in Taiwan. At that time, Zhou Yu required all shipyards and submarine production lines to adopt closed construction to improve confidentiality.

  The submarine designed by Zhou Yu is a double-hulled submarine, with the hull divided into an inner shell and an outer shell. The inner shell is a steel pressure hull that ensures the submarine can withstand the static water pressure corresponding to its depth when operating underwater. The outer shell is a non-pressure hull made of steel that does not bear the pressure of seawater.

  Between the inner and outer shells are the main ballast tanks, fuel tanks, etc. The submarine's hull is streamlined to reduce drag when moving underwater, ensuring good maneuverability.

  The pressure hull is divided into three sections: bow, waist and stern, which are further divided into six sealed compartments. The compartments contain control stations, weapons, equipment, devices, various systems and crew living facilities to ensure the normal work, life and combat of the crew.

  Inside the torpedo room, Yu installed two 350mm torpedo tubes. The middle section has a pressure-resistant command cabin and a non-pressure water surface command bridge. In the command cabin and its casing, there are periscopes that can work on the water surface, ventilation pipes, etc.

  Reserved space for the installation of antennas such as wireless communication, radar, radar reconnaissance warning receivers, and wireless direction finders, this move left other technicians baffled, and Zhou Yu did not explain.

  The bow and stern of the boat are also equipped with longitudinal balance tanks, which eliminate the longitudinal tilt that may occur when the submarine is underwater by adjusting the amount of water in the bow and stern balance tanks. The bow (or the conning tower) and the stern each have a pair of horizontal rudders for maneuvering the submarine and maintaining the required depth. The stern is equipped with a propeller and a directional rudder, ensuring that the submarine can sail and change direction.

  Using a diesel engine in conjunction with an electric motor as the power source for submarines, Zhou Yu went to see Rudolf Diesel's progress on the development of diesel engines and found that the ship's matching diesel engine was about to be invented.

  Diesel engines working underwater need sufficient oxygen, so Zhou Yu invented the snorkel, which increases the submarine's submerged endurance and allows diesel engines to be used while minimizing the risk of oxygen depletion.

  The basic structure of the air intake pipe is actually very simple, it's an extendable ventilation pipe that guides external air to the diesel engine and exhaust gases are also discharged through the air intake pipe.

  It's just such a small thing that can make the combat capability of submarines increase geometrically.

  Additionally, piping for preventing seawater entry and expelling any that does enter is also fitted. The use of a snorkel allows the submarine to run its diesel engines while at periscope depth, thus recharging batteries without surfacing.

  The boat is about 52 meters long, with a displacement of 320 tons. The main weapons are guns, mines and torpedoes. The diesel engine has a power of 120 horsepower, and the battery has a power of 45 horsepower.

  When navigating on the water surface, powered by a diesel engine, it can reach a speed of 18 nautical miles per hour and has an endurance of 4,500 nautical miles.

  When submerged and powered by the electric motor, the speed is 8 knots per hour, with a range of 350 nautical miles. When powered by the diesel engine, the speed is 11 knots per hour, with an underwater endurance of 1,600 nautical miles.

  Each boat has a crew of 45, armed with two 350mm torpedo tubes (with eight torpedoes) and two guns (one forward, one aft), aiming the guns by maneuvering the submarine's hull to aim at the target. Each boat can launch torpedoes underwater, cruise on the surface in balance, dive quickly, and move agilely.

  Zhou Yu started building the four submarine production lines on the drawing board, and when Zhou Yu was almost ready, Rudolf Diesel's matching diesel engine was also developed and put into production.

  The Zhongyong Army now has precision machinery from the United States and Germany, as well as a large number of technical personnel who have returned after training in both countries. Zhou Yu is preparing to develop a cost-effective, easy-to-produce 54-style handgun for mass production.

  The Type 54 7.62mm pistol is used by grassroots commanders and special troops for self-defense and close-range attacks on the enemy, with an effective range of eighty meters and firing can also be carried out within one hundred and fifty meters. The pistol uses 7.62mm pistol ammunition.

  The Type 54 pistol uses a short recoil semi-automatic principle, with a tilting-barrel locking system. The magazine capacity is eight rounds. The entire gun consists of the barrel, upper and lower frames, recoil mechanism, trigger assembly, and magazine.

  Its safety device is a hammer safety, no manual safety, only with a half-cocked hammer. The gun also has an empty chamber catch mechanism.

  The magazine catch is located on the left side of the grip, behind the trigger. Remove the magazine, pull back the slide, eject the cartridge, check the chamber through the ejection port, release the slide and pull the trigger.

  Zhou Yu was not satisfied with the Type 54 pistol alone, as it had obvious weaknesses, its range and service life were short, and it was prone to jamming. Therefore, Zhou Yu also developed another non-jamming revolver, also known as a left-handed pistol.

  There is also a deluxe version of the Type 54 pistol, which is the Model 1911 pistol. The production cost of the Type 54 is very low and many parts are simplified. The Model 1911 has a large caliber, high production cost, heavy weight, small magazine capacity, and only holds seven rounds.

  All three pistols used 7.92mm smokeless cartridges.

  Zuo Lun pistol and Hwaguo 54 pistol Zhou Yu also prepared to sell to Germans.

  At the same time, he also prepared an automatic pistol for his own troops. An automatic pistol is a handgun that can be reloaded under the action of gunpowder gas in shooting. The caliber of the automatic pistol is 9mm, and its length is between 200-300mm, weighing about 1.8kg.

  Named Black Star Pistol by Zhou Yu, it has characteristics such as fast loading, high capacity, rapid firing rate and great power. Later generations of fully automatic pistols (assault pistols) can be equipped with a shoulder stock when necessary, allowing for two-handed shooting with the gun rested on the shoulder, effectively increasing the range to 150 meters. With Zhou Yu's current conditions, it cannot be made yet, but once welding machines are available, it will be okay.

  The buttstock of the Type 81 is typically made from a rifle grenade launcher or other accessories. The weapon has a high rate of fire and a fast shooting speed, with some reaching up to 110 rounds per minute, and usually holds eight rounds.

  Apart from this, Zhou Yu also developed a 20mm caliber fully automatic gas-operated machine gun. This machine gun was named the Type 1814 heavy machine gun by Zhou Yu. Its effective range is over 1,000 meters for anti-aircraft fire. Its effective range is over 2,000 meters when firing at a high angle, and its flat-fire range is over 3,000 meters. The maximum range is over 7,000 meters.

  Zhou Yu also developed and adopted armor-piercing shells, incendiary shells, tracer shells, burst shells, and explosive shells. The machine gun mount was also developed in sync, divided into: tripod type, rack wheel type and wheel type.

  Zhou Yu also developed a fully automatic gas-operated light machine gun based on the 1814 model, which was named the 1814 light machine gun. For this purpose, Zhou Yu also invented an arc-shaped sight, and optical sights were temporarily unavailable.

  In pursuit of mobility and firepower, Zhou Yu modified the gun to not install ammunition, weighing 5 kilograms, with a total length of 1,000 millimeters, and an effective range of around 800 millimeters.

  To alleviate the logistical pressure, ammunition adopted smokeless 7.92mm Mauser 98b, and was interchangeable with Mauser 98b, revolver, and Black Star handgun. The barrel had a lifespan of 30,000 rounds.

  For the heat resistance of the piston, Zhou Yu also developed chromium-silicon-molybdenum alloy steel and required other units that all heat-resistant steels used in future weapons would use chromium-silicon-molybdenum alloy steel, including various types of gun barrels.

  Zhou Yu's current weapon receiver is made of metal plate forged by heavy machinery, which has a very high production cost.

  Later on, when machine-made receivers appeared in weapon equipment, it was easy to adapt. In addition, it can cultivate its own technical workers and high-precision mechanical manufacturing capabilities.

  Hurry up and get Zhou Yu

  Patent application was made at the same time as applications for handguns and machine guns were also made.

  Patent, Alternating Current, Three-phase Induction Motor and Bladeless Fluid Turbine Generator

  Patent.

  Because of these machines, Zhou Yu provided specific technical data and drawings, so basically there is nothing to improve in terms of craftsmanship and manufacturing, the only thing that needs improvement is volume and power.

  Diesel engine, gasoline engine, steam engine generator set, motor manufacturing plant, Zhou Yu had long been preparing a series of processes such as early machinery and factory buildings, just waiting for the rice to be cooked.

  Zhou Yu has been busy running around in the submarine production base, shipyard and various supporting manufacturing plants recently. The technical workers are all trained from the United States and Germany.

  Period.

  They need to continuously improve their capabilities, craftsmanship and other technologies with the help of Zhou Yu, while engineers and technicians from other countries are not used at all in order to prevent leaks.

  The technical workers of their own ethnic group have all undergone strict selection by the Zhongyong Army and ideological and political training in patriotism. In addition, they have all signed lifelong confidentiality agreements, not even their families know what specific work they are engaged in.

  Zhou Yu's main purpose in doing so is to maintain his technical lead as much as possible and also have a few more protective charms as a safeguard, which makes him feel at ease.