Well, after all, it was just a heavy cruiser, and an 8-inch main gun caliber was enough, unlike battleships whose gun barrels were all incredibly thick.
The Type 94 naval guns on the Yamato-class ships have a caliber of 18.1 inches, big enough for a person to crawl inside, but they can't fire completely like in the anime.
Xia Yu maneuvered Argusworkerrov like a tentacle monster, taking pictures around the wreckage of the heavy cruiser named Haguro.
After the surrender of the British, the important port of Singapore fell into the hands of the Japanese, so most of the warships that sank in the Strait of Malacca were Japanese ships.
Besides the Myoko-class ship in front of us, not far away there is another secondary Kaohsiung-class heavy cruiser, the lead ship of the Kaohsiung-class, lying dead on the seabed. It was the one that used its ship guns to beat Godzilla, but was sent flying by an atomic breath.
Of course, in the real world, it was sunk by the people of England.
With these two ships, we can find an opportunity to get a Mogami-class ship and a Tone-class ship, and then we can complete the Japanese heavy cruiser family.
As for the Ibuki-class ships, which had a similar structure to the Mogami-class, both were scrapped, so it doesn't really matter.
"Buzz"
The robotic arm of the remotely operated underwater vehicle extended under his control, grabbed the cannon barrel, and the bioelectric current channel established on it was connected to the low background radiation steel worth 0.5 yuan per gram.
"Swish"
The thousands of tons of warship wreckage were quickly collected by Xia Yu from the Nautilus and placed into berth number 1.
[Project: Haguro (Heavy Cruiser)]
Completeness: 78.3% (Ready for repair)
Although it wasn't scuttled, it only took three torpedo hits, and its condition after sinking was still decent. When restored to combat status, it was only about two thousand tons of scrap steel.
As for warship wreckage in shallower locations like this, Xia Yu doesn't need to print another one exactly as it was and place it on the seabed. Even if new explorers come to explore the Yuguro and discover its disappearance, they will attribute the cause to sea rats.
Yes, sea rats.
After the first atomic bomb, the "Skinny Man," was tested in 1945, the massive amounts of radioactive isotopes released into the troposphere and even the stratosphere made the Earth "dirty."
Every ton of steel produced by the steel plant contains varying amounts of radioactive isotopes. This is fine for everyday use, but these materials cannot be used for cutting-edge scientific research.
That's why not many battleships have survived, because the steel used to build them 45 years ago has all been replaced with low-background radiation steel.
Compared to scrap steel which costs a few hundred dollars per ton internationally, this special steel can sell for tens of thousands of dollars per ton, so many people have set their sights on the treasure-filled seabed.
In the past two years, according to investigation reports from professional exploration teams, it has been discovered that a large portion of the wreckage of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales, which sank on the seabed off the coast of Malacia, has been stolen by sea rats.
This British battleship, which fought alongside the Hood and pursued the Bismarck, was originally on Xia Yu's collection list, but with less than 30% remaining, how can it be maintained?
Even the system couldn't save it. After all, all the other ships of the same class had been dismantled, and it was the only one that was sunk. It was like a skilled cook trying to cook without rice!
Perhaps this is what collecting is all about! There's joy, but also regret.
"Get ready!"
Xia Yu didn't hesitate and immediately chose to have the ship ready for service, since he only had one berth! If this ship wasn't ready, the next one would have to wait in line.
Estimated remaining man-hours for preparation: 173.6
It only takes a little over a week for such a 10,000-ton heavy cruiser to go from a sunken state to pristine condition. That's how it is with old World War II ships; they don't require as much work as modern warships, and are basically just mechanical structures made of materials.
With the same amount of work time, Xia Yu could at most prepare a small frigate of one or two thousand tons.
He pressed the recovery button, and the cable pulled the remotely operated vehicle back up rapidly. Then he controlled the Nautilus to begin its ascent.
"Splash!"
As the small black fish broke through the surface of the sea in the night, the folding mechanism of the submarine's foredeck automatically unfolded, revealing a helipad capable of accommodating small helicopters.
Xia Yu retrieved AS550, started its engine, and flew into the sky.
Under the control of the assisted driving submodule, the Nautilus headed to the waters near the Kaohsiung and sank to the bottom in silence.
That concludes tonight's underwater treasure hunt. We'll head back down in a couple of days for the real treasure hunt.
Well, sunken warships with publicly available coordinates are only worth a little money for their low-background radioactive steel, but modern merchant ships loaded with gold and silver, as well as ancient shipwrecks filled with various porcelains, are also his targets.
Not to mention some of the richest people in modern times who have committed crimes, they particularly like to convert their illegal gains into gold and hide it at the bottom of the sea, with only themselves knowing the coordinates.
If Xia Yu could find it, he would definitely accept all that gold without a second thought, regardless of who it is.
"Splash splash"
After landing on the tarmac of the Jihuo aircraft carrier, Xia Yu, whose eyelids were starting to droop, went back to her room and fell asleep immediately. When she opened her eyes again, it was already lunchtime the next day.
There's no way around it; weasels, like most small mammals, are nocturnal animals. They only go out to steal chickens at night, so they need to be well-rested during the day.
After finishing his meal, his life returned to its previous rhythm, focusing on combat patrols and searching for traces of the pirates.
However, before the pirates could discover it, the other side confirmed that the pufferfish-class diesel-electric submarine was the Seagull of Glendia. After completing the exploration and recording, they went to the nearby site of the sinking of the heavy cruiser Kaohsiung to make observations, and were surprised to find that someone was stealing Xia Yu's collection.
"Calling for Focus Fire, this is Haiyan. We have discovered a team stealing the low-background radiation steel from the Kaohsiung."
Joseph immediately contacted his boss and reported the incident.
Unlike the Pacific Ocean, which is remote and has an average depth of extremely deep, the Strait of Malacca is only 150 meters deep at its deepest point, and it is easy to land and sell stolen goods via Malay and Indian shoals.
The theft of warship wreckage on the seabed here is very serious. Almost all the shallowly sunken wrecks that are close to the shore have been robbed.
The Prince of Wales is one thing, but what's with Xia Yu's interest in the Kaohsiung?
"This is the Fire Focus, we're coming over immediately."
"Understood, we plan to..."
"Da da da"
A burst of gunfire over the radio interrupted Joseph.
"Boss, they're firing into the sky. They're threatening us."
Joseph, who had just put down his binoculars, immediately lay down. Southeast Asia was too exciting; they fired without even saying a word, much more ruthless than the gas thieves.
What kind of ship are they?
As they were talking, Xia Yu arrived at the hangar. The Harrier was too late to take off, but the armed AS550 could still make a flight.
As the first pilot, he boarded the plane without hesitation, and also brought a sniper with him.
"They looked like a fishing boat, and they pretended to be fishing, but our remotely operated vehicle captured footage of them cutting up the wreckage of a warship underwater. They only made contact after seeing our rov."
Joseph reported in rapid succession.
“Fishing boats carrying weapons are clearly pirates.”
Xia Yu redefined the nature of these sea rats.
If he doesn't fire, at most he'll arrest and imprison the other person, but firing a shot changes the nature of the situation.
Before these people explicitly surrendered, the concentrated fire defense had unlimited right to open fire, especially after the Haiyan sent them a distress signal.
"Did they chase them away? Why did they have to come at the exact time we were working?" Captain Nolani said with a frown on the fishing boat.
They had to evacuate within an hour, or coast guard ships or warships would be coming.
As sea rats, their main purpose is to make money, and their secondary purpose is to kill. Each time they cut a hundred or so tons of low-background radiation steel, they can sell it for seven or eight million US dollars, which is much higher than the income of pirates. Having technology makes all the difference!
"They haven't gone far yet. I'll send someone to launch a speedboat and drive them away."
The first mate, carrying an AK, quickly asked.
"Wait, it seems they've run away, but why is it so noisy?"
"Splash splash"
The sound of helicopter rotors mingled with the sea breeze, and the people looking up saw black dots in the sky.
"Oh no, it's a helicopter! Shoot it down with our machine guns!"
Nolani shouted to the machine gunner.
The people underwater haven't come up yet, so they can't turn around and leave right now.
The machine gunner hurriedly lifted the tattered fishing net from the anti-aircraft machine gun, raised the muzzle, and prepared to fire at the helicopter. But Xia Yu, aboard the helicopter, witnessed everything, and then…
"Knock knock knock"
The RH202 cannon on the left side of the fuselage fired first, and a burst of DM81 tracer high-explosive bullets drew a long trajectory, falling in a parabola toward the fishing boat.
"Boom boom boom"
Several shells flew over the freeboard and into the sea, and then the machine gunner, who hadn't fired a single shot, silently took more than a dozen shells, his gun and all.
"They also have anti-aircraft machine guns; that's a lot of firepower!"
Xia Yu couldn't help but sigh as he released the firing button.
Heavy machine guns are more useful than RPGs at sea, since battles usually start a kilometer away, while rocket launchers are only useful when attacking merchant ships.
"Gurgle"
Seeing the horrific scene not far away, Nolani swallowed hard and, without saying a word, tried to sail away.
He didn't care about the employees still surfacing underwater; his own survival was the top priority.
But they really thought they could escape.
Xia Yu pressed the fire button again.
"Knock knock knock"
The machine gun roared again, and the second burst of shells struck the fishing boat's engine room with a crackling sound. Even though they weren't armor-piercing shells, the high-explosive shells easily pierced through two layers of thin steel plates and successfully hit the ship's main engine in the engine room.
"Boom!"
The explosion lit up the smoke as Xia Yu intercepted the armed fishing boat.
By the time the fire brigade arrived, the fishing boat was engulfed in flames and was beyond saving.
Fortunately, Lao Zhao and his men managed to pull all the surrendered men aboard. They had originally planned to escape in a speedboat, but a sniper shot the boatman and destroyed the outboard motor, leaving the other side with no choice but to surrender.
Of course, there were also the divers underwater. A total of 17 people were captured this time, including 4 injured.
According to the statements obtained from the interrogation, there were a total of 23 people on this trip, which means that 6 people died.
As for how many lives these people have taken on both the sea and the shore, that still needs further interrogation, but it's definitely in the double digits.
Human life in Southeast Asia is as worthless as in Afica, whether it's someone else's own or someone else's.
"We didn't catch any pirates, but we caught a bunch of sea rats first. My heavy cruiser, Kaohsiung!"
Xia Yu sighed; the plan had to be postponed.
The Jihuo used water cannons to extinguish the fire on the fishing boat. In the freezer compartment where the catch was stored, the steel plates cut from the Kaohsiung had already melted and deformed under the high temperature.
He wasn't concerned about the few dozen tons; what bothered him was that this wasn't the first time these bandits had committed such a crime. They had stolen over 1,000 tons of low-background radiation steel.
The intensity of Jihuo Defense's crackdown on armed theft and smuggling will certainly not be low.
His Kaohsiung will not be able to be repaired for at least a year; he can only make major repairs to the sunken ship once the storm has passed.
It's alright, there are plenty of shipwrecks in the Strait of Malacca. Let's see if there are any other suitable targets later.
"Splash splash"
Singapore Air Force Chinooks landed on the spacious tarmac of the Firefly and took away the 17 criminals that Xia Yu and his team had captured alive.
The ringleader, Nolani, is from Malaya. The rest is up to the county and the other government to negotiate. Xia himself is not interested in the tens of millions of dollars in illegal gains left behind in Malaya by the gang.
Old Zhao and his team were the same; rather than the spoils of war that would bring them trouble, they valued the practical experience accumulated during the deployment period more.
This time, Xia Yu went on a solo mission; only the sniper among them fired two shots.
There was no other way; the Jihuo rocket's top speed of 20 knots was too slow, and it certainly wouldn't be able to reach the scene in time.
However, if we can find the pirates' lair, with our tough-class firepower, we can definitely wipe them out in the shortest possible time.
"Calling Haiyan, this is Jihuo. Continue your scheduled scientific expedition. I'm coming right away."
"Yes, boss!"
After dealing with the sea rat, Xia Yu returned to the Sea Swallow.
Joseph and his team relaunched the remotely operated vehicle to film the battle situation on the Kaohsiung at close range.
Because it was scuttled, the sunken heavy cruiser is relatively intact, but much of the armor steel is missing from the exposed port side.
The dark opening attracted experienced divers to crawl inside, but when RO peered in, all he saw was a watertight compartment.
Sea rats only care about money and have no spirit of exploration. They only want large, neat pieces of armor steel. Cutting the steel plates of the internal compartments of the ship is no trouble at all. What's rare is that it's a captured ship that hasn't been equipped with many soul rings.
Like the Yuhei ship that Xia Yu had acquired earlier, in addition to the more than 300 survivors rescued when it was sunk, plus the crew members lost in various battles, a total of nearly 1,000 soul rings were acquired.
This could be used to refine a soul-summoning banner in the cultivation world. The main soul is a naval vice admiral, and the auxiliary souls are a long line of colonels and lieutenant colonels. Their combat power is definitely not bad.
In the real world, I feel a little uncomfortable, but otherwise it's fine.
If you really can't get the Kaohsiung, the Atago, which was sunk in Fairfield Bay, isn't too far off. You can get it when you salvage the Musashi later.
There's also the third ship, the Maya, which sank near Parawan Island. Paul discovered this warship submerged at a depth of 1,850 meters.
Leaving aside sea rats, only a few countries have the capability for such deep salvage operations, making it extremely safe.
Xia Yu had to print out another wreckage exactly as it was and put it back in order to avoid triggering any paranormal events.
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