A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Chapter 869 Damn it, a double whammy?

The propellers of the 418 boat began to spin wildly in reverse, and the old hull twisted and turned in the chaos, trying to clear its way.

Fortunately, because the Yuejin was already very slow, it was more like a clumsy "face-to-face dance" than a fatal collision.

The massive cargo ship, exuding a suffocating sense of oppression, glided slowly past the command platform of the 418 vessel.

There was no violent collision. It was as if an elephant impatiently and gently pushed its baby aside.

However, it wasn't entirely without a trace.

Just as the two ships were passing each other and everyone's hearts were hanging in the balance, the steel cable connecting the communication buoy was suddenly caught on the bilge keel protruding from the bottom of the "Yuejin" ship in the chaos and instantly tightened!

With a sharp, piercing "bang," the steel cable wasn't snapped, but rather, like a fishing line being pulled by a tremendous force, it was mercilessly dragged into the abyss along with the poor buoy underwater.

This sudden, immense force, transmitted through the steel cable, acted violently on the fixed base at the front of the deck. And the barrel of the 418 submarine's ancestral 21-K type 45mm deck gun was positioned directly across the path of the moving steel cable!

"Crench--!"

A sickening metallic creak was clearly audible.

To everyone's horror, the cannon barrel, which was tightly wrapped in a waterproof tarpaulin, was suddenly pulled horizontally by this brute force and bent at more than ten degrees, like a soldier whose neck had been twisted, dejectedly pointing towards the sea.

The steel plates of the gun mount also groaned under the strain.

The communication buoy that had just been launched, along with its signal transmitter, was mercilessly crushed by the bottom of the "Yuejin" ship and instantly turned into fragments.

On the 418 boat, however, this extremely conspicuous "scar" remains – a deck gun with its neck crooked.

The crew members of submarine 418, who had survived the ordeal, looked at each other in bewilderment as the submarine rocked slightly.

Wang Xiaohu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, watched the "Yuejin" sail away, and joked with a bittersweet smile, "Captain, wouldn't you say that we... successfully completed the mission of 'finding and confirming the location of the Yuejin' by 'sacrificing' a buoy?"

Captain Zhao Gang's gaze fell on the wreckage of the buoy floating on the sea surface, and on the old deck gun behind the conning tower.

His lips twitched with heartache, and he cursed with a dark face, "Perfect my ass! This is such a shameful thing, no one is allowed to tell anyone when we get back! Especially you, Wang Xiaohu! And that other guy, Wu Xiaolong from the sonar class! You all better keep your mouths shut!"

"My cannon barrel..."

Upon hearing this, Wang Xiaohu quickly covered his mouth tightly with both hands, leaving only his eyes outside, making a "I will definitely be good" face.

But his eyes darted around restlessly, and after less than three seconds, he finally let out a voice through his fingers: "Captain, you're overthinking it... We can't report you now!"

Look, even the 'telephone line' was cut off by the 'Yuejin' like seaweed. I can't even complain to them! Besides, Captain, these buoys... the base warehouse has a limited number, right? How can you hide the loss of such a big thing?

"You have no idea what you're talking about!" Zhao Gang interrupted him irritably, and flicked him on the forehead.

"A greenhorn who's never been to the depths of the ocean!"

"The bald eagles have dropped countless of these around our doorstep. Want some? We'll take you to catch a basketful another day!"

Wang Xiaohu covered his forehead where he had been flicked, chuckling to himself, instantly lightening the atmosphere considerably.

Just as the two were playfully bickering, still slightly relieved to have survived the ordeal, the deputy captain, Old Zhou, frowned and poked half his body back out of the conning tower hatch, his face full of confusion:

"That's strange... Lao Zhao, Xiao Hu, did you guys hear a really clear scraping sound just now? Like metal rubbing together! It scared me so much that I immediately told the guys to grab their tools and prepare to plug the leak, but we checked inside and out three times, and apart from a slight leak, there wasn't anything serious..."

Could it be... that I've been underwater for too long and am hallucinating?

"No... our cannon barrel is destroyed..."

Old Zhou climbed back up to the command tower, looked at the cannon barrel that had been tilted, and turned to curse at the departing Yuejin.

Yeah, it's so dirty, the kind of stuff that can't be published...

……

Just as the atmosphere had eased slightly due to the leader's "gag order," Wang Xiaohu, who was still observing from the fence, suddenly pointed in the direction the "Yuejin" had gone and shouted:

"Captain! Something's not right! Our submarine is fine, but that 'Yuejin'... behind it... no, on the sea surface it just passed, why is there a huge patch of oil floating up?"

Did we...did we just scratch it and cause an oil leak?

what?

Upon hearing this, Zhao Gang and Zhou Jianjun's hearts sank, and they immediately rushed to the side of the ship.

The midday sun shone on the sea, making the colorful oil film particularly eye-catching.

The oil slick slowly spread with the waves, like a crumpled piece of colorful plastic sheet, stuck tightly to the wake of the "Yuejin".

Zhao Gang's face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot. He slapped his hand on the cold casing and yelled, "Damn it... I'm really not going to be able to explain this to my superiors now!"

Old Zhou's face was also dark: "Damn it! No wonder they told us to come looking for it, this thing is too unreliable!"

"wrong……"

Why are there bubbles appearing over there?

"Damn it, this is terrible! That short-lived Leap Forward has collided with one of our other submarines?"