Rebirth of the 1980s: The Military Industry Empire

"Dropping the ball at a crucial moment, really, what's going on?" The face of Naval Leader Zhang, who was on board to observe the live firing exercise, turned serious.

"Report, the problem seems to be with the diesel we added; it has too much water in it. We can't get it to ignite this time."

Currently, all domestically produced destroyers use boilers, burning the cheapest heavy oil as fuel. However, heavy oil is too viscous and has poor fluidity. Therefore, warships that burn heavy oil have a separate small fuel tank to hold a few hundred pounds of diesel. When starting, the diesel is ignited first to heat the heavy oil pipes, allowing the heavy oil to flow and then ignite.

If the diesel doesn't ignite, it means the heavy oil boiler can't be started.

Under normal circumstances, a special spray gun can easily ignite the diesel, but if the diesel quality is problematic, the engine room crew is in trouble.

"Then what do we do?" Leader Zhang asked with a dark face, "If we can't ignite the boiler and start the engine during wartime, we'll be court-martialed!"

Xie Baoming also looked troubled: "Leader Zhang, please calm down. It's not our fault. It's just that our navy is poor and hasn't been out to sea for a long time. The fuel we used this time was from the No. 3 oil depot's reserves. As long as we pump out the current diesel and replace it with new stuff, it'll be fine."

"How long will that take?"

"Not long, about ten hours or so."

"What? Ten hours?" Leader Zhang's face darkened even further: "Humph, this is a serious accident. All personnel involved must write a self-criticism!"

"Yes, yes," Xie Baoming nodded repeatedly.

Leader Zhang then looked at Qin Yang and the Frenchmen: "Since the warship won't be able to start for another ten hours, why don't you go ashore and rest for a while?"

"Okay, no rush," Qin Yang nodded, looking at Thomas and Raphael: "Let's go ashore and relax, and have a few drinks while we're at it."

"Okay." The two were completely confused by the situation, as they couldn't understand Chinese. It wasn't until they were ashore drinking that Qin Yang explained the situation, leaving them filled with emotion.

"General Qin, the problem has been resolved. The boiler has been ignited. The captain invites you all to come aboard!" A sailor ran over to find them.

"It's only just ignited? It'll take another ten hours to heat up the boiler, right? We're not in a hurry, let's keep drinking!"

"It won't take ten hours; it'll be ready to go in an hour."

"Then we'll wait another hour. You guys should check if there are any other problems while you're at it, to avoid having to come down again later."

Speaking of boilers, some people will always get carried away, saying that the Liaoning aircraft carrier has to burn its boilers for 48 hours before it can set sail, boiling the water before starting. In reality, that's all hearsay. Warship boilers heat up very quickly, and destroyer boilers can meet the requirements for sailing in just one hour.

"Oh."

An hour later, Qin Yang led the Frenchmen, staggering, to the port. The dim lights illuminated the warship's hull number, 105. Raphael struggled to open his eyes, making sure it was the right warship before going aboard, but before he could take a few steps on the deck, his legs gave way, and he collapsed next to the naval gun, snoring loudly.

Thomas was a little stronger than Raphael, but he only managed to make it to the cabin before collapsing on the bunk and falling asleep.

He slept until the next day.

When Thomas opened his eyes, he felt a headache. He looked around and found General Qin still snoring, and Raphael hadn't woken up either.

The surroundings were hard steel walls, and there was a slight rocking, indicating that they were already on the warship. Thomas glanced at his watch; it was already eight in the morning. When would the missile test begin? He needed to go and see.

He staggered out of the cabin, wanting to walk towards the rear, but was stopped by Xie Baoming, who was walking towards him.

"Mr. Thomas, you can't go to the back," Xie Baoming said with gestures, "We independent test, independent test."

Thomas then remembered that the Easterners had said they would test independently yesterday, so he had no choice but to stop, pointing to his watch: "What time?"

"Nine o'clock, nine," Xie Baoming held up his index finger, making the shape of a nine, and then held up nine fingers, afraid that the other party wouldn't understand.

Nine o'clock in the morning, the sky was clear, and the blue waves rippled, making it a good time for a sea test.

Everyone else was awake and crowded into the bridge, listening to various orders.

"Attention, Ship 105, the target missile is about to be launched!"

"Ship 105 received."

"In order to test combat capabilities, the direction is not specified this time. The target missile may come from any direction, please pay attention and search the sea in all directions."

"Ship 105 received."

The atmosphere was particularly tense due to these calls.

Five minutes later.

"Haihu radar has detected a target, distance twenty, speed 0.9, six o'clock direction."

Six o'clock? Thomas tried hard to look back, but found that his view was completely blocked. From the bridge, he could look forward and to the sides, but he couldn't look back.

"Distance ten, attention, two missiles fired simultaneously!"

In order to successfully intercept the target, air defense missiles generally use a two-missile salvo. Since the Sea Crotale missile can use radar, infrared, and television tracking modes, a radar-guided missile and a television-guided missile can be used to increase reliability when firing two missiles simultaneously.

This position was really bad, he couldn't see the flames coming out of the warship's tail, nor could he see the white smoke trailing behind the missile.

Thomas was a little dissatisfied. Just then, a violent vibration came from under his feet, almost knocking him to the ground.

Boom, boom! A huge explosion sounded.

What's going on?

Thomas and Raphael were both a little dazed at this time. There was a noisy sound from behind, and they didn't know what they were shouting. On the bridge, the captain was holding a microphone and giving orders loudly...

"General Qin, what's wrong?" the two asked Qin Yang anxiously.

"The Sea Crotale missile exploded in the launch tube. There's a fire in the back, quick, let's hurry to the lifeboat..."

"No, impossible!" Thomas exclaimed, and then rushed to the rear of the warship.

Sea Crotale