Chapter 1193 - Chlorine Gas

Qian Shuiting descended below deck. The layout of cabins, one by one, and even the cargo packaging in the hold—everything was complete. Fu Sansi explained these had been restored as closely as possible according to historical records, also referencing confessions from several Spanish sailors.

"Confessions from Spaniards?" Qian Shuiting asked curiously. He didn't recall any Spaniards among the Senate's naturalized citizens.

"Captured at Bopu back then. They've been working in labor reform teams ever since," Fu Sansi said. "Working for over two years met the redemption conditions. They were released and settled along with the Ah Sans captured at the same time early this year."

"Spaniards are easily handled; at least they can serve as guides. What do we need the Ah Sans for?" Qian Shuiting said with some dissatisfaction. "The languages from their region are bewilderingly varied; being guides holds no value."

"The Ah Sans went to the Agricultural Commission—don't know what Old Wu plans to use them for. The Spaniards stayed in the shipbuilding department to do odd jobs—two of them, one sailmaker and one carpenter, count as somewhat useful people. They seem very honest so far. Many details on this ship and how Spaniards conduct naval administration were provided by them."

Fu Sansi led him on a tour of the cabin layout. Qian Shuiting had seen many pictorial materials depicting galleon cabin layouts, but viewing the actual construction proved far more intuitive. Fu Sansi told him the paneling of these cabins was actually detachable and could be rearranged according to cabin layout diagrams of different ships, increasing the variety of options.

"Shi Zhiqi often brings marines from Hong Kong here for drills; it gets very lively," Fu Sansi said with a smile. "This Operation Hunger can draw a portion of personnel from the Marine Corps. They have sufficient training experience."

Since Shi Zhiqi had gone to Hong Kong, he had actively lobbied within the Navy Ministry to relocate the Marine Corps Headquarters there. The Navy had originally been dissatisfied with Lingao as the main naval base anyway—Hong Kong, Sanya, or Kaohsiung were obviously more suitable. As an island and important route node near the Pearl River Delta, launching amphibious operations from Hong Kong was clearly far more convenient than from Lingao. Thus, the main force and headquarters of the Marine Corps were eventually transferred to Hong Kong. Currently, Hainan retained only a battalion headquarters commanding two marine companies in Sanya and Lingao, as well as squad and platoon-level detachments performing garrison duties across Hainan Island and Dongsha.

As project leader for Operation "Hunger," Qian Shuiting felt even more confident after touring the one-to-one training model. Though he had absolute confidence in the Navy's combat power, Spanish fanaticism was also legendary. If emotions were incited and they refused to surrender even unto death, insisting on fighting a boarding battle with the marines, it wasn't beyond possibility.

With this full-scale model, boarding marines could fully train specific tactical coordination, increasing their chances of victory by several notches.

He requisitioned a room in the Navy Ministry building at Bopu, establishing the command headquarters for "Operation Hunger."

He first selected the Elders participating in this operation: Originally he had wanted Zhou Weisen to operate the Feiyun and command the formation. But Zhou Weisen pointed out that as a non-navy Elder, he lacked prestige within the Navy and held no formal rank—he probably wouldn't be able to command respect. After consideration, Qian Shuiting decided to ask Lin Chuanqing to serve as formation commander—he was General Commander of the Navy Fishing Fleet, with sufficiently high rank and position. As an old snakehead, old smuggler, and old fisherman, his grasp of Southeast Asian sea conditions was more familiar than anyone else's. His experience in operating small vessels was also the richest.

For the two Type 901s, Nongchao and Daishuang were selected. These two warships had launched later than the first wave of four 901s. Although they had encountered quite a few problems immediately upon launch, after repairs and break-in, their current condition was relatively good, and hull fouling was minimal, allowing direct deployment. Although Daishuang's captain Lü Yang couldn't claim much experience, his advantage was youth and vigor, making this an ideal opportunity to gain more long-voyage experience—with Lin Chuanqing holding the line, there presumably wouldn't be major problems.

Since the voyage to the Philippines covered just over 2000 nautical miles round trip, relying solely on the 901's coal capacity couldn't satisfy long-distance navigation and search standby requirements. A sail-steam hybrid fast collier would accompany them: the Haifeng.

The two 901 gunboats underwent necessary modifications, adding rapid boarding bridges for boarding combat. Considering that the opponent might be a large galleon with very high freeboard, "typewriters" were installed on the fore and aft mast tops of the 901s to suppress enemy deck fire and cover the boarding team climbing the ship.

"The sailors on board can be reselected and reorganized, picking experienced hands. During Operation Giant last time, just sailing one week at sea had so many people puking half to death. This operation is at least a month round trip, in open sea with big waves; seasickness will be unbearable. Use more sailors who were formerly pirates," Qian Shuiting proposed at the preparatory meeting.

"That's not wise. Sailors and officers on every ship have now formed a combat collective. Changing everyone at once means having to reintegrate from scratch," Lin Chuanqing shook his head. "The professional specialization of 901 posts is much higher than ordinary sailing ships; replacement isn't that easy. Besides, they've been sailing continuously at sea for over half a year; adaptability should be no problem. My main worry is wind direction." He traced a finger across the chart. "Wind direction isn't favorable. By July the prevailing wind is already southeasterly. Returning will be convenient, but going out will be very troublesome."

"Aren't 901s primarily steam-powered?"

"Headwind still causes significant consumption. The 901's self-sustainment isn't optimistic. Once boilers are damaged, the whole plan is affected. And coaling at sea requires technical skill. We need to seize time to train more in the coming days."

Key boarding personnel were selected from the marines—steam warship sailors were no longer "human dregs" who could be casually replaced; losing one required considerable time to retrain. Most Senate Navy warships were equipped with varying numbers of marines. One of their tasks was to conduct boarding operations when necessary. However, considering each galleon might have 400 sailors, this time a platoon of marines was specially reinforced on each 901, all selected by Shi Zhiqi from Hong Kong—members of the Marine Corps Amphibious Reconnaissance Detachment who had participated in multiple simulated galleon boarding drills.

To ensure absolute safety, Qian Shuiting originally wanted to mobilize a Special Recon detachment to accompany the fleet, but several detachments were currently deployed abroad, and manpower was extremely tight. After coordination, Bei Wei agreed to dispatch a small team of ten members to accompany the ships—acting as snipers and M240 machine gunners. If necessary, they would directly participate in the boarding assault carrying submachine guns and shotguns.

Someone simply suggested bringing anti-tank missiles, but everyone felt the thing might have excessive killing power. If one shot sank the ship before the silver was in hand, it would be a complete loss.

Demonstration confrontation drills were conducted several times on the galleon model. The result: regardless of the assault plan adopted, casualties during boarding were basically nil. The combined use of M240s and typewriters was sufficient to sweep the entire deck. But once entering combat on the middle and lower decks, certain casualties became inevitable—even with complete knowledge of the cabin structure, as long as the opposing side possessed sufficient fighting will, they could inflict losses on assaulting marines with matchlocks and swords. And precedents existed of turning small cannons on the gun deck to fire longitudinally and crush rushing enemies.

The marines' main equipment—Minié rifles—had greatly reduced combat efficiency once inside narrow, poorly lit middle and lower decks. Smoke was excessive when firing, and reaction speed wasn't fast enough in close quarters. Obviously, the submachine guns and shotguns used by Special Recon were the ideal boarding tools.

But these weapons were extremely scarce, so Qian Shuiting turned his attention to poison gas. Currently, Lingao could manufacture only two types: chili tear gas grenades widely equipped by security forces, and chlorine gas. Chlorine was an important product in Lingao's chemical industry and a widely used raw material in industrial production; both production volume and storage met certain application conditions. Qian Shuiting planned to control the upper deck, then inject chlorine gas through personnel entrances. Chlorine is very heavy and flows downward. Although galleons had lower gun ports and stern windows, and lower decks were flush with relatively good air circulation preventing chlorine from achieving optimal effect, even a small amount of chlorine was enough to incapacitate people.

"Clean and labor-saving—hmm, and environmentally friendly, incidentally disinfecting the ship," Qian Shuiting advocated tirelessly. "And protection is simple—just masks soaked in alkaline solution. No need for gas masks."

"But goggles are also required; chlorine irritates eyes. The usage safety of this thing isn't great," Shi Zhiqi wasn't very interested in using chlorine—he felt it represented a typical abuse of technical means. Besides, he wasn't entirely assured about stuffing an overdue high-pressure cylinder full of chlorine on a ship to drift across the ocean.

"We can test the actual effect—we have a full-scale model now. Put some rabbits and goats inside and release a tank of chlorine down..."

"The Elders would raise hell. Aren't you wasting meat?" Shi Zhiqi shook his head repeatedly. "I think Marine assault is better!" He punched the air fiercely. "If Minié rifles work poorly, bring two revolvers and a machete per person for close combat."

In the end, neither side convinced the other, but the Planning Commission readily agreed to allocate a chlorine cylinder and relevant protective equipment. Reportedly someone in the military had strong interest in using chlorine and had specifically done work in the Executive Committee and Planning Commission. Additionally, the Ministry of Health was interested in chlorine's disinfection potential for ships.

(End of Chapter)