"Boom!"

At both ends of the battlefield, below the waterline of the Count Bismarck and the Brandenburg, a loud explosion sounded almost simultaneously, stirring up waves tens of meters high, and the two 10,000-ton giant ships were shaken several meters high and almost overturned.

The part where the Count Bismarck was hit was about three meters underwater on the port side, fortunately, the armor of the Count Bismarck rose all the way to three meters underwater, so it played a certain protective role, but the huge explosion still blew a gap of more than four meters below the waterline, and the dead and wounded German soldiers amounted to more than 100 people, the gap spread to three sealed cabins, and there were five nearby sealed cabins that were cracked and seeped, and a large amount of seawater quickly poured in, and in a blink of an eye, it was filled with three cracked sealed cabins.

Fortunately, Captain Heinrich was able to calm down, and while directing the Count Bismarck to retreat from the battlefield for emergency repairs, he hung out the "no matter" flag and handed over the command of the fleet to the Queen Victoria Louise behind him.

The Count Bismarck drove more than ten kilometers away from the battlefield before stopping, and during this time, the German sailors worked hard to rescue, and it took more than an hour to finally block the water seepage, but during this time, the front of the Count Bismarck poured into hundreds of tons of seawater, the bow sank nearly three meters, and the tail was upturned, and even the propeller was exposed. Therefore, Captain Heinrich had to order another 300 tons of seawater to be put into the bilge of the tail to avoid forcibly maintaining the balance of the whole ship. However, this also caused the Count Bismarck to enter nearly 1,000 tons of water, the waterline dropped by more than two meters, and the speed dropped from 19 knots to 14 knots.

The other torpedoed Brandenburg did not have the same good luck as the Count Bismarck, the torpedo hit the right side of the Brandenburg rear waterline four meters, there was no armor protection here, and the Brandenburg ship was also long, so five sealed cabins were broken, eight sealed cabins were leaked, more than 100 soldiers on the ship were injured and killed, and the torpedo hit was just near the power room, a steam engine was damaged, unable to work, and the speed dropped sharply to less than 10 knots.

Captain Samur also hung out the banner of "quitting the battle" and drove the warship out of the battlefield to rush repairs.

The lead ships of the two German detachments were wounded and withdrew from the battle, and it was not known how the other side hit them, apparently not by artillery, because the explosion was from underwater, so it could only be a torpedo. However, the torpedo range of this era was within 1,000 meters, and if you want to launch a torpedo, you must venture into this distance by a torpedo ship, and the torpedo navigation is traceable, but the other side's strike is silent, either the other side has invented a torpedo with better performance, or the other side has another new weapon. Therefore, the blow to the morale of the German fleet can be imagined in this round of blows.

Of course, the Count Bismarck withdrew from the battle, and although the command of the guerrilla fleet was handed over to the Empress Victoria Louise in the back, the general command of the Wadsey and the German fleet was not transferred to the Empress Victoria Louise, and the reason for this consequence was that the damage of the Count Bismarck was too serious, and the personnel on the ship were busy repairing the damage management, and as a result, Waldesy and others were also forgotten.

However, Waldsi and the others were all from the army and were not familiar with the tactics of the navy, so it was not until the Count Bismarck was far away from the battlefield that they found that the general command of the entire fleet was still on the ship, and they had completely lost the command of the fleet. Although it was possible to put down the boat and send Wadsey and others to other warships, at this time, on the sea, the German fleet was completely chaotic and scurrying around, and the water column on the sea was everywhere, and it was too dangerous to send Vadsy and others in small boats.

The first two torpedoes achieved significant successes, and the torpedoes fired by the Yueyang and Sanya ships also hit their targets respectively, hitting the battleship Wools and the ironclad ship Wolfenberg respectively. When the ironclad ship saw it, it dared to continue the battle, which did not mean that the German Navy was greedy for life and afraid of death, even if it was continuously hit by the opponent's artillery, it would not make the German Navy feel afraid, but the opponent's attack was too weird, and it had exceeded the understanding of the German Navy.

Although the entire battlefield has now reached 20 kilometers, the fleet is monitored by carrier-based helicopters and high-altitude drones, so it is well aware of the situation on the entire battlefield.

The main German fleet had already begun to retreat from the battlefield, while the partisan fleet on the other side, because of its distance and lack of a unified command, knew nothing, and continued to detour to the flank of the crossing fleet, led by the new flagship, the Queen Victoria Louise.

So Shang Jinfeng, the commander of the crossing fleet, ordered that the Xiangyang and Huaihua ships should accompany the Kunming ships to meet the guerrilla fleet of the German state, because these three warships were equipped with artillery with strong firepower, and to attach protection cruisers, and then use torpedoes, it would be a bit wasteful, and it would be enough to sink them with artillery. The Sanya was responsible for chasing down and defeating the fleeing German main fleet, but the main goal was not to sink all the German main fleet, but to spare not a single transport fleet behind, and if it could be captured, it would be best to use Haihongqi-16 missiles for long-range attacks if necessary.

Shang Jinfeng was a level-headed and thoughtful commander, and he knew that the Crossing Group had already determined to establish its own base in Shandong, and that the two foreign concessions on the Shandong Peninsula, Weihai and Qingdao, would be the main targets of the next Crossing Group, and this transport fleet would carry either the German army, military supplies, or both.

After all, in the eyes of the crossing fleet, these German warships are just dishes on the plate and can be eaten at any time, and if the German transport fleet is allowed to flee back to Qingdao, it is bound to greatly strengthen Qingdao's defense and bring great difficulties to the battle behind the crossing group, after all, the attack on Qingdao mainly depends on the army, and the navy can only play an auxiliary role, so in terms of long-term strategy, the threat posed by the German transport fleet to the crossing group is far greater than that of combat warships.

And if a few transport ships can be captured, it will be even better, not only can the materials on the ships be used by the crossing group, but even the captured German soldiers are also good free labor, and it is also an important bargaining chip to negotiate with Germany in the future.

The fact that the situation developed later also proved that Shang Jinfeng's decision was extremely correct and important, and it solved a major threat to the later attack on Qingdao by crossing the group.

After the order was issued, the five passing warships immediately separated, and the Kunming, Xiangyang, and Huaihua ships turned to meet the German guerrilla fleet, and the Kunming ships opened fire first, and fired ten guns in succession, bombarding the leading Queen Victoria Louise, although the two sides were about 12 kilometers apart at this time, the 10 shells still hit four and two missed.

Queen Victoria Louise is just a large protective cruiser with a displacement of 6700 tons, although German warships have always attached importance to defensive capabilities, but the protective cruiser cannot be compared with the armored cruiser after all, and the 130 mm caliber gun on the Kunming ship is the only one in the fleet that can carry out an artillery battle with the battleships of this era, and its power is not much worse than the strongest 280 caliber cannon in the German ship, and a protective cruiser like Queen Victoria Louise is very fatal if it is hit by one or two cannons, not to mention four guns in a row, plus two near-misses。

As a result, the entire ship was suddenly shattered, and it quickly entered the water and sank, and the soldiers on the ship were also injured and killed. Although the soldiers on the ship worked hard to rescue the ship, almost every seam of the whole ship was seeping water, and it was impossible to prevent it, so after more than ten minutes, the deck of the ship was less than two meters high from the sea, and the captain Ziegfried had to order all the soldiers of the ship to abandon the ship and escape, while he was locked in the command room and sank with the battleship. This is also a European naval tradition.

At the same time that the Kunming ship opened fire to bombard the Queen Victoria Louise, the guns on the Xiangyang ship and the Huaihua ship were also in full fire, bombarding the Ferya and Queen Augusta in the back. Although they also hit several enemy ships, the power of the main guns of these two ships could not be compared with that of the Kunming ship after all, and their luck was slightly worse, and they failed to hit the vital parts, as a result, although the two ships were scarred and the German soldiers on the ships were killed and killed, the two ships still floated on the sea, and even the speed did not decrease much, because the power of the two ships was not damaged.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the two ships immediately turned their bows, used strong pressure and ventilation, and fled the battlefield at full speed. The other two German ships in the back, the Goddess of Peace and the Princess Wilhelm, did not dare to fight again, and also turned around and fled.

The officers and men on the failed to sink the Feuer, the Empress Augusta, the Xiangyang and Huaihua ships were also holding their breath, which would have made these German ships run away and pursue them at full speed.

The maximum speed of the Xiangyang and Huaihua ships is 27 knots, while the maximum speed of the Ferya and Queen Augusta is 21 knots.

But when you want to escape, you don't have to outrun your opponents, as long as you can outrun your own companions. The Goddess of Peace and Princess Wilhelm had a top speed of only 19 knots, and the two warships were older, with more than 10 years of service. Although the warships that have been in service for 10 years are not considered old, the two warships have been stationed in Qingdao and have not been well maintained for nearly three years. Originally, according to Qingdao's construction plan, the shipyard would be completed by the end of this year, and the docks that could berth 10,000-ton warships would be repaired.

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