Ou Chen stood by the porthole very calmly, watching the situation on the sea, the foredeck of the "Sayan Ridge" was also covered with black smoke, and it also suffered a few shells, in fact, there was no particularly big damage, and the 8-inch shells of the West Francian heavy patrol could not penetrate the armor of the old dreadnought.

"What is the target distance?" He asked aloud.

"21,000 meters, sir!"

"Alright, keep closing in on it, we're going to kill that heavy cruiser!" The "Sayanling" turned its course to the right slightly, and the two Tang warships turned their guns and began to pour all their fire on the cruiser in the middle, stirring up columns of water that rose into the sky around the West Frankish warships.

The West Francian warship "Gox" was barely maneuvering with the enemy's fierce fire, and soon it was hit by several shells, and several places on the hull were on fire, and the No. 3 main gun had stopped firing. Black smoke billowed from the rear chimney, at least three 5.9-inch secondary guns were destroyed, and the deck was in shambles.

Still, its efforts paid off, and the Pencent seemed to regain momentum and began to accelerate.

"Sir, there's a signal from the Pencent!" Here the signalman said, holding the microphone in his hand: "We only have one turret left to work, and we are leaving the battlefield with all our might!" ”

Harold turned to the signalman and said, "Let them immediately retreat in the direction of St. Helena, where Commodore Harwood's cruiser fleet is approaching." Right rudder 30, we need to distance ourselves from the enemy. ”

Colonel Harold in the command tower was a little anxious at this time, he was now afraid of the opponent's strong firepower, and wanted to use the speed of the ship to quickly get rid of the opponent and get out of the exchange of fire.

The artillery battle between the two sides lasted for nearly five minutes, and the hit rate of the warships in the high-speed voyage was very low, and in this more than ten minutes of pursuit, the main and auxiliary guns of the Tang battleship only hit the opponent a few times, and the unfortunate West Francian heavy cruiser was blazing with fire, but the speed did not decrease, and continued to accelerate and flee from the battlefield.

Due to the long-term voyage at sea, the main engine of the "Sayanling" lacked maintenance, coupled with the long-term sea voyage, the bottom of the ship was not cleaned, and in fact, the maximum speed could not even reach 27 knots. The West Francian warship was speeding north to escape, although it had suffered heavy losses, but the Tang people's artillery fire never harmed its power system, and the speed advantage allowed it to quickly extend the distance with the German ships to more than 24,000 meters.

The signal lights on the fast "Anzhou" light cruiser flashed incessantly, asking the flagship if it would allow it to pursue alone. Ou Chen was a little worried about the damage to his light cruisers, and their fleet was isolated overseas, and even a little damage could lead to catastrophic consequences.

This is the huge gap between the naval fleet of the Don State and the naval fleet of West Francia.

The West Francians dared to fight them, but they did not dare to take such risks.

"Tell them no, General Ling Wencha is intercepting them in front, and we'll rush over in the back." Ou Chen replied. Now that the naval guns had ceased fire, the two Tang warships were chasing in the direction of the West Franks fleeing, one after the other.

The vast majority of naval artillery battles don't last long, unless it's a battle of encirclement and annihilation between the two sides. If the current scene is that the West Francians have the advantage of strength, the two Tang battleships will probably not be able to get rid of their opponents due to their slow speed, and only in that case will it be possible to engage in a long artillery battle.

If that happens, the prospects for these two old Austrian dreadnoughts are also likely to be more than lucky.

Colonel Harold's heroic action to free "Pencent" saved himself.

Due to some delay in turning, the "Gokes" fled at full speed northeast about 5 nautical miles behind the "Pencent" in front of it.

Although the fighting has stopped, the situation on the "Goks" is still not optimistic, and the firefighters are busy on deck to extinguish the fire. The most dangerous wound on the warship came from the Y turret, and it was a blessing in misfortune that a large-caliber shell pierced its lower ammunition compartment but did not explode.

A compartment was broken in front of the starboard side, the bow was flooded with about 600 tons, and a large hole of more than 3 meters was pierced in the stern, and Harold's cabin under the upper deck was completely destroyed. The speed of the "Gox" had dropped to 27 knots, and Harold was a little worried that the warship would not be able to support it to return to the naval base on St. Helena. The entire warship was clanging and sparks were flying, and the ship's maintenance personnel were wielding hammers and welding guns to repair the damage in the hull.

Colonel Harold has a bit of a headache, the carrier-based aircraft on these two heavy cruisers have been destroyed in this artillery battle, if Commodore Harwood cannot arrive at the current location in time before dawn tomorrow, then the Tang people may lose their traces again and get rid of their pursuit and encirclement.

At this time, it was half past eight o'clock, and a bright red sunset hung above the sea, and it was less than an hour before it got dark.

Just then, a rumbling cannon fire suddenly came from ahead, breaking the temporary silence on the sea and waking Harold from his musings.

"Sir, the Pencent is signaling that they are being attacked by two enemy ships!" At this point, the signalman eagerly reported to him.

A little more than a minute later, the communications officer also came out of the telegraph room and reconfirmed the news.

Harold felt his blood rush to the top of his head, feeling a little dizzy, it was obvious that the enemy had set a trap for him, no wonder there were only two German ships engaged with him just now, it turned out that the remaining two enemy ships had already circled behind them!

However, he quickly calmed down, and the "Pencent", which was being shelled, had to resign himself to fate, and all he needed to do now was to run away as fast as possible before the enemy found him.

"Left rudder 30, full speed ahead!"

"Sir, that ......" the voyage stopped talking.

"Send a message to the Pencent and let him escape with all his might!" Harold said he couldn't care about that much now.

Only two minutes later, they saw a large flame rising from the hull of the "Pencent" in front of them, which was passing through a rain of bullets, and columns of water were flying around it.

After another three minutes or so, a sky-high flame rose into the air, nearly 10 nautical miles apart, illuminating a small half of the sky, and even seven or eight nautical miles away, you could see that the hull of the "Pencent" had been blown apart, the warship had broken in the middle, and the bow and stern had left the water high.

Tears welled up in Colonel Harold's eyes.