A few minutes later, after several phone calls in a row, Gui Boyong asked clearly.

The "Jihe" and "Guijiang", which had previously maneuvered to the south, came back and approached the enemy fleet from the flanks and rear, and then opened fire on the No. 5 and No. 6 enemy ships respectively.

Because there was no counterattack, and because they were close enough, the guns of the two ships were extremely accurate.

In order to enhance the effect of the strike, even the 100-mm secondary gun was used.

Two enemy ships, "Lion" and "Princess", were not so lucky.

In the few minutes that Gui Boyong inquired about the situation, the two enemy ships were shot one after another, and from a distance, they looked as if they had been engulfed in artillery fire.

Although most of them were the results of the secondary artillery, it must have been very tragic to be shrouded in dense artillery fire.

At 10:31 a.m., seven minutes after the explosion and sinking of the "Empress Mary," a violent explosion occurred on the "Lion" that followed. About three minutes later, the ship raised the white signal flag, only to be followed by another violent explosion and sank five minutes later.

At 10:37 a.m., the "Princess" capsized under artillery fire.

Two minutes earlier, at 10:35 a.m., the "Tiger" had once again released the smoke screen to complete its tactical turn, and then re-released the smoke screen at about 10:40 a.m., speeding up its evacuation under the cover of the smoke screen, and expanding the distance to more than 20 kilometers within 10 minutes.

He Yongxing did not order the pursuit.

At 10:40 a.m., that is, when the "Tiger" completed its turn and began to accelerate, He Yongxing ordered the "Luhe" to speed up to catch up with the flagship.

Although the "Nord River" was not at risk of sinking, it had basically lost its ability to act as a flagship after the telecommunications center was paralyzed. Before the "Beihe" was put into service, the flagship of the 21st Squadron was the "Luhe", and all the facilities needed for the flagship were retained. As for the "Nanjiang", in order to save costs when it was built, there was no command tower, and it was not suitable to serve as the flagship of the fleet.

At 10:55 a.m., all the officers and men of the headquarters headed by He Yongxing boarded a motorboat sent by the "Luhe" and boarded the "Luhe" that had caught up with them 10 minutes later. Immediately afterwards, the "Lu River" raised the commander's flag, which symbolized the identity.

The fleet did not stop and, having completed its turn, continued to sail south.

While passing near the sunken sea of three enemy ships, someone offered to rescue the officers and men who had fallen overboard.

He Yongxing did not agree, but ordered each ship to leave the excess life-saving equipment behind.

It's not that He Yongxing is unwilling to save people, but he can't delay precious time, because the fast combat detachment commanded by Betty may be killed at any time.

Besides, the six warships of the 21st Squadron were also damaged to varying degrees, and it was too late to save themselves.

When he came to the "Lu River", Bai Zhizhan did not immediately go to the commander's bridge, but first went to the officer's bathroom to take a shower and change into a set of clean clothes and pants.

When he arrived at the commander's bridge, Gui Boyong and several other principal staff officers were briefing He Yongxing.

There is nothing to say about the results, the main thing is the battle damage.

The most seriously damaged was the "Beihe", not only the navigation bridge was blown up, but the main rangefinder was also scrapped, and even the No. 2 turret in front was affected, and the sight mounted on the tail of the turret was damaged, resulting in the two main gun turrets in front of them could only rely on the parameters provided by the auxiliary bridge for blind fire.

The cannon also resulted in more than 30 casualties.

Fortunately, the captain of the ship, Colonel Zhang Guozhu, was temporarily out of danger.

The "Nanjiang" also did not escape, and was hit by at least a thirteen.5-inch shell, but fortunately, this armor-piercing shell did not explode.

The four battleships that directly engaged the 1st Battle Patrol Detachment all suffered a lot of small-caliber shells, and they also suffered some losses, but there was no major problem.

The biggest problem is the "Nord River".

The destruction of the main rangefinder and the damage to the front sight mounted on the second turret were enough for the ship to reduce the shelling hit rate to an intolerable level.

If there is another battle, then the problem is serious.

The point is that of the six battle cruisers, only two of the "North River" class had 400 mm naval guns, and the other four were equipped with 350 mm naval guns.

Against those battle cruisers of the 1st Battle Patrol Detachment, the naval guns of both calibers were sharp enough.

However, in the face of the five "Queen Isa"-class battleships of the fast combat detachment, the 350-mm armor-piercing projectile was obviously inferior.

In particular, the two "Jihe" class ships, because they are equipped with 70-year-old naval guns with 40 times the diameter of the barrel, are very difficult to deal with super dreadnoughts. The "Luhe" class is equipped with a 73-year naval gun with a 45-fold diameter barrel, and it still has to fight in the face of battleships with weak protection.

If the "Beihe" could not play normally, it would be equivalent to abolishing half of the main firepower.

Several senior staff officers scrambled to discuss not how to fight, but how to dodge, that is, how to avoid the fast-battle detachment.

Some people proposed to go south at full speed, in an effort to enter Nanzhuhai before the combined fleet adjusted its deployment, and then sail westward to enter the Yanhai Sea through the Shuangche Strait to the southern military port of the empire. Even if necessary, in the future, they will be able to enter the Asahimi from the Ashishima Strait and return to the home port of the home fleet.

It was also suggested that the north would be the most appropriate, as the enemy would surely be able to guess that the 21st Squadron would choose to go south, so he would gather heavy forces in the south and wait for the 21st Squadron to die. There was also a chance to extend the success of the battle to the north, that is, the second battle patrol detachment was hovering near the port to the north.

Others suggested simply staying here and waiting until it was dark, that is, at nighttime tide, to slip back from the Northern Passage while the water level was rising.

When a group of senior staff officers made suggestions, He Yongxing never said anything, and his face was very ugly.

There is no doubt that these senior staff officers, including Gui Boyong, have not understood that retreat and avoidance of battle are not within the scope of choice.

The retreat was nothing more than to save the fleet.

To this extent, even if the fleet is preserved, what is the use?

More than two years ago, after suffering a crushing defeat, the High Seas Fleet of the Empire was unable to shrink, and the situation of the Empire did not improve in the slightest. Perhaps soon, when the Empire is defeated and surrendered, the High Seas Fleet will be taken as a trophy and taken to the Bran Kingdom Naval Base.

The Imperial Navy will never tolerate such a humiliation.

Early in the morning, at the moment when the Red Blood Battle Flag was raised, there was no way back!

Fortunately, Gui Boyong was not blind enough to turn a blind eye to the gloomy face of the commander.

"It's not early, the officers and soldiers will change their guards in a while, so let's go to lunch first. Commander He, what do you want to eat? I'll arrange it now. ”

"You go first, I'll go later."

Gui Boyong didn't say anything, and the other senior staff officers also understood, and followed Gui Boyong to say goodbye to He Yongxing.

After a few hours of blowing the sea breeze on the observatory dozens of meters high, he almost fell down and fell to pieces, which made Bai Zhizhan more self-aware.

It's not a problem to like to behave, to show off in front of others, to behave aggressively, that's the problem.

It's a pity that even if Bai Zhizhan doesn't want to be a bird, he can't avoid it now.

After seeing He Yongxing beckoning, Bai Zhizhan suddenly had a big head, and felt that he had come at a bad time, and he knew that he should go directly to the restaurant to eat.