In fact, the first-ever duel between the two most powerful navies in the world is not over yet.

Although the battle between Task Force 42 and Task Force 12 Nuland had ended before 11 a.m., and the four powerful "Longxing" class ships won the victory without any suspense, forcing back the Newland Task Force 12 to be precise, in the southeast, the battle between Task Force 43 and Task Force 11 of Newland continued until the afternoon, and the winner was decided.

It was almost 4 o'clock in the afternoon when Bai Zhizhan received a battle report from Li Jie.

However, not from the "Asahihi", nor from the sister ship "Yanhai", but from a light cruiser of the 43.2nd detachment.

Before reading the message, Bai Zhizhan's heart was already half cold.

According to the usual situation, this means that the "Xuhai" and "Yanhai" have been sunk, and it can even be said that the 43.1st detachment has been completely wiped out.

Otherwise, Li Jie should have sent a telegram on a battleship.

It's just that the actual situation is completely different from what Bai Zhizhan expected.

In this battle, which lasted nearly 10 hours, Task Force 43 had a firm grasp of the initiative, but it was not very lucky.

It's a bit like the battle with the first main force of the Sagai Navy.

Shortly after the start of the battle, the main mast of the "Asahimi" was hit by a shell. Although the shell did not explode on the "Asahimi", it smashed the mast and cleanly cut off the antenna of the long-wave radio station on the mast, resulting in the "Asahimi" being temporarily unable to use the long-wave radio.

Fortunately, the voice stations in the shortwave band can be used normally.

In fact, voice radio has replaced the flag language and the lantern language as the main means of communication in fleet operations.

On aircraft carriers and battleships, voice radios are also a backup internal communication tool, which is particularly useful when carrying out damage management and emergency repairs.

Before dawn, Task Force 43 won a decisive victory.

It was the "Yanhai" that showed great bravery.

In the 5th to 11th rounds of salvos, the "Yanhai" hit the No. 1 enemy ship a total of 8 times, and all of them hit the superstructure of the enemy ship.

Hit the 14th round of volleys, and the "Yanhai" made a miraculous achievement.

Although the subsequent exploration proved that the main cause of the sinking of the No. 1 enemy ship "Kola" was the poor management of damage, which caused the fire inside the hull to completely get out of control, and finally detonated the auxiliary gun ammunition depot located on the left side of the hull, but fundamentally speaking, it was still the credit of the "Yanhai".

Having not been hit continuously by the "Yanhai", there would have been no fire in the interior of the "Kora".

In the explosion of the ammunition depot, the USS Kora, the flagship of Task Force 11 and the flagship of the First Fleet of Nuland, sank.

A few minutes later, the second enemy ship "Mali" also withdrew from the battle.

In the previous battle, the sister ship of the "Kola" was very unlucky, not only did the B turret malfunction, the two main guns could not shoot, but also was taken care of by two opponents, and was hit by the "Beihe" and "Nanjiang" more than ten times in succession. After the last main gun turret was scrapped and essentially incapacitated, the ship's commander gave the order to retreat, throwing the battle to four more battleships.

At that time, the ship's commander, Colonel Raul, was already the supreme commander of Task Force 11 in Nuland.

By dawn, the strength of both sides was four to four.

It was only at this time that Li Jie adjusted his tactics and engaged the Nuland fleet in the usual way.

Prior to this, the 43rd Task Force had been under artillery fire, and in fact, the "Beihe" and "Nanjiang" were fighting under artillery fire.

The last four battleships of the Nuland fleet were aimed at the "North River" and "South River".

It must be admitted that ginger is still old and spicy.

These two fast battleships, upgraded from battle cruisers, have been using their speed to evade, and they have achieved successive successes.

If these two battleships failed to withstand the ferocious fire of the enemy ships, there would have been no big victory in the future.

The two captains, as well as the main officers, can be said to be a great contribution.

Of course, the two battleships were not unscathed.

The "Beihe" lost the armor turret at the front, and the main gun on the left side of the C turret at the tail was blown up, and only one main gun was still usable.

The situation of the "Nanjiang" was slightly better, only two 130-mm anti-aircraft guns were knocked out, and all eight main guns remained.

Interestingly, only the "Asahimi" was almost unscathed.

This was because the "Yanhai" had been firing at the "Kora" all the time, and it was accurate and ruthless, it was like a fist to the flesh, so after more than 10 minutes of fighting, the "Kola" turned its guns to the "Yanhai" and did not fire at the "Asahihi" again.

It is equivalent to saying that both the "Kola" and the "Mali" are firing at the "Yanhai".

Fortunately, the "Yanhai" was indeed very lucky.

Four 16-inch armor-piercing shells were fired before dawn, two of which did not explode, one of which pierced the open deck diagonally and then exploded outside the hull, and the last one also exploded outside the bow protection area, causing no more damage except for blowing the sailor compartment in the bow to pieces.

During the battle, the sailors will certainly not be in the cabin.

The shell at the bow of the ship, except for making the "Yanhai" more hideous, and having to activate the diesel engine generator to pump out the seawater that poured into the hull at high speed, had no effect in the battle, but it took more time to repair it after returning to the shipyard.

In addition, during the post-war inspection, the "Yanhai" was also hit by two 16-inch armor-piercing shells, just because all of them hit the outside of the main protection area, and were not blocked by armor, and after penetrating the hull, they exploded in the sea, and were regarded as a near-miss bullet by the lookout who observed the impact point of the bullet.

In Jin Hong's words: The shells that were supposed to hit Li Jie fell on his battleship.

For this matter, Li Jie later specially toasted Jin Hong three cups.

In the words of Bai Zhizhan, his own brothers do not need to be careful.

In a different position, if you need to stand up and attract firepower, Li Jie will not hesitate at all. During the battle, Jin Hong didn't think about it that much at all.

In fact, the battles experienced by the "Yanhai" are enough to prove the correctness of "centralized protection".

In the case of an old battleship, the concept of full protection is used, which can detonate armor-piercing shells even if the armor laid on the secondary part is not thick enough.

Even in non-critical areas, an armor-piercing projectile can cause serious damage.

On the flip side, this is the key to the failure of the Nuland's Navy's old battleships to carry it.

At least half of the dozen or so armor-piercing shells hit the "Kora" outside the "main protection zone" of the treaty-type battleship.

If it were a treaty-type battleship, it was very likely that none of these armor-piercing shells would detonate inside the hull.

With half of the shells missing, the "Kola" may not have ended up with the ammunition depot exploding.

The armor of the core of the "Mali" withstood the test, but it lost its combat effectiveness due to several direct hits in the secondary parts.

If the armor-piercing shells that hit the secondary parts did not explode and passed through the hull, the "Mali" would not have retreated before dawn.

Compared to the new Treaty battleships, the former Treaty battleships lacked more than speed.

It's just that in this battle with naval guns, what really determines the outcome or changes the situation on the battlefield is speed!