The Baltic Sea is exceptionally fresh in the morning, and the slightly chilly air is the best sobering agent, and it has the same effect on the officers and men of the two German and Russian Baltic fleets, not to mention, there should not be much difference in air quality at a distance of 20 nautical miles, and perhaps the air exhaled by the Germans will drift to the Russians in a short time.

The Russian royal family and nobles seemed to have slept well at night, and they ran to the deck early to frolic in the morning, and the scene of the previous day's flight seemed to have been forgotten by them.

By daybreak, the Russian fleet had reached 20 nautical miles southeast of the port of Pokhara, and the black coastline was already looming at the end of the sea and sky. However, soon after, the battleship "**** Hove", which was at the forefront of the fleet, noticed a large gray-black smoke cloud in the western sky, and it immediately sent a signal to the flagship "Sevastopol". Brigadier General Kolchak sent a telegram to the Pokhala naval base and hurried to Grand Duke Nikolai's bedroom.

"Ah...... Yes! His Majesty the Emperor ...... "Kolchak had just turned another passage when Tsar Nicholas II appeared before him, surrounded by a large group of guards.

"General, why are you so flustered? What happened? Nicholas II asked unhurriedly, it seemed that a night's sleep had calmed him down a lot.

"Back to Your Majesty, we have found a fleet to the west! I'm about to report to the Grand Duke......"

"I have just come from the Grand Duke, and his illness has worsened, and I am afraid that I will have to stay in bed and rest today! It doesn't matter, I'm still here! The Tsar forced a smile on his face, "Don't worry, maybe it's the greeting fleet sent by the Pokhara Naval Base, send a telegram to ask them!" ”

"Your Majesty, we have just sent them a telegram......" Kolchak's voice stopped suddenly, but this time it was not interrupted by the Tsar, but by a voice, an extremely annoying and panicked voice - airplane!

"Let's go, let's see! Probably Pokhara flew to meet our plane! The Tsar seemed to be extremely optimistic, forgetting that at the outbreak of the war his army had more than 100 aircraft, most of which were unusable due to lack of fuel and spare parts, and that in Pokhara the only small fleet of seaplanes had long since been put into storage.

Kolchak did not understand this, and the Tsar's words calmed his mind, and he followed the Tsar closely towards the bridge. When everyone came to the bridge, six planes in a neat formation flew over the fleet. The royalty and aristocrats were still looking up at these fast-flying objects, but the posture, the movement, the speed, and the blue-gray paint were all unknown to the Russian planes, especially the striking white logos under their wings, which shocked the Russians.

"Your Majesty the Emperor, I'm afraid we've run into the German fleet!" Kolchak said in a heavy tone with his head down.

Nicholas II's face suddenly turned from sunny to gloomy, and all kinds of expressions came to his face at once: anger, helplessness, sadness, loss, almost all the expressions of displeasure appeared on this face one after another.

"That, that is the German fleet that defeated the British Navy?" Nicholas II felt that his legs had suddenly lost support, and the center of gravity of his body suddenly shifted backwards, but fortunately, the officers behind him supported him in time, and the master of the fallen empire did not fall heavily to the ground.

"Your Majesty, the main fleet of the Germans is still in the North Sea, and it is impossible for them to relax the blockade of the British and come here! That's probably just the German Baltic Fleet, and just now those seaplanes should have taken off from their so-called water carriers, and not the kind of aircraft carriers that hit the British hard! Kolchak turned to actively selling his ignorant information about the German Navy, comforting the Tsar and comforting himself by the way.

There are several versions of the defeat of the British Navy, one is that the Germans defeated the British Navy with a large number of aircraft, the second is that the Germans besieged the British fleet with planes and submarines, and the third is that the Germans finally defeated the British with battleships through aircraft and submarine sneak attacks. The various versions were widely disseminated, and in the process of propagation, many upgraded and powerful versions were derived, which brought the world's fear of the various weapons of the German Navy to a small climax, and German aircraft, submarines, and battleships became a nightmare for the officers and soldiers of the Allies.

As a well-informed admiral, Kolchak did not worship the German Navy as a god like ordinary people in the world, but he was still very suspicious of German planes and submarines, not to mention that his sailors did not have the more objective understanding of the German Navy as he did.

"General, will we be able to deal with that German fleet? Otherwise, let's go back to St. Petersburg! Nicholas II asked in despair, after experiencing great ups and downs, great joys and sorrows, strong people will also temporarily lose their way. At this time, in the mind of Nicholas II, Kolchak became a life-saving figure.

"Your Majesty, I have to tell you with great regret that St. Petersburg has fallen into the hands of the revolutionaries, and that the officers and men of the navy there, under the coercion of the revolutionary party, have issued statements against you and the government!" There was an extremely sad smell in Kolchak's words, the news which he had actually received the night before, except that the Grand Duke had told him to tell him the news after the emperor had woken up.

Nicholas II's piercing eyes suddenly became a little blank, and he stared at the sea in the distance, letting the German planes in the sky hum, but his expression did not change in the slightest, and the whole person had fallen into a deep contemplation. No one knows what he was thinking, whether he regretted joining the war and brought a subversive disaster to his country, or cursing at the leaders of the revolutionary party, perhaps just thinking about his own futureless future.

Looking at the German planes that were circling and lowering their altitude not far away, Kolchak was anxious about whether the fleet would fight or flee, or sail straight to the port of Pocara regardless of anything, where the batteries would block the German fleet, and someone would have to give the order.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty......"

Two seconds later, Nicholas II reacted, he looked at the people in front of him, and then looked up at the German plane in the distance, "General, this fleet, and the lives of everyone here, are handed over to you!" ”

Kolchak was a little surprised, but he quickly saw the situation, "Your Majesty, please go back to the cabin with the royal family first!" I will escort you all to your destination safely! ”

Nicholas II nodded, and walked away as quickly as he had come, escorted by the crowd.

After seeing the Tsar go away, Kolchak's mood did not relax much, especially since the German planes had descended to a very low altitude above the water, and then flew towards the fleet, and the torpedo under their belly looked chilling.

Kolchak tried to calm himself down, he pondered what might happen next, and then gave the order:

"The fleet is moving at full speed! Line up in battle columns and be ready to evade enemy aircraft at any time! ”

Before the signal on the "Sevastopol" was finished, the six German planes had already begun to drop torpedoes, and the white torpedo tracks loomed in the morning light, causing panic in every Russian sailor.

"Left full rudder!" Kolchak stared at the port side of the sea, thinking that he was experiencing the feelings of the British captains who were being attacked by German planes, when in fact it was only a very small scene. When the German planes roared over the Russians again, Kolchak's heart almost rose to his throat, this is a battleship full of Russian imperial family, and if anyone is injured or overfrightened, his career will probably be over. Of course, he didn't care about how much power this royal family still had now, maybe they would be just a commoner in a few days.

Several other warships in the fleet also consciously evaded, and when the huge battleship did not have time to turn around, the destroyer would rush forward without hesitation and sacrifice himself to block the gun's hole......

After two loud bangs, the two Russian destroyers disappeared into the sea in a brilliant fireworks, which caused many royal nobles to run out of the cabin to watch, only for the ladies to faint in a burst of screams, and the men silently returned to their cabins, praying that the next explosion would not happen on the ship.

After the bombs were dropped, the German planes had no intention of leaving, and the Russian warships had not fired a single shell or bullet at them from the beginning to the present, although those battleships had a number of weapons that could be used against low-flying aircraft.

Most Russian sailors were not sure if the German planes had deadly weapons similar to torpedoes, so the Russian battleships rearranged their battle columns at an extremely slow pace, and by the time the German fleet gradually came into view, their formation was just in line.

The 12 12-inch (305 mm) guns on the Sevastopol were turned in unison towards the German fleet, and the sound and spectacle of the guns adjusting up and down, left and right, were extremely exciting. In contrast, the 11-inch (280 mm) guns on the four armored battleships in the German fleet were not only one size smaller than the main guns of the Russian battleships, but each of them had only four 40-diameter 11-inch guns on a twin turret in the front and rear, and the combined firepower of the four German armored battleships was barely comparable to that of a Gangut-class battleship. At this time, the formation was also not good for the Germans, the German fleet and the Russian fleet were in a T-line, and only the front main guns on the German ships could exert their power, while the Russian fleet could fire 36 heavy shells of 305 mm at a time at the German fleet. Although the main guns of these two fleets were somewhat overshadowed by the 13.5-inch (343 mm) main guns of the world's latest trend of warships, this did not affect the tense atmosphere of the battle between the two sides.

At the Pokhara naval base, the Russian officials who had come to greet the Tsar were already trapped, and the revolutionaries were waiting for the Tsar to fall into the trap, but the sudden appearance of the German fleet made the whole situation delicate. On the shore defense batteries in Pokhala, the revolutionary soldiers who were ready to fight at any time could not help but be at a loss, they did not even know which fleet to aim their guns at, whether it was the Tsarist fleet with the blue and white St. Andrew's flag or the German fleet with the Black Vulture crusade flag. Fortunately, both fleets were out of range at this time, and the revolutionaries avoided an awkward choice.

In the command room of the armored battleship "Essen", the interim commander of the German Baltic Fleet, Rear Admiral Yanich, looked at the sea in the distance with a somber on his face. His plane had sent back a detailed report that after the first air raid, there were three dreadnought battleships, five destroyers, and four coastal defense ships in that Russian fleet not far behind them.

"4 triple turrets, arranged in the center line, all main guns can be concentrated on the side of the ship for a salvo!" General Yanich put down the telegram sent back by the reconnaissance plane, and soon his staff officer also found a line drawing of the battleship in the safe in a pile of intelligence drawings.

"This is actually information from 1910, which is really laughable!" Yanic picked up the drawing, and the number in the corner indicated the age when the information was obtained. Those Russian destroyers and coastal defense ships were not worth mentioning for Yanich's fleet at all, but the strength of those 3 battleships surprised him a little. Although the German Navy had long known that the Russians were building battleships of this class, the Russians' economic and shipbuilding prowess did not worry them too much, not to mention that the German Navy's great enemy had always been the British. However, after 5 long and tortuous years of construction, these Russian warships appeared on the battlefield.

Compared with the three newly launched Russian battleships with a displacement of 25,000 tons, the battleships in the hands of Rear Admiral Yanich really looked a little shabby. "Essen" with a displacement of 16,000 tons and launched in 1905, "Buko" with a displacement of 13,000 tons and launched in 1903, "Wansai" with a displacement of 15,000 tons and launched in 1905 and "Lubas" with a displacement of 13,000 tons and launched in 1904.

"General, the other side has entered our firing range, do you want to open fire?"

Yanich looked at the Russian battleship in the distance without looking back, as if he could see that many of the main guns on it were also ready to shoot. There was not much difference in the range between the two sides, but with the calibration of German aircraft, the German fleet would shoot more accurately at long distances.

"Turn 70 degrees to the right and keep parallel to the Russian fleet! The battleships began to shoot! ”

In a wave of sound and air, the German battleship opened fire. Not to be outdone, the Russian fleet began to return fire, the first wave of shells of the German fleet fell three or four hundred meters to the left of the Russian army, and the Russian shells that fell later were almost this distance from the German fleet, but the water column splashed by the Russian shells looked much more powerful.

A few minutes later, the German fleet completed its turn. At this time, the Russian fleet headed in a single column toward the port of Pokhara to the northwest, while the German fleet sailed in a double column to the southeast, approaching the Russian fleet with four armored battleships and two cruisers, and the other with the remaining destroyers, seaplane carriers, and submarines, and the two fleets were advancing in opposite parallel directions at a distance of 11,000 yards.

The German planes quickly sent back the correction data, the gunners on the German battleship after nervously correcting the firing of Zhu Yuan, the front and rear main guns together carried out a second salvo, this time the shells landed much closer to the Russian fleet, the shells set off a splash made the Russian battleship drenched, and the Russian destroyers following the battleship were even more up and down in the waves.

In contrast, the second salvo of the Russian fleet was not only much later than the German fleet, but also the artillery fire was more scattered. First, the caliber of the Russian main guns was larger, and second, the Russian battleships were filled with some sailors who were not very skilled. On the battleships "Petropavlovsk" and "**** Hove", the original positions were not fully manned, and the novices were constantly nervous about making mistakes, so that half a minute after the second fire of the "Sevastopol", the two battleships opened fire one after another. Nevertheless, on the German armored battleships, the German sailors felt their ships shaking badly.

Although no warship has been shot, General Yanić already has a faint feeling in his heart that the firepower of the two sides is not at the same level at all, and it is very likely that he will not be able to take advantage of it in this way.

At this time, on the Russian battleship "Sevastopol", General Kolchak felt deeply uneasy every time he heard the sound of German battleships firing, lest a German shell hit his battleship and hurt which prince and nobleman.

Neither commander wanted their fleets to be damaged, but both sides hit each other in the third and fourth salvos. The German fleet concentrated all its firepower on the battleship "**** Hoff" at the forefront of the Russian fleet, and more than a dozen water columns rose around the huge battleship, and two shells directly hit the middle chimney of the ship and a gun silhouette secondary gun on the port side, and the billowing smoke came out of the breach of the Russian ship, and soon most of the battleship was shrouded in black smoke.

Although the Russian naval gunnery was poor, their massive artillery fire hit the German armored battleship "Buko" in a subsequent salvo, and the German ship's front deck was ablaze, but fortunately its front main turret was not damaged, which did not make matters worse for the German fleet, which was already at a disadvantage.

However, after this strike, the commanders of both sides became more cautious, and the Russian fleet shifted northward, increasing the distance between the two fleets to 13,000 yards, while the German fleet did not close the distance. At this distance, the artillery of both sides ejected and there was no other use than the blasting of water. Eventually, the Russian fleet slowly sailed to the port of Pokhara, while the German fleet made a big turn and began to cruise in waters outside the range of the Russian batteries. German seaplanes returned to the mothership to replenish fuel and ammunition, actively preparing for the next bombing.