Listening to Tetsutaro Sato's words, Kanji Kato took the telegram in his hand, read it carefully, and nodded thoughtfully.

"We can take their orders, but we might as well weigh in on the timing and the way we do it." Tetsutaro Sato further said, "This telegram shows that the battlefield is currently located off the coast of Herigoland Bay, which shows that the German fleet has discovered the British attempt after the war and intends to flee back to Germany, we might as well go directly to Herigoland Bay now and block the retreat of the German fleet, the German fleet and the Chinese battleships have been fighting for so long, the damage must be very serious, we will make an ambush at their doorstep." ”

"The Germans laid a lot of mines there, which was not conducive to the maneuvering of large ships, and we had to use destroyers to launch torpedo attacks as much as possible, and finally use artillery to deal with them." Kanji Kato looked at the chief of staff of the fleet, who had always been known as a "genius" in the Navy, and agreed to his suggestion.

Kanji Kato immediately gave the order, and soon, one after another, the warships began to follow the flagship "Kurama" and sail in the direction of Helgoland Bay.

At this time, Kanji Kato didn't know that although the "genius" Tetsutaro Sato's judgment of the battlefield situation was quite accurate, what happened next was beyond their control.

"We're afraid we won't be able to go home."

On the battleship "King", Vice Admiral Barnke, who had an arm hanging from a bandage, said to the captain Brauninghouse with some despair.

Brauninghouse sighed, and just as he was about to speak, there was a piercing whistling sound outside the command tower, followed by a loud thunderous sound, Barnke and Brauninghouse both fell to the ground, a wave of heat came from the observation window, and small shrapnel hit the inner wall of the command tower, flying back and forth like bullets, and the two staff officers were hit by the vital point and fell down screaming.

The two uninjured officers helped Barnke and Brauninghouse respectively, Barnke did not care about the danger of being hit again, came to the observation window, raised the binoculars, through the smoke that filled the sea, Barnke saw the huge figure of the Chinese battleship looming in the smoke, and the flames that erupted from the muzzle of the gun from time to time flashed, and every time it flashed, Barnke's heart throbbed.

Under the desperate cover of the four "Byrne"-class battleships led by Scheer, Vice Admiral Barnke led the four "King"-class battleships to fight their way out of the encirclement and rushed towards Helgoland Bay with their lives, but their opponent, the Chinese Navy, immediately saw the clue and soon divided their forces to catch up.

Although only two Chinese battleships and their direct guards were pursued, by this time the four "King" class battleships had been wounded one by one, and the Germans had lost the courage to confront the Chinese battleships head-on.

In the battle just now, these steel monsters with 406mm cannons have proved their existence with their formidable strength.

After the split pursuit began, the battleships "Reading" and "Nation", which had not received any damage in the battle, quickly caught up with Vice Admiral Barnke's fleet by virtue of their high speed, and the "Crown Prince William", which was at the end of the column, first fell into the open fire net of the Chinese battleships, and the 18 406-mm main guns of the "Reading" and "Nation" opened heavy fire on the German ships at a distance of 11,000 yards, and all the artillery fire was concentrated on the "Crown Prince William". The "Crown Prince William" was hit by five 406-mm shells one after another, and a raging fire broke out, and soon the main turret of the "Crown Prince William" was out of order, the firepower was greatly reduced, and the speed began to slow down.

Seeing that the "Crown Prince William" had basically lost its combat effectiveness, the two Chinese battleships did not send the "Crown Prince William" to the bottom of the sea in one go, but continued to move forward at high speed, firing fiercely at the sister ship "Border Count" in front of the "Crown Prince William" at a distance of 8,000 yards.

In the face of the attack of two battleships with much greater tonnage firepower than their own, although the "Border Count" resisted hard, but it was simply unable to withstand the fierce artillery fire of the Chinese battleship, it was hit by 7 shells one after another, of which 6 were 406 mm shells, the hull of the "Border Count", which had been seriously damaged, was beaten into a mess, and the fire was scattered in all directions, because the hull was broken by the Chinese battleship in many places, the sea water rushed in, and the "Border Count" finally could not support it, and it began to shake a little, The bow section of the ship began to sink first, and the "Border Count" immediately broke away from the formation and sailed to a nearby island to run aground.

The Chinese battleship then aimed its guns at the panicked "Elector", the "Elector" was hit by 15 shells in succession, and the ship burst into flames, but because it was not hit by the vital point, and the excellent anti-sinking design of the German battleship, although the "Reading" and "Nation" poured a large number of shells on them, the German battleship that was staggering forward still stubbornly refused to sink, which surprised the Chinese and American naval officers and men on the two Chinese battleships.

After seeing that the "Elector" was also about to be crippled, the Chinese battleships began to attack the "King" with heavy artillery fire, at this time the combat distance between the two sides was close to 6,700 yards, and the dense fog on the sea surface had become thin, which made the shelling of the Chinese battleships extremely accurate, and for the "King", it was only a matter of time before it was crippled or sunk.

"Although we won against the British in Skagerrak last time, this time, on our own doorstep, we lost to the Chinese." Vice Admiral Barnke looked at the two Chinese battleships that were constantly pouring artillery fire on the "King" and sighed, "I thought we had achieved sea supremacy, but everything that has happened now shows that we were wrong." ”

"Without sea supremacy, there would be no British Empire." Brauninghouse said with a gloomy face, "Our Majesty, the Admiralty, and the General Staff should all wake up to our maritime strategy. ”

Barnke listened to Brauninghouse's words, nodded helplessly and sadly, and agreed with him.

In the 19th century, the British Royal Navy at its peak was like a domineering football team, they were accustomed to strike first, and often launched a "short-range blockade" of the hostile country's ports as soon as the war began, blocking the enemy's shipping, confining the enemy's fleet, and expelling the opponent from the sea, which can be said to be both shrewd and aggressive! However, the tide of the Industrial Revolution swept the world, limiting the hands and feet of military romantics. Coal-burning and oil-burning steam warships replaced the status of sail warships and became the backbone and protagonist of naval warfare. If we want to maintain effective sea supremacy, we can only spend more money to build more warships for rotation to ensure that there are always a sufficient number of ships on the blockade line. Such a strategy was tolerable for the deep-pocketed British Empire, but for some countries with insufficient funds, the price to pay for pursuing such an "imperialist toy" was no joke.

The British Empire, which was rich in armor all over the world, was becoming more and more struggling due to the rapid increase in naval spending, and the waters around the enemy's military ports became dangerous due to the continuous improvement of mines, torpedoes, and submarines. So in 1913, a year before the outbreak of World War I, Britain abandoned its traditional short-range blockade policy under both economic and military pressure, and began to plan a long-range blockade against Germany, the number one hypothetical enemy for many years.

The natural geography of the North Sea forms the cornerstone of a long-range blockade. The north-south British Isle is like a breakwater of more than 1,000 kilometers long, basically cutting off the North Sea from the Atlantic Ocean, leaving only two exits from the north and south. "On the eve of the war, the British Royal Navy launched three blockade fleets in the waters of the North Sea, and the "Grand Fleet", which concentrated almost all dreadnoughts, super-dreadnoughts and battle cruisers, was responsible for guarding the northern exit; Mines, former dreadnought battleships, destroyers, and submarines sealed the narrow southern outlet, the English Channel; A detachment of light cruisers and destroyers patrolled the southern part of the North Sea in response to the blockade of the two fleets in the north and south. The new policy of the British closed Germany's door to the open sea, squeezing it in the large cage of the North Sea. The retreat of the blockade did not mean that Germany would be able to sit in the cage, as the British Royal Fleet would be conducting offensive sweeps in the northern North Sea on an average of twice a week, forcing the German High Seas Fleet to risk confrontation with superior opponents on each voyage. Britain hoped to use this combination of "physical blockade" and "psychological deterrence" to firmly suppress the German navy in the Gulf of Helgoland, a corner of the North Sea.

On the other side of the sea, Germany was ignorant of the changes in tactics of its most dangerous neighbor, Britain, and for many years the Imperial German Navy had been convinced that the belligerent British would invade the Gulf of Helgoland and launch a short-range blockade of the German coast immediately after the start of the war. In this regard, the German Navy has been prepared in all aspects, and some Germans even said that "the training system of our entire fleet before the war, and even the shipbuilding policy to a certain extent and some specific details (such as the construction of a large number of lightning strike ships with a short combat radius) are based on the assumption that the British will blockade Helgoland Bay with superior fleets." "Once war breaks out, the German Navy will deploy mines, submarines, and light ships in the Helgoland Bay, use the advantage of the interior line to gradually deplete the British blockade fleet, and wait until the two sides are roughly balanced in strength before sending out battleships to fight it. The battleships and battlecruisers, which were the weapons of the decisive battle, were all moored in Jed Bay in peacetime, which was like a double-edged sword, which could reduce mechanical wear and tear and simplify maintenance, but also greatly limited the ability of the main fleet to make emergency sorties. Because first of all, the process of making a boiler fire and raising steam is time-consuming; In addition, battleships and battlecruisers with a deeper draft were limited by the water level at the mouth of the Jed River and could only pass through the high tide of about six hours in the morning and afternoon, so they could not maneuver arbitrarily between Helgoland Bay and Jed Bay. In view of the fact that the main forces of the German High Seas Fleet would one day need sufficient room for maneuver when they participated in a decisive battle in the bay, the German naval top brass also consciously limited the scope of the laying of mines.

On August 5, 1914, Britain and Germany entered a state of war. Later, when hordes of German mine-strikers and minesweepers, led by light cruisers, sailed across the empty waters of Helgoland Bay, they were surprised to find that the expected enemy "short-range blockade fleet" did not exist at all! And according to the intelligence sent by the submarines, the Germans vaguely guessed that the British fleet was consciously disengaging so as not to be consumed. The German Navy, unwilling to give up, decided to stick to the established line of thought of a war of attrition, extending the front outward, finding and clinging to the British fleet. While minelayers and submarines were heading to the British coast, the defense zone of light ships was gradually expanded, but the British were still nowhere to be seen.

The ensuing First Battle of Helgoland Bay, the Battle of the Dogger Sandbank, and the Battle of the Gulf had a major impact on German naval strategy. Although the German High Seas Fleet achieved an unprecedented brilliant victory in the Battle of Teland and successfully broke the British naval blockade, as the saying goes, "kill 10,000 enemies, lose 3,000 yourself", and the Germans themselves suffered very large losses, although the main force of the battlefleet, the four "King" class battleships and the four cutting-edge "Byrne" class battleships, are still alive, but the German Emperor Wilhelm II still regrets that his beloved treasure suffered such a loss. After the end of the Battle of Deland, in order to end the protracted war of "letting Germany shed its blood" as soon as possible, Wilhelm II once wanted to use the naval superiority of the German navy to carry out a landing operation on the British mainland, but then the naval forces of China and the United States were stationed in Britain, which made Wilhelm II and his generals dispel this idea.

Although it successfully defeated the British Royal Fleet, the British Royal Fleet still retained a certain strength and was supported by the Japanese Fleet and the Chinese Fleet, but William II was not sure that the "Two Oceans Navy", which the Americans had been building vigorously from 1910 to 1914, had always been closely connected with the British.

With the prospect of victory on the Western Front, Wilhelm II was reluctant to let the German Navy, which was weaker than the army and lacked a chance of victory, take risks, and in his view, after the German army defeated France, a complete German high seas fleet would become a major weight in the peace talks with Britain. Based on this, Wilhelm II ordered the German fleet "to maintain the offensive while trying to avoid combat activities that could lead to greater losses." Although after the Battle of Deland, the German fleet made several sorties, swept the British coast, and caused great damage to the British shipbuilding industry, but these victories played a limited role in improving the German strategic environment and submarine warfare, which continues to expand. After that, under the influence of the Battle of Caofeidian in the east, the German Navy laid a large number of mines in the Helgoland Bay, and the patrols of the former light ships were greatly reduced, and the released forces were invested in other more urgent tasks (submarine warfare), and the battle cruiser fleet was never extinguished at the mouth of the Jed River, and always maintained a squadron of battleships in combat readiness; Single-ship combat is also strictly prohibited. This change has only just begun to be implemented, and it has indeed caused a great obstacle to the British. The British Royal Navy, which had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Deland, regrouped after receiving the support of its allies and attempted to break into the Helgoland Bay again to carry out a sneak attack and ambush operation against the German Navy. However, the Germans were already aware of the British plan, and the British fleet, which was tasked with decoying the enemy, never encountered a single German ship. The British planned to repeat the same trick at another time, but in the course of the plan, they received reports from submarines that a large number of newly laid minefields had been discovered in the harbor, so that the British subsequently canceled this plan of "luring the enemy, ambushing, and gathering and destroying" and instead waited wholeheartedly for the regain superior forces and fought another magnificent fleet decisive battle with the Germans.

Many of the German High Seas Fleet commanders did not agree with Wilhelm II's conservative naval strategy. They knew very well that since the British Empire controlled the largest shipbuilding industry in the world, as well as huge wealth, it was only a matter of time before a more powerful battlefleet was conjured up, not to mention that they had the United States, the "factory of the world", behind it. For Germany, if Germany wants to build a fleet of the same size, it will take more time due to the limitations of resources, financial resources and manpower. If the German navy had not taken advantage of the short-lived superiority of the great victory at the Battle of Deland, it would not be long before the tide was reversed again.

And the facts that followed showed that the fears of the German admirals were not unreasonable.

What the Germans did not expect was that the British, faced with the astonishing losses caused by the Battle of Deland, would actually think of using the resources, industry, and technology of the United States, China's manpower, and British money to create a "Allied fleet" in a short period of time to replace the "Grand Fleet" in order to turn the tide of the war.

(To be continued)