Compared with the British-class dreadnoughts with 135-inch guns, the 35-mm 5-caliber guns that the King-class was originally intended to use were slightly lacking in firepower. At the request of Wilhelm II, the "King" class was replaced with a 35-mm gun.

In May 1916, all four "King" class battleships participated in the Battle of Jutland, and as the "second main force" of the High Seas Fleet, they fought to the death with the British fleet, sinking many British ships and making great achievements. However, the four "kings" were also severely injured because of the long battle, and after the war, all of them were docked for overhaul, and with the frantic efforts of the German workers, they were repaired only three months later. The repaired "King" class ships and the "Byrne" class ships frequently attacked the British coast, causing great panic among the British people. In addition to the Crown Prince William, three other ships of the King class entered the Sea of Ronaldo in January 1917 to join combat operations against Russia and sank a Russian naval battleship in a naval battle.

For the battleships of the "King" class, such a battleship as the "St. Vincent" can no longer be called an opponent.

It's just that at this time, Scheer didn't expect that in a while, the four "Byrne"-class battleships and the four "King"-class battleships he led would encounter a formidable opponent that he had never seen before.

At this time, the British fleet had realized that if it continued to fight, it was likely to face a catastrophe, and Vice Admiral Bern gave the order to "turn and evacuate" on the "Revenge", and ordered the Straight Guard to torpedo the German fleet to cover the retreat of the battleships. The British battleships, which had received the signal, began to turn around, while the British cruisers and destroyers, who were acting as direct guards, rushed up en masse, torpedoed the German fleet in the face of a hail of bullets, and then turned around and fled for their lives.

At this time, the large and small ships of the British fleet all cast smoke screens, and the sea was full of smoke for a while, and the visibility was dropping sharply, but Scheer could still see clearly through the telescope, and one after another British ** ships were desperately spitting smoke and hiding themselves in the smoke screen.

Seeing the embarrassment shown by the enemy, Scheer's heart was full of contempt, and at this time, he had long forgotten the reminder of the fleet staff before the war.

"We'll catch up and send them all to the bottom of the ocean," Scheer commanded in a loud voice.

After the Battle of Jutland, optimism prevailed in the German navy, and in the eyes of many Germans, the Great Fleet, which the British were so proud of, no longer existed, and it was no longer a problem to defeat the difficult British in the Entente.

During this time, the Germans' frequent and proactive attacks caused great disturbance and losses to the British, and many ports and shipyards were greatly damaged. And because of this optimism, the Germans did not pay attention to the navies of China, the United States and Japan stationed in Britain. The results of several skirmishes between the Germans and the Allied navies fueled the Germans' optimism and confidence in victory. At this moment, not only Schell, but all the officers and men of the German fleet did not seem to realize that the danger was quietly coming.

"Our battleship is coming."

On the bridge of the battleship "Republic", Betty, holding a telescope alof, said, "It looks like they fought a hard battle. ”

"Their situation is not good." Colonel Schneider, the American captain, said with some surprise when he saw the four British battleships that were riddled with bullets.

Listening to the American's exclamation, although Betty knew that the other party might not have any malicious intent, she couldn't help but feel annoyed in her heart.

In fact, the "Revenge" class battleships were originally built to deal with the "Byrne" class battleships, but now they are being beaten by the enemy like this, which is really a shameless thing.

In 1913, in response to Germany's construction of "Byrne"-class battleships, the British Navy budgeted for the construction of five "Revenge"-class battleships (also known as "R" class because the ships are named with the letter R). The "Revenge" class battleship has a normal displacement of 2,815 tons, a full load displacement of 315 tons, a length of 193 meters, a width of 27 meters, a draft of 92 meters, a main engine power of 4 horsepower, a high altitude of 215 knots, endurance: up to 75 nautical miles at 125 knots, 24 nautical miles at 21 knots, with 8én twin 15-inch (381 mm) 42-diameter main guns, 14én 6-inch 45-diameter secondary guns; 2én 76 mm gun; 4 underwater 533-mm torpedo tubes. 13 inches thick on the side armor belt; Main deck 3 to 1 inch; The turret was frontally armored 13 inches, the turret was 1 inch, and the conning tower was 11 inches.

The layout and weapons system of the "Revenge" class battleships were basically the same as those of the "Elizabeth NV King" class battleships, except for a shortened hull length, slightly improved protection, and a single chimney. Concerns about wartime oil supplies led to the reverting of the Revengeance's power system to coal-fired boilers during the design phase, a move that was strongly opposed by Fisher, who had been reappointed First Sea Minister in 1914. ,

A total of 5 battleships of the "Revenge" class were built, of which the "Revenge" and the "Royal Oak" took part in the Battle of Jutland. During the battle, the "Royal Oak" was hit by the main turret of the German battleship "Baden", causing the bomb to detonate and finally sink. The Revenge was also badly damaged in the Battle of Jī, and after discovering deficiencies in the design of turret protection and fire protection measures (a common problem for British battleships and battlecruisers), the British Admiralty urgently overhauled the remaining battleships. However, due to financial problems, only a small part of the conversion was completed.

And now, the consequences of the British stinginess in funding are being revealed.

For the British naval officers and men, their opponents, the German-built "Byrne"-class battleships, had become their nightmares.

Inspired by the British Navy's "King Elizabeth NV" class battleships equipped with 15-inch guns, the German Navy began to design and build "Byrne" class battleships equipped with 38 mm guns, and approved the construction budget in 1913.

The battleships of the "Byrne" class had a standard displacement of 2853 tons and a full load displacement of 322 tons. The ship is 18 meters long, 3 meters wide and has a draft of 939 meters. The power system uses 11 "Sannikrovt" coal-fired boilers, 3 steam turbines, and the main engine power is 48 horsepower. The flight is 23 knots, and the cruising capacity is 12 knots at 5 knots.

The Byrne-class battleships had 8 twin 38 mm 45 x diameter guns, four twin turrets, the twin main gun turrets were arranged in the same front and rear hull symmetry as the Elizabeth NV class, two "piggyback" layouts, and 16 15 mm secondary guns, 1 88 mm guns, and five 6 mm underwater torpedo tubes.

The protection-conscious Germans designed the armor of the "Byrne" class battleships to be very powerful, with a large side armor belt of 35 mm, and its broadside and horizontal armor thickness was far greater than that of the British Navy's "Elizabeth NV King" class battleships, and its turret frontal armor was 35 mm thick; The conning tower is 35 mm thick and has three armor decks, each nearly 3 to 4 mm thick, and the total weight of the armor of the "Byrne" class is about 1 ton more than that of the "Elizabeth NV King" class, and the protection range is comprehensive. In order to raise the degree of shè strike, the Germans also designed a sturdy three-legged mast with an advanced shè strike commander on the mast tower. Fearing that Britain and Russia would monopolize the crude oil of the two major oil-producing areas of B&B and Baku during the war, the Byrne-class battleships used coal-fired boilers for their power systems (the Saxony was equipped with a cruising diesel engine).

The four ships of the same class of the "Byrne" class battleship all participated in the Battle of Jutland, which shocked the world, and achieved impressive results, and was able to attract the attention of the world with its powerful firepower and outstanding protection. After the Battle of Jutland, the four ships of the "Byrne" class went into battle several times and swept the coast of Britain, while the "Revenge" class, which the British originally used to deal with the battleships of the "Byrne" class, did not play its due role at all. In this battle, Xiang was reduced to a bait that attracted the "Byrne" class into the ambush circle.

"We can't see them anymore."

Seeing that the four "Revenge" class battleships were still desperately pulling smoke to cover themselves, Xu Zhenpeng felt a little amused, but also frightened by the strong combat power of the German fleet.

The battleships of the British Empire, which once dominated the seven seas, pulled smoke and fled for their lives, and the Germans were the first to do it.

The sirens were constantly sounding, and at this time, the heavy mine-loaded light cruiser "Hainan," which was on the vanguard reconnaissance mission of the Chinese fleet, had already broken out of the smoke screen released by the British, and not long after, the German fleet appeared in front of it.

"Report the flagship immediately, the enemy ship is now." The captain of the ship, Major Wei Lunze, who was standing on the bridge of the "Hainan", put down the binoculars in his hand and gave the battle order, "Prepare for battle." ”

At this time, the direct guard ships of the German fleet also appeared "Hainan" and rushed over while firing their guns.

Wei Lunze sneered, and under his command, the cruiser "Hainan" turned around sharply, rushed out of the barrage of German ships, and sailed to one side together with the two other Chinese destroyers that rushed up.

The German cruiser "Hamerin", which rushed ahead, saw this scene and did not notice anything wrong, and at this time, the people on the German ** ship were a little suspicious about the origin of these warships with the "human" flag that they had never seen before, but they did not stop until they saw the figure of the giant ship in front of them.

First, the huge mast pierced the sea level, and then the silhouettes of the huge battleships appeared.

When he saw the giant battleship that appeared in front of him with the "human" flag hoisted, the telescope in the hand of the captain of the "Hamerin," Major Root, unconsciously fell off his hand. ,

Although he is not yet clear about the "change of flag" of the Chinese Navy, judging from the big Chinese character "person", these giant ships that appeared in front of him are the legendary Chinese battleships.

“…… Just now all of us were joking with each other, saying that the Chinese did not have a navy at all, and their battleships were just a joke, but now, after all of us saw the appearance of the enemy, no one could laugh. "I saw a large warship that I had never seen before, and it gave me the feeling of being tall, magnificent, and murderous, and we adjusted the rangefinder and telescope, magnified it twice, and I could see that the cruisers and destroyers, which I had never seen before, were heading to the side, as if trying to dodge the blow of the coming giant shells." Very, the real enemy appeared, and sure enough, it was a huge ship with a tonnage of close to 5 tons, and our ship also began to turn the rudder and withdraw together with the destroyer torpedo boat, because we all understood that after a moment of fighting, we were afraid that we would not be of much help. ”

Not long after, the German battlefleet also appeared with the enemy.

“…… Although the weather was not very good, and the smoke on the sea had not dispersed, I was still able to make out the figure of the enemy's cruiser, which was a beautiful-looking ship, and it should have been an enemy reconnaissance ship, and when it saw us, it turned around and disappeared, and then I saw the vague figures of several other cruisers or destroyers, and they were also leaving, and I suddenly realized that the enemy's capital ship might be right in front of me, I remembered the stories I got from the Admiralty about these battleships that the Americans had built according to the design drawings provided by the Chinese and were hesitating to fight them, and the enemy appeared at this time. Betty recalled, "The six were gray and black in appearance, tall and large, like giants of antiquity, gasping for breath and moving towards us with heavy steps, making people shudder......"

After the war, Scheer recorded what he saw with his pen in this way:

“…… The staff officers around me were counting the number of enemies, there were six enemy battleships, they seemed to be moving mountains in the sea, because we were chasing the British battleships, at this time it happened to be in a state of opposite direction to the enemy ships, watching these steel monsters grow bigger in the enclave, and the guns pointed at us, I suddenly felt danger in my heart, I remembered the advice of my subordinates, and later many people in the country accused me of cowardice, I admitted, I was indeed scared at that time, And because the enemy is too strong and afraid. I immediately ordered all ships to turn in place and retreat immediately. I'm still glad I was able to make that decision decisively......"

Before the two sides were close to the J battle distance, the eight German battleships began to make a 180-degree turn and perform a rare "enemy front turn" maneuver, while at the same time, the German cruisers and destroyers rushed up again, this time it was the turn of the Germans to desperately cast smoke and torpedo attacks.

The battle began between the light ships, and the "Hamerin" rushed to the first Chinese battleship, and successively shuffled out torpedoes, and the Chinese battleships immediately appeared on the surface of the sea with a torpedo track, and began to turn to evade, watching this huge battleship flexibly turn its body on the sea, the Germans could not help but express their sincere admiration for its excellent NT ability.

The first round of torpedo attacks by the German light ships did not lead to any success, and all shè's torpedoes were deftly evaded by the Chinese battleships, and the Germans paid a great price for this. And such a result was not caused by the secondary guns of the Chinese battleships, but by the direct guards of the Chinese battlefleet.

After seeing the German fleet turn and feel the enemy's torpedo attack, the light escort ships of the Chinese fleet rushed up to drive away the Germans, and the Chinese cruisers and destroyers began to fire fiercely, and the two Chinese light cruisers actually shuffled out their torpedoes when they faced the German cruisers on the side side, and the cruiser "Wittenberg" was caught off guard, and was immediately hit by a torpedo in the middle of the hull, which broke into two with a loud bang, and disappeared into the sea.

When the Chinese direct guards opened heavy fire on the German light ships, the Chinese battleships that had rearranged the array also began to fire with secondary guns, and for a time the dim sea was full of bullets and firestreams, and the German cruisers and destroyers were instantly shrouded in layers of barrage, and another, German destroyer "V25" was hit and died in a series of explosions.

At this time, all the German battleships had completed the "enemy front turn" action, the four "King" class battleships that were originally in the rear position of the fleet became the front team, and the four "Byrne" class battleships became the rear team, all the German ships wanted to get out of the battlefield, and it seemed that they were about to succeed.

But what the Germans did not expect was that the Chinese battleships were much more than them.

After the escape of the Juede, Betty ordered the Chinese battleships to "pursue in full", and the six "Republica" class battleships began to add one after another, starting the pursuit at a height of nearly 26 knots.

When he saw the figure of the Chinese battleship appear behind him again, Scheer could hardly believe his eyes.

Scheer did not know that the steam turbines used by the "Republican" class battleships were small in size but huge in horsepower, and they used the "Wilcox" boiler that burned heavy oil, and the test high voyage could reach an astonishing 31 knots, and in ordinary training, it also ran a 28-knot course, and at this time it was not too difficult for the "Republic" class battleships to pursue at 26 knots, while the "Byrne" class battleship was 23 knots, and if you want to run out of this degree, you have to risk burning out the boiler.