As the sun sets, the moon rises, and the light in the sky and sea dims rapidly, leaving only a hazy blue-black glow. The cannon roared, the water waves surged, and the golden, purple, orange and red muzzle flames lit up one after another, like a dazzling sunset reappearing in the sky.

On the battleship Orion, Betty looked at the two Austro-Hungarian Radec-class battleships that were caught in a sea of fire not far away, and finally pulled out a smile at the corner of her cold mouth. In the face of the Austro-Hungarian dreadnought with a large area of 11 inches (280mm), Betty embarrassingly recreated the situation of being invincible to enemy warships in the naval battle of Helgoland Bay; However, this time, his fleet firepower was obviously much stronger than the last five battle cruisers. Under the thunderous onslaught of a horrific artillery group of 72 13.5-inch (343mm) guns, the two Austro-Hungarian battleships were finally incapacitated by the incessant explosions, and now even God himself could not undo their fate.

"Boom! Rumble! There was a shocking sound, and the side of the Austro-Hungarian battleship, whose hull was tightly tilted, suddenly rushed up several towering columns of water. After evacuating the surviving personnel on board, the Austro-Hungarian torpedo boats reluctantly fired torpedoes at the two ships, which had once carried the pinnacle and glory of the red and white crown flags, to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. Seeing this scene, the sailors of the British fleet were all thunderous with joy. After suffering humiliating defeats at the Battle of the Gulf of Helgoland and the Battle of the South China Sea, the Royal Navy finally won a hearty victory: three enemy dreadnoughts were sunk in quick succession, and the enemy was only hit by a few shells wounded by flesh. In a trance, the invincible fleet that Nelson commanded back then that crisscrossed thousands of waves and dominated the billions of oceans is now back!

"General. The sailors on the mainmast sent a report. He could no longer lock the distance of the United Forces with a rangefinder. An adjutant walked quickly into the conning tower. The discordant news was reported to Betty. Betty nodded slightly, didn't speak, her eyes just staring at the sea in the distance. Under the blue sky, a fiery shadow of a ship was struggling to move forward in the sea 11 kilometers away from him. The light of the fire reflected in Betty's blue pupils reminded him of an ochre-maned boar in the Scottish bush: a hunter's arrow in his body and a painful wound, but he always tried his best to persevere. Till death.

"Anton? House...... If it weren't for this damn war, we might have been good friends with each other, right? Betty muttered in a low voice, not knowing whether it was loss, regret, anger, or regret. In the previous battle, a well-timed cover advance by House commanding the Allied torpedo boat force, as well as the transfer of course by the Combined Forces to assess the situation, caused the British fleet, which had a speed advantage of more than 2 knots, to never get within 10,000 meters of the core capital ship to carry out a destructive close-range bombardment. And the luck of the United Forces is also quite good, there has been no more deceleration until now, according to the previous measurements of the lookout, the Austro-Hungarian flagship in the transition can still have a speed of nearly 19 knots.

Waves spray rolling. The waves are inspired, unconsciously. The waves in this sea suddenly became manic. Betty's gaze rolled and slowly swept across the battlefield. Since the British fleet had listed the dreadnoughts of the Allies as the first target as soon as it came up, the former dreadnoughts of the opposing side were ignored for a long time; Up to now, there are still six Allied ships that have fled at full speed on the sea, most of them are Austro-Hungarian Habsburg-class. These secondary capital ships, almost as thick and durable as their dreadnoughts, have been devastated by gunfire and seem to have become part of their service life. If the British battleships had been shot like these ships in the first place, they would probably have wasted a lot of time on them, giving the Allied dreadnoughts a chance to escape.

"General, are we still going to pursue the United Forces directly, or are we going to split up some of our forces to destroy those Allied sub-dreadnoughts?" Seeing that Betty was silent for a long time, a staff officer couldn't help but ask.

"The United Forces must be pursued, and House, a dangerous enemy, must not let him survive the next day!" Betty's eyes twinkled with coldness, and she had already made up her mind to kill the Austrian admiral who was twenty years older than herself. However, after a while, he seemed to think of something again, and the impulsive killing intent on his face gradually faded, replaced by a calm and solemn expression. Betty took a deep breath and then said slowly, "However, we can't try to chase after us now. This is because the Austrians are very likely to take advantage of the night to lay broken mines behind them, and we are not able to give effective warning and response to this at night. If we are too eager to win, we will most likely be bitten by this cunning serpent before we die! ”

After a moment of silence, Betty suddenly spoke: "Order, the fleet is divided into two teams, and the two battleships outflank the Austrian battleships from the left and right flanks respectively; The destroyer went 3,000 yards ahead of the capital ship to conduct reconnaissance, and the whole fleet kept the lights under control, and the destroyer immediately contacted the capital ship by light signal when it discovered any abnormal movement. ”

By this time, the sky had completely darkened, and the only source of light was left on the vast sea, the furtish red flames that burned vigorously on the Confederate battleships. During this period, British battleships also made several attempts to fire at these obvious targets, but the fire control equipment of this era was obviously not advanced enough to accurately measure the distance based on this alone. The cannonballs crashed into the sea, and the waves swayed into the sky; However, the lookout on the mainmast could not even see the bullet point, let alone correct the calibration. After a while, the British had to stop this futile attempt to waste ammunition. The British destroyer's night lightning strike operation also ended in failure, and the lineup of the Allied escort formation was still large, and the three Italian patrol ships that had not completely withdrawn from the battlefield played a decisive role.

The flames jumped, the light went out, and after the Austro-Hungarian sailors tried their best to extinguish it, the fire burning on the United Forces was finally extinguished. Seeing that the light on the target was getting dimmer and dimmer, and finally completely merged with the darkness, Betty couldn't help but feel a little anxious, and sent destroyers to test it one after another. The constant blooming of fires and rumbling sounds in the distance made his hanging heart relax again. It was originally a battle like chopping melons and vegetables, but it dragged itself out until the night, and it added so many variables, which made Betty feel both ashamed and resentful. Fortunately, his own flanks had blocked the path that the Austrians wanted to turn, and the other side was not fast enough to throw off their own fleet; When the sun rises tomorrow, I can catch this cunning mouse in one fell swoop.

The firing of small-caliber artillery in the distance continued, like a grand symphony played by an orchestra; In the countless flashes of muzzle flare, there are occasionally unusual sparks that explode out. The stars are shining, and the moon is in the sky. Gradually, Betty felt that something was wrong. With the level of Hauss in his previous command, it was impossible for him not to know that his ships could not outrun his own fleet, and it was almost inevitable for him to turn at night; Judging from the current situation reported by the destroyer detachments, they did not find the turning United Forces, and their wings of iron pincers never had prey to clamp onto. "Could it be that the Austro-Hungarian battleship has completed its displacement and resumed its speed of 21 knots, so that it dares to speed towards Istanbul on its nearest course?" Betty guessed with some uncertainty, and the two heavy brows gradually furrowed together.

Suddenly, nearly ten kilometers away, the light burst into flames, and the ammunition depot of a cannon fodder ship was detonated, releasing its extreme brilliance in the thunderous explosion. Betty's pupils contracted suddenly, and the whole person seemed to freeze in an instant. Tong Guò burst into a violent firework that exploded in an instant, and he could see the scene of the sea near the explosion point clearly. Although the area illuminated by the explosion of this cannon fodder battleship is not large, but it is more than a thousand meters in radius, Betty has been enlightened in an instant and has a complete insight into the original situation.

"Unexpectedly, John [Jericho's] cautious entrustment to me cost me a complete victory."

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The light is faint, and the brilliant morning glow has already erupted in the east.

At the mouth of the port of Taranto, Italy, a sturdy battleship is slowly approaching the harbor surrounded by four torpedo boats; It was covered in the scorched blackness of the flames and the twists of the explosions, and it was no longer able to see the majestic aura of the battle. Behind him, the six former dreadnoughts were also scarred, and the officers and men fell to the ground on the deck. Exhausted physically and mentally, they never wanted to do anything again.

Leffel slowly walked out of the conning tower, looking at the military port in front of him, which was still sleeping in the morning light, and his heart was surging; Happy, emotional, sad, sad...... Eventually, it merged into a strong bitterness that grabbed him from the throat where he wanted to speak. The roaring capital ship group before the expedition was only left with only two poor Queen Elena class dreadnoughts left after four days; Even if five ships successfully escaped into the Aegean Sea, the loss of nearly 90,000 tons of its fleet was definitely a pain in the bones for the Italian Navy. Until the training of the two Count Cavour-class battleships is completed, the Italian Navy will no longer be able to stir up trouble in the Mediterranean.

A few steps away, the white-haired House stood side by side with him, his thin and yellowed face with the same heavy expression. In this service, the Austro-Hungarian Navy not only lost 2 dreadnoughts and 2 dreadnoughts, but also sank more than a dozen torpedo boats, which was also a huge blow to their already weak naval strength. Had it not been for the fact that the United Forces had escaped by chance, the Austro-Hungarian fleet's voice in the Mediterranean would have reverted to the situation that had been completely ignored before the 20th century. Thinking of the perpetrators of this tragedy, House couldn't help but clench his fists and said hatefully: "British, it is time for you to bear the combined power of our allies." (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly pass support of the new demon retreat and "E" cool to the end ~~~