After the departure of the Kaiyuan, the Russian main fleet suddenly felt a lighter pressure, except for the news of the sinking of the Tatar, which made everyone feel sorry, the whole of Russia was relaxed, no one was following, and the future was bright. The joy of returning home diluted the sorrow of the destruction of friendly troops. In any case, at least so far, the Russian fleet has made a profit, the South Sea Fleet has sunk one, the other is estimated to have lost its repair value, and three transport ships have been sunk, and thousands of tons of supplies have sunk to the bottom of the sea. Although the results are not much, but it does disrupt the Beiyang plan, if the fleet does not move, let the Beiyang hit their own doorstep, maybe the entire Russian Far East Fleet will be finished, the Russian Navy with 6 warships dragged almost all of the opponent's fleet, for the deployment and maintenance of Hokkaido to win time, from this point of view, Essen has done quite well, if he can bring the rest of the fleet back safely, then this voyage is also a success!

But will the Russian fleet be able to return safely? Has the Russian fleet really broken away from the encirclement of the Beiyang Fleet? Maybe ordinary Russian officers and soldiers will answer in the affirmative, but Essen will not, after repeated measurements and calculations, Essen found that although there is no Beiyang fleet in the visual range, but according to the speed and range of the movement of the two sides, not to mention anything else, at least Deng Shichang's fleet should be nearby, because the Kaiyuan must have sent a telegram to the Beiyang detachments before leaving, at least Deng Shichang's fleet is enough to catch up with the Russian fleet that was slowed down because of seriously injured warships, but not now, what is this for?

There is only one explanation, that is, the Beiyang Fleet arranged a huge blockade line on its periphery, and then gradually compressed the encirclement until it was surrounded by the fleet led by itself, if Essen guessed correctly, all the Beiyang warships have completely blocked all the sea except for the continental direction and some parts of the south. If the Russian fleet continues to move south. The ultra-long range will eventually deplete the few fuels that the Russian fleet has left! That is to say, if further south, there is no need to attack in the North Ocean, the Russians themselves will give themselves an account! Unless a group of Russians goes south to French Vietnam and then is disarmed until the end of the war!

"It might be a good idea to let the Falk Hill fleet break away and sail south." Essen pondered. If it goes south, if the Beiyang Fleet wants to pursue, it will inevitably send a detachment to follow it south, so that there will be a loophole in the Beiyang encirclement network, and it will win time for the detachment led by itself to withdraw from the battlefield, if the Beiyang does not send the fleet to the south to pursue. Two armored cruisers of the Sea of Azov will be able to go to Vietnam, and although they will be disarmed, they will at least save the lives of the battleship and its crew.

This seemed like a good idea, and when the suggestion came out of the mouth of a certain Russian officer, many even wanted to pull the entire fleet to the territory of the French. But Essen immediately rejected the plausible proposal. Joke, if your two capital ships go south together. Then what awaits you will make an endless chase! The Beiyang Fleet will bring all the ships to maximum speed and chase them all the way! Until then. The remaining fuel of the Russian fleet was simply not enough to go to Vietnam, and this would only lead to the total annihilation of the entire fleet. The fundamental reason why there is a chance that two armored cruisers of the Sea of Azov will survive is not the Russians, but that there are more important things to do in the North Ocean!

More importantly, if Essen pulls the entire fleet away, even if it succeeds. The battleship was saved. It will also cause the defense of Muroran Port to be empty, and the Far East Fleet, which only has two battleships that have not been completely repaired, will not be able to deal with the attack and defense of Muroran Port against the attack of the Beiyang, I am afraid that even the Japanese one will not be able to deal with it! It can't be beaten, but it has an advantage in speed. Enough for this ship to cruise around Russian waters! So, Essen had to bring at least the Prince and the Russian back to the port of Muroran.

"Have a safe journey!" Essen signaled to Mount Faulk. Having received the order, Falk Hill decided to sail south until it reached the territory of some neutral country, and then was disarmed and waited for the war to end! But at this moment, a column of smoke appeared from the southeast where the water and sky met, and Essen immediately ordered a halt to the operation. In this sea area, the Russians have no friends, only enemies!

"The scale will not be very large, it is estimated that it is a detachment of the Beiyang." Looking at the sparse few masts that appeared in the telescope, Essen's heart, which had already mentioned that the throat was back in the chest. The number of battleships is not much, and the speed does not seem to be very fast, if the other party is also unable to travel at high speed because of mechanical problems and fuel problems, Essen even plans to send 5 battleships on hand to fight with the opponent's 2 battleships, although the 5 battleships are all injured, and even two are seriously injured, but Essen has a self-confident numerical advantage to completely defeat the two armored cruisers in the Beiyang!

"Ugh." Ten minutes later, Esen looked at the battleship in front of him, and couldn't help swallowing his saliva, the ambition that he was about to eat the Beiyang Detachment just now disappeared in an instant! The fighting spirit was extinguished in an instant! It is true that he is facing a detachment of the Beiyang, and it is not wrong that it is two ships, but these two ships are the most powerful Dante-class battleships in the Beiyang and even in the entire Far East, the Pinghai and Jinghai! This is a sea monster designed for decisive battles! It is the ultimate killer that can tear apart any existence on the sea! As early as the Spanish-American War, their quasi-sibling ships had sworn their strength to the world with their powerful firepower, and now, these two most terrifying behemoths have appeared in front of Essen, a total of 12 12-inch guns are enough to damage any warship in the Russian fleet! Even if the Prince can protect the core module with heavy armor, with the damage of the flying core module, the Prince may still be sent to the bottom of the sea by other Beiyang warships that have been rushed to the bottom due to too much water or too serious damage!

"What should I do?" Looking at the battleships of the Northern Fleet approaching at a speed of 18 knots, Essen muttered to himself while wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. 18 knots is not fast, at least now the Prince and Vostok can be thrown away at a higher speed, but what about the Fork Hill fleet and the Russia? The Parada in the Falk Hill fleet was seriously damaged, and it couldn't run at a high speed of 19 knots at all, and the Russian looked at the state, if these few battleships were thrown away, the Russian Far East Fleet would already exist in name only, after all, this was only the first wave of interceptions! But if he stayed, Essen really didn't have the confidence to face two 15,000-ton battleships!

"Fight, order the fleet to prepare to engage the enemy!" Looking at the increasingly clear enemy ship and the 12-inch cannon on it, Essen finally decided to fight to the death, after all, he still has a firepower projection advantage on his side, and if he attacks with high-explosive shells after approaching, it is estimated that he can still force the opponent back! As for how to approach quickly, Essen's plan is to use the Prince and the Russian to attract each other's firepower, and then provide opportunities for the 3 weak ships behind! When the two sides are only about 3000 meters, the Russians will give full play to their numerical superiority in artillery, and of course, if they can, the Russians are even ready to launch a lightning strike!

"The Russians are going to fight hard!" Looking at the Russian fleet rushing in a single column, Liu Buyun said with a smile. From the formation of the Russians, Liu Buyun can clearly know the other party's thoughts! "It's a good idea, it depends on whether you can withstand my hammer being hammered by the Beiyang Battlefleet!" Liu Buyun said contemptuously!

With the new gunpowder and ranging system, the Pinghai and Jinghai aimed at the Taizi, which was rapidly approaching and did not maneuver, and when the distance between the two sides was about 8 km, the Beiyang battleship detachment quickly turned a compass point to the right under the leadership of the Pinghai, exposing the side side. 12 12-inch guns and 12 6-inch rapid-fire guns stared coldly at the approaching Russian fleet at high speed, the crosshairs in the rangefinder on the upper part of the hull mast were rigidly covered by the Prince, and the guns were making the most final adjustments, preparing for the earth-shattering blow.

"Fire!" As the firing bell transmitted the data to the various gun positions, all the main guns completed the final adjustment, and under the command of the gun commander, the 12 12-inch guns of the two battleships finally spit out deadly fire! The sidelines of the two Beiyang giant ships suddenly burst out with large clouds of flames and smoke, and a huge shock wave hit the sea surface, and water ripples appeared!

At that time, I only heard a loud bang like thunder, and then the flanks of the two Beiyang battleships were shrouded in fire and smoke. Then a burst of sounds like a train coming at high speed reached my ears, which were already a little numb. A few seconds later, the Prince was enveloped in a dense rain of bullets! Afterwards, an officer aboard the Prince recalled.

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble! 12 shells fell one after another around the Prince, and a huge column of water formed a water curtain to cover the Prince! "Turn around, immediately prepare for engagement!" After roughly estimating the distance, Essen immediately ordered the fleet to open up the battle formation. Although the two sides still have a distance of about 5KM, in the face of such a fierce shelling, Essen suddenly became less confident in the protection of the Prince!

"Damn" accompanied Essen's curse, the hull shook, and a bright yellow flame rose from behind the side of the control tower. "Report the loss!" Essen exclaimed. "The bridge of the navigation ship was destroyed." A minute later, an officer said.

"It's okay, it's not a big deal!" Just after Essen said this, the hull of the ship shook violently! There was a ball of flames rising from the side side, and the shock wave of the huge explosion swept across the entire bridge, and the visible air wave mixed with debris poured out of the bullet! "We were destroyed with a 6.4-inch gun, which was detonated along with the cartridge pack on the gun emplacement." This time, the subordinates learned to be smart. Without waiting for Essen to ask, he immediately confessed!

"Engage in battle immediately and let the Russia share the pressure for us!" Esen ordered as he looked at the battleship that had been hit twice in a row by a 12-inch bomb. Subsequently, the Prince turned ahead of schedule, and the Russian ships behind also followed the turn, because the turn was advanced, and the Russian fleet did not reach the best distance to exert its own firepower, which was about 1KM behind. And it was this distance that allowed the medium-caliber rapid-fire guns that the Russians were heavily equipped with failed to give full play to their power!

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