This large-scale battle was first fought in the southern waters of Gotland, Sweden, originally Nikolai did not want his precious battleships to fight the Germans, his intention was only to attract the first detachment of the German High Seas Fleet to the eastern Baltic Sea, and it was too late to go back to reinforce the Gulf of Helgoland, but unfortunately his fleet commander Rozhestvensky was not as smart as Holzendorf, and he was blocked by Holzendorf who calculated the route in the process of hide and seek between the two fleets.

In the Baltic Sea near November, the howling cold wind mixed with snowflakes, the low-hanging lead-colored clouds pressed on the surging waves, the heavy water vapor obscured the view of the high-precision optical instruments on these steel giants, and some unexpected factors, the main fleets of the two sides were close to each other until a distance of ten kilometers. Suddenly, countless battle sirens sounded on the entire sea surface almost at the same time, and the sailors who had been waiting for a long time quickly entered the combat state, and in the armored fire control room, the shooting commanders began to receive the number of targets reported by the observers in various positions of the battleship by telephone, and then the staff officers began to manually calculate these numbers, and immediately notified the turrets by telephone after the results were obtained as quickly as possible, and then the gunners adjusted the direction and the pitch angle of the guns.

The capital ships of the two sides are almost identical, the five Braunschweig-class of the Germans and the four Gangut-class of the Russians are not only from the same shipyard, but there is no difference in even the type of ship, they are all reduced versions of the Kunlun-class battleships of the Chinese Navy. At this point, it was clear that the Germans were superior, and the five Braunschweig-class fast battleships were the first to aim at the fifty 280 guns on the port side, and as the first main gun of the Braunschweig was the first to breathe flames, in the next few seconds, the remaining forty-nine main guns were fired one after another, and the huge battleships were pushed by the recoil almost simultaneously in the opposite direction of the sea. In the short and dense sound of discharge, PAO bullets swept across the sea with a palpitating roar.

And at this moment, in the background of clouds and snowflakes in the distance, on those looming Russian battleships, a little fire flashed, and then a flash of fire, the Russians also fired, followed by the twenty-four 305 main guns of the remaining three battleships on both sides also opened fire one after another.

In a hasty encounter, both sides missed the first round of shooting, but just after the water column was raised. The Germans were the first to fire, and this time they had their first hit, when a 280 piercing bomb fired from the Alsace hit the Russians' Sevastopol No. 1 turret, but was unfortunately bounced off by the solid armor and exploded in mid-air.

After understanding that at such a distance, it was impossible for either side to penetrate the other's armor, the two fleets approached each other at high speed with a tacit understanding, and even stopped firing and no longer wasting PAO shells, just when the distance was reduced to seven kilometers. Almost instantly, all the main guns of the battleship roared at the same time, and under the clouds, dozens of meters long, the muzzle flames pointed directly at each other looked extremely magnificent in the surging black waves, of course, for the soldiers on these battleships, this scene was more than spectacular.

The effect of the closer distance is immediate. Both the hit rate and the power of the piercing bomb all rose in a straight line, and in a very short time, the Germans Brunswick, Prussia. Nassau, Gangut of the Russians, Poltava. The Queen Mary was shot in all of its shells, and all of its piercing shells pierced through its armor. For a moment, in the flash of fire that exploded on the entire sea, countless fragments of steel and human bodies scattered and flew in all directions, and flames and smoke poured out from the penetrated wounds one after another. In particular, the German Nassau battle cruiser suffered the heaviest losses, this half-grade battle cruiser was the weakest capital ship on the entire battlefield, and was penetrated by a 305mm piercing bomb through the waterline armor, and the sea water was already pouring in from the wound that was blown up, but fortunately, the German battleships had a perfect watertight design, and it was completely able to withstand such injuries.

However, even if it was understood that such a distance was effective enough, the commanders of the two fleets did not stop continuing to close the distance, and the twelve battleships kept closing the distance between the two sides with two tracks stretching towards the meeting point, and at the same time the huge cannons were still pouring shells on each other at the fastest speed they could, and the exploding fires rose one after another on the battleships. In the midst of blood and fire, the loyal sailors reloaded, aimed, fired, and roared at the enemy, while the damaged soldiers in the cabin fought desperately to extinguish and drain the fire from more and more wounds, and even repaired the damaged parts, doing everything they could to ensure that their ships met the enemy with the strongest combat effectiveness.

When the distance is shortened to five kilometers, this naval battle can already be described as tragic, the hit rate of the giant PAO shells that roar across the sea has risen to a terrible proportion, and each ship will receive at least one hit record for almost every round of shooting, and each PAO shell can penetrate the target's armor no matter what angle. Even one of the Nassau's main guns was pierced through the front of the turret by a 305 piercing bomb fired from the opposite Alexander III, and then the entire turret was blown to pieces.

At such a distance, for these almost identical battleships, it is no longer the battleship itself that fights, but the courage and suzhì of the soldiers, and the tenacity of the commander, and the twelve giant battleships are like two entangled heavy armored cavalry, engaged in bloody hand-to-hand combat. Amid the roars of the officers, in the flames of the explosions, in the splashes of steel, the more than 10,000 sailors of the two fleets fought as if mechanically at their posts, killing each other with those huge naval guns, and at the same time being killed, the raging flames burning in the snow, burning on the icy sea, and painting a magnificent picture with death on the background of the clouds.

At this time, in the distant waters of western Germany, a periscope that appeared and appeared from time to time was slowly rotating in the rough waves of the North Sea, and the captain of the German U9 submarine under water, Captain Otto Vidigen, was lying on the periscope and carefully observing the sea surface. The young captain, who had just turned twenty-five this year, was already a famous hero of the German Navy, and by now he and the submarine under his command had sunk fifteen Allied merchant ships, this time returning to southern England after completing their resupply at Wilhelmshaven, where they would continue to hunt North American merchant ships.

Of course, this voyage was not safe, because Britain controlled the sea control in the North Sea, and a large number of British cruisers and destroyers were scattered in this sea area, and these anti-submarine ships equipped with hydrophones and depth charges were the main enemy of German submarines.

After searching around the sea, Captain Veddigan, who did not find the enemy, was preparing to speed up to the south, at this time a small destroyer suddenly appeared in the periscope's field of vision, and the St. George's flag fluttering on the mast made him immediately vigilant, but because the distance was too far he was not ready to dive, the British were too rudimentary hydrophones, not too close to find these submarines equipped with the latest diesel engines and gearboxes made in China, he just ordered the submarine to continue to sail slowly at a low noise speed, These destroyers all have a high speed of more than 35 knots, and it is generally difficult for a submarine to escape if it is detected by them.

Soon he found that his choice was very correct, because immediately after two more British destroyers appeared in the periscope, and then Captain Widigan didn't even dare to leave, and directly ordered to turn off the engine, and even prepared to put away the periscope and dive completely underwater, but at this time, he found that behind the three British battleships, on the background of the heavy lead-gray clouds, there seemed to be something strange, as if something huge was slowly emerging.

He couldn't help but feel a pang in his heart, and without hesitation, he stopped putting away the periscope, and continued to stare there, less than a minute later, a huge black shadow appeared in the field of vision, and then more and more of the same black shadow gradually emerged in the background of the clouds like a slowly rolled out wall, as for the front one, it has completely revealed its true face, a huge body, a towering ship, the iconic two twin knapsack turrets in the bow, and the left and right twin main guns in the ship, although it is still impossible to judge the model, But it is already undoubtedly the perfect battleship of the latest type.

Captain Verdigan gasped, but before he could wake up from the shock, then the whole person was stupid, because just behind this battleship, one battleship after another showed its majestic true face, and after less than two minutes, in the narrow field of view of the periscope, a full eight battleships had appeared, Captain Verdigan turned the periscope like crazy, and more battleships were constantly appearing, and soon the sea in front of him was densely packed with warships.

"Quick, send a report to Wilhelmshaven, the British home fleet is dispatched." Captain Verdigan, who had forgotten to keep his composure, exclaimed somewhat out of shape, but before the signal corps could send the telegram, he exclaimed, "Not only the British Home Fleet, but also the French Mediterranean Fleet, no, not only the capital ships, but also a large number of landing ships behind them." (To be continued......)