Black clouds roll, undulating waves; On the rough sea, a majestic fleet is splitting through the layers of waves, moving steadily at a speed slightly higher than when cruising. From a bird's eye view, 24 majestic and majestic behemoths are lined up in six columns and four rows at intervals of about 2,000 yards, surrounded by countless light ships. About 500 yards in front of its center, another battleship, like a floating island in the sea, strutted at the head of the queue. On the tall triangular mast that towers like a forest, the St. George's cross flag with red stripes on a white background is hunting and resounding in the wind, even if it is more than ten kilometers away, an irresistible momentum has come to the face.

On the "Trafalgar", the general flagship of the main fleet, the thin and solemn commander of the Grand Fleet, John? Admiral Jericho stood long in the navigation room, looking at the vast group of ships with almost no end in sight, and a trace of long-lost pride also sprouted in his heart. Before the outbreak of war, every exercise of the Grand Fleet would give people such a real sense of the Royal Navy's mastery of the seas, and this time was no exception. Although he had strongly opposed the Grand Fleet against the German navy at this time, now that the matter had come to this, all he could do was to win the battle for Britain!

"Your Excellency, the battleship Thunder has sent a signal that the rotor of the first turbine of the battleship Orion has overheated and deformed, and several seals of the main steam turbine of the fourth turbine have also leaked, and these two sets of turbines have been forced to shut down." An adjutant hurried into the navigation room and reported the ill-timed news to Jericho, "For now. The battleship could only run up to 17 knots. And there is no guarantee for the other two sets of turbines. There will be no problems in the case of full load operation. ”

The muscles on Jericho's face twitched slightly, and he said lightly: "What about the other battleships?" ”

"The Conqueror has 3 boiler bursts, the Monarch's propeller shaft has vibrated beyond the normal range, and the Thor's main steam pipe has also leaked slightly, and their maximum output can only reach about 80%~90% of the rated power. The four giant-class battleships of the Fifth Battleship Detachment have not yet received a malfunction report, but they have only had time to scrape the bottom of the ship for less than half a day, and their maximum speed can only barely reach 19.5 knots. The adjutant groaned for a moment, then replied. In addition, the main condenser of the Ajax of the First Battlefleet also failed, and the boilers did not have sufficient feed water, and the current speed was also unable to reach 20 knots. ”

Section Chief Jerry let out a sigh of relief, and a solemn cloud appeared on his face that had finally been relaxed. Although he had long been mentally prepared for the overall condition of the Orions returning from the expedition, he did not expect that their mechanical reliability would be so redundant.

In 1909, in view of the severe ratio of the number of dreadnoughts in the Anglo-German navy at that time, the parliament introduced a huge budget for the construction of eight capital ships that year; The Orion class, with a standing displacement of 22,200 tons and 10 343 mm guns, was pushed onto the British slipway. And because the British slipway was piled up with too many battleships that needed to be built. The factories for which the various subsystems are manufactured are full of orders; In this case, these builders naturally put progress first. And let the indicators such as quality and reliability take a second place.

The only thing that made Jericho thankful was that God was not unduly partial to the Germans. The violent icy winds and rain showers that are customary in the north of Scotland effectively prevented German seaplanes from scouting their fleets and prevented the most catastrophic situation. Although they did not know the exact location of the German main fleet, the Germans also did not know that they had sailed out of Scapavolo with all their troops on the night of the 22nd of the previous day to meet the Beatty Rapid Fleet and Carden's Channel Fleet heading north. As of now, his fleet has left Scapa Bay more than 120 nautical miles; If one qiē shun lì, then in another hour, the three native fleets will be together. And this fleet, which was commanded by 65,000 officers and men, was fully confident to fight the Germans in the North Sea!

"Send a telegram to Betty asking him to report where he is." Jericho slowly calmed down the complicated thoughts in his heart, and turned to a herald. At present, nearly three hours have passed since the last contact between the two fleets, and Jericho is really a little uneasy about the "Nelson of the New Era" who has just won a complete victory and has a rising status in the hearts of the people.

Due to the imminent nature of the decisive battle, the nine battle cruisers stationed at the military port of Rosyth could only be brought under Betty's full command and brought to the decisive battlefield, which would undoubtedly fuel his adventurous spirit on a large scale. In order to keep the fierce and aggressive bull on a leash, Jellico deliberately asked Betty to act with one of the old dreadnoughts of the Channel Fleet, so that he could take advantage of the sluggish speed of the old guys in Guò to prevent him from making any big moves before the main forces of the fleet converged. However, Jericho himself was not sure how much this would do. However, as the scheduled rendezvous approached, Jericho's heart gradually relaxed; Although the final result is still uncontrollable, at least the first step can be successfully completed.

"Your Excellency, a telegram from the Royal Princess!" Just as Jellico was calmly expecting, an abrupt shout came from outside the door. He turned his head to look, only to see a staff officer running into the navigation room quickly, handing him a telegram, his words full of uncontrollable nervousness: "Twenty minutes ago, the fast fleet had encountered the entire German reconnaissance fleet, and now the battlefield is located at 58 degrees 43 degrees north latitude and 4 degrees 18 degrees east longitude; The current fast fleet course is 297, speed 20. Falmouth, Melbourne, Dublin, Liverpool, Glasgow, Indefatigable, Queen Mary were tragically sunk in battle, and the German fleet suspected that a Magdeburg-class light cruiser was sunk, and a Coleburg-class was seriously wounded and withdrew from the battle. The Straits Fleet is located 15 nautical miles southeast behind them, and from time to time it will rush to the battlefield and deliver a decisive blow to the opposing side! ”

"Bang!" There was a loud bang, and the staff officer who was reporting looked up in horror, only to see that it was Jericho who slammed his fist on the glass next to him, and a white spot suddenly appeared on the wall that was originally as smooth as a mirror, and cracks spread like spider webs. Jericho snatched the telegram with his hand, and after only a moment of glancing, the sven and resolute face instantly became muscles distorted, and the surroundings of a pair of gray pupils were even redder!

"This is actually a telegram from the Royal Princess, which means that his flagship has lost the ability to communicate?" Jericho took a few deep breaths, and finally forcibly recovered from the great shock and hatred. A sharp crash pain began to come from the swollen part of his right hand, and the impact of the news of the sinking of the Queen Mary almost suffocated him.

It was only a few light cruisers that had sunk before, and there were currently more than 15 of these cannon fodder under construction on the slipway in Britain, and it would take only 450,000 pounds and a year and a half to make one; The loss of the battle cruiser was undoubtedly a piece of the heart of the Royal Navy. At present, Britain's numerical advantage over Germany is extremely rare, and now it has sunk 2 more at once, which undoubtedly makes the shape faced by the home fleet even worse! What is even more unacceptable is that the result obtained by one's own side at such a painful price is only suspected of sinking a light cruiser of the enemy, which is simply unbearable!

Jellico read the telegram seven or eight times, and finally gritted his teeth again and said: "Course 297, speed 20, it seems that Betty has not completely lost his command reason, and also knows that to lead the enemy into the encirclement of the Grand Fleet, let us cut off the rear road of the Germans in one fell swoop!" The order was given, the main force of the fleet increased to 14 knots, the 1st and 2nd mounted patrol detachments turned left and went at full speed to reconnoiter near the 45th and 90th directions, respectively, and the 4th light cruiser detachment went to reconnoiter near the 120th direction. The communications room is in constant contact with the three detachments, and the Royal Princess. If no anomalies were found in the three detachments within half an hour, the Grand Fleet would immediately turn right in the 172nd direction and start a battle queue. The adjutant had memorized it completely, and then ran quickly outside the navigation room.

The lights flickered, the flags flew one after receiving the order from the Trafalgar, and the eight mounted cruisers and four light cruisers, which were about twenty nautical miles away from the main force of the Grand Fleet, began to turn and speed up, sailing in the predetermined direction. After a short time, Jericho waved his gauze-clothed right hand and ordered the fleet to turn a compass point to the right in order to shorten the distance between Betty's fleet and his own.

Looking at the huge nautical charts spread out on the table, Jericho's face sank like water, and there was no joy in his heart. This was not only because the sinking of the two battle cruisers had made the number of capital ships of the Home Fleet even more stretched, but also because the agitation he was carrying out at the moment was probably unable to achieve the operational purpose of cutting off the German reconnaissance fleet from the rear.

Although Betty was luring the opposing reconnaissance fleet into the arms of the Grand Fleet, Jellicoe was almost certain that the main force of the German High Seas Fleet was somewhere not far from his reconnaissance fleet, ready for action. It is also very likely that the opponent's main fleet will move closer to the battlefield because of the information provided by its reconnaissance fleet, just like Betty is now reporting back to herself. Therefore, it is quite possible that the Grand Fleet is about to face not the reconnaissance detachment of the baby killer, but the main force of the German fleet! With this in mind, Jericho chose to send the three reconnaissance forces belonging to the Grand Fleet to the sea area where the German main fleet was most likely to appear, and all he could do now was to wait quietly for the telegram to come back. (To be continued......)

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