When the sound of dense cannons came faintly from the northern sea, Xia Shu, who was "over-the-job", was commanding the 1st battleship team composed of five Caesar-class and a new King-class battleship to pursue the "Forward" and "Neptune". With the "gorgeous", "giant" and "courage" successively, the two remaining ships of the Bernie squadron knew they would be defeated. Before the German fleet's artillery fire poured down, they quickly turned right, turned from west to east to north to south, and retreated to the Jelico formation at full speed.

Although Xia Shu wanted to swallow these two ducks that had reached their mouths, he knew that rash advance was a taboo on the battlefield. So he ordered the communications officer to send a telegram to the Sher fleet, asking about the latest battle situation and the location, speed and direction of the enemy's main fleet. He also ordered the Lance formation to send light signals to the Lance formation, allowing them to join their own battle lines from the rear.

A few minutes later, the lights of the Lance formation pilot ship "Helgolan" appeared on the port side. They had already followed when the 1st Battleship Detachment attacked the "Giant", but the heavy rain greatly affected the sight. The sound of rain, cannons, and explosions completely obscured all the sounds they made, which made them seem to appear suddenly.

In order to maintain the consistency of formation navigation, Xia Shu quickly ordered each ship to adjust its speed to 20 knots and six new dreadnoughts operating at overload power to achieve this speed with normal power output, and this was a little difficult for the Nassau class and Helgolan class that could reach 21 knots without wind and waves. In the rain, these eight old German dreadnoughts equipped with triple 11-inch naval guns became heavily polluted factories, with thick black smoke coming out of each chimney. In the boiler cabin, the furnace stewards who had finally got a short rest time had to re-invest high-intensity manual labor. In comparison, the German furnace stewards assigned to battle cruisers were much luckier. This is a significant difference between oil and coal-fired boilers.

Although the two British battleships that were determined to flee south had to run at a speed of about 20 knots, the rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the effective illumination distance of German searchlights continued to shrink, and the British turned first. By the time Natsuki led a complete main formation of 14 dreadnoughts to turn south, the "vanguard", "Neptune" and several remaining British light ships had disappeared from a chaotic sea.

The Betty fleet had previously severely damaged, and had just killed three British dreadnoughts. The great results seemed to have made the German Navy win, but Jelico still had ten new dreadnoughts equipped with 13.5-inch naval guns, which is what later generations called "super dreadnoughts". In addition to the two main battleships that had just slipped away, the Bernie squadron had three injured dreadnoughts escaped. From this, the British fleet still had 15 dreadnoughts. The German fleet had to count Hippel's three battlecruisers to gain a numerical advantage.

Due to the actual situation of the Jelico fleet, Xia Shu sent the remaining ships of the 4th reconnaissance team and the 1st Lightning Strike Team to implement fan-shaped combat alerts in front of the battle line. The remaining ships of the 5th Lightning Strike Team were deployed on the sea surface of the two wings, and the distance between 14 dreadnoughts was reduced. Soon, the Hippel fleet sent a telegram: sinking one old enemy battleship and damaging two severely. The enemy battleship formation was completely chaotic, and our ships were only slightly damaged. They are currently leaving the battle and waiting for the next command.

Colonel Von Lu smoked a piece of cigar rolled up by his hand, and Xia Shu finally waited for Schell's telegram, and he was commanding the 2nd battleship team on the Brunswick.

"Germany, Hesse, Pomeren, Silesia, Hannover, Alsace, Prussia was severely damaged. The 2nd Reconnaissance Squadron lost 2 cruisers, and the 4th Lightning Team lost 7 large torpedo boats."

In order to avoid increasing the pain of everyone, Xia Shu read the first half of the Sher telegram at a faster speed, then raised his eyes and glanced around. The atmosphere inside the combat bridge was indeed extremely heavy. When the high seas fleet sailed out of Yade Bay, everyone knew the difficulties of the trip, so they were mentally prepared for the loss of ships and personnel. However, the progress of the naval battle was beyond the expectations of most people. With exquisite tactical deployment and excellent command skills, the German fleet destroyed the Betty Battle Cruise fleet and severely damaged the Bernie Fleet.

All they paid was the slight price of the two battle patrols withdrawing from the battle, and the dozens of light ships were sinking. According to this trend, the German Navy deserved a glorious victory, but the heavy losses of the Schell fleet allowed the officers of the fleet command to return from a beautiful vision to a cruel reality. After all, they were facing the British local fleet with a total strength of the world. Not to mention anything else, as long as the ten new dreadnoughts under Jelico did not disperse, the German main fleet could not imagine winning one-sidedly as before the collapse of the Bernie formation.

After pausing, Xia Shu continued to read: "During the battle, our artillery fire injured many British main ships, which may cause one or two severe damage, but they were not seen to withdraw from the battle line. The 10 British main ships have gradually escaped from the battle line with a higher speed. Their heading is north of the northeast of our battle line, with a speed of about 20 knots. The stern ship of the battle line is located about 4 nautical miles northeast of ours. The first ship of the battle line can be calculated based on the 500-meter distance per ship. I will continuously fire green signal flares directly above to indicate our position."

The second battleship team lost half of the ships, and at such a huge price, it failed to sink a British dreadnought. Although this situation was reasonable, it made the aspiring German officials unacceptable for a while. This battle loss ratio was not only a reflection of the ship's technology, but also affected by the arrangement of troops and battlefield command of both sides. Scher was a brave general, while Jelico was a cautious and steady commander. It was not surprising that the weak spear hit a strong shield, and the spear had broken shield. It was considered to be the completion of the established tactical task.

In front of the observation window towards the bow of the ship, several staff officers watched with their unused telescopes for a while. One of them couldn't help but mutter: "Didn't you see a green signal flare?"

"At the height of the rain clouds, they are at least 10 nautical miles away." Ingnoll responded lightly.

This tone seems to have reached a transcendent state of mind, or an irresponsible mentality.

Everyone was speechless, but Xia Shu spoke, "I hope they will keep firings."

Hippel left the old British battleship group and turned south. Schell was left by his opponent and traveled northward. The ships of both sides temporarily broke off contact, but more than 100 ships gathered in this sea area. Even if the night was dark and rainy, it would be a matter of time before they encountered each other.

When the sentry V-28 deployed on the port side of the fleet sent an enemy warning, Xia Shu looked down at her watch, only a quarter of an hour before midnight.
Chapter completed!