At 5 a.m., Emperor William II, who had always maintained a military routine, sat up from the bed. He opened his eyes and rubbed his slightly swollen temples, got up and walked to the bathroom to take a cool shower, then came to the study with his nightgown, sat down at the desk where he had placed a lot of documents, and pressed the bell on the desk.

As usual, three humble and courteous royal servants came in one after another, and they brought tea and newspapers respectively.

"Your Majesty did you sleep well last night?" the head servant asked with a smile.

"Not very good." William II replied in a muffled voice, "I have had many strange dreams, and my head is a little swollen and painful when I get up."

The head servant replied with a smile: "It is recommended that you go to the garden and breathe the fresh air with dew, which will feel much better."

The emperor was obviously unwilling to talk about these things. He looked at the newspaper he sent: "Is there any new telegram sent by the Admiralty?"

The gray-haired attendant had expected it, and he replied modestly and calmly: "Major von Buckertz is waiting outside the door."

William II quickly summoned his attendant and military officer into the study and obtained a telegram from him. He picked it up and glanced at him eagerly, and immediately slapped the table with joy: "Ha, from today on, the George flag that had been flying in the ocean for more than two hundred years has finally fallen!"

The attendant responded with a smile: "Congratulations to Your Majesty!"

"That's great! Great! I'm going to send them a commendation telegram!" William II clenched his right fist alone and came to the window with an excited expression. The morning glow was reflected in the sky, and the breeze blew the leaves, and everything seemed so beautiful.

"No, I will go to Kiel in person to welcome my soldiers. They have created the marine history of Germany. They are amazing heroes!" After making up their minds, the emperor quickly turned around and ordered the attendant: "I am changing my clothes now, and breakfast is arranged on the special train. If I inform you, I will set off for Kiel immediately! I will announce the glorious victory of the German Navy to the world in Kiel!"

The attendant responded respectfully and said, "Yes, Your Majesty!"

Brandenburg is a good weather with clear sky and cloudless weather. In Keel Port hundreds of kilometers away, it rained heavily in the middle of the night. It was not until dawn that it gradually turned into light rain. However, the strong wind was still blowing, and it was quite inconvenient to walk outdoors. Even so, when I heard that the high seas fleet was fighting, the military port terminal still gathered many people who were looking forward to it. Some of them were the families of naval officers and soldiers, some were those who were concerned about the fate of the country, as well as those who were both good and snooping. The ordinary naval personnel who stayed at home were also nervously waiting for the return of the fleet.

As the Jade River lock opened, the first gray ship shadow appeared, and the people on the dock stretched their necks. After a while, two ship shadows that were many times larger than the former drove past the locks one by one, followed by two ship shadows that shrunk by about two-thirds in shape, and then there were only a few tiny service boats, and the crowd suddenly became turbulent.

As the five gray ships slowly approached the berth, the crowd gradually became silent. They held their breath and hung their hearts. They stared at the tragic holes left by the war on these familiar ships, devastated, twisted and deformed hull decks, crooked and collapsed superstructures, and the smoke and blood-soaked traces, everything shocked the onlookers, and what made them even more heartbreaking was that the German fleet, which was highly anticipated, had suffered a very bad defeat? Could it be that their relatives, friends, those energetic young people, and those well-educated officers had been buried in the turbulent North Sea?

On a dock extending into the harbor, when the scarred warship approached, people had already identified from its still-complete ship emblem that this was the "Blüchel", which belonged to the 1st reconnaissance squadron. The order on the scene was maintained by the base garrison and police, and several ambulances drove directly to the dock. Someone in the crowd asked the sailors on the ship: "How was the battle? Did we win?"

Most sailors didn't speak, but some people replied vaguely: "We sank several British warships, which were like wood, vulnerable!"

In fact, compared with the Moltke and the two reconnaissance cruisers "Stralsund" and "Korborg", the damage to the "Blüchel" is not too bad. The reason why it withdrew from the battle was mainly because of a torpedo. The breach from the torpedo was below the waterline. The hull was tilted to a certain extent due to a large amount of water inlet, but the superstructure still maintained a relatively complete original appearance. After lowering the gangway, the crew transferred more than 100 injured people to the Navy Hospital with the help of the garrison troops.

The number of people only accounts for a small proportion of the losses of the entire naval battle, but it has become a heavy thing in the eyes of ordinary people. Many people are in tears and sad. Many people are eager to inquire about the situation of other ships from these participating crew members, but the answers they receive can only aggravate the anxiety and uneasiness in their hearts, because the "Blüchel" and its officers and soldiers left the battlefield too early. Even if the officers have received telegrams about the battle situation, they cannot disclose it to ordinary crew members according to the military regulations of the navy.

At another dock not far away, the visual shock of the German people was extremely strong. One of their favorite warships, the Mavericks, with 12 main guns, looked majestic. They were like a boxer who was beaten torpedo and cracked in a fierce competition. His face even made his family feel strange: a terrifying hole was exposed on the bow of the ship hit by a torpedo, and the oil was still leaking out along the thunder. The cabin inside seemed to be filled with sea water. Whether the remains of the dead were still floating inside?

It is unknown; both front main turrets were hit by enemy ships in the battle, and the armor plates were not penetrated, but they also left black bullet marks. The shooting command tower was fatally invaded, and the closed structure actually bloomed like a blooming rose. There was a strip of cloth hanging on the rolled steel plates that obviously belonged to military uniforms, giving people extremely sad reverie; the deck cabin in the middle was swept by artillery fire, and the porthole glass was not alive, and there was a huge fire in the cabin, and the gray bulkhead was charred, and several secondary cannons located on the upper part were left with traces...

Because they had fought fiercely with British light ship groups several times during the battle, the cruisers "Stralsund" and "Collborough" were more like objects rescued from the fire scene, with scars and no body, and the casualties of the crew accounted for more than half of the crew. When the injured were transferred to the naval hospital, there were very few officers and soldiers left on the ship, causing both cruisers to appear dead, which further aggravated people's worries.

On the same morning, at the other end of the Kiel Canal, Wilhelmshaven, the German people who were looking forward to it were also stunned by the scene in front of them: the first to return were the three old battleships organized into the Schell's 2nd Battleship Detachment, "Alsace", "Silesia" and "Hannover". They were all severely damaged in the battleship with the British main fleet and were forced to withdraw from the battle line. Whether it was the "Alsace" whose waterline was penetrated many places, the "Alsace" with a large amount of water in the cabin, the main turret was all damaged, the superstructure was messy, or the "Hannover" with a bow full of holes and the bridge leaked, the first feeling was that they were defeated, and the wounded who left the ship for treatment brought heartbroken news that made everyone feel sad: the battle of the Hesse, the battle of the Pomeren, and the battle of the German...

At dawn, at the northern end of the Helgoland Bay, the main formation of the German high seas fleet composed of nine dreadnoughts sailed slowly on the sea near its auxiliary fleet. Although there were raindrops in the sky and after a night of life and death battle, the crew came out of the turrets and cabins, breathing in the air without gunpowder, poisonous gas and burning breath on the deck. In sight, the weird-looking "Bismar" has been adjusted to the direction of the wind, and the roar of the engine was faintly heard on the wide deck. Although most of the officers and soldiers in the fleet did not know how great "surprise" their carrier-based aircraft gave the British Betty fleet the previous dusk, many people had seen the military potential of these inconspicuous aircraft in a series of training exercises before the war. In the quiet light rain, four reconnaissance aircraft left the ship one after another and flew towards the northwest.

After reading the message sent by the naval base, Natsuki told Ingnoll: "Yesterday, we lost three airships. Today, in such weather, the base cannot provide aviation reconnaissance."

"It seems you're right." Ingnoll said slowly, "Smart people don't put all their eggs in one basket."

"Airships have the advantages of airships, and aircraft have the characteristics of aircraft, which complement each other." Xia Shu replied lightly.

"If Jeliko's remaining fleet had been retreating after breaking away from us, they would have been more than 100 kilometers away from Helgoland Bay." Ingnor looked at the direction of the British fleet's escape, his expression and tone seemed quite complicated. He had no friendship with Jeliko, but when this war came unstoppable, they each shouldered the sacred duties entrusted by history, as commanders of their country's main naval fleet. Now the two fleets have divided their pros and cons, and Jeliko has become the defeated side, but Ingnor is not the one who really defeated him.

"I am not a person who likes to insert daggers behind others, even if this person is our most hateful enemy." Xia Shu said meaningfully. "Aerial reconnaissance can allow us to understand the situation of both sides more comprehensively and intuitively. If the enemy has one or two main battleships behind due to power issues, I don't mind cleaning them up happily."

Ingnoll was silent for a while and suddenly asked, "If Jelico used this as bait to lure us back and intends to decide again with us, what would your Highness make a decision?"

"Of course there is that possibility." Natsuki replied affirmatively, "There are three main battleships that did not go out with Jeliko yesterday, maybe because of temporary mechanical failure, or because of some other reason, and now they may have arrived from Scapa Bay. Then Jeliko can gather up to 10 main battleships and at least 6 old battleships in his hands. This force is enough to fight a decisive battle with us. Unfortunately, even if Jeliko's flagship is only 20 nautical miles away from us, I will not mobilize the fleet to sink it, but only need to send planes to carry torpedoes to fight. In addition, our submarines have not fully demonstrated their strength yesterday, so it is not difficult for them to deal with slow-speed targets."
Chapter completed!