"Your Highness the Prince...Your Highness the Prince..."

Hoffman's voice sounded very far away, and it seemed to be right in front of him. Chen Tian suddenly opened his eyes. He was sleeping so hard just now that he didn't even have a dream.

"Your Highness, today you invited the ten tank commanders and ten armored commanders with the most outstanding performance in the Armored Army to have dinner. It is already 6 o'clock now, and they are all here!" Hoffman stood beside Chen Tian and said respectfully.

"Oh? It's 6 o'clock!" Chen Tian stood up, his calves that were a little numb. He forgot when he fell asleep, probably because of the delicious red wine. He fell asleep in the chair in the afternoon without realizing it. When he woke up, he had a blanket on his body.

Perhaps it was because of the rain, the outdoors were already dark.

"Where is General Markensen and Colonel Orger?" When Chen Tian turned his attention back to the house, he found that there were only a few staff officers in the command center still sorting out the telegrams.

"They went to inspect the camp and saw that it was almost time to come back! Do you wash your face first? It's a bit indecent to take a nap like this and it's easy to catch a cold!" Hoffman said with a sincere face, and the guard next to him quickly brought a basin of cold water.

Chen Tian nodded, there was no way. In autumn, it was light rainy, so this kind of weather was really suitable for a nap.

The cold water was poured on my face, and I woke up suddenly. Chen Tian took the towel and gently wiped the water droplets on his face, "Is there anything new after I fell asleep?"

"Your Highness, there are a lot of telegrams, but there is no particularly serious situation! Our army is still moving forward step by step in Paris, and the French are still fighting to the death; Moscow has no changes after being occupied by the Russian Revolutionary Party, and the battle in St. Petersburg is still very fierce; Grand Duke Friedrich's Austro-Hungarian army occupied three more towns, and the Russian army in Belarus seems to have no intention of resistance!" Hoffman followed Chen Tian and quickly summarized the afternoon's intelligence, "Also, our Baltic fleet drove to the Gulf of Finland, and the Russian fleet has not yet moved!"

"Our four armored battleships, 2 cruisers, 9 destroyers, 2 seaplane motherships and 7 submarines should be enough to deal with the Russians' Baltic Fleet! But the Russians' dreadnoughts have also been built. I really hope that the Russian Revolutionary Party can control them!" Chen Tian stopped and turned around and ordered: "Remind the Baltic Fleet that no Russian warship can leave the Gulf of Finland! If the other party claims to be the Russian Revolutionary Party, try to avoid exchanging fire with them and seize or expel them!"

In the palace in St. Petersburg, Nicholas II paced back and forth worriedly, because his generals told him that more and more revolutionary troops were coming to pilgrimage to Petersburg, far away to support the government forces that might come, so the city was likely to fall at night.

"Your Majesty! The Black Sea Fleet mutinied, and the warships there were already controlled by the revolutionary party!" A general in a mess appeared in front of the emperor and the queen. This news was a head-on blow to Nicholas II.

"Where is Grand Duke Nicholas?" The queen questioned the general who came to report the war with a crying voice, "Let him lead troops to suppress those revolutionary parties, and don't let anyone go!"

"Returning to the queen, the Grand Duke personally commanded the army to fight the revolutionary party in the south of the city!" The general's voice sounded a little choked, "The rebels with cannons have appeared outside the city. He begged the two to take the battleship "Sevastopol" to Helsinki for a temporary escape!"

"O God!" the queen screamed.

The gunshots from afar have never stopped since morning until now, which made Nicholas II more and more irritable. Now, the news of the Black Sea Fleet's announcement of the uprising has reduced his trust in the navy to the bottom. If the sailors have been bribed by the revolutionary party, getting on the ship is equivalent to falling into the revolutionary circle.

"Unless I let the Grand Duke take the Guards to control the warship first, I will not go anywhere! Now I don't believe anyone except the Guards!" Nicholas II said firmly.

"But the Grand Duke is..."

"Why don't you go!" the queen suddenly shouted hysterically, which is more in line with her past style.

The general left in a more embarrassing manner than when he came.

"Ah..." Nicholas II sighed deeply, "Everyone, get ready! Take away all the things you can bring!"

At the Neva Pier in St. Petersburg, four huge warships were quietly bathing in the afterglow of the sunset. Many sailors were on guard on their own battlefields. The gunshots from time to time made everyone tense up, while those loyal to the Tsar and those who were inclined to revolution were fighting against their respective little nines.

Compared with other lonely and weak ships in the harbor, these four warships are particularly conspicuous. They all have a displacement of 25,000 tons, which is second to none among the naval forces of the Baltic Sea. The ship is 181.2 meters long, 26 meters wide, and 8.4 meters draft makes them look like a floating hill. The 12 12-inch (305 mm) main guns are distributed on four triple turrets arranged in full centerline. Although the main gun is not large in diameter, its terrifying volley ability on the side of the ship cannot underestimate any opponent, and its maximum speed of 24.6 knots is even more shocking. However, these big guys also have obvious weaknesses: too much armor protection was sacrificed to ensure high speed, compared with the German dreadnought, the armor belts in most parts are 1-3 inches thinner.

These warships are the legendary Russian Gangut-class battleships. A total of 4 battleships of this class have been built, namely the Gangut, the Sevastopol, the Petropavlovsk, and the Volkhov. Among them, the Sevastopol has been officially put into service, and the other three were originally scheduled to be in service in two months. Now the crew is not complete, and the equipment debugging has not been completed. We can barely enter the battle.

These four battleships were actually of great origin. After the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian fleet faced the dilemma of extreme shortage of battleships, and the only few remaining armored battleships were quickly out of date. In 1906, the British "Default" battleship, which had a revolutionary breakthrough in design and performance, was launched, which made the old battleships of the Russian Navy even more unremarkable. The changes in Europe and the revolutionary development of warships deeply touched the nerves of the Russians. The Russian Navy, unwilling to be built by the Russian Navy, began to build these four fearless battleships and were ready to be equipped in the Baltic Sea to compete with the Germans' power in the Baltic Sea in the war.

The construction of this new battleship began in 1909. Due to the inefficiency of the Russian shipyard itself and the construction of a brand new warship under construction, the construction progress of the new battleship was very slow and even came to a standstill in 1910 because the Navy was not satisfied with the strength of the hull and construction process of the battleship under construction, and believed that it could not meet the design requirements at all. In the following two years, the construction of the new battleship was intermittent. However, four ships of this class were launched in 1911 and underwent sea trials. The "Sevastopol" at least joined the naval combat sequence when the war broke out, and the other three were also expected to be put into service in December 1914.

However, after the outbreak of the war, the ghostly submarines of the German navy almost suffocated the entire Gulf of Finland. Any warship that dared to sway in the Gulf of Finland could not escape the fate of any warship of its size. In the past two months, the already weak Russian Baltic Sea was hit. The only armored battleship, two newly launched Ushakov-class coastal defense ships and more than a dozen small warships, were all sent to the sea by German fish. Therefore, the Russian fleet would go to the lowest number of sea trips, and the transportation lines on the Gulf of Finland were completely abandoned. Since the German Baltic Squadron was upgraded to the Baltic Fleet in mid-September and was supplemented by four armored battleships, the Russians were even more panicked and worried that the Germans would sway and attack the coastal ports.

In the past half month, the harbor has been silent. Now, with the advancement of revolutionary flames, the latest pride of these Tsarist Russian navies is also the last hope. In this case, they have to risk leaving the port.

The captain of the "Sevastopol", the Russian Navy General Kolchak, was a man who never had a beard and always had a serious face. The captain had an average relationship with the sailors, but he had a very legendary experience. He had a special liking for his military career since he was a child. He got up early every day to do gymnastics, took cold baths to enhance his physique, and read the biographies of the military commanders with great military achievements with relish. At the age of 13, he was admitted to the St. Petersburg Naval School and read various books eagerly. He also knew four foreign languages, including the obscure and difficult to learn. At the age of 19, Kolchak graduated with excellent results. At that time, scientists from various countries became very interested in the Arctic area where people had not yet reached, and organized expedition teams to inspect. At the end of 1899, Golchak was admitted to the Naval School of St. Petersburg.

Chak received an invitation from the famous Russian polar expeditioner Baron Thor, who invited him to participate in the Arctic expedition as a hydrologist. In the summer of 1900, the "Dawn" icebreaker carried Thor's expedition to anchor and headed towards the Novosibirsk Islands. In the spring of 1902, the expedition finally arrived at the Novosibirsk Islands, but the route that continued to go north was blocked by the ice group, so Kolchak and others had to return along the same route. In 1906, Kolchak's academic work "Ice accumulation in the Kara Sea and the Siberian Sea" won the highest award from the Royal Geographic Society of Russia - the Grand Constantine Gold Medal. In 1910, he sailed in the Far East Sea with the "Vaigachi Island" icebreaker, drawing maps and nautical charts. Later, people used these nautical charts to open up the Arctic Ocean waterway.

More importantly, Kolchak is one of the few people in the navy who firmly opposes the revolution. Once he finds that the sailor on the ship is affected by the revolution, he will kick that person out of his warship, so Grand Duke Nicholas will choose this warship to escort the Tsar away.

"Yevgeni, let the sailors prepare the red carpet quickly!" Kolchak ordered his adjutant, and just half an hour ago, Grand Duke Nicholas boarded his warship with 1,000 fully armed Guard soldiers and informed him that His Majesty the Emperor would come in person soon.

Kolchak felt extremely honored for this. Although he soon found that his sailors were completely under the surveillance of the guards, and even his command room was no exception, he did not care too much. He thought that all this should be for the sake of the emperor's safety.

Soon, under the escort of the army, cars and carriages transported a large number of boxes to the dock, and the soldiers were busy carrying them one by one onto the warships. The boxes looked particularly heavy.

"Is this... all these things from the palace?" Kolchak was very surprised. It seemed that the Tsar was not here to inspect the fleet or take refuge temporarily, it was more like a escape.

"Brother General, don't ask too much! You and your soldiers just need to do what they have to do!" Although the Grand Duke looked pale, his expression was still awe-inspiring.

"Yes! I'm very sorry!" Kolchak retreated aside and silently watched the soldiers busy.

Not long after, a team of cars appeared on the dock under the escort of numerous cavalrymen.

"His Majesty the Emperor is here!"

The soldiers lined up in neatly to greet the owner of the empire on both sides of the red carpet. Surrounded by a large group of guard officers and soldiers, Nicholas II and the queen quickly walked up the red carpet. Next were the crown prince, the princess and other large groups of princes and nobles, and many servants followed closely behind them with large bags.

The moment he walked past the pedal, Nicholas II looked back meaningfully at St. Petersburg, which was filled with smoke.

"Dear Emperor, welcome your arrival!" Kolchak stood respectfully on the side of the ship with the officers on the ship, but Nicholas II walked past him with a frustration, without saying a word. Instead, the royal families behind him were chattering and talking nonstop, as if they were on a trip.

After boarding the ship, the Tsar walked straight to the command room, while the others quickly occupied the best rooms on the ship, including Kolchak's captain's room.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid I'll have to go back to command the troops, cough! Cough!" Grand Duke Nicholas looked very poor in his physical condition. As the most prestigious person in the army, his existence can add a lot of confidence to the soldiers.

"Duke, it's really admirable that you work so hard for the country! What I said last night... I hope you don't mind too much! I think you'd better leave here with us, so that the queen and I will feel much more at ease!" The Tsar had a little feeling that he was full of plants and trees at this time, and he was afraid that the situation of the Duke would lose control as soon as he left here.

"Your Majesty... OK! Brigadier General, order the fleet to set sail!" The Grand Duke was quite helpless, but he had to bite the bullet and agree.

Amid the sound of a whistle, four Gangut-class battleships slowly sailed away from the dock under the escort of eight destroyers and four coastal defense gunboats. This is already the last force of the Baltic fleet. They will sail towards Helsinki in the Finnish region, where Russia's important naval base in the Gulf of Finland - Pokhara.
Chapter completed!