Empire Conquest
Chapter 176 - 172: Dying Silently

Chapter 176: Chapter 172: Dying Silently

The gun battle had raged for nearly two hours, marked by 3:30 a.m. as the dividing line between its earlier and later phases.

In the earlier half-hour, the First Main Battle Corps, in a mad dash westward, had exhausted every effort to close the engagement distance, while continuously returning fire.

Clearly, Admiral Takano was also pushing his luck.

Regrettably, aside from traveling approximately twenty kilometers to the west, the greatest achievement for the two "Damen" class battleships in this half-hour was receiving several armor-piercing hits each—especially the "Damen" itself, which had been confirmed visually to have been struck directly at least seven times.

Return fire?

Not a single hit.

In fact, in the initial retaliatory fires, the "Damen" had been able to aim at the enemy ships. Around 3:10 a.m., after the main rangefinder atop the command bridge was destroyed, their return fire was nothing but blind shooting. Since they were sailing towards the enemy vessels, the auxiliary rangefinders mounted on the rear were utterly useless.

On the other hand, the situation of the "Luo" was slightly better.

As the two enemy ships continuously targeted the "Damen," and since it was covered by the "Damen," in the initial half-hour, the "Luo" managed to fire a few threatening salvoes from its front main guns, possibly even hitting an enemy ship once.

According to reports, after the seventh salvo, a lookout on the "Luo" spotted an explosion flash on the enemy’s number one ship.

However, the enemy vessel did not catch fire, making it impossible to confirm a hit. It might have been the enemy ship signaling or the lookout could have been mistaken.

Moreover, one could not exclude the possibility of the captain falsifying the combat results.

All in all, Admiral Takano made the utmost effort, and the over two thousand Saiyi Navy officers and men aboard the two "Damen" class battleships gave their all.

Unfortunately, a vast disparity in strength could not be compensated for with the spiritual forces of will and fighting spirit.

Reality was incredibly cruel.

Faced with two fast battleships a generation ahead of them, the two "Damen" class were not only incapable of besting the opponent but couldn’t even catch up to them!

Both "Damen" class ships had reached speeds of 25 knots, which was the maximum they could after refitting; any faster would overburden the power systems. Sadly, the two "Xu Sea" class ships were even faster, pulling away several kilometers with each tactical maneuver.

After a frantic half-hour chase, the distance had not been lessened, remaining consistently between seventeen and twenty kilometers.

By 3:30 a.m., Admiral Takano gave up.

He had no choice but to!

After several heavy blows, the "Damen’s" number one main turret was already paralyzed, and one of the guns on turret number two was destroyed. A large chunk of the bow had been sheared off, and the observation tower atop the mast tower had been smashed into pieces by an armor-piercing bullet.

What was fatal was that the "Damen’s" speed had dropped to twenty knots.

It wasn’t because the engine room had been hit, but rather, after two days of sustained high-speed travel, four of the boilers had malfunctioned, causing all four steam turbines to be unable to reach their maximum output power. According to the chief engineer’s report, if they continued at this rate, the "Damen’s" speed would fall to sixteen knots.

Now the consideration was not how to fight, but how to retreat.

Besides, the Second Main Battle Corps had entered the East Ocean from the Watcher Strait by 3:30 a.m., with two torpedo flotillas on standby nearby. Once the First Main Battle Corps returned, the destroyers from the torpedo flotillas would launch a surprise attack, hitting the pursuing enemy ships with heavy torpedoes.

It was time to speak of retreat.

Indeed, at 3:30 a.m., Admiral Takano issued the order to retreat, directing both battleships to turn separately, with the "Damen" tasked to cover the rear.

Deciding this, Admiral Takano already knew that escape was impossible.

The issue was that, after completing the turn, the rear of the ships would be exposed to the enemy, greatly increasing the likelihood of hits on the engine and propulsion compartments located at the back end.

The "Damen’s" speed was getting slower and its capacity for tactical maneuvers narrower, making it even harder to evade incoming shells.

On the contrary, the situation for "Luo" was slightly better. If "Damen" drew the enemy’s firepower, "Luo" had a chance to escape.

Should "Luo" slow down to cover for "Damen"?

Admiral Takano was not yet so selfish.

To return alive, to endure the mockery of others, to bear the shame of defeat?

As for what orders Admiral Takano issued at the last moment, what actions he took, that became lost to history.

At 3:54, about twenty minutes after completing the turn, "Damen" suffered a tremendous explosion, with visual confirmation placing the blast at the ship’s stern.

Then, in less than a minute, "Damen" sank.

The rapidity of its sinking was unmatched among the main battle ships.

Just like that, over 1300 officers and sailors aboard "Damen" under Admiral Takano perished without a single survivor!

According to observations from the crew of "Luo," it was very likely that the rear Main Gun magazine had detonated.

This shell came from "Flame Sea."

Half a minute before "Damen" exploded, "Flame Sea" had fired its 22nd salvo, and was preparing to turn after this salvo.

As a result, the lookout on "Flame Sea" had shirked his duty to observe the splash point, as per regulations.

It’s understandable; the battle had been raging for an hour and the lookouts were utterly exhausted. Besides, after the turn, they’d need to recalculate fire control data, so even if they didn’t see where the shells fell, it wouldn’t have a great impact. They’d have to rely on the fire control radar to re-aim anyway.

Later, after investigating the wreckage of "Damen," they confirmed the cause of its sinking.

A 400mm armor-piercing bullet had directly struck the stern’s Main Gun magazine, exploding inside and igniting dozens of tons of propellant. Because it was a direct hit, rather than a fire spreading to the magazine after hitting the turret, none of the preventive measures like closing the magazine’s fire doors, opening the turret’s pressure relief valves, or flooding the Main Gun magazine had worked.

After all, no one would preemptively flood a Main Gun magazine.

However, "Luo" didn’t get much farther.

At 4:22, while navigating about ten kilometers away from an unnamed shoal in the middle of the strait, effectively in the strait’s waters, "Luo" was hit by a ferocious bombardment from the northwest. In just three minutes, it was struck repeatedly, over a dozen times.

Indeed, the Domestic Fleet had arrived.

Although Gui Boyong was furious, he still led the Main Battle Corps back to the battlefield.

With two Fast Battleships controlling the situation, Gui Boyong didn’t rush in for glory but went straight for Watcher Strait, where he lay in wait.

When he made this decision, Gui Boyong intended to block the strait and find the Second Main Battle Corps for a decisive annihilation.

If they were to engage in a battle to the death with the enemy, they could not let a single one escape.

Put simply, having annihilated the First Main Battle Corps, there was no reason to spare the Second Main Battle Corps.

At 4:35, with the ship almost completely submerged, the captain of "Luo" issued the order to abandon ship, then locked himself inside the Command Bridge.

More than ten minutes later, "Luo" sank.

Gui Boyong did not compete with his subordinates for credit, attributing the feat of sinking "Luo" to Li Jie and Jin Hong.

Interestingly, he later gave them each a major demerit for disobeying orders and acting on their own, though it had not resulted in severe consequences.

The First Main Battle Corps was thus annihilated and the "Invincible" naval deity of the Saiyi Navy, Permanent Fleet Commander Admiral Takano, met his end in the Xu Sea.

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