Empire Conquest
Chapter 369 - 365 Announce the End

Chapter 369: Chapter 365 Announce the End

While the battle on the side of the Special Mixed Fleet 43 was almost a lopsided victory, there was little engagement with the Special Mixed Fleet 42.

After dawn, Newland’s 12th Special Mixed Fleet had already begun to withdraw.

After pursuing for 2 hours, at around 9 AM, Zhang Guozhu ordered a slowdown and change of course, citing concerns that the Newland transport fleet might take the opportunity to head towards the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom.

Given the situation at the time, Zhang Guozhu was worried about bombing from Newland’s ship-borne aircraft.

At that time, the Newland carrier mixed fleet had been spotted, and an aerial battle was on the brink of breaking out. If the Special Mixed Fleet 42 were to give chase rashly, they might have been bombed.

Afterward, the cruisers from both sides tangled and fought for over 2 more hours.

After 11 AM, the battle for the Special Mixed Fleet 42 had already concluded.

There were some gains, such as sinking a light cruiser and three destroyers, and possibly damaging four battleships.

However, these were hardly worth mentioning.

Actually, the battle for the Special Mixed Fleet 43 wasn’t quite one-sided, either.

By the end of the battle, all four fast battleships were heavily scarred.

The "Flame Sea" had been the most valiant but also suffered the most severe damage.

The main turret at the bow was almost completely wrecked, and one of the gun barrels from the C turret at the stern was blown off.

If it weren’t for the sufficiently thick armor on the front of the main gun turret, the 16-inch armor-piercing bullet that struck the A turret might have exploded inside, possibly blowing the turret away.

The "Xu Sea" sustained the lightest damage, but still looked terrible all the same.

What’s more, all four battleships were out of ammunition!

By the end, they were even using high-explosive bombs.

Those were meant for destroying Newland’s Navy light cruisers, not for battleships.

At the end of the battle, the "Xu Sea" had only 17 main gun shells left, the "Flame Sea" 8 shells, the "North River" 21 shells, and the "Nanjiang" 14 shells.

Since being commissioned, the ammunition stores of these four battleships’ main guns had never been so depleted!

Without ammunition, how could the fight continue?

Clearly, Spur’s concerns were somewhat superfluous.

Even if they encountered the Special Mixed Fleet 43 at night, as long as they withstood the first few rounds of cannon fire, they could completely ignore those four battleships.

With no ammunition, were they supposed to ram into Newland’s carriers?

In terms of absolute speed, the fast battleships were still a bit slower than the fleet carriers.

However, Spur didn’t know this.

When he received the combat report sent by Li Jie, Bai Zhizhan had already boarded the "Peijing".

At the time, Zhou Yongtao was explaining the situation to him, trying to persuade him to order a change of course to the east and to launch an attack in the afternoon.

But the battle report from Li Jie shut Zhou Yongtao up.

Because they had run out of ammunition, the Special Mixed Fleet 43 was already returning home and would rendezvous with the Special Mixed Fleet 21 tomorrow before dawn to return with the "Longjiang" to the home port.

The damage to the four fast battleships was too severe; they definitely needed to return to the shipyard for major repairs.

Even though the "Longjiang" wouldn’t have to return to the shipyard since its flight deck was severely damaged, it would still need to stay in port for a while.

Additionally, the "Mo River" had sunk.

Despite the best efforts of the damage control personnel and the sacrifices of dozens of officers and men during the emergency repairs, the inflow of water into the "Mo River" was too severe.

Around 1 PM, when seawater flooded over the hangar deck, the captain had no choice but to issue the order to abandon ship.

The horizontal watertight compartments of the "Longjiang" class actually only extend up to the hangar deck. Once seawater spilled over the hangar deck, the carrier was doomed.

By 2:30 p.m., after all officers and soldiers had evacuated, the accompanying destroyers launched two torpedoes at the "Mo River" whose flight deck had almost been submerged.

It wasn’t that they were worried the "Mo River" wouldn’t sink, but rather they used torpedoes to give the carrier a send-off.

In fact, this was a tradition of the Imperial Navy.

If a battleship was seriously damaged in combat and couldn’t return to port, it must be sunk by its own naval forces.

That way, it wasn’t considered to have been sunk by enemy ships.

According to Imperial Navy lore, if battleships had souls, then only after being laid to rest by their own could they find peace and be reborn.

For decades, only the names of the ships that had been laid to rest by their own were reused.

Perhaps it was considered bad luck; all the names of ships sunk by the enemy were never used again.

The 43rd Special Mixed Fleet had already withdrawn. Would there still be security in continuing to pursue the 17th Special Mixed Fleet?

Even if the 43rd Special Mixed Fleet hadn’t withdrawn, they couldn’t have helped.

The 43.2 Subsquad consisted of only a few light cruisers and they were Treaty Type light cruisers, no match for Newland’s heavy cruisers.

The closest heavy cruiser at that time was the four "Zizhou" class vessels of the 42.2 Subsquad.

Unfortunately, they were still over 300 kilometers away, and those four heavy cruisers were behind the four "Longjiang" class vessels, heading north to intercept the Newland convoy.

Then there were the heavy cruisers of the 21st Special Mixed Fleet.

However, the 21st Special Mixed Fleet was 400 kilometers behind, and Liu Xiangzhen would definitely not send heavy cruisers to cover Bai Zhizhan, let alone help Bai Zhizhan expand the victory.

With the situation at that time, if Liu Xiangzhen had intended to, he would’ve already sent the four heavy cruisers of the 21.3 Subsquad over.

In fact, given the relative position of the 41st Special Mixed Fleet and the 21st Special Mixed Fleet, even if the 21.3 Subsquad had advanced at full speed after the battle began, they couldn’t have caught up with the 41st Special Mixed Fleet before dark, let alone provide cover for the 41st Special Mixed Fleet at night.

What if they had caught up?

The 21.3 Subsquad had four "Kunzhou" class vessels, the first generation of Treaty Type heavy cruisers, not very powerful, without any real improvements, and not equipped with fire-control radar. They were no match for Newland’s 17th Special Mixed Fleet’s four "New Ao" class heavy cruisers.

If it came to a fight, they might not gain the upper hand.

Don’t forget, Newland’s 17th Special Mixed Fleet cruisers were all equipped with radar.

Even if it wasn’t fire-control radar but air-search radar, it would still be a great help in night battles, significantly improving the accuracy of shelling.

Obviously, there was no hope for the 21st Special Mixed Fleet.

During the daytime battle, especially after detecting Newland’s 16th Special Mixed Fleet, the 41st Special Mixed Fleet had been heading north, hoping to reduce the distance to the 43rd Special Mixed Fleet and get protection and support after the battle ended.

Who would have thought that Li Jie had also exhausted himself.

In Bai Zhizhan’s words, it was probably because they could only watch the Air Force perform in the rear on a regular basis, so once they got the chance, Li Jie and Jin Hong would fight with all their might.

It felt not like fighting a war, but like coming home after spending half a year in the military, eager for a warm reunion with the wife.

They exerted as much effort as they could.

Regardless, the battle report sent by Li Jie announced the official end of the battle.

Actually, it wasn’t quite over yet.

That evening, a Newland submarine stealthily attacked the returning "Longjiang." Although all the torpedoes missed, one of them struck the escorting "Lu River." The fierce explosion tore a several-meter long gash in the port side of the "Lu River," resulting in the loss of hundreds of officers and soldiers. Since they hadn’t left the battle zone and the entire ship was still in a combat-ready state, the flooding was promptly controlled.

That torpedo resulted in the "Lu River" being laid up in the shipyard for three months.

By the morning of the 13th, more than ten commerce raiders under the Second Fleet, with the cover of the 42nd Special Mixed Fleet, began intercepting Newland freighters that hadn’t managed to escape.

The chaotic battle continued until the 15th, and only after the last few Newland freighters were sunk was it declared over.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.