Empire Conquest
Chapter 431 - 427: Cutting the Gordian Knot

Chapter 431: Chapter 427: Cutting the Gordian Knot

For the battle happening on the other side of the Earth, Bai Zhizhan was helpless and could only sigh in vain.

Although it was bad luck to encounter an armed merchant ship and then be discovered by a patrol plane, in essence, it was still a problem with the Tiaoman Navy.

At the core of it all was the trouble caused by hesitation!

A few days earlier, after the Bulan Royal Navy’s Land Heart Sea Fleet launched a sneak attack on the Raleigh Fleet and Locke Fleet, the Tiaoman Navy should have made a decisive move.

At the time, Bai Zhizhan had planned to contact Liu Changxun, asking him to communicate with the Tiaoman Navy Commander as the Imperial Navy Commander-in-chief and advise the "Prime Minister" to end its commerce raiding operation in the North Sunset Ocean. While the Bulan Royal Navy was fully engaged in reinforcing the Fan Flame Ocean, leaving them unable to attend to other matters, the "Prime Minister" could take the opportunity to quickly head south to the South Sunset Ocean. But before sending out the telegram, Bai Zhizhan felt that acting in such a manner seemed very abrupt.

Even if Liu Changxun said so, the Tiaoman Navy Commander might not listen.

Speaking too strongly could cause misunderstandings.

If the "Prime Minister" went to the South Sunset Ocean, its final destination would be an Imperial port, and the Tiaoman Navy would thus lose its only available Main Battle Ship.

Was the "Prime Minister" built with great effort to fight for the Liangxia Empire?

As for the promises made by the Imperial Authority, such as helping the Tiaoman Empire build two "Xu Sea" class Fast Battleships, they were still just promises to this day.

No one was certain when they could be fulfilled, or even if they could be fulfilled at all.

If the Tiaoman Navy had acted decisively a few days ago, even just leaving two Large Cruisers behind and sending only the "Prime Minister" to the South Sunset Ocean, there was a good chance of breaking through the Domestic Fleet’s blockade. And the two Large Cruisers would still be able to carry out commerce raiding missions in the North Sunset Ocean.

Unfortunately, the Tiaoman Navy did not act decisively.

The next morning, after having slept for the night, Bai Zhizhan received the latest news from the Navy headquarter.

The battle to the south of the Denmark Strait had ended.

The "Prime Minister" had indeed performed heroically, achieving results even Bai Zhizhan found hard to believe.

The battle started around 4:15 PM local time.

At that time, nightfall was about 15 minutes away.

Both sides almost detected each other simultaneously, but initially, the lookout on the "Hude" failed to identify the approaching "Prime Minister" and also missed the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" that were following behind it, thus delaying the opportunity to engage.

After the lookout reported again, identifying three Tiaoman Main Battle Ships, Vice Admiral Holland, the Sub-fleet Commander aboard the "Hude," still thought the lookout was mistaken, and asked him to re-observe and report, wasting a few more minutes and perfectly missing the chance to fire before the enemy.

At that time, Vice Admiral Holland was certain that the two Large Cruisers had already returned to port.

Even if the lookout had identified the "Prime Minister," he was unwilling to believe that they could encounter three Tiaoman Navy Main Battle Ships in this area.

Amidst all this, five minutes had passed.

Five very precious, and ultimately fatal, minutes.

At 4:17 PM, the "Prime Minister" completed its turn and fired its first salvo a minute later.

The distance between them was roughly 22 kilometers at that time.

Consistent with Tiaoman Navy tactics, the "Prime Minister" did not use half salvos but opened fire with full force, utilizing all eight of its Main Guns.

At 4:20 PM, when the "Prime Minister" fired its second salvo, the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" entered the battle in quick succession.

It was then, jolted awake by incoming shells, that Holland finally issued combat orders.

However, the formation had not yet changed course,

In any case, tens of thousands of tons of Battleships cannot change direction as nimbly as a few-ton Fighter.

For a while, all three Tiaoman battleships were aiming their naval guns at the "Hude" charging at the front.

Although by tonnage, the "Hude" was Bulan Royal Navy’s largest warship, as a battlecruiser, its armor protection was far inferior to that of a battleship.

Facing the fierce artillery fire from three main battle ships, the "Hude" was simply too flimsy.

Moreover, the "Prime Minister" was incredibly lucky.

By 5:26 p.m., with less than five minutes to go before full darkness, a 380 mm armor-piercing bullet fired by the "Prime Minister" during the fifth salvo struck the "Hude," piercing its weak horizontal armor and drilling directly into the main gun magazine at the bow of the ship.

The subsequent violent explosion was visible from tens of kilometers away.

Just three minutes later, at the moment of nightfall, the "Hude" disappeared from the surface of the ocean.

Including Vice Admiral Holland, the commander of the sub-fleet, all over 1400 officers and soldiers on board perished!

The sudden violent explosion and rapid sinking of the "Hude" had an immediate and apparent deterrent effect on the "George V" and the "Prince of Wales" following behind.

According to battle reports released later, the captain of the "George V" believed there were Tiaoman submarines in the combat zone and that they had used torpedoes to sink the "Hude."

In fact, this was completely understandable.

The "Prime Minister" had just been commissioned, not to mention that most of the officers and men had not completed their training, including many systems such as the main rangefinders, which had not been calibrated.

Before emerging from the Skagerrak Strait, the "Prime Minister" had not even performed a full salvo with all eight main guns.

Who would believe that this newly commissioned battleship would, in its first battle, take out the enemy’s largest main battle ship with five rounds of imprecise salvo?

If it were a submarine, then that would make sense.

The Hude’s defenses were already weak, and if it were hit by several heavy torpedoes at once, it could quickly sink in a large explosion.

Even an authentic battleship couldn’t withstand the heavy torpedoes launched by submarines.

After the "Hude" sank, Colonel Richey, the captain of the "George V" who had taken over the command of the sub-fleet, immediately issued an order to turn and retreat.

Before this, the "George V" had only fired three salvos, the first of which was a half salvo for calibration.

The "Prince of Wales" at the back had only fired two salvos.

Let alone hitting the target, even if they had, it would have been inconsequential.

During the retreat, the "George V" was more than 20 kilometers away from the "Prime Minister." Its equipped 14-inch naval guns could not penetrate the "Prime Minister’s" horizontal armor, which was at least 130 mm thick at that distance, so even if they hit, it would have been useless.

Equipping a cutting-edge fast battleship with 14-inch naval guns, which were outdated twenty years ago, is probably something only the Bulan Royal Navy could do.

Fundamentally, it was the same issue as not valuing the number of carrier aircraft.

Without an opponent, the Royal Navy lost its target.

As you can see, it was still uncertain who would prevail if the battle had continued.

Retreating in time was likely the wise choice.

Afterward, two fast battleships left the battlefield to the southeast.

Given the situation at the time, Colonel Richey probably intended to rendezvous with the main force behind them and then turn to pursue the Tiaoman Fleet.

The main formation had four battleships, and a sufficient number of cruisers and destroyers.

Interestingly, the Tiaoman Fleet did not pursue the retreating Bulan warships.

After nightfall, the "Prime Minister" turned to head west.

The key point was that around 7 p.m., two large cruisers, as planned, separated again from the "Prime Minister," turning to head northeast.

It must be said that after making several mistakes, the Tiaoman Navy had finally done something right.

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