The sky is as blue as jade, and the setting sun is like fire in the clouds; on the blue sea, a huge fleet is gushing with heavy coal smoke, sailing at full speed in the direction away from the sun. On the majestic steel hull, tall triangular masts are towering in total different from the main battleships of the Mediterranean powers; from a bird's eye view, all the sights are full of imposing magnificent main turrets, and the cross flag of St. George, which whirls in the sea breeze, undoubtedly demonstrates their identity as a collection of thousands of halos - the Royal Navy!

"General, General Milne sent another telegram for help. The French battleship Mirabeau was in war. The situation was extremely critical for them. They urgently needed our fleet to provide immediate support!"

Inside the commander's tower of the Orion battleship, Betty, in military uniforms, frowned after receiving the telegram from the adjutant, and his blue eyes were full of worry. His lips moved and he slowly spoke: "Call back to the old man's asterisk. It is impossible for the fleet of our side to sail at full speed at 20 knots. Please continue to hold on for another 40 minutes, and my main fleet will be able to arrive on the battlefield and defeat the enemy."

"General, why don't we send a destroyer fleet to support friendly forces first? This time we brought out all the elite warships, and the destroyers' speeds can reach more than 28.5 knots; if they are allowed to attack first, it may relieve a lot of pressure for General Milne in danger." A staff officer said in confusion, which attracted everyone in the commander tower to look at Betty.

Betty suddenly turned his head, and two terrifying sharp eloquences bloomed in his eyes, and said coldly: "Major, do you think the British boys are not dead enough? Although the main battleship groups of the Allies have received certain damage, they still have a large number of auxiliary ships to use; if they rashly send a group of destroyers to attack, it will not only be very likely to expose the existence of our main fleet to the Austrians, but also cause the destroyer itself to fall into an unprecedented crisis under the interception of many frigates on the other side. Even the Tazan-class light cruisers that started construction in Austria and Hungary in the last century are definitely not something our destroyers can resist, let alone the Italians have a powerful armored cruiser fleet!"

The British staff member knew that he was not considerate. He looked ashamed and said silently. Betty snorted, not paying attention to this reckless colleague who was about the same age as him. He asked a messenger to go to the chart room and once again determined the current position of his fleet. He sat back on the seat fixed to the ground, and began to think about the current situation quickly in his mind.

A week ago, this huge fleet, which accounted for one-third of the main force of the large fleet, set off from Scapa Bay overnight and played the exciting movement of stealing the sky and changing the sun. This time, the British Admiralty staff were surprisingly efficient. They combined a large number of merchant ships sailing on the North Atlantic and then gave Betty a perfect channel to hide. During the actual voyage, with the support of light ships escorting the Atlantic Ocean, Betty, who had superb navigation skills, successfully avoided one merchant ship after another; and even when it was inevitable, the British fleet hit the cargo ships that set off from Britain to America on the other side of the ocean. Whether it was subjective or objective conditions, they had almost no possibility of leaking the secrets.

Late at night on August 10, in the dim lights, eight super-dreadless ships of Betty's fleet quietly passed through the Strait of Gibraltar. For the British, "lucky" was that due to the Italians' participation in the war and the emergence of German submarines in the Gulf of Aden in the East China Sea, the originally busy Merchant ships of the Mediterranean Channel had sharply decreased. This undoubtedly provided them with a lot of room for rotation and maneuvering in this relatively narrow sea. Two days later, the British fleet sailed across the coast of Tunisia, only one step away from the dispatched Allied fleet. Looking back on the thrilling sailing process this week, even Betty himself was impressed and amazed by his good luck and command; if he could return to Britain with victory, it would be a classic that was completely inferior to the Battle of Trafalgar!

However, the journey was not completely smooth. On August 13, a Parsons steam turbine of the Orion broke down under a long period of high power operation; although the British ship technicians responded to it urgently, this undoubtedly dragged the British fleet at the last moment. He was exhausted by this flagship, which had a history of power problems. The final schedule of the Betty fleet was nearly an hour later than the previous agreement, and is still rushing slowly more than 30 nautical miles away from the combat area. Even now he is rushing to the speed of 20 knots. Betty took a great risk, fearing that the main engine of the battleship would stop when he was unhappy. He now missed his battle cruiser fleet. With the bottom of the ship clean and the power system effectively maintained, even the oldest Invincible class could chase the wind at a speed of 25 knots.

According to Betty's original plan, the French fleet was to take the bait for fishing. After the main fleet of the Allies bit it, they then penetrated it diagonally from the rear and wiped it out in one fell swoop. However, this ideal situation was declared abortion with the changes in the actual battlefield. The heavy losses of the French fleet in the battle exceeded his pre-war expectations; and the delayed schedule due to the power failure of the Orion also made the British fleet unable to sit idly by the French fleet and choose to detour the other's retreat. In this case, Betty could only choose the most time-saving frontal assistance. Even so, Betty was still worried about the time I was not given to me at the moment; in the Battle of Helgolan Bay more than two months ago, he had already played the role of a belated rescuer!

The clock rotated and the machinery sounded slightly, and the waiting time was always very long. After suffering for more than twenty minutes, Milne's message of help was not heard again; in the face of this situation, Betty's heart was not relaxed or grateful, but was filled with heavier worries, because it was likely that this meant that the communication facilities of the old man's asterisk had been damaged. Gradually, thick clouds of coal fog appeared in the sky far away in the east, and a stronger thunderous sound came from his ears; Betty tried to maintain his calm expression, but his hands tightly held the steel-cast deputy of the seat.

Another quarter of an hour later, the lookout soldiers on the mainmast suddenly screamed, and a magnificent and open battlefield gradually appeared in front of the British fleet. Betty suddenly stood up and grabbed the telescope to look into the distance. The smoke rolled and the fire was dazzling. A scent of a ship appeared in the barrel. Betty's eyes immediately seemed to be a magnet attached to iron, and could not leave any more; although its outline was not clear over 23 kilometers, Betty already had a strong intuition in his heart, which was most likely the United Power built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy based on the German Caesar-class!

"Sentence, the main gun in the front of this ship is raised to the maximum elevation angle, and the high explosive bomb is loaded. After half a minute, aiming at the enemy ship to carry out a round of shooting!" Betty put down the telescope in his hand and said loudly to the messenger beside him. Although the Royal Navy's exercise combat distance has never exceeded 14 kilometers, and although the British 343mm L45 gun has a range of only 21,780 meters at the maximum elevation angle of 20 degrees, it is absolutely necessary for him to send a signal to friendly forces that cannot be seen directly in this situation: the Royal Navy's support fleet is finally on the battlefield at this moment!

"Boom!" A loud roar that shook the sky and the earth exploded. The four main guns at the head of the Orion suddenly rushed out a wave of fire like clouds. A violent muzzle storm rushed into the sky, and the majestic momentum made everyone in the command tower feel excited. About 50 seconds later, a huge wave of hundreds of meters high suddenly rose on the distant sea surface, just like the angry sea emperor Poseidon was rolling endless waves. The British, who were extremely pursuing the power of a single shot, frantically stuffed more than 80kg of intense explosives into their 343mm high-explosion bombs. The weight of this charge even far exceeded that of the 460mm high-explosion bombs of the Yamato-class in later generations. When the sensitive fuses of these shells were triggered by impacting the water surface, they immediately created an unprecedentedly spectacular miracle scene!

The waves were gushing and the water was flying. House, who was immersed in the joy of the Mediterranean fleet of the Allied Power, was instantly struck by lightning, and his brain fell into a brief crash due to the violent conflict of consciousness and thinking between the two sides. After a while, the report from the lookout hand on the main mast made him open his eyes wide and his body felt like he was soaked in ice: a formation of about 40 warships was sailing from the West at a speed of more than 18 knots. The first eight ships all had tall triangular masts, which were undoubtedly the main ships of the British Navy!

"Isn't the British fleet in Scarpaflo? How could it suddenly appear in this Mediterranean?" House's incredible roar resounded throughout the commander's tower. At present, his fleet had sunk three dreadnoughts and seven former dreadnoughts. Another Dandong-class battleship, Diderot, was also riddled with holes under his own artillery fire. A few more shells could completely sink it. But now, the situation on the battlefield was reversed instantly due to the joining of this British fleet. What he was considering was not to wipe out the French fleet, but how to escape back to the base safely!

"The command is that the main battleships no longer follow the flagships, and immediately turn right and fly straight to Taranto Military Port at full speed." House took a deep breath and immediately made his own decision. At present, his main battleship was seriously damaged in the previous battle, and the remaining ammunition was definitely unable to bear a fierce battle. Running away was his only choice!
Chapter completed!