Chapter 347: This Is the Sound of a Self‑Destruct Explosion

The hull of the "Lion" ship jolted violently, and its three Main Gun turrets fired simultaneously. The massive recoil caused the 26,000‑ton behemoth to slide several meters across the sea surface.

Shells streaked into the thick fog, toward the faintly visible Deguo battleships.

At the same time, other Yingguo battlecruisers opened fire as well—"Royal Princess", "Queen Mary", "Tiger"... The muzzle flashes of six warships merged in the fog, like the opening of Hell's gate.

The Deguo fleet retaliated instantly. More shells fell, and more columns of water rose.

The sea surface boiled.

"Hit!" the lookout shouted ecstatically, "Enemy ship hit! I see an explosion!"

Beatty lifted his telescope. In a gap of the fog, he indeed saw black smoke billowing from the fore deck of a Deguo battleship. But the next moment, more shells fell, and his view was again obscured by water columns and smoke.

"Keep firing!" he roared, "Don't stop!"

But at that instant, an earth‑shaking explosion rang out from behind the fleet.

Beatty whirled around sharply. In the fog, he saw a sight that stopped his heart—

The "Untiring", an older battlecruiser in his fleet, suddenly erupted a massive fireball from its midsection. The flames were orange‑red, interlaced with thick black smoke, soaring hundreds of meters into the sky.

Then came a second explosion, louder and more violent.

The "Untiring"'s hull split at the middle. The forward half kept charging forward, while the aft half began to sink. Flame and smoke devoured everything, consuming the ship and the nearly thousand sailors aboard.

"God..." Chatfield murmured.

Beatty froze in place, his telescope falling onto the deck with a dull clang.

He saw it. He saw the figures struggling in the flames, the sailors leaping into the sea, the warship that had sailed beside him for years reduced to wreckage within minutes.

"Major General!" the captain seized his shoulder, shaking him hard, "We must retreat! Now!"

Beatty snapped back to reality. Flames burned in his eyes, not the fire of battle but the fire of pain.

"Turn..." he rasped, "All fleet, emergency turn to 240 degrees. Release smoke, full‑speed retreat."

"But Admiral Jielike ordered us to turn to 270..."

"Execute the order!" Beatty shouted, "240 degrees! We will withdraw southwest, avoiding the Deguo main force head‑on!"

The order was relayed. Yingguo battlecruisers began emergency turns while releasing smoke. White chemical smoke poured from the stern, quickly forming a curtain on the sea that concealed the fleet's outline.

Yet the Deguo guns did not cease. Shells kept falling, exploding countless water columns around the smoke.

Another warship was hit.

This time it was the "Queen Mary". A shell struck its forward Main Gun turret. The turret's armor was pierced, and the magazine detonated.

The explosion's Scale was larger than that of the "Untiring".

The forward half of the entire warship was blown away, and the remaining hull surged forward for several hundred meters under inertia before beginning a rapid sink. Sea water rushed into the breach, forming a massive vortex that swallowed the ship and the sailors who hadn't yet leapt into the sea.

Two ships now.

In less than fifteen minutes of fighting, Beatty had lost two battlecruisers and nearly two thousand sailors.

And they hadn't even seen the full picture of the Deguo main fleet.

"Accelerate!" Beatty's voice was hoarse, almost inaudible, "Full‑speed retreat! Close in on Admiral Jielike!"

The remaining four battlecruisers—"Lion", "Royal Princess", "Tiger", "New Zealand"—scrambled southwest under the cover of smoke.

Behind them, the outlines of Deguo warships flickered in the thick fog, their muzzle flames still glimmering like the eyes of demons.

The hunter‑and‑prey roles reversed in an instant.

At 06:10 in the morning, Admiral Jielike's main fleet.

The cannon fire grew clearer and denser. Even dozens of nautical miles away, even through the thick fog, the thundering roar still struck the heart.

On the bridge of the "Iron Duke", everyone wore a grim expression. They could tell it wasn't a small skirmish; it was a fleet‑scale artillery battle.

"No word on Beatty?" Jielike asked, this being his third time in five minutes asking the same question.

"None, Admiral." the communications officer replied, "The last transmission was twenty‑five minutes ago; Beatty Major General reported contact with the enemy main force and was engaged. After that the radio fell silent."

Silence.

In naval terminology, this usually indicates one of two situations: either a warship is damaged and its communications fail, or the battle is so intense that there is no time for radio.

Either way, it's bad news.

"Admiral!" the Signal Room reported suddenly, "Detected a large‑Scale explosion! Bearing 065, Distance about twenty‑five nautical miles! Based on acoustic signatures... it's a massive warship magazine self‑destruct!"

The bridge was deathly silent.

A magazine self‑destruct means the total loss of the warship, meaning almost no one aboard could survive.

"One ship... or two?" Studi's voice trembled.

"At least two independent explosions, spaced about three minutes," the Signal Room operator replied, "Possibly... possibly two."

Two battlecruisers. Each carried nearly a thousand men.

Two thousand youths vanished from the sea within minutes.

Jielike closed his eyes. His fingers clenched the rail tightly, his expression painfully grim.

He seemed to see the faces of those youths—the sailors who had saluted him from the rail when they set out of Sikapa Bay; the officers who had toiled in training; the boys who had talked about the future in taverns.

Now, they are all dead.

Because of a mistake, a reckless decision, an excessive yearning for honor.

"Course unchanged, speed up to 22 knots," he opened his eyes, his voice unusually calm, "We will go to rescue the survivors."

"But Admiral," a staff officer said anxiously, "if the Deguo main fleet is right ahead, we might collide directly..."

"Then we'll collide." Jielike cut him off, "The Royal Navy never abandons its brothers. Life or death, we will bring them home."

His gaze swept over everyone on the bridge: "Moreover, retreat is now impossible. The Deguo know we're here; they will certainly pursue. Better to meet them head‑on than be chased and shot at."

He stepped to the chart table, his finger pounding the current position, "Order the entire fleet to form a battle Column. Battleships forward, cruisers and destroyers on the wings. We will use the most traditional formation to fight the most traditional sea battle."

"But in thick fog, a Column formation hampers maneuverability..."

"Yet it concentrates firepower and aids command control," Jielike said, "In such poor visibility, chaos is our greatest enemy. We must keep formation, keep discipline, use order to combat chaos."

The order was passed on. The massive Yingguo main fleet began to adjust formation. Twenty‑four Dreadnoughts formed a Column stretching ten nautical miles, like a steel giant dragon, slowly unfolding in the thick fog.

Each warship's Main Gun pointed to the starboard side, the direction from which the gunfire would come.

Each warship's boiler ran at full power, and its smokestack belched dense black smoke.

On each warship, over a thousand sailors took their stations, awaiting the imminent battle.