"Your Highness the Saint! We tried our best." Ivanov's voice was extremely heavy.
"I know, you have worked hard." The emperor completely turned his back. Anastasia gave up her identity as a princess and now declared to the outside world that she was the saint of the Ice and Snow God. She looked at the tired craftsman and knew that he and the shipwrights
All tried their best.
In the distance, there is the burning port of Austin. Even the cold wind in winter cannot extinguish the fire that ignites the whole city.
There were many figures on the pier, and the golden glow shone from time to time under the firelight. This was the Imperial Royal Guard unabashedly declaring their identity to the Ice and Snow Cultists.
All the Ice and Snow Cultists who had no time to board the ship fell under the butcher's knife of the guards.
The only thing Ivanov and others could do was to string up the boats that could still float on the water one by one like candied haws and drag them away.
However, because the tugboat's engine load reached its extreme, the entire fleet sailed extremely slowly.
5 knots!
The speed of an old-time sailing warship!
This makes the movement of the fleet look like a snail.
Looking at the fleet slowly leaving the port, the lights of each ship were swaying on the night sea. A guard on the shore approached and asked his commander.
"Your Majesty General, is it appropriate for us to let those ice cultists run away like this?"
The Scarface-like guard general grinned and showed a cruel smile: "Let those Ice and Snow Cultists who have lagged behind the times be buried at the bottom of the sea without even having to dig holes to bury their bodies? How to annihilate them is the job of the Imperial Navy.
Son."
"Understood."
The guards are like a pack of wolves, never eager to kill their prey on the spot.
They have enough patience, such as chasing a wounded prey for three days and three nights...
As long as you win!
Over there, the Ice and Snow Cult's fleet stretches for more than ten nautical miles. From a distance, the ship's lights are like blinking eyes.
In the night wind, the saint's eyes were bloodshot and she was not sleepy at all.
Natasha advised: "Your Highness, please rest for a while. Unless the emperor dispatches extraordinary warships, there is no possibility of night fighting in this era. We are very sure that two days ago, the extraordinary warship [Aurora] was still thousands of miles away."
The other end of the outer empire. She can't make it in such a short time."
Boris, who was bandaging the wound, sighed: "Tonight is not a problem, the problem is tomorrow morning. If the emperor had sent warships to intercept us, we would have almost no power to fight back."
Ivanov smiled bitterly: "We only have the [Vatutin] with combat effectiveness."
Originally, a port like the Port of Austin with intermittent navigation would not have many warships deployed. The few destroyers were also bombed by the emperor's secret guards last night.
The huge explosion blew four of the five old-fashioned destroyers in half on the spot and sank in the port. The only remaining one had no mobility and could only be pulled behind the tugboat to serve as a mobile fort.
The saint said calmly: "When the time comes, first untie the [Vatutin] and try our best to annihilate the enemy. If it sinks, other ships will still be unable to escape. Only if we win can we have a chance of survival."
"
"Yes!" Ivanov bowed.
The saint sighed: "Alas! I took Lord Destiny's ship to fight. If I survive, I don't know what expression I should use to face this terrible friend."
If she hadn't taken care of the ice believers and just escaped on the Vatutin, there wouldn't have been so many problems.
There are not so many ifs in the world.
After all, when faced with a life or death decision, it is extremely difficult for a superior to make any decision.
Since the Saint has chosen to take away those believers who are loyal to the Ice and Snow Goddess, now is the time for her to pay the bill.
This was the age without radar!
The technological line in this world may not necessarily indicate radar talent.
Under the premise of removing extraordinary strength, finding enemies relies on the naked eye.
Fifteen minutes later, the lookout's screams shook the entire ship.
"Multiple smoke plumes were found in the northeast!"
When the diesel turbine unit of the old warship is started, not only is black smoke rising into the sky, the key point is that for the Ice and Snow Cultists, these high-temperature smoke pillars are as dazzling as the rising sun in their extraordinary vision.
The arrival of a large number of ships in such a border area of the empire is very unreasonable. The only explanation is that the Bill Empire fleet has been waiting on this channel for a long time.
Coming out of the port, to the north is the floating ice area. At this time in February, it is difficult to move without an icebreaker. Don't even think about it with so many burdens. To the south is the reef area.
The Imperial Navy counts the Saint and her followers to death.
The emergence of the Imperial Navy was simply the last straw that broke the hearts of the Ice Goddess believers.
"No! Does the goddess of ice and snow really don't care about us?"
"Goddess! Why don't you send down divine punishment to punish the rebel who broke the sacred covenant?"
"Oh my God! Will the Vatutin save us?"
At this moment, the trembling believers received a light signal from the flagship - the Holy Lady is with everyone, and I will attack with the flagship to defeat the heretics.
Well, that being said, the signal is full of momentum!
But when tens of thousands of people on the slow tugboats watched the huge and lonely flagship increase its power and face the twenty plumes of smoke from the horizon alone, many people shed tears.
How could an ordinary light cruiser with not necessarily outstanding performance be able to defeat an entire Imperial squadron?
Everyone can do this simple math problem.
"The saint... the saint wants to use her own life to win a glimmer of hope for us!"
They howl!
they shouted!
They pray!
But no matter how hard they struggled and how loudly they called out the name of the goddess they revered, they didn't get any response from the divine world.
When the damn royal guards attacked them, the mocking words flooded into the hearts of the ice and snow guardian knights again.
"Your goddess is about to fall!"
"The weak garbage god is not worthy of leading the great Bill Empire!"
Faced with the extremely cruel humiliation, the knights had no reason to refute. It has been centuries since the Ice and Snow Goddess Sect declined.
In this world where gods dance wildly, if the gods do not show their holiness, there will be a lack of believers.
Without mortals being introduced into the Kingdom of God, believers will lack motivation and their donations will decrease.
If it weren't for the fact that the Ice and Snow Goddess is the state religion of the Bill Empire, it might be even worse. In this environment where it is difficult to recruit new believers, fewer and fewer nobles in the empire believe in the Ice and Snow Goddess, which in turn leads to a decrease in the number of protective knights year by year.
.
While the Twin Goddess Cult of the Wright Empire next door has dozens of local knights and four major war knights, the Ice and Snow Goddess only has one integrated knight, which is really pitiful.
But now, when these mortal Ice and Snow Cultists face a desperate situation, what is more terrifying than physical death is the collapse of their faith.
If people's hearts are scattered, it will be difficult to carry them around.
Cough! Or should I say, after this battle, if there are still followers of the Ice and Snow Goddess alive...
"Woo——" A long whistle sounded on the Vatutin.
Seeing this giant steel ship emerging in greater numbers and charging towards the increasingly clear silhouettes of the ships on the distant horizon in an extremely tragic manner, the believers' emotions began to collapse.
On the other side, on the Imperial Expeditionary Fleet, Lieutenant General Grigorovich saw the protruding Vatutin through the vision of an extraordinary sea eagle, and he couldn't help but grumbled in dissatisfaction.
"How does an intelligence officer do his job? That ignorant princess actually has a brand new cruiser in her hands?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a mysterious man behind him wearing a golden half-mask covering the upper half of his face sneered: "Is having one more ordinary warship a problem for you?"
"Praise the Emperor!" the lieutenant general smiled and turned around: "The four ships [Izmail], [Borodino], [Kimborn] and [Navarin] made a feint attack, pretending to go around.
Pass the [Vatutin] and attack the civilian ships behind it, and see the saint’s reaction.”
"yes!"
The division of the Imperial Navy's forces made Anastasia's heart feel like it had fallen into an icy hell.
But there was nothing she could do about it!
If she gets entangled in those feinting warships, she will lose less than 1% of her chance of victory.
With a trembling voice, Her Royal Highness the Saint ordered: "Attack other warships along the way, but we only have one target, the enemy's flagship [Peter the Great]!"
This is a battleship named after his father's imperial number.
She couldn't afford to lose, but the admirals opposite could not afford to lose either. Once the Peter the Great sank, even if they wiped out all the Ice Goddess cultists, they would still be hanged collectively.
Lieutenant General Grigorovich saw the Vatutin accelerating and immediately realized the decision made by the Saint.
"What a courage! Your Highness Princess! If you are not the enemy that His Majesty must destroy, I would admire you just for your courage." He smiled, very happily, and at the same time issued the bombardment order.
"Boom boom boom!"
The sound of artillery resounded across the sky from the ships on both sides at the same time.
An unknown number of shells crossed the sky and were fired towards the opponent's ship.
On the forty-meter-high observation deck, the lookout can see enemy ships 22 kilometers away through the telescope.
For artillery of this era, a range of 10 kilometers is already the limit.
Whether this kind of mutual shooting at a distance of 10 kilometers can hit the target actually depends more on metaphysics.
When the shells landed within 500 meters of the ship, causing water columns to rise into the sky, Saint Anastasia was a little surprised to find that she did not seem too afraid of the outcome of dying on the battlefield.
That feeling was like the weak and illusory feeling in my heart after experiencing many hardships. After my last hope for the Ice and Snow Goddess was officially shattered, my desperate heart became even more indifferent.
"If destruction is my only ending, then I choose... to accept it." In her heart, the eldest princess said to herself.
But at this moment, she can't fall down yet.
She has long been living not only for herself, but behind her, there are tens of thousands of believers who look up to and rely on her. This is the source of her strength.