Chapter 4: The Severely Injured Seydlitz

In the darkness, Zhang Hainuo groped his way forward, fortunate that the cabin wasn't too large. Soon, his hand found the metal handle of the cabin door. He turned it clockwise and pushed, but the thick door didn't budge. He exerted more force, but still, there was no response.

Was it because he was too weak, or was the door locked from the outside?

Zhang Hainuo had a bad feeling. Was his determination and grand plan about to come to naught at this small cabin door? However, he didn't lose heart. Instead, he stood still, gathering his strength. Just then, he suddenly remembered that cabin doors on ships usually opened inward. It was just that he rarely traveled by ship, so it hadn't crossed his mind initially.

So, he changed from pushing to pulling, and the door creaked open.

No sooner had Zhang Hainuo realized his momentary dullness than an indescribable odor assaulted his senses. It was a mixture of burnt wires and the smell of overcooked food, with a pungent scent of nitre and sulfur.

The foul smell made Zhang Hainuo's stomach churn.

The world outside the cabin door was much brighter, although the light wasn't strong overall. Zhang Hainuo's eyes quickly adjusted. Before him was a corridor about two people wide. Dim yellow bulkhead lamps, spaced every few meters along the corridor, provided the only source of light. The metal floor and white walls reflected dim, cold light.

With apprehension, Zhang Hainuo took a hesitant step forward. Walking barefoot on the floor didn't feel good. Before he could take a few more steps, another cabin door suddenly opened ahead. Out came a sailor, not tall but quite sturdy, holding a metal tray filled with bloodied gauze.

"Ensign!" The sailor snapped to attention.

Ensign? Who? Himself?

Zhang Hainuo glanced down at himself. In the light of the bulkhead lamp, he realized he was wearing a complete set of dark military uniform. Unfortunately, the torn fabric and bandages didn't make him look gallant at all; instead, they added a touch of tragedy.

Was he addressed as "Ensign" because of his attire, or did the other person already know him? If it was the latter, then there was only one explanation: he had taken over someone else's body during the crossing.

If that was the case, the previous owner of this body must be the "Hainuo" mentioned by the young man earlier?

Zhang Hainuo stood dumbfounded until the other person repeated the title with great concern:

"Ensign? Ensign von Finkenshtain? Are you okay?"

Von Finkenshtain...

Zhang Hainuo's second guess was confirmed, but he quickly snapped out of it. Now was not the time to dwell on this. It was fortunate that others thought he had lost his memory due to a head injury, but being mistaken for a mental patient or a spy would be disastrous!

However, in this situation, Zhang Hainuo didn't know what to do next. Should he salute with his right hand and say "at ease," or was a simple hand salute enough? Luckily, his tightly bandaged right hand spared him the trouble of saluting. He nodded to the other person.

"I'm fine! Um... at ease!"

The other person relaxed from their rigid posture, then explained:

"I'm sorry for your momentary distraction. I was worried about you..."

"I'm fine! Um... how is he doing?"

There was clearly a patient in this cabin, but Zhang Hainuo had no idea who it was, so he just used "he" as a substitute. After all, there were unlikely to be any women on this warship.

"Ensign Wogen hasn't woken up yet. I just changed his bandages!" The sailor replied straightforwardly, then looked very carefully at the bandages on Zhang Hainuo's body. "Ensign, I'll change your bandages in an hour!"

It seemed that this person was a medic or a sailor performing similar duties on board. At this moment, Zhang Hainuo struggled to find some words befitting his officer status, but unfortunately, he didn't possess that ability at all.

"Oh, if he wakes up, please give him my regards! Now... you go about your business! I'm... just taking a stroll! I'm fine!"

"Take care then!"

This sailor always spoke very cautiously, and at the end, he returned to attention.

Zhang Hainuo hurriedly walked along the corridor, regardless of whether it might seem strange to walk barefoot or where this path might lead. After turning several corners, he felt a sense of relief, similar to the feeling after an exam. However, several sailors approached, one of them lying on a stretcher, while others were wounded.

"Ensign!"

"Ensign!"

"At ease! At ease!"

As Zhang Hainuo spoke, he involuntarily quickened his pace, but the pain in his left foot made him unsteady. At this moment, he regretted why he didn't just turn back to his room, avoiding the risk of exposing his "identity" by wandering around this unfamiliar ship.

Despite these thoughts, Zhang Hainuo continued walking along the winding corridor. The unpleasant smell pervaded the air, and injured sailors were everywhere, but there were no massive breaches caused by shells exploding as he had imagined. After several turns, a set of steel latticed stairs finally appeared before him.

Perhaps this was the way to the deck!

Taking a deep breath, Zhang Hainuo climbed up, enduring the pain...

Pushing open the heavy cabin door, the fresh sea breeze hit him, and Zhang Hainuo suddenly felt awake. He heard the distant booming of cannons vividly, but his vision was blurry.

"On a moonless night, darkness rules the North Sea"—this was how the history books described the night of the Jutland Sea Battle.

Zhang Hainuo widened his eyes, trying hard to adapt to the darkness outside, but his sight could only reach the railing of the ship's passage. Beyond that, except for occasional glimmers, it was as if there was an endless black fog.

At first, Zhang Hainuo thought those glimmers were distant gunfire, but he quickly realized they were solitary and quiet, with a certain rhythm. So, they were signal lights used for close-range communication between ships. Thinking of this, Zhang Hainuo couldn't help but feel disappointed.

However, the booming cannons he had just heard seemed so real and clear. Where was the battlefield?

Zhang Hainuo took a step forward and gently closed the cabin door behind him. For someone like him, a "first-time boarder," it seemed simple to distinguish between the bow and stern. But when you were truly on such a massive warship, and the light around you didn't allow you to see the ripples on the sea, it wasn't easy to figure out.

After hesitating for a moment, Zhang Hainuo chose the direction to his left, but after only a dozen steps, he found that there was no way forward—before him was a single-barreled naval gun hidden in a fully enclosed gun mount, pointing towards the side of the ship like a fishbone. The secondary guns were mounted on both sides of the ship in single turret installations, a design popular in the late 19th to early 20th centuries.

Enduring the pains coming from various parts of his body, Zhang Hainuo turned back and walked in another direction. Shortly after passing the hatch he had just gone through, he suddenly felt the space in front of him open up. Unfortunately, the limited light prevented him from seeing the scene clearly. He could only discern two large shadows, one tall and one short, in his state of bewilderment.

At that moment, Zhang Hainuo felt a surge of excitement because he remembered that the "Sedlitz" had five main gun turrets: one at the bow, two in the middle of the hull—one on each side—and two tightly positioned at the stern. Just as he was about to approach the shadows to take a closer look, a cold voice rang out in the darkness:

"Who goes there?"

Zhang Hainuo didn't know how to respond. He simply said, "It's me," hoping that this person would be as familiar with "him" as the medic he had encountered earlier.

"Who?" followed by the crisp sound of a bolt being pulled back.

In Germany, Zhang Hainuo had experienced the rigidness of the locals more than once, and this time, he felt helpless.

"I am Hainuo... Hainuo von Finkenshtein... Lieutenant!"

Relieved, or perhaps unsettled after the lie, Zhang Hainuo couldn't distinguish the strange feeling in his heart anymore after uttering those words.

In the depths of his mind, there was a feeling of returning to his true self.

"So you are Lieutenant von Finkenshtein! Hello! Seaman Second Class Helmut salutes you!"

"At ease!" Zhang Hainuo hurriedly said.

Footsteps resumed, growing closer and closer. However, even when the two were close, Zhang Hainuo could only vaguely make out the other's appearance.

It was a young sailor, sturdy in stature, wearing a round sailor's cap and carrying a long rifle on his back.

"Lieutenant, you're injured!"

"It's nothing!"

"Do you need anything up here?"

"Um... It's too stuffy down there, just came up for a stroll... How's the situation outside?"

After a moment of silence, the sailor said, "Not entirely sure, but our ship just engaged with the British again!"

In the distance, the sound of gunfire timely echoed, and the light around Zhang Hainuo subtly changed, but it returned to normal in an instant.

"Is it our main fleet engaging them?"

"No, it's probably just our advance fleet. Listen, there hasn't been the sound of battleship guns from earlier until now!"

Although Zhang Hainuo had seen plenty of texts and audio-visual materials related to naval battles, "hearing the sound and judging the taste" was truly challenging for him. The distant sounds could be from a 105mm light naval gun, a 203mm medium gun, or a heavy gun over 300mm? For someone who had only spent a few hours on a warship, it was impossible to discern.

Despite his lack of understanding of naval warfare techniques, Zhang Hainuo wanted to find the ship's captain as soon as possible to see what he could do for this most powerful fleet in German history based on his historical knowledge.

"Um... Do you know where the captain is?"

"I heard he's badly injured, might be in the sickbay or in his own room, I'm not sure! Right now, 'Sedlitz' is commanded by Colonel von Laurnz, but given our current situation..." The sailor looked back at the two main gun turrets behind him, their outlines only visible at the edge of darkness, "just being able to make it back to Kiel would be great!"

"Colonel von Laurnz..." Zhang Hainuo had no impression of this name, just like the previous ones.

"Is he in the command tower on the bridge?"

"The command tower?" The sailor looked very surprised to hear that term.

"Our bridge was bombed this afternoon! Now, there's nothing there except a pile of scrap metal!"

Zhang Hainuo then realized that the experience of the "Sedlitz" in the Battle of Jutland fully justified the term "perilous"! "Heavily damaged hull, complete loss of combat effectiveness, over a hundred days spent repairing"—with Germany's advanced shipbuilding industry and wartime system during World War I, over a hundred days was enough time to thoroughly repair a large ship from top to bottom. Sedlitz was also the ship in the German High Seas Fleet that took the longest to repair, which indicated the extent of its damage at that time!

"I think Colonel Laurnz and the remaining officers might be in the auxiliary command post, right there!" The sailor pointed his right hand above Zhang Hainuo's head. Despite his confusion, he knew that large warships typically had their rear bridges set up as auxiliary command posts.

"Oh, got it! Thank you!"

Zhang Hainuo took a step forward, enduring the pain, but he immediately remembered something very important.

"Can we go up from here?"

"Yeah, the ladder hasn't been blown away!"

The sailor obviously misunderstood Zhang Hainuo's meaning. In fact, he had no idea where there was a ladder nearby to the upper rear bridge. At this point, Zhang Hainuo didn't want to ask again, but he knew that the bridge could generally be accessed from inside compartments or via external stairs. He didn't want to wander in the maze-like passageways anymore, so he followed the direction pointed by the sailor and soon found the external staircase leading to the upper deck.

After a difficult climb, he was questioned by another sailor before being allowed to proceed through the external staircase to the upper rear bridge.

Upon reaching the outer corridor of the rear bridge, Zhang Hainuo hesitated for a moment about how to approach. Just then, the sea ahead suddenly lit up with flashes of red, followed by a very intense barrage of gunfire, much louder than before. Unfortunately, the ship was still too far from the battlefield, and Zhang Hainuo could only see the vague glow but nothing more.

At that moment, the door in front of Zhang Hainuo suddenly opened, and several officers rushed out. They ran to the end of the corridor, holding binoculars and looking towards the direction of the fire and noise.

Zhang Hainuo didn't dare to disturb them and could only stand silently waiting. But the intense gunfire continued, with flashes of light flickering on the horizon, indicating that the battle there showed no sign of stopping.

The officers in front of him sometimes observed silently, sometimes whispered to each other. Occasionally, someone would go inside the bridge to convey orders, or bring back new orders from superiors, but no one paid attention to Zhang Hainuo, a mere nobody, standing there.

The perspective from the rear bridge was not good enough, and the smoke billowing from the chimneys was choking, but the leading officers remained dutifully stationed there, standing for nearly an hour!

During this time, Zhang Hainuo had no chance to speak up. Not because he didn't dare, but because he didn't know what he could say. Tell them that aircraft carriers could deal with battleships? Tell them that setting up a large ambush circle with submarines could inflict heavy losses on the British? No, this was an ongoing naval battle, and all grand strategic ideas were irrelevant.

Now Zhang Hainuo was not a magician or the goddess of fate; he was just a combat-ineffective casualty, unable to even lift a single shell!

Gradually, the gunfire subsided and finally stopped altogether, and the sea ahead returned to calm. The leading officers finally put down their binoculars. Led by one of the officers in the middle, they turned back and began to walk inside.

What should he do? Zhang Hainuo fell into a moment of confusion. Should he just go back to his cabin like this? No, he couldn't! His original intention was never to be a mere spectator!

With these thoughts in mind, Zhang Hainuo gathered his courage and walked up.

"Hainuo, what are you doing here?"

Before Zhang Hainuo could speak, the leading officer spoke first.

"Colonel Laurnz..." Zhang Hainuo nervously uttered the name, worried that the officer in front of him might not be the temporary commander as the sailor had said, but fortunately, he guessed right.

"Are you alright from your injuries?" The officer took a couple of steps closer, sounding genuinely concerned.

"I'm fine! Colonel, may I... may I know the current situation of the fleet?" Zhang Hainuo was still nervous. He knew that with his rank, he probably didn't have the qualifications to ask too many tactical questions, but he was determined to try anyway.

"The High Seas Fleet is mostly safe now, but..." The officer's tone sounded hesitant, and he took a step forward, gently placing his hand on Zhang Hainuo's shoulder. "Come inside and talk!"

Zhang Hainuo followed him like a puppet into the bridge. At this moment, he was surprised at the relationship between the owner of this body and Colonel Laurnz. From the colonel's tone and actions, it was clear that they were not just a normal superior-subordinate relationship. But he didn't have the energy to think about it now; he just wanted to help the fleet he was in as much as possible.

"With our current heading, the High Seas Fleet will soon pass through the Horns Reef Channel and return to base, but we..." The colonel paused for a moment, as if saying this required great determination.

"We can't keep up with the High Seas Fleet's speed. For the sake of the greater good, I believe Admiral Scheer will make the right decision! We... well, we may never return to Germany!" 

Zhang Hainuo was once again plunged into bewilderment. The Sedlitz couldn't return to Germany? How was that possible! Although the ultimate fate of this high-speed battleship in history was at the bottom of the sea, it was definitely not here!

"All our main guns are unusable, thousands of tons of seawater have flooded the compartments, and it's a miracle that we've held out this long! Hainuo, I hope you understand that we've fought gallantly, giving our all! Even in death, we will be proud of ourselves!"

The colonel spoke proudly, and at that moment, everyone around him adopted the same posture of embracing death and pride, which made Zhang Hainuo momentarily infatuated with this world.