Lush greenery, the tranquil banks of the Elbe are filled with wildflowers, and the afternoon sun lazily spills into a revolving café on the shore, reflecting the faces of the two customers in the private rooms. The middle-aged man has a round face and deep eyebrows, and at this moment he is dealing with the food in front of him with a bitter and hateful look; The young man opposite him moved his knife and fork for a long time, and his smiling and elegant face was full of comfort and easy-going.

"General Brom, I'm not going to do anything if you want to do this again." Zeitzler, a middle-aged man, tore off a thick steak and complained and protested, "I was clearly told that I would only be responsible for reviewing the positions of the officers before the completion of the Marine Corps barracks, but now why do you still ask me to take the initiative to contact and lobby those elements with impure political positions?" If they were watched by the secret police, I would have been blacklisted. ”

Fang Yan wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin, and said with a smile: "My reliable Kurt, don't panic." The day before yesterday, I had already visited Müller, the fourth chief of the Imperial Security Service, and he fully approved of the Marines' acceptance of these old-minded officers, and only asked them to be able to keep to themselves in the future. What's more, the Imperial Security Service never formally convicted them, and these officers were simply not enthusiastic about the party leadership. ”

Zeitzler bit down on the bread and uttered a few muffled syllables, as if muttering a few words in a low voice, but the dissatisfaction on his face had obviously subsided a lot, and he was relieved in his heart. Zeitzler knew, of course, that the young man in front of him had enviable friendships with many of the most powerful members of the National Socialist Party, and that although Müller had the power to purge his opponents and make all those outside the party look disrespectful, he was at best a sub-bureau of Himmler's Reich Security Service, and was only in the middle of the National Socialist Party's power pyramid.

With Fang Yan's political influence after proposing "Song of Hitler's Führer", Müller is not going to his garden to help plough the ground. Now doing this kind of favors within the scope of his authority, no matter how you think about Müller, it is impossible to refuse.

"Okay. Even if you eliminate the hidden danger of the secret police, why did you let me lobby? Zeitzler still had some lingering thoughts in his heart, and complained. Fang Yan spread his hands and asked helplessly: "Do you think that with my reputation, after meeting, I can make those officers who don't recognize the party have a good impression?" It is only through you as a buffer that mutual trust between me and them can be built up in the future. ”

Zeitzler, who was drinking soup by himself, was choked, and his eyes changed when he looked at Fang Yan, and he didn't say anything for a long time. In the eyes of ordinary German people today, this young general is undoubtedly an Aryan hero sent by God, and the glory of his military exploits shines for hundreds of millions of miles; However, in the hearts of those who opposed the perverse actions of the National Socialist Party and were not afraid of authoritarian oppression, Fang Yan was a loyal minion of Hitler, and could even be said to be a clever courtier who bowed down to the thief. In order to sing the praises of the dictator and seek good fortune, he even did not hesitate to sell his soul to write that disgusting hymn! The solemnity and integrity inherited from generation to generation by German soldiers have lost the bottom line in him, and he has become even more shameless than Keitel!

"General Brom, I've always wondered why you're wading into the troubled waters of politics. With your abilities, you can be remembered by both us and the enemy like General Hipper. After a long pause, Zeitzler spoke slowly. Fang Yan smiled when he heard this, but he didn't intend to explain anything to Zeitzler, who was an outsider. Just as he was about to divert this topic, there was a sudden dense footsteps from far to near outside the door of the box, Fang Yan's eyes gathered slightly, and then he heard the rhythmic knock of his adjutant on the door.

"General, the General Staff of the Navy has just called, asking you to return to Berlin immediately." The young adjutant Schubert pushed the door open and reported with a serious expression. Fang Yan showed a little surprise, and looked at Zeitzler with some confusion. He is now demoted to the Hamburg Marines, who have not even put up a frame, just as Churchill was kicked out in 1916 to become the commander of the Scottish Guns. Now that he has suddenly returned to Beijing, what new assignment is there?

Seeing Zeitzler with a melancholy look on his face, Fang Yan understood what he was thinking at the moment, and said calmly: "Please rest assured, I will never let your time and effort be wasted. If Marshal Raeder had arranged for me to go to another post, I would have stayed here until the building and training of the Marine Corps were fully on track. ”

The engine roared, pushing the Junkers-52 transport plane over a distance of more than 300 kilometers, and two hours after receiving the notice, Fang Yan appeared in front of the gate of the Berlin Navy Headquarters in full suit. What made Fang Yan frown was that the entire building was filled with an inexplicable strange atmosphere today, and those fellow officers who were familiar with each other on weekdays also had an indescribable meaning in their words and eyes when they met and greeted him.

"What's going on, is there a conflict between the Navy and Hitler, and I need to help wipe my ass?" With doubts in his heart, Fang Yan knocked on the office of the Chief of Staff of the Navy. Pushing open the door, Schniwenger was sitting behind his desk reviewing papers, his face tired and bitter as he had never seen before. Seeing Fang Yan appear, Schniewenger reluctantly smiled and raised his hand to salute in return, and then said bluntly: "Jonas, the main fleet of the Navy has suffered a heavy setback in the Danish Strait. Now the headquarters is ready to appoint you as the commander of the Third Air Force and plan the next course of action. With that, Schniwenger handed over a thick telegram file.

Fang Yan took the document suspiciously, and after a moment, his eyes widened in shock: this was actually a battle report sent back by Admiral Karls, the commander of the main fleet, claiming that he had been attacked by the British Home Fleet in the Danish Strait. When he saw the lost ship, Fang Yan rubbed his eyes in disbelief and said in a lost voice: "This is impossible, the Bismarck actually sank?" Her armor defense is flawless, and none of the weapons available can pose a lethal threat to her! ”

Schnywinger shook his head slowly: "There is no ship that is unsinkable, and when the damage accumulation reaches a certain level, no matter how powerful the battleship is, it will inevitably sink." Her details are mentioned in the report. ”

Three days earlier, a fierce night battle had broken out between the main Anglo-German fleets at the western exit of the Danish Channel. In order to rescue the Tirpitz, which was besieged by four British ships and its main gun fire control was blocked by thick smoke and nearly paralyzed, the Bismarck brazenly approached the left rudder when the enemy destroyer attacked, so as to obtain a fierce fire from the firing range and bombard the British Prestige battle cruiser that was still resisting. Bismarck's artillery fire was so effective that the counter-fire on the Prestige ceased after the third round of the Bismarck's salvo, and just ten minutes later, the Prestige's chimney was engulfed in the sea, ushering in her final home as a warship.

At the same time, the starboard side of the Bismarck was hit by as many as 8 torpedoes in a row. Except for one torpedo, whose fuse was damaged by the air wave of the previous torpedo explosion and failed to detonate smoothly, the seven torpedoes only caused a total of more than 6,000 tons of water ingress; Only the starboard outboard propeller of the battleship was shattered by shrapnel and the speed dropped to 18 knots. The ship's excellent underwater protection was on full display at this moment, and both Karls and Lindemann were fortunate for its low damage. Originally, they all thought that the Bismarck would not be able to withstand this wave of torpedoes, and that it would abandon the ship and capsize if it could not hold on for much longer, but now they still have a lot of spare strength to continue fighting, which is crucial to reversing the current situation of naval warfare!

Amid the roar of the Bismarck's remaining main guns, only four heavy cruisers of the British fleet resisted, but in the end they were all destroyed by two German battleships one by one. The difference in the lethality of the artillery of the two sides was too great, and a German ship hit by a high-explosive shell was a devastating destruction in an area within a radius of 20 meters, and the British heavy patrol could not stop it at all.

However, the accuracy of the main guns of the two German ships was also much worse than at the beginning of the battle. In desperation, Tovey finally used the heavy patrol as a torpedo boat, and the Bismarck, which had the slowest lightning strike speed, had 5 more torpedoes on the damaged port side of the damaged ship, and the core cabin finally fell into a big break, leaving only 1 main shaft still barely running.

"It doesn't matter, isn't it just a dozen large-caliber shells and 15 torpedoes? The Bismarck's core cabin has a staggered layout of units, and it is impossible for the generator and the main pumping room to be completely destroyed when one side is penetrated! As long as the damage management is effective, the stagnant water in some cabins can be gradually discharged, and it is not a problem to rescue it at all! Fang Yan could no longer suppress the emotion in his chest that was about to be noisy, and slammed his fist on the table, blurting out an angry roar.

Schnewenger's eyes were bloodshot, and he said astringently: "Jonas, you are calm. Kars they had already done this, but then they encountered new enemies, and it was these people who gave the Bismarck the final blow. ”

Fang Yan took a deep breath and looked at the back, all his doubts and unwillingness were unraveled by the follow-up report. He finally remembered that the war report had begun by mentioning that the fleet had been spotted twice by British submarines in the Channel during the day. Now it seems that these submarines did not leave after providing information, but most likely quickly assembled and pulled up a tight blocking net in the strait.

If it was in a normal daylight environment, the probability of the British setting up an ambush would not exceed 2 percent, because the German ships had maneuverability and eyes to fully evade. But at night, the British submarines and torpedoes were hidden in the dark, while the German battleships, which had fought a bloody battle, were on fire and faltering, and there were no destroyers around to provide anti-submarine guards......

"Without warning, a volley of torpedoes suddenly sprang out from the flank of the Bismarck, and the continuous explosions caused the entire ship to enter the water completely out of control. The only good news was that the Tirpitz and Spee were not far away at the time, and they rescued all the surviving crew. Schnywinger said in a deep voice, "In addition to the Bismarck, we also have a large number of warships that have unfortunately been sunk in this battle, including your former flagship, the light aircraft carrier Hipper. ”