Hindenburg's departure soon made the final presidency untenable. As early as September 1914, just a month after the outbreak of the war, the German government, in order to cover up the defeat in the Battle of the Marne on the Western Front, pushed Hindenburg, which had just created the great victory of Tannenberg on the Eastern Front, to the altar; Under the clamor of the propaganda machine, the veteran, who had just returned from retirement for less than ten days, became a military hero on a par with Frederick the Great. In the next 4 years, Hindenburg successfully created an image of a god of war in the hearts of the German people with his simple computer swiping of the Russian army on the Eastern Front, and made the people who longed for the emergence of a savior worship him as a strong and unyielding hero. This trust was so deep that the malicious slander of Hoffmann, who had worked with him for several years in the war, could not be punctured in the slightest: whether it was the "sleeping marshal" [note 1] or the "what do you say about the marshal" [note 2], the German military and civilians did not believe the negative news about Hindenburg at all!

Although Hindenburg has been out of the public eye for several years, and now that he is about to turn 78, he has fully reached the age of an old dragon, but the aura that hangs over him has not faded in the slightest. In the end, Hindenburg received an absolute majority of more than 60% of the votes and was soon sworn in as the second president of the republic in front of the lens of countless cameras. This result was acceptable to the whole of Germany, and the right-wing groups and the military forces were even more excited: because Hindenburg, who had climbed to the highest position of chief of the General Staff, the highest professional soldier, must have leaned towards their side politically!

Hindenburg, who became president, did not disappoint the country's powerful right-wing groups. As a royalist, he declared: "In all the difficult moments of my tenure, I have only to look at the picture of the Kaiser and ask myself what the Supreme Majesty has decided on this matter." This is undoubtedly a blatant nostalgia for the imperial days of yesteryear, and a contempt for the current Weimar constitutionalism. Soon after, he signed an order that all embassies abroad must fly the black, white, and red tricolor of the Second Empire, putting his words into practice.

As for the question of the war of the past, the veteran who had urged the Kaiser to make a truce now followed the trend: he used his experience of being in charge of the wartime center of Germany for several years to declare that Germany's defeat was not due to the evil of the invaders or the weakness of his own army, but was entirely due to the "stab in the back" of the revolutionaries at home. The leftist forces in Germany have been further suppressed, and their voice in the Reichstag is declining. Right-wing radicals, on the other hand, are emboldened and are flexing their muscles more in the political arena.

However, the tactics of the veteran military president are only aimed at building momentum at home. On key foreign policy, however, he is still pursuing the same line as his predecessor. At the economic level, Hindenburg supported the Dawes plan that the Americans were implementing to "raise chickens and lay eggs to eat", and never said anything about whether to pay reparations to the Entente countries; In the diplomatic field, he also recognized Foreign Minister Stresemann's policy of conciliation with France, and did not adopt a hostile attitude towards this enemy because of his military status.

For this reason, Hindenburg was also strongly attacked by the far-right elements in China, who saw him as a slave of the Entente in recognition of the Treaty of Versailles, which was spurned by countless Germans. In the face of these restless voices, this old man, who had already experienced countless storms and storms, remained as immobile as he did on the eve of the Battle of Tannenberg. Although his emotions wanted him to destroy at once everything that the Entente world had imposed on Germany, including the peace treaty and the constitutional republic that had overthrown the monarchy; However, he deeply understood that with the current strength of Germany, he could only choose to submit and forbear, and he needed to use all means to create the conditions for the revival of Germany. It was not that Germany needed to tear up the Treaty of Versailles in order to revive it, but that the revival of Germany would inevitably shake the Treaty of Versailles.

In the early summer of May, the internship training that lasted for four months on Fang Yan finally came to an end. Compared to the previous boring training that was almost purely a physical competition, Fang Yan felt that he had really come into contact with the navy this spring, and in his full and rich life, he had accumulated enough knowledge to make him feel surging. Fang Yan can be said to be fully familiar with the business of the navy, which is evidenced by his victory in the final test. The next thing that awaits him will be nine months of sailing training, and only after successfully completing this training can Fang Yan actually enter the campus of the Milwick Military Academy, and after completing a year of advanced courses and half a year of reserve service, he will finally be awarded the rank of second lieutenant.

"I have to say, little cubs, that you are very lucky; This time, the training ship will carry you on the cruiser Emden, which was completed only three days ago! The lieutenant colonel officer, who had been in charge of the training before, spoke loudly to the cadets in front of him. For this news, all the cadets, including Fang Yan, let out an irrepressible roar. Compared with the excitement of other people's expectations, Fang Yan felt more different kinds of happiness in his heart; Compared with the old sail training ships, this new type of ship of the German Navy, which was only started after the war, is bound to be much better than its predecessors in terms of habitability.

In the early morning of May 26, Fang Yan, who had packed his pillows, bedding and personal belongings, and a group of companions walked to the dock of the Kiel Military Port early. Far away, everyone saw the shadow of a slender ship docked in the berth. Unlike the old ships, it has a sleek and elegant superstructure, shiny steel armor and metal, a slender hull that is pleasing to the eye, and everything is brand new. Before he got closer, Fang Yan's side had already erupted with a strange cry of excitement and joy, as if in the eyes of these students, the warship seemed to be the invincible embodiment of the German Navy.

The lieutenant colonel watched with satisfaction the performance of the cadets, and showed no desire to make them disciplined; The youthful enthusiasm of these outstanding seedlings is the source of strength that will contribute to the German Navy in the future. The only thing that made him feel a little obtrusive was the calm demeanor of the youngest handsome young man, who didn't seem to be thrilled or uplifted at the sight of this beautiful and cutting-edge warship. However, he ignored it. After the previous four months of getting along, he had already understood that this young man actually had an extremely amazing naval expertise; The Emden in front of him was already incomplete, and he knew all her flaws very well.

With a standard displacement of 5,600 tons and a full load displacement of nearly 7,000 tons, the Emden light cruiser has a total length of more than 155 meters, making her the most eye-catching among all the ships of the current German Navy; Any ordinary person who does not know much about the navy will think that the German navy has a successor ship, and it presents a thriving scene. However, in Fang Yan's view, this ship can only show off its power in the Baltic Sea: she will either show off in front of the Swedes and Finns who do not have ships of the same type, or she will bully the Soviet and Russian navies, which have almost lost a clean navy in the war.

Because the design of the ship was established too early, and it was on the cusp of the Allied countries' fierce sanctions against Germany, her main indicators were violently filed by the Allied countries. The four twin 150 mm guns it was originally planned to equip had to be replaced with eight single-armored plate guns, and the single port could only exert the firepower of six guns. In terms of artillery models, the Allies also forbade Germany to use new naval guns, and the ship was eventually equipped with old guns developed during the last war. The two quadruple 533-mm torpedo tubes were cut into two twins, which could only be used as a better than nothing. Combined with its slow speed of 29.4 knots and its low and weak main equipment at 37 mm thick, her combat value has been greatly reduced. In fact, the German Navy did not think about what combat mission the ship would perform, and at the beginning of its construction it was decided to let it play the role of a training ship; Because of this, Fang Yan was able to board the ship as a cadet and begin his sailing training.

"However, this will not happen again in the future." Fang Yan's eyes flashed with light, and he muttered. At present, Germany has gradually freed itself from the heavy oppression of the early days of defeat, and the attitude of the Entente towards Germany is no longer as strict and domineering as it was at the beginning of 1921; With its own classic design methods, the ships built by the German Navy in the future will become a formidable existence far superior to the British ships of the same type.

[Note 1]: Dissatisfied with the fact that all the credit for the Battle of Tannenberg was won by Hindenburg, who was then the commander of the 8th Army, Hoffmann, who actually planned the prototype of the battle, later introduced everyone who came to visit the battle site: "This is where the marshal slept before the battle began, and here is where the marshal slept after the battle; Honestly, this is also where the marshal slept while the battle was going on".

[Note 2]: After Hindenburg was promoted to field marshal at the end of 1914, whenever someone asked him for his opinion, he would always habitually turn his head and say to Ludendorff beside him: "What do you say? (What do you think, Yuan Fang?) ）