At night, the moon is bright over the Baltic Sea, the stars are dotted, and the sea breeze blows lightly, pushing the waves to flow quietly, which is stable and peaceful. As a result of the declaration of war between Germany and Russia, the number of ships sailing in the Baltic Sea was drastically reduced, although the German side claimed to establish a blockade line only west of the 20th parallel east longitude, but after witnessing several German naval torpedo boats sinking Russian fishing boats, except for the route between Germany and Sweden was not greatly affected, most Swedish ships preferred to dock directly in Malmö rather than go deep into the Baltic Sea to stop at Stockholm, so the volume of shipping in the Baltic Sea was greatly reduced.

Although the Germans did not deploy any large or medium-sized surface ships in the Baltic Sea, they let some torpedo boats and minehunters swing around the Baltic Sea all day long, posing as if the Russians have the ability to come out and fight me. However, because the command structure of the Russian Baltic Fleet was under the Sixth Army at this time, and the commander of the Sixth Army, whose main task was to defend St. Petersburg and the coast of the Gulf of Finland, Admiral Konstantin van der Vliet, restrained the hands and feet of the Baltic Fleet without understanding the nature and role of the navy, so the Russians could only watch the small surface ships of the Germans show off their might in the Baltic Sea.

As a result, the already busy Baltic Sea quickly fell silent. The Baltic Sea, which had become calm, brought both convenience and trouble for the actions of the Germans.

"I say, are you sure we didn't veer?" In the cabin, where only a little moonlight came in to bring a little light, Captain Pocker looked at the dark sea outside the cabin, and asked his navigator, Second Lieutenant Kohler, with some uncertainty. Although he is the supreme commander of the LZ-50 airship, in this state, Kohler is the only eye of the entire airship.

"Probably not, Captain." Kohler himself was not very comfortable with discredited flights, so he replied with great confidence: "You can still see the navigation lights of the Navy's airship in front of you." Judging by the route we flew, we were indeed flying along the coastline, although I don't know how the Navy guys saw the land. ”

"Well, hopefully those Navy guys will get us to the right place." Pokel said with some unhappiness.

Like Pocker, the entire army airship crew in the German airship formation flying over the Baltic Sea was at this time uneasy and anxious, and they were full of powerlessness over this blind flight.

It's not that the Army's airships don't train overnight. However, when they were training at night, there were lights on the ground.

Under the Emperor's call to "lead the electrification revolution and make Germany the brightest country in the world", under the promotion of the government, which had tasted the huge profits brought by the nationalization of electric power facilities, and with the promotion of the people who had experienced the improvement of production efficiency brought by electricity, the use of electricity was not limited to the cities, but also began to spread to the towns.

When the light of electric lights began to illuminate the whole of Germany, the army's airship units could rely on the lights on land to determine their bearings. But now, there is a dark sea beneath them, due to the reduction of shipping vessels. There was not even a single light on the surface of the sea.

When it was as if the earth had disappeared and turned into a giant mouth of the abyss that devoured everything, these well-trained officers and men of the army airship were a little panicked. Moreover, because of the sea breeze blowing in the Baltic Sea, the airship is very easy to deviate from course, and in the absence of any markers that can be used for navigation, it is difficult for the airship crew of the army to have all uncontrollable uncontrollability.

Although the navy made careful preparations for this operation, the leader of the formation was the navy's airship group, which had the most experience in night flight, and the outermost ends of the formation on both sides of the formation and at the end of the formation were also naval airships. The army's airships were concentrated in the middle of the formation, so it was enough to follow the airships in front of them. But that doesn't alleviate much of this anxiety.

The oppressive calm was broken by a sudden sound in the silent airship pod, "Captain, the pilot L-12 airship has seen the light of the lighthouse on Osholm Island, and we have arrived at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland!" The radio communicator's words quickly lifted the people in the pod, and the long flight in the dark could finally be over.

"Then go ahead with the plan." Pocker's face, which had been stiff, finally showed a smile: "Inform L-12 that LZ-50 will be out of formation." Thank you to them for taking care of them along the way. Inform L-19 that we will fly with him. ”

According to the predetermined plan, upon arrival on Osholm Island, the airship formation will disperse, and part of it will continue to fly northeast. Continuing to the Gulf of Finland, while the other part turns right near the Muhu Strait, the 20 iron mounds in the LZ-50 pod will bring greetings from Germany to the Russians.

Pokel's airship certainly didn't come to bomb Russian ports, let alone at night, and even during the day, the Baltic breeze alone could make the bombs dropped by the airship have no chance. At this time, 10 M-8 electro-hydraulic impact mines and 10 M-12 mechanically triggered mines were being placed in the pod of the LZ-50, each containing 100 kg of ******* explosives. The Navy and Army airship units will drop more than 500 mines on the Russians' doorstep in one night, and such a joint operation will last at least a month.

Add to this the mine-laying operations of the German Navy's small surface ships and submarines at the exit of the Irbe, and the German Navy will treat the Russians to a sumptuous feast of more than 20,000 mines!

Such a scale of offensive minelaying operations comes from Jochen's strong requirements for the navy, although such a large amount of minelaying makes the navy scratch its head, but it can be said that the imperial navy, which responds to the emperor's requirements, is also willing to reduce the number of troops invested in the Baltic Sea region, plus Germany also has the ability to carry out such large-scale minelaying operations, so the offensive minelaying plan formulated by the German Navy General Staff has only one goal, to completely block the exit of the Russians into the Baltic Sea, we can't get in, and you don't want to come out!

Jochen's demand to send the Russians at least 20,000 mines within a month was certainly not vexatious.

At this time, there was still a certain gap between the Tsarist Russian Navy and the world's naval powers in the field of technology, but after the Russo-Japanese War, the Russians, whose naval strength was greatly damaged, built their own impregnable defense system around the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga.

The Russians were still busy consolidating their defensive minefields, but when they found out that the Germans were also on the defensive, they would be restless. Essen, who shined in the Russo-Japanese War, became the commander of the Baltic Fleet as in history, and this rare admiral with an offensive spirit in the Russian Navy was not satisfied with leaving the Baltic Fleet with nothing to do.

Historically, the Russians began to lay mines on the German-Swedish route in early October, and in just two months they established 14 offensive mine obstacles with a total of 1,598 mines, in addition to 3,284 defensive mine positions in the Gulf of Finland and 342 along the coast of Courland, which is 3.8 times the total number of mines laid by the Germans!

A mere 1,598 mines caused the German Navy to lose the armored cruiser Frederickar, 4 minesweepers, 3 large torpedo boats, and 14 freighters in 2 months. After that, the Russian offensive minelaying became more and more rampant, and by 1916, Russia had arranged 13,936 mines of various types, cooperating with the Baltic Fleet, which had the initiative in the Baltic Sea, and the German Navy paid a heavy price for this.

On the German side, on the other hand, only more than 200 mines were laid at the beginning of the war, which not only did not have any effect, but allowed the Russians to integrate these minefields into their own defense system. Even in 1916, when the Germans began to taste the sweetness of offensive mines, the total number of German mines in the Baltic Sea was only 6,075, of which 3,575 were offensive mines.

Therefore, Jochen demanded that the navy completely block any possibility of the Russians escaping within a month, so that their offensive minelaying fleet would fall first under the German offensive minelayering. Therefore, on the one hand, the German Navy is also crazy about the mine technology tree, and on the other hand, the night training of the naval airship unit is also completely centered on the task of offensive mine-laying. The Navy's airship units can even pat their chests and say that they can fly close to the coastline of the Baltic Sea with their eyes closed.

"Captain, L-19 told us to lower altitude."

"Understood, fill the airbag with air! Turn off engines 1 and 2 and we'll slow down! Pokel ordered.

Minelaying is not like bombing, and if a mine is hit too violently when it enters the water, it is very likely that the fuse will be damaged and malfunction. Fortunately, unlike airplanes, airships can fly at a low speed and can even hover in the air with their engines turned off, which saves German mine developers a lot of trouble in this problem, but even so, the altitude of airdropped mines is strictly limited to less than 200 meters.

For this purpose, the airship troops, carrying ballast sandbags weighing 6 tons, could only fly in formation at an altitude of 500 meters, which is why the Germans did not dare to cross Lithuania and Estonia directly, but could only fly along the coastline.

As the airbag filled with air, the airship slowly lowered its altitude, and the lighthouse on Osholm Island guided the Germans in the darkness.

"Captain, L-9 has begun to drop bombs, and after the bomb is dropped, L-19 will turn left and climb to an altitude of 1,000 meters to wait for reformation."

"Understood, lads, we're in place! Maintain your current speed and get ready to drop! 2 minutes between bombs! Don't throw all the mines together! Pokel commanded loudly: "Kohler, keep an eye on L-19 for me!" I don't want to get lost on the Russians' doorstep! ”

The navigation lights of the L-9, which was flying not far away, slowly raised, indicating that she had dropped all the mines and began to climb, Pokel shouted into the microphone: "Start dropping bombs!" ”

The airship shook slightly, and Pocker knew that a mine had left the airship, and a few seconds later there was a thud from below, like a large rock thrown into the water. (To be continued.) )