"What are you kidding?! Are the British crazy?! ”

The three of Jochen, who had rushed back to Berlin from Essen overnight, returned to Berlin late the next night without any rest, and rushed directly from the train station to Charlottenburg Palace. The entire Charlottenburg Palace was brightly lit at this time, and Frederick III, who was supposed to rest for a long time, was still in his study, while Prime Minister Machar, Minister of Defense Chillings Pfister, Chief of Army Staff Schlieffen, and Foreign Minister Bilo were all present.

When he saw this posture when he entered the door, Jochen's first reaction was, who is Temeow going to open a film with?

When he saw Jochen and Kerst enter, Frederick III put his hand on his forehead with a tired face, and then said in a haggard voice: "Adolf, tell me more about the situation. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Mashal nodded, then turned to Jochen and Kester to repeat the situation: "This morning, we received a telegram from the port of Dar es Salaam, a colony in East Africa, where two Chinese cruise ships docked at the port saying that they had been intercepted and seized by British Royal Navy ships in Maputo Bay off the southern waters of Mozambique.

According to their routes, as well as their testimonies, they were detained by the British for 2 days, and the Royal Navy boarded the ship for inspection, on suspicion that our ships were helping the Boers to deliver supplies. After no anomalies were found, they were cleared, and then they rushed to the nearest German port to report the incident.

The more important news is that there are not only two ships detained, they say that there is also a German ship detained, the ship named Herzog, and this ship has not been released by the British, so far we have not received any news that the Herzog has been safe. ”

Just after listening to Mashal's words, Kster couldn't sit still: "What are you kidding?!" Are the British crazy?! Let's go to the rescue of the closest fleet there! ”

"Calm down, Koster, I was just as shocked as you were when I first got the news, but now is not the time to use tough tactics to solve the problem." Machar persuaded.

Jochen was also shocked, not because of the fact that the British had detained the German ships, but because of the fact that the British were making trouble for themselves at this time.

Historically, the Royal Navy's second-class protected cruiser Citis detained the Herzog, of course, on suspicion of helping the Boers deliver supplies, but unlike the ships that have now been released, the British continued to detain the ship after boarding and inspecting the ship without finding anything unusual, and hundreds of German passengers, including the Portuguese governor, were detained for up to 16 days, so this situation is not surprising in itself.

But the problem is that it is not 1900 in history after all, and the British here are facing provocations from France and the United States at the same time, and they also asked the German government to help contain the French.

However, Machar is right, maybe the situation is not bad enough to use strong measures, and even if the fleet is dispatched, the difficulty is very great, so he still has to advise: "Your Excellency, Your Excellency Prime Minister is right, we still don't know the specific situation yet, and even if we move the fleet, we still have a lot of problems to solve."

The closest to that was the African Fleet at Walvis Bay, which had to go south around the Cape of Good Hope or send the Mediterranean Fleet to East Africa via the Suez Canal. Either way it would take a long time, and even if we did get to the area, it would already be full of British warships, and it would be difficult for us to break through the blockade of the British fleet. ”

"If it's just a diplomatic protest to the British, is it necessary to call us back? What else is there but to make those damn Brits spend a few minutes reading it and then throw it in the trash?! Koster was very unhappy about this.

Jochen felt that this was indeed a tricky matter, as Koster said, and that such words as "I protest", "strongly condemn", and "solemnly advise" were of no use to an old scoundrel like the British, and as for "not to be unprepared", it seemed that Germany could not do anything to the British.

Why do you suddenly feel like you've said a lot of deathly things?

But if you don't show your attitude at all, then Germany is too cowardly, and this is not a little bit of face, and then the British will not take you seriously.

But this overreaction will inevitably lead to a rupture of Anglo-German relations, if it is the original history, the rupture will also be rupture, and the Germans don't expect to be nice to the British anyway. But now, because of the relationship between Jochen's little butterfly, it is difficult to see that France jumped out as the first bird and the British were on the bar, and Germany jumped out at this time to let the British point the finger at itself again, did it destroy the great good shape again?

Jochen is very entangled in this, what should he do?

As Jochen was torn between them, Machar continued: "Now we are divided on whether we need to take a strong line. The Army General Staff thought that it would allow the army to assemble on the Namibian border, and the British would need to think carefully about our attitude if they did not want to start a fire in their own South African backyard.

But I think that a direct threat to South Africa while the British are at war in the Transvaal has the potential to cause an overreaction from the British. We can't predict what will happen, and that's unwise. ”

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, what do you mean to do?" Jochen asked.

"I think that a diplomatic note is sent to Great Britain as an expression of my country's strong indignation at this matter; Secondly, to publicize the matter to all sectors of society, so that the whole of Europe will be angry at the actions of the British.

Britain is now a big opponent in Europe because of the Anglo-Boer War, and it is not an exception for Britain to intercept and inspect ships of other countries in East African waters, and we can put them in trouble in international public opinion again.

Britain needs to recognise that it is not wise to have an unpleasant relationship with us in such a situation. Again, Machar believes that a more moderate approach will not have an unpredictable impact.

"A diplomatic note, and then we didn't do anything, and silently suffered this loss? Germany could not accept this result! The people of the Empire will not accept this result either, and we will become very passive diplomatically! "Bülo's attitude is very clear, Germany cannot be coaxed.

Jochen thought for a moment and said, "I think it's better to let the African fleet rush to the area where the incident occurred immediately." ”

"Your Highness?" Marchar was a little surprised, why did the crown prince, who was still persuading Caster not to get excited, suddenly change his tune?

"I agree with Bülow that we can't do nothing, because that would make us appear weak and deceitful, both internally and externally.

But as you said, Your Excellency Prime Minister, if the army is massed on the South African border, the British will be restless, and it is indeed difficult to predict what they will do. Therefore, it is not advisable for the Army to take deterrent actions.

Therefore, we had to use the navy and get the fastest warships to rush to the sea where the incident occurred, not to go to war, but to escort our citizens to return safely to Germany. Whether it was the British letting them go or confronting our warships, we at least acted so that it would be easier for the government and the military to account for it. ”

Jochen's decision in the end was mainly based on considerations, even if he backed down this time, the rupture of Anglo-German relations was inevitable, and it was just a matter of sooner or later. Moreover, at this time, Britain was deeply involved in the Boer War, and was able to make compromises with the British in history, and now with the addition of a Frenchman, Germany would not have ended too badly if it was a little tougher.

However, Schlieffen's way of exerting pressure in South Africa is not advisable, this is the British prison, not to mention touching, Germany even makes a gesture that wants to touch, it may lead to irreparable results, let the navy do a "greeting", it should still be within the psychological tolerance of the British, and considering that there are not many German ships that can rush to this area as soon as possible at this time, the scale of the confrontation between the two sides can also be limited.

Jochen even had a little hope that the German fleet would eventually return in vain because of its numerical inferiority, so that on the one hand, there would be an explanation to the people, it was not that we had done nothing, but that we were not strong enough, so we could not do anything. On the other hand, it can be used as an excuse to carry out the naval expansion plan again.

The historical Sitis incident led Tirpitz to promote and implement the Second Naval Act of 1900, which doubled the size of the German Navy's expansion program from 1898.

Now it is naturally impossible to double the planned size of the German Navy, but it should not be a problem to take this opportunity to add two more battleship squadrons.

So anyway, the ship will be sent out first, and then what will be done will be said when the time comes.

"Now the African fleet can only arrive at the fastest Elizabeth-class heavy cruiser, the strength is simply not enough, the American Eagle class can't keep up with the speed of the Elizabeth-class all the way, and the Type 1895 destroyers that can keep up with it don't have such a long range, damn it, if the two Watch-class ships were deployed in Africa, we wouldn't be facing such an embarrassing problem now." Kerst said with some annoyance.

"Your Excellency, we're not going to war, it's useless to have a lot of numbers, I think an Elizabeth-class is enough to express our attitude." Jochen was happy to see that he could only go to one warship, the Elizabeth-class was Germany's newest armored cruiser, and its combat power was among the best in all of Europe, and it was completely handy to deal with an opponent of the Apollo-class second-class protective cruisers.

Therefore, the British could form a sufficient deterrent in the face of the blockade fleet on the east coast of Africa, which did not have capital ships to sit on, but only one in number, and the Germans could be completely "outnumbered", so as to make a strong response, but not let the British feel that the Germans were acting too drastically. R1152