When the Ku-Chulin arrived in northern Germany in the cold autumn of October, it was rainy and cold, but when the Irish king and queen's naval training ship sailed through the Kiel Canal, countless Germans heard the news and paid their respects to the distinguished newlyweds. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

This situation has allowed Xia Shu, who has been away from his homeland for many years, to find some warmth to return home.

Later, in the familiar port of Kiel, Natsuki saw some old ships moored at the military dock, and most of the civilian ships carrying goods were shuttling in and out of the harbor, and the peaceful busyness of peacetime replaced the fierce murderous intent of wartime, but this did not mean that the position of the navy in Germany had weakened. In fact, with the successive commissioning of the cutting-edge Bavaria-class super-dreadnoughts and the conversion of reparation ships such as the "Ruprecht", the strength of the German High Seas Fleet has been impressively upgraded to a notch, and its main ships are divided into two, one stationed in Tórshafen in the north, the other in the west in Brest, guarding the British like jailers, and several detachment fleets stationed in Ireland, the Persian Gulf and the Far East to protect the overseas interests of the German Empire. Tirpitz's Imperial Navy has reached the realm of ocean domination and is continuing to move towards the goal of dominating the four seas.

Back at the Kiel Naval Academy, the former instructors are getting older, and the current cadets are still so youthful and vigorous. Recalling his college career, Natsuki couldn't help but feel the wonder of the years. Standing in front of the photo wall and staring at it for a long time, there were 209 graduates in the same class, and 35 of them had unfulfilled ambitions and died on the battlefield, many of whom were close to Xia Shu back then. Among the rest, a few people from the royal family and nobles have already advanced to the ranks of colonels, and most of them should still accumulate experience and sharpen their minds in the posts of middle and low-level officers, while it seems that they are the only ones who have stepped out of the naval boundary.

On Kiel's night, Natsuki took Charlotte and more than 20 of her classmates to get together, drink and talk to the heart's content, and the bold people drunk themselves, and Christian was one of them. During the war, Prince Oldenburg was promoted to the rank of colonel two years ago as commander of the native torpedo boat fleet, and was considered the most promising admiral of the new generation since Prince Joachim.

Christian is not only proud of his career, but also ushered in his own spring in love. He was infatuated with Princess Louise earlier, how could he have no fate, and he was depressed for a while, and then met a county lord of the Habsburg family during his travels, and the two fell in love at first sight.

After a day in Kiel, Natsuki and Charlotte travel to Berlin. Here, the German royal family arranged a grand city-wide parade for them, and the Berlin people showed no less enthusiasm than when Crown Prince Wilhelm was married. Walking through Berlin's main streets, Natsuki really felt the changes in the city. Before the war, Berlin had a population of more than 2 million, far less than London, England, with a population of more than 7 million, and a little worse than Paris, France, and only four years later, Berlin's permanent population surged to more than 2.7 million, which was basically the same as the population of Paris.

Since the end of the war, Natsuki has devoted himself to the great cause of Irish independence and revitalization, except for the ship design work requested by the Kaiser, he has no extra energy to participate in German political and economic affairs, but he is not ignorant of the situation in Germany. The Germans were rewarded handsomely for their victory in the war, with their overseas colonies expanding sixfold from 2.9 million square kilometers before the war to 17.5 million square kilometers, and including economic, political, and military territories or leases such as Senegal, Nigeria, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, and even Hong Kong. After a period of restoration, expansion and development, a large number of colonies began to provide a steady stream of high-quality and low-cost resources for Germany's domestic industry.

In addition, with the rise of the country's prestige and influence, both German official institutions and non-governmental figures have taken more initiative in foreign negotiations in the economic and trade fields than before, thus gaining more tangible benefits. Because of the social contradictions brought about by class differences, the unemployment rate of workers, and the issue of remuneration, a considerable part of them were transferred to the exploitation and oppression of the labor force in the colonies, resulting in a prosperous economic situation in the country and a prosperous situation in which the broad masses of the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.

The eternal philosophical question of the outcome of the last war as the seed of a war received little attention in the flourishing of the German Empire, and only the natural pessimists seemed to be apprehensive, and among these non-mainstream people, there was one man who had great influence: Moltke, the chief of the General Staff of the German army, who ascended to the throne of field marshal after the war. Almost single-handedly, Germany spent two years and a lot of manpower and material resources to build a huge defense system along the more than 1,400-kilometer border stretching from the Baltic Sea in the north to the northern shore of the Black Sea in the south. Not only does it play an important military role, but it is also seen as a strong political line of defense. Not only was it considered dangerous to bring contraband into the country, but anyone who expressed left-wing ideas in their speech was subjected to further segregation, and if they were considered Bolshevists or other types of anti-governmentists, they were tried in custody and sent to prisons for such persons.

At the Imperial Palace in Berlin, the German royal family and princes and nobles from various German states gathered to celebrate the return of the most gifted direct member of the Hohenzollern family in history as the king of a country and the marriage of his sweetheart. Regardless of the disdain for the origins of the Irish queens, these traditional elites of the upper class talked about their deviant feelings with relish, and there was no lack of envy.

At the royal banquet, the Kaiser announced that Charlotte Bromberg would be awarded the title of Duchess of Bromberg. Among the noble titles of European countries, the duke is the highest rank, but the so-called Duchess of Bromberg, like the title of Duchess of Hornberg received by Sophie, the wife of the late Archduke Ferdinand, is just an identity recognized by the royal family, which can neither be inherited by hereditary succession, nor have any real power, nor can it change the established fact that she married the king of Ireland as a commoner.

The Kaiser and his wife's hospitality to Charlotte, a discerning person can see at a glance that they love their young son, so they love the house and Wu, and naturally some people are unhappy about this. With six sons and one daughter in the royal family, Crown Prince Wilhelm's position as the crown prince is unshakable, Joachim is beyond the power competition within Germany, and Princess Louise is an ace pilot and is blessed by the public, compared to the situation of the other four princes. The second prince, Aiter, is an army officer with a reckless personality and mediocre ability, who has been on the battlefield but has not performed brilliantly, and his future in the military world is not optimistic; The third prince, Adalbert, was in the navy but was not interested in combat affairs, and lacked a brave and tenacious character, so he chose the lifestyle of a naval attache stationed abroad, and was out of the public eye of Germany for a long time; Augustus, the fourth prince, chose to enter politics, and is now a member of the Reichstag and has served in the Prussian government for a long time, but to be fair, he was not a shrewd statesman, and could hardly be a great man like Bismarck, whom he admired; The fifth prince, Oscar, served in the army, accumulated some military merits during the war, and was promoted to the rank of colonel, although the old-fashioned generals were not sure of his command ability, he mixed like a fish in water in the military circles, and maintained close relations with many merchants who dealt in military supplies.

Natsuki's round-the-world honeymoon was not a purely publicly-funded trip, with diplomatic and economic advisers on board, and visits to various countries along the way, Germany as the first stop, followed by Sweden, Finland, Russia, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. During the banquet, Wilhelm II suggested that Natsuki cancel his visit to Russia, because the current situation in Russia is turbulent, strikes and demonstrations are frequent, and the Tsar and his ministers have lost absolute control over the country and the army.

The Kaiser's advice was not unreasonable, and knowing that the situation in the Russian capital was indeed serious, Natsuki conveyed to the tsarist government through the Russian ambassador to Germany his intention to postpone the visit. Before Natsuki left Germany, the Russian ambassador brought the Tsar's reply, in which he expressed his understanding of the concerns of the King of Ireland, frankly admitted that Russia was experiencing some economic and social troubles, and hoped that Ireland would lend a helping hand, provide some effective strategies to solve economic and social problems, and conduct in-depth contacts on economic, financial, and military cooperation between the two sides. To this end, the Tsar intended to hold a meeting with the King of Ireland at the military port of Kronstadt, where he said that his absolute safety could be guaranteed.

In Natsuki's eyes, Tsar Nicholas II was a tyrannical ruler who abandoned his capable, assertive, and loyal ministers and placed his trust in those who were perfunctory but flattering, making his country weaker. However, although Russia lost more than a quarter of its territory and population in the Great War, and its strength weakened to the lowest point in nearly a century, it will always be a country to be underestimated from a historical point of view. If nothing else, the red wave will sweep through the country, causing it to be reborn in the ashes and transform into a formidable giant.

The reason for arranging a visit to the Russian capital was that Natsuki did hope to reach some agreement with Nicholas II in order to get something of value from the Russians before the collapse of Tsarist Russia and the rise of the Red regime. After visiting Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, Natsuki will visit Helsinki as planned. Finland and Ireland gained independence in the same year, and the situation is now calm and settled, and Kronstadt is not far from the Finnish capital. At this time, the Gulf of Finland has not yet frozen, and with the cruising speed of the "Ku-Chulin", it can be reached in seven or eight hours.

After weighing it, Natsuki asked the Russian ambassador to bring news to Nicholas II, and he accepted the invitation to meet him at the military port of Kronstadt.

(End of chapter)