With the arrival of the New Year of 1915, the war in Ireland remained stalemate, and the cold weather caused both sides to reduce the need for long-distance maneuvering. www.biquge.info With the successive delivery of weapons and ammunition ordered from the United States and the arrival of Canadian troops and the Anzac Corps, Britain's military investment in Ireland has increased significantly. The German Empire, a strong ally of the Irish Independence Forces, established a solid northern line of communication through the Battle of the Faroe Islands, and German troops and war materials were continuously transported to the areas controlled by the Irish Independence Forces. In addition, the Irish Independence Forces, led by independence movements such as the Irish Republican Brotherhood, have grown rapidly in the midst of the war, and just before Christmas, they announced that millions of Irish fighters had joined the independence front. However, considering that the population of the entire island of Ireland is only about 4 million, even if the majority of the population supports independence, and all the men who can handle weapons go to war, it is possible to reach this staggering number, so there must be a lot of water in it. According to the observation of the German military advisers sent to help the Irish train soldiers and manage the troops, if you do not count the guerrillas who are openly and secretly engaged in sabotage and cold shooting, the number of Irish independence armed men with basic combat strength is about 200,000, which has increased amazingly compared with the scale at the beginning of armed independence!

After the New Year, the Prussian princes hurriedly bid farewell to their families and returned to the army, and Natsuki's trip was particularly unusual - after returning to the naval base, he would soon leave for Ireland, and when the opportunity was ripe, he would wear the Irish crown and become the first Irish king since 1555 not to be held by an English king.

Although the 5th Army Corps was only listed as a reserve in the new offensive, with the severity of the previous battles, the difference between the reserve and the main attacking force was often only a few days later to put into the battle line, and after the repeated impact of the main attacking force of the enemy, the enemy's defensive line was weakened, even to the point of crumbling. Therefore, Crown Prince William, who was holding back his bad breath in his heart, had no intention of taking a vacation, and he set off on the same day with Natsuki and traveled west together on a special train.

Perhaps it was because he wanted to get rid of his dependence on Natsuki, maybe he felt that his military strategy was not a one-size-fits-all approach on land, or perhaps because he was worried about his new identity, during the journey, Prince William did not pull him to ask him for advice on combat strategy as usual, but chatted freely about the future. Because of the secret promise of some powerful figures in the Irish Republican Brotherhood, with the current situation, the Irish crown is basically in the pocket of the German royal family, and Prince William envies Natsuki. Although his position as the imperial prince is very stable, most of the leaders of the Hohenzollern family lived a relatively long life, the "iron-blooded king" Frederick the Great died peacefully at the age of 74, Frederick Wilhelm III, the same era as Napoleon, died at the age of 69, and the founding emperor Wilhelm I of the Second German Empire lived to be 91 years old, and the monarchs of Prussia rarely had the tradition of abdicating the throne in advance, and it is not known what year Crown Prince Wilhelm would ascend the imperial throne.

Natsuki couldn't bear to hit his brother, Wilhelm II will celebrate his 56th birthday in a month, for a monarch, such an age is in the prime of life, and the historical Wilhelm II lived until 1941, when Crown Prince Wilhelm was 59 years old.

When it comes to statecraft, William Jr. is not like Tirpitz who can just give some advice, he talks in general, from politics to agriculture, from economics to diplomacy, although it sounds a bit complicated, but there is also a lot of useful experience and ideas in it.

Thinking of the country that he was likely to rule, Natsuki sighed from the bottom of his heart: "Ireland is just such a small country, with a population less than one-tenth of that of Germany, a weak economy, backward agriculture, no decent industry, no colonies, and only barren grass and peat. In this country, where there are many peasants, the level of education is generally low, and the people are accustomed to a casual, comfortable and poor life, and they are addicted to alcohol, it is really unimaginable for such a country to enter the era of advanced industrial civilization like Germany. ”

Hearing Natsuki's troubles, the crown prince laughed, and then comforted him in turn: "I remember when we were children, we secretly worshipped King Gustav II of Sweden for a while, thinking that he was the god of war, and it only took a few years to turn the Swedish army from a backward and outdated army into an incomparably powerful army, defeating Russia, Poland and our Holy Roman Empire. Today, Gustav II was able to achieve this thanks to his grandfather, Gustav I, who led the Swedes to independence from Danish rule and adopted a series of powerful reforms that made Sweden a strong and wealthy country. ”

Natsuki spent a lot of time in the royal library as a prince of Prussia, and he knew the history of European countries well, Sweden in the 16th century and Ireland at this time had many similarities, and the ancient monarchs did have some things to learn from in their statecraft, coupled with their own prediction of historical trends, they were far more confident than apprehensive.

"It looks like I'm going to have to prepare a 40-year long-term reform plan, but it's just ...... I hope that at that time I will have the patience to wait for the Irish to gradually accept the baptism of civilization. Natsuki quipped.

William Jr. grinned.

The crown prince's special train sent Natsuki all the way to the Kiel military port, and on the platform of the railway station, he gave Natsuki a cordial hug and said, "I hope that the next time we see you, I can call you Your Majesty." ”

Natsuki waved goodbye with mixed feelings.

At the first home port of the German High Seas Fleet, the ships that were about to set sail were ready. More than half of the German ships damaged in the Battle of the Faroe Islands were still under repair, but this did not prevent the German Navy from assembling an expeditionary fleet large enough to overwhelm the British Navy. In that thrilling naval battle, the "Elector", "Governor of the Frontier", "Caesar", and "Regent of Louispold" were each directly bombarded by the enemy's large-caliber main guns, but they only entered the dock for a week or two of repairs before returning to sea alive. Against the backdrop of the weakening of the British Navy, the superior protection capabilities of the German Kaiser-class and King-class dreadnoughts increasingly reflect the high-quality strategic value.

The two Scharnhorst-class armoured cruisers, which had been virtually undamaged in the Faroe Islands, had been overhauled and had the necessary maintenance to join the expeditionary fleet with their scraping and scrappy crews - a so-called expedition to the Irish seas was a short trip on home compared to their voyage across most of the world.

At this time, Count Spee and his crew could not have imagined what a wonderful journey would be, the two armored cruisers, whom they particularly loved and regarded as loyal companions, more extraordinary in terms of political influence than their return home from the South Atlantic through the enemy's naval blockade.

Thanks to the Faroe Islands as a strategic transit point, the German troops heading to Ireland did not have to go in full formation under the direct cover of the main fleet, but carried out transportation and assembly in batches and sections. On January 6, 1915, the German expeditionary fleet consisting of four dreadnoughts, two armored cruisers, two light cruisers, ten large torpedo boats, and four auxiliary ships crossed the Kiel Canal, sailed directly from the mouth of the Elbe River into the North Sea, and then sailed west to the east coast of England through the hinterland of the North Sea, and on the afternoon of January 7, launched artillery bombardments on Hartlepool, Seaham, Sunderland, and South Shields in northeastern England, and launched seaplanes to bomb the Armstrong-Ellswick Arsenal in Newcastle. The British then sent planes and torpedo boats to attack the German fleet, and in this confrontation of great disparity, the British Navy's counterattack was easily defused like a toy wooden sword, and when the British Navy mobilized more ships to rush to the mouth of the Tyne, the German fleet took advantage of the cover to escape at high speed.

At noon the next day, the long-range artillery fire of the German capital warships roared down the coast east of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and almost in a blink of an eye, the shipyard in Buckhaven was blown into ruins, the three destroyers under construction were turned into scrap metal, and the British ships stationed in Forth Bay poured out, facing the German fleet waiting at the mouth of Forth Bay, the four main dreadnoughts in the column made the British naval officers and men participating in the battle know that the situation was not good, but they still launched a charge like Don Quixote......

The arrival of the German fleet immediately caused a tsunami-like shock on the east coast of England, and the nightmare that the people had feared for so long became a terrible reality, and the German navy was back to combat power and struck faster than most expected. The German fleet proved its unprecedented strength with artillery fire and killing, and the British navy, which had never been soft on ravaging backward countries, was suddenly in a ravaged position, and the fear of the enemy spread like a plague.

The British who were unable to resist only hoped that the German fleet would leave on their own after the bombardment, but the rumors that the German army was about to land in the north of England and that the Scottish separatist forces had signed a secret agreement with Germany plunged the British military and civilians and even the government and the royal family into an unprecedented panic. The Germans were able to transport 50,000 men to land in northern Scotland in a week, while the center of gravity of the British home defense had been in the southeast and south, and the northern defense was very empty - and more fatally, the Germans could launch a cross-sea landing from the Faroe Islands and northern France at the same time, and the British would be overwhelmed, and the best way would be to urgently transfer back 200,000 combat troops from Ireland to the northern front.

(End of chapter)