When Natsuki went to Luxembourg to "ask for an order", preparations for the participation of the three Marine brigades were already in full swing. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 The Admiralty issued a call to all steamship companies and private shipowners, urgently requisitioned ferries, mail ships, and freighters suitable for cross-sea navigation, and the owners of large and medium-sized barges and fishing vessels were also ordered to be ready to sail at any time. At the same time, heavily armed sailors swaggered through the ports of Bremen, Hamburg, Wilhelm and Lübeck, saying they did not know the destination of the operation, and the only certainty was that the Marines were about to enter a major battle. On the beaches near Lübeck and Wilhelmshaven, the landing maneuvers of the Navy attracted the attention of many residents, while senior naval officers discussed on various occasions whether it was safe for the landing fleet to cross the English Channel and whether the northern coast of France would be sand or mud.

On the day Natsuki returned to Kiel from Luxembourg, the three Marine Brigades had completed their assembly at the ports of Danzig, Lübeck, and Wilhelm. The 1st Brigade deployed in Danzig was the first to board the train, and the army was to carry nearly 10,000 soldiers and their combat equipment to Duran, more than 20 kilometers from Amiens, and with the pre-stockpiled spare parts, the Hubert Chariot Factory produced 42 Hubert-13 and 6 Hubert-14 in a week, and in addition to the part that was delivered to the army according to the Kaiser's decree, 30 Hubert-13 were still left for the Marine Corps, and the Navy formed the 1st Tank Battalion and assigned it to the 1st Marine Brigade to serve as an iron drill for offensive operations on land.

Soon after, news came from the Army General Staff that General Hurtier himself had agreed to serve as the field commander of the Marine Corps, and the Kaiser appointed him commander of the German First Marine Division, which was thus named the "Marine Division" as the provisional unit of the three Marine Brigades was called, rather than the "Marine Division" as they were called in person.

At this point, Natsuki did not have time to dwell with Moltke Jr. about the number and composition of the Marine Corps, so he sent a telegram to General Hurtier, asking him to go directly to Dulang to meet him.

A few hours before leaving Kiel, Natsuki received a letter from a Swedish diplomat, who at first thought it was from Prince Gustav of Sweden, and opened the envelope on vellum paper, the familiar handwriting made his heart beat wildly.

It's Charlotte!

Although the letter addressed "Dear Prince Joachim" instead of "Dear Jochen", there was no tenderness between the lines, and the wording was like a bland official letter, Natsuki's hands were trembling slightly, and the frequency of blinking was fast and slow, irregular. Her handwriting was like a gust of breeze and a clear spring, which warmed down the frenzy of blood, fire and killing. In this silent night, Natsuki remembered her handsome face, the corners of her mischievous upturned mouth, and the faint fragrance on her body. In this way, the royal genius who was admired by thousands of people set off a surging tide in his heart, and it was difficult to calm down for a long time.

After reading the letter several times, Natsuki figured out the meaning of the letter: Charlotte wanted Natsuki to help find out the news of her father - in the Battle of Jutland, General Hill entered the battle as the captain of the battlecruiser "Invincible", the ship was sunk in the naval battle, and most of the crew, including Admiral Hill, were considered "killed", but according to one of the ship's surviving non-commissioned officers, after the battleship sank, he saw General Hill being rescued by a large German torpedo boat.

Half a month has passed since the letter was signed on August 22. Natsuki knew the deep relationship between Charlotte and her father, and could imagine Charlotte's suffering during this time, but the war was so cruel and ruthless that no one could completely change it.

After reading the letter, Natsuki did not need to send someone to the naval prisoner of war camp to find out the situation, because after the naval battle, he had already asked his adjutant to look through the list of prisoners of war. There are three with the surname Hill, one of whom is Charlotte's cousin. Natsuki can't release him, but he can at least give him extra benefits. If General Hill was indeed rescued by a large German torpedo boat and was not among the prisoners of war of the German Navy, the most plausible explanation is that the German torpedo boat sank in a later battle. Since there is no news from the British side, there are only two possibilities left: to die at sea, or to be rescued by the Danes.

In the Battle of Jutland, the British and German fleets were no more than 30 nautical miles from the Danish coast, and the rain storm that night had a great impact on the search and rescue of the drowning personnel of the ships on both sides, and in order to avoid unnecessary combat losses, the vast majority of the ships of the British and German fleets withdrew from this sea area after the battle. After daybreak, German light ships returned to the area to rescue some British sailors and salvage the remains of some of the dead, and Danish ships carried out humanitarian rescue in their territorial waters and surrounding waters, and Denmark was required to detain these fighters until the end of the war under the Neutrality Act.

Denmark could have provided the warring parties with lists of detainees for humanitarian reasons, but the German military, fearing that Britain would gain access to German military intelligence, put pressure on the Danish government to prohibit them from providing any information related to the war to the British. With the strong performance of the German army, the occupation of Jutland and the landing on Zealand were only a matter of minutes, and the weak Danes were powerless to stop the German war giant, so they had to offend no one - they settled the detained combatants on both sides separately, provided them with reciprocal accommodation, food, and medical conditions, and only counted their numbers, did not register their names, ranks, and positions, and the Danish soldiers who were responsible for guarding them were forbidden to communicate with these people in any way.

The Danes' approach, though strange, was also a desperate attempt to survive among the great powers, and their position on reality changed subtly with the changing situation of the war and the amount of influence exerted by the warring parties, and after the two naval battles of Flanders, the German government further pressured the Danes to release the German naval personnel who had been detained. The Danish government has not yet agreed, but has acquiesced to the German side sending non-military medical personnel into the country to provide treatment and examination of German detainees, and it is easy to obtain information on the list of detainees.

After some consideration, Natsuki wrote a reply letter and asked the Swedish diplomat to deliver the letter to Charlotte through the original channel.

Early the next morning, Natsuki departed for France, where he made a short stay in Lille and Lens to meet with the commanders of the German garrison, General Hofrat and General Lescher, respectively, under the command of Kluke. Hofrat had three infantry regiments and an artillery regiment in his hands, and his defense area straddled the Franco-Belgian border, more than 30 kilometers to the north, and the sea could be seen. General Lescher, commander of the Prussian 7th Cavalry Brigade and responsible for the mobile defense of the Lens area, suffered heavy losses in the border campaign, and now nearly half of its personnel are reservists who have been replenished later.

In the middle of the afternoon, Natsuki arrived in Arras and stayed there until the next day. Arras is the central city of the Artois region of France, just over 20 kilometers from Durand, which is adjacent to the front line, where General Sigmund and his headquarters of the 32nd Infantry Division are located. Before coming, Natsuki learned from the army that the 32nd Infantry Division had fought all the way from Belgium to this place, although it had also experienced two tough battles, and the combat losses in the 1st Army Corps were relatively slight, because it was the original team, and it had been stationed here for more than ten days, recuperating and having sufficient combat power, it was no wonder that Moltke Jr. wanted to let the Marines defend here, and transferred the 32nd Infantry Division to the front line on the Marne.

General Sigmund did not react as pessimistic as Moltke Jr. to the forced assault of the marines from Duran in the direction of Paris, he told Natsuki that in the past week or so, the French army had attacked his defense area with three times the number of troops, and the German army relied on temporary field fortifications and easily thwarted the French offensive with dense fire composed of artillery and machine guns, so in his opinion, as long as he did a good job of sufficient battlefield reconnaissance, he could stop and dig trenches at any time to resist the French counter-assault, It is entirely possible to hit the city of Paris in three or four days. At that time, even if they could not break through into the city of Paris, they would be able to directly threaten the flanks of the French army, forcing them to abandon their offensive in the Marne.

During the dinner, Sigmund revealed to Natsuki that although his superiors ordered him to strictly guard the defensive area and not attack without authorization, he could provide strong logistical assistance to the Marine Corps. As an important supply point for the Crook Legion, Arras had stockpiled a lot of war supplies and baggage vehicles, and now this supply line was too far from the Marne, and the main force of Kluk had switched to the Sedan - Reims line for combat supplies.

Bidding farewell to the enthusiastic General Sigmund, Natsuki followed the Marines to Durang. Shortly after arriving, he received an important piece of information from naval intelligence: the British regular troops stationed in Ireland before the war had been transferred to the island of Great Britain, and the British troops deployed in Ireland at this time were quite numerous, but they were basically second-line troops composed of reservists. The leaders of the Irish independence movement saw this as a very good opportunity for the British navy to suffer a decisive naval defeat, but they were divided among themselves on how to pursue Irish independence in such a situation. Many people feel that Britain is in a difficult situation, and taking this opportunity to negotiate with the British government can force the British government to make concessions and obtain independent sovereignty in order to avoid bloodshed and sacrifice, but the hardliners represented by the Irish Republican Brotherhood believe that the British government's political and diplomatic methods are sophisticated and cunning, and it will inevitably delay by various means, so the most direct and effective way is to carry out an armed insurrection with the help of the Germans, expel the British garrison, and establish a truly independent Irish government and parliament.

Through the secret contacts established before the war, one of the main leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, with whom Natsuki had met and held talks, proposed to the German leadership that with the current strength of the Irish Volunteers, they were able to control most of the southern part of Ireland, but to occupy large ports and fight against the British garrison for a long time, they also urgently needed a large number of guns and ammunition, as well as ships, aircraft, and mine explosives, and hoped that the German Navy would send ships to cut off the sea transportation routes between Britain and Ireland. If necessary, a detachment of German volunteers was sent to land in Ireland and take direct part of the war.

(End of chapter)