On a moonlit night, Natsuki in a nightgown strolls through the large gardens of the Royal Palace of Ireland like a free ghost. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThe reason why it is called the "Forest Palace" is not only because of the large number of natural and environmentally friendly wood and high-lighting glass used in the main building, but also because of the beautiful environment where flowers and trees are everywhere. Watching Charlotte and the little princesses live happily in this fairytale palace, Natsuki found the satisfaction of searching for half a life, and he sighed more than once: Life is like this, what is there not to be satisfied with?

The large garden, which covers an area of nearly 100 acres, does not cost much from development to maintenance, but it is the most beautiful color of the palace. There are Angel's carefully tended flower beds, Susie's favorite gardenias, and the little angel Sarah's "good buddy" mimosa, almost every corner has left a good memory of this happy family.

Before he knew it, Natsuki had come under the plum tree he had planted with Charlotte that spring, and it had become a natural umbrella that bloomed plum blossoms in early spring and harvested green plums in early summer, making sake and pickling.

Gently rubbing the trunk of the plum tree, thinking that if this palace finally could not escape the war, the beloved would definitely be very sad, Natsuki breathed a sigh of relief: The cruel and merciless war, you are still unstoppable after all!

Like the war that broke out in 1914, the war of 1933 was the inevitable product of the great powers' vigorous development of armaments in order to get rid of the economic crisis, and it was a head-to-head contest between the Allied bloc led by Germany and the new Entente bloc led by the United States and Britain for world hegemony, and it was the result of irreconcilable conflicts of national interests. Instead of working for peace, the King of Ireland, who was born into the Hohenzollern royal family, willingly led the Irish army and people into this war of aggression.

Under the influence of this kind of public opinion, many Irish people wrote petitions to the king and prime minister, hoping that their country could stay away from the war, and in the eyes of some intellectuals, the originally powerful Irish king seems to have reached the point where he has more than enough to defend and not enough to make progress, but this is not the case. In the nearly 20 years after the war, Xia Shu made great efforts and ingenuity to make Ireland undergo earth-shaking and reborn changes, and the national industry started on the basis of poverty and whiteness, and ranked among the second-class powers with rocket-like rising speed, and has world-class technology content in the fields of aviation, submarines and combat vehicles, and the large and small oil fields in Bahrain have become the most profitable and most stable oil producing areas in the Persian Gulf region after reasonable and full development. Ireland relied on oil exports to obtain extremely lucrative profits, which led to the qualitative development of the oil refining and chemical industries, and before the war, Limerick was already a "dynamic city" in Europe after Berlin.

When he first ascended the throne of Ireland, Natsuki traveled to various European countries, met with royal family members and military and political leaders, and made positive contributions to the economic and trade development of Ireland. And not an iron-fist like Frederick II, who turned Ireland into a large barracks.

In the late 10s, the economic alliance of Austria-Hungary, Ireland, and Spain was dominant, but this was Natsuki's last performance on the international stage. Because some ill-wishers took the opportunity to exaggerate the political significance of this economic union, the Germans felt that their central position as an Allied power had been challenged, so they used tariffs and trade policies as a means to squeeze out and suppress the economic alliance of the three countries, and the economic war that took place in the early 20s ended with the outbreak of the crisis in Spain and the foreign trade of Austria-Hungary and Ireland suffered a heavy blow. Since then, Natsuki has deliberately reined in his edge, following Berlin in various positions and statements, and the technical standards of industry and military have also been consistent with those of Germany, so that the Kingdom of Ireland has been nicknamed the "Fifth Kingdom of Germany" (the Second German Empire consisted of four kingdoms and several Grand Duchies, Duchies, Princes, Free Cities, and Imperial Territories).

Concession is not a sign of weakness, but a strategic compromise. Natsuki has always been aware of Ireland's strengths and weaknesses. The country is too small and too thin to compete with Germany, which has an unprecedented level of self-confidence and vanity, and the use of the opposition between the two camps requires great diplomatic skill and necessary secrecy, which is not suitable for a country like Ireland, which is full of German officials and German immigrants.

The benefits of the compromise were obvious: Ireland was able to complete its industrial infrastructure in the shortest possible time, thanks to the pull of German capital; In the golden decade of European economic development, Ireland's economic and trade growth rate was much higher than that of other European countries; After the economic crisis swept the world, Ireland was the first to reverse the decline by relying on Germany's capital exports.

As early as a few years before the outbreak of the war, Ireland began to prepare for the war, sending front-line troops to France in turn for training, and after some in-depth communication with the German Crown Prince Wilhelm, Natsuki agreed to serve only as the nominal commander of the German-Irish coalition forces, and the actual command of the Irish theater was handed over to the German generals, and the Irish generals accounted for only forty percent of the seats with voting rights in the joint operations staff.

Compromising again is not self-abandonment, but waiting patiently for an opportunity to re-emerge.

On the day of the outbreak of the war, when Britain and Ireland were still in a state of non-war, Ireland had already sent the Royal Guard, which had the most experience in actual combat, to follow the German army to land on the Isle of Man, and after Britain declared war on Ireland, Irish bombers quickly joined the bombing of the British mainland, and the elite Irish paratroopers and marines immediately entered the amphibious landing operation on the Cohen Peninsula. After a day of hard fighting, the coalition forces gained a foothold on the Isle of Man and the Coen Peninsula, but the tide of battle in North Wales changed dramatically after a long night of fierce fighting.

In the eyes of pessimists, the landing operation of the coalition forces on the Cohen Peninsula threatens to end in a fiasco.

Natsuki could not predict the direction of a scene that had never appeared in history, and based on his own military judgment, he could only say that the coalition forces were too aggressive in landing on the British mainland at the beginning of the war. If the British transportation facilities were paralyzed by large-scale bombing and the morale of the British military and civilians were to be consumed, the chances of victory would be much greater than now, but this move by the German General Staff was not completely unreasonable, and they wanted to achieve a crucial victory where the war started, thus playing a role in shocking the United States and the Soviet Union and other countries, so that the watchers did not dare to intervene, and those who intervened fell into hesitation, thus determining the trend of the war.

The Cohen Peninsula is the fulcrum of the strategic balance that turns a potentially protracted faction war into a relatively low-cost blitzkrieg. From this point of view, the decision-making of the German General Staff was not completely blind and arrogant.

Returning to the Cohen Peninsula, by midnight, the 3rd Tank Regiment of the Greater German Army, which was almost fully equipped, began to counterattack, at this time only 12 of the 55 "Celtic Warriors" of the 1st Tank Battalion of Ireland could continue to fight, with a loss rate of 78% of equipment and more than 60% of the casualties of tank members.

In a field hospital in Abersoch, the three surviving members of the R-115 tank crew were covered in black faces with hanging pins, the fat captain almost became a roast pig, his hair and eyebrows were mutilated, his face was cut by shrapnel with a deep bone-visible wound, the loader's arm was bitten by a machine-gun bullet, and the gunner's arm and cheek were burned, but they were obviously much luckier than the two companions who died in the "steel coffin".

Listening to the rumbling of artillery in the distance, the loader shouted: "We should be like the Germans, build bigger tanks, with stronger guns, and use thicker armor to beat the British tank troops out of temper!" ”

The gunner held a cigarette in his mouth, and every word showed a painful expression: "Compared to the British tanks, our 'Celtic warriors' are already very good." Not to mention one-on-one, even if it's one-on-two, we have a much bigger chance of winning than our opponents, right, Fat Jack? ”

"I want 4-inch thick armor plates, a 3-inch caliber cannon, and a slower speed is acceptable." The fat captain showed his attitude with data.

In addition to the thickness of the armor, this is basically the technical standard of the German "Teutonic knights".

Pure chariot fighting, the "Teutonic Knights" were enough to ravage the British army's "Kitchener", but the British infantry also received a lot of anti-chariot training before the war, and they also had grenades, incendiary bombs, and mines specially developed for combat vehicles, and the improved 13-pounder field rapid-fire gun was equipped with special armor-piercing shells, and the armor-piercing ability was not much inferior to the German 75mm tank gun.

The loader suddenly came to his senses: "If we were armed with an excellent cannon of 3-inch caliber, how could we have more than ten of them tonight?" ”

The camp here is full of wounded soldiers, although it is not demoralized, but it is inevitable that there is some grumbling in the stomach. Another charioteer with a thick gauze wrapped around his head complained: "Sometimes I don't understand, during the joint exercises, the generals have seen the power of the new German tank guns, why don't they suggest that the technical department study the rearmament?" If it's because the turrets of our tanks are too small, we can't directly change them, and we can't catch up with the development of new vehicles, then let the Germans provide a batch, anyway, this battle is for them, and we have no territorial claims to the British. ”

The paratrooper sitting next to the charioteer, with a bandage in his right hand and gauze around his neck, answered: "Wouldn't it be good to annex North Wales to the territory of Ireland?" ”

The charioteer retorted: "Okay what? Having ceded the land from the British, Ireland will not be at peace for the next hundred years, will our king do something like that? ”

The paratrooper said: "Your Majesty the King will not, it does not mean that those ministers and generals from Germany will not, who do you think has the final say in the national affairs of Ireland now?" ”

The fat commander is a non-commissioned officer, and he hurriedly shouted: "Soldier, pay attention to your identity, no one can speak disrespectfully to our Majesty." ”

"I'm sorry, sir!" The paratroopers apologized stupidly. Judging by the reactions of those around you, such doubts are not just the thoughts of individual people.

(End of chapter)