While the "Frederick the Great" was quietly anchored in the Wilhelm military port adjacent to the North Sea, the main German fleet headed by the "King" was sailing through the Danish Grand Bell Strait in the dark. www.biquge.info The North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and much of the North Atlantic were declared war zones, where submarines and mines were rampant, and neutral ships were disrespectfully distanced, leaving the once busy shipping lanes deserted.

On the rough sea, the huge German fleet formed a single column nearly ten kilometers long. Twelve large torpedo boats of the 1913 and 1911 classes sailed in the front of the column under the light cruiser "Fort Col", followed by the four most powerful German dreadnoughts, "King", "Elector", "Caesar", "Regent of Louispold", which were organized into the 1st Battleship Detachment, followed by "Nassau", "Rhineland", "Helgoland", "Thuringia", "Nassau", "Rhineland", "Thuringia", "Nassau", "Rhineland", "Thuringia", "Nassau", "Rhineland", "Helgoland", "Thuringia", "Nassau", "Rhineland", "Helgoland", "Thuringia", "Nassau", "Rhineland", "Helgoland", "Thuringia", "Nassau", "Rhineland", "Helgoland", "Thuringia", "Nassau", "Rhineland", "Helgoland", "Thuringia", "Nassau", "Rhineland", "Helgoland", "Thuringia", "Thuringia", "Nassau", "Rhineland", "Helgoland", "Thuringia", "Thuringia", "Nassau", "Rhineland", "T These old dreadnoughts, fully equipped with triple guns, were hailed as "the best 20,000-ton capital ships" for their outstanding performance in naval warfare. The other two dreadnoughts that accompanied it, the "Westphalia", which repaired the damaged power system and underwent technical modifications by the way, and the newly commissioned "Border Governor" were integrated into the escort fleet, accompanied by the old battleships "Braunschweig" and "Lorraine", which carried part of the naval infantry, and directly protected the main troop carrier fleet consisting of 12 old cruisers.

At the end of the German fleet, 18 large torpedo boats of the 1911 and 1906 classes formed a considerable number of rearguard units. In previous large-scale naval battles and small-scale contact battles, these speed-heavy light ships have performed well, but this voyage has fully exposed the shortcomings of their short endurance. Even if they make a one-way trip to Ireland, they need to refuel at least once along the way. The German Navy had sent 10 coal ships to the northwestern waters of Norway in advance, but ship-to-ship coal replenishment would require good sea conditions and a long period of time, and in the event of continuous bad weather, the German main fleet would likely enter the Irish waters without large torpedo boats, which would be a very negative factor tactically.

The 300-nautical-mile twisting route, which runs from the Great Bell Strait to the Kattegat Strait to the Skagerrak Strait, is marked as a "yellow voyage" on the King's chart, and it is in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian waters. All three countries remained neutral, but the more neutral they were, the more rampant the activities of the spies of the belligerent countries became. In the early days of hegemony, Britain began to develop intelligence agencies in Denmark and Sweden, with the strong rise of the German Navy, London's intelligence investment in these two Nordic countries increased significantly, before the war at a banquet, a British naval officer said proudly that no matter which route the German High Seas Fleet sailed into the North Sea, the British Navy would get an early warning report and respond at the first time, if the German fleet was not satisfied with showing its head in the Jutland Sea, but did not know whether to go deep into the North Sea, The British Home Fleet was able to bring the German Navy back to the state of the last century in a matter of hours.

After the naval battles between Jutland and Flanders, most people think of this sentence as a great irony, but ignore the hidden message behind it. Although the German Navy now has a reversal advantage in terms of capital ships, it may still be overturned by the opponent if it is not careful, and in the previous three heavyweight naval battles, the high seas fleet was lightly armed, making full use of the opponent's psychological and strategic scruples and constraints, and winning one after another in a relatively unfavorable situation, but this time, the tactical position of the two sides was completely reversed, the German fleet worked an expedition, and the British had the opportunity to wait for work, and if the latter took the lead in intelligence, it would undoubtedly have a greater chance of winning.

At dawn, the main German fleet led by the "King" had sailed to the junction of the Kattegat Strait and the Skagerrak Strait, and the sea was gradually opening up, but the route of the fleet was still only about 20 kilometers from the Danish coast. The high seas fleet was supplied with high-quality coal from the Saarland coal mines, and the boilers on the ships were cleaned before each combat voyage, but all this still did not escape the innate constraints of coal-fired boilers - the fleet sailing at a speed of 15 knots was overheard by a striking column of smoke, which could be seen even from thirty or forty kilometers away, and the discerning old seaman could deduce the approximate size of the fleet from the shape of the smoke cloud.

Smoke cannot be artificially masked and camouflaged, and only rainy weather can effectively reduce the visual distance on the sea surface. For this reason, the German fleet deliberately chose to sail in such bad weather, but the temper of nature was always elusive. It had rained all night, but the sea had dawned in the early morning, the rain-washed air was clean and transparent, and the outline of the coastline on the starboard side of the fleet was clearly visible.

There was no turning back, and the German fleet had no choice but to move on, hoping that the upcoming landing operation on the Belgian coast would succeed in diverting the attention of its opponents. According to the plan, the "Frederick the Great" will set off from Wilhelmshaven early this morning with "Catherine", "Osterfrieland", and "Posen", followed by two armored cruisers and more than 30 large torpedo boats escorting troop carriers and landing ships. If nothing else, the British naval hierarchy will soon obtain this important information through various channels, at this time the British marines of about 4,000 men are working with the Belgian army in the vicinity of Bruges to resist the German attack, once the German marines successfully landed near Hebrusser, it is tantamount to a sharp knife into the back of the Allied army, and the Bruges defense line, which is already in a very bad situation, is likely to collapse quickly. When German troops invade the northern coast of Belgium, the Belgian royal family trapped in Antwerp will have to make a difficult choice between exile and surrender......

A few hours later, the German fleet sailed through the Swedish-Danish waters and into the public waters between Norway and Denmark. At this time, the clouds covered the sea again, and then it rained, and the width of the strait expanded from more than 60 kilometers at its narrowest point to about 100 kilometers, and the chance of being seen from the shore no longer existed, but near noon, the "King" received a light signal from the outpost: capture a Norwegian patrol ship at the edge of the Norwegian territorial waters!

Capturing a neutral warship in neutral waters sounds as bizarre as a mob seizing a policeman, but it reflects the common sense that the powerful run rampant and the weak are oppressed everywhere. Norway's history as an independent state dates back to the 9th century AD, but from the 14th century, it was ruled by Denmark and Sweden successively, and only became independent from Sweden in 1905, and chose a monarchy, honoring Karl, the second son of the King of Denmark, as King of Norway, called Haakon VII. By 1914, the Kingdom of Norway had a territory of more than 300,000 square kilometres (some of the northern islands were incorporated into the kingdom's territory after 1914) and a population of only 2.5 million. At the same time, the Second German Reich had a population of 67 million but an area of 540,000 square kilometers, and the French Third Republic had a population of 40 million with an area of 550,000 square kilometers.

The Vikings, who had been rampant in Northern Europe in history, had already chosen a stable way of life, and the Kingdom of Norway, which was mainly based on agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining, had limited national strength and relatively weak military strength. At the beginning of the 20th century, it relied on a small but elite professional army to defend the long coastline, its army standing force of about 40,000 people, mainly deployed in the southern and southwestern regions of the country, the navy has nearly 100 ships, but the naval force with coastal defense battleships as the main force, the total tonnage of all ships is less than 30,000 tons, even if the size of the army is expanded under the threat of war, it is still not worth mentioning in the eyes of the main participating countries.

The Norwegian patrol ship, captured and seized by the German outposts, had a displacement of only thirty or forty tons, and a large torpedo boat of the 1913 class was already a behemoth in front of it. In the telescope, Natsuki saw that a team of heavily armed German marines had taken control of the gunboat flying the Norwegian Navy flag, and more than a dozen Norwegian sailors in military uniforms left the operating position of weapons and equipment and crowded on the narrow back deck of the gunboat, I don't know what kind of expression and mentality they faced with this rude and impudent violation at this time, you must know that they are carrying out legitimate military patrol duties in Norwegian territorial waters, if it happens in peacetime, this will definitely cause a diplomatic uproar, But this terrible war has brought shocking news to the world one after another, the outbreak of the war has been less than 100 days, the participating countries have lost more than a million soldiers, the maritime hegemony of Great Britain has fallen rapidly, the Habsburg millennium dynasty is crumbling, the history of the country has been reduced to ruins, tens of thousands of innocent civilians have died, the pattern of Europe and even the world is undergoing drastic changes, in this turbulent era, who cares whether the dignity of Norway, a small Nordic country, has been violated?

On the bridge of the "King", no one asked "what to do" or "what to do", because when discussing the battle plan, the fleet command made clear the way to deal with a similar situation under the general principle of "at all costs and by any means": forcibly detaining Norwegian naval personnel until the fleet arrived in Irish waters and transported troops to land.

By the afternoon, the German fleet had turned south of the Norwegian Cape de Linne, thus ending the long and delicate "yellow voyage", in which the main fleet would remain in radio silence throughout the voyage, receiving its own radio signals unilaterally and closely listening to the external communication codes, but by this time they had not intercepted suspicious communication waves.

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