.“ It's coming, it's coming! ”

Behind a lattice window in the corner of the hall, several aristocratic ladies dressed in ornate classical tufties and wearing their favorite jewelry were peering through the window into the hall. Their hair of different colors was not pulled up like the ladies of the ladies but was carefully groomed in a variety of beautiful ladylike hairstyles.

"Alas, I'm so envious, why is Aina able to attend this banquet?" One of them said indignantly that if this banquet hadn't been suddenly raised to the highest level, they would have been standing in that hall instead of this side of the corridor, but after all, the highest standard was much more limited than the ordinary standard, and not everyone who was qualified to live in this palace could participate!

"Yes, she has no interest in those moral ** officials, not yet...... Yikes! The other almost screamed as he spoke.

"What's wrong?" Her female companions hurriedly asked.

"Look...... See...... Look at the one who walks in the front...... Target...... German Crown Prince! ”

When the four German ** officers came to meet Alfonso XIII during the day, several of them also hid here and quietly looked at it a few more times, so it didn't take much effort to recognize the crown prince, he was actually the handsome German major they had seen during the day!

"Oh my God, what's going on?"

The aristocratic ladies covered their mouths with their hands on their faces in disbelief.

At this moment, the same Aina as these ladies spoke was walking down the hall with the crowd that greeted her, and as the only granddaughter of the late famous Spanish general and important minister of Alfonso XII, Count de Campos, and heir to the title of count, she still had a place at the highest banquet.

When everyone was back in the hall, Alfonso XIII held out his hand and invited the German crown prince to come to him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let us welcome His Royal Highness the Most Honorable Crown Prince of the Great German Empire!"

Alfonso XIII announced in a rare high voice, while the young German crown prince turned to look at the aristocrats with a standing ovation.

When the German crown prince and his entourage passed by the door just now, Aina lowered her head in respect, like everyone else, so she didn't see each other's faces clearly until now. Only then did she see the handsome face that seemed familiar, but after a few years, it was from youth to maturity in the stage of life, and people had changed to a certain extent in both their body shape and appearance.

Is that him?

Leng Mei'er trembled in her heart, no, impossible! He was the crown prince of the German Empire, and he would be the ruler of that powerful country.

And the person he is worried about doesn't see a bit of a king's style, maybe the only thing he has in common with him is that they speak German!

Alfonso XIII did not seem to be in good health, and he reluctantly sat down on his throne with a tired face after his welcome speech, and the dinner was presided over by the white-faced court minister, and this high-profile dinner did not escape the high-class conventions - food and performance were always secondary, and wine and communication were the main thing.

Andres looked contentedly at Ramirez, who had a good place in the hall, the haughty, indifferent Spanish general who did not disdain to shake hands with the black German officers, but his face was very bad, and the surprise on his face when he recognized Andres at first had turned into a kind of distress and chagrin, he knew well the position and power of the German crown prince. If the German crown prince is still haunted by his own affairs in the future. With Germany's terrible strength and influence, it is almost impossible for him to make a difference in Spain in the future.

Ramirez hated himself at the moment, and at the same time he hated the Italians. It was Italy's recent decision to continuously increase troops to Spain that gave him the illusion that the Germans were insignificant, and it was only after the powerful German fleet flew overhead that he realized that the Italians might be okay against the poorly equipped Spanish rebels, but to contend with the Germans, it would be an egg to a stone in every way!

But just a minute later, Ramirez came to Andres with a glass of wine and a smile on his face.

"Ah, Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince, I sincerely apologize to you and your officers for what happened this afternoon, I was really dizzy at that time, but I think His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, who is magnanimous, will not have anything to do with him!"

Andres looked at the cheeky guy with a look of disdain. Today, he not only saw the rapid reaction power and powerful deterrent power of the Luftwaffe "when called," but also saw the bullying and fearing of evil and the brazenness of some Spaniards. At this moment, he felt more proud of his status as German Crown Prince than ever.

Andres smiled disdainfully, did not leave Ramirez any words, but frequently toasted to the Spanish nobles who were full of compliments around him, without verbal attack, he thought, this is the biggest irony of Ramirez!

Suddenly, Andres spotted a pair of beautiful eyes behind the crowd. Isn't that bright and beautiful eyebrow exactly what he dreams of? Andres walked briskly through the crowd desperately, and although the slightly changed and delicate face made him a little uncertain, he saw the opal at the second glance. Then, with a smile, he pulled the silver coin from his body, tears ---- the corners of his eyes......

※※※※※※※※

Three weeks later, the sea east of Barcelona.

On the surface of the breezy sea, the "Roma", a first-class battleship known as the "Italian flagship", was slowly patrolling its "new territory" surrounded by several destroyers. Because of the bombardment of Barcelona, it proved to the world that it was a strong force, and because of the bombardment of Barcelona, it was called "the most murderous executioner". International public opinion has received mixed reviews of the battleship, but in Spain, whether it is the revolutionaries or the royalists, as well as the neutral civilians, they all hate the battleship from the bottom of their hearts, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Spanish civilians. They prayed every day, for God to let this vicious warship sink to the bottom of the sea.

The day has finally come.

Integrating American, Japanese and German shipbuilding ideas and some craftsmanship, the "Roma" has a huge body, powerful armament and precision design that is not inferior to the main battleships in active Germany. To talk about the shortcomings, the maximum speed of 28 knots allowed it to outperform any German battleship in absolute speed, but high speed also meant high consumption, and at the same time, increasing the boiler while maintaining the weight of the armor had to reduce the fuel on board accordingly, as a result of which the maximum range of the "Rome" at cruising speed was only 4000 nautical miles.

In other words, while the ambitious Italian Führer was full of hopes that the Roma would represent Italy to the world, it was only suitable for fighting in the calm and limited Mediterranean.

Compared to the German ground capital ship. The endurance of the "Roma" was not enough to kill the problem, but the lack of electronic equipment, especially detection radar and gunnery radar, left the Italian battleship obsolete in the face of real modernization!

The U.S. Navy did not have a radar concept before 1924, and Japan did not develop a detection radar suitable for large warships before the armistice. As a result, Italy has not been able to obtain the technology from its former allies, and the Italians have had to develop it themselves, but their research in this area has been slow due to the lack of technical personnel and funding.

As a result, the "Roman" had to rely on the optical observation and sighting equipment of the dreadnought era, and the backward early warning and artillery fire command system laid the groundwork for the sinking of the "Roman".

At dusk, the last carrier-based seaplanes of the Italian fleet were slowly descending on the sea, and on the stern deck of the "Roma", the sailors were busy fixing the seaplanes that had just been recovered to the open combat positions. Although the Italian Navy had entered the "World Aircraft Carrier Club", for tactical reasons, it still equipped its large warships and some light cruisers with a number of reconnaissance and calibration-fired seaplanes, which were mainly produced by the local companies Fiat and Breda, and were equipped with radio equipment. But not with a simple, but expensive airborne radar, like the German carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft.

Illuminating in the setting sun. The sight of the Spanish coastline, which was gilded with gold, obstructed the sight of the lookouts on the Italian warships in this direction, when they noticed several black dots flying rapidly from the Spanish coast at a height close to the sea. Only then did he hurriedly report to his superiors.

At this time, the "Roma" still had a chance to evade the impending attack by evading it at high speed, but its commanders made an unforgivable mistake - they took it for granted that it was a patrol or training plane sent by the Italian Air Force stationed near Barcelona, and although the Spanish rebels also had some planes and pilots in their hands, the Italian Army had driven them to the area west of Zaragoza. Now there are no rebel bases on the eastern and northeastern coasts of Spain within 300 kilometers of the coastline, so it is impossible for rebel aircraft to appear in this area.

In this way, the officers and soldiers on the "Roma" and its frigates watched the "Italian Air Force fighters" climb, adjust, and then enter the attack position with a show-watching mentality, and they came to their senses when the black aerial torpedoes fell from the planes and made a splash on the sea. However, it was too late, and at this moment the "Roma" was elegantly like a professional target ship......

After all, the steel armor on the Italian battleships could not compete with the aviation torpedoes made by Soviet Russia, and even the main battleship with strengthened defenses such as the "Rome" quickly tilted to its right side due to the influx of sea water after "eating" four torpedoes in one go. Over the next two hours, the panicked Italian sailors made a final effort, and a large amount of water poured into the left side of the battleship to stop the trend of continuing to tilt to the right, and the sea water pouring in from the four huge openings finally crushed the watertight compartment of the battleship. In the moonlight, the sea beast finally gave up its struggle, and the water gradually disappeared over its deck, the bridge, and finally the mast. With a full stomach full of depression and unwillingness, it finally sank to the bottom of the sea at a depth of more than 100 meters, which is only more than 40 nautical miles from Barceló!

After sinking the "Roma", six Spanish "rebel" planes made a forced landing in the Pyrenees 100 kilometers north of Barcelona on the border between France and Spain due to lack of fuel, but when the Italian army arrived at the scene, they found only six sabotaged planes. They could only fly for an hour and a half at a speed of less than 300 kilometers per hour with 500 kilograms of torpedoes, but it was this group of planes that penetrated the entire Italian line and pinpointed the Roma, which had been swimming in the waters east of Barcelona for several days.

The report was immediately sent to the Führer in Rome, but a day later, the Italian government announced that its battleship "Roma" had sunk in the waters east of Spain due to successive unidentified mines, and ordered the crew of the "Roma" to be commended for their bravery and calmness in this incident, and in addition, the Italian government also said that it would do everything in its power to salvage and repair the battleship.

However, the "World News", which has more influence in the world, published a series of articles afterwards, which truly exposed the entire process of the "Roma" from the attack to the sinking of the "Roma", and analyzed and speculated on the planning process of the Spanish Revolutionary Armed Forces' operation, the flight path of the plane, and the whereabouts of the pilots based on various data, and told the people of various countries, especially the Italians, that the courage of the Spaniards was commendable, but the negligence and incompetence of the Italian army were the main reasons for the sinking of the "Roma".

This exhaustive coverage nearly doubled the sales of the German-controlled News Welt, in a short period of time, and at the same time subjected Mussolini's government to an unprecedented crisis of confidence. Twenty-five days later, the Italian government made a decision to fully withdraw its troops from Spain.

On October 12 of the same year, the Spanish Royal Guard and the Army fought a fierce battle with the Spanish Revolutionary Armed Forces near the city of Córdoba, and with the support of the Multinational Joint Forces and the Luftwaffe, the coalition finally won the battle. Soon after, the military led by Ramírez, commander of the Spanish Royal Guard, attempted to seize power through an armed coup d'état, but failed miserably due to the intervention of the German garrison, and Ramírez was subsequently executed by the Spanish government for treason.

In the spring of the following year, German Crown Prince Andrés Wilhelm von Hohenzollern married the Spanish nobleman Count Aina de Campos.