Despite the cold of snow-covered Berlin, the New Year's atmosphere is strong in the streets, with celebrations taking place in many squares, major streets lit up and the Imperial flag fluttering in the windows of homes. After celebrating Christmas with their families not long ago, many Berliners chose to take to the streets on this night to celebrate the New Year and pray with others.

In the eyes of the people, their great monarch, Wilhelm II, who led Germany to victory and glory, was naturally worthy of respect, so there were many blessings for him, but these good wishes did not bless him safely, and people did not know that the dawn of the new year had nothing to do with him.

Smack...... Smack......

At 8 p.m., when the fireworks begin to burst over Berlin, the city comes alive and the citizens come out of their houses with their faces lit up with colours and satisfied smiles. As usual, this year's New Year's Day fireworks display was also set off by the Janissaries troops. Near Alexanderplatz, hundreds of Praetorian Guards were busy and happily firing fireworks from their special salutes, unaware of what was happening in the palace.

The whole city was celebrating New Year's Day, and only in the palace was a suffocating atmosphere of sadness. Victoria cried and fainted several times because of her grief, and the noblewomen present either chose to faint completely or sobbed lowly all the time, and many nobles and envoys also expressed their condolences to the emperor with tears.

In stark contrast to these tears were the resolute-looking Praetorian Guard officers and soldiers around the banquet hall.

A soldier will not shed tears easily, let alone for a dead person.

All in all, it was an extremely strange scene.

The body of the Emperor was carried to the sofa on one side of the banquet hall, the Empress sat helplessly with the support of several noble ladies, several prominent nobles were allowed to stand beside the sofa, the doctors stood in a row at a loss, and the other officials and envoys shrank on the other side in confusion and apprehension, no one knew what would happen next, only a few bold people dared to whisper in the corner how the assassin had carried out the assassination.

After the soldiers had carefully examined everyone present, General Graff paced back and forth with a frown, and it was clear that such an examination had yielded no results. The piece of metal around the emperor's neck had already been sent for testing, but in his opinion, it was probably useless.

After a long time, Graff glanced up at the lounge where the cabinet ministers were, and when the door opened, it was time to decide how things would unfold.

Yet the door was always closed.

Graff glanced again at the lounge where the army and admirals were located, of course the generals were not discussing how to hold a funeral for the emperor, but they were probably discussing more to do with the army, including the two wars in which Germany was engaged, the Battle of England and the Battle of Italy.

General Graff slowly moved towards the door of the banquet hall, the fireworks outside were still brilliant, due to the suddenness of the incident, except for the martial law in the palace, the city of Berlin was still the same as usual, and he was now worried that the Assassins had taken advantage of the initial chaos to escape from the banquet hall and even sneak out of the palace, in which case it would be as difficult to catch the assassins and find the mastermind behind them as if it were looking for a needle in a haystack.

Graff's head was full of question marks at the moment, and Rennie was not easy outside Prince's dormitory, although most of the Praetorian Guards in the palace were transferred to the vicinity of the banquet hall, but the number of guards guarding the prince's dormitory continued unabated.

In Rainey's opinion, infiltrating and assassinating Prince was even more difficult than assassinating the Emperor. Although he had not read much, he knew that it was not uncommon for a monarch or head of state to be assassinated throughout the ages, but it was a miracle that the same assassin would assassinate one after another.

Tatsuten, who had already boarded the fast cruiser "Stuttgart", was also well aware of this, knowing that he could not hope for a miracle, and more importantly, he had to learn more about the situation there before arriving in Berlin, but Thomas's death greatly affected his "hearing" in a short period of time, although the Bat Legion was still functioning normally.

Since Hoffman stayed at the headquarters of the group army to control the front-line combat operations, Chen Tian only brought a few senior staff officers and personal guards with him on this trip, and he had made as many arrangements as possible in advance, but he still risked going into the tiger's den alone when he returned to Berlin this time.

Just like the successive kings and seizures of thrones in history, success and failure are often one step away.

Dressed in the uniform of the field marshal, Chen Tian calmly sat in the VIP room of the "Stuttgart", a 7,500-ton medium cruiser escorted by two standard-class destroyers, heading for the French coast at a high speed of 23 knots. After arriving in Cherbourg, France, Chen Tian and his party will take a train to the German mainland, after which they will fly directly to Berlin. First, although it is not too difficult for carrier-based aircraft and land-based aircraft to take off at night, it is difficult and dangerous to ensure their course and land safely at night. Secondly, he needs to be as good as possible when he returns to Berlin, and returning too early can easily give the impression that he was premeditated, and too late is not conducive to controlling the situation.

"In 1860, Abraham. Lincoln; In 1881, Tsar Alexander II; In 1900, King Humbert of Italy; In 1901, President William of the United States. McKinley; King and Queen of Seville, 1903; Now, December 31, 1914, the German Emperor Wilhelm II! Looking at the dark sea outside the porthole, Chen Tian said to himself, "There is always a time when everything is secret, if you don't want to be the next assassinated ruler, in addition to establishing a strong enough guard, maybe you have to pray for the favor of the god of fate!" ”

Fortunately, there were not a few British submarines in the English Channel at this time, and the German Navy had cleared the area of mines, otherwise a small torpedo or mine could have sent the heir of the Reich to the bottom of the sea.

At about 9 o'clock in the evening, Chen Tian finally received the first information from Berlin. At this time, it was close to two hours before the assassination of the emperor.

During this time, from time to time, officers entered the ballroom to whisper a few words to Graff, Graff's frown never relaxed, he took the trouble to look at his watch over and over again, Queen Victoria passed out crying again and again, and the cabinet meeting presided over by Bilow continued.

The rest of the banquet hall gradually began to feel tired and irritable, but no one dared to vent this emotion, and the cold bayonets of the Praetorian Guard soldiers and the cold expressions of the German soldiers were deeply terrifying.

At 11 o'clock in the evening, only one hour before the New Year's bell rang, the fireworks display in Berlin continued, and almost no one outside noticed the unusual atmosphere in the palace, except for the guards and coachmen waiting at the gate of the palace.

Half an hour later, the door to the Cabinet Ministers' lounge finally opened, but to General Graf's great disappointment, only one attendant came out, and he went to the army generals' and admirals' lounges, and a few moments later, Tirpitz and Falkenhain each took the two senior generals to the makeshift meeting room where the Cabinet Ministers met.

The door closed again, and everyone in the banquet hall had to wait in silence, and the tears of the grief-stricken queen seemed to be dry. Outside Prince's dormitory, there was another person who was also waiting silently, but even when the guards changed, Rainey didn't find a chance to sneak in, and the big guy had to think of ways to attract the guards' attention in his head, but the bad thing was that the Praetorian Guards were searching the entire palace over and over again, and he was barely hiding here, let alone sneaking out to fan the flames.

When the church bell struck 12, countless people, even most of the people in the banquet hall of the Imperial Palace in Berlin, prayed silently, but unlike the people outside who prayed for peace and peace, these people seemed to be praying for an early resolution of the bad situation here.

"Happy New Year, Your Highness!"

On the "Stuttgart", the officers and men of the Navy sent their blessings in time, but Chen Tian was really in no mood to celebrate the first New Year after the outbreak of the war, he only nodded to the other party slightly, "Happy New Year!" ”

On the front lines in England, soldiers on both sides in the trenches did not greet each other as they did at Christmas, and they celebrated the New Year with countless shells and bullets. Although the officers and soldiers were exhausted by the days of fighting, the German soldiers knew that the other side was more tired and weak than themselves, the army of Hindenburg was still attacking and advancing, the city was dead under artillery fire, and the place where the German vanguard armored units celebrated the New Year was the glory of the British Empire for hundreds of years, London!

On January 1, 1915, at 2:35 a.m., the door to the lounge where the Cabinet Ministers were located was once again opened, and this time, a tired Prime Minister Bilow was the first to come out, followed by Generalissimo Tirpitz and Admiral Falkenhain, and other ministers also walked out of the lounge.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Reich Cabinet, after an emergency meeting and consultation with the War Office and the Admiralty, finally decided to announce—" Billo paused, and in the expectant gaze of everyone, he said in a deep and sad tone: "The unfortunate assassination of our Emperor is an indisputable fact, and the departure of such a great man is an extremely heavy blow to Germany, for which we feel deep regret and sorrow! ”

With that, Barrow bowed his head in silence, and the banquet hall was filled with low sobs.

Three minutes later, Birlo raised his head, and his tone increased, "We swear that the murderer of His Majesty will be brought to justice!" For the masterminds behind this assassination, no matter how powerful they are, Germany will definitely let them get the punishment they deserve! ”

Birlo paused again, his last two words resounding as the rest of the ballroom were silent.

"Punishment!"

Whether it was German officials and generals, or foreign envoys, one could not help but wonder who would be the punishable in Bülow's mouth, the British? France? No matter which country it is, if it is accused of murdering the German emperor, the consequences will be absolutely terrifying. With Germany's current strength, combined with the nation's wrath, its destructive power is no less than that of a huge tsunami.

"After deliberation among all the members of the Cabinet, we have decided to announce the death of His Majesty, and now the internal and foreign affairs of the Empire are temporarily under the responsibility of the Cabinet, the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Army is temporarily General Falkenhein, the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Navy is temporarily Marshal Tirpitz, and the Imperial Air Force is temporarily under the Acting Crown Prince Gianrugi. His Royal Highness Wilhelm (the supreme commander of the German army was the emperor himself in peacetime). Moreover, according to the opinion of the War Department and the Admiralty. Birlow said and glanced at Falkenhain and Tirpitz respectively, both of them with a determined face, "The war between our country and Britain and Italy will not stop because of this!" ”

As soon as this statement came out, those who had thought that the war would be suspended by the death of Wilhelm II were surprised, some disappointed, and some rejoiced.

"In addition, in accordance with the Law on the Succession to the Imperial Throne and His Majesty's previous appointments, if there are no accidents, after completing the legal procedures, the Acting Crown Prince Ji'an Luji. His Royal Highness Wilhelm will become the new rightful Emperor of Germany! We have now asked His Royal Highness the Acting Crown Prince to rush back to Berlin, and our great Germany will continue to move forward under his leadership! ”

This was not surprising to everyone, except for a low conversation in the banquet hall, and the deceased was still there, so that no one was making a noise or applauding.

"Wait!"

The empress, who had been sitting next to the emperor's body, said in an almost hoarse voice, not loud, but to the surprise of most of the people present.

Quite surprised, Bilow turned around, and under the surprised eyes of Tirpitz, Falkenhain and others, the empress of the German Empire, the haggard Victoria, stood up with the support of the guards.

"Her Royal Highness?" The Prime Minister of the Empire didn't know what to say at once, considering that Victoria rarely spoke in public, she barely participated in any political discussions, and in the eyes of everyone, she basically played the role of a good wife and mother.

"Mr. Prime Minister, if I am not mistaken, what His Majesty announced in this palace 25 days ago is that if Prince had not woken up until he abdicated, then Gigi. Wilhelm would become the next legitimate German emperor; But if Prince. William wakes up before he abdicates, then Prince will regain the power of the crown prince! ”

The queen's voice was very weak, but Bilo and the others could hear every word clearly.

"Yes, that's true, but Her Highness the Queen, His Highness Prince is not ......," Billlow said this, even he was startled, and his eyes were fixed on Queen Victoria's face, and the expression on that face made him feel that there was a shocking secret hidden behind these words.