With the news of the departure of the Japanese 1st Fleet, the debate in the German High Command in Berlin about whether the main force of the Japanese Navy should fight or not to be able to shrink finally came to an end, and the interesting "gamble" ended with the victory of Naval Chief of Staff Raeder. In the envious eyes of everyone, Raeder happily accepted the prize from the "disappointed" Chen Tian - a bottle of 1900 red wine from Château Margaux in Bordeaux, France.

"On the day the Imperial Navy wins, that is, when this wine is opened, we will share it!"

Raeder held the wine bottle in both hands and announced to the officers around him, and when he heard this, the crowd immediately burst into joy.

In 1929, there were not a lot of red wines on the market in the past 180 years, and the high-quality red wines after 1900 were endless, but those could not be compared with the Bordeaux red wine produced in 1900, 1900 was not only the year of the century, the red wine produced in Bordeaux was of high quality, which was rare in a century, and the product of the Bordeaux Margaux was the emperor among the emperors, known as the best red wine of the century, and it was such a bottle of red wine that was enough to meet the bet of the "emperor's gamble".

Chentian lost, but he lost very happily, in fact, as a "prophet", he knows very well that the Japanese militarists will not give up the opportunity to live and die in the current situation, in a sense, the top of the Japanese army is a veritable "gambler"!

After losing his treasures, Chentian's joy was beyond words, not only because of Raeder's "selflessness", but also because of his keen eye, the German main fleet commanded by Hipper discharged a strong lineup of 8 battleships, 4 battle cruisers, and 4 heavy aircraft carriers, most people thought that the main force of the Japanese Navy would hide in the well-defended Sasebo military port to avoid it, but a few generals represented by Raeder thought that the Japanese commander-in-chief would not let go of such an opportunity to hit the German Navy in one fell swoop. Even if the odds of success are only 1 in 10%!

Glancing at the exquisite wine bottle in Raeder's hand, Chen Tian proposed, "How about another bottle of red wine to bet on when the naval battle will break out?" ”

"It must be tonight!" Raeder said categorically.

"Oh?" Chen Tian couldn't help but seriously look at the vice admiral in front of him again, who was not burly and not handsome, at first Chen Tian thought that the Nazi admiral of the other world was a general with outstanding organizational skills, but as the contact deepened. He found that Raeder's military talent far exceeded his expectations, and the 43-year-old Raeder had already shown excellent planning and strategic vision, and his interpersonal relations in the High Command were also very good, and he could even become "Tirpitz second" in time.

"If Your Majesty does not believe me, you can bring another bottle of red wine, which I have promised to share with everyone, and if Your Majesty wins, I will present the 1895 French Burgundy Red Wine that I have treasured at home!"

When I first joined the High Command. Raeder is cautious in his words, but under the strict but relaxed atmosphere here, he can also show this kind of confidence and boldness when talking to Chentian, and from this point of view, Chentian is still very satisfied with his habit of dealing with the relationship between his superiors and subordinates.

"Good!" Chen Tian summoned his attendant, "Go and fetch another bottle of my 1900 Bordeaux red wine from the palace cellar!" ”

Raeder still had that confident smile, and no one was happier than the army and navy generals present, who would have tasted the best French red wine of the era, no matter who won or lost the gamble.

And Chentian, who is about to lose the second bottle of good wine, is not the ultimate disappointed, just two bottles of the best red wine can eliminate the anxiety of the generals in the waiting process. By the way, the relationship between the army and navy generals is closer. Great value for money, of course!

At this time, a report on the latest progress came from the front, although the content of the report was not too directly related to the "gamble" of Chentian and Raeder. But it was enough to cheer everyone present - the main fleets of Germany and Japan had not yet clashed, but a fierce naval battle was staged in advance in the waters of the island of Zeto in the north of Japan, and the Peltz fleet in the north faced the main force of the Japanese fleet as promised, although the Peltz fleet was absolutely inferior in strength, but the advantage in speed allowed them to play hide and seek with their opponents, and more importantly, the German fleet heading south from the Kuril Islands was rapidly rushing towards the Soya Strait, where there were thousands of Japanese transport ships, It was also a pillar of confidence for the 100,000 Japanese troops who landed on the island, once the Soya Strait was regained control of the Germans. The consequences of the Battle of Kuye are conceivable.

At this time, even a wise staff officer in the Japanese Navy Headquarters had realized this, but the speculation without evidence could not be said to be motivated by the high-ranking Japanese generals who were determined to win a battle in the waters of the island, not to mention that it was too late for the 3rd Fleet to come back at this time.

Sure enough, soon after the battle in the sea area of Seki Island began, the Japanese discovered the German fleet galloping east of the Soya Strait, and the fleet strength composed of 1 battleship, 1 battle cruiser, 3 heavy cruisers, 3 medium aircraft carriers, and some light cruisers and destroyers was not as strong as the main force of the Japanese 3rd Fleet, but at this time there were only two slightly older battleships in the Soya Strait, "Anyi" and "Hanoi", once the fragile strait defense line was broken by the German fleet. The rest of the transport ships were left to be beaten.

When he heard the news of the sudden change in the situation at sea in the north, Naoma Taniguchi and the main force of his combined fleet were sailing more than 50 nautical miles southeast of Sasebo. In order not to shake the morale of the army, Taniguchi even ordered the news to be blocked to the entire fleet.

Taniguchi was most depressed not by pretending to be casual in front of his junior officers, but soon a telegram was sent from the Navy Headquarters in Yokosuka, ordering him to continue to lead the main forces of the Combined Fleet to the decisive sea, and to redeem the humiliation in the north with a great victory.

"Since that fleet heading north is a decoy, who can guarantee that the decisive battle in front of us is not a bigger trap?" Taniguchi crumpled the telegram in his hand with a gloomy face, and he paced back and forth in the command tower like a sleepy beast in an extremely uneasy mood.

"General ......" Takida Yoshiro, who was standing on the side, saw the clue, but at this time he didn't know what to say.

"Takida-kun, we seem to think too much of the Germans! Being able to defeat France, Britain, the United States, and Russia is by no means something that can be done by luck and brute force alone! ”

Taniguchi's tone was so heavy, but it seemed too late to admit the Germans' ability in strategy.

Since the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese command from top to bottom has a kind of conceit that surpasses its own strength, and the contempt for the Russians has also been extended to the rest of Europe, this psychological defect put the Japanese army in a very disadvantageous position at the beginning of the war with Germany, and the successive defeats only made a small number of generals begin to look for factors other than the gap in weapons and equipment between the warring parties.

Most people still pursue "bravery", "spirit" and the so-called "broken jade".

"It is a universally recognized fact that Germans are rigid and inflexible, but when you think about the wars since 1914, the tactical literacy and strategy of the German commanders are really amazing! As far as the naval battle of the island is concerned, we all thought that the German fleet was only harassing our coastal areas and going north to reinforce Kuye Island, but we did not expect that its long journey was actually to contain our 3rd Fleet, and the German fleet occupying the Kuril Islands actually went south to the Soya Strait at the right time. ”

Two "exclamations" in a row may not be enough to express what Zuntian felt at this time, a fleet was used to divert the tiger from the mountain. It was not an incomprehensible ploy for the other to act at an opportunistic point, but it was indeed a great disappointment that a large group of senior staff officers of the Japanese Navy Headquarters had not seen through this.

After that, the two people standing together did not speak for a long time.

"In the name of the Combined Fleet Staff, I sent a report to the Navy Headquarters, asking them to quickly withdraw the First Fleet and go south, what does Taniguchi-kun think?" After a long time, Zhantian finally broke the dull atmosphere.

Taniguchi's gaze towards the distant sea seemed to freeze, and it took a long time for him to nod heavily. "Although the Navy Headquarters may not adopt it. But that's the only way to save the day! In this way, I can do my best! ”

Takida bowed 75 degrees and saluted a Japanese military salute at the same time, and then walked to the communication room to send a telegram.

The lonely Taniguchi stood silently in front of the porthole. Looking at the mighty group of ships on the sea, I felt infinite emotion in my heart.

More than 400 nautical miles in front of the Japanese 1st Fleet, the larger German main fleet is also rushing to the battlefield, coincidentally, all 89 ships on the German side are also lined up in 8 battle columns, although the number of warships is not as good as the Japanese fleet opposite, but the total tonnage is more than twice that of the other side - the Japanese sent a considerable number of torpedo boat troops, and the German fleet is at least 1800 tons of standard-class destroyers, and the penetration rate of shipborne radar is incomparable to the Japanese fleet!

The distance of 400 nautical miles is not far away, and the long-range reconnaissance planes of both sides quickly discovered each other's traces.

Immediately afterwards, the commanders of both sides ordered the fleet to make tactical maneuvers while sending their own first wave of attack aircraft.

132 fighters, 56 dive bombers, 52 torpedo bombers, the aircraft carrier group of the German fleet released a huge fleet of aircraft equivalent to the total number of carrier-based aircraft of the Japanese fleet in one breath, it is no wonder that the "Kemal", "Alsace", "Prussia", and "Lorraine" in the fleet are all heavy aircraft carriers with a displacement of about 40,000 tons, plus 2 Zeppelin-class and 1 European-class and 4 Vienna-class of 120,000 tons, the number of aircraft carriers and the number of aircraft carriers are 3 times and 3.7 times that of the opponent respectively!

With 70 fighters, 22 dive bombers, and 36 torpedo bombers, the first wave of attack aircraft sent by the Japanese fleet was also not to be underestimated. However, as Taniguchi feared, it was unknown whether these pilots, who had never participated in a real naval battle, would be able to fully utilize what they had learned in peacetime training.

After a long-distance flight of more than one hour, the German aircraft group and the Japanese aircraft group successively approached their targets, and the aircraft carrier formations of the two sides also sent a group of fighters responsible for defense at almost the same time, and the side obviously had a spiritual advantage in order to wait for work, and the attacker could not entangle with the other side for a long time because of fuel restrictions. In the battle, which lasted for more than half an hour, some bombers of the German and Japanese attack planes successfully broke into the airspace over the opposing fleet, and invariably regarded the opponent's aircraft carrier as the primary target.

As a result, the German dive bombers damaged the main Japanese aircraft carriers "Shozuru" and "Zuizuru", and the torpedo bombers sprinkled a handful of salt on the wounds of the "Shorui", one of the fatal torpedoes detonated the ammunition depot of this aircraft carrier, and the other missed the target torpedo accidentally sank the Japanese heavy cruiser "Ashigara"; The Japanese torpedo bomber pilots showed admirable determination in the battle, and they managed to inflict heavy damage on the German heavy aircraft carrier "Lorraine" in a desperate fight, and the overwhelmed aircraft carrier finally capsized one hour after the end of the air battle.

Although the difference in the losses of the two sides in the battleships was not large, throughout the course of the battle, the German fleet's more sophisticated air defense system shot down as many as 69 Japanese fighters, compared with only 27 German fighters shot down by Japanese fighters and battleship anti-aircraft guns combined.

After receiving the battle reports sent back by their respective air units, the commanders of the two sides can be said to be "very happy"; Taniguchi Naoma got the report that "he hit 4 large aircraft carriers of the other side, and it is estimated that 2-3 of them were sunk, and another 34 large warships of the other side were sunk and damaged." Compared with the report of the Japanese pilots full of water, the report of the German air force was much more rigorous, "3 aircraft carriers of the opposing side were hit, one of which caught fire, but it was not sunk; Sink 1 enemy medium warship! ”

After this, Taniguchi and Hippert each gave new orders, and the Japanese fleet turned to the right and the German fleet to the left, and although the two commanders had their own plans, the distance between the two fleets did not close to within 300 nautical miles for the next two hours.

Half an hour after the end of the first wave of attacks, the second wave of attack aircraft on both sides successively found the opposing fleet, this time the German group of 79 fighters, 05 dive bombers and 54 torpedo bombers, while the Japanese group suddenly increased to 102 fighters, 43 dive bombers and 61 torpedo bombers. It turned out that the Japanese army aviation units stationed in Sasebo also joined the attack, but the land-based bombers, which had a slight advantage in range, did not take much advantage of the German fighters and the anti-aircraft guns of the battleships, and the early detection by the enemy's radar also made them lose a chance to hit the opponent by surprise.