Birmingham.

Churchill's special fleet encountered a German raid fleet, and the German troops and ships across the Channel were frequently transferred, and King George had to urgently convene a royal council. Because of the different concerns of the naval officers and the War Office, the noisy meeting lasted from the afternoon to the evening without any conclusion, and George V's frown did not unfold from the beginning of the meeting.

After a simple dinner with the ministers and generals, King George returned to the conference hall with a gloomy face, and the royal meeting continued in the light of the crystal chandelier.

"Has Your Majesty's appetite been so bad lately?" General Haig whispered to Secretary of War Kitchener, who had only eaten a little steak and vegetables at dinner earlier, and even a five-year-old had eaten more than him.

"It seems so!" Kitchener isn't entirely sure, but most people here haven't had a good appetite in recent times.

"Oh, if 40 ships full of arms can't be shipped back to England, maybe I'll lose sleep all night!" Haig looked frustrated, he didn't have much faith in the navy.

After everyone was back seated, Prime Minister Lloyd nodded to Kitchener, who then spoke:

"Your Majesty, the situation is indeed very serious now! On average, each soldier on our southern coastal defense line has only about 50 rounds of ammunition in his hand, each machine gun has less than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and the artillery is 200 rounds of small-caliber and 75 rounds of large-caliber ammunition. ”

"The ammunition of the Indian soldiers is only 1/4 of that of the average soldier!" Haig whispered to Kitchener.

"Are all our military factories out of production?" George V leaned back in his chair feebly.

"Your Majesty, due to the shortage of resources, most of the country's industries have come to a standstill! Without saltpeter, copper and other materials, the military factory could not make even a single bullet and shell! ”

The Minister of Trade and Industry answered the king's doubts with a gloomy expression, and at the outbreak of the Great War, the British had 111 times larger colonies than the mainland, and now this number has been significantly reduced by the German-Turkish offensive in Africa, but the blockade of the German navy is the fatal factor in this situation. Although ships crossed the German blockade every week to bring some supplies to the British mainland, they were a drop in the bucket in terms of quantity.

Glancing up at the dazzling crystal chandelier at the top of the hall, the old minister exclaimed, "Actually, this is one of the few places in the country where electric lights can still be lit!" Most of the precious power resources are used in the searchlights used for coastal guard! ”

The generals responded to this helpless situation with silence, and perhaps before long, their soldiers would have to use bayonets against the fierce German army.

This time King George appeared unusually calm, but his subsequent advice was very unprofessional.

"Then distribute all the ammunition in the ammunition depot to the soldiers!"

"Your Majesty......," Kitchener smiled bitterly inwardly, "we have no way of knowing which troops will use up more ammunition in battle, so it is necessary to store most of the ammunition in the arsenals at the front and in the rear!" ”

"Oh......" King George suddenly felt like a deflated ball, after the arsenal was attacked by the German commandos, he always felt that the Germans might destroy the last bit of ammunition of the British army before attacking.

Prime Minister Lloyd glanced at the admirals who were "making a fortune" with the truth that silence is golden, and hoped that they would have a little opinion on whether the special fleet would have made a few more replies in the arrival of the important munitions that would add a row of ammunition to each British soldier and a few shells to each cannon, which the King and the others here needed to add a little confidence to themselves. Compared to the British soldiers, who did not know much about the situation and still had full trust in the government, the mood of the British upper echelons was somewhat pessimistic.

After a long ideological struggle, Admiral Fisher still stood up:

"Your Majesty, ministers and generals, don't worry too much about the arms in our special fleet! Just at dinnertime, our Rodel patrol fleet has successfully rendezvous with the special fleet! ”

To Fisher's surprise, everyone present applauded with relief.

"But......" Fisher had to lower his voice, and the crowd waited anxiously for his next step.

"The main battleships of our special fleet, including all the battleships and most of the cruisers, have already suffered heavy losses in battles with the German fleet. In order to avoid them falling into the hands of the Germans, I propose to sink the last three battleships, which were wounded and unable to move! ”

There was an uproar, except for King George, Prime Minister Lloyd's, and a few senior admirals who had known about the situation beforehand, and the king stared blankly at the empty table with a frown. In such a situation, there was nothing wrong with sinking those ships, and the British Navy had little chance of towing them back to their homeland in the face of a German raiding fleet like tigers and German submarines like wolves.

No one objected, no one supported, everyone was waiting for King George's decision. The opinion of Fisher and the Admiralty was clear that the three battleships would rather sink themselves than the Germans, and in this particular case, the Admiralty gave the final decision to their spiritual leader, the most respected king of the British people.

The old king, who had been mentally tormented by the constant defeat of the British army, was breathing heavier and heavier, and the burden on his shoulders was already about to crush him, and no one knew what would be the last straw.

After a long time, George V slowly spoke, "For the honor of the Imperial Navy, let these brave warships sink themselves!" ”

In an oppressive and sad atmosphere, everyone, whether it was a cabinet minister or an army or navy general, bowed their heads in disgrace.

"Let our spies pay close attention to the movements of the German troops on the other side, and all coastal defense areas must be on alert, ready to deal with the attack launched by the German army at any time, the fate of the empire should be in these few days!"

King George and his generals had been informed of the planned date of the German landing, but no one would regard it as an absolute landing date, and the British had no definite information about the landing site, which was as important as the landing time, and they were even more puzzled by the German movement.

"I always believed that the German 8th Army assembled in the vicinity of Normandy would not land directly in the vicinity of Portsmouth, directly opposite Normandy, and that Brighton would be their ultimate goal!"

Haig swore to the king that the glorious British Army would drive the landing Germans out of the sea.

At 8:10 p.m. on December 26, 1914, after receiving an order from King George of England to sink himself, British sailors ventured into the three battleships, which were still breathing on the surface and filled with seawater at the bottom, and tried to open their submarine valves, but all failed. Eventually, two British submarines next to the battleships that were guarding each fired two torpedoes at each battleship. At 8:34 a.m., the USS Utah was the first to capsize in the explosion and completely disappeared into the sea 10 minutes later. At 8:36 a.m., the "Bend" quickly sank after bursting into brilliant fireworks, and soon lay in the mud at the bottom of the sea; At 8:47 a.m., two large holes were carved out by torpedoes below the waterline on the port side of the "Florida," and after tilting 20 degrees to the left, its hull miraculously regained its balance, and finally sat on the bottom of the sea at a depth of more than 120 meters. As new members of the British Empire, their brief journey has come to an end; As a paradise for fish and shrimp, their long life has only just begun.

Outside the port of Caen, France, the "Frontier Governor", the flagship of the second detachment of the German High Seas Fleet, welcomed a group of distinguished guests.

Standing on deck to greet the admirals was led by a gray-bearded admiral, the 51-year-old deputy commander of the High Seas Fleet, Scheer, an ambitious and capable naval commander.

"Your Highness, on behalf of all the officers and men of the Second Fleet, I would like to welcome you and the command of the 8th Army! We have set up the most comfortable headquarters in the large conference room on the ship, and all kinds of communication equipment have been set up, and the Navy will do its best to ensure that your communication with the landing force is unimpeded! ”

The leader of the group on board the ship was naturally the Acting Crown Prince of Germany. William, his command and the main forces of this detachment were to go to the British coast ahead of the landing flotilla, and the shelling fleet of Scheer was to clear the landing force of all obstacles to the beachhead.

"General, thank you very much for your great assistance! I believe that our navy will open the door to victory in this landing operation, and it is with such excellent warships and such an outstanding commander as you that our navy will sweep the British navy, which claims to be the first in the world, to the bottom of the sea! After exchanging military salutes, Chentian and Scheer's big hands clasped tightly. For Chen Tian, the powerful right hand of the German generals always made him full of confidence.

As long as the two Anglo-German naval battles in the North Sea are mentioned, the German admirals such as Schell will puff up their chests proudly, and it is indeed a complete victory.

"Your Highness is so gracious! Once upon a time, you led the Navy to victory; Now you'll be taking the whole of Germany with you something you've never done before! ”

"With such a close navy and army, no one can stop the advance of the German tank!" Chen Tian sighed in his heart, in fact, it was the air force under his control that fully cooperated with the landing operation, and without Prince, everything had become so smooth.

On the way to the command room of the "Frontier Governor", Schell briefly introduced to Chentian the ships of this detachment, which consisted of 10 battleships, 5 airships, 3 light cruisers, 16 destroyers, and 8 large minesweepers, among which the battleships "Prince of Prussia" and "Tirpitz" were the most eye-catching, and the two battleships were the British battleships "George V" and "Daring" captured in the Battle of the North Sea. After nearly four months of repairs, they officially joined the German Navy's operational sequence at Christmas, which is also the best Christmas gift the German Navy has ever received, and the other seven battleships are the Caesar-class battleships "King Albert" and "Louitpol Regent" that shelled the Brighton Line, the Helgolan-class battleship "Thuringia", the Nassau-class battleship "West****", the Braunschweig-class ironclad ships "Hesse", "Braunschweig", and "Alsace".

Also took part in the last shelling operation Brighton of the battlecruiser "von . Morality. The Tann and the heavy cruiser Blucher were transferred to the convoy, and they, along with 18 airships, 7 light cruisers, 31 destroyers, and 11 large minesweepers, would support the landing fleet of 782 large and small ships. Of these escorts and landing ships, about 1/3 of the warships and 1/2 of the transports came from the "great support" of the French.

Chen Tian straightened his voice and gave the order for the fleet to set sail with the most powerful emphasis.

At 10 p.m. on December 26, 1914, the Frontier Governor gave the signal to sail, and the artillery fleet under the command of Scheer began to advance towards the British coast. According to the previous plan, the escort fleet and the landing flotilla will depart on time in 2 hours.

At the same time, the 1st detachment of the German High Seas Fleet, led by Prince Heydrich of Prussia, departed from the French port of Calais, and the Heydrich artillery fleet consisting of 11 battleships, 4 light cruisers, 15 destroyers and 8 minesweepers was to carry out a heavy shelling of the Brighton beach defense. Some of the soldiers of the Hindenburg 5th Army had already boarded more than 300 transport ships and numerous "inferior" landing ships at Calais and Dunkirk, but the British spies would have been surprised and annoyed to find that the ships would remain in the harbor for several more days.

The huge battleships cut through the water with their sharp bows, and the white wide and deep water marks were left behind them without hesitation; The black vulture cross flags on the masts of the battleship seemed to have sensed the glorious moment they were about to witness, all fluttering high in the cold sea breeze. More than 30 large and small warships were silent like soldiers rushing to the battlefield, the whole fleet exuded a terrifying momentum, and the seriousness on the faces of the officers and men was not due to nervousness, and these brave and resilient Germanic warriors naturally showed precious smiles when they won the victory.

The breath of the sea is alien to those who have been fighting on land for a long time. Chen Tian didn't remember how long it had been since he had been on a ship and sailed away, and the calm mood of the night voyage reminded him of the round-the-world voyage many years ago, the brilliant autumn in Europe, the warm winter in Africa, the festive spring in Asia, and the passionate summer in the Americas all made him infinitely nostalgic, and those letters that carried the feelings of longing for the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter were even more indelible memories.

"That year, I was so happy, and it was also the last year of my life that was written as simple!" In the face of the biting cold wind, Chen Tian felt a lot of emotion in his heart, if he hadn't experienced the "cold winter" again and again, he would not have gradually grown up.

"Your Highness, it's windy outside, so you'd better go inside and rest!"

When Scheer's characteristic magnetic voice came from behind him, Chen Tian came back to his senses.

"It turned out to be Your Excellency the General! It doesn't matter, I'm just coming out to relax my brain! ”

Chen Tian turned around, for him in a daze, sometimes he was pondering something, and sometimes he didn't think about anything. Scheer was dressed in a neat and thick military overcoat, and it seemed that he had stayed up all night on duty himself, so that he would not be able to sleep for at least a day and a night, and it was a pity that he could not achieve victory with such a dedicated and excellent commander. Chen Tian suddenly wondered what Admiral Scheer of the other world would feel when Germany surrendered, and how those German warships would feel when they sank in Pascal Bay, but that was undoubtedly cruel to a loyal admiral.

"Your Highness doesn't go to sea often, it's better to be careful, don't be affected by the wind and cold before the big war!" Scheer's words were like that of a kind old captain looking after the new crew.

"Thanks for the concern! By the way, how long do we have to get to our destination? Chentian's leather-gloved hands were already feeling cold, so he wiped his hands into the pockets of his coat.

"The fleet is moving at a speed of 15 knots, and it will take about 3 hours to get there! Your Highness, if you don't take the time to rest, I'm afraid you won't be able to sleep when the shelling begins! As he spoke, Schell couldn't help but glance at the Grand Cross worn by Chentian, which was the dream of every German general. Despite Chentian's noble status, Sher also knew that he had obtained it by virtue of his ability and performance, but unfortunately not everyone had the opportunity to obtain enough merit. Even if he succeeded in assisting the landing force to complete the landing this time, the most he could get was a blue Marcos medal, which was still far from the Grand Cross.

Chen Tian could see Scheer's thoughts at a glance, and there was nothing to hide from that kind of thought.

"The British Navy should be going all out these days!"

"It's hard to say, the fleet purchased from the United States has not yet entered the door and was beaten by us, and the British may not have that kind of courage!"

Speaking of which, Schell was a little envious of Sheppel, who was the most active in the German Navy after the Second Battle of the North Sea, and made a monumental contribution to the German Navy's successful blockade of the British Isles. If the remnants of the British Navy could be wiped out, Scheer would be one step closer to his Grand Cross, but it was still a pity that the war seemed to be coming to an end soon, and it would be even more difficult to achieve outstanding feats in peacetime.

"By the way, is there any news of the Hipper fleet in these two hours?"

The results of the Shipper fleet's interception of Churchill's special fleet were very satisfying, and at least the eyes of the British Navy had temporarily shifted from this side of the Channel to the vicinity of the Outer Hebrides.

"Not yet, after the British fleet took refuge in the port of Rodel, Vice Admiral Sheipier and his raiding fleet have not taken offensive action for the time being, I think he is worried that the opponent's small ships will take advantage of the darkness to launch a torpedo sneak attack! After daybreak, he should have launched an attack on that dilapidated harbor, where the British fortresses could not hold back our battleships! ”

"Well, as soon as there is news over there, please tell me immediately! Tomorrow is a very important day for us in Germany, for Britain and for the world! Your Excellency, good night! Chentian decided to accept Schell's suggestion to take a break before the shelling and recuperate enough to complete the final between Britain and Germany.