rushed all the way back to Zhoushan, and as soon as he got off the plane, Tan Renhao saw Gan Yongxing who came to the airport to greet him.

Gan Yongxing originally planned to come back in mid-January, but until the 25th, when Tan Renhao left Zhoushan, Gan Yongxing did not rush back, but he didn't expect it to arrive in a few days.

"Chief of Staff, when did you come back?" Seeing Gan Yongxing, Tan Renhao was also very happy.

"I just arrived yesterday, I heard that you went to become Alibaba?" Gan Yongxing was laughing when he saw Tan Renhao, and it was a ghost smile, "Have you come back with a piece or two, so that you will not have to worry about eating and drinking for the rest of your life." ”

"Yes, not only do I not have to worry about food and drink in a military prison, but I don't have to worry about clothing and housing, but I don't want to go in." Tan Renhao also joked, "I heard that the principal said that you should have come back more than ten days ago, why did you delay coming back until yesterday, how is the situation in Germany?" ”

"It's bad." Gan Yongxing shrugged his shoulders, "Let's talk about it after we go back, the principal invited us to dinner tonight, and we talked slowly at the dinner table." ”

Nie Renfeng invited Tan Renhao and Gan Yongxing to his home, the dishes are not rich, and they are mainly vegetarian, but the wine is the best, what Gan Yongxing said last time was really not wrong, the principal does have a lot of fine wine in his house, and the bottles in the study cabinet are the most precious. Gan Yongxing naturally wouldn't let go of such a good opportunity, when he went to the study after dinner, he didn't ask the principal at all, he went directly to the cupboard and picked out a bottle of the best, and then poured three cups without hesitation.

"Renhao, you have to seize the opportunity, I have already been playing with the idea of these bottles of wine from the principal."

Gan Yongxing handed a wine glass to Tan Renhao, "This bottle of wine is at least twenty years old, and it was brought back from Europe by the principal back then, he can be reluctant to drink it all the time, we are not polite today, otherwise the principal thinks that we will not give him face." ”

"Well, it tastes good. Looks like we should be visiting the headmaster's house more often! ”

Seeing the two students singing and singing, Nie Renfeng shook his head and laughed, he has a hobby of collecting wine, but he rarely drinks alcohol, and when he wants to drink, he only drinks a little wine, and other spirits almost never touch his mouth.

"Yes, you should come back to visit the headmaster often, too. Remember to bring some snacks with you every time, and of course, remember to call me. ”

"No problem, I'll call you for sure, or the headmaster will call you too."

"Okay, if you two want to drink, let's bring a bottle back later, I'll keep the wine too." Nie Renfeng interrupted the conversation between the two with a smile, "Ren Hao, how is the salvage work?" ”

"It's basically going well. It's just that the wind and waves are a little stronger. Tan Renhao also immediately got serious. Nearly 45o tons of gold were recovered, which, according to the intelligence officer, surnamed Lee, was about the same as their estimates. ”

"What about secrecy?"

"We've already said hello. The engineers and the officers only knew that we were salvaging cipher machines. In addition, I have already scattered them according to your request, and it will not be much trouble. ”

"Well, this is over, and we'd better not mention it in the future." Nie Renfeng nodded slightly, "Yongxing, let's talk about your harvest in Germany." ”

Gan Yongxing sighed, took out his cigarette as he put down his glass, and then told him what he had done in Germany.

Gan Yongxing was also forced to go to Germany. This had a lot to do with the actions of the German Navy.

At the strong request of the Tang Empire, the German Navy gathered all their large warships, and after doing enough intelligence and deception work, they sent the fleet out on December 8, and at that time Tan Renhao and they were preparing for a decisive battle with the American fleet, in order not to affect the operations of the front-line troops, Nie Renfeng did not tell Tan Renhao about the actions of the German Navy.

The German fleet rushed into the North Sea from the Skagerrak Strait under the cover of night. Because the early intelligence deception work was well done until December 9, that is, the day the German fleet entered the North Sea. The British Royal Navy had only just reacted, and their predators had already left the ground and were breaking through in the direction of the Atlantic.

This is a great thing, since the reunification of Germany and became the most powerful country in Europe, Britain has always regarded Germany as its biggest rival, and even reconciled with its former long-cherished rival France and joined forces against Germany. It can be said that for almost half a century, the British Navy has always regarded the German Navy as an adversary, and wants to blockade the German Navy in the Baltic Sea at all costs. During World War I, the German Navy's High Seas Fleet fought the "Battle of Jutland" with the British Grand Fleet precisely because it was going to fight out of the Baltic Sea.

After the outbreak of the Great War, Britain left its main fleet in the North Sea for only one reason, although the German Navy was insufficient, but those capital ships, especially the two "Bismarck"

The threat of battleships was huge, and if the German Navy controlled the sea supremacy in the North Sea, then it would be able to cover the German 6th Army landing on the 6th British Isles, and the British 6th Army was by no means an opponent of the German 6th Army. Even if the Germans did not board the 6 Britain, as soon as these battleships appeared in the Atlantic, the sea route between Britain and the United States would be completely cut off, and Britain would be finished. More importantly, after the German Navy is killed, I am afraid that many countries that are still vacillating in their attitudes will fall to Germany.

Britain can accept defeat on the battlefield of the Great 6 in Europe, but it must not accept defeat on the battlefield at sea, which is determined by the nature of its island country.

After receiving the information, all the British battleships were mobilized and concentrated in the direction of the North Sea, and the first of these to arrive were the battlecruiser "Hood", the battlecruiser "Counterattack", the battlecruiser "Prestige", and the battleship "Prince of Wales". Along with the arrival of these four capital ships, there were more than a dozen cruisers (all light cruisers) and more than a dozen destroyers.

This was all the capital ships that the British Navy could concentrate in a short time, and the other battleships would not arrive until three days later. But time waits for no one now, the purpose of the German fleet is to kill the Atlantic, and as long as the German fleet enters the Atlantic, it will be difficult to find them again, so it is necessary to intercept the German fleet in the North Sea and prevent it from entering the Atlantic. These four British capital ships were actually also facing four German capital ships (three pocket battleships were not counted).

"Hood" was a battle cruiser built by the British Navy during the last Great War and was the largest displacement warship of the British Navy at that time. Moreover, the "battle cruiser" was originally created by the British, and its main feature is that it has the degree of a cruiser and the firepower of a battleship. And at the expense of the defensive capabilities of the battleship. According to the British Navy's assumption, as long as it maintained its superiority in degree, it could use its powerful firepower to keep the enemy out of the range of the enemy's warship's artillery strikes, without engaging in close artillery battles with the opponent. Moreover, the high degree of warship can meet the requirements of the British Navy's operations in large sea areas. to be able to rush from one battlefield to another in a timely manner, so that you can complete more tasks with fewer ships.

HMS Prestige and HMS Counter Strike are sister ships, both of which belong to the Prestige class (just these two), which were also built by the British during the last war and were commissioned a little earlier than HMS Hood. The displacement of the battlecruisers of this class was much lower than that of the "Hood", in addition to the two fewer main guns, and there were many differences in other details. And during the two wars, the British overhauled the two battlecruisers, so that they have been used until now (the overhaul of the "Hood" was canceled due to the outbreak of the war).

The battleship "Prince of Wales" is the second most advanced "George V" class battleship in the British Navy, and it was in the second year of the war. That is, it was put into service in March of 1323 in the Tang calendar. It was one of the newest battleships of the British Navy, and it was also the most advanced battleship in the North Atlantic at the time, armed with ten main guns (two quadruple guns. A twin assembly), which is characterized by high speed, strong cruising ability, high density of firepower, and thick armor. Except for the small caliber of the 14-inch (356 mm) main guns that continued to be used (the main guns of battleships in other countries at that time were almost all over 4oo mm), other aspects can be said to be very good.

The fast formation of these four capital ships reached the southwest of Shetland on the 9th, and immediately received information that the German fleet was moving in the direction of Shetland Islands, preparing to enter the North Atlantic.

It was no longer up to the commander of the British fleet to call the shots, before the other capital ships arrived. These four capital ships can only be used to meet the four capital ships of the German Navy, and it will be delayed until at least the 11th, and when the other capital ships arrive, then these four German battleships will definitely be finished.

The next day, the two sides encountered each other about 8o nautical miles southwest of the Shetland Islands, and the seaplanes of both sides showed up in each other's formations, and as they approached about 2o nautical miles, the radars on the battleships of both sides also detected each other. It was already afternoon, and the German fleet was going to get the first to attack the North Atlantic. Therefore, it was still a column to the north, and the four British battleships were divided into two parts, of which the "Hood" and the "Counterattack" began to turn in the southwest, aiming their guns in the direction of the German fleet, and the "Prince of Wales" and "Prestige" in the north also began to turn at the same time, the distance between the two formations was about 8 nautical miles, and the angle between the route was about 25 degrees. The British fleet seized the advantageous position first.

The artillery battle began at 7:38 a.m., with the "Hood" and "Counterattack" firing at a distance of 12 nautical miles, and five minutes later the main guns of the "Prince of Wales" and "Prestige" also opened fire.

The German fleet began to turn at 7:39 a.m., successfully avoiding the first row of shells, and then turned again four minutes later to avoid the second round of shells. Then, through a series of beautiful turns, all the shells fired by the British battleship missed. By 7:58 a.m., four German warships had narrowed the distance between the two sides to about 1o nautical miles, and the German counterattack began.

"Bismarck" and "Tirpitz" turned first and aimed their guns at the "Hood" and "Counterattack" in the northwest direction. Ten minutes later, the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" also completed their turn, aiming their guns at the "Hood" on the northeast side of the two battleships

with the "Counterattack". The tactics of the German fleet commander were simple, first take out the "Hood" and "Counterattack", and then deal with the two British capital ships to the north.

At 8:17 a.m., the Tirpitz accurately fired an armor-piercing bullet into the power compartment of the "Hood" in the seventh salvo, and then an armor-piercing projectile flying from the "Bismarck" landed at an almost vertical angle directly above the main ammunition depot of the "Hood." The Hood's flimsy horizontal armor and the ammunition depot isolation door that had not had time to be installed became the most fatal flaws. At the same time, the luck of the "Bismarck" was also improved to the limit, and the shell exploded in the main ammunition compartment of the "Hood", detonating hundreds of huge shells inside. The battleship, which at that time had the largest displacement of the British Navy, was blown in two and disappeared after not holding out for five minutes on the surface.

The officers and men of the "Counterattack" behind the side of the "Hood" were terrified when they saw that the "Hood" was finished, and their commander was on the "Hood", and certainly did not escape (in fact, it did). The "Counterattack" did not dare to continue to hold out, and immediately began to make a sharp turn, fighting and withdrawing, preparing to lead the German fleet to the absolute range of destruction of the "Prince of Wales" and "Prestige".

In just 10 minutes, the "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau", which were located in the northeast of the formation, were also suffering from the destruction of British shells. Both battleships had only 28o mm guns and could hardly threaten the "Prince of Wales", and at a distance of almost 1o nautical miles, there was little threat even to the main armor belt of the "Prestige". Conversely, at this distance, the "Prince of Wales" and "Prestige" could easily kill the two battle cruisers with shells.

In other words, the commander of the German fleet used the method of "Tian Ji Horse Race", using his two weakest warships to block the two strongest warships of the other side, and then using his two strongest warships to kill the two weakest warships of the other side (at that time, the German commander probably did not think so, because the German Navy had always regarded the "Hood" as the greatest threat). As a result, they did, and the luck component was simply too great. "Bismarck" used 56 shells to kill the "Hood", even if you count the shells fired by the "Tirpitz", it is only more than 1oo, and in ordinary naval battles, maybe using more than 1oo shells may not necessarily be able to hurt the enemy's cold hair!