As the years go by, the children grow up quickly, but the adults grow old day by day.

On January 26, 1924, in order to wash away the gloomy atmosphere caused by the Tokyo earthquake and the emperor's long-term illness, the Japanese imperial family held a grand wedding in the imperial palace in Tokyo, and the couple was the regent Hirohito and the Yoshiko of the Kurenomiya family. After six years of waiting, the two young men finally ushered in the day, after suffering from "color blindness" and two delays in their marriage.

The wedding ceremony was carried out in an ancient form, and under the attention of nearly 1,000 guests, the Shinto hymn sung by the master of ceremonies, the newlyweds wore Japanese-style wedding dresses and wore the chrysanthemum crest of the royal family, Ryoko held a fan, and Hirohito held a wangwat, and after worshipping their ancestors, they drank the sake of the heir. At the end of the wedding, a warship anchored in the port of Tokyo fired a 101 gun salute. This day is a national holiday to celebrate.

It is worth mentioning that in December 1923, before the marriage, Regency Hirohito resolutely reformed the female official system in the Imperial Palace, despite the strong opposition of the court forces and the obstruction of the queen mother, who loved the old customs, breaking the old tradition of 2,000 years, publicly proclaiming the emperor's monogamy, and giving his love exclusively to his newlywed wife.

In addition, Hirohito also ordered the removal of the floor mats in the palace, changed the hall to a Western style, and changed his clothes, and the suit became his usual clothing, so that the antique inner courtyard of the palace was full of the atmosphere of modern civilization.

The drastic reform not only involved the internal affairs of the imperial family, but also Hirohito, as the regent, also put a lot of effort into the army. First of all, he modeled himself on Germany to establish the Japanese Air Force, and appointed his close general Kamata Kazuwa as chief of the General Staff of the Air Ministry, since the end of the South American War, the Air Force has continued to grow with the support of the regent, not only importing a large number of military aircraft from Germany, but also sending a large number of students to study in Germany, and encouraging the construction of several large aircraft manufacturing plants in the country. Until 1924. The Japanese Air Force already has more than 500 fighters, 350 airships, and a total of 40,000 officers and men, second only to the Luftwaffe in scale, while the United States has not yet established an independent air force department at this time.

With the approval of the budget for the "New 88th Fleet Bill" submitted by the Navy and Defense Council in 1920, Japan's naval shipyards were working at full capacity to build warships for the Imperial Navy, and by 1924 they had completed the Nagato-class battleships with a displacement of 38,600 tons and equipped with four twin 410-mm guns. and the Kaga-class battleships "Kaga" and "Tosa" with a displacement of 3 tons and equipped with three twin 410 mm guns, and the Amagi-class battlecruisers "Amagi", "Akagi", "Takao", and "Atago" with a displacement of 39,900 tons and equipped with five twin 410 mm guns.

In terms of aircraft carriers, Japan already had 3 and 2 aircraft carriers under construction before 1920, and planned to build more aircraft carriers in the next five years, but the South American War in 1919 seems to have changed the Japanese Navy's decision-making level on this kind of large ship. It was not until the beginning of 1922 that the construction of two Canglong-class aviation ships began again. Since then, the Japanese Navy has built only a 25,000-ton Shozuru-class aircraft carrier, the Shozuru. Instead, the savings will be invested in the improvement and production of carrier-based fighters and radio communication technology.

In addition, Shikishima, Mikasa, and Asahi, which were forced to be converted into training ships or target ships due to naval treaties, have been reinvigorated after major refits. By this time, the Imperial Japanese Navy had a huge fleet of 17 battleships, 8 battlecruisers, 12 armored cruisers, and 6 aircraft carriers. Statistically, this fleet was enough to match the German Navy, but in the face of the rapidly expanding American Navy, the Japanese Navy was still not strong enough to fight it alone.

During this time, the Americans, who tried to escape the shadow of defeat in the wars in Mexico and South America and defend their national security with their strong economic and industrial power, were also not idle. Under the leadership of President Warren Harding, Congress passed two huge naval budgets in 1920 and 1923, respectively, and by 1924, six Lexington-class battlecruisers "Lexington", "Constellation", "Saratoga", "Rover", "Independence", "American" and South Dakota-class battleships (completely two types of battleships built in 1939 in history) "South Dakota", "Indiana", "Montana", " The North Carolina", Iowa and Massachusetts have been completed, the former is a 35,000-ton displacement and equipped with four twin 406-mm guns and a speed of 32 knots, and the latter is a firepower warship with a displacement of 36,600 tons and equipped with four triple 406-mm guns. In order to confront the latest capital ships of Germany and Japan. The U.S. Navy also began construction of the more powerful Hawaiian-class battleships in 1923, with four battleships of this class expected to enter service in 1925.

2 Delaware class commissioned in 1910, 2 Wyoming class built in 1912, 2 New York class built in 1913, 2 Nevada class built in 1916, 2 Pennsylvania class built in 1917, 3 New Mexico class commissioned in 1918, 2 Tennessee class commissioned in 1920, 4 Colorado class built in 1921, 6 South Dakota class built in 1923, 25 battleships make up the most powerful battlefleet on the planet today, With the addition of 5 battle cruisers, 7 aircraft carriers, and hundreds of light ships, the strength of the US Navy is unprecedentedly strong. However, neither the Pacific Fleet, consisting of 15 battleships, 4 battlecruisers, and 2 aircraft carriers, nor the Atlantic Fleet, consisting of 10 battleships, 2 battlecruisers, and 3 aircraft carriers, can compete with the potential enemy they face at the same time.

As a super-mobile force, 640 airships are pinned on high hopes, of which 65 are known as "air carriers", and the Beechcraft super airship has created many records in the history of world aviation, the first catamaran combined design, 125,000 cubic meters x2 super large volume, and the first airship that can take off and land aircraft. The airship is incredibly large and powerful, with a double-deck flight deck 46 meters long and 15 meters wide between two cigar-shaped airbags, with the lower deck used for take-off and the upper deck for landing. It can carry 8 to 9 P-3 light combat reconnaissance aircraft or 5; The presence of the TB-1 small torpedo/bomber also allowed the U.S. Navy to cut the original 20 aircraft carrier construction plan by more than half.

Similar to the Japanese Navy, the Americans also invested a considerable part of their money in the research and development of fighters, and the B-type torpedo aircraft were launched one after another, although they still have some shadows of German fighters, but their performance has been greatly improved. Among them, the P-5 is the first all-metal fighter in the United States, with a single-engine, single-seat, two-wing layout, and is quite similar in appearance to the German Vulture D-type attack aircraft. It's just that it's nearly one-third smaller, with a speed of 205 kilometers per hour, and its performance exceeds that of any fighter that can be bought on the international market.

In the ninth year after the end of the European War, just like the strong European mark, after gradually digesting the war reparations, new colonies and other war benefits, the German economy jumped to a gratifying new height, and in 1923 the national income has surpassed the United States to become the world's first, ten years ago, the total industrial volume of the country was half of the United States, and now the total industry of each colony has been able to equal with the United States, Ten years of talent allocation has allowed Germany to maintain its scientific and technological superiority over the rest of the world (the superior environment may prevent some scientists from reaching historical heights). But recruiting them will at least weaken the opponent's power. And the good environment may be some historically obscure genius who became a radiant talent).

Berlin, Germany.

After eight years of construction, Chentian's new palace was finally completed. The palace is named after the surname of the former queen Lisa, Olaf, that is, Olaf Palace, covering an area of 32 hectares, with nearly 10 hectares each in the front and rear gardens, and the rest are the main building and the annexes.

On the day of the completion of the new palace, the royal family and dignitaries came to celebrate, and the exuberant popularity made this beautiful new palace a satisfying from any point of view. In the middle of the garden, a large green meadow is a pleasant place to watch, and in the middle of the meadow is not a traditional fountain. Rather, it is a tall bronze statue of Wilhelm I, the founder of the German Empire, who is looking ahead with a haughty posture, his right hand holding the reins, the handle of his sword in his left hand, wearing the uniform of Prussian-era cavalry, and a group of sturdy horses under his crotch.

On the west side of this garden square is a small sculpture park that houses famous figures from the founding of the German Empire, in addition to the seated statue of Wilhelm I and the standing statue of Wilhelm II. Statues of Moltke Sr., Bismarck, Tirpitz and other meritorious generals can be found here.

The beautiful garden square is surrounded by a circular grave road, and outside is a circular tree-lined path made of wooden tree trellis and arabesques, and there is a sculptural fountain the size of a washbasin at intervals on the road, and there are not many benches, and there is a delicate wooden chair for two people to rest more than 100 meters.

The back garden of the palace is a real garden, with hundreds of plants making it an expensive botanical garden, with many flowers blooming throughout the year, a crystal clear artificial river meandering through the garden, and a variety of small flower beds, large and small flower beds, where more than 60 gardeners work.

In the magnificent palace, there are more than 800 ceremonial halls, concert halls, banquet halls, galleries and other halls, many of which are treasure-level royal collections, but in terms of scale, value and popularity, they cannot be compared with the Russian Hermitage and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, after all, the owners of the palace are not very interested in this area. On the other hand, the collection is one of the best in Europe, with armor and weapons housed in a vast armory, cleaned and cared for by 15 attendants, some of the more precious ones in large, sealed glass cases.

Perhaps influenced by his father, 12-year-old Crown Prince Andres William also has his own collection, but compared to the collections of adults, his collection is much smaller in both quantity and size, with hundreds of "treasures" placed in a simple and neatly furnished room of less than 50 square meters.

On weekends when classes aren't in session, Andres spends two or three hours in the room, and sometimes his father comes over to join in the fun. No, the clear-eyed boy was painting at his small workbench when there was a knock on his door, and then his father, Wilhelm III, the supreme ruler of the German Empire, entered.

Seeing his father, the boy immediately left the small wooden workbench.

"Father, you're here!"

Chen Tian pointed to the box held by the attendant behind him and said, "Well, Andres, I'm designing your warship again!" Come and see, this is sent by the Königsberg shipyard! ”

When the boy heard this, he really came, "Oh? Is it the latest submarine? Or an aircraft carrier? ”

Chen Tian asked the attendant to put the box on the table, and then opened it himself, revealing a delicate model of the submarine in front of the father and son, it has a slender streamlined hull, and there is a slightly flat deck at the front and rear, the front deck is a slightly lonely small cannon, the rear and rear deck of the bridge are 4 small but recognizable machine guns, and there is also a striking eagle-shaped logo on the oblate bridge wall, and on the wooden stand below the model is inscribed: VX-A submarine, U-951, 1924

After carefully removing the model, Andres placed it on a row of shelves facing the door, a four-story shelf filled with models of submarines of similar size, from the early VD-A to the latest VX-A.

Chen Tian took out a small piece of paper labeled the simple data of the submarine from the box, glanced at it and handed it to Andres.

"Underwater displacement of 2,800 tons, 1 40-mm cannon and 2 twin 7.92-mm machine guns, 4 torpedo tubes and 8 torpedoes, 30 detonators and flash mines, range of 16,000 nautical miles, maximum depth of 120 meters, DD-type onboard sonar system! Oh, father, it's very big in a submarine, one is enough to blockade the entire port! ”

"Of course, we are ready to build 50 ships!" Chen Tian proudly told his son that the enemy would go crazy for them.