Chentian's life passed by quickly in classes and training, and in the blink of an eye it was 1899, at the end of the century.

This year, Chentian graduated.

After graduating, according to their respective wishes, Oli served in the East Prussian Legion, while Thomas entered the intelligence room of the General Staff, and most of the rest also served in the army, except for Chentian, who chose to sail around the world for a year and a half.

Chen Tian will carry out the voyage as a special observer aboard the Navy training ship "Little Medusa". They will depart from the German port of Kiel and travel through Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas before returning to Germany. On the way, they will make some stops in the German colonies of Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

Tatsuten's voyage began on a summer morning.

After crossing the English Channel and making a short stop in Lisbon, Portugal, Chentian arrived at the first leg of the voyage, Africa. German colonies in Africa at the time included Turkoland, Cameroon, German South-West Africa, and German East Africa.

Over the next two months, Chen Tian visited each of the major colonies, and he remembered that Germany had lost them not long after the First World War began. It seemed to be unsafe, and it was far away from Germany and blockaded by the Allies, so it could not be supplied from its own territory, and there was no local industry, so it could not compete with the power of Britain and France in Africa.

Chen Tian felt that it was still the same as history, it was better to give up here for the time being after the outbreak of World War I, and if the European war could be won, it would be easy to take it back. In fact, Chen Tian didn't know that in history, Germany's armed forces in Africa had been fighting against Britain and France until the end of World War I, but the scale was not very large.

In October 1899, just as the Little Medusa was navigating the Cape of Good Hope, the famous Boer War broke out.

Historically, the Boers were originally Dutch peasants, and the Dutch were the first to colonize the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. But in 1814, the "Cape Colony" became British, and British immigrants flocked to it, bringing with them their own laws and ways of life, thus weakening the privileges of the Boers. In 1835, the Boers migrated to the northern part of the country and established two republics – the Free State of Aland and the Transvaal. Later, gold and diamonds were discovered in the land, and adventurers and unbeatable financiers flocked to the land, exacerbating the tension between the British colonies in South Africa and the Boer Republic. President Paul Guruge of the Transvaal finally issued an ultimatum to Britain in October 1899, and the Boer War (1899-1902) broke out on the 11th. After an initial defeat, the British captured the capital of the Boer Republic on 16 February 1900. Eight months later, he took the northern town of Mafujing.

On May 31, 1900, Lord Roberts, the commander-in-chief of the British army, entered Johannesburg, occupied Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, on June 5, and in September the British announced the annexation of the Transvaal. But the Boer War did not end there, and fierce guerrilla warfare continued until the spring of 1902.

After the Boer army withdrew from the city, it began to carry out guerrilla warfare, attacked the British army, destroyed the lines of communication, and the British were forced to increase their troops again to encircle and suppress, with a force of 450,000, and the British army implemented a scorched earth policy in order to eliminate the Boer guerrillas, burned and destroyed them, and imprisoned the Boer civilians in concentration camps, and at the same time built a large area of barbed wire, built forts, and compressed the space for the Boer guerrillas to operate. On May 31, 1902, the two sides signed the Treaty of Frinikhin, in which the Boers ceased resistance, and Britain annexed the Transvaal and Orange, giving the Boers financial compensation and the privilege of oppressing the blacks together. After the war, the two sides jointly established the Federation of South Africa, a racist colonial regime.

Chen Tian did not take this opportunity to observe this war, but he knew that from this war onwards, countries have abandoned the traditional infantry dense formations, and began to learn from the British army's trench barbed wire tactics, and of course, there are many new experiences in the use of artillery. It's just that these are some old things for Chentian, and what he hopes most now is to usher in the dawn of the new century in China.

In December 1899, the "Little Medusa" arrived at the German naval base in Asia, China. Shandong. Qingdao. Jiaozhou Bay.

Finally, Chentian returned to the "homeland" of this memory.

As soon as the treads on the side of the boat reached the dock, he couldn't wait to jump over. "China! I'm back again! ”

Close your eyes and take a deep breath! The air here is really ......

"Wow! It stinks! Chen Tian opened his eyes and saw a big cart delivering pigs passing in front of him! It's too back!

Then he decided to go out into the streets and see what China was like 100 years ago.

Tatsuten walked through the bustling crowd. The people here seem to have gotten used to the presence of foreigners and do not show any strange expressions. People still have a long braid behind their heads, which looks like they look like on TV. Large-scale renovation work was carried out along the roadside, and the old Chinese buildings were demolished and Western-style buildings were built one after another.

"Ugh!" Chen Tian was looking up at the houses on both sides, and he didn't pay attention and knocked down a person next to him.

He looked down and saw that it was an old lady with small feet.

"Oh! I'm sorry, old woman! Chentian stretched out his hand to convince her to get up.

"Yikes! This hairy man can speak Chinese! Passers-by stopped and discussed.

"Ah...... No, no, no, I didn't pay attention to it. The old lady stood up with Chentian's support, and quickly turned around and left.

It seems that the Chinese here do not have a good impression of the Germans.

Chentian wanted to know what the situation was like here, but the Chinese didn't seem to be willing to deal with him, and he probably couldn't ask anything, so he had to return to the dock in a huff.

"Your Royal Highness, where have you been? This is General Dreyer, the governor of Jiaoao, and he has been waiting for you for a long time! The captain of the training ship saw that Chen Tian was back, and hurriedly greeted him and introduced him to the bearded general standing behind him.

"Your Royal Highness, it is a great honor to welcome you here!" General Dreyer invited him into a carriage next to him, "We have prepared a sumptuous dinner to welcome you, and we hope you enjoy it!" ”

"But Your Excellency, I'm just here as an observer this time, so there's no need to be so extravagant!" Tatsuten wasn't interested in eating. "However, I'm curious about the situation here, can you elaborate on that?"

So along the way, General Dreyer was briefing on the situation. By the time he arrived at the Governor's Mansion, Chentian was already angry, because this bearded guy was very contemptuous about China and the Chinese in ugly words, and laughed arrogantly from time to time.

"General Dreyer, I hope you can understand that the Chinese are also people, and their nation is also a great nation, please don't underestimate them!" Chen Tian said expressionlessly, "His Majesty the Emperor has sent you here for the interests of the empire in the Asian region, not to abuse the people here!" Don't forget, German knights are supposed to be arrogant, but you're behaving very vulgarly! ”

Looking at Chentian's back, the Governor felt inexplicable. Why did this prince, who had never been to China, speak for the Chinese like this?

The next day, Chen Tian came to Dreyer's office to listen to his detailed information about Germany's situation in Jiaozhou Bay and its future strategic plan.

"The empire occupied Jiaozhou Bay in 1897, and in March of the following year, it signed the Sino-German Jiaozhou Lend-Lease Treaty with the Qing government, leasing the waters of Jiaozhou Bay and the surrounding land of more than 550 square kilometers."

"At the request of His Majesty the Kaiser, we will build Qingdao into a model colony. In the next few years, administrative offices, hospitals, schools, churches, ports, stations, shops and industrial areas will be built. ”

"Militarily, for the first two years, we relied mainly on the batteries, barracks, and docks of the occupied Chinese army to establish our initial defense. Since this year, we have embarked on a large-scale military construction, planning to build a series of artillery batteries to form a large-scale and advanced military defense system. At the same time, preparations are also being made to build port terminals, railways, shipyards, etc. ”

"In addition, the Far Eastern Detachment of the Reich is currently based in Qingdao. Qingdao will become a very important German naval base and military fortress outside of its homeland. ”

"In the next ten years, the fortress system we plan to build here is composed of three parts: coastal defense forts, land defense forts, and infantry fortresses. From west to east, the Qianhai line plans to build coastal defense forts such as Tuandao Fort, Taixi Town Fort, Yamen Fort, Bismarck South Fort, and Huiquanjiao Fort; In the northern part of the coastal defense battery, the Bismarck North Battery, the Irchis East Battery, the Ilchis North Battery, the Zhongjiawa Battery and other land defense batteries were built; On the east and north sides of the land defense forts, an infantry defense fortress group was constructed from Zhanshan on the shore of the Yellow Sea in the south to the mouth of the Haibo River in the north, that is, the five fortress groups of Xiaozhan Mountain, Xiaozhan Mountain North, Central, Taitung Town, and Coast. These three major parts will form a 6-kilometer-long infantry defense line connecting Qianhai (Yellow Sea) and Houhai (Jiaozhou Bay), and will become the most important and systematic defense line for our army's land defense. ”

"At present, the Imperial army in Qingdao is a naval force, mainly composed of coastal artillery battalions and marine battalions, and the garrison strength is 2,300 in peacetime. The Far East Detachment of the German Navy has been stationed in the port of Qingdao for many years, with a total strength of 16 ships below the cruiser. ”

After hearing this, Chen Tian felt a little surprised. It seems that Germany still attaches great importance to Jiaozhou Bay, and I really don't know why it was occupied by the Japanese just a few months after the outbreak of World War I. If there is an opportunity, he must let the corpses of these little devils fill the entire Jiaozhou Bay, and he would rather let the Germans occupy it than let the scum come to harm the Chinese.

"Alright, General Dreyer. I am very happy with your work here! Chentian stood up and shook Dreyer's hand and said, "Just one thing, I hope you can get along with the people here." ”

"Yes, Your Highness!" Dreyer replied respectfully, wondering if this guy would actually do it. However, a nation cannot survive on the mercy of others, it must learn to be self-reliant, and that is almost all that it can do! If Germany really built this place too well, I'm afraid it won't be so easy to relax!

"So, Your Royal Highness, what are your plans next?"

"We will trim here for half a month, replenish food and coal, and then set sail for Japan!"

"Japan?"

"Yes, Japan!"

On January 1, 1900, Chen Tian and the "Little Medusa" set sail from China......