Located on the island of Kotlin at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, the military port of Kronstadt is a man-made fortified city that has been fortified since its inauguration, with its exceptionally strong fortifications and powerful artillery groups, which once repelled the combined Anglo-French fleet in the mid-19th century, and is proudly known by the Russians as the "fortress that never falls". Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Kronstadt is a German name that means "royal city". When the Irish Navy training ship "Ku-Chulin", with a longitudinal green, white and yellow tricolor fluttering on the flagpole, sailed into this military port yard, the long-lost sunlight brought a touch of psychological warmth to this ice cellar-like world. Standing on the purged deck, but still covered in ice slag, Natsuki looked around at the four Gangut-class dreadnoughts, the most powerful warships the Russian Navy had ever seen, standing out among a large number of old and old warships. In the eyes of the layman, they are first-class dreadnought battleships, with four triple 12-inch main guns with fierce firepower and long range, and a top speed of 24 knots faster than most dreadnoughts, but from the intelligence information held by Natsuki, the fire control and command conditions of these Russian capital ships are still at the pre-war level, the main armor belt is as weak as the British battle cruisers, and there is basically no air defense capability. In the modern three-dimensional naval warfare mode, with the current personnel and technical conditions of the German and Russian navies, a 150,000-ton German standard heavy cruiser can torture the Russian Navy's 25,000-ton "four dislikes"!

Although the situation of the army's external strength and low morale is bad, what worries the Russians even more is that the country's economy, finance, and society have fallen into a deep quagmire. The short-lived political reforms brought only a short-lived prosperity, the closure of factories, the unemployment of workers, the brutal nature of the **** government did not change, and the revolutionary ideas spread among the workers at the bottom of society and ordinary soldiers, these acute problems could not be solved by the monarch's personal charm or simple determination to reform.

Amid the boisterous military music, Vladimir Nikolayevich Kokovtsov, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire (equivalent to the Prime Minister of the Reich), with a goatee, boarded the ship to greet him. Hundreds of brightly dressed royal guards lined up on the docks, and the bayonets on their rifles glistened with cold light, but there was no trace of Tsar Nicholas II, which looked like a grand feast.

Seeing this scene, some of the accompanying Irish officials and officers couldn't help but show surprise, but Natsuki was not worried. At the end of the war, the Irish army sent to the Russian front was small in size and limited in its role, and the military deliberately restrained military discipline, so there was never a vicious incident against the Russian civilians, and the Russians were not guilty of revenge for Ireland's entry into the war. The reason for this, Natsuki thinks it has something to do with the shadow of the assassination that haunts the Russian royal family. The painful memory of the assassination of Nicholas II's grandfather, Alexander II, in St. Petersburg more than 30 years ago, and the nearly death of Nicholas II as crown prince when he was assassinated by Russophobes during a visit to Japan, led Nicholas II to deliberately avoid public appearances and live more in the royal domains in the suburbs than in the palaces in the cities. At a time when the situation in St. Petersburg is unstable and revolutionaries are moving around, it is not surprising that Nicholas II was very wary.

After exchanging courtesy greetings with the Russian officials, Natsuki took Charlotte off the ship, and then boarded the car arranged by the Russian side and left the dock. The convoy drove through the heavily guarded streets, which were deserted and deserted, as if they were a huge prison.

Less than a kilometre from the pier, the motorcade pulled through a gate, where Nicholas II, armed with a sword, was waiting for the arrival of the dignitaries within the high walls. To Natsuki's surprise, the Tsar, who was known for his tyranny, arrogance, mediocrity, and weakness, was surprisingly in a gesture at this time, and he embraced him warmly and friendly, and explained very respectfully: "I am very sorry, Your Majesty Joachim, because of his ill health, it is rude to not be able to go to the port to greet him, and I ask for your understanding." ”

In the tyrant's eyes, Natsuki saw a large amount of blood, as well as the anxiety revealed in his eyes. Before leaving for Helsinki, Natsuki received the latest news from Vaino I's officials on the political situation in Russia - a large-scale strike and demonstrations broke out again in St. Petersburg, with more than 200,000 people taking part in the strikes, all kinds of businesses, shops, restaurants, and cafes stopped working, and the entire Russian capital was paralyzed, and it was reported that Nicholas II ordered special measures against the strike movement in St. Petersburg, and the army raided the Bolshevik committee in St. Petersburg overnight, The arrest of a number of Bolshevik organizers, the control of the railway station and the port, the blockade of the main transport routes, and the prevention of the marchers from approaching the Imperial Palace, did not quell the strikes, but only intensified the resistance of the workers and citizens, and under the long-term infiltration of the Bolshevik organizations, a large number of soldiers in the army sided with the workers and even became staunch supporters of the revolution. The people's resentment had reached its limit, and in such a political situation, a large-scale armed uprising was on the verge of breaking out, and the tsarist regime, which had survived, could collapse at any moment.

When Russia was in a difficult situation, it was the opponent in the war who took the lead in extending an olive branch. In the past two years, German bankers, under the guarantee of the German royal family or the government, have provided several large loans to Russia to help the Russian government solve its worsening financial and social problems. The fact that the revolutionaries represented by Lenin have so far stayed in Switzerland has more or less something to do with this.

Perhaps for the sake of face, or to preserve the dignity of Tsarist Russia, Nicholas II did not appreciate the affection of this distant cousin, and he refused to join the German-led Allied camp, although this would bring greater economic assistance to the Russian government, and after the end of the war, he never visited Germany, nor did he extend an invitation to Wilhelm II, preferring to beg for aid from Britain and the United States. The aid from Britain was a drop in the bucket, and the Americans, lacking confidence in Russia's revival and fearing that Russia would fall into the Allies' camp, rejected the investment that would not be rewarded.

As the domestic economy was mired in a quagmire and the social contradictions in Russia became more and more acute, Nicholas II and his subjects had to abandon their previous stubbornness and begin to seek help from the nearby Central Powers, which was why they invited the King of Ireland to meet here in the midst of political turmoil, which was fully reflected in the tone of Nicholas II's voice.

Natsuki knew this, so he naturally didn't have any concerns about etiquette, but he was both puzzled and a little unhappy about the "absence" of the Russian empress. You must know that the current Russian Empress is the daughter of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt in Germany, and is from the orthodox German royal family, so it is reasonable to come and say hello to her.

Before Natsuki took the initiative to express his doubts, Nicholas II explained why the queen did not come, and conveyed sincere greetings instead.

According to historical records, the Russian empress was a stubborn, willful, hysterical, but also a man of power, who deeply influenced Nicholas II's decision-making on court and state affairs. After the outbreak of the war, because of her obstruction, Nicholas II did not go to the railway station to bid farewell to the Grand Duke Nicholas who led the army, and later because of her suggestion, Nicholas II dismissed the Grand Duke Nicholas, who was deeply loved by the army, and personally served as the commander-in-chief of the army, which directly affected the morale of the soldiers at the front, and the facts showed that his talent in military strategy was much inferior to that of his uncle. It is precisely because of these bad deeds that many Russian officials angrily denounced the Russian empress behind their backs as "spies sent by Germany", hated her deeply, and were eager to get rid of her as soon as possible.

After the pleasantries, Nicholas II led the Irish king and his wife into this royal palace with an ordinary exterior but a rather imposing interior. The Tsar's office here is facing the harbor, it is said that when he first ascended the throne, he was full of longing for the sea, fantasizing that his flag would one day be able to fly in all corners of the world and become a new "empire on which the sun never sets", so he had high hopes for the construction of the Russian Navy, which also ushered in two periods of rapid development at the end of the 19th century and after the Russo-Japanese War and before the World War, but unfortunately the grand naval plan was constrained by the national economic situation, the country's industrial conditions and the international political environment. Only some of them have been realized.

When the two sides entered the main topic of the meeting, from the angle where Natsuki was, he could see the majestic and mighty figures of the four Gangut-class dreadnoughts. If they are modified according to the standards of modern naval warfare, their comprehensive performance can be greatly improved, but the results still cannot catch up with the trend of the times. At this time, Natsuki playfully thought that if Nicholas II compensated Ireland with these four warships in exchange for the opportunity to take refuge in Ireland, he might convert all of them into fast aircraft carriers, after all, their seaworthiness is still relatively good, maybe their next war will ravage the super dreadnoughts built by Britain and the United States in the Atlantic.

Of course, Nicholas II would not seek refuge in a small country like Ireland, even if Ireland had taken four Gangut-class battleships to Limerick by trickery and then seized them on the occasion of the change of regime in Russia, and if he wanted to take them for his own use and use them for his own use, he would inevitably face three hurdles -- the intervention of the great powers, the recovery of the new Russian regime, and the problem of spare parts for logistical maintenance, and the final result would be more than worth the loss.

(End of chapter)