The winter cold has not yet passed, and the port of Preveza, located on the western coast of the Balkan Peninsula, is enveloped in the rumbling of artillery. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info On a hill far from the port, Natsuki, Christian and other members of the German Navy Observation Group watched the battle situation quietly, in the line of sight, the Italian fleet of many battleships launched a crazy revenge on the Ottoman naval port, and the heavy shells broke through the air with a sharp roar, and fell on the shore to shake the earth, and the water column that fell on the water's edge stirred up the sky. Although the range of the newly equipped Krupp guns of the Ottoman garrison was comparable to that of the Italian fleet, compared to the imposing artillery bombardment of the opposing side, their resistance was lone and difficult to achieve.

On the south side of the harbor, outside the range of the Ottoman fortress's artillery, a number of Italian transports approached the shore and landed in small boats carrying soldiers. From afar, countless dinghys resemble goldfish swarming to the boat attracted by fish food. The port of Preveza was operated by the Ottoman Navy for many years, but it was not taken seriously because of its strategic remoteness and proximity to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Italy), its port facilities were only suitable for small and medium-sized ships, and the fortifications were not as good as the military fortress at the mouth of the Dardanelles, and the two artillery fortifications were only equipped with more than 40 old and new guns, plus the cronies brought by Fatih Pasha, the garrison strength was only more than 2,000.

In accordance with the defense plan previously drawn up by the German naval advisory group, the Turks sent three old torpedo boats to release smoke screens in the harbor carrying German-made smoke canisters, thus obscuring the Italians' vision. In several joint exercises at the Kiel Military Port Festival, people have already learned the means of attack of the German high-speed torpedo boats based on smoke screens, and even the mighty British fleet is helpless, how dare the Italians, who lack courage, dare to regret it? Normally, the Italian fleet would have retreated early, but the night battle in the Aeolian Sea had put the Italian navy in a passive predicament, so the sizable Italian fleet did not withdraw its troops, but kept its distance from the area covered by the smoke screen. At a distance of five or six thousand meters, even if the elite speedboats of the Ottoman navy rushed out at lightning speed, the Italian fleet was able to fully intercept it with light and heavy artillery, and there were also Italian-made torpedo boats towed by barges, even if the quality was poor, it was able to rely on the superiority of numbers to resist it strongly.

In the process of large-scale smoke production, prefabricated smoke canisters with metal chloride as the main raw material are consumed very quickly, and even if emergency measures such as adding coal tar to the boiler and mixing black powder with white sugar are used, the artificial smoke cannot continue indefinitely. During the hours when the Italian fleet's artillery fire was suspended, Fatih forced the Ottoman naval personnel to urgently transfer the German-made torpedo boats, which were operated by brave Turkish soldiers who braved the shells that could fall at any moment, to lift the torpedo boats to the flatbed cars of the trains, and to transport them out of port by train. In this way, 10 of the 12 high-speed warships participating in the night battle in the Aeolian Sea managed to escape the threat of artillery fire from the Italian fleet. As the smoke screen weakened, the Italian fleet approached again, and they managed to evade the mines pre-laid by the Ottoman navy, and large and small shells rained down into the harbor, destroying the remaining torpedo boats and the equipment and supplies hoarded on the shore.

On the other side, two battalions of Ottoman soldiers fended off the Italian landing in the near-shore area south of the port. Although Fatih's cronies were armed with Mauser 1898 rifles and had a tenacious fighting spirit, the Italians came to the aid of gunboats, inflicting heavy casualties on the Turkish troops, and the number of landed Italian troops armed with Maxim machine guns quickly increased to more than 3,000. After more than two hours of fierce fighting, Fatih's troops abandoned the temporary front and retreated. Natsuki and his entourage, who were watching the battle from afar, knew that the situation of the battle was irreversible, so they resolutely evacuated, and on the way learned that the train carrying the torpedo boat was damaged due to the destruction of the railway line, and they couldn't help but sigh with emotion: History has repeatedly proved that a few advanced weapons alone are not enough to save the fate of a country, and the Aeolian naval battle is like a shot in the arm, although it makes the whole Ottoman country rejoice, but it cannot heal the country's decaying foundations.

Regarding the performance of the Italian fleet bottoming out, Natsuki and his partners also have an objective and calm evaluation. For Kaiser Wilhelm II and his military and political ministers, the alliance between Germany and Italy was not because of its military strength, but because it shared the military pressure of Austria-Hungary, so that it could deal with Russia with all its might without any worries, thereby reducing the pressure on Germany on the Eastern Front and enabling Germany to concentrate as many forces as possible on the Western Front. Natsuki reiterated this question, reminding Wilhelm II not to bet on the Italians.

With the help of their navy to remove the preveza nail, the Italians regained their confidence and continued to increase their forces into North Africa, soon exceeding 100,000 troops, and committing dozens of airships for reconnaissance, propaganda warfare, and aerial bombardment. Soon after, the Italian Navy concentrated the main forces of its fleet and sailed to the Turkish fortifications in the Dardanelles and Beirut, and landed on the islands of Rhodes, Kos and the Dodecanese. The Ottoman Navy, with only two Brandenburg-class battleships, did not dare to meet the battle, but went into battle with a torpedo boat force. Having suffered enough in the Aeolian Sea, the Italian navy did not dare to slack off, and set up a tight defensive array day and night, and sailed far away from the Ottoman coast at night, making it difficult for the Ottoman navy's high-speed torpedo boats to find fighters.

After a long time of opening up the situation, the Ottoman navy ordered two German-made submarines to attack. According to the Lend-Lease Agreement signed between the two sides, 90 percent of the personnel on board the submarines were active officers and men of the German Navy, and only a small number of Ottoman officers and sailors were allowed to board the ships to observe and study. Traveling together, they sank the Italian cruiser Etruscan in the waters of Rhodes, and then secretly sailed to the waters of the Dodecanese Islands, where they sank two Italian transports. The German submarine officers and men only reported these results to their own navy by secret telegram, but not to the Ottoman side. As a result, the Italian and Ottoman sides "logically" attributed the sinking of the "Etruria" to "mine-strucking", and the sinking of the two Italian transport ships was not announced to the public.

In July, when the Ottoman Empire staged an internal coup d'état, the pro-British Freedom and Harmony Party took the opportunity to overthrow the Young Turks and send diplomats around Europe to seek the support of the great powers, but the Italians, who had been planning for a long time, were already ready to respond, and only Germany and Austria-Hungary supported the Turks. To add insult to injury, the Balkan states of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro united and prepared to take advantage of the war between Italy and Turkey to drive the Ottoman Empire out of the Balkans. After winter, the small Negoro, with the support of Russia, demanded autonomy from the Ottoman Empire for Macedonia and Thrace, but was rejected. Negoro then declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Within ten days, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece successively issued ultimatums to the Ottoman Empire, demanding that the Ottoman Empire withdraw its troops from the Balkans and grant autonomy to all ethnic groups.

At the outbreak of the war, the Ottoman Empire had about 400,000 troops in the Balkans and more than 1,600 artillery pieces; The Balkan Alliance had nearly 750,000 troops and more than 1,500 artillery pieces. In terms of national and military strength alone, the Ottoman Empire was bigger than a horse, and its generals generally had a contempt for the Balkan states, so they did not respond to their military movements in advance. After the war began, the Bulgarian army launched an attack on Thrace first, and then marched into the Turkish capital of Constantinople (Istanbul); The armies of Serbia, Greece and Mongolia launched attacks on Macedonia, Albania and Epirus respectively; The Greek fleet controlled the Aegean Sea lanes and prevented the Turkish army from reinforcing from the sea, thus forming a strategic encirclement of the Turkish army.

Weighing the remote provinces that Italy had been watching for many years, and the European territories that the Balkan states were aiming for, the Ottoman Empire's top brass quickly made a choice. With the local military and civilians resisting and the Italian army unable to win, the Ottoman government sued for peace with Italy - peace talks were held between the two sides in Ouch, near Lausanne, Switzerland. The Turks, anxious to turn their energies back to the Balkans, accepted the Italian demands for Tripolitania and the islands of Cyrenaica, Rhodes, and the Dodecanese, with the exception of the refusal of the huge war reparations, and the two sides immediately signed an armistice.

The Ottoman Empire wanted to regain face in the Balkan countries, but except for a few elite troops who were trained by German instructors and were well-equipped, the Ottoman army generally had problems such as backward weapons, scattered training, and low morale, while the Balkan League's army was highly morale and eager to fight. On the Eastern Balkan Front, the Bulgarian army defeated the Turkish army at Kirkkilisa and Lülle Bulgaz within a month of the war, began to besiege Adrianople, and controlled a large area west of the Ottoman capital Constantinople; On the western Balkan front, the Greek army quickly captured Epirus, then thwarted the Turkish attack in southern Macedonia, and then captured the Macedonian capital Thessaloniki, while the navy entered the Aegean islands; The Serbian army captured Kumanovo, Skopje and other cities in the north of Macedonia, and then attacked the Greek army in the north and south, encircled the remnants of the Ottoman army in Macedonia in the fortress of Ioannina, Serbia advanced to the Adriatic coast, occupied Tupis and Tirana successively, and surrounded Shkadra with the cooperation of the Negoro army of Men. A month and a half after the start of the war, Albania declared its independence, and in the event of a complete collapse of the front, the Ottoman Empire was forced to ask the European powers to intercede. The Allies had the support of Russia, and Turkey, backed by Germany and Austria-Hungary, and under pressure from the great powers, the two sides negotiated the terms of peace in London.

The war in the Balkans took a break, and Europeans ushered in Christmas 1912 in a seemingly peaceful atmosphere. In the traditional banquet hall of the Royal Palace in Berlin, the main members of the Hohenzollern family gather as usual to celebrate the most important festival of the year and receive blessings from the head of the family and the ruler of the empire. Just a few days before Christmas, Crown Prince William and Crown Princess Cecilia added another son, and the arrival of a new life brought a thriving atmosphere to this family gathering, while the rest of the princes and princesses did not change much, but Natsuki changed back to being alone from a pair of pairs. Most people have shown rare tolerance for Charlotte Hill's departure, even Queen Victoria, who has always been very critical of her. It's just that after being sure that Charlotte has returned to England, the queen began to actively match the marriage between Xia Shu and the Oldenburg family, so in the winter hunting and skiing trips of the German royal family, people can see the two Oldenburg princesses, and compared to the mean Sophie, Xia Shu is obviously more willing to talk to the lively and clever Elsa, which obviously reminds people of the story of Princess Sisi and Emperor Joseph, so that people began to look forward to the beautiful union of the little prince of Prussia and the little princess of Oldenburg.

When Queen Victoria asked him if he would invite Elsa to a family gathering this Christmas, Natsuki did not hesitate to give a negative answer.

On Christmas Eve, the Kaiser took the Empress to Natsuki. He has been through a lot in the past year, willingly and unwillingly, and now it's a thing of the past. In Ottoman Turkey, Natsuki spent several months studying the practice of modern naval warfare and the situation in the Near East, using two new weapons, high-speed torpedo boats and submarines, respectively, to achieve successful combat examples. At the end of 1912, the German Navy began construction of 2 dreadnoughts and 1 battle cruiser, and completed 3 dreadnoughts and 1 battle cruiser in service, while after Winston Churchill, who advocated a naval arms race with Germany, became Lord of the Navy, Britain started to build capital ships at full speed, and they began to build 3 dreadnoughts and 2 battle cruisers that year, and the number of completed and commissioned ships was 4 and 2. The gap between the British and German navies, which had narrowed once, has widened again, which is also a true embodiment of the comprehensive national strength and shipbuilding strength of the two countries.

Rao is like this, and Natsuki's plans are still being carried out in an orderly manner. The construction of the new "Dflinger class", which he designed and finalized for the German Navy, began five months earlier than the historical one, and due to the constraints of slipway specifications, the standard displacement of the battleships of this class did not achieve a stepped increase, but was still set at 2. 650,000 tons, but thanks to the introduction of a new oil-fired boiler and Hubert's impulse turbine unit, the weight occupied by the power system was reduced, and the main armor belt and turret defense were further enhanced on the basis of the Moltke class, and the armament was equipped with a 12-inch gun of 50 times the diameter of the Krupp, and a 5 times the diameter of 45 times. The 9-inch secondary gun and the 37 mm rapid-fire gun, the main and auxiliary guns are both in a twin configuration, and are designed to carry two seaplanes for reconnaissance.

With the successive completion of the Kaiser-class, the shipbuilding alliance formed by five large shipbuilding enterprises including the Kiel Naval Shipyard has achieved some tangible results in terms of shipbuilding cost and cycle, and this joint operation method has also been recognized by the senior management of the Navy, and Bremen-Wiesel Shipyard and Hamburg-Blomfors Shipyard have joined in the year. Under Natsuki's leadership, the Navy adjusted the order mode of capital ships, and the division of labor was based on the slipway situation of each shipyard, and the four King-class and the two De Fleet-class ships were all built by the shipbuilding alliance, making up for the shortcomings caused by the Ottoman Empire's eventual transfer of battleship orders to Britain for construction.

In terms of Marine Corps, the structure of the Marine Brigade has become increasingly complete as the German Navy has successively selected two batches of nearly 200 officers from the Army. After the end of the conscription in the autumn of that year, the German Navy formed the 2nd and 3rd Marine Brigades, and planned to complete the crewing and armament within half a year.

(End of chapter)