On this day, the sun was shining in Limerick, the capital of Ireland, and a twin-engine Junkers transport plane landed on Runway 1 of Joachim Air Force Base, its fuselage carried the huge Imperial Black Eagle logo, which only the special aircraft of the German royal family was eligible to paint, and its wings had a pair of iron crosses with white on a black background, which was a unique symbol of the German army, and the combination of the two narrowed down the possible identity of the owner of the plane to a smaller range. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

After the plane came to a stop, it was not a certain member of the German royal family who stepped out of the cabin, but a group of people who came on the plane were all wearing military uniforms, and the highest rank was a blonde German army lieutenant general, his age looked only in his forties, his neat appearance could not hide his tiredness, and his clear eyes gave people a feeling of looking down on the world, honor and disgrace. After shaking hands with the Chief of Staff of the Irish Army, Major General Ian Coleman, who came to greet him, he did not exchange many pleasantries, but quickly got into the car arranged for him by the other party.

After welcoming the convoy from the airport, it headed straight for the royal palace on the outskirts.

Meanwhile, on the playground of the Royal Army Academy, about 6 kilometers from the palace, Natsuki is playing with the boys. More than 20 years have passed, and the best organizer of the German Navy Football League in the past has lost the orthodox materials of the year, and it is impossible to play the full 90 minutes as he did then, but the technical awareness and overall situation on the field are still there, and after a little adaptation to the rhythm here, he began to guide his teammates to destroy the city.

On the sidelines, Rear Admiral Eric Baker, Chief of the Navy's General Staff in military uniform, clasped his hands in front of his chest and silently watched the running figures on the field. He was two years younger than the King of Ireland and had studied for two years at the Royal Naval Academy in Kiel, Germany. When he was studying in Germany, Beck learned to play football, and developed a strong interest in this sport, but the foundation was too shallow, and he reluctantly joined the Naval Academy team, but he was only a substitute for the bench, and never got the opportunity to appear in the Navy League, so he has always been very envious of those who have the ability to fight on the field, and admires those who have outstanding ability and extraordinary performance, and the calm kicker in front of him is a legend that is remembered.

Knowing that Lieutenant General von Carson, chief of staff of the German General Staff, and his party had arrived, the royal chamberlain made a gesture to the king on the court. Although it seemed that he was not satisfied, the King of Ireland ended the race early and drove back to the palace to shower and change clothes.

On the way, Major General Baker was still in the same car with the King, but the conversation between the two men was no longer about football, but about the complicated battle of the Atlantic. After retrieving the "Prince Heinrich" from the island of Flores, the Allied fleet under the command of Admiral Beinke returned to the island of San Miguel. According to the German military report, they have begun to evacuate the civilian personnel on the island and some of the engineers sent in advance to expand the coastal defenses, although there is no very clear follow-up plan, according to normal logic, the next step should be the withdrawal of the army and air forces, the withdrawal of combat ships, and finally the entire Azores to the enemy.

"I think there's a good slang saying that if you withdraw your fist for the time being, you can throw a more advantageous punch in the future." Natsuki said to the worried Major General Baker, "Britain has lost its homeland, and the army will maintain its fighting spirit at first because of the belief in revenge and counterattack, but over time, this belief will weaken, and the combat effectiveness of the army will decrease, and the United States seems to have endless resources for war, but in fact they are no more able to withstand a war of attrition than we do." What are the Americans most afraid of? If the U.S. military loses hundreds of thousands of troops in a matter of months, or hundreds of thousands in a single battle, many Americans will be terrified of the war. The U.S. military industry can continue to make weapons and build warships, but it is not easy to replenish experienced officers and non-commissioned officers once they have been lost in several battles in a row. Of course, the same applies to us. ”

"You're absolutely right, in fact, both sides are afraid that the war will turn into a war of attrition, so they both hope to win the war through a few crucial victories...... Your appointment as commander of the Allied fleet should be the best and most effective way to save the situation at sea, but why didn't they think so much in the first place? If we had won the Battle of the Azores like the Battle of Jutland, we would have celebrated the victory, weren't we? Baker spoke, indignantly indignant.

Natsuki didn't answer, but looked out the car window with a calm face. If his eldest brother, the prince of the German Empire, had a broad mind and objective understanding, then, as Beck said, he should have handed over the command of the Allied fleet to the person with the most naval command ability at the beginning of the war. Since he chose to leave Germany in the first place to avoid internal friction caused by the struggle for power, and Natsuki would not clash with it at the national level, unlike Italy, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey, the Kingdom of Ireland stood firmly with its German allies from the first day of the war, and most of them, whether they were front-line soldiers or workers in the rear, were fully committed to it. In the past two months, tens of thousands of Irish soldiers and civilians have been killed, more than 200,000 wounded, and millions more people have been temporarily relocated from the city of Limerick to surrounding settlements, the impact on the Irish economy is incalculable, and the loyalty and bravery of the war are earning them rich rewards - according to the new secret agreement between Germany and Ireland, Germany's direct economic aid to Ireland during the war will be increased from 5 billion marks to 8 billion marks per year, and Ireland will continue to be provided with all kinds of industrial raw materials for the war free of charge, Resources seized from Britain were given priority to Ireland, and every clause of the armistice against Britain had to be negotiated between Germany and Ireland at the end of the war.

Back at the palace, Natsuki takes a painful shower, changes into a light outfit, and then meets his old friend von Carson in the office.

As a typical German soldier, von Carson has always been not good at words, and he said straight to the point: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has been busy with military affairs recently, neglected to rest, and even accidentally contracted an illness, and has been bedridden for several days according to the doctor's instructions to recuperate. ”

Natsuki said: "Our side has lost one after another in the Azores, and the results are regrettable, but looking at the situation of the battle, General Beinke was not negligent, and if it were me, the battle situation might have been worse." In my personal opinion, since Field Marshal Schell is unable to go on the expedition, why not continue to trust General Beinke? ”

Von Carson was an army general, a marine staff officer, and had little say in naval affairs, while William Jr. entrusted him as a lobbyist because everyone knew him as his most trusted military assistant, and he had known Natsuki in his early years of fighting on the Western Front, and the two respected each other and had many contacts.

Seeing Natsuki's refusal, Carson turned to talk about the war on land. At present, the Allied forces that landed in Britain are sweeping the southern coastline of England, besieging and uprooting various strongholds of the British Channel defense line, and at the same time further encircling the southeastern fortified area centered on London, gathering heavy artillery forces, preparing to launch a general attack on it, and according to reliable information, members of the British royal family and some government personnel have retreated to the mountains of northern Scotland, and the five children of King George V, including **** Edward, Prince George and Princess Mary, have been transferred to Canada by submarine, The structure of the government-in-exile is also said to have been put in place. If optimistic, the large-scale combat operations of the Allied forces on the British mainland can be concluded before the autumn, when the strategic defeat in the naval battle will be compensated by the strategic victory in the land war, so the task of the Allied fleet at present is to stabilize its position, evacuate the Azores with the smallest possible losses, and deploy defenses in European waters by relying on air superiority -- such an operation should not be too difficult.

After saying this, Carson changed his words: "In fact, what we are worried about is not General Beinke's command ability, but his command confidence. His Majesty has studied military strategy deeply and should know the importance of mentality. After the early defeat, General Beinke was already under too much psychological pressure, like a spring being overloaded and unable to be allowed to remain overpressurized. Marshal Scheer had been appointed to temporarily take over the post of commander of the fleet, and His Royal Highness was already worried, worried that the marshal was too old to cope with the high-intensity naval operations, but he did not expect to suffer an accident before he set sail. In this way, except for His Majesty, there is really no one who can take on this important task at this time. ”

Natsuki had to admit that even without flowery rhetoric and elegant tone, von Carson was still a very good lobbyist thanks to the clear logic and divergent thinking of a good staff officer.

However, Natsuki is no longer the hot-blooded young man who can be easily persuaded by others. During his 17 years of ruling Ireland, he gradually retreated from the front of the stage to the background, and now the time is ripe for him to repeatedly test the other party's bottom line, so as to maximize his own interests. Therefore, he pretended to regret and said: "I myself would be happy to be a firefighter, but most of my ministers and staff are opposed to me taking the ship to sea, and their fears are not unreasonable, and in the event of my misfortune in battle, the British spies lurking in Ireland will incite the Protestants and the paranoid nationalists to rise up against the current Irish government controlled by German officials, and even if the army can forcibly control the situation, riots and riots will weaken the morale of the soldiers at the front." We tried to find a balance between adventurous and conservative, and the result was that after the complete domination of LinkedIn by Allied forces would I be able to accept a combat position like fleet commander. ”

(End of chapter)