"In my imagination, Dublin should be a quaint, understated, idyllic harbour city with a unique beauty. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info Nowadays, it is indeed unique, but it is far from what I imagined. It has endured hardships, has been reborn, and has changed its appearance, as if it had changed from a hard-working farmer to a sword-wielding murderous samurai. ”

Standing on a high platform overlooking the city, Crown Prince William the Younger describes the rebirth of Ireland's ancient capital with his lack of literary talent. At present, the new capital of Limerick is still in the early stages of expansion, and the living conditions are not yet perfect, but most of the residents of Dublin have moved to Limerick, leaving only a few remnants who do not want to leave their homeland and a young and strong labor force who have invested in the construction army.

"It's a pretty graphic analogy."

Natsuki's answer was not contrary to his wishes, because Dublin was indeed undergoing a rare change from an economic city to a sprawling military fortress. In fact, as early as the end of the state of war between Ireland and Great Britain, some radical members of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland proposed to fortify the entire east coast of Ireland in order to counter possible future British military invasions, while others held the opposite opinion, they believed that any military installation built on the east coast of Ireland was vulnerable to surprise attacks by the British army, and that it was advisable to take advantage of the capital of Limerick to move Ireland's industry, shipbuilding and all densely populated cities to the west or south. Thus weakening the military and economic position of the east coast, and in the event of future British invasion, let their soldiers land in the east of Ireland first, and then send their elite generals to drive them all to sea.

Natsuki had his own opinions on the issue of strategic layout, and as Tirpitz gave him advice, it was not advisable to build more fortresses, and it was not possible to build them without them. After much deliberation, the Irish Parliament finally approved Natsuki's proposal to build two coastal defense forts in Dublin and Wexford. In this way, it can not only play a certain role in protecting the east coast of Ireland, but also be able to hold Britain's military power in the Irish Sea hostage. When Belfast is recovered in the future, the northern and southern entrances and exits of the Irish Sea will be under Irish surveillance and deterrence, thus forming a strategic counterweight to the British.

Dublin, a metropolis that once housed a million citizens, was twice devastated during the war, more than 70% of the buildings ceased to exist, and since mankind entered the era of industrialization, except for the hasty renovation during the war, it has never been given any military functions, all the fortress fortifications here are historical relics left over from ancient times, and the work of fortification is basically starting from scratch, but unlike the traditional coastal defense fortress, The Irish did not spend a fortune to build huge, impregnable fortifications in Dublin or Wexford. Xia Shu's project plan only required 15,000 laborers, and the total budget for the two-year construction period was equivalent to 30 million German marks, which was cheaper than any large fortress of the same size.

After more than three months of construction, the huge fortress system has begun to take shape. Its front-line defense consisted of tight guard towers, anti-submarine net gates, and a series of coastal batteries. It is worth mentioning that these forts were built on the foundation of the coastal blocks destroyed by the war, the foundations of the houses and roads were cleverly used, and the rubble and broken bricks and wood were mostly reused. A single battery covers an area of 400 to more than 1,000 square meters, and the core is a gun magazine hidden in the ground and a firing gun emplacement connected by guide rails, each battery can deploy several to twenty or thirty guns, and there are barracks, anti-aircraft gun emplacements and concealed infantry fortifications around it. Batteries can be used in conjunction or individually to defend against the enemy. At the same time as the battery was being built, the artillery deployed at Dublin Fortress was arriving, including heavy guns of more than 200 mm caliber, light direct-fire artillery against offshore and beachhead targets, and curved mortars.

Viewed from above, the second-line defense of Dublin Fortress appears to be its rambarized urban area, but it is not. Throughout the city, the buildings that resemble enclosed factories line the river, which are the ground anti-aircraft fire support of the fortress system, and the long-range heavy artillery secretly obtained from Germany will also be deployed here in the future, and in the event of an engagement, the enemy warships will have to sail closer to the shore if they want to destroy these heavy fire points, thus creating more opportunities for the defenders' mobile maritime defenses, submarines and high-speed torpedo boats, to be killed in one hit.

If the first two lines of defense of Dublin Fortress are only spatially enlarged on the basis of traditional coastal defense fortresses, then the third line of defense will truly reflect its comprehensive three-dimensionalization. Around the Dublin metropolitan area, the Irish military has built three medium-sized airports, 11 smaller airports and more than 40 alternate runways using asphalt and concrete pavement. The key to this aviation system is not entirely the runway, but also the concealed and protective hangars and ammunition depots that are the essence of fortification. The British had to fly from bases at least 120 kilometers away, and the number of carrier-based aircraft was relatively limited, so the British would not have any advantage in fighting the Irish army for air supremacy here for at least the next two decades. At the tactical level, whether it is a daytime raid or a night sneak attack, the Irish aircraft carrying bombs or torpedoes are bound to be a nightmare for the British Navy, and at the strategic level, the Irish bombers taking off from Dublin do not have to be very powerful, they can easily drop bombs on the heads of the British before the advent of radar, provoke the anger of the other side, disrupt the other side, and even cause extensive damage to British industry and shipbuilding.

Regarding the "three lines of defense" of the Dublin Fortress, Natsuki introduced Crown Prince William and his entourage to Crown Prince William and his entourage in a straightforward manner. Whether or not they can grasp the essence of this three-dimensional defense depends entirely on their own military understanding.

After inspecting the various places, the well-informed Crown Prince Wilhelm did not praise this layout according to local conditions, except for the novelty, and he confidently said that there would be no need for such a large-scale construction of coastal defense fortresses in Germany itself within a hundred years.

"I don't think it would be so easy for the Anglo-Japanese forces to capture Qingdao if our defense at Tsingtao was deployed according to this model and met the requirements of the design in all aspects." These words came from Carson, who had already risen to the rank of general, and was Crown Prince William's most trusted military aide, who briefly worked with Natsuki during the Battle of Verdun. In Natsuki's eyes, this is a professional soldier with a cool head and quick thinking, and it is still too early to say whether he can become a figure in the German Army.

At the time of Crown Prince William's visit to Ireland, the German-Japanese armistice negotiations had not yet been signed, which was somewhat surprising to those who were concerned by the outside world. In fact, Japan, which has defeated China and Russia, has become one of the most influential military powers in the Asia-Pacific region, and if the war between Germany and Japan continues, there will be great variables in the future if the war between Germany and Japan continues, and the United Kingdom, which is unwilling to lose, and the United States, which does not want to see Germany dominate Europe, will stir up the situation behind the scenes.

"An isolated fortress, even if it is the most powerful in the world, has the potential to fall - Liège and Verdun are the best examples." Natsuki had ulterior motives in saying this, but the understanding of the German officers present was only superficial, which made him a little disappointed.

"That's right." Crown Prince William suddenly turned his head to Natsuki and said, "Russia is like such a fortress, as long as we cut off its foreign aid and continue to maintain a military offensive against it, sooner or later we will completely defeat it." ”

"Uh......" Natsuki was speechless for a moment, this was simply misinterpreting what he wanted to say.

"But...... We are secretly negotiating an armistice with Russia, and if an armistice can be reached, Japan will become a lonely fortress. Crown Prince William's words changed sharply, and there were only a few words, but the content contained made Natsuki very surprised.

Seeing Natsuki's surprised expression, Crown Prince William showed a satisfied smile: "Russia has paid enough price for their choice of Britain and France as allies to deal with us together, and now it is the turn of the ambitious Japanese, they think that they can make up for the big mistakes they made by returning the colonial territories they occupied in the past to us, and then paying the pensions of the casualties and soldiers, it is really naïve!" ”

Natsuki was speechless for a while, and the Germans of Mune finally got the hang of it?

"Now, the whole world feels that Germany is going to sign an armistice with Japan, and everyone is happy to live in peace." Crown Prince William curled the corners of his mouth, and his smugness overflowed.

Natsuki thought about it carefully: "This is deliberately done for the Russians to see?" ”

"That's right." Crown Prince Wilhelm nodded, "I heard that we were going to have an armistice with Japan, and the Russian envoys came overnight, and they were afraid that Japan would attack their territory in the Far East, in which case they would be attacked by the enemy, and it would not be long before they would lose all their seaports, and the situation would be completely different from that of 1812 - when fighting Napoleon, Russia would at least be able to get military and financial support from the British, and once they lost their seaports, there would be no aid." ”

Natsuki analyzed the words of the crown prince and said: "So the Russians want to sign an armistice treaty with Germany before the Japanese, as long as Germany and Japan are still at war, the Japanese army will not dare to attack Russia's territory in the Far East, this is their calculation?" ”

Crown Prince William was not surprised by Natsuki's reaction speed, but was as jealous as usual, but he didn't want his mentality to be seen by others, so he pretended to be deep and said, "I think so." The Russians are not stupid and know the terrible consequences of having their hands and feet broken at the same time. ”

Hearing this, Xia Shu suddenly felt refreshed, and he shook his head repeatedly: "Interesting!" It's so interesting! ”

Crown Prince Wilhelm said with a sly expression: "Hey, Jochen, what I'm talking about is the current top secret of the German Empire. ”

Natsuki blinked a few times quickly: "So what? ”

Although Natsuki's identity was different, Crown Prince William still put his arm around his shoulders as he had done in the past, and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "So I think you can tell me now when your plan is to go to war against Britain." ”

Natsuki hesitated in his heart and replied, "I think we should at least wait until the fort construction in Dublin is completed. ”

Crown Prince William asked: "This is for the British, but in fact?" ”

"Actually?" Natsuki whispered to him, "Just as Russia came to Japan for fear of a German armistice and joined forces, I hope to be able to force Britain to make concessions through military diplomacy." Ireland is not afraid of war, but it could be a pretext for American intervention in Europe, and I think many Americans have now regretted their neutrality before the defeat of Britain and France. ”

"Interesting! It's so interesting! Crown Prince William returned the original words, but it had a different meaning: Do Americans really have such ideas and guts? Aren't they the world's largest isolated fortress?

(End of chapter)