At the Turkish barracks on the outskirts of Istanbul, Natsuki met Fatih's troops, a sleek, well-armoured, swords-glittering Sipach cavalry. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Going back two or three hundred years, the Sipach cavalry and two other Ottoman cavalry units, the Sipahi cavalry and the Ajin cavalry, together formed the sharp blade of the Ottoman expansion. The use of rifled guns has greatly reduced the space for cavalry on the battlefield, but when the First World War came, all the participating countries also regarded cavalry units as an important force in land warfare, and the French dragoons wearing horsetail hats and cuirass were the most typical representatives.

And Natsuki knew that in the face of artillery and machine guns, the traditional cavalry was destined to become a tragedy.

It can be said that the Germans, who were skilled in machinery, had an innate sense of smell for advanced weapons technology. Kaiser Wilhelm II praised this automatic weapon before the British colonial forces used the Maxim machine gun against the Zulus, and purchased the first batch of Maxims for the German Guards Infantry Regiment out of his own pocket. By 1901, the German Arms and Ammunition Factory obtained a license to manufacture the Maxim machine gun and put it into production under the number MG01, and in just two years, the German army quickly established 11 machine gun battalions, and gradually equipped machine gun companies in ordinary infantry regiments and sharp knife battalions. When used correctly, these machine guns were capable of mercilessly slaughtering cavalry and infantry in the open field, while Fatih's cavalry wielded spears and swords...... Despite their strong appearance and arrogance on the parade ground, their performance in the tenth and most recent Russo-Turkish war was unsatisfactory, and their laziness and indiscipline were already notorious, and the superiority and arrogance of Muslims against the peoples of the West were also vividly reflected in them.

After watching the parade and combat training of the Sipach cavalry with the mentality of watching the show, Natsuki embarked on the journey home with a reverie for the future. With the increasingly fierce conflict of interests of the great powers and the inextricable historical feuds, a major war across the continent is inevitable, and Britain, France, and Russia have concluded an entente, and the German-Austrian alliance is alone, and it is of great significance to win over the Ottoman Empire - at a time when the railway line had not yet connected the Arctic coast with the Russian hinterland (Murmansk was founded in 1916), the route from the Turkish Straits to the Black Sea was the main artery for Russian imports. Once war broke out, as long as the Turks closed the straits, it would be difficult for the large and backward Russian army to obtain British and French assistance, and mobilization and combat efficiency would be greatly affected.

In fact, on the stage of World War I, the military performance of the Ottoman Empire reversed its notoriety as the "sick man of Europe", they won the crucial Battle of Gallipoli, driving 500,000 Anglo-French-Australia-New Zealand troops into the sea; They fought fiercely in Mesopotamia for three years with outnumbered British troops, until the British general Allenby broke through the line with a bold and ingenious "cavalry blitzkrieg" and the German-Turkish forces, who had joined a small number of German troops, were forced to abandon the area. Throughout the war, the Ottoman army held back a large number of land and sea forces of the Entente and played a strategic role that could not be underestimated. However, this had little to do with the old Ottoman aristocracy, which had changed several times in the last years before the war, culminating in the Young Turks taking power, and the German-supplied weapons and instructors transforming the Ottoman army from a completely backward old army into a quasi-modern new army.

As he returns to Istanbul, Natsuki's eyes are drawn to a nondescript coastal fortress. It was very covertly built behind the hills along the coast, and the shore guns with short barrels and high muzzles were able to bombard targets in the strait across the hills, but it was difficult for surface ships to directly threaten the fortresses. The Turkish Straits (which are divided into two sections, the Istanbul Strait, which is connected to the Black Sea, and the Dardanelles, which is connected to the Mediterranean, around which the Battle of Gallipoli was unfolded) were extremely advantageous to the defenders, and the only way to open the strait route was to force a landing and conquer the coastal defense fortresses one by one.

In sight, about 200 Turkish soldiers set up skirmishers on the hills and woods on either side of the fort, apparently in preparation for a Russian landing attack from the direction of the Black Sea - a situation that had not been seen in the history of World War I, but it was necessary to prepare for a rainy day. After all, the strength of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is good, and if the course of the war is changed by some unpredictable factors, such as the Turks not being supported by German warships as powerful and deterrent as the "Goeben", it is entirely possible that the Russians will cooperate with the British and French forces to launch a landing campaign to open the strait.

In Natsuki's view, the Turkish soldiers here are in orderly formation, agile and crisp in military maneuvers, and able to quickly dig firing positions when defending, which must be a military quality that can only be acquired through good training.

It was only after the entire training of the Turkish soldiers was over that Natsuki asked Fatih to send someone to inform the commander there.

"This is the Celleby Fortress, which has been guarding the strait for 200 years, which was expensively renovated last year, the designers are German, the contractors are Germans, and the weapons are all imported from Germany."

Fatih's introduction made Natsuki smell a faint astringency, and there was naturally an element of power struggle in this.

Natsuki was not interested in knowing which prince or royal relatives this fortress belonged to, and there was no need to ask, he cared about who was in charge of the training of these Turkish soldiers, and who was in charge of the actual command here. Maybe you'll find a familiar name here, or you'll find an unnamed military talent.

When Natsuki followed Prince Fatih and his party to the fortress, the answer was naturally revealed. In front of the neatly lined Turkish soldiers, a young and extraordinary officer was at the front, two officers in German military uniforms stood behind him, one on the left and one on the right, the goatee on the left looked to be in his sixties, and the beardless one on the right was probably less than thirty years old.

Approaching the leading young officer, Fatih said in a strange manner: "Our Abbasparsha is worthy of being a brave general who went to Germany for further study, and the soldiers under his command are all brave and extraordinary, and their uniforms are no different from the best German army!" Ha ha! ”

The young Turkish officer was not at all timid in the face of the Sultan's youngest son, the supreme ruler of the empire, with an elusive depth in his beautiful eyes and a vigorous vigor in his resolute face.

"This distinguished guest brought by His Highness is the famous Hohenzollern genius Prince Joachim!"

This German sentence was clearly intended to be spoken to Natsuki, and it was clear that his German language was several notches higher than Fatih's.

Fatih looked sideways at Natsuki: "This is my cousin Abbasparsha, who is the commander of the Cherebby Fortress and garrison, and an ardent admirer of German military culture. ”

Immediately afterwards, Fatih said to the young Abbasparsha: "Prince Joachim has come to inspect our Sipahi cavalry, and he has come to see your new training as he passes through here. ”

Seeing that Natsuki was wearing a military uniform, Abbasid did not bow down with the traditional Turkish bow, but greeted him with a German-style military salute, and his tone did not mean anything extraordinary: "Your Royal Highness, your arrival is an incomparable honor for all the officers and men of the Celebi Fortress. You may know these two German instructors who helped me train the army, Lieutenant Colonel Stolt and Second Lieutenant Perchöss. ”

"Oh, we didn't know each other before." Natsuki said as he rode forward and saluted the two German officers.

When shaking hands, they each gave their full names and identities:

"Georg. Stolt, who before his retirement was attached to the 4th Prussian Army, artillery colonel. ”

"Heinz. Perhaus, reserve officer of the 31st Prussian regiment. ”

Natsuki said: "Thank you for your efforts to strengthen German-Ottoman friendship. ”

Accompanied by Abbasid and two German instructors, Natsuki and Fatih inspected the garrison of the fortress. Turkish soldiers wore their own khaki uniforms and red Turkish caps, while boots, belts, cartridges, water bottles and even marching knapsacks were standard German equipment. On closer inspection, there are two models of rifles used, one is the Gew 1888, the commission rifle, which the German army replaced with the old Mauser 1898, and the other is the Mauser 1893, a double-row magazine rifle produced by the Mauser company for the Turkish army. Although their performance was not as stable and complete as that of Mauser 1898, it was enough to keep the Turks up to date with the development of smokeless gunpowder.

After reviewing the small but sturdy Turkish infantry unit, Natsuki entered the fortress at the invitation of the Abbasids. In addition to the high elevation angles of the curved guns, the coastal fortifications were equipped with a number of direct-fire guns and machine guns. Weapons systems were a crucial part of the design and construction of large ships, and Natsuki was familiar with the performance of the various types of artillery of this era, and here he saw newer Krupp cannons, but they were limited in number, more British Armstrong guns produced in the early thirties and forties, and old breech guns made in Turkey. Abbasid recognized Natsuki's concerns, revealing that the fort had recently been equipped with several new underwater torpedo tubes, which were cleverly and covertly placed where ships would pass through the strait, enough to deal with any adversary's large warships. In the event of the threat of war, they will also lay a large number of mines around the perimeter of the defense zone.

Like spear and shield, fire and water, warships and fortresses are natural opponents. A strong enough warship can destroy a fortress, and a strong enough fortress can contain the attack of a battleship, but under normal circumstances, the cost of a warship with a complex structure is high, and the ability to resist strikes is obviously weaker than that of a fortress.

While Germany has a short coastline and the world's most powerful German Army is able to protect the flanks and rear of the coastal fortifications, the situation is much more complicated in Turkey. The Ottoman Army, with limited strength and outdated equipment, needed to defend a vast territory several times larger than Germany and distributed on three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa, and the backward means of transportation and the enemy's wartime blockade would greatly affect the arrival speed of reinforcements.

On a platform at the top of the fortress, Natsuki chatted for a long time with the Abbasids and two German instructors as he watched the surging sea breeze and the mouth of the surging strait. From ideals to ideas, from tactics to technology, they exchanged and communicated with a very positive attitude, there were consensus and disagreement, and in the current environment, they have a fairly consistent practical goal, that is, to maintain the integrity and unity of the Ottoman Empire, to contain the encroachment and division of Britain, France and Russia, and especially to protect a strategic point including the Turkish Strait.

By observing the other party's speech and behavior, Natsuki felt that the young Abbasparsha was a more reliable Ottoman magnate than Fatih, he was ambitious, powerful, and had a great respect for German military culture. It's just that people who grew up in the royal court where power is overwhelmed have a much more complex way of thinking than ordinary civilians, and with only a short contact, Natsuki can't find out the details of the other party, let alone determine the true situation of the other party. Reasonably, the two sides just became friends with a good impression of each other.

In the exchange with the two German advisers, Natsuki focused on understanding their ideas and abilities - ambitious superiors are well aware of the truth that "a thousand troops are easy to get, and one general is hard to find", and they are willing to look at the thatched cottage twice, and they also hope to discover extraordinary people from the crowd in the market, but talents are not everywhere, and the heroes who can change the outcome of a war often come out only once in decades. At this Ottoman coastal fort, Colonel Stolt was in charge of the gunners' technical training, and Second Lieutenant Perhols, the organizer of the melee defense, the two German professional soldiers were concise and clear-minded, and their fighting spirit and self-motivation were not weakened by the distance from the regular German troops, and they also expected to be appreciated and reused by the masters. It's a pity that after this conversation, Natsuki's judgment on them was only "excellent" rather than "outstanding". In the German army, excellent officers abound, and many of them have been trained by military culture since childhood and have been tempered by grassroots units and trained by academies and universities, who are serious and rigorous, honest and selfless, and have good military quality and ability to take responsibility, which is also an important capital for Germany to aspire to become a military power in the world.

Although these two dedicated German officers did not belong to the Maxima that Natsuki was looking for, the exchange with them still made Natsuki firm in some thoughts: Colonel Stolt was a meritorious player who had participated in the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars, and his qualifications, military merits, and abilities were not lacking, and his civilian status was likely to be the decisive factor in his inability to obtain the rank of general; Second Lieutenant Perchuse, who also came from a civilian family, also entered the barracks with good ideals and had the opportunity to study at the best infantry school in Bavaria, but it was difficult to see a bright future, so he took the initiative to apply for retirement and came to this foreign land as a military instructor to "pan for gold". In the German Army, which is very particular about their backgrounds, there are many officers who are in a similar situation to them, and there are many potential stocks with intelligent qualifications. The skills they learned in land warfare were far from naval warfare, and traditional naval officers were not good at land warfare, so they needed the help of excellent army and naval officers to create a regular combat force that could be used both on land and sea.

(End of chapter)