If this unexploded firecracker bomb was just a pure accident, Xia Shuquan thought it was a naughty child's farce, and there was no need to be too serious about the responsibility, but in the blink of an eye, another spherical black object came straight towards his SS-01, this time the distance from the landing point was less than five meters, and the unhappiness in Xia Shu's heart suddenly turned into a nest of fire. www.biquge.info From the standpoint of the Orientals, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, these European powers, have all bullied their own countries, bullies, and notorious, and there is no difference between bad and worse in essence, and as a military fan, Natsuki looks down on those victors who do not deserve victory on the battlefield, especially Britain, France, and Italy during World War I.

Feeling that these two fireworks bombs were most likely fired from the British cruiser, Natsuki decisively gave up the results he was about to win, turned the steering wheel to the left, and drove the "Thunderbolt" over the tail of the battlefleet and roared towards the cruiser. The Russian "Pearl" and the Dutch "Flevoland" were in the rear of the cruiser, and the sailors on the deck gun positions were relaxed like soy sauce, and they would not and did not dare to make a mistake on the territory of the Germans. Ahead were two British compass-class protective cruisers and two Cressey-class armored cruisers, most of the training guns on which they fired salute shells instead of their main guns pointed to the right, but at the rear of one of the compass-class light cruisers, a 47mm rapid-fire gun that could fire fireless shells could be pointed to the right rear, and British sailors in white uniforms had pressed its muzzle to the lowest depression angle.

"It's you clowns!"

Natsuki stared at the British sailors around the gun emplacements with great disdain, and these guys didn't stop and continued to try to lock themselves with their guns. Natsuki flicked the steering wheel, and the "Thunderbolt" jumped lightly to the left, approaching the starboard side of the Russian cruiser "Pearl", and easily entered the blind spot of the British. At this time, the overall speed of the combined formation was about 15 knots, and at such a speed, the waves of the ship were not turbulent when driving on the relatively calm sea. Natsuki controlled the direction steadily, and drove forward against the starboard side of the Russian ship, and the double waves formed by the large ship and small boat were like white-edged dough when making knife-cut noodles. The speed of the "thunderbolt" wind and the arrogant roar caused the sailors of the Russian cruiser to rush to the side of the ship to watch, and they probably never dreamed that there would be such sharp high-speed torpedo boats in the world. Soon after, a similar situation arose on the Dutch cruiser.

As he passed by the side of the Russian-Dutch cruisers, Natsuki looked straight ahead with an expressionless face, and when the speedboat passed the troublesome British protective cruiser, he put his left hand close to the porthole and unceremoniously raised his middle finger.

The "middle finger" first appeared at the end of the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France, when the British archers inflicted heavy losses on the French army, and the French army vowed to cut off the middle finger of the British archer after defeating the British army, but the French army was defeated. As the French retreated, British archers stretched out their right middle fingers to show off their still existing middle fingers, an insulting gesture that quickly became popular in the West, and even more so in the army. Despite the speed of the "Thunderbolt", some British sailors noticed the insulting gesture of the motorist at a close distance, and there was a commotion on the side deck.

After paying homage to the British in a-for-tat, Natsuki did not intend to stop there, he overtook the entire cruiser fleet, crossed the front of the "Hogg", left a perfect arc on the sea, and finally fired a torpedo at the British protective cruiser at a distance of less than 100 meters, and the rubber-headed torpedo simply hit the target!

On the bridge of the flagship of the British visiting fleet, the "Hogg", a group of officers and generals led by the Duke of Hill witnessed the whole process of the German speedboat "going crazy". As senior naval officers, they were well aware of the adventure and provocation of this move, and one of the major said in a contemptuous tone: "This is also an exercise, in exchange for a real naval battle, our rapid-fire artillery has already torn it to pieces, hmph, and want to show off its might in front of us?" ”

Brigadier General White, the captain of the ship, whispered: "The pilot of this speedboat seems to be the Prince Joachim whom the Germans are so much touted!" It seems that too much applause and flowers have made him lose himself, and he will not hesitate to risk his life in order to win attention, or he has completely inherited his father's arrogant, frivolous, and aggressive character, and more than that. It is really not a good thing for the British Empire that Germany is ruled by such people, and there may be a big war between the two countries sooner or later......"

"Recklessness and aggressiveness were inherently in the nature of Germanic peoples." "But in any case, we should pay more attention to these new fast mine-strike boats, they are so fast, and torpedoes are a cheap and terrible weapon of attack, and we cannot guard against them at night or in fog." ”

The officers responded to Duke Hill's calm and objective analysis, and at the same moment as they spoke, three more speedboats followed the track of the command boat to overtake the cruiser at close range and launched an attack on the British protective cruiser, plus the 4th torpedo boat squadron, which was originally scheduled to deal with the British armored cruisers, the German speedboat group fired a total of 11 torpedoes at the British, and the British sailors heard the sound of rubber-tipped torpedoes hitting their own ships seven times.

If this were a real naval battle, with the lethality of the German F5aT1 torpedoes against the cruisers, the British cruiser fleet with good strength would probably have been "completely annihilated". Faced with the results of such an exercise, Duke Hill did not have a gloomy face, and the officers and crew did not have such a posture of immobility. Some are angry, some are indignant, some are amazed and stunned, and some are worried. Both high-ranking officers and ordinary sailors, whether they saw it with their own eyes or heard about it, were all disturbed by this unusual sea exercise.

That night was the last night of the celebration of the Kiel Military Port Festival, and the German side held a grand banquet at the Kiel Palace to bid farewell to the officials of various countries who had come to participate in the celebration. The banquet began with a flamboyant Kaiser Wilhelm II announcing the results of the naval maneuver - in this imaginary naval conflict, the Four-Nation Alliance sent an artillery fleet to destroy the enemy's convoy with precise shelling, which was then counterattacked by the enemy's torpedo boat group. Under the cover of artificial smoke screens, more than 60 torpedo boats with extremely fast sailing speeds astonishingly repelled an artillery fleet of hundreds of times their own tonnage, destroying one enemy battleship, two armored cruisers, and nine large torpedo boats. The German Emperor thus asserted that the new torpedo boats were not only a revolutionary force in the coastal defense system, but that with the further development of technology, they would also play a more active and important role in naval warfare, and that the German Navy would inevitably maintain its technological superiority in this field and would be equipped with more powerful high-speed assault ships within a few years.

For the military and political diplomats of various countries, accustomed to Wilhelm II's bombastic style, the weight of the remarks was unusual, and they tried to find the answer from their German counterparts, even if they were only given jerky metaphorical hints or a few words. Of course, not every naval officer gave the Germans a smile, and the Duke of Hill and his captains continued to maintain the British arrogance and reserve, and were a little more contemptuous of the reckless and impulsive Germans because of the "middle finger incident" during the day. They did not bother to protest to the German authorities and ask for explanations, but they were also unwilling to take the initiative to resolve the contradictions with the Germans, so they did not say anything about the results of the drill of "a small boat provoking a big ship." They stayed for the last night without embarrassment, and set fire and anchor the next morning.

(End of chapter)