Recently, the weather has become cooler, and the air quality has been good and bad, so you must pay attention to your body and strengthen your exercise more often!

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Returning to the familiar port of Danzig, Natsuki was in a particularly happy mood, and after dealing with business, he drove around the port area by himself, went to the Friedrich Royal Shipyard owned by the German Empire, went to the former Hubert Aircraft Company, which had been renamed Deutsche Aircraft Company, and went to the Bromberg Territory, which was reclaimed by the Hohenzollern royal family. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In Danzig, Natsuki met many familiar faces, old subordinates and old friends, and the victory of the war brought them an optimistic, positive, quiet and prosperous life, and only a few people were still immersed in the sorrow of the war. Von Ingnoll may have been an exception to both, and after his disgraceful resignation as commander-in-chief of the fleet, he had the idea of retiring early, but after a long sabbatical, he decided to continue serving in the Imperial German Navy, after all, he was born in 1857 and only reached the age of 60 in 1917, which was still very immature compared to the veterans of the army who were still fighting on the front lines in their seventies.

Field Marshal von Ingnoor, who was currently a member of the Naval Budget Committee and of the Danzig Naval Base, received the King of Ireland from afar with courtesy.

Nowadays, Britain has retreated, France has sunk, Tsarist Russia is dormant, the British, French and Russian Triple Entente encircling Germany no longer exists, the European pattern is under the control of the Allied camp, and there is no security in Germany itself.

In this German naval marshal, who had experienced great ups and downs, Natsuki could not see any resentment, and he seemed to have only a deep awe for himself. In the face of the raging war as commander of the High Seas Fleet, Ingnoll was so cautious and conservative that he was criticized by many as cowardice, but now that he has been relieved of his responsibilities, he looks much more relaxed, and seems to be several years younger than when the war first broke out. Putting aside his previous subjective opinions, Natsuki saw that Ingnoll had an elegant and peaceful temperament, which was diametrically opposed to the famous German naval generals such as Schell, Hipper, and Spee.

Perhaps to avoid the embarrassment of being alone, when arranging a dinner with Natsuki, Ingnoll specially invited several senior officers from the naval base, all but one of whom Natsuki had never dealt with - or even heard of the name at all. However, fame does not mean ability, ability may not have the opportunity to get a good name, even if Natsuki had a wide range of attention to military talents during the German Navy, under the traditional system of military merit awards and information feedback, the probability of a strongman disappearing in an ordinary post is still not small.

Because of this, he never underestimated anyone who was unattractive and unshutout.

At the dinner table, the most talked about by naval officers was naturally the evolution of naval technology and naval strategy. The professional technical team brought by Xia Shu has surveyed and calculated the No. 1 shipbuilding dock of Shuoxiao Shipyard, and if there are no accidents, the first Mackenson-class will soon be settled here.

As far as the design performance indicators are concerned, the completed Mackensen class can completely blow the British Queen Elizabeth class, for this, even the consistently conservative Ingnorl has no objection, but there have long been rumors that Britain has spent a lot of money to entrust the United States to build a new battle patrol has already started secretly, its firepower, speed, protection are upgraded on the basis of the "Tiger" battle cruise, and the essence of modern shipbuilding technology in the United States and Britain is integrated, three or five years later, The Mackensen-class opponent is bound to be this new Warcruiser rather than Queen Elizabeth.

In response to a German naval lieutenant's inquiry about Britain's new warships, Natsuki replied: "The superiority or inferiority of weapons is only one of the factors that determine the outcome of a war, and we cannot ignore it or take it one-sidedly. Nowadays, the British Navy is not only striving to build capital warships, but also their cruisers, destroyers and submarines are also quietly being replaced, and their aircraft carriers have begun to be built, which is the first thing we should pay attention to and be vigilant against. ”

Hearing Natsuki's good evaluation of the current situation of the British Navy, a lieutenant admiral with the title of nobility shouted with disdain: "Since the end of the war, the trade volume of the British mainland has shrunk by more than 40%, and even the Times is very pessimistic about the economic situation of the United Kingdom, and our annual economic growth rate is close to 30%, and the gap between the economic aggregates of the two countries is widening. Don't they understand that even if they can win a Trafatgar victory at sea, we will be able to cross the English Channel from France and raze Buckingham Palace with chariots and artillery? ”

There is no need to bother with the "Hohenzollern genius" to answer this question, and von Ingnoll hummed: "This is the difference between the old capitalists and the new capitalists." ”

The title of capitalist comes from "Capital", which is not only regarded as the cornerstone of communist theory by later generations, but also became a classic by capitalist society after its publication in 1867, and even became a "tool book" for some capitalist countries to eliminate their shortcomings and transform themselves.

Natsuki knew a little about this history, so when the word "capitalist" popped out of Ingnoll's mouth, he only looked up at the admiral with a little curiosity.

Ingnoll slipped the delicacy from the plate disapprovingly, and the lieutenant commander who had just asked the question was clearly satisfied with the answer.

Just as Ingnoll left the position of commander of the High Seas Fleet and was relieved of the burden of psychological burden, Natsuki was no longer a subject of the German Empire, his words and deeds were no longer bound by the constraints of the past, and he was a little more free and easy when facing his former colleagues. After Ingnoll finished speaking, he analyzed: "Any country that has suffered a war will certainly try to regain its national strength. The British Empire roamed the world for more than 300 years, and the wealth gained through trade plunder and colonial rule was innumerable, and unlike the Spaniards, who religiously sent most of their wealth to the seminary, but used it to develop industry and promote armaments, and so on, the exquisite Victorian buildings and countless treasures were actually only by-products, and the most valuable savings of Britain were their industrial and military leadership in the world. ”

The previous admiral said: "Hearing Your Majesty say this, my doubts will be answered-the British, in order to regain industrial and military leadership, did not hesitate to empty the treasury, and even took out the precious collections in the British Empire Museum for auction." The Americans, of course, were happy to use the money of the British to keep their shipbuilding industry running and growing at full speed, and the two hit it off and reached a strategic cooperation agreement in defiance of our opposition. ”

With that said, the admiral confronted Natsuki, seemingly hoping for the legend's approval.

The logic was in place, the opinions were mediocre, Natsuki only gave the other party an approving smile, and then changed the conversation, and said to Ingnoll in a consultative tone: "I heard that the empire is planning to build a naval base in the Azores, Madeira, and Cape Verde Islands?" ”

After the Battle of Jutland, Ingnoll nominally resigned as commander of the High Seas Fleet on the grounds of ill health, but rumors that he was excluded by the chief of staff of the fleet due to his lack of ability still caused great damage to his reputation within the navy, and Wilhelm II's personal likes and dislikes and Tirpitz's political stance also made Ingnoll never enter the core decision-making level of the German Navy after being promoted to marshal, which has to be said to be a major regret of his naval career.

As a member of the budget committee, he was only one step ahead of the average Navy officer in learning about the classified information.

Ingnoll glanced at Natsuki meaningfully, and replied in a soft tone: "The Kingdom of Ireland is the closest ally of the German Empire, and if Germany had determined its plan in this regard, His Majesty would have been informed by the German government long ago!" ”

Natsuki shrugged and said, "It seems that this is just an intention, and it has not become a definite plan, so I didn't get any official information, but only got some information from other sources." ”

"As for the intention, as early as the naval conference held in the early winter of 1914, Ball and Muller proposed to establish a secret submarine base in the Azores, and ordered the Navy General Office to discuss the feasibility with the Naval Staff. After Ingnoll said this unhurriedly, he took the opportunity to ask rhetorically: "At that time, His Majesty seemed to think that intention was unrealistic, and still thinks so?" ”

After being reminded by Ingnoll, Natsuki quickly remembered that there was indeed such a thing at the beginning, but the strategic situation at that time was different from now. At that time, the British Navy had withstood the heavy blows of Jutland and the two Flanders naval battles, but had not yet lost its last hope in the Faroe Islands, and various war resources, including the British Commonwealth army, were still arriving at Britain through the Atlantic route, the main fleet of the German Navy had not yet broken through the North Sea blockade line, and the "Blucher" was temporarily injured after a period of brilliant performance in all directions, and the task of striking the British route in the Atlantic waters was mainly undertaken by the submarine force. At that time, the German Army had not yet occupied the coast of the Bay of Biscay, the situation of Ireland's War of Independence was at a low ebb, and the German submarines operating in the Atlantic either relied on the supply ships to replenish the midway or went back and forth to the German mainland, and the attendance efficiency was low, coupled with combat losses, the naval blockade of Britain was difficult to achieve the expected results, so the German Navy was eager to find a stronghold in the Atlantic, at least to allow the submarine force to expand the combat radius and prolong the combat time.

Natsuki replied, "It's not unrealistic, but it should be listed as a long-term plan, and there are no conditions for it to be realized in a short period of time." ”

"And now?" Ingnoll asked.

Natsuki hesitated for a moment and replied, "Still." ”

To his surprise, Ingnoll not only took a positive attitude, but also made an interesting and accurate analogy: "Indeed, the forcible seizure of Portuguese colonies such as the Azores is like filling your hunger with raw bread, which seems to fill your stomach by eating it, and the ensuing stomach ache and diarrhea are worse than not eating them." It would be wise to bake the raw bread before eating it, or go straight to the cooked bread without that effort. ”

During the war, Ingnorl's conservatism made Natsuki's nest angry, but in the period of peaceful development after the victory of the war, his prudence seemed to be lacking in the Kaiser and his ministers' staff. Although Ireland is trying its best to maintain its political, diplomatic, economic and trade independence, its financial and military affairs are tightly tied to Germany, and it is both prosperous and losing, so Natsuki sincerely sighed: "I really hope that some people will not be too self-righteous and think that raw bread can be digested by filling their stomachs, otherwise, our easy-to-get peace will come to an end." ”

(End of chapter)