On June 23, 1911, King George V was crowned. During the coronation ceremony, which lasted several hours, www.biquge.info the new king almost broke his neck due to the rather heavy crown he was wearing. While the jewels in the crown are dazzling, the majestic fleet of warships is the true jewel of this country that soars across the oceans and stands on top of the world. At the parade, the latest capital ships built and commissioned by the United Kingdom opened people's eyes, the Palerrophon class, the St. Vincent class, the Invincible class, and the Indefatigable class. In the face of this British fleet with terrifying firepower, no matter how much the navy of any country resists, it will only be in ashes.

The German Navy will be the only exception.

A few days later, the German Government, which had been negotiating with the French over the Moroccan question, decided to resort to further pressure because of the delay in making progress. The German Navy sent a humble gunboat from the nearest South African colony to Morocco, and this was the famous "Leopard" that left a great name in history. Although the displacement is not as large as that of a new large torpedo boat, and the artillery is only capable of deterring the indigenous Africans, its trip will have an untold impact on the world.

The "Leopard" embarked on an uncertain voyage, and the German Navy sent the light cruiser "Berlin" to Morocco. This Bremen-class cruiser with a displacement of more than 3,000 tons was built in 1902, with 105 mm caliber naval guns and 450 mm underwater torpedo tubes as its main weapons, and its combat power is also not worth mentioning in front of the large British warships stationed in Gibraltar, but behind it and the "Leopard" is a German navy that has ranked second in the world in strength and has made it difficult for the British to sleep!

Before the arrival of the "Leopard" in the port of Agadir and the triggering of a war crisis, according to the original voyage plan, the "von der Tann" went north to visit the British Naval Base in Forth after attending the coronation ceremony and the ship parade of the British king, and held the annual exchange of gunnery between the navies of the two countries along the way. In the past year, Britain and Germany have successively formulated or revised their naval shipbuilding plans, and their maritime armaments have entered a white-hot stage in one fell swoop. As a result of this fierce competition, the German Navy selected the latest von der Tann to enter service, and the British Navy was not to be outdone by sending the Intreplent, which had been in service for less than two months.

At the beginning of construction, the British learned that the German Navy would be equipped with the same triple main turret as the Nassau-class battleship on the new fast battleship, so an attempt was made with a triple turret on the Indefatigable class, which was originally scheduled to be equipped with four twin 12-inch guns, and the two main turrets located on the fore and aft decks were changed to triple, and the two main turrets on the left and right sides were still double. On paper, the "Indefatigable" had an overwhelming advantage over the "von der Tann's" 10 12-inch guns with nine 11-inch guns, but the increase in weight of almost 500 tons in the later period caused the speed of the ships of this class to drop to 24. 4 knots, barely reaching 25 knots under overload, a large slower than the "von der Tann", and this was also the first time that a British ship of the same class in the same period was completely defeated by a German battleship in terms of speed.

The "von der Tann", which had completed the run-in and was equipped with a new rangefinder and a shooting director, and the "Intreplent", which was in the run-in stage and used the traditional dichotomous ranging method, did not need Natsuki to improvise and ignore the advantage of the British occupying the home field, and when firing the main gun salvos at targets at 20,000 meters, 15,000 meters and 10,000 meters, the German battleships won the victory by 1-2 percentage points over the opponent.

The cutting-edge warship he designed showed incomparable technical superiority, and Natsuki should have been the person with the most reason to be happy and proud of the German visiting ship, but his mind at this time was completely out of this regard. Because of the attitude of the head of the family, and because of her mother's unknown illness, Charlotte pretends to be calm, but she can't hide her inner loss and anxiety - as King George V said, it takes amazing courage to challenge the world and subvert tradition. The reason why Natsuki was able to pass the German royal family was indispensable for courage, but also because of the special status he had earned through years of hard work, thanks to the delicate cooperation between him and Crown Prince Wilhelm, and thanks to the soft wrist in the middle, Charlotte basically did not have these conditions. It was because of this concern that Natsuki objected to Charlotte's proposal at the Christmas dinner, and now he had to do everything he could to help her solve these difficult problems.

On 30 June, the von der Tann departed for home, and a day later the gunboat Leopard arrived in the Moroccan port of Agadir, where it anchored under the pretext of protecting German nationals. As a result of the appearance of the German warship, the situation in Morocco suddenly became tense. Knowing that they could stand up to Germany on their own, France turned to Britain and Russia for help. Because France refused to stand up for Russia politically and diplomatically during the Bosnian crisis a few years ago, the Russians responded this time by declaring that the Franco-Russian alliance "does not apply" to a war triggered by a colonial dispute. In contrast to the indifference of the Russians, the British government reacted strongly, fearing that the Germans would deliberately sow discord between France and Russia and thus undermine the Triple Entente, and on the other hand, they were extremely reluctant to see a naval base like Agadir on the Atlantic coast of Germany, which was growing in naval power. If the proposal had not been rejected by the cabinet, the British Navy would have sent warships to Agadir to confront the German ships, but nevertheless, on the fourth day of the arrival of the "Leopard" in Agadir, Britain warned Germany through normal diplomatic channels: If the contradictions between Germany and France on the Moroccan issue further intensified, Britain would not rule out the possibility of direct intervention!

……

On the train from Wilhelmshaven to Berlin, Charlotte still looked out the window with a sad face, the crux was due to family affection, Natsuki was difficult to explain in words, although there were a few ideas in her mind, but she always felt that it was not safe enough to think about it, as if she had encountered an unsolvable situation.

When the train temporarily stopped at the station, Charlotte saw a young mother on the platform bending over to wipe her little daughter's cheeks, and the warm scene immediately aroused the feelings of longing in her heart, and when the train restarted, she turned her head and said to Natsuki:

"When my mother gave birth to me, she almost died because of a difficult birth. My father is rarely at home, my mother has accompanied me since I was a child, took care of me, taught me vocal music and painting, she is my closest relative in the world, and when I left the UK, the only thing I couldn't worry about was her. ”

Natsuki gently wiped away the tears that had slipped from the corners of her eyes.

"She's not in good health all the time, and she's especially susceptible to illness when the seasons change. Although I had a family doctor and servants to take care of her, I knew that she must have wanted me to be by her side now. ”

"Well, I can understand it, and I've experienced it myself." Natsuki comforted.

"But if I go back like this, I'll probably never see you again, Jochen." Charlotte looked at Natsuki with sad eyes, at this moment, in this situation, only true feelings can have such contradictory sorrow.

Of course, Natsuki didn't want Charlotte to leave, he caressed her delicate but haggard face: "Perhaps, your mother's illness is not as serious as you think; Perhaps, she really wants you to hold on to your happiness......"

"She encouraged me to be brave and pursue my own happiness, but today's situation is something that none of us expected at the beginning. Jochen, why are you ......?" another tear welled up in his eyes.

Natsuki embraced her into his arms. This is fate, which cannot be predicted and cannot be controlled.

Just before dusk, the train arrives in Berlin. Because he wanted to report to the Kaiser in person about the coronation, parade and gunnery exchanges, Natsuki took Charlotte to the palace by car. As he passed through Wilhelmstrasse, he saw that there were many people gathered in the square, and because of this, the traffic could only move slowly, and Natsuki heard the unknown speaker saying "shame", "provocation", and "not hesitating to fight".

The royal attendant who came to pick up the car had known Natsuki for a long time, and he explained: "Trouble in Morocco. ”

Natsuki did not respond, vaguely remembering that the two Moroccan crises and the two Balkan wars heated up the conflicts between the European powers, which eventually led to the outbreak of World War I. From the perspective of historical development, even if these two crises and local wars can be avoided, the most essential contradiction of interests between the emerging and rising countries and the established powers cannot be changed. Look out the windows of these high-spirited people, including clerks and workers, as well as police, civil servants, and a few uniformed soldiers. Although such speeches can hardly be called brilliant and even have obvious logical loopholes, the speakers only rely on their agitating tone and wording to make the blood of these Germans in the middle and lower strata of society boil, and then influence the direction of public opinion and public opinion - this political atmosphere with the characteristics of the times and culture has a long history and will continue to continue until a legend of a small man becoming a dictator is created.

After easily passing through the congested streets to reach the palace, Natsuki met Crown Prince William as soon as he got out of the car, and saw him talking to the two army generals with excitement, and this expression was strikingly similar to the people he had just seen on the street.

"His Royal Highness!"

It wasn't until Natsuki called out that Crown Prince William realized that the brother who looked most like him was here.

In the presence of two senior generals, Field Marshal Baron von der Golz and Army Admiral Karl von Bülow, Crown Prince Wilhelm said happily: "Hey, Jochen, our naval genius, you have just returned from England!" I heard that our battleship humiliated the British in this year's artillery exchange, which is great! This time they should know that our navy is not easy to mess with! ”

Lest these high-ranking army generals misjudge, Natsuki replied, "Yes, Your Highness, we are the victors of this year—the victory is to be more prepared. ”

The excited Crown Prince William did not seem to grasp Natsuki's intentions, and he took Natsuki's arm a little overzealously: "The offensive coercion used by the British has lost its effect on us, and the army can sweep through France without any scruples, and then, we will gain access to the sea in the Atlantic, and in turn form a strategic coercion of the British Isles." In the future of Europe, the German Reich will be the only dominant one! ”

Natsuki was amazed by Crown Prince Wilhelm's understanding of naval strategy, and on the other hand, he was sincerely curious about what he said about the army sweeping through France: could it be that this time Germany was not just using the war as a diplomatic bargaining chip, but was really preparing to attack France? If this is the case, Britain and Russia will inevitably be involved, and World War I will break out three years earlier.

Is the German Navy strong enough to deal with this war?

Natsuki quickly calculated in his mind: Germany currently has 7 dreadnoughts, 2 battle cruisers, and 1 completed but not in service; The British Navy has 8 dreadnoughts in service, 2 have been completed and not in service, 4 battle cruisers, the core combat power is equal, and the German Navy can even have a slight upper hand by virtue of its quality advantage, but once a naval battle breaks out, the huge number of former dreadnoughts on both sides will still be the backbone of the battlefield, and in this regard, Germany is at an absolute disadvantage to Britain with 22 ships and 40 ships, and the same is true for armored cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers/large torpedo boats. In other words, the German Navy narrowed the gap with Britain in terms of new capital ships only by virtue of the naval bill pushed by Tirpitz, and there was still an order of magnitude gap in overall size and strength.

However, the competition in the war was not limited to absolute strength, and military strategy paid attention to the real and the false, and the just-concluded exchange of artillery skills just provided favorable conditions for the "bluff" of the German Navy.

The four of them had not talked for a while, and the head of the army, Moltke Jr., the chief of the General Staff, came out of the porch, looking a little depressed.

Crown Prince William slightly retracted his excitement and asked with concern, "How is it?" ”

Moltke shook his head: "Your Majesty firmly disagrees with the war with France for the sake of Morocco. ”

"But this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" Crown Prince Wilhelm exclaimed, "The occupation of Morocco by French troops is a foregone conclusion, and we will either suffer a diplomatic defeat and be ridiculed as cowards by the world, or we will use this as an excuse to sweep through France and repeat the glorious victory of 1870, forcing France to disband its army, withdraw from the Triple Entente, and completely break the encirclement that threatens the very existence of Germany!" ”

Although Crown Prince William's mentality is somewhat impetuous, with the current European landscape, Natsuki believes that his opinion is not without merit. Neither France nor Russia were adequately prepared for war, and a military adventure at this point had a better chance of victory than three years later.

Crown Prince William was very unwilling and said: "I will go to see Your Majesty, we must not make any more mistakes." ”

Then, he turned to Natsuki: "Joheng, let's go and persuade Your Majesty together, he will definitely change his mind." ”

(End of chapter)