In the best rooms of the century-old Bauhinia Hotel in Liverpool Harbour, England, two young people, an old man and a young man, drank coffee and watched the snow, and the middle of winter was even colder than 1914 under the haze of war. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The coffee in the pot was still hot, and there was a soft knock on the door.

"Please come in." The elder spoke directly.

Pushing the door in, a middle-aged man in a formal suit, respectfully reported, "The other party replied." ”

The old man in the room turned his attention to the man.

The man in suit continued: "They asked our plenipotentiary to be in Dublin by 5pm today. ”

The older man took out his pocket watch and looked at it: "There are still 8 hours." ”

The young man was in his early twenties, and he looked childish, but when he spoke, he spoke with a steadiness that did not match his age: "There is plenty of time, provided that we are on a cruiser, or any kind of aircraft." ”

"What does Your Highness think this means?" The elder asked.

The young man smiled slightly: "It means that His Highness Joachim is near Dublin at the moment." ”

The elder did not realize the meaning of this sentence, and after a moment of contemplation, he proposed to take the cruiser to Dublin.

A sly smile tugged at the corner of the young man's mouth: "You are the plenipotentiary, and everything is up to you." ”

The elder had no choice but to say to the middle-aged man in formal attire: "Inform the Admiralty that they will immediately send us a cruiser to Dublin, and tell them that we need to enter Dublin Harbour by 5 p.m." ”

At this time, the young man interjected: "In fact, whether we can enter the port on time depends on each other. So, it's enough to be in Dublin before 5 o'clock, and we don't have to worry about the rest, and we can't worry about that. ”

The elder frowned at his back, waved his hand without saying a word, and motioned to his subordinates to follow the younger man's supplementary advice.

When the man in the formal suit left the room, the elder turned around and said, "It's too late for Your Highness to withdraw now." ”

The young man asked disapprovingly, "Why should I quit?" ”

"The Irish have behaved in a way that is unreasonable and unscrupulous, and even more difficult to deal with than the original natives of Africa. Your Royal Highness is the Prince of the United Kingdom, and it is really not appropriate to risk yourself. When the elder said this, he did not put on a bitter posture, but rather a little intimidating.

The young man in front of him is the Duke of Rosssi, the Duke of Cornwall, and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales of the British Empire, the legal heir to the British throne. Listening to the exhortation of the elder one, Sir Newgent, the British Foreign Secretary, he hurried back to the bedside, sat down on the large and comfortable sofa, continued to drink the coffee he had just unfinished, and then said: "Rest assured, with my friendship with His Highness Joachim, he will never embarrass me, much less take me hostage in Ireland." ”

Sir Newgent's heart was terrified to hear this, and now that Britain and Ireland are at odds with each other, perhaps in a day or two they will meet each other on the battlefield, even if they have a lot of good feelings before, they must put the country's position first at this time, and if they go against the grain, even if it is only inappropriate speech, they will be criticized at least and may be censored as a traitor.

Seeing that the Foreign Secretary's face changed, Prince Edward shrugged his shoulders and said, "Just kidding! ”

Sir Newgent's expression softened at this time, and he said, "Your Highness is still in the mood to joke at this time, and it seems that he does not feel nervous at all!" Since His Royal Highness insists on going, there must already be a way to deal with the Irish, can you reveal one or two in advance, so that you can be mentally prepared? ”

"How?" Prince Edward shook his head, "Haven't all the coping strategies already been decided at the cabinet meeting?" I don't have a separate plan here, but I want to see how powerful His Highness Joachim is. Of course, if I can help in the meeting, I will be happy to do so. ”

The well-informed Sir Newgent was speechless.

Prince Edward said unhurriedly: "Dublin has become the largest coastal defense fortress in Ireland at present, and after leaving England, His Royal Highness Joachim, who is regarded as a genius leader by the world, is likely to return directly to Dublin, blocking all news from the outside world, creating the illusion that he has not returned home, making us feel that there is an opportunity to take advantage of it, so as to relax our guard, and they will take the opportunity to make us unprepared, so that we will fall into passivity everywhere." Such a strategy seems to be clever, but it actually reflects the dark psychology of this person. When he visited England, he tried his best to show his humble side, and did not dare to confront us directly, but only played intrigues behind his back. ”

Sir Newgent was not quick to approve or disagree, but rubbed his chin in thought. At the end, he asked rhetorically, "Your Highness intends to expose his hypocrisy to his face?" ”

Prince Edward shrugged his shoulders again: "Let's see the opportunity!" If it's useless, why should we take risks? ”

Sir Newgent quietly looked at His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in front of him. Before becoming a cabinet minister, he served outside the country for many years, and had little contact with members of the royal family, and his understanding of them was mainly hearsay. Prince Edward's previous evaluations of Prince Edward, both in the news and in the talk of others, are cautious, that is, it is difficult to judge his potential as a leader from his various performances - both the hope of becoming a first-class king and the possibility of falling into the middle.

About a quarter of an hour later, the man in the suit knocked on the door again, and brought news from the navy: the old cruiser "Memphis" docked in the harbor of Liverpool was on this temporary mission, a refurbished protective cruiser capable of cruising at 20 knots, and set off in half an hour, enough to reach its destination within the stipulated time limit.

Looking out of the window at the port, you can see the shadow of a white ship next to the military dock. In order to appease the morale of the military and improve morale, the British Home Fleet re-adopted the ship livery with pure white as the main color after the war, whether it was a single ship traveling alone or multiple ship formations, the visual effect was better than the previous lead gray, but at the cost of reducing the concealment of the ships. In peacetime, it is not a big problem, and in the event of war, it is necessary to adjust the color of the livery in time so as not to become an excellent target for enemy warships and submarines.

For several days, British ships in white paint patrolled around the clock in the North Channel next to Belfast. Since the situation is only tense and Britain and Ireland have not declared war on each other, the British Navy has no right to intercept and detain ships in normal navigation, but they can make inquiries or follow up on passing non-British ships.

Near noon, the British gunboat "Minotaur", cruising at the northern end of the channel, saw a gray-and-white painted fleet approaching rapidly from the northwest, and realized that it was most likely the Irish fleet, and the crew immediately radioed to its superiors and issued a warning to friendly ships. Within a few minutes, two gunboats, four torpedo boats, and three destroyers sailing in the nearby sea all sounded the battle alarm, and they could open fire immediately if their superiors gave the order to attack, but when the British naval officers and men saw the opposing team's lineup, they couldn't help but gasp: just one Scharnhorst-class armored cruiser was enough to sweep all the British ships here to the bottom of the sea, not to mention a "von der Tann" who had shown great prowess in the British and German naval gunnery exchanges!

Despite the strength of the Irish fleet, the British ships ordered to patrol the North Channel and enforce a wartime blockade were still in a position, and the battle formations of destroyers and torpedo boats were at one point approaching less than two kilometers from the Irish ships. The atmosphere froze, but time flowed as usual, and by the time the British ships received orders from the Admiralty to watch only without force, the Irish fleet had sailed through the narrowest section of the North Channel.

When the news was announced, Prince Edward and Sir Newgent were enduring the turbulence and cold of the storm and cold on the "Memphis", and the news seemed to be more frustrating than the harsh environment for the British crown prince.

"That guy must have stayed on the battleship, always under the protection of the fleet, what a cunning and despicable coward! He could have agreed to hold talks in the northern ports, but he wanted us to go to Dublin, and there was no difference in the voyage, but there was no even the most basic sincerity, and it seems that the prospects for the talks are really very worrying! ”

While Prince Edward was venting his emotions in annoyance and noise, the Foreign Secretary, Sir Neugand, who was also suffering from seasickness, just watched him quietly, and those who were mature enough were not usually emotionally affected by physical pain, which only showed that the young crown prince needed more experience. In the midst of diplomatic and political confrontations in which there is no smoke of gunpowder, some people follow the line of elegant and decent gentlemen, some people take the line of businessmen who put interests first and do whatever they want, and still others follow the line of bandits with a tough attitude and even intimidation; in the final analysis, it does not matter what route they take, the key lies in whether they can obtain benefits for their country in the complicated international arena. Former German Chancellor Bismarck is a good example, although he has repeatedly become the target of criticism, ridicule and even ridicule in the press, especially not in Britain and France, but his successful diplomatic strategy enabled the German Empire to obtain a precious peaceful environment in the most critical period of ascent, completed the industrial revolution in one fell swoop, and entered the ranks of the world's industrial powers from a traditional agricultural country, which can be called the number one hero of Germany's rise.

Sir Nugand sighed: "I have to admit that it was a wrong strategy for us to take Belfast in the first place, neither fully taking into account the military potential of Ireland nor seeing the true intentions of the Germans, and trading the best port in the Far East for the hot potato we have today." We wanted to contain the expansion of the Confederates in the British Isles through Belfast, and now we have been forcibly kidnapped by Ireland, and the main purpose of our trip is not to preserve the British occupation of Belfast, but to get Britain out of this farce as decently as possible. ”

(End of chapter)