(137) The turning point of history
"So we must launch it as soon as possible," the leader said, "I heard that Yuan Shikai is doing everything possible to buy warships from foreign countries, and we can't wait until he sharpens his knife before we do it." ”
After listening to the leader's words, the people around him nodded yes, and Yoshida Chūnko, who was standing on the side, looked at the leader's calm and calm demeanor like a king, and his eyes once again shone with admiration.
"Yuan Shikai's dream of being an emperor will soon come to an end. We will let the sun of democracy and republic rise in the dark night sky of the vast land of China! ”
The leader's incomparably firm and proud words gave the people around him infinite confidence, and some of them couldn't help but cheer in low voices.
"This time, we will definitely succeed!"
"Long live the revolution!"
"Long live the Democratic Republic!"
"If only Mr. Keqiang could come back now." I don't know who said that.
"I heard that Mr. Keqiang is studying military affairs in Europe, and it would be nice if he could come back now."
"Yes! Keqiang is not here, we have one less general! The leader let out a heavy sigh, and some of the old revolutionaries also flashed with regret in their eyes, but of course they did not realize that their leader was actually in his heart, and it was not consistent with what he said.
Of course, the leader at this time did not know that Huang Xing, who was far away in Europe, was facing a great danger.
"Listen! What was that? ”
Huang Xing, who was still asleep, straightened up sharply from the chuáng, and at this time, he felt the ground under him tremble as if it had been earthquaked.
Several Chinese students in the same room were also awakened, and they all looked at each other with some uneasiness, each seeing horror in the other's eyes.
Huang Xing's gaze immediately fell on the table not far away, and the water cup on the table was also shaking incessantly, making a strange sound.
Huang Xing looked up in the direction of the window, accompanied by a thunderous roar in the distance, and the red light kept flickering.
Huang Xing put on his clothes and got up and came to the window, only to see a fiery red flash in the sky in the distance, illuminating the dark night sky.
"It's the Germans who are playing pào." One Chinese student said, "It's terrible. ”
Huang Xing knew that this was the German and French armies bombarding each other with artillery, and only the flash of flame from the muzzles of thousands of mén guns could cause such a spectacular scene.
Suddenly, there was a piercing scream in the sky, and then a huge fire rose from the street not far away, and the deafening loud noise shattered the glass of the window in front of Huang Xing, and the strong shaking made Huang Xing unsteady on his feet and almost fell.
Two international students stepped forward to support Huang Xing's somewhat fat body, Huang Xing did not notice the broken glass that burst into his body, but stared closely at the place where the explosion came from.
In the midst of this loud bang, a church was completely reduced to rubble.
"Oh my God! The shells of the Germans were already able to hit Paris! An international student said with some horror.
"Impossible! This should have been caused by the bombs dropped by the Germans' flying boats! ”
"So, the Germans are coming!"
"What those prostitutes said is true! Paris is very empty now! There aren't many guards at all! ”
After listening to everyone's gossip, Huang Xing had a vague sense of foreboding in his heart.
"Everyone, hurry up and pack your things, let's get out of here." Huang Xing said, brushing the broken glass on his body, turned around and began to get dressed.
Soon, several Chinese packed up and hurriedly left the hotel and came to the street.
At this time, there were already a lot of panicked people gathered on the street, Huang Xing noticed that the place where the explosion had just occurred had been burning with raging flames, the instinct of life and death on the battlefield reminded him that this explosion was unusual, he felt more and more that the danger was approaching, and when he was about to take everyone away, there was a terrible scream in the sky again!
Huang Xing yelled, "Get down!" Then he fell to the ground, and when he heard his warning, several Chinese students followed suit.
Just as the surrounding French people didn't know what was happening, the hotel where Huang Xing was still living just now was suddenly engulfed in a huge flame, and the rolling thunderous explosion made Huang Xing's ears buzz, and he couldn't hear anything.
Broken bricks and gravel fell from the air like a torrential rain, falling on Huang Xing's body, as if to bury him, Huang Xing covered his head with both hands, and something like metal hit his hand, making him feel a piercing pain. ,
I don't know how long it took, Huang Xing felt that nothing was falling anymore, he stood up heartily, patted off the dirt and sand on his body, turned his head to look in the direction where the explosion came from, and couldn't help but open his mouth wide in surprise.
The hotel where he and the students had just stayed is now gone, and all that remains is the ruins and mutilated corpses.
Huang Xing made sure that the bones of his hand were not injured, and just as he was about to search for his companion, his eyes were suddenly attracted by something at his feet.
It was a thick shard of metal.
Huang Xing leaned over and picked up the metal fragment, and he immediately recognized the material of the fragment, which was a piece of brass.
Several international students also got up at this time and gathered around Huang Xing, and one of the international students saw what Huang Xing was holding and said, "This may be a bomb dropped by the Germans." ”
"It can't be a bomb, the planes and ships of the Germans can't fly in." Another international student flatly denied it.
As the war became more and more difficult, the French capital Paris became the target of the German army's main attack, and in order to defend Paris, the French army deployed a large number of improved high-speed artillery groups and high-flying aircraft in the defensive zone between the German battle lines. In order to destroy the morale of the soldiers and civilians in Paris, the Germans used bombers to carry out night raids on Paris gradually increased (bombing Paris during the day was basically looking for death), but except for moonlit nights, the accuracy of German bombing was almost equal to zero. At night, Paris was controlled by lights, not only did there not have a single light, but it was full of high-altitude guns, and German planes could only drop bombs at high altitudes, so they could not accurately attack targets. And before the arrival of the German planes, the effective alert system of the French also prepared everyone well.
In order to defend Paris, the French took great pains to build a city simulating Paris on both sides of the Marne Ring, following the contours of the flowing Seine, in order to deceive the German pilots. The fake city was even marked with obvious markers so that German pilots could easily identify them. But it looks like the Germans didn't fall for long.
"It's not like a bomb." Huang Xing shook his head and said, "The fragments of the bomb are not so thick, this should be the fragments of the shell shell." ”
"But the Germans can't shoot that far, sir." One international student said, "The German position is almost 65 miles away from Paris, and the farthest distance of the artillery is not more than 20 miles, so how can it be possible to hit Paris?" ”
As soon as the international student finished speaking, a deafening explosion was heard again on another street in the distance, and the rising flames reflected the frightened faces of the people standing on the street.
"The Germans have always been very good at technology, and maybe Nòng has come up with a more powerful cannon." Huang Xing thought of the heavy artillery designed by himself by the young general he met in the United States, and couldn't help but be in a trance for a while, "The power of this high technology is indeed unimaginable!" ”
As Huang Xing estimated, in order to be able to bombard Paris, German scientists have successfully developed three mén cannons, each of which has a distance of seventy-five miles - this is exactly the distance from Paris to the Saint-Gobain Forest, where the cannon is placed!
The terrible damage caused by the explosion just now was caused by these steel monsters known as the "Cannons of Paris".
In order to reach Paris, the Krupp armorers made the largest artillery cannon in human history to date, the "Paris Cannon". The muzzle diameter of this cannon was 8.26 inches (210 mm), and the barrel was almost as tall as a twelve-story building—118.2 feet (34 m) long. Since such a long barrel could not support its own weight - no matter how good the steel of the Germans was, the barrel inevitably drooped near the muzzle. The Germans overcame this problem by using cantilever brackets to support the barrel. At the same time, the Germans also designed wheels with rims that could roll along the railway tracks, giving the "Paris Cannon" a certain maneuverability. The total weight of the "Paris cannon" is 375 tons, and the cannon itself weighs 180 tons. The barrel is raised at a fixed angle of 50 degrees, while the increase or decrease of the shè is regulated by changing the number of black sè fire yào. The huge railway wheeling wheel allows the gun carriage and cannon to rotate horizontally to change direction. The shells of the "Cannons of Paris" weighed 276 pounds (126 kg) and were fired by 430 pounds of fire that were piled up almost a foot high. The cannonball flew at an initial velocity of 5,500 feet per second to an altitude of more than 20 miles, then rushed with little resistance in the high stratosphere, and fell in an arc with the help of gravity towards Paris, where only God knows. ,
Now Huang Xing does not know that the hotel where he stayed that was destroyed just now is the masterpiece of the "Paris Cannon". Huang Xing also didn't know that it was the Paris cannon that made him feel the danger by virtue of his years of battlefield instinct, so that he did not become a ghost under the German shells, and was saved from the fate of being captured by the Germans.
Huang Xing looked at the place where the fire was rising, and said decisively, "Let's go!" Get out of Paris now! ”
On November 12, 1917, the Germans captured Paris.
The fall of Paris, the capital of France, caused a great shock throughout the world, and the morale of the Entente bloc plummeted, and military observers from all over the world were shocked, and the most shocked was the Chinese emperor Yuan Shikai, who had just entered the war.
Beijing, chūn lotus fast.
At this time, in this elegant building, the military council of the Imperial Front was being held nervously.
"Paris fell into the hands of the Germans, the morale of the French army was greatly demoralized, and the French government was likely to unilaterally seek reconciliation with Germany." Minister of State Xu Shichang said worriedly, "I think this time the Entente is not good, and the Entente will be defeated in the hands of Germany." ”
"Yes! The German army is so capable of fighting, and Britain, France, and the United States are not its opponents, I think we might as well be the best as soon as possible. Li Yuanhong, Prince of Wuyi, also said.
"It's not yet time for us to be in the chōu body." Chief of Staff Cai Yi shook his head and said, "The loss of a city in Paris is not enough to control the entire situation of the war, although the French army is defeated, but the main force of the British and American troops and our army is still there, and the German army's land advantage is still unclear." Moreover, the German naval battle was not decisive and could not break the naval blockade of the British navy, although its army entered and occupied Paris, it did not do much to the whole situation. ”
"Matsupa's words are wrong, the Battle of Jutland, the British Navy suffered heavy losses, and the German Navy has won a great victory, which is a fact recognized by the whole world, how can it be said that it failed to win the victory?" Li Yuanhong said, "The result of this naval battle is there, but it's not our wishful thinking to say who is the winner!" ”
Listening to Li Yuanhong's words, Yang Shuoming couldn't help but laugh secretly in his heart.
In the present time and space, the course of history has changed a lot, and the reason for this is probably the result of the efforts of his xiǎoxiǎo butterfly - or more precisely a dark bat of xiǎoxiǎo - to flap its wings.
In order to change the course of the First World War and give China more time to develop, Yang Shuoming deliberately used all the means at his disposal, and his actions seemed insignificant, but they truly changed history.
The outcome of the Battle of Jutland, the real turning point of the First World War, was a huge deviation from the original history.
In the aggressive Admiral Schell was appointed commander-in-chief of the German High Seas Fleet by the German Emperor Wilhelm II. Schell had always been extremely concerned about the "hunger blockade" launched by Britain against Germany. He became even more worried when Wilhelm II reduced the speed of the submarine blockade under the threat of American intervention. Because of the disparity in strength between the German and British navies, Schell had avoided all-out battles with the British navy. Scheer's tactic was to carry out a series of "hit-and-run" attacks along the British coast, intending to attract British ships in pursuit, and if the situation was favorable to him, he would attack these British ships to change the balance of power between the two sides.
Although the German navy ranks second in the world in terms of strength, second only to the British Navy, the gap between second and first place is quite large, the British Navy has 37 dreadnought-class battleships and battlecruisers, while the German has only 23 capital ships of the same class, and in terms of artillery firepower, the British have an even greater advantage - the British have 168 mén 13-and-a-half inch (343 mm) and 15-inch (381 mm) caliber cannons and 104 mén 12-inch (305 mm) caliber cannons, Against German 176mén 12-inch caliber cannons. In addition, the British Navy had 34 heavy and light cruisers, against 11 German cruisers, and the ratio of destroyers was 80 to 63.
Yang Shuoming, who was familiar with the results of the naval battle, knew that the outcome of the Battle of Jutland was important to Germany, and in order to enable Germany to resist the Entente bloc for a longer time, as early as soon after the war began, he used the power of the "supercomputer eye" to decipher the German cipher code, and successfully transmitted the false news to the German side through various channels that the British and Japanese navies were preparing to form a joint fleet.
Since the capital ships of the British and Japanese navies were armed with powerful 15-inch (381 mm) and 14-inch (356 mm) guns, the 305 mm guns of the German capital ships were relatively inadequate. In order to be able to counter the possible "combined Anglo-Japanese fleet", Wilhelm II ordered the German Navy to replace four battleships of the "King" class with more powerful 350-mm guns and accelerated the construction of four "Byrne" class battleships. Before the start of the Battle of Jutland, all four Byrne-class battleships were commissioned, raising the strength of the German Navy to another notch. ,
With the strength to argue with the British, Scheer began to actively plan a main decisive battle with the British Navy, and because the enemy was too strong, Scheer initially sent only a batch of cruisers to bombard the British coastal cities, and the foggy weather prevented the British Navy from pursuing. On May 30, Scheer devised a plan to trap the Royal Navy into a trap. His yòu bait is cruising on the Norwegian coast of Franz. Feng. A detachment under the command of Admiral Hipper. He reasoned that the British would not send an entire fleet to intercept a limited invasion. After the sorties of the Hipper fleet, he was to lead the full force of the German High Seas Fleet to follow fifty miles later. If the British navy attacked, Hipper, after putting up a symbolic resistance, turned the rudder and led the pursuers into the shè of Scheer's Grand Fleet.
Due to a mistake in intelligence work, the German Navy's sailing plan had been known to the British Navy the day before, but the British did not know what Scher's purpose was. The radio stations in Wilhelmshaven had been broadcasting using the call sign of the battleship Frederick the Great, the flagship of Scheer, which led the British Admiralty to believe that the German Navy's main high seas fleet remained in the harbor. Towards the end of May, British Navy interpreters intercepted a large number of radio communications that had suddenly appeared, indicating anomalous naval activity on the part of the Germans. And the sight of a fleet of submarines off the coast of Scotland added to the suspicions of the British Navy. British Admiral John. Jellicoe and Vice Admiral David. Betty sensed that there was an unexpected move, and after careful consideration, they came up with a plan that was actually the same as that of the Germans. The plan was for Yòu to have Scheer attack the ostensibly weaker Betty fleet, and after a short exchange of shelling, Betty would retreat to the main British fleet, which was lurking beyond the horizon.
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