"He's here!"

Vilmots. Admiral Yankel stood on the bridge of the "Grand Duke Maximilian", looked at the sea in the distance and said in his mouth. There was a large cruiser approaching from the distant sea, and he led the officers down to the deck, where they waited at the port of the gangway on the starboard side.

The breeze from the Red Sea, even on this morning, carries a hint of heat. In the rising sun, the heavy cruiser "Zagreb" cut through the waves on the surface of the sea, and already on the surface of the sea close to the battleship began to slow down, and finally almost stopped at the surface.

A light-gray transport boat was lowered from the "Zagreb" to the sea, and the entire crew, dressed in snow-white naval uniforms, assembled on the long foredeck under the main turret, stood upright, and waited for the arrival of the emperor. In the rear, near starboard, there were short orders and whistles from the officers on duty, but one could see how the transport boat in which the emperor was traveling was hoisted onto the warship. After a while, the emperor appeared on the side side, followed by more than a dozen high-ranking government officials and army and navy generals of the empire, and the commander of the imperial eastern mediterranean fleet, Admiral Yankel, accompanied the emperor and began to review the officers and men on the ship.

The sun shone on the deck, the military band played the national anthem, and the emperor smiled and walked past the front of the queue in a generalissimo uniform, waving his hand from time to time to greet the officers and men.

After a brief review ceremony, the formation consisting of the battleships "Grand Duke Maximian" and the cruiser "Zagreb" immediately set sail in the direction of the Indian Ocean.

Admiral Yankel accompanied the Emperor back to the captain's cockpit, which was located below the stern deck, "We must first make a trip to Zanzibar, Vilmoc. Lechelton said.

Yankel was stunned, according to the plan there was no such voyage, this was apparently a temporary decision of the emperor.

"The German emperor is on vacation there. We need a joint statement on the situation in the Far East. Helton Lee explained.

"As you wish, I'll arrange it in a moment." Yankel said the warship would take two and a half days to sail in the Red Sea. There's no rush in this matter.

"Yankel, are your chessboards and pieces still there?" Helton Lee said.

"In. However, it is rarely touched now, there are many things, and I am not often on a warship. Yankel said.

"How is the Go champion of Trieste doing now?"

"It's already rusty, Your Majesty. Now, apart from the occasional time when I'm on a warship, I don't have time to play chess anymore. Yankel spread out his hands, and then ordered the orderly to go to his cockpit and bring a heavy set of Go boards and pieces.

"Vilmots, you've been in the fleet for sixteen years, haven't you?" Helton Lee said. He took out a bottle of red wine from the wine cabinet with his own hands, poured himself a glass, and then poured another one for Yankel.

"It's seventeen years, Your Majesty." Yankel said.

"Look, I'm mistaken, you were a young man back then, and now your hair is gray." Lechelton laughed, "Are the kids all right?" I also remember that your eldest son was named Vicker. ”

"They're fine, but Madame is gone, and I'm marrying another." Yankel said. "Wicker is now serving in Indochina."

"Oh, is it also the Navy?"

"Well, he's a pilot, though. Served in naval aviation. ”

While he was talking, the orderly brought in Yankel's Go.

"The chessboard and pieces are very good." looked at the chessboard, then took out a white piece and knocked on the chessboard casually, and said with appreciation, "The authentic quince chessboard, the white clam chess piece, is worth a lot of money." ”

"Is it really expensive? It was given to me a few years ago by a Japanese officer named Yamamoto. Yankel said.

"Yamamoto? Fifty-six? Lechelton said suddenly.

"Yes, yes, it's a numeric name. Does His Majesty know this person too? "Yankel is a little strange, the emperor can't even know about the situation of a Japanese naval colonel, right?

"Oh. I've heard of him, do you know about him? Lechelton said.

"I don't know. I've heard it's a director of their naval aviation department, but I met him in the United States. At that time, he was a member of the Japanese disarmament delegation, and when he heard that I could play Go, he gave him this set of chess pieces and a chessboard. However, his chess skills are not very high, and he is on par with me. ”

"What a good opponent, maybe you will have a chance to compete on the battlefield in the future." Helton Lee said.

Yankel was taken aback, for the first time he had heard such a statement that the Emperor was hinting at the possibility of the empire being involved in a war into the Far East.

"Do you mean we have to get involved? 陛xià. ”

"The Japanese have great ambitions in the Far East, and they intend to unify East Asia, and their propaganda of the so-called 'Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere' has clearly expressed this idea. But we don't want to lose China, which is the most important market for us. "In order to ensure China's security, the empire will at least do its best to help the Chinese resist their invasion, and possibly even enter the war." Do you understand what I mean? ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, I already understand a little, if the Chinese can't resist, the empire will send troops." "Your visit to the Far East is intended to prevent the Japanese from using force?" ”

"There is a sense of this, but no one can stop this war, the Japanese invade the Liaodong Peninsula and Taiwan, if China becomes stronger, they will definitely take the initiative to provoke a war between China and Japan, and the two countries can no longer reconcile." "I just want to delay the time of this war, the longer it is for the Chinese, and if the war happens ten years later, then we will not be used to fight again." ”

"But when the Chinese become stronger, it will be difficult for us to keep our colonies in Indochina." Yankel said, "This is also the French taking away territory from the Chinese, and the Westerners are actually full of jealousy of the Chinese, and a Dutch soldier once told me that if China becomes stronger, then the Dutch East Indies will not be able to protect it, and there are now 35 percent Chinese there." ”

"So what does it matter, what do we want to do in those places? In fact, all we need is colonial markets, and if these markets remain open to us, even if they are left to the Chinese to manage, it is not impossible to consider. Of course, there will definitely be some compensation to be made. If we insist on occupying it, we will not be able to defend it even in a war of Tongguò. When a country becomes strong, it is better to establish good relations with it as soon as possible. This is a mono-ethnic country with a population of 500 million, do you think it will continue to decline? ”

"No, she's actually developing at a rapid pace right now." Yankel finally understood what Lychelton meant, the empire just needed a huge market in the Far East, so it had to maintain good relations with China all the time.

Still, he thought the emperor's idea of the empire sending troops directly was a bit whimsical. (To be continued) R580