Before Ekoman arrived in Istanbul, he never imagined that the arrival of a warship would cause such a surging national frenzy.

A dozen days ago, an authentic pirate raid took place at the mouth of the River Thames in London. The British, even though the Turks had already paid in full, brazenly requisitioned the warships belonging to the Ottoman Empire, and drove the ykews who had gone to receive the warships out of England like bedbugs. And on the other side of the strait, the Germans, without the Turks sending a receiving crew, manipulated the ship with their own sailors and sent the battleship to Istanbul thousands of miles away!

Since it was difficult for the Ottoman Navy to recruit enough qualified officers and sailors to operate the behemoth ship, after some negotiations, Germany readily agreed to the request to temporarily "lease" the ship's personnel to the Ottoman Navy. These officers and soldiers were suddenly transformed into "Ottoman-Germanic" people. When all the officers and men of the Sultan Selim put on white Turkish caps and lined up next to the side of the ship to be paraded by the Sultan, countless Turkish people on the shore erupted in earth-shattering cheers.

In order to acquire this world-class super-dreadnought, almost all of the more than 30 million Turks donated their own wealth; And today, they are best rewarded for their efforts. This majestic and majestic giant ship embodies the firm determination of a country to rise up; They are about to hold this sharp sword in their hands and draw an end to their more than 100 years of European sick life. Having deeply felt the joy and happiness of this battleship as their own, the Turkish people were also immensely grateful for the friendliness of the Germans, and developed an incomparable bitter hatred for the British, who had brazenly seized their other battleship. If not for the impudence and arrogance of the British. They should have had a second super dreadnought!

But. On the most critical thing of joining the war. The Ottoman decision-makers, however, did not get emotional in the first place. Even now, more than a month after the outbreak of the war and repeated defeats between France and Russia, the Turks are still watching cautiously, lest they step into the abyss from which they will never recover. While this cautious approach is understandable, it is by no means a favourable situation for Germany. Regardless of the fact that the fully mobilized Ottoman Empire could provide more than 1 million offensive forces against Russia, their always open Bosphorus Strait alone was difficult for Germany to accept; In previous wars, numerous British and French freighters laden with supplies had entered the Black Sea under the noses of the Turks and unloaded their cargo in Sevastopol and other places. directly supported the Russian fighting on the Eastern Front. For Russia, which is economically backward and has a weak industrial foundation, this passage is like the main artery that sustains the war, pumping a steady stream of blood to the heart and limbs.

At present, Russia has almost rejected Germany's offer of separate peace; For Germany, therefore, the plan to blockade Russia from the south could not wait any longer. Since the Turks were still hesitant to make a move, the Germans had to force them to make a choice through a practical action. And this task fell on the Sultan Selim. In Qingying's plan, if this Turkish warship could go to the Black Sea and beat the Russians on its own initiative, then the eleventh large-scale war between Russia and Turkey would be inevitable. And because the battleship was all controlled by German officers and soldiers. It couldn't be easier!

On June 15, Eckermann received a confidential telegram from the Admiralty in Berlin. Under the pretext of going to sea for training, he led the Sultan Selim into Istanbul to shell Sevastopol, the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Eckerman immediately complied. The Turks did not doubt him, and gladly acceded to the Germans' request for "training at sea": the battleship had only been completed for two months, and it needed a lot of time to run in and debug the personnel and equipment, and it had already been trained several times in the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea.

The only thing that worries Ekoman is that the Turks are too cautious. Fearing that something would happen to the ship, which they had spent a huge amount of £2.5 million, the Ottoman Navy not only sent four torpedo boats as escorts, but even let their other weapon - Barbarossa? The battleship Khareddin travels with the Sultan Selim! Although the battleship was also built by Germany, it had been in the Ottoman navy for two and a half years, and it was now full of Turkish sailors, which undoubtedly added a lot of variables to the Germans' plans to shell Sevastopol.

―――――――――――――――――

With the sharp sound of the oil pipeline disconnecting from the interface, the refueling of the Sultan Selim was ready. The huge, heavy anchor chain was mechanically twisted out of the sea and repositioned at a height of 5 meters above the water. After a short time, the induced draft fan began to emit a deafening noise, and 6 oil-fired boilers and 6 kerosene mixed combustion boilers began to burst into flames; The high-quality demineralized water enters the pipeline under the pressure of the water pump, first becomes saturated steam in a series of evaporation and heating processes, and then circulates in the superheater. The fan is whistling, and the fire is blazing. When the superheated steam produced by the boiler is of the required quality, the pipe valve to the steam turbine is opened; The high-temperature and high-pressure steam releases its enthalpy on the turbine blades, and the thick and long traditional shaft drives the propeller at the tail of the hull to rotate rapidly.

Smoke is dotted and diffuse. With three-quarters of the fuel being heavy oil, the smoke from the Sultan Selim is rather gray; And next to Barbarossa? The Hayreddin's two chimneys spew thick soot and wreak havoc on the surrounding environment. As a small dreadnought ordered by the Ottoman Empire from Germany in 1908, the Hayreddin, with a standard displacement of 16,200 tons, was far behind the Sultan Selim, which was two years behind in terms of firepower, protection and speed; However, in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, it remains a powerful presence that no enemy can ignore.

At 11:30, two battleships, escorted by three torpedo boats, left the Istanbul military port and slowly headed for a deeper part of the Black Sea. Despite the secret mission of shelling a Russian military port and forcing the Turks into the water, Ekoman kept his ship on a normal combat drill during the fleet's voyage. Z-shaped anti-submarine navigation, sharp turn to evade; Simulated damage management emergency repair, live-fire training...... German sailors were using their time on the road, little by little, to improve their proficiency. When the four 350-mm guns fired a massive half-salvo, the Turkish officers and men on the battleship Hayreddin and several other torpedo boats were full of excitement; Isolated from the European front line and located in the eastern Mediterranean, they were completely intoxicated by the thunderous sound of 350-mm guns.

The sea breeze is blowing and the waves are swaying. Gradually, the Turkish officers and men on several other warships sensed that something was wrong: the fleet had been sailing northeast since it sailed out of Istanbul, and the Crimean peninsula, jutting out of the Black Sea, was the nest of the Russian Black Sea Fleet! The Khaireddin waved the flag to the Sultan Selim, expressing their confusion and incomprehension. Ekoman replied that since the Russian Black Sea Fleet was the Ottoman Navy's biggest adversary, he needed to train closer to Crimea in order to familiarize himself with the marine hydrology of the region and prepare for a possible war in the future.

Late on the night of 16 June, the Khairedin continued to signal the flagship's Sevastopol fortress ahead of the Russians, but Ekoman pretended not to know that the course of the Sultan Selim remained unchanged. The Turks thought that the German commander was asleep, and in order to ensure the safety of the super-dreadnought, they still had to follow closely. Early the next morning, they were in the sea just 20 nautical miles from Sevastopol. Just as the Turks were about to urge their flagship home one last time, a set of signals came from the Sultan: they were about to bombard the Russian military port and asked the Turks for support!

Upon hearing the news, the Turkish captain of the Hayreddin was stunned. The purpose of these Germans not to go to sea is not for training at all, but to use knives directly against the Russians! In a panic, he hurriedly sent a signal to stop, but the Sultan Selim's attitude was extremely resolute, and it had already begun to sail in the direction of the Russian base. Ekoman signaled to the Hayredin that it now has two first-class dreadnoughts at the time of the shelling of Sevastopol and the shame of the Russian-Turkish war 35 years ago. The Ottomans regained their former glory in dominating the Mediterranean, starting with today's war against Russia!

Seeing that the Germans were unmoved and continued to advance, the Turkish captain could not help but be anxious. Although the Sultan Selim is powerful, its personnel and equipment are still in the run-in stage: if the Russian fleet is dispatched with all the family, its safety will also be difficult to guarantee! The Turkish captain gritted his teeth and ordered his ship and torpedo boats to continue to follow the flagship and go straight to the outskirts of the Sevastopol military port. In his heart, there is also a fiery heart that belongs to a soldier; For the greedy and brutal Russians, every Turk hates to eat flesh and skin, and it would be wonderful if they could shell their doorstep wantonly! (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly ticket support of the breath in the heart of the book friend and the reward of zhouyu1976~~~