The wind is howling, bringing the cold coolness of late autumn, and the yellow leaves on the land of Central Europe have declined, and it has entered a dormant season. In one of the halls of the Berlin Imperial Palace, thick velvet carpets, red fires, and simple home bookcases are placed in an orderly manner, reflecting the whole room luxuriously and solemnly. Under the huge map of the world world by the wall, a middle-aged man with a pointed beard stood in full costume, his eyes were like falcons, staring at this ordinary map and groaning. Next to the middle-aged man, there was also a young man with a handsome face, and from a long distance away, a pleasant aura had already hit his face.

According to the message sent by the German ambassador to St. Petersburg, Nikolai Shu has cobbled together a new Third Pacific Fleet in order to strengthen the Rozhdestvensky fleet, which had departed a month earlier, and to increase the chances of the Russian fleet winning this expedition. The flotilla consisted of warships that had been defeated by the Second Pacific Fleet, and its core was two Alexander II-class ironclads that had begun construction in 1885 and three Admiral-Ushakov-class coastal defense heavy gunboats, which had begun construction in 1892. As the British declared their 'absolute neutrality', they were able to take a shortcut through the Suez Canal and go to Madagascar to join the main forces of the Russian fleet. ”

Qing Ying pointed into his palms and crossed a large S-shaped arc on the smooth huge map; William's gray eyes flickered as he looked at the long, slender palm finger that moved, and his mind began to calculate rapidly. After a while, the corners of his mouth moved, and he slowly spoke: "I seem to remember that these warships are all offshore activities that are not suitable for ocean voyages?" ”

"Exactly. The Ushakov class is the most typical coastal defense ship, and with a very low freeboard, they are only suitable for activities in the Baltic Sea; The Alexander II class was slightly better, but the mere 1,000-ton coal-fired load was not a ship for long-distance voyages. In addition, these warships were completely obsolete ships with weak firepower, slow speed, and poor protection, and their performance was so inferior that they could not be looked at directly, and they did nothing to win the naval battle. Perhaps their only purpose is to add a brighter touch of color to the Japanese book. Qingying put his hand back in his pocket and smiled slightly, "The reason why Rozhdestvensky didn't let them join the lineup of the Second Pacific Fleet in the first place is probably because of this consideration, but Nikolai Shu Huang doesn't seem to want to think about it so much. All he was thinking about now was how to defeat Japan once and for all, and it was only natural that he would send these armed forces equipped with cannons, and that the will of the great, glorious, and correct Tsar was God's instructions! ”

The news that Russia sent the Third Pacific Fleet, as in history, was also completely expected by Qing Ying. This is not the first time that the last Tsar has been whimsical, "He has a three-minute keen interest in everything, but his superficial and crude personal skills have led him to make ideas and decisions that will astute the most senior experts." "The most fatal thing is that the tsarist autocracy of the imperial power gave him the absolute power to act supreme and arbitrarily, making his will seem to be the embodiment of God's will, and there is no room for the slightest disobedience from others. In Nikolai's opinion, the fleet must be stronger and stronger in numbers, so what reason do these old ironclad shore defense ships not do their part for the war of the Empire? The Tsar's will was quickly carried out under the flattery of a group of bureaucrats, and Rear Admiral Falkshan, who was unfortunately assigned by the Admiralty, had to pack up his bags and chase Rozhdestvensky with the scum of the so-called "self-sinking ships".

William's pair of beards curled up, and he said hesitantly: "After these battleships are gone, Russia will no longer have any capital ships in the Baltic Sea, and now even the Saxony-class ironclad ships that my Germany commissioned 25 years ago can become the unshakable absolute hegemon of the Baltic Sea, this feeling of taking an entire sea area as an inland lake is really wonderful!" However, it is not enough for these Russian warships to be gone, it is better to make them never come back. Etter, do you think our colonial ports in Namibia and the Philippines should be open to the main force of the Russian fleet that is detouring the Cape of Good Hope? ”

Looking at William's gray eyes with a slight inquiring color, Qingying thought for a moment, and then replied: "For my Germany, the best outcome of this war is tantamount to a great weakening of Russia, and there is no longer any threat to us. And a Russia without a navy is clearly a situation that Germany would like to see. From this point of view, therefore, we should heed the call of the British to be absolutely neutral in our attitude towards the Russian expeditionary fleet, and to refuse to offer the port to the Russians. In this way, the Russian fleet will inevitably face the Japanese at sea with a more tired body, which increases the likelihood that they will be wiped out by the Japanese like a sharp blade splitting butter. ”

"However, it is now necessary for us to maintain a relatively friendly atmosphere with Russia. Only if we continue to support Nikolai's Far East policy, even if it is only superficial political solidarity without any real action, will Russia, which has a stable European rear, feel confident and bold to always focus its strategic focus on Manchuria, 10,000 kilometers away from Germany. Russia's eastward advance not only directly alleviated the pressure on Germany at the land level, but also attracted the hateful attention of Britain by stretching the bear's paw to the Yangtze River valley of the Qing Dynasty, and then intensified the contradictions and conflicts between Britain and the Franco-Russian alliance, and won a better space for Germany to develop. The current rapid progress of our power in the Ottoman Empire is directly due to the current background of the Anglo-Russian struggle for hegemony, because neither side has the spare strength to intervene in our German Middle East strategy. If the German-Austrian alliance shows a clear anti-Russian orientation in Europe, then Russia, which feels threatened in Europe, will turn its attention to Europe again, and its military adventures in the Far East will be drastically curtailed, which I absolutely do not want to see in Germany! ”

Qingying paused, and then concluded: "Therefore, what we Germany have to do is to give some support to Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, so that they can continue to fight bloodily with the Japanese in Manchuria, and attract the hatred of Britain for our Germany; However, we must not support the Russians too much, lest they crush the Japanese to death and then become more powerful into our war with France. After all, Russia already owes too much debt to France, and countless domestic capitals are controlled by France, even if Hohenzollern and Romanov are blood relatives for a hundred years, it is inevitable that they will face war in the next European war. ”

After listening to Qingying's narration, William looked at the daunting and magnificent territory in the northern part of the Eurasian continent with a complicated expression, his eyes flickered, and he didn't know what he was thinking. Seeing that William was silent, Qingying, who had been in contact with him for ten years, also slightly guessed a little bit about how his cheap father felt at the moment. Judging from the history of the previous 150 years, Germany and Russia have a traditional friendship, and Germany and Austria are never-ending enemies; France and Austria also had constant contradictions, and France and Russia had a grudge between France and Russia for more than half a century because of Napoleon's crusades. If history could repeat itself, Germany could have chosen between Austria-Hungary and Russia, and would have exported a large amount of capital to Russia with the abundant funds after industrialization, and tied the Russian giant firmly to its chariot. As a result, a German-Russian alliance against France and Austria will be formed on the European continent, and even if Germany will suffer from its investment in Russia, the overall situation will be much better than it is now.

However, history has no ifs. For one reason or another, Hohenzollern finally came into contact with the century-old enemy Habsburg, and the inertia of the strong international pattern made Germany have to go all the way to the black, either stepping on the peak or falling into the abyss. William himself very much wanted to draw Russia into the gang and let Germany, Austria and Russia re-form a great alliance of imperial states against Britain, but there has always been a serious conflict of interests between Russia and Austria on the Balkan issue, and the Russians still owe the French a terrible debt that has not been paid off for decades!

"I know what to do. Namibia in southwestern Africa could be opened to the Russians, and anyway, it was still thousands of miles away from the Far East, and they could stop for as long as they wanted. However, the Philippines, which was adjacent to the Manchurian front, was absolutely unable to allow the Russian fleet to be stationed. If the Russian fleet had been allowed to sail north in the best possible condition after the Philippines had scraped the bottoms of their ships, repaired their machinery, and recuperated their strengths, they would have a good chance of crushing the Japanese navy in one fell swoop, thus directly turning the tide in the Far East. After the end of the war, the number of Russian warships returning may increase even more because of the capture of Japanese warships! William glanced at the lightly gray coastal colony at the bottom of the map, and then said to Qingying, "That's what you think, right?" ”

Qingying said respectfully: "Father Caesar is reincarnated, and Etel admires it very much. In fact, the ideal outcome would be to make Manchuria a casino that would devour Russia's national power: the Russians had exhausted their strength in one defeat after another, but a few small victories at the right time would give them hope of continuing to fight. However, the realization of this condition is too difficult, and there is only so much room for conservative operation left for us. Speaking of this, his face gradually showed a hint of expectation, and said: "I only hope that God willing, let the Russian fleet be destroyed in the Far East, after all, a stable Baltic Sea is the most direct guarantee for the high seas fleet to move towards the ocean!" ”