When Lieutenant Colonel Zhou Shuren saw Admiral Sorochin's depressed and desperate face at a glance, he had already guessed seven or eight points about the battle situation in the strait.

Sure enough, after a routine cover-up, Sorochin still had to tell the truth with a black face.

It turned out that in the days when Zhou Shuren and Dönitz were hospitalized due to the plane crash, the Allies' strait offensive had plunged the Ottoman Empire into the greatest crisis in history.

In more than half a month, not only did the southern half of the Gallipoli Peninsula fall, but most of the key points on the northern shore from the entrance to the narrowest section of the Dardanelles fell into the hands of the Entente forces, and the Turkish 5th Army stationed in the strait also failed in repeated counterattacks in front of the overwhelming naval artillery and chariot fire of the opponent, suffering heavy casualties, and had to urgently transfer the headquarters of the 1st Army stationed in Constantinople to reinforce it.

In a critical situation, the head of the German military advisory group in Turkey, Liman Leeman. Feng. At the request of Admiral Sanders, Sorochin decided to send three capital ships, which had been scarred but could not be repaired, to venture close to the narrowest part of the strait and bombard the Allied positions on the Gallipoli Peninsula with powerful naval artillery fire to support the army's counteroffensive on all fronts.

As a result, the first to drive into the Sea of Marmara "Yawos. The battlecruiser Selim Sultan (formerly the "Goburn") was soon discovered by British reconnaissance planes, and was immediately attacked by more than 40 carrier-based planes in two waves that took off from the aircraft carrier "Victory." Due to the narrowness of the sea area, it was not easy to maneuver and evade, and it lacked the support of its own fighters, and the hole in the waterline was still blocked by Kao wooden wedges, and the "Selim Sultan" lost all power in the first wave of attacks, and became a dead fish floating on the sea at the whip of enemy planes, and capsized and sank shortly after the end of the second wave of attacks.

The battleship "Raysadie", which followed up, ate two 18-inch (457 mm) aviation torpedoes in the second wave of attacks by British carrier-based aircraft, although there was a lot of water and the incident did not affect the critical matter, but when it turned around and returned home, it was unfortunately ambushed by a British submarine that had broken into the Sea of Marmara, and three much more powerful 21-inch (533 mm) submarine torpedoes were hit almost simultaneously under the port side waterline, which had already opened two holes, causing water into the engine room and the failure of the spare motor, less than two hours, This 27,000-ton super-dreadnought capsized and sank immediately after the "Selim Sultan", becoming the biggest result of the British submarine since the start of the war, and it is also the Turkish Navy's successor to the 9,120-ton coastal defense ironclad ship "Masudiye" and the 10,000-ton former dreadnought battleship "Haireddin. After the Barbarossa, the third large warship sunk by an enemy submarine in the Sea of Marmara.

Upon learning of the above shocking news, the "Sultan Osman I", who had not yet sailed out of the Bosphorus, hurriedly reversed and returned to Constantinople, and the whole city was shaken for a while, and the high-ranking officials and huge wealth began to transfer their family property and dependents, and the cabinet quickly made a decision to set Ankara, which was deep inland, as the accompanying capital, and was ready to arrange for the Sultan to "move" at any time.

Desperate to save face, Admiral Sorochin organized several night raids by destroyer and torpedo boat forces, and in one of the classic quick raids, he sank the 17,400-ton British former dreadnought "African", but in several other unsuccessful attacks, the Turkish Navy lost a third of their destroyers and half of their torpedo boats, and most of the rest were scarred and difficult to attack in the short term.

During this period, the German Navy's U-boat units, which had been active in the Mediterranean Sea since the second half of last year, also launched a frenzied hunting offensive against the Allied warships gathered in the Aegean Sea; within 20 days of the start of the Battle of the Strait, they successively sank the British Navy's "Honorable" and the French Navy's "Bouvet" dreadnought-type battleships, damaged the French "Ocean" dreadnought-type battleship, sank and sank one seaplane carrier and one seaplane supply ship, and sank and damaged more than 10 cargo ships of various types sailing in the Aegean Sea.

However, the U-boat forces in the Mediterranean, based in the ports of Turkey and Austria-Hungary, paid a disproportionate price compared to the previous year: nine U-boats were "missing" in 20 days – and in the first 11 months of 1915, the German Navy lost only 49 U-boats in various theaters, and many returned wounded. There were also many U-boat commanders who complained that they had to give up valuable attack opportunities because of the threat of opposing patrol aircraft in the vicinity of the target fleet. It is believed that a significant part of the Entente escort ships have mastered the means of effectively detecting and attacking underwater targets, and are able to significantly increase their combat efficiency through coordination with specialized anti-submarine aviation. U-boat operations at the actual sea have stalled since their record-breaking peak at the end of last year: losses in January were almost double those in December, while the tonnage sunk was reduced by a full two.

All in all, in general, the central idea of Admiral Sorochin is that this side is almost unable to hold on, and he hopes that Zhou Shuren, who is the first military attache in Turkey, will help him speak, urging the "great eastern ally" to step up his aid and "reverse the unfavorable situation of the comparison of sea power and strength in the shortest possible time." ”

"Understood, I'll do my best."

Zhou Shuren agreed without much thought, in fact, he had a hunch that the base camp would never be indifferent to the situation here, and the commanders of the center were afraid that they would be more nervous than the commander-in-chief of the Austro-Hungarian Navy from Germany.

Admiral Sorochin thanked him politely enough and left in a hurry, and Zhou Shuren was wheeled back to the ward by the nurse in a wheelchair, only to see Dönitz packing up his personal belongings on the bedside table with the help of a soldier.

"Carl, where are you going?"

Dönitz turned around and smiled bitterly: "I just received the order, I have to return home, the submarine force of the empire needs me." It's a pity, Zhou, we just met again and parted again. ”

Zhou Shuren's eyes dimmed: "This is really the worst news I've heard this week." ”

Dönitz shook his head with a smile, and took the initiative to stretch out his hand to Zhou Shuren: "I hope we can meet again, Zhou, I believe you will definitely write the novel you want, you are a natural writer." ”

Zhou Shuren greeted him and shook Dönitz's hand lightly: "I'm just a natural liberal - Karl, you are a born naval soldier, we are destined to meet again." ”

……

Berlin, the imperial capital of the Second German Empire.

In the brightly lit hall of the Llatz Palace, the solemn melody of the German national anthem echoed alternately, and the dignitaries of Germany gathered together to surround several officials, only to see the German Kaiser Wilhelm II in military uniform take out a blue and gold medal from the gold plate presented by the waiter in turn - the highest honor of the German ** team "Meritorious Service Medal" is the so-called "Blue Max", hang it around the neck of each person with his own hands, and shake hands with them one by one, and every interval of the handshake will trigger the onlookers to cheer beyond enthusiasm.

When Kaiser Wilhelm II had finished shaking hands with the last officer, the leading admiral, Captain of the "Yingzhou" flying carrier Ralikong, stepped forward, bowed respectfully, and presented the Kaiser with a large paper bag with both hands.

"This is a photo taken by the heroic carrier-based pilots of the Chinese Empire in the skies over Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Wilhelm II took the paper bag with a smile on his face, took out a few on the spot and looked at them carefully, and the attendants on the side cleverly presented a magnifying glass so that His Majesty the Emperor could see it more clearly.

"Here is the onion-headed spire of the Moscow Kremlin, we should have blown up one or both of them...... This is a street scene of St. Petersburg, where we dropped a hundred bombs and a hundred thousand leaflets...... This is the Kronstadt fortress, where our torpedo machines launched a lightning strike on a Russian cruiser anchored and severely damaged it......"

Listening to Raleigh's introduction, Wilhelm II couldn't help but frown, took a photo and smiled: "Well done, I hope this can give my dear 'Nicky' brother a chance to sober up - China is such a magical place, you can always do something we want to do but can't." ”

The so-called "Nicky" is Wilhelm II's nickname for Tsar Nicholas II, out of kinship since Queen Victoria, the current monarchs of Britain, Russia and Germany can speak fluent English, and each other is nicknamed brothers, Wilhelm II's nickname among the three is "Willy", and King George V is called "George" - obviously this personal relationship is not enough to solve the reality of the three kingdoms fighting each other.

Lieutenant Colonel Nie Wenqing, the special liaison officer of the base camp who temporarily served as the interpreter, naturally had no intention of delving into such trivial matters, as far as he was concerned, the political impact of the bombing of the Russian imperial capital had already been half confirmed - the morale of the allies was obviously boosted, and the morale of the Entente was also expected, but this had nothing to do with him in the first place, and the task assigned by Her Majesty the Empress had not yet begun, so he had to hurry up and get to the point......

"Your Majesty the Emperor, this official also brought a handwritten letter from Her Majesty the Empress of the Chinese Empire."

As he spoke, Nie Wenqing had already taken out a wooden letter inlaid with gold and brocade from his arms, carefully raised it above his head, and presented it to Wilhelm II.

"It's been a real pleasure for me, and I'm sure it won't be a love letter." Wilhelm II's clumsy joke caused a roar in the hall, and Nie Wenqing couldn't help but tighten his face, and he couldn't help but have the thought of humiliating his ministers to death and splashing blood in one step.

Holding back the resentment in his heart, Nie Wenqing reminded as politely as possible: "This is an informal letter of state, and I hope that Your Majesty will read it in person as soon as possible." ”

Wilhelm II still had a disgusting smile on his face: "I'll go through it before I go to bed - now let's celebrate and play music for these warriors who have crossed the world's boundary island!" ”

The cheerful waltz sounded, the red men and green women, the lamp fans were drunk, and no one would have thought that in the cold trenches hundreds of kilometers away, endless blood was dissolving into the endless mud without restraint...... V