On June 1911, King George V of England was crowned. During the coronation ceremony that lasted for several hours, the new king almost injured his neck because he wore a heavy crown. The precious gems on the crown were dazzling, but the majestic group of warships was the real treasure for this country to roam the ocean and stand on the top of the world. In the ship reading, the latest British battleships built and served in service opened their eyes. Palerophon, St. Vincent, Invincible, and tireless. In this powerful ship that showed its sharpness, the once sensational "Fearless" became a very ordinary character. Faced with this British fleet with terrifying firepower, the navy of any country will only be destroyed no matter how it resists.

The German Navy will be the only exception.

A few days later, the German government, which negotiated with France due to the Moroccan issue, decided to take further pressure due to the delay of progress. The German Navy dispatched an inconspicuous gunboat from the Southwest African colony closest to Morocco, which is the famous "Leopard" that has left a famous historical record. Although the displacement is not as good as a newly built large torpedo boat, and the artillery equipped can only be used to deter African indigenous people, its itinerary will have endless impact on the world.

The "Leopard" embarked on an uncertain voyage, and the German Navy dispatched the light cruiser "Berlin" to Morocco. This Bremen-class cruiser with a displacement of more than 3,000 tons was built in 1902. Its main weapons are 105mm caliber naval guns and 450mm underwater torpedo launchers. Its combat power is also not worth mentioning in front of the large British warship stationed in Gibraltar. However, behind it and the "Leopard" is a German Navy, which has already ranked second in the world and its development momentum has made the British unable to sleep or eat!

Before the "Leopard" arrived at the port of Agadir and then triggered a war crisis, the "Von der Tin" who participated in the British crown ceremony and the ship-reading ship-style "Von der Tin" went north to visit the British Fors Bay Naval Base, and held the annual artillery exchange between the two navies. This year, Britain and Germany had successively formulated or revised the naval shipbuilding plan, and the maritime military preparations entered a white-hot stage. Due to this fierce competition, the German Navy selected the latest "Von der Tin" to be in service, and the British Navy was not willing to be outdone and sent the "Untifiable" to serve less than two months.

The Fortune Class, which was first shipped by the "Undevoted" is an extended type of the Invincible Class Battlecruiser. When construction started, the British learned that the German Navy would carry the same triple main turret as the Nassau-class battleship on the new fast warship, so the attempt was made to be made on the Fortune Class, which was originally equipped with four dual 12-inch main guns. The two main turrets located on the front and rear decks were changed to triple units, and the two main turrets arranged obliquely on the left and right sides were still

For double-packing. As for paper data, the "Undevoured" had an overwhelming advantage over the 9 11-inch guns of the "Von Des-Tann" with 10 12-inch guns, but the weight added in the later period of nearly 500 tons caused the speed of this class to drop to 24.4 knots, and barely reaching 25 knots under overload, which was much slower than the "Von Des-Tann". This was also the first time that the British ship of the same class had lost to a German warship in speed during the same period.

The "Von der Thenn" which has completed the running-in and is equipped with a new rangefinder and shooting commander, uses the traditional dichotomy method to measure the distance without Xia Shu adapting to the home court. When fired the main guns on targets of 20,000 meters, 15,000 meters and 10,000 meters, the German warships won the victory by 1-2 percentage points beyond the opponent. You must know that this is the result of Germany's intentional release of its technical strength without exposing its early exposure!

The new warship he designed showed unparalleled technological advantages. Natsuki should be the person who has the most reason to be happy and proud of German visiting the ship, but his mind was not at this point at this time. Because of the attitude of the family leader, and because of his mother's unknown condition, Charlotte pretended to be calm, but could not hide her inner loss and worry. As King George V of England said, challenging the secular world and subverting traditions requires amazing courage. Natsuki's

Therefore, courage is indispensable to passing the German royal family, and also due to the special status he has gained for many years, the subtle cooperative relationship between him and the Crown Prince William, and the tough and soft skills, Charlotte basically has none of these conditions. It is precisely because of this concern that Xia Shu opposed Charlotte's suggestion at the Christmas dinner. At this point, he can only try his best to help her solve these difficult problems.

On June 30, the "Von der Tann" set off and returned home. A day later, the "Leopard" gunboat arrived at the Moroccan port of Agadir and anchored on the pretext of protecting German expatriates. Due to the emergence of this German ship, the situation in Morocco suddenly became tense. He knew that he could fight against Germany with his own strength, so France sought help from Britain and Russia. Because in the Bosnian crisis a few years ago, France refused to support Russia in political and diplomatic terms, the Russians responded in a tit-for-tat manner that the French-Russian alliance "is not applicable" to the war caused by the colonial dispute. Unlike the Russians' indifference, the British government was against

This reaction was strong. On the one hand, they were worried that the Germans deliberately provoked the relations between France and Russia, thereby undermining the agreement between Britain, France and Russia. On the other hand, they were extremely reluctant to see Germany, whose naval strength was growing stronger, obtaining a naval base like Agadir on the Atlantic coast. If the proposal had not been rejected by the cabinet, the British Navy would send warships to Agadir to confront the German ship. Despite this, on the fourth day after the "Leopard" arrived in Agadir, the UK warned Germany through normal diplomatic channels: If the contradiction between Germany and France on the Moroccan issue further intensified, the UK would not rule out the possibility of direct interference!

...

On the train from Wilhelmshaven to Berlin, Charlotte still looked out the window with a worried look. The crux of the problem was that family affection was hard to enlighten him in words. Although Xia Shu had thought about a few ideas in her mind, she always felt that it was not safe enough after thinking about it, as if she had encountered an unsolvable situation.

When the train was temporarily standing by, Charlotte saw a young mother on the platform bent down to wipe her little daughter's cheeks. The warm scene immediately aroused the longing in her heart. When the train restarted, she turned her head and said to Xia Shu:

"When my mother gave birth to me, she almost died due to difficult labor. My father rarely stayed at home. Since childhood, my mother has been with me, taking care of me, teaching me vocal music and painting. She is my closest relative in the world. When I left the UK, the only thing I couldn't rest assured was her."

Xia Shu gently wiped away the tears that had fallen from the corners of her eyes.

"She has always been in poor health and is particularly prone to illness when the seasons change. Although she is cared for by her family doctor and servants, I know that she must want me to stay by her now."

"Well, I can understand, and I have experienced this feeling myself." Natsuki comforted.

"But if I go back like this, I will probably never see you again, Johen." Charlotte looked at Xia Shu with sadness. At this moment, in this situation, only true feelings can have such a contradictory sorrow.

Surely Xia Shu didn't want Charlotte to leave. He gently stroked her handsome but haggard face: "Maybe, your mother's illness is not as serious as she imagined; maybe, she really hopes that you can firmly grasp your happiness..."

"She once encouraged me to pursue my happiness bravely, but today's situation was something we had never expected at the beginning. Why was it you..." Another tear gushed out of my eyes.

Xia Shu hugged her in her arms. This is fate, unpredictable and uncontrollable.

Before dusk, the train arrived in Berlin. Because he wanted to report to the German Emperor about the crowning of the British King, the exchange of ship-reading and artillery techniques, Xia Shu took Charlotte to the palace by car. When he passed through William Street, he saw many people gathering in the square. Affected by this, the vehicles could only move slowly. Xia Shu heard the unknown speaker talking about "shaming", "provoking", and "did not hesitate to fight". Whenever he was inspiring, people echoed excitedly "yes" and "yes".

The royal servant who came to pick up the car had known Natsuki for a long time, and he explained: "Morocco's trouble."

Xia Shu didn't respond. He vaguely remembered that the two Moroccan crises and the two Balkan wars caused the conflicts between European powers to heat up, which eventually led to the outbreak of World War I. From the perspective of historical development, even if these two crises and local wars could be avoided, the most essential conflict of interest between emerging rising countries and old powers could not be changed. Looking at the people who were excited outside the car window, there were both staff, workers, and

Police, civil servants, and a few soldiers wearing uniforms. Although such speeches are hard to be wonderful, and even have obvious logical loopholes. With only a very inspiring tone and wording, the speakers made these Germans in the middle and lower classes of society excited, and then influenced the direction of public opinion and public opinion. This political atmosphere with the characteristics of the times and culture has been around for a long time and will continue until it creates a legend of small people becoming dictators.

After finally passing through the congested streets to the palace, Xia Shu met Prince William as soon as she got off the car. He saw him talking to the two army generals with excitement. This expression had a surprising similarity to the people he had just seen on the street.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince!"

It was not until Xia Shu called that Prince William realized that this younger brother who looked the most like him was here.

In front of two senior generals, Baron Von De Gorz and General Carl Von Biellow, Crown Prince William said happily: "Hey, Johen, our naval genius, you have just returned from England! I heard that our warships humiliated the British in this year's artillery exchange. It's great! This time they should know that our navy is not easy to mess with!"

In order to avoid making false judgments for these highly powerful generals, Natsuki replied: "Yes, Your Highness, we are the winners of this year and are more prepared to win."

The excited Crown Prince William seemed not to understand Xia Shu's intentions. He held Xia Shu's arm with some over-zeal: "The attack and coercion used by the British have lost its effectiveness on us. The army can sweep France without any scruples. Then, we will obtain an outlet in the Atlantic Ocean, which in turn will form a strategic restraint on the British Isles. In the future, the German Empire will be the only leader!"

Natsuki was surprised by Crown William's understanding of naval strategy, and on the other hand, he was sincerely curious about what he said was that the army swept France by the army. Could it be that this time Germany not only used the war as a bargaining chip, but was really ready to attack France? If so, Britain and Russia would inevitably be involved and World War I would also break out three years ahead of schedule.

Does the German Navy have enough strength to deal with this war?

Xia Shu quickly calculated in his mind: Germany currently has 7 dreadnoughts, 2 battlecruisers, and 1 has been completed and not in service; the British Navy has been in service, 8 dreadnoughts, 2 have been completed and not in service, and 4 battlecruisers, with the core combat power equally. The German Navy can even gain a slight advantage by relying on its quality advantage, but once the naval battle war breaks out, the large number of former dreadnoughts groups on both sides will still be the backbone of the battlefield. In this regard, Germany is at an absolute disadvantage with 22 ships against 40 of the UK, and the same is true for armored cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers/large torpedo boats. In other words, the German Navy narrowed the gap with Britain only by relying on the naval bill strongly promoted by Tirpitz, and the overall scale and strength are still one order of magnitude gap.

However, the war competition is not limited to absolute strength. Military strategy emphasizes the real and the real. The just-concluded artillery exchange just now provides favorable conditions for the German Navy's "bluff".

After a short while the four of them talked, the head of the army, Chief of Staff, Moltke, walked out of the porch, looking a little depressed.

Crown Prince William slightly put away his excitement and asked with concern: "How is it?"

Moltke shook his head: "Your Majesty firmly disagrees with going to war with France for Morocco."

"But this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" Crown Prince William shouted without hesitation, "The French team occupied Morocco is a foregone conclusion. We will either suffer diplomatic failures and be ridiculed as cowards by the world, or use this as an excuse to sweep France, recreate the brilliant victory of 1870, force France to disband the army, withdraw from the Three Kingdoms Agreement, and completely break the encirclement that threatens Germany's survival!"

Although Crown Prince William's mentality is a bit impetuous, with the current European pattern, Natsuki believes that his opinions are not without merit. Neither France nor Russia are fully prepared for war, and there is a greater chance of winning at this time when military adventures are carried out than in three years.

Crown Prince William said unwillingly: "I will go to see Your Majesty now, we cannot make mistakes again."
Chapter completed!