When the warm summer winds made people take off their coats. Near Potsdamer Platz in the southwest of Berlin, the renovation of an old racecourse is almost completed. Its brand new exterior walls can easily remind people of the ancient Rome Colosseum, but it is not as majestic and solemn as the Colosseum. Its specifications are oval in overall shape and cover an area comparable to the largest Colosseum. Its new purpose is still a very ornamental competitive football. In the past six months, Berlin residents living south of the city center have heard of it. It is said that the new stadium was repaired by a royal member. When it is grandly unveiled, a football event that adopts the knockout system and is rich in bonuses will also be established.

Modern football originated in England. The Germans, who were quite athletic, were the first group to introduce the concept of football on the European continent. Their first football club, "Munich 1860", was established only 5 years later than the earliest Sheffield Club in England. After Germany completed its unification, the development speed of football in Germany was no less than the pace of this country's second industrial revolution. Clubs and local competitions appeared in many cities. This sport, which basically did not require much venue and equipment, is suitable for all people such as workers, citizens, students, etc. By 1904, when FIFA officially accepted Germany as a member state, football had become a part of the daily life of many Germans.

Walking on the green grass of the new stadium, Xia Shu imagined the players galloping around and fighting wonderfully, and imagined the crowds in the surrounding stands, and felt that there were many common points in the time and space that were separated by a hundred years.

"Your Highness, the turf here is carefully selected and carefully cultivated according to your instructions. When you close your eyes and walk on it, it feels like walking on a Turkish wool carpet." The middle-aged man with a diligent face is Walrich, the general manager of the stadium renovation project. In the past few months, the construction engineer has built a circular stand with a capacity of 6,000 spectators and a 101-meter-long and 69-meter-wide competition venue within the total budget of 600,000 marks. From the perspective of the future generations, this stadium with simple facilities is not qualified for the top league at all, but in 1905, there were not many pure football fields in the world, and its specifications are quite considerable.

Xia Shu poked the turf with the tip of his leather shoes. The turf was still tight and it would not be enough to bring a large piece with one shovel. But this was the first time of football. The rules of the game in various countries and regions were not completely unified. The team style and player skills were varied. Perhaps the grass would become alopecia areata after a few games. Then Xia Shu walked to the edge of the grass to check the drainage system. It has to be said that the Germans are rigorous and pragmatic in nature are very competent for engineering design and construction tasks. In the inside and out of the court, up and down, he did not pick out a clear flaw.

"Mr. Walrich, I'm very happy with your work, as stated in the contract, as long as it can be used smoothly on the weekend, you will get that reward."

The middle-aged man bent down and nodded: "Your Highness, as you wish, this stadium will be completed this week. In fact, we are only waiting for the custom sculptures to arrive and install, and the rest are some finishing work."

After inspecting the construction of the stadium on the spot, Xia Shu no longer had any worries about it, but the weather was a little gloomy, and there might be a next game or a few rains in the next game. This open-air court is obviously not suitable for watching football on rainy days.

After leaving the stadium, Xia Shu drove his convertible Opel car through the city. It was afternoon tea time when he arrived at the Imperial Navy office. The officers walked out of the office building in groups of three or three to relax some of their tense nerves at the surrounding cafes or restaurants. Unlike the German royal family who have been busy preparing for the wedding ceremony of Crown William, German military and political officials were sad about another headache, which was the "first Moroccan crisis" caused by German Emperor William II's visit to the Moroccan city of Tangier.

Morocco is located in Northwest Africa, facing the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its important port Tangier leads the Atlantic Ocean to enter the Strait of Gibraltar, the gateway to the Mediterranean Sea. It has an important strategic position and has become a key place for European powers to compete for. Since the 20th century, France has rapidly expanded its powers to Morocco, carried out economic infiltration, controlled Moroccan finance, and divided its sphere of influence in Morocco with Spain. Germany's strategic decision-makers also realized the importance of Morocco. They actively encouraged their own businessmen to invest in Morocco and secretly supported Morocco's independent forces.

The Moroccan crisis was just a verbal battle between Germany and France and Britain at the diplomatic level. However, over the past few months, with the unremitting efforts of French Foreign Minister Del Casse and the boost from the British government, the crisis gradually evolved from diplomatic friction to an international dispute that could become a military conflict. The German emperor considered forcing the French to compromise through a short-term war. His vision was warmly responded by the German generals. In the French-Prussian War 34 years ago, the Germans not only stepped on the French to achieve unity, but also received huge compensation of 5 billion francs and the Alsace and Lorraine regions with abundant iron ore, which was for their industrial development

It provided huge funds and abundant mineral resources, while the French government was burdened with heavy war reparations. In the early 20th century, the French army's scale, equipment quality, morale and confidence were at a disadvantage, and their ally, the Russian Empire, was dragged down by the Russo-Japanese War, and most of the troops had been transferred to the Far East to participate in the war. Once a war broke out in Germany and France at this time, the Russian army could hardly pose a substantial threat to Germany. It would be difficult for the German army to deal with the French army and the few British expeditionary forces, and it would be impossible to advance to Paris again. At that time, if the French government wanted to avoid greater humiliation and losses, it would obediently give up their full interests in Morocco.

The German Army General Staff was eager to launch a war against France that could bring about another 30 years of peace, but the situation of the German Navy was very embarrassing. As Britain repeatedly expressed its support for France in this crisis, if a war broke out between Germany and France, the possibility of Britain joining the war is very high. With the current strength of the German high seas fleet, challenging the British local fleet would be like an egg to hit a stone. At that time, it would have to hide pitifully in its own ports, watching British warships chase German merchant ships in various oceans. This bitter taste of nowhere to exert force would not be good if anyone put it on.

In the office of the Navy Minister, Tirpitz seemed to warmly welcome the Prussian prince who was still a naval cadet, but after shaking hands, his first words were not very pleasant to hear: "In this discussion on the design of the new battleship, His Majesty the Emperor clearly asked you, the genius designer of the Hohenzollern family, to participate as the royal representative. In the past few days, I have been speculating whether our prince will bring out surprising design drawings like last time, maybe... you have brought more than one level of battleship design design?"

Not to mention the embarrassment of the Moroccan crisis, the shocking result of the Japanese and Russian naval battle against the Mahayana made the German navy's high-level crisis awareness stronger and stronger. It has 8 battleships and 45 other ships. The Russian fleet was defeated in just a few hours to the Japanese fleet, which was mainly composed of 4 battleships and 8 armored cruisers. The Japanese only sank 21 Russian warships with insignificant losses and captured 9. The Tsarist Russian Navy lost 270,000 tons of ships in one day, falling from the third in the world.

By the sixth... Before the news was repeatedly confirmed, many people could not believe the text on the telegram, or speculate that the despicable British secretly sent ships to participate in the naval battle. It was not until the surviving Russian crew described the situation at that time from the first perspective that people knew that it was a good show directed by the Japanese Navy with its exquisite strategies. The tactics they adopted were also popular and studied by their peers from various countries. The British and German Navy, which regarded each other as their number one competitor, hoped to find suppression.

The opponent's method. Many sources have shown that the British Parliament has approved its own new battleship budget, and its cost is much higher than that of the active battleships, and its strength will be increased exponentially. Now, the German Navy's latest German-class battleship has started construction, the first four ships have been launched, and the fifth is scheduled to start construction in two months. According to the 1905-1906 shipbuilding plan under the 1900 Naval Act, the German Navy is preparing to build a new one in 1906.

Class battleships, which will be amplification and strengthening of the German-class, but even if they can achieve a 30% performance improvement, it will no longer meet the current situation. It is in this context that Tirpitz summoned important personnel from the naval ship design department to Berlin to discuss the next response and report to the emperor. William II agreed in principle, but asked Prince Joachim to represent the royal family to participate in the discussion and expressed constructive opinions during the discussion.

The curtain of the era of the dreadnought is slowly unfolding. Xia Shu is very clear that Germany's next-class battleship will also enter the threshold of the dreadnought, but the Nassau class in history is not successful. It only further established the design idea of ​​German battleships that are heavy on armor and light on firepower, and adopt subdivided compartments. With the preparation of high-speed torpedo boats and the Scharnhorst-class armored cruiser, Xia Shu is planning to play a greater influence in the field of shipbuilding, but he also knows that the Navy Minister with strong opinions and desire to control does not want the royal family to interfere too much in the internal affairs of the navy. After the last friction on the design of the Scharnhorst-class armored cruiser, he chose a more stable intervention method this time:
Chapter completed!