>Chapter 1 Skagerak's Gold (Seven)

Germany belongs to a high-latitude area, with cold and dry winters and mild and rainy summers. Only river valleys in the southwest and foothills in the Alps can ensure sufficient sunshine time. ihong.

In March, the warm spring is slow, and the bitter cold winds rage on the land of Germany from time to time. Most of Germany are still shrouded in haze. However, Berlin seems to be an accident. This metropolis, which is full of medieval classical and stable, but also shows its modern edge everywhere, rarely ushers in the long-lost sunshine.

The clear sky can hardly accommodate excess impurities, the blood-red setting sun hangs in the sky, and a few sunset glows are lazily embellished.

From time to time, some industrialized steam was sprayed out from the manhole covers of the underground pipelines. There were long queues in front of the bakery, and passers-by were walking in the park in groups of three or three. The Berliners brought the old-fashioned and rigorous German nation into life. Apart from the ubiquitous recruitment advertisements and the hustle and bustle in the newspapers, the dusk here was quiet, and Berlin did not encounter too many war backlashes.

"The Admiralty Department announced an emergency meeting on the afternoon of March 11 to discuss whether to accept General Heidi Silem's resignation and to allow the Navy prosecutor to intervene in investigating all the incidents!"

The sunlight scattered evenly on the body, which was a refreshing smell, but the Berliners who were holding the Berlin Chronicle felt cold all over.

There were so many stories happening in the past day that major German newspapers rushed to make an article overnight and issued them one after another.

The powerful empire that never sets in the sun has fallen into chaos: Lloyd George resigned, and the Conservatives gained power with almost no blood; Arthur Belford, who has a strong personality, and Henry Jackson, who is more skilled, took over as the Secretary of the Navy and Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet respectively, and the senior leaders of the Royal Navy were bloodbathed.

After a series of government crisis public relations actions, the proud Britons finally calmed down, and until then they felt scared. This was a chill that made the people of the Empire feel unfamiliar, because the mortal enemy Germany was already at the city.

How many years have Britain not encountered such an embarrassing situation? In the Second British-Dutch War in ancient times, the Dutch once blatantly bombarded the coastline of the British Empire during the Battle of Lostov. In November 2019, the Dutch ruler William led 14,000 Dutch soldiers to land on the British Empire, known as the Glorious Revolution in history.

This is the last memory of the awesome British people about the invasion of foreign enemies. If it weren't for the Battle of Dogel's Sands, history would have been forgotten and lost to the corner of memory. After the decisive battle in the North Sea, the British could never find a fig leaf that could cover their faces. No matter how much they remember the past, they would not change the sinister situation facing Britain:

The Harric Fleet was crippled. Although the lost warships and officers and soldiers were only a drop in the bucket compared to the British Empire, courage and determination still needed a generation to recover. The Strait Fleet was greatly weakened because of Churchill's Dardanell's combat plan. Now the Strait Fleet is in the quagmire of German submarine warfare and mine warfare and cannot extricate itself. As for the pride of the British Isles - the Great Fleet, is there any worse than them?

When the British Empire Navy Minister Arthur Belford came to power, he announced that he would use the full potential of British shipyards to crush the ocean fleet with absolute numerical advantage; after the former British Empire Navy Minister Churchill stepped down, he announced that he would organize an army with no more than 600 troops, numbered ** Sixth Rifle Battalion, to enter the French battlefield in the form of volunteer soldiers. The British's choice made the Germans secretly happy because Germany had become accustomed to using fewer to more.

During the US House of Representatives debate on March 10, facing the questioning of nosy Republicans, US President Wilson reiterated the principle of neutrality. He not only quoted the decisive battle in the North Sea that shocked the world, but also revealed the casualties of Americans in the European war for the first time.

**War, Civil War, the United States and its former suzerain country, Britain, had a lot of dirty things, but these two countries with the same roots remained inseparable. At the beginning of the outbreak of the European War, the United States organized more than two regiments of volunteer soldiers to join the French battlefield. It took a lot of time to re-arm and train. These two regiments failed to catch up with the fierce 1914 Border Battle and the Battle of Marne River, and the Champagne Regional Outstanding Campaign in 1915. Americans were finally able to participate. Cowboys from the United States attacked the German positions with the British army, and then lost nearly two-thirds of their troops in one day.

The numbers listed by Wilson scared the peace-loving Uncle Sam. It should be noted that in March 1915, the entire United States had only two South Carolina class, two Delaware class, two Florida class, two Wyoming class, and two New York class, and a total of ten dreadnoughts. In other words, a medium-sized Doger Sands naval battle would be enough to cause the Americans to lose more than one-third of their combat effectiveness. As for the just-concluded North Sea decisive battle, the US Navy, which ranks third in the world, will probably retreat back to the former dreadnoughts era.

As for the army, Europe has tens of thousands of bleeding every day. How can the army in the United States, which is even more "strength" than the United Kingdom, support it?

After the Congressional debate, every Republican received countless pairs of shoes and bullets. Wall Street's financial market fluctuated at the opening. It is not far from the panic selling of British Treasury bonds that Belfort was expected.

In the distant Southern and Southeast Europe, the passive situation of the Allies was reversed almost overnight.

In Italy, Giomidi broke his principle of not destroying the kingdom order for the first time, provoking a certain degree of confrontation between the parliament and the king. King Vittorio Emmanur hurriedly terminated all negotiations, while Foreign Minister Song Nino visited Berlin on March 10th.

The Allies were once infinitely close to the Mediterranean sunshine kingdom that barely joined the ranks of imperialist powers, but the British themselves messed up all this. Although Italy did not turn to the Allies, when two Austro-Hungarian Empire's joint force-class battleships and an armored cruiser swam across the Adriatic Sea on March 9, Songnino's intriguing Berlin trip on March 10 at least showed what it said.

This is not the end of the Allies' Lucky Day. On March 7, Bulgaria issued an ultimatum to Serbia, which belongs to the Allies, demanding that Serbia withdraw from its bailed Macedonia by March 11 and compensate for its losses.

Since the outbreak of the European War, many neutral people accused the Serbs of carelessly deteriorating the situation after the Sarajevo incident and accelerating the outbreak of the war. The Serbs were responsible for the outbreak of the war. On March 10, 1915, the Serbs' simple and crude logical way of dealing with the crisis shocked the world again.

Belgrade spent three days to meet, so that the British ambassador complained that Serbian politicians would have almost nothing but meetings and shouting a few slogans. Looking at Bulgaria's ultimatum was only one day left, Serbia not only did not discuss a practical solution, but instead responded to the Bulgarian king with a tough-worded telegram of rejection.

Bulgaria was infuriated. At 8 pm on March 10, Bulgaria announced a national mobilization. Ten minutes later, King Ferdinand read out the "Declaration of War on Serbia". At 9:33 pm, the first army entered the Macedonian-controlled area of ​​Serbia and exchanged fire with the troops deployed on the border of Serbia.

At 9 p.m. on March 10, King Nicholas I, who had declared that "the fate of Serbia is the fate of Negoro of the gate" and "the bottom line of neutrality" could not wait to jump out and declare war on Serbia. His poor and weak army also advanced north at night.

The newspapers, the outsiders and the radio stations were full of news that made the blood of the Allies swell, but for the Berliners, all this was not as good as the resignation of the Imperial Lieutenant General Heidi Sileme.

A few days ago, The New Prussia, which had always adhered to its anti-naval stance, took the lead in revealing the clues of the first reconnaissance fleet in the North Sea to be mobilized by the decisive battle of the North Sea. Out of fear of Heidi Sileme's unparalleled influence in the empire, the New Prussia chose the most obscure way to hint to readers, pointing directly at the tip of Sileme.

The Berliners originally thought that the Prussian newspaper was stolen. After all, the New Prussian newspaper, which has a background in Junker landlords, has always insisted on the backbone of anti-Heditsilem while anti-Navy. The New Prussian newspaper angered the Berliners at Heidi Silem's slander. They surrounded the newspaper and protested and asked the editor to apologize. However, the progress of the situation seemed to deviate from the simple ideas of the Berliners.

Two days ago, most Imperial newspapers received the Navy Staff, with many sailors participating in the war, the lower-level officers of the Navy Staff and Wilhelmshaven logistics officers and soldiers. Therefore, more and more media were debating Heidi Sileme. The Imperial propaganda department was obviously disturbed by some external force and was indifferent to this chaos.

The Berliners finally realized that General Heidi Sileme, who was respected by them, had a wonderful tactical deception before the decisive battle in the North Sea. He led the First Reconnaissance Fleet to raid from the Baltic Sea without the consent of the Navy Staff, which means that this was a complete and unauthorized mobilization.

Germany is a paranoid person who is obsessed with discipline and observance, and it is hard for ordinary people to imagine. Germany does not reject creativity and imagination, nor does it hate victory and glory, but this does not mean that they can tolerate unauthorized mobilization. In this country where philosophers are abundant, this nation that always acts as a loneliness to confront the whole world has not yet learned to be pragmatic. In their minds, temporary victory cannot be equated with long-term systems.

"But he is General Heidi Sileme after all! He has served in almost every desolate colony in Germany. He has bet on his life more than once to win. He was tired of his commander's lounge after the decisive battle in the North Sea! How can he make up for such a general who is dedicated to the German nation?"

Confusion in mind is inevitable. The complex Berliners were silent, and the Navy also chose to remain silent in the face of pressure.

On March 11, 1915, two heartbreaking news went hand in hand: The Berlin Morning Post, the largest circulating German newspaper, accidentally published a resignation letter signed by Heidi Sileme on the front page; the Navy will hold an emergency high-level meeting on the afternoon of March 11 to discuss whether to accept General Heidi Sileme's resignation and let the Navy ** prosecutor intervene in investigating all the incidents

"Although the young Germans compared me to Frederick Liszt1, although the Imperial naval officers and soldiers affectionately called me 'The Invincible Ares', and although the Empire and allies regarded me as the key figure that could control the war at sea, I, Heidi Sileme, had to admit that I had made an unforgivable mistake in the naval battle that had just ended."

"Maybe my influence in the empire can help me escape criticism, but the moral integrity of the soldiers and the conscience of the human beings torture my soul every moment. Yes, as the criticism of the Germanic newspaper, I should not continue to remain silent. I should be responsible for it and resign from the blame!"

"Heidi Silem without the Ocean Fleet is just a descendant of Kiel's fishermen, a patriot who is worried about the war in the Empire, while the Ocean Fleet without Heidi Silem is still the steel fleet that dares to compete for the sea and challenge authority. The Navy also has the courageous General Scher, the rational General Hippel, and young people like Radell and Weigener. I will continue to support the Empire as always. Long live Germany!"

(Gorgeous dividing line)

1. Frederick Liszt, a modern German reformer, an advocate of the German Customs League, and the biggest behind the reunification of Germany.#
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