Chapter 3 Accepting an Order in Adversity (5)
News of the fall of the lock of Holtenau came, Major General Maas's second reconnaissance fleet did not change the way, but drove towards the Kiel Canal as originally planned.
Shortly after that, the Charlottemberg Palace, which was gradually ineffective in command, received the order of Wang Heidi through the Admiralty and the Ocean Fleet Command.
Commander of the Kill Rebellion, this position seems to be of high power, but it is difficult to rely on the Hanover Grenadier Regiment, which has less than 3,000 troops on hand, the less than 2,000 army and more than 5,000 marines belonging to the Navy in the Helstein area to suppress the rebellion. Colonel Lauren frowned and calculated that there were still those forces that could be borrowed, while Wang Heidi shook his head gently with fatigue.
"Major General Maas and Colonel Lauren, there is no need to calculate these things. I believe that besides the Navy and the Marines, I cannot mobilize Schleswig Helstein with one soldier!"
In front of Major General Maas and Colonel Lauren, Wang Heidi did not hide his panic and anxiousness. While looking down at the time on the pocket watch, he exposes the conspiracy between Charlottemberg Palace and the Supreme Command incisively.
"Silem, I know that the emperor and the army have bad intentions, but the Kiel riot is not the Navy's family's business. The emperor and the Army may not completely ignore the overall situation..." Major General Maas said some words he didn't even believe, as if he was cheering up the naval god of war who was also the commander of the Kill Counter-Rebellion, and also cheering up himself.
"That's natural!" Compared to Major General Maas's disconfidence with the army, the tired Wang Heidi was unexpectedly optimistic. In the commander tower, where the flagship was not well-off, Wang Heidi revealed his trump card to Major General Maas and Colonel Lauren. "Although I can't count on those guys who are in Berlin, in Mecklenburg and Hannover, I have seen how incompetent an army with a confusion, the Eastern Front Army and Eastern Front Commander Max Hoffman will definitely be my solid backing."
From Helgolan Bay to Holtenau ship lock, the Second Reconnaissance Fleet advanced at full speed and arrived at the starting point of the Kiel Canal before the sky was dark, the Holtenau ship lock.
The Kiel Canal has been widened and deepened more than once after completion, but the narrow river channel of the canal is still not suitable for any surface combat. Of course, even if the second reconnaissance fleet blocked in the Kiel Canal channel has no power to fight back against the rebel fleet, the fact is that the Baltic Uprising Fleet on the side of the Holtenau lock and the second reconnaissance fleet on the side of the Holtenau lock will not easily use force. It is unwilling to fire the first artillery of the naval civil war.
Because the rebel sailors temporarily closed the Holtenau lock, many ships were blocked on the canal channel and discharged more than ten kilometers. The second reconnaissance fleet was forced to stop twelve kilometers in front of the lock.
"They dare not destroy the lock of Holtenau after all. It seems that everything can be saved..." Wang Heidi, who was standing on the bridge of the flagship of the Second Reconnaissance Fleet, put down his telescope and instructed Major General Mas: "Major General. Please give me a small boat!"
"General, what do you want to do?" Major General Maas did not care about the superiority and discipline that the German team attached great importance to, but took a step forward and blocked the gangway that Wang Heidi had to go to the deck of the boat.
"Embraise peace!" Wang Heidi looked down at the pocket watch again, and then said concisely.
"Admiral Silame, please forgive my offense. Before going to sea, Hippel gives me the right to stop all irrational actions!"
General Heidi Sileme is going to go to the rebel camp to negotiate in person?! Major General Maas became nervous, and big beads of sweat seeped out from his forehead, and he said incoherently:
"It seems to me that's too risky. So I have to stop you!"
"Major General Mas, you know, we will not choose to resolve the rebel fleet by force unless we have to. We agreed to negotiate at the time, although it is safe, it is a waste of time. Major General. You know, I don't have time!" Wang Heidi stared into Major General Mas' eyes and said seriously.
There is really no time.
Kiel is bleeding, the rich are being slaughtered, and the houses are burned. Wang Heidi is worried that the empire's unity will be destroyed. This will lead to the empire becoming weaker and weaker, causing it to lose its chance of a last battle. Wang Heidi is also afraid that a thug will raise a butcher knife to his family. The country, Wang Heidi's home and country are in turmoil! There is really no time!
The boat was slowly lowered from the deck of the boat by a crane. Wang Heidi, Colonel Lauren, the commander of the Imperial Marine Corps, the combat staff of the Second Reconnaissance Fleet and ten Marines with guns slowly sailed towards the Holtenau lock on a small boat flying a white flag.
The sudden appearance of the Holtenau ship lock, the Second Reconnaissance Fleet, caused panic in the uprising fleet. The sailors adjusted the defensive artillery attached to the lock, and the small-caliber artillery removed from the sea defense ship, aimed the muzzle at the fleet coming from afar.
"Commander, a small boat is coming!" The sailors on the Holtenau ship lock observation deck put down their telescopes and issued a heart-wrenching warning.
The land war sailors deployed along the locks picked up their rifles and pointed them at the small boat with white flags sailing from the sunset.
The person in charge of land defense was Johannes Mueller, the former head of the German Communist Party of the Hildebrand coastal defense ship and the current commander of the lock defense.
Johannes Muller, holding a cigarette in his mouth, quickly threw away the cigarette butt in his mouth, climbed onto the lock observation deck, snatched the telescope in the watchman's hand and carefully observed the boat bathed in the sunset.
"That's..." Looking at the admiral's uniform sitting at the bow of the boat, Johannes Mueller, who was known as a household name in the German Empire and a firm belief, lost his voice for the time being.
Johannes Muller had never thought that the Navy would send the powerful Admiral Heidi Sileme to deal with the mutiny fleet. He instinctively realized that the situation was not good. He panicked for a long time before he woke up, and jumped up like crazy and shouted: "Don't let that small boat approach, shoot, shoot immediately!"
The land war sailors guarding the lock raised their rifles and pointed them at the boat close to the middle, pulling the trigger to wait for them to enter the effective range of the rifle.
At this time, the lookout said timidly, interrupting the subsequent actions of the land warriors in the ship lock:
"But that is the undefeated god of war in the empire!"
"Is it General Heidi Sileme?"
"It's Heidi Sileme!"
The land sailors gasped after hearing this, and the young sailor turned his head and looked at the Johannes Muller who was desperately shooting Heidi Sileme's order, with a cold expression.
"That's not Heidi Silem at all!" Johannes Muller, the former torpedo officer of the Hildebrand sea defense ship, kicked down the talkative lookout soldiers like a devilish, grabbed a rifle from the land war sailor lying on the watchtower on the lock, and aimed at Wang Heidi in a decent manner.
As a torpedo officer, Johannes Muller had no experience in firing a shot, but he knew that he had to fire this shot, otherwise Heidi Silem, who landed on the lock of Holtnau, would definitely cause chaos in the morale of the rebel fleet with his lofty prestige.
As soon as Johannes Muller made a gun, he felt the murderous aura coming from all directions.
Johannes Muller underestimated Heidi Silem's influence within the Navy. Heidi Silem served as a mobilization staff officer for the Reserve Fleet more than ten years ago, and briefly served as the commander of the Baltic Sea Blockade Fleet during the war, but most of the time, Heidi Silem had no intersection with the Baltic Sea Fleet. Johannes Muller knew that Silem was at its peak in the Ocean Fleet and even the Mediterranean Combined Fleet, but he did not think that Silem also had a comparable charm in the Baltic Sea Fleet.
Mueller subconsciously released his rifle and turned his head to be surprised to find that the land sailors who were supposed to be hiding behind the bunker with guns and the gunners who were operating small caliber artillery stood up and looked at him with resentment.
The devout German Communist Party members suspected that if it weren't for the threat from the Second Reconnaissance Fleet, they might have had a civil war on the lock of Holtenau.
The boat that Wang Heidi was riding was on the ferry of the Holtenau lock. Colonel Lauren's Marines jumped out of the boat, surrounded Wang Heidi in sweat, and carefully hugged him towards the Holtenau lock.
At this time, the land sailors of the uprising fleet emerged from their positions, faced Wang Heidi, and saluted the Admiral together.
On the ship lock observation deck, on the spiral ladder in the lock control room, and at the top of the ship lock embankment. On the dams on both sides of the canal, many sailors with white cloth strips wrapped in their arms saluting together was spectacular.
At this moment, Wang Heidi's eyes became wet. In a sense, Wang Heidi was in an adversarial relationship with these sailors who saluted him, but from their salute actions, Wang Heidi could not see the most intense and bloody political disputes in the 20th century, the resentment fleet should have against the top leaders of the Imperial Navy, but saw the respect this country and nation respect him.
Many times, even Wang Heidi himself does not understand why he, as a Chinese, is devoted to Germany, and even if he is repeatedly suppressed by senior management, he still insists on this stage. Wang Heidi always uses his family and his love for the German navy. His pursuit of the sea soul of a great power to comfort himself, but today, Wang Heidi can proudly announce that it was because of the courtesy he received in front of the lock of Holtnau.
"Thank you!" Wang Heidi, who was the Imperial Admiral, bowed to these lovely sailors first, and then returned the salute to these sailors.
Wang Heidi's actions made Holtenau locks sound like thunderous applause, like a storm lasting forever.
From the elegance of the First Naval Expansion Act to the subsequent depression of more than ten years, from the fame of the Battle of Helgolan Bay to the peak battle of Jutland, from the victory and pursuit of the Battle of Portsmouth to the turning of the tide of the battle of Ustica. The man of the Baltic Fleet can completely retell Heidi Silaime's ups and downs, listing many maritime wars that made the Germans feel proud even after a long time, and listing many strange stories that made the Germans smile. The sailors respected Heidi Silaime from the bottom of their hearts. On the lock of Holtnau, they even imagined that if Heidi Silaime had led the Imperial Navy earlier or served as commander of the Baltic Fleet, the Kiel chaos might not have occurred.
Strathor, the commander-in-chief of the Uprising Fleet, who rushed over from the Odin sea defense ship, and the four hundred reinforcements he organized, just as soon as he climbed the lock of Holtenau, he heard the cheers and applause from the heart of the Uprising Sailors. His face suddenly became gloomy, satisfied and full of vigor.
"The sailors really respect Heidi Sileme, the naval god of war, but our navy is undefeated, does Ares really think he can convince us to surrender with his prestige?" Strathor sneered, and before walking the last step, he squeezed out what the political officers were used to as a spring breeze, and smiled at Wang Heidi and greeted him with a smile.
"General Silame, I am Ottostrather, former officer of the engine compartment of the Odin, and now he has been elected as commander of the uprising fleet by the sailors."
Facing Heidi Silem, Strathor did not offend him at all, nor would he be foolish about the uprising sailors' admiration for national heroes. Strathor put his position right and tried to package himself as a weak man who was forced to resist because of the bullying and exploitation of the senior leaders of the Baltic Fleet, leading the topic to this uprising.
When Strathor mentioned the old guys who were in corpses in the Baltic Fleet, the officers and soldiers of the uprising fleet's excitement when they first met Wang Heidi was immediately diluted.
A hint of pride flashed across Ottostrather's face, but Wang Heidi's next move made him so proud that he was completely panicked.
"I want to say that the Admiralty did make some mistakes. At the beginning of the battlefield, we realized that there were some short-sighted and rigid-minded veteran generals within the navy no longer suitable for the German Navy. The Admiralty transferred them from the front line with pressure. Unfortunately, we did not do anything to completely clear them out of the navy."
In front of more than 1,200 rebel officers and soldiers from the Holtenau lock, Wang Heidi bowed to them again.
"The sailors, it was the Admiralty that did something wrong. The main responsibility for this incident is not you, but the weakness and short-sightedness of the Admiralty."
"General..." In addition to some of the devout and crazy German Communist Party members, the stubbornness of the uprising sailors has been gently melted by Wang Heidi.
Perhaps the historical textbooks of the Russian Soviets would define the Kiel Sailor Mutiny as part of the Kiel Workers Revolution, but in fact, the sailors involved in the mutiny did not subjectively betray the navy and empire, nor did they agree with the workers' revolution. They simply sympathized with the workers' experiences, were dissatisfied with the oppression and unfair treatment of the Baltic Fleet's top leaders, hoping to change everything in a violent way.
The rebel sailors refused to fire at the Kiel Naval Base, refused to sink two coastal defense ships that were still loyal to the government, and refused to destroy the lock of Holtenau to delay the reactionaries in the Helgolan Bay. The rebel sailors had their own trade-offs and judgments!
Strathor already regretted bringing the 400 sailors on the warship. In addition to the 800 sailors and land sailors defending the lock of Holtenau, almost three-fifths of the officers and soldiers of the uprising fleet have been concentrated here, which may be the biggest failure of his uprising.
"Sailors, I'm not here to negotiate. Since the main responsibility for the mutiny is not on you, there is no need for negotiation."
Strathor had decided to stand up and say something, and put the attention of the uprising officers and soldiers back into the track of his hope, but Wang Heidi shut up embarrassedly with just a silence move. Wang Heidi stood at the lock of Holtenau, took off his naval cap, exposed his white hair on his temples, and said devoutly to the confused uprising sailors:
"The Secretary of the Navy, Marshal Reinhardscher, decided to remove himself from the Baltic Fleet's senior position. He will resign in the near future and be responsible for the mistakes made by the Admiralty. If this is not enough to calm your resentment towards the Admiralty, then the commander-in-chief of the Ocean Fleet Fleet Fleet will also resign. If this is not enough, then I, Heidi Sileme, is the next!"..)
Chapter completed!