Chapter 1 Turkish Decree (Six)

  "Victor is dead!" Old Dick grasped Heidi's sleeve tightly, not letting her go, and said hastily: "Salem, I owe you an apology. The telegram canceling the wedding that you received in the Far East in 1900 was not Catherine's intention. I had Verani take Catherine to the countryside villa for a vacation and sent the telegram in her name, fearing you wouldn't believe it, and also published the news of the broken engagement in the newspaper in Kiel Hamburg Berlin. Salem, Catherine's feelings towards you have never changed, it was all the doing of this greedy old devil!"

  The hermit fell silent. He had not been without his suspicions about the authenticity of the telegram, and had even sent a telegram to Riedel, who was stationed in the imperial homeland, to ask for news. It wasn't until Riedel reported back that the newspapers in Berlin, Hamburg, and Kiel all carried reports of the cancellation of Dick's wedding that the hermit gave up hope. He hid his resentment deep within himself and didn't reveal it to anyone, and in a fit of pique, he married Annie, the youngest daughter of the Schreck family. Catherine had also come to find him afterwards, writing over a hundred letters to explain things, but at the time, King Haide was still angry and didn't have the heart to pay attention. By the time he calmed down, the hermit had already gotten married, and those letters were scattered in the dust of the past like the sea breeze.

  "What, Victor is dead? Is it time for me to take the stage as a spare tire?" Wang Haitian barely stopped in his tracks, and the emotions he had suppressed for over ten years burst out all at once. He laughed sarcastically: "What else can I do? Abandon my poor wife, abandon my lovely daughter, disregard the kindness of the Schreck family towards me, and then marry your daughter?"

  "I was thinking of finding Catherine a suitable match who could take care of her husband, but I never thought that I would be harming her. Catherine is only thirty-five years old, she is destined to be Kil's pride and joy, I will not allow her to become a poor widow. Silas, I'll give you one thousand, no, five thousand imperial marks per month, I'm even willing to divide my property in half with you, just please come back, marry my daughter and take care of her..." The wealthy businessman Dick begged bitterly.

  "Katherine... is she... is she all right?"

  The ruthless black-hearted merchant who had exploited the sailors on the Southern Schleswig-Holstein whaling ship was nowhere to be seen, and standing in front of Wang Haitian was just an elderly father with aching legs and a heart that ached for his daughter. The otaku thought this world was wonderful, some things were always lost before regretting, when you wanted to cherish them, it was already irretrievable, just like Wang Haitian's impatience with her little girlfriend before crossing over, just like Dick's disdain for his former son-in-law Xilem, just like the application for retirement that the otaku had submitted to the Navy Personnel Department.

  As the otaku's stuttering questions came, the hatred and desire for revenge that had been buried in his heart for over a decade disappeared completely. Not because of anything else, but because he too had become a father, and he doted on his daughter extremely.

  "Catherine has been ill, and her nerves are shattered. She must take large quantities of sedatives and sleeping pills every day to sleep. Silas, I know you hate me and Verlaine, but Catherine is innocent. For God's sake, for the love you once shared with Catherine, for the sake of a poor father..."

  The wind has picked up, and the slight breeze is enough to blow the small garden into a sandstorm, making it hard for the otaku to keep his eyes open. He finishes the cigarette in his mouth, then pulls out another one, but struggles to light it due to the gentle gusts of wind. Nonchalantly, he puts the matchbox back in his pocket and stumbles towards the apartment building.

  "Mr. Darcy, I can't help you, I'm already married, with a cheap wedding ring on my finger, sworn to love and cherish till death do us part in the eyes of God and the priest, and I have a lovely daughter, I've gone too far! Besides, my love for my daughter is no less than your love for Catherine, please put yourself in a father's shoes and sympathize with me, don't disturb my life again."

  The young man dropped a few words of apology and beat a hasty retreat. He dodged past the German tricolor and the naval ensign with its iron cross and black eagle, taking three steps at a time as he sprinted up the stairs until he collided with Günther Lütjens, who was lurking in the corridor, peering about furtively.

  "Xī Lài Mǔ, nà rén shì shuí?" Lǚ Tè Yàn sù hòu yī fān jī liè de xīn lǐ dòu zhēng hòu zhōng yú wèn chū kǒu: "Nǐ méi shì ba?"

  Translation:

  "Xilem, who is that person?" Luyte Yans asked after a fierce psychological struggle: "Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine..." The otaku's reply was a romantic poem, which left Lutz bewildered: "As for him, the father of my most familiar stranger..."

  ****

  At the end of January, a jeep with Turkish government license plates stopped in front of an apartment building, and a young man wearing a crisp military uniform jumped onto the vehicle.

  "Telegram from the Ministry of the Navy!" Lütjens called out to Heidemarie, who had just sauntered in from the telegraph room.

  The nerd's heart skipped a beat as he knew the result of his retirement application report. He shrank into the cold, hard back seat of the jeep, pinching the folded telegram paper, shaking his head and handing the letter back to Lü Te-yen.

  "General Enzel is looking for me, Lüteynsi. Can you take this telegram back with you? I'll look at it again when I return from Gaomen..."

  The otaku is not impatient, but has made up his mind. Whether the Navy Department refuses or not, Wang Haiting must take off her uniform this time. The otaku is really tired of the drifting life without purpose, direction and future.

  The jeep bounced along the bumpy dirt road in Istanbul for a while until it entered the city, where the road conditions improved. The German-made jeep drove through the old town of Constantinople, turning and twisting for about half an hour before entering the High Gate. Under the guidance of the deputy officer, the otaku arrived at the office of Turkish Defense Minister Enzel with ease.

  Enver was one of the three pashas of the Ottoman military government. After the Ottoman defeats in the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, Enver, then a relatively junior officer, led a group of young officers in a coup against the Freedom and Accord Party cabinet, driving them out of office. In June 1913, the iron-fisted Unionist leader Mahmud ?evket Pasha was assassinated, and the last remnants of the Freedom and Accord Party were purged by the CUP members, who then brought Enver into the government as Minister of War, alongside Talat as Minister of the Interior and Cemal as Minister of the Navy.

  Enver was born in 1881 in the imperial capital of Istanbul, his father being a railway official. He graduated from the Turkish Military Academy at an early age and soon joined the Young Turks Party, playing an important role in the Turkish Revolution of 1908, earning him the nickname "Hero of Liberty". He served as the military attaché to Berlin, where he gained a deep understanding of Germany's industrial might and military potential, which also influenced his pro-German stance during his rule.

  Wang Haitie was no stranger to Enver, and the reason why he could pretend to be a Turkish naval officer and dominate the scene was also thanks to Enver's help. At the New Year's military officers' party in 1913, Wang Haitie attended as a German advisor and met Enver, who was about the same age as him. Wang Haitie couldn't drink, but he had a greedy drinking habit, and when he got drunk, he pulled Enver, who was young but powerful, to ramble on about topics such as the Balkan situation, Austrian secrets, Franco-German feuds, and Turkey's predicament, which impressed Enver as a kindred spirit.

  "Captain Xilaim, we've taken down the Sudan Osman I...". Enzel tossed the documents on his desk aside and pointed to the chair opposite him for Wang Haitian to sit.

  "Congratulations, Grand Duke and your Ottoman Empire……" The term "Grand Duke" is a title of respect for the groom of the Ottoman royal family. Enzel is about to marry an Ottoman princess, and the otaku sarcastically congratulates him with the title of "Grand Duke".

  "Doesn't it worry you at all, Seylem, that the Ottoman Empire might lean towards the Allies?" Enver twirled his pen in his hand and looked down his nose.

  "General, in fact, the Greeks may not be the biggest losers in this arms race, and you may not be the biggest winners. The real winner can only be the Germans!" Wang Haitun said with a smirk, repeating her old tune.

  "Xilaim, are you worried that we won't be able to get those two dreadnoughts?" Wang Haitian had said this more than once. Professional soldier Lüte Yinsi may not have understood it, but as the head of state, politician Enzel could infer the meaning behind the words of an otaku: "Tearing up the contract and antagonizing Turkey, the British won't make such a low-level mistake!"

  "Great God! If the British stick to their agreement, we shall be delighted to have two more dreadnoughts as allies!"

  "What if we join the Allies?" Enzel added calmly.

  "It's impossible!" The otaku said resolutely, waving his arm without hesitation: "The polar bear cannot accept Turkey!"

  As early as the era of Peter the Great, Russians had made a plan to conquer the world by getting as close as possible to the Indian Ocean. All the tsars after Peter the Great adhered to this policy. In order to open up the Black Sea passage, they took in the strategic location - the Turkish Straits, and let the Black Sea Fleet dominate the Mediterranean and threaten the Suez Canal. The Russians did not hesitate to launch ten Russo-Turkish wars for this purpose. If Turkey wanted to join the Allies, it is likely that Russia would be the first to jump out and oppose it.

  "Turkey can still remain neutral!" Enzel exclaimed indignantly.

  "If the Allies are victorious, the Ottoman Empire will gain nothing; if the Central Powers are victorious, without Germany and Austria-Hungary to hold them back, in the face of the insatiable double-headed eagle riding the wave of victory, General Enver, do you think the Ottoman Empire still has any room to stand?" The young man lightly and casually dissolved Enver's counterarguments. In 1898 at the Berlin Congress hearings, he did the same thing; although the young man was not good with words, in areas that interested him, his heart was very big, and he enjoyed this feeling.

  "Alright..." General Enzel, the well-known pro-German military oligarch, laughed refreshingly. The national leader, who looked even younger than the otaku, pulled out an appointment letter from his drawer and tossed it in front of him. "First Deputy Minister of the Turkish Naval Department, Silayim, are you interested in this position?"

  First Deputy Minister of the Navy?

  The stinky Taoist, with his asymmetrical warfare of using the small to defeat the big, the otaku's ideal of traversing through time on horseback, having fantasized countless times about saving the world, and within reach were the champagne of victory, great fame, beauties throwing themselves at him, and an uncountable amount of money. The otaku's heart, which was almost frozen, suddenly came back to life, and he nearly nodded his head in agreement.

  Unfortunately, it was just "almost". Wang Haitian's fist loosened and tightened repeatedly, until his palms were full of sweat before he forced himself to open his mouth to refuse.

  "General, I'm sorry, I've made up my mind to retire, no one can stop me..."

  "Why?" Enzel stared at the letter of appointment in stunned silence for a long time.

  "General Enzel, from 1894 when I joined the Navy to 1912 when I came to this war-torn Turkey, twenty years, exactly twenty years, I dedicated the best time of my life to the Navy. If I hadn't achieved anything and become a laughing stock in the Navy world, it would be fine. For over a decade of serving overseas, I almost forgot what my daughter looks like, I almost didn't take care of my seriously ill father and father-in-law." Wang Haitei said a lot in one breath, as if she wanted to vent out all the grievances she had accumulated over the years: "I already have two Navy Ten-Year Excellent Service Medals, that's enough!"

  ****

  "Why hasn't Slyme returned yet? What did the telegram say, anyway? I'll take a look first and be responsible for it instead of him?" Lieutenant Evans circled around the telegram on the table several times, but he couldn't resist his curiosity and opened the telegram to take a look.

  "Refuse to retire? Promoted to Navy Lieutenant Colonel? Transferred to the First Reconnaissance Fleet of the General Staff as a Lieutenant Colonel?" Lü Te-yin's face turned pale, and after pondering for a long time, he finally blurted out a few words: "Using retreat as an advance, good idea! It seems I also need to apply for early retirement!"