Chapter 1: Turkish Decree (Three)

  January 1914, Ottoman Empire capital Constantinople harbor.

  A sudden cold snap hit Eastern Europe and the Near East, with temperatures plummeting to freezing point. The crystal windowsills of the resplendent Dolmabah?e Palace were thickly encrusted with frost, while the narrow Bosphorus Strait was layered with ice on its northern shore. Even the olive trees that commonly dot the Mediterranean coast were shivering in the harsh winter.

  The cold wind rampaged over the Sea of Marmara, and the sea was like a ferocious ancient beast that had just awakened, wrapping up its tremendous power to roar and churn up tens of meters of fierce waves, enough to tear apart small ships of hundreds of tons in an instant.

  Due to the severe sea conditions, the Turkish Straits had already been closed to navigation, and ships of all sizes were rushing into port to take shelter. In the Gulf of Saronic, where the Crescent Moon Fleet was located, the waves could be slightly calmed down due to the protection of the terrain and breakwaters. However, even so, those few old but sturdy Barbados-class coastal defense ships, the 9,700-ton Messudieh-class battleship, the Hamidiye cruiser which had just returned from Britain, and the American-made Mecidiye ironclad cruiser could only pitch up and down in front of nature. As for the four 300-ton French-built destroyers and the four 600-ton German-built S-165 torpedo boats, they were even more helpless, disappearing from view in the several-meter-high waves.

  The Marmara Sea was stormy, and Istanbul, which had not fallen, was also in a precarious situation. The wind and snow shrouded the port city, directly submerging the Ottoman Naval Command's Italian-style building complex. The German advisory team's residence was quiet, with the violent winds almost blowing down the two flags of the German Empire and the Ottoman Crescent standing in front of the building.

  The small apartment was quiet, with only the sound of writing on the desk. The fire in the fireplace flickered, occasionally crackling and popping as the wood splintered, filling the stillness of the room.

  "In 1898, the Greco-Turkish War; in 1911, the Italo-Turkish War; and in 1912-13, two Balkan Wars, the Ottoman Empire lost nearly all of its European territories and the glory of its ancestors. The once-mighty empire that spanned three continents and considered the Mediterranean as an inland sea finally collapsed under the onslaught of weak Italy and the Balkan Alliance. In the two Balkan Wars, the Sultan's subjects were not entirely powerless: although the Turkish army retreated step by step, they put up a good fight; the Crescent Moon flag naval forces, despite being no match for their opponents, still had outstanding commanders like Hussein Rauf Orbay, who with just one ship, the Hamidiye, could stir up the Mediterranean. However, this country was already rotten to its core, and no amount of military strength or firepower could save this dying dynasty, just like the Qing Dynasty in far-off East Asia."

  "In contrast to the Ottoman Empire's miserable state, the Balkan Alliance Navy's performance was quite impressive. The Bulgarians had only six torpedo boats before the war, but they still severely damaged the armored cruiser Hamidiye. The Greek Navy blockaded the exit of the Dardanelles and carried out a campaign to capture the Aegean Islands. They sank the 4,800-ton old ironclad Feth-i Bülend, the 2,700-ton cruiser Mecidiye, and damaged the pre-dreadnought Barbaros Hayreddin. As a potential ally of Britain, the Greek Navy showed an aggressive attitude in this war, and its growing naval power is worth our vigilance."

  The desk was piled high with local newspapers from Greece and Turkey, intelligence reports sent by the German naval attachés in Turkey and Greece, and a survey report of the German Mediterranean Squadron brought over by Lieutenant Junior Grade D?nitz. The Balkan Wars in 1912 had ended in disaster for the Turks, and the "Pan-Slavism" of the northern bear was spreading rapidly throughout the Balkan Peninsula, causing fear and discontent in Germany and Austria. Germany decided to take action: a Mediterranean squadron consisting of the famous Goeben and Breslau cruisers stormed into the Adriatic Sea, blockaded the port of Montenegro and sent a marine battalion to prevent the Serbs from gaining access to the sea, while D?nitz was on board the Breslau cruiser at that time.

  The coffee on the table had gone cold, the black bread with butter was as hard as stone, and even the bacon sausage had icicles hanging from it. The fierce north wind howled through the gaps in the doors and windows, taking away the last bit of warmth in the room.

  The otaku casually wore a white German naval uniform that had just been washed, and on his head he wore a Turkish naval-style woolen hat. His brows were tightly locked in deep hatred, biting the pen tip as he concentrated on writing an evaluation report about the Sino-Turkish naval armament competition.

  In 1912, the exhausted Turks signed an armistice with Bulgaria and Serbia. The disastrous defeat exposed the weakness of the Ottoman Empire, and when the Sultan's subjects woke up in the morning, they would be shocked to find that Constantinople was facing such a dire situation: to the northwest were the fierce Magyars; to the north were the Romanians and Tatars; to the west were Slavs and Greeks as well as Slav Muslims, Albanians, and Macedonians intertwined; to the east were Armenians and Kurds; and in the southeast and south were hundreds of Arab tribes. The domestic situation was already difficult to navigate, and with the unclean Romans and Gauls, the sworn enemy Russia lurking in the north, the British coveting the Middle East, and the poverty that could not be shaken off after the opening of the East-West sea route.

  The defeated Turks were in a state of disarray, eager to rebuild their navy, especially against the backdrop of Greece's constant shipbuilding and armament, as well as British naval advisors' evaluation that "Turkey has no navy". Therefore, helping Turkey rebuild its navy became a political task for the Imperial Navy Department, aiming to expand Germany's influence in the Turkish Navy. At that time, the Balkan Peninsula was still smoldering with gunpowder, and war could break out again at any moment. The newly formed Turkish liberal cabinet was on shaky ground, having lost control of the military, Constantinople was in chaos, and revengeism, defeatism, and all sorts of absurd rumors were rampant. Everyone in the German Navy Department viewed the trip to Turkey as a perilous journey, except for two men: Wang Haitong, a middle-aged man with a family who had nowhere else to turn, and Günther Lütjens, a young man who had just achieved success.

  1913 was a Balkan year, the Second Balkan War, great powers' endless bickering and intimidation over the Balkan Peninsula, the January 23rd coup in Istanbul, the dazzling light of that small piece of land in the Near East is enough to make Afghanistan and Iraq feel inferior. The New Year's bell rang in 1914, the gunfire stopped, and the smoke cleared, but the world's attention still couldn't shift away from the Balkans, the sick man of Western Asia, the Ottoman Turkish Empire, and the ambitious Greek Kingdom, these two opponents who had just engaged in a real battle found a new arena for their game - the navy.

  The naval arms race between Germany and Britain has been going on for over a decade, and Europeans who have seen the big picture have long since become accustomed to it. The ten-year-old feud between Fisher and Tirpitz, this pair of sworn enemies, has even become a topic of conversation that Europeans never tire of discussing after dinner; several South American countries had a lively naval arms race, but ultimately ended in a very bloody defeat under the impact of the economic crisis. Just when people were sighing that the arms race was not something that poor countries could afford, Greece and Ottoman Turkey in the impoverished and turbulent Balkans actually followed suit, ignoring the fact that their domestic economies were struggling and starting a fierce naval arms race.

  In 1914, the situation in Europe was increasingly tense, with war looming over the European continent. The great powers were entangled in the Balkan Peninsula, and issues such as ethnic conflicts, religious clashes, cultural differences, border disputes, and political divisions were intertwined and influenced each other. Kaiser Wilhelm, who had long been interested in Turkey, naturally took note of this situation and ordered the German advisory group in Turkey to submit an assessment report on the Greek-Turkish naval competition.

  The Turkish Army was the Germans' private domain, whereas the Turkish Navy was the British backyard. Under the hegemony of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, the few non-British naval advisers in the Turkish Navy were almost suffocated by the arrogant John Bull, and Lieutenant Heideck and Lieutenant Günther were the only remnants of the German advisory group in the Turkish Navy, so naturally they had to submit the evaluation report.

  The two Balkan Wars set Greece and Turkey on a course of military competition. The Second Balkan War exposed the true nature of the so-called Balkan Alliance, and while the ink was still wet on the Treaty of London, the Turkish government brazenly sent troops to retake Edirne, leaving the Greeks in shock. To prevent possible retaliation and maintain naval superiority, the Greeks, despite financial difficulties, were busy buying warships with cash from all over the world.

  Just as the otaku was writing furiously, the worn-out door of the apartment was pushed open and Lutz, wrapped in a military coat, sneaked in with an empty cup, looking suspicious.

  Lüttjens was the only partner of the nerd in this desolate land of Turkey, he was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, joined the navy in 1907, and served on the small auxiliary warships Freya and Elsa. In 1912, the Navy Department issued a summons, and the ignorant young Lüttjens impulsively performed a German version of "Knowledge Youth Up Mountain Down Mountain", packed his bags and rushed to Istanbul's Golden Horn Bay, excitedly arriving at the old-fashioned coastal defense ship Barbarossa as a gunnery and torpedo instructor.

  "Winter in Turkey is really cold......" Lutein took off his thick cotton gloves and rubbed his frozen purple hands hard, bent down to rummage through the boxes in the otaku's room as if no one was around.

  Half a spoonful of brown sugar, half a spoonful of coffee beans. Lü Te-yen smiled and brewed himself a cup of coffee, casually pulled over a chair to lean against the otaku and sat down, smiling: "I know you have a lot of local goods hidden here, lend me some coffee, brown sugar and hot water..."

  "I'm really tired of your opening remarks, you're not a British person from across the strait, every time we meet, it's always complaining about the gloomy weather..." The otaku threw down his pen, rubbed his red and swollen eyes, and let out a yawn, saying in a bad mood: "If you want something, just move it yourself, no need to say 'borrow', this humble word that you've repeatedly humiliated."

  "Let's not talk about that, let's not talk about that..." Lü Te-yin's old face turned red as he wisely changed the subject. He sat in a rickety chair with missing armrests and legs, leisurely crossing his legs and picking up an assessment report that had just been started by a househusband. As he flipped through it, he complained: "You say it's strange or not, the Navy Department has been ignoring us for many years after deceiving us into coming to this godforsaken place in Turkey, but now they're suddenly urging us to complete this laborious assessment report with their lives on the line. Didn't we sell a Salamis to Greece? The Turkish-Greek naval arms race must have had something to do with our efforts...the Navy Department should be more aware of the ins and outs of the Turkish-Greek naval competition than we are..."

  "Who knows... " Wang Haiting tightened her coat, stretched out a lazy waist and leaned against the chair, thinking about the ups and downs of these years. The otaku looked at the mirror inlaid on the wardrobe and sneered: "Maybe the Navy Department wants to make use of waste!"

  The topic got too heavy, Lü Te Yan shook his head and pretended to be nonchalant, changing the subject: "How was the Taoyan River drama resolved?"

  "The Turks got the first prize." The otaku pointed at the newspaper spread out on the table and said coldly, "But the Greeks also got a consolation prize. American cowboys are flying the banner of 'Maintaining Peace in the Aegean' and are preparing to sell two warships that are about to be decommissioned to Greece for $10 million."

  The Greek government was undoubtedly at a disadvantage in this grand naval competition, and just as the Athenians were in a state of panic, isolation and helplessness, the cunning Americans jumped out and expressed their willingness to sell two active battleships - Idaho and Mississippi.

  "Why don't the Americans go and grab the money..." Lü Te-yün snorted, knowing that $10 million could buy two of the latest dreadnoughts or a batch of old pre-dreadnoughts about to be retired.

  "Westheim, the British almost completely control the New Moon Flag Navy, and we non-British naval advisors can only barely hold on at the edge. If those two British battleships are added, I'm afraid we'll be squeezed out of the Turkish Navy." The newspaper was filled with news about the Greek-Turkish naval competition, and a large black-and-white photo of Turkish national hero Hüseyin Rauf Orbay standing on the main deck of the Hamidiye dominated the front page of the Constantinople newspaper. Lütjens unconsciously furrowed his brow, slightly displeased: "One British-made cruiser (the Hamidiye) and a Briton named Gambier are already enough trouble..."

  "The two Balkan Wars had left the Turkish military strength severely depleted, and their diplomatic environment was extremely unfavorable. If the Ottoman Empire still wanted to exist as a sovereign state, the Turks had to rebuild a strong army; the German Army would be sufficient to guarantee our existence in Turkey, while the Navy was merely a supplement to this influence." Wang Hai Di turned her head to look out of the window and said confidently: "In this arms race, the Greeks may not necessarily be the biggest losers, nor will the Turks necessarily be the biggest winners. The real winner can only be the Germans!"

  Against the half-opened louver window glass, on the opposite side of a four-story grey foreign-style building, a large Union Jack flag was fluttering in the wind and snow of Istanbul.

  Note

  Former naval base of the Ottoman Empire, haven for Turks.

  Another account is that Asharitev Fiqq was re-created.

  In 1913 Greece ordered a battlecruiser, the Salamis, from Germany with 14-inch main armament, expected to be launched in 1915.

  4. Douglas Gamble, British Royal Navy Rear Admiral and Turkish Naval Advisor. It was Gamble's lobbying that led the Ottoman government to decide to purchase two dreadnoughts.