Chapter One: Berlin or Kiel (I)

  "Hey, kid, want one?" The whistle blows, and the exhausted porters cheer up, sitting down in twos and threes, eagerly waiting for their wages to be distributed by team leader Layman. Heidi sits on the rusty gangway of the small cargo ship, holding her aching arm, unconsciously imitating the artistic young people, gazing up at the sky at a 45-degree angle with misty eyes.

  At this moment, Brant from Augsburg walked over and leaned against Heidi-Sielem. He pulled out a piece of newspaper-wrapped tobacco from the dirty pocket of his clothes, tore off a piece of paper, pinched a small handful of tobacco leaves, rolled it into a cigarette, and handed it to Heidi.

  "Heidi took the cigarette and nodded in thanks."

  A man in his forties, Old Brown, raised the matchbox in his hand to signal to Heidi, who understood and picked up the cigarette, turned her head and used her hand to shield the wind so that Brown could light it.

  This wasn't Wang Haitian's first time smoking. In his previous life, in order to cultivate the so-called "indoor man" and "fresh" qualities, Wang Haitian had also smoked a few packs of bland and tasteless Zhongnanhai cigarettes. However, under the cruel suppression of his little girlfriend, he had no choice but to give up. The tobacco was very poor quality, and the feeling of smoke passing through his lungs wasn't pleasant at all. Wang Haitian suddenly started coughing violently, with pale blue cigarette smoke constantly being coughed out.

  "You don't usually do hard labor, but as soon as I see you, I know you're still a rookie, don't understand the tricks of the trade, won't slack off, only knows how to work blindly." The dockworker who relied on his physical strength for food burst out laughing, Prantler tilted his head and lit a cigarette for himself, patted Wang Haitian's shoulder and said with a piercing gaze: "However, I can tell that you're one of us, although you're still a rookie now, but you have the natural air of a rascal."

  Braunton was a thorough old hand among the dock labourers, having joined the army at seventeen and served in the Franco-Prussian War, after which he had spent twenty years or more wandering about the docks.

  "Just as if you were praising me..." Wang Haitian extinguished the cigarette butt, carefully put back the paper cigarette that had only been smoked for a few mouthfuls into his pocket, and asked nonchalantly: "I heard you participated in the Franco-German War? How does the taste of victory feel?"

  Wang Haitian has been considering joining the Imperial Army recently. Wang Haitian, who crossed over from another world, not only inherited Heidi's excellent academic performance but also made up for Silaim's lack of natural knowledge. If she could have a quiet environment to read books, Wang Haitian was confident that she could get into Berlin University and change her fate through reading. However, with Heidewei's illness, Freesi's hard work on the high seas to make money, the expensive medical bills, and the constant visits from relatives asking for debt repayment, the broken wooden hut on Wang Haitian's side couldn't even hold a quiet desk.

  No matter whether it's speculation or plagiarism, Wang Haiting, who is not a blank sheet of paper, can't handle it. Although the previous life of Wang Haiting was unlearned and idle, his vision was not bad at all, and he still had a sense of self-awareness. Joining the army, let alone approaching the iron-blooded ideal of building merit and leaving a name in history, at least allows him to get rid of this dirty and tiring job as a porter that is clearly beneath his identity as a high-ranking official.

  "To be honest, war is not fun at all. Although we have the upper hand in terms of military strength, artillery equipment and combat training, France is after all a land power, they fought fiercely and stubbornly, our casualties were not small. After the war, almost every church in Northern Germany was playing requiem masses for the dead." Brant was a big mouth, with a light and frivolous personality, but when it came to soldiers, war, and casualties, Brant's face, which was known for being oily and smooth-talking, rarely showed a solemn and reverent expression.

  Braun's words made Wang Haitie's heart skip a beat, and although Wang had big ambitions, he was afraid of death, so he unhesitatingly ruled out the army as an option.

  Blount realized his topic had gotten too heavy, so he chuckled casually and said lazily: "But someone has to pay for the future of this nation, anyway. Fortunately, we won, the country is unified, the nation is united, and our medals are in hand, everyone's happy."

  Wang Haitie asked a very realistic, pragmatic and 21st-century question, but Brown gave a very romantic, knowledgeable and German answer. The ending made Wang Haitie slightly surprised. He turned his head to carefully examine Brown, wanting to find a hint of something that would make people ponder from the scars on his face. Wang Haitie used 21st-century values to maliciously guess a German's sense of responsibility, but he failed. It was precisely because of this failure that he was shocked and even felt some shame.

  Wang Haitian suddenly thought of Freysee-Silem, an old sailor over fifty with white hair and a lame leg who never forgot to guard the honor of the Imperial Navy. When Wang Haitian first crossed over, the old sailor would often boast about his achievements in the Prussian Navy to Hester, trying to persuade Wang Haitian to join the navy. After rescuing the beauty and lying in bed recovering from illness, Wang Haitian had grown tired of Freysee's boasting and seized every opportunity to mock him sarcastically:

  "What is there to be proud of in the Prussian Navy? In the Six Weeks' War of 1864, you and the Austrian Navy together were no match for the Danes, and were defeated by a third-rate navy. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, you were completely routed, wandering around without striking, either hiding deep in the Weser and Ems rivers, relying on coastal artillery to defend yourselves, or fleeing to Britain, where you survived under the wing of the British Empire. As for the German Empire's Navy, let alone the naval commander-in-chief who came from the army, apart from a few awkward Brandenburg-class ships and the outdated Sachsen-class ships, what else does Germany have? Even the Chinese have two Sachsen-class ships!"

  In 1894, the German Navy was still a minor player in the world. The French had just destroyed their long wall and implemented the famous "Green Water Navy" policy, but they were still one of the top two naval powers; even during the "Naval Dark Ages", the Royal Navy of John Bull was still the sum of all other major navies; although Emperor William, who fanatically worshipped Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power upon History", showed the world his determination to build a powerful navy, the German Navy lagged behind the world in terms of ship design, manufacturing technology, weapon control and naval training, maritime tradition, and was not just one or two stars behind.

  Every time Wang Haitian exposed the old bottom of the Prussian Navy, the old navy would be furious and jump into thunder, then become gloomy and silent. After a long time, Fressi never mentioned letting Haitian join the navy again. Wang Haitian had been proud of this before, until today he realized that his joke had hurt the self-esteem of an old soldier who had dedicated his youth to Germany, to the ocean, and to the navy.

  The German nation is a nation that has experienced many disasters and hardships. Half of their body is angel, half is devil. They have cultivated countless philosophical sages, but it was also this nation that crazily provoked two world wars, with the strength of one man to make a gesture against the whole world. This country was destroyed twice, but the Germans always managed to reorganize and rise again from the ruins, stubbornly standing among the ranks of strong nations. The truth behind this is indeed worth reflection for certain great powers.

  Of course, Wang Haitao, who is still struggling on the poverty line and trying his best to escape from the lower district of Kiel to a small well-off life, has no intention or ability to write poems or prefaces for the national soul of this tenacious nation. He stretched his neck, with sharp eyes following closely the bundle of banknotes and coins brought by team leader Lehman, his eyes filled with religious fanaticism.

  Leyman laid out the banknotes and coins on a long table, and the porters who had finished their work formed a long queue in front of the table, waiting for Leyman to give them their wages.

  "This is yours..."; Foreman Leemann wore a beige suit, sported the most fashionable haircut in Berlin at the moment, and had a cigar clenched between his teeth that would never be lit. He counted out ten pfennigs into Heidi's hand.

  "Thank you..."

  Wang Haitie fiddled with the nickel coins in her hand, and suddenly a sense of grandeur and ambition emerged, only to be extinguished by reality. This was Wang Haitie's hard-earned money, earned through her own efforts, and she had long looked forward to this day, promising to buy a pack of 95 Supreme for her father, a bottle of bean paste perfume for her mother, and a lingerie set for her little girlfriend. However, when the time came, Wang Haitie didn't have time to indulge in sentimentality, as Heathers, who was suffering from illness, urgently needed money to buy painkillers.

  Wang Haitie was about to leave when Laiman, with a big belly and loose bowels, called out to her. He stuffed five fen into Wang Haitie's hand and said slyly: "Xilem, you did pretty well today, are you coming again tomorrow?"

  Wang Haitie was just a temporary porter, compared to those professional dockworkers, Lehman didn't have to pay him too much. Moreover, Wang Haitie was only sixteen years old and had never seen the world, he wasn't like those old-timers among the porters who were lazy at work but fought fiercely when it came to getting paid. Giving Wang Haitie five more fen wouldn't make the shrewd Lehman lose out in any way.

  "As long as I still have a breath..."; Wang Haiting raised her numb arm, tightly grasping the few nickel-copper 5-penny coins in her hand, somewhat helpless.

  Prices in Germany aren't expensive, but what can you buy with ten pfennigs?

  Enough to buy two eggs, 350 grams of hard black bread, a small piece of locally produced Kiel's nauseatingly smelly sour cheese, a pound or so of potatoes, and one-twenty-first of a pain reliever.

  Rainbow, twinkling sunset, leisurely seagulls, white waves and warships, lighthouses and coastal defense fortresses on the highlands, beautiful and magnificent Keel. But all these do not belong to Heidi. The former rich and handsome man, now with a head whitened by life's worries, Heidi-Selim held the nickel coin that had been washed clean in his palm, and couldn't help but let out a loud wail:

  "Poseidon, I swear that I will become a superior being, let my relatives live in a big house with gardens, let my children ride to school in a four-wheeled carriage pulled by four horses, let my wife be as beautiful as Marilyn Monroe, and let me sleep on Imperial Gold Marks every night! I want to survive, I must live to be one hundred years old, then go back to that Heavenly Bridge, bring my grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren to beat up that Jianghu Taoist half to death, and then have him send me back!"

  Note

  Poseidon: The sea god in Greek mythology.