Chapter 1: Berlin or Kiel (5)

  Hester died after all, and the simple yet solemn funeral cost money like flowing water. The old debts of the Silas family were not cleared, and new ones were added. As the saying goes, "the more lice, the less itching", Wang Haitian, a traveler through time and space, held in his heart the idea that "those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes" and was able to be calm about it.

  Heather's death had a great impact on Wang Haitao, who had been hesitant between Berlin University and Kiel Naval Academy, but Heather's death made him determined.

  After the funeral, Wang Haitie returned to the dock. The Kiel dock was still bustling and noisy, but the keen Wang Haitie could vaguely sense the ** lingering in the air above the dock.

  "Westlem, between you and me, I just joined the dockworkers' union. I think you should join too." Just then, while Wang Haitie was carrying crates and daydreaming, Blount sidled up to him, glanced around at Foreman Layman's position, and lowered his voice to say: "We exploited proletariat should unite and speak with one voice to defend our rights."

  In 1889, the Ruhr strike led to a rapid growth of trade union organizations, which caused fear among the emerging industrial and commercial bourgeoisie and the conservative Junker nobility. Under government repression, the labor movement soon fell into a low ebb. Now five years have passed, and the labor unions and proletarian movement are reviving. Just as Wang Haitie was busy with Hester's funeral, trade union organizations began to infiltrate among dockworkers again.

  Despite the efforts of the Marburg School, led by Professor Cohen-Kettler of Marburg University, and the Freiburg School, led by Professor Wilhelm-Wendelband of Freiburg University, to promote Neo-Kantianism, and the German New Historical School, led by Professor Luigo-Brentano of Munich University, to advocate "Cathedral Socialism" on university podiums, socialism and Marxist theory continued to gain momentum. Many dockworkers secretly joined unions, even the easy-going Brant could not escape.

  "Brent, I just received the admission letter from Kiel Naval Academy yesterday, you also know the rules of the navy..."

  Although Wang Haiting sympathized with the tragic fate of the working class, as a time-traveler familiar with the future, Wang Haiting deeply understood the white bones, hypocrisy and deception behind the great socialist revolution. The timid and cowardly Wang Haiting was destined to not replicate Mao's great achievements, and his unresolute will also made it impossible for him to write a German version of "The Hidden". Fortunately, Wang Haiting had an admission letter from Kiel Naval Academy to placate Braun.

  "I understand the rules of the army..." Blount turned his head away, his eyes full of disappointment that he couldn't hide.

  After Wang Haitie finished his studies at Timm-Krüger High School, he came to Kiel alone. The young Wang Haitie didn't understand anything and was taught by Braun how to work hard and be lazy. Braun took good care of him, and Wang Haitie didn't want to see his name in the Imperial Government's wanted list later, so he carefully chose his words and said vaguely: "Staying away from politics is a tradition of our German army, Braun, you have already retired from the army, but..."

  "Westphal, I joined the union to protect my own rights, which has nothing to do with politics. And the former Prime Minister's Anti-Socialist Law is already a thing of the past. Even the Social Democratic Party can now freely participate in parliamentary elections and become the largest party in parliament! The union is not an illegal organization!"

  The Germans are naturally insensitive to politics, so Braun mumbled some unclear excuses, then changed the subject, grasped Heidi's shoulder and said with a smile: "But still, congratulations on getting into the Kiel Naval Academy. After all, you've read books, spent three to five years in military school, and come out directly as a naval lieutenant, starting point much higher than ordinary people."

  "Blount, you're loafing again!" Leyman's bellow carried over from a distance: "You ought to be fired!"

  "That black-hearted Jewish merchant!" Brown muttered under his breath, as he shifted the crate and turned to whisper to Wang Haitian: "It's so unfair, Xilem. When you're slacking off and taking a break, he never says a word, but the moment I sit down to take a puff of my cigarette, this black-hearted foreman will definitely curse me out until I'm covered in dog blood. Xilem, I bet Leyman has an old and ugly daughter, and he's favoring you because he wants to make you his son-in-law. Wang Haitian, you'd better be careful..."

  Germans are not fond of gossip, but Braun is an exception. In his forties and still a bachelor, he is very enthusiastic about all the rumors related to women. Just as Braun was talking nonsense, a beautifully shaped warship slowly sailed into Kiel Bay. Heide's face changed, and she jumped onto a high pile of cargo boxes in one step, her eyes as pure as sapphire staring intently at the warship.

  That is the Siegfried-class light cruiser SMS Beowulf, which has just returned to the naval base after repairs at the shipyard. The Beowulf was damaged in a boiler accident during the annual autumn maneuvers in October 1893 and had only now been repaired. With a displacement of three thousand tons, it was powered by four sets of steam boilers with an output of five thousand seventy horsepower, reaching a maximum speed of 14.7 knots. It was equipped with three 240mm main guns, eight 88mm secondary guns, and four torpedo tubes, making it the masterpiece of German naval designers under the guidance of Germany's coastal defense ideology.

  The Germans were not a nation with a deep maritime tradition, and Frederick I and subsequent Prussian kings believed that "Prussia does not need a navy". After the Franco-Prussian War, the young German Empire was founded in the Palace of Versailles by the French. The wise and far-sighted old Chancellor Bismarck knew the strength of the British Empire's naval power, and to avoid possible conflicts with Britain, he strongly opposed the navy, turning a deaf ear to other powers scrambling for colonies in Africa, America, and Asia.

  After the Battle of Sedan, the German army was invincible, and all European countries were shocked and terrified. As for the Imperial Navy, it was just a dispensable small role.

  In 1864, when the Second Schleswig War broke out, the Prussians were successful on land but not at sea against Denmark. The Germans had to order a ship from Britain, the ironclad Arminius of 1,917 tons with four 208mm guns. In 1867, when the Prussian Navy was founded, the Germans only had one ironclad, the Friedrich Carl of 7,043 tons with sixteen 210mm guns and the British-built Arminius, almost nothing. In 1869, the Germans began to try building battleships, the Hamburg of 4,403 tons with eight 210mm guns was quickly begun at the Danzig shipyard but after many setbacks it took seven years to complete.

  The Prussian Navy had achieved nothing in the German Unification Wars, and after the establishment of the Empire, the German Navy was hindered by government policies and struggled to develop. In 1872, the German Naval Ministry submitted a ten-year naval expansion plan to Parliament, which aimed to build 14 ironclad warships and 20 cruisers by 1882, in addition to other ships, totaling 100 vessels. However, this glorious but arduous task was still not completed until 1888. In 1890, the German Navy's budget was $23 million, which was less than one-fifth of the Army's budget that year and only one-third of the British Navy's appropriation, equivalent to half of the French Navy's appropriation. The Navy had only 72 vessels with a total tonnage of approximately 190,000 tons, without any warships over 10,000 tons, mostly consisting of second-class cruisers or coastal defense ships of around 6,000 tons. The German Navy was not only inferior to that of the tottering empire in East Asia, but its tonnage was even less than that of the notorious "Sick Man of Western Asia" - the Ottoman Turkish Sultanate.

  Fortunately, the conservative and stubborn Junker landlord class in Germany had grown up, and Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was crazy about Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power upon History", had also ascended to the throne. The strong-willed Tirpitz had a historically significant meeting with the militaristic head of state - the German Emperor. Regardless of whether all this is good or bad, at least the rise of the German Navy has become unstoppable.

  In the past April, the latest Kurfürst class armored ship with inward listing bow and centerline turrets design, which is similar to the pre-dreadnought battleship, Brandenburg-class ironclad warship SMS Brandenburg has been put into service. Together with the ironclads SMS Kaiser Friedrich III and SMS W?rth that were put into service in 1893, the large armored cruiser SMS Augusta Victoria that was put into service in 1892, the four-thousand-tonne cruiser SMS Gefion that was launched in 1893, and the Brandenburg-class ironclad warship SMS Wiesbaden which is still on the slipway of Vulcan shipyard, the German Empire Navy has become a completely different navy compared to its weak past. Even the three-thousand-tonne light cruiser SMS Bille is not impressive enough when it was in Kiel, the mother port of the navy.

  Rather than saying Heid's gaze was chasing after the light cruiser, it would be better to say that Heid was waiting for a small sailboat hiding in the shadow of the Wolf-class cruiser to reveal itself. The old-fashioned sailing ship with wind power couldn't outrun the new-style cruiser with steam power, and in an instant, the cruiser sounded its whistle, turned around, and headed towards the military dock, exposing a battered three-masted whaling ship directly on the surface of the sea.

  The old whaling ship's hull was covered in moss and seaweed, with holes of all sizes on the left side. The tall mast, reinforced with wooden boards and rigging, still looked precarious. The whale rendering furnace, normally placed on the main deck, had been cut off by more than half, looking quite shocking.

  "Good heavens, this old sailing ship looks like it's about to fall apart! What a terrible storm those poor whalers must have encountered. How did they manage to bring back this barely floating wreck?" The sorry state of the old sailing ship drew a crowd to the dock, with people jumping up onto the breakwater, covering their mouths in amazement at the sight of the ship's hull, which was riddled with holes and plugged with old clothes, sailcloth, ropes, and wooden plugs.

  "Southern Schleswig-Holstein, this is Southern Schleswig-Holstein!" Following the memories of last year, Wang Haiting easily recognized that it was the whaling ship Southern Schleswig-Holstein where Freesi was.

  Fresic is back, that stubborn former Prussian naval lieutenant, the first mate of the whaling ship South Schleswig-Holstein, the old sailor who has been drifting and wandering at sea all his life. King Heide can finally take a breather and rest for a few days.

  ****

  The old Southern Schleswig lay quietly at the dock, young sailors with bare upper bodies humming an ancient ditty as they brought down wooden barrels full of whale oil. The technicians from Kiel's shipyard looked at this dilapidated old whaling ship and shook their heads vigorously, while standing beside them, the great merchant Dick from Kiel grew increasingly somber.

  "Mr. Dick, this is a sperm whale with the most expensive ambergris in the world on its body, and its spermaceti oil is the best on the market. The oil extracted from it can not only be eaten but also serve as raw material for your chemical plant." The white-haired old captain Kahn stared at the big businessman Dick who was bowing his head and said with a strong fist: "You cannot pay us according to the price of a seat-head whale, this is unfair!"

  "Fair?" Dick Kahn, the great merchant of Kiel, cried out in a loud voice, slowly approaching the worn-out Südliche Schleswig-Holstein with the support of old steward Elke. He pointed at the whaling ship with his civilized stick and asked with a sly smile: "The Südliche Schleswig-Holstein is a good ship, it was once the fastest ship on the Baltic Sea. Kahrn, you were once a captain in the Prussian Navy, I trusted you to give this ship to you, knowing that I treated this ship like my own daughter Katharina, but you ruined it. Kahrn, look at its miserable state, can you imagine that it was once the most beautiful ship in Kiel? Don't you have even a little bit of conscience?"

  "What's the fastest ship? That was indeed a fast sailing ship, but that was ten years ago." Since they had already torn their faces apart, these former naval men who had fought and bled for the empire, with iron flowing in their veins, didn't have anything to be concerned about. Former Prussian Navy Lieutenant Karn pointed at Dick's nose and sneered: "We encountered a storm at sea, and it was fortunate that we were able to save our lives under Poseidon's rage, the damage to the South Schleswig-Holstein can't be blamed on us, let alone you've already insured it!"

  It was clear that Dick was unwilling to pay his sailors even an extra penny, and the whale riders who risked their lives at sea were not satisfied with that meager commission. Both sides were deadlocked, neither willing to give in.

  "Mr. Dick, if you pay the price of a sperm whale, we'll repair the South Schleswig-Holstein as if it were our own daughter. If you insist on paying the price of a pilot whale, then we'd better meet in court."

  Wang Haiting, who had rushed over to pick up Freeci on her way home, accidentally stumbled upon the scene in front of her. As a university student who had taken the course "Thought Morality and Legal Foundation" and was well-rounded in moral, intellectual, and physical development, Wang Haiting suppressed her inner anger and walked over, softly yet firmly warning the greedy Dick:

  "Mr. Dick, although you have a high reputation in Kiel, we can also find people to speak for us at the Imperial Navy Department. Mr. Dick, as a far-sighted and wise businessman, and one of the top philanthropists in Kiel, you certainly won't be greedy for these small gains..."

  Dick's face twitched with a hint of anger, but immediately turned into a smile like a Sichuan opera actor.

  "Frecci, you have a good son." Dick said with a hypocritical smile, patting Wang Haitian's shoulder and tempting him: "Xilaimu, if I remember correctly, weren't you Catherine's middle school classmate? Villani often mentions you in front of me. Are you interested in coming to my company? I'll give you twenty marks salary every month."

  "Thank you, but I'd rather read a bit more..." If it weren't for Dick's personal invitation, Heiti would have accepted the 20-mark monthly salary with tears and shouts. But after seeing Dick's ruthless and cold-blooded nature, Wang Heiti decided to refuse.

  Dike's usually infallible money offensive had rarely suffered a loss, and he looked somewhat embarrassed, rubbing his bald head as he said awkwardly: "Haha, well then I wish you the best of luck in getting into Berlin University..."

  ****

  After Hester left, Wang Haitian fully exposed his otaku nature of being lazy and gluttonous. In order to avoid cleaning, Wang Haitian simply cleared out the unnecessary furniture, leaving only the simplest living utensils.

  The retired old soldier Fraser appreciated this, the domineering old sailor squatted on the ground, holding his wife's photo and asked with a sideways glance:

  "What did Heather entrust before she left?"

  For the irascible Freeci, Wang Haitian had an instinctive fear. In her previous life, Wang Haitian was very afraid of his father who believed in stick education, and after crossing over, this psychology also followed.

  "Mother told me to take good care of you..."

  Heather left a will for Heidi to go to the University of Berlin instead of joining the Imperial Navy, in order to avoid Freya's stubbornness and potential outbursts. To avoid this, Heidi chose to conceal the truth; Heather also asked Heidi to forget about Catherine and marry Annie, without mentioning that Catherine was Heidi's first love, a pure and innocent one. Catherine is very beautiful, with a tall figure, delicate face, golden hair, and noble temperament, making her the ultimate dream girl for any man. Annie, on the other hand, is not pretty, with a tomboyish image, a bad temper, and a quirky personality, similar to Heidi's little friend. In his past life, in order to avoid being trapped by his little girlfriend, Wang Haitian even chose to cross over into this new world, so why would he now choose to marry Annie? Forgetting Catherine is clearly an unfeeling thing to do, and marrying Annie is obviously an inhumane thing to do. To avoid his own inner turmoil and potential self-harm, Wang Haitian chose to take the easy way out.

  "Ah..." The stubborn and persistent old sailor let out a faint sigh, carefully tucked the photo back into his pocket, and stood up with the help of his crutch. "Heidi, it's been tough on you all this time... Go to Berlin, Hester was right, one cripple at home is enough, no need for a second lunatic."

  An old sailor who had always advocated for iron and blood, and rough and directness, had never been soft or spoken gentle words in his life. When the old sailor said these words, his face was flushed, his eyes dodged back and forth, and he rarely showed a hint of embarrassment.

  "No!" Wang Haitian refused. There were still many debts at home that had not been paid off, and he did not want to add to Frey's burden. For the sake of old Frey, for the sake of living a corrupt life as soon as possible, for his precarious and increasingly pale transcendent ideals, Wang Haitian chose the navy without hesitation: "Frey, I've been admitted to the Kiel Naval Academy, I'm going to join the Imperial Navy!"

  Wang Haitie's historical knowledge was not good, he vaguely remembered that the Battle of Jutland was won by the Germans. Since they had won, he should be able to save his life. As for what was written in black and white in history books - "The German fleet attacked its prison guards but was still locked up" - Wang Haitie didn't care about it.

  "Isn't that the excuse those good-for-nothing guys from the previous national football team always use? Either the grass is too dry, or it's too wet, or it's not dry or wet!"