Chapter 3: German West Africa (I)

  The chapter I uploaded last night said it contained sensitive words and was waiting for review, but by 9:30 this morning, there was still no result. Okay, I admit I'm afraid of the river crabs on Starting Point, so I used a river crab detector, deleted a few harmless words, changed the title of the chapter, and resubmitted it.

  Kiel in the dusk, the scenery is just right. The gloomy sunset lingers at the horizon of the sea and sky, quietly dyeing the vast ocean with a layer of old yellow color like an old photograph. Fishing boats sing in the evening, accompanied by intoxicating scenery, diligent fishermen sing songs that have been passed down for centuries to manipulate the star-studded sails back to the harbor. Next to the small dock of the Naval Academy, the light waves gently swayed the hull of the Friedrich-Karl torpedo training ship, which was covered with seaweed and shellfish. Greedy seagulls occasionally dived down, scaring many naval cadets who were conducting algae removal operations underwater, causing the calm Baltic Sea to be filled with the curses of young and vigorous cadets.

  After physical training, Wang Haitian seemed to be in good luck. Perhaps it was because of the warning from Old Lai Xiachang that Wang Haitian's annoying philosophy teacher, Pirreles-Ferdinand, never mentioned taking him as his apprentice again; In the subsequent light weapon training sessions, Wang Haitian occasionally scored around 5 out of 10 shots, which is close to passing, and he also persisted throughout the entire platoon training led by Instructor Stenzel. Even Wang Haitian's seasickness, which had been a nightmare for him, had alleviated somewhat.

  No matter whether it's the cold-blooded Stenzel or the overbearing Auden, their attitude towards Wang Haitian is gradually improving with his progress. As a result, the otaku's confidence began to swell again, thinking that crossing over was just a small matter, although the process was slightly more tortuous, but for a crosser, it was just an appetizer before the main course.

  Just as the otaku was about to get out of hand, Stenzel stood up and used a sentence "The leader wants to talk to you" to put Wang Haitian back in his place.

  The seaweed-like substance attached to the hull of the ship is a major problem for warships, as it not only affects their speed but also accelerates the aging of the vessel, so regular cleaning of the hull is necessary. Wang Haitian was clearing floating plants from the seafloor when he heard Stenzel's call, his heart tightened, and he swallowed several mouthfuls of seawater before hastily grabbing his knife and surfacing, gasping for air as he clung to the rusty hull of the Friedrich Karl.

  "Looking for me?" Wang Haitian slightly raised his head, glanced at Stenzel's face covered with thick frost, and replied timidly.

  "Are you Heidi Xie Lem?" A middle-aged naval officer in his forties, with the rank of senior colonel, sporting a well-groomed goatee that would be considered artistic and aristocratic by German standards but reminiscent of Zhang Ziyi's by Chinese standards, and with a shiny bald forehead, stood at the bow of the training vessel, leaning forward towards Wang Haiting.

  "Sir, are you looking for me?" Wang Haitie asked in a low voice, saluting the naval officer with a sloppy military salute while scratching his head. Wang Haitie did not recognize the naval officer in front of him and confirmed that this naval colonel was not an instructor at Kiel Naval Academy.

  "Hey kid, want to have a chat?"

  A middle-aged military officer stood there, with a faint smile on his face, his eyes gleaming sharply, and every move he made exuded an aura of great strength and majesty. Wang Haitian's father, who had the sacred halo of being both a second-generation official and a second-generation rich man in his previous life, was still afraid of his wife and obediently accepted her rod education, but he couldn't defeat his spoiled and willful little girlfriend, and when he saw her parents, his legs would tremble. Not to mention the middle-aged military officer with an overbearing aura.

  In the midst of Rader's blessings, Wang Haitie pitifully crawled ashore, following closely behind a middle-aged military officer with a mixture of fear and trepidation.

  The naval colonel seemed to be familiar with the Naval Academy, leading Wang Haitian through the shaded paths of the military school and soon arriving at a pavilion deep in the woods.

  "I am Alfred von Tirpitz, Captain of the Imperial Navy." The middle-aged officer introduced himself with a sentence, casually squatting on the grass, took out a box of well-packaged cigarettes and waved it in front of Wang Haitian, politely saying: "Smoke?"

  Wang Haitie received the cigarette with a surprised and delighted expression, and skillfully brought it to her nose for a sniff. This was a high-end cigarette produced in Berlin, far superior to the homemade paper cigarettes that Braun made.

  "Von Scheer, I've read your entrance exam papers. It's said that you predicted the outcome of the naval battle before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in the Far East." Tirpitz asked, with an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth, "Von Scheer, what influence do you think the Battle of the Yellow Sea will have on the development of world navies?"

  "Colonel, I'm just a military academy student, and I've only been in the Navy for less than a month..." Wang Haitie was still Chinese to the bone, adhering to the doctrine of moderation. He evaded the sharp gaze of the middle-aged officer, subconsciously becoming reserved.

  "Silentium, confidence is the most precious quality of us Germans!" Colonel Tirpitz patted Heidemarie's shoulder, half-jokingly saying: "The other day I met Major Stenzel in the principal's office. He gave high praise to Bernhard von Oden and Erich Raeder, but his evaluation of you was not very good. But I don't think so, Silentium. Although your basic military training is quite poor, I believe you are a genius, no less than Wolfgang Wegener, that naval strategic genius!"

  Born in the port city of Stettin on the Baltic, Wolfgang Wegener is now making a name for himself at the Naval Academy in Kiel. Tirpitz, who recently visited the academy, still remembers Wegener, who was only nineteen years old.

  Wang Haitian crossed over, catching up with the heroic rescue of the beauty and bravely getting injured in this act. Later, due to the pressure of life, he had no choice but to choose the dockworker job that was humiliating for a crosser. After being admitted to the Kiel Naval Academy, he made mistake after mistake, becoming the laughing stock of the navy. Wang Haitian felt that his crossing career was quite a failure. Suddenly, he heard someone praising him, and this person looked very powerful and influential, which greatly satisfied the extremely lacking self-identity of the otaku.

  "Colonel Tirpitz, I believe that with the development of modern technology, the face of future naval warfare will undergo a complete transformation, and the Russo-Japanese War in the Far East is just the beginning of this revolution!" Wang Haitian decided to return the favor, pouring out all the goods he had in his belly.

  Actually, Wang Haiting was not entirely unprepared for the transmigration. According to the laws of transmigration, a transmigrated person would inevitably meet a noble person on a certain day, and with their cunning and eloquence, they would gain the appreciation of that noble person, after which good fortune would shine upon them and they would rise to prominence. During this period after transmigration, Wang Haiting was both looking forward to meeting his noble person while also recalling fragmented memories from past lives, summarizing knowledge he had gained through hearsay, and painstakingly deducing some groundbreaking views on the future development of the navy, all in preparation for any eventuality that might arise.

  The greatest advantage of a time-traveler does not lie in their eloquence, physical strength, adaptability or practical skills, but rather in their strategic vision that transcends the era. Wang Haitian is not a man of strong will; he is afraid of death and hardship, and his physical strength, execution ability and adaptability are all quite poor. Thanks to the college entrance examination, his academic performance and strategic vision were able to surpass those of his contemporaries, so that an otaku like him would not be completely useless in Kiel, Germany in 1894.

  "In the age of sail, naval battles were mainly fought with broadsides and boarding actions; after the appearance of ironclad warships and breech-loading cannons, the distance between ships in battle continued to increase, and major navies began to pursue larger-caliber guns and more solid armor. After the Battle of Lissa, no country dared to give up the ramming tactic; with the emergence of torpedoes, the green-water navy faction became popular, and the French were once its supporters. Before the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War in the Far East, optical rangefinders, quick-firing guns, and triple-expansion engines had been invented, and Mahan's "The Influence of Sea Power upon History" had demonstrated the value of fast cruisers in naval warfare, and the construction of navies around the world was accelerating. The Battle of the Yellow Sea saw the combined fleet use speed, maneuverability, quick-firing guns, Chinese mistakes, and a bit of luck to defeat the Beiyang Fleet; this largest steam-era naval battle of the 19th century proved the power of ironclad warships, the value of fast cruisers, and the effectiveness of quick-firing guns, and its impact on world navies would be profound."

  Wang Haitie swung her fist, matching the strong and powerful tone, doing her best to imitate the unstoppable momentum of Emperor Taizu, pointing at the mountains and rivers, and shouting: "In those days, I was a mighty general, with a million households under my command!"

  "Larger caliber main guns, new-style defensive armor plating, rapid-fire guns used as secondary armament, safe and efficient command systems, high-power steam turbines - these will become the standard for warship strength. New technology and naval personnel's use of it will be the key to victory or defeat in sea battles!"

  ****

  When Wang Haitian returned to the dormitory, the sky was getting late and the lights were just on. The cautious and timid appearance of the house man had completely disappeared, replaced by a proud and satisfied look.

  "Who was it that came to see you, and what did they say?" Redel burst into Queen Haidi's chambers, asking. Oden, who was cleaning the green mussels off his knife, looked nonchalant, but from his gradually slowing movements, it wasn't hard to tell that he was being insincere.

  "A naval colonel named Tirpitz." Wang Haitian glanced in the direction where Tirpitz had disappeared, rubbed his nose and muttered: "I chatted with him for over an hour, he said I looked like someone he had long admired, a British Rear Admiral named John Abasnot Fischer."

  "Neither of those two people have I ever heard of..." Redel said with a shrug.

  Auden turned away, haughtiness and disdain rewritten on his face. Redel and Wang Haitian were already accustomed to Auden's insolent expression, discussing how to spend the rare holiday tomorrow, while the naval colonel named Tirpitz was soon left behind by a group of unruly young people.

  They did not know that the naval captain they met today, Alfred von Tirpitz, was the infamous commander-in-chief of the German Navy in history books, the creator of the High Seas Fleet, who sparked the Anglo-German naval arms race and instigated World War I. Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher, who had a long-standing feud with Tirpitz, was the First Sea Lord of Britain and the creator of the Dreadnought battleship.