Chapter 9: The Unstable Youth (Part 2)

  I seem to have fallen into a dead end in love...

  It seems like there's a tour guide's loudspeaker by my ear, and also the clinging of a little girlfriend. It seems like there's the wildness of drunkenness by my ear, and also the intimacy of a lover who can't refuse or accept. It seems like there's the music of a church by my ear, and also the sleepless night after a wedding.

  Coarse hands reluctantly left the softness in front of their lover's chest, familiar German atmosphere, no noisy morning with Aveline, Danny dog jumping up and down didn't come, couldn't hear Annie complaining about rising prices, husband quitting smoking but not drinking day after day. After a hangover, Heidi Wang felt something was wrong, moved around for half a day before getting out of bed, her head splitting.

  The fire in the fireplace was burning brightly, and it added a warm and spring-like feeling to November. The room had a faint scent of perfume and alcohol. Under the soft down comforter, the long hair cascaded like a golden waterfall onto the bed, and the warm, smooth body was tightly pressed against the otaku's body. The white underwear on the bedside table constantly stimulated Wang Haitian's fragile nerves.

  I don't remember much more, such as how he agreed to Lukner Earl's absurd fantasy, or how he fooled Miss Lina who was like a piece of cowhide sugar, or Catherine lying beside him.

  "Abstinence from alcohol!" The otaku suddenly shouted out something he had been yelling about his whole life but never managed to achieve.

  Reaching for the cigarette box, it seemed that Annie was right in front of him. Wang Haitian hastily extinguished the cigarette butt in his hand, crookedly holding onto the cigarette until the filter disappeared between his lips. The clock on the wall continued to tick away, and Wang Haitian had long been accustomed to the military rhythm, occasionally feeling uneasy when he relaxed.

  But he can't go!

  "In 1897, you didn't escape that hangover, seventeen years of youth slipped away, and you still haven't left...". At some point, the owner of the golden waterfall, Catherine, sat up, leaning against Heidi's arm. "Do you remember when we were in second grade at Tim Kreuger Middle School? You accidentally used my uncle's 'The World as Will and Representation' as scrap paper to make a paper airplane. After finding out what happened, you spent more than a month handwriting a new copy for me. From then on, I felt that your frail body contained a quality that made me admire you, so much so that I forgot about the differences in our status and fell deeply in love with you."

  As a female writer of Kiln Number One and Two, Catherine is still so sentimental, with every gesture and word exuding an air of bookishness. It's a kind of emotion that makes otaku men's hearts beat faster, elevating them to the height of spiritual and physical connection, yet ultimately leaving people helpless in confusion.

  "What brings you and Mr. Dick to the Navy's celebration party?" The otaku didn't have a good impression of greedy industrial giant Dick, but as a fellow father, Dick's unconditional love for his daughter earned the otaku's respect. Wang Haitian rubbed his dizzy head and changed the subject.

  "Father Dick's chemical plant was converted into an ammunition factory, the Far East Transportation Company's ships were converted into military transport vessels, and the affiliated shipyard was also taken over by the Navy as a torpedo boat manufacturing plant. The Dick family is now a major player in the munitions industry, so how can we not attend the naval victory celebration?"

  Catherine leaned against the otaku's arm and sat up slightly, the thin quilt slipping down, revealing a patch of snow-white skin. Catherine was completely unaware, simply resting her head on the otaku's chest, listening intently to Heidi's heartbeat, hesitating for a long time before whispering faintly:

  "Heidi, may I ask you a question?"

  "Unfortunately, I can't promise you anything this time." The otaku picked up his military uniform and stood up, stuttering.

  The cheap wedding ring on her finger is like a tight seal, constantly reminding Wang Haitian of his responsibilities as a husband and father. Ah, responsibility, the thing he hated most in his past life has become the most cherished thing for an otaku after one reincarnation. Fate is indeed mysterious, some things can't be truly appreciated without experiencing the fermentation of time and the devastation of accidents, it's like scratching an itch through boots.

  "Heidi, some things are just missed if they're missed. If you didn't try to retain them, then you won't complain about heaven and earth." Catherine unintentionally detained Wang Hei Di, but asked a question as she chased after the panicked otaku's back: "But Heidi, I want to know if your marriage is happy..."

  "What is happiness?" The rough hands that had unlocked the door fell limply, and Wang Haitian halted her steps. She clenched her fists and silently repeated to herself the Platonic ideal that sounded ordinary but was actually profoundly desolate after deep contemplation. Then she walked out of the gate.

  "Happiness!"

  ****

  After numerous delays, the high-level naval meeting was finally convened.

  Since the outbreak of war, there has been a shake-up in the naval high command: Admiral Tirpitz, who had dominated the Imperial Navy for over a decade, was ousted and replaced by the arrogant but incompetent General Eduard von Capelle; Admiral Ingenohl was forced to resign as commander of the High Seas Fleet and was succeeded by the impulsive and aggressive Reinhard Scheer; Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff, who had been at odds with Ingenohl, was replaced as Chief of the Naval Staff by the subservient old general Friedrich von Pol.

  The frequent changes in the naval leadership have increasingly obvious negative impacts on the navy, whether it is weapon procurement, organizational training, or campaign planning and personnel adjustments, all of which are paralyzed and self-contradictory due to these uncertain factors.

  Fortunately, the time has entered the 20th century, unlike a certain big country in the Far East where ideological disputes often lead to bloodshed. In Europe, the spirit of compromise has already reached a dead end, and the new political term "compromise" has long been deeply rooted in people's minds. On November 18, 1914, in the dimly lit conference room of the Berlin Naval Headquarters, a high-level naval meeting was held to summarize the gains and losses of the Dogger Bank Sea Battle and determine the focus of work for the next stage - a compromise conference.

  "The Dogger Bank Sea Battle, we have reason to suspect, or rather confirm that the naval cipher has been leaked!" As a frontline commander of the Dogger Bank Sea Battle and with a reputation as a naval strategic genius, Wang Haitao naturally became the main force in summarizing the experience of the sea battle and proposing improvement measures.

  "No!" Admiral Horthy's statement nearly made the technical officers of the Navy Department and some of the elders jump up and slap their thighs. "The German cipher is the best in the world, it is absolutely impossible to crack!"

  The bickering before the compromise started, and the conference room was in an uproar.

  "Could it be a leak of intelligence?" Colonel Wolfgang Weigand, who had already been transferred to the Helgoland-class battleship as deputy captain, attempted to ease the tension, but ended up completely igniting the anger of the old guard.

  "The Germans are the most united people in the world, it is impossible for intelligence to leak out from within the Navy!"

  Ingenohl and Hertling took the blame for the Dogger Bank incident with dignified resignations. Outsiders assumed that Heidekamp's imaginative coup was inspired by the Commander-in-Chief of the High Seas Fleet and the Chief of the Naval General Staff, while the Dogger Bank battle in the early hours of the morning was an attempt by the Grand Fleet to ambush and annihilate the German fleet, but it was only the tip of the iceberg.

  The naval cabinet minister, Georg von Müller, jumped forward with impatience, waving his baton and red-faced, spitting wildly, as if others couldn't see the emperor's flattering jester trying to gain power over the High Seas Fleet.

  "What's more important is that the entire Pacific Fleet operation was never reported to the Navy Department, so how could the intelligence have been leaked about the fleet's position and return route?"

  The argument grew more heated, almost blowing the roof off the old, dilapidated conference room of the naval headquarters.

  The German nation can be said to be the strangest in the world, and this nation has produced batch after batch of philosophers with great talent, such as Kant, the classical idealist, Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche, who had no enemies or friends, Schopenhauer, the "pessimistic philosopher", and Ludwig Feuerbach, the materialist. However, the Germans are also the most extreme group in the world, for example, they have gone mad three times to resist the whole world with one country's strength.

  As General Müller said, only a handful of people knew the overall plan for the Dogger Bank ambush: Admiral Ingenohl, commander of the High Seas Fleet; Admiral von Hertenfeld, Chief of the Naval Staff; Captain Redel, head of the Operations Division of the Admiralty Staff; Rear-Admiral Scheer, commanding the Third Battle Squadron; Commodore Hipper, commanding the First Scouting Group; and the originators of the plan, Wang Hai-ti and Wolfgang Wegener. Not even the Emperor or the new Minister of Marine were aware of this secret. It was almost impossible for the Navy to leak information.

  Regarding the dual national character of Germans, Wang Haitian, who had a rough understanding of psychology, had also heard about it before. Looking at a group of naval high-ranking officials who were oblivious to facts and stubbornly believed in the cohesion of the German people and their advanced science and technology, Wang Haitian finally saw it with his own eyes.

  "Gentlemen, the leak of intelligence is indeed not to be taken lightly, but as for the encrypted code problem, perhaps we should not be so confident!" Wang Haitian, who had gone through bloody battles, exuded a bloodthirsty aura, his cold and stern gaze filled with the atmosphere of killing and death. "Germany's encrypted codes are indeed unparalleled in complexity, but as long as they were created by humans, there is always the possibility of deciphering them. As naval commanders, we have a responsibility to the ocean fleet and the empire. We should not rashly deny that one-in-ten-thousandth possibility with absolute impossibility, let alone..."

  Wang Haitian deliberately dragged out a long tone, ignoring those who were red in the face and eager to try, preparing to jump out and refute the conspirators as soon as the otaku's voice fell, and said something earth-shattering:

  "Moreover, with the sinking of U-15 off the British coast, the naval cipher book carried by the submarine's communications officer has been compromised! Perhaps the generals will think I'm making a Tartar joke, but Lieutenant Otto Weddigen and the investigation of U-9 have confirmed my conjecture. The U-15 is relatively intact, but there are clear signs of deliberate cutting at the bow, and the captain's navigation log, telegraph machine, and communications officer's cipher book are all gone."

  Wang Haitian's elective university psychology textbook had a similar reasoning question, which originated from the Dogger Bank incident. When planning the ambush operation on Dogger Bank, Wang Haitian, who was quite sensitive to death, felt uneasy and repeatedly confirmed that the Dogger Bank was not yet sunk before he reluctantly let out a sigh of relief. On November 14, the raiding fleet encountered U-9 submarine commander Otto Weddigen, and Wang Haitian realized that the Dogger Bank incident had changed its time and place and was reenacted on U-15 submarine.

  History is always full of too many unimaginable things, the butterfly effect is elusive, and the golden finger that predicts the future cannot be relied upon as the greatest guarantee of victory.

  "Vice Admiral, do you have any suggestions?" The revelation of the fact that the encrypted telegram had been leaked plunged the large conference room into a deathly silence. To what extent had the British deciphered? How much intelligence had the Navy leaked during this period and could it be salvaged? Everyone was holding their breath in contemplation. After a long while, Admiral Paul, the newly appointed Chief of Naval Operations, spoke up like an old monk who had been meditating.

  "First, have cryptographers and codebreakers replace the secret codes; second, conduct a thorough investigation of recent top-secret telegrams and carry out tactical deception one by one; third, have the Navy Intelligence Department organize an elite force to investigate the extent of the British grasp of the secret codes and strengthen the deciphering work on British secret codes; fourth, try to avoid using wireless telegrams as much as possible and transmit messages through wired telegrams instead..." Wang Haitie's face turned pale.

  "Try to avoid using wireless telegraphy?" The young man's fierce momentum almost made Colonel Rodel, who was standing below the stage, laugh out loud. Try to minimize wireless telegraphy, this is almost tailor-made for the young fleet of the Atlantic Ocean, and the subtlety of this can only be understood but not spoken.