Chapter 9: The Unstable Youth (6)

  The name of the supporting role is really a headache, suddenly had an idea, and took out the German national team's big list, I guess it can be used for a while, haha...

  The German naval designers threw themselves into the design of what they privately called the Sachsen class with great enthusiasm. The generous shipbuilding budget allowed those battered designers to let their hair down, scribbling freely on the pristine white drawing paper.

  Is it an oil-fired boiler or a coal-fired boiler? Given the unlimited tonnage and the scarcity of German petroleum resources, designers had to reluctantly abandon the smaller, lighter, and more efficient oil-fired boilers; Is it adopting a relatively mature 380mm main gun or redesigning a new 16-inch main gun? Upon learning that the latest British battleship used 14-inch main guns, the designers already had their choices in mind; Is it strengthening endurance and speed or maintaining strong defensive capabilities as before? Compared to the British building five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships at once, more than seven Revenge-class battleships, the designers could only put all their energy into defensive capabilities and speed, which Germans were not accustomed to.

  Perhaps it was the unprecedented relaxed budget and the coveted "the sky is its limit" parameter requirements that exposed the German designers, who were accustomed to dancing on four eggshells of firepower, defensive capabilities, speed and range, as being stingy and narrow-minded.

  As time went on, a new battleship emerged with the largest tonnage in German history, with excellent navigability, a speed surpassing that of battlecruisers, and defensive armor capable of ignoring the British 13.5-inch main guns commonly mounted at the time. The armor of its main turrets and command tower could even withstand the 15-inch main guns of the Tiger-class battleships. Its design displacement exceeded 37,000 tons, with a long forecastle ship type, 96,000 horsepower output, a top speed of up to 27 knots, four twin-mounted 380mm main guns, 350mm waterline belt armor and an incredible two-layer total of 150mm horizontal main armor, and 450mm frontal defensive armor on the main turrets and command tower.

  Of course, this super dreadnought also cannot escape the congenital disease of German battleships with short legs. In order to accommodate more boilers, coal bunkers and crew living quarters were compressed again and again, so that the design displacement of over 37,000 tons only had a range of 14 knots/4500 nautical miles.

  Just as the designers were in high spirits, the German Navy Department, which had always been good at keeping secrets, suddenly had a leak. The construction plan and rough data of the Sachsen-class battleship were published in American newspapers, causing a huge stir for a time.

  Idle congressman at home, full of righteous indignation, scolds the navy for wasting money. The Navy Department is faced with criticism and can't argue back, the Navy Intelligence Agency starts an investigation immediately, the Navy Design Office is in a state of panic.

  As for the ordinary German people, sailors in Wilhelmshaven and Kiel, and junior officers, the situation was quite different. They cheered and looked forward to the super battleship carrying the German ocean dream and breaking the maritime stalemate. When the news reached the palace, Kaiser Wilhelm, the patron saint of the High Seas Fleet, was overjoyed and ordered the Navy Design Office to make a model of the super battleship for him.

  Plots are brewing globally, but as the pioneer of super battleships, Wang Haitian has no time to bother with those trivial matters.

  After the Battle of Dogger Bank, Wang Haitian was carried into the best hospital in Wilhelmshaven due to overwork and excessive blood loss. He was then transferred to a hospital in Berlin. The doctor, who had a deep grievance against the Navy's undefeated Aris, gave him a full-body examination and warned that Wang Haitian had suffered a moderate concussion and showed symptoms of mild depression.

  Wang Haiting could no longer bear the "time that was about to solidify, the slow-moving hands of the clock on the sickbed were desperate", after the "1914 turning point conference", Wang Haiting faced the coercion of Redel and Weigand, had to reluctantly go to the Berlin military convalescent hospital for a day of bed rest, then wrapped in bandages and leaning on crutches, sneaked back to Wilhelmshaven, returned to the world that belonged to the iron-blooded soldiers, returned to the rhythm of war!

  The handover with Admiral Hipper was not easy. The so-called handover is not simply a matter of people coming and going, but also includes the transfer of naval duties, the handover of the commander's navigation log, and the imperial confidential decryption authority corresponding to the fleet commander, etc.

  Although Wang Haitie had served as fleet chief of staff and deputy commander, he clearly lacked experience for a commanding officer with full responsibility. Under the careful guidance of General Hipper, Wang Haitie was transforming from a mature fleet commander to an all-encompassing fleet commander.

  After completing the handover work, summarize the gains and losses of the sea battle, reassign personnel, maintain and repair warships, and compile a targeted training outline for the next stage.

  The fleet staff and shipyard technicians assessed the serviceability of all capital ships in the First Scouting Group, carried out targeted repairs and replacement of parts, and dispatched personnel to urge Blohm + Voss and Danziger Werft to complete the repair and conversion work on Moltke and Deutschland on schedule, which was related to the replenishment of combat effectiveness of the First Scouting Group.

  Compiling the exact casualty figures of the Battle of Tsushima, filling out death notices and premature retirement notices, assisting the Imperial Government in condoling the wounded and the deceased, visiting the families of the deceased and consoling the naval wounded at William Harbour Hospital is an urgent task. They are the most loyal and brave generals of the Empire, their bloody battles cannot be desecrated!

  The surviving crew members of the armored cruiser Blücher and battlecruiser Von der Tann urgently need to be reassigned, as the Dogger Bank Sea Battle exposed the fleet's poor nighttime gunnery skills, which are in dire need of improvement. After the sea battle, new recruits from the naval academy, sailors, and old soldiers of the fleet need to be honed through tactical training and combat cruises. The outline for phase training has just begun, and a series of Dogger Bank Sea Battle analysis meetings organized by the High Seas Fleet Command and war report meetings organized by the Berlin Naval Headquarters are being held one after another. As a frontline commander in the sea battle and a key figure promoted by the German propaganda machine, Wang Haitao has the responsibility to give reports at the Imperial Navy Academy, local states, free cities, and the Kingdom Parliament.

  This work could not be delayed, even with the help of Vice Admiral Magnus von Levetzow and Chief of Staff Kapit?n zur See von Krosigk, Heidkamp was as busy as a spinning top, running between the anchorage of the First Reconnaissance Flotilla in Jade Bay, the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg, the High Seas Fleet Command in Wilhelmshaven and the Imperial Navy Headquarters in Berlin, also finding time to travel around Germany giving lectures.

  Leighton and Singer were worried about Wang Haitao's physical condition, and General Schell and Hipple repeatedly advised Wang Haitao to put down his work and rest in the hospital for a while. Wang Haitao stubbornly refused several times until the tranquilizer could no longer stop that faintly painful head, and then asked for leave from the Pacific Fleet Command.

  In the busy November, before the beginning of winter, Wang Haitian swayed north to Kiel and immediately boarded a train bound for Bavaria.

  The train came from the desolate North German Plain, with vast expanses of cold and wet marshes and withered yellow fields constantly receding. Entering the Bavarian hill country, the monotonous light yellow finally disappeared, outside the window were rolling hills and the blue Danube River, distant mountains and secluded ancient castles, lingering migratory birds and gentle mountain sheep, as well as charming grape trellises and golden wheat in the river valleys.

  Avril and the boy next door, Brandon, got into another argument. Avril stood with her hands on her hips, pointing at him, while Brandon hung his head in shame, muttering "yes" repeatedly.

  The baby girl of the Sillem family "only good to Evie", "the cheesecake of the Brandeis family is also the Sillem family's", "Evie's homework is also the Brandeis' homework" and so on, these "three disciplines and eight attentions" made Wang Haiting listen with trepidation, and regret bringing the two little ones out. Wang Haiting coughed, but his daughter gave him a disdainful look, he tried to put on a stern fatherly air, turning the spoiled girl into a standard lady, but unfortunately, Annie was leaning on his shoulder, and Wang Haiting, who was under his wife's control, had no choice but to give up.

  Rolling her eyes, Wang Haitian turned her head to try to isolate her daughter's loud cries, but Annie's chatter followed her like a shadow.

  Annie, in her thirties, was by no means a stunning beauty, at most just average-looking. The passage of time had left its mark on the corners of her eyes and the tips of her fingers, but the simplicity deep within her, or what Wang Haixi called "the nagging that can't be changed till death" in his memoirs, had not been altered one bit by the vicissitudes of life.

  Annie, with her arm in Heidemarie's, the knot of hair on the back of her head firmly planted on Heidemarie's shoulder, began to scold her husband for his foolhardiness in the Battle of Dogger Bank, and then went on to recount trivial family matters in a slow and deliberate manner, occasionally dropping names that interested Heidemarie, such as Lehmans, the Jewish speculator who had taken over several warehouses at the docks and transformed himself from a foreman into a capitalist; or the Dick family's factory being converted into an armaments plant, making them one of the leading industrial trusts in Germany, but unable to solve their daughter Katharina's marital problems; or Brant, who was thriving at the Kiel docks, enjoying great prestige among the workers in Kiel and Schleswig-Holstein; or Heidemarie's uncle Schneider, who had been promoted and now worked as a tax official in the Brooklyn district of Kiel.

  In the days of green plums and bamboo horses, Annie was not quiet at all. After marriage, managing household chores made Annie's nagging even worse. Wang Haiting couldn't help but swallow a bottle of tranquilizers hidden in her pocket, but she was afraid that her family would worry, so she pretended to be calm and turned the newspaper over again, having read it several times already. In an instant, she became restless again and raised her head, accidentally meeting a sympathetic gaze.

  The owner of the gaze was King Haide's vis-à-vis, a young man wearing a blue army uniform. From the suit with Brandenburg-style lemon-yellow sleeve cuffs, bright red collar patches and rolled-up blue uniforms, King Haide easily distinguished that the young man belonged to the Bavarian Army.

  "Leutnant Adler, Unteroffizier, Rosenheimer!" Heidi Wang's dark civilian clothes couldn't conceal the increasingly evident military bearing on his body. He stood up to face the soldiers and pointed to the empty right sleeve before raising his left arm in a somewhat irregular salute.

  "Heidi, Admiral of the Navy, from Kiel!" The military atmosphere dispelled the gloom that had been accumulating in Heidi's heart. Military topics were apparently more to her taste than Annie's family gossip and Evie's childish pranks. Heidi quickly stood up and returned a military salute.