Chapter 12: Naval Political Storm (II)

  Forgive me for a moment, I really don't know how to deal with the minefield... In front of the river crab killer, words must be carefully chosen.

  "Heidi-Xi Leim?" The pen that had been picked up was put down again, the emperor did not lift his head, and with a reverse motion, he picked up the white gloves that never left his side, his relaxed expression stiffened once more.

  William first learned of this name more than a decade ago, in October 1897, when his former favorite minister Tirpitz handed him a paper of less than six thousand words, with the title "On Asymmetric Warfare in the Era of Battleships", signed by Heidegger-Selim.

  To be frank, Heidegger's thesis is impressive enough considering his age of 19. Wilhelm knew that the young man's expression was not a continuation and variation of Teophile-Aube and Raoul-Castex's Jeune école, but rather a rough and immature view that was more practical than Mahan's Sea Power Theory. In short, this thesis has its due value, but it does not meet the Emperor's psychological expectations. He, Wilhelm von Hohenzollern, German Emperor, King of the House of Hohenzollern, needs a fleet that can positively challenge the British Royal Navy, a fleet that can gain "land under the sun" for his empire from the dying imperialism, and will not waste the resources on uncertain full-armor battleships, perfect cruisers, oversized airships, poorly performing submarines, and Vernes-style flying machines that can drop torpedoes.

  It must be said that the young people's point of view was quite provocative and would undoubtedly bring unpredictable obstacles to the Emperor's grand naval plan. The Emperor tried to suppress the young people, but Tirpitz took action in advance and hastily concluded this matter with a second-level secret document.

  In 1898, the parliamentary appropriations committee, Tirpitz was full of passion and vigor before he became a young man who was in charge of the navy, Heide-Selheim became a naval hero, becoming an assistant to the Imperial Navy Minister, the emperor did not comment on all this, however, after the First Naval Expansion Act, the dispute between the Admiral and the Lieutenant at the Navy Headquarters continued to reach the Emperor's ears, the Emperor finally had an excuse to transfer the young man away from his hometown, letting him wander in the Far East, in East Prussia, in East Africa.

  In 1905, the era of the Dreadnought began in British hands. At that time, Tirpitz repeatedly delayed and blocked the construction of subsequent Brunswick-class and Preussen-class battleships, squandering Wilhelm's trust and patience again and again until the British started building the Dreadnought. Tirpitz then brandished the "British threat" club, and only then did the Emperor realize that the young man was right: Tirpitz was not unaffected by asymmetric theory, but it was he who, due to Wilhelm-Hohenzollern's persistence and stubbornness, still had many old-fashioned battleships on the stocks when the British Dreadnoughts were launched.

  The Emperor's sensitive and fragile nerves had been touched, as a politician he gave Tirpitz' Dreadnought plan the green light all the way, but for Heidekampf-Zeilau, the eccentric Emperor insisted on expelling him from the Navy. In 1914, Tirpitz almost suddenly recalled the young man to his homeland, leaving the Emperor caught off guard, and with this, his last shred of favor towards Tirpitz also vanished.

  "Looking back at all the naval actions since the start of the war, they are all inseparable from Heidekamp's shadow. Rather than saying that Tirpitz, Ingenohl and Holtzendorff were too radical, always trying to solve everything with a weak navy, it would be better to say that Heidekamp was young and impulsive, and had no military discipline." Edward von Capelle took a step forward, bowing his head in a timely manner, his words and expression almost identical to those of the Navy Minister Georg von Müller a few minutes ago. "After all, Heidekamp is just a civilian..."

  "Perhaps..." The Emperor finally lifted his head from the towering stack of documents, gazing at Kapell with a hint of a smile.

  Since taking over the position of Navy Minister from Tirpitz, Capelle has never been able to grasp real power. The commander-in-chief of the High Seas Fleet, Ingenohl, is servile to the Emperor but ignores Capelle, and the Chief of Staff, Holtzendorff, even dares to challenge Tirpitz's authority and demand a share of power. Even after the Dogger Bank battle, when there was a change in the naval leadership, neither Scheer, the new commander-in-chief of the High Seas Fleet, nor Hugo von Pohl, the fleet chief of staff, showed any enthusiasm for Capelle's orders, leaving the Navy Minister isolated and ignored by a group of young people.

  Emperor William may not have seen through Capelle's counterattack, but they obviously had a common topic in suppressing Heidebrandt-Selme, who was not very obedient to orders. Every time Heidebrandt-Selme's achievements increased and his career advanced, it was a great humiliation for him, which the proud German Emperor William could not bear. After several calm breaths, the emperor finally spoke:

  "Xilaim can replace Major General Gustav Bachmann's position!"

  ****

  "In February 1915, the empire's swift victory was nowhere in sight, and Germany was increasingly bogged down in a war of attrition: on the Western Front, the Anglo-French army's offensive was in full swing, with the Noyon salient hanging by a thread; in the Dardanelles, the Anglo-French fleet launched a massive landing operation, but it remained to be seen how long the weak Ottoman Empire could hold out against the naval war; although the empire's army was doing well on the Eastern Front, the performance of its ally Austria-Hungary was still dismal, and the Grand Fleet's performance was impressive, but the navy was ultimately too weak, having lost two capital ships in the Dogger Bank battle, which was essentially a Pyrrhic victory. According to reports from the Berliner Tageblatt, yesterday the navy also lost an old battleship in the Gulf of Finland."

  In February 1915, the German army and navy were both going through a difficult period, while at the same time the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the largest party in the Reichstag, was splitting. The revisionist and orthodox Marxist wings of the party were drifting apart. Karl Liebknecht continued to oppose the war; Otto Rühle, a leading figure in the party's left wing, published an open letter calling on the SPD to abandon its policy of "civil truce" and launch a struggle for peace. Eduard Bernstein, Karl Kautsky, and Hugo Haase wrote an article in the Leipziger Volkszeitung criticizing the military command for starting a war against England and France, arguing that Germany's main enemy was Russia and the evil Tsarist regime.

  Perhaps wordplay and self-contradiction have always been the tradition of Social Democrats, for those parliamentarians who are now suddenly abandoning their parliamentary rights seem to have forgotten that before the war they were more fervent in their cries for war than the Junker nobility, deeply influenced by militarism; they seem to have forgotten the vote on August 4th, when the only question was whether to hand over the rights of parliament to the military in response to Britain's declaration of war on Europe; they seem to have forgotten that it was with their votes that the parliamentary bill which is now hastily dubbed "that damned thing" was passed unanimously!

  On the night of February 7, a cold wind swept through the monotonous factory buildings and dilapidated grey houses in the old industrial area of Kiel Harbour. In an old grey house near the dock, lights flickered and people's shadows danced, while behind thick doors and dark corridors, Otto Rühle, a big shot from Berlin, gave a passionate speech that spilled out into the cold winter night outside, only to be torn apart by the howling wind.

  In 1915, the war was in full swing, and apart from the gloom of the Baltic Sea blockade fleet, there were lengthy reports of victories in German newspapers. The local officials of the Social Democratic Party of Schleswig-Holstein and trade union leaders who had just taken their seats, with their frozen rough faces still not having turned red, were immediately shocked by the heretical words of Otto Rühle, a key figure in the party.

  "Comrades, driven by considerations of patriotism and humanitarianism, the Socialist Democratic Party made a decision at the National Assembly on August 4, 1914 to put an end to party strife and hand over all power to the military. However, this war has never been a defensive war, nor was it ever a war aimed solely at saving Russia or overthrowing the Tsarist regime; in the past, as well as now, it is a war of conquest with imperialistic goals. The imperial government conceals and approves the annexationist movement, imposing this false freedom on Belgium or Russia. Comrades, those peoples who were promised liberation are now being enslaved and exploited, national self-determination is being ruthlessly mocked; therefore, we must take back the rights that belong to the National Assembly, refuse war, and demand peace!"

  "Refuse war, demand peace?!" Brant, the head of the trade unions in Schleswig-Holstein, stood up from his seat in a remote corner of the Kiel dock, sneering: "Alright, Comrade Lübeck, since you oppose this war and consider it unjust and inhumane on Germany's part, why didn't you raise your voice before the war or at least during the parliamentary vote on August 4th? If Germany is waging a war of exploitation against other nations, then perhaps the bloody struggle of the Entente is for our liberation - we, the Marxist elite who are always concerned about the fate of all humanity! Don't you know that just recently, our comrade Lübeck brought back news from Italy that Comrade Lenin criticized our patriotic behavior during the war and our disloyalty to class struggle? And Karl Liebknecht's opposition to annexation and imperialism was also criticized as 'opportunism' and 'pragmatism', because such annexation is 'harmful to Germany's interests'!"

  As an old worker who had wandered on the dock for many years, Brown witnessed too much bitterness and saw things that could not be seen. He deeply realized that the working class was suffering from oppression and urgently needed to maintain its own rights. However, Brown was also a retired soldier of the Prussian Kingdom, he shed blood for the unity of this young German Empire, he knew deeply how many hardships and twists Germany had experienced from fragmentation to complete unification, from economic depression to becoming the world's second industrial power in the era of weak meat and strong food. Otto-Lüer enjoyed the welfare and security brought by his reactionary and invasive words, enjoying the subsidies of the imperial government and the treatment of members of parliament, living a life above others, but often used simple invasion and injustice to deny the hot blood and sacrifices of a generation. Perhaps, internationalism and socialism are just expedient measures in the eyes of these people, they value power more!

  "Comrade Lübeck, if it were not for the bloody struggle of millions of soldiers on the front lines, you, who stand on the standpoint of all humanity and observe the world, would probably no longer have the opportunity to lament heaven and pity man, because you would suffer a fate worse than that of Belgium or Russia - either liberation or enslavement and exploitation!" Braun's sarcastic ridicule earned a round of applause, making it impossible for Lübeck to continue his speech. Perhaps this world really has saviors who can liberate all humanity, but that will be an era when nationalism and statism have disappeared, not 1915 Germany!

  The speech had just begun when it came to an abrupt end, the magnificent and lofty tone was not yet rendered when it turned into a mess, accompanied by the continuous withdrawal of national-socialist supporters. Braun stood in the crowd of people leaving, with a frown on his face.

  Although he severely criticized Lüdde's unrealistic views, the fact that this pure internationalist anti-war idea is increasingly marketable is undeniable. As a local union leader, Braunt could not do much. The Berlin newspaper, which has been praising the navy since the start of the war, exposed the news of the navy's defeat for the first time, and the young man directly in charge of this matter was Arthes Heidicke-Silem, whom he knew.

  "The storm is coming, Xilaimu, you must hold on!"

  Note

  This passage was not fabricated by Xia Yu, the predecessor of the German Communist Party indeed shouted such a deafening and stunning phrase in 1915, perhaps the Nobel Prize should be awarded to these "fighters".