Chapter 1: The Gold of Skagerrak (8)

  "When the First Scout Fleet and the Fast Fleet were entangled, did the old men in the Navy Department's office ever make a sound?! When tens of thousands of soldiers from the Oceanic Fleet were fighting for their lives in the North Sea, did the old men who hated Xilem ever make a sound?"

  Captain Erich Raeder, head of the Operations Division of the German Admiralty, brushed aside his subordinates and stormed into the office of the Chief of the Naval Staff.

  "The North Sea Battle was narrowly won, the navy became heroes, and the big shots who pointed fingers and shared the glory of Xilem's life-and-death struggle still wanted to overthrow the greatest contributor!"

  Young officers from the General Staff gathered in front of the door to the Chief of the General Staff's office, and as Raeder spoke, they gradually relaxed their arms blocking Raeder, standing firmly behind Colonel Raeder.

  "Yes, we have indeed made mistakes in our actions, but if we do not take effective countermeasures immediately, David Beatty's fast fleet will successfully raid our 'flower' garden - the Heligoland Bight, and the sinking of the Third Scouting Group will be an eternal pain for the Imperial Navy. Churchill and his Admiralty will also gain a breathing space from their defeat in the Battle of Moudros Bay. Most importantly, if we do not take action, Germany, which is already deeply mired in a war of attrition, will lose its best opportunity to challenge and defeat the British Navy, and Germany will weaken, suffocate, and die in the blockade war!"

  The aged naval chief of staff, Hugo von Pohl, seemed to have just woken up. He slowly lifted his head and drank a small cup of water, then put down the cup and lazily raised his heavy eyelids, not making any expression, but quietly listening to the young man's complaints.

  "The old men in the Admiralty may not be blind to the situation in the North Sea, but can we expect those weak and despicable people to take responsibility? Since they cannot tolerate us breaking military discipline and making a desperate move, we also cannot tolerate some people sharing the cake that we exchanged for our lives while stabbing us in the back!"

  "So, young people, what are your plans?"

  Bo'er slowly stood up, with a faint smile still on his face. The old general's smile pulled to the forehead full of wrinkles, and the marks of the years were ground away, under the calm and quiet, it seemed to be brewing some kind of explosive force.

  "Perhaps we can't reverse the tide of public opinion and fact for Xilem, but that doesn't mean we'll be unmoved!"

  A faint voice came from outside the door, the voice was not loud and clear, but the meaning behind each word made people's hair stand on end. General 'Bor' turned his head and saw the owner of the voice, the chief of staff of the First Battle Fleet, Wolfgang Weigener, whose right sleeve was empty and fluttering.

  "So, Chief of Staff, take us to the emergency meeting of the Navy!"

  "I suppose... it must be that Generals Scher and Hipper refused your request, so you remembered this tiresome old man." Admiral 'Po' took down his naval uniform from the office coat rack and put it on elegantly. "In the Navy, General Hipper's appreciation for Seylem is well-known to all, but children, do you know why the deputy commander remained silent this time?"

  The young people present were all German prodigies, and under 'Bo'er's reminder, inspiration flashed in their minds.

  In the face of entanglement between reason and law, the vast majority of Germans chose to remain silent. The naval officers and soldiers who participated in this shocking North Sea battle that rewrote history were all aware of the inside story, but they did not have a good channel to speak out, plus the intentional or unintentional indulgence of Schloss Charlottenburg, for a time, the public opinion of severely punishing Scheer was overwhelmingly one-sided.

  Even if some of the German people remained silent, the lower-ranking naval officers and sailors were unable to speak out in time. However, Heidegger's influence on the empire could not have been limited to this alone. The German university professors who consistently supported Heidegger, the Pan-Germanists, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Deutsche Tageszeitung, which were close to Heidegger, Admiral von Tirpitz, who had dominated the imperial political scene for half a century, and Generals Ingenohl and Hertling, who still had a voice in the navy, all remained silent during this naval political storm.

  Yes, Xilaim led the First Reconnaissance Fleet to rush thousands of miles without the approval of the Naval Staff Headquarters, and did not report to the Ministry of the Navy in advance. In the face of the system, any excuse seems pale and powerless, but it is absolutely impossible to obtain understanding from the high-level!

  Unless...

  "Young people, your war has begun!" 'Bo' looked at Redel and Weigand's young and reckless joy, a kind of irrational and uncharacteristic idea suddenly emerged, as if the ocean fleet had occupied Bo's body on the night it set sail. The general seemed to have returned to that sleepless night of March 2nd, repeating what he had said: "I said, my war has also begun!"

  (---Beautiful Separator Line---)

  The naval conference originally scheduled behind closed doors became a full-blown political show due to the insistence of the emperor and the navy minister.

  Emperor William and the newly appointed Naval Minister, General von Heeringen, Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg, Foreign Minister Jagow, President of the Reichstag, leaders of the various parties sat on the left-hand side of the conference room in the visitors' gallery, while journalists from major German newspapers sat on the right-hand side.

  Senior commanders who had rushed from Wilhelmshaven, the Chief of the Naval Staff's adjutant, Prince Henry of Prussia, Commander of the Baltic Fleet and Admiral Behncke, Commander of the High Seas Fleet, sat in their seats, not exchanging a word with anyone else, but gazing at the Minister of the Navy with hatred for his revelations to the press about internal conflicts within the navy.

  "Gentlemen, I believe Mr. Silim's resignation statement is perfunctory and a tactical retreat, an attempt to coerce the Navy Department and public opinion!"

  The Minister of the Navy, Kappell, stood in front of the podium, throwing a thick stack of mainstream newspapers with Seylem's resignation letter on the podium, waving his arms to express his opinion. The flashbulbs flashed, and the reporter from the Berlin Daily posed an old-fashioned camera, freezing Kappell's spirited expression.

  "Vice Admiral Seilern's letter of resignation glosses over his mistakes in the recently concluded sea battle with just a few words, 'committed unforgivable errors', this is an insincere apology, it is a blasphemy against naval discipline and order! Resignation cannot cover up Vice Admiral Seilern's personal destruction of the system, to maintain the authority of uniforms and legal order, I request that the Naval Inspector General intervene in the investigation!"

  Kappeler immediately went on to correct Heidi Silem's mistakes and tried to wipe out the sympathy she had gained through her resignation letter. A reporter scribbled down Kappeler's words in his notebook, and Anthony of The New York Times, the only foreign newspaper present, wrote:

  "Kappel may be the world's most unpopular naval minister among his subordinates, and his attacks on those who have earned great honors for the navy and himself make him seem to have gone mad."

  Romantic American journalist Anthony had infinite good feelings towards Sylaim, under the propaganda of neutral journalists, Heid-Sylaim and David Beatty were like medieval white knights, leading their respective helpers to engage in a fair gentleman's battle in the North Sea. In Anthony's view, this duel was flawless!

  Cappeller's browbeating of Sylem had so disgusted Anthony that he jotted down a brief comment, which he telegraphed to the United States as soon as the meeting was over. Little did Anthony think his short comment would be flashed around the world on March 12.

  "General Sylem, what have you got to say for yourself?" Captain Kappel asked with a self-satisfied smirk.

  Heidi-Sylem stood up from the dark corner of the conference room, his body still not fully recovered from being worn out by war, and only a pale face remained on Sylem, who gradually had the title of "King of the North Atlantic".

  Xilai grasped the armrest of the chair and stood up. The simple action seemed to carry endless momentum, with a soldier's sorrow, a general's anger, the humiliation of being a victor, and the persistence of being a loser. Although Xilai was just a pitiful person who had been forced into a corner at this moment, everyone's heart secretly harbored a strange idea - the person in front of them should be standing on the stage of Kapell, he was born to stand in that position, and the Great Ocean Fleet should be Xilai's fleet!

  "First of all, I want to apologize..."

  Wang Haitie was not wearing an admiral's uniform, but a most ordinary sailor suit with no shoulder straps. The Iron Cross First Class, the highest honor of German soldiers, swayed on his chest. Before everyone could get rid of that strange feeling, Xilaim had already bowed down and saluted to all present.

  That was a sincere bow, an apology rather than an admission of fault!

  "Please forgive me, my 'private' heart compelled me to conceal a somewhat heavy story at the first opportunity after the war." Xilaim slowly straightened up, standing stubbornly in the dim corner, looking a bit worn out. Silence spread, suffocating feelings surged, and an overwhelming pressure rushed forward, tormenting for several breaths before General Xilaim spoke again.

  "Before the Battle of the North Sea, I anticipated that the British might send out a patrol in the North Sea after two Queen Elizabeth-class battleships were recommissioned. So I sent a small detachment of naval personnel disguised as trawler fishermen to the coast of Jutland and the Skagerrak Strait respectively. To ensure concealment, I ordered them to fly the flag of a neutral country, namely Norway."

  Every word that came out of General Silaem's mouth was like a thunderclap on a clear day, stunning everyone into a state of bewilderment.

  The conference room was in an uproar, the reporters were shocked by this astonishing revelation and were busy taking notes, the commanders and staff officers who did not know the truth were whispering to each other, the bigwigs on the political scene maintained a calm demeanor but their bewildered expressions were clear for all to see.

  "I have violated the rules of war and offended the dignity of the Kingdom of Norway, this is the first mistake I made."

  "Good heavens, Sielem, you madman!" Emperor Wilhelm had already realized something and with a terrified expression he nearly tore off the white gloves on his hands, staring at the young man who had been haunting him day and night with bloodshot eyes.

  "When the British Fast Squadron was passing along the coast of Jutland, we lost contact with a disguised scouting fleet. After the war, we learned from the prisoners of the Fast Squadron that they had received news more cruel than death, but I refused to believe it and stubbornly asked the staff officer to put them on the list of missing persons rather than the list of killed in action! I think I desecrated those brave officers who were loyal to the Navy and the Empire, and I am also suspected of hiding and falsifying naval battle data, which is my second mistake."

  "Crueler than death, oh God, what have the British done to our little boy?"

  As soon as Wang Haiting's sorrowful voice fell, the conference room burst into an uproar. The belligerent General Schell stood up, and in his indignation he almost smashed the conference table to pieces.

  The pen slipped from the hand of American journalist Anthony. In an era of white supremacy, where inherent human rights were deeply ingrained, the British had not long ago committed atrocities by massacring Boers and Irishmen. This time, with their hands unclean, they again took the lead in using inhumane poison gas shells in the French war, and slaughtered prisoners at sea. Damn them! They are not those yellow monkeys from the Japanese islands, nor worthless black slaves from Africa; yet they dared to lay hands on whites three times over!

  "Xilaim, don't muddy the waters! We're discussing your unauthorized deployment of the fleet!"

  Enraged Kapeller could no longer hold back, he almost jumped off the podium, and gave that lying guy a good thrashing, making him lose face and never recover!

  "Perhaps unauthorized deployment of the fleet is what you call the third mistake!"

  Kappeler attempted to regain control of the situation by shifting everyone's attention to the most critical issue of Zyllem's unauthorized troop movements.

  "Gentlemen, I have something to say!"

  Xilai Mochen hummed without opening his mouth, but Kapeller's confidence had already collapsed, because the owner of that hoarse voice was none other than Admiral Hugo von Poel!

  ……