Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 169 Tirpitz, a Gentleman
Even as an air force officer, Schmidt was still a commander of a naval force.

Considering that the Empire's air force and naval forces were actually special forces developed from the navy of the Age of Exploration, the air force's airship force and the navy have always had a good relationship.

Therefore, Schmidt had no idea that the navy might expand, nor did he detect even the slightest hint of naval expansion from the actions and statements of his acquaintances in the navy.

You know, whenever those guys in the Navy get a new ship or a new toy, they act all cocky like they're the best in the world.

Don't even mention that they opened one at sea. If they had the money, they'd probably build one in the sea and one in the sky, and then burn them for fun whenever they had free time.

But more importantly, the Empire had just used the Emperor's money to buy several Zeppelins for the Air Force, and also...

and many more……

Suddenly, Schmidt seemed to realize that he had discovered something fatal, and his expression froze.

He finished the last bit of coffee in his cup, his face pale, and looked at Ryan sitting opposite him, who was still wearing a sullen expression, pondering what Churchill was thinking and how the Empire had leaked the intelligence.

This Imperial colonel, who was even younger than himself, was clearly confused by the people from the United Kingdom, but if what he suspected was true, then he probably wouldn't be able to figure out the problem no matter how hard he tried.

but……

Schmidt wasn't one to speak without thinking, and he felt it was best to say as little as possible about things that weren't based on evidence.

After all, although the air force and navy naval forces are closely related, they are still two different branches of the military.

If we speak out rashly, even if our guess is correct, it will definitely cause conflict between the top brass of the Navy and the Air Force.

Tirpitz and General Burke didn't have a very good relationship, so it was best to avoid trouble if possible. This was the most valuable lesson Schmidt learned after joining the army.

He was removed from his position as a reserve captain of the Zeppelin because he chose the wrong side, and as a result, he could only come to drive destroyers like the Tide-class.

For Colonel Schmidt right now, stability is more important than anything else.

the other side.

Raine had a vague feeling that the United Kingdom's intelligence sources were problematic, but to him, the navy was the navy and the air force was the air force. The two forces could never be confused. Therefore, he never thought that the air force airship modification project would be regarded by the United Kingdom as a modernization project for the navy's naval fleet.

It can only be said that this was not only an unexpected event for Rennes, but also quite difficult for the people of the United Kingdom to accept.

Furthermore, in the Imperial language, the terms for airship forces and naval forces are two completely different words, so few people would actually confuse the two, thus reducing the probability of making a mistake.

Inside the restaurant, Ryan shook his head, poured the last sip of coffee from his cup into his mouth, and decided to stop thinking about this mess.

After all, it's not up to him, an army officer, to think about solutions to naval matters. At most, he might try to figure out how to help General Brian gain some military merits out of respect for him.

In the first two or three battles after the start of the war, Ryan, as General Brian's direct subordinate, successfully contributed a lot to Brian's promotion to general. If he could be promoted to lieutenant general later, it would be a great thing for Ryan.

Ultimately, the military still comes down to connections and personal relationships.

Getting to know more people in the safe rear can effectively solve some of the problems you might encounter on the front lines.

He set the coffee cup aside, took out two francs from his wallet, placed them under the saucer, then stood up, thanked the owner who was still busy in the restaurant, and then put on the wool hat he had just bought before leaving the warm café.

The weather in Perijé is actually quite different from that in Beijing.

Although the average temperature is similar now, Ostend has much higher humidity and wind speed than Beijing because of its coastal location.

Ryan didn't like wearing hats, after all, he came from the modern world and didn't have to deal with the problem that people in the past had to use hats to keep their hair clean because of the lack of fuel and hot water.

But the wind has been really strong lately, so he had no choice but to buy a round-headed hat as a temporary solution.

Interestingly, Colonel Schmidt usually wears a hat, but when Ryan stands next to him, Colonel Schmidt's distinctive air force aura always reveals his military identity.

But Rennes doesn't have to worry about that.

It was for this reason that when Ryan left the restaurant and was about to push his bicycle back to the camp, he overheard a conversation between two men by the roadside.

The content was simple, just like before with Rein, discussing matters concerning the Imperial Air Force and Navy.

Currently, the whole world supports the argument that the Imperial Navy completely surpasses the Imperial Air Force. It is an indisputable fact that battleships are more useful than airships.

Therefore, the conversation between the two was basically within Ryan's comprehension.

However, the real issue has nothing to do with what these two people said.

What really caught Ryan's attention was the content of their conversation—their accents.

Although the difference was so subtle that it would be indistinguishable to the average person, Renn still managed to detect a slight accent from the conversation between the two men.

In other words, every few days after he transmigrated to the present, he would remember some things he had "once" learned or knew, otherwise he really wouldn't have noticed the United Kingdom accents of those two people.

Renn also took this matter to heart, but there were a large number of troops in Ostend, and it was a place with a port, a train station and an airport, so it was not suitable to take action openly.

Therefore, Raine did not waste any more time, but chose to immediately ride back to the camp and ordered two soldiers to carry out the task of tracking the two men with the United Kingdom accent.

The purpose was simple: one was to see what the people from those two kingdoms were planning to do in Ostend, and the other was to confirm whether this group of people were Churchill's men or the men of some ruthless person from Tongliao.

Ryan understood better than anyone that different methods were needed to deal with different people.

The rest of the time was mostly spent wrangling between the Empire and the United Kingdom.

Renn, Schmidt, and others on the front lines (including the Farrans) were subjected to considerable daily scrutiny of the new newspapers.

Even some illiterate soldiers in the army began to take an interest in the wrangling over military issues between the empire and the kingdom.

To put it simply, the kingdom has unilaterally cut off its freight routes with the empire, and now it can only import goods from the empire, but will not export goods to the empire.

The Empire, on the other hand, offered preferential treatment to merchants from those kingdoms, but required them to settle accounts in precious metals only, not pounds.

This blow nearly made the United Kingdom vomit blood, since they were practically the only country in the world that didn't restrict gold trading.

However, by the time the United Kingdom learned of this, the Empire had already collected gold coins for more than ten days, which, when converted, was roughly equivalent to the output of several rich mines, making them very wealthy.

But the most laughable part was yet to come.

Because the Kingdom had been demanding that the Empire hand over the list of those ships that had undergone modernization, General Tirpitz, who was already furious because the naval budget hadn't been secured, directly ordered the North Sea Fleet to take turns deploying a fleet of ships at the entrance to the English Channel every noon to conduct simulated battles.

In his words, "I didn't mean anything by it; I just wanted to show those scoundrels what my fleet has been doing all this time." His words were broadcast as a live interview to all radios by the Empire's National News Agency.

Ryan's assessment was simple: "This guy is a little too much of a gentleman."

That's saying the opposite of what you mean.

However, judging from his actions, Tirpitz's decision did indeed have a touch of gentlemanly conduct.

Meanwhile, Brinkman and Schmidt, who were standing nearby, failed to notice that Renn was being sarcastic.

Especially Lieutenant Brinkman.

As a female lieutenant, Brinkman acts more like a field officer than a regular junior officer, but her judgment is very similar to that of a non-commissioned officer.

But this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

After all, Raine never intended to see himself as a junior officer from the beginning, and a colonel's adjutant should indeed act like one.

Especially in an imperial army where officers were almost all nobles.

But things get a bit complicated when you consider that she and Ryan were classmates.

Because she spoke up almost before Ryan could finish: "I heard that the Navy has recently mobilized its entire fleet, and the exercises are scheduled for two months from now..."

"That's all a facade."

Renn simply waved his hand.

"What you see is the Imperial Navy bleeding money to prove its innocence, conducting large-scale fleet battle exercises in the English Channel, but what about the people of the United Kingdom?"

"What they saw was that the Empire could put together two fleets every day to fight a bathtub-like naval battle in the strait that could be crossed in less than an hour right on its doorstep, and this battle lasted for two months, with each day's fleet being a different one."

"Do you understand what this means, Lieutenant?"

"not understand."

Brinkman shook his head immediately, while Colonel Schmidt slammed his fist on the table and exclaimed, "Marshal, this is a declaration of war!?"

“Almost, but close.” Renn nodded, took a sip of the imported tea he bought from Japan, but after less than half a sip, he spat it out into the flowerpot on the table with a livid face, making Brinkman and Schmidt shake their heads.

"Damn it, what garbage."

He instinctively uttered a curse, wiped his mouth, and then said, "Marshal Tirpitz's idea is probably to let the United Kingdom know that the Imperial Navy doesn't want to fight them, but the Imperial Navy isn't afraid to fight them."

"The essential purpose of the exercise is to prevent the fleet from panicking when it suddenly needs to fight a decisive naval battle after not fighting for more than a decade. After all, the navy is very expensive, and regular training and actual combat exercises are completely different things."

Colonel Schmidt looked worried: "But what will the United Kingdom think?"

As a member of the Air Force's naval forces, Colonel Schmidt was well aware of the strength of the United Kingdom's naval fleet.

With a fleet twice the size of the Imperial Navy and more than 60 battleships in total, the Imperial Navy was no match for them.

If the United Kingdom were to actually wage war at sea, the Imperial Navy would certainly not be able to hold out for long.

But Renn didn't seem to care much about that.

What else can we think?

He countered Schmidt's question: "The North Sea is only so big. If you move, you'll end up in the Baltic Sea. If you don't move, you'll be sandwiched between Northern Europe, Britain, Ireland, and other places."

"So what if they have Scapa Flow and the invincible Armada?"

"Isn't the fleet that can be deployed to the North Sea still only a small number?"

Dipping his hand in the water in his teacup, Renn then drew a rough map of the North Sea on the table and continued, "The sea and the air are the same. Within a certain area, you can only fit that many ships at most. If you cram too many in, forget about fighting; you'll easily run into each other just trying to escape, let alone big ships like battleships and cruisers."

"If you ask me, the United Kingdom now only has two choices."

“One option is to just kill the hostage, stop negotiating with the Empire, and just do it. The goal is to destroy the Empire’s fleet first, then fight the Empire together with the French devils, and then fight all the way to the Empire. But that’s obviously impossible.”

"After all, Farland is not the United Kingdom. They are just temporarily experiencing an abnormal weather period. Once they get through it, everything will be fine."

"As for the second one..."

As he spoke, Raine scratched his chin, and after realizing he hadn't managed to touch the missing beard, he could only withdraw his hand, saying, "Otherwise, they could learn from the Empire and send out two fleets every day, not to put on a show, but to chase after the Empire's fleet, like a super flashlight."

"Whichever one of them chooses, they can disgust Tirpitz and the rest of the navy into looking like the ultimate idiots. They won't even need to fire a shot; the Imperial Navy will collapse on its own."

"It's just a pity."

Looking at the teacup and the disgusting tea leaves inside, Renn shook his head and said, "It's a pity that the Kingdom's current cabinet is full of fools. They will never be able to see Marshal Tirpitz's open scheme; they can only see the conspiracy behind this matter."

As he spoke, Ryan got up from his seat and stood in front of a window with blinds, peering through the gaps at the two figures standing outside the camp wall.

These two were spies sent by the kingdom, whose main task was to steal secrets from the 102nd Air Force Special Operations Fleet and transmit them back to the mainland.

But Renn had already discovered their actions, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

He looked at the two men and said.

"Winston Churchill and his staff must have thought that the Imperial Navy was going to war, so they must have been preparing their fleets and cannons to engage the Empire in a grand naval battle in the North Sea."

"But coincidentally, the Empire is just able to send the last few Zeppelins that are undergoing modifications back to the troops this month."

As he spoke, Ryan sat back down at his desk and took out two exquisitely crafted models of modified Zeppelins from his drawer.

This is the configuration that the 102nd Air Force Special Operations Fleet already has.

Two more ships will be added by the end of the month.

he continued.

"And what's even more coincidental is that these Zeppelins happen to be located in the coastal area, making it incredibly convenient to go to Lundern or anywhere else."

(End of this chapter)