Chapter 199： Ottoman joins the war

, Edel is doing everything possible to avoid war, and other countries are also avoiding this situation. But sometimes it is completely unavoidable. Being led into this century war, this country is Ottoman Turkey.

After the Balkan War, this declining country was under the rule of the Big Three. Among them, Enver Pasha, the Secretary of the Army, holds most of the power of the Big Three. The Big Three were very dissatisfied with the performance of the Ottoman army in the Balkan War, and planned to spend huge sums of money to transform this large and improper army.

Among them, Enver Pasha rebuilt the Ottoman army with the help of the German advisory group, and also purchased a large amount of German arms to strengthen its strength. The quality of the German army is different from the army, but the navy is more optimistic about the British ships. They ordered two super dreadnoughts in the UK. One of them was the famous seven-turret battleship "Sultan Osman I" and later "Agincourt". "number. The other was also renamed the Irish.

Unlike many people's assumptions, this is Russia's request for Britain to detain him temporarily. Because the Russian Black Sea Fleet does not have dreadnoughts in service now, if Ottoman takes these two battleships, then the Russian Black Sea Fleet is temporarily at a disadvantage. At that time, Russian Foreign Minister Sazonov sent a telegram to the British government requesting the suspension of the delivery of Ottoman warships. Just as World War I broke out, in the face of the German High Seas Fleet, Chancellor of the Navy Churchill felt that his dreadnought was not in an absolute dominant position, so the two Ottoman warships were directly detained.

In the face of such a situation, the Ottoman Empire did not intend to fight against the Allied Powers. Its Big Three are still very sober, knowing that the Ottoman participation in this war will not benefit much. But at this time, Germany sent them a "great gift" that they couldn't refuse, the battlecruiser Goben.

Battlecruiser Goben is the No. 2 ship of the Mochi-class battlecruiser. At 9.03.2, launch. 92.0.2, completed. Displacement: Standard 2,266 tons, fully loaded 25,300 tons. Hull: 6.5, 29.5, .2. It is powered by 4 Parsons steam turbines and 24 Schultz-Sonkerroft coal-fired boilers. It has a power of 52,000 horsepower, a load of 3050 tons of coal, a speed of 25.5 knots, and an endurance of 420 nautical miles/4 knots.

Protection: main armor belt 02~270mm, armored compartment 02~203mm, horizontal protection 50mm, main turret 52~203mm, main gun mount 30~229mm, conning tower 350mm;

Weapons: 5 dual-unit SKL/50 main guns, 2 50mm SKL/45 secondary guns, 2 mm SKL/45 rapid-fire guns, 4 500mm underwater torpedo launchers. Organization: 053 people.

Faced with the great gift that Germany gave to Osman, the government was overjoyed and immediately agreed. So the Goben was renamed Yavos, and the other cruiser Breslau was renamed Mitia. The officers and soldiers in his service changed into Ottoman navy uniforms and continued to serve on their own warships, and General Sorochin, who led the small fleet, was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman navy and still commanded the fleet.

In fact, Sorochin's fleet did not come to Turkey to escape for his life. He also had a difficult political mission, which was to assist the local German diplomats to force Turkey to go to the German side to participate in the war.

Facing such a situation now, the attitude of the Ottoman Empire has also begun to fall towards Germany. However, the final decision to Osman was indeed brought by the Goben. Seeing that the attitude of the Ottoman Empire is about to fall to oneself, in order to avoid long nights and dreams. General Sorochin left the port in the name of training at sea after reorganizing the ships in Istanbul.

This is when German diplomats started to lobby the Ottoman Empire with all their strength, because they knew that the Ottoman Empire would not be allowed to join the war. On board the Goben, General Sorochin interpreted the Admiralty’s order and asked them to shell Savastopol, the station of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and Odessa, its largest Black Sea port city. Faced with this Ottoman navy operated by German naval officers and soldiers, of course it would not object.

So on October 30, General Sorochin led the Goben to raid two ports. Faced with the powerful Goben, which was replaced with the Star and Moon flag, the Russian navy caught off guard. The mine-laying boat "Prut" was sunk, the cruiser "Captain Pushkin" with a displacement of 4,500 tons was severely injured, and a large amount of ammunition piled up in the port of Savastopol exploded after being hit, causing the Russian navy to lose a lot.

Actually, after the attack, the Ottoman government knew that they had to board the ship of the Allied Powers this time, and they had been driven to a dead end.

The Russian government was overjoyed in the face of an attack called the Ottoman Navy, which was actually the German Navy. They were grieved that Istanbul was not taken in the Tenth Turk-Russian War, and now the attack gave them an excuse. Moreover, Britain and France, which were able to prevent Russia from gaining Istanbul into the Mediterranean this time, were also on their side, so they also believed that the Ottoman navy attacked them.

It also turned a blind eye to the situation that will be blocked by the Ottoman Black Sea channel and affect Russia's assistance. In Russia’s view, the Ottoman army only needs a single blow from its own army to collapse, and it also has British and French allies, so it did not pay attention to this issue Russia, which was finally dazzled by the interests of the month 4 Japan declared war on Ottoman, and Britain declared war on it on the 5th.

Sitting in the office, Edel can only watch the closure of the Black Sea Strait. He has no idea about it.

He looked at the Prime Minister who had brought him the news, and he was unwilling to talk about it. "Can we not use the right of passage in the strait now?"

In the face of the king’s question, Prime Minister Bretianu also said helplessly. "Now the Ottoman Empire doesn't let any ships pass through the strait at all, and neither will ours."

"Will we lose a lot like this?"

Now Edel still cares about the domestic economy. When he was happily making a fortune from the war, Osman's hand made him very impatient. Even if he knew that Ottoman would participate in the war, it was just that everyone wanted to be in their favor.

"The loss is not big, mainly vehicles and spare parts orders. We can only ship orders from Britain and France through Bulgaria in Thessaloniki. It’s just that Bulgaria’s asking price is higher, and we haven’t agreed yet."

Hearing what the Prime Minister said, Edel's heart moved and asked. "How much do they have to pay for the border crossing?"

"The 20% transit fee, and the railway transportation fee is extra. At this price, our profit is not as good as before the war."

Hearing what the Prime Minister said, Edel knew that this was Bulgaria’s retaliation for the war a year ago. He thought for a while and said, "Then you go to the British and French ambassadors and tell them that the fee is too high and ask them to increase the price. If it doesn't work, ask them if they can transfer the order to Russia."

The Prime Minister was thinking that there is no other better way, so he sighed. "It can only be the."