Prince Adalbert, the third son of Wilhelm II, has harbored a deep passion for the navy since his childhood.
This interest seemed to be predestined, for his father, Wilhelm II, had a profound love for the navy. When naming him, his baptismal name was taken from that of Prince Heinrich Wilhelm Adalbert von Preußen, one of the founders of the Prussian Navy and the nephew of Wilhelm I.
However, ironically, this fated interest also made Adalbert feel a hidden sense of alienation among his five brothers.
In particular, unlike him, the eldest brother, Crown Prince Wilhelm, and the other brothers had no interest in the navy at all.
Adalbert's elder and younger brothers clearly preferred to inherit the Prussian tradition and showed a stronger interest in the army.
Even the youngest brother, Joachim, was more eager to be a "down-to-earth" soldier on land rather than a "wind-sailing" naval warrior.
This made Adalbert both regretful and pained.
Therefore, instead of spending time with his brothers, he preferred to read alone or, on his father's advice, practice painting seascapes.
One day, Adalbert came across a novel.
The novel was called "The Great Ming Sea King".
It was a novel serialized in the newspaper by a young man named Hans Joe from the East, who entered the imperial court after saving the emperor to earn some pocket money.
At first, Adalbert just casually flipped through the novel because its theme involved the navy. However, soon he became deeply fascinated by "The Great Ming Sea King".
Set in the Ming Dynasty during the 15th and 16th centuries, the novel described the story of the protagonist relying on the development of the navy to turn the tide and showcase national prestige at the end of a corrupt dynasty plagued by internal and external troubles.
But what attracted Adalbert the most was the protagonist, Admiral Qi. He was simply the embodiment of Adalbert's ideal naval admiral.
He believed that Admiral Qi's achievements and abilities were in no way inferior to those of the legendary figure in the European naval world, Admiral Horatio Nelson of the United Kingdom.
Adalbert lamented that he had only just learned about this great admiral and felt it was truly a pity.
However, after Adalbert became a fanatical follower of Admiral Qi, the recent serialized content of "The Great Ming Sea King" was nothing short of torture for him.
The truce agreement with Japan was like a worthless piece of paper, and they once again chose to invade and harass the Ming Dynasty. Adalbert expected Admiral Qi to heroically repel the enemy once more.
But the Japanese were extremely cunning!
Fearing Admiral Qi, they used spies to plot and made the corrupt Ming Dynasty, caught up in party strife, issue twelve imperial decrees in succession to recall him to the capital and transfer him from his position as the commander-in-chief of the navy. This already made Adalbert furious.
Worse still, many people even took the opportunity to kick him while he was down and ostracize him.
This scene reminded Adalbert of the persecution of the famous Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter, who was framed out of jealousy by William III!
Adalbert was so angry that he deeply doubted the sanity of the Ming Dynasty's high-ranking officials.
However, Admiral Qi's suffering did not end there.
Hoping that Admiral Qi's innocence would be cleared, Adalbert opened the next serialized issue only to find that Admiral Qi had been falsely accused and removed from his position, demoted to an ordinary soldier.
What was even more heart-breaking was that upon learning of her husband's dismissal, Admiral Qi's wife actually abandoned him and their children and "divorced" her husband directly.
"Hans! You're a more vicious guy than the devil himself!"
Seeing Admiral Qi crying in despair, Adalbert burst into tears and couldn't help cursing the author Hans.
He thought that Hans was even worse than the British detective novelist Arthur Conan Doyle, who had only "killed off" Sherlock Holmes.
"Never mind. There will definitely be a reversal in the next issue, and Admiral Qi will surely get his position back!"
While trying to soothe his own agitated emotions, Adalbert kept muttering to himself. Otherwise, he felt that he was on the verge of going crazy.
However, Hans betrayed Adalbert once again, as well as all the readers of "The Great Ming Sea King".
"The Qi Family Army has been completely annihilated..."
Adalbert couldn't believe the words on the newspaper were true. He read them over and over again, but the fact couldn't be changed.
"Hans!!!"
In the end, due to Admiral Qi's demotion, his former subordinates were all transferred to other places one after another after receiving their pay on some unjust pretexts. Subsequently, the Qi Family Army was completely destroyed by a sudden Japanese attack. They didn't even manage to put up a decent fight, which dealt a heavy blow to the Great Ming Navy that Admiral Qi had painstakingly rebuilt.
"Ahhh!"
In a state of collapse, Adalbert rushed out of his residence, headed for the train station, and went straight to Potsdam.
His brothers were stunned, not knowing what had happened, and Hans was at a loss in the face of the sudden outburst of anger.
...
"What on earth is going on?"
After returning from the Russian Empire, Hans was taking a good rest at this moment to soothe his exhausted body from the journey in Russia.
After the secret talks ended, he still couldn't return to Germany immediately. He had to continue to participate in various activities such as hunting and banquets with Nicholas II and the Russian nobles, running around everywhere.
"For a child's body, this is indeed a bit too much to bear."
However, this time, Prince Adalbert, who wasn't particularly close to Hans, suddenly appeared in front of him.
He could probably guess the reason.
Previously, he had heard from Joachim that Prince Adalbert was a loyal reader of "The Great Ming Sea King".
What's more, now Hans' study was already filled with fan letters sent by readers who were dissatisfied with the plot, or rather, angry protest letters.
"How could you do such a thing to Admiral Qi! Hans, are you still human? Are you even human?!"
Of course, Hans didn't expect that Prince Adalbert would be so obsessed with "The Great Ming Sea King".
However, even though the prince was blaming him like this, there was nothing he could do about it.
"Your Highness, it's not my fault. History is just like this. What can I do about it?"
Yes, "The Great Ming Sea King" was a novel adapted based on real historical events.
It wasn't that Hans deliberately wanted to make Admiral Qi suffer.
Of course, in order to enhance the story's appeal, he added a little bit of seasoning and embellishment, but that was also to make the work more interesting, wasn't it?
"How can you even say such a thing?!"
Of course, Hans also knew that he couldn't say these things out loud.
Otherwise, the irrational Prince Adalbert might really give him a beating.
The most important thing now was to find a way to soothe this angry prince.
"Your Highness, would you like to take a look at the manuscript of the next serialized installment?"
"...The manuscript?"
Upon hearing the words "the manuscript of the next serialized installment", Prince Adalbert stopped in his tracks.
That's right. How could this fanatical admirer of Admiral Qi not be interested?
Although,presumably, such things should not be disclosed to the outside world, it was obvious that his own life was more important at the moment.
As he spoke, Hans took out the manuscript of the latest chapter of "The Great Ming Sea King" from the locked drawer, handed it to Prince Adalbert, and admonished him that he must never reveal it to anyone else.
After a while—
"Goodness! Admiral Qi, I knew you could be trusted!"
The ecstatic expression on Prince Adalbert's face made Hans realize that humans could actually display such a high level of elation.
Ugh, who could stand up to this?
"You can see that 'The Great Ming Sea King' is on the right track, so please go back with peace of mind."
Prince Adalbert nodded in satisfaction and left the imperial palace with a smile on his face.
However, if in the final chapter, Admiral Qi dies in battle, will he really initiate a duel at that time?
Thinking of Prince Adalbert's deep-seated obsession with "The Great Ming Sea King", Hans felt that this possibility was entirely real.
Anyway, he could finally heave a sigh of relief. At this moment, Hans opened the letter sent to him by Tesla.
According to the content of the letter, the research on radio had made steady progress.
However, Tesla mentioned that there were still several problems that had not been solved. In particular, they had encountered great difficulties in the amplification of electrical signals.
This was a major obstacle in the development of radio.
If this problem could not be solved, smooth voice transmission over long distances could not be achieved, and this would become a major hindrance to the practical application of radio.
"I accidentally saw a way to solve this problem in a documentary about radio in my previous life..."
Hans pondered for a while and finally remembered a term.
"Amplitude Modulation."
That is, the commonly known AM technology.
By using this technology, the problem that Tesla was facing could be solved.
But the problem was that the amplitude modulation technology at least required a radio valve, that is, a "vacuum tube", among which the "triode" was particularly crucial.
However, the triode had not been invented in this era.
Calculating from now, the triode would not come out until 1906, four years later.
"The person who invented the triode should be Lee de Forest from the United States, right?"
The person who, by inventing the triode, set off the prosperity of the electronic equipment industry and is known as the "Father of Radio".
Although Reginald Fessenden was a pioneer of radio technology, without Lee de Forest's triode and the amplitude modulation technology using it, the practical application of radio would not have been possible.
However, Lee de Forest was not the only inventor of the triode.
Austrian physicist Robert von Lieben invented the triode and obtained a patent for it a few months earlier than Lee de Forest.
But von Lieben died just seven years after inventing the vacuum tube, so his vacuum tube didn't make much progress. Eventually, it was only Lee de Forest who truly achieved commercialization in history.
"Of course, besides Lee de Forest and Robert von Lieben, there is also John Ambrose Fleming. But that guy is not within the scope of consideration at all."
John Ambrose Fleming, who is famous for "Fleming's Right Hand Rule", will invent the predecessor of the triode, the diode, in 1904, two years later.
But Fleming happens to be a collaborator of Marconi's company.
And Guglielmo Marconi is the most powerful competitor of Hans and Tesla, so it is impossible to seek cooperation with Fleming.
"It's better to get in touch with Lee de Forest slowly first. If it doesn't work, then contact Robert von Lieben."
There is no need to be too hasty.
Blindly pursuing speed may mess everything up. Steady progress is the key.
More importantly, there are things that need more attention now compared to radio.
The launching ceremony of the highly anticipated new battleship of the German Empire, the first dreadnought, is about to arrive.