German Prince

Potsdam lay on the banks of the Havel River, just 27 kilometers from Berlin. It was a small city of beautiful scenery. The German Imperial Family had built a palace here. For more than half the days of every year, the German Emperor resided here.

A young man sat by the Havel River, watching its quietly flowing waters without saying a word.

The young man was named Qin Tian. Of course, that had been his name in his previous life. Now, he was called Oskar. It was undoubtedly a name that left Qin Tian rather speechless, because he always associated it with that American film award. Fortunately, films had only just begun in this era, like a toddling infant. Naturally, there were none of the countless film awards of later generations.

Qin Tian did not know why he had become Oskar, or rather, why he had crossed over into this world. He only clearly remembered that when he came to this world, it had been as though his soul had merged into the body of this boy named Oskar. Only a year had passed. Moreover, this was no longer the twenty-first century, but the beginning of the twentieth century. In other words, he was now living more than a hundred years in the past.

In another time and space, Qin Tian had come from an extremely wealthy family. His parents were both successful businessmen, which meant they spent all day occupied with business, practically becoming airborne travelers. Naturally, they had little time to care for Qin Tian.

Yet Qin Tian had not become like those other second-generation rich kids, committing every kind of evil by relying on their money. Instead, he had become a complete shut-in and a military enthusiast.

Qin Tian had been keen on collecting military historical materials from every country, weapons and equipment, and even all manner of military historical relics and weapon models. Aircraft, artillery, tanks, warships—he had everything.

Qin Tian had been especially interested in Germany. In his eyes, Germany was undoubtedly a deeply tragic nation. Its people were hardworking, rigorous, rigid, like machines. Yet no one could deny their strength. In the two wars of the first half of the twentieth century, they had both times faced many with few and had come within a hair's breadth of defeating formidable enemies and becoming the world's hegemon. Yet each time, success had crumbled at the last step.

Qin Tian had even speculated that if Germany had defeated Britain, France, and the others in World War I and dominated the European continent, would subsequent world history have differed from the history he knew?

But history could not be replayed, much less built on hypotheticals.

Yet Heaven seemed to have played a joke on him. When Qin Tian spent a huge sum to obtain an Iron Cross medal from Germany, he excitedly opened the package, and a blinding flash burst forth. After a bout of dizziness that left heaven and earth spinning, Qin Tian discovered that he had become someone else.

The current Qin Tian possessed a distinguished identity. He was Prince Oskar, the fifth son of Wilhelm II, Emperor of the German Empire. However, Qin Tian, who knew the fate of the German Empire well, was not pleased with this identity.

Once the German Empire fell, those princes of the German Imperial Family would almost certainly meet no good end.

In another time and space, Prince Oskar had lived until he was sixty before dying. But he had spent nearly all those years merely dragging out an ignoble existence. That was not the life Qin Tian wanted.

"What should I do? It's already 1904. There are only ten years left until the war. Is Germany's fate of defeat truly impossible to reverse?" Qin Tian muttered.

At that moment, he felt a profound sense of helplessness and anxiety.

Although Germany's industrial output had already surpassed Britain's, making it an industrial power second only to the United States, in high technology—especially military technology—Germany was several streets ahead of the United States.

The United States of this era was not the Uncle Sam of later generations. At most, it could be considered young Sam. Though it had achieved great success in industry, compared with Europe, there was still an enormous gap. Europe was the center of the world in this age.

But Britain controlled more colonies than any other nation in the world and possessed the world's most powerful navy. Compared with Britain, Germany faced enormous disadvantages in many respects.

First, although Germany's industry was developed, aside from coal, it lacked most other mineral resources. The sales markets for its industrial goods were also heavily dependent on overseas markets. Once war broke out, if the German Navy could not break the British Navy's blockade, Germany's industrial goods would be unable to reach overseas markets, while it would also be unable to obtain various natural resources by sea. In the end, there would be only one result: it would be dragged to death alive. It could be said that this was undoubtedly the chief reason Germany had been defeated in the two World Wars.

Second, Germany's location in central Europe was highly advantageous. Its transportation routes extended in all directions. But by the same token, this left Germany surrounded by powerful enemies. Britain and France to the west, Russia to the East—both were Germany's enemies. Although it had the Austro-Hungarian Empire as an ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire bore only the empty title of a great power of the age. In truth, it was utterly vulnerable. Its performance in the war could only be described as garbage. Such an ally would not only be unable to help Germany, but would instead drag Germany down. One need not fear an enemy like a god, only a teammate like a pig. When both the enemy and its allies were godlike opponents, while one's own ally was like a pig, then no matter how formidable Germany was, it would only be fated to be beaten to death by a crowd!

Although Germany had now begun building a powerful navy, the ambitious Wilhelm II yearned even more to forge a mighty fleet capable of defeating the British Navy. But with enemies on every side, Germany had to possess a powerful army as well. Therefore, Germany could not pour all its financial resources into naval construction. This meant that the gap between the German Navy and the British Navy had not narrowed, but instead grew ever wider. When Germany began constructing Battleships on a large scale, the British even arrogantly declared that for every Battleship Germany launched, they would launch two, always maintaining overwhelming superiority over the German Navy.

"Damn it, no matter how I look at it, Germany is doomed! Could it be that this German prince will still end up dragging out an ignoble existence for a lifetime?" Qin Tian thought helplessly.

Although a year had already passed since he had been reborn as Prince Oskar, and he had become thoroughly familiar with this world, Qin Tian had not felt the slightest joy of being a prince. Instead, he had fallen into endless crisis and worry. This also made him appear increasingly taciturn in the eyes of others.