"Let me be the commander of such a ship of a whole new class?" Hippert was a little surprised, but quickly calmed down: "Thank you, Your Majesty." ”

Looking at this rear admiral who had high hopes for himself, Jochen nodded, this kind of decisiveness and resoluteness was exactly what the German Navy needed: "However, the new large cruiser is very different from the previous heavy cruisers, so no matter the application method and combat ideas, you can't directly copy your previous experience."

So what I mean with Your Excellency the Chief of the General Staff is that I will first transfer you to the General Staff of the Navy as a tactical staff officer for a period of time, where you can learn all the technical specifications of the new ship, and discuss new tactical applications with others, and then you go back and prepare, and the transfer will come down after a while.

In 2 days the lead ship of the large cruiser will be launched, leaving you not much time in the General Staff for theoretical research. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Hipper's feet together and sternly replied, "Resolutely complete the task." ”

Jochen patted Hippel on the shoulder as a sign of encouragement.

London, 10 Downing Street.

"Your Excellency, it appears from the message sent back by His Excellency Gray that the Germans have not had even the slightest sincerity, and they have been trying from beginning to end to narrow the gap between them and us through this meeting, and we must not allow them to succeed in their ends." Fisher emphasized his opinion to Sir Bannerman.

"The Germans not only secretly built 6 German-class dreadnoughts, but also concealed that we started construction of 2 new cruisers of the same type as the Invincible class, which shows that the Germans have not stopped competing with us from the beginning, and they are using an opportunity to reduce our advantage." The news that the Germans had started construction of a large cruiser similar to the Invincible class made Fisher both annoyed and happy.

Annoyed not only because the number of all-heavy gun warships currently in service and under construction by the Germans has reached 12, while the British have only 10, but secondly, the technical performance advantage of the Invincible class will not be maintained for long.

Happily, in the face of such an aggressive reaction from the Germans, the likelihood that the British Government would agree to disarmament was close to zero. And under this pretext, the request to continue the construction of the follow-up warships of the Invincible class became possible.

However, there are still some minor troubles that need to be solved at the moment.

"John, before the Cabinet and Parliament consider the Royal Navy's request, we have a very serious question before us." Sir Bannerman stared at the First Sea Lord very sternly and said, "Why do the Germans know so well about our situation?" This makes us wonder if we have any secrets in front of the Germans. Whether it's the funding figures, the performance of the battleships, how much do the Germans still know? ”

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister. The DNI (Naval Intelligence) and DMI (Military Intelligence) are already fully investigating whether there are leaks within us, so rest assured that if anyone has a problem internally, we will find out. Fisher swore that "and this is not necessarily a problem within the Royal Navy, it is possible that there are loopholes in other links."

Since the arrival of the Hague news that the Germans knew something that they should not know, the British began to get busy as if they had been stabbed in a hornet's nest, and as for what went wrong in their own interior, the Admiralty naturally became the most suspicious unit, and various investigations caused panic. Fisher is also very troubled by this, why does he always think that it is our problem? Maybe it's the Ministry of Finance's problem? Maybe it's a parliamentary problem?

It was Fisher who couldn't help but complain in front of His Excellency the Prime Minister, don't keep staring at the navy, can you check on others?

The Germans naturally did not know about the English, and if they did, Jochen would surely laugh and lean back and gloat at the English's own troublemaking.

Of course, the Germans also knew that the British would make a lot of efforts in counterintelligence after such a come. German officials working in the UK were therefore advised to take precautions. The German embassy in London has long been surrounded by all kinds of people, and the embassy staff will be followed by a large group of disguised followers when they go out of the door.

Of course. In order to make trouble for the British, the normal foreign exchanges of embassy personnel have increased instead of decreasing, and you British people have investigated everyone I have come into contact with, don't you die?

Historically, it was foolish for the Germans to spy on the British through the military attache in the embassy, and the German military attache in Britain collected the information from other naval intelligence officers from various ports and sent it to Berlin to be analyzed by naval professionals. When the time comes, if you want to catch someone, that is, pull out the radish and bring out the mud, and pull a large piece of rhythm.

So now the German intelligence officers have nothing to do with the embassy, and the British are willing to waste manpower and material resources to keep an eye on them.

Now that the matter had been investigated, Sir Bannerman decided not to dwell on the matter, nodded to Fisher, and said: "The Germans are now well aware of our situation. We don't know anything about them, and we need to get as much information as we can from the Germans. ”

"Your Excellency, rest assured that the DNI has begun to prepare to intensify its infiltration and spying on the Germans, and I am confident that they will produce satisfactory results." "But the most important thing now, Your Excellency, is that we respond forcefully to the actions of the Germans, and that the Germans know that their attempts to gain control of the sea are nothing more than wishful thinking in the face of the Royal Navy," said Fisher. ”

"The cessation of the arms race was proposed by us, and we cannot allow other countries to think that we did not have the sincerity to disarm from the outset. Taking too strong a stance at a meeting is likely to lead to resentment in other countries. Bannerman said, shaking his head.

"Discontent from other countries? The only countries that could really express their dissatisfaction were the United States, Russia, and France, and the opinions of other countries were not worth mentioning at all, but these three countries did not support our ideas at all. Even France now has no intention of going against the Germans at the conference, and can't those fools with a little long-term vision see that the Germans don't really mean anything at all? Fisher was annoyed.

On the Moroccan issue, the Germans did not push too much in the face of the French who took the initiative to sue for peace, but only demanded that Morocco maintain the status quo, abrogate the agreement signed with Spain to partition Morocco, and let Germany participate in the management of the Ottoman Turkish Imperial Treasury Debt Management Committee, which was controlled by the French.

Such a request was not too much for the French, since German infiltration of the Ottoman Empire was already deepening with the construction of the Eastern Railway, and it was acceptable for Germany to cede some of the Ottoman Turkish interests without seeking to expand its political interests in Morocco.

Moreover, the Germans did not make any claims to colonial territory, which gave the French enough face, and Rovier, who had hoped to ease relations with the Germans, naturally concluded a peace treaty with the Germans very smoothly.

Although there were people in Germany who were dissatisfied with the German government's refusal to claim any colonial territory, Jochen knew that if he really wanted something, he would not want anything, and the Germans had provoked France to demand all of the French Congo during the Second Moroccan Crisis, which the French flatly refused.

At the time of the stalemate between the two sides, the British statement once again brought diplomatic humiliation to Germany, which was not ready for war, and after completely losing all political interests in Morocco and recognizing France's full possession of Morocco, the French compensated Germany for two narrow strips of land in the French Congo with a total area of 27,354 square kilometers. These two places, densely covered with swamps and jungles, where sleeping sickness and all kinds of diseases were rampant, in the words of Lindqvist, then State Secretary for German Colonial Affairs, "were partly completely useless, partly almost useless." ”

Therefore, either the lion opened his mouth to make the whole French Congo so that the French could not get off the stage, and the final result was unpredictable, or it was better to take a piece of barbaric land that was useless at all, and it was better not to colonize it in the first place in exchange for something affordable.

In fact, the management of the Ottoman Turkish Empire's treasury management committee did not have much interest, and the exchange conditions offered by the French to the Germans during the German-French stalemate of the Second Moroccan Crisis were nothing more than a rhetorical thing. Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable for the French to make such a request now.

For Jochen, as long as Morocco can maintain the status quo and not make Germany come to power in the international arena, then other interests are not very important.

Therefore, when Rovier saw that the Germans were so polite, there was naturally no need to help the British in The Hague to trouble the Germans. Now Britain and Germany have their own all-heavy artillery warships, while France, as the second navy in the world, is still building old battleships, which is also unacceptable to France, so the French themselves also have their own small abacus, if they agree to the British to limit armaments, then what about their own dreadnought plan?

As a result, the British have become a bit alone in The Hague this time, and it is no wonder that Fisher is extremely angry about this: "Your Excellency, I do not think that negotiations can produce any results in this situation, we will use our practical actions to make the Germans despair, since the Germans want to compete with us, then they will build one and we will build two!"

We want to let the Germans know that they will never be able to catch up with us! (To be continued......)