Although the Sitis incident seems to have been a victory for the Germans in successfully retrieving the seized ships, the British government has never officially explained or apologized for the incident. While both governments are prepared to keep a low profile, the German side is not making much of a fuss.

However, for a short time, the dissatisfaction with Britain in Germany did not subside, and the war between the British and the Boers continued, and the Germans would constantly remember the humiliation they had suffered. On the other hand, the Navy's performance this time was perfect, and the story of the Lufthansa's long voyage and the great victory of the British warships at sea had become known.

Even if the government did not publicize this matter and did not want to provoke the British government, this did not prevent the German people from giving full play to their imagination, and all kinds of fabricated plots circulated among the people, and the results became more and more outrageous, and the German people's brains were also very powerful, and finally there was a version of the Lufthansa fighting out of the encirclement under the encirclement and interception of the British fleet, and finally rescuing the Herzog.

And the names of the ships that appeared in this British fleet covered almost all the main forces of the entire Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, which made the German Navy know that they would not be able to cry and laugh in the future, and the main forces of the Mediterranean Fleet were still in Gibraltar and Alexandria, and if they all came out, they would not be scared to death.

In the end, the Navy's Public Relations Department had to come forward to refute the rumors and explain to the public that they had not had a large-scale conflict with the British, but this still did not prevent the German people from coming up with this version as a braggadocio after dinner.

The image of the navy in the eyes of the public is very good, and the upper echelons of all walks of life in Germany have begun to have a sense of crisis about Germany's own situation, and if this kind of thing can happen once, it is difficult to guarantee that it will not happen a second time, which is absolutely a disaster for Germany, whose foreign trade volume is rising year by year.

In fact, the Germans were not unaware of this situation, but this incident gave the Germans a warning that was too blunt.

It was a time when Darwinism was applied to international relations, and a Hillaire Belloc said: no matter what happened, we had Maxim machine guns anyway, and they didn't. The times. For the British, this phrase is also true in another way, "No matter what happens, we have a strong fleet anyway, and they don't." ”

This is an era in which the range of cannons determines the effective distance of truth, an era in which "you have it, I must have it, and it must have it all."

The Minister of Defense, Prince Chillings Fister, told the big truth: "We must avoid the fate of the Spaniards in the United States and ours, and it is clear that the British will pounce at every opportunity." ”

Because the Germans took advantage of the fire to rob the Philippine issue, it has always been difficult to publicize it. This incident caused Prince Chillingsfister to tell the truth, and at the same time embarrassed the Germans, he had to look directly at his own situation.

And Jochen even appropriated a phrase that Foreign Secretary Bilow would later say: "In the coming new century, the German people will be either hammers or anvils." ”

And if you don't want the German people to be an anvil, the only way is to have a powerful fleet.

Under these circumstances, Tirpitz took the opportunity to propose a new naval plan to Congress, but because the Navy Act had only been in force for one year at this time, Tirpitz called this plan the 1900 Amendment to the Navy Act, as a supplement and amendment to the 1899 Navy Act, so the second Navy Act in history, that is, the name of the Navy Act of 1900, does not exist.

Tirpitz opened his mouth, as has been the case in history, to extend the term of the Navy Act until 1919, to double the number of battleships to be built, and to increase the number of cruisers by 75, a demand that frightened the parliament even in the already agitated domestic environment of Germany at this time.

Although the German heavy industry oligarchy, which had already tasted the sweetness of the naval order in just one year, and the German trade union forces, where jobs were guaranteed, a large number of parliamentarians supported the Navy's plan. Popular demand in Germany also demanded a stronger navy for the Reich.

However, Tirpitz's proposal still faces far greater resistance than it has historically been, much of which comes from the Treasury and the Army, which also opposes the Navy's proposal on the grounds that it is fighting a costly war in the Philippines, and which says that Germany's current financial situation is unlikely to support Tirpitz's proposal while maintaining the attrition of the Philippine war.

And this time, Jochen stood on the side of the army and objected to Tirpitz's proposal, which made Schlieffen a little dumbfounded, and the crown prince, who has always been fond of the navy, opposed the naval expansion plan this time?

However, Schlieffen naturally didn't know, was it possible for Tirpitz not to ventilate with Jochen in advance? This is, of course, a duet sung by two people.

Tirpitz's plan was not fake, it was indeed his plan in advance, but he was opposed by Jochen when he was angry with him.

In Jochen's opinion, Tirpitz's idea cannot be miscalculated, if you want to fight the British Royal Navy, a fleet of this size is really not excessive, 66 battleships, you must know that by 1903, the British Royal Navy had 52 battleships in service, 12 under construction, and the Germans were ready to have 66 battleships by 1919, which is normal.

But what Tirpitz didn't know was that the continuous improvement of the performance of this battleship, the increase rate of the money spent can also scare people to death, and the later you go, the more you can't afford to build such an expensive ship. The British, who were not good at dicks, shouted during a naval race with the Germans: You build one, I build two. As a result, it turned out that it was difficult to maintain a 1:1 construction speed.

Therefore, Tirpitz's plan is a little too ideal, and if World War I breaks out as scheduled, then the Germans' next five-year plan is also false, and once the war starts, Germany's resources will inevitably be tilted towards the army, which is no way to do it.

In order for Germany to maintain the operation of its huge fleet at this time, a lot of resources will be consumed for post-battle maintenance, and it is unlikely that Germany will have the spare strength to continue to build new ships until it breaks through the British naval blockade, and it is already very good to be able to grit its teeth and complete the ships that have already started construction at the beginning of the war.

So now this plan cycle is too long, the scale is too large, and it is not conducive to adjustment, the plan can be adjusted and increased if it is smaller, and the plan is too big and wants to adjust and shrink, then it is estimated that the navy will be out of business, so Yoheng Jian yì Tirpitz made modifications.

Of course, Jochen will not say this to Tirpitz, but advises Tirpitz not to be too anxious, so that the time of the plan can be shortened and the scale of the plan will be reduced accordingly. In addition, many new technologies of the Navy are still in the stage of testing and evaluation, and it is more prudent to use them on a large scale after the technology is perfected.

And if we can have the first amendment now, we can have a second and third amendments. Historically, Tirpitz did exactly that, proposing amendments in 1907, 1908, and 1911 when the competition with the British Navy was becoming more and more intense, so there was no need to rush so much now.

Eventually, Tirpitz accepted the proposal, drew up a second plan, and then staged a double play with Jochen in Parliament

After Jochen's mediation and bargaining between the two sides, the final amendment to the Navy Act stipulated that the period of the Navy Act was extended from 10 to 15 years, that is, until 1914, the size of the fleet was expanded, and due to the opening of the Kiel Canal, the movement between the Baltic and North Seas was extremely convenient, so the Ocean Fleet did not add battleships, while the original Baltic Garrison Fleet was expanded to a battleship squadron and a cruiser squadron, and the Mediterranean Fleet was to add a battleship squadron.

The number of cruiser detachments remained the same, but the number of light cruisers was increased by 1 heavy cruiser and 2 light cruisers in the fleet, and the number of spare light cruisers was eliminated, which actually means that the number of light cruisers has not increased.

In this way, the opposition was acceptable and the plan was carried out, and on 25 January 1900, the amendment to the Naval Act was approved by a vote of more than two-thirds in favour.

Not only that, but Tirpitz also very "generously" proposed that before the war in the Philippines came to an end, the implementation of this amendment could be postponed, and the financial expenditure could be given priority to the army, but after the war, the financial expenditure needed to be tilted towards the navy, which was equivalent to the navy "lending" to the army.

This is actually equivalent to putting the army on the fire, you look at you, our navy has made such big concessions, and the financial expenditures are tilted towards you, you still can't deal with the Philippines for so long, is it a shame?

Moreover, in the end, the navy took advantage of this deal, and the longer the army dragged on, the more mature the navy's new technology became, and when the time came, the financial expenditure was tilted toward the navy, and the navy immediately started work with good things with reliable performance. It is estimated that the army will have to live a hard life of being tight and unable to upgrade its technical equipment.

Although Schlieffen knew that Tirpitz's proposal was not good, it was true that the army needed more support in the Philippines now, and the greater the support it could get, the sooner the army could get rid of the Philippines, so that the navy would be able to take advantage of it at that time, so Schlieffen also agreed.

As a result, the Navy's plan for 1900 was quite small compared to the previous year, and in view of the fact that the German Navy did need high-speed ocean-going ships, so as not to encounter the embarrassing situation of the Citis incident again, and the two light cruisers of the same type, which had begun construction in 1899, were built with six more ships, and the German Navy had no plans to build large ships. R1152