Garcia was furious at the Germans' offer in exchange, and the five old warships offset a huge amount of 100 million pesos, and not only that, but also a loan of 100 million marks, which turned out to be Spain's debt to Germany. Of course, at this time, Spain did not really refuse to take out loans, and there were loans that could solve many domestic economic problems.

But this kind of money that should have been you gave me money instead of you lending me money, this one more word feels very different. Therefore, Garcia angrily refused: "This is blackmail! 5 old warships want to exchange the whole Philippines?! ”

"Your Excellency, you are not right to say that, first of all, the Elector is the most important ship that has been in service for less than 10 years, and the maintenance is first-class in all aspects, and the estimated value of 800,000 pounds is not expensive at all. Although the Saxon class is indeed a bit old, but we have just remodeled and improved the performance, so I think 500,000 pounds per ship is reasonable, and we can give your country a little cheaper for the Irene class, then we also need 350,000 pounds a ship, so that it is a total of 2.5 million pounds, which is equivalent to 35 million pesos.

And then we also provided a low-interest loan of 100 million marks, which will help your country to solve its economic difficulties, and I think that my country has shown sufficient sincerity. If your country insists on asking my country for 100 million pesos, it will be difficult for our friendly dialogue to continue. Marcal was annoyed by the Spaniards, who were so ignorant of the times.

Don't look at the form clearly, do the Spaniards have the capital to bargain with Germany? In Machar's view, it is enough to help you solve certain financial difficulties without even giving warships, throwing you a loan of 100 million marks, and even without low interest.

"£2,500,000 is enough for 2 brand new battleships of the 1st rank or 4 armored cruisers, don't you think your asking price is too high? And even if it is worth 35 million pesos, it is far from the same value as the Philippines. As for the loan, we can go to the French. ”

"Then you need to be clear, Your Excellency. No country other than my own country is likely to sell a ship in service to you, and the waste of time is not measurable in terms of money. The time your country will spend waiting, and the risks that you may face in the process of waiting, such as unexpected situations, will be borne by our country.

And we will pay the price of 30,000 tons of total tonnage of the navy, and thousands of officers and men will lose their ships, which is not something that can be exchanged for a mere £2.5 million. China, on the other hand, has to bear all kinds of risks after the sudden decline in naval strength before waiting for the new ships to enter service. This is a sacrifice made by our country to help your country through this difficult time!

And if you lend money to France, you will never get the interest rate that our country gives to your country, so our country is willing to exchange such terms of exchange is already very sincere. If your country is not satisfied with this, we would prefer the Philippines to maintain the status quo. "Machar secretly threatened.

The implication is that the Philippines is already under trusteeship anyway, and it is impossible for us to spit it out, and since the Philippines is still nominally yours, then you must still maintain its existence in the Philippines, and if you want to strategically shrink and withdraw from the Philippines, then the Philippines will become a terra nullius. Naturally, we can get it.

If you don't withdraw your troops, then you will continue to consume your national strength in this bottomless pit full of riots.

As soon as Garcia said this, Garcia fell into an ice cave, and the attitude of the Germans was clear: you want to come according to our rules, and you can get some compensation, if you don't know how to do it, then don't want anything. Still, Garcia wants to make a final struggle: "What our country needs now is more cash to solve its financial difficulties." And the navy can't afford so many warships now, can your country provide some funds in addition to the loan to buy the Philippines? ”

"That's fine." Marchar said lightly. It was expected that the Spaniards would bargain over the number of ships, and the Germans also made some concessions to this: "Well, for the sake of your country's very difficult situation, we will also take a step back, what do you think of the low-interest loan of 1 Elector, 2 Erin, 30 million marks in cash, and 100 million marks?" ”

In this way, the equivalent of the German side paid 60 million marks in kind and cash plus 100 million marks in a low-interest loan in exchange for the Philippines. Basically within Jochen's standards. Although Garcia still had to consult the Spanish government, the deal was almost settled.

In early August, the United States Expeditionary Force landed in Puerto Rico, and in mid-August, the Spanish government, which was no longer able to resist, sued the United States for peace, and at the end of August. The United States pledged to stop military operations. In September, the Spanish government signed an agreement with Germany to transfer the Philippines, Guam and other areas to Germany. On 10 December in Paris, the United States and Spain signed an armistice agreement in which Spain pledged Cuban independence and the transfer of Puerto Rico to the United States.

At this point, the Spanish Empire lost all of its overseas possessions and was completely reduced to the last of Europe. And the United States, which carved up the colonies from Spain, was a little complacent about the fact that the Germans had robbed them of their own meat.

In October, the Germans sent two armored cruisers to escort the first batch of three divisions of the Army to the Philippines to begin the restoration of social stability after the official takeover of the Philippines.

At this time, the Office of the Imperial Navy, which had just been reorganized, was preparing to make a big move at the beginning of 1899.

Although Jochen proposed a major reform of the naval administration at the end of 1895, the actual work began in 1897, and there was considerable resistance during this period.

The first was opposition from the Imperial General Staff, and the Naval Military Cabinet was administratively subordinate to the General Staff of the Navy, which meant that the Chief of the General Staff of the Navy had the authority to manage the appointment of naval officers. This kind of right is not available to the General Staff of the Army, otherwise Waldzer would not have had to deal with the head of the Imperial Military Cabinet von? Albertil established a close relationship. The Navy has powers that no Army has, much to the resistance of the Junkers officer corps.

Secondly, there is opposition from the Parliament, and the entire General Staff of the Navy is directly responsible to the Emperor, so where is this to the Prime Minister? Legally, there is only one official in Germany who is directly accountable to the Kaiser, and that is the chancellor. Even if the Chief of the Army General Staff had the power to meet the Emperor directly, he did not mean that he could cast the Prime Minister aside, so the Parliament saw the reform as an affront to the Imperial Constitution and the Prime Minister's authority.

After being obstructed by all sides. Jochen realized that he was in a bit of a hurry, and although he had the support of the Emperor and Caprivi himself did not oppose it, even if he forced it, it would inevitably cause a rift with the army and the parliament. Even the emperor and the chancellor of the old forces in Germany have to weigh whether they want to do anything against them.

So the plan was readjusted, and in order to appease the army, the Imperial Military Cabinet was demoted. It was incorporated into the Imperial General Staff, and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff thus had the right to manage the appointment of army officers.

However, in this way, the power of the army will be greatly increased, and Jochen proposes to put the establishment of the Imperial War Department on the head of the Imperial General Staff. Originally, there was a Prussian War Department in the military institutions of the Kingdom of Prussia, but now it is gone.

The Prussian War Ministry was actually the Prussian Ministry of Defense, managing the administrative affairs of the army, but with the Admiralty, the War Department was actually equivalent to the War Department. However, because the power of the Prussian General Staff grew, the Prussian War Department became less and less significant.

Since 1870 the Prussian War Ministry has been under the control of the General Staff. In fact, it exists in name only. After the Prussian General Staff became the Reich General Staff at the time of the formation of the Wehrmacht, the Prussian War Ministry became meaningless, and then it was abolished by Frederick III.

At present, the German military administration system is divided into two separate departments, the Reich General Staff and the Admiralty. In this case, Jochen proposed that it would be better to form the Imperial War Department, downgrade the Imperial General Staff to the Army General Staff, and bring it under the jurisdiction of the Imperial War Department together with the Navy General Staff.

And with reference to the Navy, the Quartermaster General was separated from the General Staff. Learn from the Navy to form an independent Army Office, and the functions of the General Staff became those of the Army General Command. The name of the Military Cabinet of the Services was abolished. It was changed to the Personnel Department of the various services.

Each branch of the armed forces is responsible for its own internal personnel appointments, equipment procurement, logistics and other tasks, but the administrative system is subordinate to the Ministry of War, and some work such as the establishment and planning of each branch of the armed forces needs to be approved by the Minister of War, but the Minister of War does not have operational command authority. Only the defense policy of the empire can be planned.

The Minister of War is a civilian who serves as an adviser to the Prime Minister's Cabinet on defence policy. This suppressed the power of the General Staff of the Army, elevated the Navy to the same status as the Army, strengthened the authority of the Prime Minister, and met the requirements of Parliament.

Of course. The old forces within the German army were certainly resistant to this kind of power reduction, so they retained the operational command power, personnel independence, and equipment procurement independence of the various services, and retained the rights of the officer corps to the greatest extent.

Frederick III was dissatisfied with the fact that Waldzer and the Military Cabinet had joined forces to bring the War Ministry to the control of the General Staff, because the functions of the Imperial General Staff had been abolished beyond the War Ministry, which Frederick III considered unconventional. In this form, it is necessary to create a military administration that can coordinate between the army and the navy.

However, it was difficult to weaken the power of the Army General Staff at this time, so the power of the new War Department could only be said to be a little better than that of the US Secretary of Defense in 1947, when "each branch of the service was hostage with its own set of personnel", and it was not as good as the power of the US Secretary of Defense after the passage of the National Security Act in 1949, at least at this time the US Secretary of Defense had the power to manage the budgets of the various services.

In general, the emperor lost the right to appoint and dismiss personnel, which was detrimental to the emperor's control of the army; The General Staff of the Army was given the right to appoint and dismiss officers, but it could no longer influence the national defense policy of the Prime Minister and the Emperor, and it was advantageous that the army could not be used to hijack the national policy.

The Prime Minister's ability to intervene in the military has increased, and as a member of the Cabinet, the Minister of War is chosen by the Prime Minister, so the Prime Minister has the ability to intervene in the military at a certain level, which is also advantageous, at least as it is in history that it is much more difficult for Hindenburg, the Chief of the General Staff, to remove two Imperial Prime Ministers from office.

Weighing the pros and cons, Jochen felt it was a good thing. To tell the truth, even if the emperor has the right to appoint and dismiss officers, the power of the General Staff is great, and it is not the same as emptying you.

The reorganization was not enacted in Parliament until late 1897, so it was not until mid-1898 that the reorganization and organizational structure were basically completed. Under the implementation of the emperor, the prime minister, and the parliament, the army could only accept this reorganization.

However, because the German military force was called the Wehrmacht at this time, the Ministry of War was also renamed the Ministry of Defense, and the most suitable candidate for the first Minister of Defense should have been Schlieffen, the former Chief of the Imperial General Staff, but this would lead to the interruption of Schlieffen's original ongoing work, so Schlieffen refused.

As a result, there was no one more qualified to take over the post than Schrieffen, and in desperation, Caprivi finally chose Prince Hohenlow-Chillingsfester, the retiring Chancellor of Prussia, to temporarily assume the post.

Although there is some criticism of a man who is not from the army as Minister of Defence and Army, Prince Hohenlohe Chillingsfest, who is Chancellor of Prussia and has experience as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Administrator of Alsace Lorraine, is beyond reproach in terms of seniority.

Because of Frederick III's trust in Caprivi, Caprivi was able to sit in the position of Prime Minister of the Empire until now, while Prince Hohenlohe-Chillingsffister lost the opportunity to become Prime Minister of the Empire. Becoming the Reich's Minister of Defense and helping to stabilize the foundations of this new institution is something that only the old Prince of Hohenlohe-Chillingsfest can do.

Former Minister of the Navy Alexander? Feng? Muntz served as Chief of the Naval Staff, but due to health reasons, Muntz was ready to resign in early 1899, and this short tenure of only half a year was just to put the title on the head of the old navy who had worked for the Imperial Navy for 10 years.

In November, the commander of the Far Eastern Fleet, Rear Admiral Tirpitz, returned home to report on his duties and took up the post of chief of the first office of the new department of the Navy, the Office of the Navy. As soon as he took office, there were two important jobs waiting for him. (To be continued......)