Zeppelin's airship formation was a success, not an ordinary success, but a very great success. The first demonstration of a zeppelin in Friedrichshafen in 1900 was not as successful as this one.

On that occasion, the airship was only a short low-to-medium flight near Friedrichshafen, and due to the limitations of the power system, the speed of the airship was only 14 kilometers per hour.

This time, the formation of four airships flew more than 600 kilometers from Stuttgart to Berlin, and the flight altitude was maintained at about 2,000 meters, and after entering the city of Berlin, the altitude was reduced and passed over people's heads at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour, and this action immediately caught everyone's attention.

Almost everyone with insight immediately realized the value of this new type of aircraft, how promising it is to travel in a low-drag environment, not slow, not affected by terrain and routes, and have a considerable flight altitude, which can be used to litter at high altitudes! The military immediately took a huge interest in its cousin.

Therefore, not long after the four airships flew back to Stuttgart from Berlin, the Aviation Technology Laboratory immediately welcomed visitors, and after seeing the wood-framed airships being built in the factory, and knowing that there were four engine pods that could increase the flight speed to more than 100 kilometers per hour, the military immediately had the idea of buying them.

Of course, the military will not be honest with me what you give, the army requires that the airship must be empty for more than 24 hours, in the words of the military: "You must be able to fly me for at least one day, one day, right?" ”

However, the army still decided to buy an aluminum alloy frame airship for use evaluation, worthy of the military with deep pockets, you must know that the price of airships is not cheap, the cost of the Zeppelin airship at the end of the 20th century is more than 200 Handley? 4-engine heavy bomber of the Page company.

Although the level of this thing now is far inferior to Graf, which was the pinnacle of technology at the time? The Zeppelin (this is not a German three-way aircraft-carrying cruiser), but it is absolutely not a slaughter to ask you for £30,000 without a counter-offer.

The German military was able to recognize the value of such a thing, and naturally others could.

The airship made a big splash in Germany. Other countries also got the news, and Britain, France, Russia, and the United States all began to advertise that the Germans had built a super-aircraft. Among them, the French reacted the most, while the British began to be somewhat worried.

The French reacted aggressively, of course, for France and Germany were feuding, although the Germans had kept a low profile in European affairs in recent years. Therefore, the relationship between the two sides has not deteriorated, but it is absolutely not possible to say that it has improved. It is not a day or two that the anti-German forces in France can make them quiet and not come to obstruct the government.

And as long as these guys still exist, the Germans still pile up their huge army in the west, and how can relations between the two sides be good in this situation. As a result, the French have built a series of fortifications on their borders, but looking at them now, it seems that their strong fortifications are not very reliable.

Judging by the number released by the German side, these cigars were capable of flying hundreds of kilometers with at least 5 tons of explosives (at this time there was no concept of bombs). Then dropped at an altitude of more than 1000 meters. According to the character of those damned Germans, this number will only be bigger and not smaller, so your fortress is not hard enough!

This discovery made the French nervous, knowing that we in France are the pioneers of airship technology research! How can you bear it now that the damn Hans made such a terrible thing first?!

However, the arrogant French said that we have a long history of airship research and a strong technical accumulation, and we definitely don't need to look for those pesky Germans. Bow down to them, and I, Great France, can make no less than I can make myself. No, it's definitely a better airship than the Germans!

The French were the first to fall into the pit, which is gratifying.

The response of the British was much more moderate than that of the French, although trade competition between Britain and Germany was now becoming more and more intense, and the Germans were able to greatly reduce the cost of goods exported by virtue of having Mediterranean ports. Plus the Germans had to admit that the goods were better than the British, which crowded out the British market.

There are still many people in Britain who are dissatisfied with this, but there seems to be a harmonious atmosphere between the two governments.

The Germans respect the opinion of the British in European affairs, so it is okay for the British Empire to give you a little friendship.

However, the appearance of such a thing as airships made the British begin to realize that a strong navy did not seem to be able to completely protect Great Britain from attack! The English Channel, which used to be a moat for the British, is no longer in the position of being a barrier for themselves. The British were in a hurry.

The British Prime Minister, the Marquess of Salisbury, is extremely concerned about this, as the Prime Minister, he knows very well that now the Germans have such a new technology, and now that the Germans are thriving, it is always good to think about the worst, especially when the relationship between Britain and Germany has long been not as harmonious as before.

In any case, prevention is always necessary. So Salisbury brought in the First Admiralty George? Goshen and First Sea Secretary Frederick? Richards.

"Do the Germans have the ability to threaten the empire with their kind of giant airships, is this technology valuable to us, can we build something like that?" Salisbury threw several questions at once to the Lord of the Navy and the Secretary of State of the Sea.

Secretary of the Navy George? Goshen was born in economics, and although he was quite supportive of naval construction during his tenure as Secretary of the Navy, technology and military were not his strong points, so it was First Sea Secretary Frederick who answered Salisbury's question. Richards.

"Your Excellency the Marquis, we do not know the specifics of this airship, but what we do know is that this airship can fly from Stuttgart to Berlin and back again, and the Germans have disclosed that it will fly at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour, a load capacity of 5 tons, and an altitude of 2,000 meters.

It is true that it can threaten our country in terms of numbers, but we must pay attention to a few problems, first of all, the Germans did not carry a load in this demonstration, so I think that if it carried a load of 5 tons, the flight distance of such an airship should be reduced, and the flight altitude should not be so high.

Secondly, the speed number jù published by the Germans is the average speed, but an object such as an airship is easily affected by strong winds, and it should not be able to reach this speed in a headwind state.

Considering the distance between Germany and our country, I think it will be very difficult for the Germans to threaten our country in real combat with such airships, and of course I think that the continued progress of this technology is inevitable, but for now it seems that they are not a threat to our country. Frederick was quite impressive.

Salisbury was a little relieved to hear the First Sea Secretary say this, but Frederick immediately changed his tone and continued to make Salisbury nervous: "Although Germany is far away from us, so this airship is not a big threat, but if the French want to use this airship to cross the English Channel to attack us, it is still a great threat to our country." ”

"The French don't have such airships, so we shouldn't have to worry about them." Goshen said on the side, Salisbury still agreed with this sentence, so he nodded after listening to it.

"Your Excellency, although the French do not have them now, we cannot judge that the French will not have them in the future. France was a pioneer in the study of airships, and the first controllable airships were also made by the French. They have enough accumulation, maybe they couldn't realize the value of airships before, so they didn't make much progress, but now the Germans showed them the way - airships can make such things! This is not a good sign for us! ”

Frederick, as the Sea Lord, was a real soldier, and he did not care about any economic friction between Britain and Germany, and now the number one enemy of the British Royal Navy was the French, and this point remained unchanged, and he would definitely emphasize the French threat theory.

As for the Germans' "Naval Law", Frederick did not pay attention to it at all, after the Germans passed the Guò Naval Law, the Royal Navy conducted an analysis, and the size of the fleet of 33 battleships looked really large.

But a closer analysis will show that in fact, the threat to the Royal Navy is not great, the German Navy now has only 10 battleships, and there are still 4 under construction. For the Royal Navy, which now has 32 battleships, 12 under construction, it is simply not enough to see.

The construction of the next 19 warships is planned to be 10 years, that is, the level of 2 battleships per year, which cannot keep up with the pace of 3-4 ships per year of the Royal Navy.

In addition, the Germans had to take care of the Mediterranean, so the German navy that could fight in the North Sea was only 24 ships, so the strength of the German navy was not worth mentioning at all, and this kind of expansion was still acceptable to the Royal Navy (Note 1), so we only need to concentrate on the Black French and Russians for now.

It is precisely because of this judgment of the Royal Navy that Salisbury can still ask slowly whether this kind of thing poses a threat to Britain, instead of immediately claming his ass to find a countermeasure and give the Germans a "lesson".

"Then do you have any good buildings?" Salisbury asked.

"We can buy this technology from the Germans and then study it, whether it is advantageous to find a way to counter it, or to clean up the French with the same method." Frederick replied.

Anyway, the relationship between Britain and Germany is not bad now, and it is most convenient to buy ready-made directly, and it is expected that those Germans will not refuse the request of the British Empire.

Salisbury thought for a moment and nodded: "Yes, we will do our best to communicate with Germany." ”

The British also fell into the pit. (To be continued......)

PS: Note 1: Historically, the Germans were ready to deploy 19 battleships in the North Sea within 6 years, and the British said that it was acceptable, so I estimate here that the deployment of 24 battleships in 10 years may not be a problem for the British.