On April 5, 1908, after a cold winter, representatives of 44 countries gathered in The Hague, the Netherlands, for the Second International Peace Conference.

Most of the participating countries were in the mood to watch the real protagonist of the conference, the rivalry between Britain and Germany, and Russia, the initiator of the conference, was reduced to a supporting role from the very beginning. However, the peace conference, which was nominally aimed at halting the expansion of malicious military power, was full of gunpowder between two countries that did not trust each other, and the meeting was at an impasse from the beginning.

"Isn't it ridiculous for Your Excellency to say such a thing? Your country has 55 battleships and 31 armored cruisers in service, but your country, which has such a naval force, accuses our country of developing its naval forces in excess of national security needs? I think you're the only one of the 44 countries here that has more naval power than it needs for national security, right? Isn't it your country that deserves the most disarmament? German Foreign Minister Billlow retorted in the conference hall.

Such words caused the representatives of other countries to whisper to each other, and the whole venue was noisy. Most countries still deeply believe that no matter how much their navy develops, it will not be able to become an opponent of the British, so it is enough to watch the British make a fool of themselves with the mentality of watching a play.

The British representative opposite, Foreign Secretary Gray's face was blue and red, and the Germans would not make Gray embarrassed by revealing their old background, but the reactions of other countries made Gray very embarrassed. After composing himself and coughing a few times to attract the attention of the other delegates, Gray explained slowly: "Although the size of our navy seems to be very strong, considering that we are an island nation and have our control areas from the Far East to South Africa, which gives us a long coastline, we must maintain a strong fleet in order to maintain the safety of our coastline.

This is different from the situation in your country! Your country has a short coastline, but it has a huge land territory, and I am now asking your country to reduce the number of land forces, will your country agree? ”

"It's ridiculous, if the size of the navy is determined by the length of the coastline, then the United States, which has two coastlines of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, and Russia, which has a long coastline of the Arctic Ocean, can also have a huge navy, while Japan, which has a short coastline, should not have the most powerful naval force in the Northwest Pacific!" Billo Zhenzhen said something, and exchanged glances with the representative of the United States as he spoke.

The demand to support the expansion of the US Navy and the suppression of Japan's naval strength naturally made the Americans very happy, and this was also the cooperation that the United States and Germany had communicated with from the beginning.

Eli Hurut, the fifth bird of the United States, immediately said beside him: "Your Excellency Bilow is reasonable, our navy in the Pacific region is insufficient at present, and the security of our west coast can hardly be protected by the small and weak Pacific Fleet, so I think it is necessary for our country to expand the size of the Pacific Fleet to the same level as the Atlantic Fleet." ”

Seeing the Yankees and Germans singing and harmonizing there, Gray's face became even more ugly, but Russian Foreign Minister Izvolsky did not coax him to the sidelines, and finally let Gray not suffer from the enemy.

Although the Germans are preaching that the Russian Navy should have a scale that suits its own status and status, the current Russia simply cannot afford to play such a game of labor and money, so even if it is nonsense on the sidelines, it is meaningless, it offends the British in vain, and it is impossible to make it, so Izvolsky is very honest and pretends to be deaf and dumb there.

However, Billo was not prepared to let Gray go, and continued to make a generous statement: "In the final analysis, it is a fallacy that the size of the navy depends on the length of the coastline, and the role of the navy is to protect the security of the country's foreign trade and shipping in addition to the security of the country's oceans. Therefore, the scale of its own shipping should also be a measure of the size of the navy!

Your country is indeed the largest international trade possessor in the world, but its proportion in international trade is declining year by year, while our country is increasing year by year! But the size of our navy is growing at a much slower rate than the share of our trade is rising!

If your country really wants to stop the arms race and maintain maritime security, then please set the size of each country's navy according to the proportion of last year's international trade, and in view of the decline in your country's share and the increase in China's share, it is already a huge concession made by China according to last year's standards without considering the future development trend! ”

Gray didn't even think about Billo's construction without even going through the left ear and out of the right ear, what are you kidding, according to last year's international share? Britain has fallen to 19, France has fallen to 7, Germany has risen to 15, and the United States is 13.

And if according to this ratio, the French will not immediately jump on their feet? Now the French Prime Minister sitting on the side is already scratching his ears and cheeks in a hurry.

Of course, being thick-skinned is the specialty of every politician, and diplomats are the best among them, Gray immediately changed the subject: "Gentlemen, we are gathered here today to end the arms race and maintain maritime security, not to promote the arms race!" What we want to do is to stop this behavior that threatens everyone's safety immediately, but according to your intentions, not only do we not end this worthless behavior, but we also want to set a goal for this behavior and let everyone complete it? It's just stupid. ”

"However, this worthless act in your mouth is provoked by your country, not my country!" Billo sneered, and then retorted unceremoniously: "Your country has been building Sovereign-class battleships since 1889, and 55 battleships have been built in just 18 years, an average of more than 3 per year, and in the past 18 years, the total cost of your navy alone has exceeded 100 million pounds!" Presumably, the total budget of the Navy should be more than 500 million pounds, right?

On the other hand, in our country, only 27 battleships have been built in 18 years, an average of 1.5 per year, and the number of battleships built in our country is less than half of your country! Moreover, the number of other small and medium-sized ships built in China is far lower than that of your country, and the total cost of building ships and the total cost of the navy is only about 30-40 of your country.

Even if our country has increased its investment in the navy in recent years, its overall level is still far lower than that of your country! This can be seen by looking at the number of capital ships built in your country, a total of 10 Edwardian VII-class battleships have been built! And last year, your country even announced that it would build 6 new battleships! With such a speed of shipbuilding, Your Excellency actually accused our country of intending to provoke an arms race?

The fact that China has maintained such a low investment and such a slow pace of naval construction is a manifestation of China's cherishing of peace and attaching importance to maritime security! Your country's accusation that our country is engaged in an arms race in disregard of maritime security is simply a reversal of black and white and disregard of the facts! As long as you analyze it a little, you will know that what you say is nonsense! ”

The figure of 500 million pounds is like a drop of water falling into a hot oil pot, which instantly detonated the enthusiasm of all the delegates in the audience again, 500 million pounds! For a time, everyone was shaken out by the rich trenches of the British. Even the Americans were dumbfounded, the US government is not out of money, but after all, it started late, and the biggest enemy of the navy is none other than Congress, thinking that it will cost more than $2.5 billion in total to build a powerful fleet that can match and surpass Britain, and all the members of the US delegation present feel that there is a long way to go.

And Gray was not only angry at this time, but also a little frightened, the Germans knew themselves too accurately, right? I had just done my homework before I came to the conference, and the Royal Navy had spent just over $500 million on the Navy since 1890. Such detailed figures themselves were not very clear before, and how could the Germans know such details?

Gray glanced at the Royal Navy officer who was sitting next to him as a military adviser, and he was also grim-faced. Leak?! Spy?! It is possible that someone who has access to all the Navy budget numbers for the last 20 years is a spy and a leak?! Such a thought came to Gray's mind, and he shuddered.

Of course, such an idea is purely to scare yourself, the level of German intelligence agencies is not high to that point, the source of this information naturally comes from the memory of Jochen's previous life, the British naval budget in this plane is only higher than in history, although I can't remember the very detailed number of each project every year, but I still have an impression of the general amount.

Even the Germans themselves were frightened when they got this number, and it was extremely difficult to calculate the number of second- and third-class cruisers, mine-striking ships, torpedo boats, and other expenses such as personnel costs and maintenance costs.

How did this kind of counting, which even the intelligence agencies of the army and navy know? Of course, this kind of doubt was perfunctory by Jochen's prevarication of calculations and probabs.

But now that Billo saw Gray's ugly face, he understood that these numbers were estimated to be eight or nine, and although he was a little curious about the accuracy of the Emperor's "speculation", this kind of love was quickly replaced by another kind of feeling, that is, the pleasure of watching the British Yankee speechless, and the gloating of the British Yankee's embarrassment being watched by everyone.

This peace conference was not peaceful at all from the start. R1152