"Those damn Germans played a trick on us!" In his office in the Royal Admiralty building in Whitehall, London, Fisher was furious. In front of him were more than a dozen photographs, all of which were German-class battleships taken from different angles. However, the text on the bag of the 4 texts below the photos shows that the photos are from 4 different places.

"4 unified all-heavy artillery battleships! 4 ships! And they have 2 more under construction! And we don't know about it! And then like a fool, go there to spread the word about the power of the Dreadnought! Now the Germans don't have to say anything to let everyone know that they have 4 unbeatable battleships! Because we did all the publicity for them! Enraged, Fisher slammed his fist on the desk, and the office shook with a loud bang.

It is no wonder that Fisher was so furious, thinking that he had fooled the Germans, and how pleasant it was to let the arrogant Germans who tried to provoke the majesty of the Royal Navy look in horror at the formidable form of the Dreadnought, while scrambling to revise their battleship design.

However, 8 months later, the photos of 4 new battleships slapped themselves in the face like a loud slap in the face, the Germans started to build such new battleships as early as 3 years ago, but the Royal Navy's self-righteous deception, high-profile propaganda, and strong touting now look like a clown! The Germans' cooperative performance made Fisher feel like a German monkey.

"Calm down, John, anger won't solve anything." Admiral Marchbanks advised: "The most important thing now is how we should respond.

"Coping? What can we do about it? The three improved battleships of the Dreadnought have just begun, and I can't conjure up a few new ones! Fisher asked in a loud voice: "And if nothing else, the Germans will continue to widen the gap next year, and the gap between us and the Germans will be 1:6!" ”

"But our numerical superiority over the Dreadnought......" Marchbanks was interrupted by the ringing of the phone on Fisher's desk.

"This is Fisher. Yes, Your Excellency! Yes, Your Excellency. His Excellency Marc Banks is now in my office. Yes, Your Excellency. We'll be there shortly. Putting down the phone, Fisher said to Marchbanks: "Your Excellency, Your Excellency the Prime Minister has learned and asked us to rush over at once. ”

"It looks like we're going to be reprimanded by His Excellency the Prime Minister." Marchbanks smiled wryly and said, "Let's go, we can still think about how to explain it to His Excellency the Prime Minister on the way." ”

The intersection of Whitehall, Downing Street, Parliament Street, and Richmond Street was a crossroads, and it wasn't that far from the Navy Building to 10 Downing Street, so Marchbanks, who was sitting in the car, had to confess to Fisher: "We must find a way to point out the inadequacy of the German warships, or our propaganda about the Dreadnought will become a great irony." This will bring the entire Royal Navy to shame, and all Admirals will be blamed, and you, the main driver of the construction of the Dreadnought, will bear the brunt of it. As for the rest, we can only take one step at a time. ”

Fisher nodded, knowing that Marchbanks was taking care of himself, and if he couldn't get the cabinet and even the parliament to trust the Dreadnought, then he would have many enemies within the navy, and he would most likely be questioned and even punished, then he would not only be unable to be the first sea lord. And the reform of the Royal Navy that he has single-handedly promoted will be abandoned halfway, and he must not let this happen.

Within minutes, the car was parked in front of 10 Downing Street. When Marchbanks and Fisher opened the door to the prime minister's office, all the cabinet members had arrived, and the room was filled with smoke, and the red light of the cigar burned flickered and extinguished with the owner's puff, and the atmosphere was very oppressive.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, do you already know?" Marchbanks asked cautiously.

"Of course I know, can I not know that the embassy in Germany has sent me newspapers from Berlin?" Sir Bannerman said angrily, "And I can imagine that now that all the newspapers in England are working overtime to revise their layouts, the front page of the newspapers in England tomorrow will be that the Germans have four battleships of the same type as the Dreadnought." ”

"And it is said that the Germans have two more under construction. It will be completed next year. Foreign Secretary Gray made up for it.

"Why did the Germans build such a battleship and the Royal Navy did not know even a little bit of news?" Sir Bannerman asked.

"Previously, the start of construction of this batch of German battleships, including the launching, was carried out in strict secrecy. The Germans did not even hold a launching ceremony for these 6 battleships at all, on the contrary, the 2 new armored cruisers they built were very high-profile. Draws our attention to it.

Together with the various reactions of the Germans before this, we think that they will start building a ship of the same class as the Dreadnought before the next class of battleships. Fisher explained.

"We were deceived by the Germans, and we thought we had deceived Germany, we thought the Germans were fools, but we were the fools! Now the whole world is watching the Royal Navy joke! Sir Bannerman said angrily.

"I'm sorry, Your Excellency, but this is a remiss of my duty." Marchbanks immediately stepped forward to admit his mistake, a responsibility that could not be left to Fisher alone, and Marchbanks understood this.

"No, it's our dereliction of duty, the dereliction of duty for all of us." Lord Bannerman sighed: "The Royal Navy's technical and numerical superiority has been lost. ”

"Nope! Maybe the Germans did have a numerical advantage, but we still had a technical advantage! Hearing this, Fisher hurriedly retorted.

When everyone's eyes were focused on him, Fisher, who had never been afraid of heaven and earth, suddenly felt unprecedented nervousness, but in this case, he could only continue: "Although the new battleship of the Germans is indeed the same unified all-heavy artillery battleship as the Dreadnought, it is different from our Dreadnought, which is a new warship that adapts to the new naval combat situation, and the German battleship is obviously an upgraded version of the 6-gun battleship built earlier. Her artillery layout is entirely a splicing of the first half of the Wittelsbach class and the second half of the Braunschweig class, so its overall idea is not advanced. ”

Fisher himself didn't believe this kind of words, and the stares of the cabinet ministers in front of him made him have the illusion that he would be debunked at any time.

However, apparently the cabinet ministers in front of them all nodded in agreement, and they didn't know if it was because they didn't understand the navy and were deceived by Fishermont, or because the facts didn't matter at all at this time, they just needed an explanation that could be reasonable, an official explanation that could explain to the people.

However, their attitude finally reassured Fisher, and then continued: "The German battleships used 11-inch guns, which were small in caliber and light, and they only installed four twin turrets, which could save a lot of weight, so it was relatively easy to achieve a unified full heavy gun.

However, such a design is clearly opportunistic! The light weight of the shells of the 11-inch naval gun was much less powerful than that of the 12-inch naval gun on the Dreadnought, and the firing range of the middle turret was extremely limited, so the Dreadnought was nimble in an engagement! While the Dreadnought and the Germans were equally capable of throwing 8 guns in a broadside engagement, the Dreadnought was able to throw 6 guns in pursuit, while the Germans could only throw 4 guns when escaping, so the Dreadnought was stronger in combat. ”

"Well, if that were the case, the Germans would only be able to throw two naval guns in pursuit, and the Dreadnought would be ......," War Secretary Haldane muttered to himself.

"The situation you are talking about will not happen at all! The Royal Navy never had to run away! Haldane's muttering was rudely interrupted by Fisher, much to the Secretary of War's awkwardness.

Fisher continued: "And this type of battleship is not just as simple as adding artillery, her biggest advantage is that the number of increased guns can be doubled in accuracy under the new gunnery researched by the Royal Navy!" The accuracy of our 12-inch guns is also better than that of the Germans' 11-inch guns, and the level of gunnery of the Royal Navy is not comparable to that of the Germans, so the Dreadnought still has more performance than the new German battleships! ”

"However, now the Germans have four, and we have one, and soon the Germans will have six, and this difference in numbers is not something that can be erased by the performance advantage of the Dreadnought." Sir Bannerman said quietly.

"Yes, Your Excellency, we are lagging behind in numbers." Fisher could not deny this fact.

"And what about our new warship? When will it be completed? Sir Bannerman asked.

"It will be 1909 at the earliest, Your Excellency, and even then we have only four battleships, and since the Germans have played a trick on us, it is clear that the need to postpone the construction of new battleships was not due to the influence of the Dreadnought. The drawings of the new battleship in the hands of the Germans must also be a battleship like the Dreadnought, and their so-called postponement of construction is just a show, either their original plan was to start construction late, or it is very likely that the construction has already started secretly, if it has been secretly started, then it will not be too long behind the battleships we are building, and when our new battleships are built, their new battleships are estimated to be soon. Fisher said.

And this situation apparently frightened them, "So, by the time we have 4 battleships, the Germans will most likely have 10 ?!" Gray said with some horror.

"No, we should have seven by then, because the Invincible class under construction is also a fast battleship with eight 12-inch guns." Fisher did not forget to confuse the difference between Invincible and Dreadnought at this time: "The three Invincible-class ships are expected to be completed next year, and the difference between us and the Germans should be 4:6 by then." ”

"That's next year, but now how are we going to solve the situation?" Sir Bannerman naturally couldn't tell the difference between invincibility and fearlessness, but in any case, the immediate crisis was the most important. (To be continued) R466