"Our navy is very tight on budget, and the cost of ordering two armored cruisers from Italy is completely beyond our capabilities." Konstantin hurried to say that Jochen's request frightened him a lot.

"Don't be so nervous, our country can provide a loan to Greece, you only need to pay the deposit first, and then pay the final payment after the completion of the battleship, so that there will be enough time to solve the financial problem." Jochen suggested with a smile.

"But ......" Konstantin stopped talking, because Greece was shy in his pocket, and the order of dreadnoughts this time was only to deal with the Ottoman dreadnoughts, and first solve the problem of whether there was one, so the performance indicators of the battleships were not high. And taking into account the need to use British turrets and naval guns, the layout of the firepower of the battleship was also limited.

The general requirements of the Greek Navy were that the hulls of the two dreadnoughts built by Germany for the Kingdom of Croatia-Slovenia should be replaced with British twin turrets and 305 mm 45 x diameter naval guns, so the performance of the ship was limited compared with the one built by the Ottomans, and it did not fully meet the ideal needs of the Greek Navy, but it was a transitional warship.

In the future, the idea of buying more powerful warships and completely overpowering the Ottoman navy has also become a consensus within the Greek navy. So Jochen's request to order two dreadnoughts is clearly unacceptable, and the purchase of an extra million pounds for a transitional warship will undoubtedly disrupt the Greek Navy's wishful thinking.

Fortunately, Jochen was just joking, and when he saw that Konstantin was full of difficulties, he immediately stopped embarrassing him: "Okay, you don't have to be embarrassed, I mean let you order two battleships in the name of Greece, and the deposit can be loaned to you by our government." When it was time to pay the final payment, Greece announced that it had abandoned the order for one of the ships. Putting the warship up for sale without paying liquidated damages, the deposit is returned in full, and ordering two warships at the same time will also allow for greater concessions in negotiations, which will not cost Greece. ”

"This ......" Konstantin wondered, as if it would only be beneficial for Greece to do so. There is no harm, but what is the purpose of his brother-in-law's request? A dreadnought is expensive, and it is not always possible to find a suitable buyer, and once it is smashed in your own hands, it is a huge financial loss.

Smashed in your own hands? Konstantin suddenly had a flash of realization in his heart: Could it be that Germany was ready to receive this battleship by itself? Konstantin was shocked by the thought, and he looked at Jochen with surprise in his eyes.

"When the ship is sold to someone else, we ask the buyer to pay a brokerage fee. You are the one who ordered this battleship, and I think it makes sense for this intermediary fee to be handed over to the Greek royal family. Jochen looked at Konstantin and smiled.

Seeing Konstantin's sudden realization and shocked expression, Yochen knew that his brother-in-law had guessed his intentions. But there are some things that you don't need to talk about. It is best to make a fortune knowing that it is clear. Jochen's words seem to be a matter of the usual process in international warship deals, but in fact they are giving Constantine a favor, and the intermediary fee ends up in the pockets of the Greek royal family rather than the government.

"I understand, the Greek government will order two dreadnoughts from Germany." Konstantin also nodded in agreement with an expression that I understood.

After reaching a tacit agreement with Konstantin, Jochen immediately sought out Tirpitz.

"Your Majesty, you persuaded His Highness Konstantin to let Greece order two dreadnoughts, and then announce the abandonment of the order after the outfitting work began?" When Tirpitz heard the news that the emperor had told him, he immediately said that it was too much information, and that I had to sort it out first.

"If that's the case. One of the battleships was not necessary from the very beginning to be designed and built according to the standards of the Greek Navy. Tirpitz was not slow to react and immediately got to the point.

"That's right." Jochen nodded. Tirpitz was very pleased that he understood what he meant so quickly: "After the Greek Navy abandoned the order, our Navy could take over immediately, so this battleship was designed and built according to the needs of our Navy from the very beginning. ”

This requirement is very important, because the specifications of the British gadgets are completely incompatible with the Germans, and if they were built according to the requirements of the Greeks at the beginning, then the result would be that the German equipment could not be installed at all. Historically, the Greeks ordered the Salamis super-dreadnought ship from Germany because of the use of American-made twin turrets and 356mm naval guns. As a result, the Germans watched in the First World War with a dumbfounded hull of this super dreadnought, which had been launched, but could not be used at all.

"But, Your Majesty. The parliament may not approve the Navy to buy the warship, and it is very likely that the shipyard will be asked to find a buyer on its own. Tirpitz was a little worried that the plan would go so smoothly, especially if his proposal next year to continue to increase naval spending to accommodate the increase in the cost of warships per ship was approved.

"It's also very simple. Hasn't the Kingdom of Austria always had a big opinion about the fact that the Mediterranean Fleet has not been deploying dreadnoughts? Let Montecucori intervene and join the Austrians in pressuring the parliament to strengthen the Mediterranean fleet.

When the time comes, I will ask Mary to donate money to the navy in the name of the Queen of Austria, return the entire deposit to the Greeks, and take over the ownership of the ships they have abandoned. If the parliament does not continue to allocate funds to complete the construction of the ship, then wait for the Austrians to make trouble. Jochen said without fear.

Jochen was not a stingy man, or he would not have used his gold to help the government tide over the difficult times, although it now seems that the Royal Ship Technology Shipyard had brought far more profit to itself in exchange for that gold than it had paid back then. But at the time, it was a somewhat loss-making exchange, because compared to the strong price of gold, the prospects for a small and medium-sized shipyard to develop were not so bright.

Now, Jochen is confident that he is one of the richest men in the world, and that this is entirely his own personal property, not the Hohenzollern family's family property. It wasn't a problem for Jochen to pay for one or two super-dreadnoughts himself, and it was only a matter of five or six million pounds.

However, with great wealth, Jochen could not blatantly pay for it and hand it over to the navy.

This is too ostentatious, not only will it stimulate the British, but also offend the royal families of various countries, it is your business to spend the money of the German royal family, but do you want our people to force us to take out the private property of the royal family and hand it over to the state?

And such a huge asset will also make people in Germany have ideas, after all, the hatred of the rich is everywhere, and although Germany is now developing rapidly, wages and benefits are also increasing year by year, but the per capita standard is still very far from the United Kingdom. At this time, the German royal family showed its huge financial resources, which would inevitably cause adverse effects and become the target of attack by some well-intentioned people.

After all, it's better not to show money, just like the British royal family, everyone knows that the British royal family is rich, but no one knows how much money they have.

Moreover, doing so would also cause dissatisfaction among the Army, although with Jochen's financial resources, it is not impossible to pay some more money to gag the Army's mouth. But this raises the question of whether the emperor is buying off the army and undermining the nationalization of the army, which was so hard to amend the constitution. Trying to make the army royal again, not only to restore the army to the Prussian era, but also to take away the navy.

This would lead to a conflict between the emperor and the council, which would lead directly to the vicious result that Jochen's policies would be questioned more by the parliament in the future, and even opposed for the sake of opposition. Moreover, the nationalization of the army was originally Jochen's policy, and it was obviously very stupid to sabotage his own policy.

But Evlov's donation gave Jochen a more subtle way to carry out the move. It only takes a few hundred thousand pounds to get ownership of an unfinished warship. And as long as the ownership is in hand, the following things are much easier.

Whether it is to follow the example of the Japanese to make a nationwide donation, even "elementary school students have taken out their pocket money", "we can't be sorry for the children" (Note: 1), or to have the Austrian aristocracy put pressure on the parliament to make the government pay the final payment, as Jochen planned.

Even if the parliament can really resist the verbal criticism that "even the Queen of Austria has donated, and you actually want to trample on the patriotic sentiments of all Austrians" and resolutely oppose it, and ask the ship to find another buyer, then it only needs to use the procrastination trick, and wait until the war breaks out, then it is enough to directly learn from the British and requisition.

Germany did not fail to do this, having requisitioned two light cruisers ordered by the Russians before the war during World War I, although they could not be compared with the great achievements of the British.

"But your Majesty, if you want to hide from the British, the Greek government is afraid that the Greek government will have to order the weapons and equipment needed by the British for two warships, and then the time will ......," Tirpitz said.

"Isn't it liquidated damages? When the time comes, I will compensate Greece for this money, and you don't have to worry about it, you can now think about how to hide this matter from the Parliament, and just stir up the Austrians first. Jochen said unconcernedly.

In fact, Jochen was not worried about leaking this matter to Britain and France, because if it did, the Greeks would offend both England and Germany. Moreover, this kind of "purchasing agent" behavior is not uncommon in international arms transactions, but even if it is a transaction that is well known, everyone will not pick out what to say. If the Greeks really don't keep their mouths, they are breaking the rules. So Jochen now just needs to hide it from home.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Tirpitz replied loudly, and then changed to a flattering expression: "Your Majesty, if Montecukori can persuade the Ottoman nobles to donate as well, can you consult with His Majesty Ferdinand and order a battleship from us in the name of Croatia as well?" ”

"Get out!" Jochen said angrily.

Actually, it seems, you can try it (to be continued......

PS: Note 1: At the Washington Navy Conference, in order to keep the battleship Mutsu, which was not completed at the time, the Japanese came up with a touching and heartfelt line that urged people to urinate, according to the lines of the struggle for the sake of the battleship