After receiving a commitment from the Chief of the Army General Staff, Jochen decided not to continue on this issue, and the purpose of convening the Imperial Prime Minister and the Chief of the General Staff of the Navy and Army today was not to ask the Navy and Army to optimize the use of passwords.

Under the real threat that the Anglo-French-Russian Entente had already taken shape, the clouds of war had indeed hung over Germany, and "preparing for war" was already a definite question before the eyes of all Germans. And how to deal with this problem, and what kind of adjustment of German policy should be made to these problems, is the main purpose of convening the military and political leaders here today.

"War has never been so close to us since the establishment of the Empire, and we are not unprepared for war, but for an unknown war, no one can be confident that they are ready, especially when the situation we face is so bad." Jochen said in a deep voice.

"Although the Russians have only signed a series of agreements of understanding with the British on the colonial question, the relations between Israel and France will be immediately formed in the relations between Israel and France, no matter who we are fighting with, no matter who we are fighting with, and we will inevitably need to fight on two fronts at that time." "It looks like we have to increase our investment in the Army, because ultimately our fate will be decided on land," said Marchar. ”

Hearing that the prime minister was going to increase the army's military spending, Goltz's face was overjoyed, while Tirpitz had a disapproving expression, anyway, it was just an increase in the army's military spending, and the "Fleet Law" was there, and he would not deduct himself. So the two of them waited quietly for His Excellency the Prime Minister's next words.

"Last year, the Reich's GDP reached 59.36 billion marks, the government's fiscal revenue was 1.94 billion marks, the fiscal revenue was only 3.2% of the GDP, and the total fiscal deficit was 5 billion marks, or 8.4% of the GDP. Therefore, the increase in army funding will not have much impact. Marchar said with a little pride that the rapid development of the German economy is naturally his own great achievement.

Jochen is also very satisfied with the current economic strength of Germany, the integration and digestion of the former Austro-Hungarian region has been basically completed, and the economic development rate is faster than that of the same period in history, and the gross domestic product of 59.3 billion marks has reached 1.4 times the level of the same period in history. At the current rate of development, by 1912 it would not be a problem for Germany's GDP to surpass that of the historical Germany plus Austria-Hungary.

"Last year, the population of the empire exceeded 85 million people, and the population is growing steadily every year, and we have enough human resources. For nearly 10 years, the Army has maintained its current size so that more young people can devote themselves to the building of the empire, but in the current situation I think it is necessary to expand the Army. Goltz immediately climbed the pole: "The more troops we can throw into the attack at the first time, the heavier the blow we can inflict on the enemy." ”

Gortz's request would have been impossible a few years earlier, and the proud officer corps of the Army royal family already had a lot of opinions about the nationalization and democratization of the Wehrmacht, and the implicit expansion of the army promoted by Jochen inevitably undermined the "purity" of the army. If it weren't for the fact that the senior officers would still be aristocratic. The power of the General Staff of the Army is not as great as it was in the Prussian period, otherwise there is a possibility that something will cause you to do something, let alone ask for any expansion of the army

However, Goltz himself was born into a down-and-out aristocracy, and his father, who had served in the army for 19 years and was still a mid-level officer, died early, and his tactical thinking when he was young was against the mainstream of the army and was ostracized.

In addition, the offensive plan on the Eastern Front that he had begun to formulate did require more troops in order to ensure that he could defend against the French attack and at the same time have sufficient offensive forces against Russia. Therefore, after coming to power, with the support of the emperor, he used strong means to suppress several high-ranking officers who opposed his offensive plan on the Eastern Front, and Goltz was confident that he would propose an expansion of the army without anyone daring to oppose it.

Now Your Excellency the Prime Minister has this idea. It seems that His Majesty the Emperor does not object, so hurry up and seize the opportunity to ask for money and people.

For Goltz's requirements. Jochen nodded his head and said it was acceptable, as the nearly 20 million people brought by the annexation of Austria and other regions to Germany greatly increased the population of Germany. As the gap between these regions and the former German regions in terms of economy and health care gradually narrowed, the population growth rate gradually increased, slowly catching up with the population growth rate of the original German region.

Historically, before World War I, Germany had maintained the highest population growth rate among European powers, and now a larger population base naturally brings more human resources. Therefore, it is true that the current small-scale expansion of the army will not have much impact on the number of workers who can put into production.

"I agree to increase funding for the Army. If there is a two-front operation, the pressure on the army is very high, and it is indeed necessary to increase the strength of the army now. Jochen nodded, and then explained to Tirpitz: "The navy still maintains an advantage over Britain in the number of dreadnoughts, and maintaining the current speed of ship building is sufficient for now, and I don't want to put too much burden on the imperial treasury right now." Therefore, this increase in military spending will not be the share of your navy. ”

On the one hand, Jochen said this in the hope that Tirpitz would not have any opinions, and on the other hand, he also showed that he attached great importance to the navy, and Cheng Dù still did not change.

Tirpitz was not unreasonable, and immediately responded: "Of course the Navy understands the consideration of His Majesty and His Excellency the Prime Minister, and our shipbuilding race with the British is a race of staring eyes, and we can achieve our goal as long as we maintain this speed." ”

Tirpitz's statement also made Machar not have to worry about the Navy coming to ask him for funds, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

Jochen was also quite satisfied with the current situation, and Bilow, who served as prime minister in history, was quite embarrassed in handling this matter, in order to learn that Russia had joined the Anglo-French Entente, he immediately changed his attitude of support for the navy, hoping to reduce the speed of naval ship construction to speed up the construction of the army, and then was boycotted by the navy and the big bourgeoisie, and dramatically even the army was not interested in his expansion plan, because the expansion of the army would destroy the "purity" of the officer class, and as a result, he almost couldn't get off the stage.

However, there is no such problem now, although the strength of the German Navy is much stronger than in history, but this strength growth is based on the rush of the German-class battleships and the substantial improvement of the performance of individual ships in the design of ships, and the actual overall number of ships built is not much more than in history.

But from the very beginning, Tirpitz did not seek the world's first navy, so the current German naval strength is enough for Tirpitz, and the "Naval Law" is there, and his own funds will not be less, so why boycott? It's thankless to offend the Army, so I don't do it.

"As for how much money the government can allocate to the army at that time, this point needs to be calculated carefully after you go back, Adolf, and I don't care how much is appropriate." Jochen told Mashal, who immediately said that he would take care of the matter and that there was no need for His Majesty the Emperor to worry about it.

Jochen then turned around and asked Goltz: "Although the Prime Minister and the Minister of War will monitor and review how the Army will use this money at that time, do you have a general direction for how to use it now?" ”

Although Jochen agreed to the expansion of the army, Jochen did not want the boring answer that Goltz would simply add a few divisions.

Goltz did not disappoint Jochen, and it can even be said that he was a little surprised: "Your Majesty, I don't think the scale of this expansion should be too large, just expanding the number of divisions will not relieve the pressure on us in the face of the Russian army, if we want to achieve that goal, we need to expand the army on a large scale, but it is obviously not appropriate to do so now."

In the future, the annual increase in the budget will mainly be used for the procurement of new equipment for the army, and the scale of the army expansion, I think that at present, the army only needs to give me one more full-strength division. ”

"This obviously won't be an ordinary full-strength division, right?" Jochen was interested, and it would probably cost only 15 million marks to form an infantry division, which was at best the price of half a dreadnought, and the expansion of the army of this scale was far from enough, so it was obvious that Goerz's full-strength division must have some reputation.

"Yes, Your Majesty, I think that the army's existing combat methods and equipment system are more suitable for defense and attack, and the ability to advance quickly is not enough, whether it is an offensive plan on the Western Front or an offensive plan on the Eastern Front, a rapid attack before the enemy reacts is the key to whether the final plan can be realized, but now we are lacking in this regard.

Therefore, I hope that a unit can be formed, using new tactics and new equipment to test the operational theory of rapid offensive, and such a force must be newly formed, so that it will not be imprisoned by old ideas. And such troops are also experimental in nature, so no more is needed. Goltz replied.

"With new personnel and new equipment, the cost of such a new unit is certainly much higher than that of our traditional combat troops. So if you form more, the loss caused by failure will be greater, right? Jochen asked, "But why use divisional strength to form such a force?" With a smaller scale such as the regimental level, so that in the event of failure, the impact will be smaller, as an experimental force, is the division level too large? ”

"Your Majesty, first, in my conception, such a force would be the spear tip of the offensive and the core of the entire offensive, so it would be difficult for the regimental troops to verify the effect of a large-scale attack. Second, I hope that confrontational exercises between units of the same type can be conducted, and if it is only a confrontation at the battalion level, I think it is difficult to have much reference significance. Third, if the experiment is successful, it will be possible to draw enough officers to form a unit of the same type. Gortz replied respectfully.

"So, what kind of troops do you want to build?" Jochen asked. (To be continued......)