The Entente Group Joint Communiqué was issued, which was immediately transmitted back to the Forbidden City. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Li Weiguo looked at the report in his hand, a little surprised, he didn't expect that it took only two years for the Entente Group to successfully break through the key technology of steam turbines, as well as master the processing technology of the barrel of the 381 mm 50 times diameter main gun.

"Has the news been verified?"

"Your Majesty, our intelligence personnel report that the Entente Group is strictly confidential this time, and our personnel cannot go deep into the shipyard or the naval departments of various countries, and cannot access the documents!"

Li Weiguo frowned slightly, this is the first time that the Chinese Divine Retreat Bureau has hit a wall, and it seems that the Entente bloc has realized the threat of intelligence warfare and strengthened the secrecy in this regard.

"In this way, the communiqué issued by the Entente Group cannot be trusted, and there may be moisture in it!"

Tang Jianzhang replied: "Your Majesty, it is better to believe what you have than not to believe that you don't, this is the safest judgment!" ”

At this stage, the Entente and the Central Powers are at their most tense, and no matter which country they are, they will adopt the safest tactics and do not allow the slightest military adventure, and if they misjudge, the result will be disastrous.

Li Weiguo now has a big family and a big business, and he instinctively becomes cautious.

In the absence of accurate intelligence, one can only believe that the Entente is indeed capable of building super-dreadnought battleships.

"I thought that our ultra-dreadnought battleship technology was at least five years ahead, but now it seems that we are underestimating European and American countries."

"It's the minister's dereliction of duty, he failed to obtain accurate information, and he can't share his worries for His Majesty!"

Tang Jianzhang hurriedly confessed.

Li Weiguo smiled and said: "You don't have to blame yourself, the intelligence war itself has limitations, and it is impossible for the enemy's intelligence to be mastered by our side, otherwise there will be no enemy in this world, and it will be unified a long time ago." ”

Tang Jianzhang asked, "How does Your Majesty plan to deal with it?" This time, the Entente countries plan to start construction of sixteen super-dreadnought battleships, and the Netherlands and Portugal have also allocated two dreadnought battleships each, and the capital ships of the Entente will increase by 20! ”

Li Weiguo was not afraid, and said with a rhetorical smile: "This is exactly the result we are looking forward to!" If the Allies build a super-dreadnought, the cost will be as high as 20 million yuan, and if the Allies follow suit, the cost will be at least 20% higher than ours, and the more they build, the heavier the economic burden on them, and the heavier the losses in the future. ”

Tang Jianzhang always had a question in his heart, and couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, aren't you worried that the strength of the Entente navy will exceed that of the imperial navy?" In case the Imperial Navy is not an opponent, does Your Majesty have a way to turn the tide of the war? ”

Li Weiguo was happy, not only Tang Jianzhang, but other ministers of civil and military affairs always had such thoughts, and asked Li Weiguo more than once, wanting to come up with Li Weiguo's killer methods.

These people are very curious, but Li Weiguo will not tell them.

"Even if the Allied Navy builds 10,000 super dreadnought battleships in one go, I will have a way to destroy them, but I don't want to tell you now, you are arrogant in the province."

Tang Jianzhang suddenly smiled bitterly, but he didn't dare to ask again.

Not long after the Entente summit, the Allied summit was held.

This time, the venue was not in Beijing, but in Constantinople.

The reason why it was placed in Constantinople was to make the Ottoman Empire feel its importance, and both the Chinese Empire and the German Empire attached great importance to the Ottoman Empire.

Of course, the Allies held a summit, and it was very targeted.

The goal is to focus on the Entente summit, not to let the Entente dominate, and the Allies must also exert influence around the world.

This time, in addition to the four full members of the Central Powers, namely the Chinese Empire, the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Brazilian Empire, the United Colombian States, and the Kingdom of Italy, which were invited by the Chinese Empire, will attend the meeting as observer states.

Both the Chinese Empire and the German Empire had the intention of wooing these three countries to join the Allied bloc, with the Chinese Empire supporting the accession of Colombia and the Brazilian Empire, so that the Chinese Empire would have allies on the American continent to deal with the United States together.

The German Empire, on the other hand, hoped that Italy would join, so that the German Empire would not have to suffer from the enemy in Europe, and that Italy would contain the French Empire, which could reduce the military pressure on the German Empire. In addition, Italy is a Mediterranean country, and the naval power of the Austro-Hungarian and Turkish empires in the Mediterranean is inferior to that of the French Imperial Navy.

Because the Allied summit was more than 10 days later than that of the Entente countries, the member states could fully mobilize their own intelligence personnel to conduct reconnaissance on their respective hostile countries, and then submit the problem to the Allied summit and hand it over to the member states to collectively find a solution.

Although the previous Entente summit was aimed at the super-dreadnought battleships of the Chinese Empire, the Allied member countries built a total of 16 super-dreadnought battleships and four dreadnought battleships, which could not threaten the Chinese Empire for the time being, but posed an imminent strategic threat to the German Imperial Navy in Europe.

Therefore, Bismarck, the Chancellor of the German Empire, first put forward Germany's maritime military threat, saying that the super-dreadnought battleship plans of Britain, France, and Russia posed a serious threat to the German Imperial Navy, and hoped that the Chinese Empire could help solve it.

Previously, the Chinese Empire agreed to export four super-dreadnought battleships to Colombia, much to the envy and jealousy of the Allied member states.

Bismarck's proposal was intended to ask the Chinese Empire for super-dreadnought battleships, and even if the Chinese Empire did not give technology, at least to help the German Imperial Navy build super-dreadnought battleships.

Wang Kaitai, Prime Minister of the Chinese Imperial Cabinet, attended the summit, and said that Bismarck's idea was understandable and that he was willing to help the German Empire acquire super-dreadnought battleships.

Wang Kaitai said that in principle, the Chinese Empire has no objection to the export of the most advanced weapons and equipment to the member states of the Allied Powers, but considering the concerns of countries about the secrecy of advanced weapons systems, the Chinese Empire will not directly provide technology, but countries can obtain permission to purchase finished weapons and equipment in the Chinese Empire.

To put it bluntly, it is that countries need to pay money to purchase from the Chinese Empire.

This was not only addressed to the German Empire, but was effective for other Allied member states, and even observer states were able to obtain advanced weapons and equipment from the Chinese Empire without harming the interests of the Allied Powers.

The representatives of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, and the United Colombian States immediately applauded happily; they all liked the advanced weapons and equipment of the Chinese Empire, especially the United States of Colombia, which has recently been completely equipped with Chinese weapons, and the entire army is changing its outfits, using the weapons and equipment of the Chinese Empire, training instructors of the Chinese Empire, using the military establishment of the Chinese Empire, and even the Colombian army collectively tutoring Chinese, completely on par with the military strength of the Chinese Empire, and once it is fully completed, it will become a world-class military power.

This is the envy of other Allied member states, who want to localize the Colombian model and achieve leapfrog development of their respective military forces.

In particular, the military strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Italy can only be regarded as second-rate in the world, and there is still a big gap between them and the first-class German army, and there is a world of difference between them and the super-first-class Shence Army of the Chinese Empire.

Only Bismarck was smiling bitterly, he was not against it, but he was distressed about money.

The Chinese Empire is a pit!

Specially pit the allies' silver!

The German Empire was well aware of this.

Back then, the Imperial German Navy happily ordered the world's most advanced ironclad from the Chinese Empire, and a few years later, the Chinese Empire launched the former dreadnought battleships, making the ironclad obsolete overnight. Since then, there have been dreadnoughts to replace the former dreadnoughts, armored cruisers to replace unprotected cruisers, battle cruisers to replace armored cruisers, and so on.

Of course, it was not only the Imperial German Navy that was pitted, but also the navies of all countries in the world.

However, for the German Empire, he did not want to be cheated by his allies!

At the very least, the Chinese Empire should say hello to its allies in advance, so that it will not even pit its allies together!

Now that the Chinese Empire has launched the Super Dreadnought Battleship, which will replace the Dreadnought, God knows if the Chinese Empire will come up with some killer feature in a few years to replace the Super Dreadnought.

Whenever the Chinese Empire had stronger killer weaponry, it would sell inferior weaponry to other countries.

Now the Chinese Empire is willing to sell the super dreadnought battleship to Colombia, which shows that the Chinese Empire still has killer weapons and equipment that can restrain or suppress the super dreadnought battleship.

Every time he thought about this, Bismarck felt a pain in his eggs.

It's just that if you have a request for the Chinese Empire, even if it hurts to walk with eggs, you have to go on!

Bismarck's question was the maritime military threat that the Allied member states were facing.

The Imperial Chinese Navy is not afraid, and still waives the banner of "freedom of navigation" in all seas around the world, and the surrounding countries dare not provoke it, even if it is the navy of the Entente countries, as long as it does not violate its territorial waters (the maximum range of the country's shore defense artillery), all countries will basically tolerate it.

As for the navies of the other Central Powers, there is no such treatment, and the two sides are already hostile, and once they get close to the sea area where the other side's sphere of influence is located, they will be intercepted by the navies of the Entente countries, and serious military confrontations often occur, and it is easy to misfire.

As a result, the navies of the Allied member states are now in urgent need of obtaining the super-dreadnought battleship technology of the Chinese Empire, and even if they can't get the technology, they can at least be customized in the Chinese Empire, even if they spend more money.

"Rest assured, our Chinese Empire has the world's most advanced shipbuilding technology, eight of the world's top ten shipyards are within the territory of the Chinese Empire, we not only have the ability to build super dreadnought battleships for our own navy, but also have the ability to build for our allies, you don't have to worry about this."

Wang Kaitai smiled slightly and added: "In addition, we have decided to transfer the six dreadnought-type battleships built by the French Empire and the Tsarist Empire in our country to the Ottoman Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy at the original price. ”

The representatives of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires were at first happy, and then smiled bitterly.

Happily, after several years of negotiations, the Chinese Empire finally relented and was willing to transfer the two Dreadnought battleships ordered by the Russian Empire to Austria-Hungary, and the other four Dreadnought battleships built for the French Empire's navy to the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

Originally, the Chinese Empire's asking price was very high, but as the Chinese Empire started construction of super-dreadnought battleships, the price of dreadnought battleships naturally had to be lowered. Eventually, considering the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empire's alliances with the Chinese Empire, the two countries were relatively poor and could not afford much silver, so they were finally sold to the two countries at cost price.

Everyone knows that even if it is sold at cost price, the Chinese Empire will make a profit.

After all, both the French Empire and the Tsarist Empire paid 90% of the construction cost, and the Chinese Empire has not returned this money to the two countries, just like the J-8 aircraft in the 21st century, which refused to be returned by more than a billion dollars, a typical bully.

In this life, the Chinese Empire, under the leadership of Li Weiguo, was ready to take revenge on the United States. Originally, it was planned to pit the United States, but the United States did not get caught, and in the end, France and Tsarist Russia were cranked and were cheated for tens of millions of yuan. France and Russia do not have the money of the United States, and these tens of millions of yuan are really miserable.

Now, the Chinese Empire has transferred the dreadnought battleships of France and Russia to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire at cost price.

Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were still very happy, after all, the purchase of dreadnought battleships at cost price was enough for their coastal defense.

Neither Austria-Hungary nor the Ottoman Empire had money, but the German Empire had money, and the former could only buy second-hand dreadnought battleships from the Chinese Empire, while the German Empire ordered super-dreadnought battleships from the Chinese Empire.

In fact, the German Empire also wanted to build it itself, but the Chinese Empire did not share more advanced steam turbine technology this time, and at the same time, the 381 mm 50 times diameter main gun, the current German Imperial Military Factory could not be built, so it could only be imported from the Chinese Empire.

Two years ago, when the Chinese Empire began to build super-dreadnought battleships, the German Empire was forced to find that they did not have a 40,000-ton dock, and even if they wanted to, they could not build it themselves.

Now two years have passed, and although the 40,000-ton dock has been built, the relevant supporting equipment has not yet been perfected. For example, the gantry crane used to hoist the core equipment and main gun equipment, to the super dreadnought battleship, the weight of a single triple main gun turret is as high as 2,000 tons, and a super large gantry crane is required to hoist.

Due to the early preparation of the Chinese Empire, the largest gantry crane in the world is currently only capable of being built by the Chinese Empire.

The German Empire ordered four sets of large gantry cranes that could lift 3,000 tons of equipment from the Chinese Empire, but the Chinese Empire always delayed, in fact, deliberately carded the German Empire, and did not give them gantry cranes, even if the German Empire had a 40,000-ton dock, it could not build super-dreadnought battleships, forcing the German Empire to spend money to order super-dreadnought battleships from the Chinese Empire.

Bismarck didn't want to mention the stories behind them, and he had a lot of tears when he mentioned them!

In the end, after repeated negotiations between Bismarck and Wang Kaitai, a new large military purchase order was finalized.

The Imperial German Navy paid 320 million gold marks, equivalent to 90 million yuan, to the Chinese Empire for the purchase of four improved Thor super-dreadnought battleships, as well as related supporting facilities, including one year of free maintenance service, one base ammunition, and spare barrels for 4 and 381 mm main guns.

Although it is an improved version of Thor, it is actually only a reduced version of the performance of the Thunder God class battleship used by the Chinese Empire, which is slightly better than the one built by the Chinese Empire for the Colombian Navy, for the sake of the Germans.

But it's also very pit, for example, a year of free maintenance service, it seems that the Chinese Empire has made a great discount, after all, it only costs millions of yuan to repair a super dreadnought battleship, but if you count the distance between Germany and the Chinese Empire, you can know that the German Navy starts from the Chinese Empire accepts the battleship, it will take a few months to drive back to Germany, and it will take more than half a year to go back and forth, and the remaining half a year, the battleship will hardly have a problem, even if there is a small problem, Will it take half a year for the Imperial German Navy to be repaired to the Chinese Empire?

Obviously impossible!

So it's a pit!

However, the Chinese Empire could not let the German small pen friends be too chilled, so after the two sides signed the contract for the purchase of ships, the Chinese Empire immediately released the export of gantry cranes to the German Empire.

In this way, after the German Imperial Navy got a large gantry crane, it could build its own super-dreadnought battleships.

Of course, key equipment such as steam turbines and main gun barrels had to be imported from the Chinese Empire at a high price.

Even so, it was quite cost-effective for the Imperial German Navy to build its own super-dreadnought battleships of the same class, which cost about one-third less than that of the Chinese Empire.

In addition to capital ships, countries also need a large number of auxiliary warships.

In response to the number and tonnage of the Entente's auxiliary warships, the Allied countries assigned tasks, most of which were undertaken by the Chinese Empire and the German Empire, which had deep financial resources.

The pressure on the German Empire was enormous, after all, it had to face the threat of the navies of Britain, France and Russia.

To this end, at the request of the German Empire, the Chinese Empire agreed to increase the size of the Mediterranean Fleet at the Cyprus naval base to contain the French and British navies.

At the same time, the Mediterranean Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy could also enter the Black Sea at any time to assist the Ottoman Empire against the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

After discussing the Navy, the next Army will be very easy.

Regardless of the fact that the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires were very poor and could not afford to maintain a huge navy, the size of the armies of the two countries was indeed very large.

The German Empire's military aid to Austria-Hungary was large enough to arm Austria-Hungary with an army of one million. The Ottoman Turkish Empire, on the other hand, relied on the military assistance of the Chinese Empire and also armed more than a million troops.

In the event of a war, the military supplies of China and Germany can make up for each other, and they can also provide assistance to Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, and it is not expected that the two countries can defeat the Tsarist Empire or the French Empire, but at least they can contain a large number of troops of France and Russia and reduce the military pressure on China and Germany.

In addition to military issues, the next step is economy and trade.

The world's railways connected the Allied countries, even the Kingdom of Italy was also a beneficiary country, and the Chinese Empire and the German Empire hoped to tie Italy to the chariot of the Central Powers through economic and trade relations.

Because Li Weiguo knew that Italy was a country with a criminal record, the first war in history was that Italy first defected to the Central Powers, and then to the Entente Powers, and stabbed on both sides.

Therefore, Li Weiguo was very cautious about Italy and could only use interests to control Italy.

Once Italy became economically and economically dependent on the Chinese Empire and the German Empire, the likelihood of a backlash would be greatly reduced.

Li Weiguo is very detailed in the binding of interests, after all, there are no eternal friends between countries, only eternal interests.

As long as the interests are sufficient, Italy should not turn against the water.

After the Allied Summit, a joint communiqué was also issued, announcing that the Allied bloc would increase the total tonnage of its navy by 300,000 tons in the next three to five years and build at least 100 warships of various types.

At the same time, the Kingdom of Italy, the United States of Colombia, and the Empire of Brazil announced their membership in the Allied bloc, increasing the number of the Allied bloc from four to seven.

For a time, the whole world was shocked, and the competition and confrontation between the two major military blocs of the Entente and the Central Powers reached a new height and became more and more intense. (To be continued.) )