After Britain formed an alliance with France and Russia, the combined fleet of the five countries suddenly collapsed, and the combined quantity and quality of the navies of Germany, Italy and Austria were inferior to those of the British navy.

Faced with this situation, the German Emperor Wilhelm II immediately convened a royal council to discuss with his ministers how to deal with it.

Prime Minister Theobaden? Feng? Bateman? Holwig began by saying: "It is evident that Britain has temporarily sacrificed some of its interests to make peace with the Chinese Empire, France, and Russia, so that they can divide our eight-nation alliance and achieve the goal of breaking each one. ”

"It's all a country without a vision!" The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Caprivey, snorted coldly: "They are greedy for small advantages now, let the British breathe, and wait for them to cry in the future." ”

"That's right!" Secretary of State Bernhardt? Feng? "The British seem to be learning from our Bismarck's diplomatic tactics," Bilow said. ”

Wilhelm II said: "Regardless of what strategy they use, what should we do? ”

Admiral Tirbitz immediately said: "Your Majesty, our High Seas Fleet is absolutely confident, but the Italian Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy seem to be underconfident. Italy, in particular, has retreated. ”

Wilhelm II nodded, still very satisfied with Tirpitz.

"Italy is located on the Mediterranean peninsula, surrounded by the sea on three sides, and it's understandable that they're holding back," Teobard said. And the Austro-Hungarian navy was too poor and would be of limited help to us. I would suggest that we do not confront the British Navy for the time being, and wait until our navy is strong enough. ”

Birlo asked, "What about the colonies we worked so hard to recapture?" Give it to the British? Aren't we working in vain? ”

Teobaden explained: "The strength of the British is at sea, their army is not good, the Imperial Army has taken control of South Africa, and the combined forces with the Dutch and Boer reach 200,000 men, and it is almost impossible for the British Army to retake South Africa." ”

Billlow asked, "You mean we have another Boer war with the British?" ”

Teobaden nodded, noncommittal.

Bilow frowned and said: "But the question is that Britain has joined the Franco-Russian alliance, can France and Russia sit idly by?" The British Army is not good, but the French Army and the Russian Army are still a great threat. ”

Teobaden said: "After the Sino-Russian War, Russia has suffered a great loss of vitality and will not rush to war with the empire for the sake of Britain." There are many contradictions in France, and corruption has caused strong dissatisfaction among the French people, and the French political axe has no intention of helping Britain to start a war with the empire in a short time. We also have Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy to contain France and Russia, so the end result must be that France and Russia and Italy and Austria are neutral respectively, and only let us Germany fight England, which is in line with their strategic purposes. ”

The crowd nodded, and it was clear to Teobaden that he explained them this way.

Teobadeen continued: "Britain was not capable of attacking Germany proper, and neither were we, so the war between Germany and Britain was ultimately confined to the colonies of South Africa. I believe that the German Army will be able to withstand the counterattack of the British Army, and that the gold and diamonds of South Africa belong to Germany. ”

Wilhelm II breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's good! Let the British have a head of blood in South Africa! ”

Tirpitz then said: "Your Majesty, Britain has joined the Entente, and the naval power of the Entente has become overwhelmingly superior to our allies, and we must expand our naval power. ”

Wilhelm II nodded and said, "You're right, we really have to expand our naval forces again, does the Admiralty have any plans?" ”

Tirbitz said: "Obviously, at present, all countries in the world's navies are developing Shenbow-type warships, and in this regard, the Chinese Imperial Navy is in the leading position in the world, and their Shenbow-type warships have withstood the test of naval warfare and are sought after by the navies of various countries. The development of the Divine Bow to counter the British Navy's Dreadnought was in line with the development requirements of the Imperial Navy. However, at present, the Imperial Naval Industry is not enough to copy all the Divine Bow ships of the Chinese Empire, and most of the equipment and parts have to be imported from the Chinese Empire. According to the development strategy of the Chinese Empire at the first level of service, construction and design, there are definitely more advanced Divine Bow ships under construction in the Chinese Empire at present, and I hope to continue to strengthen the relationship with the Chinese Imperial Navy and obtain their most advanced first-class warships. ”

Wilhelm II nodded, the naval industry of the Chinese Empire had indeed surpassed that of Germany, and he supported the German Navy's practice of learning from the Chinese Imperial Navy and importing technology.

Birlo asked, "Is there any news from the Imperial Intelligence?" ”

Tirpitz replied: "Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. is secretly building a first-class Shenbow-type battleship, and the specific configuration is still in the secret stage of the Chinese Empire, and the information obtained by our intelligence system is that the displacement of this class of battleships has increased by more than 2,000 tons to the previous Xia Dynasty-class battleship, which should be caused by the increase in the caliber of boilers and main guns." At present, we have received the news that the Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industry of the Chinese Empire has completed the firing range firing test of the 305 mm 50 times extended naval gun and the 320 mm 40 times extended shipboard main gun, and I heard that the 330 mm 40 times extension naval gun is also being secretly developed. We suspect that this class of battleships should be equipped with a 320 mm 40 times extended main gun system and should reach a speed of more than 22 knots. ”

Teobaden asked, "But I heard that in the naval battle of the North Atlantic, the battleships of the Atlantic Fleet of the Chinese Empire had reached a speed of more than 27 knots. ”

Tirpitz smiled: "We have also paid attention to this piece of information, the nine capital ships of the Atlantic Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy do have this speed, but the nine capital ships of the Pacific Fleet are only 21 knots, they are all built at the same time, there can be such a big gap, the only possible surname is that the nine capital ships of the Atlantic Fleet are not battleships, but second-class battleships with reduced armor protection." ”

Wilhelm II said: "The Chinese Empire was able to defeat the British, and their battle to break diplomatic relations in the North Atlantic is worth considering." ”

"Your Majesty is right!" Tirpitz agreed: "In addition to obtaining the blueprint for the latest Divine Bow ship of the Chinese Empire, our Admiralty's plan this time is to introduce the second-class cruiser of the Chinese Imperial Atlantic Fleet, so that the Imperial Navy will be able to maneuver with the British Navy in the open ocean, and even we can launch a war against the British and achieve brilliant results." ”

Wilhelm II nodded, pleased with Tirpitz's naval ideas.

After some discussions, Wilhelm II approved the allocation of 250 million German marks to the German Navy for the 1907 naval expansion program.

Subsequently, the German Admiralty enacted the Naval Act of 1907, which authorized the German Navy to build 4 Caesar-class battleships and 4 Blucher-class second-class battleships. The required technology and equipment were still imported from the Chinese Empire.

Upon receiving approval, the German Admiralty instructed Rear Admiral Pace, the military attache in the Imperial Chinese Navy, to contact the Imperial Chinese Admiralty.

Just when the German Navy was seeking an expansion plan, the British Navy escorted 300,000 British expeditionary forces to Cape Town, and together with 250,000 British troops in Cape Town, they formed a reorganized African colonial army to counterattack the German-Dutch-Boer coalition forces in South Africa, and the Third Boer War broke out.

After 550,000 British troops entered South Africa, they set out from the upper reaches of the Duffish River in South Africa and attacked Bloemfontein, Åland Free State. The other route marched into the German colonies of Southwest Africa from the Orange River in northern South Africa, in order to contain the main German army, which was unable to reinforce the Dutch and Boers.

In order to ensure the accomplishment of the purpose of the operation, the British army used naval forces to bombard all directions along the coastline of German southwest Africa, forcing the German army to use most of its forces to defend the coast and prevent the British from landing.

In this way, the German army could reinforce South Africa with less than 20,000 men, plus 20,000 Dutch troops and hundreds of thousands of Boer miscellaneous troops, which were far inferior to the British army in terms of strength and combat effectiveness.

On February 3, 1907, 150,000 British troops captured Bloemfontein and reoccupied the capital of Orange, the Germans and Dutch retreated to Johannesburg, and the Boer army withdrew into the Majuba Mountains area to wage guerrilla warfare.

The reckless British army thought that the German-Dutch army was nothing more than that, and gathered 120,000 men to surround Johannesburg, intending to completely annihilate the German-Dutch army. However, they ignored the Boer partisans. When the main British army attacked Johannesburg, the British rear supply lines were heavily attacked and harassed by the Boer army.

On February 15, the Boer army launched the Battle of Majuba Mountain, ambushed the British convoy at the Spionkop Gorge, annihilated more than 3,000 British troops, and intercepted 60,000 British rifles, 6 million rounds of ammunition, 36 cannons, including 4 large-caliber siege guns, 30,000 shells, and more than 100 truckloads of supplies, all of which fell into the hands of the Boer guerrillas.

The British front was met with resistance from the German-Dutch forces, and the weapons and equipment were badly damaged and needed to be replaced. The army needed supplies urgently, and the attack on Johannesburg also required large-caliber siege artillery, otherwise it would be difficult to collapse the strong fortifications. All British supplies were looted in the Spionkop Gorge, forcing the British to abandon the attack on Johannesburg and retreat to Bloemfontein.

After the Boer guerrillas received a large number of weapons and equipment from the British army, they changed their guns with guns, and their equipment was greatly improved, and they were not weaker than the British army. They continued to use guerrilla tactics, infiltrating the rear of the British army, attacking and destroying everywhere, so that the British army could not carry out a large-scale battle against the German-Dutch army.

In the German colonies of Southwest Africa, although the British army had a numerical advantage and had sea supremacy, the German army was strong in combat, and the British army could not move forward, and the two sides formed a confrontation posture on both sides of the Orange River.

As a result, half a month after the start of the Third Boer War, the mistakes of the British army made the war a stalemate.

Britain and Germany fought over South Africa, while the Allies and other Allied members declared their neutrality in favor of Germany and Great Britain, but also to avoid a full-scale war between the two military blocs.

The Third Boer War broke out between Britain and Germany, but the Chinese Empire, far away in Asia, was busy developing the national economy.

After the Sino-British War, the Chinese Empire achieved an unprecedented victory. It not only recovered Hong Kong and other lost territories, safeguarded national sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also obtained a large number of British overseas colonies, especially Australia became a vassal of the Chinese Empire, and cheap wool and mineral resources were continuously exported to Chinese mainland, providing cheap raw materials for the industrial development of the Chinese Empire.

But what excited the Chinese Empire the most was that through the plundering of the British, the benefits of the Chinese Empire during the entire war were as high as 2 billion dragon coins, of which the huge amount alone reached 1.5 billion dragon coins. This huge war income was equivalent to saving the people of the Chinese Empire ten years of struggle.

For this reason, the Imperial Congress of China had to revise its future development strategy and formulate a new five-year development plan.

Imperial Prime Minister Zhang Feng made a work summary report in the New Year's National Assembly report, put forward the plan and outlook for next year, and asked the National Assembly to formulate the financial budget for Guanghua for seven years in accordance with the achievements of Guanghua in the past six years.

According to the economic data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of the Chinese Empire in January of the seventh year of Guanghua, Guanghua's six-year GDP was greatly stimulated by the Sino-British War, and the national economy grew strongly, and the GDP of Guanghua's six-year empire was 8.8 billion dragon dollars, an increase of 122.3% over the previous year, reaching triple-digit growth for the second time. The last time the triple-digit growth broke through was during the Sino-Russian War, which shows that the war, once won, was extremely important for the development of the empire's industry.

Unlike the growth model during the Russo-Chinese War, during the Russo-Chinese War, the Chinese Empire did not carry out large-scale shipbuilding operations. The stimulus of the war during the Sino-British War was concentrated in the naval industry of the Empire. The Imperial Navy's large-scale shipbuilding operations led to the rapid development of metallurgy, manufacturing and other industries across the country. Because the naval industry is the core of a country's national industrial system, it has led to a sharp surge in the gross national product of Guanghua in the past six years.

Agricultural production has grown steadily, and high-quality grain planting technology and scientific methods have been comprehensively popularized throughout the country, and grain output has increased for eight consecutive years. The total annual grain output reached 113.65 million tons, an increase of 11% over the previous year, and the growth rate continued to decline.

The agricultural population continues to decline and increase rapidly. Mainly because of the rapid development of the empire's industry, a large number of peasants turned into workers. At the end of the sixth year of Guanghua, the country's urban population increased by 5 million compared with last year, although it decreased by 500,000 from 5.5 million the year before, but the overall growth rate of workers still maintained double-digit growth, and the Chinese Empire was rapidly transforming from an agricultural country to an industrial country.

In terms of imperial industry, the naval industry became the main driver of industrial growth. The industrial production of the Chinese Empire continued to grow at a high speed, the efficiency of enterprises was further improved, and the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 189.7 percent over the previous year during the war. In terms of light and heavy industry, heavy industry increased by 256.5 percent, and light industry increased by 43.6 percent.

Among the six major industrial bases, the four coastal industrial bases of Liaozhongnan, Beijing-Tianjin-Tangzhou, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta developed the fastest, benefiting from the large-scale expansion of the imperial naval industry. The four major industrial bases included 90% of the factories of the Imperial Naval Industry, and in order to counter the British Navy, more than 200 shipyards were added across the country, 80% of which were concentrated around the four major industrial bases.

In the six years of Guanghua, the imperial shipbuilding has completed a total of 10,056 ships, with a total tonnage of 1.88 million tons, ranking third in the world. (1st UK, 2.21 million tons, 2nd US 2.03 million tonnes).

(To be continued)