"Do you have any recent training plans for the Navy?"

Looking up at Liu Guanxiong, Chen Moran asked with a smile, Nine years ago, Ye Zugui, who was overworked for the construction of the navy, died, and then Sa Zhenbing became the Minister of the Navy, and last year, Liu Guanxiong, the commander of the Zhenyang Fleet that year, became the Minister of the Navy, and after Yuan Shikai, Liang Dunyan, and Cai Ye left, Chen Moran left him behind.

It will not be strange to anyone, unlike the army, the navy has always been regarded as the "minister of the Yin stock", is the empire's greatest support for the prestige of the country, but this minister of the Yin stock in the South China Sea, for five years, did not replenish any capital ships at all, until four years ago, after the expiration of the Sino-US Navy memorandum of understanding, the construction of a new type of capital ship, although the tonnage of the capital ship is now inferior to that of Britain, Germany and the United States, but the current Royal Guard Navy is far from being comparable in scale nine years ago.

Over the past nine years, the navy, which mainly manufactures armored cruisers, has had at least one "training fleet" of two armored cruisers conduct ocean-going training in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans every month, during which it has completed several round-the-world voyages.

The Navy's training fleet has also sailed to the waters near the South Pole for training and landed in the South Pole.

"Your Majesty, the Navy's Third Cruiser Detachment is conducting training in the Mediterranean, and in view of the current instability in the Balkans, next month, we are ready to cancel the training in the Mediterranean, but we are ready to increase our training in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, because of the ......"

As he spoke, Liu Guanxiong glanced at His Majesty, and after noticing that His Majesty was not unusual, he continued.

"Because, no matter how the world situation develops in the future, in terms of defense, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean will be the main battlefields of the Navy, so we are considering sending a special hún fleet to the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean next month to form a task force with the Emperor-class warships as the main force and the Yuewang-class armored cruisers as the auxiliary, and to carry out an expedition in the Pacific and Indian Oceans...... Well, training ......"

The so-called expeditionary training is actually an expeditionary exercise, but all along, in order to avoid misunderstanding by other countries, the navy has often insisted on "training" and conducted various exercises in the name of training.

"Pacific, Indian Ocean ......"

Nodding, Chen Moran didn't say anything, in front of Yuan Shikai, Liang Dunyan and Cai Yi, Chen Moran didn't say what he really thought, but in fact, as early as a few years ago, he had been thinking about China's position in this war, or that China would form an alliance with that side, and the deepening of its involvement in the war.

"Liu Qing, if,"

Raising his eyes slightly, Chen Moran stared at Liu Guanxiong with extremely serious eyes.

"If we declare war on Great Britain, how likely is it that the Navy will defeat the British Royal Navy in the Indian Ocean?"

His eyelids jumped suddenly, Liu Guanxiong was silent for a moment, what should come is always coming, the Royal Guards Navy since the naval battle in the South China Sea, the imaginary enemy, one is the United States, and the other is the United Kingdom.

"Your Majesty, is there any US involvement?"

The reason for asking this question is that Liu Guanxiong understands that the Chinese navy simply simply does not have the ability to defeat both the American and British navies at the same time.

"There is no need to take into account the American factor in three years"

"Will the Army be able to occupy Singapore?"

"No problem"

After getting answers to several questions in a row, Liu Guanxiong still thought for a while.

"If it is the main force of the British Navy, then we are only 30% likely to win"

"And what about half?"

"Sixty percent"

Liu Guanxiong's answer made Chen Moran silent, this answer is not surprising, it is true.

"Therefore, the Navy hopes that in this war, we may not be able to divide the world with Germany due to our strength, at least to some extent, and only in this way can we ensure that the country does not become a defeated country, after all, we need to face the maritime threat from the United States and Great Britain."

"In this war, we cannot remain neutral"

His Majesty's words only made Liu Guanxiong's heart tremble slightly, and he raised his head in surprise and looked at His Majesty, could it be that Your Majesty still wants to ...... Risky? It's a stake on the whole country......

"It's not the same as in the past, in the past we had nothing, we could gamble with the whole country, but now we can't"

smiled, Chen Moran's smile looked a little helpless, this helplessness is always from the heart, in the past, he could gamble, but now he can't gamble anymore, he often goes to the gambling table, and there will always be a day when he loses his family. ,

"But war is gambling, so it's inevitable to go to the table, but we have to think about how to be a proper winner."

After a moment, Chen Moran continued.

"But the winner has to get something, not the nominal winner"

Nominal winner

In the First World War in history, China was not the nominal victorious power

"Your Majesty, what do you mean ......"

Liu Guanxiong will be confused, the difference between the nominal winner and the de facto winner, he is clear, but ......

"I mean, we're going to join the winning side"

"The winning side?"

Looking at Liu Guanxiong with a smile, Chen Moran showed that you were not honest enough.

"Your Majesty means ......"

Liu Guanxiong asked tentatively.

"Join the Anglo-French ......"

As the former commander of the Zhenyang Fleet and the Minister of the Navy, he knew better than anyone that the British and French camps included the United States to a certain extent, and the maritime power and industrial power possessed by these three countries were far beyond the comparison of Germany and Austria.

"Right"

This is the first time that Chen Moran has expressed his true thoughts, according to the development of history, at the end of this month, with the assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary, World War I will break out in the next two months.

Originally, I should have told them what I thought last night, but in the end, after considering some factors, I finally decided not to rush for the time being, and waited until the situation became clear, but I couldn't wait here, if I wanted to get additional rewards, I had to prepare in advance.

"But, even so, for the sake of the Europeans, we shed even a little blood, and we are sorry for ourselves, after all, this is not our war, so ......"

Looking at Liu Guanxiong, Chen Moran continued.

"Our sole purpose is to seize the right loot, to get as much benefit as possible at the smallest possible cost"

At this time, Chen Moran, who had already stood up, walked to the center of the living room, where there was a globe.

"Liu Qing, look here,"

Pointing to a region near the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, Chen Moran had a slight longing in his eyes.

"If we have a showdown with the United States, then in the Pacific, the battlefield is beneficial to the United States, not us, and the United States has Havii as a stronghold in the middle of the Pacific, and what about us? There are only a few small islands that I got from Japan, and even if there is Taiwan and Japan as the first defense barrier, but that is only defense, so ......"

Pointing to the "Emperor Wilhelm's Territory" in the southern hemisphere, Chen Moran turned to Liu Guanxiong and said.

"We're going to take here"

"Your Majesty......"

Looking at the location of Emperor Wilhelm's territory on the globe, Liu Guanxiong's brows furrowed, there ......

"There is nothing out of place here, and most importantly, there are very few German troops here, just over two hundred, and the German colonies in the area are mainly engaged in plantations, mining, and political institutions, as well as a small number of Europeans from other countries. In 1885, the Lutheran Church and the Catholic Church sent pastors to this place to preach, but due to local tropical diseases, inconvenient access to Jiāo and other factors, the development of missionaries and plantations has been very slow, and Germany has not carried out a comprehensive investigation of this place, until this year the German government sent an expeditionary expedition team deep inland, only to draw a map of the whole region, and found many unknown animal and plant species, I think to conquer this kind of place, only a team of armed sailors can do it, Liu Qing, What do you think? ”

In addition to rhetorical questioning, Chen Moran's eyes were still staring at the place known as Papua New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago in later generations, the reason why he chose this place is for the future, who knows if China will break out into war with Britain in more than 20 years, if war breaks out between China and Britain, with this southward base, the squadron can then occupy Australia, and occupy the whole of Australia before the United States intervenes in the South Pacific.

From His Majesty's words, Liu Guanxiong understood what His Majesty meant, His Majesty's idea was very simple to "pick soft persimmons and pinch them", with only two hundred defenders, which meant that there was no need to fight at all, and he could seize the territory of Emperor Wilhelm and get the results of opening more than 100,000 square kilometers of territory at a pittance price, which was the benefit.

"All it takes is a warship and armed sailors to take Rabaul, but Your Majesty ......"

Looking up at His Majesty, Liu Guanxiong said again. ,

"I'm afraid Congress ......"

"The right to declare war rests with me, not Congress"

Looking at Liu Guanxiong with a smile, Chen Moran said in a light tone.

"And then, you're going to give me a reason, aren't you?"

Give me a reason

Of course, Liu Guanxiong knew what His Majesty was referring to, and if there was no suitable excuse for declaring war, he would let the navy create an excuse to create a pretext, and then his Majesty would issue an order to declare war on Germany, and then war, there would be no excuse at all, and the only thing needed was interests.

"Your Majesty, should we ...... then?"

After Nòng understood what His Majesty meant, Liu Guanxiong turned the globe, in fact, the navy has always been eager to get overseas military bases, not to mention bases all over the world, but at least it should be able to meet the needs of the navy for ocean-going training.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks we may be able to carry out some operations here"