Almost every time Helden and Tirpitz were together, it was sure to trigger an endless quarrel, and this time was no exception. In the summer palace in Potsdam, Wilhelm II watched as the red-faced men grew in head.

This time it was because of the construction of battleships codenamed "Oldenburg" class, that is, the design scheme of the later battleships of the "Helgoland" class. LeHayden had been laughing at the German battleship for being like an impotence patient, that thing was too thin. Indeed, the Second Reich Navy's "Deutschland" class battleships were armed with 280 mm guns, while the British "Dreadnought" and "Bellerophon" classes built before it were equipped with 305 mm guns, including the Austro-Hungarian "Radelitz" class, which were also equipped with 305 mm guns, while the main guns on German battleships were a full circle smaller than them.

Wilhelm II felt very wronged that he was carrying the black pot for the naval design bureau, the budget for the construction of capital ships in the Reichstag had limited the displacement of the hull, and the German ship designers were accustomed to have adequate protection first, and the consequence of strengthening the armor was that such a displacement could no longer accommodate larger main guns. You must know that a 305 mm twin main turret is more than 240 tons heavier than a 280 mm main turret, and the displacement of four main turrets will increase by nearly 1,000 tons, and in order to balance the problem of stable center of gravity caused by the increase in the weight of the turret, the displacement will be increased by at least 1,500 tons. The displacement of 2,500 tons cannot be squeezed out in any way, unless it is an additional budget and an increase in the hull.

Helton now finally realized the hardships faced by Admiral Schell at the Battle of Jutland, the embarrassment faced by a bunch of battleships armed with 280 mm and 305 mm guns of the German High Seas Fleet against British battleships armed with 356 mm and 381 mm guns. It's impossible not to be afraid, and it's not that Scheer and Hipperre lack courage, but they don't have enough confidence.

Now, again, the point of contention between Lee Hayton and Tirpitz is this issue.

To be honest, Lehedon did not have any prejudice against Tirpitz, but admired the founder of the German Navy's High Seas Fleet. Tirpitz, while conservative, was not selfish and did not take revenge on the North Sea shipyard for his contradictions with Lehedon. The North Sea Shipyard received an order from the German Navy for two armored ships of the Scharnhorst class and the battlecruiser Goeben, and was also to receive an order for the construction of a battleship of the Oldenburg class.

Tirpitz has been trying to balance orders among Germany's seven major naval backbone shipyards, and he is neither biased nor disgusted.

The contradiction between him and Lee Haydon was a disagreement about naval strategy.

Tirpitz was trying to make the German Navy a defensive navy, as long as the territorial waters and maritime rights and interests were not violated. Heldon, on the other hand, always insisted that the navy is a powerful attack force, and that the protection of maritime rights and interests requires sufficient overseas bases.

This is based on a different understanding of sea power, which is always considered by mainland countries to be the right to control the sea, while the understanding of maritime countries is to obtain maritime benefits. Tirpitz's view represents the perception of the sea in most continental countries, while Heldon's view of sea power is more in favor of maritime states.

Contradictions are inevitable because of differences in concepts.

Wilhelm II's opinion was inclined to Lee Haydon, who also wanted to equip his warships with larger guns, the problem was that the designers of the naval design department believed that it was impossible for a battleship armed with larger caliber guns to still be able to float on the water.

"Then enlarge the hull!" Lee Haydon's idea was simple, the problem was that Tirpitz was stuck in the naval budget, not that he didn't want to use a larger main gun.

Now that's what the two are arguing about.

Heldon wanted to equip the Helgolan class with the same 330 mm guns as the Austro-Hungarian Navy's newest Combined Forces-class battleships, but Tirpitz thought that a 305 mm gun would be sufficient, which would fit the parliament's budget and not have to worry about additional budgets.

Tirpitz did not often share Leechelton's view that "targeting the British Royal Navy would make it stronger", but that did not mean that the German Navy was willing to be an enemy of the British Empire. Lee Haydon's idea was to challenge the Royal Navy of the British Empire, while Tirpitz's idea was to make the British feel that it was not worth fighting the Germans.

There is a difference of about 30 percent in strength between these two ideas.

In the 19th century, the weak German navy provided a better opportunity for the development of the German navy in the dreadnought era. The Germans did not have a huge fleet of former dreadnoughts that faced obsolescence like the British Empire, in fact the so-called naval competition between Britain and Germany was just a lie made up by the British, and the German Empire had no intention of confronting the British, they were only compensating for the gap between the previously backward naval fleet and the growing national power.

The Germans, including Wilhelm II, had no intention of challenging the Royal Navy, but the Germans were unfortunately their best choice in order to divert the tension between their declining national power and their desire to maintain maritime supremacy.

"Hehe, it's unbelievable that the so-called Imperial German Navy is willing to be inferior to our Austro-Hungarian Navy." In a slightly mocking tone, Heldon provoked the German Emperor, and it was true that Wilhelm II could accept the fact that he was inferior to the British Royal Navy, but he could not stand the fact that other countries were above him.

He set himself the goal of being second in the world, and Helden Lee knew the brother-in-law's mind very well.

Sure enough, the German emperor could not stand this contempt and patted his chest and assured Tirpitz that he would move the Reichstag to approve a supplementary budget for a certain amount of naval construction.

That's no problem.

Tirpitz was troubled by the problem of funding, as a large part of the German navy's shipbuilding budget was spent on the expansion of the Kiel Canal, much like the construction of the Summer Palace by the Qing Empire.

The annual investment of 35 million marks is almost equivalent to the cost of a battleship, but with the continuous increase in the tonnage of battleships, the large-scale capital ships have become an inevitable trend, and the Kiel Canal can no longer meet the needs of the navy.

The problem was that the expansion of the canal would need to be financed from the German Navy's shipbuilding budget.

Lehedon now understood Tirpitz's situation, and he did not want the German Navy to get bigger and stronger warships, but the Kiel Canal expansion plan with a total budget of 250 million marks actually greatly hindered the development of the German Navy.

"Why should the huge cost of national infrastructure projects be taken out of the cost of building ships by the Navy?" Lechelton posed this very pointed question to Wilhelm II.

"This ......" Wilhelm II scratched his head, the expansion of the Kiel Canal was proposed by the Admiralty, the problem was that Prime Minister Hillingfeld was not willing to bear the cost, but 250 million marks was enough for Tirpitz to build 10 cutting-edge battleships.

"I have an idea, in fact, the expansion of the Kiel Canal will not affect the navigation of the canal, and a certain amount of tolls can be charged to passing ships, and future tolls can be used for loans to make up for the lack of naval ship construction costs." Lechelton thought of the usual trick of the local officials of the Celestial Empire - to build roads on national highways and then collect tolls.

"That's a good idea." Wilhelm II exclaimed that LeHaydon always had some strange ideas.

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