British Prime Minister Henry. Campbell. Banervan, in the office of his Prime Minister's official residence, lamented and said to the Secretary of War Henry Wiley, the Secretary of the Navy Fisher, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Marquis of Lansdowne: "Our British Empire has carried out many expansions, and now the domestic recruiting stations are still continuing to recruit British young men to join the army, but the war has lost a lot, and now the total number of troops is still more than 3 million, but how do you feel that the troops are still insufficient, Australia and New Zealand, see if you can send some troops to reinforce it." ”

Britain, which originally had a standing army of 2.1 million, began a new round of expansion before this war, and under the influence of the large-scale expansion of the army by the Chinese Empire and the Allies, the British expanded the army by 1.2 million at once, so that the strength of the British army could reach 3.3 million, but nearly one million of the newly expanded army were colonial troops formed by conscription of Indians.

After Britain officially declared war on the Chinese Empire with six other countries, Britain began to expand its army by 500,000 on the basis of 1.2 million troops, and the British were ready to form regular armies, that is, they were all recruited from the British mainland.

At present, the plan to expand the British army of 1.2 million has been basically completed, thanks to the relatively perfect reserve policy implemented by the British in India, nearly one million Indians were soon called up to join the colonial army in India, otherwise the British would not have been able to gather so many troops in the two cities of Islamabad and Dhaka.

In addition, after the Chinese Empire's army launched an attack on the British colonies in Asia, the British began to recruit a large number of Indians into the colonial army in India, and this time the Indian colonial army was expanded again. The British don't even have specific numbers, in short, the more the merrier. The British hoped to rely on crowd tactics in India to hold the most important source of raw materials for the British.

A new 500,000 conscription program. and the continued expansion of the Indian colonial army, which is now in full swing, but now the British army can have a little more than 3 million, the British army in the Russian battlefield of the Chelyabinsk city of the battle, and now the ongoing British Asian colonial battlefield, hundreds of thousands of British troops have been wiped out by the Chinese Imperial army, otherwise the British army may now be close to 4 million.

Now, after the decisive naval battle between the combined expeditionary fleet of the Entente and the Central Powers and the main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy, Britain, which was on the losing side, was not only in the Asian colonies of India and Burma, but also the situation was becoming more and more unfavorable. Even Australia and New Zealand, which belong to the British Commonwealth, are also facing the danger of being attacked by the warships of the Chinese Empire, and Britain is now unable to send forces to support Australia and New Zealand.

War Secretary Henry Wiley sighed and said: "Prime Minister, our War Department has been expanding its army to the maximum extent possible, and the number of troops is increasing dramatically, but the sea routes to Australia and New Zealand are no longer safe. I do not think it is suitable to transport troops to Australia and New Zealand by sea at the present time, and we can only rely on the existing forces of Australia and New Zealand to resist the attack of the Chinese Imperial Army, and there is already a shortage of funds for the expansion of our War Department. If there were no large amount of money allocated to our War Department, the current conscription would have to be halted for the time being, after all, money is needed to fight a war. The millions of troops in active service also need money to feed. ”

Prime Minister Henry. Campbell. Banavin shook his head, a look of helplessness. From the outbreak of this war to the present, the bad news has been one after another. Britain has suffered heavy losses in this war, but it has already boarded this thief ship, and it is impossible to get down halfway, "Don't stop the expansion of the army, I will ask the Ministry of Finance to allocate another 20 million pounds to the War Department for continued expansion and the use of the army in this war, this war will be fought by our British Empire no matter what!" ”

In the Imperial Palace in Berlin, Germany, the German Emperor Wilhelm II said to German Prime Minister Hohenlohe, Chief of the Army Staff Schlieffen and Admiral Tirpitz with a gloomy expression: "The result of this naval battle is really unexpected, the joint expeditionary fleet formed by our Allies and the Entente has 72 dreadnought battleships and 72 all-steel battleships, plus other types of warships, the scale has reached thousands of ships, and it was still defeated in the hands of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and our German Navy is also in this naval battle, The losses were unusually heavy, alas—"

Prime Minister Hohenlohe, Chief of the Army General Staff Schlieffen and Admiral Tirpitz also looked as gloomy as the German Emperor Wilhelm II, the results of the decisive naval battle between the combined expeditionary fleet of the Entente and the Central Powers and the main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy, the commander of the German naval fleet, Tessim, had already returned to Germany on the way back to Europe, and the German high-level officials who got the news were immediately shocked.

What's going on? You must know that the combined strength of the entire Combined Expeditionary Fleet has far surpassed the navy of the Chinese Empire, how could it be possible to suffer a crushing defeat in this decisive battle at sea? And it was still so miserable, the losses of the German Navy that Tessim passed back were simply shocking.

A total of 22 dreadnoughts and 16 all-steel battleships of the German Navy joined the combined expeditionary fleet formed by the Allies and the Allies, including 6 Nassau-class dreadnoughts, 8 Oldenburg-class dreadnoughts, 4 Westphalen-class dreadnoughts, 4 Helgoland-class dreadnoughts, and 4 Wicchersbach all-steel battleships, 6 Braunschweig-class all-steel battleships, and 6 Deutschland-class all-steel battleships.

In addition, the German Navy also sent 8 ironclad battleships, 14 large fast armored cruisers, 44 fast protection cruisers, 70 destroyers, 78 torpedo boats and 24 submarines to join the joint expeditionary fleet, and the warships of the entire German Navy went out to fight, with a total displacement of up to 1.7 million tons, what a powerful sea force!

But now Tessim's telegram said that the German Navy now had 7 dreadnought battleships, 6 all-steel battleships, 9 large fast armored cruisers, 20 fast protection cruisers, 28 destroyers, and 36 torpedo boats left in the Combined Expeditionary Fleet, many of which were seriously damaged. It's so miserable that it's unbelievably miserable.

Prime Minister Hohenlohe sighed and said, "Your Majesty, you mourn. No one expected that the Chinese Empire would be able to get bombers to the scene of a naval battle, and there was nothing wrong with the 7 provincial super dreadnought battleships. It can still exert great combat effectiveness in naval battles, and if there is no bomber from the Chinese Empire, it is not certain who will kill the deer! No, if there were no bombers from the Chinese Empire, the winner of this decisive battle at sea would have been the United Expeditionary Fleet. ”

Wilhelm II shook his head and said: "It's a pity that there is no if, in this naval battle, our German Navy lost 15 dreadnought battleships and 10 all-steel battleships at once, plus the loss of other types of warships, all of a sudden the strength of our German Navy plummeted by half, but fortunately, the 8 Caesar-class dreadnought battleships in our German shipyard are about to be delivered to the German Navy." It can be regarded as making up for some of the losses in our German naval strength, but these are far from enough, and we in Germany must build new super dreadnought battleships to make up for those lost naval forces. ”

Prime Minister Hohenlohe hesitated for a moment and said: "Your Majesty, in addition to the 8 Caesar-class dreadnought battleships that are about to be built, our German shipyard has now started to build 8 King-class super dreadnought battleships, these 8 King-class super dreadnought battleships are allocated in batches according to the schedule, although there are 80 million marks allocated by His Majesty from the royal bank account, but the Ministry of Finance will be in the next more than 2 years. It is also necessary to allocate a lot of money for the construction of 8 King-class super dreadnought battleships, in addition to a large number of other types of warships under construction in our German shipyards, or will be built soon, and some new super dreadnought battleships will be built at this time. I'm afraid that the finances of our empire will be unbearable, Your Majesty, can you slow it down? ”

Wilhelm II waved his hand and said, "I know the state of our German finances. The funds for the construction of new super dreadnoughts will come from the royal family. Tirpitz, has the Admiralty designed a new class of super-dreadnought battleships? ”

Admiral Chancellor Tirpitz nodded and said, "Your Majesty." Our super-dreadnought battleship of the second class of the German Navy has been designed with a standard displacement of 28530 tons and a full load displacement of 32200 tons, The ship is 180.3 meters long, 30.2 meters wide, 9.3 meters draft, the maximum speed can reach 22 knots, equipped with 4 twin 45 times the caliber 380 mm main gun, 16 150 mm secondary guns, 10 88 mm naval guns, anti-aircraft weapons because they are ready to be produced after the integration of our German and British and French technology, so there is no specific design at present, and there are 5 600 mm torpedo tubes, horizontal armor belt 250 mm to 350 mm, deck armor 76 mm, main turret armor 350 mm, conning tower armor 350 mm, crew 1170 people. This is a very powerful super dreadnought battleship, even compared with the current 7 provincial super dreadnought battleships of the Chinese Empire, I believe there is no big gap. ”

Wilhelm II nodded directly at the data of this super dreadnought battleship, and immediately asked: "What is the cost budget of this super dreadnought battleship?" ”

Tirpitz replied: "If you can build more than four ships at the same time, the cost of each one will be about 39 million Reichmarks, and if you build only one or two, the cost will be even higher." ”

When Wilhelm II heard this cost, he couldn't help but gasp, it was 11 million German marks higher than the cost of the King-class super dreadnought battleship, but when he heard the 4 double-mounted 45 times caliber 380 mm main guns, Wilhelm II gritted his teeth and said: "The Admiralty will start preparations immediately, I will allocate 234 million German marks for the construction of 6 new super dreadnought battleships, such a powerful super dreadnought battleship, our German Navy must have!" ”

234 million Reichsmarks is not a small amount, equivalent to more than 23 million pounds, and Wilhelm II would never have taken such a large sum of money from the royal family's bank account for the construction of six super dreadnought battleships if it were not for the heavy losses of the German Navy in this naval battle.

Tirpitz's gray face was originally gloomy because of the heavy losses of the German Navy, but he suddenly returned to a little normal, and if 6 such powerful super dreadnought battleships joined the German Navy, it would make earth-shaking changes in the German Navy.

Tirpitz suddenly remembered something at this time, so he said: "There is one thing that needs to be reported to Your Majesty, we have received news that the Chinese Empire has designed a warship called a battlecruiser, this kind of battlecruiser is faster than the dreadnought battleship, the caliber of the main gun is not weaker than the dreadnought battleship, it is thinner than the dreadnought battleship in armor, it can hunt other types of warships, and it can also be used to fight with battleships, and now the Chinese Empire has begun to build 12 battlecruisers at the same time." ”

Wilhelm II nodded and said: "Listening to this kind of battle cruiser seems to be very powerful, Tirpitz, your Admiralty will soon start designing our own German battle cruisers, as for the funds for building ships, don't worry, if the treasury can't come up with the money, I will pay for it myself." ”

Prime Minister Hohenlohe said at this time: "Your Majesty cannot be allowed to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the development of the German Navy alone, so let's try to squeeze out some funds from the treasury for the construction of 2 new class super dreadnought battleships, so that this new class of super dreadnought battleships can be built 8 at the same time, as for the future battle cruisers, the minister will also try to allocate enough funds from the imperial treasury for construction." ”

Wilhelm II showed a smile for the first time since receiving the news of the heavy losses of the German Navy that joined the Joint Expeditionary Fleet, and he has always led the development of the German Navy, although the German Navy is equal to breaking the bones, but if 8 new super dreadnought battleships can be built, the German Navy will have 16 super dreadnought battleships in the future, and the performance of these 16 super dreadnought battleships is very powerful, and the super dreadnought battleships of the British cannot be compared.

Tirpitz said to Wilhelm II again: "Your Majesty, this new class of super dreadnought battleship has not yet been named, please give your Majesty a name!" ”

Wilhelm II thought for a moment and said, "Let's call it the Bavaria-class super dreadnought!" (To be continued.) )