What caught Tirpitz's attention was a model of a large submarine. In this era, the general submarine displacement did not exceed a thousand tons, and most submarines had an underwater displacement of less than 800 tons, and the water displacement was naturally smaller, often only a little more than 600 tons. But this submarine has an underwater displacement of 1,400 tons and a surface displacement of more than 1,000 tons.

"Is this a submarine you designed?" Tirpitz asked, "How did you make it so big?" ”

According to the general perception at the time, most navies regarded submarines as auxiliary ships rather than combat weapons. If you ask the naval officers of that time, what could a submarine do? Most of them will tell you an answer like this:

"You can do reconnaissance work, such as squatting at the gate of someone's military port, counting how many ships are in and how many are out. Another example is to send some spies to the territory of the enemy, and another example is ......"

Anyway, in the eyes of the naval officers at that time, this thing could not be used for combat at all. Since it can't be used for combat, just squatting outside the military port to count, or sending a few spies ashore or something, how can it be so big?

"Ah, Mr. Admiralt, this is also a submarine of a foreign trade nature. Unlike ordinary submarines, this submarine is a combat ship through and through. When our buyers buy this submarine, they require this submarine to have the following properties: First, it must have the ability to wait for a long time on the ocean, and the range must be long, so naturally it cannot be built too small. Secondly, they also required it to have a surface speed that exceeded that of a normal merchant ship, which meant at least 17 to 18 knots and an underwater speed of 9 to 10 knots. As a result, we can't fit a ship that is too small to fit into a power system that meets such requirements. And then they also have high requirements for armament. So you see there are six big fish in the front of this submarine. Mine launch tubes, which can launch six 21-inch fish at once. Thunder, this fish. Thunder is so powerful that it only takes one hit to sink a large transport ship. There are also 4 large fish in its tail. Mine tubes. There are also 10 fish in the boat. Ray's inventory. And compared to the battleship we saw earlier, it was much more stealthy and much cheaper. It couldn't be better to harass supply lines. ”

Scrooge deliberately said that "one hit can sink a large transport ship". Channel Tirpitz's train of thought to break the relationship.

"But this thing still can't compete with the fleet, and it can't win the sea dominance. So in this sense, it still can't be compared with the kind of battleship mentioned earlier. Tirpitz replied.

Scrooge nodded and said, "You're right. Due to the speed of the submarine, it cannot keep up with the speed of the surface fleet, which makes it impossible for it to complete the occupancy of the place, let alone launch the fish, if it is put into naval warfare. Thunder. Basically, it can only be used for sneak attacks. Moreover, the function of guaranteeing sea supremacy is twofold, that is, on the one hand, to ensure that any of its own ships can sail freely, and on the other hand, to make it impossible for any enemy ship to sail freely. At best, such vessels can undermine the right of the other side to freedom of navigation, but they cannot guarantee the right of freedom of navigation of the other side. Therefore, it can only be an effective supplement to the sea power, and cannot replace the main position of surface warships, especially battleships. But on the other hand, when a weak country is confronting a strong country, many times, it is not realistic to pursue a comprehensive surpass of its opponent and win complete sea supremacy. It is enough to have the ability to inflict enough damage on the opponent to turn the war waged by a powerful country against him into a loss-making business. ”

Hearing this, Tirpitz smiled, he thought for a moment and said, "Like the Boer War? However, although the Boers resisted very resolutely, they were still at a disadvantage in this war, and they were likely to lose it. If the navy is weaker than Britain's, Britain may indeed suffer heavy losses after World War I, but its opponent will become completely without a navy. ”

"But don't you think that the British have more to gain than to lose in this battle? The world's largest power has fought so hard against a small local power. Britain's national deterrent has been severely devalued. I remember Lord Nelson saying before a certain battle, 'Even if we are defeated, they will have no fleet available for a long time to come.' In fact, this situation is the same for countries like the United Kingdom. A maritime power like this has a lot of interests at sea, and these interests need to be defended by their navy. But there will be no shortage of countries that covet his status. If the fleets of one country are so strong that after the British fleet is lost, the remaining fleets of the British are no longer enough to suppress the fleets of other countries, it means that the supremacy of the sea will be transferred from the British to other countries. For Britain, sea supremacy can be said to be equivalent to life. Under such circumstances, will Britain still accept such a exchange? I'm afraid that in this case, compromise is the only option, isn't it? Scrooge immediately threw out the poison that had been prepared long ago.

This line of thought put forward by Scrooge was the idea of the German Navy later. The Germans have been building their navy along this line of thought ever since. But for the UK, they will naturally have another way of thinking, that is, the lesser of two evils.

The British responded to the simultaneous rise of the German Navy and the American Navy by first coming up with a double-strength standard, that is, the British Navy must surpass the world's second navy and the world's third navy combined. In this way, even if the fleet of the world's second navy is exchanged one-on-one, the remaining fleet of Britain is still the first in the world. And if you take into account the so-called Lancaster Equation, it is simply impossible for the world's second navy to play a 1:1 exchange ratio with him. This is like a group fight, if the individual combat effectiveness of the two sides is basically the same, two people fighting two people may lose both, but 10 people fighting two people will never lose both, it will only be a one-sided two people who will be wiped out, and ten people will not be injured.

Therefore, as long as the size of the British navy can remain the second and third navies in the world combined, then Britain can still ensure that it has the freedom to wage war against the world's second naval power, and its navy can have a real deterrent.

However, it is also very difficult for Britain to do this, for the simple reason that it is because of the difference in industrial power. Purely in terms of output value, Britain is no longer the world's largest industrial power. Now not only the industrial output of the United States has surpassed that of the United Kingdom, but also the industrial output of Germany has surpassed that of the United Kingdom. Under such circumstances, how easy would it be for the British to maintain a naval force equivalent to the sum of Germany and the United States?

However, for Britain, this arms race is not without the possibility of victory. Even for the British, the sooner the arms race is better, and the more intense the better. The reason is simple, because although the Germans and Americans have more industrial output than the British, the accumulation of wealth is far from comparable to that of the British. It's like a young man who has just worked, and now he gets a salary a little higher than an old employee who has worked for decades, but if you want to talk about money, I'm afraid the old employee is richer, because he has been paid for decades and has accumulated more money. If the young man goes to spend money with the old employees at this time, then the young man who goes bankrupt first must be the young man. Therefore, once the British found out that Germany was a threat to them, then the best thing to do was to immediately drag down the Germans through a high-intensity arms race and make Germany bankrupt early.

And what about Germany? Is it possible that Germany will not respond to this arms race? If Germany could do without overseas markets, if it did not expand its overseas colonies, then of course it could, however......

And for the British, he still has a way back in the arms race, that is, it really can't work, then it only needs to suppress Germany. After all, the United States is too far away from Britain and is separated by an Atlantic Ocean. Even if the United States is strong, Britain will not be in danger of extinction. But Germany is different, and if Germany develops well, it will inevitably unite Europe, and at that time, Britain, which is only less than 100 kilometers from the European continent, will be in danger. Therefore, for many years, the national policy of Britain has always been, on the European continent, whoever is the strongest, the British will fight. In line with this principle, the British dragged the anti-French alliance to fight France; In line with this principle, the British dragged the Anglo-French alliance through Russia; In line with this principle, it is now Germany's turn.

"Your ideas are very revealing." Tirpitz said.

"Thank you for the compliment, in fact, it's not my mind alone. This is what the United States thinks. Scrooge continued to brainwash the German, "I have a friend named Mahan, who has just completed a scholarly work called The Influence of Sea Power on History 1660-1783, and I wonder if His Excellency has seen it. There are some ideas for the U.S. Navy in this. In fact, it was precisely because the United States had built a navy that could cost Britain a considerable amount of money that it was able to complete the war against Spain without interference. You know, if you just think about Spain's own power, we would have easily defeated him a few decades ago. In the end, the fact that the British did not intervene hastily shows that our strategic judgment that if our naval strength could inflict considerable damage on the British Navy, it would force the British to abandon their interference in our operations. ”