In November 1898, Scrooge made a rare departure from Duck Castle to accompany a German on a visit to the Morgan-MacDonald shipyard. Of course, this person who could make Scrooge deign to accompany him was Tirpitz, the German Admiralty.

Tirpitz was later known as the father of the German High Seas Fleet, and the huge High Seas Fleet was built during Tirpitz's tenure as Lord of the Navy. Of course, it was during his time that Germany and Britain engaged in a dreadnought race, which made Germany and Britain officially turn their faces and lay the groundwork for the later First World War.

Although the United States was on the side of the British in World War I, at least for now, relations between the United States and Germany are very good, because the two countries have the same or similar views on many international issues, especially on the issue of free trade. Of course, the most emerging industrial countries, although there are many times to compete in the international market, but there are not no opportunities for cooperation, for example, Germany as an emerging industrial country, in fact, there are many weaknesses, in addition to the lack of a large enough foreign market, there is also a big flaw is the lack of raw materials.

As an industrial powerhouse, Germany lacks a range of important raw materials, such as oil, such as rubber. Taking ships as an example, the American ships in this time and space, because of ■↑ for Scrooge, are already using heavy oil boilers, although the price of fuel alone, the price of heavy oil is still higher than coal, but considering the higher combustion value of heavy oil, so the ships using heavy oil boilers have a longer range and smaller fuel tanks. Moreover, the filling of heavy oil is mechanized, and fewer workers are required, unlike coal-fired boilers, which require a large number of workers to manually add coal to the furnace. In addition, in terms of maintainability, heavy oil boilers are also better than coal-fired boilers, so on the whole, whether it is performance or cost, compared with coal-fired boilers, heavy oil boilers have obvious advantages. So most of the new ships around the world are now equipped with heavy oil boilers. But Germany is very strange, the Germans' merchant ships, especially the export merchant ships, all use advanced heavy oil boilers, but their own merchant ships, and even warships, still use coal-fired boilers. The reason for this is actually because Germany has no oil, and it is worried that in the event of a war, it will not be able to get oil supplies.

As for rubber, that's also extremely important, and without it, cars or something would be a complete joke. There are also various rare metals, which are quite scarce in Germany. After acquiring Cuba, the United States will occupy the entire South American market, as well as the raw material production area of South America. For example, the world's largest nickel mine in Cuba, although the ostensibly owner is Cuban, but after the turn of the Tongguò holdings, it is McDonald. Therefore, when the Germans are purchasing rubber, rare metals, etc., they often need to find the United States. Therefore, there are still a lot of economic exchanges between the two countries.

However, Tirpitz did not come to the United States to buy these things, but to exchange shipbuilding technology, so it was natural to deal with Morgan and Scrooge, who owned the largest shipyard in the United States.

Morgan, of course, knew that although the Germans would not order warships from the United States on a large scale, at most they would order some parts. But he also understood that if the Germans started to build up their navy on a large scale, then Britain would definitely start to build up their navy on a large scale, and what the British did would definitely stimulate the US government, and then the United States would blow up its navy, and then the whole world would follow suit, and then -- this picture is too beautiful......

However, although Morgan likes ships, he doesn't really know much about technology, especially when it comes to naval gadgets. Therefore, although he has a higher stake in the shipyard than Scrooge, the reception of Tirpitz is still up to Scrooge.

"Your Excellency, Lord of the Admiralty, you see, this is the largest dry dock at Morgan-MacDonald Shipyard. The gantry crane above can lift more than 500 tons of items at a time, which is currently the largest gantry crane in the United States. Scrooge pointed to a large gantry crane and said to Tirpitz, "With this, the efficiency of shipbuilding can be greatly improved." Ah, Your Excellency, in front of you is our ship-shaped exhibition hall, would you like to go in and have a look? ”

For the name of "Morgan MacDonald Shipyard", Tirpitz also admired it for a long time. He knows that although the scale of this shipyard is not the first in the world, it can almost be regarded as the first in the world in terms of technology. Although the British who feel good about themselves will not admit it.

In recent years, some of the Navy's revolutionary technologies have come from this shipyard, such as gas turbines, such as central knapsack guns. So Tirpitz was naturally quite interested in this shipyard.

"Mr. MacDonald, I'm very interested in this." Tirpitz replied.

The group entered the ship-type exhibition hall together. As soon as you enter the door, you will see a model of a cruise ship in the most prominent position.

"This is a model of a cruise ship that we designed for White Star Line." Scrooge explained, "The ship has not yet been keeled. But once it is built, it will be a miracle of our time. The ship weighed 40,000 tons, was equipped with 26 boilers, 6 large gas turbines, and was powered by 150,000 horsepower, which, according to our calculations, allowed this miracle ship to reach speeds of up to about 32 knots, leaving behind all other ships of this era. It's a pity that we don't have such ships yet, otherwise ......"

"Otherwise, humanitarian aid can be delivered to the Boers under the eyes of the British, right?" Tirpitz laughed, on the issue of the Boer War, Scrooge's attitude has always been very clear, that is, to support the Boers in their struggle for independence and freedom, and the attitude of the Germans on this issue is also very clear, that is, one-sided support for the Boers. That's why Tirpitz made such a joke.

"Ah, Your Excellency the Admiralty, this is really not good, you know that this ship has no problem at all getting rid of the British warship, whether it is speed or seaworthiness in high sea conditions, it can overwhelm any British ** ship. In the blink of an eye, it could run without even seeing a shadow, but it still couldn't handle the task of transporting supplies to the Boers, because it was so big that there were no docks in all of Africa that could dock it. Scrooge replied in a joking tone, "If one day the British blockade of the Danish Channel and the North Sea, this ship can really try to cross the British blockade and transport those vital humanitarian supplies to Hamburg." ”

"How is this possible," Tirpitz also smiled, "no one can block the Danish Strait, and if anyone dares to do so, the Imperial Army is fully capable of taking over the Danish Strait directly." ”

"That's more convenient, isn't it?" Scrooge laughed, "Then the British would have to blockade the North Sea, and then it would be even more difficult to cross their blockade." ”

Tirpitz also smiled, of course he knew the provocative meaning of Scrooge's words, but did the relationship between the German Empire and Britain still need to be provoked today? Besides, if Germany will always be friendly with Britain and will always be Britain's follower, then what does his Admiral mean? Germany's military power has always been a cripple, with the most powerful army in the world today (which is almost undeniable), and a navy slightly larger than Denmark's. If this state of affairs continues, then why did His Majesty the Emperor promote him Tirpitz to be the Minister of the Navy? And as one of the few overseas colonies in Germany, Tirpitz was well aware of the economic significance of the colonies. However, if you don't have a strong navy, what can you do to acquire colonies and what to use to protect your overseas interests? And if there are no colonies, no overseas interests, the domestic market in Germany, and even in Europe, how can the economy develop? At that time, I am afraid that there will be one economic crisis after another, one strike, one uprising after another, and revolution.

"A ghost, the ghost of **, hovers in Europe." Probably the European country that feels the most about this threat is Germany. The number and intensity of strikes in Germany today, the strength of left-leaning groups and anarchist groups in Germany is significantly greater than that of Britain, which produced the Manifesto and Capital, and France, which is famous for its love of rebellion and revolution. With colonies, the British were able to develop such things as trade unionism, but Germany, without colonies, had little room to reconcile class contradictions at home. The presence or absence of colonies, for Germany, is not a trivial matter, but a question of life and death. On this issue, the entire German upper echelons actually agreed long ago.

In later generations, when many people mentioned World War I and the shipbuilding race between Germany and Britain, they habitually felt that it was all Wilhelm I, a lame man, who was fooling around, which led to the confrontation between Britain and Germany, and finally brought out the world war. This is not necessarily true. William I was a bit fond of fooling around, for example, if he hadn't been fooling around, Russia might not have been turned headlong to France. In this case, the German form shì may be a little better. But falling out with Britain and finally meeting each other in the war is by no means a problem of a lame man. In fact, there is no alternative. Because unless Britain is defeated, there is no way out for Germany.

"I heard that you are building a battleship for the Brazilian Navy, is there a model of this ship here?" Tirpitz asked.