Time flies, in a blink of an eye, one and a half years fly by, with the leisurely ringing of the New Year's bell, the giant wheel of history bids farewell to the 19th century, and officially enters a new era. At this time, the German Empire presented a picture of prosperity in the sky. With the vigorous injection of American funds, which is almost equivalent to the sum of Germany's fiscal revenue in four years, Germany's development is like a Formula 1 car that suddenly hits the accelerator, galloping wildly, and its economy and industry have been soaring like a thousand miles.

Until then, heavy industry, which had been a major priority for the German government's development, had been a priority for development. The sense of distress, the militaristic tradition, and the martial spirit, inherited from the Prussian era, and the 30-year iron-blooded policy pursued by Bismarck, as well as the successful experience of the three victories in the Prussian-Danish, Austro-Prussian, and Franco-Prussian wars, all made the nascent German Empire place the army and heavy industry with war potential in the supreme position. Since the establishment of the German Empire, the glorious tradition of 80% of Frederick the Great's annual income spent on the army has become history, but the proportion of German military spending in fiscal revenue is still maintained at more than 40%, although this ensures that Germany can have outstanding explosive power and sustainability in the war, but a large amount of money is invested in the army and steel and other war fields that cannot be reproduced, which will inevitably affect the development rate of the German economy. Now, however, that has changed dramatically.

Due to the efforts made by the Qing Dynasty, Wilhelm II did not rush out to confront Britain in 1896, as is the case in history, but chose to temporarily maintain obscurity, and the form of Germany has changed profoundly compared with history. After not taking the initiative to touch the mold of the British, Wilhelm suddenly discovered that the international situation facing Germany now was actually a fairly good and stable situation! Although after the alliance between France and Russia was formed, a two-sided encirclement posture was formed against Germany; At this time, however, Germany was not under much threat on land. This was partly due to the growing Austro-Hungarian Empire's increased power in the Central Powers, but also due to the distraction of France and Russia, which did not always focus on Germany's side.

For the Russians, expansion into the Far East is their immediate priority. The northeast of Mites Qing covers more than one million square kilometers and is rich in natural resources, and it is a God-sent territory for Russia to realize the colonization of Yellow Russia. If Russia were able to annex this region, they would not only get the ice-free ports they had dreamed of since Peter the Great, but would also be able to further expand into the Far East, coveting the Central Plains and even the south of the Yangtze River. The only obstacle to getting such a sumptuous piece of cake is a group of yellow-skinned monkeys on that island nation with an average height of only 5 feet; They don't have any heavy industry, and they are in every way different from Russia! To the west is the powerful and poor land of Germany and Austria, and to the east is the weak national strength and rich territory of the Qing Dynasty, as long as the Russians are not kicked in the head by the donkey, at this stage they will absolutely not do such a thankless thing as abandoning the Far East and going to Western Europe!

Russia was busy building the Trans-Siberian Railway and sending troops to the Far East to transport supplies, always ready to encroach on the three eastern provinces of the Qing Dynasty; And their ally, France, is also at this stage unable to care about Germany. France not only forged ties with Germany in the Franco-Prussian War, but also had a long-standing feud with Britain for hundreds of years, and the Fashoda incident in September 1898 brought the relationship between the two sides to the freezing point of almost war.

In 1896, the French government sent an expedition from the French Congo to the east to realize its "2S plan" (Senegal-Somalia plan) and establish a trans-African French colonial empire; After the British occupied Egypt in 1882, they began to actively implement the "2C Plan" (Cairo-Cape Town Plan) to establish a British colonial empire throughout Africa. The direction of the two sides formed a vertical cross, and Fashoda was the intersection of this cross. In July 1898, a French expedition arrived at Fashoda, and two months later a British expedition arrived along the Nile; These two good friends, who have been fighting for hundreds of years, have finally burst into love in this hot and dry African land.

There can be no doubt that the east-west line of France and the north-south line of England cannot coexist, and only a country that can occupy Fashoda, where the two lines meet, will be able to realize its plan. In addition, if either side can occupy this territory, it will strategically mean that the colonies of the other side will be cut off and encircled. In view of this, Britain and France refused to give in to each other on the question of Fashoda, and both sides were expanding their armaments, and there was a great deal of intention to start another colonial war for this purpose. Although the incident subsided with the final compromise of France, and unfortunately failed to ignite the colonial war, the essence of France's retreat was due to the fact that its naval skills were inferior and that the army would become a lonely force in overseas operations. After this incident, France's hatred of Britain continued unabated, and it began to work more desperately to build ocean-going assault ships capable of choking Britain's neck; And the hatred of Britain was naturally attracted by France, and for a time the struggle between the two countries intensified, and it was endless.

Britain and France were fighting each other, Russia was bent on marching into the Far East, and the situation on the eastern and western fronts of Germany was greatly eased; In this situation, Germany no longer needs to pursue any additional military power. The huge amount of money borrowed from the United States was all invested in national construction, and the construction of bridges, railways, buildings, factory ribbons, and a large number of light industry, agriculture and infrastructure projects that could enable the sustained and rapid development of the economy have sprung up one after another, making the German industrial economy a blowout leap and innovation. Historically, it was not until a few years before the outbreak of the Great War that Germany achieved a comprehensive catch-up with Britain in terms of economic and industrial aggregates; According to the current momentum, in less than 5 years, Germany will surpass the British Empire in all data except per capita, and become the second largest industrial and economic empire in the world!

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In these one and a half years, Qingying did not forget to lay out for the war that broke out in the future. Since the German Army was strong enough to wipe out the Russian forces that were seriously inferior in weapons and tactics in a major war, and to remain undefeated on land, his focus was still on the sea. This time, he set his sights on the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a Central European country in southern Germany and currently the closest relationship with Germany.

When it comes to Austria-Hungary, the first thing that comes to mind is a dualistic absolute monarchy with complex ethnic relations and sharp social contradictions, but few people know about its energy and achievements. Emperor Franz Joseph I, who had been in power for 50 years, was not a qualified soldier and was not very capable; But through his good knowledge and decades of dedication and hard work, he was able to industrialize and modernize the empire under his rule, and many enlightened policies were effectively implemented. And in the navy, Austria-Hungary is not as unmentionable as people think, as one of the five top powers in Europe, how can Austria-Hungary not have something real?

Historically, on the eve of the outbreak of World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Navy had a total of 3 dreadnoughts, and 1 ship of the same class was undergoing the most rear-end outfitting operation. In addition to these four 20,000-ton dreadnoughts, all of which belong to the United Force class, Austria-Hungary also has three 14,500-ton Radetz-class and three Karl-class standard dreadnoughts, as well as up to nine small dreadnoughts, with a total combat tonnage of 215,000 tons. Although this is completely different from the British and German, don't forget that the seat of the Austro-Hungarian Navy is a tigerless Mediterranean region in the mountains! If these production capacities of Austria-Hungary can be reasonably integrated, then after combining the Italian and Turkish navies, it is enough to form an overwhelming advantage over the French navy. As a result, the British Grand Fleet would be forced to send troops to the aid of the Mediterranean, which would create a favorable opportunity for the German High Seas Fleet to attack.

It is worth noting that the level of shipbuilding in Austria-Hungary is not as unbearable as people think, but in many places it is remarkable. Its "Monarch" class (Monarch) small battleship, which started construction in 1893, has a design displacement of 5,547 tons, a speed of 17.5 knots, is equipped with 4 240 mm main guns and 6 150 mm secondary guns, and the thickness of the waterline armor is 270 mm. It was only because Austria-Hungary was not confident in its own navy and always wanted to be able to move in smoothly when it could not defeat the enemy, so it increased its speed by drastically cutting off the firepower of the battleship, and embarked on the barbarian route of high-speed ships. As it turned out, the cost of the wrong tech tree was very high, and the Austro-Hungarian small battleships built in the pre-dreadnought era had high speeds of 19.5 knots, 20.5 knots, and even 22 knots, but carried 2 or 4 toothpick-like 240mm guns, and what could such a ship be used for other than escape in the narrow Adriatic Sea or even the Mediterranean? If you choose to build a legitimate battleship from the beginning, these capacities will be enough to build a naval fleet of extremely considerable strength!

At present, Austria-Hungary has only started construction of 3 5,547-ton Sovereign-class, 1 5,330-ton Queen-class and 1 6,166-ton Caesar Karl IV-class. Seeing this, Qingying went to Vienna in the name of tourism during this period, had a long talk with the head of the Austro-Hungarian navy, and threw him a sketch of the design of the battleship. Qingying believes that even if he does not give detailed drawings, with the level of Austro-Hungarian shipbuilding, he can turn this drawing into reality!