The sun is shining and the windows are shining. In a hall in the Imperial Palace in Berlin, Wilhelm and Qingying sat opposite each other, a small plate of freshly made dessert on the table, but neither of them showed any desire to enjoy it.

"In other words, we were able to successfully slaughter Spain this time, and we have to thank the British for their favor to us?" The two looked at each other for a long time, and it was William who broke the silence first.

"Although I also feel bad about it, it is undeniable that the withdrawal of the British really broke the last thought of the Spaniards. In the case that Britain, France, Russia, and Italy are unwilling to sell ships in active service, and the United States is an enemy, the only thing they can count on is our German Empire. Qingying nodded and said. (As for Austria-Hungary?) It's good for everyone to ignore him. Although the country was already among the five great powers of Europe under the old Austrian Emperor, at this time in 1898 their naval strength was even worse than that of Spain! ）

Hearing Qingying's remarks, William was a little unhappy in his heart, he glanced at the dessert in front of him, and said in a tone full of unwillingness: "I didn't expect that 10 years after I ascended the throne, Germany was still in the shadow of the British, relying on their favors to survive. In another year, I'll be 40 years old, and it's a terrible wait! ”

Qingying smiled slightly and said, "Father's words are not entirely correct. Germany today is two completely different countries from 10 years ago! Before his father ascended the throne, although Germany had risen to Central Europe, its strength was only equal to that of France; In the situation of the ring feeding of the great powers, everything has to rely on the snort of the British. At that time, the relationship between Germany and England was more like a suzerainty and a subordinate than a friendly neighbor with shared interests. After 10 years of my father's governance, our German national strength has achieved a sky-changing leap and innovation; France and Russia have been left far behind us, and Germany has become the absolute power on the road of Europe! In the face of such a strong Germany, Britain also had to show its interests and co-opt us, because they had begun to fear our Germany! In another ten years, our Germany will certainly be able to completely break away from the control of Britain by virtue of its unparalleled strength; At that time, neither the French nor the British could stop me from conquering the territory under the sun in Germany! ”

Speaking of this, Qingying glanced at William and said loudly: "When I am in Germany, you will become the Holy Lord of the Ming Monarch who will lead my Germany to the top of the world; His exploits will surpass Frederick the Great and Emperor Wilhelm, and will be celebrated by 60 million people for eternity! ”

William has always been extremely proud of his achievements in domestic construction since he ascended the throne; Although he knew that Lu Dao Qingying's last words were patting his ass, after receiving this full compliment, William was still overjoyed, and a bright smile of joy bloomed on his face that was no longer young. After smiling convulsively in his seat for a long time, the smile on William's face gradually faded, he waved his hand slightly, and said symbolically: "The matter of governing the country depends on the successive prime ministers...... and the careful assistance of the ministers, so that I, the emperor, can sit back and enjoy his merits. Let's get back to normal. ”

William coughed and said, "After the end of the arms sales to Spain, we have received a lot of income of 74 million marks, and how to use this money is the main problem at the moment. I mean, put all this money into the construction of the Navy. After all, the widening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal was too heavy a burden on the navy. ”

Qingying nodded and said, "I also think the same as my father. In order to earn these marks, we lost more than 25,000 tons of our fleet, and if we did not fill this vacancy, it would be quite a disadvantage for our German Navy. In addition to this, we have more than 1,200 officers and men who have lost their warships, and they are all the elite of our German Navy, and they must be put back into active duty as soon as possible. ”

"Since the maintenance of equipment and personnel expenses have not been affected in any way in this shipbuilding transaction, almost all of the 74 million marks can be invested in the construction of new ships. I have come to you today to discuss with you any questions about the construction of new ships. In your opinion, what kind of ships should Germany build in order to make the best use of this money? William looked at Qingying's starry eyes, his face full of expectation.

What kind of ship to build? Of course, build a ship that will play a role in the final battle with the British Navy! Qing Ying didn't think about it, and immediately replied when he heard this: "Build a fleet decisive armored cruiser!" ”

"Etter, I don't understand, why do you like that decisive cruiser you proposed so much?" William frowned, and there was a hint of doubt and dissatisfaction in his words, "Although this kind of toy can be added to the main decisive battle like a battleship, it is achieved by reducing the height of the main armor and reducing the number of main guns, but it is just a good data on paper." Compared to a real battleship, its decisive power is still much worse. At present, Britain has a total of 18 new capital ships, and even with Brandenburg, we have only 4 battleships in service; Aren't you ready to make up for such a huge gap? ”

"What do you mean, father?" Qingying asked in a low voice.

William knocked on the table and said bitterly: "The number of our main battleships in active service in Germany is too small. After the sale of the Elector, we were left with only 1 battleship Caesar Barbarossa in Europe, and the naval strength was even worse than that of the Baltic Fleet of Little Nikki. Therefore, we must vigorously build real battleships to compensate for this shortcoming; The Wiecchersbach class, which we started construction the year before, is an ideal choice for mass construction. ”

The Wicchersbach class in Wilhelm's mouth is a new type of battleship that was built together with the decisive battle type cruiser after Germany promulgated the naval law in 1896. It has a standing displacement of 13,650 tons, a maximum speed of 18 knots, three twin new 42 times diameter 283 mm guns, and a large area of 250 mm Krupp armor covering 65% of the waterline on the side. Thanks to the technical innovation of the three-expansion reciprocating steam engine, the internal volume occupied by the steam engine is greatly reduced, so that the main turret of the amidship has the technical conditions to move back. At Qingying's suggestion, the German designers swapped the positions of the main turret and the rear conning tower, which were originally located in the amidships. As a result, there are 2 main turrets in the stern; The long bow layout adopted by the battleship makes these two main turrets exactly in a high and low position, and can fire fiercely at targets in the rear at the same time!

Qingying was quite satisfied with this class of battleships that had realized the pseudo-knapsack arrangement of the main guns in the stern direction; However, this class of ships can only have a relatively large value before the appearance of dreadnoughts. Since the speed of dreadnoughts is generally above 21 knots, and the slowest is not lower than 20 knots (the South Carolina class and the Spanish class are two special cases, while Nassau switched to a coal-oil boiler faster than 20 knots); This 18-knot, former dreadnought, unable to keep up with the footsteps of the main fleet, could only take on some second-line combat missions after the appearance of dreadnoughts. Compared with this kind of slow former dreadnought, the decisive battle type with a speed of 20 knots can run and fight, and it can obviously play a role in more places!

However, these things, Qingying is obviously impossible to say. His mind turned, and he instantly had a countermeasure in his heart, and said: "What my father said is that the number of battleships in my Germany is indeed far inferior to that of Britain and France. However, the gap between our German Navy and theirs was not only reflected in the battleships; On the cruisers, we also have a world of disparity with them! In the past three years alone, Britain has started construction of a total of 10 first-class cruisers of the 2 Qiangsheng-class and 8 Crown-class; Together with their original 25 main cruisers, the total tonnage will reach a staggering 280,000 tons! According to the British Admiralty's plan, they will also start construction of four cruisers with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons this year; Even if the British had built so many cruisers in order to counter the French plan to protect their lines of communication at sea, the gap was a bit unbearable! If we put all our money into battleships, then what about cruisers? ”

"I have carefully understood that these cruisers of the British, although they are very large in tonnage, are still essentially in the category of old protective cruisers, and their waterline parts do not have any vertical armor protection. Therefore, we only need an armored cruiser of a smaller tonnage, which will be enough to guarantee victory over this group of white elephants in an engagement between the fleets of the avant-garde. The Admiralty had chosen a design to deal with: it had a design displacement of 6,900 tons, a speed of 20 knots, four 210 mm guns and ten 150 mm secondary guns, and a large area of 150 mm Krupp hardened armor on the waterline, which was enough to easily wipe out the British barbarians without any vertical armor. On top of that, the ship cost less than 12.5 million marks and is fully capable of mass construction. As for the cost, I can ask Chillingsfirst to inject an extra amount of money. William said with some smugness.

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