"Your Majesty, in the present situation in which we find ourselves, it is really not appropriate to make too many countermeasures against the German infiltration of the Ottomans. After a bitter Boer War, the British Empire, which had been at peace for a long time, urgently needed to recover from its wounds and regain the vigor and sharpness of the Napoleonic Wars. Although the stick in our hands seemed to be full of weight, it was eaten by mites and countless small holes, which could not be seen in peacetime, and this war against Boer completely showed its true face! The malaise of the Imperial Army and Navy has reached an unimaginable level, and it will take at least five years for Admirals Halden and Fisher to reform the Army and Navy to bear fruit, during which time we are in a relatively weak period compared to before, and the attitude of these great powers must be carefully taken into account in our foreign relations. ”

Balfour sorted out his thoughts and said: "At present, Britain's biggest enemy is still the Franco-Russian alliance. One of them is a colony in Africa that is fiercely contested with us, and has raised a large army of sea-wandering criminals to use as convoys to attack us; The other is frantically expanding its naval armaments, and has invested most of its increased strength in the Far East. With the empire disgraced in the Boer War, both countries accelerated the pace of their ambitions; The most important thing is that the Russians, on the pretext of suppressing the boxers, directly sent troops to occupy nearly 500,000 square miles of land in the three northeastern provinces of the Qing Dynasty, and repeatedly postponed and prevaricated, refusing to withdraw their troops for various reasons! This has crossed the red line that the British Empire can endure, and we must give them a little color! As for Germany, although they are not a good thing, they are undoubtedly much cleaner than those of France and Russia, which have done a lot of evil; This time, they took the initiative to abandon the implementation of the naval law for large-scale shipbuilding, which caused quite a storm in the domestic political circles. Chamberlain and others began to call for signs again, and carried out all kinds of propaganda for the Anglo-German alliance. ”

Edward's gray eyebrows jumped, and a sharp light flashed in his cloudy eyes, and said: "Nicky, this guy always likes to do things without his own strength, this time, I must make him pay the price in the expansion of the Far East!" He flickered his gaze and re-locked on Balfour, saying, "That is to say, my prime minister, you are going to choose between Willy and Nicky, the most disobedient of the two, to give a hard beat, and then go to Willy to settle the score." ”

Balfour nodded: "And the French." The ocean-going assault ships they built are demons that have sprung out of hell, and although we are still building twice as fast as them in terms of loadouts, due to the unique limitations of the era's technology and raiding characteristics, it is difficult for our cruisers to find and catch these thieves on the sea, which is a problem that we urgently need to solve now. By contrast, Germany's gesture of reaching out to Ottoman was as gentle as the lips of an 18-year-old girl. In fact, the reason why I am not in favour of provoking the Germans now is that there is not enough weight in the hands of Britain at the moment, and that France and Russia are fighting against us, there is another factor. ”

Edward picked him up with a questioning look and said lightly, "What factor?" ”

"Your Majesty, the Russians, though they are known as the steamrollers of Europe, and whose population is twice that of France combined, are far behind Britain in industrial wealth and war prowess, so we can kick your distant cousin, Tsar Nicholas II, in the ass without pressure." Balfour took a gentle sip of warm coffee and said in a slightly bitter tone, "But Germany is different. Kaiser Wiley's muscles had swelled to a level that would make glorious Britain feel jealous, not to mention kicking his ass, even normal discipline and beating, and having to worry about the serious consequences that he might bring after he went berserk! ”

"Since 1893, Germany has replaced the British Empire as the largest country in terms of heavy industry among the European powers; Today, their annual steel production has exceeded the 8 million ton mark, which is more than a third more than ours. More importantly, the heavy industrial products of the Germans are not simply shoddy goods made for the pursuit of total quantity, but are rigorous and meticulous, precise and excellent, and all of them have reached the advanced or even top level in the world; In particular, the level of technical skills contained in it is far superior to that of its counterparts in the empire in many fields. And in light industry, in which we have an absolute advantage and have always been proud, changes have taken place in recent years to the detriment of Britain. ”

Balfour's expression gradually became solemn, and he said: "In 1900, the proportion of the output value of the Reich's light industry in Europe was also declining at an undisturbing rate—not because the Reich was stagnant or even regressed in light industry, in fact we have maintained a satisfactory rate of development in this field; The reason why the situation has gradually deteriorated is that the Germans are advancing so fast! Balfour raised his voice, not telling whether he was anxious or jealous, "The fact that the huge loan that the Americans gave to Germany was all invested in the economy really gave an immeasurable impetus to Germany's development: the average annual growth rate of German national income was 6%, which is already a frightening amount compared to 1% in Russia and 3% in Britain, and today the figure is at least 10% or more!" Now I really regret that my uncle had made a settlement with the Germans and had taken what he needed in the South African dispute and in the territory of the Philippines; We suffered in the war with the Boers, while the Germans successfully colonized the Far East and used the generosity of the British Empire as bait to kidnap the United States for such a large amount! ”

Edward shook his head and said, "The Marquis of Salisbury cannot be blamed for this matter. The Boers have the largest diamond and gold mines in the world, which are coveted by the world; The Philippines, on the other hand, was far less economically valuable than the Boer and was still under Spanish rule, and the nearly 10 million natives living on it were also extremely fierce and warlike, with several large-scale riots occurring every year. From any point of view, the Germans' abandonment of the Boer state for the Philippines was a major diplomatic victory for the British Empire. The reason for this phenomenon today can only be attributed to the idiots of the army: the Germans completely suppressed all the rebellions of the 7.5 million indigenous Filipinos under their rule with only 40,000 troops, and our Boer country, which conquered 440,000 people with 450,000 troops, turned out to be what it is now! How could the Marquis of Salisbury have imagined that the British army would degenerate to an even worse state than the Italians defeated in Ethiopia? ”

"I don't mean to blame my uncle, I just feel sorry for it." Balfour reined in his thoughts and re-said, "Now that the laurels of European industry and economy are on the heads of the Germans, and I, the British Empire, are in second place, and they now have the strength to confront us. If we interfere with the normal business operations of German companies this time, the Germans need no other countermeasures: they will only have to pick up the current naval law that has been thrown aside, and build a navy at a rate of seven battleships every two years; Then in just a few years, an extremely powerful sea force will appear in the North Sea, and then like a sharp sword against the throat of Britain! With their financial resources and industry, it is perfectly possible to do this. At that point, the Reich will face the challenge of the navies of France, Germany, and Russia at the same time, and even if it is as strong as the Royal Navy, its control of the seas will be on the verge of spiraling out of control. ”

Edward snorted from his nostrils and said, "I can't imagine that Willy, the bad boy who was beaten by me from morning to night, now has the strength to make Britain jealous." To be honest, I really don't like my sister's child, this breech-born polio patient has always lacked the necessary respect for Britain and always wants to break the existing model of the world; At that time, my uncle didn't know what was going on, and he chose Willy, a neurotic patient, to inherit the unified empire he created! He adjusted to a more comfortable semi-reclining position, then sighed softly, "Forget it." For the sake of his honesty in the past few years, and for the sake of my cousin Nicky, I will tolerate him this time. We don't have to compete with the Germans for the dominance of this railway, we can just let domestic entrepreneurs who are interested in financing and buying shares. ”

"As you wish." Balfour replied respectfully.

Edward snorted and said, "Arthur, I still have a question that you need to answer for me. If Wiley did start to do everything he could to develop the navy, what would happen to the Royal Navy? ”

Balfour shook his head and said, "It's going to be bad!" Although Germany faced pressure from France and Russia on land, it required a great deal of effort to invest in the army; However, the British Empire has colonies all over the world, and the deployment of land forces for global defense missions is also a staggering expense. The Boer War taught us that it was not possible to develop a navy alone, and that we had to have a good army to defend the colonies and increase the voice of the British Empire. According to calculations, Germany will be able to spend half of our naval funds, and since they don't have to build ships that patrol the world, their capital ships will be almost two-thirds of ours! If this is the case, we must gather all the elite in England to defend our homeland, and the oceans in the Mediterranean and the Far East will be completely out of control, and we will no longer be able to compete with France and Russia. ”

Edward closed his eyes. After a while, he spoke slowly in a hoarse voice, "I understand what Britain should do. ”