London, United Kingdom.

In the main hall of Buckingham Palace, King Edward VII of England sits upright in a fine costume; Although the waiter helped him deal with it to a certain extent, the face that resembled the Prime Minister of Cha Shan Ke still had an old age that could not be concealed. Perhaps because of the frequent drinking parties and women's beds in his early years, Edward VII aged quickly; After only one year, the hair that was still brown has turned gray.

According to information from Berlin, in order to help Russia in Manchuria, Germany and Russia signed a series of cooperation agreements. Russia paid a total of up to 800,000 pounds for the construction of the four capital ships they ordered at the German shipyard, in exchange for the German shipyards slowing down the construction progress of the ships they were building for their own country, giving priority to the construction of the Russian warships, and delivering the almost newly launched warships to the Russian Navy in the first half of this year. Prime Minister Belfort said respectfully, and handed a report to Edward's desk, "In this way, the Russian fleet will be able to form combat strength almost half a year ahead of schedule, and it is estimated that by the end of this year, the comparison of naval strength in the Far East will be completely reversed." ”

Edward took out a pair of single-sided glasses with gold cuts from the wooden box, and placed them on the bridge of his nose to examine them carefully for a while, without the slightest expression on his face, and he did not know whether he was happy or angry, envious or jealous. After a while, Edward put down the report in his hand and said lightly: "Although Russia is our enemy, I have to say that little Nicky has done a really good job in this matter. Everything that can be bought is a bargain, and it is indeed a wise choice to exchange such a small amount of money for the fleet to form combat effectiveness more than half a year in advance. Speaking of this, Edward's words paused slightly, as if he had thought of something, and then said: "My Prime Minister, it is said that the battleships ordered by the Russians from Germany are very powerful?" ”

Balfour nodded, "That's true." Russia had previously ordered a total of 6 capital ships in Germany, 4 of which were named after their battleships in the Battle of Borodino in the Napoleonic Wars. The battleships of this class have a common displacement of 13,640 tons, which is basically the same as our 'Duncan' class, but in terms of firepower, they are frantically equipped with 4 12-inch, 8-inch and 6-inch guns, which is at least two notches higher than our standard configuration of 4 12-inch and 12-inch 6-inch guns. What's more noteworthy is that its secondary guns are arranged in a manner similar to the American 'Virginia' class, which means that the ship can have the terrifying output of six 10-inch guns while having full main gun firepower on the single side. However, in order to achieve such a powerful firepower and a speed of 18 knots, the freeboard and seagoing capabilities of this ship are much lower than those of our British battleships, and its armor defense capabilities must be extremely limited. (Historically, Balfort was the British Admiral for a period of time in World War I, and he is definitely not ignorant of the field of warships, if not proficient)

Edward tapped the table with his knuckles, and said with some displeasure: "It's just a sentimental word, I'm afraid some of it can't be said, right?" The latest type of battleship that Britain started the year before last was 2,000 tons larger than the Russians' class, but the firepower below the main gun was only 4 9.2-inch and 10 6-inch guns, which was really unacceptable. William White, an idiot, has been sitting in the position of chief designer of the main ship for more than ten years, how the hell is he designing warships? Even for the sake of speed and protection, it should not be so weakened in firepower. Now that White is retired, you go tell this guy's successor and let him design it for me; On the next class of battleships, at least the four single-mounted 9.2-inch turrets must be upgraded to twin loads. If the current situation of only 4 12-inch and 4 9.2-inch guns with a displacement of 15,600 tons is still maintained, it will be difficult for the Royal Navy to satisfy the people. ”

Balfour's heart was clear, and Edward was not so much trying to improve the navy's combat power as to make the navy's warships more powerful, so that his soul could be satisfied. However, he did not object to the king's action. Because in recent years, the United States, Russia, Austria, Japan and other countries have appeared all kinds of new capital ships with small boats carrying cannons (well, my big noodle country has once again disappeared from the eyes of the United Kingdom), and the tonnage of warships under the same firepower has been greatly reduced; The Royal Navy's warship tonnage has remained high since the monarchy, which is a confusing and unsettling situation. The Royal Navy in the realm of Willings now seems to have a little problem with the design of the ships, resulting in low tonnage utilization, and this situation is absolutely not allowed! At the moment, he claimed to be so.

"Your Majesty, there is also news from Berlin. The Germans agreed to lease their troop carriers to the Russians, and sent a certain number of sailors to take control of them. At present, a whole 5 large troop carriers have been flying the flag of St. Andrew, and are heading straight from Kiel to St. Petersburg; They were all modified by the Germans a few years ago to conquer the Philippines, and they are fast and have a large load capacity, and they are extremely capable of ocean delivery. With the addition of these guys, the Russians could send their troops in Europe to the Manchurian front by sea in formation, which was much more efficient than they could have done with the far unfinished Trans-Siberian Railway. Balfour sorted out his thoughts and threw another message to Edward: "Originally, the Russians were going to ask France for help in this matter, but surprisingly, France, which has always responded to the Russians' requests, refused directly and mercilessly this time, and did not even give a sampan." ”

Edward went through the information in his head, and then laughed, "What's so strange about this. The direct cause of the French alliance with Russia was to enable the European steamroller to aim their steel-cast giant wheels at the Germans; And this time, the Russians are going to use the hands of France to transfer their forces in Europe to the Far East, directly relieving the pressure on Germany on land, and the French can agree to that, hell! Therefore, the Germans must have been the most active in the matter of troop transfer. But ......"

There was a look of doubt on his face, and he said, "If the Germans want to help Russia transport troops, they only need to rent out the ship; This kind of troop carrier is not a warship that requires high-intensity combat, as long as there is a helmsman and enough stokers to move it, and at most a few workers for mechanical care or maintenance, there is no need to send sailors with them. Could it be that the Germans did not know the way of the Germans, and that this trip might be dangerous? At present, Japan has issued an extremely strong ultimatum to Russia to urge Russia to withdraw its troops, and the situation in the Far East is already sharply tense; If Russia openly moves troops to the Far East now, it will be tantamount to adding fuel to the fire, and it will be difficult to guarantee that Japan will not take almost decisive action. ”

"Actually, Your Majesty, it was the Germans who knew that Japan might take action against this Russian transport, so they sent their men aboard the ship! Imagine that in a situation where Japan and Russia were already doomed to a war, if these troop carriers were full of Tunguska barbarians, the probability that Japan would seize or even sink them was almost 100 percent; And if there are more Germans on board, Japan will have to consider the attitude that the German government will adopt after the move. ”

Belfort spoke slowly, trying to make sure that what he meant was understood by Edward: "Whether or not a citizen of his own country was killed is to a large extent two very different circumstances. If the Japanese had merely sunk the German ship, they could have stabilized the Germans by means of apologies and high reparations: for the Japanese, the reparations they paid were negligible compared to the gains they would have received from sending the formed Russian troops to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish; And Germany would not take any decisive action against Japan without casualties among its own citizens and with large reparations. And if a single German citizen sinks with the ship, it will inevitably cause an uproar in Germany, and the final result will be out of the control of the Japanese! Once Japan provokes Germany, then Germany and Russia are likely to join forces with France to have another 'three-country intervention to return Liao'; although these three countries have their own evil intentions and cannot form a long-term real alliance, none of them will be unable to get along with the colonies and real interests of the Far East. These three countries all have a strong desire for colonization and expansion, and they already had the experience of successfully forcing Japan to conform to the rules back then, and now they are even more proficient in doing it. ”

Edward's eyes gradually lit up, and he said slowly, "I understand." France and we already have great contradictions, and they have been ready to take revenge on us since the Fashoda incident; If Germany and Russia were to take the lead, the French would naturally be happy to follow suit. Once that time comes, in the face of Russia, France, and Germany, which are once again united in the common interests of colonizing the Far East, we, the British Empire, for the sake of our own interests, can only throw out Japan, a barbaric country that has no international norms in its eyes, as an outcast. Therefore, as long as the Japanese decision-makers were not insane, they could not have made any changes to these troop carriers, which were in full compliance with international law and had Germans on board, and they had to accept this established fact. He laughed heavily, his voice as kind as the old man next door, but his face revealed a strong coldness: "My dear little Willie's cousin, I haven't seen you for three years, you have really made great progress." How do you think Uncle Edward should reward you for helping little Nicky expand in the Far East, so that he can reach out to Manchuria and to the Yangtze River? ”

Balfour shrugged his shoulders and said, "Your Majesty, your Kaiser's cousin has already received enough reward candy from your Tsar's cousin. Germany took the opportunity of helping Russia to transport troops and took a political side as an invitation, which not only allowed German goods to obtain the status of the most favored tariff amount in Russia again, but also made the whole Russian country have a great favor towards Germany; France's obstruction and resistance to Russia's Far East policy deepened the rift between the two allies. As a result, Germany's situation in Europe has changed dramatically. If it were not for the fact that Russia still owes France a lot of debt, and that the dispute between Russia and Austria over the Balkan issue is still unresolved, then the alliance of the Three Emperors, which isolated France, would have been immediately restored within a month. ”

Edward closed his eyes, and a hint of bitterness crept up his face.

(Thanks to the book friend Blood Flame Ice Heart for the reward)