Hearing William's words, Qingying was shocked, is this still the same Wilhelm II he knows? In order to obtain colonies in the sun, William vigorously expanded his naval fleet, and did not hesitate to brazenly challenge the British Empire's maritime supremacy that had lasted for hundreds of years, directly triggering the World War that spread around the world. Such an ambitious guy would even say such discouraged words? For a moment, Qingying even thought that William had been pierced by the soul of his descendants like herself! He walked up to William, stared straight at him, and said, "Father, this is not like your usual you!" Didn't you tell me that Germany has risen to Central Europe and has become the world's third largest industrial power and economic center; Let Germany be content with the sky, and the days when other countries competed for the oceans are a thing of the past! Why are you holding back now? ”

was asked by Qingying with this slightly displeased tone, and William was rarely angry. He shook his head and said, "Ettel, I have never given up my thirst for the sea and the colonies. It's just that I think we need to make some changes to who we're challenged for. France also has vast colonies, and we can take the French as the spearhead. If we were to make an enemy of the British, it would be too difficult. ”

Looking at William, who was in a depressed mood, Qingying was extremely puzzled; After returning from watching the ship parade yesterday, William is still in good shape, how did he become such a virtuous person today? Thinking of his experience of being a guest diplomat in the past two days, a flash of lightning flashed in Qingying's mind; His ambition to challenge British hegemony was shaken, and he should have been influenced by some words from the Englishman when he was discussing Philippine affairs with British Prime Minister Marquess Salisbury, right? As soon as she thought of this, Qingying couldn't help but speak: "Father, have you forgotten? Since the day when Germany embarked on the road of the rise of great powers, it was destined to have an earth-shattering duel with Britain, the hegemon of the world; Even if we back down now, this duel will not be avoidable! ”

William nodded slightly, silently. As a result of the butterfly effect caused by Qing Ying, he had understood what kind of environment the German Empire was under his rule.

Germany lacks local resources and has limited demand, so if it wants to develop, it must buy a large number of raw materials from abroad, and then dump a large amount of goods overseas. In the past 100 years, Britain has been in a dominant position in the world market because it took the lead in completing the industrial revolution and has the largest transport fleet in the world. Whether it is the acquisition of cheap raw materials or the dumping of industrial products, it is their long-inherited vested interest, and it is the core economic area on which the hegemony of the British Empire rests. Now, as Germany has completed its industrial transformation, there is also a great demand for cheap raw materials and vast overseas markets, which has caused a direct impact on Britain's core interests.

If only that were it. After all, with the passage of time, France, the United States, Italy, Austria-Hungary and even Russia have all entered the threshold of industrialization, and the great powers have a blowout urgent demand for raw materials and the world commodity market; Against this backdrop, Britain was doomed to no longer be able to keep its share of the cake to itself, and had to give up a part of it and make compromises with the Great Powers. Germany, one of many countries demanding a re-cutting of the cake, should not have been looked down upon differently by Britain; But the key point is because Germany is the one with the biggest appetite among them! For the sake of its own development needs, Germany must snatch Britain's raw materials and squeeze Britain's overseas markets; And because of Germany's sophisticated industry and excellent technology, its goods have a stronger competitiveness than their British counterparts, and the damage to British interests is particularly acute. At present, German goods have begun to replace the market interests that originally belonged to Britain in large quantities, and even in the traditional light industry that Britain is proud of, German goods are playing an increasingly important role.

If this is all it takes, the British Empire, with its large colonial territories, can fully tap the needs of the British Commonwealth and solve the problem of a large part of the surplus of goods through domestic sales. This purely economic challenge posed by Germany to Britain was not enough to make Britain resolve to solve the problem by means of war. However, Germany's comprehensive national strength far exceeds that of France and Russia, and it already has the strength to challenge Britain's hegemony in the world; Coupled with an Austro-Hungarian Empire that had completed industrialization, it destroyed the originally balanced European continental pattern. On the side of the couch, how can you allow others to snore? Under the combined effect of these factors, even if Germany has no intention of competing with Britain, Britain will stand on the opposite side of Germany in the final decisive battle for its own interests!

Qingying walked up to William and said: "The industrial level of the French is far inferior to that of my German Empire, and now, these Gallic chickens not only do not think about how to revitalize their own national strength, but throw a large amount of money abroad in the form of loans; The consequence of this is that their country, although it appears to be economically prosperous, is extremely limited in what it can really do in war. If the only enemy that Germany had to face was France, then the first dispatch of our army would be a prelude to victory! But the British would never allow any country to become the hegemon of the European continent, let alone the German Empire, which was enough to subvert their hegemony in the world? Therefore, they will not sit idly by and watch us defeat France, but will stand on the side of France in our war with France. ”

William's expression changed, and finally a trace of determination slowly emerged, and said, "You're right, it's that I'm thinking too much." For so many years, Britain has always been right in international politics, and if anyone makes them feel threatened, they can unite with their most hated enemies to deal with that threat. Now, France and Russia are both strong on the surface, but in fact their national strength is limited; The only thing that can really threaten the hegemony of Britain in Europe is the German Empire. Even if the Royal Navy is strong, our Germany will still have to rise head-on, if we retreat, then the sea power of the world will never belong to our German Empire! ”

Seeing this scene, Qingying was greatly relieved, a strong enemy is not terrible, what is terrible is that there is no courage and faith to defeat the enemy. He smiled slightly and said, "As for the problem of the British Navy, I have a different opinion. At this stage, the British Navy is indeed invincible in this world; But for me, Germany, there is no chance of defeating them! William was stunned and said, "Victory over the British Navy? How does this work? You must know that we are far inferior to the British in terms of the size of our fleet and the speed of building ships! ”

"Just as my father said. Britain, as an island nation, can devote most of its forces to the sea, while Germany, because of its location in Central Europe, has to concentrate its main efforts on defending against land threats from France and Russia. In terms of control of the seas, Britain does have an innate absolute advantage over Germany. However, the UK also has to face the fact that they have too many places to maintain on the seas! ”

Qing Ying's thoughts turned, and he said: "Britain has the largest number of colonies in the world, and its power covers every region of the world; Therefore, they needed to build a large number of cruisers capable of going to the sea, to patrol the colonies, to secure sea lines of communication, and to demonstrate the presence of British maritime power in the depths of the open ocean. The 25 cruisers of the second and third classes and countless cruisers of the fourth class that appeared at the parade were built by the British for this purpose. This kind of cruiser has always been the most expensive commodity because of the pursuit of speed, but they are only suitable for overseas dispatch missions, but they have no effect at all in the decisive battle of the fleet! ”

William's eyes gradually lit up, and he said, "And the situation in my Germany is the opposite of that of England. We don't have so many colonies to maintain, and the current overseas dispatch ships are enough to protect our rights and interests in the open seas; Therefore, we do not need to build any ocean-going cruisers at all, we only need to concentrate on building a main fleet based on the final decisive battle. As long as our German naval captain can overthrow the British main fleet in a decisive battle, then we will naturally win the war at sea! ”

Qingying nodded: "Exactly." Since cruisers require high-power power systems to achieve high speeds, their tonnage cost is much higher than that of battleships; Cruisers carrying out ocean-going missions need a long range and a high freeboard to complete this mission, which will inevitably lead to a further reduction in combat effectiveness. This time, our Germany only has a budget of 4 small cruisers in 7 years, and all the warships are low-freeboard ships, just to do everything possible to improve the strength of our German navy in frontal combat. Unless our overseas dispatch ships have been in service for more than 20 years and are really old and need to be replaced; Otherwise, the construction of any ocean-going cruiser would be an unforgivable crime against 60 million of our German nationals! ”

After a short period of excitement, William's face suddenly changed slightly, he seemed to think of something, and said: "But even so, if I want to build a fleet that is enough to defeat the British Navy in a decisive battle, the navy needs to get at least 60% of the military expenditure of the British counterpart." Now our naval military spending is only one-fifth of that of the British, and it is far from meeting this requirement. Since we, Germany, must give priority to guaranteeing the military spending of the army, to achieve this amount, our total economic and industrial volume needs to reach 150% of that of Great Britain! ”

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