For Britain, 1904 was much better than it had been two years earlier, but it was still in a dormant period. The terrible wounds of the Boer War and the golden benefits of the annexation of South Africa required Britain to bend down and lick silently, and the bloated, fat, and chronically ill army and navy needed a lot of time to carry out large-scale reforms. With the rapid development of Germany in the past decade, the British suddenly found that they could not completely subdue this high-flying goshawk on the land of Central Europe by themselves; Their industrial and economic strength has surpassed that of Britain, which has dominated the world for hundreds of years, and is sending out a sharp and high-pitched cry to the world world!

When you are powerless to contain a country, it is the most effective plan to destroy it. For hundreds of years, Britain had used its transcendent position to join forces in Europe, using the contradictions between these great powers to help it achieve its goals. In the Crimean War, Britain joined forces with its long-time rival France to thwart Tsar Nicholas I's attempt to covet Constantinople; In the Franco-Prussian War, Britain removed the threat of Napoleon III with the help of Prussia; And when Russia extended its hand to the Far East, Britain supported Japan against the polar bears that invaded south. Today, however, when Germany's ambitions are exposed to the sun, the British seem to be helpless overnight.

Since the Triple Alliance, Germany and Austria-Hungary have been fueled by common interests, and Prussia and Austria, two bitter enemies fought for centuries before, are now the strongest allies on the continent, almost impossible for Britain to use against Germany. And the Russians, the European steamroller, possessed the terrifying force that made the world tremble, and could pose an effective threat to Germany, but they were now preoccupied with their military adventures in the Far East, and could not afford to take care of the European side at all. For the Russians, their main task now is even to make overtures to Germany, in order to tie Germany to their Far Eastern chariot against the Anglo-Japanese alliance; Even if this is not achieved, Germany needs to be stabilized and not allowed to provoke any trouble in Europe and the Russians. As for France...... Although they formed a bond with the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War more than 30 years ago, the long-standing grudge between Britain and France was even better than the Franco-German conflict, and it is difficult to say who the French aimed the spire of their spear at; Moreover, their current comprehensive national strength has been far surpassed by Germany, and the weight of their words can hardly be taken into account by the Germans.

Even Britain lacked the cards against Germany, let alone the situation in which France was found. Originally, they were extremely difficult to fight against the British, and the German threat in the east had always been supported by the help of Russia; Now the Russians pat themselves on the ass and turn around and go to the Far East, throwing all the mess of Europe to France. Now the French have Britain in the north to compete for colonies, Italy in the south to compete with them in the Mediterranean, and the German-Austrian alliance in the east is sharpening its knives, and I don't know when it will cut a knife at the French. In the face of such a grim international situation, if the French fight with Germany on the Middle Eastern Railway, they can imagine what kind of situation will happen to the road! What's more, France had exported 3 billion francs (about 120 million pounds) of usurious loans to the Ottomans, and collected most of the Ottoman government's revenue under its control through a "national debt management committee", which made Sultan Hamid hate France; Thus, France had no ability or reason to interfere with German infiltration of the Ottoman Empire.

Under these circumstances, the British and French had no choice but to accept Berlin's plan to provide an annual subsidy for the operation of the railway at German expense for the Baghdad Railway Company, which they dominated, in exchange for a significant reduction in the proportion of British and French shares in it. Germany's almost complete control over the construction and operation of the Ottoman railway artery across the Middle East laid a solid material and emotional foundation for the new Ottoman government's choice to turn to Germany after the turmoil of the Ottoman Empire.

To be sure, this is not a bandit clause, because the German government's contribution to the operation of the railways is tantamount to a disguised increase in the share of German capital in the Middle Eastern Railway, and it is quite normal for the British and French to have a decline in their shareholdings. However, through this incident, both Britain and France deeply realized the serious threat posed to them by Germany, a Central European empire. This country already has the majestic ability to re-divide its colonies and disrupt the old world, and the point is that they have every intention to do so! Britain and France, the old colonial powers whose own interests and security have been strongly impacted, began to ponder whether the centuries-old rival across the strait was the main enemy, or should they kill the newly rising eagle and lion tiger in Central Europe first?

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The afternoon sun shone through the leaves, dappling William with light and dark. The familiar footsteps sounded rhythmically on the bluestone path, and there was a trace of graceful rhyme in the calm and heavy. Hearing this voice, William's eyelids raised slightly, and he said lightly: "You're here?" ”

Through the forest corridor, the flowers and willows, a young man in a long suit walked slowly to William. A gentle breeze blew through his coat and lifted his robe slightly to one side; The short blonde hair that moves with the wind makes his already handsome appearance even more luxurious and elegant. Hearing William's greeting words, the young Qingying snorted and said, "The news just came from the Ministry of Finance that the Russians finally paid us 800,000 pounds for the battleship after delaying for more than one month. It seems that Nikolai does not have a lot of money in his pocket, but this is a good sign for us. ”

William snorted and said, "Don't underestimate Russia's finances. Although they were not as financially powerful as ours and England and France, once on the track of war, Little Nicky could forcibly plunder wealth from the people by a series of means; Add to that the loans given to them by the French, and the money they have amassed will be quite staggering! The reason why they delayed the payment of the meagre £800,000 was to wait for the country's finances to be on wartime track, so as to minimise the impact of the money on their finances. But I don't bother to care whether the money came from the pockets of the poor Russian peasants or the coffers of the French capitalists, except for the £100,000 paid to the shipyard workers, the rest was invested in the purchase of new warships, which should be able to compensate for the soaring share of the cost of these ships. ”

Qingying nodded slightly. Under his careful push, Germany began construction of its first dreadnought battleship and battlecruiser in 1903 and 1904, respectively, and its price soared at a staggering rate while achieving a leap in combat performance. The cost of the first generation of dreadnoughts was as high as 1.575 million pounds, and the cost of the first generation of battle cruisers was almost 1.735 million pounds, which is a huge difference from the 1.03 million pounds of the previous German-built Wiecchersbach-class standard dreadnought. In order to make up for this huge funding gap, the Germans made a black deal on the warships they built for Russia, making the Russians pay 200,000 pounds per ship for the schedule they were urging them to rush. At present, there are still four capital ships built for Russia in the docks of German shipyards, and this additional income can also fill the small coffers of the Navy to a large extent.

"Up to now, we have a total of 2 all-heavy gun battleships and 1 all-heavy gun super cruiser under construction on our slipway, and one battleship and one super cruiser of the same class have signed contracts with the shipyard, and it is expected that construction will start within three months. By the time these five capital ships are completed, they alone will be able to send all the active capital ships of any naval nation except Great Britain to the bottom of the sea effortlessly, and we will spend less than £8.2 million. A smile appeared on Qingying's face, obviously extremely satisfied with the butterfly effect she had caused, and said in a relaxed tone, "Even the Japanese Hatsuse-class battleships and the Russian Borodino-class battleships that shined in this Russo-Japanese naval battle will be completely swept into the garbage heap of history with the commissioning of this all-heavy artillery battleship!" Oh yes, and once the Austro-Hungarian allies have built all three Karl-class battleships, we will need to provide them with this new type of weaponry with all heavy artillery, so that they can better contain the French and British naval forces in the Mediterranean. ”

"You went to Vienna once, and you should be no stranger to the empire under the Habsburg dynasty, and this matter is just left to you." William waved his hand and directly assigned a task to Qingying. Qingying replied and said, "In addition, I have one more thing to tell my father. ”

William shrugged down his eyelids and said lightly: "Say it quickly, I'm going to prepare to rest for a while." ”

Qing Ying cleared his throat and said slowly: "Nikolai Shu Huang has announced the formation of the Second Pacific Fleet. ”