St. Petersburg, Hermitage.

The cold wind howled, the frost and snow danced, and the pure and light snowflakes sprinkled brightly, dyeing the magnificent Hermitage into a sea of silver-white. In the rich, open, and splendid Byzantine-style living room, the noble and handsome middle-aged uncle Nicholas II is sitting quietly on the main seat; Under him, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Prelesk and the Minister of the Navy Griglovich stood respectfully. In the face of the supreme ruler of this empire, the two high-ranking core members also put away their lonely and arrogant posture in front of others on weekdays, and became as tame and loving as pigeons.

"According to the information just sent back by the Imperial ambassador in Paris, in a private meeting with the French Foreign Minister Delcasser, the French expressed their willingness to hand over to Russia all the drawings of the Danton-class battleships that they had just started this year. In addition, if we are willing to reach an understanding with Britain on the Persian and Afghan issues that we will refrain from expanding in the region in conflict with British interests, then France can also provide us with all the drawings of the newly built St. Vincent-class battleship, including all the subsystems of the British 12-inch L50 Mark XIV naval gun and the Parsons steam turbine. ”

Nikolai spoke lightly, and his words contained quite mixed feelings, like bitterness and pleasure: "Although the Empire and France are allies, the French have always put their own interests in the highest position, and their help to us is quite limited, and they have always attached quite harsh conditions in return. This time, however, they offered to teach us all about the design of the Navy's most advanced battleship, and also promised to provide drawings of the British battleship. And the obligations we have fulfilled are very small compared to the treaties that have been signed before! It seems my cousin Willy. It has put as much pressure on the Gallic parasites who know only the way and greedily suck the blood of Russia, like the collapse of the Ural landslide; Under this existential threat that is enough to destroy them. As a result, the French Grandet finally opened its treasure trove to Russia. ”

Chancellor of the Exchequer Preske smiled and said: "In addition to France's fear of Germany and its eagerness for Russia to regain its grip on Germany in the east, there is also an obvious British element in it. The Germans maintained their leading position in this field with the terrifying speed of building 10 all-heavy artillery warships in two years, and completely shattered the British idea of establishing a large numerical superiority over the German navy in a peace race. In this case, they were also willing to strengthen our Russian Baltic Fleet in order to contain and disperse the terrifying power of the German Navy in the waters adjacent to East Prussia. ”

"Although Britain is an evil group controlled by the Jews. In the past hundred years or so, he has committed all kinds of evils against our Russia, which can never be forgiven; This time, however, they are of some help to us in the process of rebuilding the Empire's navy. Griglovich glanced at the Tsar's complicated face, and said carefully, "Your Majesty, I think we should seize the opportunity of this British decline and the urgent need to support foreign forces to contain the German navy, and do our best to build up our fleet, which had suffered heavy losses in the war against Japan, in order to restore the former glory of the St. Andrew's banner." ”

Nikolai's face changed, as if he was hovering back and forth between existing interests and imperial face, and after a while. He let out a sigh of relief, and his turquoise eyes showed a look of indignation. Look at the Admiralty's face with a look of expectation in his care. Nikolai said slowly: "You are right. In the event of the defeat of the Empire in the Far East, we should no longer trouble the British in Central Asia, but should use all the forces at our disposal to restore our strength. Russia, without a navy, would be an unimaginably catastrophic pattern. After Nikolai's approval, Griglovich finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"What is the current situation of the Imperial Navy, and have you drawn up a specific plan for the rebuilding of the Navy?" Nikolai paused, then asked Griglovich.

"Your Majesty, the current situation of the Imperial Navy is quite unoptimistic, and the situation of any of the three major fleets has reached an unimaginably dilapidated edge." Seeing that the tsar had taken the initiative to pay attention to the development of the navy, Griglovich was greatly excited, and hurriedly struck while the iron was hot, and explained the miserable situation of the Russian navy to Nikolai in detail in the form of sensationalism in Presk's resentful eyes.

"In the Far East, the Imperial Pacific Fleet, which has suffered repeated defeats, is now supported by only three armored cruisers, including the Russo, which we built in 1894, and whose best destination is to enter the scrap metal recycling room of the shipyard on the island of Galierny. The other two German cruisers, although relatively superior in performance, have lost any power to fight back against the latest British and German supercruisers, which are equipped with the same main guns as the battleships, and the Japanese navy, and can only exist as a symbol of the military power of the Reich in the Far East. Griglovich said in a sad tone.

Hearing this, Nikolai's eyes showed a little pain, and he couldn't help but clench his fist under the cuff. After a war against Japan, the once-glorious Russian fleet almost lost its old capital; Now facing Japan, a reptile country with an overall national strength of only a third-rate, it can't even overpower it in terms of strength!

"In the Black Sea, the Reich's Black Sea Fleet was relatively intact in the war against Japan due to the inability to break out of the Dardanelles: the sailors' revolt on the Potemkin was also suppressed by us, and the Potemkin sailors, which sailed to the Romanian port, returned to the hands of the Reich Navy under pressure from St. Petersburg. At present, the Black Sea Fleet has 3 relatively new battleships such as Potemkin, Three Saints, and Rostislav, 5 ironclads that are about to be decommissioned, and 2 Yevstafi-class battleships, which began construction in 1903, are under construction at the Black Sea Shipyard. If our strategic objective is only to deal with the Turkish fleet in front of us, this force is more than competent; However, in order to avoid a repeat of the Crimean tragedy of 1851 and to ensure that Istanbul could be included in Sant'Andrea's territory, the Imperial Black Sea Fleet needed to be strengthened to at least rival the Italian fleet. Since the situation of the Black Sea Fleet was relatively good, Griglovich changed his expression in order to make the tsar feel that the navy in the region still needed a lot of room for development.

Griglovich cleared his throat and spoke in a solemn and anxious tone: "And in the Baltic, we are facing a particularly serious situation. The total annihilation of the Second and Third Pacific Fleets in the Tsushima Strait has left us defenseless in this area, and St. Petersburg is at any moment facing a serious threat of landing by the Germans at sea. At present, the Imperial Baltic Fleet has only one old Glorious-class battleship barely decorating the façade, while we are facing the German High Seas Fleet with 24 capital ships of various types, of which 5 are the latest capital ships with full heavy artillery! I have ordered the construction of the two Pavel I-class battleships to be built at the Gallerny Island shipyard, but this backward battleship, which is still a mixed main gun, is still far from being able to compete with the top German capital ships in service. Speaking of this, Griglovich glanced at Plesk next to him, and then said: "If the Empire's financial capacity is limited and it is not possible to expand the three fleets at the same time, then the strengthening of the Baltic Fleet must also be guaranteed, because at the moment we have no choice!" ”

"In the next 3 years, we must add 4 dreadnought battleships to the Baltic Fleet that can compete with the most advanced British and German warships, otherwise there will be no security for the Reich's lands on the Baltic coast." Griglovich made his request on behalf of the Navy, and there was not the slightest room for negotiation in his words, "In addition, in order to rebuild the same badly damaged light ship formation, we should build 6 more cruisers and 15 destroyers in the meantime, so that we can barely hold the gates of the west coast of the imperial capital." Lord Edward, please don't look at me like this, this is already the minimum necessary to maintain national defense! ”

Preske's face twitched slightly, and his heart had already greeted the eighteenth generation of the ancestors of the naval officers, including Griglovich. At present, the domestic situation in Russia has only slowly calmed down from the continuous turmoil of last year, and it will take a lot of time to recover from the greatly damaged social economy. If this naval expansion bill is passed, it will be tantamount to adding another extremely heavy mountain to Russia's finances, which already live on heavy debt. Since entering the era of dreadnoughts, the all-heavy gun dreadnoughts, which often exceed 1.7 million pounds, have made the navy's money-burning attribute more prominent; Coupled with Russia's bureaucratic corruption and relatively fragile industrial base, the cost of building this new warship is bound to be a huge overload compared to the previous capital ships!

"Edward, I understand the current state of the Empire's finances. The defeat in the war and the civil riots have cost us too much wealth, and it is difficult to raise funds for the navy at present, but the undefended Baltic Sea is impossible for the empire to accept in any way! With a wave of his hand, Nikolai stopped Plesk, who was about to stop talking, "The Baltic Fleet must be rebuilt, let Ramsdorf go to the French and the British for assistance." (To be continued......)

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