Just after the U.S. Congress passed the bill to inject money into the navy on a large scale, the reaction that Qingying expected from all parties soon followed.

On May 14, 1914, British Foreign Secretary Gray officially presented a credential statement to Berlin with the Treaty of Amsterdam still in his arms. In view of the fact that the significant expansion of the United States Navy has seriously affected the balance of power in the Atlantic, the British government believes that the current situation has met the period of "absolute necessity" stipulated in the treaty. The tonnage of the British Navy's capital ships should rise to 70% of that of Germany in order to counter the emergence of new threats in the Atlantic. At the end of the statement, the British also mentioned that they would resume the construction of four Hood-class heavy battleships that had been suspended, and their intention to rebuild the naval power was already clear.

In the face of the opening of the lions of the British, the German government naturally gave a tough refusal. Not to mention that Germany has not yet established its own overseas bases in the two key regions of Iceland and Morocco, and the deterrence of Britain is far from the ideal state; The service of that batch of Hood alone is enough to break the current balance of power between the two navies. As the German Navy in this plane merged the battle cruiser into the battleship, the Hood, which was historically an imaginary enemy of Mackensen, also evolved into a heavy battleship: although the final choice of 12 406 mm or 8 457 mm main guns still depends on the progress of the artillery subsystem, its combat effectiveness based on a displacement of 45,000 tons is undoubtedly extremely amazing!

At the same time, Japan, far away on the other side of the world, also reacted violently. Since the defeat of the Russian Navy at the Battle of Tsushima and the shrinkage of the British fleet to the European mainland, the nascent Japanese Navy has become the hegemon of the Western Pacific; The only imaginary enemy that can pose a threat to them is the open industrial nation on the other side of the ocean. Now the United States has begun to unilaterally build a large number of ships. This will inevitably make Japan, which was already full of ambition after the victory over Russia. Decisively cannot stand such a provocative move by the opponent!

Although the Japanese Navy was mired in the "Siemens Affair" revealed in January 1914, its prestige had fallen. Even Prime Minister Gonbei Yamamoto, who came from the navy, was forced to resign because of the kickback scandal; However, the priorities of the political struggle and national security can still be weighed by the newly formed Japanese cabinet. The Japanese government immediately allocated 30 million yen for the purchase of two improved Ise-class battleships of the Fuso class this year. Fueled by those navy members who have gone into the field but are still active, Japan has officially put the "88 Fleet" plan on the agenda: In the next three years, Japan will build four new battle cruisers and two battleships, and is preparing to build 10 light cruisers, 25 destroyers, and 22 submarines. Under this plan, which would collapse Japan's finances, the Japanese navy's military expenditure would rise from the current 85 million yen to 176 million yen a year from 1915 onwards.

"For us. Now is by no means the ideal time to engage in a naval arms race with them. The empire has more than 5 million demobilized soldiers to be resettled, and large swathes of Eastern European territory and overseas colonies need to be filled in and occupied; Over the next ten years, our capital wealth will be invested in these regions in order to turn them into blood banks capable of providing a steady stream of blood transfusions for our country. At a royal meeting, German Chancellor Holwig mercilessly poured cold water on the eager Tirpitz. The era of the risk fleet was over, and Germany's priority now was to fully digest the victorious wealth gained in the war; The consequences of continuing the arms race would be tantamount to fishing for nothing, which he could never accept as Prime Minister of the Empire.

Under these circumstances, Qing Ying's proposal to conclude a worldwide treaty on the limitation of naval armaments entered the German government's choice. Even the Kaiser and Tirpitz had to admit that Germany's economic power and shipbuilding scale were far from being comparable to those of the United States; If it goes on like this. The result will only be more and more unfavorable for Germany. At a time when Britain and France still have influence and the Americas have no stronghold, it is also irrational to fight a preventive war against the United States. If you can tie up the development of the US Navy with a paper treaty. Maintaining the newly acquired world throne of the German Navy would undoubtedly be the best outcome. When Germany has digested all the fruits of victory in this war, then it will no longer be afraid to fight head-on with the United States!

On 27 May, the German government sent a proposal to the United States, Britain, Austria, Italy, and Japan to convene a six-nation naval talks. The statement said: In order to avoid a recurrence of the tragedy of the recent European war, which killed 5 million people, the world's major naval powers should conclude a common treaty to limit naval armaments, so as to curb the emergence of large-scale wars at the root.

To the surprise of the German Government, in addition to Austria-Hungary, which had made an agreement with it in advance, responded positively at the first time, the British Government, which was clamoring for the completion of four Hood-class ships into service half a month ago, also quickly issued a statement in support of convening a conference on arms limitation. After thinking about it carefully, Qingying also understood the plans of the British. Even Germany could not defeat the United States in the arms race, so how could Britain still have the strength to meet this new round of shipbuilding competition? If a treaty to limit armaments is not concluded, and the great powers are left open to shipbuilding, then Britain's current economic scale and financial base will only widen the gap between its fleet and that of Germany and the United States. You know, Germany can now solve all the opponents on land, and can pour all the military focus into the naval field, which is also beyond the reach of Britain!

Therefore, instead of being left far behind by the other party after an exhausting marathon, it is better to take advantage of the current lead of half a body to remind the American runner who has not yet started to exert his strength that "everyone rests and drinks saliva first". For Germany, a ruthless character who is far ahead of him and faster than himself, he has to hold his thighs and prevent him from continuing to run forward. At present, the Commonwealth is still the largest and most populous country in the world, and if it can gain more than 10 years of recovery, there will be no chance of regaining its position in the future.

In the face of the Austro-Hungarian and British peace, the U.S. government, which was originally preparing to make a big deal in the navy, suddenly fell into an embarrassing situation. As a result of Germany's eventual leniency of Britain and France in the Treaty of Amsterdam, the American people, who were already in a debt panic, had a good opinion of the German government: the people all wanted to get along with the new dominant players on the European continent, and their businessmen eagerly hoped that post-war Germany would open up this huge market of more than 100 million people to them. The logic of the American people is simple: since Germany has extended an olive branch of peace, there is absolutely no reason why it should not be caught!

In this case, the U.S. government can only express its willingness to participate in the meeting. In fact, wise men like Roosevelt Sr. who had a far-sighted vision of national strategy were rare in the whole of America: if they were not, the Americans would not have been throwing their swords at their own navy as if nothing had happened to them when the war clouds were falling in Europe, lest these Iron Kings suck up their wallets. The reason why the parliamentarians agreed to a large-scale expansion of the fleet was because the German government's attitude was still unclear and Japan was ready to move in the Pacific, so the United States had to build ships to defend itself. If a peace negotiation can be de-escalated now, then who wants to put money into the navy to feed this "brazen camel"?

The situation in Japan is similar to that of the United States. However, unlike the popular government in the United States, Japan is a fierce battle between the forces of the army and navy. In a way, Japan's army and navy are more like a pair of enemies who are enemies of each other: because of Japan's own limited national strength, they not only compete with each other for budget, but also fight for political power. In order to weaken the influence of the army in his cabinet, Prime Minister Gonbei Yamamoto, who was born in the navy, abolished the rule that the minister of the army and navy must be an active officer: If you dare to threaten the government with your resignation, I can take this position casually! For this action of the Navy, the Japanese army top brass has long gritted their teeth with hatred; However, it was only because of the real needs of national defense construction that Yamamoto was promised a high budget for military expansion when he had already stepped down. If this objective need is no longer saved, how can the army still agree to give the navy a penny of shipbuilding funds?

Therefore, after the United States expressed its willingness to conclude a treaty, the Japanese Army Government, which had long since seen that the navy was very unpleasant, immediately expressed its response to Germany's proposal to limit naval armaments. Since then, the major naval powers have achieved a unified attitude. Seeing that the limitation of naval armaments was already the trend of the times, the Italians who were unwilling to do so could only join this club.

According to William's idea, the negotiation venue was to be set up in Berlin. Because this not only demonstrated Germany's post-war European centrality, but also allowed the American and Japanese representatives who came across the sea to feel the peak lineup of the high seas fleet, so as to overwhelm the opponent in momentum. However, since the state of war between Britain and Germany had just ended, in order to demonstrate the sincerity and fairness of the negotiations, Qing Yingti chose the location in Washington, D.C., the neutral capital of the United States. Eventually, the Americans took over the chairmanship of the conference, and Kiyoying was to join a delegation of dignitaries and military officers on a voyage to the Americas. (To be continued......)

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