As the de facto head of the High Seas Fleet, Tirpitz is treading on thin ice, or anyone who has enough power to decide the rise and fall of a country in a single day would be very careful. Tirpitz was so, Churchill was so. Even more so with the fleet commanders, Scheer and Jericho. Tirpitz would never have taken any of them lightly because he had a large number of capital ships at his disposal. In his opinion, it would be most practical to mobilize part of the warships of the Far Eastern Fleet to "sell" Huaxia.

First of all, the German fleet stationed in the Caroline Islands was not far from the Philippine anchorage of the Chinese fleet. Can be arrived quickly. Second, the fact that the Scharnhorst-class is such a capital ship and is isolated overseas will not weaken the strength of the domestic fleet. Thirdly, Germany will not be reactive diplomatically. After all, this was nominally an armored cruiser with 11-inch guns. Germany did far less than Britain and France.

When Tirpitz told Wilhelm II of his plans, Wilhelm II thought it was a good idea. After all, the Danton-class battleships arrived in the Far East for a long time, and the two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers were ready to join the Huaxia Fleet in the Far East, and Wilhelm II and Xu Jie had one thing in common, that is, to lay the victory before the Russian reinforcements arrived. Therefore, Wilhelm II also agreed with this plan. Of course, he also wondered how much benefit the Germans would gain if the German Navy "provided" these two armored cruisers to the Huaxia Navy.

Immediately after leaving the palace, Tirpitz summoned the Admiralty to discuss the matter. The news that followed was not very encouraging. The second of the two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers, the Gneisenau, is undergoing maintenance, and the only ships that can be dispatched are the Scharnhorst, which has just completed maintenance, and three light cruisers. But even so. Tirpitz believed that China would not reject the goodwill of the Second German Reich either. Later, after reporting to the Kaiser, Wilhelm II began to instruct the German ambassador to the Chinese Republic to contact the matter. And on the third day of Xu Jie's arrival in Taiwan, the German ambassador also secretly arrived in Taiwan. and boarded the battleship Longxing, the general flagship of the Chinese Navy.

Xu Jie was very puzzled, why did the German ambassador come all the way to Taiwan? And then the German ambassador's words made Xu Jie feel quite shocked. "I think you should already know about the behavior of the British and the French, and this kind of behavior is a serious violation of the neutrality clause, and it is inevitable that Britain, France, and Russia will come together. And this has caused serious damage to the war situation in Southeast Asia and to the interests of your country and our country. His Majesty the Kaiser and the German Empire would never allow such a thing to happen. The German ambassador paused and continued.

"As an expression of the friendship of the German Reich towards your country, my Government has authorized me to consider the sale of part of the warships of the German Far East Fleet to your country. Among them are the Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers, which have just been in service for less than 1 year. The second half of the German minister's words made Xu Jie's heart chuckle.

Xu Jie never thought that such a pie-in-the-sky good thing could fall on him. Xu Jie was a little confused when he heard the last sentence. But soon it became clear. The German Reich, while reaching out to help, will also extend another hand for benefits, so what does Germany want now? At the critical moment, will the price offered by Germany, which is in the snow, difficult for China to accept? Xu Jie couldn't help but be a little worried.

"On behalf of the Republic of China, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for your assistance. Then I would like to know the condition of the ships of your Far Eastern Fleet and the costs required. Xu Jie said slowly, if you can solve the problem with money. That's even better, then it's definitely better to be slaughtered than to provide convenience in business or other ways.

"Money is not an issue. Or rather, your country does not even have to pay a single mark for the purchase of these ships now. What we are certain of is that after the end of the Sino-Russian War, your country will definitely dispose of a part of the warships. And I think this method should be resold to other countries. If so, then how about reselling it to the Ottoman Turkish Empire? As for the specific price, we will negotiate according to the condition of the ship. "The German ambassador stated his conditions.

"Huh?" Xu Jie was shocked. As the saying goes, a pie falling from the sky in one day is already good. What happens if another pie falls in one day? Happiness came too suddenly. made Xu Jie a little doubtful whether he was in a dream. The Huaxia Navy will definitely reduce the size of its fleet after the end of the Sino-Russian War. Not only will the former dreadnoughts, including Ninghai, be sold, but even the capital ship Longxu will be sold within a few years after the end of the war. The reason is very simple, Huaxia has too much to feed so many steel behemoths in peacetime, and more importantly, Huaxia also wants to build new super dreadnoughts, and selling old ships is an inevitable choice under the condition of a certain military expenditure.

Xu Jie believes that if there is no such thing as today. Xu Jie will definitely worry about the handling of these warships in the future. Dismantling and recuperating is definitely the best policy, while selling to other countries is the best choice. And after thinking about it, Xu Jie also knew the reason somewhat. That is, Germany, Austria and Italy are preparing for war with all their might, and in order to strengthen the Turkish Navy. Providing them with a batch of second-hand warships with good performance is definitely a cheap and easy thing to do. And the only country that has a large number of warships in its hands and may sell them cheaply is Huaxia, and there is no semicolon!

This transaction was extremely beneficial for both parties, and the combat power of the Huaxia Navy was enhanced, and preparations were made in advance for the subsequent resale of warships. On the one hand, Germany used the Chinese Navy to strike at Russia, and at the same time provided a number of warships for its future allies, and in principle, Xu Jie was very much in favor of this deal. But there are some things that need to be discussed. For example, when will the German fleet arrive, and what about training after taking over? After all, it's not like you can have combat effectiveness when you get it. Another example is the time and price factor of warships sold to the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

"Your country does not need to worry about the training of personnel, Rear Admiral Spee will personally command this fleet, and if necessary, the officers and men of the German High Seas Fleet on board will personally take part in the battle, and of course, these officers and men will go to war as volunteers. They will not belong to the German Navy for the time being. However, it is better to have the Chinese Navy as the mainstay, supplemented by German officers and soldiers, so that even if the battleship is sunk, we will have a lot less trouble. As for the situation of the battleships, I can only say that in the short term, I am afraid that only the armored cruiser Scharnhorst and the three light cruisers attached to it can be put into battle, and the other battleships are being maintained. After hearing Xu Jie's concerns, the German minister replied very neatly.

In fact, it is not a big deal for the two countries to be at war with the participation of personnel from third countries. In the First Sino-Japanese War, Lang Weili, Ma Jifen and others in the Chinese Xia Navy were foreign personnel. Luang Willey even retained the rank of British Navy. Moreover, the two Danton-class armored cruisers sold by France to Russia this time had a large number of French naval personnel on board. At most, this is just a responsibility. What else could I do? Let's fight? More importantly, the top brass of the German High Seas Fleet headed by Tirpitz is really like letting the Far East Fleet under Spee practice their hands to see what level the German fleet is.

"To put it bluntly, it's just to find an opportunity to fight the Russians together, which is very good, and it's just a matter of forming an alliance with a public declaration." Xu Jie said in his heart. On the one hand, Russia is fighting, and it has no time and no ability to get along with Germany, Austria and Italy. On the other hand, Austria-Hungary had already begun to make small moves with Turkey in the Balkans while Russia was looking eastward. Britain and France are at a disadvantage this time. Therefore, Europe will definitely not be able to fight now, and since it can't do it, it will be okay for both sides to scold them. When conditions permit, war can be fought under various pretexts, but when conditions do not permit, during the Cold War, the Americans' Perry-class destroyer was smashed by Iraq's Exocet missiles, isn't it still low-key? I haven't seen any overreaction from the United States.

"In terms of the transfer of warships, the price can be determined according to the condition of the ship at the time, but we have other requirements in terms of time, and we will only sell the old ship when the new warship is launched. In principle, the Longxing class and the Longtai class will not be sold. Xu Jie put forward his own requirements, the artillery mounts of the Longxing-class and Longtai-class are reserved, and they can be replaced with larger-caliber guns, so there is also an upgraded air force, and the Longxu-class battlecruiser is the first choice for sale, on the one hand, because the protection is relatively poor, and on the other hand, the firepower upgrade space is already very small.

"We agree in principle with this, but I hope that the Turkish Navy will receive its first Dreadnought within two years of the end of the Sino-Russian War. And in the 4th year, it will be able to have at least 2 dreadnought ships. Moreover, the Huaxia Navy is obliged to let the Turkish Navy personnel master these two warships as much as possible and play their role. The German minister's answer was very simple, that is, to make the Turkish fleet grow as quickly as possible, and if nothing else, at least to rob merchant ships against small warships or something, right? In the future, it will be up to them to break diplomatic relations in the Indian Ocean.

It's a real win-win, with both sides getting what they want. Xu Jie can now finally add a powerful armored cruiser to the former dreadnought battle group. What the? Why don't you join the capital ship battle group? On the one hand, because the combat power of the main fleet is enough, and on the other hand, no matter how fierce the patrol is, it is only a patrol, Xu Jie really didn't plan to let a small boat with only 8-inch armor and 6 11-inch guns fight with a regular dreadnought. Relatively speaking, it is best to let the former dreadnought fleet hold off the opponent as much as possible. What Xu Jie needs to make up for is the short board, not the part that is already very long.

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