"Charge!"

The Italian officer, wearing the rank of captain, after a roar of rage, rushed towards the forward position with his soldiers.

"Push them back."

On the side of the position, the defending German officers and men, led by their officers, were also desperately resisting with the help of broken fortifications. This is not an isolated case, as we expand our perspective to a larger area, where the Italian army is launching an onslaught against the defending German forces. However, in the end, the defenders had more of a terrain advantage, and the onslaught of the Italian army was slowly pressed back.

Farther away, a group of men in the uniforms of the two countries were watching the performance of the two sides, and of course, in the star-studded group of generals, two figures who looked too young were surrounded by them.

"William, your country's army is elite enough, and our army is indeed a little behind."

Carlo let go of the high-powered telescope in front of him and spoke to Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was also observing the exercises.

In the face of Carlo's evaluation, the generals on the Italian side blushed, although they also knew that their own army was indeed a little different from the German army, but they were pointed out by the monarch so mercilessly, how could they be indifferent.

As the one to be evaluated, the German generals were equally proud to be evaluated by the monarch of a country, after all, the Italian king rarely evaluated foreign troops.

In the face of Carlo's evaluation, Kaiser Wilhelm II said after leaving the high-powered telescope with his eyes. "The progress of your army is obvious to all, and I believe that it will not be long before your army performs even better."

Well, Kaiser Wilhelm will also blow to each other, of course, the performance of the Italian Army has improved a little, and in recent years, the Italian side has no longer sent its own elite guards, but has sent troops with a medium evaluation in the army.

Of course, because of this change in the army, Italy has not performed well in the military exercises between Germany and Italy in recent years. But the Army's performance, including Carlo's, can see a change in its efforts. Instead of trying to hide your own shortcomings, you try to find out the problems and fix them.

However, in this army exercise, there are a few who seem to be a little conspicuous. No way, in a group of army generals, several admirals do feel a little strange.

Of course, two of these admirals were a little different, because those who knew them would be amazed, and these two heads of the German and Italian navy were engaged in a debate that had nothing to do with the exercises.

"Rear Admiral Tirpitz, I don't agree with Your Excellency, the navy is an offensive service, and although retreating in the harbor can preserve strength, it will make you lose the strategic initiative. This will also lead to a disadvantage in the contest with the enemy, and the difficulty of regaining the strategic initiative will increase exponentially. ”

Admiral Yagir, who was the Minister of the Italian Admiralty, was refuting the statements of Rear Admiral Tirpitz.

Although one of the two is a rear admiral and the other is an admiral, both have similar status, and they are both heads of the navies of various countries. Therefore, the conversation between the two can also be regarded as the development policy of the two navies.

"Admiral Yagill, I can only partially agree with your point of view, the navy is indeed an offensive service. Since the Nelson Spirit of Britain was proposed, navies have been learning from its philosophy. But I don't think the Navy should just have an offensive concept, and it also needs to take into account the actual situation. For example, the total tonnage of our navy is only 300,000, and the enemy who has declared war on our country has a total tonnage of 700,000. ”

Well, at this time the theory of the existence of the fleet of Rear Admiral Tirpitz had not yet taken shape, but it was already beginning to show signs of it. When it is at a disadvantage, the idea of preserving the strength of the fleet can already be seen.

However, after communicating with Admiral Yagill, it is clear that his idea has not been approved by his Italian counterparts.

Even after Major General Tirpitz explained, Admiral Yagill still disagreed.

Of course, the concepts are different between the two, and there are also reasons for national defense needs.

For example, the German navy, due to Germany's geographical location, has a short coastline, so the theory of fleet preservation has a basis. In order to contain the opponent, it is necessary to avoid engaging fires with the enemy, so that the enemy can devote more naval tonnage to his own fleet to avoid the enemy's naval attack on its own coast.

However, this theory may be suitable for Germany, but it is definitely not suitable for Italy. Italy's land is like a boot reaching out to the Mediterranean, which also leads to a long coastline. If Italy adopts the idea of defending ships, it will be too expensive to build coastal defense fortifications that Italy will not be able to afford (shore defense batteries are very expensive, at least 150 mm cannons are required to start, but generally more than 200 mm can be used as the main shore defense battery).

In view of the high cost of building forts, Italy took a different path, that is, with the exception of a few important port cities, the Italian navy was biased towards building ships, hoping to use its own naval warships to hold back the enemy.

In addition, in terms of the concept of shipbuilding, compared with the German Navy, which mainly uses armor protection, Italian shipbuilding pays more attention to the speed of warships. In the eyes of the Italian Navy, the speed of the battleship was a crucial factor, and with the advantage of speed, the navy had more tactics at its disposal. Whether it is in the case of advantages or disadvantages, speed is the goal that needs to be prioritized among the three elements of the battleship.

And the German and Italian navies, perhaps because of various differences, make the two navies different in concept.

The head of the navies of the two countries also did not suppress the dispute because of the concept, which also attracted the attention of others.

"Two generals, different naval philosophies, can actually change over time. For example, after surpassing a potential opponent, can they still think the same as before? ”

Carlo stepped forward to play the round, and Kaiser Wilhelm naturally took over. "Carlo you are right, the Navy also changes its philosophy according to its own changes, of course, how to measure this, also needs to be carefully considered."

Well, the words of the two monarchs immediately dispelled the dispute between the two, and of course, it mainly reminded them of the reason for coming here.

They are not here to learn from the experience of army exercises, and they don't have the time and leisure time. Rather, it was the navies of the two countries that sought cooperation, and it would not be fair to say that it was the German navy that sought help.

That's right, although Germany has not yet come up with the first naval construction bill, but the German navy is expanding. The four Brandenburg-class battleships can be seen as the beginning of the development of the German navy, and although the performance of this battleship is not comparable to that of the Turin class, which pioneered the pre-dreadnought era, it is a good start.

And after the four Brandenburg-class battleships that were outdated, the German Navy came up with the Caesar Frederick III-class battleship program. Although the ships of this class are much better than the Brandenburg class, not to mention the new Italian battleships, even the Turin class is better. If there was anything to merit about this German battleship, it was the large number of rapid-fire guns.

In addition, compared with the previous Frederick III class rapid-fire guns (the main gun was also the largest rapid-fire gun at that time, 240 mm), the current Frederick III class is the four 350 mm caliber main guns. This was also influenced by the naval battles between China, Italy, and Japan during the First Sino-Japanese War. Large-caliber main guns still have enough deterrence, so Germany is also on the road of guaranteeing calibers.

And this time, Kaiser Wilhelm II personally invited Carlo, naturally he was still dissatisfied with his own naval warships and wanted to learn from the experienced Italian navy.

As for the naval cooperation sought by Germany, of course, Carlo also had his own ideas, but how to cooperate still needs to wait for him to talk about it.