This arms sale to Spain undoubtedly provides Germany with an excellent opportunity to renovate warships.

According to the current German naval law, only one battleship was started every year to replace the old ironclad ship; even though Qingying forced a budget for a decisive battle-type armored patrol in order to make up for the main lineup of the high seas fleet in the future, the situation where the German navy was developing relatively slowly was not changed. William II, who was very fond of merit, had long complained about the development speed of the naval fleet; in his opinion, giving the armored patrol the ability to decisive battle is certainly a cost-effective

Excellent strategy, but this is the embodiment of the third-rate country with a jingling naval wallet. As the leading tyrant on the European continent and rich in all directions, Germany actually needs to use this method to increase the scale of the main fleet, which undoubtedly greatly damages the empire's appearance among the world's naval powers. In addition, in order to achieve high speed, its battle line capabilities are much inferior to real battleships; and at present, battleships are the forces that play a role in arbitration in naval battles!

Seeing that William had such a strong desire for battleships, Qingying no longer insisted on investing all the proceeds from selling the ship into the construction of the decisive battle armored patrol, but obeyed William's wishes. As William's cheap second son, Qingying could give different opinions to the emperor, but when William made up his mind, all he could do was to fully support the emperor. In many cases, choosing to unswervingly implement the middle strategy is much better than repeatedly arguing about the implementation of the best strategy! For Qingying, it was also necessary for him to maintain his holy favor in front of William as always in order to lay a better foundation for future actions.

However, the improved version of the decisive battle patrol proposed by Qingying also gave William an unprecedented temptation. Calculated by the normal navigation speed of 26 knots in the water, the distance of 3,000 meters is only about 4 minutes; if the idea of ​​a combat torpedo launch tower is successfully implemented, its torpedo launch speed of 1 round in 2 minutes is enough to be able to finish the shot in time and launch the second torpedo on the new waterway that the opponent's warship is changing to avoid the first torpedo. Even if this idea ultimately fails, the remedy added by Qingying to it can still recover all the losses caused by the increase in tonnage!

Faced with this business that is stable and profitable, even though William wanted to build more battleships, he couldn't help but feel a little moved. After some trade-offs, William cut the budget of the original three battleships and changed it to an improved version of the final battleship patrol. In this way, coupled with the annual plan that the German Navy already had, they will start construction of three battleships and two modified final battleship patrols in 1898, and the speed of building ships was the highest in history. When the German government announced this year's budget in a government report, the entire venue

The construction of naval warships has never been a matter of shipyards, but also involved countless fields such as steel, coal, machinery, chemicals, artillery, etc.; even the most common handmade workshops in the country can weave long ropes for warships with colorful flags! The construction of a main battleship can solve the employment problems of thousands of people during the construction period of several years, and bring considerable benefits to capitalists in various fields. What's more, this year, five new main battleships have been started in one go?

With the thunderous cheers of the MPs, a temporary amendment bill to advance the Naval Law was quickly released. The huge 74 million mark plundered by the German government from the Spanish was injected into the navy's vault; and because the equipment maintenance and personnel expenses were budgeted, all the money was spent on the construction of new ships. The machinery roared, the steel was tilted, and the first three 13,850-ton battleships were laid on the keel at the German shipyard. Looking at the old Navy Minister's blushing face, Qingying suddenly wondered, if Tirpitz had heard of this news, would he regret going to the Far East thousands of miles away?

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Just as the German Admiralty urged the subordinate design bureau to complete the design work of the new reform and decisive battle armor patrol and prepare to show its strength and start the new ship again, the turbulence on the other side of the ocean was also in full swing. The explosion of the "Maine" ironclad ship set off a surging torrent of public opinion in the United States.

Before this, the United States had never had the will to go to war in Spain. This was not only because the civil war between the North and South that caused millions of people to die, but the pain had not subsided from the hearts of the American people, but also because the American people were satisfied with the current comfortable life of wealth and peace, and they could not raise any interest in overseas colonies. In the eyes of the American people, their country is neither short of resources nor markets, and their productivity ranks first in the world. There is no need to strive to explore overseas like those European countries as big as a palm. Based on this general wish of the people, the United States is not very concerned about overseas affairs; its life is already good enough, why bother to engage in a war that kills people and seizes a colony?

If the normal development trend is followed, the United States may not necessarily turn its attention to overseas regions in the next ten years, but the explosion of the Maine undoubtedly changed the trajectory of this historical development.

Over the past month, the media and newspapers in the United States have continued to report on this incident like a chicken blood, locking the culprit of the incident directly to Spain. The Americans' reasons are very convincing. Havana is under the core ruling area of ​​Spain, and the surrounding rebels have been suppressed by the heavy troops stationed here in Spain. In this case, only Spain has the ability to blast the Maine of the United States! As for the reason why the Spanish did this, the American media also thought of various reasons for the potential enemies of their country. For a time, all kinds of verbal cannons in American newspapers and radio burst into pieces, saying that the shameless and cruelty of the Spanish is that there are few hell and there is no one in the world.

Due to lack of first-hand information, it is difficult for ordinary people to have an accurate understanding of things. Even in the 21st century, when information is transmitted at high speed, they will be fooled by the authorities, not to mention the end of the 19th century when there are not even a few radios. Moreover, even if lies are told three times, they will become truth, and this powerful argument of "fully pursuing criminal conditions" is popular in the United States. The angry American people do not doubt that they have the anti-Western sentiment soared rapidly. Later, in major cities in the United States, condemning Spanish atrocities will break out every day.

March and demonstration. In New York, angry crowds gathered outside the Spanish Embassy with banners and slogans "Blood Debt and Blood Payment", violently striking against the human walls of the American police and the riot team. The Spanish Embassy, ​​which was once unique and fresh, was completely covered by miscellaneous items thrown by the American people. Several diplomats, including the Spanish Ambassador, hugged in the high-walled courtyard all day long, and did not dare to show their heads like heavy tanks suppressed by bombing. They listened to the waves of condemnation outside, trembling as if they were in a nightmare of hell.

However, the United States, which had already started the war machine, no longer wanted to tangle with the Spanish in the explosion of the Maine. Under the instruction of Theodore Roosevelt, the US Navy officers and soldiers refused to approach the wreckage of the Spanish investigation team, and then dragged the wreckage into the far sea on a dark and windy night, then sank into the ocean, completely destroying the corpse. At the same time, the propaganda machine in the United States was running at full speed again, saying that this was a good thing that the Spanish did while the United States was not paying attention, trying to bury their sins into the land forever. Regarding Spain's strong protest against the evidence of unilateral destruction of the United States, the US government calmly stated that this was entirely to soothe the wounded hearts of the US Navy officers and soldiers.

On April 22, the US Pacific Fleet was dispatched collectively to block Cuba's waterway to the outside world. A Spanish transport ship full of supplies was captured by the United States. Seeing that the Americans showed off their weapons and had stabbed them in the body, the Spanish government suddenly realized that there was no room for return. Two days later, Spain declared war on the United States, and the US government, which had long been impatient, immediately responded with the declaration of war. History has since entered a new era.

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The birds are singing and the wind is warm. Berlin in the early morning is bathed in the dazzling sunshine. In the grand and magnificent magnificent, it is full of vitality with spring green.

Qingying walked on the stone slab Avenue with great strides, then took two steps at a time and stepped directly into William's office. He was embroidered with gold and jade belts, and the slim and straight blue and black dress vividly highlighted his tall and straight young body. Looking at the second son in front of him who could hardly find a second person in Europe in the whole of Europe, William's eyes flashed with pride; a trace of arc curls faintly at the corner of his mouth, and he said lightly: "Are you ready?"

Qingying whispered: "All items are ready and have been shipped to the palace gate. Today I am here to say goodbye to my father."

William nodded and said slowly: "You are going to the Far East and visiting that dwarf country. You have to travel tens of thousands of miles along the way. You have to learn to take care of yourself. If you encounter any uncertainty, you must first report the news to the country and wait for my reply after discussing with the ministers. Do not act alone."

Qingying nodded and said, "I have recorded it. I will definitely not disappoint my father when I go to Japan."

A smile appeared on William's face, as if he was relieved and relieved; he patted Qingying on the shoulder and said, "Don't forget what you promised me. For this empire, for your mother and me, and for the little cousin of Little Nicki, when it comes to the deadline for returning home, I will see you standing in front of me intact!"
Chapter completed!