"By the way, I almost forgot the most important thing." William sat up from the chair, his words full of urgency. "Last year, you told me that the navy planned a lineup of 38 battleships and 24 cruisers was too much, and he asked for the naval law to be revised again. Now it has been almost a year, so it should be a result? Now all countries are vigorously expanding their naval armaments, Britain, France, the United States and Russia are no exception. Even Italy and our Austro-Hungarian allies have launched a new round of naval construction plans. If Germany is stuck, it is afraid that it will be difficult to keep the top five in the world!"

Looking at William's anxious look, Qingying sighed quietly. According to his original idea, he tried to hide the German naval front in the previous fearless era; even if he created a dreadnought in advance, he needed to hide and escape to avoid overstimulating the British and allowing them to build a lineup that was stronger than the large fleet in history. The so-called "Britain was already weak in the late stage of the British-German naval competition" actually has great doubts. The wealth accumulated by Britain's rule of maritime trade for hundreds of years is extremely huge and unimaginable. It is impossible to be dragged down by a simple shipbuilding competition without a war; as long as the British make up their minds, they can start construction of 7 main ships every year at an average speed!

Historically, Germany built 22 new dreadnoughts between 1907 and 1912, with a speed of only half of the above; although Germany in this plane has been strengthened to a large extent in both industrial and economic terms, since the Qing and Ying had decided to ensure the supply of the army first, the number of dreadnoughts could not exceed 5 per year. Therefore, if Germany wants to defeat the British Navy, it must implement the development strategy of "loose in front and tight in the back": that is, slow down the speed of shipbuilding in the early stage in order to stabilize the British, and wait until it enters 1909 to fight all its strength, so that a large number of main ships can be concentrated in 1912-1914. Only in this way can the gap between the two sides in the war be minimized, which is the best strategy to defeat the British Navy.

However, many things cannot be changed by Qingying alone. The German Emperor William was full of ambitions and had an unimaginable desire for the naval fleet and the territory under the sun. Before this, although Qingying, with several epoch-making ideas proposed by him in naval construction, William had a strong holy favor to him, but this definitely did not mean that William could repeatedly tolerate his behavior of slowing down the development of his beloved navy. As early as 1895, William was preparing to develop the Navy, but was stopped by Qingying. For a person of his personality, enduring for 8 years was already extremely reluctant. If he continued to endure this time, it would be impossible to guarantee that there would be no reaction, and even let him be rejected by himself. Didn’t the “eternal Tirpitz” in history also lose the trust of the German Emperor, exiled to the manor and die forever?

Therefore, although Qing Ying knew that it was unwise to start building warships at this time, he had no choice but to cater to William's ambition to expand his army. He nodded slightly and said, "I am about to report this to my father today. After repeated discussions, we have come up with a brand new plan; after some details are improved, we will prepare to hand it over to my father for the imperial view."

William said, "What is the size of the new plan's fleet? You won't cut too much with one knife, right?"

Qingying said: "The new plan does not stipulate the expected scale of the entire fleet. The number of warships planned to start construction is determined by the current situation. As the current imperial economy and the world situation are undergoing drastic and far-reaching changes, the long-term and stable naval law can be implemented step by step, but it is really a suspect that it cannot keep up with the change. Therefore, I shortened the year and refined the construction plan that was originally 8 to 10 years to 2 to 3 years. In this way, we can make the most timely response to the imaginary enemy situation."

William showed a look of surprise in his eyes and nodded, "This is also a good way. Refining the naval development plan to 2 to 3 years, it is indeed more flexible than the previous naval law in specific operations. So in the first time period in the future, how many main battleships are you planning to build?"

"At present, Germany is in the best European situation, with the struggle between Britain and France, and Russia heading eastward; according to the conclusion drawn by Prime Minister Bilo and the two Army and Navy ministers after discussion, in this situation, the navy's annual military expenditure should not exceed 8% of the government's annual income." Speaking of this, Qingying carefully glanced at William next to him. After seeing that there was no look of anger on his face, he spoke again, "Based on this point, the empire will start construction of seven main battleships in the next three years, which is already a very rapid expansion speed."

William frowned, but the expression on his face was not the anger that Qingying imagined, but was full of confusion and doubts: "Etel, I don't understand. Even if we only invest the amount of money in the navy, it would be a very generous amount. Why did we build 7 main battleships in three years? Have you also become a member of the new French Navy school and planned a large number of cruisers and destroyers? You must know that the French Navy, which has advocated the Green Water School for seven or eight years, has now abandoned this heretic idea and returned to the main battleships' right path; they will lay keels for three battleships at the same time this year, and these are big guys with a displacement of more than 14,500 tons!"

"I have never been a follower of heresy like the Green Water School. In fact, in these three years, I have only planned three small cruisers of 3,000-ton class and 12 300-ton class destroyers, which cost only more than 8.5 million marks per year. The reason why the number of main ships is small this time is entirely because the main ships have been greatly enhanced! The newly designed Caesars ship has a displacement of 16,500 tons without loading any fuel, and the full load displacement can reach 18,200 tons, of course the cost is increased. The single cost of this class ship is expected to exceed 30 million marks, which is almost 50% higher than the Vecchelsbach-class battleships built between us. In addition, the construction of submarines also requires a lot of budget, so the quantity is slightly less." Qingying explained briefly.

"Why is it so much expensive all of a sudden?" William said with some displeasure.

"The factor of the significant increase in the cost of the new ship is mainly due to the increase in the number of main guns. On the previous battleship, we only equipped it with 6 11-inch main guns, and the number of main guns of this new ship suddenly increased to 10, and it is also the latest 283mm SKL47 model of Krupp's military industry; since the main gun has always been the most expensive subsystem of the battleship, the cost will not be reduced. In addition, the design power is enough 22,000 horsepower, Krupp's secondary hardened armor and Zeiss's sight-seeing fire control equipment are both spent

The big head of money has caused a significant increase in price." Qingying glanced at William, who was still a little resentful, and said, "However, the money spent is definitely worth the money. Although its real performance has not been tested in actual combat, General Tirpitz and I agreed that this ship will effortlessly defeat three standard battleships equipped with 4 12-inch main guns, even in the UK's "Edward VII" class! After it is born, all the active or under construction battleships in the world will be completely swept into the garbage dump of history!"

Before this, since Qingying had slightly outlined the scene of the dreadnought to William, William did not show too surprised reaction to Qingying's argument. After a while, he breathed a long sigh and said slowly: "In other words, since this new ship can easily defeat ordinary battleships that are twice as expensive as it is, as long as we invest less than half of the British funding in this new warship, we can obtain combat effectiveness that is better than Britain! This is a shortcut to quickly catch up with the British Navy, right?"

Qingying nodded, "That's true. At a distance of 6,000 to 7,000 meters, the attacks that 10 11-inch L47 heavy artillery with a unified fire control rate of 2.5 rounds per minute can be caused by traditional battleships equipped with four 12-inch slow-fire guns. Neither the early majesty nor the construction of Edward VII have any qualifications to be equipped with 10 heavy artillery with such speed.

The new battleship confrontation that can reach 20 frequencies! What I just said about defeating three enemy ships is a very conservative number. The 33 4-door 12-inch gun battleships that the British had worked hard to build before have no threat to us; I can almost assert that in the future, this new type of full-heavy artillery main ship will play the absolute protagonist, and now, I, Germany, are bravely heading for the beginning of this ocean revolution!”

"Okay!" William slapped his armrest and stood up from the chair, blushing, "You can prepare for the start-up ceremony of this class of warships. The scale must be extremely grand and grand; at that time, I will personally join a large number of military and political officials to gather on the scene to give a blessing speech to this class of warships carrying Germany's future and hope!"

William walked back and forth in the same place with a smile on his face. His already upturned gray beard stood proudly like the feathers on a peacock, and was swelling upwards. After a while, William's excitement subsided. When he turned his head, he suddenly found that the young man in front of him was still standing there, motionless. Seeing this scene, William was puzzled and couldn't help asking: "Hey, haven't you heard what I said just now? Go and prepare for the start-up ceremony?"

Qingying whispered: "That, a month ago, the new ship had already laid a keel in the Germanic shipyard."

William's smile suddenly stiffened. After a moment, he showed an unbelievable expression on his face and shouted: "How could this happen? You must know that if this matter can be vigorously promoted, it will ignite the entire German passion for the ocean, enhance the reputation of the empire, and promote the powers of Germany's powers! You can't let it go quietly?"
Chapter completed!