While the German Army was carefully analyzing the land war situation between China and Russia, the German Navy was not idle either. In Tirpitz's official residence, the head of the German Navy was talking with Scheer and Hipper.

The generals discussed a very important issue, that is, whether it is necessary to rebuild the German Far East Fleet, and what is the position and role of the Far East Fleet in future wars?

In fact, three fleets were defeated in the Sino-Russian War, not to mention the Russian fleet and the Dutch fleet, and the other fleet was the miserable German Far East Fleet. In the last battle, two small ships of only about 15,000 tons were defeated.

The battlecruiser was killed and the red-eyed Russian battleships chased them down n streets and then beat them to death. The German Far East Fleet only had two battleships. After the battle, they were really crippled.

Later, according to William II's idea, in order to show Germany's presence in the Far East, the Far East Fleet must be rebuilt. It is a symbol of the Second German Empire and the dignity of His Majesty the Emperor. But obviously Tirpitz did not think so.

, he thought more realistically. That is, for a little dignity, he would spend more than 2 million

Is it worth throwing a pound of battleship into a useless place? It is very difficult for the German Far East colonies to build a 15,000-ton battleship. If you throw two Dreadnoughts there, it means port facilities and forts and so on.

They have to expand. It’s a no-brainer. Now the German Navy is busy detonating troops. How can it have time to open mines?

But the Kaiser's order could not be directly vetoed. After much deliberation, the Admiralty thought that he should listen to the front-line fleet commander. After all, Scheer was the commander of the High Seas Fleet. And Hipper was the commander of the fast fleet. Maybe in the Far East in the future

The fleet’s departure left their opinions for reference. And Scheer et al.

The opinions of the people are somewhat different from those of Tire. They are not willing to allocate new ships from the mainland. After all, the German shipbuilding industry is running at full capacity, and it has been abandoned by the British. But at the same time,

They also affirmed the significance of the existence of the Far East Fleet and believed that the Far East Fleet should be strengthened.

"This view is very contradictory." Scheer said very frankly. "First of all, we must affirm the great value of the Far East battlefield. In future wars, naval battles will be mainly divided into three battlefields. The first is the North Sea battlefield. The High Seas Fleet will fight against the British Grand Fleet and

The remaining Russian fleet, the latter is almost negligible, and our biggest enemy is the powerful British fleet. The second battlefield is the Mediterranean battlefield. Here the Italians and Austrians have the advantage, at least in terms of capital ships.

Advantageous. Due to the importance of the Mediterranean, the British are unlikely to sit back and watch the defeat of the French fleet, and may allocate some warships to support the French navy. The third battlefield is the Indian Ocean and the Far East battlefield. The area here is vast. But both sides

However, the fleet it has is the smallest, and its status is very low compared to the first two battlefields. Here are our Turkish allies and the Far East fleet to fight against the British fleet in India and the Far East. However, we cannot because of its relatively low status.

And despise him."

"The fleet here is like a sharp sword standing on the British transportation line. Materials and personnel from India, the Far East and even Oceania need to be transported to the British mainland through here. If we use the Persian Gulf coast as a base to attack these transportation

The fleet will undoubtedly cause great harm to the British and may even cause further damage.

It is undoubtedly very important for the High Seas Fleet to further involve the strength of the British. To achieve this goal, we only need to send a few warships. Then these warships can at least involve several times our own strength before they are destroyed.

This will lay favorable conditions for the decisive battle between the High Seas Fleet and the Grand Fleet," Scheer added.

"But how to solve the problem of battleships? All this is just an ideal hypothesis. And for such a hypothesis we need to invest at least millions of pounds to meet the most basic requirements of this hypothesis, and I need to reveal some news to you two,

That is, our enemies may not only be Britain, France and Russia. On the other side of the distant ocean, the attitude of the United States is also more inclined to Britain and France. The possibility of the Chinese Republic participating in the war is extremely small, and our opponents of the High Seas Fleet may be even more.

Plus an America." Tirpitz said with some dissatisfaction.

"If this is the case, then the armaments in the Indian Ocean and the Far East need to be strengthened even more. We must disperse the opponent's fleet as much as possible to gain a chance of victory. As for the battleships? I admit that the main force of the High Seas Fleet does not intend to provide the newly built super-dreadnoughts.

to the Far East Fleet, but we can find someone to help us build it, relatively

In other words, the German Empire lacks shipbuilding capabilities, and we can make up for this with our allies in the Far East. Moreover, the Republic of China has agreed to build two new dreadnoughts for Turkey. Since the Far East Fleet will fight with the Turks in the future,

Why can't we use the same battleships?" Hipper said.

"If I guess correctly, you mean that during wartime, the Far East Fleet should leave the Far East and then look for opportunities to break through to the Indian Ocean to join the Turks in the Indian Ocean and use bases on the coast of the Persian Gulf? Tirpitz frowned

He frowned and said.[

"That's right. It would be better if the Turkish fleet could cooperate with the Far East Fleet. In the future, our Far East Fleet should be composed of a large number of quasi-dreadnoughts, a small number of cutting-edge warships, and various camouflaged raiders and light cruisers.

Of course we also need to deploy some submarines there if possible," Scheer said.

"Submarines are actually not necessary, because when necessary, British transport ships can choose to go around the Horn of Africa, and it is very laborious for submarines to search in such a vast sea area. No matter how the British fleet goes,

In the end, we have to pass through the North Atlantic. We can concentrate on hunting their transport ships in the North Atlantic, instead of using a small number of submarines to find targets in the vast Indian Ocean. Surface ships are more efficient in terms of mobility, search speed, and sustained combat capabilities.

Suitable for fighting in the Indian Ocean." Hipper put forward his own opinion.

"You don't mean to send all the old warships in the German High Seas Fleet to the Far East and Turkey, and then use this to contain the naval forces of Britain and France?" After arguing for a long time, Tirpitz finally figured out these two things.

The general's idea is to say how much blood they will have to shed to add additional dreadnoughts to the Far East Fleet. They are not enthusiastic, but they want to use old ships to increase the strength of the Far East Fleet so as to help the German High Seas Fleet share the pressure in future battles.

.Wouldn’t this make the Far East Fleet draw hatred?

However, Tirpitz still liked this arrangement very much. War was ruthless. Regardless of how violently the three countries of Germany, Italy and Austria fought, they were still not as good as those of Britain, France and Russia in general. The battlefield was also divided into France and France.

The three connected parts. If the German fleet in the Far East Theater of the Indian Ocean can contain its opponents through such a series of operations, it will be very beneficial to the entire German naval strategy.

"Not only old warships, we also believe that the Far East Fleet should have Dreadnoughts, but this premise is without affecting the shipbuilding progress of the High Seas Fleet. Our shipyard is almost at full capacity, and a large number of slipways need to be built in addition to

In addition to new warships, there are also

A considerable amount needs to be set aside to provide routine maintenance and upkeep for existing warships. And the larger the fleet, the greater the need. We agree to use part of the budget for the expansion of the Far East Fleet, but we do not plan to use the slipway

Let." Scheer thought for a while and said.

"That means that these marks may be advantageous to the big country in the Far East again?" Tirpitz smiled. "Once war breaks out, it is only a matter of time before we lose our colonies in the Far East and the Pacific. This is something that cannot be avoided.

, but the Kaiser believed that some of our colonies in Africa were

It cannot be easily taken away by opponents. We have a large number of expatriates and some colonial troops there. If possible, I hope that the Far East Fleet, which has retreated to the Middle East, can provide certain support to the German army there. I think this is very necessary.

Added to orders to Lieutenant General Spey."

The results of this discussion were subsequently adopted by Tirpitz. Tirpitz also hoped that the Far East Fleet could share the pressure on the High Seas Fleet and at the same time ensure the safety of Germany's overseas colonies as much as possible, so he submitted it to William II.

In his report, Tirpitz focused on the significance of the presence of the Far East-Turkish Combined Fleet in the Indian Ocean, and hinted that as long as there are sufficient funds, the Far East Fleet can support the German army

While fighting in Africa, he tried to maintain Germany's land "under the sun" as much as possible. Even in the end, he even proposed that "when necessary" he could cooperate with the Italian and Austro-Hungarian fleets to capture the Suez Canal! Of course, his final thoughts were too much.

There are many elements of political showmanship, but in William II's view, the naval power comparison in the Mediterranean is dominated by his own side, and this plan seems to be feasible when necessary!

Of course, the most important thing is that Tirpitz's suggestion satisfied William II's ideas and vanity while containing certain reality and content. Therefore, William II promised that he could consider giving it to the Far East Fleet if necessary.

Special appropriation. But the only thing that made him unhappy was that Tirpitz again

Three means that the Far East Fleet law guarantees the colonies of the "Far East"! No matter how William II used coercion and inducement, Tirpitz believed that after the battlefield began, the Far East Fleet must abandon the islands and colonies in the Pacific and then move to Turkey. This is for the Far East.

The name Fleet is a bit ironic!

However, Tirpitz has repeatedly stated that this plan is only a first draft. How to actually implement it depends on what Count Spey, the commander of the Far East Fleet, does. The list of the first batch of warships to be supplemented by the Far East Fleet has basically been drawn up, including two Königs.

armored cruisers and

Two quasi-dread battleships, Braunschweig and Alsace, will be sent to the Far East Fleet. Of course, in a private message to Count Spee, Tirpitz mentioned that in principle, more ships can be assigned to the future Far East Fleet.

Lots of "pre-dread" and "dread" ships!
Chapter completed!