"The four Bavarian-classes have the ability to become the core formations of the German Navy for the next 15 to 20 years. As long as they are modernized and modified in time, their service time in the front-line fleet can be extended. Until there are obvious signs of the next war, there is no need for us to build main ships on a large scale. Medium-sized ships suitable for safeguarding colonial interests and aircraft carriers capable of performing multiple tasks are the types of ships we should focus on in the next step."

In the German Emperor's office, in front of the German naval giants, Natsuki repeatedly used the title "we", as if he also regarded himself as an important member of the German Imperial Navy. The supreme ruler of Germany left him to discuss the core secret issues of the Imperial Navy, and obviously did not regard him as an outsider. After all, in terms of national interests and strategic directions, Germany and Ireland are destined to have a long honeymoon period, and the attitude of mutual trust helps maintain a close alliance.

"So... do you think the Markensen-level can be temporarily suspended, and the number does not need to be that large?" Crown Prince William accurately expressed what Xia Shu said. From this, it seems that the imperial crown prince is investing more attention in naval affairs.

Natsuki responded in a positive tone: "As long as the situation does not change significantly, it is enough to build two or three ships of the Markens class. You also know that the United States today is an isolationist country. As long as we do not seriously infringe on their interests, it will never cause their military confrontation. In the next twenty years, Germany's main opponents to expand overseas interests will still be Britain, Russia, and the ambitious Eastern countries, Japan. The strength of Britain and Russia has been severely weakened in the war. Their resistance is more on the political and diplomatic level. On the contrary, it was still very backward decades ago. Now that the naval strength has risen to the third largest Japanese empire in the world, it will sooner or later become our number one enemy."

The Imperial Navy Chief of Staff Von Boer corrected it seriously: "Based on tonnage, the third in the world today should be the Italian Navy, and the fourth may be the turn of Japan."

Although the focus of Von Boer's words deviated from the main line, Natsuki did not point out on the spot that he had made the mistake of losing the foundation, but explained in a hurry: "In terms of the total naval tonnage, the Italians do have some advantages. If the quantity and quality of the main battleship are calculated, the Italian Navy is probably no match for the Japanese Navy now."

Since the Age of Fearlessness, the main battleships served by the Japanese Navy include two Satsuma-class battleships, two Shejin-class battleships, two modern King Kong-class battlecruisers, two Fuso-class battleships and two King Kong-class battle cruisers are in the construction stage. The Italian Navy is only the Dante and three Earl Cafur-class battleships, and only two Doria-class battleships are in the construction stage. The main fleet lineup is indeed a fraction of the Japanese. Moreover, the Japanese Navy has won two large-scale naval battles in the past twenty years. The ability of generals and the quality of officers and soldiers is recognized worldwide. The Italian Navy was beaten to pieces by the backward Turks in the Italian-Turkey War. Compared with the two, the highest and lower levels are in line.

Of course, Von Boer knew what kind of technical gap exists between the two navys, but the German Navy had just overturned the once arrogant British Navy and was enjoying the supreme glory of the victor. It seemed that it had not calmed down to examine the new pattern of the ocean. In terms of the total tonnage of active ships, Germany had surpassed Britain to take the throne of the world's number one, but Germany's leading advantage over the US Navy was only 100,000 tons. Because of concern that the European war would spread to the United States, the United States formulated a huge shipbuilding plan with its strong financial resources, and many ships

Construction has started, and when they are completed and put into service, the total tonnage of the US Navy will throw the Germans out of several streets. However, as Xia Shu analyzed, isolationism is prevalent in the United States, and their focus on seeking overseas interests is on the Pacific region. Although Washington also covets the oil resources in the Middle East, the current military strength and strategic deployment of the United States are not enough to support them to extend their political and military tentacles to the Persian Gulf. Moreover, more and more oil fields are entering the commercial development stage in the United States, and the expansion and penetration of the Middle East is limited to economic means.

Japan's situation is different from the United States. There are no oil fields in both the local islands and the Korean Peninsula. All oil resources needed for industrial and military maintenance depend on imports. After Britain withdrew from the war, Japan seemed to have lost the excuse to send troops to South Asia and West Asia. The German colonies that had swallowed before are now thorny, but Japan did not intend to compromise. Instead, it became the last two countries to continue to fight against the Allies. The Japanese relied on geography away from Europe and the navy that had defeated the Tsarist Russian fleet. They knew that Germany could certainly assemble an expeditionary fleet that was stronger than the Russians back then, but with the Russian fleet's defeat, Britain who was unwilling to fail and restless Italy, the Germans did not dare to take risks with their precious main fleet, let alone the fleet is still in a semi-disabled state.

It was precisely because Japan did not withdraw from the war that the German Navy would mobilize the main combat patrols such as "De Fringer", "Sedlitz", "Moltz", "Gobe", and "Von der Tann" to send them to the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, and also required the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy to deploy the main fleet to the eastern Mediterranean so as to reinforce the German expeditionary fleet when necessary. In fact, in Natsuki's view, with the brave performance of the German main fleet in fighting against Britain, no matter how great the ambitions and received the secret agitation and support from Britain, Japan would not dare to go to the Middle East to challenge the Allies led by Germany.

Before speaking, German Emperor William II looked at the Marshal Tirpitz, who had relied heavily on his own and later deliberately alienated for various reasons. No matter how dangerous this man's fleet offensive theory was, the high seas fleet he created finally withstood the most severe test on the battlefield. Now the "world's number one" is worthy of its reputation.

Tirpitz didn't speak, but his expression still showed his tendency.

"I basically agree with Joheng's view that before there are obvious signs of war, we should build less expensive battleships and more practical medium-sized ships."

William II's statement seems to be contrary to his usual radical style, but this is not out of his love for his young son. If the financial resources of the imperial government are not required to be considered, he would not be too much to build ten Marksen-class ships at one time. The biggest problem is that the cost of these main battleships is too expensive. The average cost of building the Nassau class is less than 40 million marks, the Helgolan class and Caesar class have increased to 45 million. The best dreadnought King class in World War I, the cost of a single ship reached 48 million marks, and the Deflinger class, known as the "super battleship", is close to 50 million. The single budget of the Bavarian class is 57 million marks, and the Marksen-class has exceeded 60 million marks. The large-scale construction of dreadnoughts and battlecruisers has put the German government in heavy debts. 190

When the second Naval Supplementary Act was passed in eight years, the German government had already experienced a deficit of 500 million marks. From the implementation of the Navy Act in 1897 to 1914, the German government increased 1 billion 40.7 million marks of national debt for the large-scale shipbuilding of the navy. Germany's tax system was no longer able to support such a naval competition. In fact, when the Bavarian-class shipbuilding plan was decided in 1912, William II had already abandoned the two plans with stronger configuration but excessive cost. Now Germany has occupied half of France, and relying on the wealth it has plundered the dilemma of high government debt and scarcity of domestic materials. It will take at least a few years to transform the fruits of the victory of the war into real interests. Before that, the German government's life was far less glamorous than what outsiders saw.

"Based on the inseparable strategic alliance between Ireland and Germany, I think the German Navy's shipbuilding plan can include Ireland. Simply put, Ireland builds some warships according to the standards of the German Navy, and will be maintained by the Irish Navy during peacetime. Once a war breaks out, these warships will be directly incorporated into the German Navy's combat sequence and will be completely obeyed by the commander of the German fleet."

"In terms of military system, it is similar to Britain and the Commonwealth countries?" Crown Prince William interjected.

Without the prefix of "military system", this sentence would be a serious offense to Ireland's independence.

Xia Shu nodded: "The advantage of doing this is that it can share Germany's shipbuilding investment, and at the same time it has developed the Irish shipbuilding industry, providing the Irish with a considerable number of jobs. Moreover, the training of the Irish navy has to rely on the help of German teachers, and there is no problem of combat standards."

Tirpitz, Muller, and Poel did not respond, and they looked like they had their own thoughts.

The atmosphere was a bit dull, but fortunately, the happy Crown Prince William quipped: "It seems that the prospect of Ireland's butter economy is very optimistic!"

Xia Shu replied: "Butter's profit is only better in the past few years after the war has just ended. After the situation stabilizes, the country's economy still needs to be driven by industrial and trade, which means we have to fight another war without gunpowder with Britain. Of course, I am full of confidence in our victory again."

Tirpitz, who had the most say in shipbuilding planning, finally spoke: "According to a shipbuilding plan that the German Navy had considered in 1912, the Markensen class only built three ships, and all of them were tri-mounted 13-point 8-inch main guns. The other main battleships were changed to 1.50,000-ton light battlecruisers and aircraft carriers of the same tonnage. Then one-fifth or one-sixth of the shipbuilding plan was handed over to Ireland for implementation. Our investment in the navy should be reduced to the extent that the imperial government was willing to accept."

William II stared at the technical drawings on the drawing board for a while, then suddenly turned around: "This is a proper solution, and it seems that there is only one small trouble, that is, we must not allow the rule of Ireland to fall into others."
Chapter completed!