I am too busy at the end of the year and the update is a bit slow, please forgive me!

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It was late at night and the windows were closed. The summer tree lay flat on the soft big bed, sometimes opening its eyes motionlessly, sometimes blinking its eyelids continuously, as if it was in a state of concentration. This is a bedroom in Buckingham Palace. The classic European style decorations show the elegant and luxurious temperament. The brand new bedding exudes a faint smell, and the unique atmosphere of the romantic and lingering remains in the air.

The attitude of the upper class and ordinary people in the UK cleared Xia Shu's last concern about this marriage. He and Charlotte could finally be together reasonably and legally. Such a newlywed trip should have been extremely sweet, but after all, he was not in charge of industrial countries like England and Germany that rose to the top. Ireland's thriving industrial economy is actually very fragile and faces many difficulties and obstacles. If you are not careful, not only will the current development momentum come to an abrupt end, but the existing development achievements are also in danger of being wasted. As the king of Ireland, Xia Shu is like a small entrepreneur in the entrepreneurial stage at this time, with ambitions and opportunities, but he has to rack his brains and work hard.

Since the founding of the Kingdom of Ireland, the rapid development of the national economy has relied on two major driving forces: one is to stimulate domestic demand through infrastructure construction, and the other is to attract investment and earn foreign exchange through key industries such as shipbuilding and shipping. After more than three years of rapid growth, infrastructure construction has initially met the needs of Ireland's domestic economic and social development. The development of Ireland's shipbuilding industry has gradually reached a bottleneck period, which restricts its further expansion of scale and improves its economic status. It is the lack of international competitiveness. Simply put, it is what I can build, and many European and American countries can build it, in terms of quality, efficiency, and in terms of the United States, in terms of skills, pre-sales and after-sales

There is little difference in service to different countries. It is difficult to securely occupy the market by relying solely on low profits and short construction periods. In order to maintain the prosperity of the shipbuilding industry, while actively taking over foreign shipbuilding orders, Ireland also quickly expanded its own ocean-going merchant fleet in the form of a political and civilian joint venture. By the end of 1918, Ireland had more than 200 large and medium-sized cargo ships registered in Ireland, with a total registered tonnage of 1.1 million tons, ranking seventh in Europe and tenth in the world. The huge merchant fleet brought convenience to Ireland's economy and trade, but the emerging Irish shipping industry still had many shortcomings in personnel, funds, management, etc., and its short-term operational efficiency is inversely proportional to the size of the merchant fleet.

In this case, expanding the scale of military shipbuilding facilities and obtaining more ship orders will not only help maintain the vitality of the Irish shipbuilding industry, but also increase the economic benefits of shipbuilding companies, attract people to reinvest in the shipbuilding industry, and make the Irish shipbuilding industry develop greatly through a virtuous cycle. Currently, there are three standard aircraft carriers built in Ireland, two belong to the German Navy and one belong to the Irish Navy. The cost of these three aircraft carriers is equivalent to fifteen first-class performance 10,000-ton ocean freighters, which has supported more than 4,000 workers in two large shipyards, and the driving force of the extended industry is even more immeasurable.

However, stimulated by the cooperation between the United States and Britain, the current construction plan of the German Navy is to concentrate on building a large-scale super-dreadnought fleet, and the investment of aircraft carriers and cruisers has been compressed. After the heavy aircraft carrier "Ruprecht" modified from the former British "Tiger" battle patrol was put into service, the German Navy already has four combat aircraft carriers modified from warships and five auxiliary aircraft carriers modified from merchant ships, and the demand for new standard aircraft carriers is not so urgent. Because it is impossible to determine the efficiency ratio of the new aircraft carriers to the new battleship, the German Navy intends to slow down the construction speed of aircraft carriers, and wait until the standard aircraft carriers No. 1 and No. 2 are in service for a period of time before deciding whether to add orders. As for standard heavy cruisers, due to the shipbuilding budget and the number of large military docks in Ireland, it can only be implemented slowly at the speed of starting one ship every year.

If the shipbuilding order to build two aircraft carriers with the UK with a slightly larger specification than the standard class will be completed, the expansion plan for Irish military shipbuilding facilities will be carried out. At the initial intention price of the British Navy, a profit of £400,000 to £500,000 per ship can allow the Irish Navy to obtain sufficient funds to build two standard light cruisers, thereby replacing the already old-selected active light cruisers, or equipping the Irish Army with a standard armored teaching regiment, these are all necessary for Ireland to further enhance its national defense capabilities.

The Kingdom of Ireland was established with the declaration of independence and freedom, and pursued independence in political and diplomatic terms. However, accepting the British shipbuilding order was not the king of Ireland. The cabinet and parliament could make a decision. It still needs to overcome many difficulties from the idea to reality. There will definitely be opposition in Ireland, not only those German officials, officers, and many Irish people who hate Britain do not want their shipyards to build powerful warships for the British navy. The opposition from Germany and other allied countries and even pressure measures can be imagined. The foundation of the Irish royal power and regime comes from the support and assistance of allied countries. If the German government weakens the assistance to Ireland and then makes a slight hindrance in finance and trade, it is difficult to say that the political situation in Ireland will not be shaken. These are what Xia Shu, the king of Ireland, must consider.

With this kind of reverie, Xia Shu could hardly sleep at night. Fortunately, the British arranged a trip for a few days later, and he had enough time and energy to consider how to deal with relationships between the parties. During this period, he visited Hill Manor in Watford with Charlotte, which was warmly welcomed by the local people. He stayed at Hill Manor for two days and then returned to London, and had a second meeting with Prince Louis of Battenburg. In addition to this senior British general from the German royal family, several head-level officials of the British Royal Navy were also brought, and several British Navy chiefs, current British Navy Secretary Arthur James Belford, the First Secretary of the Sea Baron Baron Rosling Wilms, Sir Eustace Tennyson Daincott, the Director of the Shipbuilding Bureau, and Lord Fisher, the current chairman of the Government's Invention and Research Committee.

Batenburg is a small state in Germany. Prince Louis is a direct member of the state. However, he did not inherit the family tradition and served in this team. Instead, he joined the British nationality at the age of 14 and chose to serve the British Royal Navy. He has since risen to the top. However, this has nothing to do with his wife being the granddaughter of Queen Victoria. He was promoted from a young intern to a colonel of the Royal Navy, assistant director of the Navy Intelligence Bureau and staff officer. He relied entirely on his real talent and knowledge, so Churchill later commented that he was "the real child of the Royal Navy."

The deck of the ship is his home." Before the war, Prince Louis had been promoted to the rank of Royal Admiral of the British Royal Admiral, serving as the Chief of Staff of the British Navy and the First Minister of Maritime Affairs. In the early stages of the war, he cooperated with Minister of Navy Churchill to mobilize the fleet and deploy operations. However, with the British main fleet suffering a crushing defeat in Jutland, the British people's ugly German sentiment was high. In order to take the overall situation into consideration, Prince Louis took the initiative to submit his resignation to Churchill and then withdrew from the Navy's active service. Until the end of the war, he was appointed and re-entered naval affairs as a senior strategic consultant of the Royal Navy.

During the previous meeting, Prince Louis said bluntly, "This is the cooperation we need." It was this sentence that made Natsuki decide to promote this shocking cooperation of Ishipo. In his handwritten letter to German Emperor William II, he wrote: Aircraft carriers are different from traditional battleships. They do not have strong armor or powerful artillery. When carrier-based aircraft cannot function, they are only equivalent to larger cruisers, and an ordinary warship or submarine is enough to sink them. Within twenty years, the performance and structure of aircraft carriers built by different countries are similar, and the commander's tactical wisdom is flying.

The combat quality of the pilot and even the efficiency of the traffic control are still the key to the outcome of the battle. Therefore, it is not important whether the British Navy purchases the American aircraft carrier or the aircraft carrier built by Ireland. If a war breaks out again between Britain and Germany, the German Navy must show the courage, wisdom and will of the Jutland Navy to win a more brilliant victory. Now, the British Navy is repeatedly comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the American and Ai aircraft carriers. We believe that if we can put the development rhythm of the British Navy under our control through cooperation with the UK, it will have a very positive significance for us to continue to maintain the technological advantages of the ship.

In his letter to German Prime Minister Bateman and Navy Head Tirpitz, Navy also expressed the same view, but because these letters were sent to Germany in a confidential manner by hand, Navy had not received a reply from the German emperor and others at this time, it was not convenient to express his attitude to the senior officials of the British Navy. The second meeting between the two sides was more about discussing the contents of technology and cost. The UK was basically the protagonist of the dreadnought and battle cruiser. As the actual leader of the Irish ship R&D department, Navy was famous for the "Hohenzollern genius" and "father of aircraft carriers", it was enough to make a comprehensive response without the presence of his own technical officials.

As early as the end of the war, the British Navy used retired warships and civilian ships to modify several seaplane and cargo ships, but they did not play a big role. The British Navy's first real aircraft carrier did not join the combat sequence until two years after the war, that is, in 1917. However, the modification of the old ships was not very successful. In addition, two consecutive carrier-based aircraft take-offs and landing accidents caused the British Navy to lose patience in the short term. Based on the close cooperative relationship between Britain and the United States, the US Navy built it.
Chapter completed!