On October 11, 1862, the first ironclad ship of the Kingdom of Prussia, Frederick, was tested. William I personally presided over the ceremony to show his determination to develop the navy.

They really made up their minds. Seeing the Austrian nobles next door making a fortune in the overseas colonial movement, the Junker nobles couldn't help it.

Especially many young people have long been dissatisfied with the government's conservatism. You should know that Austria has established overseas colonies for less than ten years and has a territory of five or six times its local area.

Many people are optimistic that only by joining the colonial movement can they quickly become rich and become famous and reach the peak of their lives.

"The future of the world is in the ocean", it is no longer verified who said this sentence first, but it has now been widely recognized by European society.

At the beginning of opening up overseas colonies, Franz also promoted this theory, which has been widely circulated in the German region.

Iron-clad ships are recognized as a naval technological revolution. In just a few years, naval powers such as Britain, France, the United States, and the United States, and Portugal and the Netherlands have built their own iron-clad ships.

Now that the Kingdom of Prussia finally has its own ironclad ship, many people are celebrating. Only the top government officials know the gap between their ironclad ships and various naval powers.

After all, it is a landslide. For a long time, the Prussian Navy has been dispensable. Most of the time, they play the role of a coast guard, and even Denmark next door is not as good as that.

The promotion of ironclad ships is to inspire people. After all, the development of the Kingdom of Prussia in recent years has been very unsuccessful, and the people need good news.

William I asked with concern: "How is the naval training? When can overseas colonies be opened?"

Ron, who was part-time minister of the Navy, changed his face and replied with a wry smile: "Your Majesty, our navy is too thin.

Before the expansion of the army, the navy had only more than 1,300 officers and soldiers, including civilians from all over the Navy.

It will take at least two to three years to form combat power. Of course, if the enemy is only native, these are not problems."

The Army Minister still served as the Navy Minister, which was also the result of compromise between the parties. Although the Junker nobles coveted the interests of opening up overseas colonies, they were still unwilling to give up their dominance over the army.

There is nothing wrong with the army leading the navy. Anyway, the naval officers and soldiers were directly transferred from the active army troops. Even the Marine Corps was saved. They were definitely the strongest navy in the land war, no doubt about it.

Ron, who was leading the army reform, tragically discovered that he would lead the construction of the Prussian Navy again. At most, other countries were outsiders and insiders, and he directly led the layman.

Anyway, the Prussian Navy was the coast guard of the Kingdom of Prussia before, and its usual business was to crack down on smuggling activities.

Now the thousands of troops that have been added in are even more amateurs. From top to bottom, Ron is naturally under a lot of pressure.

The Navy is not an army, and you can go to the battlefield after training for a few months. Even ordinary soldiers will take several years to train.

Obviously, this was discovered after Ron's in-depth understanding. The upper class of the Prussian government and the army thoughts, including William I, did not distinguish between the differences between the army and the navy, otherwise he would not have asked this question.

William I asked in surprise: "It took so long, how did the Austrians expand their navy, or did their officers and soldiers train at all not qualified?"

Indeed, the Austrian navy has expanded a bit in recent years. From 1850 to the present, the Austrian naval tonnage has increased several times, becoming the world's third naval power.

Ron explained: "Your Majesty, the Austrian Navy has been operating in the Mediterranean before and is somewhat low in popularity, but in fact their naval heritage is very strong, and Venice is a traditional naval power.

They have a complete naval technology inheritance and talent training system. The lack of attention to naval development in the Metternich era made the Austrian Navy fade in everyone’s impression. Now that the Vienna government has taken it seriously, it naturally catches up quickly.”

In fact, the rapid development of the Austrian navy was also luck. In the era of sailing warships, naval technology had reached a bottleneck, and even the British technology could not be much advanced to various countries.

After the era of Iron Crafts, sail warships were directly eliminated. Their previous experience and technology had lagged behind and they were about to begin to reshuffle.

To some extent, now is the era when countries are most likely to catch up with the British. After all, everyone has just developed ironclad technology, and the gap has not yet reached the point of despair.

After hearing this explanation, William I sighed. He originally thought that the century-old navy was blown out by the British, but he did not expect that it was true.

If you don’t have the foundation and build a powerful navy from scratch, it will still take decades even if it doesn’t take a hundred years.

"Not long ago, the Austrians proposed to us to jointly develop the Nanyang region. This is a rare opportunity.

If the cooperation goes well, we can directly use the Austrian overseas colonial strongholds to obtain supplies and obtain the first colony in the Nanyang region."

Logistical supply is also an obstacle set by the colonial empire for latecomers. Everyone just welcomes merchant ships from various countries to go to supply. If warships want to obtain supplies, they must communicate in advance.

If you just visit abroad, it will be easy to deal with. If you want to open up an overseas colony, it will require deeper communication.

In short, if there is no sufficient price, don’t want to get everyone’s help.

This is quite disharmonious for latecomers. It is impossible to transport everything from the domestic market to open up overseas colonies. Nearby procurement is the best way to reduce costs.

In order to obtain logistical supplies, Austria signed an agreement with the Spanish, Portuguese and the Netherlands, promising not to seek their colonies in any way, and thus gaining everyone's understanding.

These agreements Franz has fulfilled. During overseas colonial activities, Austria has not seized any country's colonies, and it has taken the borderless land.

The Prussian Kingdom is now facing the same problem. If the logistics supply problem cannot be solved, the cost of colonization can directly despair anyone.

Sign a similar agreement? Don’t dream, the political influence of the Kingdom of Prussia is declining, so why can we give face to everyone?

In this world where you speak with your fists, with the strength of the Prussian Navy, all countries are disdainful of it. Even the Portuguese can destroy the Prussian Navy two or three times.

Especially the army directly turned into a navy, which became a laughing stock in Europe. Everyone did not think that the Prussian Kingdom was developing a navy. Many newspapers directly mocked the Prussian Navy as the army fleet.

Ron asked with concern: "Your Majesty, what do we need to pay?"

There will be no pie falling from the sky. If it really falls, it will kill people. Ron doesn't think Austria will help Prussia for free, and this big bargain is definitely not easy to pick up.

William I sneered: "They also regard themselves as the boss of the German region and are preparing to take us as thugs."

Countries in the Nanyang region are full of forces. In recent years, Austrians have been spending too much money and their strength to invest in the Nanyang region is limited.

In order to ensure their interests in the Nanyang region, the Vienna government invited us and the German Federal Empire to join this time.

Of course, they also meant to win over our domestic aristocrats. That little kid Franz talked about unifying Germany every day, as if he was afraid that others would not know about it."

This is an open conspiracy. Even if you know that the bait may be poisonous, William I will swallow it.

You can’t just not open up overseas colonies just because there may be hidden dangers, right?

Austria won the hearts of the people in the Prussian State, not once or twice. In recent years, there have been more than 150,000 Prussian immigrants entering the Austrian colonies.

Many overseas colonial teams in the Kingdom of Prussia are now affiliated with the Austrians. If these people did not turn to Austria, the Vienna government would protect them unless they were crazy.

William I was aware of crisis. He was very worried that he would continue like this. He didn't know when he would be sold by his subordinates. For details, please refer to the Kingdom of Bavaria.

After joining Austria, the Bavarian Kingdom developed well. This traditional textile center in the German region once again rejuvenated its second spring.

In order to solve the supply of industrial raw materials, the Vienna government has specially opened cotton plantations in West Africa.

In contrast, Baden, who stayed in the German Federal Empire, was tragic. The cotton spinning center in the German region is now restrained by the insufficient supply of raw materials and gradually declined.

With the power of role models, William I had no confidence in the opponents. Even the Junker nobles could not believe it.

After all, if the eldest aristocrat is still aristocrat, and the capitalist is still a capitalist, everyone's core interests will not be damaged, and they may even get more.

In order to avoid the worst happening, William I had to find a way to open up a new path, otherwise the Kingdom of Prussia would be annexed by Austria sooner or later.

William I was unwilling to play political means with the Habsburgs, which was not his strength.
Chapter completed!