Chapter 1111 Final Preparations

The world is cruel, and in the fierce international competition, there is no room for any warmth.

For its own interests, the tsarist government decisively chose to abandon the European countries, and for a time Madrid was surging.

No matter how it declines, Spain, as the goalkeeper of the foreign powers, is a big European country, and its influence in Europe should not be underestimated.

The Russians, who were the third-largest in the world, were unwilling to come forward, so naturally they were deferred to the fourth-ranked Spain.

Although Spain's reputation as the fourth most powerful country is somewhat unworthy of its name, it cannot withstand the incompetence of its competitors.

Taller among the dwarfs, the kingdom of Spain, which was once awesome, is still more recognized by the outside world than Japan and the United States, which have never been awesome.

Not only the European countries are inciting Spain to lead the "No Line Movement", but even Britain, the United States and other countries are beating the drums behind.

Overnight, the Spaniards seemed to have returned to the era when they were destined to become the trend-setters of the times.

Unlike the Russian Empire, which is deeply tied up economically, Shinra's penetration into Spain is relatively limited, and it is far from being able to influence government decision-making.

With the changing international situation, the British changed their strategy from pulling people on board to encouraging countries to remain neutral.

The one who wants them to stand in line now is actually the Holy Roman Empire. In theory, as long as the pressure from the Vienna government is resisted, the no-line movement will be successful.

If the Spanish government is ambitious, now is the best chance. As long as the operation is good, it is entirely possible for Spain to become the fourth pole in Europe with the support of various countries.

As a big country, there must be ambitions. It is a pity that ambition needs the support of strength. Spain does not have the strength to become the fourth pole, even if it has the support of various countries.

In fact, the Spanish government can't even think about it. On the surface, the European countries are encouraging them to lead the "neutrality movement", but secretly they are constantly collaborating with the Vienna government.

Leaving aside other countries, Sardinia, Belgium, Tuscany... These little brothers who were supported by Shinra also came to participate in the "neutrality movement". Are you sure they didn't come to make trouble?

If I just made the first move here, the younger brothers below ran to stand in line, wouldn't it be a tragedy.

This kind of thing is not impossible. Even though the current "neutrality movement" is so powerful, there are actually very few people who really participate in it.

Many countries that had no choice and had to stand in line followed suit and joined in the fun.

Now jumping out and making a fuss is mainly to brush up the sense of existence and enhance his impression in the boss's mind in order to sell it for a good price.

Countries that really desperately want to be "neutral", such as the Netherlands, the Nordic Federation and other countries facing the North Sea, are worried that they will become a battlefield.

For more countries, the war between Shinra and Britain had little effect on them.

Although overseas import and export trade will be affected, they are not a major maritime trade country themselves, and the impact is quite limited.

The most important thing is the geographical location. From the beginning, it was decided that they must stand in line, and even who to support them was chosen in advance for them.

The direction of the lineup has been determined, and it is also a question worth pondering in what posture to stand in the lineup.

With the turbulent international situation, the diplomatic game is still going on, but this is no longer the focus of Franz's concern.

The hegemony competition between Britain and Austria is, in the final analysis, the competition of comprehensive national strength. If it weren't for the gap between the national strengths of the two sides, Shinra would not have challenged at this time.

In the Vienna Palace, it can be seen from the serious expression on Franz's face that the documents in his hands must be unusual.

After a while, Emperor Franz, who had carefully read the document, slowly opened his mouth and said, "Since the three generations of large merchant ships have been completed, they will be delivered to the shipping company as soon as possible.

Now the situation is tense and war is imminent. We must strive to transport as much strategic materials to the colonies as possible before the outbreak of war.

The six berths that were vacated were all mounted on super battleships. After these materials arrive in the colony, the news will be announced to the public.

In addition, the submarine formation can also set off. Although we don't know when the war will break out, it is always right to prepare in advance. "

There is no doubt that the "three generations of large merchant ships" here are definitely not large merchant ships in the true sense.

If it is just a pure merchant ship, no matter how superior its performance is, it will not make Franz the Great so nervous.

Especially at a critical moment like the arms race, it is even more abnormal that merchant ships can compete with battleships for docks.

It's not normal, but it's not normal, but these big guys are indeed merchant ships. If you don't believe me, these merchant ships are still pulling their cargo out.

Not to mention that the intelligence officers didn't understand the situation, and even many people in the Vienna government couldn't figure it out.

"Strategic fraud" is obviously not right! At this point, if you don't go all out to build warships, if you really fight, you will suffer a big loss.

If you can't figure it out, you can't figure it out, and Franz can't explain it anyway. In order to keep the secret, only a few people know about the aircraft carrier disguised as a merchant ship.

Even the cabinet members are not all informed, let alone others.

From the very beginning of the project, the state-owned enterprises that have followed the route of ordering merchant ships have not received financial allocations at all, and have nothing to do with military spending.

Until construction is complete, the shipyard works

The teachers didn't know that they built the aircraft carrier, but at most they thought that the design of this merchant ship was a bit unusual.

In the history of the development of the shipbuilding industry, there are a lot of alternative and wonderful designs, and everyone doesn't care about adding another one.

In fact, the history of the development of aircraft carriers in the Holy Roman Empire is also some years old. But it hasn't become mainstream.

Prior to this, the aircraft carriers built were mainly based on carrying aircraft for reconnaissance intelligence, and were not considered for combat at all.

There are many reasons, there are two main aspects. On the one hand, the performance of the aircraft this year cannot keep up, and the hit rate when bombing moving targets is impressive; on the other hand, the sea is windy and waves are strong, and the aircraft carried are prone to collision.

With the advancement of science and technology, the aircraft has overcome the technical difficulties of dive bombing, the hit rate has been greatly improved, and the actual combat attack power has been greatly improved.

Although the problem of the aircraft carrier's resistance to wind and waves has not been completely solved, it has also been greatly improved. The wind and waves of the tenth level could not stand it, but at least it would not sink in the face of the wind and waves of the eighth and nineth level.

The technology can reach this step, and it has full practical value. Bad weather with strong winds and waves is always rare, and if it happens, you can only consider yourself unlucky.

Most of the time, the aircraft carrier is able to play a combat role. As long as you don't go to the seas with strong waves, the combat effectiveness of the combination of aircraft carriers and battleships should not be underestimated.

Submarines, by contrast, are less secretive. The whole world knew that Shinra had a submarine fleet, but the exact size was never known.

In fact, the outside world does not pay much attention to this killer hidden in the deep sea, and it can even be said to be ignored.

On the one hand, due to the limited cruising range of submarines, it is difficult to participate in the main decisive battle of the navy; on the other hand, the submarine situation is complicated and inherently daunting.

In the past years, it was mainly France and Austria that spent a lot of money on the development of submarines. With the defeat of France, all these technologies fell into the hands of Shinra.

In line with the principle of low-key and cautious, Shinra's submarine force has rarely appeared for a long time, and the impression left to the outside world has always been mysterious.

If it weren't for the technological breakthroughs in the power system in recent years, the cruising range of the submarine has been greatly improved, and it is estimated that this mysterious force will continue to be mysterious.

Needless to say, the cruising range on the water will not be worse than that of ordinary warships. The key is the cruising range under water.

The Sea Wolf currently equipped by the Shinra Navy has an underwater cruising range of nearly 100 nautical miles, and can lurk underwater for a week.

Such data is naturally not worth mentioning compared to the nuclear submarines that have almost unlimited battery life in later generations and are only affected by the psychological factors of officers and soldiers.

But now, it is a qualitative breakthrough. It already has an actual combat role, especially when it is used to attack merchant ships.

"Okay, I'll go back and implement it."

After a pause, Frederick asked, "It's just father, are our preparations really useful?"

No wonder Frederick had doubts. The aircraft carriers and submarines that Franz has invested heavily in are different from the mainstream of the contemporary navy.

There is no way, the combat effectiveness of aircraft carriers and submarines has not been proven militarily, on the contrary, battleships have traversed the ocean for many years.

If the money for the development of aircraft carriers and submarines is spent on battleships, the Shinra Navy can add more than a dozen capital ships.

Franz shook his head and said, "I don't know! But it's better to be prepared than not to be prepared. The Royal Navy has such a huge advantage, how can it be surpassed without some new stuff?

It's not that you don't know how closely the British are staring at us. It can be said that every additional battleship will cause a storm. "

It's not a complete lie, Franz really doesn't know if these preparations will work.

If the Shinra navy is lucky enough, it will be a one-time overturn in the decisive battle

Royal Navy, these preparations are all in vain.

These preparations will only work if Armageddon is lost. Reduce Britain's war potential by striking the British maritime trade lines.

Of course, these words fell into Frederick's ears, and they were interpreted differently.

After all, no one is a traveler, and no one can accurately judge the future development direction of the navy. Aircraft carriers and submarines that have not proven themselves in naval battles naturally cannot give people enough confidence.

...

London

Although they were well prepared, the news of the tsarist government's decision to stand with Shinra made the atmosphere of the British government tense.

At this moment, Prime Minister Campbell's mood is the same as the weather in London - "Look out the window, it's full of smog".

Since becoming prime minister, Campbell has sighed more times than in the past few decades combined.

"If you don't work at home, you don't know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are; if you don't become prime minister, you don't know how bad the British Empire is."

In the eyes of the outside world, the British Empire, which was flourishing, was left "rotten" in Campbell's eyes.

There is no way, there are too many people who care about Britain's advantages; Campbell, as Prime Minister, can only care about the defects of this country.

It's not that Campbell is biased, it's mainly the responsibility. "Finding problems and then solving them" is the function of the government itself.

Britain was considered "rotten" mainly because Campbell found the problem, but couldn't solve it.

In order to prevent the situation from deteriorating, and to keep Britain's world hegemony, now he can only take the most extreme measure - war.

For a politician, making such a choice is undoubtedly a failure. But the reality is in front of you, and Campbell can't be hesitant.

.

The curtain of the arms race has been drawn, and the longer it drags on, the worse it will be for Britain.

"The situation in Europe has become clear, and with the Russians standing in line, the neutrality movement we have been working on will soon collapse.

Then we can only speed up the pace, or when Vienna settles the European countries, we will confront the entire European continent.

How far has the foreign ministry's actions progressed, and which countries will support us once the war breaks out? "

The heavy voice told Campbell's inner restlessness.

The topic of war is too heavy, especially a war with a big country, no one dares to take it lightly.

Adam, the foreign minister, was even more depressed at the moment.

The fact that the Russians lined up with Shinra was to be expected. After all, their differentiation strategy was only halfway through, and they had not had time to divide Russia-Austria relations.

Even if it is to be held accountable, it should be held to account for the ex, or the ex-ex. Because of their inaction, the Russian-Austrian alliance continued.

However, politics is brutal. Whether it is the predecessor, the predecessor, or the predecessor, the predecessor has all landed safely, and he has taken the blame.

If it was just this one, it would be fine. The problem is that the Russians' stance brought a chain reaction, which directly affected the stances of various countries.

With so many pots smashed together, no one could afford it, Adam only felt that his life "has no bright future".

At this point, Britain still has hope of winning the war, but as Britain's foreign minister, Adam has absolutely no room to turn around.

Accidentally became the most wronged foreign secretary of the British Empire, and Adam now regrets it.

Mingming's resignation letter had been submitted long ago, but it was a pity that the parliament did not approve it, so he just took the blame. Knowing that it was coming so soon, he would have resorted to extraordinary measures.

Just look at the war minister who proposed war before, because he fell off a horse while patrolling the military camp a few days ago and was injured, and now he is his deputy.

No matter how sad the heart is, the work must go on. Even for the sake of a stable life in the second half of his life, Adam must give it a go and use his achievements to cleanse himself.

After adjusting his mood, Adam said slowly: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has signed secret agreements with Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of Colombia, Chile... and other eight countries.

If necessary, we can form a nine-nation coalition against the Austrians.

In addition, we have contacts with the Russian Empire, Spain, the Netherlands, the Nordic Federation and other countries.

Although we failed to win them over, we still alienated the feelings of each country and the Holy Roman Empire. At least it can be guaranteed that after the outbreak of war, countries will not fully support the enemy. "

This result is obviously not satisfactory to everyone. But to be able to do this, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs really did its best.

Regardless of your hype, countries always give priority to "interests" and "strength" when making strategic choices.

Britain has the advantage of sea power, and it is naturally unfavorable in overseas diplomatic actions. However, there are also contradictions between overseas countries. Once one is drawn, one cannot draw another.

Otherwise, even if the alliance is pulled up, it is still a conflicted alliance, and it is busy with internal friction every day.

Not to mention when they arrive in Europe, not to mention that they have a limited right to speak on the mainland, and there are only people who have hatred with Britain everywhere.

Pulling the enemy to fight another enemy, such a divine operation, is really not something ordinary people can do.

Especially when the enemy we are facing now is also a powerful diplomatic country with rich experience in pulling allies, it will be even more difficult to operate.

As an insider, Campbell will not deliberately make things difficult at this time and destroy the unity of the leadership team.

He spoke to ease the atmosphere and said, "The work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still good, and it is enough to be able to do this.

Next, it depends on the performance on the battlefield. As long as the navy can play its prestige in the early stage of the war, I believe that European countries will choose again.

The Holy Roman Empire's injustices that rely on the threat of force and forcefully coerce all countries will eventually be punished by God..."

"Ding ding ding..."

Before Campbell could finish speaking, the phone rang suddenly, and everyone's eyes were attracted.

You must know that cabinet meetings are strictly confidential, and any distractions are prohibited during the meeting.

Unless there is a particularly important matter that needs to be contacted, the outside staff can call the dedicated line on the desktop.

There is no doubt that such coincidences are rare, and even if there is an urgent matter, it is not impossible to wait for an hour.

Therefore, this special line phone is almost a decoration, and it does not necessarily ring once a year.

Precisely because this phone seldom rings, every time it rings, it is accompanied by an earth-shattering event.

Picking up the phone, Campbell's indifferent voice sounded: "I'm Campbell, if you have something to say."

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, something happened in Africa..."