Chapter 1086: Strategic Choices
Chapter 1065 – Strategic Choice
The British Army, Navy and Air Force were competing for military spending, and Shinra was not able to make an exception. The outside world does not know the parameters of the Roma, but the top levels of the Vienna government know ah!
Displacement: 20,100 tons
Length: 169.6m
Width: 26.3m
Draught: 8.7m
Speed: 20.5 knots
Range: 10 knots/hour, 6500 nautical miles
Main engine: 2 sets of transmission steam turbines/4 shafts
Main Boiler: 18 mixed-fuel water boilers
Power: 23,000 horsepower
Armament: 6 x 305mm 45x double mounted guns (one forward and one aft, two on each side in a hexagonal shape), 16 x 120mm 45x single mounted guns, 2 x 450mm underwater torpedo tubes
Armor: 255 mm on sides, 76 mm on deck, 230 mm on gun mounts, 280 mm on turret front, 280 mm on command tower
Crew: 863
……
Compared to the traditional battleships, the firepower of the Roma was far more powerful. In the era of big guns and huge ships, strong firepower is equal to strong combat power.
The Admiralty was not willing to allow the British to overtake the British, as it was difficult for them to gain an advantage on the race track. In order to extend this advantage, the Admiralty came up with an ambitious refit program.
That is: within five years, the construction of 25 super battleships similar to the “Rome”, from the Royal Navy to seize the hegemony of the sea.
Theoretically there is no problem, 25 dreadnoughts can indeed sweep the current Royal Navy. Even at a discount, it can be done.
The prerequisite is “now”. The British aren’t stupid, they can’t possibly watch themselves being outclassed, and will surely take steps to do so.
The birth of the dreadnought was not an epochal development in technology, but more of a conceptual breakthrough.
In the field of emerging technology, Shen Luo does have the advantage, but this does not include shipbuilding technology.
The Royal Navy’s annual military spending is not for nothing, and in the field of warship construction technology, the British are still at the forefront of the times.
As long as the London government is willing to spend money, at most two years will be able to get their own “super battleship”. The Admiralty’s plan is nothing more than a speed competition with the British.
In any case, Shinra had a test ship. Now all that needs to be done is to slightly improve the technology on the basis of the “Rome”, and then it can be copied for industrialized production.
In terms of time, the Holy Roman Empire was at least a year and a half ahead of its competitors, and this advantage could be enlarged later in the competition.
Although the British shipbuilding technology is advanced, but the warship involves not only shipbuilding, but also involves industrial cooperation.
As the world’s first industrial power, in terms of comprehensive industrial strength, the Holy Roman Empire can definitely beat the British.
When the industrial chain is activated, not to say how much more advanced than the British technology, at least in the production capacity can absolutely dominate.
Do not dare to say that the British people built a ship, the Holy Roman Empire will be able to build two ships. But the shipbuilding industry of the two countries are all activated, in the same time, God Luo can build more warships than the British.
Now that the naval technology revolution has broken out, everyone has been pulled to the same starting line, and Shen Luo is even slightly ahead, so everyone is naturally unwilling to let go of such a good opportunity.
There was no doubt that money was indispensable for shipbuilding. As a test ship, “Roma” took a lot of detours during the construction process, and the final cost was 4,976,000 Guilders.
If a large number of ships are built, the cost will definitely come down; however, the technology of warships is always getting more and more advanced, and every time a ship is built, the previous technology will be optimized, which also requires costs.
This means that even with large-scale shipbuilding, the average cost of each “super battleship” would still not be less than 4 million divine guilders.
25 super battleships, at least 100 million Shenduan. Only one item of shipbuilding, the navy will have to increase the budget of 100 million Shen Guilders, then the army and air force how to do?
Although the Holy Roman Empire’s annual military expenditure is increasing, but this increase is basically linked to the economy, military expenditure is basically limited to about thirty percent of the revenue.
This percentage was already not low. Even though the Holy Roman Empire was a two-tiered financial system with a central government and state governments, there were still a large number of central government districts.
For the internal construction of the state, the central government doesn’t need to bear too many obligations, but for the infrastructure, livelihood projects, and administrative costs of the direct jurisdiction, it’s all the same.
Of course, the percentage was mainly Franz’s opinion. Compared to other countries in the world, the proportion of Shen Luo’s military expenses is genuinely not high, lower than ninety percent of the world’s countries.
Restricted by productivity, many countries’ military expenses reached more than half of their fiscal revenues. Only countries that had completed industrialization were able to bring this percentage down.
Whether or not the ratio of military spending expenses was high, it couldn’t change the fact that the Holy Roman Empire was number one in the world in terms of military spending expenses. The amount of military expenditure consumed by the Holy Roman Empire every year exceeded the GNP of most countries in the world.
According to the current pace of development, I’m afraid it won’t take ten years, Franz will have the feelings of the latter days of the American empire, his own family’s military expenditure expenditure exceeds the sum of the latter two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight …….
In fact, it is possible to have this feeling now. If there is no accident, from next year onwards the military expenditure of the Vienna government is going to exceed the sum of the latter two, three, four.
More money, but also can not withstand the army that swallowed the gold beast scourge. According to past practice, the ratio of military expenditure on land, sea and air is usually 4.6:3.7:1.7.
Obviously, this is a thing of the past. Neither the Navy nor the Air Force are happy with their military spending ratios and are now joining forces to shell the Army.
……
Naval Minister Castagni: “The French are spent, even if we cut them loose now, they won’t be a threat to us for a hundred years.
The Russians are our allies, and at the same time their economic lifelines are held in our hands, the threat on the Eastern Front is non-existent.
From the time we won the war against France we had no enemies on land. Throughout the world we have had only one enemy – Britain.
The Navy and Air Force needed to deal with the British, and the Army’s continued grabbing of vast resources, is a complete waste of taxpayer money.”
Air Force Minister Conrad: “Your Excellency is right, the resources occupied by the Army are simply too much, and have already seriously hindered the Empire’s ……”
Minister of War Fislav interrupted, “Both of you, please watch your words. Don’t forget that the Holy Roman Empire is a land power country, our roots lie above the land.
What determines the rise and fall of the empire has never been the vast oceans, but our homeland that spans the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa.
How can we defend such a vast territory without a strong enough army?
On the contrary, your navy and air force are already sufficient. As long as you can hold the Mediterranean, leave the rest to us!
The War Ministry has already formulated a perfect plan, and if the government decides to overturn the British hegemony, we can always cross Persia and kill our way into India.”
As a land power, there was nothing wrong with focusing on the development of the Army. The only problem was that the Holy Roman Empire had lost its land-based threat.
France was literally played out. If history could be redone, I guess the French would have killed themselves not to surrender.
Compared to the post-war disaster, the hard times during the Continental War were nothing at all. At most, the food was poor then, but now it is not enough to eat at all, or simply no food at all.
Far fewer people died on the battlefield after two years of fighting than died after the war from the scourge of the Allies. Rather, it was the destruction of production, forced displacement, and eventual death by disease or starvation on the roads.
Other countries were also tossing in the towel, for example: garrisons in Belgium, Sardinia, Tuscany, etc., screwing up no less than the Russian army.
Driven by the power of hatred, these few anti-French pioneers, in many cases, did more desperate than the Russian army.
Only the territory occupied by their subdivisions was not large, and their own presence was too weak, and the limelight was stolen by the Russians.
Just look at the direction of the French fleeing. Either to Switzerland, or Spain, or to the Shen Luo run, no one dares to run to Belgium and Italy region.
There is no way, the hatred knotted in front of them is too deep, run over there and don’t expect people to give relief.
Including those who ran toward Shiloh, they all had to make a detour and simply did not dare to pass through Luxembourg, the Rhineland and other areas.
The local people are also anti-French vanguard, in front of the Vienna government once raised a batch of relief food, ready to send to France to provide relief, the result in the Rhineland area was intercepted by the people.
In the end, the Vienna government changed its mind and decided to give it to the Russian army as military food, and it was instantly unimpeded.
So many people want the French to be finished, after the war in France that is to be how miserable, how miserable.
With the anti-French alliance of many countries following the endorsement, the international community except for a few verbal condemnations, and then there was no more.
Without France, the Holy Roman Empire lost its threat on land. As for the Russian Empire, it wasn’t a threat decades ago.
Let alone going to war with Shinra, the Tsarist government could have collapsed even if they had interrupted trade.
Without Shinra as a big buyer, the Russian Empire’s mining industry, agriculture, would have to collapse along with it.
Even if they wanted to open up new markets, they couldn’t find such a big buyer in the international market. In many areas, Shinra has formed a substantial monopoly.
Although Shen Luo was equally bad, there were alternatives at the end of the day. The big deal is to open up the mining restrictions, and at the same time let in African food, the processing and manufacturing industries will not die.
Without the threat, the Army continues to occupy the most resources, and it becomes very obtrusive. If not for the army’s strong war performance and being strong enough within the empire, I’m afraid it would have been unable to withstand the pressure.
Even so, the Army was often times blamed in the annual competition for military spending. Not only do the Navy and Air Force spray them, but even the government is constantly criticizing them.
The Army will not let go of the benefits that come its way, even if it is criticized and criticized.
Most of the time Franz pretended to be blind on this issue. There is never a simple right or wrong in politics, and the Emperor’s primary task is to balance the forces of all parties.
The pattern of the Shinra Army’s dominance had lasted for many years, and it was only in the last few years that it had changed.
Specifically, one could refer to the percentage of military spending; at the beginning of Franz’s succession, the Army’s military spending accounted for more than ninety percent of all military spending, and it had been slowly declining to forty-six percent now.
Since the Navy and Air Force had jumped in to make a fuss, why should he, the Emperor, be the bad guy? When they were almost done arguing, then based on the results of the parties’ arguments, the final distribution of military expenses would be decided.
Although cutting meat with a blunt knife is not a good choice, sometimes it is the only choice. It would be truly irresponsible to cut the Army’s military spending immediately with a broad brush.
Whether it’s disarmament, compression of the establishment, or finding ways to cut costs, it takes time to buffer.
Therefore, the proportion of the army’s military expenditure in the defense budget is declining year by year, but the implementation of the specific amount of military expenditure, but has never been reduced, on the contrary, it is increasing year by year, but the growth rate is slower than that of the navy and air force.
Don’t look at the current fight, in fact, the real fight is still new military spending, rather than the previous nearly fixed costs.
In order to change the passive situation, the army naturally will not be idle. The Navy has the “Super Battleship Program”, the Air Force has the “Terminator Program”, and the Army can also have the “India Program”.
No matter how difficult it is to implement, it is better than nothing. In any case, the success rate of the Navy and Air Force’s programs may not be as high as it should be.
The strategic plans for the army, navy and air force are all out, and now it’s time for the top brass of the Vienna government to have a headache. Who to support and who to oppose, this is a problem that can make people bald.
At first glance, the three strategic plans, no matter which one is able to pull the British down; careful study, and will find that the three strategic plans are just plans. To accomplish any one of these plans, a great deal of resources would need to be invested.
……
Seeing that it was getting late, Franz impatiently got up, waved his hand and said: ”Let’s stop here for today, come over tomorrow and continue.
I hope you can come up with a more adequate and responsible plan instead of drawing me a big pie that I can see but not eat.”
As a matter of fact, Franz was already secretly glad that he hadn’t been lazy this time. If he had thrown this trouble to Frederick, he would probably have been able to stage an all-out brawl in this dispute over strategic routes.
It was clear that the Army was not going to continue to back down this time. It is simply unrealistic to rely on pressure from all sides to make the army make concessions.
In the event that the Ministry of War is pushed, the news will be spread out and the whole country will be invited to participate in the discussion, then it will be a great joy.
Politics is something that no one can say for sure. Compared to the Air Force and the Navy, the Army has a much higher level of civilian support.
Let the general public to do this choice question, it is estimated that eighty percent of the people will choose, from Persia all the way to India to kill, cut off the British lifeblood.
Another nineteen percent would be the prudent ones, who would invite the Russians to join them in India. As for less than one percent, they would probably support the navy or the air force.
This is what the war record dictates. The Army had given enough confidence to the people through one of its victories in the old days.
The Air Force had also performed, but the power of the Air Force in this day and age was obviously not great enough to bring enough confidence to the people.
Not to mention the navy, which had always played a role in the sauce, not to mention the general public, even Franz didn’t think that the Shinra Navy could defeat the British Royal Navy.
If you can’t win a head-on duel, can’t you find a way to play a roundabout game?
Anyway, the gateway to the Mediterranean Sea has been obtained, the Shen Luo Navy can be completely from the east and west two directions to attack, so that the British can not take care of both the head and the tail.
Anyway, running the inner circle in the Mediterranean Sea is faster than running the outer circle of the British. Unless the Royal Navy can have more than twice the tonnage of the Shinra Navy and just play block the gate.
To do that, it still seems to be somewhat insufficient. At this time, the strategic position of the Strait of Gibraltar, once again reflected.
The Viennese government can deploy air force in Morocco to complete the locking door plan; the British can likewise operate Gibraltar as a giant aircraft carrier.
There are airplanes in the sky, submarines in the water, and every now and then in the laying of a wave of mines. The same could be done to lock down the Strait of Gibraltar.
Can’t get out of the west gate, merely can only get out of the east that would be passive. At that time really only with the army, and then pull on the Russians to join forces, the two respectively from Afghanistan and Persia to kill India.
……
(End of chapter)