Chapter 852: Bragging Strategies

  Chapter 835 – Bragging Strategies

The sudden arms race has disrupted the deployment of many people, including Austria.

As a matter of fact, the Vienna government also had plans to provoke an arms race, only that was all in the past tense.

Since the decision to implement the Near East Development Program, Franz gave up that tempting plan for no other reason than – poverty.

It was not in Austria’s power to build infrastructure and play with an arms race at the same time.

It is easy to provoke an arms race, but the key problem is how to deal with the aftermath, if just set off such a meaningful activities, pocket no money, it would be a disgrace.

This is not only a matter of face, but also a demonstration of strength to the rest of the world, and the stronger the strength, the easier it is to find a younger brother in international politics.

Of course, there are occasional exceptions that can backfire. Exactly how to operate depends on the political skill of everyone.

I have to admit that the British grasped the timing correctly. Now is indeed the best time to subdue France and Austria, after this point in time, the two countries’ strategic plan is completed, the situation will be a shocking reversal.

Even if the two countries could not be suppressed at once, it would be necessary to strike the arrogance of the two countries and tell the world who is the king of this era.

Putting down the information in his hands, Franz frowned and asked, “We are having to answer the war?”

Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “Yes, Your Majesty!

The British have timed it right, and if we retreat now, the outside world will think that Austria is afraid of Britain.

Word from the embassy in Paris is that the French government has decided to respond to the war, and it probably won’t be long before a new shipbuilding program is announced.”

It wasn’t that there wasn’t the strength to follow through, it was just that Franz wasn’t willing to do this pointless exertion.

Well, this is all self-congratulation, the real situation is that Austria’s financial strength can’t spell the British without affecting the building of the domestic economy.

Even if the plagiarism harvest is also the same, the Near East development program, urban renovation and upgrading, road transportation facilities construction, these three major plans have been consumed seven or eight.

Arms race, the biggest problem is not shipbuilding, but the later military expenses. Simply just shipbuilding, a hundred battleships Vienna government can easily burst out.

The problem is that the ship out, the later maintenance expenses, it will kill people.

Let’s put it this way, these days the construction cost of a new battleship is just over one million guilders, five years of maintenance costs, more than the cost of the warship itself.

Maybe it wouldn’t take five more years, if they trained harder, they could exceed it in three.

This can be calculated, a battleship to be equipped with six or seven hundred officers and men, logistics and maintenance personnel than the first-line personnel only a little more, just the annual payroll expenses, is a considerable amount of money.

To ensure the fighting strength of the army, the daily training is certainly indispensable, look at the barrel of the gun to know that the navy’s shells are not cheap, battleships a flurry of dozens of Shendian is gone, the use of special bullets may be a few hundred Shendian are gone.

Seemingly insignificant coal, if the unit is turned into thousands of tons, the same is not a small number.

Daily overhaul, equipment maintenance, replacement of damaged parts, which is also a small amount of expenditure.

Add up the total, a year without hundreds of thousands of Shendian funds, simply not enough to spend.

Want to be cheap can also, play the poor man’s navy on the line. Learning from the Russians’ previous practice, warships parked in the harbor, soldiers take the army drill code training, military expenses only need a tenth of the normal level is enough.

Franz nodded and commanded the Navy Minister, “Castagni, tell us about your shipbuilding program!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Minister of the Navy Castagni: “The British Navy already has 4 Monarch-class battleships, and this time, they are building 6 new battleships, 10 destroyers, 7 cruisers, and 31 warships of all types and sizes.

If we want to be a deterrent to them, we need to keep at least 80 percent of their main ships and 70 percent of their subordinate warships.

Currently we only have three new battleships, and the Admiralty plans to build five more new battleships, eight destroyers, six cruisers, and a total of 25 other subordinate warships.”

I don’t know when the Austrian Navy began to popularize the “eight-point theory”, i.e., to have eighty percent of the Royal Navy’s tonnage, to be a deterrent to the British.

You know, from the beginning of the great naval development, the Austrian Navy’s initial goal was only one-tenth of the Royal Navy, which is less than thirty years target increased eight times.

Think about it, who let the Austrian Navy’s main ship tonnage number has approached the British seventy percent?

Sixty-five point seven percent to be exact, rounded up to seventy percent is correct. With a family base this thick, it’s no surprise that the eight-point theory is being advocated.

Perhaps in the eyes of the Navy, not proposing a one-for-one shipbuilding program was already a sign of respect.

Franz is indifferent to this, just do not know whether the British can endure. But people’s bottom line are constantly being refreshed, change into the country is no exception.

Compared to the original time and space, the British government’s bottom line has been much lower.

This is all forced out, with the economic strength of France and Austria, have increased the investment in the navy, the Royal Navy’s two strong standard, just out of the tragic face.

Then the plan was changed to use the Royal Navy as a parameter to maintain a 1:0.6 advantage over the world’s second naval power.

This ratio was, in effect, all talk. After a couple of years of trying, the British government was forced to once again refresh the bottom line.

Austria, the third naval power, had sixty-five percent of the Royal Navy’s tonnage, and the French Navy had seventy-two percent of the Royal Navy.

The pattern of the British, French and Austrian triple power, in fact, is also the Royal Navy’s inability to suppress the French and Austrians led to the London government was forced to accept and the French and Austrians to share the rest of the world.

Suppression, the British government has been doing, the problem is that the effect is really not good, one did not suppress.

No one is a fool, there is a fisherman on the side, France and Austria tacitly suppressed the contradictory conflicts, eyes wide open staring at the British.

The British government several times want to make things happen, were found out, in France and Austria under the retaliation, the British were almost squeezed out of the Mediterranean Sea.

Uncomfortable at first, the British government adapted over time and accepted the reality.

After all, 0.72 + 0.65 is no more than 1.37, and the two families are not likely to be genuinely united, the Royal Navy is still barely pocketable.

The precondition for all this is that this ratio, no longer continue to grow.

If the Austrian Navy tonnage increased to eighty percent of the Royal Navy, the French Navy also followed, it is estimated that the British government will be angry.

This is impossible to realize, now the proportion are almost the limit of British tolerance. Even if they were to smash the pot, the British government would let the Royal Navy’s dominance hold.

If Austria were to not build so much, naturally they wouldn’t be afraid to fight the British for financial resources, but now it’s obviously not possible.

After hesitating for a few moments, Franz slowly said: “Let’s publish it according to this plan, but the construction program time is 2 years longer than the British.

Later, if the British and French increase the number of ships, we also follow in accordance with the current ratio, but our shipbuilding progress can be slowed down a little bit, the construction of two to three battleships per year on the line.

If necessary, the Admiralty can still come up with those few big plans and use them to confuse the public.”

Losing is not losing, Franz has made up his mind to play the arms race with the British by bragging.

In any case, it is not true that the warships will not be built, but it is just that they will be built later, and this will not affect the credibility.

After the time of shipbuilding was prolonged, the financial pressure on the government would be less. As long as the government’s finances can be sustained, a longer arms race is not entirely without its benefits.

We all burned money together. In any case, the British built more warships and naturally burned more money.

If this former dreadnought can be used until it is retired, naturally it will not lose money.

The problem is that the former dreadnought is too close to the dreadnought. Essentially it is the difference in design philosophy, the technical difficulty of building a ship has increased but is not insurmountable.

Once the dreadnought is introduced, the former dreadnought will be eliminated again.

Having just finished an exhausting competition, being told that this is only the first half of the game, and that the second half of the game is about to start again, that feeling is absolutely sour.

Perhaps the wealthy Brits could barely hold out, the French government was more than likely incapable of picking up where they left off.

Even because of the increased investment in the navy, will also reduce the French investment in the army, which Austria behind the strategic plan is very favorable.

……

(End of chapter)