Holy Roman Empire

On January 1882, 1, 21 European countries including Britain, France, Russia and Austria signed the "Army Arms Limitation Treaty".

According to the provisions of the treaty, the size of the armies of each country is as follows:

50 Russian Empire;

Austria 48.6;

France 38.2;

24.6 in Spain;

15.6 in the Federal Reich of Germany;

Britain 11.6;

9.8 for the Nordic Federation;

Belgium 4.8;

3.3 in the Netherlands;

3.2 in Switzerland;

Portugal 2.8;

Prussia 2.8;

Greece 1.8;

Montenegro 0.36 million;

……

Generally speaking, this arms treaty is based on the comprehensive strength of all countries and takes into account the regional military balance.

The share of the Kingdom of Prussia is low, because the Berlin government is poor and cannot afford too many troops.

As early as half a year ago, the Berlin government had already started planning for disarmament. The biggest problem was that there was no way to convince the military to agree.

After finally catching up with the arms limitation treaty, the government will naturally not fight for quotas for the military.

The signing of an international treaty has created established facts. No matter how strong the Prussian military is, it must abide by it. The defeated Prussia has no right to make trouble.

The Arms Limitation Treaty was signed, and the shadow of war floating on the European continent suddenly disappeared.At least for the next ten years, everyone's safety is guaranteed.

The number of armies is limited. Although the advantages of big countries are still obvious, under the mutual containment of various countries, they have lost the ability to annex small countries.

That's right, the main target is France.After the disarmament is completed, the French's military strength to protect their own safety is acceptable, but it is not enough to continue to expand.

Knowing that they were targeted, the French could only accept it.At this time, Napoleon IV had to restrain his ambitions to avoid being flanked by internal and external attacks.

Arms treaties restrict only the mainland of Europe, and the overseas colonial troops are tacitly ignored by everyone.This is not to leave a back door, but a practical need.

There are three main reasons for being ignored: first, the practical needs of maintaining the colonial system, it is simply impossible without sufficient troops;

Secondly, most colonial armies have limited combat effectiveness and are not valued by everyone;

Finally, the productivity of the times is limited.If overseas troops want to be transported to the European continent, a lot of manpower and material resources are needed, and economically, it is better to directly expand the army.

After the arms treaty is signed, the rest will be easy to discuss.

The tenet of the Vienna system is: European countries jointly provide guarantees for their own homeland security, so as to maintain peace and stability in the European continent.

In this era of rising anti-war waves, governments of all countries have no interest in launching wars in Europe, so naturally they will not reject such a treaty.

Everyone's disputes are mainly about the details. Generally speaking, all European countries are peace-loving.Even if politicians don't love it, the international situation and the European people will make them love peace.

……

While everyone is celebrating the coming of peace, another arms race is brewing again.

In the Palace of Vienna, a military meeting to determine the future direction of Austria and the world is underway in secret.

At this moment, Franz is holding a copy of warship design parameters in his hand. If he is familiar with the history of naval development, he will find it very familiar.

The displacement is 14147 tons, and the full load displacement is 15786 tons;

126.7 meters long and 21.86 meters wide;

The cruising range is 10 knots/4700 nautical miles, and the maximum speed is 18.3 knots;

The designed coal storage capacity is 950 tons;

装备4门305mm主炮，10门150mm速射炮，16门57mm速射炮，12门47mm机关炮，七座450mm鱼雷发射管。

……

That's right, the beginning of the pre-dreadnought.Franz's butterfly effect still affects the history of naval development.

Without the Franco-Prussian War, the French Navy did not deviate due to funding problems. Coupled with the rise of the Austrian Navy, the competition on the ocean was much more cruel than the same period in history.

Where there is competition, there is development. In this ever-changing era, no one dares to stand still.

In this context, the naval technologies of various countries are at least ten years ahead of the same period in history, and the design concept of the former dreadnought also came into being.

On this question Franz was of no help.Warships are the embodiment of a country's industrial strength, and cannot be promoted by a so-called idea.

If you search carefully, you will find that designers have never lacked brains, and there are a lot of advanced ideas, but they were forced to shelve for various reasons.

Not to mention the former dreadnoughts, concepts like dreadnoughts and aircraft carriers have all been brought up.

At first, Franz was shocked, thinking that he met a fellow traveler, but it turned out that he was completely overthinking.

Let’s not mention the man who put forward the design concept of a dreadnought ship. Although it is a little bit ahead, it is still acceptable. With Austria’s industrial strength, it is barely possible to implement it.

Those who design the aircraft carrier are much more interesting.

For example: airship aircraft carrier theory.It can be seen from the literal meaning that it is to put the airship on board, fight and launch bombing.

Technically, this is perfectly fine.The bombing hit is ignored first. The key is that it takes time for the airship to take off, and the enemy will send you into the sea before you fly into the sky.

This is nothing, another designer who proposed a "suicide attack", Franz thought it was a possession of the kamikaze brigade.

Airplanes have only just been born, and combat is impossible.One designer had a big brain hole and put the plane on the ship as a disposable bomb. When a war broke out, it would directly hit the enemy warship.

There is no problem technically, the key is where can I find so many warriors who commit suicide by flying planes?

In any case, the open mind is still worthy of praise.As for their design concepts, let's put them in the warship technical storage room first!

Franz asked: "How long will it take for this kind of battleship to be built?"

The designs that could be handed over to him were all reviewed by the Ministry of the Navy for many times, and they were taken out after confirming that there were no technical problems.

Secretary of the Navy Castagni replied: "According to the normal construction speed, it will take about one and a half years. If the speed is accelerated, it can be completed in one year."

The construction time is one and a half years, plus the preparation time in advance, and the commissioning time after launching, it may be two years before the actual service time.

Compared with the previous battleships, this speed is considered slow; but compared with future battleships, this speed is very fast again.

Generally speaking, the construction speed of the first new warship is the slowest, and the more built, the faster the subsequent speed.

Franz nodded, and said lightly: "Just proceed at the normal construction speed. Build one first to see the effect."

Dreadnoughts are not cheap. A main gun costs 2 Aegis, and a warship costs a million Aegis.

The cost in the future may be reduced, but the cost of the first warship as a test product must not be lowered.

Literal parameters are not equal to actual parameters. The true performance of a warship will only be known after it is built.

The design values ​​are all theoretical, and under normal circumstances, there will be discrepancies.How big the exact error is depends on luck.

Volume [-] The Road to Unification

Chapter 1 Robbery

In a sense, the civil strife in France delayed the outbreak of the Austrian Navy.

The pre-dreadnought is only a transitional product, and its economic life is very short. In the original time and space, the glory of the pre-dreadnought was only a dozen years.

Before the warship is decommissioned, it will be behind the times, and it is very uneconomical from an economic point of view.

Knowing that this warship is not cost-effective, Franz still wants to build it, and it needs to be built on a large scale.

Before the birth of the dreadnought, the former dreadnought battleship was still very powerful, at least surpassing all warships on the sea today.

As long as Austria builds on a large scale, Britain and France must follow suit. Because of sea power, they must build more warships.

If you lose money, you lose money. As long as your competitors lose more, Franz doesn't mind letting the game of losing money continue.

However, this time to suppress France, I underestimated the revolutionary enthusiasm of the French people, and my hands were a little trembling, and I accidentally struck a little harder, which almost killed the French government.

In this context, even if the French want to follow the trend of naval construction, the reality will not allow it!

As a last resort, Franz could only slow down the pace of naval expansion, and wait for the French government to stabilize the situation before continuing this money-losing game.

The French don't have to worry about their finances, at least in the short term.Although there were heavy losses in this crisis, not too much wealth was outflowed.

The hardest-hit industries are industry and manufacturing, which account for slightly more than one-tenth of France's overall economy, and the impact on other industries is relatively low.

The losses caused by this impact are similar to the losses of the French in the original time and space in the Franco-Prussian War.

Now the size of the Great French Empire is much larger than the original time and space, and it is supported by overseas colonies. It is not difficult to restore the economy.

It seems that there is a lack of money, but most of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few people.Especially those consortiums colluding with international capital have made a fortune.

Sometimes too much money is also an annoyance. While staking land in the country, the consortium also needs more investment channels, and usury is definitely the favorite of financial tycoons.

The French government is undoubtedly the best customer. The repayment ability is a small problem. What the consortium lends to the government is not interested in interest income. What everyone needs is to strengthen their influence on the government through financial means.

"Take people with short hands, but eat people with soft mouths." Influencing the government through debt is a common method used by capitalists.

There has been such a big disturbance in the country, France's fiscal revenue this year has almost been cut in half, and the Paris government is not short of money, which is the most true portrayal.

If the money owed is too much, the government will gradually become dependent on the consortium, and even develop to the end, completely inseparable from the support of the consortium.

At that time, when the government formulates policies, it will inevitably have a certain tendency.

Judging from the current situation, the French economy will not be optimistic for a long time in the future. If the government wants to stabilize the situation, it must increase jobs and reduce the unemployment rate.

Shipbuilding is not the best choice, but it is the most suitable choice.Not only can it stimulate domestic demand, but you don't have to worry about investment being in vain.

As long as Yingao starts to work, the Paris government will definitely follow up.The pre-dreadnought is almost finished, and the era of dreadnoughts can start again, and there will be another wave of money-burning games.

The only regret is that John Bull gave up the two-strong standard early, otherwise the arms race would drag them to death.

Without the two-strong standard, the Englishman's goal is only 60.00% higher than the second five.The total tonnage of the Austrian Navy is 84% ​​of that of the French, which means that the British shipbuilding plan has dropped from 1.84 to 1.65.

It seems that the reduction is only 0.19, accounting for less than 11%. According to the current cost of shipbuilding in the UK, it is only a few million pounds, which seems to be no pressure on the London government.

In fact, this is far from a question of millions of pounds. The most expensive thing for the navy is not the shipbuilding expenditure. The subsequent port construction, warship maintenance, and salaries of officers and soldiers are far higher than the shipbuilding cost.

The former is a one-time several million, while the latter is an annual increase of several million.Even John Bull with deep pockets had to be cautious on this issue.

Judging from the current situation, the French should be the first to be unable to hold on.

This is determined by the comprehensive national strength. Their financial resources are already at the bottom of the Three Kingdoms, and they have encountered so many bad things. The gap in financial resources between everyone is even worse.

……

In the small town of Mordo, West Prussia, townspeople are surrounding a notice.From the gloomy faces of everyone, it can be seen that this is not good news.

After the Russian soldiers who posted the notice walked away, a young man broke the silence: "Taxes will be collected in advance again, this is the fifth time, and people are still forced to live!"

After the Russians occupied West Prussia, the Tsarist government immediately announced tax relief and abolished most of the taxes in the Kingdom of Prussia in order to win over the people.

Undoubtedly, this policy ended in failure.The quality of a policy does not lie in the policy itself, but the most important thing is the implementation.

With the poor military discipline of the Russian army, no matter how good the policy is, they can't stand their toss. Under the trend of hatred, the local people support the Berlin government one after another.

During the war, local guerrillas emerged one after another, and these actions gradually wore away the patience of the Tsarist government.

After the war, the Russians gave up their plan to win over the local people and started the tsarist mode.

In less than a year, the Russians had taxed the West Prussian region by 1886.

If you have no money to pay taxes, you can use the land to pay off the debt. If you don't have land, you can work as a bonded laborer.This is true not only in West Prussia, but in almost all newly occupied areas.

It was the nobility enfeoffed by the tsarist government that caused all this to happen.The fief given by the tsar was essentially just a name, and having a fief did not mean having land.

These areas are well-developed, and the land was originally owned by the owner.According to the legal interpretation of the sanctity of private property, this belongs to private finance, and no one has the right to deprive it at will.

If the nobles want to truly turn the fiefdom into their own property, they still need to find a way to seize it from the original owner.

After the reform of Alexander II, the power of local governments and nobles was weakened to a certain extent.