Chapter 1094： Diligent and thrifty (1/2)

The warship ”dumpling” game has never been fun. It is not only necessary to test a country's industry, but also a country's pockets.

Looking at the military budget, the Shinra Navy’s military budget in 1904 directly increased by 100 million due to the impact of the shipbuilding competition.

Obviously, so much money cannot be used to build ships. It would not take that much to build just a dozen capital ships, and more would be spent on matching and army expansion.

Since the end of the European War, the Shenluo Navy began a road of rapid development. In order to compete for military spending, the Navy and the Air Force have also joined forces with the Air Force in the past few years to force the Army.

Although it was unsuccessful, the share of the navy's military expenditure has increased. With the advent of the ”Super Battleship Era”, the Shinra Navy has also entered a golden age.

Since 1900, several naval academies in Shinra have expanded their enrollment. From the initial annual enrollment of more than 2,000 people, it has gradually expanded to the current annual enrollment of more than 3,000 people.

It is naturally incomparable with the army’s generous recruitment of tens of thousands of people each year, but the Navy’s demand for officers is far less than the Army’s.

The reason is very simple. The main strategic goal of the Shinra Navy is to defeat the British, not to maintain world hegemony.

To achieve this goal, the most cost-effective is to build a battleship. Others, such as battlecruisers, seem to be very useful, but they are not economical to use in decisive battles.

Black technology is not absent, but it is not safe enough. For example: aircraft carrier, or for example: submarine.

The combat effectiveness is very strong, but requires a specific battlefield. No one can guarantee that the ability to lead the British to a specific battlefield to fight, naturally cannot pin their hopes on the British to be stupid.

If the battlefield is in the Atlantic Ocean, wind and waves are enough to stop the aircraft carrier, and it is not impossible to barely fight, but the final outcome must be tragedy.

Not to mention the submarines, they should not be too far away from the battlefield, otherwise the war would be over without waiting for them to get there.

Difficulty in participating in the decisive battle does not mean that these possessions are useless.

You must know that Shinra is also a colonial power. Although overseas colonies are not the core and can be abandoned at any time, it is definitely better to keep them.

The aircraft carrier is difficult to pk in the Atlantic and the British, it does not mean that it cannot be used in the Pacific. Sending to the Pacific, bullying the Japanese navy or the U.S. Navy are all good choices.

Not to mention submarines. Relying on the colonies of Shenluo spread over five continents, they can launch attacks all over the world.

Of course, it is better not to use this method of lifting the table. After all, Shenluo is also a major maritime trade country, and it is equally easy to be targeted by others.

The main thing depends on the naval decisive battle. If the naval battle is won, then the hegemony will be accepted in a regular manner; if the naval battle is lost, there is no way, but the bad rules can be broken.

In fact, Franz has set off so many smoke bombs, the real cover is these secretly constructed submarines and aircraft carriers.

Unlike capital ships, aircraft carriers can be disguised as merchant ships. Although it looks a little different, as long as it does not install weapons, it is still feasible to hide from amateur-level intelligence personnel.

Not to mention the submarine, this thing is not big. It is completely possible to walk underwater without leaving the shipyard, avoiding the sight of intelligence personnel.

Let alone after serving, as soon as the colony is scattered, who knows how many submarines Shinra has equipped?

There is no way, who made the Royal Navy's reputation too prestigious?

Don't say it was someone else, even Franz himself had no confidence.

It is estimated that, except for the self-hypnotizing guys from the Navy Department, few in the world think they can win.

But politics, the essence is acting. Despite the lack of confidence, Franz was confident.

The times are advancing, and in the 20th century, the struggle for hegemony has evolved from a competition of pure military strength to a competition of comprehensive national power.

If you can't get a head-on decisive battle, then fight for national power. Failure is not terrible, as long as you have the determination to ”fail repeatedly” and come several times, you can always pull the British down.

In fact, one very important reason why the Vienna government dared to challenge the British is that it has established itself in an invincible position.

As a land-powered country, regardless of the number of failures at sea, as long as the mainland is not affected, the foundation cannot be shaken.

It doesn't matter if the naval battle is lost. The big deal is to return to the Mediterranean for a year and a half, and then come back to the second decisive battle.

The second time doesn't work, you can still have the third, fourth, fifth time. Anyway, you can lose countless times, and you only need to win once to win.

Just like the Sino-U.S.-Japan Pacific War of World War II in the original time and space, the Japanese navy opened up all the way in the early days, and then lost the war in victory.

Although the gap between Shinra and Britain is not as great as that between the United States and Japan, the industrial strength is still three to one.

In addition, Britain is an island country, and its own resources do not need to support industrial needs. Industrial raw materials have to rely heavily on imports, and the advantages are even more obvious.

Once the second hand is activated, I dare not say that the British sea trade will be completely abolished, but it is not a problem to let their trade volume drop significantly.

The original space-time German submarine, in the limited space of activity, caused the Allied Powers to suffer unspeakably. Now that the Shenluo submarine can run around the world, its lethality is unreasonably weaker.

It is easier to destroy than to build. Shipbuilding cannot keep up with the consumption. Once there is a problem with the trade line, the British Isles will have to go hungry.

There is a problem in the homeland, and it is useless for the Royal Navy to fight. If it is consumed in the war, it may be dragged to death due to poor logistics.

Although the tactics are a bit trivial, the strategy is definitely upright. She is purely overpowering, without any speculation.

...

While Shinra and Britain were fighting for time, the Japanese and Russians were also fighting for time, and even more intense.

In any case, Shinra and Britain are only fighting secretly, but Japan and Russia are fighting with real swords and guns.

In order to speed up the construction of the Siberian Railway, the Tsarist government adopted a three-shift, 24-hour work system for the first time.

Don’t think it’s easy, you know, the construction site is Siberia. In this inaccessible ghost place, any kind of climate exists.

Even if it has entered April, there are still many places where the low temperature at night is more than ten degrees below zero, which is not suitable for construction at all.

If it is not suitable for construction, you must do it. In the Russian Empire, there is no saying that construction cannot be done in winter. If construction cannot be done in winter, the Siberian Railway will not need to be repaired.

The reputation of ”frozen soil” was not blown out. In many areas of Siberia, snow does not melt all year round.

Although the Siberian Railway was planned to avoid these harsh climate areas as much as possible, many places still cannot be avoided.

Human wisdom is powerful, engineers still think of ways to overcome the harsh climate; human wisdom is also limited, and the safety of labor cannot be guaranteed.

Affected by the bad weather at night and with the implementation of the 24-hour rotation system, the death rate of labor has risen instead of falling.

Especially at night, there is a high incidence of death. Mo said it was a front-line worker, even many Russian soldiers who were in charge of supervision were frozen out of trouble.

No matter how great the difficulty is, it cannot shake the tsarist government's determination in a hurry. The laborers suffered heavy casualties, and the Russian soldiers on the front line suffered heavy casualties.

The railway will be opened to traffic a day earlier, the main force will be able to pass by, and victory will come a day earlier.