Rise of Australia

Chapter 210 Russia's Dreadnought Ambition
The celebration banquet went smoothly, and Arthur also made more friends from European royal families, including nobles from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria.

Coincidentally, the Bulgarian royal family is also a member of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family, and its Prince Ferdinand I and Arthur's grandmother, Queen Victoria, are also distantly related.

Ferdinand I was a writer, botanist, entomologist and philatelist, but also because of his fragile and eccentric character, when he was chosen as Prince of Bulgaria, he was cut off by his father's cousin, Queen Victoria. Criticism: "He is completely inappropriate, fragile, eccentric, and weak. Such a person is not suitable to be the ruler of a country, and the invitation to become the Prince of Bulgaria should be stopped immediately."

In fact, Queen Victoria was not the only one who questioned Ferdinand. At that time, many European royal families doubted whether he could become a qualified ruler.

But, to the surprise of all his critics, Ferdinand I achieved great success during the first 20 years of his reign.

Of course, in fact, Ferdinand I became the ruler of Bulgaria for more than 20 years.

After a disastrous defeat in World War I, Ferdinand I was
The country ordered to abdicate and went into exile in Austria.

Ferdinand I was also considered a long-lived monarch, he lived until 1948, and the Bulgarian monarchy only persisted until 1946.

Of course, in addition to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria, Arthur has also established a good relationship with the Kingdom of Sweden, mainly because of Arthur's sister, Princess Margaery.

Princess Margaery in history married the Swedish prince Oscar Frederick William Olaf Gustav Adolf in 1905, who will be the famous Swedish King Gustav VI in the future.

Although the development of history is different now, fate still brings the two together.

The Swedish side proposed a marriage request to Australasia and Princess Louise, and Princess Louise agreed to the Swedish side's marriage request after a long consideration.

Arthur had no objection to that either.Sweden maintained neutrality in both world wars, and was a monarchy even in later generations.

Although the Swedish king lost all his rights after World War II, it was only a symbol of the country.

But this kind of ending is definitely much better than most European monarchies. Even Gustav VI himself lived to be nearly 91 years old, which is definitely a good death.

Although Gustav will not become the king of Sweden until more than 40 years later, at least he can successfully ascend the throne and become a king loved by the Swedish people.

After deciding to marry Sweden, the rest of the matter is handled by the government and Princess Louise.

Arthur didn't pay much attention to this, but he also prepared a generous dowry, and used national standards to prepare for Margaery's marriage.

Arthur has only one requirement, that is, Margaery must live well in Sweden, which can be regarded as fulfilling her responsibility as a younger brother.

After the banquet, the nobles and officials of most countries chose to return to their respective countries the next day.

Most of them are high-level executives with high status and power in their respective countries, so they cannot leave their posts for too long.

Of course, not everyone left in such a hurry.Including Crown Prince William and Grand Duke Sergey, as well as Saburo Endo of the island country, chose to stay.

The purpose of the islanders is simple. They want to continue to discuss resource trade with Australasia and order a dreadnought to strengthen the combined fleet of the island nation.

These demands may seem ordinary, but the main problem is that the island nation has no money right now.The last Russo-Japanese War did not achieve too many strategic goals for the island country, but instead invested a lot of money.

They are currently only surviving on loans from the United Kingdom and the United States, and their domestic dreadnought plan will not even have to wait until one or two years later.

This also led to the island nation's various plans being carried out on credit, and they even wanted Arthur to advance funds for them until they obtained more international loans.

Arthur laughed at this, and directly ended the negotiation with the island country.

Arthur would not be so stupid as to advance funds for the island country to maintain trade between the two countries.

After reaching a deeper level of cooperation with Russia, cooperation with island countries has become dispensable.

What's more, the arms market and economy of the island country are basically controlled by the British Empire and the United States, and most of the weapons, equipment and warships of the island country also come from the British Empire.

Under such circumstances, if Australasia wants to compete with the British Empire in the market of the island country, the result it faces is basically failure.

Moreover, Russia has internal and external troubles, and it is impossible for the Russians to threaten Australasia.But island countries are different. The basic base of island countries is in East Asia. After they develop, they can even threaten Australia and New Zealand.

This has happened before in history, and Arthur has to guard against it.

After a brief exchange with the island country, Arthur accompanied Crown Prince William and Grand Duke Sergey for a few days around Australasia.

In the end, Crown Prince William left with satisfaction and even said he would come back at the next wedding.

Of course, it’s not that Arthur has done nothing with Crown Prince William in the past few days. At least Arthur has been subtly influencing Crown Prince William, making Germany pay more attention to the development of 305mm artillery and larger caliber artillery, and at the same time began to vigorously develop submarines.

In fact, the development of large-caliber naval guns has attracted great attention from Germany.

There is no other reason. At present, there are three known dreadnought designs in Germany in the world, two of which are equipped with 305mm main guns (the Australasian design is 305, and the one equipped with 280).

Only Germany is still satisfied with the 280mm artillery, and does not have more research and expectations for large-caliber artillery.

But times have changed.The dreadnought has undergone brand-new upgrades in terms of firepower, protection and power. The 280mm artillery is enough for the old battleships before. Whether it can cause enough damage to the newly born dreadnought is anyone's uncertainty. question.

But no matter what, judging from the written data, the Nassau-class battleship developed by Germany itself is indeed slightly weaker than the battleship Dreadnought in terms of firepower.

Although the firepower is equivalent to that of the Sovereign-class battleship in Australasia, they just have no choice. Due to technical limitations, they can only temporarily carry 280mm main guns.

What Arthur didn't know was that because of his own reasons, Germany had begun to focus on the development of 305mm artillery, and already had plans for a larger caliber main gun.

William II's idea is very simple. Since Australasia can design a powerful battleship that exceeds the data of the Nassau-class battleship, why doesn't the German Empire design a super battleship with more powerful data in all aspects?
After sending off Crown Prince William, only Grand Duke Sergey and Grand Duchess Mary remained in Australasia.

In fact, this is also a matter of course. Grand Duke Sergey will stay in Australasia to discuss the specific time and details of the wedding. At the same time, the Russian government is also trying to reach a deeper cooperation with Australasia.

In addition to the wedding, what the Russian government and Grand Duke Sergey paid more attention to was the battleship comparable to the dreadnought in the shipbuilding plan proposed by Australasia.

After Grand Duke Sergei learned that Australasia controlled the dreadnought technology, he sent telegrams to contact the country many times, and was approved by Nicholas II, giving him full responsibility for the relationship with Australasia. order of warships.

After receiving the approval of Nicholas II, Grand Duke Sergey was still very excited.

The data of the dreadnoughts greatly crushed the old battleships. No matter which Russian fleet is equipped with dreadnoughts, it will greatly improve the strength of the Russian navy.

At present, the first thing that needs to be determined is whether the warship designed by Australasia has the performance of a dreadnought ship, and the second is how much the warship will cost, and whether Russia can carry out large-scale construction.

The price of old-fashioned battleships is generally around 100 million pounds, and the highest price will basically not exceed 150 million pounds.

This is also the reason why Russia is able to have a good naval strength, and it is also possible to make a powerful fleet by throwing pots and selling iron.

But if the cost of the dreadnought is too expensive, it will basically not be affordable by the current Russian government.

You can only order one or two ships at most to give your own fleet a boost.

Grand Duke Sergey was indeed vigorous enough. After obtaining the authorization of Nicholas II, he found Arthur the next day and asked his own questions.

Arthur was prepared for Grand Duke Sergey's question, so he replied with a smile on his face: "His Royal Highness, please rest assured that our Sovereign-class battleship is based on the data of the British battleship Dreadnought and the German Nassau-class battleship. After a long period of research, combining the advantages of the two battleships, the designed battleship is comparable to the battleship Dreadnought. Our battleship is definitely of the dreadnought level, and its performance and combat effectiveness can also stand the test. "

The Russians still know about the German Nassau-class battleships.In fact, after the dreadnought was known to most countries, Germany's counterattack was already underway secretly.

In order to win the hearts of the Germans, and at the same time a strong counterattack against the British battleship Dreadnought, Germany announced the data of some Nassau-class battleships, and declared that this is a powerful battleship with a combat effectiveness not weaker than that of the HMS Dreadnought.

Combining the advantages of the Dreadnought and Nassau-class battleships, the Sovereign-class battleship should have no problem reaching the level of the Dreadnought, right?
　The first update of [-] words, please support!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)