I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 531 Good Man George
Tirpitz never considered the Russian Navy as his opponent from the beginning, but always targeted the British Royal Navy.

Germany has two major fleets, one in the North Sea and the other in the Baltic Sea. The strength of the Baltic Fleet is similar to that of the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Empire.

All the heavy artillery battleships being built in St. Petersburg are to be equipped for the Baltic Fleet.

The dreadnoughts built by Germany were all equipped with the North Sea Fleet.

Tirpitz has not had a good time in the past two years.

Like the ambitious William II, Tirpitz underestimated the strength of the British Empire and wanted to challenge the absolute dominance of the Royal Navy, which was irrational.

In 1692, the British and Dutch allied forces defeated the French navy and established their maritime superiority, which has lasted for more than 200 years.

The German Empire was not established until 1871. Although Germany's industrial output value has surpassed that of Britain last year, Britain's accumulation of more than years still allows Britain to maintain an absolute advantage over Germany in overall strength.

After Fisher shouted that for every dreadnought Germany built, Britain would have to build two, Tirpitz finally realized that Germany, at least at this stage, was not strong enough to challenge Britain's dominance.

Unfortunately, it is too late for Germany to realize this now.

Since its reunification, Germany's economy has developed rapidly. Although German products are labeled as cheap "Made in Germany", Germany is the fastest growing economy in the world.

The rapid improvement of the overall national strength brought the Germans unparalleled confidence. If Tirpitz surrendered at this time, his political career would be completely over.

So neither Tirpitz nor the Germans could stop and had to carry on the arms race to the end.

What George can do is to give his German brother-in-law some practical and forward-looking advice.

"The Baltic Fleet will be mainly equipped with submarines in the future. Any warship that dares to enter the Baltic Sea will be devastated by the submarines."

George is unscrupulous. Submarines are now the trump card of the Russian Navy.

In the era before sonar was invented, submarines were invincible and no one could do anything to them.

George did not remind Tirpitz to develop weapons to deal with submarines, but hoped that the German Navy would use submarines to deal with the Royal Navy.

The German Navy was helpless against the Russian Empire's submarines, but the Royal Navy was also helpless against the German Navy's submarines.

The key thing is that submarines cannot be seen. As long as the German Navy does not announce it actively, no one knows how many submarines the German Navy has built, just like the railway guns in Vladivostok.

There is no point in publishing it because no one can be sure whether the published data is a smoke screen or not.

Tirpitz frowned and thought hard, unsure of George's true purpose.

Is George right?

Of course you are right, submarines do have great prospects, they are cheap and easy to equip on a large scale.

But why did George remind Tirpitz?
Although the German Emperor and the Tsar were relatives, Tirpitz was well aware that Germany and Russia could not urinate in the same pot, and could not even guarantee that they would not urinate on each other.

George only cared about killing and not burying. Let Tirpitz think about it. Sooner or later he will figure it out.

It must be said that Tirpitz was still very capable. The advantages and disadvantages of German battleships were very obvious. Although its firepower was a bit weak, its defense was unparalleled in the world.

The waterline armor of the Moltke class reached 270 mm, and the conning tower armor was 350 mm. If the Russian Navy had paid so much attention to defense, the Pacific Fleet and the Second Fleet would not have lost so badly.

The 50-caliber 280mm main gun of "Moltke" is actually not weak. Its power is similar to that of the British 305 main gun, but it is much lighter, which is enough to make up for the power with quantity.

When the firepower is similar, defense becomes the decisive factor in naval battles.

George looked at the "Moltke" and "Goeben" and decided to revise the plan as soon as he returned. It was probably too late to armor the waterline of the newly built all-heavy artillery battleship, and the armor of the conning tower must be strengthened. This was not necessarily the case. If it really didn't work, the external armor of the armored vehicle could be transplanted onto the battleship, sacrificing speed in exchange for survivability.

Anyway, the mission of the Baltic Fleet battleships is to protect St. Petersburg. It doesn't matter whether they can catch up with the enemy or not.

Moltke was quite smart. During the evening reception, Moltke and George had a very pleasant conversation.

George was notoriously petty. During the Russo-Japanese War, Britain dug such a big hole for the Russian Empire, so it was understandable that George created some trouble for the British.

Tirpitz set his sights on Vladivostok's submarine and torpedo technology.

"It's fine to transfer technology, but you have to guarantee that submarines and torpedoes will not be used in the Baltic Sea."

George got vaccinated in advance.

"George, you worry too much. The relationship between our two countries is so good—"

Tirpitz looked sincere.

George smiled and watched Tirpitz's performance quietly.

The Germans were indeed not very good at disguise, and Tirpitz's face immediately turned red.

"Okay, I promise."

A guarantee is enough, and George does not worry about whether Tirpitz can fulfill his guarantee. If Tirpitz deploys submarines to the Baltic Sea, George has prepared a surprise for Tirpitz.

Just because Germany had no way to deal with submarines doesn't mean the Russian Empire had none.

Although Germany's technology is strong, the Russian Empire is not weak either. Nowadays, the Russian Empire has researched almost all cutting-edge technological fields, but the Russian Empire is not good at publicity, and the empire did not pay enough attention to it, so it is not known to the outside world.

The next morning, George and Tirpitz signed an order worth 5700 million rubles and returned home with a full load.

Before the Georges returned to St. Petersburg, the Berlin newspapers were already making the news known.

Nicholas has a big head. Just sell it if you want. Why are you making such a big fuss about it? Are you afraid that the British don't know?

Little Nicholas went even further and directly mocked George for being an accomplice to the enemy.

Nicholas was not satisfied again, as he did not consider Germany to be an enemy of the Russian Empire.

"I visited the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg. There are two battlecruisers being built on the slipway of this shipyard, and another one is being fitted out. There are a total of six shipyards like Blohm & Voss in Germany."

George was very dissatisfied. As the Minister of the Navy, he was forced to find ways to make money. Stolypin should hang himself.

"We are discussing selling submarines. Who discussed this with you?"

What Nicholas is most afraid of now is that George will be stimulated.

They are all navy ministers. Look at Tirpitz, he has everything he wants. Even William II had to tighten his belt to support Tirpitz.

Since George became the First Lord of the Admiralty, he has done two things: one is to disarm, and the other is to take the junks of the Baltic Fleet out for target practice.

"None of you can think of this money, I can use it."

George should shut up first, no one can take a penny from him.

(End of this chapter)