Berlin, the Royal Palace.
"Well! You are very reasonable! Then it is up to you to deal with the affairs of the Russian Revolutionary Party!" William II said, shaking his back in front of Chen Tian with his hands behind his back. "But be careful not to leak it. And report to me regularly!"
"Yes! Your Majesty!"
Chen Tian just reported to William II the assassination in Vienna and the handling of his Russian revolutionaries, and he successfully persuaded William II to secretly support the Russian Revolutionary Party.
"Another thing, Your Majesty, the Empire is now undergoing large-scale military preparations, especially the two expansion naval bills passed in 1898 and 1900, which planned a huge shipbuilding plan!"
"Yes, if Germany wants to gain an advantage in future wars, it must have a strong military force. Do you have anything to say?"
"Your Majesty, I have no objection to this. I just hope to establish some military research institutes and arms factories in East Prussia to contribute to the great cause of your Majesty!"
"It turned out to be this! You can do it yourself! But I remind you that the funding needs to be approved by the cabinet, and they can't handle it! It's hard to ask them to set aside some money! Hahaha!"
"Your Majesty, I will try my best to solve the problem in terms of funds!" Chen Tian smiled in his heart, and according to his plan, Zac was helping him with money from Japan. Parliamentary appropriation? Humph...
"Also, Your Majesty! I hope to research and manufacture submarines at the Königsberg ship yard, and hope that His Majesty will approve!"
"Submarine? Is that thing useful? We should use all our resources to build battleships! Cruisers! We want to surpass the British and become the overlord of the ocean!" William II said the Navy was very excited. It seems that the British Navy gave He and his empire are under great pressure.
Chen Tian listened silently on the side: The German Navy was not the most arrogant submarine force in World War I, but it also gave Americans an excuse to join the war! Humph! But Americans are destined to join the war. After all, Germany and the United States have obvious conflicts of interest in South America, and the excuse to join the war is not difficult to find.
"Uh... but since you think it's necessary, just do it! Just don't spend too much energy and money on it! Also, don't forget, there is a strong Russian Baltic fleet there!" William II found himself just like Too far away, "Then I agree in principle on this matter, and you have to discuss with the Admiralty about specific matters!"
"Your Majesty!"
What advice can the Admiralty have? Since 1898, the French submarine "Gustav Zid" submerged the British battleship "Marcinta" with torpedoes, showing the great power of submarines in naval battles, and navies of various countries have begun to develop submarines. However, the German Navy's main energy at this time was to focus on the main ship of the big ship, and it seemed that it was not enough for the submarine, and that Germany did not have a large shipyard in Konigsberg. Since a prince jumped out and contributed money, why not For? So the Secretary of the Navy agreed with a big swipe, and then said that he would send some technicians and skilled workers to go to Konigsberg to assist Chen Tian, but the Navy Department did not provide funding for research and manufacturing submarines, even those technicians and skilled workers Chen Tian's wages must be paid by himself. Fortunately, thanks to the kind assistance of kind Japanese people, the funding was not too difficult for Chen Tian.
After finishing these things, Chen Tian and Ollie came to the intelligence room of Thomas' General Staff.
"His Highness Prince! Hello! Long time no see!" Thomas smiled and shook Chen Tian's hand.
"I haven't seen you in a year, you have become a gentleman!" Chen Tian said with a smile.
"Oh! And Ollie, fat again!"
"Where? Obviously thinner than before!"
"Hahaha..."
"Come on! i will Take you to see my working environment!" Thomas pulled the two of them in a large room. But it seems that there are various documents in a mess.
"Smile! There are not many people here, but there is a lot of information, so it's a little messy!" Thomas explained with a smile.
"Did you just collect all kinds of intelligence in this way?" Chen Tian found out that there are no decent instruments here. In the impression, it should be like there are many agencies in 007, but here it looks more like a newspaper.
"Yes! We have military officers in charge of intelligence in embassies around the world. They will send all kinds of information back to us, and then we will choose which ones are useful and give them to our superiors." Thomas Minato Chen Tian Er whispered quietly, "We recently got the information of the'Miss 75' in France. The artillery has a good re-entry system. The shooting accuracy and speed are much higher than the ordinary artillery. Soon afterwards, the artillery of our empire Will catch up and even exceed them!"
"Miss 75"? That is, the French 1897 75 caliber rapid-fire gun, which the French are most proud of! Chen Tian remembered that this French rapid-fire gun was a milestone in the history of artillery development. When the Germans boasted that their new 77-cm rapid-fire gun can fire 8 rounds of 6.85 kg per minute, this new French artillery can fire 30 rounds of 7.2 kg per minute. With the assistance of the perfect'long-stroke re-entry system', the French 1897 rapid-fire gun can still perform perfectly with heavier bullets and a higher rate of fire. More importantly, although the rate of fire is so fast and the recoil is so violent, the whole artillery will hardly produce displacement under continuous shooting, so the gunner can easily adjust the shooting elements between each shot to trim the impact point . France meticulously planned all kinds of bullying activities, and even deliberately published false news in the media, alleging that the new field guns used a "short-stroke re-entry system", which convinced the Germans that they were using the world's most advanced technology.
"Thomas, I have to say something!" Chen Tian glanced at Thomas, "The enemy will not let you get their information comfortably, sometimes a little means can make you busy, even Take you in the wrong direction! Just like this'Miss 75', you better make sure the correctness of the information in your hands!"
"Also, you want to get information about your opponents, so are your opponents!" Chen Tian stood up, put on a military hat, and shook hands with Thomas.
"Good luck! Brother!"
"Good luck to you too! Brother!"
Back in Königsberg, Chentian began to take over the management of East Prussia with the help of Ollie.
In terms of economy, East Prussia's economic situation at the time was the same as most German regions. Industry was in a booming period of growth. Since most of the funds in the banking and financial industries were directly invested in industrial and commercial enterprises and used to promote industrial development, steel, The coal mine, electrical, mechanical and heavy chemical industries maintain very high growth rates. While agriculture plays an increasingly secondary role, most Junckers use their land as their property and continue to expand, but they no longer lease land to farmers, but hire free labor to work, which makes many New technologies may be applied. The application of these technologies has greatly increased the production of agricultural products in Germany. At the same time, the agricultural population is gradually leaving the land and joining the urban army of employment.
As for the army, the East Prussian Army in Chen Tian's hands, that is, the Eighth Army in the later World War I. At present, it includes 2 military and local security forces, a total of more than 100,000 people (4 army, 1 reserve division, 1 cavalry division, and some local security forces, about 200,000 people at the outbreak of World War I). The First Army and the Second Army of the Legion each have 4 divisions, each division has a wartime strength of 12,500, and each division is currently about 10,000. Each division consists of 5 infantry regiments and 1 artillery brigade. Each artillery brigade has 3 rapid-fire artillery battalions and 1 howitzer battalion, 4 field artillery companies per battalion, and 6 artillery each.
In terms of the navy, as a natural harbor, the location of Konigsberg is actually very superior-the harbor entrance is narrow, but it is suitable for large ships to berth. At that time, the main naval shipyards in Germany were the Royal Shipyard (Wilhelmshaven), Blom Foss Shipyard (Hamburg), Wiesel Shipyard (Bremen), Germania Shipyard (Kiehl), and Hovald Shipyard ( Kiel) and Shuoxiao Shipyard (Danzig), there are only a few small and medium-sized civil shipyards in Königsberg. For naval construction, Chen Tian basically needs to start from scratch.
Chen Tian was still quite satisfied with his toes. East Prussia has good industrial and economic strength. Although the arms industry and shipbuilding industry are very weak, they have industry and economic foundations and have more than 10 years to prepare. There should be no problems. Although it is very close to Russia, when the war breaks out, as long as you start first, you can lead the war to the territory of Russia. According to history, the strength of the Russian Baltic Fleet will be greatly weakened during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, and there will not be many opportunities for performance in World War I.
"Oh! Zac is still messing up in Japan! I hope not to make Japan's economy too bad. If they lose the Russo-Japanese War, then Russia may still be a strong enemy." Chen Tian thought about it. Suddenly he laughed, "Zack just made money from the Japanese people, which would not have much impact on Japan's overall economy and industrial strength, but it is hard to say the impact on the stability of the people's hearts. The Japanese-Russian War, the most Good Japan can win, but the greater the loss, the better! Perhaps it is possible to deliberately disclose some valuable information to Russia to make their war harder and longer!"
"Prince, there are two people outside asking to see you! They said it was your old acquaintance in Vienna." Chen Tianzheng beautifully YY, the guard came in and reported.
"Oh? Please come in!" Chen Tian recovered, and it seemed that the Russian guests were coming!
"Also, invite the translator!"