The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 1016 William: Give me twenty years, and I will make Germany invincible!
In November 1888, in the Imperial Conference Hall of the Berlin Royal Palace, the flames in the fireplace burned brightly, but could not dispel the chill in the room.

Wilhelm II sat at the end of the long table, his fingers tapping incessantly on the surface. His gaze swept over everyone present—Prime Minister Bismarck, Chief of the General Staff Waldersee, First Minister of the Navy Tirpitz, Minister of the Army von Kaprivi, Chief of the Naval Staff von Holmann, and Chief of the General Staff Intelligence Directorate Schlieffen.

"Your Majesty," Bismarck began slowly, his voice low and calm, "Luo Yaoguo accepts our peace terms in principle, but..."

"But what?" Wilhelm II interrupted impatiently.

“But he opposed including Calais and Dunkirk in the demilitarized zone.” Bismarck paused. “The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Britain would station troops there.”

The meeting room fell silent instantly, and even the flames in the fireplace seemed to freeze for a moment.

Wilhelm II's face flushed crimson, and he slammed his fist on the table: "Those yellow-skinned monkeys actually dare to station troops in Europe?! How dare they!"

Bismarck added expressionlessly, "Luo Yaoguo said he would permanently station an 'Yinglong-class' battleship in Calais."

William II's voice abruptly stopped, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

Everyone knew the power of the "Yinglong" class battleships—a 26,500-ton behemoth, armed with eight 360mm main guns, capable of reaching speeds of 23.5 knots without high-pressure ventilation, and up to 25 knots with it. In the Battle of the North Sea, Luo Xinhua easily sank four German Heligoland-class battleships with just two "Yinglong" class battleships.

"The German Navy," Wilhelm II said through gritted teeth, enunciating each word clearly, "must build even more powerful battleships!"

Bismarck sighed and took a document from his briefcase: "Your Majesty, Luo Yaoguo still wants to restrict our naval development. He has proposed the 'Naval Armaments Limitation Treaty'."

Wilhelm II frowned: "What is it?"

"The main warships of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had a tonnage of 150 million tons, while Germany could only reach 40% of that, or 60 tons."

"What?! We only have 60 tons?!" Wilhelm II gritted his teeth. "But they want to build 150 million tons! Does Luo Yaoguo want to suppress the German Empire forever?"

Bismarck nodded: "That's exactly what he meant! Luo Yaoguo said: Third in the world is already very good for Germany."

"Third in the world?" Wilhelm II was taken aback. "How can the German Empire be third in the world? Who's second? Great Britain?"

Bismarck shook his head: "No, Britain is also the third in the world!"

Wilhelm II grew increasingly confused: "Two...a third?"

With Wilhelm II's rigorous mathematical thinking, he simply couldn't understand how the two "thirds" were counted.

Bismarck shook his head: "It's three or four 'thirds'! The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom hopes that our Germany, Britain, the United States of America, and perhaps the Russian Empire will one day be ranked as the third largest power in the world!"

Tied for third!
Wilhelm II thought for a moment and then felt something was amiss, "Then the second is..."

“There is no second,” Bismarck said. “Luo Yaoguo means that there cannot be a ‘second strongest power’ in the world, only one strongest power, namely the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and three or four third strongest powers! In other words, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s national strength must be precipitously ahead of Germany, Britain, and the United States of America.”

While Bismarck was explaining to Wilhelm II what "no second" meant, Tirpitz had already taken the draft of the Treaty on the Limitation of Naval Armaments and was quickly skimming through it, his brow furrowing more and more deeply.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, this treaty has loopholes."

"What vulnerability?" Bismarck asked.

Tirpitz pointed to the clause: "The treaty defines capital ships as including battleships, heavy cruisers, and aircraft carriers, but the standard for 'heavy cruisers' is a standard displacement of 1 tons or more or main guns of 200 mm or more."

Bismarck still didn't understand: "Is something wrong?"

He raised his head, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes: "Of course not! According to the above definition, we can build 'light armored cruisers' with a standard displacement of 9800 tons and main guns of 190 mm. In this way, our armored cruisers will be completely unrestricted by the treaty! And we can use all of the 60-ton capital ship quota on battleships!"

"But are those 'light armored cruisers' enough?" Chief of the General Staff Waldersee asked.

"Enough! Absolutely enough!" came the answer from the Chief of Naval Staff, von Holmann. "For the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Britain, which have a large number of overseas territories to maintain, a 9800-ton light armored cruiser may not be enough, not only in terms of combat power but also in terms of range. But for our German Empire, a 9800-ton armored cruiser is absolutely sufficient."

Wilhelm II began to do the math, counting on his fingers: "60 tons. If used to build battleships with a standard displacement of 3 tons, that's a total of..."

Before Wilhelm II could figure it out, Schlieffen suddenly pulled a drawing from a folder and spread it on the table: "Your Majesty, please take a look at this."

The drawing clearly shows a sketch of a massive battleship, labeled "Tenryu-class, 5 tons standard displacement, 3×3/410 mm main guns, 30 knots speed".

"This is..." Wilhelm II felt his breath catch in his throat, and he couldn't even bother to do the math problem of dividing 60 by 3.
"Your Majesty, the General Staff Intelligence Bureau obtained this from Britain," Schlieffen whispered. "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is reportedly designing a new generation of super battleships for technical exchanges with Britain."

Wilhelm II stood up abruptly, his eyes gleaming: "This is the warship I want! Germany must build one even stronger than this!"

提尔皮茨迅速计算着：“60万吨全部用于战列舰，我们可以建造12艘5万吨级的超级战列舰，或者15艘4万吨级的！”

"No, not 4-ton ships, we need 5-ton super battleships!" Wilhelm II shouted. Waldersee frowned: "But building such giant ships requires expanding the shipyard and renovating the port, and it will take at least twenty years to achieve combat readiness."

"Then twenty years!" Wilhelm II shouted. "Give me twenty years, and I will make the German Navy invincible!"

Bismarck coldly interrupted: "Your Majesty, have you ever considered why Luo Yaoguo would 'accidentally' leak this design?"

Wilhelm II was taken aback.

“He’s misleading us,” Bismarck said slowly, “making us throw all our resources into battleships, while they… may already be developing another weapon.”

"What weapon?" Wilhelm II asked.

“An aircraft carrier,” Tirpitz replied, taking over the Emperor’s question.

The conference room was deathly silent.

Just then, Waldersee suddenly asked, "What is an aircraft carrier?"

Tirpitz explained: "It is a type of ship that carries aircraft and airships. Both the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Britain had similar types of ships. It was also mentioned in the draft of the Naval Armaments Limitation Treaty and was also classified as a capital ship."

Waldersee frowned: "Airplanes? Those toy-like things can fight wars?"

Tirpitz shook his head: "In the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom navy used aircraft to drop bombs and even damaged British battleships. Intelligence shows that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is already testing carrier-based aircraft take-off and landing. If successful, it may completely change the future mode of naval warfare."

Wilhelm II sneered: "Then let them play with airplanes! The steel behemoths of Germany are the true masters of the sea!"

Tirpitz frowned and said, “Your Majesty, even if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s development of aircraft carriers is not of much use, we cannot completely ignore it! We now have airplanes, and we can try to take off and land them from ships. Of course, the relevant research does not need to take up the quota of capital ships; we can use merchant ships that have been modified to make do for now. If it is feasible, we can first build light aircraft carriers with a standard displacement of less than 10000 metric tons.”

Wilhelm II gave the final approval: "It's settled then! The German Navy will focus all its efforts on building super battleships, while secretly researching aircraft carrier technology."

He turned to Schlieffen: "The intelligence agency must obtain detailed information on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's aircraft carrier as soon as possible!"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

At this moment, the former Minister of the Navy, now Minister of the Army, von Kaprivey, who had been silently observing from the sidelines, suddenly coughed lightly and tapped his fingers lightly on the table: "Your Majesty, gentlemen, perhaps we have another approach."

All eyes turned to the veteran army general. Wilhelm II raised an eyebrow: "Go on."

Caprivi took a map of Europe from his briefcase and traced his finger along the North Sea coast: "Norway, Romania, Finland. These are our satellite states. Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and Hungary are also under German influence." His fingertip finally stopped on the African empire, "Not to mention our allies in Africa."

Tirpitz's eyes lit up: "You mean..."

“The Naval Armaments Limitation Treaty only binds sovereign states,” Caprivi said, narrowing his eyes. “If we build warships in the name of these allies…”

"Brilliant!" Naval Chief of Staff von Holmann slammed his fist on the table. "The Norwegian Navy can build 3-ton battleships, and Sweden can get a 4-ton quota."

Wilhelm II's fingers began to tap rapidly on the armrest: "Eight countries, each vying for 4 tons."

“Theoretically, it could increase production by 32 tons!” Tirpitz immediately calculated the result in his mind, “although in practice we might only get 20 to 25 tons.”

Bismarck, however, poured cold water on the idea: "Luo Yaoguo isn't stupid. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's intelligence network spans across Europe; this kind of trickery..."

“But the treaty doesn’t prohibit it!” Caprivi insisted. “We can let these countries ‘decide for themselves’ to develop their navies. Norway needs to defend its long coastline, and Sweden, Finland, and Romania have good reason to build at least one battleship of 30,000 to 40,000 tons to defend against Russia.”

Schlieffen laughed, "Matilda's African empire could build some 'Mediterranean heavy gunboats,' ostensibly to defend against Red France, but actually..."

"In fact, it can be incorporated into the German fleet at any time!" Wilhelm II stood up excitedly and paced back and forth in the conference hall. "Have the Hamburg shipyard immediately begin designing an 'export' battleship, with a standard displacement of 3 tons and 380mm main guns."

Tirpitz quickly jotted down the key points: "The turret should be designed as a modular unit that can be quickly replaced. In peacetime, it should be equipped with a 305mm gun for inspection purposes; in wartime..."

"In wartime, replace them with our 380mm main guns!" Wilhelm II's eyes gleamed with fervor. "Notify the Kiel Naval Academy to immediately train naval officers for the Allies."

Bismarck looked at the crowd caught up in the frenzy and shook his head helplessly. He wasn't worried that Wilhelm II's little scheme would be exposed, but rather that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could also take the same approach to get a series of satellite states, such as the American Empire, Japan, the Korean Heavenly Kingdom, the Inca Heavenly Kingdom, and the Lanfang Heavenly Kingdom, to participate in the Treaty on the Limitation of Naval Armaments.

"That's settled!" Wilhelm II declared decisively. "Germany's allies should all have the 'ability to defend themselves.' Tirpitz, you will personally oversee this 'naval assistance plan.'"

Before the meeting ended, Bismarck frowned and gave a final reminder: "Your Majesty, don't forget Luo Yaoguo's warning—if Germany tries to become 'the second in the world,' it will face enemies all over the world."

Wilhelm II sneered: "Then let them come! The steel and cannons of Germany will show them who the real power is!"

(End of this chapter)