The Rise of Australia

Chapter 210 Russia's Dreadnought Ambition

The celebration banquet went very smoothly, and Arthur also made more friends from European royal families, including nobles from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgarian nobles.

Coincidentally, the Bulgarian royal family also comes from members of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family, and its Prince Ferdinand I is also distantly related to Arthur's grandmother Queen Victoria.

Ferdinand I was a writer, botanist, entomologist and philatelist. Also because of his fragile and eccentric character, he was killed by his father's cousin, Queen Victoria, when he was chosen as Prince of Bulgaria. Criticism: "He is completely unfit, fragile, eccentric and effeminate. Such a person is unfit to be the ruler of a country, and the invitation to become 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 what all his critics didn't expect was that Ferdinand I achieved great success during the first twenty years of his reign.

Of course, Ferdinand I actually became the ruler of Bulgaria for only more than twenty years.

After suffering a disastrous defeat in World War I, Ferdinand I was

He was ordered to abdicate and went into exile in Austria.

Ferdinand I is also considered a long-lived monarch. He lived until 1948, and the Bulgarian monarchy only lasted until 1946.

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

The historical Princess Margery married Prince Oscar Frederik Wilhelm Olav Gustaf Adolf of Sweden in 1905, who was the future King Gustaf VI of Sweden.

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

Sweden made a marriage request to Australasia and Princess Louise. After long consideration, Princess Louise also agreed to Sweden's marriage request.

Arthur had no objection to this. Sweden remained neutral in both world wars and remained a monarchy until later generations.

Although the Swedish king lost all rights after World War II, he was just a symbol of the country.

But such an end is definitely much better than that of most European monarchies. Even Gustav VI himself lived to be nearly ninety-one years old, which is definitely a good death.

Although Gustav would have to wait until more than 40 years to become the king of Sweden, at least he could successfully ascend the throne and become a king loved by the Swedish people.

After confirming the marriage with Sweden, the government and Princess Louis took care of the rest.

Arthur paid little attention to this, but he also prepared a generous dowry and used state regulations to prepare Margaery for her marriage.

Arthur has only one request, that is, Margaery must live a good life 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 people with high status and power in their respective countries, and therefore cannot leave their posts for too long.

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

The purpose of the islanders is simple. They want to continue exploring resource trade with Australasia and order a dreadnought to enhance the strength of the island's combined fleet.

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

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

This also resulted in 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 smiled at this and directly ended the negotiation with the island country.

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

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

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

Under such circumstances, if Australasia wanted to compete with the British Empire in the island country's market, the result would basically be failure.

Moreover, Russia has internal and external troubles, and the Russians cannot 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 had to guard against it.

After briefly concluding the exchange with the island country, Arthur accompanied Crown Prince William and Grand Duke Sergei to spend 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, Arthur did not do nothing during the days when he was traveling with Crown Prince William. 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 the German side.

The reason is simple. There are currently three known German dreadnought designs in the world, two of which are equipped with 305mm main guns (Australasian designed 305 and equipped with 280).

Only Germany is still satisfied with 280mm guns and has not conducted more research and expectations on large-caliber guns.

But times have changed. The dreadnought has undergone a new upgrade in firepower, protection and power. The 280mm gun is enough for the old battleships before. Whether it can cause enough damage to the newly born dreadnought is a question that no one can be sure of.

But in any case, from the written data, the Nassau-class battleship developed by Germany itself is indeed slightly weaker than the dreadnought battleship in terms of firepower.

Although the firepower is equivalent to that of the Monarch-class battleships of Australasia, they have no choice but to temporarily carry 280mm main guns due to technical limitations.

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

William II's idea was very simple. Since Australasia could design a powerful battleship that exceeded the data of the Nassau-class battleship, why didn't the German Empire design a super battleship with more powerful data in all aspects?

After sending away Crown Prince William, only Grand Duke Sergei and Grand Duchess Mary remained in Australasia.

In fact, this is understandable. Grand Duke Sergei still has to 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 Sergei pay more attention to is the battleship comparable to the dreadnought in the shipbuilding plan proposed by Australasia.

After learning that Australasia had mastered the dreadnought technology, Grand Duke Sergei had sent telegrams to contact the country many times, and obtained the approval of Nicholas II, allowing him to be fully responsible for the ordering of warships between Australasia.

After obtaining the approval of Nicholas II, Grand Duke Sergei was still very excited.

The data of the dreadnought greatly crushed the old battleships. No matter which Russian fleet was equipped with dreadnoughts, the Russian naval strength would be greatly improved.

At present, the first thing to be determined is whether the warships designed by Australasia have the performance of dreadnoughts, and the second is how much such warships cost, and whether Russia can carry out large-scale construction.

The price of old battleships is generally around one million pounds, and the highest will basically not exceed one million and a half pounds.

This is also the reason why Russia has a good naval strength. It can also make up a strong fleet by selling everything.

But if the cost of the dreadnought is too expensive, it is basically beyond the current Russian government's ability to afford it.

At most, one or two can only be ordered to fill the facade of their fleet.

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

Arthur was well prepared for Grand Duke Sergei's question, so he replied with a smile: "Your Highness, please rest assured that our Monarch-class battleships are based on the data of the British Dreadnought battleship and the German Nassau-class battleship. After a long period of research, we combined the advantages of the two battleships and designed a powerful warship with combat effectiveness comparable to the Dreadnought battleship. Our battleship is definitely at the Dreadnought level, and its performance and combat effectiveness can also stand the test."

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

In order to win the hearts of the Germans and also to strongly fight back against the British Dreadnought battleship, Germany announced some data of the Nassau-class battleship and claimed that it was a powerful battleship with combat effectiveness not inferior to the Dreadnought battleship.

The Monarch-class battleship combines the advantages of the Dreadnought-class battleship and the Nassau-class battleship. It should be no problem for it to reach the level of the Dreadnought, right?

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