Next-class Battleship

The moment Oscar saw Wilhelm II and Grand Admiral Count Tirpitz's expressions, he knew they seemed to have misunderstood.

"Father Emperor, Your Excellency, the one hundred million marks I mentioned is not one hundred million marks in total, but one hundred million marks every year. After all, although the Welfare Lottery Company's current income is considerable, I have other investment projects as well, and there are many places where money is needed. So I can only set aside one hundred million marks each year," Oscar explained.

If too much profit were drawn from his industries each year, it would have a tremendous impact on Oscar's subsequent industrial plans. Moreover, such a huge flow of funds would be more easily discovered by other countries.

"One hundred million marks every year? Excellent, very excellent. Oskar, you have done extremely well. I am proud to have a son like you!" Wilhelm II was immensely pleased.

"Your Highness, one hundred million marks every year, until the war begins?" Grand Admiral Count Tirpitz asked excitedly. If that were the case, it would mean the German Navy had gained an enormous additional source of support. With this funding, the German Navy's financial pressure would be greatly reduced. They would have sufficient funds to develop armaments and build warships.

"One hundred million marks every year, until the war ends!" Oscar said solemnly.

Oscar knew that the current German leadership probably could not imagine that the coming war would last so long. In another time and space, the war had dragged on for a full four years, completely beyond everyone's expectations. At the beginning of the war, from Wilhelm II down to ordinary soldiers, everyone believed they could defeat the enemy and end the war within a few months. In this time and space, even if Germany's military strength had been enhanced, ending the war in a short time would likely still be extremely difficult. Therefore, Oscar hoped Germany would prepare for a protracted war.

Grand Admiral Count Tirpitz nodded. "Your Highness, thank you so much. Your support for the navy will certainly bring returns. In the future war, we will definitely defeat the British."

Grand Admiral Count Tirpitz was brimming with confidence. Originally, compared with the British Navy, the German Navy had been at a great disadvantage. The chief reason was probably that the British Navy's financial resources were simply beyond anything the German Navy could match. Now, with Oscar's support, everything was different. The one hundred million marks they received from Oscar each year was enough to build roughly two battleships. The construction period for a class of battleships often lasted two or three years, and a German class of battleships usually consisted of four or five vessels. In other words, Oscar's loans alone would basically be enough to guarantee the construction of capital ships. The German Navy's own military budget could then be invested in the construction of other light surface warships. This would be enough to bring a leap-like growth in the German Navy's strength. They would soon catch up with the British Navy and might even surpass it. Furthermore, the battleships designed by Oscar already outclassed British battleships in performance. With all these favorable factors combined, if the German Navy still could not defeat the British, then everyone in the German Navy might as well buy a block of tofu and smash themselves to death on it.

"Oskar, when dealing with the outside world, I will announce that the royal family is providing the navy with these loans. That way, the British and French should not suspect you," Wilhelm II said. He was extremely satisfied with Oscar's performance.

Oscar shook his head. "Father Emperor, no wall is airtight. The British and French will learn of it sooner or later. But if they dare use administrative orders to drive the German Welfare Lottery Company out of their markets, then they will be deliberately sabotaging the market. Even if we can do nothing to them for the moment, after the war ends, we can still settle accounts with them and make them compensate us for our losses! For now, we can only hope to delay things for as long as possible. That would also give us enough time to earn more wealth from Britain and France."

As the saying went, a gentleman's revenge could wait ten years, so long as Germany won the war in the end. Then there would naturally be sufficient reason to make Britain and France compensate for the losses.

Wilhelm II and Grand Admiral Count Tirpitz both nodded repeatedly. This world had always been cruel. Once they were defeated in war, the consequences would be extremely severe. But once they emerged victorious, they could freely plunder wealth from the defeated nations. The strong devouring the weak, the strong plundering the weak—this was the very essence of the world.

"Your Highness, do you have any specific ideas regarding the next-class battleship?" Grand Admiral Count Tirpitz asked.

"Your Excellency, these are the design blueprints." Oscar directly took a set of blueprints from the briefcase he carried with him and spread them across the desk.

Oscar had designed these blueprints long ago. With the Nassau-class battleship blueprints as a foundation, the new class of capital ships merely needed to be enlarged from the Nassau-class battleship design. Of course, certain areas also needed to be modified.

"Father Emperor, Your Excellency, this is the next-class battleship I designed." Oscar began introducing it to Wilhelm II and Grand Admiral Count Tirpitz.

This new-style battleship designed by Oscar was 158 meters long, 26.5 meters wide, and had a draft of 8.7 meters. Its standard displacement was 23,500 tons, and its full-load displacement was 25,500 tons. Its armament consisted of three triple-mounted 343mm 50-caliber main turrets, fourteen 150mm 45-caliber secondary guns, and sixteen 88mm 45-caliber anti-torpedo boat guns. Its power came from sixteen Sulzer oil-fired boilers and four Curtis steam turbines, with a maximum engine output of 32,000 horsepower, four shafts, and a maximum speed of 23 knots. For armor protection, its main armor belt was 330mm thick, while the turret-face armor and conning tower armor were both 330mm thick. Deck armor was 55mm thick.

The main differences from the Nassau-class battleship were its larger main-gun caliber, using 343mm 50-caliber main guns. Its armor was also thicker, with the primary armor increased from 305mm to 330mm, giving it stronger protection and improving the warship's survivability in naval battles. At the same time, by installing additional boilers, the warship's power was enhanced, allowing its speed to rise further to 23 knots. For a battleship with a displacement of as much as 25,000 tons, this was undoubtedly astonishing. After all, capital ships around the world generally only had speeds in the teens.

This raised the overall performance of the new class of capital ships to an entirely new level compared with the Nassau-class battleship. Naturally, its construction cost would also be far more expensive.