Chapter 28 The Crown Prince Takes Action

  After hearing what the German Emperor said, Feng Chengqian furrowed his brow tightly.

  "William is also very kind-hearted, he can think for the empire, I am deeply pleased." Frederick III smiled and said, "The royal family has a tradition of joining the army, male members must serve the empire after coming of age. The crown prince is willing to join the navy, the earl should be delighted."

  "Your Majesty, I am indeed very pleased, it's just..."

  "With you in command, William is just a soldier, not an heir to the empire."

  Feng Chengqian forced a smile, but he didn't think so.

  "I have already promised William that," Frederick III said after a slight pause. "Just arrange a position for him, don't give him special treatment because he is the crown prince. This is the tradition of the royal family and the military discipline of the empire. In the army, there is no distinction between the crown prince and commoners."

  "I understand Your Majesty's intention," Feng Chengqian said with a sigh, "Since Your Majesty has already agreed, and the Crown Prince is enthusiastic about the navy, I also cannot refuse."

  "That's all, remember what I said, no need to take special care of William."

  Feng Chengqian nodded, indicating that he understood the Emperor's meaning.

  "Alright, get this done as soon as possible, or William will come bother me every day."

  "I'll make arrangements as soon as possible, and if there's nothing else, I'll take my leave."

  Frederick III nodded and had Gustav escort von Sch?nberg out.

  Leaving the imperial study, Feng Chengqian finally let out a sigh.

  William, the Crown Prince, was enthusiastic about naval construction, but before that, he was an officer in the Imperial Cavalry Corps and now turned to the Imperial Navy, making it clear that he was adding trouble for Feng Chongqian. Without saying anything else, after the news spread, Wade Xi and other Imperial Army generals had something to say again.

  Back at the Navy Department, Feng Chengqian hadn't even thought about where to place the crown prince.

  If it's too high, people will definitely gossip about it, and the crown prince may not have that ability. If it's too low, it will make the emperor very embarrassed and also make the crown prince dissatisfied.

  After some thought, Feng Chengqian still had no clue.

  When he saw Tirpitz, von Sch?nberg poured out his troubles.

  "It's good that Your Highness has joined the navy, the Earl should let it go."

  "Really?"

  Tirpitz smiled and said: "Your Highness is the crown prince, the first heir to the throne, can do many things that we cannot do."

  "You're saying..."

  "Although Your Highness has no real power, everyone still has to give him face."

  Feng Chengqian nodded thoughtfully, and this was indeed a fact.

  "I think it would be most suitable for Your Highness to take charge of the financial matters."

  "This..."

  "After following the count for over a year, I've come to understand that building a navy requires most of all funding. Without money, nothing can be done." Tirpitz smiled and sighed, saying "It's always been the count who has been fighting for naval funding, if Your Highness were to step forward, it would be twice as effective."

  "You're right, it seems I was so focused on one thing that I neglected others and didn't think things through."

  "This is such good news, we should go and congratulate His Highness."

  Feng Chengqian nodded and said: "Alright, I'll go over tonight. First let Schmitz go and bring a message, saying we're going to visit the prince tonight."

  In the evening, Feng Chengqian and Tirpitz went to the Crown Prince's Palace.

  Learning from Dehuang that Feng Chengqian agreed to let him join the Imperial Navy, Wilhelm was also very excited and wanted to visit Feng Chengqian in person.

  Joining the Imperial Navy was not a momentary whim of the Crown Prince, but a decision made after careful consideration.

  "I don't hide from you, Earl, that for the past two years I've witnessed your hard work in building a powerful imperial navy. I've long hoped to fight alongside you and help share your worries. Last year, I even proposed this to my father, but he thought I lacked experience and told me to focus on studying. From what I see, the biggest problem with building the navy is the lack of funds. Even if I can only make a small contribution, I'd like to help share your burden."

  "Your Highness, this is also exactly what General Tirpitz and I have been thinking."

  "Is it?" Wilhelm looked at Tirpitz.

  "In recent years, the biggest problem that has been plaguing us is the shortage of funds. Although Your Majesty has approved the five-year plan and the prime minister has not raised any objections, no one dares to guarantee that new problems will not arise." Feng Chengqian paused for a moment before continuing, "Therefore, both I and General believe that if you, Your Highness, can step forward to help the navy secure funding, even if other ministers have opinions, they will not be overly opposed."

  "The Earl's arrangement is..."

  "The Ministry of Navy lacks an official who understands how to fight for budget and manage the budget, and neither I nor the generals are very good at it, so I hope you will take on this task."

  "Is it just managing budget?"

  Feng Chengqian smiled and said: "No matter whether it is developing the navy or building warships, first of all, we must do a good job in budgeting. How much budget will be used to handle things."

  "The Earl is right, when building a warship, first of all, it's necessary to determine the basic performance of the warship based on the budget."

  Obviously, Tirpitz knew more about what was going on in the Crown Prince's mind.

  This high-flying crown prince is not concerned with the purpose of the navy, but only with the navy itself. To put it accurately, it's about how powerful the warships are. Perhaps in the eyes of the crown prince, the essence of warships is not to defeat enemies on the ocean, but to show off to relatives on the British Isles.

  The Crown Prince William thought for a moment and said, "It's also good this way, as long as we can make contributions to the development of the navy."

  "With Your Highness's help, the Imperial Navy will surely grow and prosper."

  The Crown Prince accepted the arrangement, and von Tirpitz finally breathed a sigh of relief. Von Tirpitz's views on the Crown Prince joining the Navy were not the same as those of Tirpitz. Perhaps Tirpitz hoped that the Crown Prince could play a greater role in overcoming obstacles to naval development. However, von Tirpitz knew that everything had its pros and cons. In his view, it was more necessary to guard against the negative impact of the Crown Prince on the Navy.

  In Feng Chongqian's familiar history, the arrogant and impulsive William II was both the creator and the undertaker of the imperial navy.

  The Imperial Navy can only develop and grow if it makes the most of the advantages of Crown Prince Wilhelm while avoiding his disadvantages.

  Soon, the role of Crown Prince William became apparent.

  Although the Kaiser approved the five-year shipbuilding program and Bismarck also agreed, there was no specific construction plan, so how to implement it became a problem.

  In the budget for 1891, only 14 million marks were allocated for shipbuilding in the Navy.

  What can this little money do?

  The "Wilhelm der Gro?e" cost 1.7 million Imperial Marks to build, including design costs, which was a significant overrun from the original budget.

  140 million Imperial Marks, not even enough to build a battleship like the "Wilhelm der Gro?e".

  Although the month of budget audit had passed, Crown Prince Wilhelm personally intervened and entangled Bismarck for several days, ultimately forcing the Imperial Chancellor to give in and agree to increase the shipbuilding budget to 18 million imperial marks, and also allow the Navy Department to collect an additional 2 million imperial marks on its own.

  Finally, Crown Prince Wilhelm scraped together 600,000 Imperial Marks and increased the ship's budget to 2.4 million Imperial Marks.

  It must be admitted that the crown prince is very powerful.

  When the imperial treasury was raised, the emperor did not pay attention to the common people, but instead targeted the royal nobles. Only a few princes and princesses donated one million empire marks. In addition, the emperor also collected 2 million empire marks from several uncles and cousins, who were also imperial princes. The royal family took the lead in contributing to the construction of the navy, and other nobles naturally could not lose face. Under the personal appearance of the emperor, they all donated more or less. At that time, the emperor also invited the imperial nobility to hold a fundraising dinner at the palace.

  The Crown Prince is powerful, and Feng Chengqian naturally will not disappoint the Crown Prince.

  In April 1891, the Imperial Navy Department brought out a design for the third battleship. Because Crown Prince Wilhelm had taken great interest in this warship, Kaiser adopted Admiral von der Goltz's suggestion and named it "Wilhelm II". This made the Crown Prince happy for several days.

  Strictly speaking, "SMS Wilhelm der Gro?e" was not a pre-dreadnought battleship but rather an early battlecruiser.

  This 16,000-ton standard displacement warship was equipped with twenty-four boilers and eight steam engines, using a four-axis quadruple-expansion propulsion system, with a maximum power output of 38,000 horsepower, designed to reach a top speed of 22 knots, far surpassing all main force ships at that time.

  In contrast to the speed, the firepower of "Wilhelm der Gro?e" was only on par with that of "Wilhelm der Gro?e", still three triple 300mm guns, and the arrangement of the turrets were extremely similar, namely two in front and one behind, the two in front being superimposed, without any innovation.

  In fact, the basic design of "William the Great" is very classic, that is, the basic structure of the hull.

  Not only was the "Wilhelm der Gro?e" similar to her, but also the other four battleships built in the first five-year plan of the Imperial Navy were similar in basic structure.

  Firepower has not been enhanced, and protection has been further reduced.

  Compared to the "Wilhelm der Gro?e", the "Kronprinz Wilhelm" not only completely abandoned armor protection for secondary areas, but also weakened armor in key areas.

  Its protective ability was just enough to counter the guns on armored cruisers.

  At the time, the Imperial Navy deliberately concealed another performance indicator of the "Wilhelm der Gro?e", that its endurance at 12 knots reached 8,000 nautical miles, more than twice that of the "Kaiser Wilhelm der Gro?e" and exceeding all previous capital ships built by the Imperial Navy.

  Does the main force of the Imperial Navy need such a long range?

  The answer is obviously no.

  The Imperial Navy was still a coastal navy, with no task of fighting in the open ocean, its main battlefield was the Baltic Sea, and at most it would go to the North Sea for a few laps, and 3,500 nautical miles of endurance were enough. Only navies that need to fight in the open ocean need their main battleships to have such huge endurance.

  At the time, the Imperial Naval Office claimed that Wilhelm der Gro?e had a range of 4,000 nautical miles.

  This is only the endurance under standard displacement, and in the case of full load displacement, it can also carry 2,500 tons of coal, which can increase the endurance by 4,000 nautical miles.

  Of course, Feng Chengqian did not deliberately conceal it either.

  When work began on the "Wilhelm der Grosse", the Imperial Navy Department deliberately leaked the news.