Chapter Six Long-term Plan

  The mansion arranged by the Emperor for Feng Chengqian is located in Berlin Time Zone, which is a villa with an area that is not too large.

  Although it was slightly smaller, Feng Chengqian was very satisfied. Before coming to this world, Feng Chengqian had never had such a spacious residence.

  Since Feng Chengqian had no relatives or friends, Frederick III specially instructed Gustav to arrange a few servants for him.

  "Your Excellency, behind is a garden, still under renovation, it's inconvenient to go through now."

  "Is there also a garden?"

  Gustav smiled and said: "According to Your Majesty's orders, everything in the Earl's mansion is being handled with great care, except for the flowers and grasses planted in the garden..."

  "Whatever, I have no opinion."

  "Then I'll have the gardener plant some peonies."

  "Peony?"

  Gustav smiled again and said, "Eight years ago, when the Qing government purchased the 'Dingyuan' and 'Zhenyuan' warships, Lord Li Fengbiao specially brought several peony plants to present to the previous emperor."

  "Since it was loved by the previous emperor, how can I..."

  "Your Majesty said as long as the Earl likes it."

  "Please also thank Your Majesty on behalf of your humble servant."

  Gustav nodded and beckoned to the young man standing behind him, then said to Feng Chengqian: "Schmidt is my attendant and will be in charge of taking care of the count's daily life from now on."

  "That's unnecessary now."

  "Your Majesty said so, and the Earl's matter must not be taken lightly."

  Feng Chengqian sighed and said: "Okay, let him stay, but no one else is needed."

  "But..."

  "I'm naturally a quiet person and don't like being bothered. If I need something, I'll look for you."

  Gustav was in a bit of a dilemma, after all, everything he did was ordered by the emperor himself.

  "Alright, I'll explain it to Your Majesty, and won't let you be troubled."

  "Very well, since the Earl likes quietness, I will only leave a few gardeners to tidy up the back garden. If needed, please feel free to instruct me at any time."

  "This is natural; apart from Your Majesty, I am acquainted with no one else."

  Gustave smiled politely and took his leave.

  Finally calm, Feng Chengqian let out a breath. After circling the room, he only then noticed that Gustav's attendant was still standing at the door.

  "What's your name?"

  "Schmidt, Wolfgang Schmidt. What are your orders, Count?"

  Feng Chengqian sized up Schmitte. Like Gustav, Schmitte was a strictly trained chamberlain responsible for attending to the imperial nobility.

  "Where are you from?"

  Schmidt hesitated for a moment and said: "I'm an orphan, so..."

  "Orphan?"

  Schmidt nodded and didn't say much else.

  "How long have you been following Gustave?"

  "Three years."

  "How old is he this year?"

  "Twenty-one years old."

  "You're still young." Feng Chengqian smiled, feeling like chewing wax when chatting with the attendant. "It's still early, come with me to the Ministry of War for a trip."

  "Earl, please wait for a moment, I'll go prepare the carriage."

  Feng Chengqian didn't even know where the Ministry of War was located, so he had no attendants, and it was really a difficult journey.

  Ten minutes later, Feng Chengqian sat on a horse-drawn carriage and left the Brandenburg Earl's mansion for the Imperial War Department.

  In some sense, the War Office of the Empire was very similar to the later Ministry of Defence, only that at that time there wasn't yet a concept of "defence", war was defence.

  After Lord Raglan, the Imperial War Department was left vacant and the control of the imperial forces was divided between the Secretary of State for War and the First Lord of the Admiralty.

  Feng Chengqian had been in office for less than two days, the Ministry of War was still not fully operational, and there were more guards at the entrance than staff inside, making it look extremely deserted.

  In fact, few people knew the newly appointed Minister of War.

  After a great deal of effort, Feng Chengqian finally became familiar with this massive organization and had several department members bring over the relevant materials for the Imperial Navy.

  Although the Emperor decided to take him to England, Feng Chengqian did not want to waste this month.

  Since he was in charge of naval affairs for the empire, Feng Chengqian had to do something and not waste his salary, as well as the emperor's trust and favor.

  The Imperial Navy is almost zero at this time!

  In the Imperial Navy, only five "Sachsen"-class ironclad warships with a displacement of just over 5,000 tons were available; all the rest were small, outdated and obsolete cruisers.

  Is this considered a navy?

  As far as Feng Chengqian knew, the "Sachsen" class ironclad was not even comparable to the "Pre-Dreadnought", and it could not be considered a modernized warship at all.

  Is it still a navy without modernized warships?

  Feng Chengqian had a headache. He boasted in front of the emperor, which was equivalent to building a world-class fleet from scratch, and the difficulty was not small.

  Since it's from scratch, we have to understand the ins and outs of the Imperial Navy.

  Compared to the Imperial Army, the history of the Imperial Navy is extremely short. Before Emperor Wilhelm's founding, the Empire actually only had an army and no navy. The so-called "navy" was just a river fleet that could only operate within the border, its main task was to assist the army in transporting troops and supplies. Until thirteen years ago, that is 1875, the "Sachsen"-class was launched at the Vulcan shipyard.

  Thirteen years have passed and these few warships are still the mainstay of the Imperial Navy.

  For the German Empire, which was less than eighteen years old, this is not surprising. If we consider the geographical environment of the empire, with France in the west and Russia in the east, and Austria-Hungary in the south, it can be understood that what determines the fate of the empire is not the navy but the army.

  Heavy land and light sea is originally a common characteristic of continental powers.

  Only when a country's national strength is strong enough and has the ability to compete with other powers for global interests, does an empire need a navy, and only then will it start building a fleet.

  The question is, by then, will it still be in time?

  In the history familiar to Feng Congqian, the downfall of the Second German Empire was not unrelated to the loss of sea power or the wrong maritime strategy. Imagine if the Second German Empire had not lost its sea power in World War I, what would have been the outcome of the war?

  Feng Chengqian didn't think about it, he only knew that if the German Empire had a powerful navy and used this navy correctly, the outcome of the war would definitely be different.

  What he had to do was change the outcome of the war and fight for an opportunity for himself and his nation.

  A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, even if the burden is heavy and the road is long, Feng Chengqian had no other choice, because he was not willing to be an unknown person in this era of great change.

  After calming down, Feng Chengqian decided to first formulate a long-term development plan.

  Building a navy is different from building an army, it's not something that can be accomplished by simply recruiting soldiers and then conducting several months of intensive training.

  The navy has two essentials: one is soldiers and the other is warships.

  In the history familiar to Feng Chengqian, the German Empire never lacked excellent soldiers, even in the navy, the quality of officers and men was higher than that of their opponents.

  The empire lacked was just enough powerful warships.

  There are two foundations for building a warship: one is industrial strength and the other is technological strength.

  As a rising power on the continent, the German Empire did not lack industrial strength. Even if history had not changed, the industrial strength of the German Empire would have surpassed that of Britain in ten years' time, becoming the number one industrial power in Europe and thus a potential enemy of Britain.

  Obviously, what the empire lacks is technological strength, especially the accumulation of technology.

  Looking ahead to the long term, such as a major war breaking out thirty years from now, what needs to be done at present is to lay a solid foundation in science and technology rather than starting immediately to build warships.

  After careful consideration, Feng Chengqian also had a bottom line in his heart.

  On March 13th, Feng Chengqian went to the Potsdam Palace and handed over the "Thirty-Year Development Plan for the Imperial Navy" he had personally drafted to Frederick III.

  "Have you shown it to the prime minister?"

  "Not yet."

  Frederick III nodded and said, "It's better this way, there's no need for the prime minister to know yet."

  Feng Chengqian smiled and nodded, indicating he understood the emperor's meaning.

  "You've thought this through very thoroughly, considering the situation thirty years from now." Frederick III put down the document and pondered for a while before saying, "However, you also know that building a powerful fleet requires enormous expenses. In our current situation, not to mention the prime minister, others won't agree either."

  "This is also the reason why your humble servant has come to ask for your instruction."

  Frederick III was taken aback and let von Stein continue.

  "As Your Majesty said, it is not yet the time to invest in the navy, but we must make long-term considerations. If we wait until the need arises before considering the navy, I fear it will be too late."

  "You mean..."

  "My humble request is not high, I only need one-fifth of the army's expenses."

  Frederick III furrowed his brow, knowing that Feng Chengqian still had something to say.

  "Of course, this is only for the first five years; in the second five-year period, naval expenditure should reach thirty percent of that of the army, and then increase by ten percent every five years."

  "Ultimately reaching eighty percent of the army?"

  Feng Chengqian nodded and said: "Your Majesty has reason to believe that thirty years later, the empire will not only need a strong army but also a strong navy."

  "I'll consider it."

  "It is better to make an early decision on this matter."

  Frederick III let out a long sigh and said: "It's not urgent today, after returning from England, I will discuss with the prime minister to fight for you."

  The emperor has already said so, Feng Chengqian naturally didn't dare say anything more.

  It seems that Feng Chengqian's request is not high, but it makes Frederick III very difficult. The reason is: the military expenditure of the Imperial Navy before was only 5% of the army!

  In other words, if the army's military expenditure remains unchanged, it is equivalent to tripling the navy's military expenditure.

  This is absolutely not a small amount of money.

  In an era when finance was not yet developed and the government had to be frugal, it was absolutely not easy to come up with several hundred million marks in naval expenditures every year.

  Fortunately, Frederick III did not suspect Feng Chongyan's long-term vision.

  Leaving the imperial study, Feng Chengqian was preoccupied with his thoughts and didn't notice the young man walking towards him.

  "Your Highness!" Schmidt was exceptionally quick-witted and hastily stepped forward, bowing respectfully to the young man.

  Feng Chengqian finally came to his senses and noticed the young man in front of him, who was about thirty years old. At this age, only two people could be called "Your Highness", one was Crown Prince William and the other was Prince Heinrich. Seeing the young man's left arm close to his side, Feng Chengqian knew he was Crown Prince William.

  He accidentally met Crown Prince William and Feng Chengqian immediately took a tranquilizer.

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