Mediterranean Hegemony Road

Under the butterfly effect of Ferdinand, 1914 passed without any danger. History has turned a turning point here. The World War that originally broke out in 1914 was postponed!

Due to the rise of Bulgaria and the partition of Serbia with Austria-Hungary, the powder keg of the Balkans is like being wet with water, and it is misfired!

Serbia has been annexed by Austria-Hungary for more than ten years. The internal rebels and nationalism have been suppressed almost. The will of the people to resist is always vulnerable under the knife!

Of course, even if the "Sarajevo Incident" breaks out now, it is useless. It is an internal problem of the Austria-Hungary Empire. The Allied countries are most likely to watch the excitement, and it is impossible for the Serbs to stand up for the Serbs.

All countries are making the final preparations before the war. The most prominent performance is that the number of battleships has increased dramatically like dumplings. In 1914, all major European powers had battleships in service. What Ferdinand did not expect was that even Mao, who had been making soy sauce Bear actually also served four dreadnoughts.

With the help of Britain and France, at the end of 1914 Russia completed the Gangut, Peter Pavlovsk, Poltava, and Sevastopol four dreadnoughts, which were then incorporated into the Baltic Sea. Fleet service.

Well, the Russian dreadnought plan began to be designed and constructed in 1908, and it was not completed until the end of 1914, and it was only put into service in early 1915. This shipbuilding speed is probably only comparable to the eight-year shipbuilding record set by the Italians before. !

Of course, after a long time, the sequelae are also very serious. The longer the time is, the greater the influence of the outside world. According to Ferdinand's knowledge, the Russian battleships have been revised seven or eight times, and finally they learned from the Italians.

I really don't know what the Russians think, they are more like battlecruisers than battleships, and they are more like battleships than battlecruisers.

Simply put, the Russians wanted the firepower of a battleship and the speed of a cruiser, and finally came up with a thin-skinned battleship.

Of course, the weakness is very deadly, the speed is not comparable to that of the battle cruiser, and the combat power is not comparable to that of the dreadnought ship.

Specification

Displacement: 23360 tons

Length: 181.2m

Width: 26.6 meters

Draft: 8.4m

Main engine: Parsons type direct drive steam turbine 2 sets/4 shafts

Main boiler: 25 Yarrow oil water tube boilers

Power: 42,000 horsepower

Speed: 23 knots

Endurance: 3500 nautical miles at 10 knots

Armament: 4 305mm 52x caliber triple mounted guns

Two midships), 16 120mm 50x caliber single-mounted guns, 4 47mm single-mounted guns, and 4 450mm underwater torpedo tubes

Armor: 225mm broadside, 50mm deck, 150mm turret, 203mm front turret, 254mm conning tower

Crew: 1126

Seeing the Russian battleships, Ferdinand finally found his confidence. Obviously, this was misled by the Italians' thinking. The tsarist government dared to send four ships at a time, and they had to admire their courage.

...

Foreign Minister Metev came in a hurry and brought Ferdinand an unexpected and reasonable news.

"Your Majesty, there was just an armed conflict on the German-French border.

The French claimed that two German patrol soldiers violated the sovereignty of France when they crossed the border, were detained by the French, and then the barbaric German army launched a sneak attack on the French rudely!

The Germans claimed that the French detained two German soldiers for no reason. After the negotiation between the two sides was fruitless, the German army used force to rescue the hostages! "

Ferdinand sighed slightly, what should come will still come, as for the reason, this is not important! Anyway, the Allies believed the French, and the Allies believed the Germans, and the onlookers expressed their confusion!

After pondering for a while, Ferdinand said cautiously: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Bulgaria will support the French people's just actions to safeguard national sovereignty!"

Ferdinand knew that Bulgaria's current position was undoubtedly bringing the war one step closer, but now Bulgaria could no longer drag it on, and all the preparations that should be made have been done.

If it continues to drag on, it will not be far from the economic crisis in Bulgaria. War is undoubtedly the best weapon to consume excess production capacity!

At the same time as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the statement, Bulgaria was also mobilizing for the war. All officers and soldiers who were still on vacation were notified and returned to the troops immediately.

The officers and soldiers who have recovered are also required to be on standby at any time, and the reserves in various places have also been regrouped in the name of military exercises. It can be said that among the countries in the European continent, Bulgaria was the first to mobilize for war!

However, the dominance of the war is not in the hands of Ferdinand. France and Germany are the central point of this conflict. The two countries are still fighting each other. If neither the Paris or Berlin governments are willing to make concessions, the war will be inevitable. .

...

Obviously, the French government has no way out this time. Nationalism is a double-edged sword. Now the French government has been kidnapped by nationalism.

The British and Bulgarian members of the Allied Powers have the same position and hope that war will break out immediately. Russia also showed support for France this time. These factors gave the French the confidence to start a war!

The British were terrified by the German production capacity. If the arms race continued, the German Navy would soon catch up with the Royal Navy, which was unacceptable to the British government.

Of course, because of John Bull's swindling nature, they will not make a direct statement. After all, the pro-German faction in the London government is still strong, and most of the Liberal Party and the working class are anti-war factions.

So they made the same choice as history, with John Bull cheering on the French while calling on both sides to calmly mediate the conflict.

The Russians have been cowardly once in the Moroccan crisis. If they continue to pretend to be cowards, they will be really cowardly! Therefore, this time the tsarist government was very firm and publicly expressed its support for any actions taken by the French to safeguard national sovereignty.

...

"Your Majesty, just now, a huge demonstration broke out in London calling for peace. The British government has publicly announced that it will make every effort to avoid the outbreak of war on the European continent!" Foreign Minister Metev said worriedly.

There is no way that the UK is so good at acting, and even its own people have been deceived. Now that less than ten people in the world know that the Allied countries are about to start a war, Metev naturally doesn't know, otherwise he would not be so worried.

After all, without the participation of the British, the Allied sea control would not be guaranteed. Now that the German navy is the second largest in the world, and the main force of the French navy remains in the Mediterranean again, we can’t expect the Maoxiong navy to break out and kill the Germans, right?

"Don't worry, it is impossible for Britain to tolerate the Germans to unify Europe, and our plan remains unchanged!" Ferdinand said lightly

...

There is no doubt that under Niu Niu's superb diplomacy, even his own people have been deceived, not to mention the Germans!

William II also naively thought that the British would still sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight this time, and would not directly join the war, so the Germans accelerated the pace of the war!

In addition to the British's statement, there is a more important factor. If the time is delayed until 1917, the expansion of the French and Russian forces will be completed, and the balance of power between the two sides will change.

...

Since the outbreak of the German-French conflict on February 23, all countries have tacitly mobilized for war, but the Germans responded slightly faster. Within a week, the Germans mobilized 800,000 troops, and the standing army was as high as more than 1.6 million. The Germans believed that the time to start a war had come!

On March 2, the German Foreign Ministry issued an ultimatum to the French government, limiting the French to hand over the perpetrators within 24 hours, and apologized to Germany, and paid two billion marks in indemnity!

Don't think about it, the French will definitely not accept it, otherwise the people of Paris will start the meaningful activity of downing the cabinet again!

At this time, the war has entered the countdown, and the whole world knows that perhaps today or tomorrow, the European war is about to break out.

...