Greece to roman road

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, according to your statement, Greece can of course seek to purchase pre-dreadnoughts from the UK to hedge against the dramatic changes in the situation in the Aegean Sea after the Ottoman Empire purchased dreadnoughts from Germany. However, pre-dreadnoughts themselves are outdated warships. , in three to five years, these pre-dreadnought battleships will be completely obsolete, unable to resist the dreadnought battleships from all over the world, and the price/performance ratio is too low. Rather than spending a lot of money to buy outdated battleships, it is better to build on this basis Add some funds and directly purchase the battlecruiser, the most cutting-edge representative of the world's naval technology. The Greek Navy has such cutting-edge warships. At least within ten years, these warships can ensure that the Greek Navy will not be pulled too far behind by the major naval powers." Feeling that his news had an effect and made the Prime Minister slow down, Contoriotis took the opportunity to add more pressure.

"But, the price of this battlecruiser..." Alexandros still looked embarrassed.

"The way I see it, let's make a compromise. The number of four battlecruisers is definitely too much. Greece's finances cannot afford it, so the number is reduced to two," Constantine said.

"First of all, as the Navy Commander said, since the purchase of new warships to deal with the Ottoman threat is a foregone conclusion, it is better to purchase the latest warships. Naval warfare is different from land warfare. Once the performance of a warship falls behind, it will be easily defeated by the enemy."

In the history of world wars, there have been many cases where the weak defeated the strong in land battles. However, in naval battles, the weak defeated the strong. The dominant side almost always wins.

"Furthermore, the Greek Navy has the latest battlecruisers in the 10,000-ton class, which can also boost the morale and national pride of the Greek people."

When it comes to boosting national morale and national pride, everyone in the congregation thought of one news - the Great White Fleet.

According to news from the Greek Embassy in the United States, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt will send a fleet consisting of 16 main battleships and several auxiliary ships to conduct a circumnavigation. Since these main battleships have been painted It turned white, so it was called the Great White Fleet.

According to the visit application submitted by the Americans, the fleet is expected to visit Athens in April next year.

This news instantly attracted the attention of countries around the world.

Before this, the United States was already the world's largest economic power and the world's largest industrial power. Its industrial output accounted for more than 30% of the world's total, and it was a well-deserved industrial hegemon.

There is no doubt that Americans, who are full-fledged, can't wait to show their strength and make their voices heard to other countries around the world.

If the Greek Navy could possess such a national treasure as a 10,000-ton battlecruiser, the patriotism of the Greek people would inevitably surge, and everyone here could not help but think of it.

"Of course, another thing is that we can enhance the country's industrial strength through this purchase of warships," Constantine said.

Seeing everyone's confused looks, Constantine explained: "This is my plan. One of the two battlecruisers will be ordered from a British shipyard, and we can start building the other one in Greece. "One of the additional conditions for the British to obtain this large order is to provide the Athens Shipyard with drawings of the latest improved version of the Invincible-class battlecruiser."

After the words fell, the conference room was quiet for a moment, and immediately began to fall into chaos, as everyone discussed Constantine's proposal with each other.

Prime Minister Alexandros, sitting next to Constantine, asked with surprise: "Your Highness, is this too whimsical? How can the Greek shipyard have the ability to build a 10,000-ton warship, and it is The most advanced battlecruiser? How can we have such a complete industrial system?"

In this era, battleships can definitely be said to be representatives of high-end manufacturing. The construction of battleships has extremely high requirements on the perfection and industrial level of a country's industrial system.

Does Greece have such an industrial level?

Seeing everyone in the conference room looking at him in amazement, Constantine had no choice but to explain: "Greece's industrial level is certainly not that perfect. What I mean by building warships refers to some important components. For foreign imports, such as armor steel and power systems, we can purchase Harvey armor steel from the United States, or purchase steam turbines and kerosene mixed-fired boilers from the United Kingdom. The same goes for large-caliber naval guns, which can be carried out through bidding."

Kontoriotis, the naval commander, is not so confident about Greece's shipbuilding level: "Your Highness, the Athens Shipyard is indeed capable of building 10,000-ton ships, but the standards of civilian ships and military ships are very different. It’s huge. It doesn’t mean that the Athens Shipyard can build 10,000-ton freighters or freighters, but it can build 10,000-ton warships.”

In order to improve the shipbuilding technology level of the Athens Shipyard, Constantine instructed Costebulu, the general manager of the Greek Congo Corporation, to place an order for several 10,000-ton ships to the Athens Shipyard to replace the Greek Congo Corporation's subordinate ships. A ship of smaller tonnage in the hands of a steamship company.

At the same time, in order to quickly improve the level of shipbuilding, the Athens Shipyard not only recruited a large number of talented students from the University of Athens, but also poached well-known foreign shipyards with high salaries to hire experienced shipbuilding engineers.

In order to test the construction level of the Athens Shipyard, Constantine himself even spared no expense and spent a huge cost of 35 million drachmas to personally purchase a 10,000-ton cruise ship "Duke of Sparta" from the Athens Shipyard.

In the future, the Greek royal family or heads of government will take this cruise ship when conducting state visits.

Since Constantine dared to make bold statements and proposed that a Greek shipyard build a battlecruiser, he naturally had something to rely on.

"Even if, as you said, the key components are purchased from abroad, and the Athens Shipyard is only responsible for assembly, the technical requirements of the Athens Shipyard may be..." As the Greek Navy Commander, Contorioti After all, Sri Lanka directly expressed his disdain for his own shipbuilding capabilities.

"We can put forward clear requirements to the warship builders and ask them to send a certain number of engineering personnel to assist Greece in its construction."

"Moreover, to take a step back, even if the Athens Shipyard's plan to build a battlecruiser fails, wouldn't there be another outsourced base? The navy will not get nothing," Constantine explained.

After hesitating for a moment, Kontoriotis continued to ask: "The Invincible-class battlecruiser is currently one of the main battleships of the United Kingdom. We are willing to buy it. Even though the relationship between Greece and the United Kingdom is not bad, are the British willing to sell it?" Especially the additional condition that the drawings be handed over to the Athens Shipyard.”