Chapter 224: Chapter 209: Russia Nation’s Dreadnought Ambition

The celebration banquet went smoothly, and Arthur made more friends from the European royal families, including nobles from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria.

Interestingly, the Bulgarian royal family also came from the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Family, and its Prince Ferdinand I had a distant kinship with Arthur’s grandmother, Queen Victoria.

Ferdinand I was a writer, botanist, entomologist, and philatelist, but due to his fragile and quirky personality, he was criticized by his father’s cousin, Queen Victoria, when he was chosen as the Prince of Bulgaria: “He is completely unsuitable, fragile, strange, and weak. Such a person is not suitable to be a ruler of a country and should immediately stop inviting him to become the Prince of Bulgaria.”

In fact, Queen Victoria was not the only one questioning Ferdinand; many European royal families doubted whether he could be a qualified ruler.

However, to the surprise of all his critics, Ferdinand I achieved great success in the first twenty years of his reign.

Of course, Ferdinand I’s reign in Bulgaria lasted only a little more than twenty years.

After suffering heavy losses in World War I, Ferdinand I was forced to abdicate by the Allied Powers and went into exile in Austria.

Ferdinand I was a long-lived monarch, living until 1948, while Bulgaria’s monarchy persisted only until 1946.

Aside from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria, Arthur also established a good relationship with the Kingdom of Sweden, mainly because of his sister, Princess Margaret.

In history, Princess Margaret married the Swedish Prince Oscar Frederick William Olaf Gustav Adolf in 1905, who would later become the well-known King Gustav VI of Sweden.

Although the development of history is now somewhat different, fate still brought the two together.

Sweden proposed a marriage alliance to Australasia and Princess Louise, who, after much consideration, agreed to the request from Sweden.

Arthur had no objection to this. Sweden maintained neutrality in both world wars and remained a monarchy even in later generations.

Although the Swedish king lost all power after World War II and became only a symbol of the country, this fate was still much better compared to most European monarchies. Even King Gustav VI himself lived to be nearly ninety-one years old, which could be considered a peaceful end.

Although Gustav would not become King of Sweden until more than 40 years later, he would at least ascend the throne smoothly and become a beloved king of the Swedish people.

With the marriage alliance with Sweden confirmed, the remaining matters were handled by the government and Princess Louise.

Arthur did not pay much attention to this but still prepared a generous dowry for Margaret and used national standards to prepare for her marriage.

Arthur’s only requirement was that Margaret must live well in Sweden, taking responsibility as a brother.

After the banquet, most of the nobles and officials from various countries chose to return to their own countries the next day.

Most of these people held high positions and power in their respective countries, so they couldn’t be away from their posts for too long.

Of course, not everyone left in such a hurry. Including Crown Prince William and Duke Sergei, as well as the Island Nation’s Saburo Endo, chose to stay.

The Islanders’ purpose was simple; they wanted to continue discussing resource trade between Australasia and Island Nation and to order a dreadnought to enhance the strength of the Island Nation’s United Fleet.

While these requests seemed ordinary, the main problem was that the Island Nation had no money at the moment. The previous Russo-Japanese War did not achieve many strategic objectives for the Island Nation, but instead, a large amount of funds was invested.

They were now barely surviving on loans from Britain and the United States, and their own dreadnought program was not set to start for another year or two.

This led to the Island Nation’s various plans carried out on credit. They even wanted Arthur to advance funds for them until they obtained more international loans.

Arthur just laughed at this and ended the talks with the Island Nation representatives.

Arthur would not be so foolish as to provide funds for the Island Nation to maintain trade between the two countries.

Now that a deeper cooperation with Russia has been reached, cooperation with the Island Nation has become dispensable.

Furthermore, the Island Nation’s arms market and economy are basically controlled by the British Empire and the United States, and most of the Island Nation’s weapons and warships also come from the British Empire.

Under such circumstances, the result of Australasia competing with the British Empire for the market in the Island Nation would basically be failure.

Moreover, with internal and external troubles in the Russia Nation, the Russians would not pose a threat to Australasia. However, it is different for the Island Nation, as their foundation is in East Asia; once they develop, they can even threaten the regions of Australia and New Zealand.

This has happened in history, and Arthur has to guard against it.

After a brief exchange with the Island Nation, Arthur accompanied Crown Prince William and Duke Sergei, touring nearby Australasia for a few days.

Finally, Crown Prince William left satisfied, even stating that he would return for the next wedding.

Of course, Arthur wasn’t idle during the days he traveled with Crown Prince William; at least he had been subtly influencing Crown Prince William to attach greater importance to the development of 305mm Guns and larger caliber guns, while also vigorously developing submarines.

As a matter of fact, the development of large-caliber naval guns has already attracted high attention from Germany.

For no other reason than the fact that there are currently three known dreadnought designs in Germany, two of which carry 305mm main guns (Australasia’s design is 305, carrying 280).

Only Germany is still content with 280mm guns and does not have much research and expectation for large-caliber guns.

But times have changed. The dreadnought has undergone complete upgrades in firepower, protection, and power, and although the 280mm gun is sufficient against the old battleships, there is no certainty that it can cause sufficient damage to the newly born dreadnought.

However, in any case, from the data on paper, Germany’s Nassau-class battleship seems slightly weaker in terms of firepower than the Dreadnought-class battleship.

Although its firepower is equivalent to Australasia’s Monarch-class battleship, they had no choice but to temporarily carry 280mm guns due to technical limitations.

What Arthur didn’t know was that because of him, Germany had already begun to focus on the development of 305mm Guns and even had plans for larger caliber main guns.

William II’s idea was simple: since Australasia could design a strong battleship with data surpassing the Nassau-class battleship, why couldn’t the German Empire design a more powerful super battleship in all aspects?

After sending off Crown Prince William, only Duke Sergei and Grand Duchess Mary remained in Australasia.

This is also natural, as Duke Sergei still needed to stay in Australasia to discuss the specific dates and details of the wedding, and meanwhile, the Russian Government was attempting to further its cooperation with Australasia.

Apart from the wedding, what the Russian Government and Duke Sergei focused on more was the battleship comparable to the dreadnought in Australasia’s proposed shipbuilding plan.

After learning that Australasia controlled dreadnought technology, Duke Sergei had sent telegrams and contacted the Russia Nation several times, and received authorization from Nicholas II, granting him full responsibility for the naval order between Australasia and Russia.

After receiving Nicholas II’s approval, Duke Sergei was still very excited.

With the data of the dreadnought significantly crushing the old battleships, equipping any fleet of Russia with dreadnoughts would greatly enhance the strength of the Russian navy.

What needs to be determined first is whether the battleships designed by Australasia have the performance of a dreadnought, and secondly, the cost of building such a ship and whether the Russian side can carry out large-scale construction.

The selling price of old battleships is generally around one million pounds, and the highest is basically no more than 1.5 million pounds.

This is also why Russia was able to have a decent naval strength; it could gather a powerful fleet by selling everything.

But if the cost of dreadnoughts is too expensive, it is basically not something the current Russian Government can bear.

At most, they could only order one or two vessels to enhance the appearance of their fleet.

Duke Sergei was indeed very efficient. After receiving Nicholas II’s authorization, he found Arthur the next day and raised his own questions.

Arthur was well-prepared for Duke Sergei’s inquiry, so he replied with a smile, “Your Highness, please rest assured, our Monarch-class battleship is designed based on the data of the British Dreadnought-class battleship and the German Nassau-class battleship, after a long period of research and combining the advantages of the two battleships, a powerful battleship with a combat power comparable to the Dreadnought-class battleship. Our battleship is definitely a dreadnought level, and its performance and combat power can stand the test.”

Russians are familiar with German Nassau-class battleships. In fact, after the dreadnoughts were known by the vast majority of countries, Germany’s counterattack had already secretly begun.

In order to win over the Germans and deliver a powerful counterattack against the British Dreadnought-class battleship, Germany disclosed part of the data of the Nassau-class battleship and claimed that it was a powerful battleship with a combat power not weaker than that of the Dreadnought-class battleship.

A Monarch-class battleship combining the advantages of the Dreadnought-class and Nassau-class battleships should also be of dreadnought level, right?