Chapter 405: Comprehensive Confrontation [Five Updates]

[Today's fifth update, a total of 31,000 words are updated. Please give me a monthly ticket, please give me a reward~~]

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In the White House Presidential Office, Woodrow held a closed-door meeting to discuss the current complex and changing international situation. Secretary of State Marshall, Foreign Minister Gore, Secretary of Navy Admiral William Benson, Secretary of Navy Command Admiral Robert E. Koontz and others participated.

"How did the Chinese Empire respond?" After everyone sat down, Woodrow asked the first question.

Gore replied: "We firmly deny that our submarines appeared in the waters around Japan, saying that our submarines were missing in the Atlantic Ocean, suspected that they were sunk by German submarines or were sunk by British anti-submarine destroyers as German submarines."

Marshall asked worriedly: "How did they reply?"

Gore said: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire did not reply, but our ambassador to China replied, 'The Chinese Empire did not take it seriously. They firmly believe that their naval anti-submarine power is so powerful that there are so many submarines that sink as much as they have.'"

Benson said in a very bad mood: "It's so arrogant! Sinking more than 20 submarines, we must settle the account!"

Robert smiled bitterly and said, "Only by our current strength, we are not enough to compete with the Chinese Empire."

Benson said unhappyly: "You didn't say that before! You are the one who is clamoring to demonstrate to the Chinese Empire the most happy person!"

Robert smiled helplessly and said, "One time and another time, the powerful military power hidden in the Chinese Empire is too terrifying. Our intelligence system is really bad. The Chinese Empire's aircraft carrier battle group, advanced anti-submarine destroyers, powerful cat demon fighters and h1n1 bombers, white phosphorus bombs, armored combat vehicles, etc. We did not discover these key weapons that can change the situation of the war in time, so that our strategic decision was wrong from the beginning. We should not have had a large-scale arms race with the Chinese Empire, and we should not have an alliance with Japan to completely offend them."

Marshall sighed: "Our intelligence department has indeed made a mistake. But who would have thought that the Chinese Empire had such a strong vision and foresight in this regard. They seemed to know the future direction of the world like prophets."

Woodrow said: "This is one of the reasons why we wanted to absorb Japan at the beginning. Japan is also a yellow person. Their culture is similar to that of the Chinese Empire. We once planned to use Japanese spies to enter the country of the Chinese Empire in order to obtain valuable strategic intelligence. Unfortunately, the Chinese Empire was not afraid of Japan from the beginning, so that the intelligence personnel of the Japanese Special High School Course could not obtain these key intelligence."

Marshall suddenly said: "It is said that the Chinese Empire did not take the small Japan too seriously. It was their emperor, Chen Hao, who was prejudiced against Japan, which led to everyone in the Chinese Empire regarding Japan as the most dangerous enemy and being on guard against it at all times."

Woodrow nodded and asked, "Has the Intelligence Bureau still not found out about Wang Chenhao's origin?"

Marshall shook his head and said, "Just like it appeared out of thin air, our Intelligence Agency tried its best and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to find any information about him. This money is enough to survey the census of countries around the world several times."

"A mysterious existence!" Woodrow murmured to himself, and then said: "Let's not talk about this, our focus should be on naval power construction. This time, the Chinese Empire discovered that our submarines appeared around Japan to transport supplies for Japan. They would never give up."

"I think so too!" Benson said: "The Chinese Empire has disabled Japan and has not launched a landing battle for a long time. Are you afraid of falling into the quagmire of the Japanese archipelago? Their real purpose should be aimed at us."

Marshall asked: "Why have to target us? We have made great concessions and have not even implemented the US-Japan security treaty. Besides, our navy has given up building battleships with 17-inch and 18-inch cannons, which means we have surrendered to the Chinese Empire. They have no reason to target us again!"

Woodrow said: "I've called them both here today for this matter. I heard that your Admiralty is developing a super battleship that can carry 18-inch cannons. Is there any such thing?"

Benson and Robert looked at each other, coughing awkwardly and nodding, which was considered an admission.

"You!" Marshall looked at the two of them in surprise and said angrily: "Didn't it be rejected? You are continuing to challenge the Chinese Empire. Sooner or later, war will break out like Britain and Germany!"

Benson retorted: "The Chinese Empire has equipped four Yuan-class battleships with 17-inch main guns, and the other four Ming-class battleships with 18-inch main guns will be completed in a few months. Our battleships with only 16-inch main guns are not opponents of the Chinese Empire's Navy at all."

Woodrow asked, "The Congress will soon know about this matter. How many ships you have seen privately, where did the funds come from?"

Benson glanced at Robert, who replied: "Two North Carolina-class battleships, funded from the final payment of six South Dakota-class battleships."

Woodrow was quite dissatisfied and said immediately: "Stop construction immediately while Congress doesn't know."

Benson smiled embarrassedly and said, "How to explain it? Let's put it this way. If the construction of two North Carolina-class ships is stopped, the funds for the six South Dakota-class battleships will not be returned. The construction loss will be greater. It is better to add additional funds to build them all."

Woodrow said angrily: "How could Congress add additional funds?"

Marshall also sighed: "If the Chinese Empire learned that we had deceived them, it would be a very serious consequence."

Benson looked like a dead pig was not afraid of boiling water and said, "If the funding was not allocated, six South Dakota-class battleships would not be completed, and our maritime power would be even more fragile."

Robert suddenly said: "It's better to do this. We have to ask Congress for money to build an aircraft carrier battle group and fill the holes with the money to build an aircraft carrier."

Woodrow asked, "What should I do with the aircraft carrier? Is it shelved? Haven't you seen the Chinese Empire defeated the Japanese joint fleet with the aircraft carrier battle group? If Congress knew that you used the money to build aircraft carriers to build the main ships, you would die even worse."

Benson said indifferently: "It's just a symbolic modification of several merchant ships. Anyway, the aircraft carriers of the Chinese Empire are also modified from merchant ships. Why do we have to spend a lot of money to build them separately?"

Robert also echoed: "In fact, the aircraft carrier battle group is not that powerful. The carrier-based aircraft has a small ammunition load, which means it can sink the Japanese Navy's too thin armored warships. Our main battleship cannot be sunk by the aircraft, so there is no need to develop an aircraft carrier. I think Benson's suggestion is OK. Anyway, this has come to this point. If you don't save us, then we will be dead."

Woodrow glared at them angrily. If it weren't for his own people, he would have sent them to court.

"It seems like there is no better way!" Marshall said: "It seems like there is no better way!"

Woodrow nodded and said, "Okay, I'll take as much money as possible from Congress."

Benson and Robert were immediately overjoyed and hurriedly thanked the president for their help.

Then, several people discussed how to cheat money with Congress, and then made plans and left.

Three days later, Woodrow said in a report to Congress that the Chinese Empire had discovered that the United States had secretly exported materials to Japan. Judging from the Chinese Empire's actions of directly sinking more than 20 American submarines, the danger index of war between the two sides will expand sharply. Therefore, Woodrow suggested that Congress approve his 1914 military budget plan for allocating $500 million to the navy, army and air forces.

In terms of the air force, the aircraft currently introduced by the United States include the early J-1 foreign trade fighter of the Chinese Empire, the Newport 17 of France, the F1a4 camel model, and the performance is far inferior to that of the J-4 Cat Demon fighter of the Chinese Empire, the Haverland 2 of the British and the Newport 11 of France. At the same time, the US Air Force does not have bombers at all, and it also needs to import the H1n1 avian influenza bomber similar to the Chinese Empire as soon as possible.

In view of the fierce air combat in Europe, the U.S. Congress approved the plan of the U.S. Air Force to purchase 200 reconnaissance aircraft, 100 trainers, 1,000 advanced fighters and 200 bombers in the next two years.

In terms of the army, the US Congress approved the Army 40 million US dollars in funding in view of the performance of the M10 tanks currently in service in the Imperial Army and the M07 tanks exported to the Allies, requiring the Army to develop tank weapons and equipment, and to purchase 500 tank equipment to the Army in the future.

On the Navy, the US Congress would be inspired by Woodrow's passionate speech and finally approved the construction of four new North Carolina-class battleships, 8 light cruisers, 20 destroyers, 30 submarines, and approved the project to build 5 aircraft carriers to build a US aircraft carrier battle group.

At the same time, considering the fact that the Japanese Joint Fleet had no power to fight back under the attack of the carrier-based aircraft aircraft of the Imperial Chinese aircraft carrier combat group, the US Navy requested the modification of the active battleships and the installation of a large number of anti-aircraft artillery systems to deal with aircraft threats from the air. This proposal was also approved.

So, after a year of silence, the US side became active again in the fiscal year 1914.

The news that the United States increased its military expenditure by 500 million US dollars was quickly learned by the intelligence departments of the Chinese Empire, so the Supreme Command of the Chinese Empire also began to doubt the intention of the United States' military expenditure. Originally, the empire hawkish politicians and officers once again set off the American threat theory in Congress, claiming that the threat from Japan has basically been eliminated, and the United States is naturally the one that poses the greatest threat to the Chinese Empire.

Since the Chinese Empire only approved the Navy to build four Emeishan-class aircraft carriers in the fiscal year 1913 and did not approve the plan to build a more powerful battleship, the Navy Department has strong calls this year to build a Qing-class battleship equipped with 19-inch main guns, but Congress rejected it because only the Chinese Empire in the world has super battleships with 17-inch and 18-inch main guns, and there is no need to build a new ship with larger caliber main guns, and the existing battleships are enough to use.

Then, the Navy retreated to the second best. Since there was no way to build battleships, they asked to build an escort fleet for aircraft carrier battle groups for aircraft carriers, that is, each main aircraft carrier was fixedly equipped with a batch of escort warships, including fast battleships, battlecruisers, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, light cruisers, hunting ships, submarines, etc., but Congress cut off the two items of fast battleships and battleships, allowing the main aircraft carriers to be equipped with escort heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and hunting ships, as well as submarines.

However, the Navy's proposal to modernize all active warships, members of Congress approved the results of the Sino-Japanese Eastern Ocean Naval Battle. All warships will be equipped with anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, especially the main battleships. In addition to the super-large caliber main guns, which are not sufficient for air shooting requirements, other small and medium-caliber main guns, secondary guns and third-level and fourth-level rapid-fire guns have been changed to Gaoping dual-purpose rapid-fire guns, so that they can fire at air.

Since small and medium-sized ships have little room for modification, it is almost the same if you add a few anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, and there is no extra space for upgrading and modification. However, the main battleships of the Chinese Empire basically leave a lot of upgrade space, so a large number of anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns can be installed, which greatly improves the air defense firepower.

In terms of the air force, the Imperial Congress takes into account the active J-4 fighter jets, N1n1 bombers and external exports, so the Imperial Air Force's combat aircraft needs to be updated. Given the importance of air supremacy in the future, the Congress is very generous to the Air Force and approved the Air Force to equip 1,000 lightning fighters and 200 h2n1 bombers. Of course, this is just a standing organization of the Imperial Air Force. Once war occurs, it can be expanded at any time.

In the Army, the funds discussed by the Imperial Congress are mainly concentrated on the chariot troops. At this time, the Imperial Army already had two armored divisions (10 chariot regiments), all of which had mechanized equipment, but the problems that followed also arise. The Army had no navy before, but now the Army's chariot regiments have also begun to suck money, which made the members of Congress hesitate. But in the end, it still approved the formation of two armored divisions (10 chariot regiments) within the next year.

In the end, Congress approved Guanghua's additional military expenditure budget for 14 years, reaching 490 million dragon coins, which is basically the same as the United States.

However, the military construction of the Chinese Empire is moving more towards modernization, and the United States has been led by the Chinese Empire and is very confused about the development of future wars, so that the US military budget is basically spent on useless or outdated military strategies, which is a waste of money and cannot achieve the role of fighting against the Chinese Empire.

For example, the United States is still building battleships that can compete with the Yuan and Ming classes of the Chinese Empire, and do not pay much attention to fleet air defense. Although the US Navy also realized the threat of aircraft to warships, it only added air defense rapid-fire guns and rapid-fire machine guns to the main ships, but the number is not large, because the room for modification of the main ships of the United States is not very large.

However, Woodrow secured funds for the US Navy, allowing the US Navy to build aircraft carriers. However, since the U.S. Navy still did not pay much attention to the development of aircraft carriers, after getting the money, it only modified a batch of test aircraft carriers, that is, some transport ships basically installed direct decks and converted them into aircraft carriers. The funds for the construction of aircraft carriers were misappropriated to other aspects.

No matter how the United States formulates its military development strategy, the US side, which had been silent for more than a year, once again set off an arms race with the Chinese Empire and eventually headed for a full-scale confrontation.
Chapter completed!