"Before the decisive battle, the High Seas Fleet also had a large number of former dreadnoughts and armored cruisers. However, after the war, the armored cruiser team was wiped out. The former dreadnoughts must also be retired, which will reduce at least 10,000-ton warships! In the future, the High Seas Fleet will bear the defense of the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and even the Indian Ocean at the same time. We only have 18 main battleships. You should be very clear about what this means, right?"

"And what I can't understand the most is that if you and the senior leaders of the Empire are unwilling to expand the main fleet, why should you mention in the plan that you need to build at least 8 ships? Now the entire Empire's high seas fleet is talking about this matter with relish. If it is cancelled, it will definitely be a heavy blow to the morale of the Navy." Scher also has his own reasons.

Do you want to say what Scher said makes sense? It makes sense. After all, after the war, the future construction of the German navy must be aimed at the actual first navy. This is not only to say that you have fought the powerful British Navy, but more importantly, you have to face the challenges of the US Navy and the Japanese Navy in the future!

The United States needs to face enemies in the Atlantic and Pacific across the two oceans at the same time. The German Navy is under great pressure. It must ensure absolute sea control in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and also suppress the British Royal Navy that lives at his doorstep!

With the further expansion of the German colony, facing Germany, which has half an African colony, the navy's mission has also changed from a simple battleship showdown of the North Sea battleship to ensuring the safety of German maritime traffic lines within the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and to provide fatal blows to potential enemies. These two tasks require the Imperial Navy to maintain a certain scale, which may allow some warships in the Imperial Navy to be old, but they must not be retired easily, in order to ensure the size and organization of the fleet.

In fact, to be honest, the scale of the high seas fleet is really not enough now. After all, in the decisive battle that shocked the world, Germany also lost a lot of light cruisers and destroyers. It can even be said that even when the light warships of the high seas fleet were at its peak, the number of light cruisers and destroyers was definitely not enough to maintain a scale commensurate with a global empire. Small quantity is one aspect, and quality is another aspect. After all, more than half of German destroyers were designed and built for the North Sea combat.

What Scher said makes sense, but isn't Ruprecht's saying makes sense? Obviously not! Just imagine, after the war, the army and the air force were greatly abolishing personnel and military equipment. However, the navy increased the naval aviation and expanded the Marine Corps! Prince Ruprecht took a considerable pressure to get this done! Seeing that the Navy had another department and the scope involved was getting bigger and bigger, what would the Army think? What would the Air Force think? Everyone's military expenditure was greatly reduced, and the personnel were being retired sharply, but the navy was booming. There was no such reason!

Therefore, from the perspective of politics and balancing domestic factions, the navy must also reduce military expenditures! How to reduce it? The main treatment methods are two, one is to deal with a large amount of surplus materials, and the other is to reduce the military preparations of the main ships!

The first thing to be dealt with was a large number of submarines, which were directly stuffed to the US Navy. The German Navy's "migrant workers" were also on the way with the submarines. The Americans produced energy-generating flat-panel destroyers, but the number of submarines was still smaller, and the lack of professional submarine officers was even more lacking. Therefore, many German naval officers took their submarines to the United States as instructors.

Then the deal was some outdated warships, including few former dreadnoughts and armored cruisers. The performance of these warships has lagged behind, and the greatest significance for the Navy may be to maintain organization and use them as training ships. After the Imperial Government introduced a new Navy battleship expansion plan, the Navy felt a pity, but it still agreed to the retirement plan.

However, after the Navy had removed a large number of warships from the combat sequence, Ruprecht suddenly told Scher that the number of new main ships would not be large. It was no wonder that Scher was angry at this time, but there was nothing we could do, because the crown prince did this with a purpose. Today, before going to Port Kiel, the crown prince met Scher first, and this was the issue to be discussed! The crown prince was really not deliberately deceiving the navy!

"I didn't say that the Empire did not build new battleships for the Navy, but the number was small. Don't be so excited. The Navy's fleet renewal plan will be huge in the future, but in a short period of time, the Navy needs to endure it." Faced with Scher, Ruprecht said very tactfully. It's not that he can't afford to offend, but because Ruprecht really regarded Scher as a friend and the head of the German Navy in the next ten years!

"Even if the battleship is updated slowly, we must ensure the personnel arrangement of the fleet. People can wait for the ship, but the ship cannot wait for people." Faced with the softened attitude, Schell could not continue to say something. After all, Schell understood very well. On the issue of the navy, Crown Prince Ruprecht had done his best. When other branches of the army were dismissing personnel significantly, the reduction of other personnel in the Navy was not large except for the injuries and expiration of personnel, and the smallest among the three armies, and the additional naval aviation and expanded Marines left a back door for future naval expansion. This is no longer easy.

And to be honest, the crown prince's attitude towards Scher is really good. Although Scher is the marshal of the navy, he is not enough to face the figures of the Crown Prince Ruprecht. If the German senior management ranks in the seats, Scher's status is even worse than that of the current Bavarian Prime Minister! People respect you, invite you to come and explain it to you for a long time, which is to give you face. Otherwise, the crown prince doesn't have to explain so much to Scher on this issue, just say the result directly. Anyway, the imperial government is also taking the blame... So, after calming down, Scher needs to discuss with the crown prince how to solve this problem.

"The organizational problem is easy to solve. The future Pacific War will be fought for at least two years. Many of us can join the US Navy as volunteers. Of course, try to avoid participating in combat missions. Those who want to retire can also leave. In short, act as much as possible according to their wishes."
Chapter completed!