Building a strong navy and maintaining absolute superiority over competitors, a rival power or bloc, both qualitatively and quantitatively, is a very expensive thing.

Taking the "Maritime Sovereign" as an example, the cost of the "Maritime Sovereign" is as high as 115586 guineas in gold coins, and the cost of gilding alone is as high as 10,691 guineas. This was the "preferential" cost of building ships and guns by investing heavily in slave labor taken from the southern colonies, without paying a single penny at all, and reducing the cost of labor to a minimum. Although the second-class battleship is not so exaggerated, the cost of a first-class battleship without artillery is still as high as 7~80,000 guineas. Charlemagne's battleships of the same period were about the same price.

The cost of building a battleship is already staggering, but this is only the first step in burning money. After the construction of a warship, it must be piloted by the corresponding seamen and naval officers, and after a long period of training and running-in, a group of rookies who can sail the ship out and drive it back can be trained.

The navy is an absolutely technical class, unlike the musketeers of the Titans - just find a peasant, swap the pitchfork in your hand for a musket, kick it to the training ground for 18 weeks, and you can get a cannon fodder who learns to line up to shoot. A qualified sailor needs at least one year of maritime experience, and in the Defence Force, this figure is two years.

Even more rare than a qualified sailor is a qualified naval officer. Before Prime Minister Richelieu's drastic reform of the navy, Charlemagne's selection of naval officers was largely irrational. Sailors of civilian origin, no matter how experienced. How outstanding his ability is, if he is not personally promoted by those in power, he can only be a sailor for the rest of his life. On the other hand, if you come from an aristocratic family, you can be a senior commander at a young age, and you can lead a fleet to sea without any experience. It is conceivable what kind of wine bags and rice bags the admiral and his subordinates who were cut off by Archbishop Li.

In order to change this situation, a fair and effective mechanism for the training and selection of officers was established, and at the same time, it was a continuation of its policy of weakening the power of the aristocracy and chaebols. The Cardinal, Prime Minister and Master of Navigation and Trade, funded funds from the treasury to establish Charlemagne's first institution for the training of naval officers, the Gards.du.Grand-Master.de.la.Navigation. Specialized in the reception of the children of the commoners and the outstanding young men hand-picked by Richelieu. Let them learn the knowledge and skills required of naval officers. Cultivating the iron discipline needed for the navy.

Before qualified officers were trained in batches, Charlemagne's navy had to face an extremely embarrassing situation - strong financial and technical capabilities had created an unprecedentedly powerful fleet for Charlemagne's navy, but the navy did not have enough officers and sailors to operate the ships...... For this reason, it was necessary to increase the budget and hire civilian sailors and captains to make up the numbers......

Similar problems exist in major shipyards. Let's not talk about the V.E company with private work. The newly built royal shipyards were all in three shifts. We will do our best to complete the Navy's shipbuilding orders. There was no need to free up the dock and manpower for the construction of warships. Therefore, it had to allocate funds again and recruit craftsmen to expand the shipyard......

In addition, there are salaries, benefits, allowances for sailors and officers...... Again, this is not a small amount.

The above total can be summarized as follows: Expansion of the Navy - Insufficient Funds - Additional Budget - Expansion of the Scale - Insufficient Funds - Additional Budget......

It's a terrible vicious circle, a bottomless pit that Charlemagne's entire gold coin can't fill. What's worse is that. If it was a time of war, such a high military budget would have been able to grit its teeth and persevere, but Charlemagne did not plan a full-scale showdown with Albion. Richelieu and his supporters of the expansion of the navy were only coveting overseas interests, hoping to ease the country's financial situation by plundering overseas colonies. Now, instead of putting the cart before the horse, Albion is on high alert to build more and larger warships in response to the expansion of Charlemagne's naval force. And the delicate national feelings between Charlemagne and Albion, in turn, contributed to their reluctance to lose to Albion in an arms race......

If the arms race continues to be allowed to develop, sooner or later it will turn into a full-scale civil war within the human camp, which the top leaders of both countries do not want to see. Therefore, the Holy See made a slight move, and the two great powers, which were suffering from financial constraints, immediately began to secretly try to end the arms race with dignity.

"Of course, once an agreement is reached, it will be very bad for us, but it will have to be negotiated by them. ”

With a slightly mocking smile, Brunhill pointed to the last document with the title of the paper written in Albion, "Guidelines for the Construction of the Kingdom's Navy". Tyr and Freya, who were fluent in Albion, read quickly, and in less than a quarter of an hour, they smiled together in a mysterious way that Thor's incomprehensible face.

"This is a popular pamphlet within the royal navy of Albion, and the core of the book, stripped of the mountaineousness and nationalism, is that Albion must maintain a strong navy equal to the combined maritime power of the second and third naval powers. We call this the 'Big Two Standard'. ”

Brunhill explained for Thor:

"According to the calculations of Admiral Hamilton, the attacking fleet must maintain a superiority of more than 50% over the defending fleet, that is, 3:2 in strength, to have a 50% chance of victory. At the moment when the Castilian navy suffered heavy losses, their indicator became the combined strength of the Charlemagne and Rus' navies. This is clearly indicated by the relief decoration of the 'Maritime Sovereign'. ”

"O reliefs of those disgusting people...... But Charlemagne wouldn't accept that, would he?"

"Yes, although Charlemagne also has the intention of abandoning the arms race because of the huge military spending, there are also corresponding conditions. Judging by the rumors of the internal discussions within the navy, they will put forward the demand that 'the navies of the two countries should stop building ships at the same time, maintain the same tonnage of warships, and build a new warship in Albion in the future, and Charlemagne also build a warship of the same tonnage.' ”

"Uh...... How so?"

Thor was embarrassed for a moment, then let out a long sigh.

"It's a bit of a big drop. ”

One wants to maintain the position of the hegemon of the sea, the other wants to be on an equal footing with the hegemon.

——The gap is so big that it is like an abyss.

"Still, they have a chance to reach some kind of agreement. ”

Tyr corrected Thor's overly optimistic thinking and said coldly.

"It is not surprising that the pressure of the Holy See, the financial pressure, the pressure of the hostile camp – these three forces interacted to reach some kind of arms limitation agreement. ”

"Therefore, this meeting must be ruined. ”

The door to the conference room was opened, and three lieutenant generals and a major general reflexively stood up and saluted. After raising his scepter in a dashing manner, the Lord of Alfheim said in his charming voice:

"We don't need to do anything, just leave this important task to those annoying little imps who like to shout 'Respect the king's treachery.'" (To be continued......)

PS: Just came back from my girlfriend's house, singing all the way "The birds in the trees are in pairs" and shaking my head step by step, I'm sorry for the delay, I'm sorry for the delay, and I'll make up for the double update tomorrow.

PS: It's just to send bananas, FFF group, philosophy group, and misunderstanding group are not allowed to think crookedly.