Britain’s navy, army and air force were fighting over the budget, and the Holy Roman Empire was no different. The world did not know the Roma’s exact specs, but the Austrian government’s leadership certainly did. Displacement: 20,100 tons Length: 169.6 m Beam: 26.3 m Draft: 8.7 m Speed: 20.5 knots Range: 6,500 nautical miles at 10 knots Main engines: 2 sets of geared steam turbines driving four shafts Main boilers: 18 mixed-fuel water-tube boilers Power 23,000 horsepower Armament: six twin 305 mm/45 guns (one twin forward, one twin aft, two twins on each flank forming a hexagonal layout), sixteen single 120 mm/45 guns, two 450 mm submerged torpedo tubes Armor: belt 255 mm, deck 76 mm, gun mounts 230 mm, turret faces 280 mm, conning tower 280 mm Crew: 863 … Compared with traditional battleships, the Roma’s firepower was simply on another level. In the era of giant-gun warships, heavy weapons meant real combat strength. Having finally seized an advantage on the track, the Navy Ministry was not going to let the British regain the lead. To expand that lead they proposed an ambitious rearmament plan. The idea was bold: build 25 super battleships similar to the Roma within five years and wrest maritime supremacy from the Royal Navy. On paper, the math added up. Twenty five dreadnoughts could sweep the current Royal Navy. Even if the reality were half as good, the result would still be decisive. The catch was time. The British were not fools. They would not sit by and allow themselves to be overtaken without responding. The dreadnought was less a single technical revolution than a conceptual breakthrough. In many emerging technologies the Holy Roman Empire held an edge, but shipbuilding itself was not necessarily one of them. Britain did not spend its naval budget in vain. In warship construction the Royal Navy still led the age. If the British government chose to pour money into the project, it could produce its own super battleship within two years. The Navy Ministry’s plan was ultimately a race against British speed. At least the Holy Roman Empire already had a prototype. The task now was to refine the Roma’s design and move to mass production. In terms of time, the Empire led its rival by perhaps a year and a half, and that lead could grow in the ensuing competition. British shipbuilding was advanced, but a warship involved more than hull-making. It required an industrial ecosystem and coordinated industries. As the world’s leading industrial power, the Holy Roman Empire undoubtedly surpassed Britain in overall industrial strength. Once the industrial chain started running, even if their technology was not far ahead of the British, the Holy Roman Empire could still gain a decisive edge in production capacity. It would be unrealistic to claim that for every battleship Britain built, the Holy Roman Empire could build two, but with both shipbuilding industries operating at full capacity, the Holy Roman Empire would certainly outproduce the British in the same amount of time. Now that the naval technology revolution had erupted, everyone was being pulled back to the same starting line. The Holy Roman Empire even held a slight lead, and no one wanted to waste such a golden opportunity. Of course, shipbuilding required money. As a prototype, the Roma had taken many wrong turns during its construction, and its final cost reached 4.976 million guilders. If ships were built in large numbers, costs would naturally decrease. However, warship design constantly advanced, and each new batch involved technical improvements that also came with additional expenses. This meant that even with mass production, the average cost per “super battleship” would not fall below 4 million guilders. Twenty-five such ships would require at least 100 million guilders. With shipbuilding alone demanding such a massive sum, how would the army and air force get their share? Although the Holy Roman Empire’s annual military budget kept growing, its increase was tied to the overall economy. Military spending generally stayed within thirty percent of total annual revenue. That ratio was already quite high. Even though the Holy Roman Empire operated under a two-tiered financial system consisting of the central government and the state governments, the central government also managed vast directly administered territories. The central government did not need to fund much of the states’ internal construction, but it still had to shoulder all infrastructure, social projects, and administrative expenses in its own territories. Of course, calling the ratio high was mostly Franz’s personal view. Compared with the rest of the world, the Holy Roman Empire’s military spending as a percentage of revenue was not high at all, lower than that of ninety percent of other countries. Due to low productivity, many nations spent more than half of their revenue on their militaries. Only industrialized powers could keep that share down. Whether the percentage was considered high or not, the fact remained that the Holy Roman Empire’s total military spending was the largest in the world. The amount it spent each year on its armed forces exceeded the entire national income of most other countries. At the current pace, it would take less than a decade before Franz experienced the same frustration as the United States in later generations: one nation’s military budget exceeding the combined total of the next two major powers. In truth, that feeling was already becoming reality. If nothing unexpected happened, starting next year the Austrian government’s military spending would surpass the combined budgets of the second, third, and fourth largest powers. No matter how deep the treasury ran, it could not satisfy the army’s appetite for money. Traditionally, the budget split among the three services was 46% for the army, 37% for the navy, and 17$ for the air force. That balance, however, was now history. Both the navy and the air force were dissatisfied with their allocations, and they had joined forces to attack the army’s share. … Navy Minister Castagni said, “The French are finished. Even if they were freed up now, they would not pose a threat to us for a hundred years. The Russians are our allies, and their economic lifeline is in our hands. There is no real threat on the eastern front. Since our victory in the anti-French war, we have had no enemies on land. Looking at the whole world, we only face one rival, and that is Britain. If we are to deal with the British, we need the navy and the air force. For the army to keep grabbing large amounts of resources is simply wasting taxpayers’ money.” Minister of Air Konrad agreed, “You are right. The army consumes far too many resources. It is already seriously hindering the Empire’s—” Minister of War Wettläufer interrupted, “Gentlemen, watch your words. Do not forget that the Holy Roman Empire is a land power. Our foundation rests on the soil. What determines the rise and fall of the Empire has never been the wide ocean. It has always been the territories we hold across Asia, Europe and Africa. To defend such vast lands, how can the army be anything but strong? By contrast, your navy and air force are already sufficient. As long as you can hold the Mediterranean, leave the rest to us. The Ministry of War has a complete plan. If the government decides to overturn Britain’s dominance, we can march across Persia and invade India at any time.” There was nothing wrong with prioritizing the army for a land power. The real problem was that the Holy Roman Empire had already lost any serious land threat. France had been truly broken. If history could be replayed, the French would likely never have surrendered. Compared with the postwar disaster, the hardships during the Continental War were nothing. Back then people ate poorly at worst. Now many could not eat at all. Some had nothing left to eat. More people died after the conflict from displacement, ruined production, and the resulting disease and starvation than on the battlefield in those two years of fighting. Other countries were also in turmoil. Troops stationed in places like Belgium, Sardinia and Tuscany were just as ruthless as the Russians when they made trouble. Driven by hatred, these anti-French vanguards often acted with even greater severity than the Russian troops. Their occupied zones were small and their presence weak, so Russia stole most of the spotlight. Look at where the French fled. They ran to Switzerland, to Spain, or to the Holy Roman Empire. No one dared run into Belgium or the Italian regions. There was nothing surprising about it. The hatred that had been built up was too deep. Those who fled there could not expect aid. Even those heading toward the Holy Roman Empire had to take detours. No one dared pass through Luxembourg or the Rhineland. The locals were also among the most zealous anti-French forces. Earlier, the Austrian government had gathered a shipment of relief grain intended for famine relief in France, but the convoy was intercepted by civilians in the Rhineland. In the end, the Austrian government changed its mind and decided to give the grain to the Russian army as rations, after which transportation suddenly went smoothly. So many people wanted to see France destroyed that postwar France became as miserable as imaginable. With multiple members of the Anti-French Alliance backing the outcome, the international community merely issued a few verbal condemnations and did nothing more. With France gone, the Holy Roman Empire no longer faced any real land threat. As for the Russian Empire, it had ceased to be a threat decades earlier. Let alone fighting the Holy Roman Empire, even a suspension of trade could bring down the Russian government. Without the Holy Roman Empire as a major buyer, Russia’s mining and agricultural sectors would collapse as well. They could not even open new markets, since there was no other buyer of comparable scale in the global market. In many industries, the Holy Roman Empire had established an effective monopoly. Although the Holy Roman Empire would also suffer, at least it had alternatives. At worst, it could loosen mining restrictions and import African grain. Its manufacturing industry would survive. Without external threats, the army’s continued dominance in resource allocation became increasingly conspicuous. If not for its brilliant military record and political strength, it might have already buckled under pressure. Even so, during each year’s budget debate, the army often became the target of criticism. Not only the navy and air force attacked it, but even within the government, complaints against the army were constant. Despite the scolding and objections, the army never loosened its grip on its benefits. In this matter, Franz usually chose to look the other way. Politics was never about simple right or wrong, and an emperor’s foremost duty was to balance all factions. The army’s dominance within the Holy Roman Empire had lasted many years, only beginning to change in recent times. This could be seen in the military budget distribution. When Franz first took the throne, the army accounted for over ninety percent of total military spending. It had since gradually fallen to forty-six percent. Now that the navy and air force had begun making noise, there was no reason for the emperor to play the villain. Once the quarrels reached their peak, he would simply make the final budget decision based on their arguments. Cutting resources gradually might not be ideal, but sometimes it was the only viable choice. A sudden, drastic cut to the army’s budget would have been truly irresponsible. Whether through downsizing, restructuring, or cost-saving reforms, all such measures required time to take effect. Thus, while the army’s share of the defense budget steadily decreased each year, its actual funding never fell. It continued to rise annually, only at a slower rate than the navy and air force. Despite all the apparent disputes, what they were truly fighting over was the increase in new military funds, not the previously fixed expenses. To break the stalemate, the army would not sit idle. The navy had its Super Battleship Plan, the air force its Final Judgement Plan, so of course the army could come up with an India Plan. No matter how difficult it would be to execute, something was better than nothing. After all, the navy’s and air force’s schemes were not guaranteed successes either. With grand strategies from all three ministries on the table, the real headache now fell on the Austrian government’s senior leadership. Whom to back and whom to oppose was the kind of problem that could make a man pull his hair out. At first glance, any one of the three plans might be enough to unseat the British. Study them more closely and it became clear they were still only plans. Completing any of them would demand enormous resources. … When dusk began to fall, Franz grew impatient and rose. He waved them off and said, “That’s enough for today. Come back tomorrow. I want to see concrete, more responsible proposals, not empty promises you cannot implement.” Actually Franz was quietly relieved. He was glad he had not shirked this task. If he had passed the problem to Frederick, the dispute over strategic direction might have erupted into open brawling. It was plain to see the army had no intention of yielding further. Trying to force them into concessions through outside pressure no longer seemed realistic. If pushed too far and the Ministry of War leaked the debate to the public and invited the nation to weigh in, it would be trouble. Politics is unpredictable. Compared with the air force and the navy, the army enjoyed far greater popular support. If you let ordinary people answer the question, roughly eighty percent would pick marching from Persia all the way into India to sever Britain’s lifeline. Another nineteen percent would be the cautious type, saying bring the Russians in to fight for India with us. Fewer than one percent would back the navy or the air force. Public sentiment was shaped by past victories. The army had earned the people’s confidence through repeated battlefield triumphs. The air force had shown promise, but its power was not yet convincing enough to win mass trust. The navy was even less impressive. It had long played a supporting role, and not even Franz truly believed the Holy Roman Navy could defeat the Royal Navy in a head-on clash. If you cannot win in a frontal fight, there is no shame in using maneuvers. The Empire already held the Mediterranean gateway. The Holy Roman Navy could strike from both east and west, forcing the British to split their attention. Operating inside the Mediterranean was quicker than the Royal Navy’s long outer runs. Only if the Royal Navy possessed more than twice the Empire’s tonnage could it simply blockade the entrance outright. However, that seemed unlikely. At this point the strategic importance of the Strait of Gibraltar reemerged. The Austrian government could deploy air power in Morocco to lock the western gate. Similarly, Britain could try to turn Gibraltar into a giant floating carrier base. With planes above, submarines below, mines sprinkled now and then—Gibraltar could be sealed from either side. If the western gate could not be forced, the British would be limited to eastward movement and become passive. Then the only option would be to coordinate with the army and pull in the Russians as allies, each pushing from Afghanistan and Persia to invade India.
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