Chapter 120: Critical Moment

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After the outbreak of the great war, both belligerents faced the same problem: their fiscal revenues were far from sufficient to cover war expenditures.

Although Britain possessed tens of millions of square kilometers of colonies and controlled some of the most fertile lands, the enormous costs of war still pushed the British treasury to the brink of bankruptcy. Within the first six months of the war, Britain’s fiscal deficit reached 180% of its revenue. The situation in the German Empire was no better, with overspending of nearly ten billion imperial marks in the same period.

Borrowing became the common choice for both sides.

Interestingly, the United States was the primary lender to both belligerents.

Within six months, the German Empire had obtained loans amounting to nearly two billion imperial marks from American bankers through various channels.

Unfortunately, this was insignificant compared to Britain.

After David Lloyd George took office, Britain secured weekly loans of up to seventy million pounds sterling from the United States, occupying 60% of America’s credit capacity.

In other words, the United States placed a heavier bet on Britain.

Although Feng Chengqian did not have precise data, he estimated that by the end of February 1915, Britain had already received loans exceeding four billion pounds sterling from the United States. If loans continued increasing at seventy million pounds per week, then within another six months, British loans would approach seven billion pounds.

What does this mean?

In 1914, the U.S. federal government’s budget was less than ten billion dollars, which, when converted, was under seven billion pounds.

That is to say, Britain would soon surpass the U.S. federal government as the largest debtor to American banking groups.

Under such circumstances, would America allow Britain to be defeated?

It is undeniable that some of the German Emperor’s judgments were accurate: even if the United States entered the war, it would be difficult for them to make a significant impact in the short term. However, it is equally undeniable that America’s war potential was unmatched—far exceeding that of the Empire, and even surpassing the total of all European nations combined. Once the U.S. joined the conflict, American bankers and entrepreneurs would spare no cost to secure ultimate victory.

For the German Empire to win, it must avoid engaging the United States.

Feng Chengqian was fully aware of this. As such, he initially proposed promptly imposing a strategic blockade on Britain, preventing American goods from reaching British shores and diverting them to Germany instead, thereby creating conditions for the United States to replace Britain as the favored partner.

If American bankers and industrialists realized that aiding Germany to defeat Britain would yield greater benefits, even without joining the Central Powers, they would refuse to side with the Allies and at least refrain from posing a battlefield threat to Germany.

Sadly, Feng Chengqian’s proposal did not receive the Emperor’s full support.

If the Empire could not take appropriate diplomatic action, Feng Chengqian had no choice but to pin his hopes on military measures—namely, to sever the maritime supply lines between Britain and America as quickly as possible.

On March 10, Feng Chengqian submitted a revised shipbuilding plan to Tirpitz.

That same day, the battlecruisers “Derfflinger,” “Moltke,” and “Von der Tann” entered drydock to begin a three-month refit.

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According to Feng Chengqian’s plan, these three battlecruisers would be converted into commerce raiders.

The modification focused mainly on fuel storage, aiming to increase the warships’ endurance at sea. Additionally, basic repair and maintenance facilities would be added to enable simple on-the-spot repairs during long-range raiding missions, thereby enhancing sustained combat capability. More importantly, the refit would replace boilers and steam turbines to boost maximum speed beyond twenty-eight knots. After completion, these ships would have a range exceeding 10,000 nautical miles and could remain deployed for over three months.

Of course, refitting existing ships was only a stopgap measure.

Sufficient intelligence indicated that the soon-to-be-commissioned battlecruiser “Tiger” had a top speed of twenty-eight knots; the “Renown” class under construction and the “Hood” class in design both boasted maximum speeds exceeding thirty-one knots, and were armed with 15-inch (381 mm) main guns. In other words, commerce raiders limited to twenty-eight knots would find it difficult to evade pursuit by these new battlecruisers.

In fact, even the “Berlin” class ships were not fast enough.

Therefore, Feng Chengqian set higher speed targets for the commerce raiders. In his shipbuilding plan, the new class of commerce raiders—fast cruisers—would match the “Berlin” class in firepower and armor but increase displacement by three thousand tons, primarily to accommodate a more powerful propulsion system.

Once built, these fast cruisers could reach a top speed of thirty-three knots and sustain a cruising speed of sixteen knots over 12,000 nautical miles.

The problem was that blockade alone could not directly defeat Britain.

Simply put, if the German Navy’s blockade proved effective, the Royal Navy would have no choice but to engage the German fleet in a decisive battle.

The reason was straightforward: only by decisively defeating the German Navy could the Royal Navy lift the maritime blockade.

Thus, the German Navy’s combat strength needed to continue increasing.

According to Feng Chengqian’s plan, besides the already launched “Derfflinger” and “Lützow,” and the nearly completed “Hindenburg,” the other three ships planned in the “Derfflinger” class were all canceled. Furthermore, the Empire would cease construction of battlecruisers after the “Derfflinger” class, as fast battleships could fulfill all the roles of battlecruisers.

The focus would certainly be on battleships.

The construction of four “Bayern” class battleships was prioritized: “Bayern” and “Baden” were to be completed and commissioned by October 1915, while “Sachsen” and “Württemberg” were scheduled for completion by the end of June 1916. Since construction on a new class of battleships had not yet begun, Feng Chengqian requested an additional order for four more “Bayern” class ships, all to be completed and commissioned by the end of 1917. This required the Imperial Navy to allocate approximately four billion imperial marks in new shipbuilding funds in 1915.

As for the new class of battleships, Feng Chengqian had a plan but did not harbor high hopes.

According to his design, this class would displace over 40,000 tons standard, start construction in the second half of 1916—after the additional four “Bayern” class ships completed keel laying—and be armed with three triple 380 mm turrets as main battery, eight twin 150 mm guns as secondary battery, with armor protection increased by 10% over the “Bayern” class, and maximum speed equal to that of the “Bayern.”

If built, these would certainly be the most advanced battleships in the world.

However, these ships could not possibly be commissioned by early 1918, and whether they could be completed by the end of 1918 was uncertain.

Would the war drag on until late 1918?

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In Feng Chengqian’s view, if the war lasted until the end of 1918, even if the Empire won, it would pay dearly for the victory.

On March 15, Feng Chengqian’s shipbuilding plan received the Emperor’s approval.

Although technically it required the Imperial Chancellor’s consent before implementation, during wartime the Emperor’s authority surpassed that of the Chancellor. Moreover, the incumbent Chancellor Bethmann was far less capable than Bismarck and would never openly oppose the Emperor.

After completing this matter, Feng Chengqian left Berlin and returned to the High Seas Fleet headquarters at Wilhelmshaven.

Due to his outstanding performance in several naval battles, the Emperor had officially appointed Admiral Hipper as commander of the High Seas Fleet, Admiral Reuter as commander of the scouting forces (previously the battlecruiser squadron commander), and Feng Chengqian was promoted to acting chief of staff of the High Seas Fleet.

The Emperor had originally intended to grant Feng Chengqian the rank of rear admiral, but this was withdrawn due to his insufficient service record.

Feng Chengqian was unconcerned; he held enough honorary titles and was already an honorary rear admiral, so the actual rank was not important.

The day after Feng Chengqian’s return to Wilhelmshaven, Jellicoe resigned as commander of the Grand Fleet.

It was not that David Lloyd George forced him out—Jellicoe voluntarily stepped down and refused Lloyd George’s attempts to retain him, leaving the Grand Fleet in disarray under Beatty. However, Beatty did not immediately become commander-in-chief, instead temporarily commanding the fleet as the scouting forces commander.

At that time, the Royal Navy was deeply divided over who should succeed Jellicoe.

In short, no one could adequately replace Jellicoe.

Although the Royal Navy had no shortage of senior officers, few possessed Jellicoe’s caliber. Other officers had various shortcomings, and for the Royal Navy struggling in adversity, these weaknesses could lead to unpredictable consequences.

Political conflicts also made command over the Grand Fleet extraordinarily complex.

The problem lay with David Lloyd George.

After forcing Asquith’s resignation, Lloyd George failed to successfully unify the coalition government. Many of his policies faced skepticism from other politicians. Ironically, Herbert Henry Asquith, who had collaborated with Lloyd George to overthrow the previous government, had become the new leader of the opposition.

It could be said that regardless of who resided at 10 Downing Street, no prime minister could last long if the frontline situation deteriorated.

Jellicoe’s resignation exacerbated internal conflicts within the Royal Navy and ignited a new political struggle, with Asquith eyeing the prime ministership.

Yet no one could deny that Britain faced its gravest threat in two centuries.

The German Imperial Navy had shaken the Royal Navy’s dominance. If Britain failed to secure victory at sea, then regardless of the situation on the European continent, Britain would be the loser and would lose its status as global hegemon after the war.

The British Empire stood at a critical juncture between life and death.