The basic premise for signing a naval treaty is that countries disclose their shipbuilding plans to each other.
As soon as this shipbuilding plan was made public, the negotiations that seemed to be going smoothly were immediately shattered.
No other country expected the Lucians' shipbuilding plan to be so "radical".
Even after receiving a reminder from France to proactively avoid being labeled as militaristic, they only lowered the target of 400,000 tons to 320,000 tons.
This triggered a series of strategic changes in other countries.
Prussia and Lucia directly confronted each other and raised the target to 320,000 tons.
Then, it does not mean that Lucia and Prussia both have a tonnage of 320,000 tons of high-speed capital ships, so the treaty can be signed directly.
Britain, France, and Spain are the three traditional naval powers. Their goal is to remain no less powerful than emerging countries.
Either we should correspond to the goals of Lucia and Prussia and set a target tonnage of 320,000 tons, or we can ask Lucia and Prussia to lower the target tonnage.
They were originally leaning towards the latter.
The first time I asked Lucia to reduce the tonnage, it had some effect.
But now, after Prussia put forward the same target of 320,000 tons tit for tat, Lucia could not continue to lower the target tonnage.
There is even a tendency to return to the original goal.
Because there are other countries competing with us, we are no longer alone.
Prussia wants 320,000 tons, and we want 400,000 tons. Isn't it considered an act of militarism?
In such a strange atmosphere, the second meeting ended hastily without reaching any consensus.
After the meeting, Talleyrand immediately went to Charles, explained the situation at the meeting, and then expressed his concerns:
"Your Highness, I am very worried that this naval treaty may not have the effect you originally planned.
"Lucia announced the shipbuilding plan, and Prussia responded tit-for-tat. This may make the shipbuilding competition open and intense!"
Charles's expression was also a bit ugly, but his way of thinking was different from Talleyrand's:
"No, the effect will definitely still be there, but it won't be too idealistic.
“All countries in Europe and the West have agreed to limit the tonnage of high-speed battleships to 160,000 tons, which is an ideal goal.
“It is completely normal for something to happen unexpectedly and not be possible.
“We can at least pass a treaty and lower Lucia’s target from 400,000 tons to around 300,000 tons.
“At the same time, it also allows Lucia to shift the target of competition from us to Prussia.
“The same goes for Prussia.
"Without this naval treaty negotiation, Lucia would have been holding back her energy to directly build a 400,000-ton high-speed capital ship, which would have been a huge pressure on us.
“If we want to make our navy not weaker than Lucia, we must also build a 400,000-ton capital ship.
“It’s not that we can’t do it, but it will seriously affect other aspects of our plans.
“It makes no sense for France to invest such a large cost in naval ships.
"So the next goal is to further reduce the upper limit on the basis of 320,000 tons."
Talleyrand thought about it again and found that Charles's idea was indeed correct.
Although it is not ideal, it is indeed beneficial and can play a certain role after all.
It can also divert the attention of emerging naval countries such as Lucia and Prussia.
But the problem is that the French Navy's position in the West will also shift with its attention...
After hesitating for a few seconds, Talleyrand asked again:
"Your Highness, should we adjust our goals? Should we still maintain the balance of power against Lucia and Prussia, or should we allow the treaty tonnage of Lucia and Prussia to exceed ours?"
Charles was a little worried after hearing this question, but he didn't hesitate at all:
“The overall direction remains unchanged, setting and limiting the maximum tonnage of a single country, and we must reach this tonnage.
"160,000 tons is probably impossible. Let's relax it to 240,000 tons..."
Talleyrand also looked sad after hearing this.
Two hundred and forty thousand tons, compared to 160,000 tons, has increased a lot, but compared to 320,000 tons, there is still a big gap.
Talleyrand had already imagined how the Lucians would react.
"You can't make so many, why don't you make them? Why do we have to have as many as you?"
Of course France can build a 320,000-ton high-speed battleship, but the pressure it endures is much greater than that of Lucia.
According to the common saying of the Ming Dynasty, this is a bit of a state of pretending to be fat.
When Talleyrand was about to leave with a sad face, Charles finally reminded him:
“The key target now is Lucia, and Prussia, Austria, Italy and other countries should be within reach.
“We can unite with Britain, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Italy and other countries to jointly put pressure on Lucia.
“Lucia shouldn’t put herself on the opposite side of the entire Europa.
"Under the current situation, including Lucia, the demand for navies by the countries in Thailand and Spain is actually not very high.
“The essential purpose of Lucia and Prussia should be to gain sufficient status through a naval treaty.
“Their actual bottom line should be to maintain balance with us.
"So it should be possible to jointly pressure Lucia to lower her standards."
Talleyrand himself was a diplomat. When he heard Charles's reminder, he immediately reacted:
"That is to say, we can use diplomatic means to create a situation where Lucia has to compromise...
“Eliminate shipbuilding plans that exceed actual needs and avoid unnecessary naval competition.
"This is the goal of His Highness' proposal to sign a naval treaty..."
Ciel nodded gently with a serious expression:
"Yes, but I just mentioned a direction. How to implement it depends on the diplomatic skills of His Excellency Talleyrand."
Talleyrand agreed and said:
"My subordinates will do their best..."
Charles watched Talleyrand leave the office, and then wrote a telegram to Zhu Jingyuan.
"The Ming Dynasty did not participate in the signing of Europa's naval treaty, which now seems to be a very wise choice...
"I, the client, don't want to do these nonsense anymore, let alone Daming, which has nothing to do with it in the first place..."
From this day on, the negotiations related to the naval treaty directly entered an in-depth stage.
Regarding the tonnage limit of high-speed capital ships of various navies, the upper limit varies back and forth between 200,000 tons and 400,000 tons.
The naval treaty between the European and European countries in this world looks completely different from the naval treaty in Zhu Jingyuan's previous life.
The original naval treaty was for the United States to gain a corresponding status with Britain, and for Japan to gain a relative status.
Britain wants to maintain its position. Although France and Italy are involved, they are basically taking advantage of the situation.
As for the Lucians and Germans who did not participate, it was even more of a waste.
The key lies in the negotiations between Britain, the United States and Japan.
In the current naval treaty in this world, all the major countries in the European and Western continent are key participants. Only small and truly small countries on the margins like the Netherlands come to enjoy the show.
Lucia wants to gain a leading position, Prussia wants to gain a position that is not weaker than any other country, and traditional countries such as France, Britain, and Spain all want to maintain a balance.
But after in-depth analysis, we can find that it is actually similar to the naval treaty of another world.
They are all challenges faced by emerging industrial countries and traditional naval powers.
All naval countries that suffered heavy losses in the war tried to maintain their status and not fall behind.
Although the traditional countries led by France have diplomatic means of joint pressure.
But in actual negotiations, Lucia, who has lower pressure to build ships, obviously has the advantage.
You can put pressure on me, but I can ignore it.
Especially after excluding the Minghua elements and the refined Lucia elements, Lucia is very tough in diplomacy.
In the end, after half a month of torturous negotiations, the major countries in Thailand and Spain finally achieved a compromise that was barely acceptable to all parties.
The total tonnage of the battleships of the navies of each country in Thailand and Spain shall not exceed 320,000 tons.
That number is still Lucia's bottom line number, but the connotation has changed.
Lucia's original goal was to reserve all of the 320,000 tons for cutting-edge high-speed battleships.
It was eventually revised to include all types of capital ships, including traditional battleships and armored cruisers.
And this share of this tonnage can be used for the construction of cruisers.
All countries in Europe and the West probably still have a certain number of traditional battleships and armored cruisers.
Traditional naval countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Portugal have a large number of self-built old warships.
Lucia, Prussia and other countries have a number of obsolete warships imported from the Ming Dynasty after the war.
These warships are completely outdated in the eyes of current naval generals and designers.
However, it can be converted into a new fearless battleship mode and continue to be used as a secondary battleship.
Compared with countries such as Lucia and Prussia that import warships, traditional naval countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and Spain have a larger number of traditional battleships.
In other words, this revised 320,000 tons allows Lucia to eliminate all imported old battleships and use them all to build new high-speed battleships.
The United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands can also continue to retain a number of traditional battleships to fill the tonnage.
In external presentations and publicity, it can be claimed that it has a 320,000-ton battleship.
It is a plan proposed by the British to build cruisers with the tonnage of battleships.
The British's actual goal was to build an aircraft carrier, and the French had similar ideas after hearing the proposal.
This is to allow aircraft carriers and high-speed battleships to share tonnage.
At the same time, the full load displacement of all ships must not exceed 40,000 metric tons.
This was the main concession on Lucia's part.
After Lucia received Niu Jian's warning, she did not dare to build a 60,000-ton battleship, and she was temporarily unable to do so.
But continuing to scale up to 50,000 tons is still a challenge.
Now, after being jointly pressured by other countries in Thailand and Spain, it finally chose to give up.
The tonnage limit is something that all countries have been mentally prepared for from the very beginning.
There is nothing wrong with the restriction method.
The full-load displacement used by the navy was directly used, without discussing the establishment of a "treaty standard displacement."
Zhu Jingyuan's naval treaty in his previous life was signed by the five navies of the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy. The ranges of their main ships differed greatly.
Italian battleships basically only operate in the Mediterranean, and as long as they have a range of six to seven thousand kilometers, they are completely sufficient.
The British need to deploy globally, and the Americans need to mobilize across the two oceans, and they would like to increase the range to 20,000 kilometers.
The American Iowa-class battleship has a maximum oil storage capacity of nearly 10,000 tons.
Italy's Veneto-class battleship has a maximum oil storage capacity of only 4,500 tons.
The difference in pure fuel tonnage between the two sides is only four to five thousand tons.
The weight of four to five thousand tons is enough to increase the caliber of the naval gun from 381 mm to 406 mm.
This is a huge difference in battleship design.
If the treaty ship tonnage is limited according to the maximum displacement, then the armed strength of Italian battleships of the same tonnage will be one level higher than that of the Americans.
Therefore, historical naval treaties specifically formulated a "treaty standard displacement" that did not include fuel volume, as the tonnage standard for naval vessels of various countries that signed the treaty.
Due to the great influence of the Naval Treaty and the navies of the five countries on later generations, this standard displacement originally developed specifically for the treaty gradually replaced the customary full-load displacement and became the main standard for comparing ship tonnage in later generations.
But in this world, the current major countries in Europe and the West, the scope of activities of their naval ships is highly consistent.
All from the North Atlantic to the west coast of Mexico.
The European countries have colonies all along the west coast of Mexico, including Italy, Audrey, Ottoman and Lucia.
Although the British were going to Tianzhu, there were supply points everywhere on the route, and Tianzhu was almost abandoned.
Countries will not have huge differences in fuel reserve design due to different voyage requirements.
If Ming Dynasty participates, similar standards may be designed due to Ming Dynasty's long range requirements, but currently there is no such rigid demand.
Therefore, there is no such typical data as the so-called "standard displacement" in this world.
Finally, all tonnage data are also in metric tons, which is one thousand kilograms.
It is not the imperial long ton of Zhu Jingyuan's previous naval treaty, which is 2,240 pounds.
In the previous naval treaty, the main core participating countries were the United Kingdom and the United States. Both countries used the British system at the time, so it was natural to use the British system to sign the contract.
There is no United States in this world, and coupled with the vigorous promotion of the Ming Dynasty, the British in this world no longer use the imperial system.
All the countries that have signed the treaty use the metric system, so data such as imperial length and short tons naturally do not exist.
However, compared with Zhu Jingyuan's previous naval treaty, the biggest difference in this naval treaty is the share division strategy.
All contracting countries adhere to the same standards, rather than each country dividing a certain share.
Because the current power of the major countries in Europe and the West is too balanced compared to the other world.
Britain, France, Spain, Prussia, Lucia, and Austria are about the same, while Italy and the Ottomans are slightly weaker.
Although Portugal has obviously declined, it is still a naval power in name and can still gain basic respect.
It is impossible for several countries that are obviously truly weak, such as the Netherlands and Denmark, to complete the construction of a corresponding share, and there is no need to specifically limit the size and tonnage of their navies.
Therefore, the contracting countries ultimately adopted the most “fair” restriction plan.
