"The French promised not to use force, but demanded an additional 3%?" On December 19, when he heard the news of the Dutch's recovery, Contini couldn't help frowning. If we just look at the current daily output of 5,000 tons, then 3% is indeed not much, and it will only be tens of thousands of tons a year. But he knew that the Algerian oil field will eventually exceed 10 million tons/year. One percentage point will increase, and in the future, 100,000 tons of crude oil will be reduced, which means that 700,000 to 800,000 US dollars will be gone. This is not a small amount, and the French say that 3% is 3%, which is too easy to torment. He is both an army and a mine, and the expenses are also very large...

But since the French promised not to use force, they defaulted to joining the oilfield mine belt and oil armed forces, and retreated the foreign legion, Contini no longer had to stay in the oilfield, so he was preparing to take Sickett back home.

Although the old man strongly opposed this toughness and toughness at the beginning, now when he heard that the French surrendered and did not use force, his face was blushing and looked proud. Blomburg and others also breathed a sigh of relief, but more importantly, they saw through the French's nature of being harsh and cowardly. This invisibly was Contini doing a good thing for Hitler.

Many years later, when Hitler said he wanted to regain the Rhine zone, the German generals who had not experienced the North Africa incident strongly opposed it, but the generals serving in the oil guards thought it could do it. At the meeting, Bollomburg said arrogantly: "What are you afraid of? We touched the tiger butts of the French with the president ten years ago in Algeria, but that's all..." This is a later story, let's not mention it for now.

When Contini returned to Rome, the navy found him with a look of embarrassment and said that he had encountered trouble in building a warship. Contini thought the other party was coming to cry again and wanted to send him a few casually, but he didn't expect that the problem changed this time: "We built a new warship, the French refused to give in!"

"Why?" Contini asked strangely.

"Saying that our tonnage exceeds the standard... Of course, we know that this is just an excuse. In fact, we want to make concessions on the oil field issue, so the Minister of the Navy asked me to ask you, how to deal with this matter?"

After explanation, Contini understood the whole story: According to the Washington Naval Treaty, the Italian Navy allocated the quota of the main ships to which the Italian Navy was 175,000 tons (177,800 metric tons), and actually retained 182,800 metric tons. More than 7,000 tons of signatories unanimously stated that it was acceptable. According to the treaty, Italy could build new main ships in 1927, 1929 and 1931.

Since Italy abolished four main battleships in advance and the warships were relatively old, after mediation, the Allied Powers agreed that Italy could build the first two warships two years ahead of schedule. In other words, Italy could start construction of two warships in 1925 and 1927. The first Caraciolo-class battleship had resumed construction, which was considered to be in 1925. Then the Italian Navy's wishful thinking was to retire Dante in 1926, and then free up the tonnage to resume the construction of the second Caraciolo-class battleship in 1927 (in fact, Ansardo had quietly rushed to build artillery for the navy, and the reason to externally was exporting to the Soviet Union).

But this time the French protested, and the reason for the protest was very simple: after Italy abandoned four Queen Elena ships, its tonnage was reduced from 182,800 tons to 132,400 tons, plus the 35,000 tons of the Caraciolo class, the current tonnage is 167,900 tons, and the vacant tonnage is only 10,000 tons. The abandoned Dante can free up an additional 19,500 tons, and the subsequent one is only 29,500 tons. The Caraciolo class has publicly stated that there are 35,000 tons, and there is no place to settle the 5,500 tons here.

Italy's wishful thinking at that time was that its country was originally more than 5,000 tons, but now it is not a violation of the rules. However, the French refused to give in this time and bit it to death because most of the Italian old ships agreed to exceed 5,000 tons. Now you not only update in advance, but also have to exceed the amount again, that's unreasonable.

The French gave three solutions, first, postponed the update for two years, second, the new warship cut 5,000 tons; third, another one was abolished.

But no matter which plan is unacceptable to the Italians. It is easy for the Caracio class to cut 500 tons, and cut 5,000 tons? That is almost a resumption; delaying the update for two years? The Italian Navy can't swallow this; abolish another one? Don't joke. After the Dante was abandoned, there are only 5 battleships that the navy can use (including Andreya Doria, Durio, Count Cafur, Julian Caesar and Da Vinci). If one more ship is cut, there are only 4 ships. How can the navy get through?

Of course, the French also said openly and secretly: As long as the United Group makes concessions, the 5,000 tons of matter is easy to discuss, but the British don’t care about this, Japan and the United States are too lazy to care about this mess, just the few broken ships of the Italian Navy, it doesn’t matter whether they are more than 5,000 tons or less.

So the Navy could only expect Contini to find a solution. As long as the President lets go, the Navy's 5,000-ton problem could be solved. I thought this matter was not difficult, so I fooled it with a little greeting, but they never expected that Contini thought completely differently from them.

Contini knew that according to the historical trajectory, the Italian Navy would find ways to improve the Earl of Cafur, Caesar and Leonardo da Vinci. The transformation of these three old warships in history continued until the mid-1930s, which cost a lot of money, but the results were not significantly invested and occupied a lot of resources.

He said in a shocking way: "I think you didn't think about this matter carefully..."

"Isn't it thought?" The other party was shocked. The president, an amateur, pointed at it and said it was not thoughtful. But he did not dare to openly refute Contini's opinion. This was not only the God of Wealth but also the Prince of Jin, but he couldn't afford to offend him, so he asked, "What do you think is the problem?"

"The next Caraciolo class!" Contini reminded, "Even if this ship exceeds the standard by 5,000 tons according to your ideas, what should we do if the next Caraciolo class is? Do we have to abolish two warships in one go? Otherwise, it is not enough to retire only one Cafur class..."

"Yes, that's what we told the French. We retired two warships in 1931, and then these 5,000 tons can be compressed back, but the French don't appreciate it."

"I think you should use your brain. What if we retire an additional Cafur class now? Would the situation be much better?"

“You mean?”

"Your original idea must be enough to retire Dante this year. Then, two Cafur-class ships were retired in 1930. At this time, the first Caracholo-class ship was also built, which has little impact on the combat effectiveness of the troops. You can build a new Caracholo-class in 1931... Is this the idea?"

"Yes, that's right, that's it!"

"My idea is to retire Dante this year and continue to retire Da Vinci in March next year, and then exchange for a discount. The Caracolo class originally scheduled to be updated in 1931 will be updated in advance until 1929!"

"But this will bring only four battleships to the Navy next year, the year after, and even in 1929..."

Contini blinked: "You can't just look at battleships. If you want to think about the fact that there are still several heavy cruisers to serve in the past few years, where will their troops come from? Moreover, I think it's better to be sir-to-nin with one warship than to support it for two more years with an old ship..."

"But if..."

"What if you fight, right? Who will fight with? French? British?" Contini shrugged, "Don't joke. At this scale, one more Da Vinci or one less Da Vinci will not affect the results. Italian warships are too weak... If you build the third Caraciolo class in advance, I will pay half of the money!"

The other party couldn't help but swallow: A Caracio class has now increased to $14 million. If the president agrees to pay half of it and sells the old ship, wouldn't the Navy not have to consider adding new military expenses? He immediately became excited: "Your Highness and I will report it."

"Also, don't be confused by the false suggestion of the French. The French now suppress us to make concessions. That concession involves $500,000 a year, and at least $15 million in 30 years. There is a Caracciolo class. Do you still want to make concessions by the French? "

"No, no, no... You misunderstood, how dare I do this? The president has always been a staunch supporter of the Navy. We can't even thank you for it, how dare you say such words?" The other party waved his hands repeatedly. He didn't dare to take such a big hat and cooperate with the French to suppress the United Group? Isn't that a traitor? In dealing with spies, according to fascist's system and propaganda slogan, it is necessary to "turn it to the ground, step on one foot, and never turn it over!" If he is beaten into a spy, he will be finished.

Contini thought it very clearly that by World War II, the unrenovated Cafur class could not have any combat effectiveness at all, but if he had gone through so much trouble in reforming as in history, it would be better to abandon him directly. As for the abandonment, he had found Chang Dashui, the next China man.

While Contini was fiddling in Africa, General Chang quickly used troops and had already taken over most of Hunan, Fujian and Jiangxi. He was continuing to attack north. Thanks to the support of Italian scrap steel, all factions are now much more powerful in fighting. Because the iron-clad ship in Fengtian Army Zhang was eyeing the iron armored ship and intimidated Shanghai, the Shanghai uprising failed. Forcing General Chang, who learned his mistakes, planned to ask the Italians to buy naval scrap steel, and asked only one, which could effectively overwhelm the pile of scrap steel in the north, and the price was easy to negotiate.

Contini was considering taking Dante, but after thinking about it, he felt that Dante was faster than Da Vinci. If it was to be transformed into an ideal warship, it might be more effective. It would be better to take the slower but stronger Da Vinci, which was a little more powerful. It would be normal that the price was easy to negotiate, so the good thing would be sold...

It doesn't matter if he really has no money. He has set his sights on the tungsten mine in Jiangxi, which can accept half of the cash and half of the tungsten mine payment method, and can also give Chang Dashuai an installment. In the future, he will also expect to sell aircraft, tanks and other messy army scrap steel to Chang Dashuai...
Chapter completed!