Chapter 854: As You Like It (ask for a monthly ticket)

   "Ninety-five million marks!" Crown Prince Karl looked at Fatih Pasha provocatively after the offer. The meaning was very obvious, undoubtedly mocking Fatih Pasha for not being able to spend so much money.

  Although, the Ottoman Turkish Empire can be regarded as a big country. However, now is not the time for the Ottoman Turkish Empire to slap the whole of Europe. After entering modern times, the Ottoman Turkish Empire has declined, from a world-class power to a sick man in West Asia.

  Although the strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is also not strong, it is undoubtedly much stronger than the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

  Fatih Pasha's face was ashen, although this price has far exceeded the actual value of the battleship 'Lewitpold Regent'. But if he retreats at this point, the face of the Ottoman Turkish Empire may be completely over.

  However, Fatih Pasha felt that it was too much of a loss if he wanted to continue bidding. After all, at a price of nearly 100 million marks, a very powerful capital ship can already be built, and there are still some left.

   "Ninety-six million marks!" Fatih Pasha gritted his teeth and quoted. He made up his mind that if Crown Prince Karl continued to raise the price, he would stop bidding.

   Sure enough, after Fatih Pasha just made an offer, Crown Prince Karl raised the price again without blinking his eyes.

   "Ninety-seven million marks!"

  Although, Crown Prince Karl only added one million marks to the price. However, Fatih Pasha gave up. No more bids. He knew that if he continued to increase the price, Crown Prince Karl would follow suit. There is no need to fight this with Crown Prince Karl. If Crown Prince Karl cheated him, then he would have nowhere to cry.

"Ninety-seven million marks? Is there a higher price? If not, the battleship 'Luitpold Regent' belongs to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This is a very powerful battleship, and its performance is in the world. It is absolutely top-notch!" Lieutenant General Hipper said tirelessly, wanting to arouse the desire of representatives from other countries to bid again. It would be great if the price of the battleship 'Louitpold Regent' could exceed 100 million marks. After all, the distance from 100 million marks is only 3 million marks.

   But unfortunately, no one raised the price anymore. After all, the price is already outrageous. If it weren't for Crown Prince Karl's deep pockets, it would be impossible for the price to rise to this point. After all, 97 million marks, this price has even exceeded the cost of the most powerful "Mackenson-class" battleship of the German Navy.

   "Since no one bids anymore. Then, the battleship 'Leutpold' Regent" was auctioned by the Austro-Hungarian Empire at a price of 97 million marks! Lieutenant General Hipper said with some regret.

  The five "Caesar-class" battleships all fetched high prices, and the total price was as high as 466 million marks. On average, the price of each battleship was as high as 90 million marks. You know, these are just a batch of battleships decommissioned by the German Navy. It is completely unreasonable to be able to bid such a high price.

  The 18 capital ships sold by the German Navy this time can be regarded as high prices. If the eighteen capital ships are added together, the total price is as high as 1.221 billion marks.

   This price is much higher than the cost of this batch of battleships.

  Originally, the German Navy planned to sell these warships at a low price in exchange for part of the funds to continue building the 12 battleships and 10 battlecruisers obtained from the British. Although, continuing to build those warships will cost a lot of money. However, the Ministry of the Navy believes that after the sale of 18 capital ships, there should not be a big gap. However, no one expected that it would be able to sell at such a high price this time. The funds from the sale of these decommissioned battleships alone are enough to support the later construction of those warships, and there is even a part of the balance. For the German Navy, this is undoubtedly a surprise.

  After the auction of capital ships, there will be auctions of armored cruisers, light cruisers and destroyers. It's just that, compared with those capital ships, the bidding for these small and medium warships is not so fierce.

  In the end, these small and medium-sized warships only sold a total of 400 million marks.

   All together, there are more than 1.62 billion marks. There is no doubt that this is already a huge sum of money.

  After the auction is over, the representatives of various countries need to pay in full within three months, after which they can drive these warships back to their own countries. Germany's approach not only raised a lot of funds for itself, but also made the naval strength of other countries in the world significantly strengthened. Of course, this is not a good thing for maintaining world peace. After the military strength is strengthened, the possibility of conflict or even war will naturally increase.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire undoubtedly became the big winner of this auction. They got the "East Prussia" battleship among the "Helgoland-class" battleships, as well as three "Moltke-class" battlecruisers and five "Caesar-class" battleships. Four of the class' battleships. After obtaining these eight capital ships, the strength of the Austro-Hungarian Navy will become a naval power second only to Germany. Before a large number of cutting-edge battleships from the United States and island countries enter service, the status of the second child of the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be unshakable.

   Of course, this also posed a big threat to Germany. The Austro-Hungarian Navy, whose strength has been strengthened, naturally cannot shrink in the Adriatic Sea. There will be their presence throughout the Mediterranean. This is not a good thing for the German Navy's Mediterranean Fleet. According to the plan, the German Navy's Mediterranean Fleet only had three battlecruisers and four battleships. In terms of number, it is much smaller than the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

  However, this does not mean that the Austro-Hungarian Navy will be able to dominate the Mediterranean Sea. In addition to the German Navy, the Ottoman Turkish Navy also had three capital ships. Although not as good as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it still has a certain sense of existence. The Ottoman Turkish Empire did not have the ability to build capital ships by itself, but if they were willing to spend money, they could order more capital ships from Germany. In this auction, there was no Ottoman Turkish Empire that could do what it wanted, and it is fully capable of doing so.

   This is all external force. After the German Navy has more aircraft carriers, dispatching an aircraft carrier battle group to the Mediterranean can quickly offset the number of capital ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.