Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste-Chapter 701 - 654: The Rejected Shipbuilding Plan

Do the old generals of the Military Department have money? It depends on the situation.

From a personal perspective, although these old generals can't be said to be very wealthy, they are generally above average in terms of wealth.

After all, each of them is a general, many were fierce warriors in their prime, and the Royal Family's rewards and battlefield spoils ensure they don't have to worry about money for the rest of their lives.

In fact, these old generals can even support their old subordinates, and they previously had enough money to help Perfikot assemble a private army.

After all, the major expense for an infantry regiment includes rifles, cannons, and logistical consumption, and in peacetime, it generally costs less than ten thousand gold pounds a year.

According to the Victor Empire's military structure, the annual military expense of a Guard Infantry Corps is a hundred thousand gold pounds, which even includes soldiers' pay.

If it's a non-permanent corps, the expenses are even less, basically around thirty thousand gold pounds can cover a regiment's annual expenses.

This expense is not very large, and a general from the Military Department, even with no other income, can support it.

This is why these old folks were able to fund a private army for Perfikot back then.

But if we look at the Navy's expenses, the little money these old men have is nowhere near enough.

The cost of a new battleship starts at least at tens of thousands of gold pounds, which would require these old gentlemen to dig into their life savings.

After all, even an old-fashioned sailing frigate costs over seventy thousand gold pounds, and this doesn't include personnel training and maintenance costs, just the ship's construction cost.

The airship designed by Perfikot costs a staggering two million gold pounds just for construction, obviously, these old generals can't afford it themselves.

They plan to request these military funds from the Imperial Center's fiscal expenditure.

Although the treasury was almost emptied before to build the Northern Territory against the doomsday winter, after migrating to the Northern Territory, the Imperial Center gradually stabilized the situation, and the financial conditions have slightly improved.

Moreover, the Eldest Princess Annie has also restored Empire's control over the colonies, so overall, the Imperial Center's financial status is relatively good, and the treasury finally has some surplus.

However, this surplus is clearly not enough to build an airship.

Therefore, when the military's shipbuilding plan was submitted to the cabinet for discussion, it was directly vetoed.

By the way, during the time Perfikot was traveling incognito, the prime ministerial election results came out.

The Northern Territory's candidate, Wellington, won by a relatively narrow margin over the Eldest Princess Annie, who returned with the glory of suppressing the colonies, successfully becoming the Empire's first prime minister.

If he hadn't formed a joint campaign with Kallen, he might have lost to the Eldest Princess Annie this time.

Since he only won by a narrow margin, Wellington couldn't control all the cabinet seats.

The Northern Territory and the Autonomous Territory Alliance only secured two-thirds of the cabinet seats, while the remaining third was taken by the opposition party consisting of the Eldest Princess Annie's Royalist Party and other forces.

As for other small neutral factions they didn't gain any cabinet seats, only holding a certain number of seats in the parliament.

Perfikot was satisfied with the result of the first election.

She didn't mind that the cabinet wasn't completely under control, having an opposition party in her view was actually beneficial, as long as they don't fight for the sake of fighting, or oppose for the sake of opposing.

However, based on the current situation, the opposition party led by the Eldest Princess Annie still prioritizes national affairs and doesn't oppose just for opposition's sake.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with them holding only one-third of the seats; more seats in the cabinet are held by the Northern Territory and the Autonomous Territory Alliance, therefore, the influence on national policies naturally leans towards the Northern Territory and the Autonomous Territory Alliance.

If the opposition doesn't want all their proposals to be opposed and vetoed, they must carefully consider whether to initiate conflict.

However, the shipbuilding plan submitted by the military was opposed by both sides.

The reason is simple; it's too expensive.

The old gentlemen from the military unceremoniously proposed a massive shipbuilding plan for twelve warships, aiming to create three fleet groups. These were to be centered on three new airships designed by Perfikot, with nine smaller escort ships built around them.

These twelve warships would be organized into three fleets: one to guard the Imperial Center, one to cruise the colonies, and another to defend the Empire's homeland and deter the old world.

From the military's perspective, this indeed seems necessary.

After all, to restore the Empire's former might, a fleet of this size may still not be enough; it's just barely sufficient to suppress the situation without competitors.

But the cost of twelve airships is astronomical, a total of fifteen million gold pounds, which even at the Empire's peak five years ago, is equivalent to ten years of the Navy's total shipbuilding expenses.

Such a huge expenditure is impossible for the Empire's finances today, not even in twenty years, let alone the military's plan to complete the construction of all twelve warships in five years.

You could say the ideal is grand, but reality is harsh.

Even not considering the cost, building twelve airships in five years is practically impossible.

Not to mention how long it'll take to complete the supporting facilities for the airships, even starting the construction of the first airship at the Royal Shipyard is a distant prospect.

Finally, after intense negotiation at the cabinet meeting, the military convinced the cabinet to agree on constructing one fleet, with only three escort ships, and no allowance for air carriers.

The military was quite dissatisfied with this but had no choice; the Imperial Center's financial situation didn't allow for more demands.

As a result, they took the budget approved by the cabinet to the Royal Shipyard, asking it to create a simplified version of an escort ship based on Perfikot's design.

Moreover, they demanded that the cost of the escort ships be kept under one million gold pounds, preferably even cheaper.

After all, the cabinet-approved budget is limited, and if they can reduce the cost, perhaps they could build an extra ship.

However, these demands are somewhat unreasonable for the Royal Shipyard.

They haven't even figured out the structure and design details of the airship, and the military is asking them to modify the plans. How could the Royal Shipyard's engineers possibly do that?

Eventually, after several rounds of negotiation, they ended up pleading to Perfikot for help, asking her to design a cheaper and simplified air escort ship.

But by then, Perfikot had already boarded the train heading towards Pripyat.