Bidding farewell to the sunny sunshine on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, the Irish Navy training ship "Ku-Chulin" sailed into the Adriatic Sea in the northern Mediterranean with the royal couple, more than a dozen military and political officials and a group of energetic naval cadets. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoAlthough the winters here are not as cold as those in Northern Europe, you can still see the magnificent snow scenery on the sea.

When the Ku-Chulin arrived in the Austro-Hungarian port of Fum, it happened to be loaded and unloaded by the largest ocean-going merchant ship in Ireland, the Pasulang. Since the signing of the economic and trade agreement between the three countries, Ireland's merchant fleet has frequently entered and exited the ports of Austria-Hungary and Spain, transporting industrial products produced in Silesia and Bohemia and agricultural and animal husbandry products produced in the Ebro River Valley and the Andalusian Plain to all parts of the world, in exchange for industrial raw materials, daily consumables and foreign exchange funds that are conducive to the economic development and social operation of the two countries, which not only consolidates the cooperative relationship between the economic and trade alliance of the three countries, but also brings vigorous vitality to Ireland's shipping industry.

The impetus brought about by the trilateral economic and trade alliance is significant, but it is not the main driver of the signs of recovery of Austria-Hungary in the past two years. Austria-Hungary was on the winning side of the war, and many of the things lost on the battlefield were compensated by armistice treaties - the Austro-Hungarian army occupied Serbia and southern Ukraine, temporarily extinguishing the independence of the Slavic peoples in the country****; The forced labor of hundreds of thousands of Russian prisoners of war largely repaired the war-torn transportation and industrial facilities in Eastern Galicia; More than 100,000 square kilometers of land and the millions of inhabitants living in southern Poland and eastern Ukraine were transferred to the territory of Austria-Hungary, and the grain produced therefrom greatly improved the inflation of prices in Austria-Hungary. Regardless of the extent to which each of these factors played a role, the improvement of economic conditions and the increase in state tax revenues led to a flourishing situation in most parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the admiration of the people of all walks of life for the new Habsburg leader to lead the vast multi-ethnic empire out of the doldrums and into glory.

Close allies came to visit, and Karl I, who had unprecedented prestige in the country, left his heavy official duties to meet him, and the beautiful and dignified Empress Zeta tacitly accompanied him. In gratitude to the King of Ireland for his important contribution to the economic development of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Karl I awarded the King of Ireland the historic Order of the Golden Fleece of the Habsburg dynasty and brought the good news that the Imperial Parliament had agreed to order a new cruiser for Ireland - prior to that, Austria-Hungary and Ireland had been negotiating this arms purchase agreement for more than half a year, and once the shipbuilding agreement was signed, Within three years, the Royal Shipyard in Limerick, Ireland, will build two 6,000-ton light cruisers equipped with aircraft catapults and carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft for the Austro-Hungarian Navy -- the largest tonnage military ships that Austria-Hungary has purchased from abroad since the beginning of the new century.

At this meeting in the port of Fum, the two monarchs met separately from the public eye in their private residences. Natsuki was interested in exploring further cooperation between the two sides, but Karl I was a little upset, and he confided in a relatively tactful and cryptic way the many obstacles he had encountered in handling the affairs of the state. The order for the two modern light cruisers was delayed not because the Austro-Hungarian Navy was dissatisfied with the Irish design, but because of opposition within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which came from government officials, protests from the people, and finally the German government. The order for the construction of ships of only 16 million marks is still in an uproar, not to mention the affairs of larger amounts and more extensive influence.

Natsuki knew that the young and vigorous Karl I had the ambition to return the country to the list of great powers, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire was still an era of waltzes and fine wine, people were intoxicated with enjoyment, the rhythm of social operation was like a twilight old man, the slack and procrastination bureaucracy was permeated in all levels of government departments of the empire, the complex social structure and national sentiment made the more than 50 million citizens under the empire like a plate of scattered sand, and the geographical and regional factors were even more difficult to change. For example, the port of Fum, the largest seaport and shipbuilding center in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was built here as part of the combined-force class dreadnought, the St. Istvan, which took a year longer than the other three built at the Pula shipyard. In fact, the port of Fum is a direct territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, under the administration of the Hungarian government, and the inhabitants here are mainly Italians, many of whom are in Cao Ying, and their loyalty to the country and enthusiasm for work can be imagined, and similar complications are not uncommon in all areas of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

No wonder some people say that German celebrities, Bismarck, Clausewitz, Blücher, Moltke, all wear military uniforms, and famous generals are like clouds; Austrian celebrities, Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert, are all polite and elegant. Germany is not without artists like Karajan, and Austria is not without such a mighty man as Prince Eugen, but their brilliance is like stars, obscured by the heat of a bonfire beside them......

Compared with the more optimistic economic situation, the social reform and military construction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire faltered and progressed slowly, due to the obstruction of the old aristocracy and the problems left over from history, which made Karl I often face a situation of weakness. The poor performance of the Austro-Hungarian army on the battlefield made many people of insight realize the necessity of military reform, and Karl I and the enlightened generals hoped to replace the outdated multi-track system with a modern military service system, and integrate the original Imperial Wehrmacht, the Royal Local Defense Force, and the Local Defense Army into the Austro-Hungarian Combined Defense Force, but the Austrian and Hungarian governments disagreed, and the Reichstag quarreled over this, and so far only two new infantry regiments were formed experimentally, and the test effect was acceptableHowever, the large-scale popularization is still constrained by unfavorable factors such as the large number of soldiers and nationalities, the mixed language, and the low cultural quality, and the advance is chaotic.

In contrast, the affairs of the Austro-Hungarian navy were simpler, because the most fundamental problem restricting its development was government input. During the war, several naval battles in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea shocked the Austro-Hungarian admirals, who knew that their combined forces were far from sufficient to compete with the dreadnoughts and even super-dreadnoughts of Britain and Germany. In order to narrow the gap with the world's advanced level, there are usually two ways: refitting and upgrading existing warships and designing and building new ones. During the reign of Emperor Franz I the Elder, the Austro-Hungarian Navy opted for a more conservative and economical approach, with limited technical modifications of the four Combined Forces class.

After the new Emperor Karl I ascended the throne, he quickly promoted the establishment of a new class of capital ships. The new warship, named Franz Joseph I, is initially designed to use the Skoda K14 45 times diameter 350 mm naval gun, and once completed, it will become the first class of super-dreadnoughts designed and built by the countries around the Mediterranean. Due to the economic and financial constraints of the country, the original plan was to build three, one in 1918 and one in 1919, and a third in 1921. By the end of 1918, the economic situation of Austria-Hungary had improved, and at the urging of Karl I, the Austrian Imperial Parliament increased the budget for the construction of the fourth ship and brought forward the start of construction of the third ship by one year, and the construction of the fourth ship in 1921. As a result, for the fourth year in a row, Austria-Hungary began construction of new capital ships. According to the project, the four super-dreadnoughts were expected to be fully commissioned by 1926, when the Austro-Hungarian Navy would have an unprecedented overwhelming advantage over the Italian Navy.

Despite the close alliance between Austria-Hungary and Germany and Ireland, the Austro-Hungarian Navy did not allow too many German and Irish engineers to participate in the design and construction of the Franz Joseph I class, but only partially borrowed from the German Bavarian class design experience. This time, Natsuki asked Karl I about the performance of the new battleship, and the other party revealed some details selectively.

In Natsuki's view, although Karl I was as enthusiastic about naval affairs as the late Archduke Ferdinand, and aspired to build the Austro-Hungarian fleet into a first-class naval force, he was not the kind of expert who was proficient in naval strategy and tactics. They obviously felt that naval warfare was the same as land warfare, and the primary factor in determining victory or defeat was gun performance, so the overall plan of the Franz-Joseph I class focused on firepower and speed, and the ability to protect and manage damage was still placed in a slightly secondary position, and the anti-sinking performance was probably one grade lower than that of the British and German super-dreadnoughts in service.

If the positioning of the Austro-Hungarian Navy has always been a regional power on the Adriatic Sea and even the northern shore of the Mediterranean, then the design of the Franz Joseph I class is sufficient to meet most of the challenges faced by the Austro-Hungarian Navy, but Karl I is no longer satisfied with ruling a purely continental country, he realizes that the barren land of the Balkan Peninsula is useless, and expansion to the sea is the only way out for this dual country. On the one hand, the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary were urged to increase investment in naval construction and the development of the merchant fleet. Once out of the Adriatic Sea and even the Mediterranean, the Austro-Hungarian Navy will not only face the Italian Navy, which has a similar shipbuilding style, but also the Franz-Josef I-class as the main ship type in the future stage, not to mention the technical foresight, at least in line with the current mainstream standards. In view of this, Natsuki presented his opinion to Karl I, and he suggested that the Austro-Hungarian Empire should adjust and improve the design of the Franz-Joseph I-class ships III and IV, and on the basis of slightly increasing the displacement of the warships, by increasing their protective armor, improving watertight facilities, and eliminating underwater torpedo tubes, etc., to enhance their protection and damage management capabilities as much as possible.

Seeing that Karl I was moved, Natsuki took the opportunity to say that the Irish Navy design department could help the Austro-Hungarian Navy to improve the technology of the new capital ship free of charge, and ensure that the improvement plan could be comparable to the current capital ships in Britain and Germany, and the Austrian emperor said that he would make a decision after consulting the admirals.

(End of chapter)