Helton was in Trieste to receive guests from the East, and he chose this place only to show them the power of modern industry.

A strong country must be supported by strong industrial capacity.

"Hehe, why did Vice Minister Xu have time to go to Europe?" A red cliff villa with a great view overlooking the port and shipbuilding industrial area of Trieste.

"I'm here to inspect the military and broaden my horizons. Besides, I'm not the undersecretary of the Army anymore. Xu Shuzheng was very casual, the future emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was his friend, at least a friend who had played Go together. It's something he's proud of.

"Oh, why aren't you the Chief of Staff of the Army?" Helton asked knowingly.

"The old guy was dizzy and wanted to be the emperor, but Chief Duan and I were against it, so I resigned." Xu Shuzheng said simply.

"He will not succeed, and this will only cause civil strife in China." "Many people who are dissatisfied with him will use this as an excuse to speak out against him, and it is likely to lead to a civil war." ”

"Well, that's what we think too." "But we seem to have lost control of the Army." ”

"This is a big problem, I am very optimistic about Mr. Duan becoming his heir, but you have a big weakness." "Although Mr. Duan has been the Minister of the Army for many years, the generals who command the army are not his people. ”

"Yes, I've been stuck here." Xu Shuzheng nodded.

"First of all, you have to control the military academy." Helton Lee said.

"We know, but it's hard." Xu Shuzheng said that Yuan Shikai had always wanted to control the Baoding Military Academy in his hands.

"He will soon lose control of China, and then the power will be in the hands of Mr. Duan." "If he insists on being emperor." ”

"I understand, but we don't have enough money to train our own army." Xu Shuzheng said that it takes 3 million silver dollars to equip and train an army division, and he and Duan Qirui have no money.

"Hehe, Mr. Xu can look around in Austria and Germany first, but you'd better look at the factories more if I build yì, there is nothing worth learning about the war in France, China has enough space, what needs to be learned is large-scale sports warfare. I will ask the General Staff to prepare a detailed information on operations on the Eastern Front for you. "I have an idea, but it's not mature yet, I'll talk to you in detail when you come back." ”

Li Haiden asked his personal adjutant, Colonel Hickman, to accompany Xu Shuzheng and his party to visit the shipyard, Islaia Machinery Company, and Škoda Arsenal, and arrange for the group to go to Germany.

The four "Austrian" class battleships were now almost outfitted, and when these four capital ships were commissioned, Lechelton was ready to launch an attack on the British fleet in the Mediterranean.

In Germany, Spee and Hipper's tactics of combining battle cruisers and submarine forces to raid the British coast were quite mature, and although the results were not very large, they put a lot of pressure on the British. And so far, none of the raiding formations sent have suffered heavy losses, and occasionally some British cruisers have been sunk by these war cruisers, which are several times stronger than their armament and speed.

Hipper is now called the "baby killer" by the British, and apparently the British have nothing to do with him.

Now the captains of the British cruisers had lost their arrogance after the war, and every time they set sail, they prayed that they would not run into those damned German and Austro-Hungarian war cruisers. The "Radetzky" is also now famous, and it and the wingman "Grand Duke Franz", acting with Hipper's battle patrol formation, have sunk a British armored cruiser, a light cruiser and three destroyers. In particular, the shelling of Golston and Scarborough and Ha**r was very successful, causing hundreds of British civilian casualties, which made the British hate them to the core.

In Germany, with five Bavaria-class battleships armed with 380-mm guns launched and outfitting work begins, Helden was looking forward to the decisive naval battle between Britain and Germany in the summer and autumn of 1916, which he estimated to be unprecedentedly tragic and heavy losses for both sides.

Compared with the "Bavaria"-class battleships with a speed of only 24 knots, Lee Hayden paid more attention to the seven "Victoria. The construction of the Louise-class battlecruisers, designed to reach a speed of 28 knots, armed with 380 mm guns, with battleship armor and some of the characteristics of a cruiser, would be the culmination of German military industry, industrial technology and shipbuilding.

In contrast, the "Hood", which the British designed to achieve high speed by sacrificing armor, is a scum.

The appearance of such a "high-speed battleship" would make the concept of a battlecruiser obsolete, of course, even more perfect if it could reach speeds of more than 30 knots. But with the current level of industry, it is clear that this is not yet possible.

This would be the strongest battleship of the First World War, but unfortunately it did not belong to the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The only thing Lechelton could talk about was that one of them was currently on the slipway at the Elbe shipyard.

The Chinese military delegation headed by Xu Shuzheng returned to Vienna on November 7.

Lechelton gave him a "bad idea": "We are now in dire need of a large number of laborers. He said to Xu Shuzheng, "If you can organize 500,000 to 600,000 Chinese laborers for us, I will organize them all and train them, so that after the war you will have about 10 to 20 divisions of qualified troops." ”

"This will cause protests from the Entente." Xu Shuzheng said, "You know that our Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in the hands of a group of pro-British and French people, who are actively recruiting Chinese workers for the French. ”

"Don't worry, we'll be using neutral Spain and Switzerland, and of course, you'll have to send enough officers." "If we win the war, then the recruitment of Chinese laborers for Britain and France will also be considered hostile, and I think your country will need to find a balance," Helton said. He said with a slight threat that, judging from the current situation, it seemed that the German-Austrian alliance was more likely to win.

"I'll do my best." Xu Shuzheng agreed after a little consideration, the so-called diplomatic protest was not substantial, but the personnel and equipment of more than ten divisions made him feel excited. He's a smart man, and he's a decisive man.

As long as Duan Qirui can take power, he can be ninety percent of his family.

"I will have the chambers of commerce and banks in China provide you with sufficient funds, and in addition, we will provide surplus military supplies to your country free of charge in the form of military aid after the war." "The more people you can organize, the better, and I'll arm them all." ”

He was sure that Xu Shuzheng would do his best to do this when he returned to China, it was a mutually beneficial cooperation, Austria-Hungary now needed a lot of manpower to support domestic production and military logistics, and Duan Qirui needed to help him train a huge army to realize his dream of unifying China by force.

They wanted to create a military power state in the East, which had nothing to do with Hirton Lee, on the contrary, in its current form, this power might be what China needed the most.

Of course, he had other big plans in the Far East.

But a strong agent is a prerequisite for the implementation of these plans.

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