The main purpose of Mueller's entourage in Guangzhou was to guide the Chinese Navy in the design of the two new aircraft carriers to be built at the Huangpu Shipyard in Guangzhou and the advance training of naval aviation.

The war in Europe brought about a series of military changes in the whole world, and the rapid development of military technology and the emergence of various new weapons prompted revolutionary changes in military theory. This military change is mainly focused on three aspects, namely, the mechanization of army equipment and armor, the electronic command system, and the increasing importance of aviation units in warfare.

The mechanization of armor, which is mainly focused on the army and marines, is not within the scope of the Navy's research, and the main hot topic of discussion of new technologies and weapons in the Navy after the war is the construction of radio detection systems and naval aviation. Naval aviation is divided into land-based aviation units and carrier-based aircraft aviation units. Generally speaking, the Navy's land-based aviation units are under the command of the Coastal Garrison Command, and the naval fleet is equipped with only a small number of land-based aviation units, and the main development direction of the Navy is the carrier-based aircraft aviation units that accompany the fleet's operations and the combat platforms used by the carrier-based aircraft aviation units, that is, aircraft carriers.

As an old maritime hegemon, the British have always been at the forefront of the world in the application of new weapons in the naval field. The British rebuilt several seaplane-equipped "seaplane carriers" before and during the war, and used them to carry out two famous military operations, one against the German Zeppelin base and the other against the stranded battlecruiser "Yavos" in the Dardanelles.

Although the old-fashioned clumsy seaplanes did not excel in these two operational armies, and both air attacks were unsuccessful, they nevertheless attracted great attention from the sensitive naval technical departments of various countries. The Americans converted the world's first aircraft carrier "Langley" with a stoner ship "Mercury" with a displacement of only 5,500 ships, and later, the British also began to convert a large cruiser into the aircraft carrier "Fury", and the Austro-Hungarian Navy also rebuilt the aircraft carrier "Pilotion" with a fast merchant ship. During this period, all naval powers began to carry out research and exploration of aircraft carriers in the form of transformation. Because the German Navy spent all its funds on the development of the impractical "Zeppelin", their research on aircraft carriers started relatively late. It was only after the war that it began.

Almost all naval powers have adopted a small and fast approach to the development of aircraft carriers, and gradually become familiar with the design, construction and use of aircraft carriers by building several aircraft carriers with experimental nature. The Austro-Hungarian Navy was no exception. However, in the great controversy between the battleship faction and the aviation faction within the navy, the emperor always sided with the aviation faction, and this support was not available in the navies of other countries.

After the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty, the Imperial Navy retained only six battleships, and the previous capital ships were sent to the shipyard for dismantling, except for the famous "Radetzky", which was kept as a memorial ship and the port of Trieste as a sightseeing ship open to the public.

The British did achieve their goal, they lightly destroyed almost a third of the world's battleships with a single piece of paper.

With the full support of the emperor. The Austro-Hungarian Navy began to convert three "Istrian Grand Dukes" class battleships into aircraft carriers, while the Americans converted two of the six "Lexington" class battlecruisers that had not yet been built into aircraft carriers. It is worth mentioning the Japanese Navy, which was at the forefront of the world in this regard, "Fengxiang" became the world's first specially built aircraft carrier, and later, the Japanese side rebuilt the "Akagi", "Amagi" and "Kaga" aircraft carriers.

Quantitatively, the British currently have the largest number of aircraft carriers in the world. But the tonnage of their aircraft carriers is too small, and in terms of the number of carrier-based aircraft, the Americans Japan are in the lead. The German-Austrian Navy, on the other hand, has a tradition of focusing on defense and anti-sinking. With a relatively sturdy semi-enclosed hangar and a single-deck flight deck, the number of carrier-based aircraft carried by each aircraft carrier is greatly reduced, to only about 60, which is about one-third less than that of the US and Japanese aircraft carriers.

In essence, the Chinese Navy, which has just started anew, does not understand the role of aircraft carriers, but only looks at aircraft carriers with the mentality that everyone has and I have them. But there is also an advantage: China's air force, including aircraft designers and most of the pilots, are from the two major naval schools in Yantai and Fuzhou, so the strength of naval aviation is stronger than that of army aviation. Due to the adoption of the same military system as Germany and Austria, the Chinese did not form a separate air force. Therefore, there is no such thing as the British that hinders the development of naval aviation because of the existence of the air force.

Before he even left for China, Müller had made some plans. The design and construction of Chinese aircraft carriers is a matter for the naval engineering department. What he needs to do is to help the Chinese train carrier-based aircraft pilots in advance. The Austro-Hungarian Navy also had some experience in this regard, and selected a small island to build an airfield with concrete at a ratio of 1:1 to the same as the flight deck of the aircraft carrier. Get pilots into acclimatization training ahead of time.

Although this kind of training cannot completely replace ship flight, it is still very helpful for pilots to adapt to the aircraft carrier environment. In Austria-Hungary, junior carrier-based pilots are trained at venues like Guò.

In Vienna, Helton made a surprising decision.

"I see the need for a demonstrative visit to the Far East as a way to show our attitude. Today our relations with the United States are once again at a crossroads, and if a conflict breaks out in the Far East, it will be very bad for us. "At the Hofburg Imperial Palace, the emperor was meeting with Foreign Minister Taulfis to hear his report on the Far Eastern form.

Japan and Russia were so aggressive in the Far East that it could easily lead to a war. But the current situation is that China is not yet able to deal with either Russia or Japan. Although after more than ten years of rapid development, China's industry has developed rapidly, and a complete industrial system has basically been established. But their base is too weak, and the current total of industry is roughly the same as that of the Italians, and they are not yet able to cope with a large-scale all-out war.

China's problem is actually intensifying in terms of the confrontation between the German-Austrian bloc and the US-British bloc, and the problem is that neither Germany nor Austria-Hungary can give up the world's largest market. Indeed, with China's gradual rise and America's expansionist ambitions in the Pacific growing, the confrontation between China and the United States may be a historical necessity.

The suffering of Germany and Austria in the European war was enormous, although not as direct as felt by the French and Italians, but the years of war consumed nearly 100 billion marks of wealth, and more than 3 million young lives died in the war.

Although isolationism is currently prevalent in the United States, it does not mean that the owner of the White House also has this attitude. With Roosevelt coming to power, interest in the United States began to turn to the Far East.

"Why do you need to work on it, this kind of matter should be negotiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japanese and Russian sides." Taulfis said.

"Judging from the current situation, the role of the diplomatic note is not very good, so I should go there myself, I haven't been out for a long time."

"But can His Majesty's body withstand the long journey?"

"Don't worry, I'm not even seventy, and I can live another ten or eight years." Lehydon said that he felt he should be able to protect the empire through the next war. (To be continued) R640