It was getting dark.

The train from Vienna to Trieste is passing through the Alps, and from time to time the train passes through the caves, and at every turn the carriages are resounded with a noisy echo.

There were very few passengers in the train, Heinrich. Colonel Müller sat alone in a sleeper box, quietly looking out the window, savoring the loneliness of his travels. The half-open windows blow in a cool mountain breeze with the unique floral aroma of the mountains, which is very different from the salty and wet sea breeze when you are at sea.

The carriage was shaking, the wheels were clattering rhythmically, and the black mountains and trees in the night outside the window were like black water, speeding backwards. Colonel Mueller turned his train of thought to yesterday's conversation with the Chief of Personnel of the Navy in the Admiralty building. He went to Trieste to receive a new, but reluctant, job in the Far East as a naval military adviser to the Far East.

According to the estimation of some of the more sophisticated fellows in the Admiralty, this meant two things: one was that his future in the Navy might be over, and that only retired officers would be sent to the Far East. On the other hand, he was able to rise to prominence, and a considerable number of officers returning from the Far East were quickly promoted and entrusted with important duties upon their return home.

Colonel Mueller was a little upset about this, which meant that his future was uncertain. He had been in the Imperial Navy for twenty-five years, and it was not easy for him to go from being a torpedo boat captain during the war to his current position.

Generally speaking, men like Colonel Mill were an outlier in the Imperial Navy, because the Department in which they worked, the Naval Aviation Agency, was the main organ in the Admiralty that managed the day-to-day affairs of naval aviation. In fact, Mueller was able to survive the Navy downsizing because he had served in the Naval Air Corps in Split.

In the time of the European War. Aircraft became more and more widely used in the Great War, and the Imperial Navy formed its first naval aviation unit in 1915. However, during the European War. Naval aviation did not achieve much, due to the short range of aircraft. It is possible to carry out reconnaissance patrol missions in the waters near the port. At that time, naval aviation units were not subordinate to the fleet, as they are now, but were under the command of the Port Garrison Command.

However, after the European War, the use of aviation and aircraft in the military field was actively studied and discussed in the military circles of various countries, the most famous of which was Major Giulio of the Italian Air Force. In his famous book on the use of air power, "Air Supremacy", Du Hei elaborated on his own understanding of air warfare, and he believed that the aircraft as an offensive weapon had incomparable potential advantages over traditional weapons. In future wars, the air force that takes advantage of its superiority will seize air supremacy, and can carry out long-range strikes on the enemy's military, political, and economic centers, and can destroy the enemy's defense line on the ground, thus winning the war in one fell swoop.

Du Hei's theory is also known as the "theory of the victory of the air force", and his main point of view is that the air force will be the main and decisive force in future wars. This theory has a deep influence on the aviation community of various countries.

Müller's interest in the aircraft was entirely due to an exercise organized by the Admiralty during the European war, when his friend Saab happened to be a pilot and they served together at the Kotor naval base. Saab made a joke during the exercise, piloting an Albatross to chase and tease the B102 torpedo boat at high speed on the sea. However, the torpedo boat under the command of Müller could not escape the pursuit of the planes anyway, and finally Saab dropped a bag full of dye on his bridge accurately.

Mueller was shocked. Although Saab's flying and piloting skills are excellent, it is indeed very difficult to drop a water bag with a displacement of less than 200 tons and a length of just 30 meters in high-speed movement. But if it wasn't a water bag but a bomb, it was estimated that if it landed within 20 meters of the dinghy, his warship would have been severely damaged.

Since then, Müller has been paying attention to learning aviation knowledge, and during the war, he learned to fly an airplane with Müller, and passed the pilot examination organized by the Naval Aviation Command and obtained a pilot certificate.

It is for this reason. He escaped the Navy layoffs in 1925 and was still able to serve in the Navy.

Colonel Müller had quite an insight into the theory of naval aviation.

Due to the importance of the emperor. The Imperial Navy began research on aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft early on, and during the war converted one of the world's first aircraft carriers, the aircraft carrier "Pilotion", with a cruiser. 1924 year. The construction of the first aircraft carrier specially designed and built by the Imperial Navy, the "Attila the Huns", which is 196 meters long, has a displacement of 13,000 tons, a speed of 29 knots, and can be equipped with 52 carrier-based aircraft. This marked the beginning of the use of aircraft carriers as the main combat ships of the Imperial Navy.

Since at that time Saab was transferred to the post of commander of aviation on the "Attila the Huns", Muller's interest was attracted to aircraft carriers. He himself studied a large number of domestic and foreign sources, and based on the study of some real yàn, he found that although a single combat aircraft could not pose much of a threat to the battleship, even the battleship could be sunk if the attack was carried out in formation grouping.

He wrote his experience into an article and sent it to the magazine. Unexpectedly, the article was taken seriously and praised by the emperor, which undoubtedly showed that the emperor was on the side of the "aviation faction" in the fierce debate between the "battleship faction" and the "aviation winning faction" in the navy.

Although Emperor Friedrich rarely intervened in the affairs of the empire, and rarely expressed his political position, he occasionally intervened in the affairs of the army. Because the Emperor had unparalleled prestige and influence in the Imperial Army, his views were enough to influence the direction of the development of the Imperial Army and Navy.

Unlike the United States, Britain, France, and Italy, which had independent air forces, the air forces of the Second German Reich and Austria-Hungary were placed under the command of the army and navy. This aspect also affected China and Japan in the East.

In essence, naval aviation units and army aviation units have very different performance requirements for fighters due to their different combat environments, objectives, and tasks......

Someone knocked on the door of the box, interrupting Mueller's train of thought.

The door opened, and the female conductor stood outside the door, "Sir, do you want tea?" ”

"Okay, give me a drink, thank you!" Mueller said.

The conductor is pouring tea into his cup.

"What time will you get to Trieste?"

"I'll warn you in advance of two hours."

The door was shut, and it suddenly occurred to Mueller that the new appointment might be a good thing for him. (To be continued) R580