The next day, Qingying picked up Elena, who was still lingering on Alexey's bed, like a squirrel, and angrily carried her to her room to teach her a lesson. In the face of her father's perceptive gaze, Elena immediately poured out her careful thoughts, including how she went from pity for Alexei's misfortune to ignorance and hazy affection, and finally evolved into today's ivy-like admiration for a tree.

Hearing Elena's explanation, Qingying couldn't help but cover her forehead with her hand in pain. The reason why he made the decision to adopt Alexei in the first place was that political considerations accounted for the vast majority; Now the last crown prince of Russia is considered to have been perfectly raised by himself, but his daughter has also taken it in, and this deal is very uneconomical!

Elena bit her lip and wrapped herself around Qingying's body like a mollusk, her bright starry eyes flickering, and the meaning of coquettishness and begging could not be more obvious. Qingying has always been kind to her daughter, and this time she is also very soft under Elena's offensive center; After soaking for a long time, he finally reluctantly agreed not to interfere in the relationship between Elena and Alexei. Looking at Elena's cheerful face, Qingying's heart was filled with bitterness and frustration at being robbed of her own treasures by outsiders. However, in exchange, Qingying also put forward her own conditions to her daughter, including that her academic situation must not be affected by this, and that she cannot cross the final bottom line with Alexei before she becomes an adult. If one of the two did not work out, he would immediately send Alexei to the North Caucasus under the control of Denikin.

In a peaceful atmosphere, time flies by like flowing water. In August 1916, Moltke resigned as Chief of the General Staff due to liver disease, and Hindenburg, who had previously won great prestige in the war against Russia, sat on the coveted throne of the German professional soldier at a rare age. The 51-year-old Ludendorff was appointed First Quartermaster General, becoming the number one candidate for the next Chief of the General Staff. For this new 6th Army brain, which is the same as in history. Qingying also nodded and said that the Xing-Lu duo is destined to play a very important role in the history of the German 6th Army, and it is well deserved to become the core of the 6th Army.

Three months later. A big news came from Vienna, the capital of Austria-Hungary: the 86-year-old Austrian Emperor Franz? Joseph ended his reign of nearly 7o years and died unexpectedly in the imperial palace. Got the news. Not only did Germany lower its flag at half-mast in mourning, but even its long-time enemies, the Italians, sent a message of condolence to Vienna. In a way, Emperor Franz has become a legend in contemporary Europe: not only because his early union with Sisi is a perfect real-life story of the fairy tales of the prince and princess, but also because of his achievements in founding the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his consistent open-mindedness, dedication and dedication during his nearly 7o years of reign. Even the most extreme nationalists have to admit that under Franz's rule, this loose empire of many nationalities was constantly moving forward and gradually becoming one of the world's great powers.

When the Austro-Hungarian people who have sung "God Save My Emperor Franz" for more than half a century. Now that the emperor in their anthem is gone, the Austrians wept bitterly, and the Hungarians, Czechs, and Poles living in the empire were speechless. With the last prayers of the cardinals at the court of Vienna, the era of Emperor Franz came to an end.

Since there was no Sarajevo shooting in this plane, when the old Emperor Franz died, his nephew Joseph? Archduke Ferdinand was crowned Crown Prince and crowned Ferdinand V. Although his wife, Sophie, was a commoner and made the princely magnates of Vienna and Budapest unhappy with their new emperor, the accession of Archduke Ferdinand to the throne in neighboring Germany was a welcome prospect for Berlin. He had a close personal relationship with the Kaiser, which allowed the alliance between Germany and Austria to develop even closer. And its enthusiasm for building a navy also enabled the empire to provide greater help to Germany in the future global game.

Soon, Berlin's expectations were fulfilled. Driven by Ferdinand. Austria-Hungary, the quintessential big six countries off the coast of Croatia, has also joined the naval game that only the top countries can really play: according to a decree reached by the Austro-Hungarian parliament, they will build an additional treaty ship on top of the construction in 1917 to fill the tonnage gap that still exists on their current naval capital ships.

Out of traditional trust in Germany's allies, the Austro-Hungarian Naval Design Bureau designed a heavy capital ship planned to be named the "Marshal Dawn" class, based on the drawings provided by Qing Ying. This type of ship with a standard displacement of 356oo metric tons fully follows the high voyage and superior ocean-going combat capability advocated by Qing Ying: its maximum output reaches 120,000 horsepower, the design range is up to 28 knots, and its fuel carrying capacity is also more than 6ooo tons. It allows the warship to have a range of more than 10,000 nautical miles at a cruising altitude of 15 knots.

The biggest highlight of the Daun-class battleship is its firepower. Since the maximum caliber naval gun stipulated in the Washington Treaty was 16 inches (4o6 mm), the 4oo mm guns they had developed before the war were suspected of being weak; I saw that Qingying still equipped the new ship with this kind of artillery on the design drawings. The Austrian shook his head decisively. Since it is to be built, it must be used to the extreme in all aspects of performance. In the field of naval artillery in the realm of one inch and one realm, the difference of 6 millimeters is definitely not small!

By order of the Austro-Hungarian Admiralty, the Skoda military industry immediately began work on the development of a new 4O6 mm naval gun. Thankfully, the Škoda Arsenal in the Czech Republic is one of the world's leading artillery manufacturing centers. Historically, the 3O5mm K1O gun they cast was the best in its class, and the power of the 35Omm K14 gun they developed later can only be described as a ghost animal. This British standard gun is only 42 times the diameter of the gun, but it has a penetration depth far better than the American 356mm 15O gun, and some data even show that its penetration depth is better than that of the British and German 15-inch guns! Although the life of this cannon's body tube is very miserable, only 1oo, but this is enough to be called outstanding!

This time, Skoda's engineers did not disgrace their achievements in history. After some consideration and calculation, the approximate parameters of the new 4o6 mm naval gun were determined by them. The length of its body tube was increased to 5o times the diameter, firing a projectile of 1o3okg; And in the case of a full charge, the discharging of the shell will be increased to 83om/s. This performance not only comprehensively surpassed the 4oo mm guns equipped by Germany on the Bavarian class, but also formed a huge advantage over the same caliber guns of the United States, Britain and Japan. Given that Skoda is also a good hand at making shells, the final penetration depth of this type of gun will definitely reach a new peak. Of course, the gun's lifespan was also much lower than normal for similar products in various countries due to heavy drug use: its lifespan under full charge was expected to be only 13o, and the number of barrels scrapped in the future when compiling the gun schedule was enough to make logistics officers crazy.

Since the German Navy had already successfully equipped the heavy cruiser with a quadruple turret, the ship did not adopt the original three-mount triple main gun layout, but changed to a very modern two-seat quadruple front and rear arrangement. Compared to the former, the latter has a weight reduction of more than 17oo tons in turrets, turrets, and ammunition, not counting the weight reduction contribution of this layout to the reduction in the length of the core compartment. And at the cost of only one less artillery. With the shortening of the length of the core compartment, the main turret in the bow was placed further back, which also made up for the high hull width requirements of the quadruple gun.

Thanks to the weight reduction and the shortened core compartment length brought by the quadruple turret, the Dawn class achieves a perfect balance of protection while achieving high and heavy guns. Its broadside is a 35o mm main armor belt with a 2o degree inward inclination, and maintains the extremely conscientious height of the Bavarian class, and the waterproof medium-bullet armor that extends underwater is also a must. In terms of horizontal armor, it also achieves an impressive score of 15o mm, which is among the best in the world.

In addition to the two core capital ships, the budget for the construction of auxiliary ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy was submitted to the Austrian and Hungarian parliaments for discussion. In contrast to the difficulty of appropriation of funds for the navy before the war, the current Austro-Hungarian situation has suddenly become more comfortable in this regard. With the acquisition of overseas colonies, the naval fleet was no longer a mere money-burning machine in the minds of most Hungarian parliamentarians, both the raw materials imported by the colonies to the suzerain, and its own nature as a dumping ground for surplus goods, made the Hungarians in the middle of it feel the improvement in their lives, and decided to build a fleet to protect this profit.

With Ferdinand's support, the Austro-Hungarian parliament also allocated corresponding funds for the construction of auxiliary ships. Lots of orders for 2 heavy cruisers and 4 large destroyers were signed, the total amount of which was undoubtedly more than the number of one Daun-class. Compared with the improvement of the Dawn class, these two ships are almost completely based on the existing German products, the former is equipped with 12 2o3 mm guns, and the excellent heavy cruiser with both defense and degree, and the latter is a standard fleet destroyer with a standard row of 2ooo tons, 6 128 mm guns and 8 6oo mm torpedo tubes, and can reach a speed of 35 knots.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Navy was resentful of the two "aircraft carriers" that the Italians had renovated by taking advantage of the treaty, it could only give up for the time being because there was no slipway in China that could build a warship as long as the other side was 25o meters long, and its own shipbuilding capacity was already saturated. For Qingying, the death of Austria-Hungary on the aircraft carrier was undoubtedly a problem for him. When air power rises in the future, it will be more convincing for him to let Austria-Hungary build a regular aircraft carrier. (To be continued)

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