Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Franz, who had just finished reading the report, stretched, and the long hours of reading made him feel a trace of the tiredness that a young man should not have.

Franz felt that he needed a special agency and a group of professionals to handle these things, but for the time being he could not really establish such a department, because he was not yet emperor.

Military observation of hot air balloons, this is nothing new.

In 1783, the Frenchman Monte Gofeld brothers invented the first hot air balloon.

The fuel used by the brothers was a stinky leather boot, and the balloon was made of canvas with a layer of pulp on the outside.

Later, the French army took a fancy to this invention, and after the improvement of the military, its practicality was greatly increased.

But it's also relative, and it's no less dangerous than fishing at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

On the one hand, the hot air balloon itself has an endless number of accidents, and on the other hand, it is extremely susceptible to the weather, and only a breeze in the air can make the early hot air balloon vibrate violently, or even spin, and the people in the hot air balloon are even more dangerous.

In addition to wind, hot air balloons are also not suitable for lift-off in rainy and snowy weather.

So after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Europeans seemed to have forgotten about it, but the Americans kept thinking about it.

It's just that the related technology is also developing slowly, and it is not fundamentally different from the hot air balloon during the Napoleonic Wars.

At this time, it was none other than Archduke Karl, who had already gone to Switzerland, to propose the development of a military hot air balloon again.

The veteran general has always been obsessed with this reconnaissance tool used by the French in those years, and Austria has also carried out research and development of related technologies under his auspices.

However, when Archduke Karl resigned, the hot air balloon unit was disbanded.

At this time, Austria did not have a special hot air balloon force, but Marshal Radetzky formed a local hot air balloon force on the northern Italian side.

But its formation was actually a cavalry regiment, and the subordinate units were artillery.

In fact, after Archduke Karl arrived in Switzerland, he found that the terrain was much more complex than he had imagined.

After months of drilling in a ravine in Switzerland, his body was a little unbearable. No matter how strong an old man in his seventies is, his body is not as good as before.

But as a defense expert, how can you do it without a detailed understanding of the local terrain?

After battling with himself for several days, Archduke Karl finally came to his senses.

So, he remembered the hot air balloon he encountered on the battlefield decades ago.

Since Friedrich had always called Franz the greatest military inventor in the world, Archduke Karl decided to become a dead horse and wrote a letter to Franz, hoping that he would be able to do what his son had said.

In fact, real warfare is not like in real-time strategy games, where commanders can easily grasp the overall situation.

Even famous generals like Napoleon and Wei Qing could not stop their men from shopping during the war.

During the Battle of Waterloo, Wellington waited for the Prussian army, and Napoleon waited for Grouchy.

Grouchy was still eating breakfast at the farmer's house when the hillsides of Waterloo were already full of corpses, and he was still on his way to the end of the battle.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty went on a northern expedition against the Xiongnu, and when Wei Qing fought a bloody battle with the main force of the Xiongnu, the flying general Li Guang got lost at the most critical moment in his life

Grasping the dynamics of the battlefield is the most important problem that every commander wants to solve, and the more accurate intelligence is the one who takes the initiative.

Franz naturally knew this, and the hot air balloon was the easiest battlefield observation device for humans to master.

However, he felt that it was not enough to just build some observation balloons, and that what Franz wanted was an airship.

In fact, although the airship is much more advanced than the hot air balloon, the technology used is not too advanced, and even the key technologies that have been plaguing the development of the airship have been solved by Austria at this time.

A hot air balloon is an observation post at best, while an airship can be considered a weapon.

And in terms of safety alone, the security of the airship may be even higher.

With this in mind, Franz decided to start researching technology related to airships and hot air balloons.

To be honest, this is exactly the same as Franz's hobby, he was a blimp enthusiast in the original world, and he knew a lot about the structure and technology of airships.

So the design was effortless, and Franz drew two plans, one for a soft airship and the other for the pinnacle of airship development - a zeppelin.

The Zeppelin is the legendary hard airship, but it is still a little difficult to reproduce it with current technology, so Franz plans to temporarily name it the "Sky Veil Behemoth" project.

In fact, in history, in 1852, the French engineer Jafar invented the airship, but the airship at that time was not practical, and the danger factor was also very high.

It's much faster than a hot air balloon, but more often than not, it's just a circus show.

Truly military-worthy airships were not developed until the end of the XIX century.

In fact, it is not difficult to modify an airship with military value and improve its safety.

With a multi-airbag design, it can be brought to life in no time. Of course, in order to ensure that it can play the maximum value, Franz still listed it as top secret.

When Grand Duke Karl saw this plan for "The Heavenly Veil Beast", he was shocked beyond measure.

As a good commander, Grand Duke Karl is not lacking in imagination, he can already imagine a completely different battlefield.

Behemoths in the sky roar and drop a rain of destruction, soldiers hide in bunkers and aim at each other with sniper rifles, and cities are in ruins under the overwhelming barrage of rockets.

Archduke Karl suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and he took several deep breaths before relieving himself.

Archduke Karl's heart hadn't beaten like this in a long time, and his blood was racing violently in his body.

"A new era may be just around the corner." Archduke Karl thought as he burst out laughing and threw the book he was writing into the fire.

Franz stretched out again after all the work at hand.

This scene was seen by Adjani on the side, and the two looked at each other.

This time, Adjani looked away first, which made Franz feel a little strange, but he didn't really care.

Unbeknownst to Franz, the last time he had left the room at the Old Town Opera, he had had spoken to the four principal dancers for a long time.

Franz, on the other hand, was ready to leave as usual, saying that he had something important to do. In fact, he wanted to set up the outside game first, ready to catch all those who were watching.

Franz's friends looked into the box with great curiosity, and they found that the four principal dancers were crying or laughing, standing tall on the stage, and dancing lightly, but they had to support each other before leaving.

"The first time is always so weird." Richard Metternich complained.

"Worthy of the Buddha. It's him. ”

A group of people winked at each other, and although everyone was wearing masks, they all felt each other's malicious smiles.

Since then, Franz has earned the title of "Chief Terminator".

(End of chapter)