The construction of the new Port of Hamburg is more difficult than the original construction of the Port of Mtwara in East Africa, not only far away from East Africa, the lack of relevant population and industrial support, but also the amount of work is much larger than that of the Port of Mtwara, so the Port of New Hamburg should give priority to the construction of the military port.

At the same time as the construction of the new port of Hamburg in East Africa, Archduke Ferdinand also arrived in Austria and disembarked at the port of Trieste.

At the Royal Dockyards, Ferdinand asked with interest, "Is that giant ironclad Austria's new capital warship?" What is its approximate tonnage? How about the Ironclad of Hizhirisa? ”

The engineer said a little discouraged: "It would be nice if it was really a warship of the Austrian Navy, but according to the navy, they have no new shipbuilding plan, this ship is ordered from abroad, which country is specific, I don't know, this ship has a displacement of more than 200 tons more than the Lisa, and the technology is more advanced than the Lisa." ”

Archduke Ferdinand: "Didn't Austria retake Venice?" Now that control of the Adriatic Sea is back in Austria's hands, and the results of this naval battle are no worse than the last Battle of Lisa, why is there no plan to build new warships? ”

The engineer said: "Alas, it is because the fight is better than the last time, so the navy has captured a lot of ships of the former Italian Adriatic Fleet, except for the distribution to the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples, the rest are all incorporated into the imperial navy, which led to the Hungarian parliament that the navy no longer needs new ships, so it refused to allocate funds, not only that, but they also asked for a reduction in naval spending, but fortunately, Admiral Tegerthoff fought hard to avoid the tragedy." ”

Archduke Ferdinand sighed a little and said, "Is the life of the Imperial Navy so bad now! Not even as good as when I was the commander of the Navy? ”

The engineer said with a smile: "Actually, since the end of our last war with Prussia, the imperial power has been divided into two, and any expenditure needs to be negotiated by Austria and Hungary, which has no impact on the economy, but for industries that need financial support such as the military industry, there is no benefit at all, in fact, not only the navy, but also the army's life is not easy, you must know that the national defense pressure on our country's land is not small, and they even have objections to the army's military spending, Naturally, the Navy does not need to say. ”

Archduke Ferdinand said at this time: "Well, it seems that the internal contradictions of the empire have become more acute, and Franz is really not easy. ”

The engineer said: "Your Excellency, I also think that this contradiction has been perpetuated, and it is not in any favor for Austria, the decision-making efficiency of the empire is already lower than that of other countries, and even more so since the introduction of the dualist system. ”

Archduke Ferdinand: "And what do you think the Empire should do at the moment?" ”

Engineer: "There are only two ways, the first is to sit back and wait for nothing to happen, waiting for the contradiction to completely erupt, and the second is to directly puncture the contradiction and carry out reforms in advance, but these two methods are not good ideas, the first is to die slowly, and the second is very likely to cause the empire to die early." ”

Archduke Ferdinand did not think so, he had been in East Africa for a long time, and the style of the East African government also profoundly influenced Archduke Ferdinand.

"Actually, if you want me to say, the second option can still be tried, sometimes a fight can solve many problems, as for the problem of loss of control, unless it is foreign interference, but in the current environment of the European continent, the probability of this kind of thing happening is negligible."

Engineer: "Hehehe, this kind of thing is only your Majesty the Grand Duke that you have the confidence to say, we don't dare to think so." ”

In the opinion of the engineer, Archduke Ferdinand stood and spoke without a backache, the importance of Hungary to the empire is self-evident, and without Hungary, the empire is nothing.

If Archduke Ferdinand knew what the engineer was thinking, he would probably not be convinced, and if a civil war really broke out, Austria would not be the one to suffer.

At present, the Austrian army and the army are under the leadership of Albrecht, and the martial arts are still relatively abundant, coupled with the natural suppression of the Hungarian terrain by Austria, the Hungarian nobles will definitely not be able to please if they really make trouble. If Archduke Ferdinand is the family, then he would rather fight this battle, anyway, Hungary is very large, and when the time comes, Hungary can be directly divided, or even kicked out.

However, Archduke Ferdinand also thought about it, if he was really in Franz's position, I am afraid it would not be much better. However, this is much different from before, when in Austria and Mexico, Archduke Ferdinand acted as a peacemaker and compromiser.

It turns out that kindness can only be regarded as weakness, and careerists don't care if you are really good or not, and you are doomed to be an enemy if you do that position.

Of course, the main thing is that Archduke Ferdinand saw Ernst's treatment of the natives in East Africa, and he realized that there is no one in this world who cannot be abandoned, such as the African natives, Ernst did not leave the land, and the same is true, the Hungarians may not be so important to Austria.

"Okay, let's not talk about that, I want to know if there are any vacancies in the shipyard recently?" Archduke Ferdinand began to talk about business.

Engineer: "Speaking of vacancies, there are really none, although the Navy has no orders, but there are a lot of orders for civilian merchant ships!" ”

Archduke Ferdinand: "Not a single vacant seat!" Why is the civilian ship business booming recently? ”

Engineer: "That's right, mainly because the economy is too good now, maritime transportation is developing rapidly, especially after the opening of the Suez Canal, those old fleets on the Mediterranean coast have come back to life, so now they are hurrying to build new ships." ”

Archduke Ferdinand asked, "How long will it take for you to vacate your place?" ”

The engineer replied comfortably: "In the case of our factory, it should be two years later." ”

"Two years later!"

"Yes, there has been a group of Austrian merchants recently, and they have also purchased several ships, I heard that they want to participate in the Far East trade, but I am not optimistic about their decision, after all, the Hexingen Ocean Trading Company is the real wealth, I heard that in recent years, most of the business from the Far East to Germany has been monopolized by the merchant ships of the Hexingen Ocean Trading Company."

Ferdinand had a headache: "The situation of other shipyards is the same as yours?" ”

"Almost, since Italy was defeated, most of the business has been monopolized by us and French shipyards, if the technical requirements are not high, you can also go to Italy, after all, although Italy is not very good, the shipbuilding industry is still good."

Because of the two failures in the Sea of Trieste, the Italian shipbuilding industry was indeed questioned to a certain extent, of course, the main thing was because of the war, the economy of the Kingdom of Italy suffered huge losses, and the restoration of the Kingdom of Naples also divided a lot of industries.

"So it's possible to go to Italy?"

"It's hard to say, I heard that they have a serious brain drain, and many technicians have gone abroad, and there are a few technicians from Italy in our shipyard, and many shipyards there have gone bankrupt."

Archduke Ferdinand also knew about this, and the Bagamoyo shipyard had recruited a lot of Italians at that time.

In this way, it seems that Archduke Ferdinand really couldn't think of where to solve the problem of warship procurement for a while, and the reason why he came to the Austrian Royal Shipyard was mainly to prostitute a little more, reduce costs, and save more expenses for the navy, but he also had to have a chance.

As a last resort, Archduke Ferdinand had no choice but to contact Ernst, who was far away in East Africa, through a telephone line installed at Ernst's residence in Trieste.

Ernst: "There's no need to rush this matter, you can wait for the completion of their giant ironclad ship, and then order it, probably in March next year." ”

Archduke Ferdinand: "Ernst, how did you know that there was an ironclad ship at the Royal Shipyard in Trieste?" ”

Ernst quickly explained: "Well, after all, my company has a lot of business dealings with the Royal Dockyards, so it's normal to know about it, and I knew this before I came to East Africa. ”

(End of chapter)