"Father-in-law, how is the work in the Navy lately, have you encountered any trouble?" Ernst asked, taking a sip of his tea.

Today, Archduke Ferdinand and Princess Charlotte came to First Town as usual to see their daughter and grandson.

Karina is a model of a good wife and mother, inheriting the advantages of the Queen Mother Sophie, and keeping the house in order, of course, the Queen Mother Sophie is famous for her bad mother-in-law and daughter-in-law with Princess Sissi.

In fact, the strength of the Empress Sophie was related to the family environment, whether Franz succeeded his uncle Ferdinand I to the throne, or ascended the throne in a riot.

Therefore, the Empress Dowager Sophie's participation in politics is partly due to ambition, and partly because of helplessness, ambition is not a bad thing, after all, under normal circumstances, the mother must hope that her son can be promising, so he is extremely strict with Franz, but the helpless is that Franz was too young to take the throne, so he needs the Empress Dowager Sophie to help maintain political stability.

After all, he was called "the only man in the court" by the people of the time, and from this point it can be seen that the political means and abilities of the Empress Dowager Sophie.

Karina doesn't have this concern, East Africa is basically Ernst's hall, and the relationship between the Heixingen royal family is not complicated, Ernst and Constantine were two people before, so Karina doesn't have any bad things like mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts, just be Ernst's virtuous helper.

In fact, the Empress Sophie seems to be very strong, which is related to the fact that her husband and son have a softer personality, and since Franz is older, he has been much better.

Of course, Franz is a relatively old-fashioned person, so he does not reconcile family conflicts very much, which is one of the reasons for the turmoil in the Habsburg court.

Ernst's family situation is much simpler, it is easier to have Karina to help him, Constantine is also very relieved of his son and daughter-in-law, and Ferdinand and his wife are also very satisfied with Ernst's son-in-law, and the family is harmonious.

Ferdinand hugged his grandson, his beard had been shaved clean all these years, and he looked much younger and more energetic than before, so he came to the palace with Princess Charlotte to see his grandson, and laughed at little Friedrich in his arms.

"Recently, the navy work has not been busy, mainly the people have come up, and my work does not have to be as busy as before, and even I still think about retiring after a few years of work and finding some hobbies to do."

The East African Navy now has a relatively sound personnel training system, in addition to the military academy is running well, many international students who went to the Austro-Hungarian Naval Academy have also returned, which greatly shared the pressure on Ferdinand.

Of course, the East African Navy is still in a state of vigorous development, and although there are no plans to add new ships recently, the construction of the base has achieved remarkable results.

In particular, with the addition of the overseas province of Lan Fang, the scope of the East African Navy's activities has expanded to the entire Indian Ocean region, not limited to the western Indian Ocean.

However, after all, Lanfang Overseas Province is a little far away from East Africa, so the main fleet of East Africa will not be stationed there.

It just so happens that the immigration business has declined recently, and there are many more empty ships, so the armed merchant ships have become the main fleet of the Lanfang Overseas Provincial Navy, although it is not as good as Britain and France in the South Seas, but it is more than enough compared with the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and other countries.

Now is the era of ironclad ships, small countries can no longer keep up with the trend of the development of the times, after all, the national strength is limited, it is the norm to build is better than buying, and the navy of East Africa is also bought in general, but it is good to have two built by themselves, but the cost performance is not high, but in order to cultivate the shipbuilding industry in East Africa, it is also necessary to spend more money.

"Ernst, the navy has expanded rapidly in recent years, and the ships are slightly insufficient, I don't know what you think."

Ferdinand also mentioned in passing, after all, he is the commander-in-chief of the navy, and it is his duty to ask for funds, and it is up to Ernst to give it or not.

"Recently, there have been a lot of projects in East Africa, and construction is being carried out everywhere, and the navy is also building a large base, so the military has less expenditure."

Not to mention the navy, even the army is also tossing, the Juba comprehensive training base is so large, spending money is no longer a few.

The navy has invested more in the base, after all, the coastline of East Africa is still somewhat straight compared to other countries, so there are relatively few ports that can be used, and East Africa needs to carry out artificial transformation on its own.

Anyway, there are few profitable projects, that is, the economic system of East Africa can afford it, of course, it is not false to lose money now, and it can continue to create benefits for East Africa in the future, that is, to take advantage of the extremely low labor cost now, and carry out large-scale construction in East Africa.

Otherwise, in the future, when the black slaves are used up, there will be no such a good group to squeeze, and the slavery system will be used well, provided that they do not belong to the slave camp.

"Then you really don't plan to add new warships, the technology has been iterating quite quickly in the past few years."

"We still have to add warships, but we build them ourselves, and we don't need to build too much, and now that the number of immigrants is declining, I will also row a few more armed merchant ships for the navy temporarily."

"Bagamoyo Shipyard?"

"Father-in-law, you also live in Bagamoyo, you should believe in the strength of your own shipyard, don't you already have experience in building ships before, once you are born and twice matured, in the future, we will be able to achieve complete autonomy in the naval military industry."

The shipbuilding industry is a long-term investment industry, and you must not think about becoming fat in one bite, nor can you dare to try.

The foundation of East Africa is already much better than that of many countries in the world, so since there are conditions to support its own shipbuilding industry, Ernst naturally supports it.

Archduke Ferdinand: "I understand, after all, I also support the independence of equipment, but coastal defense is not a child's play, and there are some needs that rely on procurement for the time being, and there is no problem with topping." ”

"Father-in-law, don't worry, I have thought about it, when Karina is pregnant with her second child, I will buy an advanced capital ship, and the same will be true in the future, until the military shipbuilding industry in East Africa is completely developed."

Karina said angrily, "You guy! ”

Archduke Ferdinand watched the small movements between his son-in-law and his daughter, and joked: "What if one child is a twin?" ”

"Hehe, then buy two, you can't favor one over the other!"

Hearing Ernst's words, Archduke Ferdinand really hoped that the next child would be twins, although what Ernst said just now was a little out of tune, but the promise he made would always be fulfilled.

Princess Charlotte said speechlessly: "You guys like to make this kind of joke, so don't you give birth to a child every year, buy a new ship, what if Karina gives birth to a dozen children, and directly get a fleet back?" ”

Ernst smiled and said nothing, he took Karina's little hand and cooled Karina's blushing face, as for such a thing as the fleet, Ernst's financial resources can still be made, but it is not necessary.

Now the strength of the East African Navy is just right, if you feed too much, it is easy to scrap, one of the reasons why the American shipbuilding industry declined in the previous life is that there were too many free ships built in World War II, adhering to the idea that it is not unusable, many shipping companies no longer place new orders, shipyards can not get new orders, and finally the technology iteration can not keep up with other countries, and the American civil shipbuilding industry will decline.

To give an inappropriate example, the same is true of Far Eastern Jinyuan football in the previous life, but football cannot be developed, it really has a lot to do with the national conditions, after all, there is the road of the college entrance examination, and most parents will not let their children choose football.

(End of chapter)