My Italian

Remember [New] for a second,! If Cuniberti is facing a problem in choosing, then for the current Count of Montecuccoli, how to let the Austro-Hungarian Empire have a dreadnought is the most important problem at present.

Speaking of which, the Austro-Hungarian Navy is simply a stepmother within the empire. The military expenditures it requires are managed by the Department of War, which in turn is largely influenced and controlled by the Army. Therefore, the life of the Austro-Hungarian Navy has not been satisfactory, and the Ministry of War just sent three melons and two dates to deal with it.

This has a lot to do with Austria-Hungary's tradition of not paying attention to the navy. In the Austrian era, the navy did not even exist for a long time. It was not until the nineteenth century that Austria-Hungary formed its own navy in Venice.

Although the formation of the Austro-Hungarian Navy was late, its combat effectiveness was still guaranteed. (Italians agree with this very much)

It’s just that due to the location of Austria-Hungary, the navy has not always been the focus of Austria-Hungary’s attention, so the Austro-Hungarian navy has always been neglected.

Of course, it's not always overlooked, and life in the navy is much easier if the royals take care of it. For example, during the period of Archduke Friedrich (1844-1847 Commander-in-Chief of the Navy) and Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian (1854-1864 Commander-in-Chief of the Navy), the Austro-Hungarian Navy had been well developed.

But unfortunately, Archduke Friedrich died young at the age of 26, and Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian left Austria to become emperor in Mexico (died in Mexico three years later), causing the loss of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. strong supporter.

It is also in view of the scenery (relatively speaking) of the previous two grand dukes in power, so the Austro-Hungarian Navy wants to get more funding and government-level support, then a member of the royal family can become the head of the navy, it is simply the best choice. .

Of course, Count Montecuccoli, who is the head of the Naval Division of the Austro-Hungarian War Department, already has a suitable candidate.

Speaking of which, Austria-Hungary is definitely a strange existence in the military management department. Nominally, the Imperial War Department manages all Austria-Hungary armies, such as the Imperial Defense Forces, the Royal and Royal Local Defense Forces, etc. (The composition of the Austro-Hungarian Army is very complicated, so I won’t say it because of space limitations. Those who are interested can check it out by themselves.)

Among the major powers, Austria-Hungary is the only one to place the navy under the influence of the army, so the hardship of the Austro-Hungarian navy is quite difficult.

However, although the Austro-Hungarian Navy has had a tough time, its ambitions are still there. When various countries launched dreadnought ships, the Austro-Hungarian Navy also had the same idea.

"Your Majesty, this is the dreadnought plan prepared by our navy."

Admiral Montecuccoli, who was the head of the navy, took the plan that the Austro-Hungarian Navy worked hard to study and found Archduke Ferdinand as the crown prince. In addition to the scheme, a carefully sculpted scheme model is also presented. This is a little trick of Monte Cuccoli. Taking out the battleship model will help the crown prince to feel the new battleship more intuitively.

As for the gift from Admiral Montecuccoli, Archduke Ferdinand nodded with satisfaction.

This Archduke Ferdinand is famous, and I believe that no one in future generations does not know him. In this era, this man is also very famous. In addition to his identity as the crown prince of Austria-Hungary, his love story with the Czech girl Sofia is equally popular. To this end, he also paid the price of letting his children give up their inheritance rights, so that the royal family reluctantly agreed to this marriage.

The Archduke Ferdinand loved hunting, and his ethnic policy was relatively mild, which made the Austro-Hungarian minorities have high expectations for him. And these are not worthy of attention to the Austro-Hungarian Navy. What really deserves attention is that the crown prince is a proponent of the theory of sea power and attaches great importance to the role of the navy.

This is also the case, so the navy has high hopes for the crown prince. If it weren't for the identity of his heir and the attitude of the army, it would be a wonderful idea for Archduke Ferdinand to become the head of the navy.

Although Ferdinand did not have the opportunity to become the head of the navy, it did not affect his relationship with the navy.

Therefore, after taking over the plan handed over by the navy, Grand Duke Ferdinand looked at it with relish.

"How does your plan look similar to the Italian Dante class?"

Gu Xiang

Archduke Ferdinand looked at the model in front of him, then compared the drawings and asked.

In the face of the crown prince's inquiry, Admiral Montecuccoli did not hide his words at all. "His Royal Highness, our dreadnought did refer to the Italian Dante class, but we still made a lot of changes. For example, we have a half Dante class on the basis of only increasing the displacement of 1,000 tons. firepower, and the cost of building the ship will not be much higher than that of the Italians."

The words of Admiral Montecuccoli made Grand Duke Ferdinand's eyes light up, and then he asked. "Tell me how your navy has surpassed the Italians."

In the face of the crown prince's inquiry, Admiral Montecuccoli then made a series of revised topics on how the Austro-Hungarian Navy was based on the Dante-class template, what to reduce the length, reduce the freeboard, and increase the main gun, etc.

In fact, the changes of the Austro-Hungarian Navy are more at the expense of reducing the seaworthiness of the Dante class, because when Italy designed this class, it not only considered the calm Mediterranean Sea, but also the use of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans with complex sea conditions. . Therefore, in order to ensure the seaworthiness of this class of warships, high freeboard, V-shaped bow and other designs to increase displacement are used.

The use of the Austro-Hungarian navy is different from that of Italy. Its main sea area is the Mediterranean Sea, so it is not necessary to consider high sea conditions, so those measures to increase the displacement and increase the seaworthiness are no longer necessary, so this naturally reduces the displacement and cost.

In addition, the configuration of 8 main guns in Italy is too little for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, so the Austro-Hungarian Navy considers equipping triple-mounted main guns. The dreadnought thus achieved. It has half the firepower of the Italian Dante class.

Of course, the Austro-Hungarian Navy has considered such a meticulous plan. Of course, it is a good idea, but only God can know the specific performance.

In the face of the plan handed over by the navy, Archduke Ferdinand also knew something. But it is well said that Austria-Hungary has its own national conditions here.

"The package looks good, but it will take a while to get funding from Parliament."

For the crown prince's words, Admiral Montecuccoli is going to say that he doesn't mind is false. But he also knew that it was not so easy to get the council to pay for the cost of building the ship. Just getting the Austrian and Hungarian parliaments is not an easy task, let alone the army that is eyeing them.

"His Royal Highness, our navy is not in a hurry, we can wait, and our navy can raise some funds by itself."

On behalf of the Navy, Admiral Montecuccoli proved to the Crown Prince that it would not only ask for funds, but would also raise funds on its own. The Austro-Hungarian Navy's fundraising is nothing more than external financing and introspection~www.wuxiaspot.com~External financing is to raise donations from all walks of life. Introspection is of course the navy tightening its belt and selling some unimportant warships. Or save money elsewhere.

The Navy is so sensible, so Ferdinand naturally pays more attention to it.

"That's good, it can also make it easier to allocate funds."

As for the Crown Prince's words, Count Montecucoli certainly knew that it was no joke. The Navy also takes into account the difficulty of funding, so it needs to raise funds on its own to reduce the difficulty of getting parliamentary funding.

"His Royal Highness, in fact, we still have an idea, that is to use fundraising to build it first, and then continue to build it with funds from the parliament."

Well, the Austro-Hungarian Navy has fought hard enough for the dreadnought, and even took out the first cut and then the play.

"Just wait until I get back from Berlin next month."

Ferdinand told him to wait for the idea that the Navy was going to take risks. He still has no clue as to how to move the council to allocate funds, and he needs to think about it.

After all, Austria-Hungary is a dual-system country, and not only the attitude of the Austrian Parliament, but also the Hungarian Parliament, needs to be considered, which makes Ferdinand need to plan a good life.