My Italy

If Cuniberti faces a problem in selection, then for the current Count Montecuccoli, how to let the Austro-Hungarian Empire possess dreadnoughts is a crucial problem at the moment.

Speaking of which, the Austro-Hungarian navy is simply a stepmother within the empire. The military expenditures required are managed by the War Department, which is largely influenced and controlled by the Army. Therefore, the life of the Austro-Hungarian Navy has never been satisfactory, and the War Department just dealt with it by casually sending three melons and two dates.

This seems to have a lot to do with the Austro-Hungarian tradition of not paying attention to the navy. In the Austrian era, there was no navy at all for a long time. It was not until the nineteenth century that Austria-Hungary established its own navy in Venice.

Although the Austro-Hungarian navy was formed late, its combat effectiveness is still guaranteed. (Italians agree very much with this)

However, 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 ignored.

Of course, it is not ignored at all times. If it is cared for by the royal family, the life of the navy will be much easier. For example, during the periods of Archduke Friedrich (Commander-in-Chief of the Navy from 1844-1847) and Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian (Commander-in-Chief of the Navy from 1854-1864), the Austro-Hungarian navy developed very well.

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 Austro-Hungarian navy to lose its Strong supporter.

Also in view of the prosperity of the previous two archdukes (relatively speaking), if the Austro-Hungarian Navy wants to obtain more funds and government-level support, then a member of the royal family can become the head of the navy, which is simply the best choice. .

Of course, as the director of the Naval Department of the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry, Count Montecuccoli already had a suitable candidate.

Speaking of which, Austria-Hungary is definitely a strange entity in terms of its military management department. The Imperial War Department is nominally in charge of all Austro-Hungarian armies, such as the Imperial Wehrmacht, the Royal and Royal Local Defense Forces, etc. (The composition of the Austro-Hungarian Army is very complicated, so I won’t go into details due to space limitations. Those who are interested can check it out by themselves.)

Among the major countries, Austria-Hungary is the only one that places the navy under the influence of the army, so the hard life of the Austro-Hungarian navy is quite difficult.

However, although the Austro-Hungarian navy is having a hard time, it still has ambitions. When various countries are launching dreadnoughts, the Austro-Hungarian Navy also has its own ideas.

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

As the head of the navy, Admiral Montecuccoli approached Archduke Ferdinand as the crown prince with the plan that the Austro-Hungarian navy had worked hard to study. In addition to the plan, a carefully carved model of the plan is also presented. This is a little trick from Montecuccoli. Taking out the battleship model will help the crown prince feel the new battleship more intuitively.

As for Admiral Montecuccoli's gift, Archduke Ferdinand nodded with satisfaction.

This Archduke Ferdinand is very famous, I believe that no one in future generations will not know about him. In this era, this man is also very famous. In addition to his status as the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, his love story with the Czech girl Sofia is also talked about. For this reason, he also paid the price of letting his children give up their inheritance rights, so that the royal family reluctantly agreed to this marriage.

Archduke Ferdinand loved hunting and was relatively moderate in terms of ethnic policies, which gave the Austro-Hungarian minority high expectations for him. But these are not worth paying attention to the Austro-Hungarian Navy. What really deserves attention is that the crown prince is a supporter of the sea power theory and attaches great importance to the role of the navy.

This is precisely the case, so everyone in the navy has high hopes for the crown prince. If it were not for the identity of his heir and the attitude of the army, making Archduke Ferdinand the head of the navy would be a brilliant idea.

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

So after receiving the plan from the navy, Archduke Ferdinand read it with relish.

"Why does your plan look so similar to the Italian Dante-class?"

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

Faced with the Crown Prince's inquiry, Admiral Montecuccoli did not hide it at all. "Your Highness the Crown Prince, our dreadnought is indeed based on the Italian Dante-class, but we have made quite a few changes. For example, we have only increased the displacement by 1,000 tons to have a Dante-class and a half. firepower, and the cost of building ships will not be much higher than that of the Italians."

Admiral Montecuccoli's words made Archduke Ferdinand's eyes light up, and then he asked. "Tell me how your navy managed to surpass the Italians."

Facing the Crown Prince's inquiry, Admiral Montecuccoli then discussed how the Austro-Hungarian Navy had made a series of modifications based on the Dante-class template, such as reducing the length, lowering the freeboard, increasing the main gun, etc.

In fact, the changes made by the Austro-Hungarian Navy were 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 needed to consider the use of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans with complex sea conditions. . Therefore, in order to ensure the seaworthiness of this class of warships, designs such as high freeboard and V-shaped bow to increase displacement are used.

The usage situation of the Austro-Hungarian Navy is different from that of Italy. Its main sea area is the Mediterranean, so it does not need to consider high sea conditions. Then those measures to increase displacement and seaworthiness are no longer needed, so this naturally reduces the displacement and cost.

In addition, Italy's configuration of 8 main guns is too few for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, so the Austro-Hungarian Navy is considering equipping triple main guns. Without reducing the number of forts, Austria-Hungary is equipped with 12 main guns. The dreadnought was thus achieved. It has half the firepower as the Italian Dante class.

The Austro-Hungarian Navy has considered such careful calculations, which is of course a good idea, but only God knows how it will perform.

Archduke Ferdinand also understood the plan submitted by the navy. But to put it well, Austria-Hungary has its own national conditions.

"This plan looks good, but we have to wait a little longer to get funding from the parliament."

Regarding the Crown Prince's words, Admiral Montecuccoli said that he didn't mind at all, which was a lie. But he also knew that it was not easy to get the parliament to spend money on shipbuilding. Just defeating the Austrian and Hungarian parliaments is not a simple matter, let alone the army that is eyeing them.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, our navy is not in a hurry. We can wait. In addition, our navy can raise part of its own funds."

Admiral Montecuccoli, on behalf of the Navy, proved to the Crown Prince that it not only asked for funds but also raised them itself. The Austro-Hungarian Navy's fund-raising is nothing more than external financing and introspection. External financing is to raise donations from all walks of life. Introspection is of course the navy's internal tightening of belts, selling some unimportant warships, or saving funds from other places. .

The navy was so sensible that Ferdinand naturally valued it more.

“That’s good, it will also make it easier to get funding.”

Count Montecuccoli certainly knew that what the Crown Prince said was not a joke. The Navy also considers the difficulty of appropriation, so it needs to raise funds on its own to reduce the difficulty of getting funding from Congress.

"Your Majesty the Crown Prince, we actually have another idea, which is to use the funds to build it first, and then the parliament will allocate funds to continue the construction."

Well, the Austro-Hungarian navy worked hard enough for the dreadnought, even killing it first and then showing off.

"Let's wait until I come back from Berlin next month."

As for the navy's intention to take risks, Ferdinand asked him to wait. As for appropriating money from the motion, he still has no idea and needs to think about it for a while.

After all, Austria-Hungary is a country with a dual system. It not only needs to consider the attitude of the Austrian Parliament, but also the Hungarian Parliament. This makes Ferdinand need to make a good plan.