Chapter 428 Discussion

To be honest, if Hermann is considered a German celebrity, he must be, but it is still a bit far-fetched. This kind of celebrity is more like a local celebrity. According to the size of the Princely Kingdom of Hechingen, it should be a county-level celebrity. If it were not for the It is estimated that the Germans do not know much about the name of this vassal state, but it does not matter. After all, he is Ernst's grandfather. His family will definitely support him, not only in naming, but also in the future, biographies and various cultural works. To beautify the history of the royal family of Hechingen.

"Ernst, taking advantage of the current depression in the shipbuilding industry, I think the plans you made before are more conservative. For example, this pseudo-7,000-ton ironclad ship must have been expensive in the past, but now I only spent five The manufacturing price of the thousand-ton class is already low, so I suggest you buy two more ships."

"Father-in-law, as I said before, the budget is still so large. If you are able to buy a few more ships based on my original purchase plan, I will not object. This matter is left to be taken care of. We The East African Navy still has a lot of homework to make up for. It is in short supply of troop carriers, supply ships, frigates, and training ships. Ships must be purchased according to East Africa’s national conditions and actual needs, not for the sake of ostentation and appearance. .”

"Increasing a little more funding is not a big problem. You must know that although the coastline of East Africa is only more than 2,000 kilometers, we actually want to cover more than that. Think about it, after occupying the New Hamburg Bay in South Africa, Our navy actually has a foothold in the south. Together with the former Comoros Islands, the sea area we actually want to control extends from East Africa to South Africa and runs through the entire Mozambique Channel. In other words, the sea area that East Africa actually wants to control The length from north to south is more than 4,000 kilometers."

Archduke Ferdinand simply ignored Mozambique, which was stuck in the middle. If he had said this before, Archduke Ferdinand would have definitely thought about it, because the East African Navy was really useless at that time. Now, haven't times changed? Once the East African Navy's ship purchase plan is completed, the dominance of the Western Indian Ocean will not be lost, although there are no decent navies in the Western Indian Ocean except Britain and France.

"Then how many more do you plan to add? Also, the most fundamental problem of our East African Navy is not the lack of strong ships and guns, but the lack of relevant naval talents. Without operators, even the most advanced warships are just a big ship on the sea. It’s just a target.”

Ernst's words brought Archduke Ferdinand back to reality. The navy is a system, not just equipment. Was the Kingdom of Italy's navy strong before? The reason why the two failed in the hands of Austria is basically due to the gap in personnel quality.

After waking up, Archduke Ferdinand considered it carefully: "You are right. It seems that what we urgently need most now is personnel training. I need to make some serious plans for this matter. How can we prepare for this in a relatively short period of time?" East African navies provide ample talent.”

It is not necessarily wrong to be ambitious. In fact, East Africa's annexation of the Transvaal Republic is like eating from the bowl. Looking at the pot, Zimbabwe has not digested it and started fighting again. Fortunately, East Africa won the bet, Transvaal. The Swarovski Republic has not developed into an existence that is good at guerrillas and has the strength to embarrass powerful countries. The main reason is that the population is too small and concentrated, and the Boers are not united and did not reach a consensus at the first time. If this war had not been so If everything goes well, let alone whether we can win South Africa, even Zimbabwe may suffer a backlash.

"We still need your cooperation in this regard. We not only need to send naval students to Austria, but also to Germany and the Netherlands. If we only rely on our Habsburg family connections to send people to the Austrian naval education system, we will not be able to send many people. The Hohenzollern family should also contribute in this regard. I believe that Constantine will personally take action, and the Prussian Navy can also absorb part of it. Although the Prussian Navy is not as good as Austria, it can still cultivate basic talents."

Ernst nodded and said: "In this regard, we can discuss with the German and Swedish royal families. Although the navies of these two countries are not top-notch, they are not bad in the world. As for the Netherlands, it is a bit difficult, but the Dutch shipbuilding There is still a lot to learn in the industry, and we also lack technical personnel to maintain warships."

There is nothing wrong with sending people to the Netherlands to study ship repair. The Dutch shipbuilding industry has always been good and has a solid foundation. In fact, although the Dutch navy is not good, it is mainly due to funding issues, but its civilian ship technology is also remarkable in Europe.

As for Austria's naval education system, it is actually the best in Europe, but it cannot meet the needs of East Africa, or East Africa cannot keep up.

For example, the Royal Mechanical College is also an important training base for Austrian naval talents. However, there are no talents with such academic qualifications in East Africa who can study abroad. Therefore, East Africa can only go to the Royal Naval College, the Royal Schifjungen College, the Royal Oceanographic College, and secondary schools. Naval Academy Cyprus.

The training system of the Austrian Navy is sufficient on its own, but if it is brought to East Africa, it will be completely insufficient. However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also has naval accelerated education, but the naval accelerated education is also based on recruiting middle school students and then educating them. East Africa trains them every year There are no assignments for middle school students at all. Without a certain cultural foundation, it is still relatively difficult to become a navy.

"As for the training of naval talents, I actually have an idea. We in East Africa are planning to build a naval school (Ferdinand Naval Academy). The biggest problem currently is the issue of teachers. East Africa is in urgent need of naval teachers, but poaching in Austria is not very easy. It went well, mainly because some lecturers of the Austrian Naval School could not save their dignity and went to work in East Africa, so we should find another way to solve this problem, that is, to cooperate with the Austrian Naval School in running schools, so that the lecturers of the Austrian Naval School can also serve as Ferdinand's Navy As a lecturer at the academy, I can personally act as a lobbyist to negotiate with various naval schools in Austria." Ferdinand suggested.

"Of course there is no problem. If you have an idea, just do it. In terms of funding, we can give them the best treatment." Ernst replied.

It is indeed a bit embarrassing to go to East Africa to teach, but no one has trouble with money. In fact, the lecturers and instructors of the Austrian Naval Academy are not short of money. Even if it is affected by the economic depression, that is, government funding may be delayed, but this does not It doesn't affect your salary. It's already a high income. As long as you don't spend money lavishly, you will definitely have some savings.

Moreover, when it comes to cooperative education, the main negotiating partner in East Africa is the college. It is not a direct dialogue with teachers as before. The college agrees that ordinary teachers must also obey the arrangements.

Seeing that it was getting late, Ernst also began to say goodbye to Archduke Ferdinand.

"Are you going directly to Vienna next?"

"Yes, there are still many things to do. The first stop will be in Vienna, mainly to discuss the railway issue with His Majesty Franz. After arrangements are made in Austria, we will go directly to Germany. There are many excellent assets waiting to be harvested there."