On the first day of June, Italian diplomats in Berlin received a command from Rome: to continue to send invitations to Heidi Sileme, secretly contacting the German Emperor William and the German Admiralty, seeking the possibility of hiring Heidi Sileme as a naval consultant of the Kingdom of Italy.

King Vittorio Emanuele III, the king of high-level politics in Italy, the Supreme Emperor Giordi of the Apennine Peninsula, the current Prime Minister Sarandra, and Foreign Minister Song Nino rarely take the same position. The diplomats who felt Rome's determination became nervous and danced around Berlin and Kiel.

Italian diplomats have tried their best to keep it confidential, but the facts once again prove that the so-called secrets of the Italians are not secret at all. Apart from the panicked Germans, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman Turkey, which are also allied countries, learned about this news one after another.

In the depths of the Adriatic Sea, the red and white Austro-Hungarian naval flags fluttered in the wind in front of the fleet headquarters building.

The scorching sun in the Mediterranean was burning the bay, and the workers at the repair shipyard were sweating. The repairing the old master Ferdinand I, the boiler leaked. In the deep waters of the harbor, three joint force-class battleships and three Radecky-class quasi-dreadnoughts were docked quietly at the berth. Austria-Hungarian sailors in standard military uniforms were weakly cleaned the deck. On the east side of the harbor, the sailors untied thick cables and towed the German-style offshore submarines to the nearest main channel of the bay from a small towboat less than a hundred tons. On the main channel, four Helgolan-class dome cruisers were going out to sea together. They would cruise along the east side of the Adriatic Sea, showing the existence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire without stimulating the Italians.

"Ha, a long day!"

In another time and space, in 1918, Holtie Miklos, who served as commander of the Austro-Hungarian fleet as the rank of major general, was just a rather frustrated colonel at this time. He tightened the white gloves on his hand, glanced at him inadvertently swept across the United Force-class battleship, and walked out of the Corps of the Commander Tower of the Battleship Habs in disgrace.

Colonel Holtie Miklos was the captain of this second-class battleship. Although it was a rare honor in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Holtie's view, it was not worthy of his pride at all.

The Habsburg battleship is a second-class battleship designed in the last century. It was designed by Popper, the chief designer of the Austro-Hungarian Navy who designed the joint force class battleship. The standard displacement is about 8,960 tons and the maximum speed is 19 knots. Two 240 mm main guns, the front main gun is single-mounted, the rear main gun is twin-connected, and there are also twelve 40-fold 150 mm secondary guns, which are placed on the two wings of the central bridge tower of the tower ship.

In fact, this second-class battleship cannot compete with its opponents in terms of tonnage or firepower, the second-class battleship equipped by Russia and France. What's more, it has been in service for more than ten years. Not only does the old ship lose the courage of an old horse, but both the hull and the power system are already old. Therefore, the Habs battleship, which was incorporated into the Fourth Battleship Fleet, often plays a marginal role.

In April, the Royal Navy's power was still there. Italians' enemies and friends were unpredictable. In order to win a brilliant victory, Baron Anton von House, who succeeded the position of commander-in-chief of the Navy of Count Montekukoli, did not hesitate to show the momentum of a lion fighting rabbit, and took out three joint force-class battleships that the Empire regarded as a pearl and three slightly dull Radetsky-class quasi-dreadless ships. The third battle fleet's three equally rusty Karl, Friedrich, and Ferdinand I, three old battleships.

Holtie Miklos clearly remembered that day. After the whole camp was dispatched, the Port of Bola was empty, with only three Habsburg-class battleships of the Fourth Battleship Fleet still parked at the berth. The order they received was to stand by and could only watch their colleagues create a new history of the Austro-Hungarian Navy developed from the Oliti Navy in Vlair.

Walking out of the inner passage of the central bridge, holding the gangway handrail, and walking down the battleship. Relying on the small traffic beside the gangway of the battleship Habsburg, several sailors holding the boat stood attentively and saluted. Holtie Mickloch raised his hand and jumped agilely to the small traffic boat that followed the waves.

At this time, there were already many captains on the traffic boat. The colonel greeted his colleagues whom he knew and whispered to ask the command for the emergency call. At this time, a long and distant whistle sound came from behind him.

"Yes, it's our Prince Eugen!"

Facing the scorching sunshine of the Mediterranean, the United Force-class 3 ship, Prince Eugen, which was supposed to be in service at the end of 1915, slowly sailed into the Port of Bola.

Due to funding issues, the construction of the battleship Saint-Estvan has always been progressing slowly.

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Royal Family and the Austrian Parliament supported the development of the navy, but the Hungarian Parliament was opposed to the navy. Fortunately, the Austro-Hungarian Navy had the tenacity and wisdom to deal with difficulties.

The Austro-Hungarian Navy was under the jurisdiction of the army in its early days, with low administrative capabilities and low professional quality. However, it was because of its close relationship with the army that the Austro-Hungarian Navy maintained its vigor and blocked the army's conservative and rigid thinking. Therefore, in the outdated Austro-Hungarian team, the Navy had a very high spirit of innovation and a relatively active fighting spirit. Stimulated by the victory of the German Navy, the Austro-Hungarian Navy did not hesitate to sell his family to raise funds and pay the final payment of the Prince Eugen battleship.

Looking at Prince Eugen returning from the shipyard, the Colonel's dark mood suddenly became bright. As a noble family, he entered the Austro-Hungarian Naval Academy in Rijeka at the age of 14. He had longed for military glory and was looking forward to the day when the Austro-Hungarian Navy was strong.

In the sun, Prince Eugen slowly landed on the anchor, and Holty Micklos's eyes became softer. Although Prince Eugen's flat deck type is not conducive to ocean navigation and there will be wave problems when advancing at high speed, this is the calm Mediterranean Sea. Compared with the 161-meter length of the Battleship of the Fearless, the United Force class with a 1,000 tons more tonnage than the former is only 152 meters long, and a commander tower is compactly arranged on the short hull, four triple-mounted 305mm main guns, the foremast and the main mast, and two chimneys. This makes Prince Eugen look a little bloated and obese, but it is not useless. At least the financially tight engineers have brought the potential of insufficient hull to the extreme.

This is a good ship, but unfortunately it is not my Holtie Micklos' ship!

"Holti, that's not your ship!" Colonel Kudka patted Holtie Miklosh on the shoulder and teased.

"I know!" Holtie retracted her gaze and shrugged.

"Don't be sad. Holtie. I have a lot of gossip here to calm you." Colonel Kudka looked at Holtie Miklosh who tried his best to disguise himself calm, and took his old friend's shoulder and whispered: "It is said that General Houss intends to transfer you to the light cruiser Novara as the captain. It is a warship that can carry your dreams!"

"That's just a reconnaissance cruiser..."

The Novara is just a reconnaissance cruiser, equivalent to the third-class cruiser in the British Empire Navy sequence, but compared with the Habsburg battleship, which had no chance to go out to sea to fight, Holtie Mickloss had reason to be happy. The colonel was secretly happy, but his face was still tense.

"What else is good news?"

"And..." Colonel Kudka took a deep breath and threw out a bombshell enough to disrupt the entire Mediterranean in a gentle tone: "The Navy Division plans to hire the German Navy God who had just resigned as our naval consultant."

Heidi Silame is the British Third Maritime Secretary David Betty who is worth at least one battleship squadron? Heidi Silame who planned and led four naval battles and had no defeats?

For a few seconds, Holtie Miklosh vaguely felt his heartbeat stop until Colonel Kudka continued to show off what he heard from the Navy Division:

"It is said that the miscellaneous parts of the Apennine Peninsula in the west are also pursuing General Heidi Sileme, but they have no chance. After all, we are close allies of Germany! Haha. It is not far from the time we Austrians dominate the Mediterranean!"

"Maybe... I have to add Croats, Italians and Czech-Slovakians!" Holtie Miklos added a sentence in his heart.

Istanbul, the capital of Türkiye.

The convertible drove from Golden Horn Bay shuttled through the narrow roads in the old town of Istanbul. It took more than half an hour to reach Gaomen, the Ottoman government headquarters.

Admiral Sorochin, who was the commander-in-chief of the Turkish Navy, also served as the commander-in-chief of the Yavos, walked out of the military vehicle, put on a Turkish-style naval felt hat, looked up at the grand gate, and sighed softly. He led Gunther Lütjens to follow the footsteps of Adjutant Enzeel, the Minister of Defense of one of Turkey's three giants, to come to Enzeel's room.

"It was the cold winter of 1913. I invited Heidi Sileme to my office and took out a copy of the first deputy minister of the Turkish Admiralty. The young man refused. He said he was tired. He served in Germany for twenty years and had two medals of outstanding service for ten years of the Navy."

Enzel threw the documents on the desk aside, pointed to the chair opposite the desk and let Sorochin and Lütjens sit down. He then found a letter of appointment from the filing cabinet with a mottled sign, recalling the past with a faint smile.

"I respect Silame very much, so I let it go. Later, Silame rose to prominence in Germany and was already a naval colonel before the war broke out. Later, Silame led the Ocean Fleet to defeat the Royal Navy again and again, achieving the German Navy's reputation. It was not until then that I realized that the Ottoman Empire and I missed a genius who could regain the dream of a great naval shattered by the battleships of the Sultan Ottoman I and the Resatih."

"So, respected Damad, what do you mean?" General Sorochin pondered for three or five seconds before speaking.

"I heard that Silem is at home after resigning, and Turkey must not miss this genius again!" Enzel raised his head, his voice suddenly raised several times, and said seriously: "The Italians and Olidi are recruiting Silem. I hope you can help us speak from the Turkish standpoint..."

"The Turks joined in?"

After the destruction of the Invincible Armada, Spain was already declining, and the Spanish-American War broke the last backbone of the empire. Today, Spain's people's livelihood is in decline and financial difficulties are in financial difficulties, and revolutionary movements are constantly occurring.

Alfonso Thirteenth pulled open the curtain, looked at the city of Madrid in the rain, felt the uncontrollable commotion under the calm, and said lightly:

"Then, let's send an invitation telegram to Berlin, too..."

"King, we have just sold three Spanish-class battleships to the Allies..." Former Spanish Prime Minister Alvaro Figueroa, who graduated from the law department of Madrid Central University but had never engaged in any legal career, weakened his legs and whispered.

Alvaro Figueroa has a somewhat ambiguous relationship with the current Spanish Prime Minister Edward Datuk, and the king's decision will undoubtedly bring some unpredictable risks to the balance of Spain's political situation.

"Fiegeloa, I'm tired of Datuk. Because I don't expect war, I need a new balance." King Alfonso XIII looked drowsy leaning against the windowsill, but his turbid eyes were shining with a wise light. "Do you know, Figeloa, Datuk reached some agreement with the German Navy, so they could bite the British Mediterranean and return to the aid fleet and win the Battle of Portsmouth!"
Chapter completed!