Chapter 1563 Common Assets of the Empire
On March 14, two frigates of the East African Navy quietly sailed north along the Red Sea, passed through the Suez Canal, and finally arrived in Dubrovnik.
As a key maritime chokepoint controlled by the British, the Suez Canal is also an important intelligence gathering site for the UK, which allows the UK to monitor key data in the Indian Ocean or Asia at any time, such as the scale of trade between Europe and East Africa, transported goods, military movements, etc.
However, although Britain already knew that two East African frigates had entered the Mediterranean, it did not pay too much attention to it. This was due to the frequent cooperation between the East African Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy over the years.
Although East Africa had no bases in the Mediterranean in the past, this did not prevent the East African Navy from frequently operating in the Mediterranean under the banner of escort and cooperation.
Therefore, it is not difficult to see East African warships in the Mediterranean, especially in the Adriatic Sea.
The East African Navy's deployment to the port of Dubrovnik did not attract much attention from other forces within the Austro-Hungarian Empire for the time being. Dalmatia was the most pro-East African region within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so naturally it would not cause conflict.
Dubrovnik Port.
"There are two forks in the bay of Dubrovnik. The harbor on the west side is our destination, which is heading northwest." Captain Yars of the East African Navy, who came to Dubrovnik for the first time, stood on the deck of the frigate Lubango, holding a telescope in his hand and observing the Lapad Bay.
Lapad Bay is the name of the bay where the Port of Dubrovnik is located. However, the Port of Dubrovnik refers more to the western port of Dubrovnik. There is also a small and medium-sized port in the eastern fork of Lapad Bay, but it is not suitable for large warships to berth. There is also a port built during the Republic of Ragusa period in the south, but there is no natural barrier.
"I have to say, the conditions in Dubrovnik Port are far better than we imagined, especially in terms of defense. Dubrovnik Port is quite advantageous. It is backed by high ground, and the bay mouth is not easily accessible to the enemy. The terrain is quite dangerous. The Lovrijenac Fortress to the south is built on a cliff over 30 meters high, and is known as the Gibraltar of Dubrovnik."
"It's hard to imagine that this kind of terrain and port conditions were ignored by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and were only used as an auxiliary port," Colonel Yars analyzed. "If it were in East Africa, the Port of Dubrovnik would definitely be built into the Adriatic Sea's most solid maritime fortress."
The East African Navy does have considerable experience in port renovation. The reason for this is the lack of high-quality port resources in East Africa. Therefore, all ports in East Africa have undergone large-scale artificial renovation.
Next to Colonel Yars is the Chief Political Officer of the Lubango frigate, Strollin. The Chief Political Officer is a special military position in the East African Defense Force, similar to the political commissar of the Soviet army. He is in charge of military ideology and some daily work.
Strollin said, "After all, the Republic of Ragusa was once a powerful maritime nation in the Adriatic Sea, able to compete with the then-Venetian Republic. Dubrovnik, as its capital, was naturally very strong in defense, otherwise it would have been completely conquered by the Venetians long ago."
As a city-state, the Republic of Ragusa is centered on Dubrovnik. It has no strategic depth at all and faces the threats from other forces in the Adriatic Sea. It is able to grow and develop, and naturally has many advantages in terrain.
Colonel Yars said: "Therefore, we must make good use of the terrain advantages here. I have a few ideas at the moment. The first is to renovate Dubrovnik's western port. Since the Republic of Ragusa was destroyed by Austria, the infrastructure here has not been effectively upgraded."
"So even the best-equipped West Port is somewhat unsuitable for berthing modern warships. South Port should also be utilized, especially the Lovrijenac Fortress, which needs to be heavily defended. Anti-aircraft firepower should be established on the high ground to its east."
"On the west side, including the small island at the entrance to Lapad Bay, build an enemy reconnaissance station..."
It is clear that East Africa wants to build a military base in Dubrovnik, which is a rather large and complicated process.
Strolling said: "These supporting facilities and renovations are a huge expense, and it is not easy to get local approval."
Colonel Yars said, "This is a long-term plan. If it's not comprehensive enough, Dubrovnik won't be of much use in our hands."
"Furthermore, as the Empire's first military base in the Mediterranean, I believe the Empire attaches great importance to Dubrovnik."
"Finally, we will help renovate the port of Dubrovnik, and the Kingdom of Dalmatia should also contribute. After all, Dalmatia also needs to improve its coastal defenses. Dubrovnik will most likely become a shared military port between us and Austria in the future."
Although the Port of Dubrovnik was the first military port obtained by East Africa in the Mediterranean, Colonel Yars did not say enough.
After all, there are many places in the Austro-Hungarian Empire with better conditions than the Port of Dubrovnik. Even in Dalmatia, there is the Port of Zadar, which is one of the core bases of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
The port of Zadar has complete facilities that can be used directly, while Dubrovnik has been in disrepair for a long time. At this stage, don’t expect the port of Dubrovnik to play a big role in military affairs. The two frigates anchored here in East Africa are already the limit of Dubrovnik. There is no point in deploying basic warships.
However, Colonel Yars also mentioned that the Port of Dubrovnik will obviously not be exclusive to East Africa in the future. It plays a very important role for both the Kingdom of Dalmatia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
As a subordinate kingdom of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Dalmatia's terrain determined that it was impossible not to attach importance to the development of maritime power. As for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Navy did not pay attention to Dubrovnik in the past. Ultimately, it was all because of money.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire has always paid more attention to the development of the army, and the naval funds are very limited. Otherwise, the Austro-Hungarian Navy would not have failed to develop Dubrovnik, the southernmost frontier position of the empire.
To put it in a broader context, if the Austro-Hungarian Empire had invested more in its navy, they would probably have completely controlled the entire Adriatic coast in the last century, turning it into their inland sea, and could have controlled the Strait of Otranto and attacked the Mediterranean at any time.
But the reality is that the Austro-Hungarian Navy's position as the overlord of the Adriatic Sea is not very stable. In recent years, the Italian Navy has developed rapidly and is showing signs of revival.
At the same time, the Austro-Hungarian Navy lagged far behind in speed, especially in the context of constant domestic turmoil, which forced the Habsburgs to pay more attention to the development of the army in order to suppress rebellions in various places.
Whenever the Austro-Hungarian Navy wanted to break free from its development constraints, it was always delayed for various reasons.
In comparison, the situation of the East African Navy is much better. Since the 20th century, the development of the East African Navy has been at the forefront of the world.
In the 19th century, due to the colonial expansion of East Africa on the African continent, the army took priority over the navy. Therefore, the East African army was more valued than the navy in the 19th century.
After the 20th century, East Africa completed its expansion on the African continent. In addition, East Africa’s land neighbors and regions are basically a bunch of “rotten fish and shrimp” that pose no threat or potential. Therefore, there is basically no national defense pressure at the land level.
In other words, Ernst has always advocated maintaining the size and combat effectiveness of the army. Otherwise, the East African Army might have become completely "third-rate" like the British and American armies.
After World War I, East Africa's overseas expansion further promoted East Africa to increase funding for naval construction. In fact, East Africa has now become a maritime power, and the navy can play a greater role and play a leading role in East Africa's current world strategy.
As for why Ernst has maintained the size of the army and its combat effectiveness, it is not due to the current defense and military strategic needs of East Africa, but for future planning.
In the past, even a country as powerful as the United States had to go through two world wars and send large numbers of troops to Europe to participate in the wars if it wanted to achieve world hegemony.
In fact, the East African Army was prepared by Ernst for the world war. Fortunately, East Africa did not participate in the First World War and successfully mediated the two major camps, allowing them to temporarily shake hands and make peace. However, anyone with a discerning eye could see that this kind of peace was unsustainable, especially the German side, which was the most unwilling.
Maintaining the development of the army now does squeeze military spending, but when they are truly put to good use, the losses in East Africa can be minimized as much as possible. This is what is often said, "Maintain an army for a thousand days and deploy it for a moment."
At least Ernst thought it was necessary. In the Second World War, the casualties of the major participating countries were often in the tens of millions. The Soviet Union, the Far Eastern Empire and Germany all suffered more than tens of millions of military and civilian casualties, and the casualties of other major participating countries were also in the millions.
This was the final outcome of the United States. Even though it had a large number of allies and an absolute advantage in weapons and equipment, it still paid the price of millions of military casualties, and this was when it was fighting against the Axis powers, which were already at their weakest.
Ernst naturally does not want East Africa to pay such a price in the future. To achieve this, he can only make adequate preparations, especially put more effort into military training. After all, as the saying goes, more sweat in peacetime and less blood in war.
Of course, as an industrial power, East Africa will not resort to human wave tactics. Instead, it must focus on the research and development of weapons and equipment, as well as continuous innovation in military tactics.
To be honest, the combat effectiveness of the East African Army has always been a mystery. Its scale, weapons, and training intensity can all reach world-class levels, and even surpass Germany in some data. However, without the test of war, it is full of uncertainty.
Of course, there is no doubt that the status of the East African Army is declining compared to the navy and even the air force. However, the opponents of the East African Army are not other branches of the military in the country, but the armies of other countries around the world.
…
March 1934.
Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Emperor Rudolf, who had just reached the "Dubrovnik Port Lease Agreement" with East Africa, still had many resources in his hands and planned to sell them.
After all, with the first step, the psychological burden of the Habsburg family would no longer exist with the subsequent transactions. Ultimately, it was the continued decay and deterioration of the empire that continued to weaken the confidence of the Habsburg family.
At Schönbrunn Palace, Crown Prince Karl reported to Emperor Rudolf on the asset transfer: "Father, the family business is being sold off at an accelerated pace. Meanwhile, our second batch of assets has been transferred to East Africa. It will take at least another six months to fully transfer the royal assets as planned."
Emperor Rudolf said dejectedly, "It's still too slow. I'm afraid we won't last half a year. Bohemia is completely out of control. Large-scale uprisings have also broken out in Bosnia and Eastern Lombardy. Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, and Galicia are also ready to make moves."
Now, the Habsburgs had basically lost all their prestige in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and even Austria and Hungary were in trouble. Emperor Rudolf had a premonition that the collapse of the empire was not far away.
As for the supporters of the Habsburgs, to be honest, apart from the nobles, they are just some ordinary people who don't want to make trouble. However, they don't care whether they are ruled by the Habsburg family. But this also means that they can accept the rule of the new government and don't care about the change of regime.
As for asking them to work to safeguard the interests of the Habsburgs, that was basically impossible. It was considered a blessing if they didn't step in and step on them.
This means that the only power the Habsburg family can use is the nobility, but as everyone knows, the aristocracy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire has long been corrupt, and their base is too small compared to the empire, making them of little use.
Emperor Rudolf pessimistically said: "There is no longer any soil for the development of monarchy in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The change in ideology is completely irreversible."
"And for an empire without a monarchy, it's only a matter of time before it disintegrates, and then the empire will naturally cease to exist."
The end of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was the end of the empire's life. After all, the same monarch was the only cultural and ideological bond among the people of the empire.
Emperor Rudolf was very sad about the impending disintegration of the empire. If possible, he did not want to see the empire divided, even if the Habsburgs withdrew, because the end of the Habsburg family's rule was a foregone conclusion.
However, even if he announced his abdication now and the Habsburgs gave up power over the empire, the fate of the empire's disintegration would not change in any way.
Emperor Rudolf calmed down and said, "It's too late to say anything now. But even if the Empire collapses, we can't let those traitors off easy, especially by letting them eat the fat of the Empire's corpse."
"After all, if the empire really disintegrates, none of them will be good heirs to the legacy. Rather than giving it to those selfish extreme nationalists, it would be better to sell off the common heritage of the empire."
What is the common heritage of the empire? It is the achievements developed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a whole over the years. A typical example is the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Just imagine, if the Austro-Hungarian Empire is divided in the future, who will become the heir to the navy?
No, only a unified and powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire could afford such a large and important navy in the world. However, it was obvious that Venice, Croatia and Dalmatia could not unite to support this fleet, and those inland areas were even less likely to invest a penny in it.
Therefore, rather than watching the Imperial Navy wither away naturally in the future, it is better to entrust it to worthy people.
Now, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is like the late Soviet Union in its previous life. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, all the glory of the Soviet Union will perish along with the empire.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
