Lee Haydn finally had time to care about his navy. The three "Istrian Grand Duke" class battleships donated by Lee Haydn still stimulated the Imperial Parliament. With the promotion of Ferdinand and his, the construction budget for the construction of four new battleships that the navy should have passed in January 1914 was advanced to July 1913.

Because Lee Haydn proposed to name new battleships after the names of the countries in the empire, this aroused great support from the Bohemia Kingdom and the Croatian Kingdom Local Councils, which longed for autonomy. Although these two places only had the name of a kingdom, they could not conceal their enthusiasm for autonomy.

The Bohemia and Croatian parliament even proposed that local finances each bear one-eighth of the shipbuilding budget. This time the Hungarians did not express their objection. After all, it was more than 100 million kroner, and the Magyars never could not compete with the money. Thanks to their previous shipbuilding experience, the four Austrian class battleships were only slightly larger than the "Grand Duke of Istria" class, and were all equipped with 10 main guns with a caliber of 380 mm and 45 times the caliber, which can be regarded as improved models of the "Grand Duke of Istria" class. Therefore, in November 1913, the four battleships completed the design and began construction one after another in October 1913.

Since the Istria Shipyard had already undertaken the construction of three battleships at that time, the four "Austrian" class battleships were constructed by the Royal Trieste Shipyard, the Bola Naval Shipyard and the Fumdonau Shipyard. The Royal Shipyard was undertaken the construction of two new battleships.

According to normal history, due to the outbreak of the European War, the four battleships that had just started construction were immediately suspended, but this time it was different. Since most of the main construction of the four battleships had been completed, and the victory in the Battle of the Otranto Sea, the empire still had high hopes for the navy. And thanks to the full support of Li Haydn, these battleships continued to build projects.

At present, these four battleships have been launched and the outfitting project has begun. Of course, it will take about a year to officially enter service. The 380mm main gun and turret developed by Carlson's Skoda Arsenal for the "Grand Duke of Istria" class battleship has been completed. At the artillery test site in Hungary, the No. 1 main gun actually pushed the shell weighing 860 kilograms 46 kilometers away. Of course, the main gun of the warship loaded into the turret cannot reach the maximum firing angle. Even so, the range of the SK-15 380mm naval gun can still reach 41 kilometers when the elevation angle is 27 degrees, which is completely above the range of the main guns of warships of various countries during the same period.

During the Battle of Galicia, Admiral Negovan led a battle fleet twice to try to break through the blockade of the British and French fleets of the Otranto Strait, but both returned in vain. The strengthened British and French Mediterranean fleet currently has 12 dreadnoughts, and its powerful strength forced General Negovan to return immediately after only a brief exchange of fire with his opponent.

It is impossible to fight against the enemy head-on. Of course, Lee Haydn will not do such stupid things as touching a stone with an egg.

The navies of the German Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire were helplessly suppressed and did nothing in their respective military ports, only the performance of the submarine troops was still eye-catching.

Before the war, although Lee Haydn's strong support was strong, the submarine force was not valued within the navy. However, due to close cooperation with the German shipyard, it was technically comparable to the Germans. After the war, the Austro-Hungarian Naval Submarine Force, which had only 27 submarines, achieved excellent results in sinking an enemy's armored cruiser, two cruisers and four destroyers, and at the same time, sank 130,000 tons of enemy merchant ships.

Unlike the increasingly high submarine victory theory within the German Navy, Lee Hayden never believed that it could achieve a decisive role in the results of naval warfare. After all, submarines are just a destructive weapon and cannot replace surface ships to gain maritime advantage. Seizing sea control is the main purpose of maritime warfare.

A powerful navy must be a balanced navy, and the result of naval warfare is never determined by one or two cutting-edge technologies.

Due to geographical location, the Austro-Hungarian Navy naturally cannot compare with most continental countries with long coastlines or marine countries with island countries. For a considerable period, it could only be an offshore navy, the Mediterranean Sea, and it is the only place where it can play a role.

This does not mean that it has little significance. On the contrary, control of the Mediterranean is crucial to the Allies, but has a smaller impact on Britain and France. If the sea control power is obtained in the Mediterranean, there will be no difficulties in supplying materials in the Allies, and it may even send fleets and marines into the Black Sea, thus directly threatening the Russians' hinterland.

According to Lee Hayden's plan, by the end of 1915, the Imperial Navy would have seven super battleships equipped with 380mm main guns to enter service. By then, he would be able to engage in a fierce maritime battle with the British and French navies in the Mediterranean. This depends on the determination of the Germans to see if they can restrain most of the British navy's main forces.

In addition, the so-called butterfly effect has emerged, and the growing Austro-Hungarian Navy has also stimulated Britain and France to add their main battleship construction plans. Shortly after the launch of the "Grand Duke of Isleia", the British side added four "Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, and France also quickly started construction of three "Cardinale"-class battleships equipped with 381mm main guns. The design was completed so quickly that it must have received strong help from the British. Even these three battleships were imitated based on the British battleships.

On the contrary, Germany suddenly slowed down after the war. The five "Bavarian" class battleships launched in 1914 have not yet completed the hull construction. If they were at the current speed, it is estimated that they would not be able to complete the construction of these five main battleships by the end of the war.

Isn't it ridiculous that the German Empire, which produced 27 million tons of steel, could not complete the construction of five battleships within four years? It is now 1914, not 1941, but not so many tanks and warships are competing for limited armored steel production.

Lee Hayden felt it was necessary to travel to Germany to have a good chat with William II and his fellow naval colleagues from the Second Empire.

After careful communication with the German Navy's shipbuilding department, Li Haidn then understood what the problem was.

First, the Germans did not expect that this war would form a lasting war of attrition. Before the war, they did not expect to establish sufficient strategic reserves. Although Li Haidn reminded them, it was useless at all. Now the problem arises. The Second German Empire only produced 27 million tons of steel per year, but lacked rare metal raw materials for making high-quality alloy steel. The original reserves of the Krupp Steel Plant were almost used up. Now, high-quality alloys with small output have been given priority for military departments to make cannons, and there is no rich high-quality steel to produce armor plates.

Secondly, after the war started, a large number of skilled technicians in shipyards were summoned to the army, and now the entire German shipbuilding industry lacks excellent technical workers.

Oh my god, these are definitely pig-like teammates. They actually sent precious technical workers to the front line to be cannon fodder?

Li Haidn sighed helplessly. He seriously discussed this serious issue with the German emperor and Dr. Kobel, who was in charge of military production and supply. Dr. Kobel strongly agreed with his point of view. The German emperor also realized the mistake he had made. Soon the General Staff of the Second Empire ordered that 100,000 technical workers who were serving on the front line who were involved in military production were transferred back to various factories in China to continue serving.

Li Haidn could only squeeze out 150,000 tons of various scarce metal materials from the strategic materials he had reserved before the war and gave them to the Germans. Of course, they could not be given for free, but asked the Germans to exchange gold according to the current market price. He did not dare to accept the Mark. What if this thing depreciates significantly? It is not that these paper money will depreciate.

The Second Imperial Navy's shipbuilding project was finally restored. Although it was not as good as before the war, it was much better than before.
Chapter completed!