Read the domain name of this site online in plain text

Please visit the mobile phone to read synchronously

"Hi Heinrich, welcome to Trieste."

On the platform, welcoming Mueller was a sturdy naval lieutenant colonel.

"Well, Frank, I didn't expect you to come to the station to pick me up." Mueller and his old friend hugged each other on the platform. Lieutenant Colonel Frankel was his colleague when he was serving at Split Naval Base. He graduated from Bora's Naval School a year later. The relationship between the two was pretty good. They had not seen each other for four or five years, and their hair had begun to turn a little gray.

"There is no way. I am currently in the Navy Command, in charge of personnel reception, and have retreated to the second line." Flanger said, "I heard that you are coming here, so I came here in person."

"Thanks."

"Okay, don't be polite." Flanger said, "There are quite a few of you who are going to the Far East."

"I don't know very well. I came the next day after receiving the notice." Mueller said, following Flanger to a sky blue military car. The orderly man behind Flanger helped him carry the suitcase and put it in the trunk of the car.

Cars are driving on the streets of Trieste. After decades of development, the population here has exceeded 700,000, making it a famous large harbor city in Europe. The streets are brightly lit, and vehicles are constantly flowing, so they have to be very prosperous.

"Was the wife and the kids good?" Flanger sat in the front seat of the car and turned around and said.

"Fortunately, the eldest daughter is already married. Hart is studying in the naval school, but the second child doesn't like our business. The remaining two are still in elementary school." Muller said, he has five children, three sons and two daughters. The pressure on life is not small.

"Heinrich, the situation in the Far East is a bit bad. Do you think the Chinese and Japanese will really fight?" Flanger said.

"It's hard to say. Since the Chinese formed an alliance with us, the Americans have begun to support Japan. It turned out that we and Germany could still make the Japanese obedient, but now they can no longer suppress them." Mueller said, "Since the economic crisis in the United States, the Japanese government is now ruled by soldiers and has accelerated the pace of military equipment. Moreover, the Japanese Navy has obtained the same ship tonnage as ours in the Washington Naval Treaty."

"I heard that the negotiations on the second Naval Arms Restriction Treaty held in Berlin were not going well, and countries may not be able to renew their contracts, and a new round of naval arms race is about to begin."

"There is nothing to do. The Japanese withdrew from the Washington Navy Arms Treaty on the excuse that we sold four battleships to the Chinese. Now countries can't reach a consensus. Behind this is the shadow of the Americans, Roosevelt hopes to use the rectification of the arms to promote the recovery of the domestic economy. Although we have suffered a smaller impact in this economic crisis, the domestic economy is also difficult to grow. Fortunately, the market in the Far East is supporting it."

In 199, the collapse of the US financial market triggered an economic crisis that swept the world. Subsequently, industrial and agricultural production in various countries declined across the board and a large number of enterprises went bankrupt. It seemed that people had realized their wealth was evaporated overnight. But this was not over. With this economic crisis, the entire world economy entered the "Great Depression era", and industrial and agricultural production in various countries recovered slowly. The unemployment rate remained high and society began to be in turmoil.

Due to the barriers to consolidation and confrontation awareness, Germany and Austria's economic ties are not particularly close. They have suffered less impact in this major economic crisis, and the economic operation is much better due to the support of China, an emerging market. Even so, in 1933, when the crisis ended, the GDP of Germany and Austria fell by 0% compared with 199.

Due to the impact of this major economic crisis, fascism emerged in Italy and France and embarked on the road of totalitarianism. It began to reorganize arms, increase national military expenditures, and develop military forces to stimulate the rapid development of other important domestic industries, especially steel, chemicals, ships, vehicle manufacturing and other industries, in order to overcome this economic crisis.

During this period, Japan also gave up the "constitutional era" of about twenty years, embarked on the road of militarism's external expansion, and first withdrew from the Washington Navy Treaty on Arms Restriction, began to vigorously expand its arms, and entered a state of war in full swing.

History has gone a long way and has returned to the era of large-scale arms race before the European War.

This is May 5, 1935.

Mueller, carrying two heavy suitcases filled with casual clothes and military uniforms, walked out of the Navy Guesthouse next to the Navy Command with a group of officers. Several large buses sent by the Navy to pick them up were already waiting for them downstairs.

The car drove directly to the dock of the Imperial Shipping Company, a luxurious Imperial cruise ship parked next to the wide passenger terminal. About 130 naval and army officers boarded the passenger ship heading to the Far East.

More than two hours later, the cruise ship sounded three long whistles, and the three elevated gangways on the dock were removed from the hull. The band played "God Bless My Emperor Frederick" on the dock. The large cruise ship with a full load displacement of more than 30,000 tons slowly left the dock under the pull of two tugboats. The deck under the feet began to vibrate, and the ship began to sail towards the channel. Passengers gathered on several decks, waving their hands or hats to say goodbye to the crowd who were seeing off the dock.

This is a cloudy day, with about 5-level winds and waves on the sea surface. This wind and waves are nothing to people from the navy, but it still makes some first-time tourists feel uncomfortable.

Muller was not on the deck, and he had been in his cabin since he got on board. The military provided them with tickets for the second class cabin, and each two people lived in one cabin. The same room as Muller was an army officer.

The two introduced themselves to each other. The army officer was named Wujokovic, a Croatian from the armored forces.

"You guys are going to China, too?" Mueller asked.

"Well, we are helping the Chinese train armored forces, and there are also some technical cooperation." Wuyokovic said, "The Chinese talents have not established armored forces for a long time."

"Ah, can the Chinese make their own tanks?" Mueller said curiously.

"There are some, but the output is not high, about 800 vehicles per year, and their automobile production is about 500,000 vehicles per year, and about ten armored divisions have been formed." Wuyokovic said, "China is not as backward as we imagined. The overall industrial level is already comparable to that of the Japanese. Are you going to China too?"

"Well, however, I need to stay in Annan for a while." Mueller said. Due to the tension in the Far East, both Germany and Austria have strengthened the strength of the Far East fleet. This time he went to the Far East, he needed to make a detailed assessment report on the air force comparison in the Far East, including China and Japan. (To be continued)
Chapter completed!