My Italian

Chapter 74: Sino-French war broke out

Since Carlo bet everything, he must do his best.

Now that the Prime Minister is no longer in his way, all preparations must be accelerated.

First of all, the two Venice-class cruisers are the key to this operation. Although it is impossible to compete with the future French fleet, as long as they are used well, they can be blinded.

In Carlo's view, the biggest role of these two cruise ships is to intercept supply lines, and even to block their Far East trade. As long as this can be done, Paris will be crazy.

So Carlo was very concerned about his nature, and he went to Genoa many times to check the two cruisers that were undergoing sea trials.

"Hello, Lieutenant Colonel Soares."

"Hello, Your Majesty."

"Hello, Captain Leifer."

"Hello, Your Majesty"

"Hello, Captain Gomes."

Hello, Your Majesty.

Inside the Genoa Naval Base, Carlo greeted the commanders of the patrol formation who had just returned from the sea trial.

Some people may wonder why the cruiser captain has the rank of captain, shouldn't he be an officer of the school rank?

Indeed, according to the practice of the Italian Navy, the captain of a cruiser is basically a major, let alone a 7,000-ton cruiser, which should be the case.

However, these two battleships are quite special. First, they were built with funds from the royal family. Second, it is impossible for these two battleships to appear in the Italian Navy's battleship sequence.

Because Carlo had already talked to Admiral Gorek, the Secretary of the Navy, these two warships would be sold in the future. Of course, Carlo will not treat the Navy badly, and the funds from the sale of battleships can be included in the Navy's next shipbuilding funds.

Of course, it is impossible for the navy to get this money for nothing. The navy needs to prepare staffing for these two warships, and generally not enough, they must be elite soldiers.

At this time, Carlo informed Admiral Golek of his true purpose. The two warships would be sold to the Qing government in the future to fight against the French invasion. Given its weak naval strength, it also needs to be considered for its crew.

In the face of Carlo's notification, Admiral Gorek didn't know what to say, but in view of the fine tradition of the Navy, he could only do as he did.

When it comes to selecting the crew, it's fine. Italy has a large number of experienced veterans, so it's not a big problem to recruit, but when it comes to the captain, he has some difficulties.

When it comes to captain candidates with naval combat experience, Italy has no shortage of captains. After the previous battle with the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Sari Sea, the navy had a large number.

However, seventeen or eighteen years have passed since the naval battle. If the captains of those years had not retired, they would have been at least the first rank of major admiral, obviously not suitable for going to the Far East to participate in the battle. After all, if there is a general-level figure on the ship, it is difficult to say that Italy is not deeply involved. And it must also be taken into account that the two warships risked being captured by the French, so the risk was too high for senior officers to be present.

Not only are senior officers unsuitable, but even colonel-level officers must be as few as possible, so the opportunity for naval officers at the captain level came, and Gomes and Leifer, two lucky captains, were selected to become two ships. Captain of the patrol.

As for Lieutenant Colonel Soares, he was in charge of commanding the formation, teaching the two captains how to use cruisers, and would not follow the warships to the Far East.

These two captains were not chosen randomly, they are both rising stars in the navy. Among them, Captain Leifer was born in a noble family in Turin. He joined the Navy in 1873 and once traveled around the world with the Gallipoli frigate as a second officer. He then served as captain of the gunboat HMS Fighter and first officer of the cruiser HMS Valiant. During his tenure, he received unanimous praise from superiors and seniors. His superiors once commented on him as brave, calm, courageous and resourceful, very independent, but able to listen to other people's opinions.

As for Captain Gomes, he was born in a fisherman's family in Sardinia. Although his background was not good, Gomes was very talented in learning. He was once recruited by the Livorno naval officer as the third place in the school. During the military academy, Gomes performed well in the school, and finally graduated second in the class, was awarded the rank of second lieutenant, and served as an artillery officer on the armored ship USS Garrosh and the cruiser USS Beek. Second mate, chief mate, etc. During this period, superiors at all levels spoke highly of him, calling him a Pusno-style figure. This man was not particularly famous in the Battle of Sally, but the third formation he commanded firmly blocked the Austro-Hungarian fleet and bought time for the Italian Navy to regroup.

It can be said that these two lieutenant officers are the hope of the next generation of the Navy. Appointing them as captains shows how dedicated the Navy is.

Carlo continued to ask after greeting the three. "What's this sea trial like?"

"God bless, this sea trial is not bad. The two captains have a tacit understanding. Sometimes, even if I don't give orders, they can make the same choice tacitly."

Lieutenant Colonel Soares, the fleet commander, praised the actions of the two captains.

And his praise made the two captains with thin skin bow their heads. In front of Carlo, they were a little uncomfortable with these compliments.

"I'm still very clear about the abilities of the two captains, Leifel and Leifel. It doesn't matter to them."

Carlo has not come to Genoa once or twice. UU reading www.uukanshu.com naturally knows the abilities of these two, so after giving a compliment, he continued to ask. "So what are the shortcomings of this sea trial?"

"In terms of feeling, its turning radius is larger, perhaps because the ship is longer, and the power system may be a new triple-expansion steam engine, and the failure rate is much higher than the previous vertical compound steam engine. ."

"Also, the artillery officers and soldiers responded that because the two-stage main gun adopts a fully enclosed turret structure, its internal ventilation is very poor. If you stay in it for a long time, you will feel stuffy. In addition, during shooting training, the internal smoke is very heavy. , which greatly affects the operation of personnel.”

"in addition…"

The three commanders kept talking about a lot of questions, and Carlo listened patiently to their speeches, but the designer Vittorio Cuniberti on the side was writing quickly, recording the problems that were exposed. For those that can be solved immediately, and those that cannot be solved, come up with an improvement plan in the next construction.

Carlo didn't stay at the shipyard for long, and then invited the three officers to dinner. In the elegant Genoa Dove restaurant, the four of them chat and laugh.

But at this time a squire came in with a telegram.

"Your Majesty, this is an expedited telegram from France."

When Carlo heard that it was an urgent telegram, he didn't care about chatting with the three commanders, and took the telegram right away.

There are not many words on it, but the content is indeed what Carlo has been looking forward to for a long time. The French parliament just made a resolution in the afternoon to declare war on Qing.

The time he was waiting for was ripe, and he needed to act immediately.

After Carlo received the telegram, he smiled slightly at the three curious officers. "Three, your time is running out."

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