War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

In the Indian Ocean, in order to show weakness to the enemy, Friedrich chose to only use steam engines to heat hot water along the way; the propellers of his own warships were not started at all, and they drifted everywhere by the wind.

The British who were traveling with them had a strong interest in the Austrian fleet. After all, the latter's record was not bad.

Although the methods are despicable, the winner should not be condemned. This is the consensus among Western military circles.

As for showing weakness to the enemy, it was naturally proposed by Franz. He did not want Friedrich to show all his cards to the opponent when he was too complacent.

From the British perspective, the performance of the Austrian Navy along the way was astonishing. At first, this fleet left the British fleet far behind.

But soon the British discovered that there was a serious disconnect between the Austrian fleets. The frigates and cruisers that were supposed to open the way were left behind. The troop transports and baggage ships actually ran faster than the frigates. At the front were three super first-class battleships. .

Immediately afterwards, the British discovered something even more incredible, that is, the Austrian fleet as a whole had slowed down, and the commander of the British fleet, Lieutenant General Raven Hoback, thought that the other party was waiting for him.

But soon the British ships overtook the Austrian side and left the latter far behind.

In desperation, Vice Admiral Raven Hoback had to ask the fleet to slow down and wait for the Austrians to come up.

After a while of communication, the two sides realized that it was the steam engines of the Austrian Navy that had collectively broken down.

The British laughed for almost a month because of this kind of thing, but after a month they couldn't laugh anymore because the sailing speed was too slow.

The Austrians had to rest for a while in every colony they visited, and even launched several battles.

In modern times, the regular army and the indigenous troops engaged in frontal combat on the plains, which really had little ornamental value. Lieutenant General Raven Hoback politely asked Marshal Friedrich if he needed help, and the former decisively agreed.

Then the British army had to organize manpower to help the Austrians dig ditches for several weeks. Although the pay was not bad, it always felt strange.

Finally, the two fleets arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. Lieutenant General Raven Hoback even thought about what to say at Friedrich's memorial service. After all, the stability of Austrian warships was too poor, and 99% of them would not survive the killing. Bay.

The result was that the steam power of the Austrian Navy suddenly resumed, and then disappeared from the sight of Vice Admiral Raven Hoback at lightning speed.

Two weeks later, Lieutenant General Raven Hoback finally met Friedrich again in Bagamoyo. The latter, however, had already fought a war in East Africa.

When Friedrich suddenly appeared on the coast of East Africa with the Austrian navy, both Benny Erbin and Said were frightened.

The former, the governor of Tanzania, has lost his temper. He trusts his black brother too much, which makes him too arrogant. He wants to kill his eldest brother and become the chief himself. He also contacted the Oman Empire to dedicate Bagamoyo to Said. in exchange for support.

The latter is considering whether to break up with Austria. After all, he has been keeping a low profile for such a long time, purchasing warships from Britain, France, Spain and Austria, and retraining sailors, and his strength has been restored to seven or eight points.

In fact, the fleet of the Oman Empire is stronger than before, but it lost too many outstanding generals and sailors in the naval battle with Austria, which will be difficult to recover. Letting inexperienced sailors fight pirates is tantamount to death.

In Said's mind, the Austrian navy was much more powerful than the wandering pirates. He still remembered his city and palace that turned into a sea of ​​fire.

Then the sudden appearance of the Austrian fleet directly broke the tranquility. Friedrich's first stop was Zanzibar, not Bagamoyo.

This shocked the entire Oman Empire. Some ministers proposed to let Sultan Said escape immediately, while others advocated fighting to the end.

At this moment, a eunuch ran into the palace rolling and crawling.

"The Austrian fleet has arrived outside the port, and Jabri Pasha is negotiating with it. This time the Austrian fleet is larger than the last time."

This news made the princes and ministers of Oman feel ashamed, because now it was too late to fight or escape.

Because the Omani navy was scattered everywhere and still relied on sail power, they expected that the Austrians would take three days to arrive at the fastest, but they arrived in one day. This speed is really incredible.

However, Said the Great was worthy of being the man who pushed the Oman Empire to its peak. He immediately stopped the noisy officials.

"Go and bring the Tanzanian envoy and some more gold, silver and jewelry. We will go to the dock to greet our distinguished guest."

A murderous intent that was not easy to detect flashed in the eyes of Emperor Said, and a eunuch immediately disappeared among the crowd.

Emperor Said and the princes and nobles of Oman received the Austrian fleet with the highest courtesy.

Friedrich, who was only 1.58 meters tall, stood in front of Said. Before the former could speak, the latter presented a gift, pushed the black envoy from Tanzania out, and told the whole story. The whole story was told.

Finally, it was reiterated that the Oman Empire will always be a good friend and trustworthy partner of the Austrian Empire. As long as Friedrich said a word, he would immediately send troops to help the Governor of Tanzania quell the chaos.

Friedrich just opened a notebook, flipped through it, and exchanged a few words with the other party.

He came this time just to intimidate the other side. After all, Franz said that keeping the Oman Empire was actually beneficial to the Austrian side.

After all, this East African overlord is ferocious enough and can scare away many competitors. Without this guy, Austria will have to deal with a lot more troubles and may face more terrifying opponents.

In that case, the East African colonies would no longer be valuable, but would become a liability.

Moreover, Emperor Said was indeed generous in his actions. Each gift he gave was worth more than one million pounds. Even a person like Friedrich who never cared about money would be moved by it.

But this was a different story in Said's eyes. He only took one look at so many gold and silver jewels and then looked away. You must know that his sons couldn't walk when they saw so many treasures. .

Then there are only two possibilities: one is that the other party does not care about money at all, and the other is that the other party is an extremely loyal general who will not keep these personal gifts.

Said couldn't help but break into a cold sweat when he thought of this. He was wondering what kind of opponent he was facing.

But no matter what, he will try, even if there is only 1% hope, he will do it.

"Your Excellency, Marshal, can you please come to my palace to attend the dinner?"

Friedrich turned over the notebook in his hand and suddenly frowned.

"You want to kill me?"

Just a simple sentence frightened Said to the ground.

"I don't dare, I absolutely don't dare! I just think that the Marshal has worked hard all the way. He has a distinguished status and is not yet married. I want to dedicate my daughter to you. The Oman Empire and the Austrian Empire will marry, so that our two countries can be together forever."

The book in Friedrich's hand was written by Franz, and it was full of some commonly used strategies in the East. After all, the former family seemed to have problems in dealing with the world, and the cultural differences between the East and the West were also relatively large.

For example, it is not necessarily a good thing for a weak person to invite a strong person to dinner, especially when the two may be in a hostile relationship.