At around 8 o'clock in the morning, the heavy cruiser "Goricia" that was docked next to the inner port terminal of the Taranto Naval Base in Italy was about to set sail. Ben Abdullah, who was wearing a white robe and a wool cloak, and a black hoop and a headscarf, stood opposite Umberto, Italy, who was wearing a dark blue marshal's uniform and a tube-shaped military cap. When he said goodbye, the two hugged each other tightly like brothers. Before Ben Abdullah led the delegation of the Arab Kingdom to visit Italy, although the two had intersections, they had never had such in-depth contact and exchanges. After more than a week of getting along, the two had similar interests and talked about everything, and formed a profound friendship across national borders, race and age.

In fact, in the face of the Arabs' efforts to solve everything they can and do everything they can, the Italian military and political circles had a good impression of the Arab Kingdom from top to bottom. In addition, the Arabs took the initiative to open their arms in the field of oil resources that the Italians had coveted for a long time. The two sides reached a package agreement with amazing efficiency on Italy's military assistance to the Arab Kingdom and the Arab Kingdom completely opened up oil exploration and commercial exploitation to Italy.

On the surface, the mutual aspiration of cooperation between Italy and the Arab Kingdom is actually contrary to the memorandum of the division of spheres of influence signed by Western allies in 1940 on the division of the Middle East, and indirectly infringed on the vested interests of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Therefore, Italy and the Arab Kingdom finally signed the package of agreement in the form of a secret agreement...

A long whistle sounded, Ben Abdullah and 67 members of the delegation of the Kingdom of Arab boarded the "Goricia" and stood on the deck on the side of the side to wave goodbye to the Italians who came to see him off. In this era, intercontinental air transportation was relatively developed, but the Arabs neither liked nor trusted aviation vehicles. When they visited Italy, they were on the old cruiser Riyadh, a flagship of the Kingdom of Arab Navy, with a displacement of 9,700 tons. This ship was the St. Louis-class protective cruiser "Charleston" customized by the US Navy at the beginning of this century.

It was retired and resold to the Arab Kingdom Navy in 40 years. Although the ship entered the New York shipyard and received an eight-month modernization before delivery, this did not change the situation that it was completely behind the times. After the transformation was completed, its maximum speed of no-load was only 24 knots, and at full load it could only run at most 22 knots. The hull structure was outdated and the armor protection was weak. Most of the 152 mm main guns were still placed in the sidewalk profile. Although the modified 76 mm high-level dual-purpose gun and newly installed 40 mm machine guns were quite large, the layout was poor, which was not conducive to air defense operations.

Due to the poor maintenance capabilities of the Arab Kingdom Navy, the Riyadh broke down twice during the more than 1,000 nautical miles of voyage from Jeddah Port to Italy, and had to be docked and overhauled after arriving in Italy. The old ship was in poor condition, and the work efficiency of the Italians who were born was always slow. The two were combined. When Ben Abdullah**** and his delegation were preparing to embark on their return journey, the completion of the Riyadh maintenance plan was less than 40%.

With the direct intervention of Umberto, the Italian Navy decided to send a ship to escort the Arab Kingdom delegation back to China. The initial idea was to use an active battleship, but it was reported that Italy and the Arab Kingdom had reached a secret agreement. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was putting pressure on the Arab Kingdom through a two-pronged approach to diplomatic consultation and military pressure. Faced with the Austro-Hungarian Navy's abnormal movements, the Italian Navy had to assemble the main fleet to respond, and the escort mission had to be handed over to the heavy cruiser that could be temporarily withdrawn.

The "Goricia" belongs to the Italian Navy's Zara-class heavy cruiser. Although its design and construction did not fully comply with the limitations of the Meric International Navy Treaty, it was still affected to a certain extent. Both the military equipment and power were average. Unlike the Trento class that was later built, the main gun caliber jumped directly to 280 mm. In this time and space, the number one imaginary enemy of the Italian Navy is still the Austro-Hungarian Navy rather than the French Navy, and the Zara-class is positioned as the "core ship of the reconnaissance fleet" and requires the ability to undertake the main combat tasks without the presence of the battleship. Due to the relatively balanced performance and the mature main equipment technology, the Zara-class ships were highly praised by Italian naval officers and soldiers after they entered service, and also showed strong tactical value in several joint exercises of Western allies.

From Taranto to Jeddah Port, the straight line is more than 1,600 nautical miles. You only need to maintain a cruise speed of 16 knots and arrive in four days and four nights. Although the war in the Palestinian region has been in full swing, it has basically no impact on the Mediterranean shipping route. Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are commonplace, and the possibility of a real fight is extremely low. Therefore, the Italian Navy arranged the single ship "Goricia" to sail this time, and did not have a marching ship for cover. In order to make ammunition and fresh water available for the Arabs, the Italian heavy cruiser with 780 members gave 20% of the officers and crew a vacation, leaving only the basic positions, ammunition, medicine and other combat materials required for the normal operation of the warships, only one-third of the wartime demand, to ensure sufficient supply of food and fresh water...

When the Italian heavy cruiser "Goricia" slowly sailed away from Taranto, the largest aerial encounter between the Zion armed forces and the Arab government forces had come to an end. The Jews used 8 IR-39s to fight against the Arabs 4 Italian C-200 fighters and 2 US-made P-40s, and the two sides lost 3 each. At first glance, the two sides were evenly matched, but all the three Jewish fighter pilots survived, while the Arabs lost 3 pilots and 1 killed on the spot, and 2 were Jewish.

The rehabilitation armed forces captured. After interrogating the two captured people, it was learned that the pilots on the shot downed fighter were Italian and had experienced serving in the Italian Air Force. They are currently employed by the Arab Kingdom Air Force as a free agent to help them train pilots. According to the confessions of the two, most Arab pilots do not have the ability to take off the air combat. The Arab military has issued generous conditions in order to allow them to fly the plane to participate in the war. Except for a few foreign pilots employed by the Arab Kingdom Air Force, they agreed to fight for the Arabs.

This important information was quickly sent back to Limerick through the special liaison department of the new United Kingdom in Tel Aviv, and informed it to its own task force arriving in the eastern Mediterranean. According to the captured Italian pilots, there are nearly 100 foreign pilots currently serving in the Arab Air Force. In addition, among the best of Arab pilots, there are 7-8 squadrons of the Arab Air Force that are combat-capable. If these air forces are all sent to the war zone, it will be difficult for the Zion armed forces to preserve their aviation power, let alone seize air supremacy from the other side.

At the instruction of King Joachim I, the foreign minister of the new United Kingdom, Hul Tracy, quickly summoned the diplomatic ambassador to the new United Kingdom. On the grounds that the safety of the Italian pilots could not be guaranteed, he suggested that the Italian government recall the Italians employed by the Arab Air Force. As long as the Italian government makes a guarantee, the new United Kingdom will help it rescue two captured pilots through unofficial means.

The Italian ambassador seemed dissatisfied with these so-called suggestions made by Hull Tracy. He said he would truthfully report them to his government. However, given that those Italian pilots were employed by the Arab Kingdom Air Force in their personal capacity, it was difficult for the Italian government to take compulsory measures to return to Italy in non-wartime states. The ambassador also reminded that there are many Irish people who are currently staying in Palestine than Italians, and a considerable number of people have some kind of armed forces with Zion.

Form of employment, the lives and safety of these people are also not guaranteed. Due to the friendship of allied countries and international humanitarian considerations, Italy is willing to assist the new United Kingdom in evacuation of its own citizens in Palestine without compensation. As for the Irish Foreign Corps who went to Palestine to fight in an unofficial capacity, the Italian ambassador said that he himself felt that the existence of this phenomenon was contrary to the International Convention of The Hague and believed that the new United Kingdom should amend the legal provisions to eliminate legal loopholes in the illegal participation of its own personnel in the war.

Since the two sides had their own opinions and had obvious differences, the meeting naturally ended in disagreement. After testing the Italians' tone, the new United Kingdom immediately contacted the Austro-Hungarian Empire through diplomatic channels and expressed its willingness to join forces to control Italy. O'Neon Carl I and his imperial staff were worried about how to counter the opponents when the navy and air force were inferior to Italy. They had known that the new United Kingdom had a close cooperative relationship with the Zionist organization, but Vienna had previously expressed his favor to Limerick several times before, but no clear response was received. Now the powerful new United Kingdom has finally made a statement, and of course they could not afford it.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which lasted beyond the history of history, not only failed to go further, but has been on the decline since the 1930s. Both economic and foreign trade and military industries were left behind by the Italians, and it is difficult to win head-on. The new United Kingdom, which merged Ireland and Wales, has a territory area of ​​105,000 square kilometers and a total population of nearly 13 million. In 1948, the total national income exceeded 36 billion marks. The steel output was 8.44 million tons, the power generation was 28.9 billion kWh, and the grain output was 3.22 million tons. The global industrial share accounted for 6.9%.

The value of gold foreign exchange reserves exceeded 5 billion marks for the first time, reaching 5.16 billion marks... In terms of these data, the new United Kingdom under Joachim I deserves the title of the successor of the old United Kingdom. In addition, it is one of the only three nuclear weapons-owned countries at present, and its influence around the world has surpassed the traditional powers such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Japan, Italy, and Spain, and has become a recognized first-class power. Even if the new United Kingdom can only invest part of its military power in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, its superb military and technical level in the field of sea and air is enough to make up for the gap in strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Chapter completed!