Chapter 868: Secretly Making a Position for Yourself
Chapter 851: Secretly Taking a Position
The flurry of the international situation did not affect the outbreak of the Central Asian War. With the end of the arms race, the British also let go.
On March 26, 1888, with Governor Litton’s order, two Indian colonial divisions launched an attack on the Afghan region, setting off the prelude to the Central Asian War.
At the Vienna Palace, after receiving the news of the start of the war in Afghanistan, Franz once again became a spectator.
Worry is non-existent, see the British fighting style know, the group of London bureaucrats simply do not take Afghanistan seriously.
The two Indian colonial divisions, which seem to be very powerful, are actually a bunch of rabble.
In terms of real combat power, I’m afraid it’s still not as good as two main regiments of the British army. Such a force to maintain law and order are barely, put on the battlefield, can only and the enemy than rotten.
Franz asked: “aid Afghans weapons and equipment in place?”
Want to use the Afghan war, bleeding the British, weaponry is still indispensable.
If there is no international assistance, the Afghans with big swords and spears, no matter how heroic, will not last long.
Foreign Minister Weissenberg: “The first batch of supplies has been secretly shipped over, and in time, the Afghan government should have already distributed them.
Our intelligence network in the Afghan region is not perfect, after the war broke out we were completely blinded, and we know nothing about the specific situation over there.”
This is the inevitable result, not to mention the imperfect intelligence network, even if all the Afghans are turned into intelligence officers, there is no way for the news to get out.
British diplomacy is not blown, Afghanistan’s neighbors have drawn up a blockade, the only external contact left is smuggling.
The smuggling channel proved to be equally unsuitable for passing on intelligence.
Both Persia and the Central Asian khanates were poor, and the vast majority of them had neither railroads nor telegraphs.
Before the outbreak of war, the government in Vienna was more than a week behind in receiving news from Afghanistan. After the outbreak of war, even less so.
Hearing this bad news, Franz frowned: ”That means we have lost the connection between us and the Afghan government.
The originally planned airdrop of supplies has now lost the possibility of implementation due to the loss of the target.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
Weissenberg replied.
“As things stand, to re-establish contact with the Afghan government, we can only hope for the Russians.
They have been operating in the area for a long time and should have hidden channels for the transmission of information. Right now it’s just been temporarily disrupted by the war.
The Tsarist government is trying to find a way to restore it, and it will probably be able to do so in a little while.”
“Relying on the Russians” and “recovering after some time”, such answers made Franz directly dismiss the idea of airdropping supplies.
Although Afghanistan is a small country, but the territory is not small at all, and is mostly mountainous.
If the following did not send out the pilot signal, who knows where the handover, so that the airship soldiers how to airdrop supplies?
Can’t just throw it, throw it into the mountains and forests, rivers and lakes, the big deal is the loss of a number of supplies.
If bad luck, happened to fall on the head of the British army, when the transportation brigade, that would be embarrassing.
After a few moments of contemplation, Franz made a decision: “Forget it, this happened, can only be counted on the Afghan government’s bad luck.
They did not send a liaison officer, let them find their own way to get in touch with the country, we can not do anything now.”
Anxious?
Nonexistent, even if the Afghan government falls, there are the Russians who will fill in.
Besides, even if the British were victorious, what would happen?
It’s not good to take over a territory full of guerrillas and religious fanatics, and the high cost of domination will sooner or later cause the British to recognize reality.
Minister of War Fislav proposed, “Your Majesty, our troops stationed in the colonies have not changed their weaponry for many years.
Given the current severe international situation, we must prepare in advance, and the Ministry of War suggests a major changeover to first increase the colonies’ defense capabilities.”
Fislav’s words reminded Franz that although these days the colonial armies of all countries were their own second- or third-rate troops, recruiting the worst soldiers, carrying the oldest weapons, and carrying out the simplest training, Austria was an exception.
The colonial army is only a little bit behind in terms of weaponry, but in every other aspect it is still on par with the main domestic force.
Some years ago, the government of Vienna even sent its main force out for rounds of practical exercises.
It was only later, when all the enemies in the colonies were purged, that this kind of practical training program was forced to end.
In normal times, there is no problem in keeping the colonial forces in their present state.
If the equipment is almost there, it’s almost there, anyway, the colonial forces of various countries are all comparing to suck, as long as they are better than their peers.
Now that the international situation has changed, no one can guarantee that when the guns will be rubbed together.
In this context, increasing the strength of the colonies is particularly important.
Especially the Austrian African region, once the European war broke out, do not expect them to seize the whole of Africa at once, but to take Egypt, the Cape of Good Hope, Djibouti, such a strategic place, or must be accomplished.
This is the core of Austria from the beginning of the development of national policy, take these key places, not only the mainland and Africa connected, Britain and France into the Indian Ocean has to run tens of thousands of kilometers more.
The original time to run two routes, now only enough time to run once, not only the cost of transportation has increased greatly, but also means that the enemy’s maritime transportation capacity has been discounted.
“Not only do we have to change clothes, we also have to increase the stockpile of weapons in the colonies. Taking Austrian Africa as an example, there should be enough armaments stored there to arm a million men for a year of combat.
Once a continental war breaks out, the colonies will have to be ready to take the entire continent on their own alone.”
It was not that Franz had a big appetite, but that Austrian Africa already had the strength to do so.
To this day, the total population of Austrian Africa is upwards of 20 million, several times more than the immigrants from several other colonial empires combined.
Once the Great War broke out, it was destined to attack on all sides. Even if the government in Vienna did not order it, the local military nobles would pull their own teams to do it.
The warlike nature had been implanted in everyone’s marrow since the opening of Austrian Africa.
If it weren’t for the fact that the conditions didn’t allow it and the Vienna government intended to suppress it, they would have already engaged in friction in Africa.
There are conditions not to take advantage of is a fool, not to say take the entire African continent, as long as to take a few key places, Austria will be a sure victory.
Prime Minister Karl questioned, “Your Majesty, this is too much! Several of our important colonies are militarily strong, and are simply not something that the neighboring countries can shake.
Even if a continental war breaks out, Austrian Africa’s strength is enough to deal with any enemy. Shipping so much weaponry to the colonies now will easily trigger international tensions.”
A million people fighting for a year’s worth of weaponry is not a fraction of a star, if you want to calculate it in units it’s – a million tons.
It was almost impossible to keep a secret when shipping this much material over. These days, who wouldn’t plant a few spies on the other side!
If you can’t find out important military information, you can’t fool anyone with this kind of shipload of arms.
Franz nodded, this was indeed a problem. Not to mention the transportation, just organizing the production could attract the attention of the European world.
“Then do it in batches, first increase the supply in the name of changeover, and then increase a part of it every month later when replenishing the supplies. After more times, it will be less conspicuous.
This Central Asian war is the best cover. Order the state-owned arsenals to double their weapons production capacity from now on, and announce to the public that they are orders from the Russians.
Don’t announce the exact number to the public, the arsenals are scattered all over the country, the general public won’t notice.”
Herein lies the advantage of state-owned enterprises, the government can control the production capacity and does not need to disclose any information to the outside world.
How many weapons and ammunition were produced and how much was exported, as long as the Vienna government itself didn’t say anything, no one would know at all.
Even if someone investigated, it would be necessary to investigate all the arsenals together to get the accurate figures, investigating the data of one or two arsenals alone would not make any sense.
It is not Franz’s boast that it is impossible for the outside world to know exactly how many arsenals there are in Austria and how many enterprises have military production capacity.
The reason is very simple: there are too many companies involved. Many machinery factories can immediately be turned into arsenals by simply modifying their production equipment.
Anyway, it is all streamlined construction, and do not need you a company to produce all the spare parts, as long as you can produce part of it is enough.
Put together the spare parts produced by everyone, and a weapon is born.
Now the arsenal, just own a more complete industrial chain, do not need to buy spare parts everywhere.
From beginning to end is a company produced spare parts, in the assembly time will naturally be more advantageous, the quality of relative also have to guarantee some.
However, when it comes to the war era, these are all small problems. Often, quantity is more important than quality, as long as it works, the slightest defect is not worth mentioning at all.
(End of chapter)