Chapter 890: The most incorruptible department

  Chapter 872 – The Cheapest Department

Vienna Palace, since the news of the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian war, Franz’s whole body was relaxed.

Being the emperor for so many years, has been careful and cautious, is to avoid the original time and space kind of situation of being under siege.

Austria’s national policy is also established around this center. First, they engaged in splitting the United States across the ocean, and then strangled the budding Italy.

Then play abolished the bullish Prussia, incidentally weakened the Russian Empire, until now the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War, Austria is the real significance of getting rid of the situation of being under siege.

Although the British government pursues the policy of “only eternal interests, there is no eternal enemy”, but it does not mean that just fight to the death, immediately may be allies.

The government can be shameless, but the public can not accept this shocking reversal. Even if the interest groups suppressed public opinion, the Russians would still have to cooperate.

If the Russians win this war, going south to India is the future state policy of the Tsarist government, and no one can stop it.

Unless the British can back down, the two countries will have to fight to the death.

If the Russians lost the war, which was impossible, Franz had made up his mind to support the Czarist government in the fight.

The big deal was that at a later stage, Austria would pay for the money and supplies, and the Russians would send troops to fight the British together.

If one year does not work, then two years, if two years do not work, then three years and five years, not to kill a river of blood, this war simply can not stop.

When the war is over, Britain and Russia are almost exhausted. For a long time to come, they will not be able to intervene in European affairs.

……

Franz: “Market the mortars we’ve just been equipped with to the Russians, the Afghan area is mostly mountainous and they need a light artillery piece.”

The British Empire had a thick base and hadn’t been hit hard. To make them lose both, Franz had to find a way to strengthen the Russians.

Originally, Franz was prepared to give the Russians Maxim machine guns, but thinking about the terrible logistics of the Tsarist government, it was better not to give them any trouble.

More black technology, since needless to say that is reserved for the Austrian enemy, can not be exposed for the time being.

The only early appearance is this nothing technical mortar, the original time and space is also the Russians came up with, the battlefield directly take the decommissioned naval gun site modification.

Army Minister Fislav reminded slightly embarrassed: “Your Majesty, as early as three years ago the Russians introduced the mortar production line, and now there are already a lot of troops mounted.”

The Russian-Austrian alliance is not an alliance in the pure sense, from the first Near Eastern war was taken off course, Russian armaments began to Austrianize.

After a long period of friction, the Russians also learned to be smart, but all the weapons that the Austrian army massively equipped, they followed the introduction.

The mortar, a low-tech, simple-to-operate, and versatile weapon, was not a classified armament from its inception, and was installed by the military at an early date.

As a matter of fact, any weapon that is equipped for use on a large scale cannot be kept secret.

After all, weapons and equipment also need time to wear, to be able to play out the power, not issued to the hands of the soldiers, immediately can be used in combat.

Maxim machine gun did not immediately installed, that is because the Austrian army has been equipped with Gatling, similar weapons upgrade replacement, break-in time will not take long.

In fact, Austria’s real secret weaponry or aircraft, tanks, armored vehicles, accurately said that the aircraft are not secret.

It’s not that they don’t want to, but they simply can’t do it. Tanks, armored vehicles can still find a small corner to secretly develop, aircraft test flights can not not go to heaven, right?

Aircraft test flights move hundreds of miles, such a long distance, want not to be seen is simply dreaming.

Instead of hiding and pinching to attract attention, it is better to put directly outside for people to watch, but also can charge admission.

Anyway, the public is only the initial generation of products, the major industrialized countries can build it. The lack of in-depth R&D is a result of people not realizing the value of the aircraft.

As for tanks, armored vehicles, that is the true meaning of the laboratory products, external are hung with the sign of the automotive research and development center.

Pure private enterprise, and military industry has no half relationship. Even the research and development funds are Franz’s own pocket, did not go through the account from the military expenses.

Not to mention the outside world, even the Austrian government high level, do not know that there is this thing, even the military is only a few participants know.

……

Franz asked suspiciously, “The Russians are so serious about armaments?”

In his subconscious mind, the Tsarist government did not attach importance to armament renewal.

Because of the military expenses, the Russian military also showed little enthusiasm in this regard, and unless it came to the point of having to replace them, they generally saved what they could.

In the last two decades, the Russian army has not been less from Austria to buy second-hand equipment, especially during the Russo-Prussian War, the Russians are directly sweeping goods.

In order to save money, after all, second-hand weaponry is cheap enough, generally speaking, only three or four percent of the price of new equipment, some weapons can be bought at a discount.

Although old a little, but as long as the maintenance is good, or can continue to use for many years, the most suitable for the army without money.

Foreign Minister Weissenberg, who knew the Russian Empire best, explained: ”Your Majesty, there is no contradiction between the Tsarist government’s lack of money and the introduction of weapons production lines.

As a matter of fact, every time we signed a military purchase contract with the Russians, huge rebates were attached to it.

In order to keep the Tsarist government from finding out, the bureaucrats in charge of purchasing even require that all contracts are even taxed according to the price of the transaction.

The kickbacks returned to them were not given directly in cash either, but were accomplished through underhanded transfers of benefits.

By relying on this covert means of bribery, the Russian military’s international procurement department became the cleanest department in the tsarist government, and even set an all-time record of ten years in which no one was held accountable for corruption or bribery.”

Hearing this explanation, Franz directly rolled his eyes. It was true that the tsarist government was still the same tsarist government he was familiar with, and the bureaucrats were still just as nonchalant when it came to raking in money.

Now this change was nothing more than having been in contact with Austria for a long time, learning the money-raking skills of the Austrian bureaucrats, advancing over their domestic counterparts, and knowing to do it quietly.

One can only imagine how horrible the evolved Russian bureaucratic fighting force will be.

With the Tsarist government’s ability to regulate, the Russian military’s international procurement department to rely on the transfer of benefits to make money is more than likely to be unable to regulate, or it can not become the cleanest department in the Russian government.

Even because of the imperfection of the law, a lot of obscure money-making schemes, in the Russian Empire, I’m afraid that does not constitute a crime.

Fishing for money, this group of bureaucrats also played a role, at least for the Russian army weapons and equipment upgrades have played a role in promoting.

No, it should be for the Austrian army weapons and equipment to contribute to the modernization of the Austrian army.

Because of industrial technology, the Russian weapons production costs have been high, not only the high rate of defective products, even the performance of the product is not stable.

Whether it is the bureaucrats in the state-run military factories or the capitalists in the private military-industrial enterprises, all of them are concerned with maximizing profits.

The purchase of production lines is just for show to cope with inspections from above in order to grab orders from the government.

The cost of organizing production by themselves is too high, and in order to reduce costs and the risk of accidents, everyone tacitly chooses to smuggle.

Do not think that there is no need to hold the Russian army accountable for any problems with its weaponry. Only relative to other countries, the Russian army’s affordability is higher, the failure rate is too high or to be held accountable.

In fact, many capitalists lost their heads during the Russo-Prussian War as a result. Most of the state-owned military-industrial enterprises in the hands of the Tsarist government were confiscated from the families copied and confiscated at that time.

At first, everyone still obeyed the rules and imported new equipment, but later, in order to get a bigger profit, everyone tacitly chose to replace it with cheaper second-hand equipment.

Anyway, just change the words on the line, second-hand equipment does not exist, are pure products of the Russian Empire.

Looks a little on the old side, that is the arsenal seriously responsible for each weapon have gone through a thousand quality tests.

If you are not satisfied, there is also a selection of freshly shipped weapons and equipment, but they have not been tested for performance and their quality cannot be guaranteed.

This is a great multiple choice question, and after trying it out everyone knows what to choose. Even if they know there is a problem, for the sake of the ruble, there is no problem.

In order to meet the needs of customers, the Austrian military will be the weapons update time are advanced, to ensure that in the hands of the Russian army does not look too old.

In fact, even if it is sold at a discount to the international transaction price, this price is enough to the cost of production of weapons, part of the weapons still have to make money.

In a sense, this is also a multi-win option. The Austrian military saves on military expenses, the Russian army guarantees the quality of the weapons, and the Russian bureaucrats and capitalists rake in the money.

If such a thing had happened in Austria, Franz would have had to go on a killing spree, but when it happened in the Russian Empire, he selectively didn’t see it.

After all, the Russian bureaucrats were doing Austria a favor by playing along. If one day Russia and Austria flipped, the Russian military-industrial system would immediately show its true colors.

……

Afghanistan battlefield, a week has passed since the outbreak of war, the tsarist government’s expected sneak attack naturally failed.

British generals are not idle, early in the border constructed a defense line, scouts are scattered around, simply do not give the Russian army a chance.

But what determines the victory or defeat of a war is still strength, after a week of fighting, Andrzej has become shaky.

This is not the core of the British defense, strategically speaking, the best route of attack for the Russian army is to attack Herat along the Hari River, and then go upstream into the Afghan hinterland.

However, Admiral Oginets was no ordinary man, and Herat naturally belonged to one of the spheres of attack, but the breakthrough was placed in Andhoui.

In the temporary command of the Russian army, Admiral Oginets asked with concern: “Has the Afghan resistance organization been contacted?”

There was no doubt that the Afghan resistance was also an important force in his strategic plan.

In his opinion, the Afghan resistance organization is able to make hundreds of thousands of British troops helpless, its own strength is absolutely not weak, it is a pity not to make use of it.

Colonel Loznisa, the young officer in charge of the contact work, helplessly replied, “Your Excellency the Commander, the contact is contacted.

It’s just that there are an unexpectedly large number of resistance organizations in Afghanistan, and there are twenty-seven of them that we’ve contacted alone.

Judging from the intelligence we have gathered, the resistance organizations in Afghanistan will not be less than one hundred, and may even exceed two hundred.

Nominally, they are under the leadership of the Amir, but in reality, these organizations have long been acting on their own and are not subject to any regulation at all.

Because of religion, the relationship between these resistance organizations is also not very harmonious, and it is almost impossible to integrate them.”

“One hundred”, “two hundred”, such figures directly refreshed Admiral Oginets’ three views. According to his estimation, there were at most two or three Afghan resistance organizations.

After all, too many organizations would lead to a dispersal of power, making it difficult to cooperate with each other and unable to exert maximum combat power.

The reality is just the opposite, the Afghan resistance organization is bulk, without any coordination of their own, as well as to make the British tired to deal with.

“If they were integrated, wouldn’t they be able to ……”

This tantalizing thought was just born, but it was snuffed out by Admiral Oginets. The purpose of the Russian army coming over this time was not to warm up the Afghans.

Essentially, both Britain and Russia were aggressors. Only now it is the British who are occupying the Afghan region, so naturally the Russian army doesn’t mind putting up the banner of the liberation of Afghanistan.

Once the British are driven out, the Russian army will also occupy the Afghan region, which is a national policy that has been set by the Tsarist government.

In this context, the Afghan resistance organization can only be used as cannon fodder, the future still need to clean up, grow their power, is to give themselves trouble.

(End of chapter)