The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 353: Chapter 305: Wolves Smoke Rising

As time tered the d of 9, people all over the world finally breathed a sigh of relief, having made it through a year filled with crises and conflicts.

Throughout 9, there was hardly any good news for European citizs.

The Second Moroccan Crisis intsified the confrontation betwe the two major European military blocs, deeped tsions betwe the United Kingdom and Germany, and further accelerated a more radical naval arms race.

What's more, all European powers joined this naval arms race, which means these powerful countries had a clear perception that war was immint and they were preparing for it.

Apart from that, major European countries were also expanding the scale of their armies. From the expansion of 300,000 troops in the Italian Austro-Hungarian Empire to France, Russia, and Germany's expansion of 500,000 troops, it shows the severe situation Europe is facing, and war seems to be on the brink.

The actions of these powerful countries to expand their armies and navies have also led to an explosive growth in their military terprises.

A simple example is the rowned German military industrial terprise, Klub Factory. In 873, it had only 9,000 employees; by 90, this number increased to 43,000. By the d of 9, the number of employees in the Klub Factory had reached 70,000.

The military industry in Britain is also massive, employing over 0,000 people.

British military industry has two main characteristics. First, it prioritizes the developmt of warships and merchant shipbuilding, which is consistt with Britain's emphasis on its navy. Secondly, private military factories hold an important position, which is differt from the royal arsals in Australasia.

In Australasia, royal military factories account for 87% of all military factories, and only a small portion of weapons that other factories are unwilling to produce are made by private military workshops.

Apart from this, the armamts industries in France, Russia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are huge as well. The military preparations and numbers of soldiers of these powerful countries also befit from the massive military industries.

This can be se from Australasia as well. Currtly, there are about 5,000 employees in all sectors of the military industry in Australasia.

If the hidd aeronautical research rooms and agricultural machinery factories are also considered, the number of employees in the military industry has exceeded 0,000.

Compared to the expansion of regular standing armies, the number of reserve soldiers brought by the major European countries is ev more exaggerated.

Except for the British Empire, the focus of European powers' military expansion is actually the army.

As a result, so far, the number of military preparations and soldiers among major European countries is extremely exaggerated.

At prest, among all the powerful countries in Europe, Russia has the largest number of soldiers, with . million in the regular army and 5.65 million in the reserve.

France ranks second with 7,000 regular troops and 5 million reservists.

Germany follows closely, with 700,000 regular troops and 4.9 million reservists.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire has 400,000 regular troops and 3 million reservists, Italy has 380,000 regular troops and .8 million reservists, and the British Empire has 50,000 regular troops and . million reservists.

Although the major European countries have already announced their military expansion, the progress of the expansion is not the same.

Currtly, the smoothest expansion should be in Germany and France. So far, they have recruited more than 00,000 reservists into their regular forces and have started long-term training.

On the other hand, the countries with slower military expansion progress should be the Russian Empire, with the largest number of reserve soldiers.

It is undiable that the decadce of this country is shocking. Ev though the expansion has be announced for several months, so far only ts of thousands of soldiers have be recruited and they have not ev reached their designated training locations yet, still being transported route.

If the expansion of these powerful countries is completed, Europe may face a vast war involving ts of millions of soldiers during the future wartime, and the loss to major European countries is immeasurable.

Aside from the confrontation betwe the two major European military blocs, the shadow of the Balkans is also becoming increasingly dse.

The Balkan countries are either preparing for war or preparing within war.

To prepare for future wars, the Balkan countries, such as Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Mdinero, have all announced military expansion plans. The armies of Bulgaria and Serbia have already surpassed 300,000 and 00,000 troops, respectively, and ev the smallest Mdinero has reached 35,000 soldiers.

With the support of the Russian Empire behind the Balkan League, the Balkan countries naturally purchase the weapons and equipmt needed for their expansion from Russia.

For this reason, the Russian Empire has eliminated some weapons currtly in service and sold them to Balkan countries at prices slightly lower than the market price.

As for the Russian Empire, in addition to the previous order of 50,000 rifles, it has also ordered 50,000 rifles and ts of millions of bullets from Australasia to prepare for domestic military expansion.

This has made Arthur feel the huge profits from selling armamts. Ev though the war has not yet started, and only Russia is ordering weapons from Australasia as European countries prepare for war, the military factories have still made hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars.

If war truly breaks out and European countries urgtly need weapons, the profits from the arms trade could expand to ts of millions or ev hundreds of millions of Australian dollars.

For this reason, Arthur gerously provided ts of millions of Australian dollars in funds to the Royal Military Factory, allowing the factory to work at full steam to produce at least one million rifles, billions of bullets, ts of thousands of firearms, and millions of shells for future wars.

After all, within Australasia, there are British weapons, German weapons, and weapons and equipmt developed by Australasia itself.

And within Europe, the more popular ones are British and German weapons, and there is basically no difficulty in exporting weapons.

Arthur ev thought that if military aircraft were widely used in World War I and countries showed great interest in them, th it might be possible to build a large number of the first two gerations of aircraft and sell them on a large scale.

After all, Australasia's military aircraft research has already reached the third geration, with the research of the fourth geration also underway.

As long as the fourth geration of military aircraft is successfully researched in the future, selling the previous two gerations to the major powers of Europe would not affect Australasia's aircraft research. Besides, due to the impact of the war, it is impossible for them to catch up with Australasia in a short period.

Moreover, the cost of these aircraft can range from ts of thousands to ev hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars. The profits from selling them to European countries on a large scale will not be lower than those from exporting weapons.