Chapter 23

On October 4, a message came from the Hofburg: In view of General Kalilwede-Kust's great contribution to the empire in terms of armaments, the great Austrian Emperor and Hungarian King Franz will personally award him the Order of the Golden Fleece. And from now on, he will be promoted to Lieutenant General of the Army, and the newly established Austro-Hungarian 19th Army will be commanded by him personally.

Not long after, the whole Vienna and some senior officers on the front line got the news. Except for Borojevic, the commander-in-chief of the Third Army, everyone was shocked. They didn't know what Kuster had done to make the emperor so close to him! For a time, the entire army's top brass was a little jealous.

Even Kuster himself was shocked. He thought he would not be able to return to the front battlefield for a long time; but this news really opened his eyes, so that he now didn't understand what the top brass was thinking.

But soon, Kuster was asked to go to the Vienna Army Supreme Headquarters. He quickly put on his ceremonial clothes and walked quickly out the door.

He found a car and got in it. After several twists and turns, he soon arrived at the headquarters.

A senior officer greeted him outside the door, and when he got closer, he found that this person was Conrad from before.

He seemed very kind, and took Kuster's hand intimately and pulled him into the room.

After the two sat down on the chairs, Conrad gave his blessing:

"Congratulations, General Kuster. I just received the news of your promotion and express my sincere congratulations to you. But I'm sorry, the emperor is away for something, so I will give you the medal."

Kust was not angry, but said:

"If it was just a medal, I don't think you would welcome me so much."

"Haha! You guessed right, I have a more important purpose."

After being exposed, Conrad smiled and said:

"I want to tell you that the 19th Army is actually an empty shell. It has only 400 people now. You don't need to be too angry. The Empire is recruiting soldiers to supplement its troops; I believe it will be completely formed by the end of the year."

Kust was a little unhappy and raised his eyebrows and said:

"Our mobilization efficiency is so slow? The human resources of our empire are second only to the Russians (excluding overseas colonies)!"

Conrad drank a sip of tea slowly and said quietly:

"Don't worry, because the conscription officer hasn't set out yet. The replenishment of troops on the front line is also very tight , and we have to rebuild an army by the end of the year, the pressure is not ordinary.

Didn't you make a lot of weapons before? The emperor plans to build a new army; almost all of them are equipped with the weapons you developed. I have also seen those weapons, they are indeed very creative, and they must be very good on the battlefield. "

Kust said:

"So how many people are there in my army? If I only rely on my few factories, it will be difficult to produce a considerable number of weapons. "

"Not sure yet. But there should be 3 full divisions, about 50,000 people. This is not a small number.

So the empire plans to put a few more factories under your control, so that it is estimated that they can be manufactured. "

"But, what should I do after I leave, who will be in charge of those factories? "

"Don't worry, they will be handed over to your son-Vasala-Kust. "

Kust frowned and said with some doubts:

"Are you sure? Give it to him, I'm afraid he will defeat it. "

Kust's suspicion is not out of thin air; Vasala is his eldest son. He is more diligent and hardworking, but his mind is not flexible. When Kuster was not yet a general, Vasara went out alone. But whenever he had some money, he would give it to his second brother or the poor, which led to his failure in the end.

"You can't even trust your own son! Really. Well, I don't have much time, I will give you the medal now."

The two stood up from the expensive and gorgeous chairs at the same time. Conrad took out a box from the drawer and gave the medal inside to Kuster.

The two saluted each other, then Kuster put on his military cap and walked out of the room.

Back to the armoury, I saw Fox standing outside the door, motionless. When he saw Kuster, he ran over to congratulate him:

"Congratulations, General, you will be back on the battlefield soon!"

"Yes." Kuster nodded and said to him:

"Go and find out for me how many factories the Empire has put under our control."

"No need to check, I just got a list." Fox took out a crumpled white paper from his waist, unfolded it and read it to him:

"A tailor factory, three military factories, and two large tractor manufacturing plants."

Kust suddenly looked up as if he had thought of something and said:

"Okay! I want 50,000 sets of winter military uniforms, but they are different from the uniforms we are using now, they are gray and black. Uh, maybe the language can't express it clearly, let me draw it for you."

Kust took Fox inside, pulled out several sheets of white paper, and drew on them.

Fox looked at them for about an hour, and said with some fatigue and surprise:

"These uniforms look very cool, but making so many types of them goes against what you said - extra types of weapons will only cause trouble for logistics."

Koster patted his head:

"You are wrong! These clothes are different from weapons; weapons need continuous ammunition support, and the more types of weapons there are, the more complicated the ammunition will be.

And clothes are not needed; have you ever seen anyone use up a set of clothes in one day? We only need to give each person a set of clothes, but they need to be used according to the season. "

As he said this, Kuster had finished his work and showed a series of military uniforms.

Most of these were later uniforms of Sandezi: all-black X-Guard uniforms, gray X-Defense uniforms, and various distinctive uniforms.

Even Fox, who was standing by, was fascinated by them and said after a long time:

"This is incredibly beautiful. I am looking forward to changing into it, not to mention other officers. Once these uniforms are circulated in the army, your prestige will definitely increase greatly!"

"I also want to make some improvements to our existing helmets to make the burden on the soldiers lighter, which will help save physical strength and better combat."

Kust took out another piece of paper and drew a model of an M35 steel helmet on it.

Fox stared at it carefully, touched his chin, and said with shining eyes:

"It looks beautiful! Look at its surroundings, the curling design makes me feel wonderful and nostalgic at the same time. General, do you want me to mass produce it? "

"Yes, it's not difficult to manufacture this helmet; it's not a problem for the factory to produce tens of thousands a month."

"That's for sure. Well, I'm going to get busy." Fox cleaned up the table, said hello to Kuster, and walked out of the house.

Kuster was not idle either, but was busy establishing a new set of military ideas.

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