Chapter 146: An arms deal on the surface, but actually a negotiation between Germany and Russia

"Another country?" William II frowned. After thinking for a while, he immediately returned his gaze to Minister Andrew and said with a smile: "The other country Arthur mentioned is not your Australia." Bar?"

In fact, it is very simple. The country that can help the German Empire win over the Russian Empire must at least be a country that the German Empire can trust.

Taking a breakdown of the countries currently capable of exporting weapons, equipment and warships, the only one the German Empire trusts more is the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

But the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also located on the European continent, and the slightest movement could not be hidden from other European powers.

Moreover, there were irresolvable conflicts between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Tsarist Russia, and it was basically impossible for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to export arms to Tsarist Russia.

Outside of Europe, there were even fewer countries capable of exporting the arms and warships that the Russian Empire valued.

In addition, it must be a country with good relations with the German Empire, which also made William II set his sights on Australia for the first time.

Australia fully meets these two requirements. Not only does it have a good cooperative relationship with the German Empire, but the relationship between the monarchs of the two countries, Arthur and William II, is also very good.

In addition, Australia also has the small arms systems of the British Empire and the German Empire, including artillery and warships, and also has good technologies from the British Empire and the German Empire.

From a geographical point of view, Australia is also far away from Europe, and some actions will not be taken too seriously by European countries, especially when the current disputes in Europe are somewhat serious.

However, Australia has just exported a large amount of weapons, equipment and warships to the island country, the enemy of the Russian Empire in East Asia, and also signed an agreement on the import and export of mineral resources. Now it has set its sights on the enemy of the island country, the Russian Empire. It is really two-pronged. Take it all!

Looking at William II's slightly scrutinizing and inquiring eyes, Minister Andrew did not hide anything, and explained without any panic: "Yes, Your Majesty. At present, although France does not support the actions of the Russian Empire in the Far East, there is a conflict between the two countries. There have been some disagreements. But for now, the German Empire still cannot shake the alliance between the Russian Empire and France. If the German Empire wants to communicate with the Russian Empire, it is absolutely impossible to avoid France, a powerful enemy. .”

"But it is a pity that as long as the plan to win over the Russian Empire is exposed to the French, then this plan will never succeed. Therefore, His Royal Highness the Duke's suggestion is that the German Empire should look elsewhere and use non-European forces to promote Plan to assist the Tsarist Russian Empire. Australia meets this condition very well. Not only does it have good diplomatic relations with Germany, but even many of Australia’s weapons and equipment and warships and military industry come from Germany. By assisting the Tsarist Russian Empire through Australia’s hands, not only can Letting Germany hide behind the scenes will also allow the Russian Empire to clearly understand who is helping him to achieve your country's plan to win over the Russian Empire." Andrew explained with a smile.

The weapons and equipment exported by Australia are basically from German military industry, including Gew98 rifles, various howitzers from the Krupp factory, German-made Maxim heavy machine guns, various small and medium-sized warships and even Braunschweig-class battleships , all of which are German military science and technology.

This can indeed highlight the role of Germany, especially when the Russians get these weapons, Germany's standard weapons will make them understand who is really helping them behind the scenes.

After hearing Minister Andrew's explanation, William II nodded calmly, smiled, and said: "Arthur really has a good plan! I originally thought that Australia exported weapons and equipment and mineral resources to island countries because it wanted to expand in the Far East. To win over an ally in the region, I didn’t expect that he actually wanted to eat both sides, including the Russian Empire. But what he said did make sense. It was impossible for the German Empire to use its own strength to win over the Russian Empire. France was A hurdle that cannot be bypassed.”

"It's a good plan to use the conflicts between the Tsarist Empire and the island countries in the Far East to open up doors for their own arms trade! But Arthur's words really moved me. I will give you the information you want to help you obtain An order for arms trade. But don’t forget what you promised. This arms trade and assistance will be carried out secretly in the name of the German Empire." William II laughed, and first affirmed and praised Arthur's strategy. , and then agreed to the entire plan.

The arms market of the entire Tsarist Empire was obviously beyond the reach of the German Empire. In other words, even if the German Empire can rely on arms trade and financial assistance to gain the favor and closeness of the Tsarist Russian Empire, it will be offset and balanced by further actions by France.

Moreover, the Tsarist Empire would definitely choose the latter between the German Empire and France without hesitation. If it did not want the co-optation plan to fail, it would be best not to let France join in.

However, European countries, especially European powers, have many spies and their intelligence acquisition capabilities are also very strong.

The actions of European countries, especially powerful countries like the German Empire, will definitely attract attention, especially for France, an enemy of the German Empire.

Therefore, the best way to prevent France from appearing in this arms trade is for Germany not to participate, so that the French will relax their vigilance.

That's why William II used the word "secretly". On the surface, the arms trade was still completed by the Russian Empire and Australia alone, but in fact the benefits of the relationship were given to the German Empire.

"Of course, Your Majesty. Our purpose is only to open up Australia's arms trade, and we are also happy to facilitate the relaxation of relations between the German Empire and the Russian Empire." Minister Andrew nodded matter-of-factly and said with a smile.

"I'm afraid that judging from the financial situation of the Tsarist Empire, there is basically no extra funds to purchase weapons and equipment. Although their backward logistics and transportation system have led to the backwardness of their military equipment in the Far East, funds are also a very serious problem for them. A question. Although the Tsarist Empire has a large amount of financial aid and loans from France, most of these loans need to be used to purchase French industrial products and other resources. It is basically impossible to use them to purchase your weapons and equipment." William The Second Emperor said: "I'm afraid that before signing an arms trade treaty with the Russian Empire, we have to sign a loan treaty with them."

"His Majesty the Kaiser, I think this is also a good opportunity for the German Empire. If it were just the Far East issue, the Tsarist Empire would not receive too many loans from France. This also led to their very large amount of funds for the Far East issue. Scarcity is also the reason why their troops have backward equipment and lack of supplies. Australia can privately provide an interest-free loan to the Russian Empire in the name of the German Empire. This loan must be used to solve the Far East problem. In this way, it can not only solve the problem of the Russian Empire's funds The problem of shortcomings can also make Russians more grateful to Germany." Minister Andrew replied.

It is true that Australia wants to sign an arms trade treaty with the Russian Empire, but this does not mean that Australia will be taken advantage of.

The economic situation of the Tsarist Empire has always been very poor, and it also has a large amount of domestic liabilities and loans.

Among other things, the Tsarist Empire obtained countless loans from France. The repayment of these loans would take decades. How could they have time to repay other loans?

The Germans are wealthy and really want to win over the Russian Empire. So, why not let the Germans come up with this fund?

"Hahaha, whatever. I will give you a check of 100 million marks to use as funds to win over the Russian Empire and lend them money. The only requirement is that this fund can only be used by the Russian Empire for military equipment and warships in the Far East. The purchase cannot be used for any other place." William II naturally heard Minister Andrew's intention, but he didn't care.

For the German Empire, it was very worthwhile to spend a little money to win over a relatively powerful country, not to mention that this powerful country was also an ally of its own enemies.

If you need to spend a sum of money, you can potentially strengthen your own strength and weaken your enemies. Why not?

Moreover, 100 million marks is indeed nothing to William II, and it is only 5 million when converted into pounds.

If the Tsarist Empire could really be won over, it wouldn't hurt even if the interest-free loan of 100 million marks was turned into gifts and aid to William II.

Just imagine, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Kingdom of Italy, which is just a formality. How powerful is the combined power of the four countries?

Even if the two old powers, the British Empire and France, unite, they may not be the opponents of these four countries.

In terms of army, a German Empire can already defeat France, not to mention the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which has a good overall army strength, and the Tsarist Russian Empire, which has a large gray population.

Although the army of the Tsarist Empire could not keep up with other countries in terms of weapons, equipment and soldier quality, this country had a very large population and could easily arm millions or even millions of troops.

In this era, the number of soldiers in the army is still one of the extremely important factors. A country with a larger population will naturally have many advantages in military terms than a country with a smaller population.

After obtaining the support of William II, Minister Andrew breathed a sigh of relief.

Although the German Empire could not directly participate in this arms trade, the intelligence they had about the Russian Empire and the reputation of German-made weapons were still very helpful to this arms trade.

If it is a weapon developed and produced by Australia itself, it will have to go through various tests if it is to be exported.

But if it were weapons and equipment produced by the powerful German Empire, it would basically not arouse too much suspicion.

This is the blessing that a country's prestige brings to a country. Unless Australia can grow into a great power or achieve military success, such doubts will always exist.

Moreover, this arms trade also solved a potential problem, which was the possible lack of funds in the Russian Empire.

Anyway, it was the German Empire that provided loans to the Tsarist Empire. The Tsarist Empire must have money to pay Australia for the arms trade. As for whether there is money to repay the loan in the future, that is not Australia's concern.

Anyway, the German Empire and William II were very willing to provide the funds. The only dissatisfaction may be France, which will learn about the situation in the future.

"Do you know when the island country will take action? If we don't prepare quickly, it may be too late even if we sign an arms trade treaty with the Russian Empire." After discussing everything, William II asked.

Whether it is light weapons or heavy weapons, or even large, medium and small warships, their manufacturing takes a certain amount of time, and the same goes for transportation.

Fortunately, the manufacturing time for army weapons is generally not very long. Even a large order can usually be completed within a year.

But warships are different. Even for a small warship, the construction period may be as long as two or three months, let alone a medium to large warship.

The construction period of a medium-sized warship is about five to seven months, and will increase and decrease depending on the construction difficulty of the warship and the weapons and equipment it carries.

Not to mention a new type of battleship, the construction time generally takes more than a year, or even lasts for about one to one and a half years.

What's more, after the warship is completed, it must go through a series of steps such as launching, sea trials, and testing before delivery. This testing period will take at least half a year to a year.

In other words, the time required to deliver a complete warship may be much longer than the construction time, unless there are some rush situations that reduce or even greatly reduce the testing time of the warship.

Take the battleship purchased by the island country from Australia as an example. Although the construction time is about one to one and a half years, the actual delivery time may be more than one and a half years, or even nearly two and a half years.

Of course, this does not mean that after two and a half years, this battleship will truly have combat effectiveness.

The crew on the warship will need at least two and a half years of training before they can become more familiar with the performance and facilities of the warship and be truly capable of combat effectiveness.

And these crew members must be previously trained crew members, otherwise the crew training time alone may take another two and a half years.

To sum up, the general time from placing an order to formal delivery of a warship is about two and a half years.

The training time for the crew members also takes almost two and a half years, and they can barely grow into qualified naval officers and soldiers.

At the same time, after taking over a new warship, the crew also need to adapt for two and a half years before the warship can truly have combat effectiveness.

From the beginning of manufacturing a warship to having a certain combat effectiveness, it takes at least two and a half years, and at most three and a half years.

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