Chapter 394 The incident on the Eastern Front begins

Large-scale production of penicillin was an urgent endeavor and was conservatively estimated to take one to two years to achieve.

Of course, if Fleming had been unlucky, the production of penicillin might have been delayed until after World War I.

But in any case, the discovery of penicillin was a good thing for Arthur and Australasia.

Penicillin, a miracle drug during the war, can be controlled in advance and can bring a lot of benefits to Arthur and Australasia.

Not only can it reduce Australasia's casualties in the war, but it can also be used to exchange for more benefits, such as land, technology, talents, etc.

Just imagine, if at a time when the war in Europe was raging, Australasia suddenly took out strategic medical supplies such as penicillin. Both the Entente and the Central Powers would rush to get it, because whoever didn't have it would be at a disadvantage.

The real reason for the current large losses and casualties is actually that some seriously injured soldiers still have the risk of wound infection even after treatment.

In this era without antibiotics, wound infection is fatal and more cruel than direct death in battle.

Many soldiers did not die under the enemy's gunfire, but died from wound infection and lack of timely treatment.

If enough penicillin can be obtained, no matter which side, it can ensure that wounded soldiers can return to the war after receiving adequate treatment.

This will not only save thousands of soldiers and families, but also save a country that is in decline due to a large number of injured soldiers.

Arthur handed over the task of purifying and mass-producing penicillin to Fleming, and Arthur asked the Kent housekeeper to pay 3 million Australian dollars to Fleming's research laboratory.

Among them, 1.5 million Australian dollars will be used to conduct research and accelerate the purification and mass production of penicillin.

The remaining AU$1.5 million was used as a reward for Fleming and all his assistants, as well as researchers and workers in all research laboratories.

Fleming will receive the largest share of AU$500,000, and all scientific researchers will also receive awards of more than AU$50,000 per person.

As for the most basic workers, their rewards are divided into several hundred to several thousand Australian dollars according to their contribution.

Arthur still kept his promise and promised to transport reinforcements to Europe before April. Now that the National Day has not yet arrived, a large number of soldiers have been selected from all indigenous areas.

Of course, the selection of indigenous people cannot be too confusing. Therefore, Arthur decided to train at least 400,000 indigenous troops at one time. After dispatching reinforcements, 200,000 troops will be left to continue training in Australasia.

For the selection of indigenous soldiers, their physical fitness should not be too bad, and they should at least be able to endure the two-week recruit training.

Yes, the recruit training of indigenous soldiers only lasts for two weeks. One week is used to learn military rules and disciplines and understand how to become an obedient and good soldier.

The remaining week is used to practice marksmanship, at least to ensure that every indigenous soldier can use firearms skillfully. Whether they can hit or not is another matter.

Thanks to the short training time, the second round of the Australasian expeditionary force is expected to complete its training at the end of January or early February and all arrive in France before the end of March.

In order to collect these 400,000 rifles, Arthur worked hard. It was a bit arrogant to equip all these indigenous soldiers with new rifles. Therefore, Arthur deliberately eliminated the rifles of all the current Australasian armies, and transferred these rifles that had been in service for some time to those indigenous soldiers, and equipped the regular army with new rifles. rifle.

Even, in order to allow the indigenous soldiers to adapt in advance to the lack of logistical supplies on the European battlefield, Arthur Australasia stocked a large number of old firearms, and even rifles from decades ago, all equipped to the indigenous army.

Anyway, these troops will arrive on the European battlefield after training, and their logistics will be provided by Britain and France. Australasia only needs to transport supplies.

After reluctantly gathering equipment for these indigenous troops, time quickly came to January 10, 1915, the National Day of Australasia.

As one of the country's most important festivals, the country falls into a state of carnival during the seven days of Australasia National Day.

The impact of this war on Australasia was not great, but it still worried many people.

To eliminate the worries of some people, Arthur specifically decided to hold another military parade after many years.

This military parade was relatively brief, but all Australasian navy, land and air forces participated. The Guards, the regular army, the dreadnoughts, super-dreadnoughts, and airships all appeared, demonstrating Australasia's outstanding military power to the outside world and the public.

Of course, Australasia's real flagship aircraft, tanks, etc. will not be unveiled in the military parade.

Australasia will not disclose its weapons system until they are known to everyone in the war.

But no matter what, such a large-scale military parade did make many people gradually put aside their doubts.

Judging from Australasia's special geographical location and currently displayed military strength, leaving aside the struggle for hegemony, it is completely fine to stay in one region.

Even if Australasia's navy were stronger, there would be no problem in dominating the southern hemisphere.

With such military strength, there is no problem in protecting one's own country and people.

In addition, my life was indeed not disturbed too much by the war. Therefore, after the military parade, it can be clearly seen that many Australasian people are no longer troubled by the war, but enjoy themselves with peace of mind. life.

During the National Day holiday, as usual, this allowed the royal consortium to purchase a lot of supplies and distribute them to the people for free.

Meat, grain, milk, medical supplies, etc., a large number of resources were distributed to the people, and you can see the smiles on the faces of the Australasian people.

After the National Day holiday, while all the recruited indigenous troops were still training, several relatively large-scale battles were fought on the European battlefield, or to be precise, on the Eastern European battlefield.

The biggest difference between this war and history is that Russia did not launch a large-scale offensive at the beginning of the war. Most of the major wars between Russia and the Allies were concentrated on the border with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In order to divert the attention of the Germans, France paid a huge price and allowed the Russians to organize an offensive in the East Prussia area.

However, the scale of this offensive was not large, and the Russian army was quickly repelled by the German army due to poor equipment and poor training, suffering heavy casualties.

With all three of his allies participating in the war, Russia, which performed the worst, naturally made Nicholas II dissatisfied.

As a monarch who considered himself ambitious and ambitious, Nicholas II believed that this war was an opportunity for Russian expansion and an opportunity for the Tsarist Empire to recover again.

However, hundreds of thousands of Russian troops were blocked at the East Prussian border by less than 100,000 German troops. This was unacceptable to Nicholas II and he dismissed the commanders of several army groups.

In order to regain face, Russia decided to organize a formal, large-scale attack to restore the dignity of the European steamroller and at the same time reaffirm Russia's strength.

You know, if Russia exposes too many shortcomings in this war, then in terms of post-war interest distribution, even if Russia suffers heavy casualties, it is unlikely that it will be respected by Britain and France.

If a country is not strong, no matter how tragic its casualties in war are, it is destined to not receive the rewards it deserves.

Although the Russian army had more than 1 million troops before the war broke out, until the Russian mobilization order was implemented, the total number of Russian troops did not exceed 2 million.

Of course, one of the reasons for this is that Russia's casualties were relatively tragic. If the number of Russian casualties is included, the total number of Russian troops engaged in the war is actually nearly 2.5 million.

In order to avenge the past, through careful preparations and under the order of Nicholas II, the Russian commander-in-chief Nicholas reorganized a combat force of up to 800,000 troops and planned to launch a new attack on the East Prussia region.

Speaking of the Grand Duke with the same name as Nicholas II, there are some stories that have to be told between Grand Duke Nicholas and Nicholas II.

According to relevant Russian regulations, the person who served as the commander-in-chief of the Russian army during the war should actually be Tsar Nicholas II.

However, because Nicholas II himself lacked military experience, the command was transferred to the hands of Grand Duke Nicholas with the support of many generals.

Grand Duke Nicholas' full name is Nikolay Nikolayevich Romanov Nicholas. According to his seniority, he is the uncle of Nicholas II.

Although they are members of the royal family and have a close blood relationship. Because the two have the same name, to distinguish them, people generally refer to the two Nicholas as Tall Nicholas and Dwarf Nicholas.

Nicholas II, who was shorter in height, was naturally called Short Nicholas.

This made Nicholas II very uncomfortable, and even his uncle expressed his dissatisfaction.

Of course, there is another big reason.

Grand Duke Nicholas was born in the Engineering and Military Academy and the Imperial Military Staff College, and served as an officer in the Russo-Turkish War. He led by example and enjoyed high prestige and status in the army.

Such a high-ranking and powerful grand duke with royal blood naturally aroused the suspicion of Nicholas II.

Before the outbreak of the war, Grand Duke Nicholas was even excluded from the decision-making circle of the General Staff and only served as commander of the St. Petersburg Military District.

Although Grand Duke Nicholas naturally became the commander-in-chief of the Russian army due to the praise of the military officers, Nicholas II also made multiple weakenings of Grand Duke Nicholas's command power. For example, he could not change the personnel appointments and appointments of the staff. system so that his confidants could always monitor Grand Duke Nicholas on the staff.

Although this did limit the rights of Grand Duke Nicholas, Nicholas II was relieved.

But Nicholas II, who had a narrow vision, did not see the harm of doing so, and it would even affect the strategic mobilization of the entire Russian army.

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