Chapter 423 Nicholas II’s generosity

The factional struggle in Russia does not matter to Arthur, but Russia's decision to temporarily abandon domestically produced weapons and fully choose imported weapons, especially weapons produced in Australasia, is definitely a matter for Arthur and Australasia. Good thing.

First of all, Russia's comprehensive shift to Australian-made weapons can bring Russia and Australasia closer together.

Coupled with the marriage relationship between the royal families of the two countries, the Russia-Australia alliance will become more stable.

Although the Russians' second batch of aircraft orders were not large, they totaled 200 aircraft. Coupled with the cost of sending student pilots to Australasia, this is a deal worth more than 50 million rubles.

Even if converted into Australian dollars, it is an order of nearly 11 million Australian dollars, and the income to Arthur and the royal family can be as high as about 6 million Australian dollars.

You know, this kind of order is just the beginning. In the original history, various countries built a total of more than 100,000 aircraft during World War I. This number is not an exaggeration.

Even though the world's progress in aircraft has changed a lot, ultimately building tens of thousands of aircraft is not a problem.

Even for a country like Russia, the demand for aircraft is hundreds or even thousands. Even in order to establish air superiority over Germany, Russia had to equip at least thousands of aircraft.

According to Arthur's intelligence, Germany's aircraft research is at full capacity.

Not only are aircraft being built on a large scale, but a lot of money is also being invested in trying to develop aircraft that are comparable to the first generation military aircraft.

If Germany is really able to study it, the Allied Powers' aircraft performance advantage over Germany will be gone, and the outcome will be decided by the number of aircraft on both sides.

As long as Germany starts building aircraft on a large scale, even if Britain, France and Russia are unwilling, they will have to maintain a balance or even lead in quantity.

At present, only Australasia can sell aircraft. Britain and France are still urgently researching the technology of the first-generation military aircraft. I am afraid they will have to wait until 1916 to put them into production.

Of course, in fact, in addition to the several countries participating in the war, the United States currently also has aircraft technology, and has indeed evolved militarized aircraft.

However, the performance of American aircraft still lags behind German aircraft, let alone compared with Australasian aircraft.

Since the prices are about the same, the British, French and Russians have a pretty good idea of ​​which aircraft to choose.

It is worth mentioning that in the arms trade with the Russians, Australasia has generally requested payment in resources or gold.

Although the war has only lasted for more than a year, it is visible to the naked eye that the Russian ruble has gradually depreciated, and paying in rubles is taking advantage of Australasia.

Anyway, now that the trade line from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea has been opened, the Russians can raise mineral resources or gold domestically, and Australasia can load it from the Black Sea port.

Of course, under normal circumstances, using gold reserves for payment is the last option, and no country will use it easily.

In this era of the gold standard, a country's gold reserves determine the issuance and value of currency, and are also an important means to ensure currency stability.

At present, almost all currencies are linked to gold. Before the war, one pound was equal to approximately 7.33 grams of gold, one Australian dollar was equal to approximately 3.66 grams of gold, and one ruble was equal to approximately 0.81 grams of gold.

But now, sterling aside, the ruble has indeed fallen in value. Before the war, one pound was equal to about nine rubles. Now one pound can be exchanged for more than ten rubles. The purchasing power of the ruble in Russia has also been greatly reduced.

Because some Russian people are dissatisfied with the government and the country, many workers require gold and food supplies to replace their wages.

They are afraid that the ruble they get will eventually become a piece of paper that can only be used to wipe their butts after the country is wiped out.

Australasia certainly has this consideration. Although Australasia is not worried that the Russians will default on their debts, even after the collapse of the Russian Empire, the newly formed government must acknowledge the debt owed to Australasia.

But a little less trouble means less trouble. Minerals and resources and gold will never depreciate anyway.

When purchasing aircraft technology before, the Russians used a large amount of mineral resources, as well as a small amount of gold and Australian dollars to make the purchase.

Australasia and Russia have an alternative population trade, and the trade between the two parties is very frequent, so Russia still has some Australian dollar reserves.

Almost all of this reserve was used to purchase aircraft technology, allowing Russia to save a large amount of mineral resources and gold.

However, as Russia retreated from the war on the front line, the Russians also began to use gold for payment. After all, gold was easier to raise than mineral resources.

After the Russians paid off the aircraft with mineral resources and gold, Australasia quickly transported 200 aircraft to Russia and generously gave away aircraft accessories worth more than 1.5 million rubles.

If all goes well, Russian pilot training will be completed before the beginning of next year. At present, training pilots is relatively simple. The combat method of aircraft is relatively simple. There is no complicated control system. It only requires skilled driving and the use of weapons.

It only takes about a little more than a month to urgently train a qualified pilot. If you want to train an elite pilot, you need to undergo continuous actual combat training and undergo transformation in various air combats.

In Russia, Nicholas II also secretly purged some capitalists and logistics officials.

Thanks to the opening of the route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, the Russian government and military are actually not very tolerant of domestic capitalists.

Even if domestic capital cannot provide supplies for the army, the Russian government can still purchase them from Britain, France and Australasia.

Without the collusion between logistics officials and capitalists, imported materials would be cheaper and of higher quality.

Especially after the properties of several logistics officials were seized and the stolen money seized reached tens of millions of rubles, Nicholas II no longer had any worries.

At worst, the property of these capitalists and logistics officials can be used to purchase more supplies and food. As long as the army can be satisfied with sufficient logistics supplies, the army can support the rule of Nicholas II and suppress various domestic uprisings.

On the contrary, if these capitalists and logistics officials are allowed to collude to exploit the frontline troops, I am afraid that when the army riots in the future, the capitalists and logistics officials will be the fastest.

They could run away, but Nicholas II couldn't. Most of Nicholas II's property was in Russia, and his status also came from the Russian royal family and throne.

If Russia disappears, Nicholas II will lose his power and status, and his life may even be in danger.

In fact, Nicholas II's purge of the logistics department and capitalists was quite timely. If it were a few days later, not only the Southwest Front Army, but also the Northwest Front Army would be at risk of going to St. Petersburg for questioning.

In such times of war, the power and status of the military will be unprecedentedly high. Once the entire military is dissatisfied with Nicholas II and the government, no one can save Russia's current situation.

Nicholas II's timely cleanup of the logistics department and capitalists gained the morale of the frontline troops.

After the frontline troops once again ate the long-lost canned rabbit meat and beef, they finally calmed down their recent dissatisfaction, but they became even more resentful towards the logistics officials and capitalists who were purged by Nicholas II.

After all, Nicholas II, as the czar who controlled the entire Russia, although his military ability was not worth mentioning, his political ability was still at a certain level.

After learning about the current logistics situation of the frontline troops, Nicholas II quickly realized that the current poor logistics urgently needed a blame-bearer.

Otherwise, the new commander-in-chief of the Russian army, that is, he himself will be hated by the front-line troops.

After all, the logistics of the frontline army has been getting worse and worse since he took office. It is hard not to think of this, but Nicholas II never lacked the logistics budget of the frontline army.

After purging some logistics officials and capitalists, Nicholas II launched a propaganda campaign among the army and the people, blaming some logistics officials and capitalists for the defeat, saying that it was precisely because they withheld logistics supplies from the front line that the front line was The battle was lost.

Although some people do not trust this, it is clear that someone is taking the blame, and the calls for overthrowing Nicholas II and the entire tsarist system are not so loud.

Nicholas II knew that the next step was to see the performance of the frontline troops. After purging the logistics department, the frontline troops can achieve good results, and some of the public's dissatisfaction may be dissipated.

If the frontline troops are still retreating steadily, does it prove that those capitalists and logistics officials are just the ones who were pushed out to take the blame?

Because of this, Nicholas II was not stingy with military expenditures, and even went against the public opinion in the government to increase the estimated military expenditures for the next year by 10%.

Not just next year, of course. After purging logistics officials and capitalists, Nicholas II obtained a large sum of money and spent it all on purchasing armaments.

Nicholas II issued a large military order to Britain, France and Australasia. Australasia's share of the order alone was as high as 500,000 rifles, 1.5 million military uniforms, 1 million gas masks, 5 100 million rounds of rifle bullets, 2,500 heavy machine guns, 50 million rounds of machine gun bullets, 1,500 artillery pieces of various calibers, and 2.5 million rounds of artillery shells of various calibers.

Even Arthur had to be shocked by Nicholas II's generosity. Just after the arrival of this large arms order from Australasia, Russia's equipment on the front line is not weaker than that of the German army.

Coupled with the advantage of aircraft, as long as the Russian army stops making mistakes, it will be impossible for the Eastern Front to suffer heavy casualties like the Battle of Gorlitz.

Even the Russian commanders were more conservative and used positional warfare to fight the Germans attrition, leaving the Germans tired of responding on two fronts. If they found opportunities to surround the German army, they might not be able to win a big victory.

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