Chapter 790 German-Italian Agreement

Like the Cromwell Tank Factory before it, the T-series tank production line was split from the Royal Ordnance Factory and the First Australasian Tank Manufacturing Factory was established.

The separated First Tank Manufacturing Factory, as an extremely important tank military industry at present, is naturally in the hands of the royal family and the government.

After negotiation with the government, the First Tank Manufacturing Factory will change from the original royal family holding to a joint venture between the royal family and the government.

Of course, the government is also very sincere. The royal consortium used the data and production lines of various series of tanks to invest in it, occupying 75% of the total shares of the First Tank Factory.

The government invested 25 million Australian dollars, plus provided the site for the tank factory, including improving the entire tank factory, accounting for 25% of the shares.

Arthur has an encouraging attitude towards government investment. After all, if the royal consortium controls too many companies alone, it will inevitably make future governments dissatisfied.

Even if Arthur can stabilize the government during his reign, including the next monarch William, who can guarantee that the next monarch can also stabilize the government?

Appropriately involving the government while retaining the royal consortium's control over these enterprises is what Arthur will plan next.

The system of a perfect monarchy should be such that the monarch and the government are in common interests, and the finances of the royal family and the government can make money together, and everyone can achieve a win-win goal.

The government is rich but the monarch is poor, and all actions of the monarch must be controlled by the government. After all, money is everything, including the expansion of the army, etc., all of which cannot be separated from the money in hand.

A rich monarch and a poor government will also lead to the birth of many problems. It makes sense that there are all kinds of birds in the forest. If the royal family is too rich and the government is too poor, it will inevitably make some extremists in the government envious or even jealous of the royal family, which will lead to a mentality of fighting against the royal family.

Of course, the separation of the First Tank Manufacturing Factory from the Royal Ordnance Factory cannot be completed in a short time.

At least until the factory of the First Tank Factory is fully completed and the tank production line is fully laid out, tank production will still be carried out at the Royal Ordnance Factory.

After all, the relocation of the No. 1 tank manufacturing plant is important, but the Ministry of National Defense's demand for tanks is even more important.

Nothing is more important than improving a country's military strength. After all, military strength determines the security of a country, especially in this era of law of the jungle.

But then again, no matter what era it is in, the order between countries will always be that of the weak and the strong.

While a few powerful countries may band together to set the rules, as soon as any one of them becomes more powerful than the others, the rules will be trampled upon at will.

Just as the tanks of the Royal Ordnance Factory were gradually entering production, Arthur suddenly received bad news from Europe, that is, two countries with similar odors, Germany and Italy, were gradually getting closer.

To be honest, this news was a bit beyond Arthur's expectations. Because in the original history, although the two countries finally formed an alliance, the relationship was not as smooth as imagined in the years before that.

But if you think about it carefully, this world is very different from that in history. The first was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was not broken up into many countries.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was only split into the Austrian Empire and the Republic of Hungary, especially the Austrian Empire, which is still considered a low-level power.

This also means that whether it is Italy or Germany, it is undoubtedly difficult for Italy or Germany to invade the land of the Austrian Empire alone.

Germany's current army is less than half the size of Austria's (national army), and the Italian army's poor combat effectiveness makes it unlikely to be a match for the Austrian Empire.

Under such circumstances, it became possible for two countries that were originally at odds over the Austrian issue to come together because of a common enemy.

This is like Britain and France. Needless to say, there is no need to elaborate on the conflicts between the two countries. But in the face of the unified enemy Germany, Britain and France were still able to form an alliance and unite to defeat the powerful enemy.

However, the approach of Germany and Italy also represents bad news, that is, the situation in Europe is likely to become more chaotic due to the movements of these two countries.

Because judging from the neighbors of these two countries, their alliance may not only be aimed at the Austrian Empire, but also France.

France is also a neighbor of these two countries, and its current relations with Germany and Italy are not good.

It can be expected that once these two countries form an alliance, not only the Austrian Empire will be worried, but even the French will be on guard against what these two neighbors will do.

After all, one of these two countries is Germany, which has learned lessons from the past, and the other is Italy, which now has the word expansion almost written on its forehead. It is impossible for the French not to be prepared.

Especially Germany, as the biggest enemy of the French in the early 20th century, the French will definitely be on guard and even directly regard Germany as France's biggest competitor, even if Germany's military power is still suffering from restrictions.

However, judging from the current fear of war among the French, the French are most likely to find allies to fight against Germany and Italy. The most likely alliance is the Austrian Empire, which is also suffering from Germany and Italy.

Having said that, France and the Austrian Empire actually got closer after World War I. But most of the advances at that time were financial.

French capital adhered to its consistent principles and made large loans to Austria after its defeat in World War I, thus turning its enemies in the war into friendly countries.

Of course, France also has a purpose in wooing Austria through loans. Previously, he wanted to use Austria to divert Russia's attention and achieve his ambition of European hegemony.

Now we want to unite Austria against the alliance between Germany and Italy, and avoid the possibility of war with Germany and Italy.

In fact, this is also the mainstream thinking in most European countries in this era. Having witnessed the brutality of World War I, especially a meat grinder battlefield like the Battle of Verdun that frequently killed millions of people, no country wants to face such a war again.

It is precisely because of this thought that the famous appeasement policy in history took place.

In this world with Arthur and Australasia, appeasement policy as serious as in history is basically impossible.

What's more, the Austrian Empire still exists. Whether it is Germany or Italy, even if they unite, it is impossible to completely annex the entire Austrian Empire.

Even if Britain and France no longer want to see the battlefield, they are destined to never sit back and watch Germany and Italy directly annex the entire Austrian Empire.

This is equivalent to integrating three powers into two powers, one of which is a superpower like Germany, which once ranked second in the world and has extremely huge potential.

Not to mention Germany annexing the entire Austrian Empire, Britain and France would not want to see even Italy annexing the Austrian Empire.

Not to mention, Italy and the Austrian Empire have the potential to become a super power.

The premise is that Italy can control the voice of the entire country, integrate Austria's industrial strength, and extend its hands to the entire Balkan Peninsula.

In this way, a Mediterranean hegemon and a southern European superpower were born. But this great power is located in the Mediterranean and close to Constantinople, so it is not easy to be born.

In fact, theoretically speaking, great powers will basically not be born in the Balkans. In addition to the extremely fatal issue of Constantinople, the powers surrounding the Balkan Peninsula will not allow the birth of new powers in this region.

Before the outbreak of World War I, the competition in the Balkans was mainly between Russia and Austria-Hungary. After the outbreak of World War I, the Balkans became relatively chaotic. More powers participated, all of which had a certain influence on the Balkans.

Under such circumstances, any country that wants to become stronger must solve the covetousness of the major powers. It is simply impossible to rise.

This is equivalent to grabbing food from the bowls of several great powers. Apart from being more powerful than these great powers, it is basically difficult to do so.

What Arthur didn't expect was that Germany and Italy were negotiating for a union very quickly, much faster than Arthur could have imagined.

The news that Germany and Italy were getting closer came in mid-November, and on Christmas Eve, in mid-to-late December, news broke that Germany and Italy had signed a relevant agreement.

Although Arthur did not know what the agreement between Germany and Italy contained, the union of the two countries at this time was not good news for all countries.

It was also shortly after the news broke that Germany and Italy signed a relevant agreement that Arthur held an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the response plan after Germany and Italy got closer.

Although Australasia is far away in Oceania, it is very concerned about the situation in Europe. And as one of the great powers, the situation in Europe is also very important to Australasia, and it also determines whether Australasia can go further.

"Is there any specific news about the agreement signed between Germany and Italy?" During the meeting, Arthur frowned and looked at Defense Minister Thomas.

After more than 30 years of updating the Australasian intelligence system, the original three major intelligence agencies have become three major intelligence systems.

Moreover, the current three major intelligence systems are more complex, and two of them are in the hands of Arthur.

The three major intelligence systems are:

The Royal Security Intelligence Service, which is only loyal to the royal family and is responsible for handling private affairs for the royal family;

The National Security Agency is loyal to the royal family and the government and is responsible for collecting domestic intelligence for the country.

The Military Intelligence Bureau is loyal to the royal family and the country and is responsible for collecting external military intelligence and conducting counterintelligence work.

To put it simply, the National Security Agency is an organization that supervises domestic officials and collects domestic intelligence.

The Military Intelligence Bureau is an organization that conducts foreign intelligence spying and prevents espionage infiltration from other powers.

The Royal Security Intelligence Service, which is exclusive to the royal family, is a comprehensive intelligence organization, but it only serves the royal family and is more mysterious.

Arthur's purpose in asking Defense Secretary Thomas was to see if Thomas had any first-hand intelligence from the Military Intelligence Agency.

After all, although all kinds of intelligence agencies are loyal to the royal family, except for the other two major intelligence organizations except the Royal Security Intelligence Service, the intelligence will be handed over to the government first and then reported to the royal family.

After all, in all kinds of work, the royal family and the government must come first. For the sake of future generations, we must also focus on taking care of the government's emotions.

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