Chapter 851 Darkness Chencang

The turbulent international situation did not affect the outbreak of the Central Asian War. With the arms race over, the British also let go.

On March 26, 1888, with the order of Governor Lytton, two Indian colonial divisions launched an attack on Afghanistan, which opened the prelude to the Central Asian War.

The Vienna Palace, after receiving the news of the war in Afghanistan, Franz once again became a melon eater.

Worry is non-existent, and you can see from the way the British play that the bureaucrats in London don't take Afghanistan seriously at all.

The two Indian colonial divisions, which seem to be powerful, are actually a group of rabble.

In terms of real combat effectiveness, I am afraid it is not comparable to the two main British army regiments. Such troops are reluctant to maintain law and order, and when they are placed on the battlefield, they can only be compared to the enemy.

Franz asked: "Is the weapons and equipment in place to aid the Afghans?"

If you want to use the Afghan war to bleed the British, weapons and equipment are still indispensable.

Afghans with broadswords and spears would not be able to last long without international aid.

Foreign Minister Wesenberg: "The first batch of supplies has been secretly shipped, and in terms of time, the Afghan government should have already distributed it.

Our intelligence network in Afghanistan is not perfect. After the war broke out, we were completely blinded, and we didn't know anything about the specific situation there. "

This is an inevitable result, not to mention the imperfect intelligence network, even if all Afghans are turned into intelligence personnel, there is no way to spread the news.

The British diplomacy is not a blow. Afghan neighbors have pulled up a blockade, and the only way to communicate with the outside world is smuggling.

It turns out that smuggling channels are also not suitable for transmitting intelligence.

Both Persia and the Central Asian Khanate are poor ghosts, and most areas have neither railways nor telegraphs.

Before the war broke out, the Vienna government received news from Afghanistan with a delay of more than a week. Not to mention when the war broke out.

Hearing the bad news, Franz frowned: "In other words, we have lost contact with the Afghan government.

The originally planned empty materials have now lost the possibility of implementation because they have lost their goals. "

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Wesenberg replied.

"As things stand, we can only hope for the Russians to reconnect with the Afghan government.

They have been operating locally for a long time and should have hidden messaging channels. Now it is only temporarily interrupted by the war.

The tsarist government is trying to recover, and it may take some time to recover. "

"Place hope in the Russians" and "recovery after a while", such answers made Franz directly dispel the idea of ​​short supplies.

Although Afghanistan is a small country, its territory is not small at all, and it is mostly mountainous.

If the pick-up signal is not issued below, who knows where the handover will take place and how the airship soldiers will drop the supplies?

You can't throw it around. If you throw it into the deep mountains, old forests, rivers and lakes, the big deal is the loss of a batch of materials.

It would be embarrassing if it happened to fall on the British army with bad luck and became the captain of the transportation team.

After pondering for a while, Franz made a decision: "Forget it, if something like this happened, it can only be considered unlucky for the Afghan government.

Didn't they send a liaison officer to let them find a way to get in touch with the country, we can't do anything right now. "

in a hurry?

If it doesn't exist, even if the Afghan government falls, the Russians will make up for it.

Besides, what if the British were victorious?

Occupying a place populated by guerrillas and religious fanatics is not a good thing. The high cost of rule will sooner or later make the British realize the reality.

War Minister Feslav suggested: "Your Majesty, our troops stationed in the colonies have not changed their weapons and equipment for many years.

In view of the current severe international situation, we must prepare in advance. The Ministry of War suggested a major refit to increase the defense capabilities of the colonies first. "

Feslav’s words reminded Franz that although the colonial armed forces of various countries these days are their own second- and third-rate troops, recruiting the worst troops, holding the most outdated weapons, and carrying out the simplest training, but Austria is an exception.

The colonial army was only a little behind in weapons and equipment, and in other respects it was still on par with the main domestic army.

A few years ago, the Vienna government also sent out the main force to conduct actual combat drills in turn.

It was only later that all the enemies in the colony were eliminated, and this actual combat training plan was forced to end.

In normal times, colonial troops maintain their current state, and naturally there is no problem.

The equipment is almost there, anyway, the colonial armies of various countries are rotten, as long as they are better than their peers.

Now that the international situation has changed, no one can guarantee that it will go wrong.

In this context, it is particularly important to increase the strength of the colony.

Especially in the Austrian African region, once the European Continental War breaks out, they are not expected to seize the entire Africa at one time, but it must be completed to win strategic locations such as Egypt, the Cape of Good Hope, and Djibouti.

This is the core of Austria starting from the formulation of national policy. It won these important places, not only the basic

Turkey and Africa have become one piece, and Britain and France have to run tens of thousands more kilometers to enter the Indian Ocean.

The original time to run two routes is now only enough to run once, not only the transportation cost has greatly increased, but also means that the enemy's maritime transportation capacity has been halved.

"Not only do we need to change clothes, but we must also increase the weapons reserves of the colonies. Take Austrian Africa as an example, where there should be enough armaments to arm one million people for a year.

Once the continental war broke out, the colonies would do well to take the entire African continent on their own. "

It is not that Franz has a big appetite, but that Austrian Africa already has such strength.

Today, the total population of Austrian Africa has reached more than 20 million, which is several times more than the immigrants of the other major colonial empires combined.

Once the war broke out, it was doomed to attack from all sides. Even if the Vienna government does not order it, the local military nobles will pull the team to do it by themselves.

The belligerent nature has been implanted in everyone's bones since the opening of Austrian Africa.

If it weren't for the conditions that did not allow it, and the Vienna government deliberately suppressed it, they would have been engaged in friction in Africa long ago.

It would be foolish not to take advantage of the conditions, not to mention winning the entire African continent, as long as you win a few important places, Austria will be sure to win.

Prime Minister Carr questioned: "Your Majesty, this is too much! Several of our important colonies have powerful military forces, which are simply not something that neighboring countries can shake.

Even if the continental war broke out, Austrian Africa was strong enough to deal with any enemy. Now transporting so many weapons and equipment to the colonies can easily lead to international tensions. "

The weapons and equipment that a million people fight for a year is not a star and a half. If calculated in units, it is one million tons.

With so many materials shipped in the past, it is almost impossible to keep secrets. Who doesn't put a few spies on the other side these days!

Important military intelligence cannot be inquired. Who else can be deceived by this kind of ammunition?

Franz nodded, that was indeed a question. Not to mention transportation, light tissue production can attract the attention of the European world.

"Then do it in batches, first increase the supply in the name of changing clothes, and then add a portion when replenishing materials every month. The more times, the less eye-catching.

This Central Asian War is the best cover. Ordered the state-owned arsenal to double the production capacity of weapons from now on, and announced that it was an order from the Russians.

Don't release specific figures to the public. The arsenal is scattered all over the country, and most people will not notice it. "

The advantage of state-owned enterprises is here, the government can control production capacity and does not need to disclose any information to the outside world.

How many weapons and ammunition were produced and how many were exported, as long as the Vienna government did not say it, no one knew at all.

Even if someone investigates, it is necessary to investigate all the arsenals together to obtain accurate figures. It is meaningless to investigate the data of one or two arsenals alone.

It is not Franz's boast that it is impossible for the outside world to know how many arsenals and how many enterprises have military production capacity in Austria.

The reason is very simple, there are too many related companies. Many machinery factories can be transformed into military factories immediately by modifying their production equipment.

Anyway, it's all streamlined construction, and you don't need your company to produce all the spare parts, as long as you can produce a part of it.

Putting together the spare parts produced by everyone, a weapon was born.

The current military factories only have a relatively complete industrial chain themselves, and do not need to buy spare parts everywhere.

From the beginning to the end, the spare parts are produced by a company, which will naturally be more dominant when assembling, and the quality must be relatively guaranteed.

But really in the war years, these are small problems. A lot of times, quantity is more important than quality, as long as it can be used, a few flaws are not worth mentioning at all.