Chapter 234 Second Generation Airship

Although Silvio Lonnie Rodlin was a military man, he managed the small Dili very well.

At present, the factories and some important facilities in Portuguese Timor are in normal condition, and Silvio Lonnie Rodlin has only sent some soldiers to supervise and patrol.

In the urban area of ​​Dili, a relatively strict state of martial law has been adopted. Except for some shops selling food, other shops are temporarily not allowed to open, and pedestrians are not allowed to stay on the street for too long.

Although this will restrict the freedom of the Portuguese, it is the best result for them.

Because those disobedient Portuguese will be forcibly sent to major factories and mining areas, and they will be forcibly arranged to become workers and miners.

After all, the finances of Australasia are not so rich, and there is not enough money to support these Portuguese.

It is worth mentioning that those captured Portuguese soldiers and the injured will be sent to major mining areas in Australasia after receiving good medical treatment to compensate for the various medical resources used on them.

After all, if Portugal is unwilling to redeem these Portuguese soldiers at a high price in the future, wouldn't Australasia have made a loss?

In addition to Dili, Arthur also inspected the various defensive positions that General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin organized to build in the past few days.

Because Portuguese Timor has a population of more than 300,000 indigenous people, there is no shortage of manpower to build these defensive positions.

These indigenous people are submissive. After Australasia successfully occupied Portuguese Timor, these indigenous people also very sensibly expressed their submission to Australasia.

Of course, it is impossible for Australasia to trust these indigenous people. For Arthur and the Australasia government, only the Australasia people are trustworthy.

What's more, Australasia still has relatively extreme racism, and the plan of White Australia is not a joke.

In fact, Arthur can also stop this trend, but there is no need.

Although the racism of white Australia will prevent Australasia from accepting Asian immigrants, at this stage, European immigrants are the most useful to Australasia and the foundation for Australasia to maintain its unity.

As for the indigenous and Asian immigrants in the country, they have not brought much to Australasia except for the population.

Europe can now provide Australasia with hundreds of thousands of immigrants every year. Coupled with the newborn babies in Australasia, the annual population growth figure is already a very large number.

Arthur was very satisfied with the current situation in Portuguese Timor. After instructing General Silvio Lonnie Rodlin, he returned to Australasia.

There is no movement in Portugal at present, which also means that Portugal will definitely make a big move.

Because if Portugal wants to give in, it has already begun to quietly contact the Australasia government.

The lack of movement now just shows that Portugal has not given up, and may even be brewing a big move.

Arthur's first move was to order the military factory to produce a large amount of ammunition. This includes a large number of rifle and machine gun bullets, as well as shells for various artillery.

There is also good news for Arthur, that is, the next war will soon turn into a defensive war, and artillery and machine guns in the defensive war will play a big role.

For this reason, not only have military factories entered the overtime production mode, but the transport fleet is also frantically transporting ammunition to the three occupied new territories.

Of course, the main thing is to transport ammunition and supplies to Portuguese India and Portuguese Timor. These two areas are also equivalent to the barriers of East Asian colonies. It is unlikely that the Portuguese will go directly to East Asia by crossing these two colonies.

After the war broke out, in addition to the attention of Europe, the United States also sent a telegram to Australasia, asking whether Australasia needs support in weapons and equipment.

Arthur naturally refused the inquiry from the United States.

What a joke, at present, in terms of army weapons and equipment, Australasia can be said to be the world's top, not inferior to Britain and Germany at all.

Although the United States is currently the most powerful industrial country, this is only in terms of size.

If we only talk about the advanced level of technology and the strength of weapons, the United States cannot be compared with the current British Empire and Germany.

Before absorbing a large amount of talent and property resources from Europe, the United States was just a nouveau riche country with a very developed economy and industry. Its scientific and technological foundation was completely incomparable to the two European powers, Britain and Germany.

In terms of the navy, the Ministry of Defense has also formulated some patrol plans to prevent Portugal from attacking the mainland of Australasia.

Although the naval strength of Australasia is not as strong as that of Portugal, it can still run away if it can't win.

In particular, the small frigates newly launched in Australasia generally have a speed of more than 18 knots, and can even reach 19 knots.

There are not many warships in the Portuguese navy that can reach this speed, not to mention that they have to escort the army, so it is naturally impossible to pursue deeply.

Fortunately, Australasia currently has no shortage of various resources, so the fleet has been organized to transport a large amount of supplies and food to Portuguese India, Portuguese Timor and other regions.

And Portuguese Timor is very close to Australasia, and Portuguese India is adjacent to British India, so there is basically no need to worry about the logistics line being cut off.

After all walks of life in Australasia entered into intense preparations, the situation also ushered in a brief peace.

In September, Arthur received another good news, that is, the full opening of the industrial railway.

This important railway connecting the east and west of the Australian continent will become a bridge for communication between the east and west of the Australian continent.

At the same time, with the opening of the industrial railway, the northern railway has officially entered the construction period.

Because the total mileage of the northern railway is not inferior to that of the industrial railway, the construction time of the northern railway is about eight years, and the total investment will exceed 40 million Australian dollars.

Although it is expected to cost nearly 5 million Australian dollars per year, it is completely affordable for the current financial situation of Australasia.

What's more, the construction of the industrial railway also required 3 to 4 million Australian dollars per year. Now that the industrial railway is completed, it is actually equivalent to an additional expenditure of more than 1 million Australian dollars per year.

After participating in the celebration of the full opening of the industrial railway, Arthur once again went to the aviation laboratory.

Of course, this time he came not for the plane, but for the airship mentioned in the previous battle report.

After all, the Australasia war report mentioned the use of airships for aerial bombing, but in reality, if Australasia did not have airships that could do such bombing, wouldn't it be a bit funny.

Fortunately, although aircraft is the main research and development target of the aviation laboratory, the research and development of airships has not been left behind, but the progress is a bit slow compared to aircraft.

But the current airship has also developed a second generation, that is, the AU-2 rigid airship.

The second-generation airship is an improved version of the first-generation airship, with certain changes in appearance and a lot of expansion in volume.

The second-generation airship is 132 meters long and 12 meters in diameter, and can accommodate about 13,000 cubic meters of hydrogen.

It is precisely because of the expansion of volume and the increase in the capacity of hydrogen that the load capacity of the AU-2 airship has reached 11 tons, which is a full ton more than the previous generation of airships.

Although it seems to have only increased by 10%, the range and stability of the airship have been greatly improved, which is what Arthur values ​​more.

If the first generation of airships is a test version built by Zeppelin, then the second generation airship AU-2 is already a stable version that has been tested.

Although the possibility of accidents cannot be ruled out, the safety of the second generation airship has been greatly improved compared to the first generation, and it can be used as a means of transportation and put into the civilian field.

At present, airships have a major advantage over airplanes, that is, the load capacity far exceeds the load capacity of airplanes.

Although the speed of airships is far less than that of airplanes, the characteristic of being able to hold cargo with a large belly alone has certain advantages in transportation.

Of course, such airships are also fully satisfied with the characteristics of high-altitude bombing. As long as some small shells are placed on the airship and then thrown out manually, high-altitude bombing can be achieved.

Even special machine guns can be installed on this airship, but the stability is left to fate.

But in any case, AU-2 is fully capable of achieving the aerial bombing mentioned in the war report, so there is no need to fear the exploration of Australasian airship technology by European countries.

Of course, in order to make the major European powers more convinced that Australasia gained a huge advantage in the war by using airships for aerial bombing, airships must be used in the next war, and a considerable advantage must be created.

Fortunately, because of the huge role of airships in transportation, several second-generation airships were produced after they were born. At present, the Aviation Laboratory has a total of five second-generation airships, which is just enough for the next war.

In addition, the control of airships is simpler than that of airplanes, so the Aviation Laboratory also has enough airship pilots to go out.

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