Chapter 295 Balkan Alliance and War Readiness

In mid-May, when Italy and Turkey were fighting each other, Arthur also sent a business team to Southeast Asia to integrate all the rubber estates and companies that were bought at the bottom.

Although all the rubber companies that Arthur bought at the bottom were located in Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia is currently one of the most important rubber production areas in the world, and it will even be the most important rubber production area in the world in the future.

If Arthur remembers correctly, since 1914, the rubber production in Southeast Asia has accounted for half of the world's total production, and Southeast Asia is also a veritable rubber kingdom.

Now these rubber companies in Southeast Asia are integrated in advance to create an exclusive rubber brand, which is also good for the future development of the rubber industry in Southeast Asia.

The first person in charge of the Australian Rubber Company was Charles Venn, the original head of the rubber company under the royal consortium.

Charles Venn has been in contact with the rubber industry for more than ten years. Letting him take control of the Australian Rubber Company has a positive effect on the business development of the Australian Rubber Company.

Charles Venn's first task is to visit and control more than 200 rubber companies and more than 1,000 rubber estates that the royal consortium has bought at the bottom.

These rubber companies and estates will become the industry of Australian Rubber Company and the main business of Australian Rubber.

In order to ensure the safety of Charles Vane, Arthur dispatched a security team of more than ten people to Charles Vane. These people are all composed of royal guards or senior police officers, and they all carry Cassadine submachine guns and AS-1898 semi-automatic pistols to do their best to ensure the safety of Charles Vane.

After all, the capital behind the more than 200 rubber companies that have been bought at the bottom is mixed, and no one can guarantee whether they will hand over the rubber companies to Charles Vane in peace.

After all, most of the people employed by these rubber companies are Southeast Asian natives. These natives do not have a good sense of Australasia and are easily bewitched by people and do something unexpected.

With the protection of more than a dozen security personnel, Arthur is still relatively at ease. After all, if you want to break through the defense of more than a dozen security personnel, at least thousands of natives must be mobilized.

There should be no forces in Southeast Asia that do not want to live and mobilize thousands of natives to attack Australasia merchants.

At the end of May, with the help of the British, the Italian army quickly defeated the few Turkish guards in Tripoli and successfully occupied Tripoli and the coastal areas.

However, because the Italian army encountered strong resistance from the local Turkish residents, the Italian army's advance into the hinterland was very slow.

In early June, Italy could not wait to announce the annexation of Tripoli and Cyrenaica and restore the old name of the region, Libya, before the end of the war.

However, Italy's harsh demands were directly rejected by the Turkish government, and the local Turkish residents also began to carry out extensive anti-aggression guerrilla warfare, and the Italo-Turkish War entered a long-term protracted war.

While the Italo-Turkish War was in full swing, on June 21, 1911, Tsar Nicholas II called Arthur in his private name, asking whether the military industry in Australasia had sufficient production capacity.

Arthur didn't understand, but he quickly accepted the order of 50,000 rifles and 3 million rounds of ammunition proposed by the Russian Empire.

In July 1911, the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Bulgaria formed an alliance. Half a month later, Montenegro and the Kingdom of Greece also joined the alliance, forming the famous Balkan Alliance.

Arthur then understood why Nicholas II asked about the military production capacity of Australasia. It turned out that the younger brother instigated by the Russian Empire was going to start making trouble.

The purpose of the formation of the Balkan Alliance was to jointly seize Turkey's territory in the Balkan Peninsula to expand its own country and territory.

With the support of the Russian Empire, Pan-Slavism has become the mainstream thought in the Balkan Peninsula, and the various kingdoms in the Balkans are also actively expanding their armies and conducting diplomatic work.

In addition, now in the Italo-Turkish War period, most of Turkey's attention has been attracted by this war, and now preparing for a war with Turkey can achieve unexpected results.

If nothing unexpected happens, the Russian Empire's order for 50,000 rifles should also be prepared for several countries in the Balkan Alliance.

But no matter who it is given to, Australasia is the one who makes money, and Arthur doesn't care so much.

In early July, another thing attracted Arthur's attention.

Since leaving for Southeast Asia at the end of May, Charles Venn has spent more than a month integrating rubber companies.

More than a month later, on July 3, Arthur received a progress report from Charles Venn, but the result of the report made Arthur not so happy.

According to Charles Venn's report, the main personnel of the Australian Rubber Company arrived in Southeast Asia at the end of May and started the process of integrating all small rubber companies.

But the road to integration has not been too smooth. First, the previous rubber crisis caused the management of major rubber companies to fall into chaos instantly. Not only did the senior executives run away, but even the employees of the rubber companies followed them.

Secondly, some senior executives of rubber companies pretended to obey Charles Venn's words, but this was not the main problem. What was more serious was that two attacks by indigenous people had already broken out. Although they were easily solved by guards holding submachine guns and semi-automatic pistols, there must be other people behind these indigenous people.

After sitting on the desk and thinking carefully for a while, Arthur asked the guard to call Barty Crouch, the director of the Royal Security Intelligence Service.

Looking at Director Batty who was hurriedly arriving, Arthur handed him the report directly and said with a slight sneer: "Director Batty, I will give you a week to find out the forces behind the indigenous people. Can you do it?”

"No problem at all, Your Majesty. Just wait for my good news!" Director Batty decisively accepted Arthur's order. At Arthur's signal, he returned to the Royal Security Intelligence Agency to make his own arrangements.

The Royal Security Intelligence Service has developed for nearly ten years now, and its scale is no longer the small intelligence organization it once was.

There are currently thousands of intelligence officers in the Royal Security Intelligence Service, nearly a thousand of whom are elite intelligence officers. Some are stationed in Australasia, and some are scattered in Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia and other regions.

In addition to the nearly a thousand elite intelligence personnel, more than half are part-time intelligence personnel.

In other words, they also have their own normal identities and jobs, but they also have transactions with the Royal Security Intelligence Service and provide intelligence clues to the Security Service from time to time.

The distribution of these people is even more scattered. Except for the management system of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, even ordinary intelligence personnel do not know the whereabouts of these people.

There may even be pedestrians and shopkeepers who look normal on the roadside, or well-known businessmen and capitalists from other countries. In short, these intelligence agents are more widely distributed.

Director Batty acted very quickly, and it actually only took him four days to investigate the forces and purposes behind the attack on Charles Venn.

This is actually because Charles Venn controlled and integrated the Southeast Asian rubber market.

The forces behind those indigenous people were actually a rubber company that was acquired during the crisis.

The original owner of this rubber company was a member of the aristocracy of a state in the Dutch East Indies. During the rubber crisis, he took advantage of the high price and sold his shares in advance.

Now that the rubber crisis has passed, I want to buy my company back at a low price, but I find that my rubber company has been fully acquired by a man named Charles Venn, and it was delisted a few months ago. .

This made the original owner of the rubber company very angry, because he spent most of his own capital to create this rubber company. It was not only his hard work, but also created a lot of profits for him every year.

Although he had already made a lot of money by selling stocks at high prices, facing the fact that the company that should have belonged to him was taken away by others, he couldn't help but use his brain.

However, after learning that Charles Venn was from Australasia, the original owner of the rubber company did not act rashly. Instead, through layers of connections, he summoned dozens of indigenous people in a way that could hardly implicate him. , wanting to create an accident that would cause Charles Venn to die in indigenous unrest.

As long as Charles Venn dies, he can easily get his company back. This is simply the best of both worlds.

But what this person didn't expect was that just a few days later, a group of indigenous people assassinated Charles Venn. This also made what seemed to be an unexpected indigenous unrest very suspicious, and also made Charles Venn En made up his mind to report to Arthur personally.

After knowing that something was wrong, the forces behind these two groups of indigenous people hid themselves and cut off as much contact as possible with these two groups of indigenous people.

Arthur sneered and shook his head, looking at the two behind-the-scenes forces investigated by Director Batty.

The first behind-the-scenes force was the large Hortmann family in the Dutch East Indies. The history of this family in the Dutch East Indies can even be traced back to 1596.

Of course, this does not mean that the history of the Hortmann family has been passed down since 1596, but that in the late 17th century, a colonial admirer from the Netherlands, in order to commemorate the first Dutchman to arrive in the Dutch East Indies, Hortmann, History after changing his last name to Holtmann.

But in any case, the Hortmann family has been hovering in the Dutch East Indies for more than 100 years. It naturally has a lot of power and voice. It is also the largest family in the Dutch East Indies.

Another power was the Kingdom of Larantuka, a Catholic state within the Dutch East Indies.

The people of Larantuka are called Topas, and they are actually the blood of the local Portuguese who married indigenous wives. These people are also called the Black Portuguese by the Dutch.

Within this kingdom is the Da Costa family and the Dehonai family, which have been engaged in a bloody power struggle.

Coupled with the small number of Muslim forces and the Sudan in the country, the domestic situation in this Catholic country located in the southern part of the Dutch East Indies was very chaotic. The Dutch, the suzerain, only sent a military and administrative officer and did not respond to Larantuka's plan. Too much political interference.

After looking at the information about the two forces behind them, Arthur glanced at the map of Southeast Asia and found that the Kingdom of Larantuka was very close to Australian Timor, just across the sea to the west of Australian Timor.

After pondering for a while, Arthur slowly spoke out, with a hint of firmness and unquestionability: "The Royal Security Intelligence Service immediately went to the vicinity of the Kingdom of Larantuka to find out more information, and at the same time pay attention to the Dutch East Indies Colony. Government response. Guard, summon the Cabinet. I want to convene an emergency meeting."

Director Batty responded quickly and withdrew very wisely.

Soon, the cabinet ministers came to Sydney Palace, waiting for Arthur's order.

"Ladies and gentlemen, since its establishment, the Australasian Army has always been committed to protecting the country and all its people. Since the last fishermen's crisis, I think our army has done a good job, and no country dares to challenge the dignity of the Australasian and Australian people." Arthur looked at the cabinet members who were a little confused and said.

"But I got the news that some of our domestic merchants' legitimate business in Southeast Asia has not only been greatly hindered by local forces, but also a large number of indigenous people have been mobilized to threaten the lives of our merchants. I hope the government can investigate the matter as soon as possible and order the relevant cases to give a reasonable explanation. Otherwise, they will face the full suppression of the Australasian Army, and the Australasian Army will fight for the dignity of the country and the people."

Arthur's words instantly made the cabinet ministers understand several things.

First, some forces in Southeast Asia made Arthur unhappy, and secondly, Arthur had made up his mind to take action against these forces.

As for some of Arthur's other remarks, the cabinet members would definitely not take them seriously.

The reason why Arthur mobilized so many troops and directly convened the cabinet government for an emergency meeting was definitely not just to hold those forces accountable.

"In this incident, the Kingdom of Larantuka in Southeast Asia is the most likely behind the scenes. If it is confirmed, I suggest that the army enter the Kingdom of Larantuka and give all our citizens a fair result." Arthur looked at Defense Minister Raul and said with a hint of meaning.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Defense Minister Raul nodded quickly.

Although Arthur was making suggestions, Defense Minister Raul would not be stupid enough to just take Arthur's words as suggestions.

Not to mention that Arthur is the actual controller of the army, even if Arthur is just making suggestions, Minister Raul dare not disobey.

"Okay, the meeting ends here. The government will immediately be responsible for contacting the Dutch East Indies, and the army will enter a state of combat readiness from now on. Within three days, I want an accurate reply from the Dutch East Indies." Arthur ignored the cabinet members who were still receiving information and directly issued his final order.

I'll take a leave for 4,000 words today, and 10,000 words tomorrow.