Chapter 423 Nicholas II’s Generosity

The factional struggles in Russia didn't matter to Arthur, but Russia's decision to temporarily abandon domestic weapons and fully choose imported weapons, especially weapons produced in Australasia, was definitely a good thing for Arthur and Australasia.

First of all, Russia's full shift to Australian weapons can make Russia and Australasia more closely connected.

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

Although the Russians' second batch of aircraft orders were not large, they added up to 200 aircraft. Adding the cost of sending flight trainees to Australasia, this was a deal of more than 50 million rubles.

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

You know, such an order is just the beginning. In the original history, the countries in World War I built a total of more than 100,000 aircraft, which is not an exaggeration.

Even if the world's progress in aircraft has changed a lot, it is not a problem to build tens of thousands of aircraft in the end.

Even a country like Russia needs hundreds or thousands of aircraft. In order to gain air superiority over Germany, Russia had to equip at least thousands of aircraft.

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

Not only was it building aircraft on a large scale, but it also invested a lot of money to try to research aircraft comparable to the first generation of military aircraft.

If Germany really researched it, the Allies' aircraft performance advantage over Germany would be gone, and the victory or defeat between the two sides' aircraft would be determined by the number.

As long as Germany started to build aircraft on a large scale, even if Britain, France and Russia were unwilling, they had to maintain a balance or even lead in terms of quantity.

At present, only Australasia can sell aircraft. Britain and France are still urgently researching the technology of the first generation of military aircraft. If they want to put it into production, they may have to wait until 1916.

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

But the performance of American aircraft is still far behind that of German aircraft, not to mention being comparable to Australasia's aircraft.

In the case of similar prices, Britain, France and Russia also have a good idea of ​​which aircraft to choose.

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

Although the war lasted only for more than a year, it is obvious that the Russian ruble has gradually depreciated, and paying with rubles is taking advantage of Australasia.

Anyway, 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 just ship 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 its 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 approximately equal to 7.33 grams of gold, one Australian dollar was approximately equal to 3.66 grams of gold, and one ruble was approximately equal to 0.81 grams of gold.

But now, not to mention the pound, the ruble has indeed depreciated. Before the war, one pound was equivalent to about nine rubles. Now, one pound can be exchanged for more than ten rubles, and 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 demand that their wages be replaced by gold and food supplies.

They are afraid that the rubles they get will eventually become a piece of waste paper, and after the country is destroyed, they will become waste paper that can only be used to wipe their butts.

Australasia certainly has this consideration. Although Australasia is not worried that the Russians will default on their debts, even after the collapse of the Tsarist Empire, the newly formed government must admit that it owes Australasia a debt.

But the less trouble, the less trouble, anyway, minerals, resources and gold will never depreciate.

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 purchase it.

Australasia and Russia have an alternative population trade, and the trade between the two sides is very frequent, so Russia still has a part of the Australian dollar reserves.

This part of the reserve was almost entirely used to purchase aircraft technology, allowing Russia to save a lot of mineral resources and gold.

However, as Russia's war on the front line was losing ground, the Russians began to use gold for payment, after all, gold is easier to raise than mineral resources.

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

If all goes well, Russia's pilot training can also be completed before the beginning of next year. At present, training pilots is still relatively simple. The combat method of the aircraft is relatively simple, without a complex control system. It only requires skilled driving and the use of weapons.

It only takes about a month to urgently train a qualified pilot. If you want to train an elite pilot, you need to go through continuous actual combat training and transform in various air battles.

In Russia, Nicholas II was also secretly cleaning up some capitalists and logistics officials.

Thanks to the opening of the Black Sea to Mediterranean route, the Russian government and the army were not very tolerant of domestic capitalists.

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

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

Especially after the seizure of the property of several logistics officials and the seizure of stolen money reaching tens of millions of rubles, Nicholas II no longer had any worries.

At most, the property of these capitalists and logistics officials could be used to purchase more supplies and food. As long as the army could be satisfied with sufficient logistics supplies, the army would be able to support Nicholas II's rule and suppress various uprisings in the country.

On the contrary, if these capitalists and logistics officials were allowed to collude and exploit the front-line troops, I am afraid that when the army riots in the future, the capitalists and logistics officials will be the fastest to run away.

They can run, but Nicholas II can't. Most of Nicholas II's property is in Russia, and his status also comes from the Russian royal family and the throne.

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

In fact, Nicholas II's purge of the logistics department and capitalists was timely. If it was a few days later, not only the Southwestern Front, but also the Northwestern Front would have the risk of going to St. Petersburg for questioning.

In this war period, 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 the current situation in Russia.

Nicholas II's timely cleanup of the logistics department and capitalists won the hearts of the front-line troops.

After the front-line troops ate the long-lost rabbit meat and canned beef again, they finally calmed down the dissatisfaction in recent times, but they hated the logistics officials and capitalists purged by Nicholas II even more.

After all, as the Tsar who controls the entire Russia, although Nicholas II's military ability is not worth mentioning, his political ability is still of some level.

After learning about the logistics status of the front-line army, Nicholas II quickly reacted and realized that the current poor logistics urgently needed a scapegoat.

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

After all, the logistics of the front-line army has been getting worse since he took office, which is hard not to associate with it, but Nicholas II has never reduced the logistics budget of the front-line army.

After cleaning up some logistics officials and capitalists, Nicholas II made a lot of propaganda among the army and the people, pushing the responsibility for the defeat to some logistics officials and capitalists, saying that it was because they withheld the logistics materials of the front line that led to the defeat of the front line.

Although some people do not trust this, at least there is a scapegoat on the surface, and the call for overthrowing Nicholas II and the entire Tsarist system is not so high.

Nicholas II knows that the next step is to see the performance of the front-line army. After the purge of the logistics department, the front-line army can show a good record, and the public's dissatisfaction may be dissipated to some extent.

If the front-line troops are still losing ground, does that prove that those capitalists and logistics officials are just scapegoats?

It is precisely because of this that Nicholas II did not skimp on military spending, and even went against all odds in the government to increase the estimated military spending for the next year by 10%.

Of course, not just the next year. After purging the logistics officials and capitalists, Nicholas II obtained a large sum of money and used it all to purchase armaments.

Nicholas II placed a large military order with Britain, France and Australasia. The share of the order obtained by Australasia alone was as high as 500,000 rifles, 1.5 million uniforms, 1 million gas masks, 500 million rifle bullets, 2,500 heavy machine guns, 50 million machine gun bullets, 1,500 artillery pieces of various calibers, and 2.5 million artillery shells of various calibers.

Even Arthur had to be shocked by Nicholas II's generosity. After the arrival of this large order of arms from Australasia, Russia's equipment on the front line is no less than that of the German army.

In addition to the advantage in aircraft, as long as the Russian army does not make any more stupid moves, it is impossible for the Eastern Front to have heavy casualties like the Battle of Gorlitze.

Even if the Russian commander is more conservative and uses positional warfare to consume the Germans, making the Germans tired of dealing with two fronts, and finding opportunities to encircle the German army, it may not be impossible to win a big victory.

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