Chapter 520: Traveler in the Desert

Years of monarchical career taught Arthur a simple truth: it is actually very simple for a person in power to achieve something.

For example, if Arthur wants to set up an internationally famous sports event, he only needs to move his fingers and allocate a sum of money, and a large number of people will serve Arthur and participate in the planning of this sports event.

In just one week, there have been some outlines of football sports events in Australasia, and the specific system of sports events has also been urgently discussed.

Regarding the duration of sports events, this is more important. Because it is an international event, it is destined not to be a league.

After all, it takes more than half a month for the football associations of participating countries to arrive in Australasia, so the duration of the competition is better to be relatively short.

After careful consideration, the football event held in Australasia was named the King's Cup.

As you can see from the name, it is a football cup specially held by King Arthur of Australasia.

The duration of the game lasts about one month, and the specific time depends on how many countries have registered.

In order to make the competition more international, the participants must be the official football associations of each country, not private football clubs.

This also means that these participating football associations are in the name of the country. They will win glory for the country in the sports arena, and also represent the dignity of the country.

In this way, I believe that the participating football associations can also pay more attention to this event. If you win, it's okay. If you lose, it's not your own people who lose, but the face of all compatriots across the country.

In order to attract more countries to participate in this football event, the prize money of the King's Cup is also unmatched by other events.

First of all, the top ten of the King's Cup have prize money, which is to encourage more countries to sign up and increase the enthusiasm of these national football associations.

For 6-10th place, the prize money is the same, which is expected to be 12,000 Australian dollars.

For the 5th place, it is expected to have a prize of 25,000 Australian dollars, which is already very generous compared to the 6th to 10th place.

The 4th place is also slightly higher, with a prize of about 36,000 Australian dollars.

The top three prizes are naturally the highest, with the third place getting 50,000 Australian dollars, the second place getting 88,000 Australian dollars, and the first place getting 150,000 Australian dollars.

The prize money for the King's Cup is as high as 409,000 Australian dollars, plus the gold trophy for the champion and some commemorative gifts, the total cost is about 500,000 Australian dollars.

Compared with the prize money, the cost of hosting and promoting the King's Cup is the highest.

The good news is that the Sydney National Stadium fully meets the needs of hosting such a football event, so there is no need to build a dedicated football stadium for the time being.

This can save Arthur a lot of money, and the saved budget will be spent on the promotion of the game.

In order to increase the enthusiasm of other countries to participate in the event, Arthur still decided to bear the travel expenses of all participating countries as in the previous Sydney Olympics.

After all, Australasia has its own shipping and air transport companies, and the round-trip transportation costs are actually not high.

It is a good deal to use a not-so-high expenditure in exchange for the enthusiastic registration of other countries.

In order to make the King's Cup famous, it takes a long time to promote it, and it also gives football associations in many foreign countries enough time to register.

The first Australasian Football King's Cup is expected to be held in October this year, which will be convenient for the holding of football matches by avoiding the winter in Australasian.

The registration period starts from January 1920 and lasts until May 1920.

The King's Cup qualifiers will be held at the end of August and the beginning of September, and the sixteen places for the King's Cup will be determined through group matches and knockout matches.

After all, there are not many recognized countries in the world at present, and 16 places for the main competition are completely sufficient.

Then, in October, 16 teams representing their respective countries will compete for the final winner in Australasian, and the champion will have the opportunity to be received by Arthur.

The entire schedule is roughly designed in this way. As the schedule is initially determined, the subsequent publicity work has become the top priority.

In order to make the King's Cup famous internationally, Arthur spared no effort and ordered Kent, the housekeeper, to use all the connections of the Australasian royal family to promote a large number of European and American media to report on this event.

This is not good news for Belgium. The Belgians found out with tears in their eyes that before the flu was completely over, the Olympics they had carefully prepared for had ushered in a strong opponent.

At present, the reputation of the Olympics in the world is greater than that of the King's Cup organized by Australasia.

But the problem is that the winners of the Olympics do not have such generous bonuses. In addition to their respective gold, silver and bronze medals, the bonuses of the Olympic champions are mostly given by their respective countries, not the organizers of the competition.

The King's Cup held in Australasia is enough to attract the participation of a large number of national football associations with its relatively generous bonuses, which is currently unmatched by the Olympics.

Fortunately, the King's Cup is just a football event. Apart from football, it basically has no conflict with the Belgian Olympics.

This can be considered a blessing in disguise. The Belgians immediately decided to reduce the proportion of football and focus the core of the Olympics on several other events to avoid having some attention diverted away by the King's Cup.

The news of the King's Cup quickly spread in Europe and the United States, and FIFA, led by Heath Homan, quickly came into the attention of football associations around the world.

The first rule of the King's Cup is that all participating teams must be official football associations in various countries in the world, and must notify FIFA and obtain real permission before they can successfully register.

This also means that FIFA has certain jurisdiction over football associations participating in the King's Cup.

If football associations of various countries want to successfully obtain the qualification to participate in the King's Cup, they must obey the management of FIFA.

If FIFA can successfully obtain the jurisdiction of the football associations of these countries, it will also be a good thing for Arthur.

After all, FIFA is headquartered in Sydney, which also means that Australasia is naturally endowed with influence on FIFA, which is impossible for other countries to do.

Even if FIFA is formalized in the future and will welcome more foreign senior officials, as long as the headquarters is in Australasia, Australasia's influence on FIFA will be the highest, which cannot be changed by other external forces.

The matter of hosting the King's Cup was left to FIFA. After all, professional matters need professional people to do. Arthur's intervention would only make the matter more complicated.

Besides, as the king of Australasia, if Arthur had to spend all his energy to handle such a small matter, it could only mean that the officials of Australasia were just eating dry food and had no ability or function.

In addition to hosting the King's Cup, Australasia was also quite busy in 1920.

First of all, the British proposed to limit the naval armaments of various countries. In order to determine the specific proportion of the naval size of each country, it is necessary to investigate the industrial and economic scale of each country.

At present, the investigation of Australasia has begun. In order to avoid suspicion, Australasia people cannot participate in the investigation of their own country, but go to other countries to conduct investigations to ensure the accuracy of the data.

Arthur welcomed the foreign investigation team that came from afar. After holding a welcoming banquet for them, he said that the whole of Australasia was at their disposal.

Of course, before these people arrived, some important industries in Australasia had been hidden in advance, and they could not access them at all.

Most of what can be investigated by exploration are Australasia's civilian industry and light industry, etc.

They have no right to approach and investigate the more important aircraft and tank manufacturing plants, military factories, etc.

This may have a certain impact on the investigation of the final development of Australasia, but Arthur has no great ambition for the proportion of the size of the Australasia Navy. It is more important to hide the development of Australasia's aircraft and tanks.

On January 27, 1920, in a dry desert in the Persian Gulf Territory of Australasia.

A well-armed exploration team, under the protection of a small number of troops, marched towards the depths of the desert.

There were more than a dozen trucks accompanying them, loaded with the materials and equipment needed by the exploration team, including the more precious water and food in the desert.

The head of the exploration team was named Reg Rogers, a native Australasia explorationist who had a good reputation and ability in mineral exploration, especially oil exploration.

Rig was involved in the exploration of some oil fields in Australasia, which made him an expert with great reputation and status in Australasia mineral exploration.

This mineral exploration in the Persian Gulf Territory was naturally led by Rig, mainly to survey the oil reserves within the Persian Gulf Territory and make preliminary development preparations.

The composition of this exploration team is very complex. In addition to experts in mineral and oil exploration, there are also railway experts, geographers, soldiers, doctors and employees, as well as indigenous laborers.

After determining the oil reserves and areas, the next step of development will naturally be carried out.

Because there are large areas of desert in the Persian Gulf Territory, before conducting real exploration, it is necessary to ensure the smooth flow of roads and railways to ensure the supply of materials in the exploration area.

The scale of this exploration team is very large, with a total of about 200 people, which is still sufficient.

Dozens of kilometers away, there are supply points set up by the exploration team in advance. There are special people responsible for transporting supplies to the supply points to ensure that the exploration team can get enough supplies at any time and will not be in any danger in the hot and dry desert.

The accompanying soldiers, on the one hand, protect the safety of the entire exploration team, and later ensure that the natives in the team will not have any dangerous behavior. After all, in the case of language barriers, the natives also need to be guarded.

"Kyle, move faster! According to the geographical location, if there is oil nearby, this should be the most likely burial site." Rig, the head of the exploration team, lifted his clothes and wiped the sweat from his forehead, and said to his apprentice and subordinate, Kyle, a geography college student who had just graduated.

"Okay, teacher." Kyle also wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to convey his teacher's order to the crowd behind him.

As the head of the exploration team, Rig also has the command of the armed forces of the exploration team.

However, Rig naturally understood the reliability of his false command authority, so when carrying out some actions, he would try his best to listen to the opinions of Platoon Leader Gret, the head of this small army.

After arriving at the place where Rig believed that oil was most likely to be buried, the driven natives took the lead to set up tents and parasols, and then, under the command of a group of experts and trainees, moved the precision instruments from the truck.

"Damn it, how can there be so many deserts here?" Platoon Leader Gret ordered the soldiers to be responsible for the vigilance around and take care of the natives. Then he walked to Rig's side, took out the military water bottle he carried with him, drank a sip of water, and complained.

"Based on the geographical environment of the Middle East, Platoon Leader Gret, I'm afraid most of the areas here are deserts." The long-term exploration work has made Rig and Platoon Leader Gret very familiar with each other, and naturally he would say such words to hit Platoon Leader Gret.

Fortunately, Australasia's training for officers is still very complete.

Although Platoon Leader Gret is not satisfied with the geographical environment here, as a soldier, Platoon Leader Gret will not slack off at all, let alone escape.

After all, the order to explore for oil in the Persian Gulf Territory was issued by Arthur, and Platoon Leader Grete would not question Arthur's order, because the most important thing for soldiers to do is to obey orders.

Fortunately, the exploration team has hundreds of indigenous laborers who can do some physical work for the exploration team.

These natives were hired by the exploration team at a small price in those indigenous tribes. For the local indigenous people, manpower is not valuable.

The exploration team can take away an indigenous person for a bag of food, and the local indigenous chieftain personally promised that these indigenous people who were taken away have been sold to the exploration team completely regardless of life or death.

Such indigenous people are also more reliable to use, at least there is no need to worry about casualties, at least the exploration team still has enough food.

It took several hours to install the equipment, and it was dark when the installation was completed.

Fortunately, during this period, the installation of the tents had been completed, and the bonfire had already been lit, so that the exploration team could not feel the huge difference in temperature between day and night in the desert.

"Mr. Rig, is there really oil in this area?" Platoon Leader Grete sat by the fire, with a piece of beef on a stick in his hand. While roasting the beef, he turned back and asked Rig beside him.

"God bless, there will be." Rig said with some certainty.

As the head of the exploration team, Rig certainly hopes that there will be oil in this area.

This not only means that the exploration team's work for such a long time has not been in vain, but also means that Arthur's order is not groundless.

"When I find oil, I must go to the city to relax. This period of time is really tiring. I feel that my stomach is full of sand. This damn desert!" Gary Snyder, a geography expert next to him, came up and took a sip of the hot coffee in his hand, complaining.

Every time the exploration team discovers minerals or oil, they can also get the opportunity to go to the city for repairs.

After all, people are made of flesh and blood, and no one can bear long-term and high-intensity work, especially watching the team do exploration work in a place where no one lives.

Although the number of exploration teams is not small, compared with the development of society, it is off track.

This is also a kind of torture for people's psychology. After all, it is inevitable to feel lonely and lonely when you have to be separated from your family for a long time.

At this time, a short vacation is very necessary. Generally speaking, as long as mineral resources can be explored, a few days of vacation is still no problem.

If the reserves of mineral resources discovered are relatively large, such as a super-large oil field or a super-large mineral, etc., there will even be a vacation ranging from one week to several weeks, so that the staff of the exploration team can relax and better devote themselves to work in the future.

Arthur will not be stingy with these hard-working explorers. The wages of these explorers are generally relatively high, and there will be certain rewards after exploring mineral resources.

There are more than ten exploration teams like the one led by Rig in the whole of Australasia.

For teams with excellent exploration results every year, they will basically receive quite generous rewards, including the most basic funds, as well as food, materials, cars and other rewards.

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