Rise of Australia

Chapter 331 Interest Exchange
After the end of the Balkan War, the world seems to have fallen into a long period of silence.

The arms race between the two major military blocs is still going on. From the simplest naval arms race before, it has now developed into an arms race of the army, navy and even the air force.

If the airships and aircraft dispatched by Italy in the previous Italian-Turkish war can represent the importance that European powers attach to current aviation equipment.

Since the success of Australasia's circumnavigation plan, aviation equipment represented by airships capable of traveling around the world has become an important weapon no less than that of the army and navy, and has attracted the attention of all countries in the world.

The first to achieve results in airships was Germany with the Zeppelin Airship Company.From the end of September to October, Germany publicly announced the establishment of an air force, which will be equipped with at least 30 large airships, 100 small airships and dozens of aircraft of various types in the next five years.

Although the number does not seem to be large, Germany is the first country to publicly declare that it will establish an air force based on airships and aircraft.

After Germany announced the establishment of the air force, the British naturally did not give in. Within a few days, they also announced that the United Kingdom would establish an air force service, and it would be equipped with more than 50 large airships and 100 small airships.

Due to the pride of the world's most powerful country, the British took it for granted that the number of airships in their air force was far greater than that of the Germans, so as to ensure that they could also have certain advantages in the new military branch.

With the proofs of Germany and the United Kingdom, in just one month, the major powers in Europe have announced the establishment of air forces. Even Italy, which is expected to have the smallest air force, will be equipped with ten large airships and dozens of small airships.

It's no wonder that these countries attach so much importance to airships. It is the performance of airships that has surprised and feared many European countries.

The farthest voyage of an airship previously recognized was only a few hundred kilometers.In addition, the flying speed of the airship is not fast, so the threat is not very big.

But now, the global airship in Australasia is not only much faster, it can even travel around the entire world with a few stops.

This also means that if there is no air defense means, no region in the world is safe. Even the capitals of top powers like Britain and France may be bombed by the enemy.

Before you have mastered advanced prevention and control weapons, it is very necessary to equip a large number of airships.

This is not only to ensure that it has a certain threat ability to the enemy, but also to ensure that it has certain countermeasures against unknown air threats.

The importance these European countries attach to airships can be briefly described in one sentence, that is: you can ignore airships, but you cannot live without airships.

Although European countries have attached great importance to the research and development of airships, it is obviously impossible to have an airship that can sail around the world in a short period of time.

Therefore, the AU-3 airship in Australasia has become the only main way for European countries to obtain airships for circumnavigating the world in a short period of time.

Although Australasia has previously claimed that it will not sell airships to the military industry, and foreign airship companies are not allowed to transfer airships.

But there is a saying that is good, nothing is absolute.All the European powers believe that as long as the interests are sufficient, let alone buying airships, the technology of buying airships does not seem to be too difficult.

Beginning in mid-October 1912, European powers successively contacted the aeronautical laboratories in Australasia, asking whether they could purchase airships and airship technology.

After receiving the requests from these countries, Director Theodor did not dare to make his own claims, so he hurried to the Sydney Palace to ask Arthur for advice.

At this time, Arthur was enjoying a leisurely life in the palace because he had just visited the Melbourne Shipyard and Auckland Shipyard.

After hearing Director Teodor's inquiry and European powers asking for the purchase of airships and airship technology, Arthur couldn't help laughing, and said: "According to reason, whether our airships are for civilian or military use, they are It has irreplaceable value. But if European countries are willing to spend on technology that also has strategic value, it is not impossible to buy and exchange airship technology."

After all, it is impossible for an airship to have the same advantage as an airplane in the air.Even if Australasia's research on airships has not fallen behind, Arthur has to admit the fact that the most advanced airships will only be living targets in front of the most advanced aircraft.

Now that such an obvious gap has already been known, for Arthur, the importance of the airship is far less important than that of the plane.

Since European countries want airships and airship technology, it is not impossible to give them.The most critical question is, what kind of technology can these European countries pay in exchange for Australasian airship technology?

Among these European countries, what Arthur valued the most was actually the British Empire.

After all, it is currently the most powerful country in the world, and the various naval technologies of the British Empire are something that Arthur is very greedy and wants to have.

In addition, almost all the European powers have an advantage, and their technology also makes Arthur envious, and it is also the background that Australasia is in short supply.

Although Arthur didn't intend to use the airship to hit the European powers hard, but since these European powers have already been delivered to his lips, it is impossible not to eat this meat.

Under Arthur's instruction, Director Theodor had a long-term negotiation with the European side, with the purpose of obtaining advanced technology and technical experts from the European powers.

Thanks to Britain and Germany's emphasis on airships, European powers had to follow suit with airships to give themselves air superiority and the power to counterattack in the air.

The negotiations between the two parties lasted for a long time, until Germany initially equipped the airship and announced that the airship parade was about to be held. The British immediately couldn't sit still and expressed their willingness to exchange for the airship with more technical and technical personnel support. and airship technology.

First of all, on the British side, according to Arthur's instructions, Director Theodor asked many experts in naval gun design, as well as design experts in warship power systems.

With the development of super dreadnoughts in the future, the caliber of the artillery will rise to an exaggerated 15 inches, which is about 381 mm.

You must know that the dreadnoughts currently equipped by other great powers all have guns with a caliber of about 305 mm.

Although the British currently only control the technology of 343mm artillery, it can be seen from the fact that they hastily changed the original 343mm main gun technology to 381mm main gun after the outbreak of World War I and achieved complete success. It can be seen that the British's technology in naval guns has been quite successful, and it is definitely worthy of Arthur's concern.

Thanks to the good relationship with the British, and Arthur's assurance that the relevant AU-3 airship technology would not be sold to the Germans, the British government happily agreed to Arthur's request and expressed their willingness to Three hundred experts from Australasia, 100 each in naval gun, power system and warship design.

These 300 people are really sent. The British government has promised that they will be sent to Australasia within one and a half months. They will be accompanied by their families. They will directly live in Australasia permanently.

Thanks to the generous attitude of the British, Director Theodor also expressed very generously that he was willing to sell 50 airships to the UK at a price below the market price, that is, at a price of 3 pounds, and directly AU-[-] airship technology handed over to Great Britain.

With these 50 airships, Arthur can probably make a profit of 150 million pounds.Coupled with the 300 British experts, this exchange is definitely not a loss for Arthur.

As for agreeing to the British not to cooperate with Germany, even if the British did not say this, it is basically impossible for Arthur to cooperate with Germany.

Although Germany's airship technology at this time is not as good as that of Australasia, in the field of hard airships, it is definitely the best outside of Australasia.

What's more, after obtaining the AU-2 airship presented by Arthur before, Germany's research on hard airships has never stopped, and it has also given strong support to the Zeppelin Airship Company.

This time, all European countries basically contacted Australasia to purchase technology, but Germany only wanted to buy a few airships, but did not mention the airship technology.

If nothing else, the Germans should be about to master the airship that can sail around the world.After all, the so-called global voyage is actually the sum of multiple long-distance flights.

According to the farthest distance of the AU-3 airship when it sailed around the world, it is only more than 8000 kilometers away from Los Angeles to London and Sydney to Hawaii.

If the historical trajectory is followed, the world's first circumnavigation airship should be manufactured by the Zeppelin Company.

Now with the strong support of the German government, it is not impossible for Zeppelin to develop an airship capable of circumnavigating the world earlier.

In addition to Britain and Germany, under Arthur's instruction, Director Theodor also reached cooperation with other European powers.

Including France, Russia, Austria-Hungary and Italy, Australasia has acquired a large number of technical experts and personnel from these countries, as well as many advanced technologies in various fields.

Naval guns, artillery, naval power systems, engine technology, medical technology, industrial equipment, industrial technology, etc., plus thousands of technical experts, Arthur believes that within a few years, Australasia's technology It will usher in a lot of progress, and it is not far away to truly reach the level and power of the great powers.

Now that cooperation has been reached with these European powers, the manufacture of airships in the aviation laboratory can also be accelerated.

After the technology is shared with these countries, it is believed that the airship companies and airship technology of each country will advance rapidly.

Perhaps after a few years, airships like AU-3 that can sail around the world will no longer be valuable, and the profits of the airship market will be greatly reduced.

After all, now, as the newest means of transportation, coupled with the faster speed and more comfortable travel mode of airships, as well as the characteristics of rarity and high price, the current prices of airships and airship tickets are very high. Any airship company , As long as you have an airship that can sail around the world, you will be able to make a lot of money immediately, and the price of the stock market will also increase several times or even more than ten times.

Such a crazy scene is slightly better than the previous rubber market.If it hadn't been for the aviation laboratory to keep pressing down on the speed of airship construction, I am afraid that the current airship market, just like the previous rubber market, will eventually face a stock crisis due to the rotten streets of airship companies.

If the aviation laboratory releases the production of airships, according to the current production speed, it will only take half a year at most to complete the orders of these great powers.

Coupled with other orders from foreign private sector, the airship market can be maintained for at least several years, but the proportion of airship companies in Australasia will only become smaller and smaller.

After all, it was to make quick money, and Arthur didn't think about working hard in this area. It was already good to have such a profit, and Arthur was also very satisfied.

Although Germany lost its order for 30 airships, the United Kingdom 50, France 30, Russia 20, Austria-Hungary 15, Italy 15, and the United States 40 still brought orders for 170 airships to Australasia .

And apart from the UK, the airships in other countries are at the original price, which is [-] pounds.

Calculated in this way, these 170 airships can bring Arthur 630 million pounds, which is 1260 million Australian dollars in income, which is a good extra money.

Even if this fund is invested in the navy, it can almost build three super dreadnought ships, which is definitely not a small sum.

Although Arthur didn't think about investing the money in the navy, no matter where it was invested, the money would be of great help.

Among all the airship orders, the names of Americans appeared a little abruptly.

In fact, when the European powers first contacted Australasia, the Americans were actually unaware.

But Arthur thought, the Europeans were cheated anyway, and the United States, as a world-renowned upstart, how could it be an exception?
Therefore, under the instruction of Arthur, the aviation laboratory released the news that the European powers requested to purchase airship technology, and soon attracted the attention of the US military and the US government.

As early as when the Dawn airship landed in the United States, the generals of the US military had already noticed the strategic significance of the airship.

How could the U.S. military be silent when it learned that the European powers were buying airship technology, and immediately asked the government to follow suit, taking advantage of this trend, to equip the U.S. government with airships of at least the same level as the European powers. Protect America's skies.

In order to persuade the U.S. Congress, the military almost broke its mouth. Not only did it repeatedly declare the strategic significance of an airship that can sail around the world, it can reach the sky over any territory of the United States at any time, causing fatal damage to Americans and the U.S. military. threat.

At the same time, the U.S. military also publicly claimed that if the U.S. military cannot be equipped with advanced weapons such as airships, then there will be a clear gap between the U.S. military strength and the European powers.

Although the United States is not currently thinking of participating in European disputes, this does not mean that the United States has no ambitions for the status of world hegemony.

The various policy changes in the United States represent that this country has considerable ambitions.The U.S. military's remarks naturally attracted the government's attention, and the airship purchase plan went smoothly.

Of course, the current level of science and technology in the United States is obviously behind the European powers, and Arthur doesn't pay much attention to their technology.

Compared with the technological level of the United States, the total industrial scale and economic level of the United States are still important guarantees for the United States to obtain the status of a great power.

As for the current military technology and military level of the United States, it can only be described in four words, which is hard to describe.

Since the Americans are rich, it is naturally impossible for Arthur to miss this opportunity.After negotiating with the U.S. government for a while, it was finally determined that the U.S. would purchase 40 airships at the original price and purchase the AU-2000 airship technology for 3 million Australian dollars.

Of course, in addition to this, Arthur also negotiated with the U.S. government. Using the lack of funds for national development as an excuse, he borrowed 15 million marks from the U.S. government and the private sector, and agreed to repay it after 5000 years. A total of [-] million will be repaid with interest. [-] million marks.

As for why the German currency unit is used for borrowing from the United States, it is because Arthur specifically explained that most of the borrowed funds will be used in Germany to purchase a large amount of industrial equipment and technology from Germany, so let the Americans directly prepare the Deutsche Mark Can.

Of course, since Deutsche marks are used for borrowing, Deutsche marks must also be repaid when repaying.

As for the interest of up to 5000 million marks, if the situation in Europe really develops according to the original history, then Arthur can completely ignore the interest.

　4600 words, one update today. (I went out today, I can't help it)
　　The day will start tomorrow, otherwise the manuscript fee will not be guaranteed
　　
　
(End of this chapter)