Rise of Australia

Chapter 357 Delivery and launching of warships

Because this truck order contains at least [-] trucks, it will be troublesome to maintain in the future.

Therefore, Benz and the Russian side agreed that Benz Automobile Factory will build at least three auto repair shops in Russia, Russia will be responsible for the capital contribution, Benz Automobile Factory will be responsible for providing technology, and Benz Automobile Factory will hold [-]% of the shares.

In this way, problems with Russian trucks can also be repaired domestically, which not only greatly shortens the time required for truck repairs, but also improves the efficiency of truck repairs.

For Russia, the maintenance plant built by itself can also save part of the maintenance cost.In short, as long as it saves money, the Russian government welcomes it.

In order to celebrate the completion of the order between the two parties, Benz also specially held a celebration banquet on behalf of the automobile factory, and distributed a small gift to all members of the Russian diplomatic corps.

The specifications of the banquet are not bad, at least the Russian diplomatic team is still very satisfied.

Because the order was signed at the beginning of October, the latest delivery time of the trucks agreed by both parties was the end of April 1914.

If there are no accidents, the Benz Automobile Factory will enter a non-stop production state in the next six months.

After all, things like trucks are considered consumables, especially in wars, truck damage is very common.

After the truck order was signed, the Russian diplomatic team did not leave in a hurry, but temporarily lived in Sydney.

Because for Russia, in the past few days, Russia is about to usher in the service of the battleship Queen Maria and the battleship Ekaterina the Great.

The warship order for these two battleships was signed with Australasia in 1910, and three years have passed since now.

As early as the middle of last year, two Sovereign-class battleships, the Empress Maria and the Ekaterina the Great, had been successfully built and entered the stage of launching tests.

It has been more than a year now, and the nautical test phase of the two battleships has been successfully completed, and they will be officially taken over by Russian naval officers and soldiers immediately, and will officially serve in the Russian Navy.

In addition, the remaining two main battleships of the Navy order at that time, the battlecruiser Gangut and the battlecruiser Sevastopol, will also be completed and launched for testing this month.

For the Russian Navy, this can be regarded as double happiness.Because of this, the Russian diplomatic visit team this time also brought many Russian naval officers and soldiers, preparing to officially take over the two battleships.

It is spring in Sydney in October, and the weather is very suitable for travel.The warm sunshine and the bright flowers and plants that can be seen everywhere decorate Sydney beautifully, just like a dream city.

But for the Russian diplomatic team and Russian naval soldiers at this time, they didn't have much thought to appreciate the beautiful scenery.

The joy of owning two battleships is more exciting than this mountainous scenery.

For these naval soldiers, there is nothing more attractive than their own two brand new battleships, unless they are two more powerful battleships.

However, judging from Russia's current financial situation, it should not be possible to build battleships in the short term.

After all, compared with threats on the sea, most of the threats to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire come from land.

Today's Sydney Harbor is a bit more festive.

The port is covered with flowers everywhere, and crowds of onlookers have surrounded the port to witness the new warship start its service journey.

Although these two battleships do not belong to Australasia, they were built in Australasia, so people in Australasia also attach great importance to them.

Under the watchful eyes of the people of Australasia and the excited eyes of Russian naval soldiers, the two battleships slowly lowered the Australasian flag and raised the flag belonging to the Tsarist Russian Empire.

Thousands of Russian naval officers and soldiers, under the leadership of their respective captains, boarded their long-awaited warships.

Some of these naval officers and soldiers have been training in Australasia for a long time, while some have just arrived in Australasia from Russia.

Fortunately, not many people are needed to control this battleship. As for the other soldiers who are not familiar with it, they can train slowly after returning to Russia.

The ultimate destination of these two battleships is the Baltic Sea, which also means that these naval soldiers have enough time to master these two battleships before arriving at their station.

The Russian diplomatic team looked at the two huge warships moored in the port, and the depression of being surpassed by Australasia in terms of industry was swept away.

At least in terms of military strength, the two Australasias can't keep up with Russia. This is the last blessing of the officials of the Russian diplomatic team.

Australasian Defense Minister Raul also attended the handover ceremony of the warship.This is not only out of the importance it attaches to Russia, but also conveys a message to the people that the government attaches great importance to the navy.

Arthur understands that some people are still disappointed that Australasia has not started the second phase of the naval expansion plan.

After all, in the eyes of the current public, the strength of the navy also represents the strength of the country to a large extent.

A great power without a strong navy doesn't deserve its name, especially for a country like Australasia with its many islands and seas.

However, for Australasia, there is also good news, that is, the current Russian naval orders have been fully produced, two battleships have been delivered, and two battlecruisers have also entered the sea test stage.

This also means that only two super dreadnoughts from Chile are left in the Royal Shipyard's warship order, and the schedule for this order is not so urgent.

This also means that Australasia's naval expansion plan can be restarted to completely establish the status of Australasia's naval powers.

After the handover ceremony of the two battleships, the Russian diplomatic team stayed for a few more days. After participating in the launching test ceremony of the two battlecruisers, they took the two brand new battleships and returned to Russia.

If there are no problems, the two battlecruisers can also be delivered around the middle to late 1914, and the naval order will be completely completed within the scheduled time.

The Russians were very satisfied with the battleships built in Australasia, and even walked away with a bright smile.

The truck purchase order signed by the Russians in Australasia was soon known by other powers.

Britain and France were the first to know.After all, they are allies of Australasia and Russia, and Britain and France are also happy to see this. Even the funds for Russia's purchase of trucks are provided by Britain and France.

As for the Allies, William II's mood was not so good.

The role of the truck is visible to the naked eye, and it can definitely improve the combat effectiveness of the Russian army.

Among other things, the improvement of logistics efficiency alone is enough to increase the combat capability of the Russian army by [-] to [-] percent.

After all, these trucks can transport, in addition to weapons and ammunition, they can also transport food and medical supplies, and even clothing.

These materials are equally important to a war. Whether the materials are sufficient or not also determines the combat capability of the army at certain times.

Under Germany's suggestion, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy soon signed a truck purchase order with the German automobile factory.

However, the share of orders from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy is somewhat dwarfed by that of other powers.

Austria-Hungary ordered [-] trucks, with a ratio of two to one large and small trucks.

Italy, on the other hand, ordered a thousand trucks, with a one-to-one ratio of big and small trucks.

Now the Allies have another data lagging behind the Allies, and that is the number of military trucks.

The number of military trucks ordered by the Allies exceeds 1.2, while the combined number of military trucks of the Allies is only 0.55.

In any case, all of these truck orders were signed with Benz Auto Works.

This also means that these more than 1 trucks can bring Arthur a lot of profits.Even if it is only a preliminary estimate, I am afraid that the net profit can exceed 100 million Australian dollars.

These profits alone are enough for Arthur to equip the army with two thousand B2 trucks, which is enough to show that Arthur has indeed made a lot of money this time.

It is worth mentioning that the crazy purchase of trucks by major European powers has also expanded the truck market a lot.

Some European countries have also followed suit. Although the quantity is not large, there are thousands of vehicles.

In particular, the U.S. government signed a purchase order for [-] trucks with a U.S. auto factory, and the essence of the nouveau riche was fully revealed.

Even if the size of the U.S. Army is not too small, Arthur has reason to believe that the number of trucks purchased by the United States will increase.

In addition to these countries buying trucks as military trucks, the smaller B1 trucks are also very popular among civilians in Europe and the United States, and have become even more popular.

According to the report given by the Benz Automobile General Factory, since the major European powers began to purchase trucks, the sales of Benz trucks in Europe and the United States have also increased by more than [-]%.

Of course, unlike the general preference of large trucks in the military of various countries, the favorite truck of the people is still the smaller B1 truck.

After all, for private individuals, large trucks are not only more expensive, but the huge cargo capacity is also unnecessary.

The cargo capacity of 1.5 tons of small trucks is completely sufficient, and even faster speeds allow truck owners to complete transportation tasks faster.

The whole world is buying trucks like crazy, and Arthur will not miss it.However, compared with other countries and the people, Arthur really used the cost price when he bought the truck.

Anyway, the car factories belonged to Arthur, and Arthur had the final say on the price.

With Benz One's huge annual profits and losing a little money on the trucks, Arthur is not worried about the debt crisis of Benz Automobile Factory at all.

After discussing with Defense Minister Raul, at the cabinet meeting, Arthur formally finalized an order for 1 B2 trucks and [-] B[-] trucks.

The total cost of this order is 128 million Australian dollars, which happens to be the profit made by Benz Automobile Factory this time.

This expenditure is nothing to the current government with deep pockets, so the cabinet government quickly agreed to Arthur's decision.

The demand for trucks in Australasia is less urgent than the more urgent orders from Russia.

Considering that after the production of Russian truck orders, the Benz Automobile Factory does not have much spare capacity to produce domestic orders.

Therefore, Arthur put the delivery date of the truck before the end of 1914.More than a year is completely enough for the Benz Automobile Factory to produce.

　The third update of 3200 words, asking for a monthly ticket, asking for support!

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(End of this chapter)