Expedition to Europe

Although his lobbying of Jack failed, Timothy was not in a hurry to return to Perth. Timothy wanted to stay in Port Hedland for a few more days to see how many cards Jack had in his hand.

To be fair, the terrain of Port Hedland is still good.

The terrain of Port Hedland is long and narrow, divided into two parts: the outer port and the inner port. The outer port is a huge harbor with about 30 square kilometers of water. The entrance of the harbor is narrow, and the narrowest part is less than two kilometers. It is really a good place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The inner port of Port Hedland is on the north bank of a narrow harbor. It is narrow only relative to the width of the outer port. In fact, there are four docks in the inner port of Port Hedland, three of which have a water depth of more than 16 meters, which can dock battleships or aircraft carriers.

Of course, there are no behemoths like battleships and aircraft carriers in the current Port Hedland. The entire Port Hedland has only three gunboats for guard duty, with a combined tonnage of less than 1,000 tons. There is no ability to go to sea for combat, which is almost the same as having nothing.

Compared with the weak navy, there is a strong army.

If Jack mobilizes all the military forces in his hands, he can probably gather more than 50,000 troops in a short time. These troops have undergone basic military training, of which about 12,000 people, that is, the strength of a division, are the standing army of Port Hedland. This is also the confidence of Jack to confront the Perth City Government head-on.

Starting from the second day, Timothy finally saw the legendary Port Hedland National Guard.

It must be said that this is a force with strong combat effectiveness.

Timothy saw about a battalion, about a thousand people, this force is equipped with a full set of British equipment, their rifles are the Enfield most commonly used by the Commonwealth forces, but they are the latest models, which the Australian National Guard has not equipped yet; the machine gun is the Lewis machine gun that became famous in the World War, and there are also a considerable number of French 75mm infantry guns.

Although no tanks that were so powerful in the World War were found, the fact that the troops in Port Hedland can have such equipment has made Timothy feel bitter.

When Timothy saw this troop, it looked like it had just been through a long march. The soldiers looked a little dusty, but their mental state was unexpectedly good.

Before entering the city of Port Hedland, the troop tidied up its appearance, and the invincible spirit was immediately ready to emerge, which surprised Timothy even more.

"It seems that this is not a temporary troop. The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps had the same momentum when they just returned from the European battlefield." Timothy couldn't help asking Jack.

Two years ago, when the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps returned from the European battlefield, Timothy was already a member of the Perth City Government. At that time, Timothy participated in the activities to welcome the return of the expeditionary force. He saw what the army that had really been on the battlefield looked like, which really impressed Timothy.

"Of course not, this is a troop hired from Annan. Their predecessor was the French Foreign Legion, which also participated in the world war." Jack did not hide it and directly told Timothy the truth.

During the World War, France recruited about six divisions of the Foreign Legion in Annam. After the World War, all these troops returned to Annam. The then Governor-General of French Indochina, Bastien, left only one division, and the rest were all disbanded.

A large part of the disbanded troops went to Lanfang. The people in Port Hedland now actually came to Port Hedland from Lanfang.

"Annanites - French Foreign Legion - how is this possible?" Timothy really didn't want to believe it.

Timothy had read the war reports during the World War and had some knowledge of the French Foreign Legion and the Commonwealth Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. In order to boost morale, the British media reported more about the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and gave better evaluations to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps than the French Foreign Legion.

But if we look at the results of the war, the performance of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps is actually not as good as that of the French Foreign Legion.

What's more, since the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps returned to Australia, they have all been disbanded and have never conducted military training again, while the troops in front of them seem to have never relaxed, so it seems that the difference is really obvious.

"Everything is possible! I still have 50,000 troops like this, 10,000 of which are Lan Fang people, pure Lan Fang people, can you imagine? Lan Fang also disbanded their foreign legion. I didn't even spend much effort to successfully recruit a division of Lan Fang people. This is a real foreign legion, with stronger combat effectiveness than the Annan people!" Jack was still adding fuel to the fire.

"Lan Fang - if they dare to intervene in this matter, the Australian government will protest, and Britain will not sit idly by." Timothy did not show weakness and pinned his hopes on the intervention of the sovereign country.

"It's up to them. It would be better if Australia and Lan Fang went to war now. In that case, maybe I don't need to waste a single gun or bullet, and I can stop paying those damn taxes from now on." Jack acted very casually, and he was even more taboo about Lan Fang, which made Timothy even more confused about the truth and dared not make a rash judgment.

The entire urban area of ​​Port Hedland is divided into two parts. One is the port area composed of various simple houses, and the other is a residential area with complete planning and complete facilities. Jack has really invested heavily in Port Hedland. The entire residential area not only has wide roads and complete living facilities, but even street lights that are rare in this era have been installed. From the perspective of urban construction, Port Hedland does not need to be paved. It's not even worse than any other city in this era.

It was in the afternoon, and the residents had not yet realized that the war was coming. They had just had lunch. Some were resting at home, some were walking on the streets, and more people were working in a hurry. The whole city looked busy. sequence, full of vitality.

"Look at all this. If a war breaks out, all this may be destroyed. Is that what you want?" Timothy has not given up yet.

"Of course I don't want a war to break out. Every inch of the streets here has my hard work. I basically know everyone here. Of course I don't want to let it all be destroyed by war. But just because we don't want a war doesn't mean We are afraid of war. If the people in Pas impose war on us, we will return the same pain to them. This is all fair." Jack didn't mean to be afraid. War is nothing new. , it can be said that since the birth of mankind, war has never stopped.

While talking, the army just now had entered the port area.

Under the command of the officer, the unit began to set up defensive positions in the outer harbor of Port Hedland. It was only then that Timothy discovered that there was an artillery position in the outer harbor of Port Hedland. This was simply Timothy was horrified.

"It seems that you are well prepared." Timothy sighed as he looked at the troops who had entered the fort and were undergoing handover.

"I have long said that I cannot sit still. Port Hedland is indeed a good place, and the Pilbara mining area does have endless wealth. No matter who wants to take it all, you can first prove that you have the ability. , If you don’t have the ability and want to swallow it by force, be careful, you will hurt your teeth. "Jack is not without malicious intent.

If you take the sea route, Port Hedland is more than 1,800 kilometers from Perth. If you take the land route - it is impossible to get there.

There is no road connection between Port Hedland and Perth. If you go from Perth to Port Hedland by land, you probably won't be able to get there in a year.

Read the original article in Liu#9@书/吧!

With such a long distance, it is actually not very difficult for Port Hedland to defend itself.

Thinking about the distance between Port Hedland and Perth, Jack revealed more information to Timothy: "It seems that you need to send a telegram to Mr. Speaker. If you want to attack Port Hedland, then Please ask him to move quickly. I am currently contacting France and Lanfang to purchase submarines and aircraft. When these equipments arrive in Port Hedland, then I am afraid that it will not be whether Mr. Speaker wants to attack Port Hedland, but whether I want to attack Port Hedland. Attack on Pas."

To be honest, French submarines are not the most famous in the world. From a practical perspective, French submarines are not as good as German ones. However, because Germany is not allowed to own military industries, French submarines are also a good choice.

Lanfang's aircraft are undoubtedly the best in the world. Whether it is a fighter jet or a bomber, Lanfang has the best aircraft in the world. If Jack has submarines and aircraft, he doesn't even need to have too many, so the war The result will undoubtedly be in favor of Port Hedland.

"It's impossible for the French and Lanfang people to buy it for you. That would be tantamount to declaring war on Britain." Timothy's face suddenly turned blue, and he no longer pretended to be calm.

Arms sales are an extremely sensitive issue all over the world, especially large weapons such as aircraft or submarines. If the French and Lanfang people sell these things to Jack, it is hard to say what the consequences will be.

"Forget it, where do you think the weapons my troops are using now come from? These are weapons that have just been eliminated from the British Empire and the army. The British can sell these to me without any scruples. , why can’t the French and Lanfang people?” Jack laughed.

What a bad deal!

After the end of the world war, all countries were faced with the problem of excess military industry. In order to maintain a certain degree of military industry strength, the British, French and even Americans had to maintain a minimum level of production even though they knew that the weapons they produced were no longer marketable.

Workers operating machines are just like soldiers practicing shooting. If they don't touch their hands for three days, they will become strangers. If they don't touch their hands for a year, they may become strangers. Therefore, in order to ensure that work and production can be resumed at any time when needed, even those weapons that can only be produced can Rust, production must continue.

Under this premise, it really doesn’t matter who the weapons accumulated more and more are sold to, as long as they can be sold. Even the British themselves do this, so don’t blame the French and Lanfang people for being unethical. .

After listening to Jack's words, Timothy really felt like crying. If the war between Perth and Port Hedland turns into a competition of who is richer and who can buy more advanced weapons to equip the troops, then There is no need to compete, the winner can be decided now.

Perth, which is already in financial trouble, is definitely no match for Port Hedland, where you can sell a stone for money!