Holy Roman Empire

The turbulent international situation has not affected the outbreak of the Central Asian War.With the end of the arms race, the British also let go.

On March 26, 1888, with the order of Governor Litton, two Indian colonial divisions launched an attack on the Afghan region, which opened the prelude to the Central Asian War.

After receiving news of the start of the Afghan war at the Vienna Palace, Franz once again became a melon-eating crowd.

Worry does not exist, and the British play knows that the London bureaucracy did not take Afghanistan at all.

The two Indian colonial divisions seem to be huge, but in fact they are a group of rabble.

In terms of true combat effectiveness, I am afraid that it is not as good as the two main British regiments.Such troops are reluctant to maintain law and order and placed on the battlefield, they can only be worse than the enemy.

Franz asked: "Are the weapons and equipment to assist the Afghans in place?"

If you want to use the Afghan war to give blood to the British, weapons and equipment are still indispensable.

Without international aid, the Afghans with their spears and spears would not be brave enough for long.

Foreign Minister Weisenberg: "The first batch of materials has been shipped in secret, and in terms of time, the Afghan government should have distributed it.

Our intelligence network in the Afghan region was imperfect, and we were completely blinded after the outbreak of the war. We know nothing about the specific situation there."

This is an inevitable result. Not to mention the imperfect intelligence network, even if all Afghans are turned into intelligence personnel, there is no way for the news to come out.

British diplomacy is not a blow. The Afghan neighbors have pulled up the cordon, and the only way to contact them is smuggling.

Facts have proved that smuggling channels are also not suitable for transmitting intelligence.

Both Persia and the Central Asian Khanate are poor ghosts, and most regions have neither railroads nor telegrams.

Before the outbreak of the war, the Vienna government received news from Afghanistan that it was more than a week behind.After the war broke out, let alone.

Hearing the bad news, Franz frowned: "That is to say, we have lost contact with the Afghan government.

The short-supplied materials originally planned now lose the possibility of implementation because they have lost their goals."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Weisenberg replied.

"From the current situation, we can only hope in the Russians to reconnect with the Afghan government.

They have been operating locally for a long time, and there should be hidden channels for messaging.It was only affected by the war and was temporarily interrupted.

The tsarist government is trying to recover, and it may be able to recover after a while."

"Put hope on the Russians" and "Recover after a while", such an answer made Franz directly dispel the idea of ​​short supplies.

Although Afghanistan is a small country, its territory is not small at all, and it is mostly mountainous.

If no pick-up signal is issued below, who knows where to hand it over and let the airships airdrop supplies?

You can't throw it around, throw it into old forests, rivers and lakes. The big deal is the loss of materials.

If you are unlucky, it happens to fall on the British army and become the captain of the transport team, it will be embarrassing.

After pondering for a while, Franz made a decision: "Forget it, such an event can only be considered bad luck for the Afghan government.

Didn't they send a liaison officer to let them find ways to get in touch with the country, we can't do anything now."

Anxious?

If it doesn't exist, even if the Afghan government collapses, the Russians will make up.

Moreover, even if the British have won, what can be done?

Occupying a settlement of guerrillas and religious fanatics is not a good thing. The high cost of rule will sooner or later make the British understand the reality.

Army Secretary Feslav proposed: "Your Majesty, our troops stationed in the colony have not changed weapons and equipment for many years.

In view of the current grim international situation, we must make preparations in advance, and the Ministry of the Army recommends a major facelift to increase the colony ’s defense capabilities first."

Feslav's words reminded Franz that although the colonial armed forces of all countries in these years were their second- and third-rate troops, recruiting the worst sources, holding the oldest weapons and carrying out the simplest training, Austria is an exception.

The colonial army is only a little behind in weapons and equipment, and other aspects are still in line with the main domestic forces.

A few years ago, the Vienna government also sent its main force to carry out actual combat exercises.

It was only later that the enemies in the colony were wiped out, and this actual combat training plan was forced to terminate.

During normal times, the colonial forces maintained their current state, and naturally there was no problem.

The equipment is almost the same, anyway, the colonial forces of all countries are worse than others, as long as they are stronger than their peers.

Now that the international situation has changed, no one can guarantee that when the guns are gone.

Against this background, it is particularly important to increase the strength of the colony.

Especially in the Austrian-African region, once the European War broke out, they were not expected to seize the whole of Africa at once, but the strategic locations of Egypt, Cape of Good Hope and Djibouti must still be completed.

This is the core of Austria's national policy, and it won these important points. Not only the homeland and Africa are connected, but also Britain and France have to run tens of thousands of kilometers into the Indian Ocean.

It turned out that the time to run two routes was only enough to run once. Not only did the transportation cost increase significantly, but it also meant that the enemy's sea transportation capacity was compromised.

"Not only do we have to change clothes, we must also increase the colony's weapons reserves. Taking Austria as an example, the local area should store enough armament to arm one million people for a year.

Once the European War broke out, the colony would do well to seize the entire African continent on its own."

Not that Franz has a big appetite, but Austrian Africa already has such strength.

Today, the total population of Austrian Africa has reached more than 20 million, which is several times more than the immigration of several other colonial empires.

Once the war broke out, it was destined to attack on all sides.Even if the Vienna government does not order, the local military aristocracy will pull the team to do it themselves.

The militant nature has been implanted in everyone's bone marrow since the development of Austrian Africa.

If the conditions are not allowed, the Vienna government intends to suppress it, they have already engaged in friction in Africa.

If you do n’t use it, you ’re stupid. If you won the entire African continent, as long as you win a few key points, Austria will win.

Prime Minister Carl questioned: "Your Majesty, this is too much! Several of our important colonies have strong military powers, which is not something that the surrounding countries can shake.

Even if the European War broke out, Austrian-African power is enough to cope with any enemy.Now shipping so many weapons and equipment to the colonies can easily trigger international tensions."

The weaponry of one million people fighting for one year is not a fraction of a star, if you want to calculate it in units-one million tons.

With so many supplies in the past, it is almost impossible to keep secrets.This year, who doesn't put a few spies on the other side!

Important military intelligence can't find out, who can't be deceived by such a ship of arms?

Franz nodded, this is indeed a problem.Not to mention transportation, the organization of production alone can attract the attention of the European world.

"Then proceed in batches, first increase the supply in the name of refitting, and then add a part each time when the materials are replenished each month. The more the number of times, the less noticeable.

This Central Asian war is the best cover.The state-owned arsenal was ordered to double the weapon production capacity from now on, and it was announced that it was a Russian order.

Don't publish specific figures. The arsenal is scattered all over the country, and most people will not pay attention."

The benefits of state-owned enterprises are here. The government can control the production capacity and does not need to disclose any information to the outside world.

How many weapons and ammunition have been produced and how much have been exported, as long as the Vienna government does not say it, no one knows.

Even if someone investigates, it is necessary to investigate all the arsenals together in order to obtain accurate figures. It is meaningless to investigate the data of one or two arsenals alone.

It's not Franz's boast that how many arsenals there are in Austria and how many companies have military production capacity cannot be known to the outside world.

The reason is very simple, there are too many related companies.Many machinery factories can be transformed into military factories as soon as they modify their production equipment.

Anyway, it is all flow construction, and you don't need your company to produce all the parts, as long as it can produce a part.

Putting together the spare parts produced by everyone, a weapon was born.

Today ’s military factories are simply possessing a relatively complete industrial chain and do not need to buy spare parts everywhere.

From the beginning to the end, all the spare parts produced by an enterprise will naturally be more dominant during assembly, and the quality must be relatively guaranteed.

But in the war years, these are minor issues.In many cases, quantity is more important than quality, as long as it can be used, a few flaws are not worth mentioning at all.