Chapter 234 The Second Generation Airship
Although Silvio Lonnie Rodlin was born as a soldier, he managed the small imperial power very well.
Currently, factories and some important facilities in Portuguese Timor are in normal condition, and Silvio Ronny Rodlin has only sent some soldiers for supervision and inspection.
The urban area of Dili has adopted a relatively strict state of martial law. Except for some shops selling food, other shops are temporarily not allowed to open, and pedestrians are not allowed to stay too long on the streets.
Although this will restrict the freedom of the Portuguese, this is the best result for them.
Because those disobedient Portuguese will be forcibly sent to major factories and mining areas, and they will be forcibly arranged to become workers and miners.
After all, Australasia's finances are not that rich, and there are not enough funds to support these Portuguese.
It is worth mentioning that after the captured Portuguese soldiers and the injured received good medical treatment, they were sent to major mining areas in Australasia to compensate for the various medical resources used on them. .
After all, if Portugal is unwilling to redeem these Portuguese soldiers at a high price in the future, wouldn't Australasia be doing a loss-making business?
In addition to Dili, Arthur also inspected the various defensive positions established by General Silvio Ronny Rodrin in the past few days.
Because Portuguese Timor has an indigenous population of more than 300,000, there is no shortage of manpower to build these defensive positions.
These indigenous people were resigned to the situation. After Australasia successfully occupied Portuguese Timor, these indigenous people also expressed their submission to Australasia very wisely.
Of course, it is impossible to get Australasia to trust these indigenous people. For Arthur and the Australasian government, the only people worthy of trust are Australasians.
What's more, Australasia still has relatively extreme racism in the country, and the White Australia plan is no joke.
In fact, Arthur can stop this trend, but it is not necessary.
Although the racism of white Australia will prevent Australasia from receiving Asian immigrants, judging from the current situation, European immigrants are the most useful to Australasia and are the key to maintaining the unity of Australasia. fundamental.
As for the indigenous and Asian immigrants in the country, apart from the population, they will not improve Australasia much.
Europe is now able to provide hundreds of thousands of immigrants to Australasia every year. Coupled with the newborn babies in Australasia, the annual population growth is already a very huge number.
Arthur was very satisfied with the current situation in Portuguese Timor and returned to Australasia after giving General Silvio Ronny Rodrin a few words.
There is currently no movement in Portugal, which also means that Portugal will definitely make big moves.
Because if Portugal wanted to give in, it would have already quietly contacted the Australasian government.
The lack of movement now just shows that Portugal has not given up yet, and may even be brewing big moves.
Arthur's first move was to order the military factory to produce a large amount of ammunition. These included large quantities of rifle and machine gun bullets, as well as various artillery shells.
There is also good news for Arthur, that is, the next war is about to transform into a defensive war, and artillery and machine guns will play a big role in the defensive war.
For this reason, not only the military factories have entered overtime production mode, but the transport fleet is also frantically delivering ammunition to the three new occupied territories.
Of course, the main thing is to transport ammunition and supplies to Portuguese India and Portuguese Timor. These two areas are also equivalent to barriers to East Asian colonies. It is unlikely that the Portuguese can cross these two colonies and go directly to East Asia.
After the war started, in addition to European attention, the United States also sent a telegram to Australasia, asking whether Australasia needed weapons and equipment support.
Arthur naturally refused the American inquiry.
No joke, Australasia can be said to be the best in the world in terms of army weapons and equipment, not inferior to the United Kingdom and Germany at all.
Although the United States is currently the most powerful industrial country, this is only in terms of size.
If we only talk about the advancement of science and technology and the power of weapons, the United States cannot compare with the current British Empire and Germany.
Before absorbing a large amount of talent and property resources from Europe, the United States was just an upstart country with a very developed economy and industry. Its technological foundation was completely inferior to that of the two European powers, the United Kingdom and Germany.
In terms of the navy, the Ministry of Defense has also formulated some patrol plans to prevent Portuguese sneak attacks on the Australasian mainland.
Although Australasia's naval strength is not as strong as Portugal's, it can still be done if it can't fight and run. Especially the small frigates newly launched in Australasia generally have speeds above 18 knots, and can even reach 19 knots.
There are not many warships in the Portuguese navy that can reach this speed, not to mention that they have to escort the army, so it is naturally impossible to pursue them deeply.
Fortunately, Australasia currently has no shortage of various resources, so it organized a fleet to transport a large amount of supplies and food to Portuguese India, Portuguese Timor and other regions.
Moreover, Portuguese Timor is very close to Australasia, and Portuguese India is adjacent to British India. There is basically no need to worry about logistical lines being cut off.
After all walks of life in Australasia entered into intense preparations, the situation also ushered in a brief period of peace.
Entering September, Arthur received another piece of good news, that is, the full opening of industrial railways to traffic.
This important railway connecting the east and west of the Australian continent will become a bridge for exchanges between the east and west of the Australian continent.
At the same time, with the opening of the industrial railway, the northern railway has officially entered the construction cycle.
Because the total mileage of the Northern Railway is not inferior to that of the industrial railway, the construction time of the Northern Railway will be about eight years, and the total investment will exceed 40 million Australian dollars.
Although it is expected to cost nearly A$5 million per year, it is fully affordable given Australasia's current financial situation.
What's more, the construction of industrial railways used to cost 3 to 4 million Australian dollars per year. Now that the industrial railways are completed, it actually amounts to more than 1 million Australian dollars in additional expenditures per year.
After participating in the celebration of the completion of the industrial railway, Arthur once again went to the aviation laboratory.
Of course, this time's arrival was not for the plane, but for the airship mentioned in the battle report before.
After all, the battle report in Australasia mentioned the use of airships for bombing in the air, but in reality it would be a bit funny if there were no airships capable of such bombing in Australasia.
Fortunately, although aircraft are the main research and development target of the aviation laboratory, the research and development work of airships has not fallen behind, but the progress is a bit slow compared to aircraft.
But the current airship has also developed the second generation, which is the AU-2 rigid airship.
The second-generation airship is an improved version of the first-generation airship, with certain changes in appearance and a much larger volume.
The second-generation airship is 132 meters long and 12 meters in diameter, and can hold approximately 13,000 cubic meters of hydrogen.
It is precisely because of the expansion of volume and the increase in hydrogen capacity that the load capacity of the AU-2 airship has reached 11 tons, which is a full ton increase compared to the previous generation airship.
Although it seems to have only increased by 10%, the range and stability of the airship have been greatly improved, which is what Arthur values more.
If the first-generation airship was a test version built by Zeppelin, then the second-generation airship AU-2 is already a tested and stable version.
Although the possibility of accidents still cannot be ruled out, the safety level of the second-generation airship is much improved compared to the first generation, and it can be used as a transportation tool in the civilian field.
At present, airships have a major advantage over aircraft, that is, the carrying capacity far exceeds that of aircraft.
Although the speed of airships is far inferior to that of airplanes, they have certain advantages in transportation just because of their large belly and ability to carry cargo.
Of course, such an airship is also fully satisfied with the characteristics of high-altitude bombing. As long as you put some small cannonballs on the airship and then throw them out artificially, you can achieve high-altitude bombing.
Even special machine guns can be installed on this kind of airship, but the stability has to be left to fate.
But in any case, the AU-2 is fully capable of achieving the aerial bombing mentioned in the battle report, so there is no need to be afraid of European countries' exploration of Australasian airship technology.
Of course, in order to make the major European powers believe that Australasia gained a huge advantage in the war by using airships for aerial bombing, airships will definitely be used in the next war, and a considerable advantage will need to be created. come out.
Fortunately, because of the huge role of airships in transportation, after the birth of the second generation airships, several attempts were made to produce them. Currently, the Aeronautical Laboratory has a total of five second-generation airships, and the number is just enough for the next war.
In addition, the control of airships is simpler than that of airplanes, so the aviation laboratory also has enough airship pilots to dispatch.
Second update, please support! Brothers, please vote for me!
(End of chapter)