Chapter 243: Expansion of Assets
The Australasian military will expand a standing division and two colonial divisions, and their division commanders can only be drawn from the existing army.
Fortunately, the two deputy division commanders of the 1st and 2nd divisions made great contributions in the war and were promoted to brigadier general to command the two newly established divisions.
Then the deputy division commander of the 3rd division was transferred to the remaining colonial division, and the commanders of the three newly established divisions were selected.
As for the newly formed artillery regiment and infantry regiment of the Guards Division, their regiment commanders are likely to be concurrently served by the two deputy division commanders of the Guards Division.
In fact, compared with the division commanders of the colonial divisions, several deputy division commanders of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd divisions find the regiment commander of the Guards Division more attractive.
Apart from anything else, the Guards Division is Arthur's direct force, not only enjoying weapons and equipment and ammunition far superior to those of the regular divisions, and logistical supplies, but also a much better welfare system than the regular divisions.
To give the simplest example, the current per capita income in Australasia is around 41 Australian dollars. According to regulations, the salary of ordinary soldiers in the standing division will barely exceed this level, generally reaching around 43 to 45 Australian dollars. Even if some holiday benefits and subsidies are added, the final annual income will not exceed 50 Australian dollars.
The salary of ordinary soldiers in the Guards Division reached 48 Australian dollars, which is almost the sum of the salary, benefits and subsidies of the standing division soldiers.
Moreover, the status of soldiers in the Guards Division is much higher than that of soldiers in the regular division. Every soldier from the Guards Division is almost selected from the regular division.
This award ceremony has added two major generals, two brigadiers, three colonels, two lieutenant colonels and four majors to the Australasian army, and many other non-commissioned officers and lieutenants have also been added, further enriching the reserve of low-level officers in the army.
More importantly, with the opportunity of this award ceremony, three new nobles were officially born in Australasia.
The first is Prime Minister Evan, who worked hard in the previous government. After working for the Australasian government for seven years, Arthur also awarded the title of Sir to former Prime Minister Evan.
In the future, former Prime Minister Evan can also be called Sir Evan, a real noble recognized by the government and royal family of the Kingdom of Australasia.
Of course, the title of Sir has no territory and cannot be inherited. It is just an honorary noble title.
But this is also considered to be stepping into the threshold of nobility. In Australasia, where there are no nobles except the royal family, Sir is currently considered a real noble.
Although there is no real territory, the title of Sir can still earn a certain amount of income every year, which is at least three times the average annual income of Australasia (the medal is ten times).
Along with former Prime Minister Evan, the commanders of the 1st and 2nd Divisions were also awarded the title of Sir. Of course, the reason why Commander Silvio Lonnie Rodlin and Commander Fritz Reiner were awarded the title of Sir is because Arthur wants to promote the recognition of military merits in Australasia more quickly, so that the people of Australasia know that Arthur will never treat meritorious officials unfairly.
In this way, after the next war, the Australasian army will definitely move forward for titles, honors, medals, awards, military ranks and other countless rewards.
This is also one of the benefits of the monarchy. The monarch can enfeoff highly recognized nobles. This is the ladder for civilians to step onto the road to high-level, which will naturally cause a sensation and enthusiasm among most people.
However, Arthur still controls the reward of titles very strictly. It has been more than seven years since the development of Australasia, but it is only the first time that nobles have been enfeoffed, and they are all titles that are more honorary titles such as knights.
The nobles of Australasia in the future are bound to become a major force in Australasia, but Arthur is also very strict in selecting future nobles.
In addition to those who have made great contributions to the country, if you want to become a noble, you can only rely on huge military merits.
As for the real nobles who can inherit like barons and earls, in addition to a war that gambles on the level of national destiny, they can only rely on seniority and contributions to perhaps get a little edge.
On November 7, 1907, accompanied by government officials, Arthur went to inspect the newly built reservoir in New South Wales.
Because of the unique climate of Australasia, many areas of the Australian continent are in a state of water shortage.
Fortunately, the population of Australasia is not too large now. Even if the demand for industrial water is increasing rapidly, there is no big water problem at present.
But this is also a hidden danger after all. As early as several years ago, Arthur ordered the construction of large reservoirs in suitable areas of Australasia to meet the future water demand of Australasia's population.
These reservoirs are also divided into industrial water reservoirs and civil water reservoirs according to different geographical locations and sizes.
The water in industrial water reservoirs basically flows to major factories and industrial areas to meet the water needs of industrial areas.
The role of civil water reservoirs is varied. In addition to the water needed for people's daily lives, crop planting, animal husbandry, and even the current booming electricity industry in Australasia also require a lot of water resources.
Of course, the electricity industry does not actually use water, but rather uses the water level difference between reservoirs to generate electricity with turbine generators.
Currently, thermal power is the most common power generation in Australasia, and hydropower generation is currently only in the testing stage.
Of course, the reason for all this is that Australasia has sufficient coal resources. Australasia does not have the shortage of mineral resources faced by other countries. The term "shortage of mineral resources" does not even exist in the dictionary of Australasia.
The reservoir that Arthur inspected is located in the Tumut River in New South Wales, so the name of this reservoir is also called Tumut Reservoir.
This is a large reservoir designed to solve the water problem near New South Wales and Sydney. It is also equipped with hydroelectric power generation equipment and is also the first hydroelectric power station in Australasia.
As early as when the Electric Energy Research Laboratory was established, Australasia's electricity standards had clear indicators, that is, the voltage was 220 volts.
Coupled with other standards for industrial electricity, Australasia has now established a relatively complete electricity system, and electric lights and electricity have gradually entered thousands of households in Australasia.
Apart from anything else, Arthur's Sydney Palace is definitely one of the palaces with the most complete electricity laying.
At present, you can see all kinds of crystal chandeliers carved from crystal in the Sydney Palace. The lights at night are colorful and look very beautiful.
Thanks to the current growth in per capita income, Australasians are no strangers to electric lights.
Most of the industries in Australasian were established in recent years, and all of them use new industrial equipment.
This also leads to the fact that the industry in Australasian needs a lot of electricity, instead of the industry in the British Empire, which is still steam equipment after the industrial revolution.
At present, large and small thermal power plants have been established in various states of Australasian to generate electricity for major cities.
Even Australian Timor has plans to build a small thermal power plant, but the earliest completion will have to wait until next year.
If we talk about the area with the most complete power laying, it must be the Capital Territory where Sydney is located.
There are two thermal power plants in the Capital Territory, a large thermal power plant specializing in supplying electricity to industrial areas, and a medium-sized thermal power plant for supplying civilian electricity.
The Tumut Hydropower Station is the first step in Australasia's exploration of hydropower.
At present, street lights in major cities in Australasia have been replaced with electric street lights. Although this is a test for the power system, it is not too much of a burden.
The power system in Australasia is composed of the National Power Company and the Power Research Institute.
The National Power Company is jointly held by the royal family and the government, with the government holding 50.01% and the royal family holding 49.99%.
The Power Research Institute is completely controlled by the royal family and is part of the royal consortium.
After years of hard work, the royal consortium has already grown into a giant in Australasia, controlling Australasia's finance, industry, military industry, shipbuilding, mining, electricity, oil, investment, medicine, food and other fields.
It can be said that even if Arthur's military power and reputation are put aside, the various industries controlled by the royal consortium are enough to stabilize the position of the Australasia royal family.
This is also a trump card that Arthur left for his descendants. Even if the future ruler loses military power, as long as he does not commit suicide, he can still become a powerful ruler.
As long as the future heirs can attach importance to the reputation among the people like Arthur, and continue to manage and maintain it, the Australasian royal family will not lose its status.
Of course, there must be other meanings for Arthur to come to inspect the Tumut Hydropower Station in person.
The large reservoir where the Tumut Hydropower Station is located is the guarantee of water supply for the capital territory and some cities in New South Wales, and it is also a solution to the water resource problem in Australasia.
At present, the government expects to build at least ten large reservoirs like the Tumut Reservoir, plus other large and small reservoirs, which can fully meet all water needs within Australia's 40 million population.
The current population of Australasia is just 7 million, which is still a long way from 40 million.
After inspecting the reservoir, Arthur rushed to the military factory without stopping to watch the military factory's test of the improved model of the MA-96 Maxim machine gun, the MA-107 Maxim heavy machine gun.
After eleven years, the military factory finally made some improvements to the Maxim machine gun in terms of machine guns, slightly increasing the output frequency of the Maxim machine gun, and at the same time reducing the weight of the machine gun to a certain extent, which can be regarded as reducing the burden on logistics.
More importantly, the Maxim heavy machine gun, which is slightly smaller in size, can be better installed on motorboats and aircraft as the main attack weapon of motorboats and aircraft.
Moreover, since Arthur started the research on tanks, the weapons of tanks in the future are also a headache for the mechanical research room.
Future tanks must have a cannon and a heavy machine gun, which can meet Arthur's expectations for their high firepower.
Imagine if a big guy like a tank appeared in advance on the battlefield in the future, it was covered with thick armor and equipped with cannons and machine guns.
What a spectacular scene it would be for such a big guy to face the enemy's infantry and cavalry charge? When the enemy's cavalry used cold weapons to chop the tanks, they would understand how desperate the changes brought by technological overwhelm to the army were.
This scene actually appeared in the Second World War in history. The Polish cavalry performed well in the First World War, which also made the Poles very superstitious about their cavalry.
When their cavalry faced the German tanks, they realized how fragile life was in the face of technology.
Because of the two wars, the military factory not only expanded in size, but also officially entered a profitable state.
At present, Australasia has a certain reputation in East Asia and South Asia, and the weapons produced in Australasia are gradually exported to these regions.
Of course, the bulk of the weapons sold each year are actually Russia and Australasia itself.
Russia's Far East Army is purely due to logistics and transportation issues. In addition, the quality of German weapons produced in Australasia is really good, and there is no need to have any relationship with Russia, so the arms trade with Russia has never been interrupted.
Although Australasia does not need too many weapons, the consumption of various ammunition and artillery shells is really not small.
Coupled with the expansion of the army this time, these orders are enough for the military factory to produce for a period of time.
Military factories and shipyards have transformed from gold-eating beasts to gold-absorbing beasts.
Needless to say, the profitability of the shipyard is very high. The orders from Russia alone have earned the shipyard nearly one million pounds. In addition to the orders from Australasia itself, not only has the scale of the shipyard expanded a lot, but also various constructions have never stopped.
Of course, among all of Arthur's assets, the most profitable one is Benz's car.
Although Arthur has not cared about the income of the car factory for a long time, the monthly income of the car factory will still be transferred to the Royal Bank on time and handed over to Kent Butler for review.
If you don't know, you don't know. Once you know it, Arthur is almost shocked.
Although the car sales of Benz Automobile Factory are not as exaggerated as when they were first released, they have entered a stable stage.
And currently no car manufacturer in the world can impact Benz Automobile Factory, even Ford Automobile Factory in history can't do it.
So far, Benz One has only been on sale for more than four years, and it has sold more than two million units.
Although the Australasia factory produces only one-sixth of it, this is also a net profit of 20 million pounds.
Not to mention the share from other factories, plus the net income from the American factory, in the past four years, Benz Automobile has brought Arthur 76.21 million pounds of income, which is even 152.42 million Australian dollars when converted into Australian dollars.
You know, the shipbuilding plan that Australasia has just formulated, which can make the Australasia Navy enter the top ten in the world, has only used a budget of 20 million Australian dollars.
If all the more than 150 million Australian dollars are spent on the navy, it is not an exaggeration to build a navy that ranks among the top three in the world.
After all, if you calculate it based on 4 million Australian dollars per dreadnought, these funds can build a full 37 dreadnoughts.
In history, the total number of dreadnoughts built by the British Empire from 1906 to 1914 was only 29, and Germany only built 17 ships at a slow pace, which is enough to show the huge amount of funds.
Of course, the actual naval investment cannot be calculated in this way.
Although the cost of the dreadnought is true, if you want the warship to really form combat effectiveness, the training of naval soldiers, the maintenance costs of the warship in the later stage, and the repair costs of various problems are also a huge expense.
But no matter what, 150 million Australian dollars can definitely build a navy in the top four in the world, and even compete with any other country except Britain and Germany.
Arthur's personal property is definitely rich enough to rival a country.
Arthur's personal property is currently more than 300 million pounds. Although 100 million pounds are loaned to the government and half of the rest are real estate, he can still take out hundreds of millions of pounds of available funds at will.
And the royal consortium can bring Arthur nearly 17 million pounds of after-tax income every year, which is even more terrifying than the Australasian government.
Arthur's property contributes up to 3 million pounds in taxes to the Australasian government every year. Coupled with the growth of various economies, Australasian's fiscal revenue this year is expected to exceed 30 million Australian dollars.
After field testing, the improved MA-107 Maxim heavy machine gun is indeed more stable and has better cooling effect than the previous MA-96 Maxim machine gun.
In addition, the weight of the new machine gun has been reduced, making it more suitable for troops.
Therefore, under Arthur's witness, the military and the military factory signed an order, striving to replace all the heavy machine guns of the army with new heavy machine guns within two years.
As for the old Maxim heavy machine guns that have been replaced, they can be sold to other countries and regions at a lower price.
After all, although the MA-96 Maxim machine gun is a bit backward for Australasia, in the eyes of some Asian countries, it is still a powerful, unprecedented heavy firepower weapon, worthy of the country's army to buy and equip.
The weapons produced in Australasia are of guaranteed quality, and Arthur does not have to worry about no one buying them.
At least in the whole of Asia, in addition to Russia, there are still three or four countries interested in Australasia's weapons.
Especially the Qing Dynasty, after the last exchange of study abroad with Australasia, became one of the countries seeking to purchase Australasia's weapons.
Although this country is relatively backward, it still has money.
In addition to other small and medium-sized countries in East Asia and South Asia, I believe that this batch of heavy machine guns will be sold quickly.
Luckily, the machine guns were improved in a timely manner and were equipped to the troops before the army officially expanded. Otherwise, if we waited until the army was fully equipped before replacing them, we would have to replace hundreds of heavy machine guns, which would be a considerable loss.
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