Chapter 234: The Second-Generation Airship
Although General Silvio Lonni Rodlin was a military man by training, he managed to govern the small city of Dili very well.
Currently, the factories and some important facilities in Portuguese Timor were operating normally, and General Silvio had only sent a few soldiers for supervision and patrol.
As for the city of Dili itself, a strict martial law was enforced. Apart from a few stores selling food, other shops were temporarily closed, and pedestrians were not allowed to linger on the streets for too long.
While this restricted the freedom of the Portuguese people, it was the best outcome for them.
Those Portuguese who disobeyed would be forcibly sent to various factories and mines, where they would be forced to work as laborers and miners.
After all, Australasia's finances weren't that rich, and there were not enough funds to sustain these Portuguese people.
It is worth mentioning that the captured Portuguese soldiers who were injured, after receiving good medical treatment, would be sent to Australasia's major mining areas to compensate for the medical resources used on them.
After all, if Portugal later refused to pay a high price to redeem these soldiers, Australasia would not have made a good deal.
In addition to Dili, Arthur also inspected the various defense positions that General Silvio Lonni Rodlin had organized over the past few days.
Due to Portuguese Timor's large indigenous population of over 300,000, there was no shortage of manpower to build these defenses.
The indigenous people, however, accepted their fate and, after Australasia successfully occupied Portuguese Timor, they willingly expressed their allegiance to Australasia.
Of course, it was impossible for Australasia to trust these indigenous people. For Arthur and the Australasia government, the only people to trust were Australasians.
Furthermore, Australasia had an extreme form of racism, and the White Australia policy was no joke.
Arthur could stop this trend, but there was no need to.
While the White Australia policy might prevent Australasia from accepting Asian immigrants, the current situation showed that European immigrants were the most useful for Australasia, and they were the foundation for maintaining unity in Australasia.
As for the indigenous people and Asian immigrants, apart from increasing the population, they didn't contribute much to Australasia's development.
Currently, Europe could provide hundreds of thousands of immigrants for Australasia every year, and with the newborns in Australasia, the population growth each year was already a massive number.
Arthur was very satisfied with the situation in Portuguese Timor. After giving General Silvio Lonni Rodlin a few instructions, he returned to Australasia.
Currently, there was no sign of any movement from Portugal, which meant that Portugal would certainly make a big move.
If Portugal were willing to retreat, they would have already started contacting the Australasia government in secret.
The lack of movement now showed that Portugal had not given up and was likely preparing for a significant action.
Arthur's first step was to order the arms factories to produce a large amount of ammunition. This included a vast number of rifle and machine gun bullets, as well as various artillery shells.
For Arthur, there was also good news: the next phase of the war would shift to a defensive war, and artillery and machine guns would play a major role in defensive combat.
As a result, not only had the arms factories entered overtime production, but the transport fleets were also working tirelessly to send ammunition to the newly occupied territories.
Of course, the primary focus was on delivering ammunition and supplies to Portuguese India and Portuguese Timor. These two regions served as a barrier to East Asia, and it was unlikely that Portugal would cross these colonies to directly reach East Asia.
After the war broke out, in addition to European attention, the United States also sent a telegram to Australasia, inquiring whether they needed support in terms of weapons and equipment.
Arthur immediately refused the U.S. inquiry.
What nonsense! As far as land army weapons and equipment were concerned, Australasia was at the top of the world, fully on par with Britain and Germany.
Although the United States was currently the strongest industrial nation, this referred only to its scale.
In terms of technological advancement and the power of weapons, the United States was far from being able to compare with the United Kingdom and Germany at the time.
Without having absorbed large amounts of talent and resources from Europe, the United States was merely a newly rich nation with developed economy and industry, while its technological base was no match for the two European giants, the United Kingdom and Germany.
In naval matters, the Ministry of Defense also formulated some patrol plans to prevent possible Portuguese attacks on Australasia's mainland.
Although Australasia's navy was weaker than Portugal's, they could still run if they couldn't fight back.
Especially the new small frigates Australasia had just launched, which had a general cruising speed of over 18 knots and could even reach 19 knots.
Portugal's navy had very few ships capable of reaching that speed, and with the added responsibility of escorting troops, they certainly couldn't afford to pursue aggressively.
Fortunately, Australasia currently had an abundance of resources, so they organized fleets to transport large quantities of supplies and food to Portuguese India and Portuguese Timor.
And because Portuguese Timor was very close to Australasia, and Portuguese India was adjacent to British India, there was little concern that the logistics lines would be cut off.
With all sectors in Australasia entering a period of intensive preparation, the situation briefly settled into a peaceful phase.
As September arrived, Arthur received more good news: the industrial railway was fully operational.
This crucial railway linking the east and west coasts of the Australian continent would become a bridge for communication between the two coasts.
Simultaneously, with the industrial railway now operational, the northern railway officially entered its construction phase.
Since the northern railway's total mileage was comparable to that of the industrial railway, the construction period was estimated to be around eight years, with a total investment exceeding 40 million AUD.
Although it was expected to cost nearly 5 million AUD annually, Australasia's current financial situation could fully accommodate this expenditure.
Moreover, the industrial railway had already required about 3 to 4 million AUD annually during its construction, so now that it was completed, it essentially added just over a million AUD in expenditure.
After attending the celebration for the full operation of the industrial railway, Arthur went again to the aviation laboratory.
This time, he was not there for airplanes, but for the airships mentioned in the battle report.
After all, the report mentioned that airships had been used to carry out bombing runs in the air, but if Australasia didn't actually have such airships, it would be a bit laughable.
Fortunately, while airplanes were the primary focus of the aviation laboratory, the development of airships had not been neglected, although progress was somewhat slower compared to the airplanes.
However, the second-generation airship, the AU-2 rigid airship, had now been developed.
The second-generation airship was an improved version of the first-generation airship, with some changes in shape and a significant increase in size.
The second-generation airship is 132 meters long, 12 meters in diameter, and can carry about 13,000 cubic meters of hydrogen.
Due to its larger size and increased hydrogen capacity, the AU-2 airship's payload capacity had reached 11 tons, an increase of 1 ton compared to the previous generation.
Although the increase seemed small at just 10%, the airship's range and stability had improved significantly, which Arthur valued greatly.
If the first-generation airship was the test version built by Zeppelin, the second-generation AU-2 was the stable version that had passed trials.
While the possibility of accidents still existed, the safety level of the second-generation airship had improved considerably compared to the first, and it could now be used as a transport vehicle in the civilian sector.
Currently, the airship had a major advantage over airplanes in that its payload capacity far exceeded that of airplanes.
Although the airship's speed was much slower than that of airplanes, its large cargo capacity gave it an edge in transportation.
Of course, such airships were also perfectly suited for high-altitude bombing. By placing small bombs on the airship and manually dropping them, high-altitude bombing could be achieved.
These airships could even be equipped with specially designed machine guns, though the stability would depend on the situation.
But in any case, the AU-2 was fully capable of carrying out the high-altitude bombing mentioned in the battle report, so there was no fear of European countries investigating Australasia's airship technology.
To further convince the European powers that Australasia had gained a significant advantage in the war by using airships to drop bombs, airships would certainly be deployed in the next phase of the war, and they would need to create a considerable advantage.
Fortunately, because of the airship's massive role in transportation, after the second-generation airship was developed, a few were produced. Currently, the aviation laboratory had five second-generation airships, just enough for the next war.
Additionally, because operating an airship was simpler than an airplane, the aviation laboratory had enough airship pilots to deploy them.
(End of Chapter)
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