The Rise of Australasia

After all, the future battlefields and military bases will certainly not all be near train stations. This indicates that within this distance from the train station to the military base, there is a need for a very effective means of transport to move supplies.

It is quite understandable that the Germans are focusing on trucks. After all, time has proven that cars are the most convenient and effective means of transport on land, apart from trains.

And trucks with cargo capacity are likely also the most convenient and effective means of transport on land, again, apart from trains.

The Germans' ability to place an order for 3,000 trucks at once proves that they have researched trucks and are confident that trucks can meet their transportation needs.

After all, these large trucks ordered by the Germans are juggernauts that can carry more than 3 tons of goods and maintain a speed of over 35 kilometers per hour.

The other type of truck previously produced by the Benz factory can carry over 1.5 tons and reach speeds of over 45 kilometers per hour.

The branch of the Benz factory in Germany is in collaboration with the local German nobility. This means that the head factory has no right to refuse this order.

Actually, Arthur would not refuse this order, as it represents considerable profits.

However, to fulfill ally obligations and also to remind the British and French, Arthur still passed this news on to the British and French government.

Britain and France's countermeasures were also simple. After receiving information from Arthur, they conducted a simple investigation. Once they determined that trucks had significant transportation potential, both nations placed orders for 4,000 and 3,000 trucks respectively, also requiring the UK car factories to deliver within six months.

There was a problem when Russia heard the news and wanted to purchase trucks as well, but the orders for British car factories were already fully booked, and they had no capacity to take on additional orders in the short term.

Out of helplessness, the Russian Government could only turn its attention to Australasia. On September 27, 1913, after receiving a sufficient loan from Britain and France, a Russian delegation headed to Australasia to inspect the Benz Car Factory and discuss the truck purchase order with the Australasian Government.

Under normal circumstances, the technology possessed by a factory branch of the Benz Car Factory should also be possessed by the main factory, and even more advanced.

Trucks that are heavily ordered by Britain, France, and Germany, their potential and role are no doubt obvious.

In fact, the main purpose of the Russian delegation's visit was not to inspect the function of trucks, but to lower the price of trucks as much as possible to save more funds.

You should know that Russia has the largest land area in Europe (excluding colonies) and the largest number of troops, which leads to the largest logistical pressure among European countries.

Because of its geographical environment, Russia's domestic communication relies mostly on land transportation, that is – trains, cars, and horse carriages.

This means that if Russia wants to use trucks to relieve domestic logistical pressure, the number of trucks Russia needs to order may be the highest among European powers.

For the Russian government, this is a massive financial expenditure, which is why Nicholas II dispatched a diplomatic team to specially negotiate a lower price for trucks.

In early October, this Russian diplomatic team arrived in Australasia by airship.

After visiting the Australasian Government and Arthur, the Russian team immediately went to the Benz Car Factory to inspect the production status of their trucks.

At present, there are not a few cars in Russia. The Russian Monarchy alone owns up to hundreds of cars.

Russia also has a small number of trucks at home. Before this diplomatic team set off, Russia had already tested the actual transportation capacity of trucks and affirmed their usefulness.

Especially the Russian military, they have repeatedly requested the government and Nicholas II to purchase at least 10,000 trucks.

The reason given by the military was that if the Russian army could have 10,000 trucks, it would greatly increase the transportation capacity of the Russian army.

It is estimated that the comprehensive combat capability of the Russian Army, possessing ten thousand trucks, could be increased by at least 30 percent.

Although ten thousand trucks are not cheap, Nicholas II decided to grit his teeth and purchase this batch of equipment.

Of course, given the good relationship with Arthur and Australasia, Nicholas II felt it was necessary to press the price as low as possible to save some funds for the government.

At this time, in the Benz Car Factory.

"Gentlemen, this is our production workshop. The vast majority of Benz truck bodies are forged, manufactured, and assembled here," Benz explained seriously to the Russian representative.

Next to Benz was an interpreter, tasked with translating the content of Benz's introduction into Russian.

Although some members of the Russian diplomatic team could understand the German spoken by Benz, a few were somewhat foggy and needed the translator to relay things again.

On the Russian representatives' side, there was also a dedicated translation officer who was responsible for translating some of the Russian spoken by the Russian representatives into German or English.

Fortunately, most of the current diplomats generally have a good command of English, French, German, and Russian. Otherwise, Benz, a German who only mastered simple English, would find himself in some awkward situations.

"It's incredible that your factory can achieve such a standard assembly line production," the Russian representative earnestly watched as the steel was forged into parts one by one, which were then transported to other assembly lines for assembly, and couldn't help but exclaim.

Powerful nations like Australasia, which had risen later, were actually stronger in terms of industrial innovation than the old powers. Including current Germany, the United States, and Australasia, their industrial technology was even more advanced and not too much resistance to reform.

However, the old powerful nations led by Britain, France, and Russia, who wanted to reform in terms of industry, the first thing they had to face was the owners and capitalists of the old factories.

For capitalists, whether the factory technology was advanced or not, was not important as long as they could produce qualified products, and the cost was not high.

Regarding the relatively slow production speed, this problem is easy to solve, just oppress the factory workers crazily.

As long as the workers of these factories work overtime, their production speed is not too much slower than modern factories.

"Mr. Benz, how many trucks can your factory produce each day?" a Russian representative curiously asked.

This Russian representative was a high-ranking officer in the Russian military and one of the main proponents of buying trucks.

"Your Excellency, currently we can produce two types of trucks, small and large. The production speed of the small truck B1 is 75 per day, and the large truck B2 is 45 per day," Benz replied with a smile after hearing the question relayed by the translator. "If your country only needs one type of truck, we can temporarily stop the production of the other type.

In that case, the production speed of the truck should be able to increase by about twice."

Trucks, compared to automobiles, are undoubtedly larger in size. They not only require more powerful engines but also require larger bodies and parts.

This also means that the cost of a truck will be higher than that of a car, and the production time will also be longer.

If it were a common Benz One car being manufactured, the production speed of the main factory has already been able to reach at least 300 per day, with a yearly production of over 100,000.

The Russian military representative who asked the question nodded in satisfaction. The car factories in Australasia produce trucks not slower than those in the United Kingdom and Germany.

This also implies that even if Russia's orders were more, the time for the military to equip trucks would not be much slower than that of Britain, France, and Germany.

If the sale price of the truck could be cut to a relatively low figure, it would be huge good news for both the Russian government and military.

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