As 1644 approached, it was only about two years before the wild boar skin entered the customs, and it was just over two years since the people traveled to this time and space, during which the barren and primitive Australia became the leader of the development of the steam industry in the 17th century. It has become the world's export mirror, an exporter of weapons and equipment chemicals.

But there is still a long way to go before it is really strong enough, and according to the latest national population statistics, the total population of the country's three cities and one town, as well as the two overseas colonies combined, exceeded the 70,000 mark for the first time.

For Australia, which is vast and rich in resources, the population is too small, and the few are almost completely unable to control the entire Australian continent, and even develop and build in more places in the east.

If the Australian government was to intervene in 1644 when the wild boar skin entered the customs, it would have to put at least 10,000 to 20,000 army troops into the battlefield to be effective, and the total number of warships in the navy would have to reach 20.

In addition to the ships defending the mainland and overseas territories, at least five transport ships must be dispatched to fight directly along the coast of the enemy's rear in order to complete the landing operation.

Due to the slow pace of Dutch imports, the navy and the two major domestic departments that control the distribution of foreign trade, and the formation of a large transport fleet, have been delayed for a certain time. According to reliable intelligence sources, the Dutch were deliberately slowing down the delivery of new ships, in the hope of a certain extent that Australia would be more distant from them in terms of maritime transport power.

As the largest ship owner in Europe, the Netherlands seems to have seriously sensed the danger, and while the easiest and most straightforward way to deal with threats is to strangle them in the cradle, Australia is so powerful that they can only smile and smile at them as allies.

If Australia's firearms were too sharp to make them give up the idea of being an enemy of Australia, it was the steam-powered ships that made them feel a deadly threat, and this threat could easily squeeze the Netherlands from the world's maritime transport power in a few years if the Australians were willing.

With enough coal and water, ships can sail anywhere in the world all year round, without relying on the monsoon winds. However, the premise is that a ship refueling station must be set up within each distance.

It was after seeing the potential of Australia's transportation that the Dutch decided to slow down the delivery time, and at the same time ordered domestic shipbuilding experts to imitate steam engines, hoping to confidently build steam to power ships. In this way, the threat of Australians is no longer there.

However, it is clear that the Dutch naval experts were not so clever as to understand the whole working principle of the steam engine by listening to the accounts of those who had seen it. If this is the case, then Australians can only sigh that Europeans deserve to be the founders of modern scientific development.

But the truth is that the Dutch are not so smart, and they are trying to convince Australia to export steamships more than weapons. The steam engine-driven ship is even more crazy for the Dutch, the Netherlands is based on commerce by relying on the development of the country's large and small wharves and fleet transportation, once the new power driven ship is mastered, it will greatly strengthen the Netherlands' ability in maritime transportation, but also shorten the time of maritime transportation.

The export of warships was not something that the government and shipyards could do if they wanted to export warships, and they had to be discussed by the National Security Council and the Military Committee of the Ministry of Defense before a decision could be made, so the Dutch proposal was never agreed to or rejected.

After all, the two countries are legitimately allies, and if they refuse, they will inevitably be retaliated by the Dutch, although the Netherlands will not directly use force. However, in terms of transporting immigrants, it can directly cause a lot of trouble to Australia.

In addition, the Netherlands is currently the largest shipbuilding base in Europe, and once Australia refuses, it is equivalent to losing the right to buy ships from the Netherlands. In terms of Australia's own shipbuilding technology accumulation, although through the introduction of most of the European shipbuilders, it is not a problem to build self-designed ships, but the construction materials are very big problems, the entire Australian continent is basically no trees suitable for building large ships, if you need to build ships, you need to transport oak from farther Malaysia.

Therefore, from the perspective of practical interests, Australia is inseparable from the transportation capacity of the Netherlands, with the increase in population, the shortage of domestic production, must be imported from outside to meet the entire domestic food demand. Just this Dutch only need to delay the delivery of grain for two months, which will make the entire Australian domestic food price quickly fall into a crazy rise.

The current relationship between the Netherlands and Australia can be said to be interdependent, Australia needs the strong maritime transport capacity of the Dutch, and the Netherlands also needs the huge economic benefits and weapons brought by Australian goods.

Manchester City's Congress. Speaker Yuan Kejun rang the wooden hammer on the table to remind everyone to be quiet, and then said: "Now I want to know the results of your discussion. ”

The result of the deliberations of the fifteen parliamentarians was a bill for the construction of warships and the expansion of the army, according to a joint plan provided by Rear Admiral Wang Tie Hammer and Liu Dongshui of the army, to intervene in the battle of the Manchu Qing in 1644. In other words, to intervene in the peasant army's entry into Beijing, the army must be expanded to at least eight battalions of 5,000 people, so that it can slowly fight an asymmetrical numerical war with the enemy in the next war.

As for the navy, at least six to eight battleships must be built, and it must be able to defend the Dutch movement in the area at any time, and with these preliminary conditions, Australia can ensure that the intervention will not cause too much trouble to itself, otherwise Australia will not be able to stop it at all.

However, according to the discussion results of most of the MPs, intervening in 1644 is not maximizing the interests of Australia, if it can be intervened after the establishment of the Nanming regime, the benefits obtained by Australia and the right to speak in the Nanming regime will also be maximized, so the MPs believe that the interests of Australia should be based on the interests of Australia after the death of Chongzhen, during the establishment of the Nanming regime, taking advantage of the chaos of the current situation to increase the intensity of immigration, so as to accumulate more trainable junior workers for Australia's industrial development.

The purpose of this is not only to allow Australia to obtain greater benefits, but also to provide enough time for the expansion of the army, and can effectively save some military spending, and there is no need to expand the army from now on, at least in early 1644 to start the expansion plan, but the new expansion of the army can also be imagined. (To be continued.) )