The factional struggle in Russia did not matter to Arthur, but Russia's decision to temporarily abandon domestic weapons and choose to import weapons in general, especially those produced in Australasia, was definitely a good thing for Arthur and Australasia.

First of all, Russia's all-out switch to Australian-made weapons could bring Russia and Australasia closer together.

Coupled with the marriage between the royal families of the two countries, the Russian-Australian alliance will become more stable.

The Russians' second batch of aircraft orders, although not much, add up to 200 units. Add to that the cost of sending flight cadets to Australasia, and this is a deal of more than 50 million rubles.

Even if converted into Australian dollars, it is an order of nearly 11 million Australian dollars, and the income brought to Arthur and the royal family can be as high as about 6 million Australian dollars.

You know, such an order is just the beginning. In the original history, more than 100,000 aircraft were built by countries in World War I, which is not an exaggeration.

Even though the world's progress in airplanes has changed a lot, it is not a problem to build tens of thousands of planes in the end.

Even in a country like Russia, the demand for aircraft is in the hundreds, if not thousands. Even in order to form air superiority over Germany, Russia had to equip at least a thousand aircraft.

According to Arthur's intelligence, Germany's research on aircraft can be said to be at full speed.

Not only are aircraft being built on a large scale, but also a lot of money has been invested in trying to develop aircraft comparable to the first generation of military aircraft.

If Germany had really been able to study it, the Allied countries would have no advantage in aircraft performance over Germany, and the number of aircraft between the two sides would have been decided.

As long as Germany begins to build aircraft on a large scale, even if Britain, France and Russia are unwilling, they will have to maintain a balance or even lead in numbers.

At present, only Australasia can sell aircraft, Britain and France are still urgently researching the technology of the first generation of military aircraft, and it may have to wait until 1916 to put them into production.

Of course, in fact, in addition to the several countries involved in the war, the United States currently has aircraft technology, and it has indeed evolved militarized aircraft.

But the performance of American aircraft is still far from that of German aircraft, let alone on par with Australasian aircraft.

In the case of similar prices, Britain, France and Russia also have a good idea of which aircraft to choose.

It is worth mentioning that in the arms trade with the Russians, the Australasian side has generally demanded payment in the form of resources or gold.

Although the war has only been going on for more than a year, it is visible to the naked eye that the Russian ruble has gradually depreciated, and to pay in rubles is to take advantage of Australasia.

Anyway, now that the trade route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea has been opened, the Russians can raise mineral resources or gold at home, and Australasia can load ships from the Black Sea ports.

Of course, under normal circumstances, the use of gold reserves for payment is the last option, and all countries will easily not use it.

In this era of the gold standard, a country's gold reserves determine the amount and value of currency issuance, and are also an important means of ensuring currency stability.

Almost all currencies are now pegged to gold, and before the war, one pound was worth about 7.33 grams of gold, one Australian dollar was about 3.66 grams of gold, and one ruble was about 0.81 grams of gold.

But for now, leaving aside the pound, the ruble has indeed depreciated. Before the war, one pound was equal to about nine rubles, but now one pound can be exchanged for more than ten rubles, and the purchasing power of the ruble in Russia has been greatly reduced.

Because of the dissatisfaction of some of the Russian people with the government and the state, many workers demanded that their wages be paid in place of gold and food supplies.

They are afraid that the ruble in their hands will eventually turn into a piece of waste paper, and after the country is in ashes, it will become a waste paper that can only be used to wipe the buttocks.

Australasia certainly has this in mind. Although Australasia did not fear that the Russians would default on their debts, even after the collapse of the Russian Empire, the newly formed government had to admit its debt to Australasia.

But a little less trouble is a little less trouble, and minerals and resources, as well as gold, will never depreciate anyway.

When the Russians bought the aircraft technology before, they used a lot of mineral resources, as well as a small amount of gold and Australian dollars to buy it.

Australasia and Russia have an alternative population trade, and trade between the two sides is very frequent, so Russia still has a part of the Australian dollar reserves.

Almost all of these reserves were used for the purchase of aircraft technology, which allowed Russia to save a lot of mineral resources and gold.

However, as Russia retreated from the war on the front lines, the Russians also began to use gold for payment, as gold was better to raise than mineral resources.

After the Russians paid for the planes with mineral resources and gold, Australasia quickly transported 200 planes to Russia, and generously gave away more than 1.5 million rubles worth of spare parts.

If all goes well, pilot training in Russia can also be completed by the beginning of next year. At present, the training of pilots is relatively simple, the combat mode of the aircraft is relatively simple, there is no complex control system, only need to be skillfully piloted, and the use of weapons can be.

It only takes about a month to urgently train a qualified pilot, and if it is to train an elite pilot, it is necessary to go through continuous combat practice and transform in various air battles.

In Russia, Nicholas II's purge of some capitalists and logistical officials was also carried out in secret.

Thanks to the opening of the Black Sea to the Mediterranean route, the Russian government and army are not very tolerant of domestic capitalists.

Even if domestic capital could not supply the army, the Russian government could buy from Britain, France, and Australasia.

Without the collusion of those logistical officials and capitalists, the import of materials is cheaper and of higher quality.

In particular, after the seizure of the property of several logistics officials, and the seizure of stolen money amounted to tens of millions of rubles, Nicholas II did not have any worries.

It was a big deal to use the wealth of these capitalists and logistical officers to buy more supplies and food, and as long as they could satisfy those armies with adequate logistical supplies, the army would be able to support the rule of Nicholas II and suppress all kinds of uprisings in the country.

On the contrary, if these capitalists and logistics officials are allowed to collude to exploit the front-line troops, I am afraid that in the future, when the army riots, the capitalists and logistics officials will be the fastest runners.

They can run, but Nicholas II can't. The vast majority of Nicholas II's fortune was in Russia, and his position was also derived from the Russian royal family and the imperial throne.

If Russia is gone, Nicholas II will lose his power and position, and his life will even be in danger.

In fact, Nicholas II's purge of the logistics and capitalists was quite timely. If it was a few days later, not only the South-Western Front, but also the North-Western Front would risk going to St. Petersburg for questioning.

In such times of war, the power and status of the military will be at an all-time high. Once the entire military is dissatisfied with Nicholas II and the government, no one can save the status quo in Russia.

Nicholas II's timely liquidation of the logistics department and the capitalists won the hearts and minds of the front-line army.

After the front-line troops once again ate the long-lost canned rabbit meat and beef, they finally calmed down their recent grievances, but they hated the logistics officials and capitalists who had been purged by Nicholas II.

After all, Nicholas II, as the tsar who controlled the whole of Russia, although his military ability was not worth mentioning, his political ability was still somewhat level.

Upon learning of the current state of logistics in the front-line army, Nicholas II quickly reacted to the fact that the current poor logistics urgently needed a person to take the blame.

Otherwise, the new commander-in-chief of the Russian army, that is, he himself, will be hated by the front-line troops.

After all, the logistics of the front-line army have been getting worse and worse since he took office, which is difficult not to think of a piece, but Nicholas II never lacked the logistics budget of the front-line army.

After purging some of the logistics officials and capitalists, Nicholas II made a lot of propaganda among the army and the people, putting the blame for the defeat on some of the logistics officials and capitalists, saying that it was because they withheld the logistics materials at the front that the front was lost.

Although some people did not trust this, there were people who were responsible for it, and the call for the overthrow of Nicholas II and the entire tsarist system was not so high.

Nicholas II knew that the next thing was to look at the performance of the front-line army. After the purge of the logistics department, the front-line army was able to produce good results, and the discontent of the people may be able to dissipate part of it.

If the front-line armies are still losing ground and retreating, does that prove that the capitalists and logistics officers are just the ones who have been pushed out?

Because of this, Nicholas II did not skimp on military spending, and even tried to raise the estimated military spending for the next year by 10 percent in the government.

Of course, not just the next year. After purging the logistical officials and capitalists, Nicholas II received a large sum of money, which he spent all on the purchase of armaments.

Nicholas II placed a large military order with Britain, France and Australasia, and Australasia's share of the order alone amounted to 500,000 rifles, 1.5 million military uniforms, 1 million gas masks, 500 million rifle bullets, 2,500 heavy machine guns, 50 million machine gun bullets, 1,500 artillery pieces of all calibers, and 2,500,000 shells of various calibers.

Even Arthur had to be shocked by Nicholas II's magnanimity. After the arrival of this large order for armaments in Australasia alone, the Russian armament situation at the front was no weaker than that of the German army.

Coupled with the superiority of aircraft, as long as the Russian army no longer makes stupid moves, it is impossible to produce heavy casualties like the Battle of Gollitzer on the Eastern Front.

Even the Russian commanders were more conservative and used positional warfare to fight attrition with the Germans, so that the Germans were tired of dealing with them on two fronts, and they were looking for opportunities to encircle the German army, and they might not be able to fight a big victory.

3000 words for the second update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

Today, 10,000 days, it has been more 7000/10000, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)