Like the previous Cromwell Tank Factory, the production line for the T-series tanks was spun off from the Royal Military Factory to form Australasia No. 1 Tank Factory.

The first tank factory that was separated from it, as an extremely important tank military industry at present, was naturally under the control of the royal family and the government.

After negotiations with the government, the First Tank Factory will be changed from a royal holding to a joint venture between the royal family and the government.

Of course, the government is also very sincere. The royal consortium took a stake in the information and production lines of various series of tanks, and occupied 75% of the total shares of the First Tank Factory.

The government contributed 25 million Australian dollars, plus the provision of space for the tank factory, including the completion of the entire tank factory, with a 25% stake.

Arthur was encouraged by the government's shareholding. After all, if the royal consortium controls too many companies alone, it will inevitably make the future government dissatisfied.

Even if Arthur could stabilize the government during his reign, including the reign of the next monarch, William, who can guarantee that the next monarch will also stabilize the government?

Appropriately involving the government, while also retaining control of the royal consortium over these businesses, is what Arthur will lay out next.

A perfect monarchy system should be in the common interests of the monarch and the government, and the finances of the royal family and the government can make money together, so that everyone can achieve a win-win situation.

The government is rich and the monarch is poor, and all the actions of the monarch must be controlled by the government. After all, money is everything, including the expansion of the army, etc., all of which are inseparable from the money in hand.

And a rich monarchy and a poor government will also lead to the birth of many problems. It is still very reasonable to say that the royal family is too rich and the government is too poor, which will inevitably make some extremists in the government envious and even jealous of the royal family, thus producing a psychology of confrontation with the royal family.

Of course, the separation of the 1st Tank Factory from the Royal Military Factory was not possible in a short period of time.

At least until the plant of the 1st Tank Plant is fully built, and until the production line of the tank is fully laid, the production of tanks will still be carried out at the Royal Military Factory.

After all, the relocation of the first tank factory is important, but the need for tanks in the Ministry of Defense is even more important.

Nothing is more important than the improvement of a country's military strength, after all, military strength determines the degree of security of a country, especially in this era of the jungle.

But then again, no matter what era it is, the order between nations is always the law of the jungle.

While a few powerful countries may band together to make the rules, as soon as any one of them becomes stronger enough to stand up to the rest, the rules will be trampled on at will.

Just as the tanks of the Royal Military Factory were gradually entering production, Arthur suddenly received bad news from Europe, that is, two like-minded countries, Germany and Italy, were gradually getting closer.

Truth be told, this news was somewhat beyond Arthur's expectations. Because in the original history, although the two countries eventually formed an alliance, the relationship was not as smooth as imagined in the years before that.

But when you think about it, this world is very different from history. The first was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was not broken up into many countries.

Austria-Hungary was only divided into the Austrian Empire and the Republic of Hungary, especially the Austrian Empire, which was still considered a last-class power.

This also meant that it would undoubtedly be difficult for either Italy or Germany to occupy the lands of the Austrian Empire alone.

Germany's current army is less than half that of Austria (the national army), and the poor combat effectiveness of the Italian army is unlikely to be a match for the Austrian Empire.

Under such circumstances, it became possible for two countries, which had been at odds with each other because of the Austrian question, to come together because of a common enemy.

This is like Britain and France, and the contradictions between the two countries naturally need not be mentioned. But in the face of Germany, the enemy of unification, Britain and France were still able to form an alliance and unite to defeat a formidable enemy.

However, the proximity of Germany and Italy also represents bad news, which is that the situation in Europe is likely to become more chaotic because of the movements of these two countries.

For, judging by the neighbors of these two countries, it is possible that their union was not only directed against the Austrian Empire, but also against France.

France is also a neighbor of both countries, and does not currently have good relations with Germany or Italy.

It was to be expected that once the two countries formed an alliance, not only the Austrian Empire would be frightened, but even the French would be on guard against what the two neighbors might come up with.

After all, one of these two countries is Germany, which has learned from the past, and the other is Italy, which now almost writes the word expansion on the front of their heads, and it is impossible for the French not to be guarded.

In particular, Germany, as the biggest enemy of the French at the beginning of the 20th century, will definitely be resolutely guarded, and even directly regard Germany as France's biggest competitor, even if Germany's military strength is still being limited.

However, judging from the current state of the French fear of war, the French are most likely to look for an alliance against Germany and Italy, and the alliance is most likely to be the Austrian Empire, which is also suffering from the danger of Germany and Italy.

Then again, the French and Austrian empires actually came closer after the First World War. It's just that most of the approaches at that time were economic.

French capital, adhering to its consistent principles, borrowed a large amount of money from Austria after its defeat in World War I, and turned its enemies in the war into friendly countries.

Of course, France also had a purpose in wooing Austria through loans. Previously, he wanted to use Austria to contain Russia's attention and achieve his ambition of European hegemony.

Now it was a matter of uniting Austria against the alliance between Germany and Italy, and avoiding the possibility of war with Germany and Italy.

In fact, this is also the mainstream thinking of most European countries in this era. Having witnessed the brutality of the First World War, especially a meat grinder battlefield like the Battle of Verdun, where millions of casualties were lost, no country wants to face such a war again.

It is precisely because of this thinking that the famous policy of appeasement in history took place.

The world has Arthur and Australasia, and appeasement as severe as in history is almost impossible.

Not to mention the fact that the Austrian Empire still existed, and even if they united, it would be impossible for them to completely annex the entire Austrian Empire.

Even if Britain and France no longer wanted to see the battlefield, they were destined to sit idly by and watch Germany and Italy directly annex the entire Austrian Empire.

This is equivalent to merging three powers into two powers, one of which is a superpower like Germany, which once became the second largest in the world and has extremely great potential.

Not to mention the annexation of the entire Austrian Empire by Germany, even if it was the annexation of the Austrian Empire by Italy, Britain and France did not want to see it.

Not to mention, the potential of Italy and the Austrian Empire can barely become a superpower.

The premise is that Italy can take control of the entire country, integrate Austria's industrial power, and extend its hand to the entire Balkan Peninsula.

In this way, a hegemon of the Mediterranean, the superpower of southern Europe, was born. But this power is located in the Mediterranean, and it is also close to Constantinople, and it is not so easy to want to be born.

In fact, theoretically, the Balkans will not give birth to great powers. In addition to the terrible Constantinople problem, the powers around the Balkan Peninsula will not allow the birth of new powers in this region.

Before the outbreak of World War I, the Balkans were dominated by Russia and Austria-Hungary. After the outbreak of World War I, the Balkans were more chaotic, and more powers were involved, all of which had a certain influence on the Balkans.

In such a situation, if any country wants to become stronger, it must solve the coveting of the major powers, and it is impossible to rise.

This is equivalent to snatching food in the bowl of several powers, which is basically difficult to do except that it is more powerful than these powers.

What Arthur did not expect was that Germany and Italy were discussing a union at a very fast pace, faster than Arthur had imagined.

The news of Germany and Italy getting closer came in mid-November, and on Christmas Eve, in mid-to-late December, it was revealed that Germany and Italy had signed an agreement.

Although Arthur did not know exactly what the German-Italian agreement was, the union of the two countries at this time was not good news for all countries.

Shortly after the news of the signing of the agreement between Germany and Italy, Arthur urgently convened a cabinet meeting to discuss the response after Germany and Italy approached.

Although Australasia is far away in Oceania, it is very concerned about the situation in Europe. And as one of the great powers, the situation in Europe is also very important to Australasia, and it also determines whether Australasia can go further.

"Is there any concrete information on the agreement between Germany and Italy?" At the meeting, Arthur looked at Defense Secretary Thomas with a frown.

After more than 30 years of updating of Australasia's intelligence system, the original three intelligence bureaus have become three major intelligence systems.

Moreover, the current three major intelligence systems are more complex, and two of them are in the hands of Arthur.

The three major intelligence systems are:

Loyal only to the royal family, the Royal Security Intelligence Service is responsible for handling private affairs for the royal family;

Loyal to the royal family and the government, the National Security Agency is responsible for gathering domestic intelligence for the country.

Loyal to the royal family and the state, the Military Intelligence Bureau is responsible for collecting military intelligence and conducting counter-espionage work.

To put it simply, the NSA is an organization that monitors domestic officials and gathers domestic intelligence.

The Military Intelligence Directorate is an organization that spies on foreign intelligence to prevent espionage infiltration by other powers.

The Royal Security Intelligence Service, which is exclusive to the royal family, is a comprehensive intelligence organization, but only for the royal family, and it is more mysterious.

Arthur's purpose in asking Secretary of State for Defense Thomas was to see if Thomas had any first-hand information from the Directorate of Military Intelligence.

After all, although all kinds of intelligence bureaus are loyal to the royal family, in addition to the other two major intelligence organizations of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, the intelligence will be handed over to the government first, and then reported to the royal family.

After all, the royal family and the government have to come first and come first. For the sake of future generations, it is necessary to focus on taking care of the mood of the government.

3200 words for the first update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)