Chapter 1226 Annoying Business
The most annoying thing is that the Russian army has no way to deal with the hot air balloons in the sky. They can only rush over and pull the opponent's cable, or pull it back to the ground.
The rockets made the Russian army's efforts for so many years go to waste. Unless it is a stone structure, neither the barracks nor the warehouse can escape the baptism of rockets.
Although the direct killing of the British rockets is far less than that of spherical shells, the destructive power is several times that of the latter.
In fact, the Russians can only blame themselves. The design of their camps and fortresses is often too rough. Although there are normal stone wall bastion structures on the periphery, there are often a large number of wooden buildings inside, and there is a lack of sufficient fire prevention measures and necessary cellars.
If it is normal or in the past, there will be no problem, but if the enemy throws a large number of rockets, it is easy to burn the inside of the fortress into a white land.
The regular army that loses supplies often collapses faster than the militia, because they know what this means. The militia may still hope for a miracle, but the regular army will only choose to surrender or fight to the death.
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War is cruel, for both sides of the war. The huge losses of the Russian army are made up of countless Polish corpses, not to mention that the Russian army has always been a nightmare for civilians, and the Polish battlefield at this time is no exception.
There are many examples of the Russian army using Poles as shields on the Polish battlefield, and the massacre of some cities, villages, and towns has never stopped.
The Poles also did everything they could to kill the Russians, poisoning, kidnapping, assassination, and even suicide attacks have never stopped.
Batches of Poles fell, and batches of Poles joined them, and the few who survived became elites.
However, in the corners that no one cared about, the original leaders of the uprising were constantly decreasing, or more precisely, they were constantly being replaced.
Franz naturally could not help the Poles completely selflessly. Instead of guarding against the Polish rebellion all day long, it would be better to directly insert people in and control the rebels in his own hands.
This may sound like a fantasy, but there have been real cases in history. Many Irish national leaders, including the leader of the Irish Republican Army, were actually British spies during the Irish independence movement.
It was much easier for Franz to plant spies in Russian Poland at this time than in later generations, and the most important thing was that many of Franz's spies were Polish, but they were just working for the Austrian Empire.
Like the British, most people in the Austrian imperial government did not really care who would win or lose between Poland and Russia, but it was really important to clear inventory.
There are more and more arms dealers in the Austrian Empire now, and they will not directly reduce production or even take holidays after the war like the empire's military factories.
Private arms dealers often frantically increase production capacity in pursuit of profit maximization, and the most direct result is an oversupply of arms.
The Austrian military throws some orders to the market every year. On the one hand, it helps private arms dealers survive, and on the other hand, it is afraid that the military monopoly will lead to a lack of competition and innovation, which will lead to institutional corruption.
The continuous wars in 1848 made the arms dealers taste the sweetness, but after the war, the weapons and production capacity are still there.
The original plan was to re-equip all the local troops and then send the obsolete equipment to the colonies. This would not only reduce waste but also strengthen the overall combat power.
However, Franz soon discovered a problem. Austria had an overcapacity in arms production and the colonies could not consume so many equipment.
Franz's initial idea was to sell these arms to his allies. After all, the fat water should not flow to outsiders.
But reality soon gave him a heavy blow. In the absence of war, countries were unwilling to purchase arms on a large scale. The purchase orders were not only small, but they all wanted Austria's latest products.
After more than half a year of hard work, the largest order came from Mexico. Tasan Anna purchased 18,000 rifles, 3 million lead bullets, and 25 various artillery pieces because he had to guard against the Americans and suppress domestic rebellions.
The total price was about 1.2 million florins. After deducting the freight, the profit margin was okay, but the profit was not high. It was not as good as the money earned from reselling furniture from Brazil to Mexico.
The second largest order came from the Oman Empire. The total price of the army equipment they purchased was only 500,000 florins. Compared with army equipment, Omanis are more keen on buying ships, even if a warship costs millions of florins, they are willing to do so.
The remaining orders are so small that they can be ignored. Those African tribes can only buy a few hundred guns and one or two cannons.
Among them, the orders from the Southern Ming are particularly irritating. They only buy three or five of each weapon, and they also want the latest equipment from Austria.
Franz knows without thinking that the other party is trying to get something for nothing, and wants to take the Austrian equipment back for imitation.
It's not that Franz underestimates their wisdom. After all, the technology between the two sides is hundreds of years apart.
Moreover, Franz's positioning of the Southern Ming is to drive a wedge into the South Sea, and the main purpose is to cause trouble for the British. He doesn't want to support a South Sea hegemon that he can't deal with.
Austria's rubber plantations are mainly concentrated in Southeast Asia. Although they have also been tested in Africa, the yield is not known due to insufficient years.
At least according to later experience, Africa's natural rubber production has never exceeded 10% of the world's total production (usually around 5%), while the production in East Asia and Southeast Asia has always remained above 90% of the world's total rubber production.
The Austrian Empire has not yet mastered the synthetic technology of artificial rubber, and even if it has artificial rubber synthesis technology, it cannot replace natural rubber in the short term.
Franz does not want to take this risk, so he must always control Nanyang in his own hands.
But Zhu Qiongying, that woman, seems to have not learned her lesson yet. It seems that the last lesson was not harsh enough. Franz should call her again to let her figure out the situation.
Zhu Qiongying is now the orthodox emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, but in front of Franz, she is still the puppet that can be manipulated by others as before.
Of course, this time she performed a little better than the last time, at least she fainted after walking a few steps.
However, for Zhu Qiongying, this time the shock was greater than the last time. Last time she saw the navy and the underage Franz on the sailing battleship.
This time, Zhu Qiongying saw the fleet of Trieste, the rumbling train that spewed black smoke, and Vienna that was completely in another world.
In the Hall of Mirrors, she saw Franz again. At that time, Zhu Qiongying was just an actress who risked her life for revenge, but now she was the true emperor in the eyes of the people of the Southern Ming Dynasty.
It should be the barbarians who pay homage to the superior state, and it should be the chieftains who kowtow to the emperor, but when they met again, Zhu Qiongying's knees began to tremble unconsciously, and her instinct told her not to raise her head too high.